"Yes, we have beaten Buller again. I suppose you have heard that?"
"No, our farm is out of the way of news. When was it?"
"On the 27th, at least that was the last of it. We were fighting for a week, and they say that pretty near half of them were killed. They took a strong hill called Spion Kop, but we drove them out again. Buller has recrossed the Tugela, and I expect now that they will give up in Ladysmith, as we know that they are starving, and there is no longer any chance of Buller getting in. He must know that himself by this time. It will be our turn next, and when Ladysmith surrenders we shall chase Buller down to Durban."
By the tone in which the man spoke Yorke could see that he did not put any very great faith in the story he was telling.
"That is good news," he said heartily. "I am sorry I was not down there when the others went; I could not be spared at home. My mother is not strong, and could not look after the Kaffirs and the cattle."
"You are out of luck," the man said.
"Well, I might have got shot, you know, if I had been there."
"Not much risk of that," the man replied, "for they say that the Rooineks cannot shoot, and that we kill a hundred of them to every one they hit."
"They must shoot badly indeed if that is the case."
"Well, I don't say it is so, but that is what they tell us; and as Kruger says so, and the newspapers say so, of course we must believe it. I don't trouble about it one way or the other. My boss went down to Bloemfontein a month ago and left me here in charge. It is little enough I have to do, for your people are not given much to pay for liquor, especially when they can get as much as they like by breaking open the door of a store, and it ain't once a week that a bed is wanted. Still, if the place had been shut up, it would have been looted like the rest of the empty houses. It is dull work enough, for there is only myself and the Kaffir woman who cooks. Well, I had better go and see about your breakfast."