r a pony cantered past, bearing a man upon its back.

Jack and his friend lay flat on the ground as the rider passed, and were
on the point of rising to their feet again when the pony was pulled up
almost in front of them, and a voice called out a little farther on, in
execrable English, which had a highly flavoured foreign accent: "Stop
there! Who is that? Advance and give the pass-word."

"Going rounds," was the answer. Then the rider walked his pony a few
feet towards the sentry, who could now be seen in the centre of the
road.

"Ha, you are wide-awake, I see!" the former exclaimed in a loud tone.
"It is only right that you and your friends from the Free State should
do something to help us. Be ready to pass a convoy of wagons. We are
sending down stores and ammunition to Colenso, besides a few boxes of
special shells for the big guns. Remember, `Kruger' is the pass-word.
Shoot anyone who does not know it." A moment later the Boer had ridden
away, and the sentry retired into the darkness at the farther side of
the road.

"Come back here, Poynter," whispered Jack, pulling him gently by the
sleeve.

Rising to their feet, they stepped noiselessly across the turf, and
retired some hundred yards from the road.

"Look here, Poynter, are you ready to try a risky game?" exclaimed Jack
shortly, when they were well out of ear-shot of the sentry. "If so, I
believe I have got hold of an idea which will get us safely through the
Boer lines."

"Of course I am," the young officer replied, with a gay laugh. "I place
myself altogether in your hands, and will back you up through thick and
thin. So heave ahead, and tell me all about it."

"To creep through those lines ahead of us will be next door to
impossible," said Jack, "for in the dark we might stumble right up
against a sentry, and if the alarm was once given we should have to make
a dash back towards Intombi Spruit. Now, it occurred to me that we
might get a lift amongst the wagons of this convoy. Each one will be
driven by a Kafir, who most likely will be walking alongside his team.
Let us select a covered cart and slip into it. There ought to be little
difficulty about it this dark night, and if we are lucky we might even
get into one drawn by a mule team, and afterwards make use of the
animals."

"By George, Jack, what a thing to think of!" exclaimed Poynter in
delight. "Why, it's about the biggest bit of cheek I ever heard of.
Still, it is just the