"Rescued!" he shouted, tapping Tommy on the arm, and immediately diving back into the bushes.

"Rescued!" Tommy repeated with a glad yell of triumph; and he was over the wall and after Jim like a flash.

But that his hands were full, the boy would have shaken his fist at his escaping prisoner. As it was, he was obliged to content himself with the thought that his new prisoner was more worth having than his old one.

But even as that thought passed through his mind Hal whipped out a knife, and, opening the biggest blade, began to hack away at the rope.

The rope was thick and the knife was blunt, and though Hal sawed away with desperate haste the strands parted with tantalizing slowness; thus, being less able to offer resistance than before, he was hauled rapidly towards the fort. He was barely five yards away from it when the last strand parted, and, with the noose still round his waist, Hal scrambled to his feet. Ducking to avoid a second lasso, which his disappointed foe hurled after him, he set out at full speed for the camp, and then flung himself exhausted upon the ground.

"That was hottish work," he said, glancing round at his little army to see that none were missing, "and we had some tremendously narrow escapes. But the rescue was carried out splendidly. You all did just what you were told, and no more."

Praise from Hal was rare, and the three recipients of it looked exceedingly gratified. And they felt that they deserved the commendation, for Drusie and Helen were perfectly hoarse with shouting, and Jim's face and hands and clothes were torn and scratched by thorns. And Tommy, to his secret delight, got off with a very slight reprimand, for they were all so proud of the clever way in which they had rescued him that they forgave him for having allowed himself to be taken prisoner.

The news that it was their friend, and not Dodds, who was defending the fort was received with satisfaction by Drusie and Jim, but with incredulity by Hal.

"Why, I know it is Dodds," he said. "Though his face is hidden by his helmet, I recognized the suit of clothes that he had on."

"Then, I tell you what it is," Drusie cried. "Our friend and Dodds are the same."

"Well, we will find out all about that presently," said Hal, who was so eager to take the stubborn fort that he did not care very much who held it. "Carried the fort must be, and within the next half-hour."

"Listen," he said, sitting bolt upright; "I have got a rattling good plan in my head, but," throwing a severe glance in Tommy's direction, "there must be no more disobedience, or the whole thing will be spoiled."

Tommy looked properly abashed, and Hal went on. "I mean to hose Dodds out of the fort."

"Hose him out!" Drusie and Jim echoed in astonishment. "What do you mean, Hal?"

"For goodness' sake, take care," Hal remonstrated. "If you shout like that he'll hear, and the whole thing will be spoiled."

Then Hal proceeded to explain in rapid undertones what he meant.

"I am going to bring up the water-barrel, pump it full from the stream, fit the biggest hose to it, and let fly into the fort."

His four soldiers held their breath for a moment, and gazed at their captain with dumb admiration.

"It's a gorgeous plan," said Helen at last.

"I think it ought to answer," Hal said. "I have been thinking it out for some time. I shall go for it, but I will tell you what you have to do while I am away."

For the next quarter of an hour silence reigned in the camp—a silence so unbroken that the enemy who lay waiting in the fort became more watchful with every passing moment. He distrusted such a complete cessation of hostilities. It could only mean that an attack of unusual fierceness was being planned; and so, that it might not find him unprepared, he cast an eye round the fort to see if he could strengthen it in any way.

But it was already as strong as it could be made; and when he was satisfied on that point, he took stock of his ammunition, and made a fresh noose for the lasso which Hal had cut. Just as he had finished a beautiful slip knot, his ear was caught by a low whistle. Ducking to avoid the shot for which it might be the signal, he listened again. No shot followed; the whistle was twice repeated.

Standing upright again, the boy glanced hastily round. He fancied that the whistle came from the direction of the stream. He was still wondering what it meant, when another whistle, another, and yet another, and all from different directions, echoed round the fort. Each, like the first, was repeated twice, but yet nothing happened.

He strained his eyes this way and that, and then suddenly fitted a couple of bullets into his catapult, and fired into some bushes on the left. A sharp but quickly-suppressed squeal of pain was the result. Again and again he fired, but only to be met by a heroic silence. Either his shots missed or his victim refused to cry out.

Suddenly Hal's voice rang out.

"One!" he shouted.

There was a pause.

"Good," thought the boy. "At three the fun begins. Kind of them to give me warning."

Confident that he would have a few moments' breathing space, his watchful vigilance relaxed. Instead of keeping a sharp lookout, he ran his eye once more over his defences, and was considering whether it would be better to use the shorter or the longer lasso, when Hal's voice made itself heard again.

"Two!" he shouted with the full force of his lungs, and simultaneously a wild war-whoop went up from his army. There was the sound of breaking branches, and from different quarters of the wood four of the besiegers broke into the open and advanced at the double.

This movement was the outcome of a deeply-laid plan of Hal's. He knew that if an advance was made at the word "two" the fort would be taken completely by surprise, and under cover of the attack from the front he was, in the meantime, bringing the heavy gun—the water-barrel—into position at the rear.

His surmise proved correct. The holder of the fort was taken at a disadvantage; he fired wildly in consequence, and had the mortification of perceiving that not one of his shots took effect.

The attacking party, of whom Hal was not one, reserved their fire, and seemed bent upon coming to close quarters. Grimly determined to make it warm for them when they did close with him, the defender sprang on to the roof, and, regardless of the fact that he was exposing himself recklessly, took up his stand by the flagstaff, and, throwing down his catapult, whirled his lasso wildly round his head.

