"
The enemy indeed had not noticed them leave the little kopje, as they
were hidden by a slight fall in the ground where they descended, and it
was not until they observed a commotion among the cattle that they
perceived what had happened. Then, furious not only at the loss they had
suffered, but at seeing their booty driven away, they mounted and
pursued in hot haste. But the party had obtained a start of fully a
mile, and the valley was reached by the fugitives while the Boers were
still half that distance in their rear. Chris rode along until he came
to a narrow and defensible point; the horses were taken a hundred yards
on and made to lie down, and he and his sixteen companions then ran back
and took up their positions among the rocks on each side of the track
and the slopes above it.
CHAPTER VIII
A DESPERATE PROJECT
Scarcely had the band taken cover in the gorge than the Boers appeared
some five hundred yards away.
"Open fire at once!" Chris shouted, "the farther they have to come under
fire the less they will like it."
The rifles at once spoke out. The lads had all used the boulders behind
which they crouched as rests for their rifles, and confident of their
shooting and their position, their aim was deadly.
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