y _ping_ and _whiz_ by one's head; but to stand up and face a row
of rifles, waiting for the order to fire--I'm afraid I shall be a coward
then."

I shivered now; and a minute later, as I listened to Denham's breathing,
I shivered again. Perhaps it was from fear, perhaps it was from being
cold, for the night wind, not far removed from freezing, blew up through
the openings in the bottom of the wagon. I told myself it was from
dread, and a peculiar feeling of shame and despair attacked me as the
thought of what would occur on the coming morning rose up so vivid and
clear that I strained my eyes round a little so as to look up at the
hanging lantern, but lowered them again with a shudder, for I seemed to
see a row of rifle-muzzles with the orifices directed down at me.

A noise occurred at the end of the wagon almost immediately, and upon
looking back there was in reality the barrel of a rifle forcing back the
canvas curtain, and then a second barrel appeared; but the owners only
used their weapons to hold back the curtain while their big-bearded
faces peered in to see if the prisoners were safe. They disappeared
directly, and I could hear muttering, and could smell the fumes of their
strong tobacco.

I was thinking with something like envy of the Boers' lot as compared
with mine, and the envy had to do with Denham, who was sleeping soundly;
and then something happened--the something which I had thought
impossible; but it was quite true. I was staring painfully up at the
lantern which shed its yellowish glow all around, and then it seemed to
have gone out, and I was fast asleep, with the restful sensation which
comes of utter exhaustion. I dreamed, and it was of home and the
beautiful orchard I had helped to plant, of driving in the cattle, of
chasing the ostriches over the veldt; and then it was of having Bob and
Denham with me in a wagon, for we were after lions. It was night, and
the moon shone in through the front of the wagon with a yellowish light
like that of a lantern hanging from the top of the tilt. The wind was
blowing up icily through the bottom, and I had just been awakened by the
distant deep barking roar of one of the great sand-coloured brutes. His
roar had startled our oxen and made them low uneasily, as if they knew
what the fate of one of them would be unless a flash of fire came from
beneath the wagon-tilt just as the lion had crawled up and gathered
himself together for a spring. The night