UNDER 
 
 THE 
 VIERKLEUR 
 
 GENERAL 
 
 BEN 
 VILJOEN
 
 
 rrms SPECIAL EDITION 
 
 IS ISSUED AS A 
 
 'SOW/ENIR or THE 
 
 REPRODUCTION OF 
 
 BATTLES OF THE 
 JNGLOHBOER WAI 
 
 AT THE 
 [LOUISIANA PURCHASE EXPOSITION | 
 
 'ST. LOUIS. Missoum.usA 
 
 SOUHMNLY BY THE 
 [SOUTH AFRICAN BOER WAR 
 EXHIBITION COMPANY^

 
 mar. or CAUF. UAOT.
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR
 
 UNDER 
 THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 A Romance of a Lost Cause 
 
 By 
 BEN J. VILJOEN 
 
 Late Assistant Commandant- General of 
 
 the Transvaal Burgher Forces, and Author of 
 
 " My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer ffar." 
 
 Boston 
 
 Small, Maynard & Company 
 1904
 
 Copyright 1904 by 
 Small, Maynard o Company 
 
 (Incorporated) 
 
 Entered at Stationer? Hall 
 
 First Edition (7,000 copies] April, 1904 
 
 Press of 
 George H. Ellis Co., Boston, U.S.A.
 
 To THE DEAREST WOMAN ON EARTH, 
 MY MOTHER. 
 
 2133344
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Portrait of the Author Frontispiece 
 
 FACING PACK 
 
 "A rifle swung high above his head " 36 
 
 "The surprised and pained animal made a mighty 
 
 leap" 112 
 
 "Bettie had been riding ahead of the wagon" . . . 192 
 
 ^ " Two great lines of cavalry were sweeping in at a 
 
 full gallop" 298 
 
 "Before him stood Bettie, ... her arms outstretched" 382 
 
 With the exception of the frontispiece, the illustrations 
 are from drawings by I. B. HazeUon.
 
 TO THE READER. 
 
 Before presenting this book to a foreign and 
 a critical public, I want to offer a few anticipa- 
 tory words of explanation. In the first place, the 
 story is based on and its scenes are drawn from 
 actual episodes of the late war in South Africa. 
 I can guarantee the actuality, in more than gen- 
 eral outline, of most of the incidents and episodes 
 I have described ; for the majority of them were 
 drawn from my own experience, while the rest 
 were told me by friends and acquaintances who 
 passed through them and who played their parts 
 in them. Insomuch, then, my story may be found 
 removed from the ordinary tale of the tragedy or 
 romance of American or European daily life. 
 
 I have tried to present my characters as truly 
 and as characteristically as I could, without bear- 
 ing too much either on their follies or their hero- 
 isms, the innate gentleness and simplicity of 
 heart of their prototypes, or their general lack of 
 those refinements of modern culture which the 
 wide establishment of schools and systems of 
 higher education alone can supply. For I come 
 vii
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 of a simple people, and as such I have tried to 
 describe them. 
 
 The Afrikander of the Republics has grown 
 up in tumultuous times. Occupied in pioneering, 
 in opening up new and wild countries, in fighting 
 for his existence against wild animals and wilder 
 savages, he has so far had little opportunity for 
 the cultivation of his natural talents and abilities 
 in quieter lines of development and knowledge. 
 Educational institutions were remote and diffi- 
 cult to reach. His crude surroundings helped 
 to mark him with their imprint, without, how- 
 ever, changing or hardening his conception of 
 moral law, or his sure instincts concerning what 
 is just and what is honourable. As a race, he has 
 neglected, carelessly and with a most regrettable 
 indifference, to contradict any of the misleading, 
 the fabulous statements that for so many years 
 have been sown broadcast with regard to him. 
 The Bible he accepted as his indisputable law 
 book, from which he drew his moral and social 
 guidance. And to such moral ideals and social 
 dictations as the Bible offers, he has always clung, 
 still dings, insistently, even doggedly.
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 It has been somewhat ungracefully admitted 
 since the war that to some extent that conflict 
 demonstrated the Afrikander to be possessed of 
 high and even noble principles, revealed on many 
 a field of battle; that his generous conduct, his 
 chivalry toward his many wounded and captured 
 opponents, was worthy of any civilised race. I 
 hope I shall not be accused of flippancy or inso- 
 lence when 1 admit that as a race we are too 
 sublimely ignorant to appreciate a compliment so 
 cheap, so stupid, reeking of so much contempt. 
 
 I do not feel the necessity of offering an apology 
 to any of our late opponents, should anything in 
 this book hurt their susceptibilities; for this is 
 intended to be no indictment of wrongs committed, 
 no attempt at paying off old scores. It is simply 
 a story told without regard to person or creed, 
 a story the elements of which any Boer of South 
 Africa knows by heart, one that every English- 
 man who took part in the war must recognise as 
 fair and unbiassed. 
 
 My only and conscientious desire, when I 
 commenced this work, was to place on record a 
 small picture of the life and character of my 
 ix
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 people, overshadowed by war though I had to 
 draw it, and to try to do some little further jus- 
 tice to a nation so sadly misunderstood and so 
 long maligned. That I wrote it in English, in- 
 stead of having it translated from my mother 
 tongue, was solely from the fear of losing by 
 translation some of my real meaning. Much of 
 my sympathy has gone out to the dear and pa- 
 tient American friend who assisted me in my 
 work, and in putting the manuscript into shape 
 for publication. 
 
 BEN J. VILJOEN. 
 
 ST. Louis, MISSOURI, U.S.A. 
 April, 1904.
 
 UNDER 
 
 THE 
 VIERKLEUR 
 
 BOOK I.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 IT was a cool September afternoon. The 
 cold, sharp north-east wind, so rare during 
 the South African winter months, had quieted 
 down to an almost significant calm. The dry 
 leaves of the weeping-willow and tall blue-gum 
 trees scarcely moved. The bright but cold sun 
 was fast disappearing over the western horizon, 
 and shed its golden rays in a last splendour 
 across the looming Sekoekoenie Hills. And 
 through the neks of the first ranges, steeped 
 in the purpling shadows of the Sekoekoenie, 
 you could see the towering peaks of the Lunu- 
 bergen, far to the north-east of Lydenburg 
 in the northern Transvaal. 
 
 The vast shadows cast by the randten, 
 which almost entirely enclose the wide Orig- 
 stadt valley, seemed to add to the silence reign- 
 ing over the isolated Boer homestead that lay 
 nestling at the foot of the hills. Baakenhoogte 
 for so the farm was named enjoyed the 
 reputation of an ideal Boer plaats: at this 
 evening hour its ideality was almost impressive. 
 3
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The softened outlines of the gums and willows, 
 the neat green hedges around the gardens, the 
 crystalline stream that rippled merrily down 
 its course and past the front door of the home- 
 stead, all seemed to whisper in Nature's own 
 gentle voice of the supremacy of peace. 
 
 The little lambs were playing about the kraal, 
 jumping from one stone to another and indulg- 
 ing now and then in a harmless contest with 
 their soft unhorned heads. They could al- 
 ready hear the welcome bleating of the ewes 
 in the distance, as the herd was being driven 
 home by old Mintoor, the shepherd, whose 
 "hok, hok," and whistle grew more and more 
 distinct. The calves uplifted appealing voices 
 to their mothers in the second enclosure, where 
 the cows were temporarily separated from their 
 anxious offspring until the boys should have 
 milked them. Little Kaatje had washed and 
 rinsed the buckets, and was pouring warm 
 water over the hands of the milk-boys, Kiewiet 
 and Klynjong, who perforce made this unwill- 
 ing toilet regularly before they went to the 
 milking. The horses, returned from the veldt, 
 4
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 were standing patiently by the stables to be 
 let in ; for the nights were chilly, and they knew 
 what awaited them in the manger. 
 
 Fanie Linde, Baakenhoogte's owner, was 
 seated under the veranda on the old Koejaten- 
 hout rustbank, or sofa, whence he could see 
 the kraals and gardens while chatting with his 
 wife. He was a Boer of the old Voortrekker 
 stock, whose seventy years had left him with 
 a short but thick and silvery beard and a crop 
 oL,dazzling hair, cut, fringe-like, low about his 
 forehead. Tanta Annie, ten years his junior, 
 who sat near him, radiated amiability and good- 
 nature from a still smooth face. The two un- 
 married daughters were picking roses in the 
 garden in front of the house ; while Danie, their 
 only brother, a finely built young fellow of 
 twenty-five, whose strong and rather sharp 
 features clearly indicated his Huguenot de- 
 scent, was engaged in off-saddling in front of 
 the porch, having just returned from the wheat 
 and corn fields where he had been superintend- 
 ing the ploughing and harrowing since early 
 morning. Before the young man could mount 
 5
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the steps to join his parents, the elder sister, 
 Lenie, called to him from the flower garden. 
 
 "Danie," she quavered, "we see a horseman 
 coming up the big road from the Rustplaats. 
 Can it be the commandeerman from the veldt- 
 cornet already calling out the burghers?" 
 
 The general uneasiness due to a knowledge 
 of the strained relations between Great Britain 
 and the two Republics was immediately made 
 evident by the start with which the rest of this 
 quiet and typical family greeted her announce- 
 ment. Danie, the first to recover himself, 
 straightened up with a laugh. 
 
 "Well," he drawled, "what if it is? My 
 Mauser is cleaned, my belt filled, and the bil- 
 tong and biscuits are ready." 
 
 "My son," spoke his mother, quickly, "do 
 not make a jest of war. It is too cruel a thing." 
 She shuddered. She knew, alas! only too well 
 how cruel. "May the good Lord avert it!" 
 
 Her early life rose before her, its struggles, 
 its hardships, the endless wars of the Repub- 
 lic, what with the fierce native tribes or with 
 its old enemy, and the already half-satisfied 
 6
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 hopes of a peaceful and quiet age, the half- 
 realised dream of a home happy within, un- 
 vexed from without, clouded with new and 
 pregnant fears. Devotedly attached to Danie, 
 her only son, she foresaw what awaited her, 
 the inevitable heart-break of his departure, 
 perhaps never to return. 
 
 Oom Fanie remained silent; but his set face 
 showed unmistakably the painful nature of 
 his thoughts. Lenie and Elsie joined the others 
 on^ the porch, tremblingly awaiting the ap- 
 proach of the ominous visitor. Danie seized 
 his field-glass, and levelled it at the horseman. 
 
 "Yes," he said, placing the glass on the win- 
 dow-sill, "it really is Pieter, the son of the 
 veldt-cornet. I recognise the horse with the 
 white face, too." 
 
 "I knew it," said the sad mother, with a sigh. 
 
 "Why, mother," said Elsie, trying to comfort 
 her, "perhaps Pieter is only coming on a 
 visit." But she knew her words belied her 
 thought, and subsided into a frightened silence. 
 
 In a minute the rider came around the corner 
 of the garden wall, and drew up in front of the 
 7
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 door. Dismounting, he greeted the family 
 according to slow custom, his hat in his left 
 hand. He shook hands individually, commenc- 
 ing with Oom Fanie, and took the proffered 
 seat. His formal and unwonted manner, 
 for Pieter was a near neighbour and intimate 
 enough with the Linde family, and the look 
 of importance (ill-restrained by courtesy) on his 
 face, completed their conviction that his errand 
 was no ordinary one. 
 
 "Well," he said finally, "my time is limited, 
 Oom Fanie; and the sooner I make you ac- 
 quainted with the purpose of my visit, the bet- 
 ter we shall all feel." 
 
 The women spoke almost in the same breath. 
 "Pieter, is it war?" 
 
 He did not look at them or give a direct an- 
 swer. "All the burghers between sixteen and 
 sixty years are called to arms to protect the 
 frontiers," he replied. "I have been sent to 
 commandeer Danie, and to appoint him com- 
 mandeerman in my place to call out the rest 
 of the burghers in the ward. Oom Fanie, of 
 course, is over sixty. Therefore, I have but to 
 8
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 order from him a wagon and span of oxen com- 
 plete for the commando. The burghers are 
 to assemble in the dorp at four o'clock to- 
 morrow, so there isn't much time to lose. Can 
 you go at once, Danie?" 
 
 Danie Linde turned, and hurriedly left the 
 porch without a word; but his haste indicated 
 his eager determination. The three women 
 followed Pieter Bodenstein to his horse, del- 
 uging him with questions. The unhappy emis- 
 sary was scarcely able to answer one of them, 
 and, feeling himself partly responsible for their 
 tears, prepared to make off as soon as possible. 
 
 The father was left sitting alone on the porch. 
 He recalled the many Kaffir wars he had seen ; 
 the great war for freedom in 1880, in which he 
 had fought as an officer. He mourned the age 
 that would now no longer allow him to fight 
 for his country, and yet thought of his son, the 
 real hope of his life, with mingled grief and 
 pride. He had no doubt of Danie's conduct- 
 ing himself in a manner worthy of his tradi- 
 tions ; he knew that he was brave and patriotic, 
 in the prime of his youth and strength; he was
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 proud to be able to send such a substitute to 
 the service of his country. On the other hand, 
 he feared, like most brave fathers, lest his son 
 be too brave, lest he throw himself away, a 
 victim to a too ambitious daring; and the in- 
 numerable dangers that insidiously flank the 
 straighter path of the bullet lowered darkly 
 before his mind. 
 
 Danie in the mean time had saddled his horse 
 and returned, ready for his all-night ride. 
 
 "Mother," he said, as he took her in his arms, 
 "see that the wagon and oxen are all ready 
 for the commando, will you? I shall be back 
 here, with the Lord's help, by nine o'clock in 
 the morning, to spend a few more hours with 
 you. After that I shall have to leave for the 
 dorp to join the other burghers by four." 
 
 She nodded, unable to speak, and made way 
 for his sisters to embrace him. Then Danie 
 climbed to his saddle, and rode away to fulfil 
 his first military commission, leaving his mother 
 to support as best she could an absence which, 
 although only temporary, was a truly bitter 
 taste of what was to follow. 
 10
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 SEATED by her bedroom window at the 
 lonely homestead of Blaauwkop, in the 
 district of Ermelo, was a pretty girl of barely 
 eighteen years, bla. ^-haired and black-eyed, the 
 tears coursing undisturbed down her round red 
 cheeks. Her name was Bettie, and she was the 
 youngest daughter of Dirk Uys, the master of 
 Blaauwkop. She had been at her home but 
 a_few weeks, having returned from Pretoria, 
 where she had spent the better part of three 
 years at school in the State Seminary. An 
 old friendship with Danie Linde, renewed and 
 strengthened by his frequent visits to her home 
 during her vacation periods, had budded, upon 
 her last and final return from school, into an 
 engagement, sanctioned as well by their par- 
 ents as by the deep and sincere love the two 
 young people bore each other. 
 
 On the same day on which Pieter Boden- 
 
 stein so effectually visited the family at Baaken- 
 
 hoogte, the commandeerman of Ermelo rode 
 
 to Blaauwkop, and notified Dirk Uys and his 
 
 11
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 three big sons that they were to appear the 
 next day at the farm of Veldt-cornet De Wet, 
 where the burghers of their ward were to as- 
 semble. So Mrs. Uys, like a thousand other 
 tearful Boer women all over the country, had 
 that evening finished the greater part of her 
 preparations for her husband's and sons' de- 
 parture for the frontiers. Bettie had faithfully 
 assisted her, more than once mingling her tears 
 with her mother's for their common grief. 
 
 But Bettie had a sorrow of her own over 
 which she preferred to weep in secret. She was 
 well aware that her lover could not, any more 
 than her father and her three brothers, be 
 spared from the ranks of those assembled to 
 defend the country; nor did her pride for one 
 moment allow her to indulge the hope that he 
 might be. But the fact was not altered that 
 Danie Linde, her first love, her only love, was 
 to be was, indeed, already torn from her to 
 undergo the dreadful chances of a soldier on 
 the battlefield, perhaps on many battlefields, 
 and that without even the poor alleviation of 
 a last embrace, a touch of the hand, a look 
 12
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 of the eyes, nay, nor the briefest meeting, if 
 only to say farewell. 
 
 After the principal work of the day was 
 finished, Bettie had silently retired from the 
 family circle to the solitude of her own little 
 room, where she might give rein to her sor- 
 row and disappointment without restraint or 
 embarrassment. 
 
 "0 Danie, Danie," she cried, "have they 
 taken you away from me without even a fare- 
 well? No, no, it is impossible!" 
 * The evening wind was blowing softly through 
 the window. She pushed it further open, and, 
 leaning her elbows on the sill, bathed her hot 
 cheeks in the welcome breeze. Her thoughts 
 wandered into an unknown future, her imagi- 
 nation ran dark riot amid strange scenes in 
 unknown places. She saw Danie riding away 
 from her on his brown horse, his rifle and bando- 
 lier slung over his shoulder. His face was stead- 
 ily turned away; but his manly figure com- 
 pelled her admiration, held her love. She 
 knew he was brave, that he was to distinguish 
 himself. She saw him ride into, then rage in 
 13
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the very heat of battle, striking, smiting, shout- 
 ing, encouraging his comrades by word as well 
 as deed. She saw the thousand English close 
 in on the gallant little band of Boer heroes. 
 She saw her lover carried at last from the bat- 
 tlefield, bleeding from many wounds, laid down 
 on a rough stretcher in the meagre field-hos- 
 pital, his eyes closed, a deathly paleness on his 
 face. And her own face grew as white as she 
 saw his. His vividly imagined agonies she 
 all but suffered in her own tender flesh. 
 
 So deeply was she engaged in this self-torture, 
 so far had she projected her mind into the un- 
 real, that she did not perceive her mother, 
 who, attracted by the girl's sobs, had entered 
 the room and stood beside her. A touch on 
 her shoulder roused her. 
 
 "Bettie, my child," said Mrs. Uys, "do not 
 weep so much. You only make my sorrows 
 the harder to bear. Your father and brothers 
 are going to the war under the banner of faith, 
 and our prayers will constantly be with them." 
 
 Bettie turned dumbly, and clutched tighter 
 the photograph in her hand. Her mother saw 
 14
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR* 
 
 the motion, and understood. For a moment 
 she did not speak, so completely was her 
 heart occupied with the pangs of its own part- 
 ings. Then she kissed Bettie tenderly. 
 
 "My child," she said, "God's hand and His 
 care are stronger warrants for Danie's safety 
 than anything else. The Boer cause is a just 
 cause, and we need not fear lest He forsake 
 us. Have faith with me, and we shall be the 
 better consoled." 
 
 ^Bettie returned the warm embrace, and 
 promised; yet, although she would not have 
 admitted it, her vague fears were not stilled 
 by her efforts at faith, but rather trembled lest, 
 as Napoleon said, God fought on the side of 
 the strongest battalions. She had read of 
 wars in other countries; and she knew the his- 
 tory of her own people. In the old Kaffir 
 wars many members of her family had fallen, 
 while during the War of Independence one of 
 her brothers had died, at Amajuba in 1881. 
 She saw here little reward for her mother's 
 faith. But of this she said nothing, and only 
 prayed the harder. 
 
 15
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE two Republics of the Transvaal and 
 the Orange Free State rushed their 
 righting forces to the frontiers at the begin- 
 ning of October, 1899. British troops were 
 also being poured into the Cape Colony and 
 Natal as fast as the steamers could bring them 
 over the ocean. The war which had threat- 
 ened so long, had seemed in fact inevitable 
 after the Jameson raid of 1896, was suddenly 
 hastened on by the active and earnest prepa- 
 rations of the willing contestants. England 
 yearned for an opportunity to wipe out the 
 stains of the defeats at Amajuba, Schuinshoogte, 
 and Bronkhorstspruit in 1880-81. The young 
 Afrikanders, armed by their energetic govern- 
 ment, since the famous raid, with the most mod- 
 ern weapons, were on their side far from disin- 
 clined to oblige their old enemy. The fateful 
 llth of October the date named in the ultima- 
 tum of Presidents Steyn and Kriiger as the limit 
 of the time allowed England in which to retract 
 or retreat was already a day of the past. 
 16
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The commando to which Danie Linde be- 
 longed was ordered to the Natal border. It 
 had to trek by the wagon-road as far as Ma- 
 chadodorp, there to entrain and proceed by 
 rail through Pretoria and Elandsfontein to 
 Volksrust. Danie had therefore no opportu- 
 nity of seeing Bettie again. He asked the 
 veldt-cornet to be allowed to go by the way 
 of Ermelo and rejoin at Standerton, but he 
 was firmly told that it was impossible to grant 
 his request. So he submitted to his fate, and 
 seht Bettie a telegram expressing his great 
 disappointment at not being able to take leave 
 of her in person for what, he rashly asserted, 
 would prove only a temporary absence. 
 
