They had driven on for perhaps a mile, when the road ran down close to the stream. All at once half a dozen shots rang out of the willows, and the Boer sprang from the wagon and ran for the bush.
Sedgwick was driving. Jordan in a second caught his gun, and springing over the seat, said:
"Drive on quick, Jim, and in ther meantime I'll try ter entertain ther varmints."
A Boer stepped out of the willows and raised his gun. He never fired it, but threw up his hands and fell on his face. A shot from Jordan's gun had changed his calculations.
Three or four more shots were fired from the bush, but they did no harm.
Sedgwick had urged the team into a run, and they had just begun to hope the ambuscade had been passed, when three more Boers sprang out of the willows nearly opposite them and fired.
Jordan killed two of them in a moment, but the third one fired again, and the bullet struck Jordan's left arm, disabling it and making a bad wound.
"Can you drive, think?" asked Sedgwick.
Jordan thought he could, and took the reins; Sedgwick picked up his gun.
Three more Boers just then appeared by the willows opposite. Sedgwick could shoot as rapidly and as accurately as Jordan, and he cleared the field in a moment.