Once it was whether the farmer would send on messengers to bring back the Boer party who had preceded us, and give us an unpleasant surprise.

Another time, as I lay on my back peering up at the openings in the corrugated-iron roof through which the stars glinted down, I found myself thinking of how horrible it would be if an enemy's hand thrust in a lighted brand; and in imagination I dwelt upon the way the dry Indian-corn leaves would burst into a roaring furnace of fire, in which some of us must perish before we could fight our way out.

It was not a pleasant series of thoughts to trouble one in the dead of the night, and just then I heard a sigh.
"Awake, Denham ?" I whispered.
"Yes--horribly," he replied.

"I say, smell that ?" "What ?" I replied, feeling startled.
"Some idiot's lit his pipe, and we shall all be burned in our--beds, I was going to say: I mean in this mealie straw." "I can't smell it," I said.
"What! Haven't you got any nose ?" "Yes: I smell it now," I said; "but it's some one outside--one of the sentries, I think." "Don't feel sure--do you ?" "Yes, I do now.

Strict orders were given that no one was to smoke in the barns." "Did you hear the order given ?" "Yes; and Sergeant Briggs muttered about it, and said it would serve the old Boer right if his hams were burned down." "So it would," said my companion; "but I don't want us to be burned in them.