 He had said good-bye to his mother and sis- 
 ters in the little town of Lydenburg, whither 
 they had accompanied him the afternoon he 
 left home. The good lady, not content with 
 gathering, mending, and packing with her own 
 hands all his clothes and equipage for the field, 
 had bought in the village to make sure that 
 he should not want for anything an extra 
 quantity of small articles (needles and thread, 
 17
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 soap, buttons, towels, brushes, and the divers 
 like), until he had enough for ten men. With 
 tears in her eyes she had adjured the veldt- 
 cornet to look after her son, and had placed 
 Danie formally in his care. 
 
 After a prayer by the local pastor the thou- 
 sand horsemen had trekked out of Lydenburg 
 to the round chant of the One Hundred and 
 Thirty-fourth Psalm and to the echo of wild 
 cheers for their beloved flag, the short-lived 
 "Vierkleur." And, although many a man had 
 been weeping in the arms of his mother or his 
 wife only a moment before, never was the na- 
 tional anthem sung more warmly, the praise 
 of the Lord chanted with stouter hearts, the 
 flag of their country hailed with surer spirit, 
 than at the beginning of that march. 
 
 At Machadodorp, Danie received a note from 
 Blaauwkop. "Try to come and say good- 
 bye," it read. "If you can't, it will break my 
 heart. Yet, if it is really impossible, then God 
 keep you till we meet again! Be as faithful 
 to your country as to me." 
 
 He read and reread the little note. "Ah!" 
 18
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 he whispered, "she loves me truly. Yes, Bet- 
 tie; and I will be as faithful to you as to my 
 country, dear." 
 
 At Machadodorp came also the orders to the 
 federal commanders to enter Natal and the 
 Cape Colony, the first blow of the war. Danie 
 was called to the tent of his veldt-cornet. 
 
 "Danie," said the officer, "from to-day on 
 you are my veldt-adjutant and secretary. I 
 know you, and you know me. We are going 
 to face the real music now, and it is of the 
 utmost importance that I and my adjutant 
 should understand each other." 
 
 "But," protested Danie, "your opinion of 
 my abilities, although very flattering, is based 
 on nothing. I don't know anything about 
 war. I only saw a little life in the field with 
 the Mapefu and Majaatjie commandos, and 
 this is a war with a white people and a great 
 nation. I am afraid I shall not come up to 
 what is expected of me. Couldn't you appoint 
 some one else?" 
 
 The veldt-cornet rose from his camp-stool. 
 "Your first lesson should be to obey orders 
 19
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 without question," he said dryly. Then, 
 "What nonsense, boy!" he continued more ear- 
 nestly. "I know you for an able young fel- 
 low. Your father was a hero in his time, and 
 it is possible that you have inherited something 
 besides his modesty. Moreover, you have had 
 the advantage rare enough among us, I am 
 sorry to say of a good education at Stellen- 
 bosch. Nobody, suits me better than you. 
 Don't refuse the first promotion that comes to 
 you, whether or not you think you have earned 
 it. Don't stand in your own way : you will find 
 plenty of other people there. There is, bar- 
 ring accidents, a long future before you. If it 
 is to be a short one, why, so much the more do 
 you want to make the most of it. I want you 
 to begin getting out my orders at once. We 
 are to march to-night with General Myer to 
 attack Dundee. What do you say ? " 
 
 Danie's dilemma was a brief one. In the 
 midst of his doubts and reflections, his am- 
 bition and his fear of failure, the honour and 
 the difficulty and danger of the duties, the pride 
 that urged and the inexperience that warned 
 20
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 him, came suddenly the thought of Bettie, 
 and of what he would have to write her. He 
 hesitated no longer, and instinctively drew 
 himself up as he answered, 
 
 "Very well, Veldt-cornet, if you are satis- 
 fied to select me, I will do my utmost both for 
 my country and my" His face flamed so 
 red that the veldt-cornet laughed at the be- 
 trayal. The new adjutant choked down the 
 name upon his lips. "my flag," he con- 
 cluded lamely. 
 
 The veldt-cornet sat down again. "Very 
 well," he said, "we will begin right away with 
 the orders. The time is all too short." 
 
 The camp began to resemble a bee-hive with 
 the promulgation of the first order revealing 
 the intended advance. Men cleaned their rifles 
 again, looked over their ammunition, counted the 
 cartridges in their bandoliers, forgot the count, 
 recounted them to forget again. Others were 
 strapping their overcoats and blankets to their 
 saddles hours before the movement was to 
 begin, and while yet the coverings were needed 
 in the camp. An unhappy and half-organ- 
 21
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ised commissary department was distributing 
 eight days' rations per man to a struggling, 
 anxious crowd, every man of which wanted 
 to be first or next served, and out of it. The 
 slow wagons of the train were being indiscrimi- 
 nately filled, partly with necessaries of the 
 march, although they were to reach Dundee 
 a whole week later than the column. The tent 
 of the veldt-cornet was besieged until long after 
 dark by hosts of undisciplined burghers after 
 one piece of information or another; and Danie 
 found his regular and official duties but a drop 
 in the bucket with those he was expected and 
 compelled by circumstances to order, arrange, 
 and perform. 
 
 It was late, indeed, before he found the time 
 to write the letters that had weighed on his 
 mind ever since his sudden promotion. His 
 first was to Bettie. He told her all that had 
 happened up to that time, and found that he 
 mentioned his promotion rather reluctantly. 
 He thanked her for the letter and for a pack- 
 age which had been delivered to him from her. 
 
 "It was as if I heard you speak," he wrote. 
 22
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 " I am so much happier since I heard from you, 
 and am assured that you do not blame me 
 for not being able to come to you once more 
 to say good-bye. How joyfully would I have 
 done it! The bracelet with the heart enclos- 
 ing your picture I shall faithfully wear as a 
 living remembrance of my Bettie. 
 
 "We leave in an hour. Our commando is 
 a part of two thousand burghers who are going 
 to march through Buffelriver on Dundee to 
 attack the British garrison of five thousand 
 under General Penn Symons. You have no 
 doubt heard that war has formally been de- 
 clared. 
 
 "I have still to write to my parents, dear; 
 and already they are beginning to saddle up. 
 So for this time good-bye, dear Bettie." 
 
 23
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE night of the 20th of October was draw- 
 ing to an end. The village of Dundee 
 lay still and unconscious beneath the rapidly 
 fading stars. The great British camp, encroach- 
 ing upon the outskirts of the widely grouped 
 houses and stretching beyond their limits to 
 the south and west, was beginning to take form 
 and color under the edges of the approaching 
 dawn. The camp-fires that had so brightly 
 challenged the stars throughout the night were 
 dying down for the want of a now unneeded 
 attention; and the weary and unsuspicious 
 sentries, walking their last rounds, were al- 
 ready looking forward to the time when the 
 new guard should be mounted, and congratu- 
 lating themselves on the day of ease and light 
 duties that would soon be due them. 
 
 Beyond the town and camp to the north and 
 east the prevailing character of the South Af- 
 rican landscape was maintained by successive 
 parallel lines of stony ridges, looking, as they 
 overhung the inhabited plateau, like the long 
 24
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ranks of rollers menacing a shore. But these 
 long rollers of earth were no menace in them- 
 selves. Frozen in their tracks, the most they 
 could do was to conceal what perils of a dif- 
 ferent nature lurked behind them. After all, 
 they might be dangerous. 
 
 Just before dawn the nearest of these crests 
 was topped by a little body of men, who im- 
 mediately threw themselves to the ground, 
 and, lying prone, watched with cautious inter- 
 est^ the unwonted scene before them. They 
 carried rifles, and were slung with bandoliers. 
 The leader busied himself for a few moments 
 with paper and pencil, as if taking notes for 
 a description or a sketch of what he saw. Sud- 
 denly he rose, and beckoned to one of the men. 
 
 "Joost," he said, "take these back to Veldt- 
 cornet Bodenstein as fast as you can, and tell 
 him that we are going a little farther down 
 toward the village while it is still dark enough 
 to make it possible." 
 
 "All right, Adjutant," said the man; and, 
 taking the papers, he slipped over the brow 
 of the randt, and was gone. 
 25
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Adjutant Linde for it was Danie took 
 another brief survey of the situation. A little 
 to the left and three hundred yards down the 
 slope lay, flanked by tall hedges, the loosely 
 grouped buildings of the farthest outlying farm. 
 It was evident that, from the shelter they af- 
 forded, a more complete view of the English 
 camp, now partly concealed by a portion of the 
 village, could be had. But the risk of expos- 
 ure to anything like sharp eyes while moving 
 down the hillside was great, and it was more 
 than possible that an outpost of some kind was 
 stationed at the very point to which he wished 
 to go. He decided to attempt the trip alone. 
 He gave his men a few parting instructions, 
 and, leaving his rifle and bandolier with them, 
 began to make his way downward, taking cover 
 behind each boulder as he came to it, and lay- 
 ing his course so as to be as much concealed 
 as possible by each as he approached it. From 
 the last rock available he hurried across the 
 open into the shadow of a hedgerow that led 
 to one of the out-houses he sought. Moving 
 carefully along under its protecting shelter, 
 26
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 his eyes scanning the building as intently as 
 if they could see through it, he soon reached the 
 goal he aimed for. Standing by the side of 
 the barn, he looked beyond the end of the hedge 
 that had concealed what- lay on its other flank, 
 and took careful note of that part of the camp 
 now exposed to his view. He was about to 
 skirt the building for a further inspection, when 
 he was arrested by the sudden sound of voices, 
 just around the corner, and apparently not 
 ten yards away from him. 
 "The start of surprise he gave cost him the 
 first few words. Then a watch snapped. 
 
 "Four o'clock," said a voice. "I must go 
 back to headquarters. The advance-guard 
 starts across the hills to the north-east at five. 
 Your picket will be withdrawn hi half an hour, 
 Lieutenant." 
 
 "Very well, Captain Campbell," was the 
 reply. " Good-night. ' ' 
 
 "Good-night." And the sound of the speak- 
 er's departure was heard. 
 
 Danie hardly dared to breathe. Five steps 
 more, and he would have walked right into 
 27
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the hands of the picket, who, he could not 
 doubt, would have received him with as much 
 delight as surprise. He wondered that they 
 could not hear his heart beat. If any one 
 should happen to come around the corner of 
 the barn! At the thought his hand stole ner- 
 vously to his revolver. Then it came to him 
 that here was news indeed, and that, having 
 gained far more than he had either sought or 
 hoped for, he must get back at once. Dis- 
 covery would mean not only captivity, but the 
 annihilation of his first, almost miraculous, and 
 perhaps only chance to distinguish himself. 
 He turned, and fled to the end of the hedgerow 
 without another instant's delay. Up its further 
 side he stole, the side he had carefully avoided 
 coming down, because it was open to the view 
 of a great part of the sleeping camp. Yet he 
 judged that he had more reason to fear the 
 nearer danger of the picket he had discovered, 
 and in comparison with that peril felt that the 
 hedge, though serving only as a background, 
 still promised him protection. He had indeed 
 cause to be thankful for his choice. He had 
 28
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 scarcely taken ten steps behind the hedge when 
 through its interstices he saw a soldier evi- 
 dently a sentinel come around the corner he 
 had just deserted, with the alert ah* that marks 
 suspicion. The man looked along the side of 
 the building, glanced hurriedly about him, and 
 seemed to pierce the hedge with the sharp look 
 he cast toward it. Danie felt it an all too in- 
 secure screen as his enemy gazed at it; nor 
 could he understand it when the soldier with- 
 drew his eyes, and, with another look around, 
 retreated whence he had come. 
 
 "My soul!" thought Danie to himself, as 
 he rose from where he had dropped, "how 
 could he miss the signs of that trampled grass? 
 Any Boer would have seen it at once." 
 
 In five minutes he had left the hedge behind 
 him and was out in the open, working his way 
 along on his stomach toward the first of the line 
 of boulders he had used for protection on his 
 way down. Hugging the ground with a close- 
 ness not entirely due to the patriotic affection 
 he felt for his country, he crawled slowly and 
 with frequent halts back to the old position 
 29
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 on the height whence he had started on his 
 little journey of investigation. 
 
 He wrote his final report, embodying the 
 important news of the enemy's projected move- 
 ment, amid the congratulations of his enthusi- 
 astic squad, and rushed it off to his veldt- 
 cornet with the notification that he would 
 await further orders where he was. The veldt- 
 cornet brought these orders in person, accom- 
 panied by the rest of the command, which was 
 at once posted along the ridge. 
 
 "Danie," said his senior, "confess, you are 
 a lucky man. The general, acting on your 
 information, as fortunate as it is undoubtedly 
 valuable, has given orders to commence the ac- 
 tion as soon as the burghers are posted, which, 
 by the way, they should be now. Our bat- 
 talion forms the extreme right of the line, and 
 Listen!" 
 
 His exclamation was drowned in a deep, 
 double roar that burst from behind the hill 
 far to their left, and which, as it died down, 
 was succeeded by, almost merged into, the 
 shrill, sharp scream of the shells from the two 
 30
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Boer Krupps as they sped on their impolite 
 good-morning errand through the air and over 
 the startled British camp, to burst far beyond 
 it in a rattling cloud of dust. A thrill such 
 as he had never felt before went up and down 
 Danie Linde's back as he watched the instant 
 transformation of the strange scene before him, 
 with the echo of the first heavy guns he had 
 ever heard still booming in his ears. The camp, 
 a moment before a quiet and peaceful dormi- 
 tojy, almost without motion except for the 
 few indolent sentries on its outskirts, suddenly 
 became a vast, flat hive of swarming men, 
 rushing hither and thither in an apparently 
 aimless confusion. The equally active out- 
 pourings of the village first rimmed it, then 
 joined it, and almost instantly were lost in it. 
 The faint notes of twenty different bugles added 
 to the alarm. But the stirring sound of their 
 ringing was cut short by a fresh roar from the 
 two Krupps behind the hill, and this time the 
 shells fell exploding in the very midst of 
 the uproar their predecessors had caused. It 
 seemed impossible that such teeming disorder 
 31
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 as he saw before him could ever be rectified 
 under the circumstances; and Danie, half 
 stunned, as much by the appalling sight as by 
 the crash of the guns, was greatly astonished 
 to see in the grey morning light thin lines of 
 men already forming in front of the camp, and 
 other groups rapidly organising behind them. 
 Almost at once a series of short, bright flashes 
 from behind a hitherto unnoticed stone wall 
 as if a dozen mirrors had suddenly been turned 
 for but the fraction of a second to face the ris- 
 ing sun caught his eye, and before he had 
 ceased wondering what they meant, his ears, 
 assailed by the light crack of the distant ex- 
 plosions, told him they were field-guns. The 
 enemy had finally opened on him. Another 
 battery opened to the right, and then still an- 
 other. The thin line of the English had begun 
 to move; and he was so absorbed in their even 
 approach, the shreds they left behind them at 
 every step, that he hardly realised for a mo- 
 ment that these shreds were torn from the line 
 because the whole Boer force, including his own 
 men, was pouring a rattling fire into the ad- 
 32
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 vancing enemy. The veldt-cornet was shout- 
 ing at him through the din. 
 
 "Fire! Fire, man! What have you got a 
 rifle for! And keep the men at this end of the 
 line up to their work. I am going to the left!" 
 
 Danie nodded. He could not speak, but a 
 mist seemed to clear away from before his eyes, 
 his brain began to work with the activity 
 and decisiveness of machinery. He suddenly 
 realised that for ten minutes past it had been 
 almost stupefied. 
 
 ""They must not get beyond two hundred 
 yards! They must not get beyond two hun- 
 dred yards!" he murmured repeatedly to him- 
 self; and then turned and roared it at the men. 
 He watched the English line, and estimated 
 the distance carefully. They were still ad- 
 vancing, but with short rushes now, and longer 
 and longer halts between, during which they 
 lay flat and motionless. He could see their 
 officers leap up to urge them, drive them on, 
 as they came nearer. And it suddenly struck 
 him with conviction that they would never 
 arrive, this time, at least. 
 33
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Their rests should be shorter and shorter 
 instead of increasing in length," he decided 
 for himself. He was learning war. He men- 
 tally made a note of this for use on some pos- 
 sible future occasion, and then turned around 
 and calmly announced his conclusion to his 
 men. 
 
 "Aim low, two hundred and fifty yards!" 
 he cried. "Two hundred and fifty yards, 
 fifty yards!" His sing-song voice reminded 
 him humorously of the monotonic drawl of the 
 auctioneer. But he hardly stopped to see 
 whether or not his advice was followed: his 
 eyes rested on the fulfilment of his prophecy. 
 The British line rose once more to rush for- 
 ward, wavered for a fatal moment, and broke 
 in disorder instead. 
 
 The Boers along the ridge leaped to their 
 feet with wild shouts of joy and triumph. 
 They shook their rifles in the air like madmen, 
 screamed hoarse derision at the retreating 
 foe, even hurled stones after them. Danie, with 
 a smile on his face, but anger in his eyes, 
 ran from one to another down the disintegrated 
 34
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 line, striking, pulling, pleading. He shouted 
 orders that were never heard, and pointed 
 frantically outward over the field so lately oc- 
 cupied by the menacing attack. The five 
 minutes it took him to bring his command into 
 some show of order was none too soon. For 
 advancing to a fresh assault was a battalion 
 of lancers in open order. After the first sec- 
 ond of surprise on the part of the over-enthusi- 
 astic burghers, they opened again with a with- 
 ering fire. But the cavalry was being sup- 
 ported from its rear and flanks by the com- 
 bined and now destructive fire of both the in- 
 fantry that had been driven back and a battery 
 of Armstrongs, whose shells began not only 
 to disconcert, but to decimate, the defenders 
 of the ridge. The men commenced to fall, 
 here one, there two or three. Danie's work 
 was now cut out for him. With an activity 
 and an indifference to the flying steel he had 
 not dreamed himself capable of, he flitted up 
 and down erect behind the men, empha- 
 sising his urgent exhortations by a frequent 
 and effective use of his own weapon. His 
 35
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 eyes were everywhere at once. He drew the 
 wounded to what safety he could find behind 
 the edge of the ridge. At times he carelessly 
 and as if accidentally pushed or pulled the dead 
 to where they yet might to some extent serve 
 the living as additional protection. He raved, 
 he praised, he prayed. The lancers were al- 
 ready within the two-hundred-yard limit be- 
 yond which he had decided he could allow no 
 attack to pass with safety to the position he 
 held. Yet his furious efforts were temporarily 
 successful. Unable to stand the terrific fire 
 poured upon them by the seemingly inexhausti- 
 ble Boer rifles, the lancers suddenly broke and 
 turned, two streams of flight, to the right and 
 left. The clouds of dust their movement had 
 raised concealed for a deceitful minute or two 
 everything behind the extreme limit of their 
 approach. Danie dropped his hot rifle to his 
 left hand, and wiped the thick drops of sweat 
 from his reeking forehead with his right, while 
 he turned to view the havoc wrought in his 
 own line. One-half the men a frightful per- 
 centage were dead or wounded; and he knew 
 36
 
 ... "a rifle swung high above his head ". . . 
 (see page 38)
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 that he could not long hold the partly demor- 
 alised remainder to a continuation of such 
 bloody work. Already some were beginning 
 to waver, to look behind them, in the direction 
 of a possible escape. 
 
 All at once a long, deep roar burst on his 
 half-deafened ear. In front of him the cloud 
 of smoke and dust was lifting, was being torn 
 and rent in a hundred places. And under 
 its edges, through the constantly multiplying 
 gags and holes, a long and determined line of 
 haki-clad infantry was pouring, their muffled 
 shouts rising to a yell that seemed to shake 
 the very skies above. At last the English 
 were upon him. 
 
