“It is all true,” replied the young man calmly.
“Well, then, I for one will believe you, my lad; for, now you have spoken out as you have, I begin to put that and that together and I feel that the Boers have been playing dark.”
“They have been playing dark,” said Ingleborough warmly, “and I should not be surprised to hear any day that they had declared war and found us anything but prepared.”
“They only want to be free,” said a voice.
“Free?” cried Ingleborough. “Yes, free to do exactly what they please: to tax every stranger, or outlander, as they call us, for their own benefit: to rob and enslave the unfortunate natives, and even murder them if it suits their hand. Free? Yes, look at their history from the first. Why, their whole history has been a course of taking land from the original owners by force.”
That very night rumours reached Kimberley which sent a tingle into the cheeks of every man who had joined in the demonstration against Ingleborough: though the greatest news of all had not yet arrived, that the Transvaal Government had thrown down the glove and made the advance.