_Cr-r-r-r-r-r-ch_! went the match; there was a burst of flame, followed at a trifling interval by the steady glow of the tiny taper, and the young officer's fingers were lit up and seen to bear the flame to the lantern lamp, which caught at once and blazed up, when the door was shut with a click, and the men exhaled their pent-up breath in a hearty cheer. "Well done!" said Captain Roby. "Here, I'll lead now; or would you like to continue what you began, Mr Lennox?" The latter looked at him, and seemed to hesitate. "Oh, very well," said Roby rather contemptuously. "I'll lead myself." "No, no; you misunderstood me," cried Lennox as Dickenson turned upon him wonderingly. "I want to go on." "I don't want to rob you of your chance," said Roby.--"Here, Mr Dickenson, what two men went back to fetch those lights?" "Corporal May and Channings tried to feel their way, sir, but they found the job hopeless." "But I gave orders." "Yes, sir," said Dickenson; "but they could not find their way." "I'll speak about this later on," said Roby. "Now then, Mr Lennox, are you ready?" "Yes, sir," was the reply as the young officer stood waiting for Sergeant James, who had slipped off his scarf, passed it through the handle of the lantern, and was securing it to his waist. "Then forward!" cried Roby. "Better let me lead, sir, on account of the light," half-whispered the sergeant; "then you can be ready to give point at any one who comes at me." "No," said Lennox firmly; "I must lead. Leave your rifle, and follow me, bayonet in hand." He stepped to the mouth of the pit, tried the ladder-like contrivance, found it fairly firm, and began to descend as fast as he could; while, risking the strength of the wood, the sergeant stepped on as soon as there was room and followed, shedding the dancing light's rays on the weird-looking walls of the place. Dickenson went next, and the captain followed, to find those in front waiting upon a fairly wide shelf, upon which the bottom of the tree was propped, while beneath it, and sloping now, the well-like pit went down into the black darkness, up from which the hollow, echoing rush of water came in a way which made some of the stoutest present shudder. The shelf was at the mouth of a low archway which proved, upon the lantern being held up, to be the entrance to another of the ramifications of the great series of caves with which the kopje was honeycombed. Here within a few yards lay the first lantern, which had rebounded on falling and rolled down into a narrow crack in the flooring, a rift which ran from somewhere ahead, draining the interior of the cavern passage, and bearing a tiny stream of water to join the rushing waters below, these being undoubtedly the source of the perennial stream which issued from the foot of the kopje.