ot quite
settle how it was they got the two spans of oxen up among the rocks
ready when required.

Not that this mattered, for when he woke in the morning at the reveille
and looked out the oxen were absent certainly, being grazing in the
river grass in charge of a guard; but the Boers were present, lighting a
fire and getting their morning coffee ready, the pots beginning to send
out a fragrant steam.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

FRIENDS ON THE FORAGE.

There were too many "alarums and excursions" at Groenfontein for much
more thought to be bestowed upon the friendly Boers, as the party of
former prisoners were termed, in the days which ensued. "Nobody can say
but what they are quiet, well-behaved chaps," Bob Dickenson said, "for
they do scarcely anything but sit and smoke that horrible nasty-smelling
tobacco of theirs all day long. They like to take it easy. They're
safe, and get their rations. They don't have to fight, and I don't
believe nine-tenths of the others do; but they are spurred on--
sjambokked on to it. Pah! what a language! Sjambok! why can't they
call it a whip?"

"But I don't trust them, all the same," said Lennox. "I quite hate that
smiling field-cornet, who's always shifting and turning the corn-sacks
to give them plenty of air, as he says, to keep the grain from heating."

"Why, he hasn't been at it again, has he?" said Dickenson, laughing.

"At it again?" said Lennox. "What do you mean?"

"Did he shout to you to come and look at it?"

"Yes; only this morning, when the colonel was going by. Asked us to go
in and look, and shovelled up the yellow corn in one of the sacks. He
made the colonel handle some of it, and pointed out that he was holding
back the corn tied up with the white strings because it lasted better."

"What did the old man say?"

"Told him that, as the stock was getting so low, he and his men must
make a raid and get some more."

"And what did Blackbeard say?"

"Grumbled and shook his head, and talked about the danger of being shot
by his old friends if they were caught."

"Dodge, of course, to raise his price."

"That's what the colonel said; and he told him that there must be no
nonsense--he was fed here and protected so that he should keep up the
supply, and that he must start the day after to-morrow at the latest to
buy up more and bring it in. Then, in a surly, unwilling way, he
consented to go."

"Buy up some more?" said Dickenson, with a chuckle. "Yes, h