“Well, let us wait a moment and listen.”
Standing perfectly still, and almost holding their breath, they craned their heads in the direction from which the sound had come, and strained their ears to listen for it.
There was deep silence for a minute, and then a low, sobbing groan broke the stillness, seeming to come from the interior of the house.
“What is it, Guy?” Jack asked again; and then, as the sob was heard again and broke into a loud wail, he blurted out in a hoarse whisper: “There’s something wrong there. Come along, and let us find out what’s the matter.”
Creeping noiselessly across the ground, they reached the house, and skirted all round it till they came to the back, where a broad stream of light showed through a window. The window was wide open, and as they stood watching it the sobbing wail once more reached their ears, and told them that they were close to some woman in distress.
“Come along, Guy. We’ll see what is up,” Jack whispered, and at once stole forward and looked into the room.
The sight which they witnessed was one which neither will ever forget. Over the figure of an infant, sleeping peacefully in a cot in the middle of a dismantled room, was a distracted woman, weeping bitterly, with big sobs which showed her to be heart-broken. At any other time she would have been described as a comely woman, for she had young and pleasant features and was tastefully dressed. But now grief seemed to have utterly unhinged her mind, and she bore upon her face deep lines of sorrow and despair which would have made the hardest villain pity her.
Jack was on the point of risking all and calling to her, when a change of temper seemed to alter her. From a grief-stricken woman she suddenly became a tiger, and, leaving the child, flung her arms wildly into the air and called down the wrath of heaven upon those who had injured her.
She stopped abruptly, and, catching sight of Jack looking at her through the window, rushed to the cot, and, turning to face him like a hunted animal, exclaimed: “What do you want? You have taken my husband; do you now want my child? Come a step nearer, and I will kill the boy rather than let him fall into your hands!”
“We are friends, and English like yourself,” Jack answered soothingly. “We are escaping from the Boers, and on our way to Ladysmith passed close by and heard you. Tell me what has happened.”