"Exactly. Well, they're bringing up a big gun to mount up here and give us a surprise in the morning." "Phe-ew!" whistled Dickenson. "Oh, surely not!" "I feel sure that they are." "Well, let's send word on to the old man. Send one of the sergeants." "And by the time he got there with his news, and reinforcements could be sent, the enemy would have the gun here." "Let's tell Roby, then." "Yes; come on." In another minute they had told their officer their suspicions, and he hummed and ha'd a little after listening. "It hardly seems likely," he said, "and I don't want to raise a false alarm. Besides, the outposts have given no notice; and hark! I can hear nothing." "Now?" They listened in the darkness, and it was as their captain suggested: all perfectly still. "There," he said. "It would be horrible to rouse up the colonel on account of a cock-and-bull story." "But it would be worse for him to be warned too late. There it is again; hark!" whispered Lennox, stretching out a hand in the direction farthest from the village. "Can't hear anything," said the captain. "I can," growled Dickenson softly. "Yes, so can I now. It's a wagon whose drivers have missed their way, I should say. But we'll see." "Or feel," grunted the captain. "It's as black as ink.--Here, Lennox, take a sergeant's guard and go forward softly to see if you can make anything out. I don't know, though; it may be as you say, and if it is--" "We ought to bring in that gun," whispered Lennox. "Yes, at all hazards. I don't know, though. There, take five-and-twenty of the lads, and act as seems best. If you can do it easily, force the drivers to come on, but don't run risks. If the Boers are in strength fall back at once. You understand?" "Quite," said Lennox softly. "Let me go with him, Roby?" "No; I can't spare you." "Yes, do; I can help him." "He can do what there is to do himself, and would rather be alone, for it is only a reconnaissance." "I should like him with me," said Lennox quietly, and he felt his arm nipped. "Very well; but don't waste time. I can hear it quite plainly now. Mind, fall back at once if they are in force. I'll be well on the alert to cover you and your party." The requisite number of men were soon under the young officer's orders, and they followed him softly down the rock-encumbered slope of the natural fortress--no easy task in the darkness; but the men were getting used to the gloom, and it was not long before the party was challenged by an outpost and received the word. They passed on, getting well round to the farther side of the kopje before they were challenged again. "Glad you've come, sir," said the sentry; "I was just going to fire." "Why?" asked Lennox softly. "I can hear something coming out yonder in the darkness. You listen, sir. It's like a heavy wagon." The man spoke in a whisper; then for some moments all was perfectly still.