"Very naturally, my dear sir; but his eyes tell me that if his brain is not allowed to recover its tone he'll have a bad attack of fever. A man can't go through such an experience as that without being terribly weakened. I want him to be led into thinking of everything else but his escape. I dare say after a few hours he will be wanting to talk excitedly about all he felt; but he mustn't. Not a question must be asked." As it happened, the patient did exactly what the doctor wished: he slept, or, rather, sank into a state of stupor which lasted for many hours, came to his senses again, partook of a little food, and then dropped asleep once more; and this was repeated for days before he thoroughly recovered, and then began of his own volition to speak of his experience. It was about a week after his mishap, in the evening, when Dickenson, just returned from a skirmish in which the Boers had been driven back, was seated beside his rough couch watching him intently. "Don't sit staring at me like that, old fellow," said Lennox suddenly. "You look as if you thought I was going to die." "Not you! You look a lot better to-night." "I am, I know." "How?" asked Dickenson laconically. "Because I've begun to worry about not being on duty and helping." "Yes; that's a good sign," said Dickenson. "Capital. Feel stronger?" "Yes. It's just as if my strength has begun to come back all at once. Did you drive off the enemy to-day?" "Famously. Gave them a regular licking." "That's right. But tell me about Corporal May." "Oh no, you're not to bother about that." "Tell me about Corporal May," persisted Lennox. "Doctor said you weren't to worry about such things." "It isn't a worry now. I felt at first that if I thought much about that business in the cave I should go off my head; but I'm quite cool and comfortable now. Tell me--is he quite well again?" "Not quite. He has had a touch of fever and been a bit loose in the knob, just as if he had been frightened out of his wits." "Of course," said Lennox quietly. "I was nearly the same. I did not know at the time, but I do now. He is getting better, though?" "Fast; only he's a bit of a humbug with it. I thought so, and the doctor endorses my ideas. He likes being ill and nursed and petted with the best food, so as to keep out of the hard work. I don't like the fellow a bit. There, you've talked enough now, so I'll be gone." "No; stop," said Lennox. "Tell me about the stores of corn we found in that cave." "Hang the cave! You're not to talk about it." "Tell me about the grain," persisted Lennox. "Oh, very well; we're going on eating it, for if it hadn't turned up as it did we should have been obliged to surrender or cut our way through." "But there's plenty yet?" "Oh yes, heaps; and we got about thirty sheep two days ago." "Capital," said Lennox, rubbing his hands softly. "Now tell me--where is the grain stored?" "Where the niggers put it when they collected it there."