“I hope so, sir.”
“Then I shall trust you.”
He glanced round, and seeing the veldt clear and Stephanus still by the water-hole, he pulled a leaf from his pocket-book, and wrote something hastily upon it. This small note he folded up and addressed, then he gave it to Ned.
“Put that inside your boot, and keep it there until you reach Johannesburg. When you arrive there, look at the address, and deliver it to the person it is for. You will find him easily. Meantime, be secret about it, and show it to no one except the person it is for. Much depends on its safe delivery—more on it not being taken from you or lost on the way. If you carry it safely, you will have rendered your country and the man you appear to admire a great, a very great, service.”
He sprang on his horse as he spoke, and, taking his hat off, waved it to them as he rode swiftly away.
“Remember that you are trusted by Cecil Rhodes. So long. We shall meet again.”
He was off at a gallop, while our heroes looked after horse and man with open mouths.
“What a slice of luck, Ned! Who could have expected it?” whispered Fred and Clarence, as soon as they recovered from their astonishment.
Ned did not reply. Kneeling down he took off his boot, and secreted the precious bit of paper inside; then he rose up with a bright and proud light gleaming in his eyes.
“It is, indeed, a piece of luck which we must all try to live up to,” he said at length, in a solemn voice. “My first skirmish with a Boer has resulted in an easy victory, and it has been witnessed by the greatest hero who lives. Let us hail it as a good omen.”