of you. Now, each of you will be provided
with the facts which General White wishes to convey to General Buller,
and we want you to commit them to memory. Then there will be no
despatches or papers to fall into Joubert's hands should you be
captured, and if only one of you happens to get through, he will still
be able to tell Buller what we mean to do. Come over here and sit down
by my side, and I will tell you all about it."

Half an hour later Jack and his young friend Poynter were fully primed
with official secrets of the greatest importance, and had committed them
so well to memory that there was no chance of their forgetting.

"Now, I think you have heard all the facts," exclaimed the officer, "and
I leave it to yourselves to arrange how you are to get through the
enemy's lines. I need not tell you how difficult the task is. The
knowledge will make you all the more determined. You must go just as
you are, so that the harshest of the Boers could not call you spies
should they capture you; and, Poynter, you will be well advised to place
yourself in Jack Somerton's hands. People say that he is as `slim' as
Kruger himself, and I know," added the staff-officer with a kindly
smile, "that he has any amount of pluck to back it up. Remember, both
of you, that this is a service of great danger, for which, if
successful, your queen and country will not fail to reward you."

The officer shook hands cordially with Jack and his friend, who stood
for one brief moment stiffly at attention, and saluted. Then they
hurried away to Poynter's tent, and, stretched full-length in
comfortable lounge chairs, discussed the situation.

"I shall do just as the colonel suggested," said the latter. "You've
run the gauntlet of these Boers before, and I shall place myself
unreservedly in your hands. When shall we start, and what route shall
we take? It's all one to me, so long as we get through."

"We shall start to-night, of course," answered Jack after a long pause.
"We have been told that it is important that our despatches should get
through as early as possible, and by setting out as soon as darkness
falls we ought to be at the Tugela by to-morrow night. Then, as regards
the road. I was chatting with `Israel', the native runner, a few days
ago, and he told me that patrols of Boers were scouring the country
everywhere, particularly to east and west, on either side of their lines
of trenches. It seems to me that, that being