B. "I thought so; now let us have the story."
T. "Well, sir, there was Mr Crauford, and Sergeant Mullins, and——"
B. "Never mind their names. How many men had Mr Crauford with him?"
T. "About six, sir; and I am the only one left alive to tell the tale!"
B. "How truly awful! and if you don't get on with it your tale will outlast all of us as well. (Roughly) Now, throw it out,—what happened?"
T. "Well, sir, you see that farm over there (pointing to low seam of grey hills about four miles distant on our left flank, at the bottom of which nestled a homestead), we were riding up to it quiet-like, when suddenly, as we were passing a kraal, up jumps about fifty Boers and calls us to ''ands up.' We wouldn't ''ands up,' and they shot us down to a man, and——!"
B. "Wait—how did you get away from the general battue?"
T. "I don't exactly know, sir; I kind of found myself galloping for all I was worth, and the bullets just 'umming that thick and awful, that I kept on asking myself the whole way home 'ow it was I managed to escape!"
B. "You may go. Stop! where's your rifle?"
T. (for the first time realising that he had not got a rifle). "I must have dropped it, sir, in the scrimmage—it was awful 'ot, sir!"