“Anson it is! I began to think you were going blind!”
“But how strange! They have taken him prisoner then. Look here; we’re not going to have him with us.”
“It doesn’t look as if he is a prisoner,” said Ingleborough; “they all seem too friendly. I believe the scoundrel has deserted from the town and come to join the Boers. What has old Norton been about?”
“Is it possible?”
“Oh, it’s possible enough, if old Norton has been to sleep. Rats desert sinking ships!”
“Kimberley isn’t a sinking ship!” said West indignantly.
“I don’t know so much about that, lad! There is a very small force ready to defend it; it’s a long way from help; and, as we see here, the enemy is swarming down upon it from all directions. You see, it’s so far from our forces and so near to the Free State border.”
“Ah, there he is plainly enough, laughing with the commandant! Look, he clapped him on the shoulder!”
“Yes, I give him credit for anything!” said Ingleborough. “I shouldn’t wonder if he was in full correspondence with the Boers and is ready to sell us as well as buy diamonds. As likely as not, he has slipped away with his swag so as to escape before the fighting begins. But how Norton can have let him get away is more than I can understand!”
“Well, it’s plain enough that he’s here!” said West; “and I can’t help feeling glad that he is not a prisoner, for if he had been put with us it must have come to a quarrel. Look here, seeing what the treacherous thief is, we ought to denounce him to the commandant.”