before a gale.

However, we were not to be torn to pieces just then by the infuriated
Boers, for we were each held firmly by two burly fellows, while
Moriarty, yelling at the excited crowd in his highly-pitched voice,
opened and held the lantern on high, so as to get a good look at our
disfigured faces. The light fell upon his own as well, and I saw him
start and shrink, as if for the moment he fancied that we had returned
from the dead. But his dismay was only momentary. Then a malevolent
grin of exultation came over his countenance, his eyes scintillated in
the lantern light, and he yelled orders to those around till he obtained
comparative silence.

"Pass the word all along the line," he shouted. "False alarm. Only
spies, and we have got them. Cease firing."

His words had but little effect for a few minutes; but by degrees the
tumult was stilled and the firing ceased. The men about us readily
obeyed the Irish captain's orders.

"They're old fr'inds of mine," he said, with a peculiar grin--"dear
fr'inds who have come after me to join our ranks; and I'm going to make
them take the oaths properly."

There was a groan of dissent at this, but Moriarty paid no heed; he only
showed his teeth at us in a savage grin like that of some wild beast
about to spring.

"Yes," he continued, "they're old fr'inds of mine--dear fr'inds. That
one"--he pointed to me--"is a deserter from our forces, and the other
miserable brute is an officer who has been fighting against us and
helping his companion. Be cool and calm, dear boys, and as soon as it
is light you shall have the pleasure of shooting the young scoundrels.
For we're all soldiers now, and we must behave like military min, unless
you would like to set a Kaffir to hang them both from a tripod of
dissel-booms at the two ends of a rein."

"Shoot them! Shoot them!" came in a burst of voices.

"Very well, we'll shoot them; but we must do it properly. We'll have a
court-martial upon them, and teach the spies to crawl into our camp like
snakes."

"It's a lie!" I shouted. "We are no spies."

"Ah! you understand the beautiful language of my fr'inds," cried
Moriarty. "You are not spies, then?"

"No, neither of us," I said in Dutch.

"Indade?" said Moriarty. "And perhaps you are not a deserter from our
troops?"

Amidst hootings, groans, and yells, I managed to make myself heard.

"No," I said, "I am not a deserter. I am English, and I refused to
fight aga