t is a train on the point of leaving. Let us brazen
the matter out. Pretend that we are burghers, and join the train as
though we had a right to. Come along! There goes the whistle! It will
be off in a minute!"

Swinging their Mausers behind their backs, Jack and Guy coolly walked
through the gates of the station, and mounted the platform, against
which a locomotive and carriages were standing on the point of moving
off. Swaggering along as though there were plenty of time to take their
places, and as if there could be no question as to their right to be
there, they had passed a good half-way up the platform when the whistle
sounded again and the wheels began to revolve. Glancing hastily into
the carriages, Jack selected one which had only two occupants, and
sprang into it, followed by Guy. Then they sat down in the two corners
facing one another, and commenced to smoke their pipes.

The two men in the carriage, who were dressed in the usual Boer costume,
scarcely noticed their entrance, for they were engaged in an animated
conversation which seemed to occupy all their thoughts. But they were
conscious of the fact that strangers had joined them, for they
immediately sank their voices to a whisper.

Jack and Guy listened to them, and soon became aware that the language
used was English. At the same moment the stoutness of one figure, and
an obtrusive German accent, roused Jack's suspicions, and another glance
convinced him that by some evil fate he and his comrade had entered a
carriage in which were Piet Maartens and Hans Schloss, the two men who
above all others in this land of Boers bore him an ill will.

His discovery by the wounded Boer when in the act of escaping from the
farm to which he had been sent in the morning was nothing to the shock
which this recognition brought him. Here he was, with only one friend,
attempting to get back to British territory, and their flight had
already been discovered; and now, to make matters ten times worse, they
were in the presence of two men who would certainly arrest them as soon
as they learnt who they were. It was a terrible predicament, and might
very well have awed the boldest, for to be captured now meant almost
certain death for Guy, while for Jack a punishment of little less
severity might be expected.

Sitting in his corner Jack puffed briskly at his pipe and thought
deeply. Then he pulled his slouch hat well over his eyes, and, casually
stretching out