d continued rough, and,
moreover, for some distance on, the broken, rocky, bush-grown slopes
continued, so that their pitiless foes were able to keep above them and
under cover. Poor Lucy Fullerton, made of far softer stuff than her
younger sister, was cowering in her corner, white as death and almost
fainting, and now the savages began to laugh and shout exultantly to
each other. The ground seemed to grow them. From every bush and rock
they sprang forth by the score. It was for them a mere waiting game.
Already the police had been cut off from the waggon, and were fighting
like lions in the thick of their swarming foes; none braver than their
sergeant, whose voice was everywhere, directing, encouraging--whose
pistol had sent more than one of the ferocious assailants to their long
home. Three of these brave fellows had already been overcome; knocked
from their horses by hurled clubs, gasping out their lives, through a
score of assegai stabs, on the reeking road. And now the mules, utterly
blown, and only saved hitherto by Clare Vidal's magnificent courage,
dropped into a sullen and tired walk, out of which no effort, either of
whip or voice, on the part of their driver could lift them. And at the
sight, louder and more ferocious swelled the hideous Matabele
death-hiss. The prey was theirs at last.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

THE RELIEF LEVY.

Not until noon of the day after their ghastly discovery did Lamont and
his fellow refugees reach Gandela.

It was only at night they could travel with any degree of safety. The
appearance of some armed Matabele had driven them into hiding almost
within sight of poor Tewson's homestead, and for long the fall
bitterness of death was on those three. For it was difficult to believe
that the savages had not seen them and had gone to collect
reinforcements, that they might hunt down the fugitives at their
leisure. To make matters worse, their place of concealment was a deep
donga leading to the river-bed, and overhung by a thicket of
_haak-doorn_, so that, in the event of discovery, the enemy being right
above would be able to destroy them with a minimum of risk to himself.
An ignominious end, like rats in a hole, not even the consolation of
being able to fight to the last and sell their lives dearly. Yet it had
been a case of `needs must,' for there was no other hiding-place
available.

The heat, too, was stifling, and their quarters horribly cramped. Their
food supply