“And you two had been diamond-dealers, and brought away a quantity?”
“Just as many, as we schoolboys used to say, as you could put in your eye with the point of a needle. All a lie! Anson was putting his own case. All we brought away was the despatch.”
“Then where is it?” said the Boer sharply.
“I don’t know; I was not the bearer,” said Ingleborough quietly, “But you know where it is now?”
“I—do—not,” said Ingleborough firmly. “I have not the slightest idea where it is!”
“Then you have sent it on by someone else?”
“No,” said Ingleborough. “There, you know that we have failed, and if you set us at liberty, all we can do is to go back to Kimberley and say what has happened.”
“You will not go back to Kimberley,” said the Boer, speaking with his eyes half-closed, “and if you did it would only be to go into prison, for the Diamond City is closely besieged, and if not already taken it will in a few days be ours. There, go back to your wagon, and spend the time in thinking till I send for you again. The choice is before you—a good position with us, or a long imprisonment before you are turned out of the country.”
He pointed towards their temporary place of confinement, and then turned away, while a couple of the Boers marched them to the wagon and left them in the sentry’s charge.