, dear boy, who is the
most active young fellow in the land, managed to--Ah! here he comes, and
will speak for himself."

As he spoke a tall strapping youth of about fifteen entered, opened wide
his laughing blue eyes on seeing Hans, and, after a hearty greeting,
told with some hesitation that he had chanced to be out hunting on foot
in the jungles of the Great Fish River when the Kafirs crossed the
frontier, and had managed, being a pretty good runner, to give his
father warning, so that the family had time to escape. He did _not_
tell, however, that he had, in a narrow pass, kept above sixty Kafirs in
check with his own hand and gun until George Dally could run to the
house for his weapons and ammunition, and that then the two held a
hundred of them in play long enough to permit of the whole family
escaping under the care of Scholtz.

"But," said Edwin Brook, who related all this with evident satisfaction,
"I am like yourself, Hans, in regard to property. Mount Hope is a
blackened ruin, the farm is laid waste, and the cattle are over the
borders."

"And where is Mrs Brook?" asked Considine.

"In this house. Up-stairs. Come, Gertie is getting impatient. Let us
go to see her."

"Now, friends," said Considine to the brothers Skyd, who had by that
time been joined by the hunting partners, "there is a matter on which we
must consult and act without delay."

Here he told of Conrad Marais's departure with the boers across the
frontier, and added that if the party was to be saved at all it must be
gone about instantly.

"You can't go about it to-day, Charlie," said John Skyd, "so don't give
way to impatience. For such a long trip into the enemy's country we
must go well armed and supplied."

"I will brook no delay," said Considine, with flushing countenance. "If
it had not been for the necessity of bringing Gertie here in safety,
Hans and I would have set out at once and alone on their spoor. Is it
not so?"

Hans nodded assent.

"No, friends," he said, turning to the brothers with decision, "we must
be off at once."

"What! without your suppers?" exclaimed Bob Skyd; "but to be serious, it
won't be possible to get things ready before to-morrow. Surely that
will do, if we start at daybreak. Besides, the party with your father,
Hans, is a strong one, well able to hold out against a vastly superior
force of savages. Moreover, if you wait we shall get up a small body of
volunteers."

Hans and Charlie w