Piet had a somewhat crestfallen air, as he surveyed the group of Britishers.
"You are a burgher of the Free State, I presume?" interrogated the colonel.
Van Donnop glanced at Jack Lovat, and a red glow suffused his bronzed features.
"I am waiting for your reply, burgher," said Colonel Malcolmson brusquely. "I trust that my Dutch is good enough for you to understand?"
"I am a Cape Colonist, sir," answered Piet sheepishly.
"A Cape rebel, you mean," observed the colonel sternly. "How comes it that you are caught in the act of bearing arms against His Majesty's Government?"
"I am fighting for my own side, sir," answered Piet boldly. "I took up arms because I was asked, and thought I was doing what was right."
"And you know what may be your fate—yes, your possible or rather probable fate?" was the next interrogation.
"I do not," replied Van Donnop, "and I care very little."
"I scarcely wonder at that," said the colonel. "You certainly seem to have been undergoing a bad time of it lately. Have you been here before? I mean before the war commenced."