as if I shall faint."

"Can you hold on till I get down to you?"

"I--I think so, old fellow," he said faintly. "I'm on a sort of shelf.
But don't try--you can't do it--you'll send the loose stones down upon
me. That last one grazed my head."

"But I must," I said harshly, and I remember fancying that my voice
sounded savage and brutal. "I can't leave you like this."

"Climb up out of this horrible hole yourself, old fellow, and leave me."

"I won't," I shouted, so that my voice went echoing away; but as I
looked up past the light it seemed to me that I could not, even if
willing.

"You must," said Denham more firmly. "Climb up and call for help."

At that moment, sounding faint and distant, there was the report of a
rifle; then another, and another, followed by four or five in a volley.

"The Boers are attacking," I cried. My heart sank as something seemed
to say to me, "Well, if they are, what does it matter to you?"

The firing went on, and just then the wick of the lamp, of which a good
deal must have been loosened by the fall, began to blaze up famously. I
looked around to ascertain if I could get down to help Denham; but it
seemed impossible. I saw, however, that I might lower myself a couple
of feet farther, and get my heels in a transverse crack in the rock,
where I could check myself and perhaps afford some help to a climber.

"Look here, Denham," I shouted out as if I had been running, "I can help
you if you can climb up here. You must pluck up and try."

He muttered, with a low groan:

"Don't talk like that, old chap. I've got the pluck, but feel as if I
haven't got the power. If I stir I shall go down into that awful pool,
and then--Oh dear, it's very horrible to die like a rat in a flooded
hole!"

"Hold your tongue, you idiot!" I shouted, in a rage. "Who's going to
die? Look here; I can't get down to you, so I must climb out and fetch
help. I'll go if you'll swear you'll sit fast and be patient, even if
the light goes out."

There was no answer.

"Denham, old fellow, do you hear me?" I cried, with a thrill of horror
running through me as I imagined he had fainted, and that the next
moment I should hear a sullen splash.

"Yes, I hear you," he said. "I'll try. It's all right. But why don't
you shout?"

"No one could hear me, even if that firing was not going on," I said.
Looking upwards, I felt that the only chance was to try; but I was
almost certain that I should slip,