"Look here: let's creep along through the cover and try and get away." "On foot, followed by mounted men?
No good; we should be pumped out in less than a couple of hours!" "Then let's make the brutes pay dearly for what they've done!" cried West angrily.

"Now Ingle, let's prove to them that we can use our rifles too! I'm going to shoot every horse I can." "Very well: so am I; and if that does not beat them off I'm going to bring down man after man till the rest of them run for their lives.

Got a good place ?" "Yes," said West, whose rifle-barrel rested in a crack between two stones.
"Then fire away; but don't waste a shot!" "Trust me!" cried West grimly.

"Now then, fire; and remember the despatch!" He took careful aim as he spoke, and drew trigger, with the result that one of the Boer ponies stopped short, spun round, flung its rider, and galloped madly away.
The next moment Ingleborough's rifle cracked, and a second pony began to walk on three legs, while the party opened out, galloping so as to form a half-circle about their enemies, the two ends resting on the river bank and forming a radius of about three hundred yards.
"Sixteen more ponies to bring down," said Ingleborough; "and those two dismounted men will take cover and begin to stalk us." "That's what the whole party will do!" said West bitterly.

"We shall hit no more ponies: they'll get them all into cover, and then come creeping nearer and nearer." At that moment Ingleborough fired again right in front where one of the Boers dismounted among some trees.
"There's one more though," said Ingleborough, for the poor brute he had fired at reared up and then fell, to lie kicking on its flank.