On came the attacking party; he faced them, and with a coolness that did him credit at such a critical moment he picked out the one that he could most easily capture, and was in the act of hurling the lasso, when, up from the very midst of the hawthorn bushes at the back of the fort, Hal's voice was heard again.

"Three!" he shouted: and turning like lightning to meet this fresh foe, who he guessed would prove the most formidable, the boy saw an immense jet of water spurt high into the air. Twenty feet it rose, and then descended full and fair upon his head. A mingled shout of defiance and joy told Hal that his aim had been good, and he continued to ply the hose. At the same moment eight cannon-balls, five at least of which hit him, were thrown at the harassed defender, whose helmet was now full of sand and water.

Choking and gasping and almost unable to see, so great was the force with which the stream was playing upon his face, the boy grasped the flag, determined not to surrender.

But the enemy now surrounded the fort on all sides, and were already scaling the walls. Both Jim and Drusie were anxious to gain the glory of capturing the flag, and a desperate fight raged round the flagstaff. Twice Drusie laid hands upon it, and twice she was driven back.

The hose played upon besieged and besiegers alike, and all the combatants were being drenched to the skin. But the battle continued to rage, and, though he was hampered by his helmet and sorely outnumbered, the valour displayed by the holder of the fort might yet have gained him the day, if Jim, warned by a cry from Hal that the water in the barrel was giving out, had not succeeded in grasping the flagstaff.

"Jump with it, Jim, jump!" Drusie cried, and flung herself between them. But with one hand the boy tossed her aside, while with the other he clutched at the flag.

There was a short tug of war; then a sharp sound of tearing cloth; and while the gallant defender toppled backwards into the stream, carrying the greater part of the flag with him, Jim fell down on the other side, bearing with him the flagstaff and the fluttering remnant of the Union Jack.

Both sides would certainly have claimed the victory, for both held a portion of the flag, had not Drusie, scrambling out of the hawthorn bushes into which she had been tossed, jumped into the middle of the stream, and snatched the part that he still held out of the hand of the prostrate, half-drowned enemy.

Then the fort had no choice but to capitulate, and the day was won by the besiegers.

"You all fought jolly well," said the holder of the fort, calmly sitting upright in the middle of the stream and removing his helmet, thereby disclosing to view the face of the boy who had come to Jumbo's rescue. "It has been warm work from first to last. It is quite jolly to sit here and get cool."

Then Hal, jubilant at the success which had attended his manoeuvre, emerged from the hawthorn bushes in which he had been concealed, and congratulated his late enemy on the splendid stand which the fort had made.

"It ought not to have been taken," Dodds said. "But that hose upset me completely; it came as such a tremendous surprise."

"I say," said Jim, who was standing on the bank panting from his exertions, "are you really Dodds?"

"That's my name," said the boy with a polite flourish of his helmet; "and I hear," glancing round at them all with an amused twinkle in his eyes, "that none of you like me."

"Oh, but we didn't know that you were Dodds," Drusie hastened to explain. "It was Dodds we did not like, not you."

"Well, as I am Dodds, you can't like me if you don't like him," the boy said with a laugh, in which they all were obliged to join, as they realized that they had really been liking Dodds all the time without knowing it.

"Well, as I am cool now," Dodds said, getting up and wading to the bank, "I think I'll go and put on some dry things. And I should think that you had better do the same. And then, isn't there a birthday feast to be eaten? I rather think I heard something about it too. You know, I was fishing here one day, and you were all in the fort talking about the fight, and wondering if Hal meant to hold it, and it struck me that it would be rather a good idea if I held it in his place. And so I just did. And jolly good fun it has been too.—Don't you think so, Hal? or do you still think that playing with kids is slow work?"

At that Hal began to grow red, and Drusie, who knew that he was sorry for that and for many other foolish things that he had said, interposed quickly.

"I think we had better go home and change too," she said; "and then we will all meet in the summer-house for the feast."

"Am I asked too?" said Dodds, who was not shy.

"Of course," they all cried.

"Right you are then," said Dodds, shaking himself and squaring his shoulders for a run. "I'll bring some contributions to the feast. Let's see who'll get changed and be there first. I bet you I will."

But as it happened, his five hosts and hostesses were the first to reach the summer-house; and while they waited for their guest Hal took a small baby guinea-pig from his pocket, and gave it to the astonished, delighted Drusie.

"My birthday present to you, Drusie. I got it down at the village this afternoon. Isn't it a beauty?"

"Oh, it's a darling!" Drusie cried, covering both the guinea-pig and Hal with kisses. "How awfully, awfully good of you, Hal! Is it really my very, very own?"

"Yes, rather," said Hal, looking very gratified at her delight. "I went down into the village this afternoon and got it. I paid for it too," he added proudly. "Nurse advanced me the money."

Then Dodds arrived with a basketful of good things for the feast, and a very merry feast it was. And by the time it was finished Drusie and Jim wondered how they could ever have thought that Dodds was not a nice boy.

Hal was not surprised that they should like Dodds, but he was rather astonished to find how much Dodds got to like them. Hal had thought that Dodds would be far too big and grown up to care about playing with girls; but when he found out that Dodds actually enjoyed playing cricket with them, and thought a great deal of Drusie's bowling and Helen's smart fielding, he began to think that he had made a mistake in supposing that he had grown too old for them. So he ceased to speak to them as if he were years and years older than all of them put together, and remembered that he was Drusie's twin-brother, and that he was very fond of her.



THE END.