r tone, "The
large motjeeri to the south, in a quarter of an hour from the present
time."

The boys made no answer except a nod of intelligence, as each moved off
with the guide assigned him. Then the rest of the Hottentots began
creeping through the scrub, as stealthily as serpents, towards a large
rock, under shelter of which a number of the doomed Bushmen might be
seen, seated in a circle and engaged in devouring huge lumps of meat,
which they had roasted at a large fire still smouldering close by.

Lavie watched their dusky figures as they disappeared among the foliage,
and remained motionless at his post for the prescribed number of
minutes. Then hurrying as fast as he could go towards the motjeeri, he
found all three of his companions awaiting him.

"All right!" he exclaimed; "they are just on the point of making their
attack, and won't have eyes or ears for anything else. We must put on
best speed, and not stop till we are five or six miles away at the
least."

A loud yell broke forth from the rock, as they commenced their flight,
and was followed by another and another in quick succession. But they
grew fainter as the boys hurried on, and soon ceased altogether.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE FLIGHT--THE BOYS RECAPTURED--A COUNCIL--THE SHADOW OF DEATH--A
STRANGE DELIVERANCE.

"Not bad that," said Nick, as he threw himself on the ground, panting
and footsore, after a run of more than an hour. "We've not gone less
than eight miles, I'll take my 'davy, and this gun isn't the lightest
thing in the world to carry! Well, Charles, do you mean to make a halt
of it here to-night, or are we to hoof it again?"

"We must rest here," said Lavie, "an hour or two to recover ourselves a
little, but no longer. I don't suppose the Hottentots have done much
more than discover our absence yet. They have had plenty to do for the
present without thinking where we are, and then they will have to make
out in which direction we have gone. They will find that out, no doubt,
notwithstanding all our precautions, but it will take them some time.
And my hope is, that we shall now baffle them altogether."

"How do you mean?" asked Ernest.

"I mean that we should all take off our shoes, and step into the brook
here. We can walk along it, treading only on the stones till we reach
that long patch of scrub there. Then I propose that we shall turn
eastward, and go for a day's journey in that direction before again
travelling sou