 How many of his men deserted him, how 
 many stayed beside him to stick it out to the 
 end, he never knew. He caught a glimpse 
 of some weapons cast to the ground, of some 
 forms turned in flight; another of frantic men 
 beside him leaping upon stones to fire madly 
 or to swing their reversed arms against the up- 
 sweeping mass, and then he was shooting, 
 clubbing, stabbing, in the very midst of a 
 37
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 shooting, stabbing, clubbing crowd, borne ever 
 and ever backward. He caught a fresh glance 
 of a pistol pointed at his heart, the red face and 
 shoulder-straps of an officer close to him, a 
 rifle swung high above his head, and then the 
 world sank beneath his feet, the sky reeled 
 above him, as a million stars burst before his 
 face and were swallowed up in utter darkness. 
 His last conscious thought was not of his mother, 
 not of his betrothed, not of his country, but 
 only that he he whose prospects of advance- 
 ment and glory were so bright, he whose career 
 had begun so fortunately was being killed, 
 was killed, in the first battle of a great and 
 glorious war of which he alone was doomed 
 never to see the end. 
 
 Then everything faded away; and he sank, 
 an unconscious mass, inert to the ground.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE little town of Ladysmith in north- 
 western Natal was, at the beginning of 
 the African summer of 1899-1900, fully as un- 
 comfortable as the red, unresting dust of the 
 surrounding soil, and the heat radiated from 
 the many metal house-tops and the innumera- 
 ble awnings of the same corrugated zinc and 
 iron, designed to shade, but better fitted to 
 stifle, could make it. The long twin streets 
 stretched side by side from end to end of the 
 town, set with one-story stone shops in close 
 and forward rows between the fewer and more 
 retiring dwelling-houses, also of a single story, 
 but surrounded by wide verandas and gardens 
 red and yellow with the blown and powdered 
 earth. 
 
 From all sides of the dusty plain in which 
 Ladysmith settles a bear in a bear-pit, at 
 which all sorts of torments can be thrown from 
 the encompassing walls, as the Boers' soon 
 discovered the ground sweeps in ever-rising 
 formations of rock and rubble, sometimes 
 39
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 splotched with groups of trees, to the convulsed 
 and threatening hills that sweep around the 
 plain in a rough but majestic circle of six or 
 more miles in diameter. And like a piano- 
 case dropped at random in the far parterre of 
 this strange theatre of war stands Bulwana, 
 the muddy little Klip running at full speed 
 around an angle of the base of the great hill 
 on its journey to the Tugela, ten miles away. 
 
 The battle of Dundee was followed on the 
 part of the English by a rapid retreat to Lady- 
 smith, where the authority of General Yule, 
 who after the battle* had led the retreat, was 
 absorbed into that of Sir George White, who 
 commanded at Ladysmith. 
 
 A curious series of errors had inaugurated 
 the campaign in Natal. On the one side the 
 Transvaalers had attacked Dundee with an 
 inferior force, without waiting for their allies 
 from the Free State, under the then Vice- 
 Commandant De Wet. After the battle not 
 only the English, but the Boers, retreated. 
 Two days afterward two days too late De 
 Wet with his Free Staters cut the railroad line 
 40
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 below Dundee to find the back trail of the Eng- 
 lish cold. Then, without waiting for the 
 Transvaal forces to recover from the effect 
 of the fight at Dundee and join him, the in- 
 trepid De Wet followed on their heels, and en- 
 ticed them out of Ladysmith to fight at Mod- 
 der Spruit, a fight which ended practically 
 without result. It was not until a week later 
 that the Orange Free State and the South Af- 
 rican Republic, at a joint council of war held 
 November 1, decided to lay siege to Lady- 
 smith. On that very night Cronje moved to 
 the positions afterwards so long occupied by 
 Botha, south and south-west of the town; and 
 the four months' siege began. 
 
 From the first hour the fire of the besiegers 
 was as accurate as it was constant, and the in- 
 cessant shells yelled and burst monotonously 
 night and day hi and above the town and works. 
 On or near the 10th of November, when the 
 Boer guns began to increase from the sur- 
 rounding hills, General White made arrange- 
 ments with General Joubert for the establish- 
 ment of a neutral camp, where the sick and 
 41
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 wounded, the prisoners and the non-comba- 
 tants, might be free from the fire. This camp 
 was established about four miles from the town, 
 on a flat and windy plain somewhat to the south- 
 east and toward the direction of the expected 
 relief. This city of canvas for it was built 
 of nothing else lacked many of the comforts 
 of the town of which it was now the miserable 
 suburb, but it was safe and healthy. The 
 great fly-tents of the hospital, where wounded 
 Briton and wounded Boer lay in brotherly dis- 
 comfort, were cool and quiet, and their inmates 
 fared better than might well have been ex- 
 pected. There was no lack of nursing. One 
 of the annoyances the great curse, indeed 
 of the place was the want of occupation and 
 amusement. Even the Boer fire lost its in- 
 terest for the inhabitants as soon as they learned 
 to realise that it had nothing more to do with 
 them. So the women nursed. Those that 
 did not nurse sought the opportunity, toward 
 the last importunately. 
 
 In one of the beds in the smallest hospital 
 tent a man opened his eyes one bright morn- 
 42
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ing toward the last of November. He did not 
 stir otherwise, and even his lids lifted gently 
 and hesitatingly, as if from a long sleep and 
 with a recollection of evil dreams which a single 
 physical motion on his part might bring back 
 with a leap from their slow and unwilling re- 
 treat. For minutes the white, cool canvas 
 above him and the open flap through which he 
 could see into a hazy, green country were but 
 an unstable background of reality, against 
 wln'ch only very gradually decreased the ka- 
 leidoscopic phantoms of a long-unbridled mind 
 and a memory just struggling up from stupe- 
 faction. At last the horrors cleared away, 
 and he commenced to direct his thoughts. 
 This power of direction so simple that we 
 never realise its value unless under similar 
 circumstances or in the presence of the insane 
 filled him with a weak pride. He could feel 
 in some strange way that it was new, and that 
 it was well worth having. His identity, how- 
 ever, had not yet come into his consideration. 
 He was satisfied to know that he was something, 
 alive, at peace with the present, and compe- 
 43
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 tent mentally to examine and pass upon the 
 still un-understood circumstances in which he 
 found himself. He went at it slowly. His eyes 
 soon dropped from the comprehended covering 
 of canvas to the top of the opening of the flaps, 
 and rested on a baseless wedge of unclouded 
 blue, across which, nevertheless, there seemed 
 to be the golden spell of a sun, the brightness 
 of days he had known and now instinctively 
 recognised. The influence was soothing: his 
 hardly awakened mind sunk drowsily back into 
 a happy apathy. He still regarded the blue 
 with eyes that were lazily at rest rather than 
 set or fixed. Suddenly a little black speck 
 trailed diagonally up across the bit of sky, 
 and hung there in the centre of his vision. 
 He could not tell whether it was a bird far 
 distant or a gnat at hand. It was just a speck, 
 there was no background, no perspective. 
 A fly, a bird, no! it had disappeared, and 
 in its place there was a little cloud, a puff of 
 wool, a tiny fleece. Curious! It roused him 
 more. Then there was a distant rush, a whistle 
 that he knew, yet could not place, and a sec- 
 44
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ond fly, a second bit of cotton joined the first, 
 now almost dissipated. Then a dull shock, that 
 seemed the banging of a door far off, startled 
 him; and then another, and another, and an- 
 other! A great revulsion of his peace of mind 
 nearly upset it once more. With a quick rush 
 of memory the blood surged to his head, and 
 nearly blinded him. Where was he? His 
 heart beat furiously. He raised his head and 
 bent his back in the effort to rise. But he fell 
 ba&k with a weak groan. His eyes closed, and 
 his ears was he not being spoken to? He 
 reopened his eyes feebly, but his astonish- 
 ment put new strength into them. Two women 
 stood above him, bending down, two strangers; 
 and a man stood beside the bed, he was in 
 a bed! and held his wrist. He wanted to 
 speak; but he found the effort difficult, and 
 desisted. One of the women stooped and 
 raised his head, and the man placed a glass to 
 his lips and tipped the contents of the glass 
 against them. They opened mechanically, and 
 he swallowed. 
 
 "More," he whispered in Dutch. 
 45
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The man with the glass looked puzzled, and, 
 turning, beckoned. A second man, with a 
 cheerful smile on a pale face and crutches be- 
 neath his arms, hobbled up to the bedside. 
 The eyes of the new-comer asked a question. 
 It was obvious. 
 
 "More," whispered Danie, in Dutch, again. 
 
 "He wants some more," said the new man, 
 cheerfully. "Better give him some, doctor, 
 eh? Incidentally, I'm feeling rather weak 
 myself. A tot" 
 
 "No, no, Captain," laughed the other. "No 
 more for either of you. Alcohol isn't the best 
 thing for open wounds, unless they are like 
 his," he added gravely, turning toward the 
 man in bed. 
 
 Danie found his voice under the stimulus 
 of the drink. "Give me some water, please," 
 he said, still speaking the Taal; then in Eng- 
 lish, "Are they so bad, doctor?" 
 
 "Eh? Bad? What bad?" said the aston- 
 ished surgeon. "What business have you got 
 to talk, a man in your condition? No! No! 
 There's nothing the matter with you, noth- 
 46
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ing to speak of. What nonsense! Damned if 
 I don't think you're goin' to live!" 
 
 "I am," said Danie, quietly, and closed his 
 eyes. 
 
 He spoke no more that day, and toward 
 evening fell into a healthy sleep that lasted 
 quite through the night. 
 
 The next morning, when he awoke, he found 
 the cheerful man sitting beside him, his crutches 
 under his chair. Danie's faint smile of recog- 
 nition was returned with interest, and with a 
 nod of the head complicate with pleasant mean- 
 ings. Only to the regular surgeon and the 
 nurses did this jolly visitor finally release his 
 silent ward. 
 
 On the last day of a week spent chiefly in 
 dozing and in feebly trying to disentangle 
 dreams from recollections, among both of which 
 the cheerful man's face figured preponderantly, 
 Danie awoke with strength to break his silence. 
 
 The cheerful man was in his place. 
 
 "Good-morning," said Danie, smiling. 
 
 "Good morning, indeed," returned the other, 
 looking closely at him. " How do you feel ? " 
 47
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Why, rather funny, I think, but still not 
 so badly," said Danie. "I should feel better 
 if I knew more about it. Where am I? Will 
 you tell me?" 
 
 "I'll tell you all about it. Of course, you 
 want to know," said the other heartily. "My 
 name is Campbell, Captain Campbell of the 
 th Lancers, and you and I first had the 
 pleasure of meeting at Dundee. This is Lady- 
 smith, or a camp just outside it, and your 
 people have got Sir George White and thirteen 
 thousand more of us shut up here. Been here 
 ever since Dundee." 
 
 Danie was startled. "Since Dundee? And 
 how long is that?" 
 
 "Six weeks to-morrow, my boy." 
 
 "Good Lord!" said the Boer. "What do 
 my people think? Has any word been sent? 
 Do you know?" 
 
 "I'm afraid I don't know much about it," 
 said Campbell, deprecatingly. "You see, I've 
 been in hospital, too, ever since then, and am 
 only up two weeks myself. You were much 
 the worse off, however; and nobody thought
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 you would live. You have to thank your con- 
 stitution and my poor shooting, among other 
 things." 
 
 "Yours?" questioned Danie, wonderingly. 
 
 "Mine among others, Mr. Linde. But I 
 only returned you a favour. It was you who so 
 rudely shot me through the legs before I had 
 ever so much as seen you." 
 
 "I beg your pardon for the damage," said 
 Danie, smiling; "but you must have somehow 
 got jn my way. I didn't see you," 
 
 The Englishman laughed. "Never mind," 
 he returned. " I'll apologise, too. I got square 
 with you." 
 
 "You did," said Danie, ruefully. "Tell 
 me some more details. Why am I here?" 
 
 "To get well, I hope, my friend," said Camp- 
 bell. "We were brought down together in 
 the same ambulance on our retreat from Dun- 
 dee. Why we retreated, I don't know. No- 
 body knows. Your people retreated, also, 
 after the battle. You had a lance through 
 your side, two or three bullet wounds of less 
 importance, one of them mine, and were 
 49
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 knocked on the head with the butt of a musket. 
 Pretty badly off. We've been here under 
 siege from your people ever since. Except 
 that the hospital is in the neutral camp, a 
 couple of miles outside the town, with the 
 women and children, so your people do us the 
 honour of firing over us, and not at us." 
 
 "How goes the siege?" asked Danie, eagerly. 
 
 "I don't know very well. We only have 
 communication with the town once a day 
 through the provision-train, which brings us 
 worse and less stuff every morning; and we 
 don't get much news. I rather think there 
 isn't much, you know. Of course, we shall be 
 relieved very soon; and the war will be over 
 before winter * at the latest." 
 
 Danie thought a moment. "How did you 
 know my name?" he asked. 
 
 " Oh, one of your men told us when we took 
 your position." 
 
 Danie brightened. "Then you have more 
 of us unlucky Boers here as prisoners? I should 
 like to see them if I may." 
 
 The South African winter begins in May. 
 50
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Captain Campbell looked out of the tent 
 into the fields. His voice was embarrassed 
 as he answered. " I I am afraid there were 
 no more prisoners taken. Very few men stayed 
 with you, you know. I think you were brought 
 along because you were an officer, and, after 
 things were quieter, they found you weren't 
 dead, you know." 
 
 "And the poor wounded were left on the 
 field?" exclaimed the Boer, in horror. 
 
 "JChey were left on the field," repeated 
 the captain, dryly. "My regiment had lost 
 over two hundred men. It was their first 
 fight, and they weren't very nice about it. 
 And, then, you fellows tried to get killed." 
 
 "I did," said Danie, gloomily. "But I'm 
 very glad I wasn't," he added with a smile. 
 
 The captain rose, and, balancing himself 
 at the head of the cot, held out his hand. "So 
 am I," he said heartily. "And let's drop the 
 subject for the present. We're both doin' 
 splendidly; and, if you'll let me say so, we're 
 not such devilish enemies as we were, you know, 
 six weeks ago." 
 
 51
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Danie seized his hand gratefully. "We are 
 friends, indeed," he said. "Don't think I 
 don't know, at least for the last week, how you 
 have sat by me, and watched me, and given 
 me water when I wanted it, and all things like 
 that. I couldn't talk then, and I wasn't in 
 my mind all the time; but I know. I won't 
 forget it. We may meet again, possibly under 
 different circumstances. I may be free any 
 day. The Boers will surely be able to take 
 Ladysmith" 
 
 Captain Campbell sat back in his chair. 
 "No, Linde," he answered, "I'm afraid not. 
 And, anyway, you won't be here to see it if 
 it does happen. You are too valuable a man 
 to give back," with a smile, "and we are going 
 to send you to Pietermaritzburg while we can 
 still get a few non-combatants out of the way. 
 I shall be able to walk myself in a few days; 
 and I am going back into Ladysmith, so that 
 I couldn't look after you any more, in any case. 
 But you need have no fear but that you will 
 receive the best treatment at 'Maritzburg. 
 And," he hurried on, as he saw Linde's face 
 52
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 fall, "I promise you that I will try and get 
 word to your people that you are alive and all 
 right." 
 
 "If you will," said Danie, earnestly, "you 
 will double your kindness to me; for my father 
 and mother and and, I will tell you frankly, 
 my friend, there is somebody else, too, will 
 be wild about me if there is no news. They 
 must think me dead now." 
 
 "Well, we shall soon correct their errone- 
 ous4mpression/' said Campbell, cheerily. " And, 
 by the way," he added, "I almost forgot 
 isn't this yours?" And he held out the little 
 bracelet containing Bettie's miniature. 
 
 "Yes," called out Danie, "indeed, yes! I 
 knew I missed something, but I was too sick 
 to think what, the whole past week. How 
 did you get it? Please give it to me!" 
 
 The Englishman leaned over, and fastened 
 it again upon his new friend's wrist. "You 
 are in luck again," he smiled. "The last man 
 who shot you one of my own robbed the 
 'corpse/ and afterwards handed me the booty, 
 when he found that you were being taken 
 53
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 along in the ambulance with me. And I have 
 kept it for you ever since." 
 
 Danie thanked him again as if for his life. 
 Then, partly to explain the seriousness of this 
 second gratitude, he opened the miniature, 
 and showed it to its preserver. 
 
 The Englishman drew a breath. "I see/' 
 he said slowly; "and, if it is in my power, I 
 will relieve the lady of what anxiety I can 
 on your account, believe me." 
 
 "I am sure that you will," replied Danie; 
 and the subject was dropped. 
 
 The next four days passed dully enough. 
 Captain Campbell was absent; and Danie, 
 tired, but stronger, thankful for his new life 
 and strength, but irritated at the remnants 
 of torture that still racked him when he moved, 
 proud enough of the past, perhaps, for he 
 was young and in love, but hopeless as to 
 the future, could think of no explanation for 
 his friend's was he really a friend? absence 
 but such as reflected on himself, or his race, 
 or his confidences. On the morning of the 
 fifth day, Campbell entered the tent in uni- 
 54
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 form and crutchless. He staggered as he 
 walked, but he stood as straight and broad as 
 one of his discarded supports. 
 
 "It is good-bye, old chap," he said with a 
 friendly grip of the hand. "To-day I go back 
 into the town, and to-morrow you start for 
 'Maritzburg. We shall see each other again, 
 I know. Until then good luck." And he 
 turned on his heel, and left the tent. 
 
 And poor Danie spent the rest of the day 
 wondering why he had not been able to find his 
 tongue. 
 
 The next morning at eight o'clock he was 
 " stretchered " on to an ambulance wagon with 
 plenty of company. At twelve he was trans- 
 ported to a train at Colenso, escaping by 
 mere hours the opportunity of being recapt- 
 ured by his victorious friends when they 
 clashed with Buller's advance there, and was 
 passed smoothly on without interruption to 
 Pietermaritzburg, a hundred miles further 
 south, in the heart of the loyal Natal. 
 
 55
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 little district of Ermelo in the south- 
 A eastern Transvaal is separated from 
 Natal territory by a narrow strip only thirty 
 miles wide of the district of Wakkerstroom. 
 Natal, reaching greedily north, pushing itself 
 forcibly right into the body of the Transvaal, 
 cuts a pie-shaped wedge out of the southern 
 centre of Wakkerstroom, causing this despoiled 
 district's borders, at the point of section, to 
 serve as the sides of a deep re-entrant angle. 
 This cape, this promontory of Natal, which 
 juts north into the even sea of what was for- 
 merly the Boer Republic, is the door that opens 
 from Natal into the next room in the house of 
 Africa, the Transvaal; for its very tip is at 
 the point of the fairest pass across the north- 
 ern Drakensberg, and through this pass and 
 down the very centre of the promontory runs 
 the railroad, as far south as Pietermaritzburg, 
 as far north as Pietersburg, two hundred miles 
 beyond Pretoria. This door is one that swings 
 both ways: it opens into Natal as easily as 
 56
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 into the Transvaal. A dozen miles south of 
 the pass and in Natal territory are two local- 
 ities known by the names of Amajuba, or 
 Majuba Hill, and Laing's Nek. They won 
 then- notoriety at a time when the door had 
 been opened to the south. 
 
 But early in May, 1900, the door opened 
 the other way. About the beginning of that 
 month the English troops recovered their ac- 
 tivity after the short period of rest in which 
 they had indulged upon the closing of the 
 campaign on the Tugela and the relief of Lady- 
 smith, and began to drive the Boers, disheart- 
 ened by the surrenders of Cronje and Prinsloo 
 and the death of Joubert, out of the Biggars- 
 bergen northward into the Transvaal. By 
 May 31 Johannesburg had fallen to the main 
 column of the enemy, and the south-eastern 
 districts, including Ermelo, were occupied or 
 being traversed by active, if smaller, bodies 
 of the English, invaders in their turn. Many 
 of the original commandos that had so suc- 
 cessfully fought in Natal during the earlier 
 months of the year were now, depleted in 
 57
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 strength and in gpirit, conducting a desultory 
 mountain warfare throughout these same south- 
 ern districts. 
 
