The ungainly-looking ostriches, penned in spaces of rectangular form, craned their far-stretching necks, all the while uttering the grunt peculiar to the birds, dubbed by naturalists Struthio Camelus.
A passage, four feet in width, ran between the inner walls of the kraal and the high hurdles forming the temporary home of the ostriches. Four feet above the flagged floor of the kraal were loopholes, and these presently had the barrels of rifles protruding from them.
A couple of thousand rounds of ammunition, in boxes holding one hundred each, were placed in handy positions, and Pete with much dexterity knocked off the lids of the boxes, thus exposing the little nickel-plated messengers of death.
Each "boy" was given a rifle, and by the way the magazines were charged it was evident that the weapons had been handled before.
Pat, who was peering through a loophole, cried out, "The beggars are coming, sorr, an' they're more than fifty strong."
Jack, who was engaged in inspecting the "boys'" rifles, at once went up to Pat.
"How far off do you make them now, Pat?" he asked.
"Bedad! they seem to be only five hundred yards away," answered the Irishman. But Pat was wrong in his conjecture, and Pete at once corrected him.
"Dey be quite a mile from de farm, Baas Jack," said the Kaffir. "De eyes ob white men do not see right—at least not in dis country."
A peep through a loophole told Jack that Pete's estimate was a correct one. The South African atmosphere is so clear that distance seems annihilated on the veldt.