"What was it?" I asked.

"About a dozen feet of hide rope. I cut it off as high as I could
reach; but, my word, wasn't it hard!"

"Why did you cut it?"

"So that no Boer, exploring, should run against it and take it into his
head to climb up. How do you feel?"

"Rather hot."

"So do I. We're precious weak yet. Now, look here; we'll keep on
walking as long as we dare; then we must go down on hands and knees;
last of all, we must creep on our chests, helping ourselves along with
our elbows."

"It will be very slow work," I said.

"Yes, but it's the only way. We shall do it, for it's gloriously dark.
If we come suddenly upon a sentry we must drop on our faces and lie
still till I see the way to circumvent him."

"I understand," I said.

"Not all yet. If we get close up you'll have to take the lead; and the
thing to do is to get close up among the sleeping Boers. That means
safety, for if any one wakes up and speaks you must answer in Dutch,
with your face close to the ground."

"It seems very risky," I said.

"So did your going to cut out six wagons with their teams; but you did
it. Now, don't talk; come on."

We moved forward again very slowly in what seemed to be a tedious
journey, though I knew perfectly well that, taken diagonally, it could
not be more than twelve hundred yards, it having been reckoned that the
Boers' advance-parties were about a thousand yards from the walls of the
fort. But we were getting nearer, for the lights seemed to grow, not
brighter, but less dim, and during the last few minutes we had noticed a
third light away to the right. I wanted to say that we were getting
pretty near to the enemy at last; but talking was now out of the
question, and I had to telegraph to my companion, by a pressure of the
hand, that we must be on the alert.

Then, with a suddenness that startled my composure, I heard an impatient
stamp close by on my left, followed by the sound of reins jerked, and an
angry adjuration growled out in Dutch between the teeth by a mounted
sentry. He was invisible; and, taking advantage of the startled
movements of the horse consequent upon the punishment it had received,
Denham dragged heavily upon my right hand with his left, when, as I
yielded, he bore off to his right, walking very slowly, till we had left
the sentry some distance behind.

Directly after that incident Denham seemed to alter our course again,
and once more we were walking straight for the