 Ermelo was as badly off as any. Those of 
 its burghers who still considered themselves 
 subject to their old organisations had been 
 called north to Pretoria by General Botha, 
 who had hoped to make some sort of a defence 
 of the town. Those who had remained in 
 the district with the purpose of defending their 
 homes were hardly able to do more than to 
 annoy the enemy, and sometimes to retard 
 his advance. The homesteads and farms 
 throughout the country-side were for the most 
 part manless, or only received their masters 
 at odd times or when the British columns 
 were still far away. Blaauwkop was in 
 straits. Its owner and his three grown sons 
 had been absent, except for one brief visit, 
 since the beginning of the war; and the whole 
 management of the place had fallen on the 
 shoulders of Bettie and her mother. The 
 Kaffir servants had grown more and more slack 
 as time progressed and no men returned to 
 58
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 look after them. Several had taken French 
 leave. Most of those that remained on the 
 farm had assumed the habit of disappearing 
 from time to time for a day or two, or even 
 for longer periods, and of coming back heavy 
 with the beer of some native village, a little 
 more sullen, a little more insolent, than before. 
 Old Maliwe was an exception. His Hot- 
 tentot mother had died grey in the service of 
 Bettie's grandfather. He himself had been 
 born in the family, and considered himself to 
 all intents and purposes as one of them. As 
 far as he could, by the power of delegated au- 
 thority, backed up by the known fact that he 
 always went armed at the wish of Mrs. Uys, 
 he ran things over the other servants with a 
 high hand. It was he who slept first in the 
 cattle-kraal, and later, when worse dangers 
 threatened, in the front hall-way of the dwell- 
 ing-house itself. It was he who went to the 
 fields with the two women in the day-time, 
 and, while apparently working as hard, if not 
 harder than the rest of the servants, managed 
 always to be in the vicinity of his mistress 
 59
 
 UNDER THE VlERKLEUR 
 
 and her daughter. It was he who ran, for 
 all his sixty years, beside Bettie's horse when 
 she went out into the veldt late afternoons 
 to gather the scattered groups of ewes and 
 lambs for the night. Many a setting sun saw 
 Bettie and her two little brothers, Gertand 
 Egbert, riding homeward, each with a lost and 
 complaining lamb slung across the saddle to 
 return to its careless mother, and the old Kaffir 
 trotting tirelessly behind the horses, some- 
 times with a fourth little one across his own 
 thin shoulder. 
 
 The little family had few visitors, and went 
 on even fewer visits. Their nearest neighbours 
 were six to eight miles away, and the little 
 village of Ermelo, the "shire town" of the 
 district, lay still further from them, and held 
 not even the attraction of news; for the single 
 wire to Standerton and the railroad south of 
 them had long been cut. Once in a while 
 a stray burgher, ragged, disheartened, and dis- 
 heartening, dropped in upon them. When 
 such a man came, he was given food and drink 
 and all the comforts of the house, as if he were 
 60
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the commandant-general himself; and then 
 the women hung around him with questions. 
 Mrs. Uys's first demand was always, "Have 
 you seen or heard of my husband or my sons?" 
 and Bettie's, "Can you tell me anything about 
 Danie Linde?" But they never got in reply 
 to these questions more than a shake of the 
 head and a recital at length of the woes partly 
 of their country, chiefly of their guest. It 
 was very unsatisfactory. At times Bettie 
 *~went so far as to blame Danie for not letting 
 her know of his existence. A man ought to 
 be able to do that much once in nine months, 
 if he really loved a girl. She would carry this 
 unhappy thought in her mind perhaps a whole 
 afternoon. The next morning she would wake 
 with a heavy sense of guilt, of cruelty, of un- 
 faithfulness, and by noon she would have con- 
 vinced herself that her lover was dead. The 
 strain upon her nervous system grew. Nat- 
 urally a very reticent girl, she ended by mak- 
 ing her mother the confidante of these two ex- 
 treme moods when in succession they seized 
 her; and that poor woman, although she really 
 61
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 thought the last supposition the more reason- 
 able, nevertheless, being between the devil 
 and the deep sea, invariably proclaimed her 
 belief in the former. Bettie, with her changed 
 disposition, was better off in a state of cyni- 
 cism than in one of despair. It was the poor 
 girl's first experience of any of the great emo- 
 tions; and she was now experiencing them all 
 at the same time, love and grief, and jeal- 
 ousy and fear. They usually follow each other 
 and in a somewhat different and more logical 
 order. 
 
 In the early part of their solitary isolation 
 at Blaauwkop, Bettie and her mother had 
 made a point of having as cheerful evenings 
 as possible on the farm, for their own sakes 
 as much as for those of the children. But, 
 without Mrs. Uys being able to control it, this 
 custom had drifted into desuetude through 
 Bettie's growing inability to contribute any 
 gayety or lightness of her own to such evenings. 
 Where she had at first enjoyed playing the 
 piano and singing, especially the few songs 
 that she remembered to be favourites of her 
 62
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 lover, now she left the instrument untouched, 
 and never even sang about the house as she 
 had done all her young and happy life. Her 
 mother made but one attempt to persuade 
 her, after several evenings had passed without 
 her accustomed music. The result was such 
 a storm of grief, lasting long into the night, 
 that she at once forbade her younger children 
 to mention playing to their sister again. 
 ^.The girl was no moper: she hung in no dark 
 corners, she shirked none of the commonplace 
 duties. On the contrary, it was her pride by 
 her own exertions as much as possible to keep 
 the farm and the crops up to or near the stand- 
 ard of her father's time, before the war. She 
 was physically healthy, she was strong, and the 
 red blood in her firm little cheeks withstood 
 victoriously even the efforts of the sun to con- 
 ceal her blushes by the coat of brown it endued 
 them with. She was in the saddle a large 
 part of every day. Her lithe body grew even 
 more straight, her dark eyes even more clear 
 and deep, her black hair even more glossy and 
 luxuriant, her muscles, her wrists even more 
 63
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 supple and rounded. But her heart weighed 
 within her day and night; and her mother, 
 although a woman of little perspicacity, as 
 of few resources, could see plainly how her 
 nature, even her mind, was wearing under 
 the strain. The elder woman understood at 
 last that a change either good or bad, but 
 a change of some sort was the one thing that 
 would help Bettie above all else. And from 
 thinking of some change and of the hundred 
 ways in which it might announce itself, and 
 even hoping for it, she finally got to expecting 
 it, even to believing in it. Consequently, she 
 was calm and unastonished, almost relieved, 
 when one early June evening old Maliwe, com- 
 ing from the cattle-kraal, called from the stoep 
 into the house: "Old mistress, come quick! 
 There are two suns setting!" 
 
 "Ah!" she said, "now it has come." And 
 she went out to the Kaffir on the stoep. He 
 was pointing to the north-east, hi the direction 
 of the town of Ennelo. 
 
 It was already dark with the quick darkness 
 of African nightfall. She turned around. 
 64
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Behind her was actually the sunset, a deep 
 red glow whose brightness was even then vis- 
 ibly fading. But Maliwe's second sunset, the 
 one in the east, was, on the contrary, growing 
 as visibly brighter. She called Bettie and 
 the children. 
 
 "Maliwe," she said, "that is fire at Ermelo. 
 The khakis are there." 
 
 " Ma wo ! " answered Maliwe. " You are right, 
 mistress. It is fire, sure enough. I thought 
 the sun had broken in half and one piece had 
 been left behind, or Tmpandulu [the lightening] 
 had upset its nest. But you are right : it is 
 fire. The khakis are there. May they not 
 come here!" 
 
 "They will come," said Mrs. Uys, pointing 
 out into the gloom toward the gardens, "as 
 those are going. Look!" 
 
 "Ewe, ewe," said old Maliwe, "they are 
 going, certainly. Let them go, the dogs. We 
 are safer without them. Yet I will watch to- 
 night." 
 
 Down by the kraals, so barely visible that 
 the very sound of then* murmurs of surprise 
 65
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 and excitement helped the group at the house 
 to pick them out, were gathered the other black 
 servants; and, from the dim mass that dis- 
 tinguished them in the darkness, single figures 
 could just be seen flitting away into the night, 
 noiseless and in even succession, as bats slip 
 forth from the eaves at dusk to disappear one 
 after another. 
 
 There was little sleep at Blaauwkop that 
 night. The morning dawned bright and clear. 
 No smoke, no trace of fire, showed to the east; 
 and toward noon Mrs. Uys spoke to Maliwe, 
 who was hanging around the house, contrary 
 to his usual custom. 
 
 "I was frightened for nothing, Maliwe. It 
 was just a fire in the bush, and not the khakis, 
 after all." 
 
 Old Maliwe shook his head slowly. "No, 
 no, mistress," he said. "You were right 
 enough. The 'boys' would have been back 
 before daylight unless something strange had 
 happened. It is the khakis without a doubt. 
 There is not a Kaffir on the whole farm." He 
 excepted himself, as always, by reason of his 
 66
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 association with the household. Was he not 
 a member of the family? 
 
 In the middle of the afternoon Gertie and 
 Egbert, who had been playing out beyond the 
 kraals, came running to the house in great 
 excitement. 
 
 "Mamma, mamma," called Gert, "there are 
 horsemen coming fast up the road! I am sure 
 they are khakis!" 
 
 She was at the door in an instant. The boy 
 .-"tried to rush past her. "I will get my gun," 
 he cried. " They shall not touch you or zus' 
 Bettie!" 
 
 "Gert, come here!" she cried at him with 
 the fierceness of fear. "My God, leave your 
 gun alone!" She clasped him to her bosom 
 with straining arms, as if with some dark 
 presentiment of evil, and faced the horsemen 
 who even then drew up before the stoep. 
 
 An officer rode a step forward, and lazily 
 raised his hand as high as his shoulder in a 
 half-salute. " Mrs. Uys ? " he asked. 
 
 She turned her head over little Gert's, and 
 called into the house, in Dutch : 
 67
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Come, Bettie, come and tell me what they 
 say. They are talking to me." 
 
 Bettie came running. As she stood in the 
 doorway behind her mother, and looked at 
 hun, her eyes wide with apprehension, the 
 Englishman straightened in his saddle and 
 completed his salute. 
 
 "Is this Mrs. Uys?" he asked again of the 
 girl. 
 
 "Yes, sir," she answered, "my mother." 
 
 "I have a very hard task before me," he 
 continued, looking fixedly at her. "But I 
 have my orders, and must obey them. I was 
 sent here to burn your house and buildings." 
 
 Bettie turned white. "Why?" she asked, 
 trembling. "We are nothing but women and 
 children here. What have we done? What 
 shall we do?" 
 
 "Bettie!" cried her mother, frightened at 
 her expression. "What is it? Tell me what 
 he is saying." 
 
 "I am very sorry," continued the English- 
 man, " but I have my orders. But I will leave 
 one of the buildings standing for you." 
 68
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Oh, he is going to burn our house, our 
 home down, mamma!" said Bettie, hurriedly. 
 "But why?" she cried, turning again to the 
 sudden persecutor. "What have we done 
 to deserve this? Do you English fight women 
 and children, like cowards?" she demanded 
 bitterly. 
 
 The officer flushed, and took a paper from his 
 belt. "You are accused of having harboured 
 the Boer Commandant Uys, for one thing," 
 lie answered; "and I have already told you I 
 am not here for my own pleasure. I am under 
 orders." 
 
 "Harboured Commandant Uys!" repeated 
 Bettie, breathlessly. "He is my own father! 
 Why, this is his own home! Where else 
 should he go or stay? He has not been here 
 for three months, nevertheless." 
 
 She turned rapidly to her mother, and told 
 her what had been said, what the accusation 
 against them was. Mrs. Uys drew herself 
 up, letting Gert slip to the floor. 
 
 "Do they mean it actually, Bettie? I can- 
 not believe it!" she said. 
 69
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Mean it? Indeed, they do! That is what 
 the dogs are here for! " cried Bettie, furiously. 
 "He has our crimes written on that paper!" 
 
 "Very well," answered her mother, slowly 
 and coldly, "tell the Englishman from me 
 that, if his general thinks to prevent me from 
 taking in and sheltering my husband in my, 
 in our own house, he will have to burn it. He 
 is right about that. For I should do it a thou- 
 sand times more if the dear Lord please to 
 spare him. Tell him that just as I say it. 
 And tell him that we will go away as prison- 
 ers or as homeless wanderers into the veldt, 
 but we do not do it of our own free will. He 
 must take us or drive us!" 
 
 With quivering lips but with flashing eyes, 
 Bettie delivered her mother's speech in Eng- 
 lish; and she added something on her own 
 account. 
 
 The Englishman flushed again, and was 
 silent for a moment. Then he looked at Bet- 
 tie once more. 
 
 "I will do just one thing for you: that is 
 all I can do. You may have twenty-four 
 70
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 hours to get together what you may need or 
 wish to save in one of your own wagons. To- 
 morrow I shall be compelled to obey my orders, 
 destroy the place and take you to Ermelo to 
 be sent on to the concentration camp at Volks- 
 rust. Good-night.'' And he turned and rode 
 away, followed by the squad he had brought 
 on his heartless errand. 
 
 Bettie broke into great sobs, and fell on her 
 ^knees on the threshold, her face against her 
 mother's knees. Mrs. Uys was astonished at 
 the abrupt departure of those who had, the min- 
 ute before, threatened to burn her home under 
 her very eyes. She was relieved. 
 
 " Don't weep, dear Bettie. There is no need. 
 You are too nervous. You see it was all a 
 joke. I knew well that even Englishmen 
 couldn't do so cruel a thing as that would be." 
 
 Bettie lifted a white face. "Oh, God," she 
 cried, "it is much worse than you think, dear 
 mamma. It is no joke, but deadliest earnest. 
 He but gives to-night to pack a few things, 
 a last night in our dear home. Oh, what will 
 poor father say or think when he comes back 
 71
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the next time?" And she burst into a fresh 
 paroxysm of tears. 
 
 Her mother, startled, tried to raise her. 
 
 "What do you mean, Bettie, what do you 
 mean? Tell me at once!" 
 
 Little Gert, who had listened to as much 
 as he could understand in a horrified silence, 
 commenced to choke deeply at the thought 
 of his father's home-coming as his sister pict- 
 ured it. Bettie began to control herself. She 
 managed to tell her mother what fate hung 
 over them, what was to befall on the morrow. 
 
 Mrs. Uys listened quietly to the end. Then 
 she shook Gertie, and spoke to him sharply. 
 "Gertie! Gert! Stop crying, and go and 
 find your brother and Maliwe. At once! We 
 have not a moment to lose!" 
 
 The boy stopped his tears, and went back 
 into the house, the man of the family again. 
 
 "What are you going to do, mamma?" 
 asked Bettie. 
 
 "Do? I am not going to let that cursed 
 Englishman burn our home and take us to 
 the concentration camp! We should all die 
 72
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 there in a month, if only of their dreadful food. 
 We are going to leave now, as soon as Gert 
 and Maliwe can inspan a team of oxen. By 
 morning we shall be far in the mountains where 
 they cannot find us. We will take our stock. 
 And the place will be gone! / will set fire to 
 it myself, and the good God and your father 
 will forgive me. At least the English shall 
 not have the wicked pleasure of destroying 
 J<he property and homes of helpless women. 
 Whatever we lose, daughter, our heavenly 
 Father will be with us still. We will trust 
 in Him. Maliwe," she continued, as the old 
 Kaffir came before her, "inspan the oxen. 
 We are going to trek as we did forty years 
 ago. Take what stock you can, and a couple 
 of horses. Be quick!" 
 
 The sun had not swung west an hour before 
 the unhappy women had made their bitter 
 choice from out of all they loved, before it 
 was stowed (with how many tears!) in the great 
 canvas-covered wagon brought forth after 
 years of solemn reminiscence in the barn to 
 resume, in behalf of a new generation, its an- 
 73
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 cient occupation of fleeing before the oppres- 
 sor. The wagon waited beyond the garden 
 hedge, Gert holding three horses, his mother's, 
 his sister's, one for himself. His brother was 
 already half a mile on his way toward the 
 haven of the hills, driving the selected stock 
 slowly before him. The two women stood 
 with streaming eyes in front of the stoep of 
 their beloved Blaauwkop, neither of them sure 
 of the entire purpose that held her there. 
 
 "Mamma," said Bettie, timidly, "don't do 
 it yourself, don't burn our home. I can't 
 bear it! Besides, if the English see the smoke, 
 they will certainly come and catch us." 
 
 "No, Bettie, do not grieve. I cannot do it. 
 I will leave that great crime to them. I com- 
 mitted a sin when I even said I would do so. 
 But God, remembering the provocation, will 
 forgive me. Perhaps even, who knows" 
 
 Maliwe, who stood behind them waiting, in- 
 terrupted her. "Here come those who will 
 do it for you, mistress. Come, get into the 
 wagon. They are already beyond the taai- 
 bosch, and they come running like an impi." 
 74
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 They turned. At the same moment Gert 
 began to call a warning to them. Down the 
 Ermelo road and over the slope came a hooting, 
 singing, rolling, rushing crowd of Kaffirs, on 
 foot and on horseback, their shouts and yells 
 announcing as clearly their temper as their 
 presence. As they reached the circle of kraals 
 and buildings that constituted Blaauwkop, 
 and commenced to spread fanlike in every 
 direction where loot promised, the women 
 reached their horses, and Gert and Maliwe 
 helped them into their saddles. To think of 
 controlling that noisy and inflamed mob of 
 blacks was insanity; yet Gert had to seize the 
 bridle from his mother's hand and pull her 
 horse about before she sacrificed habit to sense 
 and was willing to let them alone. Once headed 
 in the right direction, a few wild slashes from 
 his sjambok urged the horses of his mother and 
 sister to furious speed. But the boy himself, 
 upon looking around, wheeled, and rode back 
 to help the faithful Maliwe with the slow oxen. 
 
 As he reached the wagon, smoke was pour- 
 ing from the windows of the dwelling-house, 
 75
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 and some of the out-houses were already in 
 flames. Clouds and snow-storms of feathers 
 from the ripped and torn feather beds were 
 whirling in the heated ah- above the buildings, 
 and drifting south-east on the afternoon breeze. 
 Frantic dancers, arrayed in women's clothes, 
 in sheets, in table-cloths, in anything bright 
 and bizarre, reeled in circles and leaped like 
 shuttles about the fires. Half a dozen Kaffirs 
 ran up to the wagon, and surrounded Gert. 
 
 "Ho, little baas," cried a drunken fellow 
 whom he recognised as one of his father's old 
 servants, "you have been good enough to 
 bring me back a horse. Get off!" And he 
 lifted him down, gently enough and with laugh- 
 ter, despite Gert's angry struggles and blows. 
 But, before the thief could mount, a tall Kaffir 
 in a policeman's uniform, whose little eyes, 
 crimson with drink, blinked from a brutally 
 swollen face, hurled him to one side and mounted 
 the stolen horse himself. 
 
 "Stand aside, dog!" he howled. "I am a 
 servant of the Queen. I, Jim Kondwana, am 
 an Induna! Shall I walk, and thou ride?" 
 76
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Gert was white with rage. The boy sprang 
 to the pony's head, and seized the bridle close 
 to the bit. 
 
 "Jou verdomde parmantig schepsel" (You 
 infernal, insolent scoundrel), he cried, "get 
 off that horse ! It is my horse ! " 
 
 The little beast, worried at the strange and 
 uncertain rider, and frightened by so much 
 excitement directly under his nose, reared, 
 and nearly threw backward. As his fore feet 
 came back to earth and let Gert, who had 
 hung fast to the bridle, down again, the in- 
 furiated Kaffir raised his kerrie, and brought 
 it savagely down on the boy's head. Gert 
 fell to the ground as if struck by lightning. 
 His skull was crushed like an egg-shell. 
 
 Maliwe's cry of horror and fright was echoed, 
 strangely enough, by some of the other Kaffirs 
 who stood about. The murderer himself looked 
 down at his victim with the anger lost out of 
 his face. Then he wheeled his foully won steed 
 toward the burning house, the other wretches 
 following, and Maliwe was left alone with the 
 corpse. 
 
 77
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The poor mother and sister, who had seen 
 the tragedy from the point where they at last 
 got their horses under control, galloped fran- 
 tically back to meet the advancing and weep- 
 ing Maliwe, who had laid the little body in the 
 wagon. 
 
 What was or could have been home to them 
 now? 
 
 They passed across the wide, the rolling 
 plains toward the mountains, and evening 
 swallowed them up, them and their new 
 grief. 
 
 But a half-hour after they had passed out 
 of sight, a drunken Kaffir in a constable's uni- 
 form took a forgotten letter from his pocket, 
 and waved it uncertainly in the ah-. 
 
 " Baas Uys, Uys, that was it, Miss Bettie 
 Uys, at Blaauwkop, well, that is right. The 
 English captain told me to leave it at the 
 house. I do so, and I will tell him." And 
 he deposited the paper in the glowing embers 
 at his feet. 
 
