cautiously and peeped in, to find that the
field-cornet and his five men were seated on some benches in a cloud of
tobacco smoke.

It was clear that they had no fear that the Englishman in their care
would escape, and, thankful for the fact, for the longer his absence
remained undiscovered the better, Jack hurried away in the darkness, and
a quarter of an hour later entered the streets of Pretoria.

When he reached the neighbourhood of the hospital in which Guy was
living, he slipped off his boots, and, carrying them, walked along till
he was close to the guard-house opposite the government buildings.

"It will be much better for me to get those rifles now," he thought.
"Perhaps someone might give the alarm as Guy is leaving the hospital,
and then we could never hope to get possession of any weapons, and to
pass as Englishmen on the Boer side we must have them. I'll wait here
till the sentries are changed. The hour for that is ten o'clock, and it
is not far from that now."

Seating himself in the darkest corner, but well in sight of the
guard-house, Jack waited patiently, and soon had the satisfaction of
seeing two men emerge from it and relieve their comrades. It was quite
an informal matter, and performed in a very different manner from that
practised by English troops. Smoking their pipes, the two men stepped
out of the hut and called to the others to come to them. Then each took
a bandolier and a rifle from one of the sentries, and, still smoking,
strolled across to their posts and stopped in front of the big building
to continue a conversation which they had broken off in the hut.

Now was Jack's chance, and he seized it. Slipping along close to the
wall, he crossed the road noiselessly, peeped into the guard-house to
see that all was quiet, and then, with his eyes upon the careless
sentries, slipped two of the bandoliers across his shoulder, and
carefully lifted two rifles from the rack. A moment later he was gone,
and, hurrying back to his former hiding-place, deposited his possessions
on the ground. A few minutes passed, and as all was still quiet, he
slipped up to the window of the hospital close to which Guy's bed was
placed, and gently tapped on the window-frame. It was an intensely hot
night, and fortunately the window stood wide open. A second later Guy
was leaning through it.

"Is that you, Jack, old boy?" he whispered.

"Yes. Come along, Guy," Jack answered. "Slip out at once. There i