nds from the court, and narrowly watched for our sentries. Far out
in the darkness a feeble light or two showed where a lantern burned in
the Boer lines. Everything seemed to favour our design, even to the
end, and I was breathing hard with excitement, waiting to begin. Just
then a hand touched my arm and glided down over my wrist. I knew what
it meant, and grasped Denham's hand.

"Good luck to us!" he whispered. "I'll go first and test the rope--
hush! I will. As soon as I'm down I shall lie flat and hold on.
Ready?"

"Yes."

"Off!"

CHAPTER FORTY ONE.

OUR WILD ATTEMPT.

Denham's words sounded so loud that, as I dropped on one knee to hold
the knot of the rope round the stone to prevent it from slipping, I felt
sure that the sentries to right and left must have heard him speak. But
it was only due to my excited way of looking at things. For the next
minute, after a preliminary rustling, I felt a peculiar thrill run along
the hide rope. This went on while I wondered if my companion had made
the joining of the two ropes secure, my imagination working so rapidly
that I seemed to see the knot stretching and yielding till one of the
ends slipped through the loop of the knot, and--

The thrilling sensation had ceased; and the rope, which felt in my hands
like some living, vibrating thing, hung loose. The next moment a kink
ran up it and dissolved in my hands. It was Denham's way of saying "All
right," and I knew my turn had come.

The starting was the difficulty--that creeping over the breastwork, just
at a time when my strength was far from at its best; but I tackled the
business at once, stepped up on to a stone, seated myself on the top of
the breastwork, took tight hold of the rope, raised my legs so that I
could lie down, turned upon my face, and then softly swung my legs round
so that I could twist my feet about the rope and reduce the weight on my
arms. The next minute I was hanging at full length, holding the rope
with one hand, the edge of the breastwork with the other, and afraid to
move; for, to my horror, _tramp, tramp_ came the sound of the
approaching sentry to my loft. The perspiration began to ooze out on my
face and temples now, and I prepared for a rapid descent, fully
expecting the man would see the rope, stop, and, under the impression
that I was one of the Boers trying to get into the fort by escalade,
would strike me from my hold with the butt of his rifle.

I might have s