r
natural repulsion towards wounds and death, she had been rendering the
surgeon very practical assistance, and incidentally, but all
unconsciously, had gone far towards implanting in poor Strange's system
a wound which only time might avail to heal. Her quick aptitude,
however, atoned for her lack of experience, to a quite astonishing
degree, and Strange expressed considerable scepticism as to her never
having undergone any training. Lucy Fullerton, utterly worn out with
the exhaustion of terror, had fallen sound asleep through the sheer
reaction of relief; which was as well, for it may be imagined that the
relics of such a struggle as this had been consisted largely of ghastly
and horrifying sights meeting the eye at every turn. These, however,
had been minimised, and the enemy's dead had been dragged off to a
sufficient distance as to be invisible.

Their own dead had been cared for, and the wounded made as comfortable
as the circumstances of the place would admit; this it turned out was
beyond what might have been expected, for the Kezane Store was
exceedingly well supplied with most necessaries; and fortunate indeed
that it was so, for there had been grave danger of ammunition giving out
during the battle. It must not be supposed, either, that the place was
left to take its chance, practically undefended, for over and above its
original defenders quite a number of the relieving force, whose horses
were not up to further calls upon speed and endurance, had remained
behind.

"You must have had the very devil of a scrap, Peters," one of these was
saying. "We could hear you banging away from the time you began, and
pushed our gees for all they'd carry; for we reckoned all that shooting
meant a big thing and no bally skirmish. The cream of the fun was when
we got in among the niggers in the mist. They didn't know we were there
till we got cracking away right in their faces, or mostly backs.
_Magtig_! didn't they skip. But--I say though--what old powder magazine
was it that you blew up just before we got here? Man! it nearly knocked
us all down."

The explanation of Grunberger's ingenious device raised a great laugh,
and many were the felicitations showered upon that estimable Teuton.

"I say, Wyndham," another was saying. "What on earth could have
possessed you and Fullerton to start tooling your team off into the very
teeth of hell let loose, in the confiding, childlike way you seem to
have done?"

"We