“Got it over, lad?” the former asked kindly.
“Yes, Frank, I’ve said good-bye to Eileen,” Jack answered, “and before we join the others I want to tell you something. Perhaps I ought to have spoken to you before, but the fact that I have had so little time must be my excuse. With your consent Eileen and I will be married some day.”
“Lad, give me your hand!” exclaimed Frank Russel enthusiastically. “God bless you, old boy, and I trust that you’ll live to see the end of this awful war! I can tell you, Jack, that there’s no other man I know whom I’d rather have as a son-in-law. You’re young, but that will alter fast enough, and the girl is a good one. She’s been a devoted daughter to me, as you well know, and if she’s only half as good to her husband when she’s married, then he’ll have no cause to complain. Shake hands on it again. Now let us get along.”
When the news of Jack’s engagement was communicated to Tom Salter and Wilfred they congratulated him heartily. Then his pony was led out, and after a cordial farewell he mounted and left the town. It was a pitch-dark night, and luck was again in his favour, so that he escaped the notice of the Boer pickets, and when day dawned was well away from Kimberley.
It was a long and lonely ride to Mafeking, but to Jack the time passed pleasantly, and the road seemed short, for all the way his thoughts were occupied with the happy prospects in front of him when the war was over. He would wait two years perhaps, and then he and Eileen would be married and live in Africa till he reached the age of twenty-five. His allowance under his father’s will, and the sum he could earn at the mines, or at Mr Hunter’s store in Johannesburg, if that still existed, when added to it would be amply sufficient to keep them in comfort. Then they would return to old England, and Eileen would become the mistress of Frampton Grange.
Jack built many castles in the air, and might have erected many more had not a party of mounted Boers caught sight of him and given chase. But our hero was now well able to take care of himself, and he quickly eluded his pursuers. Then he pushed forward, and in two days’ time arrived at Mafeking.
There was a great change in the town. Scanty rations and absence of all luxuries had produced their results. Constant fighting and the explosion of shell on every hand had wrought sad havoc with the gallant little garrison. Wan of face, pinched and haggard, out more determined than ever, they still manned their posts, and B.-P., smiling still in spite of a load of responsibility, still made his rounds and cheered his men.
And outside, the Boers fired their guns, throwing shell everywhere, not even sparing the hospital and women’s laager, in which many women and children had already fallen victims. Protests had proved unavailing, and now the children and their mothers lived elsewhere, while all the Boer prisoners filled the hospital and laager, and ran the risk of being slaughtered by their friends outside.
Jack stayed only long enough to deliver his message and obtain some sleep. Then, loaded with despatches, he slipped from the town once more and cantered south, en route for Lord Roberts’s camp.