“Yes,” said another. “Someone told me it was playing at soldiers. I don’t see where the play comes.”
“Look at the honour of it,” said another. “We shall be defending the town directly from an attack by the Boers.”
There was a burst of laughter at this, and when it ended the first speaker broke out contemptuously with: “The Boers! We shall have to wait a longtime before they attack us.”
“I don’t know so much about that,” said the man who had spoken of the attack. “I believe they mean mischief.”
“Bosh!” came in chorus.
“Ah, you may laugh, but they’ve got Majuba Hill on the brain. The idiots think they fought and thrashed the whole British Army instead of a few hundred men. Here, Ingleborough, you heard what was said?”
The young man addressed left off chatting with West and nodded.
“You went to Pretoria with the superintendent of police about that diamond case, and you were there a couple of months.”
“Yes,” said Ingleborough. “What of that?”
“Why, you must have seen a good deal of the Boers then!”