“Big boss officer man,” replied Joeboy calmly enough. “Say want more mealies there. Make haste and be quick. Ought to have gone there last night. Wake all up and say come along.”
“Oh,” said Moriarty thoughtfully; and then, as I waited with my trepidation increasing, to my great surprise and relief he said a few words to those with him, which I could not catch; then aloud, in Dutch, “All right. Go on.”
When he began speaking Moriarty did not stop the wagons, which had crawled on in their slow and regular ox-pace, so that I was taken nearer and nearer till I was in line with the group of horsemen, and then past them; then the voices grew more indistinct. As the last words were uttered the patrol or outpost, whichever it was, trotted off, leaving me wondering what the broad-shouldered black just before me on the wagon-box might be thinking about what had passed, and my peculiar conduct in taking refuge inside. “A shout from him, if he is suspicious, might bring them back,” I mused; so, under the circumstances, I decided to keep up the appearance of having got in for the sake of a rest, and sat back upon one of the sacks.
However, I was not permitted to stay long inside, for as soon as the mounted Boers were out of hearing Joeboy came to the front of the wagon and called to me in his deep tones—speaking in Boer Dutch—to come out.
I stepped out past the driver, yawning as if tired, and leaped down, to walk on with the black.
“Hadn’t you better turn the heads of the leading bullocks now towards the laager, Joeboy?” I said.
“Um? Did,” he replied, “soon as Doppie captain went away. Going straight home now.”
“Ah!” I ejaculated. “Capital! But we shall be stopped again and sent back.”
“Um? Joeboy don’t think so. Doppie over there, and Doppie over there,” he said, pointing in opposite directions with his assagai.
“You think we shall not meet another party, then?”