 78
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 ALTHOUGH Pietermaritzburg, the capi- 
 tal of Natal, was never at any time 
 within the zone of hostilities, it was guarded 
 and garrisoned for the first year of the war 
 as if it were at any time subject to attack. 
 And, indeed, for the first six months no one 
 could be sure that it was not. The Boers op- 
 erated all over northern Natal until May; 
 and the capital was but a scant fifty miles 
 from the seacoast and from the all-important 
 port of Durban, so long the aim and harbour 
 of innumerable British troop-ships. 
 
 The jail-hospital and a large adjoining ware- 
 house had been fitted up for the reception of 
 the wounded Boer prisoners. These build- 
 ings, connected and surrounded by high stone 
 walls, fronted on the main street of the town; 
 but the entrances on this street were small, 
 guarded by single sentries, and used chiefly 
 for visitors. At the rear of the buildings was 
 a large yard, or recreation ground, surrounded 
 by ten-foot, smooth stone walls, topped with 
 79
 
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 broken glass, through which a single wide 
 entrance had been cut, and closed by great 
 iron gates swung on giant hinges. Through 
 these gates the prisoners and wounded were 
 marched or driven hi ambulance wagons to 
 then* long sometimes to their last home. 
 
 The convalescent prisoners and those whose 
 less serious wounds permitted were allowed 
 to exercise in this yard twice a day, an hour 
 in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. 
 Those who had special permission were also 
 allowed to receive visitors, under guard, in 
 the reception-room of the hospital. The sun 
 alone was under no surveillance but that of 
 the clouds of heaven; and from ten to eleven 
 in the morning and from three to four hi the 
 afternoon it held uninterrupted converse with 
 the free veldt and mountain bred Boers in the 
 yard, to whom its very light and touch were 
 as benedictions from home. 
 
 It was seven weeks from the time of his ar- 
 rival at Pietermaritzburg that Danie Linde 
 first arose from his cot and tottered out into 
 the blessed sunshine of the court, leaning heav- 
 80
 
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 ily on the shoulder of one of his fellow-pris- 
 oners and compatriots, seven weeks of suf- 
 fering and monotony and mental depression 
 that had seemed like seven years of torture. 
 In all that seven weeks he had neither seen 
 nor heard, any more than he had felt, anything 
 but pain and sorrow. He had been surrounded 
 by misery and picketed by death. Men with 
 whom he had interchanged no sounds but sighs, 
 whose friendship he had won only by glances, 
 wHbse sorrows and agonies he had sympa- 
 thised with only through his own, had, one 
 after one, murmured and grown silent and 
 disappeared. But their cots were never empty. 
 New sufferers had filled them, many to follow 
 their predecessors on the same dark road. 
 His own courage had given way under the 
 strain, and he had prayed to follow also. 
 
 He was worn and thin and weak when he 
 made his first appearance in the court on that 
 bright morning in February. But, at the 
 kindly touch of the sun he had not seen for 
 so long, his hopelessness disappeared as if by 
 magic. At the warning sound of the bell an 
 81
 
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 hour later he re-entered the building, and an- 
 swered to his name with a smile upon his face. 
 He began to live again. 
 
 The news of the war that reached the pris- 
 oners was unsatisfactory. It was all of Eng- 
 lish victories and Boer reverses. But he could 
 easily account for that. It came from Eng- 
 lish sources and was filtered through prison 
 walls. So he refused to believe it, and did his 
 best to put his renewed heart into his fellows. 
 As to Bettie, he longed to hear from her, to 
 send her word. She was always in his thoughts. 
 But at least she had heard of him, he was sure. 
 His old antagonist, his new friend, Campbell, 
 had promised to communicate with her and 
 to let her know that he was a prisoner, but 
 living. He could believe in Campbell. He 
 was a gentleman, and, what was more, a man. 
 He did believe in him. 
 
 "Yes," he said to himself, "there are some 
 good Englishmen. My friend is one of them. 
 He will keep his word." 
 
 His certainty that Bettie at least knew he 
 was alive and safe and his friendship for and 
 82
 
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 belief in Campbell put him in a better humour 
 with all his conquerors. He held long con- 
 versations, and not disagreeable ones, with 
 the surgeon in charge of the hospital, to whom 
 Campbell had recommended him by letter. 
 He talked often and cheerfully with his guards, 
 and soon became quite a favourite among 
 them. 
 
 One day he was sitting on a sunny bench 
 in the court, dreaming of home, of a possible 
 escape, of the chance of being able to fight 
 once more for his country, when a young Eng- 
 lish officer approached him. 
 
 " Adjutant. Linde, is it?" he asked. 
 
 Danie rose. "That is my name," he said, 
 wondering. For a second he felt guiltily as 
 if the Englishman might have detected his 
 thoughts in his face. But the officer relieved 
 him by holding out his hand to him with a 
 pleasant smile. 
 
 "I was told about you by my friend, Cap- 
 tain Campbell," he said, "and promised to 
 come and see you when I got to Pietermaritz- 
 burg. Do you remember him?" 
 83
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Indeed, I do," replied Danie, gratefully. 
 "I hope he is well?" 
 
 "He was when I saw him," returned the 
 other. "It is on his account that I came to 
 see you. I may be able to help you. Would 
 you accept a parole if it were offered?" 
 
 Danie was embarrassed. "Why," he said, 
 "I I hadn't thought about one. I should 
 have to think of the matter" 
 
 "Now, now," broke in the other pleasantly, 
 "you would be much wiser to do so. There 
 is absolutely no chance of your escaping from 
 Pietermaritzburg, even if you were free in 
 the streets. Your capital has been taken, and 
 your people have been driven up into the 
 northern part of the Transvaal, where they 
 are still foolishly carrying on a small guerilla 
 warfare. You would have to cross hundreds 
 of miles of country held by us to reach them. 
 And I will tell you privately that you will 
 never be exchanged. Our government is de- 
 termined to keep every Boer captured until 
 peace has been declared. You may very likely 
 be sent to Saint Helena shortly." 
 84
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Even then," began Danie, uncertainly, 
 "I don't know" 
 
 "Furthermore," continued his interlocutor, 
 persuasively, "it is an absolute certainty 
 and you know it as well as I do that this 
 war can only end in one way, in the com- 
 plete subjugation of the Transvaal and the 
 Free State, and in their amalgamation into the 
 British empire. Now, if you should choose 
 to_ be sensible, to help yourself and your 
 country in the best possible way, I can set 
 you free and put you in the way of doing so. 
 It is only necessary for you to say the 
 word." 
 
 Danie was startled. "What do you mean?" 
 he questioned. 
 
 The Englishman looked him hard in the 
 eyes. "Would you accept an appointment 
 in the Intelligence Department? We would 
 put you in the Free State, where you would 
 have nothing to do with your people" 
 
 Danie straightened up to his full height, 
 and his face grew hard and white. "Stop!" 
 he cried. "Do I understand that you ask 
 85
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 me to become a traitor? To desert my people 
 and serve you against them?" 
 
 "Don't use such harsh terms," said the 
 other. " It is only " 
 
 Danie interrupted him again. "Did Cap- 
 tain Campbell ask you to put this insulting 
 proposition to me? Tell me that!" he thun- 
 dered. 
 
 The Englishman shrugged his shoulders. 
 "It is my own offer, made solely out of con- 
 sideration for a prote"g of my friend," he 
 said coldly. "But I have no doubt that Cap- 
 tain Campbell would be very glad to see you 
 show a little sense in the matter. However, 
 that is your affair. If you prefer to rot here" 
 
 "I do prefer to rot here!" cried the fiery 
 Boer. "And I tell you now that, although 
 I was at first weak enough to consider, though 
 but for a moment, your offer of a parole, I 
 have to thank you for bringing me back to 
 myself. I refuse it under any and all circum- 
 stances. I scorn the offer as I scorn the man 
 who made it. I had rather have you shoot 
 me than make such an offer twice!" 
 86
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "All right!" retorted the angry Briton. 
 "I am sorry not to be able to oblige you in 
 every particular. I wish you good-afternoon." 
 And he turned on his heel, and walked off. 
 
 Hours, days, weeks, months, dragged wearily 
 by. The prisoner began to be bothered with 
 insomnia. Night after night he would lie in 
 his cot and listen to the monotonous ticking 
 of the great clock in the operating-room, the 
 Miext to his own. Oh, how long the nights were! 
 Staring into the darkness, he would try to re- 
 sist the influences of sound by conjuring up 
 scenes of home and of the camp. But neither 
 his imagination nor the faint, hourly calls of 
 the sentries around the walls, nor the moans 
 of the sick in their deliriums, nor the soft rustle 
 of the nurses' garments, the little clicking of 
 their cups and pans, could drown or overcome 
 that eternal, infernal tick, tick, tick, that grew 
 and increased and beat like hammers upon 
 his throbbing brain. Toward morning only 
 would he fall into uneasy sleep, and even such 
 dozing as his weary body finally secured was 
 interrupted and unreal. He would start up 
 87
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 as if haunted by ghosts. The fright, the diz- 
 ziness, would slowly disappear, and he would 
 rub his eyes and realise his surroundings. 
 
 "Ach!" he would murmur, "how crazy I 
 am! I am still a prisoner in Pietermaritz- 
 burg. The chains of my captivity hold me as 
 tightly as ever." 
 
 Then the long-expected days would break 
 after those interminable nights of dreams. 
 And such days! But at least there was no 
 unreality, no deceit, about them. 
 
 One morning he was standing near the barred 
 window of the reception-room, where he was 
 sometimes allowed to remain alone, when a 
 late visitor entered with a basket of fruit. The 
 sentry in the hall, whose tithe claim was al- ' 
 ways respected, grinned as he saluted. 
 
 Danie had invariably avoided the visitors 
 to the prison as he would the pest. He never 
 could quite free his mind of the idea that a 
 prison, even a prison of war, was not quite 
 the proper place for a man to be found; and, 
 moreover, he was assured in his own mind 
 that most of those who visited the prisoners 
 88
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 came but to sate an idle curiosity, of which 
 he, at least, determined never to be the ob- 
 ject. But this time he was fairly caught. 
 He bit his lip and waited, still gazing rigidly 
 out of the window. 
 
 The room was entered, a momentary si- 
 lence, light steps approached him, halted 
 behind him. He could but turn. He faced 
 an embarrassed, blushing girl of eighteen, her 
 k e*yes raised doubtfully to his, her lips quiver- 
 ing in an uncertain smile. Danie suddenly 
 realised that he was scowling frightfully. He 
 corrected his expression with such haste that 
 he felt himself he went too far in the op- 
 posite direction. 
 
 The girl laughed frankly. "Ah! that is bet- 
 ter, Mr. Linde," she said. "You don't look 
 so much like a bear. You positively fright- 
 ened me for a moment, and yet I only came 
 to bring you something from people who would 
 be your friends if you would let them." 
 
 "I I did not expect visitors," he stam- 
 mered. "I thought the usual hour for them 
 had passed." 
 
 89
 
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 "It has," she answered him lightly. "But 
 I saw your face at the window, and I wished 
 to offer you some fruit that I had with me. 
 I have never had the opportunity before." 
 
 "That is because I have never seen you 
 before," said Danie, gallantly. 
 
 "That is not my fault," she answered. "I 
 and my mother have been to see the poor 
 prisoners, one or both of us, every day for 
 months. We have seen you in the distance 
 often, but you would not look at us." 
 
 "But how did you get in? Ah! your face 
 would be a key to any door," he returned. 
 
 "Hush!" she said. "The sentries know 
 me as well as one of their own prisoners, and 
 passed me for a moment. But we are not 
 supposed to have any conversation with the 
 prisoners at all. The officer of the guard will 
 be back in a minute, and I must go. You 
 will let us see you again?" 
 
 "Indeed" he began to protest; but the 
 
 sentry stepped to the door, and she had slipped 
 
 out and down the hall. He ran to the window, 
 
 and watched her emerge into the street and 
 
 90
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 out of his sight. The rest of that day and 
 the night were but waiting for the day to come. 
 
 The next morning at the visitors' hour he 
 was waiting at the grating that separated 
 the prisoners from their friends. The girl 
 was there among the first, and greeted him 
 with a bright smile. A few words, a bunch 
 of grapes, and she was gone. 
 
 During the next two weeks Danie saw her 
 every day, sometimes with her mother, some- 
 tunes alone. He learned that their name was 
 Maritz, that the daughter's name was Martha, 
 that they were Natal Boers of concealed but 
 strong sympathy for the Republican cause. 
 Under the influence of the friendship and kind- 
 ness of the two women his days became brighter, 
 his nights grew quieter. He thought much 
 about Martha Maritz. 
 
 "Ah!" he said to himself, "blood is thicker 
 than water, after all. I could not like her 
 and her mother so much if they were Eng- 
 lish. But they are Boers, real Boers, even 
 though they are Natalers and English sub- 
 jects. How much she reminds me of my own 
 91
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 dear Bettie! and yet her hair is light, her eyes 
 brown, and she is smaller." And, as he had 
 done a thousand times before, he opened the 
 little bracelet on his wrist, and contemplated 
 the features of his betrothed long and ear- 
 nestly. "0 Bettie," he mused, "how quickly 
 I should forget her, were you near me! and 
 how little I can forget you under any cir- 
 cumstances!" 
 
 One bright morning early in May Martha 
 Maritz entered the hall of the prison with the 
 usual basket, and went up to the guard near 
 the grating behind which the eager prisoners 
 were crowded. The guard took the basket 
 from her hands, and accepted smilingly his own 
 parcel unopened. 
 
 The girl nodded and smiled at the prison- 
 ers, singling out Danie with her quick eyes, 
 and said to the guard in English, and loud 
 enough for the prisoners to hear, 
 
 "The dozen oranges are for Mr. Linde, 
 please." Then she turned toward the throng- 
 ing prisoners behind their bars, and said rap- 
 idly, in Dutch, "Open carefully!" 
 92
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The guard interposed suspiciously. "No 
 talking to the prisoners, ma'am. You know 
 that, Miss Maritz." 
 
 "All right, Sergeant," she said, smiling at 
 him. "I'll try to remember. I only said 
 good-morning to them. There is no harm 
 in that, is there? The poor fellows don't hear 
 it often." 
 
 She was gone. Danie took his oranges with 
 -Trembling hands, and made his way to his cot. 
 He looked them over in an apparently careless 
 manner. He could see nothing. What could 
 she have meant? The appealing eyes of fifty 
 men were on him as he handled the rare fruit: 
 he could not refuse to share with them; and 
 yet Ah ! this one was slit a little. He pressed 
 his thumb against the tiny and almost invisi- 
 ble hole hi the golden fruit, and broke the 
 skin. His thumb touched paper, his fingers 
 drew it out under cover of his other hand. 
 That was what he was after, no doubt; and 
 with a riotous heart he tossed the other eleven 
 oranges to his eager comrades. The tiny 
 twist of paper he slipped unseen from the palm 
 93
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 of his hand into his pocket, to read, to investi- 
 gate, when opportunity offered. 
 
 The opportunity came that afternoon in 
 the yard. Seated on the very bench on 
 which he had sat during his bitter interview 
 with the English officer who had come to him 
 from Campbell, and who had tried to tempt 
 him to treachery, he shuddered when he 
 thought of it, he unfolded the bit of tissue, 
 and read its contents. The letter was as 
 follows : 
 
 Dear Mr. Linde, It is not without a good deal of 
 trepidation on both our accounts that I am trying 
 to smuggle this into your hand. If you get it, it is 
 well. If not, anything may happen. We my 
 mother and myself feel deeply for our poor kinsmen 
 in the Republics, and we would willingly do what we 
 could for the cause. The hospital surgeon told me a 
 few days ago that you are likely to be removed 
 to Saint Helena at any time. We thought there- 
 fore that you should try to escape at once, if such 
 a thing were possible; and now it seems to be. Last 
 night we heard that more wounded are to be brought 
 to the hospital to-morrow (Thursday); and a daring 
 idea came to us, daring for you, I mean. 
 94
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The ambulances will be at the hospital about four 
 o 'clock to-morrow. If you can conceal yourself, for a 
 few moments after the call, outside in the yard, pos- 
 sibly get some one to answer to your name when 
 the roll is called, and can manage to slip into the 
 first empty ambulance, you will stand a good chance 
 of being carried outside of the walls before your 
 escape is discovered. The ambulances will return at 
 once to the station for more of the wounded, and 
 you will have a chance to drop out while going through 
 the streets. I will wait on the sidewalk about a 
 *Hock down, and behind some large trees close to 
 the road, with a cloak and an officer's cap under my 
 shawl. We will then go right to our house, where 
 everything will be in readiness to further your escape. 
 If you dare to make the attempt, let me know to-mor- 
 row morning by whistling a few bars of our national 
 anthem when you see me. May God aid us! Burn 
 or destroy this letter as soon as you have read it. 
 Your true friend, 
 
 MARTHA MARITZ. 
 
 By the time Danie had finished this epistle, 
 the cold perspiration was running over his 
 face. He rolled the thin tissue into a little 
 ball between his palms, and clapped it to his 
 mouth. 
 
 95
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Alia Magtie!" he said softly, "that girl 
 should be a general! And this pill, it is 
 sweeter than all the sugar-coated ones the 
 surgeon has been giving me for the last three 
 months! Down it goes!" He swallowed it 
 with alacrity. " Will I try her plan ? I should 
 think I would! I might as well go to Saint 
 Helena for trying to escape as for not trying 
 to. I will whistle the old Volkslied to-morrow 
 so that she could hear it at home! But if I 
 should be captured while with her or in her 
 charge, oh, the shame!" His joy changed 
 suddenly to a horrible fear; and, closing his 
 eyes and clasping his hands where he sat, 
 Danie prayed, though silently, as he had never 
 prayed before: 
 
 "0 God of my fathers, to Thee I appeal for 
 courage, wisdom, and guidance. Thou near- 
 est the oppressed even through prison walls, 
 and even here Thy hand can reach and help me. 
 Take Thou charge of me, Lord, and I shall 
 be safe. heavenly Father, guard those 
 who are exposing themselves to danger for my 
 sake, so that no harm befall them. Amen!" 
 96
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 It was far into the night before his disturbed 
 and tumultuous thoughts allowed him to sleep. 
 Long before daylight he was awakened by a 
 nurse who stumbled over an empty basin, 
 causing a noise that, light as it was, brought 
 Danie upright on his cot. He had been dream- 
 ing of Blaauwkop and of the days of old; he 
 had been in Bettie's very presence, her happy 
 smile shining on him, her happy hand in his. 
 Qb, the recollection! He prepared himself 
 for an hour of worry, of fear, of sleepless toss- 
 ing; but soon he was dozing and dreaming again. 
 And this time it was of the field, of the camp. 
 He had accomplished his escape, he was back 
 with his old commando. He and others were 
 seated at a 'fire, relating their experiences 
 of the day's fighting, how Jan dodged 
 when the shell nearly struck the stone behind 
 which he was lying. "Alia Kragtie!" Jan 
 replied, " but, when that old khaki chased you 
 down in the flat there, how hollow you made 
 your back! If Japie hadn't shot him, you 
 would have died of fright before you reached 
 the kopj e you were making for !" " There come 
 97
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the khakis now!" shouted another young 
 burgher. 
 
 And Danie woke to find himself again up- 
 right, his heart beating so loudly that he 
 thought for a while he was ill. So intoxi- 
 cated was his mind with the prospect of free- 
 dom on which it dwelt that he remained sitting 
 up in his cot until the grey dawn, breaking 
 through the dark curtains of the night, bore 
 the day that was to bring entire happiness or 
 desperate grief, freedom or deportation. 
 
 At nine o'clock, the usual hour for visitors, 
 Danie was pressed against the bars that marked 
 the prisoners' limit of intercourse. Prompt 
 to the hour and true to her charitable custom, 
 Martha Maritz appeared in the doorway with 
 her well-known basket. Danie's eyes were 
 fastened on hers from the moment she entered 
 the hall; and, when she returned his compelling 
 regard, he at once began to whistle the Volks- 
 lied, slowly and distinctly. The girl turned 
 pale as death with excitement, but instantly 
 the crimson blood mantled her cheeks, her 
 
 98
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 brow, her throat; and her flashing eyes told 
 him how great her joy was at his acceptance of 
 her plan. She went away earlier than usual, 
 and Danie was left to pass the day with his 
 thoughts and his plans. It still lacked seven 
 long hours of the time set for the attempt. 
 
