o commit murder. But there, it's of no use for you to argue; I
think South Africa is horrible. Look at the miles of wretched dusty
desert and stony waste. I don't know what we English want with it."

"Room for our colonists, and to develop the mines. Look at the
diamonds."

"Look at our sparkling sea at home."

"Look at the gold."

"I like looking at a good golden furzy common in Surrey. It's of no
use, Drew, my lad; it's a dismal, burning, freezing place."

"Why don't you throw it up and go home, then?"

"What! before we've beaten the Boers into a state of decency? No!"

Bob Dickenson's "No!" was emphatic enough for anything, and brought the
conversation between the two young men to an end; for it was close upon
the time for the mess dinner, which, whatever its shortcomings, as Bob
Dickenson said, was jolly punctual, even if there was no tablecloth.

So they descended from where they had perched themselves close up to the
big gun, where their commanding position gave them the opportunity for
making a wide sweep round over the karoo, taking in, too, the wooded
course of the river and the open country beyond in the possession of the
Boers.

But they had seen no sign of an enemy or grazing horse; though they well
knew that if a company of their men set off in any direction, before
they had gone a quarter of a mile they would be pelted with bullets by
an unseen foe.

They had seen the walls and rifle-pits which guarded the great gun so
often that they hardly took their attention. All the same, though,
soldier-like, Drew Lennox could not help thinking how naturally strong
the kopje was, how easy it would be for two or three companies of
infantry to hold it against a force of ten times their number, and what
tremendous advantages the Boers had possessed in the nature of their
country. For they had only had to sit down behind the natural
fortifications and set an enemy at defiance.

"It's our turn now," Lennox said to himself, "and we could laugh at them
for months if only we had a supply of food."

"Let's try this way," said Dickenson, bearing off to his left.

"What for? It's five times as hard as the regular track, and
precipitous."

"Not so bad but what we can do it. We can let one another down if we
come to one of the wall-like bits too big to jump."

"But it's labour for nothing. Only make you more hungry," added Lennox,
with a laugh.

"Never mind; I want to make sure that an enemy could n