all appearance he
might be either a Boer or an Englishman, for he wore a ragged sombrero
on his head and a tattered shirt on his back. His face was turned in
the opposite direction from Jack, and every now and again he raised
himself upon his elbow and looked out across the veldt. Then, as if
with considerable effort, he dragged himself a few paces forward and
looked out again.

"I believe that fellow is wounded," murmured Jack. "At any rate I'll
get closer to him, and keep my gun ready in case of emergencies."

Crawling stealthily forward, he made a slight detour, and soon
approached the stranger within fifty yards. At this distance his
appearance was certainly in favour of his being English, and taking up a
position behind a screen of leaves, Jack called out: "Hallo, there!"

Instantly the stranger turned his head, and stared about him in
bewilderment. Then he answered, in a tremulous voice: "Hullo! Help me
for God's sake!"

There was now no doubt that he was a comrade in distress, and, jumping
to his feet, Jack ran across towards him, only to find that the poor
fellow had fainted. Placing him on his back, Jack sprinkled some water
on his face, and soon had the satisfaction of bringing him round.

"Who are you, old chap?" he asked.

"I'm Riley, from Mafeking," the injured man answered.

"I was on my way to Lord Roberts, and reached here four days ago. I'd
have got through safe enough if I hadn't had the bad luck to be bitten
by a snake. There is the beast over there. I put my blanket down and
left it, to take the pony down to that stream behind the kopje, and on
returning and seating myself at the end of the blanket, the brute
suddenly sat up on his tail in front of me and struck before I could get
away. You can see he hit my gaiter, scratched all down it, and then
just managed to get to my skin through the canvas shoe I was wearing,
owing to my boots having given out."

Jack at once inspected the leg, and noticed that the gaiter, which was
only half unfastened, was scratched from top to bottom as if with a
sharp nail.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed. "That was three days ago, and you are alive
now to tell me the tale! Then you are a lucky man, for that beast is a
puff-adder, a most deadly snake! But for your gaiters you would
certainly have died within two hours, and as it is, I don't know how you
escaped. What did you do?"

"I can scarcely tell you," Riley answered weakly. "When I saw the beast