 99
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE tortoise, Time, never seems to crawl 
 more slowly than on occasions when 
 those hares, men's hopes, awake to leave it 
 behind them in leaps that express their scorn 
 as well as their enthusiasm. Yet the little 
 animals are always fortunate if finally per- 
 mitted by fate to touch the goal in company 
 with the slow but sure chelonian. 
 
 Before he went out into the yard for what 
 he hoped would be his last hour of exercise 
 there, the young Boer had made all his plans, 
 selected from his few possessions spread upon 
 his cot those which he intended to take with 
 him, his Bible, his tooth-brush, a pocket- 
 knife, a cigarette box containing two needles, 
 some short lengths of thread, and a few buttons. 
 His other property, which amounted to quite 
 a little for a man in his position, and included 
 a number of old magazines and papers, he left 
 behind him for the benefit of the men he had 
 lived with for so long. How he a prisoner 
 who, when captured, had nothing on his per- 
 100
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 son but the clothes he wore came by such a 
 little stock of goods is not explained. But 
 it is observable that man, no matter where or 
 under what circumstances he may exist, col- 
 lects about him in good time numberless waifs 
 and strays of property, things he needs and 
 things he does not need, just as the smallest, 
 loneliest peak of rock that juts out of a soli- 
 tary ocean will attract the flotsam and jet- 
 of the seas around, expanding itself at 
 last by so much. 
 
 With the four articles of property described 
 concealed about his rather ragged person, 
 Danie stood anxiously looking at the sky 
 above at half-past three on that fateful after- 
 noon. Thick, black clouds had begun to 
 tumble up from behind the Bothasbergen hi 
 the east, and then- great wings were rapidly 
 spreading darkly over the blue expanse that 
 paled before them. The distant and constant 
 rumble of heavy thunder, beating like waves 
 against the rocks of the hills, he could already 
 hear. Every now and then the faint reflection 
 of still distant lightning could be seen on the 
 101
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 clouds overhead. One of the quick, fierce 
 South African winter storms was about to 
 sweep Pietermaritzburg. It might last for 
 hours. 
 
 Danie was perhaps the only person in the 
 town who thanked God with all his heart for 
 the cold, black gloom. It was too late, he 
 was sure, for such a storm to bring rain; and 
 he counted much on the assistance that the 
 black darkness was bound to afford him. 
 
 Suddenly at about quarter to four the 
 sentry outside the great gates turned to the 
 court, and, pressing his face against the bars, 
 shouted to the sentry at the door of the hos- 
 pital building. 
 
 "Ha-a-all right!" he called. 
 
 The other man turned at once, and the as- 
 sembly bell sounded. The prisoners gath- 
 ered about the door, and began to march in 
 according to then* usual custom, in line and 
 as nearly in alphabetical order as possible; 
 for this saved them time at the roll-call that 
 was held as they entered. Their guards were 
 apparently in great haste to get them in this 
 102
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 day; and, as Danie neared the door, he slipped 
 out of the line without being observed. He 
 dropped behind two large water-butts that 
 stood close together and nearly against the 
 wall of the building, ten feet from the door. 
 He had made arrangements with one friend 
 to fall back in the line and answer to the name 
 of "Linde" when it should be called. He 
 counted on the haste of the officer in charge 
 to get the prisoners out of the way before the 
 arrival of the ambulances. The chances were 
 fair that he would not note the substitution. 
 
 Danie crouched and waited. A corporal 
 of the prison guard came out of the door as 
 soon as the last man was in, slammed and 
 bolted it behind him, and walked across the 
 court toward the gates, jingling the keys in 
 his hand. Danie could see him clearly through 
 the slight curving angle of space between the 
 butts. He unlocked the gates, and stood 
 aside. There was a rattle beyond not quite 
 drowned by the clamorous thunder above, 
 the outer sentries pushed the heavy gates open, 
 and three ambulance wagons drove into and 
 103
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 across the court,, and swung around so that 
 their tails were opposite to the door of the hos- 
 pital, which the corporal, leaving the outer 
 gates open and running quickly across the 
 court, speedily unlocked. The surgeon came 
 to the door, Danie could hear his voice, 
 and gave orders. The bearers, grouped about 
 the backs of the wagons, began to lift out the 
 stretchers and take them into the building. 
 One man was left with the horses. Danie was 
 swayed by a strong impulse, born of his fear 
 of failure in his plan and fathered by the ap- 
 parent opportunity open before him, to leap 
 from his hiding-place and rush through the 
 gates, trusting to his speed to get away from 
 the guard at the horses' heads and the sentries 
 at the entrance. He fortunately restrained 
 himself until the bearers returned for another 
 load of his poor compatriots, whose white faces 
 he could see, whose groans and shrieks he could 
 hear, as they were rudely lifted out and jostled 
 by the tired and overworked attendants. One 
 wounded man, whose face he never forgot, 
 looked into his eyes through the crack between 
 104
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the butts, and, half raising his head from the 
 bloody pillow, pointed a shaking finger at him 
 as he was being lifted from the wagon. But 
 the attendants paid no attention to what 
 they considered, if at all, the vagaries of a 
 dying Boer; and Danie's horrible fright went 
 for nothing. 
 
 Five times the bearers of these bloody bur- 
 dens came and went. At last the supreme 
 moment had arrived. The ambulances were 
 empty, and in half a minute the attendants 
 would be back and in their places, and the 
 wagons would be through the gates and on 
 their way for more loads of sorrow at the sta- 
 tion. 
 
 Danie drew a long breath, and stole from his 
 concealment to the ambulances. He climbed 
 rapidly, but so softly as hardly to sway it, 
 into the nearest of the three, and, dropping 
 on the floor beneath the seat along the side, 
 pulled over himself a loose blanket that was 
 lying there. He had scarcely completed his 
 action when he heard voices again, the hospi- 
 tal door slammed for the last time, a man 
 105
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 swung himself into the seat above Danie, and 
 the three wagons started. As they rolled 
 slowly through the court, he knew to each inch 
 where he was. As he passed at last out of 
 those gates he knew so well, they banged be- 
 hind him, the loud clang of iron behind him! 
 It was the most cheerful sound he had heard 
 since the Boer Krupps opened at Dundee. 
 
 They turned down the street, and the horses 
 broke into a trot. He could tell from the 
 motion. The man on the seat above him, al- 
 ready in a conversation with the driver, which 
 Danie could hear, smothered though he was 
 in the blanket, but of which he could not make 
 out the purport, suddenly rose, and, from the 
 movement, Danie judged that he was climbing 
 into the seat with his comrade. The half- 
 stifled Boer ventured to lift the corner of the 
 blanket, and look out from his dark hiding- 
 place. The coast was comparatively clear. 
 The two men were on the front seat, their 
 backs toward him. He edged, still beneath 
 the blanket, to the open end of the ambulance, 
 hung his feet over, wrapped the blanket about 
 106
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 his head, and fell as quietly as he could into 
 the road. Dazed by the fall, he still managed 
 to turn his head on the ground and look after 
 the wagon he had so unceremoniously left. 
 It had not slackened its pace. It was evident 
 that the driver and the stretcher-bearer had 
 had no idea of his presence and had not heard 
 his fall. So far he was safe. 
 
 He rose rapidly, and, wrapping the blanket 
 about his head and shoulders, ran to the shel- 
 ter of the great trees that overhung the road. 
 The thunder was crashing in long, loud peals; 
 the intense darkness was made still blacker 
 and more impenetrable by the blinding bril- 
 liancy of the flashes that lighted the world 
 every other minute. He had no idea where 
 he was, but instinctively took the opposite 
 direction to that of his brief ride. 
 
 He had not gone twenty paces when he ran 
 plump into somebody, and felt a pair of arms 
 flung hastily around him. He twisted him- 
 self quickly to the left and partly out of their 
 grip, raising his right hand for a blow at the 
 same instant, when its descent was stopped in 
 107
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 mid-air by a soft voice that whispered: "Is 
 this you, Mr. Linde? Is it really you?" 
 
 At that instant a light, preliminary flash of 
 lightning opened up the long vista of the side- 
 walk to his eyes, and before him, looking up 
 at his, he saw the white, frightened face of 
 Martha Maritz. She recovered her balance, 
 disturbed by the sudden shock of their meet- 
 ing, and dropped her arms from about his 
 waist. 
 
 "0 my dear preserver," he exclaimed, 
 "I have found you! I didn't think Were 
 you brave enough to come out in this dread- 
 ful storm for me?" 
 
 "Come, come quickly!" she breathed. 
 "Here is your cloak, your hat. Give me the 
 blanket you have. I will use it for a shawl. 
 Come. We must go directly." 
 
 He took the garments she offered him, and 
 donned them. Then he wrapped the blanket 
 around her, and, taking her hand in his, let 
 her lead him on. They passed quickly and in 
 silence down a side street, then turned an- 
 other corner. 
 
 108
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "I am going to take you to the house of a 
 friend," she said. "I am afraid our home 
 might not be safe for you." 
 
 "Anywhere" he began. 
 
 "My mother is there, too," she interrupted 
 hurriedly; "and we have there everything you 
 will need, except a horse, clothes, razors, 
 money, food. You must be off as soon as you 
 can get ready. I mil not have you caught and 
 made a prisoner again in this dreadful town." 
 
 She almost dragged him into a little gateway 
 and up a walk to the door of a cottage, set 
 some distance back from the street. A knock, 
 the door was opened, some people stood 
 there, he was hurried inside, and the door 
 was softly shut behind him. The light, the 
 strangeness of the situation, embarrassed him. 
 He replied to the introductions to Mrs. Maritz 
 and her friends and received their congratula- 
 tions with a whirling brain. When the first 
 excitement was over and his mind had become 
 clearer, calmer, he turned again to pour his 
 thanks out at the feet of the girl who had 
 risked so much to save him. She was gone. 
 109
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 An hour saw him washed, shaved, clothed, 
 and fed. Mrs. Maritz had trimmed his long 
 uncut hair with her own hands. He was 
 standing by the window of the little parlour, 
 clad in the field uniform of a British captain 
 of cavalry, and looking tenderly at the like- 
 ness of Bettie in the bracelet on his arm, when 
 he heard a little noise at his elbow. He turned. 
 Martha Maritz was standing behind him, 
 gazing at him with shining eyes. He held 
 out his hands to her impulsively. 
 
 "Miss Maritz," he stammered, "I can say 
 but little of what I feel for what you have 
 risked and done for me. Words are too poor 
 to express my feeling. But here," he raised 
 his wrist and held the portrait before her, 
 "here is one who, when she meets you, will 
 know how to speak adequately for us both." 
 
 Her hands seemed to turn suddenly cold 
 in his. She withdrew them gently from his 
 grasp, and motioned toward the portrait. 
 
 "Let me see it," she whispered. She looked 
 long into the lovely eyes that stared at her 
 from the miniature. Then she lowered her own. 
 110
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Tell her I did it for her, although I did not 
 know it," she said finally, looking bravely 
 up at him. "And and give her my love. 
 Now," she continued, drawing away from 
 him, "now you must go. I am very tired. 
 God bless you and protect you. Good-bye." 
 
 He noticed that her face was very pale and 
 that her hands were trembling, and he started 
 anxiously toward her. But she waved him 
 off, i/and walked quickly out of the room. 
 As she passed through the door, Danie thought 
 he heard a little noise, like a sob. But he could 
 not be sure, and she ran up the stairs without 
 looking back at him once. 
 
 With the deepest protestations of friendship 
 and wishes for his good fortune, intermingled 
 with much and varied advice and information, 
 Mrs. Maritz conducted him to the door and 
 let him go. On the sidewalk on the verge 
 of a dangerous and unknown future he turned 
 and gazed back at the house. Pressed to the 
 glass of an upper window, he could dimly 
 make out a small white face. He waved his 
 hand to it in a last greeting, and went on. 
 Ill
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE darkness was still that of night when 
 Danie Linde went out alone into a strange 
 world under a strange disguise, leaving his 
 friends behind him. The storm was raging 
 and racing to the westward; and the eager 
 Boer, obeying the instructions of his saviours, 
 followed its course by the next cross street. 
 He strode rapidly down Plough Street, and 
 passed in front of the Royal Hotel without 
 turning his eyes to the right or left. Once 
 more in a darker quarter of the town, he quick- 
 ened his pace as much as he could without 
 breaking into a run undignified and unbe- 
 fitting an English officer. He was nearing the 
 outskirts. He had been told that he would 
 have to make his exit through a regularly 
 guarded gate, that the town was encompassed 
 by pickets and by small camps, and by entangle- 
 ments of barbed wire. A low house, set some- 
 what apart from the others about him and 
 well lighted, stood across the road. Hitched 
 to a rickety fence in front of it were half a dozen 
 112
 
 "The surprised and pained animal made 
 a mighty leap "... (seepage US)
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 horses. He glanced rapidly up and down 
 the street. It seemed deserted. 
 
 Crossing into the dark shadows of a clump 
 of trees that stood between him and the lighted 
 windows, he peered carefully around the trunk 
 of one of them, and looked into the house. 
 It appeared to be a sort of tavern. At a round 
 table in the centre of the bright room were 
 seated a number of men, officers, apparently. 
 He'Vatched them for a minute, and then stole 
 cautiously to where the horses were grouped. 
 Picking out the best as well as he could in the 
 semi-darkness, he unhitched it, and led it 
 quietly some paces away from the house. He 
 stopped. There was no noise, no evident dis- 
 covery of his theft by those within. He 
 mounted, and rode off in the direction of the 
 western exit. He found, as he had been told, 
 that his way was barred. As he approached 
 the gate, a sentry stepped out into the road 
 and challenged him. Danie pulled up at 
 once: the man's rifle was pointed at his 
 breast. 
 
 "Well? "he asked. 
 
 113
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Upon recognising the uniform of the rider, 
 who now towered close over him, the sentry 
 dropped his rifle into his right hand and par- 
 tially opened the gate with his left, demand- 
 ing at the same time, 
 
 "Have you the countersign, sir?" 
 
 "Countersign?" asked Danie, with a beating 
 heart. "Why, what time is it, my man?" 
 
 "Just after six, sir," replied the soldier. 
 "At six we go on with the countersign." 
 
 Danie made up his mind in a hurry. There 
 was nothing else to do but make a break for it. 
 
 "I hadn't thought it was so late," he an- 
 swered. "Here is the word," and he leaned 
 forward in his saddle. "Thank God, the fool 
 didn't dismount me," he thought, "or I should 
 have been stuck." 
 
 The man also leaned a little forward toward 
 the officer, wondering in his own mind why 
 his superior was so devilish particular about 
 whispering what nobody was near enough to 
 hear, if he had shouted it. At that instant 
 the officer drove his spurs into the flanks of 
 his steed, and the surprised and pained ani- 
 114
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 mal made a mighty leap through the air, bowl- 
 ing over the unfortunate sentry like a ninepin 
 and landing himself and his rider ten feet be- 
 yond the gate. 
 
 Danie had covered a good two hundred 
 yards and was out of sight in the darkness 
 before the half-stunned sentry found his voice 
 and his equilibrium. He heard through the 
 sound of the wind rushing by his face a faint 
 .shout from the direction of the gate, and 
 then a shot, in a minute two or three more. 
 Then all was silent except for the furious rush 
 and thunder of his horse, to whom he put the 
 spurs fiercely and recklessly from time to time. 
 When he had covered, as he thought, two 
 and a half or three miles on the straight road 
 west, he pulled the poor brute down to a walk. 
 The horse was indeed badly blown; and it oc- 
 curred to his rider that, if he intended to 
 depend on his mount for the rest of the night, 
 and he certainly would have to, he must 
 take as much care of him as possible. He 
 stopped, dismounted, and laid his ear to the 
 ground. He listened for a full minute : he could 
 115
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 hear nothing. As he rose, he remarked that 
 the light seemed to have increased. And 
 in fact the stars were out, and a moon was 
 rising in the east. The storm that had been 
 such a godsend to him the devout Boer 
 could not consider it otherwise was well on 
 its way to the great Drakensbergen; and his 
 prayers, or rather that dear Martha's, had 
 prevailed in every particular to his best advan- 
 tage. With a great gratitude swelling La his 
 heart, he turned his horse northward into the 
 veldt, heading for the broad forest that he 
 knew reached north as far as the Mooi River, 
 thirty miles away, and lay fan-shaped between 
 the two lines of railroad that ran toward Est- 
 court and toward Greytown, respectively. He 
 had the map of central and northern Natal 
 deeply graven hi his mind. It was not for 
 nothing that he had spent so many weary 
 months hi prison with men who had lived over, 
 travelled over, fought over, the country that 
 he now had to traverse. He knew that he 
 would have to push hard forward to reach 
 the concealment of the forest before day should 
 116
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 break, perhaps to betray him. So, once well 
 in the veldt and at a long right angle to the 
 road he had come, he dismounted -again from 
 his horse, loosened the girths, shifted the sad- 
 dle, and rubbed the still heaving animal down 
 as thoroughly as he could with long bunches 
 of dry kwitch grass. Ten minutes of ac- 
 tive treatment produced a very evident and 
 beneficial effect on his four-legged companion, 
 add Danie felt that he could safely put him to 
 the task before them. 
 
 With no path, no track to follow, he rode 
 onward with assurance, guided only by the 
 ever friendly stars. The Drie Koning (Three 
 Kings) and the Seven Stars friends of old 
 gave him his direction. Now and then he 
 rode up against a wire fence, or his pony brought 
 up short before a donga (canyon), and he 
 would have to waste time and strength in 
 going around each to avoid it. But his little 
 steed was strong and swift. 
 
 So absorbed was Danie in every detail of his 
 dark ride, so full was his mind of the excitement 
 of his escape, that the long night passed before 
 117
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 he dreamed it was half over. When the daylight 
 broke, he saw the longed-for forest a mile or 
 more to the left. He was in an open plain, and 
 the mists of morning were rising to reveal him 
 to any one who might be within sight as an in- 
 strument of fate. Urging his tired but willing 
 mount to a more rapid pace, he entered the 
 edge of the secure woods just as the sun rose. 
 He rode into the pines for a short distance, 
 and hitched his horse at the bottom of a little 
 gully, whence he ran back to the edge of the 
 woods and painfully climbed the tallest tree 
 he could find, so that he could overlook the 
 country of his approach for miles. The 
 mounting sun lighted brightly a larger and 
 larger expanse of veldt; but, save for the 
 morning smoke rising from the kraals of a 
 native village on the far horizon, it shone upon 
 no life or signs of life that he could see. It 
 was evident that he was not pursued as yet. 
 After a full half-hour of discomfort and reas- 
 surance combined, he climbed as painfully 
 down from his watch-tower, and made his 
 way back to where he had left his companion. 
 118
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 He proceeded to cut an armful of grass, and, 
 after watering and feeding the faithful animal, 
 he off-saddled, and sat down on the ground to 
 search the saddle-bags. To his delight he 
 found three tins of forced rations and some 
 dry biscuits, besides a field-flask nearly full 
 of whiskey and a package of cigarettes. This 
 provision, added to what had been put into 
 his own pockets by Mrs. Maritz, would suffice 
 'him for several days under stress. "And, 
 if I cannot raise more for myself when I need 
 it," said he to himself, " then I am no true Boer, 
 or there are no Kaffirs in this country!" And 
 when he had, like a true friend and careful, 
 seen both to the comfort of his horse and his 
 inner man, he rolled under a bush and slept 
 for hours the sleep of a little child. 
 
 Toward the middle of the afternoon he 
 awoke. The remainder of the day was passed 
 restlessly. He groomed and rubbed his horse 
 until it looked as smooth and bright as a new 
 toy, until its quivering muscles looked and 
 felt fit to do the last night's journey twice 
 over. He examined and unloaded and reloaded 
 119
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 his three revolvers the pair he had found 
 in the saddle-holsters and the one given him 
 by the Maritzes until he was afraid of wearing 
 them out. He restowed his provisions about 
 his own person to the most compact advan- 
 tage. He climbed his tree again and again to 
 take observations. At dusk he remounted 
 with a sigh of relief, and resumed his flight. 
 The forest soon grew thinner, the trees stood 
 farther and farther apart, and he seemed to 
 be coming to an opening. He was more ner- 
 vous than he had been before. Dim shapes of 
 rocks, shadowy stumps of trees, rose suddenly 
 and threateningly out of the gloom ahead to 
 bar his passage. Unsubstantial faces seemed 
 to peer at him from behind the trees that bor- 
 dered his road. Mournful and invisible owls 
 hooted at him from their hiding-places from 
 time to time, yet in hushed tones, as if they 
 feared to bring their night persecutors upon 
 them. It was a great relief to Danie when after 
 half an hour he emerged through the edges of 
 the wood into the open veldt again. The sun 
 was just disappearing, but so dark had been 
 120
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the forest that he seemed to be emerging from 
 night into day. A little distance ahead was 
 a Kaffir kraal. He rode toward it, but as soon 
 as he approached he saw that it was old and 
 deserted, and overgrown with kwitch grass. 
 He passed on. Riding up a little rise, he saw 
 ahead of him another kraal, and the smoke 
 rising dimly into the evening air showed that 
 it was inhabited. Trusting in his disguise 
 arid in the extreme improbability of these 
 forest-dwelling natives having heard of his 
 escape, he resolved to visit them and make 
 inquiries as to the country and its inhabi- 
 tants. He might possibly hear of some friendly 
 farmer who could help him. 
 
