"Haven't got a bit to spare, have you, sir?" said the Sergeant; "because I should like to try how it would agree with my case, for I'm horribly down in the mouth at present. I don't like the look of things at all." "What do you mean?" asked Denham. "I had a look round at the horses, sir, last night." "Not got the horse-sickness, Briggs?" "No, sir, not so bad as that; but, speaking as an old cavalry man, I say that they mustn't be kept shut up much longer. But there, I shall be spoiling your looks and knocking your hope over. Good-morning, gentlemen--I mean, lieutenant and private. Glad to see you both look so well. I'll tell Joe Black you want him." "Yes, he'd upset our hopefulness altogether, Val, if it wasn't for one thing--eh?" said Denham as the wagon-tilt swung to after the Sergeant. "But, I say, that fellow of yours ought to be here by now." "Yes," I said. But we waited anxiously for quite an hour before the man we had sent came back. "Can't find the black, sir," he said. "Did you go to the horses?" "Yes, sir, and everywhere else." "You didn't go to the butcher's?" I asked. "Yes, I did; but he hadn't been there." "Perhaps he's gone out with the bullock drove." "No," said the man; "the oxen are being kept in this morning because the Boers have come a hundred yards nearer during the night. They're well in opposite the gateway, and the Colonel's having our works there strengthened." "The Sergeant didn't say a word about that," Denham said to me. I shook my head, and turned to the messenger. "Is he asleep somewhere about the walls?" I asked. "No; I looked there," was the reply. "He always snoozes up on the inner wall, just above the water-hole. There's a place where a big stone has fallen out and no bullets can get at him. I looked there twice." "Hasn't fallen down one of the holes, has he?" said Denham. "Not he, sir," replied the man, laughing. "He'd go about anywhere in the dark, looking like a bit o' nothing, only you couldn't see it in the darkness, and never knock against a thing. It's his feet, I think; they always seem to know where to put theirselves. He wouldn't tumble down any holes." "Keep a sharp lookout for him, and when you see him send him to me directly." "Yes, sir," replied the man. "I dessay he'll turn up in the course o' the morning. He's always hiding himself and coming again when you don't expect it." "I say, Val," cried Denham as soon as we were alone, "we didn't reckon on this. Why, if he doesn't turn up our plan's done." "Not at all," I said. "Eh? What do you mean? We couldn't go without him." "Indeed, but we could; and what's more, we will," I said firmly. "I would rather have had him with us; but we're going to-night--if we can." Denham seized my hand and wrung it warmly. "I like that," he said; "but you shouldn't have put in that `if we can.'" "Obliged to," I replied. "We may be stopped." "Oh, but I shall give the password."