again. "We've turned up none too soon then.
Fortunately we've got plenty."

A hurried levy was made upon the cartridge belts of the new arrivals,
and thus reinforced in every sense of the word, the Kaffrarian men, keen
to avenge their comrade and retrieve their position, fell in with their
rescuers, and the whole force moved rapidly forward in pursuit of the
enemy.

But the latter had hastened to make himself scarce. With characteristic
celerity, the wily savages seemed to have melted into earth or air. If
thirty-five whites--a mere handful--had given them about as much
fighting as they could stomach, they were not going to stand against
that handful multiplied by three.

"There they go!" suddenly shouted someone, pointing to the almost bare
brow of a hill about half a mile away, over which a number of Kafirs
were swarming in full retreat. A tremendous fusillade was opened upon
this point, but with slight effect. The distance was too great.

"We must get the cattle," cried Brathwaite, Shelton having hurriedly
given him the particulars. "And we must race for them, too, for they'll
have got a good start. They are sure to take them right away to that
big bit of forest which runs down to the coast. Once there they are
safe as far as we are concerned. I know this strip of country."

Armitage, the man who owned the bugle, and who was known to most there
present either personally or by name, as a licenced wag and an
incorrigible practical joker, was instructed to blow a call of assembly.
This he did, in hideous and discordant fashion, and the men collected.
Briefly Brathwaite explained the situation.

"Beyond this first rise there's another," he said. "Beyond, that
there's five miles of open _veldt_; then the strip of forest I was
mentioning. If we don't get the cattle in the open we shan't get them
at all. Forward!"

No second command was needed. The whole force pressed eagerly forward.
At length, after a toilsome ride, during which not an enemy was seen,
except here and there the body of a dead one lying in a pool of blood,
they crested the brow of the second ridge. A great shout arose.

"There they are! Now then, boys--cut 'em out!"

Away in front, about five miles distant, lay a long, dark line of
forest. Half-way between this and themselves an immense herd of cattle
was streaming across the _veldt_. The drivers, about two score in
number, were at first seen to redouble their efforts to urge on