e had scraped his right ear, and entering at the shoulder had
emerged just above the third rib. It was a nasty wound, but with
ordinary attention it ought not to prove fatal.

Finding that he was being well treated the injured man recovered
sufficiently to explain what had occurred. There was no mistaking the
description of his assailant--also another crime had been added to the
list against Ulrich von Gobendorff, that of attempted murder.

"So the blighter is making for Twashi," remarked Wilmshurst, consulting
his field service map. "That's well up in the Karewenda Hills. We may
head him off even yet."

Mounting, the patrol, their energies quickened by the evidence of this
latest Hunnish atrocity, set off at a gallop across the comparatively
open country betwixt the Kiwa and the base of the Karewenda Hills. Woe
betide von Gobendorff should he be spotted by one of the lynx-eyed
Rhodesians.

CHAPTER XV

RESCUED

It was well into the dry season. As far as the eye could reach lay an
expanse of sun-baked ground dotted with scrub and parched grass,
terminating in the rugged outlines of the Karewenda Geberge. In the
clear African atmosphere the hills, although a good forty miles
distant, looked no more than ten or twelve miles away. With a powerful
telescope an outpost on the high ground ought to be able to spot the
khaki-clad horsemen as they spurred across the bush.

The patrol had no immediate intention of following the fugitive's
spoor. Their idea was to cut off his retreat by keeping on a parallel
route until they had out-distanced him, and then, by extending to the
right, to achieve their object. It was a game of hide-and-seek on a
large scale--a contest of wits. Around the spot where the Hun was
supposed to be an extended cordon was being formed. It was up to him
to break through--if he could, but once detected he stood little chance
against a well-mounted patrol composed of some of the crack shots of
Rhodesia.

"We've cut across his spoor," announced one of the men. "Jones has
just semaphored through. We've nabbed him this time."

The order was passed from man to man for the investing horsemen to
contract the enfolding circle. Each man, his rifle ready for instant
use, trotted towards an imaginary centre, the while keeping his eyes on
the alert for signs of the fugitive.

Then, without warning, a column of smoke, beaten down by the strong
northerly wind, rose from the scrub at a point