ithout sending out scouts. This Captain Broderick was
unwilling to do, as they would run a great risk of being cut off by the
enemy, who would, to a certainty, be on the watch for them, and good men
could ill be spared from the garrison.

The hours went by. Night came on. Nothing more had been seen of the
enemy. The captain, as he went his rounds, charged the sentries to keep
a bright look-out. It was arranged that Rupert and Crawford should keep
one watch, while Percy and Lionel, or rather Walter, as his family
called him, kept the other. Biddy was very indignant at being sent back
to the kitchen.

"Sure I've bin a gineral all day, an' fought as well as the best of ye,
and now I'm to be turned back into a cook an' an old woman, when I'd be
watching as sharply as any of the men lest those spalpeens of
black-a-moors should be coming back at night to attack us," she
exclaimed, as she sheathed her sword and doffed the captain's coat and
hat.

The young ladies had long before put off their martial attire. They now
set to work to assist Biddy in preparing supper, of which the garrison
stood greatly in need. Only one portion could partake of it at a time,
so that Biddy and the young ladies had work enough in running backwards
and forwards with the dishes. The fare was ample, there being no lack
of food in the fort; and as soon as the men had supped, they returned,
some to their posts and others to lie down until it was their turn for
duty.

Rupert and Crawford kept the first watch, but no enemies were seen, nor
did even the dogs give warning that any strangers were in the
neighbourhood. They then aroused Percy and Lionel, who sprang from
their couches with all the zeal of young soldiers.

"This reminds me of many a night's watch we have had together when
travelling with Hendricks," said Percy. "I thought when I came to the
farm that I should have had too quiet a life of it, but I like this sort
of thing, and I hope we shall give the Zulus a lesson which will teach
them we are not to be molested with impunity."

"We must keep a very strict watch, then," said Lionel. "I know how
cunning they are, and that their great object will be to throw us off
our guard. I have not the slightest expectation that they will come
to-night or to-morrow night either. They may wait days and weeks until
they think they can catch us unawares, and then they will come down like
a thunder-clap on the farm. They are not aware, how