trying to keep their men
in line, and at the end of another hundred feet they were side by side,
panting and hot from their efforts, and ready to give one another a hand
or a leg up in difficult parts.

"Well, Drew, old man," cried Dickenson as they both paused to wipe their
faces and give their men time to breathe, "nice job this! I suppose the
old man meant it to give us an appetite for breakfast."

Lennox laughed.

"He ought to have given us a task to take away the sharpness; but it's
all right. I shouldn't be at all surprised if we started two or three
Kaffirs from some hole higher up."

"Why, what would they be doing there?"

"Keeping their gregarious home tidy for their tribe to come back to when
we are gone."

"Well, plenty do live in these kopjes. Remember about that one up in
the Matabele country that was full of cracks and passages, and had four
or five caves one above another?"

"Oh yes, I remember it."

"This might be the same some day, but I believe it's all a reservoir of
water inside."

"Or else solid, for there seems to be no door. We may find a way in
yet; I shouldn't wonder."

"I should," said Dickenson; "and I believe after all now that the
chirping I heard was made by some rat-like creature."

"The more I think about it," continued Lennox, "the more I feel ready to
believe that two or three of the Kaffirs are here, and in communication
with the Boers."

"What! acting as spies?"

Lennox nodded; he was still too short of breath to talk much.

"Well, now you come to talk like that, it does appear possible, for the
Boers do seem to have known pretty well how and when to attack us."

"Exactly."

"Of course! Why, there was the night when they were bringing up the big
gun. They must have had guides."

"Oh, if you come to that, they may have people with them who used to
live here."

"Yes, they may have," said Dickenson; "but it isn't likely. Depend upon
it, there are two or three Kaffirs somewhere about here, and we have
them to thank for some of our misfortunes. If we do catch them they'll
have it pretty sharp."

"Not they," said Lennox. "We shall treat them as prisoners of war."

"As spies," said Dickenson, "and you know their lot."

"Psh! The colonel would not shoot a set of poor ignorant blacks."

"Browns--browns, browns."

"For a reward they'd fight for us just as they may have been fighting
for the Boers."

"But we don't want them to fight for us. If they'd