Peters stood stock-still for a moment--stared--listened. "It's him!" he roared. "It's him! Wyndham. Here! we've found him! We came out to do it--and--we've done it. How are you, my dear old chap," as the quondam prisoner and invalid emerged from his late prison and hospital, walking with surprising vigour. "Oh, but this is too good, too darn good for anything!" "Let go, Peters. Dash it, man, you hurt," cried Lamont, ruefully contemplating his half-crushed knuckles. "Or turn some of it on to Father Mathias here. His doctoring skill has pulled me round, I can tell you." "How are you, sir. Delighted to see you again," went on Peters. "We came out to find Lamont. Swore we wouldn't go back till we had. Isn't that so, boys?" "Rather," answered the others, who had come up. "How are you, captain," and "Glad to see you safe and sound," and a dozen other hearty greetings were showered upon him. "Peters," he said in a low tone, drawing him apart. "What news?--You know." "I can't give you any, Lamont, beyond the day you disappeared. You see we came straight away from Kezane. Miss Vidal was marvellously plucky, but not a man jack of us but could see she was half broken-hearted. She wanted to come with us." "Did she?" said the other huskily. "Didn't she! Well, of course that wouldn't do. She went back to Gandela." "And I'm going to do ditto--to-night. You can raise me a horse, Peters?" "No, I can't; and I wouldn't if I could. By the way, have you any idea where you are?" "Now I think of it, I haven't." "Eastern end of the Matopo. So you see the sort of country--and the extent of it--between this and Gandela. And it just swarms with rebels." Lamont admitted the sense of this, but it was hard to be patient. Meanwhile the battle, or skirmish,--in which they had ceased to take any further interest,--had rolled farther and farther away, and was slackening off altogether. When the force went into camp for the night, great was the dissatisfaction expressed over Peters' proposed defection. The latter was adamant. "I've come out with one object now," he said, "and I've attained it. We must get back to Gandela at once, where Lamont has some very pressing business. Then we're going to start a corps of our own. In fact, that's all cut and dried. Eh, Wyndham?" Wyndham agreed, and it was arranged they should start at dawn. Father Mathias elected to remain with the expedition. His knowledge of surgery might be useful, he urged, and indeed subsequent events proved it to be very useful indeed, and the intrepidity of the doctor-priest, and his unflagging care for the wounded and the dying, even under the hottest of fire, won for him the admiration of all, not only on that expedition but throughout the entire campaign.