Jack, and fetch up a glass of brandy. There, that's it, Eileen dear!
pull yourself together, and remember it is all for our queen and
country."

Jack at once dived into the cellar and reappeared with some brandy and
water, some of which was poured between Eileen's lips. But she was now
in a dead faint, and it was some minutes before she regained
consciousness again. Naturally a somewhat timid and gentle-mannered
girl, to be called upon to use a rifle in earnest and deal mortal wounds
was a sore trial to her. The need for strength, and the stern struggle
in which she had so bravely borne a part, had, however, braced her for
the work. But now, when it was all over, or rather when the hostilities
had ceased for a time, and she saw the wounded and heard their groans,
the terrible sight and the unusual sounds unnerved her, and she was
prostrate in a moment.

A little later she had recovered, and, stimulated by the brandy and
soothed by her father's kind words, was soon herself again and able to
stand up.

Meanwhile Wilfred and Jack had dragged a table from a corner in the
kitchen, and having placed it beneath the gap in the iron roof, and
lifted a chair upon it, the latter jumped up, and, standing on tiptoe,
waved a handkerchief. It was answered from a distance, and as soon as
one of the enemy had galloped up, Jack informed him that for an hour
they were at liberty to send a party of fifteen men to remove the killed
and wounded.

The permission was again accepted with grateful thanks, and while the
gruesome work was going on, the little garrison once more took advantage
of the time to snatch a hasty meal. When all the Boers who lay in front
of the house had been removed, a man with a grey beard and wrinkled face
rode forward alone and asked for a parley.

From his post in the roof Jack beckoned to him to advance, and asked him
what he wanted.

"Elof Visser is dead," he began sadly, "and so are many more of my poor
comrades; but, for all the loss we have suffered, we are none the less
determined. We will capture you if we have to smash the house to
pieces. But you are brave men, and I again offer you terms, and if you
refuse them, beg that you will send out the girl. She shall be taken
and handed over to the English pickets outside Kimberley. Think well of
what I say. Frank Russel shall not be injured if he is with you. That
is all; but I will remind you that they are honourable terms, which men
such as