“Why have you been so long? and what have you done with the Englishmen? You should have been back half an hour ago.”
“And so I should, nephew, and so I should, if I had not been detained. Surely you do not suppose that I would linger in the accursed place? Bah,” and he spat upon the ground, “it stinks of Englishmen. I cannot get the taste of them out of my mouth.”
“You are a liar, Uncle Coetzee,” was the cool answer. “English with the English, Boer with the Boer. You blow neither hot nor cold. Be careful lest I show you up. I know you and your talk. Do you remember what you were saying to the Englishman Niel in the inn-yard at Wakkerstroom when you turned and saw me? I heard, and I do not forget. You know what happens to a ‘land betrayer’?”
Hans’ teeth positively chattered, and his florid face blanched with fear.
“What do you mean, nephew?” he asked.
“I—ah!—I mean nothing. I was only speaking a word of warning to you as a friend. I have heard things said about you by——” and he dropped his voice and whispered a name, at the sound of which poor Hans turned whiter than ever.
“Well,” went on his tormentor, when he had sufficiently enjoyed his terror, “what sort of terms did you make in Pretoria?”
“Oh, good, nephew, good,” he gabbled, delighted to find a fresh subject. “I found the Englishmen supple as a tanned skin. They will give up their twelve prisoners for our four. The men are to be in by ten to-morrow. I told their commandant about Laing’s Nek and Ingogo, and he would not believe me. He thought I lied like himself. They are getting hungry there now. I saw a Hottentot I knew, and he told me that their bones were beginning to show.”
“They will be through the skin before long,” muttered Frank. “Well, here we are at the house. The General is there. He has just come up from Heidelberg, and you can make your report to him. Did you find out about the Englishman—Captain Niel? Is it true that he is dead?”
“No, he is not dead. By the way, I met Oom Croft’s niece—the dark one. She is shut up there with the Captain, and she begged me to try and get them a pass to go home. Of course I told her that it was nonsense, and that they must stop and starve with the others.”