ll we get there. Hark at the
firing!"

"I can hear," said Ingleborough coolly. "Be very deaf if I couldn't!
There, that's the last scrap of cake, so let's drown our troubles in
sleep. You have first turn!"

"No," replied West. "I feel too anxious to sleep! You begin."

"Can't," was the reply. "If anything, I feel more anxious than you do.
I couldn't rest!"

"I wish we could canter gently on till we were seen by the Boers, and
then go on full gallop right into the town!" said West. "Would it be
too dangerous?"

"Just madness!" replied Ingleborough. "No; it must be done with guile.
They would cut us off for certain."

"I'm afraid so!" said West. "Very well, then, we must wait for the
evening."

"And sit wakeful," said Ingleborough.

"Yes," said West. "Sleep is impossible!"

And sit there wakeful they did, hour after hour, their only satisfaction
being that of seeing their weary horses enjoying a good feed untroubled
by the increasing heat, or the cares which harassed their masters.

For as the sun rose higher the distant firing increased, till it was
evident that a terrible attack was going on, and in his weariness and
despair no words on the part of Ingleborough had any effect upon West,
who felt convinced that before they could continue their journey
Mafeking would have fallen into the enemy's hands.

There was no further talk of sleep. The heat, flies, hunger, and a
burning thirst were either of them sufficient to have kept them awake,
without the terrible feeling of anxiety and the alarms caused by bodies
of horsemen or lines of wagons journeying in the direction they were
waiting to take.

Again and again parties of the Boers seemed to be coming straight for
the hiding-place, and West and his companion crept on hands and knees
towards their ponies, getting hold of their reins, and then crouching by
them ready to mount and gallop for their lives should the necessity
arise.

But it did not, and in a strangely-feverish dreamlike way the day glided
on and evening at last came, bringing with it wafts of cooler air and,
what was of more consequence to them still, a feeling of hope, for
though the firing still went on, it had dwindled down into the slow
steady reports of one heavy piece discharged at about the same rate as
when they had first heard the firing in the morning.

"And it tells its own tale with truthful lips!" said Ingleborough. "The
town is still holding out, and the defenders ha