 Taking the bull by the horns, he rode in an 
 open and careless manner straight across the 
 veldt to the village, and halted by the thorn 
 gate of the cattle kraal, where the Induna, 
 or village chief, sat on a matjie of split cane, 
 with his subjects grouped around him in a circle. 
 A large earthen pot of oetjuala, or Kaffir beer, 
 stood in the centre of the circle; and the na- 
 tives, inflamed by the liquor, were all talking 
 121
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 and shouting at the top of their voices. At 
 Danie's appearance they jumped up in sur- 
 prise. Silent, they looked carefully about, 
 according to their custom, to see if there were 
 any more strangers, near or far. Then, throw- 
 ing up one hand, they cried unanimously, 
 "Baihetti N'Kosi!" (Salute, King!) The 
 Induna stepped forward. 
 
 "Where do you come from, Englishman?" 
 he asked. 
 
 Danie answered him in the native tongue. 
 "I come from Tolemie, and I am looking for 
 a prisoner who escaped from us there. Have 
 you seen such a man?" 
 
 "No," replied the head man, "no one has 
 passed here. You are an officer. How is it 
 that you travel unattended?" 
 
 "The horse of my servant fell and hurt him- 
 self, and he had to return to Tolemie," answered 
 Danie. "But it is getting dark, and I am 
 going to Grey town. Tell me the way, and if 
 there are any homesteads near by, and who 
 are the owners of them." 
 
 The Kaffir gave a long and detailed descrip- 
 122
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUB 
 
 tion of the road, the neighboring farms and 
 their owners. Minutely he explained who 
 were English sympathisers and which were 
 friendly to the Boers. Then he called the 
 abafasie, the women of the kraal, and ordered 
 them to boil some eggs for the travelling Eng- 
 lishman. Danie's liberal payment was re- 
 warded by a calabash of rich beer. The Kaf- 
 firs questioned him as to the state of the war, 
 wffti unusual interest in the doings of their 
 white overlords. But they did not hesitate to 
 tell the sham British officer, much to his secret 
 delight, that they were surprised that the Eng- 
 lish took so long about it, that the Boers should 
 by this time have all been killed. 
 
 Danie soon took his departure, and rode 
 swiftly into the night. It had become quite 
 dark. Making use of the information he had 
 received and avoiding the advice, he steered 
 his course directly north, and at midnight 
 under a bright moon crossed the Mooi River 
 by an easy ford. Stopping a few moments to 
 rest and water his horse, he rode on without 
 a halt or even a serious difficulty until the break- 
 123
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ing day showed him the Tugela River, in swift 
 and yellow flight toward the sea, confronting 
 him with the dangers of its passage and of 
 the daylight. A deep kloof, sparsely fringed 
 and decked with wacht-een-bietje bushes and 
 nooiensboomen, offered him the seclusion he 
 desired until nightfall. Between sleeping and 
 watching the Tugela Ferry, near which he 
 found himself, he passed the day undisturbed 
 and in comparative comfort. 
 
 He waited until darkness was complete be- 
 fore he ventured to cross the Tugela by the 
 ford at the ferry, and he did not draw an even 
 breath until he had left the road for the bush 
 on the north bank and was well out of sight 
 of the line of honest travel. His horse's con- 
 dition was becoming a matter of great anxiety 
 to him. The poor animal, its head hanging, 
 its ears dropped almost as low as a dog's, re- 
 fused longer to answer to the impatience of 
 its rider, who himself, when he told himself 
 the truth, was feeling faint both from hunger 
 and weariness. But he was constrained to 
 dismount and lead his horse, notwithstanding 
 124
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 his own languor. He kept up his spirits by 
 continually estimating and recounting the 
 miles that measured the distance between him 
 and his prison, that lay between him and his 
 country. He believed himself out of Natal 
 proper and in Zululand, east of the Buffalo 
 River. For was not the junction of the Mooi 
 with the river of battles far to the eastward 
 of where the Buffalo emptied its brighter 
 waters gathered from the Transvaal mountains 
 into the muddy Tugela? He was sure of it. 
 
 All that night he plodded along, as sore- 
 footed as his horse, sparing himself no more 
 than he did his unfortunate companion. He 
 was, toward morning, so worried about the 
 state of the poor beast that, had it been pos- 
 sible, he would have put the saddle on his 
 own back and carried the horse. He laughed 
 at the idea, but he sighed as he thought of 
 what might happen if the brute should not 
 recover some sort of condition. He watched its 
 irregular heaving, its almost blindly stumbling 
 steps, with a fear more selfish than compas- 
 sion. 
 
 125
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Where he was when the dawn broke, he could 
 not guess. He only knew that he had held 
 a generally northern course, that he had fol- 
 lowed the friendly stars, and that he had kept 
 moving. The day was spent mostly in worry 
 and anxiety. He could not sleep. The un- 
 happy horse would not eat. This ominous 
 sign frightened Danie the more. He used 
 every effort that suggested itself to his now 
 unusually resourceful mind. He cast the tired 
 animal, washed it, rubbed it, blew some of his 
 precious whiskey into its red nostrils, all with- 
 out apparent effect. It made no attempt to 
 rise, it consistently refused to eat. Neverthe- 
 less, at dusk he dragged it desperately to its 
 feet, and with the saddle on his own shoulders 
 started on again, dragging the weary animal 
 by the bridle behind him. A few hundred 
 yards from the place where he had lain by that 
 miserable day, he came to a road, and, cross- 
 ing the road, he nearly ran into a small native 
 hut of grass, so concealed by its shape, its ma- 
 terial, and its color that it stood almost invisi- 
 ble from the highway. 
 
 126
 
 UNDER 'THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Reckless of arousing either fear or suspicion, 
 he called loudly at its low entrance. A soli- 
 tary Kaffir came forth, and gazed stupidly at 
 him, but with a little gleam in his narrow eyes 
 to prove that he took in all he saw. Danie 
 demanded arrogantly enough a description of his 
 whereabouts and the condition of the country- 
 side, and got it. He learned, to his horror, 
 that he was near the little hamlet of Doug- 
 la*~hi the Pomeroy district, many miles, as he 
 knew, to the west of the Buffalo River and al- 
 most in the heart of northern Natal. He could 
 barely conceal his disappointment and anger. 
 
 "Yes, baas," continued the Kaffir, watching 
 him closely; "but, if you are lost and your 
 horse is tired, you will be able to go to Baas 
 Hockley's farm. He is a good Englishman, 
 and is very fond of English soldiers. And he 
 lives but six miles up the road and in the veldt 
 to the left. He will be glad to see you." 
 
 Danie was desperate. He decided to go to 
 Hockley's, and bluff it out. "Will you guide 
 me there?" he demanded. "I will give you 
 two shillings for the service." 
 127
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The little Kaffir grinned, and threw his hands 
 into the air. 
 
 "Go on, baas," he said. "You cannot miss 
 it. It is a great kraal." And he disappeared 
 behind the hut into the darkness. 
 
 The unhappy Boer lost his temper completely, 
 and shouted curses after the black. But the 
 only answer he got was a mocking laugh out 
 of the night. He dragged on for another hope- 
 less, painful mile, and then the poor horse 
 stumbled and fell. When his master pulled 
 him to his reluctant feet, he absolutely refused 
 to take another step. Danie had to give it 
 up. He dropped the reins and fell himself 
 to the ground, where he wrapped himself in 
 his cloak and slept. 
 
 He did not wake until bright daylight. For 
 a moment he lay dreamily gazing up into a 
 blue, unclouded sky. Then suddenly recol- 
 lection returned to him, and he started up in 
 a great fear and looked about him. Lo and 
 behold! the horse was on his feet at a little 
 distance, and cropping the short grass vig- 
 orously. 
 
 128
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE sun was a good hour high when Danie, 
 still leading his now partially recu- 
 perated steed, followed the half-obliterated road 
 over a little randt, or rise, and saw lying in the 
 valley before him the pretty farmstead he knew 
 must be Hockley's. Beyond the kraals lay 
 the chief farm buildings, a large white house 
 wfEh a roof of glistening galvanized iron, a 
 wagon-house, a stable. The cattle and the 
 sheep were leaving the kraals for the veldt, 
 moving slowly toward his right in a long, single 
 line. As he approached, he could see the 
 barn-yard fowls swarming about the kitchen 
 door, at the opening of which stood an old 
 woman in a pinafore, feeding them from a 
 shaking pan. He could hear her high, cracked 
 voice calling, "Kip, kip! Kip, kip!" to the 
 stragglers, who were pitching greedily and 
 hastily along the path that led from the kraals. 
 For a brief instant Danie hesitated. But 
 he had to put a bold face on the matter. So 
 he concealed all traces of his trepidation under 
 129
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 an air of complete assurance, and moved briskly 
 on. As he appeared around the kraal wall, 
 the old woman in the kitchen door saw him, 
 and stopped her task to watch him with shaded 
 eyes. A little Kaffir boy, who was engaged 
 in separating the calves from the cows in their 
 line of march, ran back when he saw the ma- 
 sodga (soldier), and cried out his approach to his 
 mother, who was stamping mealies by the kraal 
 gate. The old woman at the door dropped 
 her pan, and screamed out to the boy, 
 
 " Run, limb, and tell the old baas somebody is 
 coming." 
 
 The little black fellow ran around to the 
 front of the house, and shouted in broken 
 English, mixed with Dutch and Zulu, 
 
 "Ou baas! Here he come, een masodga!" 
 
 Danie was now so close upon the heels of his 
 announcer that he could hear the answer. 
 
 "Well, let the masodga come. You baleka 
 keta ama n'koujane" (run back and separate 
 the calves). 
 
 Danie turned the corner, and stood in front 
 of the house. The little Kaffir boy ran past 
 130
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 him, looking back at him over his shoulder, 
 and, when he was at a safe distance, he called 
 out to the soldier a native greeting, " Sakoebona 
 indoda." 
 
 "Ewe, mfaan" (yes, boy), replied Danie, 
 smiling as he halted in front of the stoep. 
 
 The master of the house was seated in a 
 comfortable chair, with a lap full of papers, 
 one of which he held open in his hand. Be- 
 "side him on the floor lay a number of unopened 
 letters, magazines, and other small packages; 
 for the Kaffir runner had just brought in the 
 mail of the last three weeks. He looked in- 
 quiringly over his spectacles at the new-comer. 
 
 "Good-morning, sir," said Danie, touching 
 his hat. 
 
 The old gentleman took off his spectacles, 
 put them carefully into a case, pushed his old 
 "hard hitter" back on his otherwise scantily 
 protected head, and rose slowly. 
 
 "Good-morning, good-morning," he replied, 
 and advanced to the edge of the stoep, where 
 he stopped in a characteristic English pose, 
 looking down at the man before him. 
 131
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Good-morning," he repeated. "I can't 
 ask you to dismount, as you have done so; 
 but won't you off-saddle? Your horse looks 
 all knocked up. You must have come a long 
 distance, Captain Major ? I don't know 
 anything about these new-fangled mud-col- 
 oured uniforms and little buttoned straps in- 
 stead of epaulettes. They used to have some- 
 thing decent in my time, sir, for a soldier and 
 a gentleman to wear. I dare say these damned 
 Boers would have been beaten out of the coun- 
 try by now if we had the old soldiers, the old 
 Englishmen, the old red coats we used to have. 
 You younger men are a degenerate lot, and 
 your war is as bad as you are. What did you 
 say your name was, sir?" He stopped to 
 take a well-earned breath, and puffed silently 
 with inflamed cheeks and eyes. The "degen- 
 erate lot" before him seized the opportunity. 
 
 "My name is Ainslee, Captain Ainslee of 
 the Intelligence Staff; and I lost my way last 
 night between Othello and Pomeroy. My 
 moke is done, as you see; and I felt in need 
 of a little hospitality myself," he said, smiling. 
 132
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "I am on my way to the Melmoth district to 
 inquire into some cases of treachery reported 
 from there," he added. 
 
 "Come right up and sit down," said the old 
 farmer, and roared for Jantjie, the stable boy. 
 
 Danie accepted the invitation, and left his 
 horse standing. He hastened to tell his host 
 that one of his objects was to get a fresh horse 
 ^either by exchange or by purchase; "for," 
 he explained, "you can see for yourself that 
 I never could reach Pomeroy with this poor 
 brute to-day, and I cannot wait over. I am 
 on strict orders." 
 
 "All right, my boy," answered Mr. Hockley. 
 "I shall be delighted to assist one of Her Ma- 
 jesty's officers in any way possible." And, 
 as Jantjie came slowly up to the stoep, he or- 
 dered him to take Captain Ainslee's horse to 
 the stable, off-saddle, bring the officer's saddle 
 and effects back to the stoep, and with them 
 the rooi schimmel (horse) for the officer to 
 examine. 
 
 "I am a true subject of my Queen," he con- 
 tinued pompously, "and I should hesitate 
 133
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 at no sacrifice that would assist in quelling 
 those damned rebels in the Republics. Excuse 
 me," he said, turning again to his guest, "what 
 did you say your name was, Captain?" 
 
 "Ainslee, sir," replied Danie. 
 
 "Ah! that's a good old English name. But 
 you speak with an accent. How is that, may 
 I ask?" 
 
 The embarrassed Boer answered as coolly 
 as he could : 
 
 "My father married a German lady, and he 
 died when I was only six years old. Then 
 I and my mother lived with her parents until 
 I was sent to Cambridge, where I learned my 
 English over again." 
 
 " I see, I see, of course," said the old farmer. 
 "Where were you born?" 
 
 Danie would have collapsed under this cross- 
 examination, had he not in some measure pre- 
 pared for it. Even now he was surprised at 
 his powers of invention. 
 
 "I was born at Cedarville, near Kockstad, 
 in Griqualand East." 
 
 "Ah! down near Pondoland," said hie host. 
 134
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Yes," answered Danie, shortly. "How 
 beautifully up your country is here. It looks 
 as well as any I have seen anywhere in north- 
 ern Natal." 
 
 The old Colonial smiled at the compliment, 
 but was not to be turned from his subject. 
 
 "Yes, I do very well here, Captain. Let us 
 see, Cedarville is the Dutch settlement, where 
 old Adam Kock, the Griqua king, gave them 
 fand to his own detriment, isn't it?" 
 
 Danie looked at him suspiciously. "I be- 
 lieve so," he returned. Was he himself sus- 
 pected? Did the old villain doubt him? 
 
 Hockley finally changed the subject himself. 
 "Tell me just how the war is progressing, Cap- 
 tain. Better, isn't it, since Buller learned 
 his lesson at the Tugela?" 
 
 Danie detailed as much of the latest English 
 war news as he knew. He had had enough 
 opportunity of gathering this news from Eng- 
 lish sources, even up to the very day of his 
 escape. While listening to his companion, Mr. 
 Hockley opened and glanced over the papers 
 that he had not as yet read and what facts the 
 135
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 visitor and the papers had in common, the 
 latter so thoroughly agreed with and substan- 
 tiated that the young Boer was quite confirmed 
 in his host's confidence as the English officer 
 he represented himself to be. 
 
 The old woman of the kitchen door now 
 joined the two men on the stoep. Without 
 rising, Mr. Hockley pointed to her, and said: 
 "Captain, this is my old vrouw. Mary, this 
 is Captain Ainslee, with a tired horse and an 
 empty stomach." 
 
 She mumbled something, and they shook 
 hands. The old farmer rose. 
 
 "Breakfast is ready," he said, and, waving 
 the "Captain" before him, followed his wife 
 into the house. 
 
 The hungry Boer's satisfaction at the good 
 food set before him was complete. His spirits 
 rose many degrees before he came out of the 
 house onto the stoep with his hearty host. 
 But they fell as suddenly, as his host addressed 
 him. 
 
 "Here is the horse, Captain. Now let's 
 talk about the bargain." 
 136
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Bargain! What did that mean? The horse 
 was walked up and down in front of the stoep. 
 It was an ordinary African pony, fourteen hands 
 high, and in fair condition, but thin with age. 
 The farmer called a general attention to its 
 many "points" with a wave of his hand. 
 Danie could see for himself they were many. 
 Its hip-bones stuck out like those of a clothes- 
 Ijprse. Over its eyes were knobs so prominent 
 that Danie remarked jocularly, from some points 
 of view one might mistake tlje horse for a rhi- 
 noceros. He opened the animal's mouth to 
 find teeth almost as long as his fingers. The 
 brute must be as old as his master. But what 
 choice had he? 
 
 "Well, Mr. Hockley," he said with a laugh, 
 "if that is the best you can do, I will leave 
 you my other horse, and take two pounds to 
 boot." 
 
 The patriotic farmer regarded him coldly. 
 "The horse is well worth twenty pounds," he 
 said, "and I could not afford to take less for 
 him, especially from the government," he 
 added significantly. "I will keep your own 
 137
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUB 
 
 horse here for you as a favour until you can 
 call or send for him. Otherwise you can take 
 him with you." 
 
 Danie bit his lip. "Very well," he said 
 finally, " I will give you an order on the provost- 
 marshal at Pietermaritzburg for the amount. 
 You can send the other horse to him as soon 
 as it can travel." 
 
 "That's a difficult proposition," said Mr. 
 Hockley, slowly, digging into the soil with the 
 point of his boot. " I want twenty pounds for 
 the horse, and to take an order is to take end- 
 less bother. It takes too much red tape and 
 ceremony to get any money out of the govern- 
 ment." 
 
 Danie hesitated no longer. He thought he 
 saw a way out of his difficulties. He raised 
 the saddle from the ground without a word and 
 put it on the back of the twenty-pound horse, 
 bridled it, and mounted it. Then he took a 
 note-book out of his pocket and tapped it with 
 his fingers. 
 
 "You know what the word 'commandeer' 
 means, do you not, Mr. Hockley?" he said to 
 138
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the astonished farmer. "It means a lot more 
 bother and red tape than a simple order. Now 
 a man of your loyalty ought not to hesitate for 
 a moment between the two." 
 
 Mr. Hockley did not hesitate even the mo- 
 ment. He accepted, ungraciously enough, the 
 order Danie willingly made out for him, and 
 proceeded to give, according to the universal 
 custom, a minute description of the roads both 
 north and south, with particulars as to the 
 farms and homesteads, the inhabitants and 
 their sympathies. 
 
 Just as our hero was taking his departure, 
 Mrs. Hockley ran out of the house with a slip 
 of paper in her hand, and handed it to her 
 husband. He glanced at it. 
 
 "Magtie! Captain," he cried, "stop, and 
 listen to this!" And he laid his hand carelessly 
 on the horse's nose while he read the slip aloud. 
 
 "It is from the Umzinto Observer," he said. 
 "Listen. 'Last Friday night a Boer prisoner 
 of war, a daring and important officer who was 
 wounded and captured at the battle of Dundee, 
 escaped in some mysterious manner from the 
 139
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Prison Hospital at Pietermaritzburg. Hospital 
 nurses and sentries are suspected, and have been 
 put under arrest.' " Then followed a vivid de- 
 scription of the escaped prisoner, giving his 
 name, and stating that he wore a full beard 
 according to the usual Boer custom, and that 
 his eyes and hair were brown. 
 
 "Magtie!" said the farmer again, "I almost 
 thought for a minute I had the escaped prisoner 
 in my hands, Captain. It would have gone 
 hard with him, I tell you." 
 
 Danie's blue eyes snapped, but he laughed 
 merrily. " Give me the slip, Mr. Hockley, or a 
 copy of it. I may run across the man some- 
 where myself.'* 
 
 "Take it, take it," answered the old man, and 
 thrust it into his hand. " But you will not get 
 him," he continued sadly, "for the Natal Dutch 
 are all unfaithful ; and they will aid the man, so 
 that he will get through into the Transvaal for 
 certain. I know them!" His face flamed with 
 anger, and he shook his fist heavily in the air. 
 
