Ingleborough looked at the speaker sharply; but Anson made believe not to notice it and went on.
“You’ve no character now, either of you,” he continued coolly. “Old Norton came after me as I was trekking south, utterly sick of the English lot. He came on the old pretext: that I had bought diamonds and was carrying them off. He searched again, and then I told him the simple truth—that you two had volunteered to carry despatches so as to get clear off with the swag you had acquired—after accusing me; but he professed not to believe me, and took me back to Kimberley, but the very next day he started off with half-a-dozen men to fetch you back, and I came away.”
“With the diamonds you had hidden?” said Ingleborough sharply.
“Perhaps,” replied Anson coolly. “So, you see, you had better join our party, for even if you escaped it would only be for the police superintendent to get hold of you both, and if he did, you wouldn’t find him such an excellent friend.”
“Wants thinking about!” said Ingleborough drily. “But ‘our’ party—‘our’?”
“Yes,” said Anson coolly. “I’ve made up my mind to belong to the right owners of the country for a long time past. We’ve got the gold at Johannesburg, and the diamonds at Kimberley are ours by right, and we’re going to have them.”
There was a murmur of satisfaction from the Boers at this, and Anson went on nonchalantly: “That is one reason why I consented to serve the company in such a beggarly position. I wanted to learn all I could about the mining so that it might come in useful when we of the Boer party took possession.”
“And then, I suppose,” said Ingleborough, “you’ll expect to be manager-in-chief?”
“Well, I don’t go so far as that,” said Anson; “but, with my knowledge of the management of the mining business, I feel sure my Boer friends will find it to their advantage to retain me high up on the staff. You see, there are so many things in the way of checking losses which I have mastered.”
“Stopping the illicit-diamond-buying and selling, for instance,” said Ingleborough sarcastically.