“And why are you confined within the bounds of Dykeman’s Hollow?” asked Hardy; “and who has confined you?”
“Well, it is more prudence than necessity,” said George. “We don’t want to provoke the Dutchmen to attack us.”
“You talk riddles,” said Hardy, “but I have no time to solve them. Can you tell me where Praetorius,—the great man among the Boers,—can you tell me where he is to be found?”
“I don’t know with any certainty,” said George; “I expect he has gone southward with the others.”
“Southward! what do you mean?” exclaimed Hardy hastily. “What can he have gone south for?”
“Well, he didn’t tell me,” said Redgy, “but I think I can form a pretty good guess for what he has gone. It is to attack the English troops.”
“English troops!” repeated Hardy in evident anxiety and alarm; “what English troops? I did not know that there were any in this neighbourhood.”
“We hear that Sir George Colley is marching to the relief of Praetoria with, some say 1000, some 1500 men. Mr Rogers thinks he has got as far as Newcastle, if not still farther north,” said Rivers.
“The relief of Praetoria!” again cried Hardy. “Is Pretoria besieged? Do you mean that the rebellion has actually broken out?”
“No doubt of that,” replied Margetts; “that is an old story now. The English have for two or three weeks past been besieged by the Boers in all the large towns,—Praetoria, Potchefstroom, Standerton,—and there has been sharp fighting in several places. About the end of December, 250 men belonging to the 94th Regiment were killed or taken prisoners at Bronker’s Spruit, near Middelburgh.”