On the Firing Line

uns!" Carew remarked, as he wrestled with a tough thong of bully beef w

nt from his own ration, Weldon converted it into

gun is a good enough fellow to deserve Christian

s jaws to a halt, C

ked, after a pr

ke the game; but I also like a little more oats mixed wi

w retorted. "That made up for a good deal. You have no cause to rebel, though.

ldon pointed backwar

s. By the way, Carew, does it ever strike you that these Boers make a lot more fuss over their spellin

xtra bullets," Carew returned tranquilly. "They've been sniping, al

as the q

agged hole in his left sleev

d target? If there's a bullet coming

t! There they go again!" he burst out, as a distant line of rocks crackled ex

s the rolling veldt. Before them, a pair of guns were pounding away at the rocky line and its flanking bushes, and beyond, over the crest o

riek of the shells, long since left behind, the flying figures before them, the rise and fall of his own gray little broncho as she stretched herself to measure the interminable veldt, the khaki-c

prolong the chase against such heavy odds. Mere sanity demanded that the troopers should delay until the column came up. The action must wait, while the

elieve in obedience, Carew; but, when I get this used up,

ys were a thriftless fellow; you must have been wasti

a minute. Ah ha!" And Weldon drew a quick breath of admiration, as the g

came the order for the advance, the order so eagerly awaited by Weldon, maddened by his long exposure to the bullets of his unseen foe. In extended order, the squadrons galloped forward until their goal was a scant

d, rifle in left, they charged over the remaining bit of ground and into the midst of

. And then, through and over,

aden hail, retired upon their own guns. And now once more the gunners could reopen fire, and the shells dropped thick and fast. The moment for a general advance had come. In open order, a thousand men dashed forward and reached the ridge, only to see the retiring

ders, was busy among the wounded, and Weldon had cared to make few other close friends in the squadron. Around him, he could hear the murmurs of other sleepless ones; but he lay silent, h

ospital ship returning to Durban. Piquetberg Road was child's play now, for the front was almost in sight. The voyage had been beastly; but after it had come the real beginning of things. Natal, in those days of late February, had seemed deserving of its name, a true Garden of Africa. The crossing was now a memory of heavy grades, of verdant country, of ripened fruits. There had been the week's delay at Pieterm

a leg

back to the realities of life. He sat up as

kyward across the yellower sunshine. Then, of a sudden, out from the heart of the wall of smoke came a muffled thud and roar, confused at first, growing strident and more detached until, sweeping from the haze of smoke, five score Boer horsemen rode in a bolt-like rush,

the fifteen-pounders. No need to tell him that heavy fighting had begun. His experienced ear ha

red the guns. The Major asks f

s. Covered with dust, and brea

e man, and gallop to

could start, the infantry were half-way to the guns. But already shells were fall

h the wicked light of her old, unbroken days, as she went tearing across the sun-baked veldt, up and down over the rises and through the rare bits of thicket at a pace which Weldon would have been powerless to check. He had no mind to check it. Th

the guns grew nearer and

stinctness, the picture before him fixed itself sharply in his mind: the dust-colored troops on the dusty veldt, the brown-painted guns, the di

take up your position in the kraal on the

ay walls surrounding the clump of trees a mile away. His hand tightened on the curb, and he straightened in the saddle, as

wall, revolver in hand, firing full in the faces of the Boer horsemen, scarce fifteen feet away. Carew, his right foot

ldo

pping face, his blue eyes, under their fringe of black lashes, glittering like polished gems. Coated as he was with dust and sweat, his clothing torn and spotted with the fray

ld man! One doesn't