o, both of you."

The latter, with a cavernous yawn, was off like a log. Dick, with a
sleepy laugh, followed suit. Then Sandgate, loosening the girths, but
not off-saddling, allowed the horses to graze, their bridles trailing on
the ground, and set to work to watch.

The place in which they had halted was among some broken rocks, a small
hollow, in feet, and admirably adapted for a hiding-place. The back was
overhung by boulders, and in front, beyond a lip of the same, the ground
fell away in a rugged slope to the bottom of a deep bushy kloof. To
Sandgate, left to his lonely vigil, that brief half-hour seemed long
enough. To the other two, heavy in slumber, it was as a flash.

"Now then, Selmes. Time," he whispered, with a hand on the other's
shoulder. In a trice Dick was up, but yawning pathetically. He
shivered too, for a thin damp mist was stealing athwart the rocks and
bush sprays.

"All serene," he said, ready and alert. "Kick up the other fellow."

But although this was done, and that literally, for all the effect it
produced Stokes might as well have been dead, or a bit of timber. And
then, as an acrid fume rose poisonous upon the cold morning air,
Sandgate stood aghast with wrath and horror. His colleague and
subordinate was drunk--dead drunk.

Yet how? In a moment something of the truth flashed across his brain.
That wretched trader's store they had passed! Stokes must have found
grog in there, which had been overlooked by the plunderers. His cursed
instinct had moved him to go inside and explore. There was no sign of
any bottle about Stokes, certainly, but this he would have been _slim_
enough to drop unseen and unheard. Now the mystery of his lagging
behind stood explained.

"Great Scott! And the despatches!" exclaimed Sandgate, horrified.

"Take 'em on, and leave him here to get sober," suggested Dick. "He
deserves it."

But Sandgate objected to deserting a comrade in dangerous country. He
himself would be reduced to the ranks, of course, kicked out of the
Force most likely, but he could not abandon a comrade. To this Dick
suggested that he should remain with Stokes while Sandgate rode on.

"That won't do either, Selmes," said the latter, gloomily. "You're new
to this country, and in my charge. No--that won't do."

"But think of the vital importance of the despatches," urged Dick.
"This fellow has brought it all upon himself. Besides, he's supposed to
know his way about be