“Many or few?” said the man addressed as the field-cornet, and, apparently forgetting his anger in the excitement, he began to hurry away from the cavern mouth, talking loudly the while. “I’ll see! If they’ll come on, we’ll stay here; if not, we might try and surround them and capture the whole gang!”
The next minute the walls of the gully were echoing the hurried splashing made by the party, as the last of them turned the corner and disappeared across the veldt.
“Phew! What a pity!” said Ingleborough, taking off his hat to wipe his forehead.
“A pity!” cried West. “What: the news that some of our people are near?”
“No, no; I meant that the row came to an end. I was in hopes that we were going to have a new version of the Kilkenny cats, and two enemies of Old England were going to tear each other to pieces and leave only a tail behind.”
“Oh, be serious, Ingle!” said West excitedly. “We might venture out now.”
“Don’t be rash! We’ve got to find out what they mean to do.”
“Come along then, and let’s leave the horses where they are. We must try and climb up somewhere to see what is going on.”
“Very well, but take care! These are awfully breakneck walls to mount.”
“Yes, but it has to be done! Why not up that crack?”