"I don't know what to say, sir; your kindness is so great I hardly feel that I can take advantage of it."
"My dear lad, place yourself in my position for a moment. Imagine that there had been a plot to kill your father and mother and two sisters, and that that plot failed by the interposition of a stranger. What would you have felt towards that man? Is there anything that you would not do for him? And if you had been a rich man, as I am, would you not have felt that the gift of five thousand shares—which originally cost me five shillings each, although they are now worth more than as many pounds—would have been an inadequate expression of your gratitude?"
Yorke was silent, and after a moment's pause Mr. Chambers went on.
"You must think of us as well as of yourself. It will be a grievous disappointment to us if you refuse. Even in a pecuniary sense, I consider that my offer to you is an advantageous one to my family. My stake in this mine and others is a very large one; every penny that I have is invested in this way. At the present value of shares they are worth over three hundred thousand pounds. It would be an enormous advantage to have here a gentleman on the accuracy of whose reports I could implicitly rely, and who would, which is not always the case with managers of mines, frankly say if the prospects of any of them were falling off or improving. It is my personal knowledge of the real state of things that has enabled me to do so well—to get out of mines whose prospects are not favourable, and buy into others, perhaps at very low prices, likely to do really well when fully opened. I should not, of course, wish to obtain reports other than those sent by you to the boards of the various companies, but from what I personally know of the mines I should be able to draw very valuable deductions from those reports, and see the drift of them much better than men wholly in ignorance of the workings to which they relate."
"You need say no more, Mr. Chambers," Yorke said; "I accept most gratefully your splendid offer, and will endeavour to make myself worthy of it. But I hope that you will allow me to attend to my present duties until, at least, we have captured Pretoria. I could not in honour go to Lord Roberts and say that on the eve of possibly a great battle I desire to resign my commission. The war may continue in a partisan struggle for months, or even for years; but with Pretoria once taken it seems to me that there must be an end to fighting on a great scale, and that I might therefore, without feeling that I could be blamed for doing so, leave the army."
"By all means, Yorke; for, now that you have agreed to my proposal, I can henceforth call you so. If it had been a matter even of months I could have waited, but I believe that it is one of days only. There may be a great battle, for, insignificant as has been the resistance of the Boers to your advance, it is difficult to believe that, with the example of what Ladysmith, Kimberley, and Mafeking have done, all unprepared as they were, they can retire from a town that they have for the past four or five years been fortifying."
"It is hard to believe that they could be so cowardly, sir, especially as they would know that a lengthened resistance here would enable the Burghers of both states to rally, and by cutting the line of communications speedily reduce the besiegers to the greatest straits; and indeed, even if they could only hold out for a week, the position of the army would become extremely serious. One thing is certain, that if they do not fight there they will never fight with any chance of success again. They may cut off convoys, blow up culverts, and harass us terribly, but it will no longer be a war, but merely the efforts of bands of mounted bandits."
"Now we will join the ladies," Mr. Chambers said.
"My dear," he said when he entered the room, "you will be glad to hear that Yorke has accepted our proposal."
"I am glad indeed," Mrs. Chambers said, shaking Yorke warmly by the hand. "I began to think that we should never be able to get away from here, and now I feel that there is a prospect some day of our doing so. My husband would never have gone until he felt sure that he could leave everything in the hands of one whom he could absolutely trust. Girls, you will, I am sure, be glad to know that henceforth Mr. Harberton will stand almost in the position of a brother to you. You have often lamented that you had no brother; I don't think you could have had one whom you could have liked better, certainly not one who could have done more for you. And now, in another year, we shall be able to go home, as you have always wished to do."