He turned upon his heel and strode heavily away, with his spurs clinking loudly and the guard at the end of his scabbard giving a sharp _chink_ every now and then, as, field-glass in hand, he climbed to the top of the wall to take a look round at the positions of the enemy before the evening closed in. "Well," said Denham at last, looking the while as if all the military starch had been taken out of him, "you've done it now." I could keep back my laughter no longer. "Somebody has," I cried merrily. "Yes," he said dolefully; "somebody has. Oh, I say, Val, you oughtn't to have told tales like that." "What?" I cried. "How could I help it?" "Well, I suppose you couldn't," said my companion. "But there never was such an unlucky beggar as I am. What did he want to come upon us just at that moment for? Oh dear! oh dear! and I got to face him to-morrow morning! I say, can't we do something to put it off--something to make him forget it?" "Impossible," I said. "Oh, I don't know; try and think of a good dodge--a sortie, or doing something to make the Boers come on to-night. If we had a jolly good light he'd forget all about it, and I shouldn't hear any more about the miserable business. Here, what can we do to make the Boers come on? I might get killed in the set-to, and then I should escape this awful wigging." "Who ought to go and see the doctor now?" I said. "Who's going mad?" "I am, I believe, old fellow; and enough to make me. It's enough to make a fellow desert. Here, I know; I'll do something. It's all the fault of that miserable renegade. I'll go in and half-kill him--an insolent, insulting brute!" Just then Denham, who was as fearless as any man in the ranks when out with the corps, started violently in his alarm; for a hail came from high up on the wall in the Colonel's familiar voice; and upon looking up, there he was, glass in hand, looking down at us. "Denham," cried the Colonel, "run to the Major. Tell him to come here to me at once, and bring his glass." "Yes, sir," cried my companion.--"Come with me, Val. My word! He gave me such a turn, as the old women say; I thought he'd heard me again. Hurrah, old fellow! there's something up, and no mistake. I shan't get that tongue-flogging after all." CHAPTER THIRTY THREE. DENHAM PROVES TO BE RIGHT. In a few minutes the Major had joined the Colonel, and soon every officer and man in the old fortification was waiting breathlessly for information as to what intelligence regarding the movements of the enemy the two stern-looking men up on the wall were gathering into their brains through their glasses--intelligence far beyond the ken of the sentries, whose duty it was to keep strict watch upon the great circle which was formed by the Boer lines.