nt upon the spot, eager and expectant. But nothing
moved. Then the leader took a careful aim and fired. The clods flew
from the sod-wall, heavy and sticky with the recent rain, as the bullet
knocked a great hole in it. Simultaneously two naked Kafirs sprang up
and made for the bush as hard as they could run.

Bang--bang! Bang--bang--bang! A rattling volley greeted their
appearance. But still unscathed they ran like bucks; bounding and
leaping to render themselves more difficult as marks.

Bang--bang! Ping--ping! The bullets showered around the fleeing
savages, throwing up the earth in clods. Each carried a gun and had a
powder horn and ammunition pouch slung round him, besides a bundle of
assegais, and one, as he ran, turned his head to look at his enemies.
Full three hundred yards had they to cover under the fire of a score of
good marksmen. But these were excited.

"Steady, men! No good throwing away ammunition!" cried Shelton, the
leader. "Better let 'em go."

But he might as well have spoken to the wind. As long as those naked,
bounding forms were in sight so long would the more eager spirits of the
party empty their rifles at them. Not all, however. Eustace Milne had
made no attempt to fire a shot. He was not there, as he said
afterwards, to practise at a couple of poor devils running away.
Others, somewhat of the same opinion, confined themselves to looking on.
But to a large section there present no such fastidious notions
commended themselves. The secret of war, they held, was to inflict as
much damage upon the enemy as possible, and under whatever
circumstances. So they tried all they knew to act upon their logic.

"Whoop! Hurrah! They're down!" shouted some one, as the fugitives
suddenly disappeared.

"Nay what!" said a tall Dutchman, shaking his head. "They are only
sneaking," and as he spoke the Kafirs reappeared some fifty yards
further, but were out of sight again in a second. They were taking
advantage of a _sluit_ or furrow--crawling like serpents along in this
precarious shelter.

"Stay where you are--stay where you are," cried Shelton in a tone of
authority, as some of the men made a movement to mount their horses and
dash forward in pursuit. "Just as like as not to be a trap. How many
more do we know are not `voer-ly-ing' [Dutch: `Lying in wait'] in the
bush yonder. The whole thing may be a plant."

The sound wisdom of this order availed to check the more eager spiri