“Well, what do you say?” cried the Boer.
West tightened his lips and shook his head.
The Boer frowned and turned to Ingleborough.
“Well,” he said, “you join us, and you will not repent. Prove faithful, and you will gain a place of trust among us!”
West listened for his comrade’s reply.
“Oh, I can’t join without him,” said Ingleborough. “He’s master, and I’m only man!”
“Then he was bearer of the despatch—what that man Anson said was true?”
“Oh yes, that part of his story was true enough.”
“That you were despatch-riders on the way to Mafeking—you two?”
“Quite right.”