e. I
thought they would not be long after they heard the signal. They will
help us to defend the walls. Perhaps Crawford will fall in with some
settlers, and we shall soon have a sufficient number of men to dispense
with your services, girls."

"But we don't wish to have our services dispensed with," cried Rose.
"We want to make ourselves useful."

"But I don't want you to get killed or wounded," said Percy. "Some of
the Zulus may have firearms, or they may venture near enough to hurl
their assegais. You will have done all that is necessary by showing
yourselves as at present in martial array, and I feel very sure that the
enemy, when they see you, will defer their attack until they come up
under cover of the darkness to try and take us by surprise."

Percy allowed Helen to keep the glass while he was employed in loading
the swivels, and pointing them in the direction the Zulus would probably
attempt to approach the gate. She in the meantime was watching
Crawford's progress; though he and his horse looked no larger than an
ant crossing over a large field, she still kept her eye upon him until
she could report that he had joined Rupert. The latter was riding ahead
of the waggon till Crawford got up to him, when she saw both of them,
followed by the two Kaffir hunters, come galloping at headlong speed
towards the farm, while the waggon still kept moving on as before,
though at a faster rate.

As soon as the cattle had been driven into the kraal, Percy supplied the
Hottentots with fresh ammunition, and posted them in different parts of
the walls, that they might make as great a show as possible, taking care
to keep his white warriors, as he called his three sisters and Biddy, in
the front.

"Wouldn't Denis be in his element, if he were here!" he said to Maud, as
he passed her. "He would be flying about in all directions, and putting
spirit into every one. By the bye, I quite forgot the dummies. Do go
down to mother, and see if she cannot rig out half a dozen, and hand
them up as soon as they are ready. She might also make Mangaleesu
understand what we want, and he'll manufacture a whole army of Kaffir
warriors with assegais and shields. It would make the enemy suppose
that we had a strong force of natives inside, in addition to our own
men."

Maud did not like leaving the platform until Percy assured her that he
was in earnest, and that such an array of dummies as he proposed would,
he was certain, have