"Oh no, sir; I shall be all right in a few hours." "And you, Colour-Sergeant James?" "Beg pardon, sir?" said the blackened non-com, staring. "I say, and you, _Colour-Sergeant_ James," said the colonel, laying emphasis on the word colour. "You feel that you need not go into the infirmary?" "Feel, sir?" cried the sergeant, drawing himself up as stiff as his rifle. "Beg pardon, sir, but that's quite cured me. I never felt so well in my life." "I am glad of it, my man," said the colonel quietly.--"Yes?" he added as one of the junior officers came to the door. "Two men come in from the kopje, sir: a message from the sergeant with the gun. There's a strong body of the enemy close up between us and the lines on the slope. The men had to go round a long way before they could get through." "I'll come," said the colonel, and he hurried out to make some fresh arrangements, the effect of which was that as soon as it was light the action of the Boers was precipitated by a counter-attack, and after an hour's firing they were driven out of their cover, to run streaming across the veldt, their flight hastened by a few well-planted shells from the big gun and the rapid fire of the Maxim which swept the plain. CHAPTER TEN. TRACKING THE WAGONS. Lennox was well enough, when the sun was up, to accompany Dickenson to the examination of the scene of the explosion, but not in time to witness the discovery of two bags of unexploded powder, from where they had been hurled by Colour-Sergeant James, who was on the ground before it was light, as he explained to the two young officers. "You were early, sergeant," said Lennox. "Yes, sir; to tell the truth, I was. You see, I couldn't sleep a wink." "In so much pain?" "Well, the back of my head did smart pretty tidy, I must say, sir, and I couldn't lay flat on my back as I generally do; but it wasn't that, sir--it was the thought of the step up. Just think of it, sir! Only been full sergeant two years, and a step up all at once like that." "Well, you deserved it," said Lennox quietly. "Deserved it, sir? Well, what about you?" "Oh, I dare say I shall get my promotion when I've earned it," said Lennox. "Now then, let's look round. You found two bags of the powder, then?" "Yes, sir," said the man, pointing; "one down in that pit where they dug the soil for filling the biscuit-tins and baskets, and the other yonder behind that wall. The blast must have blown right over them." "But how about the sentry the colonel said he saw here?" asked Lennox. The man's countenance changed, a fierce frown distorting it. "He was quite right, sir," said the sergeant, nodding his head. "They found him this morning at his post." "Dead?" said Lennox in a hoarse whisper. "Yes, sir--dead. Horrid! Some one must have crept up behind him with a blanket and thrown it over him while some one else used an iron bar. He couldn't have spoken a word after the first blow."