all find any amount of this sort of
country."

"Then I don't see how any manoeuvring's to be done. We shall be quite
at the mercy of the enemy."

"Oh! one never knows."

"Well, I know this," said Bracy; "if I were in command I should devote
my attention to avoiding traps. Hallo! what's amiss?"

The conversation had been cut short by the sharp crack of a rifle, which
set the echoes rolling, and the two young officers hurried forward past
their halted men, who, according to instructions, had dropped down,
seeking every scrap of shelter afforded by the rocks.

"What is it?" asked Bracy as he reached the men who were in front, the
advance-guard being well ahead and a couple of hundred feet below.

Half-a-dozen voices replied, loud above all being that of Private Gedge:

"Some one up there, sir, chucking stones down at us."

"No," replied Bracy confidently as he shaded his eyes and gazed up; "a
stone or two set rolling by a mountain sheep or two. No one could be up
there."

"What!" cried the lad excitedly. "Why, I see a chap in a white
nightgown, sir, right up there, shove a stone over the edge of the
parrypit, and it come down with a roosh."

"Was it you who fired?"

"Yes, sir; I loosed off at him at once, but I 'spect it was a
rickershay."

"Keep down in front there, my lads," said Captain Roberts. "Did any one
else see the enemy?"

A little chorus of "No" arose.

"Well, I dunno where yer eyes must ha' been, pardners," cried Gedge in a
tone full of disgust; and then, before a word of reproof or order for
silence could be uttered, he was standing right up, shaking his fist
fiercely and shouting, "Hi, there! you shy that, and I'll come up and
smash yer."

The words were still leaving his lips when Bracy had a glimpse of a
man's head, then of his arms and chest, as he seemed to grasp a great
stone, out of a crack five hundred feet above them, and as it fell he
disappeared, the sharp cracks of half-a-dozen rifles ringing out almost
together, and the stone striking a sharp edge of the precipitous face,
shivering into a dozen fragments, which came roaring down, striking and
splintering again and again, and glancing off to pass the shelf with a
whirring, rushing sound, and strike again in a scattering volley far
below.

"Any one touched?" cried the Captain.

"No, sir; no, sir."

"I think that chap were, sir," whispered Gedge, who was reloading close
to Bracy's side. "I didn't have much time to aim,