examined by one of the officers who had hurried up; and then, as soon
as I was at liberty, I turned to the black.

"Have you seen the Lieutenant, Joeboy?" I said excitedly.

"Um? Boss Denham!" he replied. "No; all a rush and gallop. Lost Boss
Denham. Lost Boss Val. Lost ebberybody. Joeboy said, `All come back
to water. Boss Denham come soon.'"

"I pray to Heaven he may!" I said sadly; but I had my doubts.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

MAKING THE BEST OF IT.

That was a terrible night which followed. We had plenty of water; but
our scraps of food were sadly inadequate for the wants of the men, who,
many of them wounded, were sick and despondent, and dropped down here
and there to fall asleep as soon as their injuries were roughly dressed.
Meanwhile the walls were as strongly manned as could be contrived under
the circumstances; and the weary horses were now watered and given the
last handful of grain in the bags, after which they stood snuffing about
among the stones, every now and then uttering an impatient neigh--Sandho
as bad as any of them, though he had fared better, for I had given him
half my biscuits and a piece of bread-cake.

By nightfall the entrance had been strongly fortified with a massive
wall of stones, a narrow side-opening being left, large enough to admit
any straggler who might manage to reach our camp; and then all but the
sentries, after a last look at the Boers' fires in the distance, lay
down anywhere to sleep; but pain and weariness kept me as wakeful as a
group of officers, among whose voices I was glad to hear that of
Sergeant Briggs, who spoke the most cheerily of them all.

"If you'll not mind, gentlemen," he said, "I should like to say that our
position isn't so bad as you think."

"Why, it couldn't be worse," said the Major.

"Begging your pardon, sir, yes," said Sergeant Briggs. "We've plenty of
water, and our marksmen can keep the Boers at a distance as long as you
like. They won't face our rifles."

"But the horses, man!"

"They can be taken out to graze, sir, covered by our rifle-fire.
There's a good patch of green out yonder."

"But we can't go and graze," said another officer.

"No, sir; but we shall be hungry enough by to-morrow night to be ready
for a raid on the Boers' provision wagons. There'll be plenty, and we
must cut one out, fasten a dozen reins to it, and bring it up here."

"Humph! We might try," said the Major.

"And we will," said one of our c