idly
along beneath them.

'My word, if we only had a maxim!' muttered Roy, as he stared at the
closely-formed column. 'Couldn't we make hay of 'em?'

Ken did not answer. He watched the men pass on until they were out of
sight around a curve in the track. Then he and Roy moved on again.

Round the next bend, they found themselves at the end of the friendly
wood, and the ground beyond was a deal more open than seemed healthy.

'We'll have to wait until those chaps are well out of the way,' said Ken,
and calmly sat himself down on a big stone, one of many which lay among
the tree trunks.

'Hope they'll hurry,' said Roy rather viciously. 'I'm infernally hungry. I
want to get back to my dinner.'

While Ken rested Roy stood staring out through the tree trunks.

Presently he turned to Ken. 'Tell you what, Ken, I believe there's a
chance for us now. There's another patch of wood less than a quarter of a
mile away, and if we watched our chance we might slip across without being
spotted. Beyond it, the ground rises again, with a lot of rocks and scrub.
Plenty of cover at any rate. What do you think?'

Ken got up and took a long and careful survey.

'It looks all right,' he said at last. 'I'm game to try it anyhow.'

'Then the sooner the better. Those Turks have topped the rise.'

They were on the point of starting when Ken heard a sound which made him
seize Roy's arm.

'Steady a minute! There's something else coming up the track.'

They dropped flat and lay waiting. Sure enough, there was a low rumble of
wheels, and after a few minutes a team of mules came into sight around the
left-hand curve, dragging a field-piece, and accompanied by about a dozen
Turkish gunners.

'Just as well we waited,' whispered Roy. 'We shouldn't have stood much
show if we'd dropped down under their noses, eh?'

Ken did not answer. He was staring fixedly at the gun. His eyes were very
bright.

He turned to Roy.

'That's going to be used to smash our chaps, Roy. Jove, if we could only
stop it!'

'Stop it?' repeated Roy in amazement. 'My dear chap, we haven't even got
our rifles. They're lying smashed up at the bottom of the gorge. The only
weapon we've got left is this automatic.'

'We've got something better than bullets,' Ken answered very quietly. He
laid his hand as he spoke upon one of the big loose boulders which lay in
front of him.

'See here,' he went on, 'they'll come right underneath us. If we could get
this rock down