-roofed shack, and, fully prepared to surrender, knocked at the
door. It was opened by a rough-looking, bearded giant, the first white
man to whom in many days Churchill had dared address himself.

To him, without hope, he feebly stammered forth the speech he had
rehearsed. The man listened with every outward mark of disbelief. At
Churchill himself he stared with open suspicion. Suddenly he seized the
boy by the shoulder, drew him inside the hut, and barred the door.

"You needn't lie to me," he said. "You are Winston Churchill, and I--am
the only Englishman in this village."

The rest of the adventure was comparatively easy. The next night his
friend in need, an engineer named Howard, smuggled Churchill Into a
freight-car, and hid him under sacks of some soft merchandise.

At Komatie-Poort, the station on the border, for eighteen hours the car
in which Churchill lay concealed was left in the sun on a siding, and
before it again started it was searched, but the man who was conducting
the search lifted only the top layer of sacks, and a few minutes later
Churchill heard the hollow roar of the car as it passed over the bridge,
and knew that he was across the border.

Even then he took no chances, and for two days more lay hidden at the
bottom of the car.

When at last he arrived in Lorenzo Marques he at once sought out the
English Consul, who, after first mistaking him for a stoker from one of
the ships in the harbor, gave him a drink, a bath, and a dinner.

As good luck would have it, the _Induna_ was leaving that night for
Durban, and, escorted by a body-guard of English residents armed with
revolvers, and who were taking no chances of his recapture by the Boer
agents, he was placed safely on board. Two days later he arrived at
Durban, where he was received by the Mayor, the populace, and a brass
band playing: "Britons Never, Never, Never shall be Slaves!"

For the next month Churchill was bombarded by letters and telegrams
from every part of the globe, some invited him to command filibustering
expeditions, others sent him woollen comforters, some forwarded
photographs of himself to be signed, others photographs of themselves,
possibly to be admired, others sent poems, and some bottles of whiskey.

One admirer wrote: "My congratulations on your wonderful and glorious
deeds, which will send such a thrill of pride and enthusiasm through
Great Britain and the United States of America, that the Anglo-Saxon
race wil