 Dame rode slowly off to the south-east in the 
 direction of the road to Pomeroy; but, as soon 
 140
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 as he was well out of sight of the farm, he faced 
 his horse northward, and followed the bridle- 
 paths of the veldt that led in the general direc- 
 tion he was making for, the direction of the 
 Transvaal and his home. 
 
 Making vague and careful inquiries at a na- 
 tive village he came upon during the afternoon, 
 he learned that some ten miles further up the 
 rgad he was travelling lay the farm of a Mr. 
 "fran Rooyen, a Natal Boer and a suspected 
 rebel. He found soon after this that the horse 
 he had taken from Hockley was rapidly break- 
 ing down, and would not last long. So he de- 
 cided to push on as fast as possible, and to try 
 to reach the Van Rooyen farm before night. 
 It was difficult work. He was entering among 
 the foot-hills of the eastern Biggarsbergen. 
 Riding at a canter over the more level ground 
 and falling into a trot where it grew rougher, 
 he managed to cover considerable country by 
 the time the sun disappeared. He stopped at 
 a small Kaffir kraal to ask his way and to as- 
 certain the distance that yet intervened between 
 him and his destination. But the headman 
 141
 
 UNDER THE YIERKLEUR 
 
 gave him an unsatisfactory answer to his 
 question. 
 
 "Koedeh, noko akkukudeh kakalu," he an- 
 swered cheerfully. "A long way off yet, but 
 still not so very far." 
 
 Danie shook his head dubiously. This meant 
 about six miles, more or less. Would his horse 
 hold out? He cursed old Hockley heartily for 
 the trick he had played on him; but he felt some 
 satisfaction at the difficulty his patriotic host 
 would encounter when he should present the 
 order given him by "Captain F. H. Ainslee, 
 Intelligence Department." 
 
 Handling his charger as gently as possible, he 
 pushed energetically on. It was growing very 
 dark: the sky was clouding up. Once he 
 got caught in a moeras, or swamp, out of which 
 he had hard work to extricate either himself 
 or his steed. Near ten o'clock he rode into a 
 garden fence, and, looking about him in sur- 
 prise, saw that he was passing by the side of 
 cultivated fields. Pulling his horse down to 
 a walk, he rose in the stirrups and peered sharply 
 through the darkness. Just ahead of him he 
 142
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 could make out a denser darkness looming 
 against the gloom of the unlit heavens, and at 
 that instant a dog barked, another broke in. 
 He turned, and followed the sound. He passed 
 a clump of trees, just distinguishable in the 
 blackness, a stream or pond, to judge from 
 the low quacks and twitters of the disturbed 
 ducks, and suddenly brought up almost against 
 the stoep of a large house. The dogs were now 
 so fierce that he dared not dismount. While 
 he was sitting perplexed in his saddle, the dogs 
 doing a Hottentot reel around him, the front 
 door opened, and a man with a great beard, 
 who appeared fully seven feet tall, stepped out 
 on the stoep, a lighted candle in his hand. 
 
 " Voetsek, Bull ! ' ' The dogs obeyed instantly, 
 quieting down and withdrawing up the steps of 
 the stoep to their master's side, where they sat 
 down to await his further orders. The man 
 shaded his eyes from the light he carried, and, 
 looking sharply out into the darkness, called 
 out in a deep voice, "Who is there?" 
 
 Danie dismounted, and walked half-way up 
 the steps. 
 
 143
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 " I am in trouble, and my horse is tired. Are 
 you Dirk Van Rooyen?" He spoke in English. 
 
 "I am Dirk Van Rooyen, sure enough," re- 
 plied the man in the same language. "But 
 what difference does it make to me whether or 
 not your horse is tired?" 
 
 Danie credited the discourtesy to his uniform, 
 and answered in Dutch. 
 
 " Oom Dirk, I am not what I seem to be, but 
 a good Boer; and my name is Danie Linde. To 
 tell the truth, I have escaped from Pieterma- 
 ritzburg, and I ask your help as an Afrikander." 
 
 "Fasten your horse to the trellis, and come 
 inside," said Van Rooyen, shortly. And he 
 led the way into a front room, lighted two more 
 candles, and pointed to a seat. He scrutinised 
 Danie's appearance with manifest uncertainty. 
 The dirty khaki uniform he wore, his sun- 
 skinned nose and ears, the military saddle, 
 tfhich Van Rooyen's quick eyes had noted as 
 soon as his strange visitor had dismounted, 
 the horse itself, were all eloquent testimony 
 against his words. Van Rooyen was deeply 
 suspicious of his visitor's real character. The 
 144
 
 UNDER THE V1ERKLEUR 
 
 stool-pigeon, trained to betray a man into the 
 hands of the law, civil or military, was not 
 an unknown bird in southern Africa at the 
 end of the nineteenth century and the begin- 
 ning of the present. 
 
 "Well," said Mr. Van Rooyen, after a long 
 pause, " you are an enigma. I am in the middle 
 of the world with you." 
 
 ^J can easily see that you doubt me, Oom 
 Dirk," said Danie. "But I will tell you, I 
 can show you the wounds I received at Dundee 
 in October of last year when I was captured." 
 He threw open his tunic and shirt, and bared the 
 lance- wound, just healed over. He then pro- 
 ceeded to tell all about his escape, and how he 
 had fooled Mr. Hockley. 
 
 But Dirk Van Rooyen was still suspicious. 
 "I know that the horse you are riding belongs 
 to Hockley," he said, "but that is evidence 
 that goes against you. We Natal Afrikanders, 
 although British subjects, are all suspected. 
 The English farmers, even the Kaffirs, get all 
 their privileges, they enjoy an uninterrupted 
 postal communication, while the Afrikander 
 145
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 letters are all censored, often destroyed. We 
 are not allowed to receive newspapers or war 
 news of any kind except when doctored from 
 English sources. We are treated like rebels, 
 though we are not rebels and do not intend to 
 be. We are silent, and obey the laws. It is 
 natural that I, as well as all other upright Afri- 
 kanders, should sympathise with our brothers 
 in the Transvaal who are struggling for their 
 freedom; for there is the bond of blood between 
 us. But we have not rebelled. My riding 
 horses all but two have been taken by the 
 soldiers, and my forage, my slaughter oxen 
 also. They have tried to trap me more than 
 once, to get me to do something that would 
 jail me, as has happened to so many Natal 
 Boers. How am I to know that you are not 
 after the same thing? I hear your story, I can 
 see your wound; but that is not satisfactory." 
 
 "Now," said Danie, after thinking a minute, 
 " kyk [look], Oom Dirk." He opened the brace- 
 let on his wrist. "There are several of the 
 Uys family living along the Sunday River, not 
 far from you. This is a portrait of Miss Bettie 
 146
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Uys, of Blaauwkop, in Ermelo. Perhaps you 
 will recognise it. To her I was to have been 
 married when the war broke out." 
 
 "The Uyses of Blaauwkop are related to us, 
 and I know old Neef [Cousin] Dirk well; but 
 his children I have not seen for years," answered 
 Van Rooyen. "My son Jan visited them a 
 year ago: he may know the person of whom 
 that is the portrait. I will call him." And he 
 left the room for that purpose. 
 
 Jan Van Rooyen followed his father back 
 into the room. Taller than Danie, straight, 
 strong, and of large build, and well dressed 
 withal, he made the poor fugitive feel his un- 
 pleasant position keenly and bitterly as he 
 looked him up and down and loosely shook 
 hands with him. 
 
 " Is this the man who claims to be an escaped 
 Boer prisoner, father?" asked Jan. 
 
 "Yes, boy. He says his name is Linde, 
 Danie Linde. He has a portrait to show you. 
 Tell me who it is, if you know it." 
 
 Danie handed over the portrait with a burn- 
 ing face. Jan glanced sharply at him as he 
 147
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 took it from his hand. Then he bent his eyes 
 to the portrait. 
 
 "Why, it is Bettie Uys, father," he said at 
 once, "and this bracelet, I remember seeing 
 it on her arm." He jumped up, and held out 
 both hands to Danie. "And Mr. Linde, I 
 have often heard the Uyses talk about him, 
 this is certainly he, father." 
 
 Dirk Van Rooyen elbowed his great offspring 
 out of the way as a bull might push aside a 
 yearling steer, and laid his enormous hands on 
 Danie's shoulders. 
 
 "Dear God, my boy," he thundered, "this 
 is too bad, too bad. I ought to have known 
 you for a straight, decent Boer before I could 
 see you well in the darkness; but I didn't. You 
 will see why, I told you how we have to look 
 out in this cursed country. You, Jan! Take 
 the poor kerel [chap] up to your room, and give 
 him a wash and a decent suit of clothes at once! 
 Let the cursed thing he is wearing be thrown 
 into the stove. Turn the horse loose, and let 
 it run back to its English owner. It might 
 betray poor Linde." 
 
 148
 
 UNDEE THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 He was still talking in his sympathetic ex- 
 citement when the young men left the room to 
 fulfil his behests. 
 
 The rest of the family, consisting of a mother 
 and two grown-up daughters, was at hand to 
 receive Danie when he came down with Jan. 
 He was once more dressed like a respectable 
 Afrikander; and his clear blue eyes, his frank- 
 ness of countenance and manner, did as much 
 to put him on terms of intimate friendship with 
 the single-hearted people who had taken him 
 hi as did his unhappy predicament and the deep 
 sympathy it and his cause evoked from the 
 charitable and hospitable ex-Boers. 
 
 With her own hands did Mrs. Van Rooyen 
 prepare the hungry man a meal so ample that 
 all of them could not together have eaten it; 
 and the girls served him, he could scarcely 
 turn his head without causing a flutter such as 
 when a piece of bread falls into the midst of a 
 flock of doves. 
 
 Sleep was not thought of until three o'clock 
 in the morning. And, when Danie finally went 
 to bed in the room with Jan Van Rooyen, he 
 149
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 slept the sleep of the just and the very tired 
 until nearly noon. 
 
 With the exception of an old half-caste Hot- 
 tentot of long-approved faithfulness, the ser- 
 vants and Kaffirs of the Van Rooyen household 
 were not informed of Danie's presence in the 
 house. The Kaffirs of northern Natal were 
 almost all pro-English in their sympathies, and 
 the Afrikanders dared not trust them with any 
 secrets relating to the Republics or the Repub- 
 lics' friends. So Danie stayed indoors and out 
 of sight; and old Plaatje, to whom alone the 
 secret had been confided, was set on watch to 
 guard the inmates of the house against any 
 unwelcome surprise. 
 
 It had been decided that Danie should start 
 at sunset, and Jan was to accompany him some 
 miles on his journey, and, when parting with 
 him, to leave him some final directions as to 
 how to get to the Nels farm, a homestead be- 
 longing to a relative of the Van Rooyens and 
 a true Afrikander, situated high in the moun- 
 tains just west of the Buffalo River. Once 
 across this stream, the escaped prisoner would 
 150
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 be in comparative safety, and could make his 
 way to the Vryheid district in the south-eastern 
 Transvaal with little difficulty and in one stage. 
 
 The sun was disappearing below the western 
 horizon. The family was gathered in a large 
 front parlor to say good-bye and God-speed to 
 the fugitive, when suddenly old Plaatje burst 
 into the house, and cried abruptly: 
 
 "jOu baas! By the big wagon-road from 
 Baas Hockley's way I see some horsemen com- 
 ing! They are riding hard, the dust is flying in 
 clouds behind them! I think it is the nongai 
 (police)." 
 
 Confusion reigned but for an instant. Van 
 Rooyen's presence of mind dominated the rising 
 terror immediately. 
 
 "Jan, take Danie at once into the loft, and 
 conceal him near the ladder that runs down out- 
 side, so that he can escape there, if it is neces- 
 sary. And all of you here keep perfectly 
 calm. You, Plaatje, be very careful; for 
 they will surely cross-question you." 
 
 When the horsemen five policemen and two 
 Kaffirs, armed to the teeth raced into the 
 151
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 werf, there on the stoep sat old Van Rooyen, 
 buried in clouds of smoke from his long Dutch 
 pipe, looking the picture of calm content. The 
 sergeant rode up to him, and, before the master 
 of the house could even say good-evening, ad- 
 dressed him excitedly. 
 
 "Van Rooyen, last night an escaped Boer 
 prisoner dressed in one of our uniforms came 
 to this house with one of Mr. Hockley's horses. 
 The horse was turned back. Where is the 
 man? Produce him at once, or it will be the 
 worse for you!" 
 
 Mr. Van Rooyen removed the long pipe from 
 his mouth and blew a eloud of smoke into the 
 air. "Really," he said, "I do not know what 
 you are talking about." 
 
 The two Kaffirs had by this time been to the 
 stables, and returned, reporting to the sergeant 
 that both Van Rooyen's horses were there in 
 their stalls. This seemed to ease the excited 
 officer's mind a little. 
 
 "Will you produce the fugitive? Or shall 
 we have to compel you?" he asked more 
 quietly. 
 
 152
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Van Rooyen answered: "It seems that you 
 want a man from me. The only thing that will 
 satisfy you that I haven't got him is to look for 
 yourself: only I beg that hi the search you don't 
 turn everything hopelessly upside down." And 
 he resumed his pipe. 
 
 The sergeant regarded him malevolently. 
 Then he ordered his satellites to commence the 
 search, and sat down himself on the stoep be- 
 side Van Rooyen. 
 
 Danie lay frightened and still, buried under 
 the bundles of oat-hay in the loft. He could 
 hear all that passed beneath him, the men 
 tumbling about the furniture, the slamming of 
 doors, the ejaculations of disappointment that 
 marked the progress of their search. Finally 
 the sounds slackened, and at last ceased in the 
 house. The last door slammed, the men trooped 
 back to the sergeant one by one. Two, three, 
 four, and one Kaffir with hanging head, 
 the Van Rooyens drew great breaths of relief 
 at the sight. All at once the other Kaffir ap- 
 peared round the corner of the building, a 
 saddle on his back. His face was wreathed in 
 153
 
 UNDER THE YIERKLEUR 
 
 evil smiles. The sergeant jumped up and ad- 
 vanced to meet him, wondering. A moment's 
 colloquy ensued between the two, and the offi- 
 cer returned with the saddle to Van Rooyen, 
 and with his finger pointed out the broad arrow, 
 the government mark, on its flap. 
 
 "I arrest you in the name of the Queen for 
 high treason!" he cried in a voice that was the 
 voice of triumph. 
 
 The game was up. Van Rooyen smiled bit- 
 terly, and turned his eyes upon Jan who stood 
 in the hall just behind the door. Jan took his 
 meaning, and slipped up the stairs unseen to 
 the loft. Five words were enough. Danie 
 slipped down the ladder in the gathering dusk, 
 and crawled off into the black-wattle-tree and 
 poplar bush behind the kraals with a great sad- 
 ness in his heart, while Jan went noisily down- 
 stairs again and through the front of the house 
 to give himself up, and to hold the attention 
 of the captors until the important game was 
 well away. 
 
 Darkness alone aided the unfortunate fugi- 
 tive to make good his flight into the bush, for 
 154
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the tumult caused by the searchers had brought 
 all of the Kaffir servants out of their huts. 
 
 But he waited in the gathering gloom of the 
 evening behind a little kopje two hundred yards 
 from the house until he saw and with what 
 self-reproach! his too kind friends, Dirk and 
 Jan Van Rooyen, manacled and mounted in 
 the midst of the jubilant group of police and 
 ''blacks, and led off into the night to he could 
 not guess what punishment, while the three 
 miserable women were left weeping on the stoep 
 of their lonely house. 
 
 155
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON the third afternoon from that on which 
 the arrest of the Van Rooyens took place, 
 a man, unkempt, unshorn, his skin and the 
 ragged clothes through the rents of which it 
 showed caked and stained with dirt and rain, 
 lay quietly in the grass before the stoep of a 
 farm-house high in the eastern Biggarsbergen. 
 Seated on his haunches beside him, every 
 now and then turning an attentive eye 
 upon him, was a large black and white Boer 
 farm-dog. The dog and the setting sun faced 
 each other. The man lay sprawled partly be- 
 tween them, partly in the shadow of the dog. 
 Once hi a while the man moved an arm or a 
 foot or laughed or groaned slightly. Whenever 
 he did so, the dog laid back his ears and bared 
 his teeth. But this meant nothing to the man. 
 He either chuckled again or babbled a few 
 senseless words. Then the dog was puzzled. 
 The sun seemed to set more slowly, as if re- 
 luctant to miss the end or explanation of the 
 scene; but it finally disappeared. Within a 
 156
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 few minutes of its passing a man and a boy 
 rode up to the front of the house, followed 
 by two Kaffir servants, to whom they delivered 
 their horses as they dismounted. The dog, 
 urged by the impulse of habit, rose to run for- 
 ward and greet them, but, remembering his 
 charge in time, stood beckoning them with his 
 tail and ears instead. Upon their approach 
 Ine dog surrendered his office to them with 
 manifestations both of conceit and relief; but 
 the men, perhaps because of their astonishment 
 at having so serious a trust so abruptly turned 
 over to them, paid no attention to his blandish- 
 ments. They bent over the stranger, and called 
 to him. He responded only with an incoherent 
 mutter and a smile. They grasped him by 
 the shoulders, shook him, half raised him to 
 his feet. He roused himself sufficiently to look 
 past them with eyes that seemed to see clearly 
 enough beyond the mountains, but to distin- 
 guish nothing within their range. They lifted 
 him, and carried him into the house. Laid on 
 the bed, he did not wake to remember or nar- 
 rate his experiences for two whole days. Fi- 
 157
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 nally and fully come to himself, he saw, seated 
 in two chairs at the foot of his bed, a man 
 apparently of about forty years and a boy of 
 about sixteen, each regarding him gravely over 
 the smoking bowl of a long Dutch pipe. 
 
 As soon as he perceived that his guest's eyes 
 were rationally open, the elder man removed 
 the pipe from his mouth. 
 
 "What is your name, kerel?" he asked slowly. 
 
 Danie for he it was took in as much as 
 he could of the situation before he replied. 
 He sat up in the bed, and gazed cautiously at 
 his questioner, around the room with its re- 
 assuring furniture and decorations, and out of 
 the window at the familiar mountains. "My 
 name is Linde, Danie Linde," he answered 
 boldly enough at last. "But where am I, and 
 who are you?" 
 
 "My name is Willem Nels," responded the 
 other, "and this is my farm." 
 
 Danie fell back on his pillow. The name re- 
 called to his mind, as if its utterance had been 
 the signal for the lifting of a curtain, all the 
 events that had so far followed his escape from 
 158
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Pietermaritzburg, his first dash for freedom 
 at the gates, his lonesome ride through the 
 forest, the winning trick that he had played 
 at the Hockley farm, and the misery that his 
 presence and his appeal had brought down upon 
 the faithful Van Rooyens. Even of the last 
 three days he could recollect the more vivid 
 moments, the most terrible impressions. He 
 "remembered how he had fought, and, as he 
 thought, finally succumbed to his hunger and 
 his thirst, his weariness and his fever; how foul 
 faces had leered at him from behind trees and 
 bushes; how mocking shadows and siren voices 
 had tried to lure him from the path which alone 
 he knew to be safe; how animated sticks and 
 stones, over which he had stumbled again and 
 again, had rolled or hobbled ludicrously, but 
 remorselessly ahead after every fall, and lay hi 
 wait beyond the next turn to trip him once 
 more; how the path itself, angry at his contin- 
 ually treading on it, had squirmed and twisted 
 beneath his feet, and at tunes narrowed sharply 
 into nothingness, just to betray him and his pur- 
 \; how he had shrieked at it, cursed it, fallen 
 159
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 on it, grappled with it tooth and nail, stealthily 
 followed and found it among the bushes into 
 which it had slipped to escape him; how the 
 very mountains had at last conspired with rend- 
 ings and roarings to obstruct his passage; how, 
 giants as they were, they had shifted, changed 
 places with each other, danced around him 
 like phantoms of smoke in their efforts to pre- 
 vent his penetration into their mysteries. 
 
 As he lay thinking of all these strange things, 
 his heart beat harder, his face and his fingers 
 began to twitch, and it was with difficulty that 
 he brought his as yet but half-rebalanced mind 
 back to a sane consideration of the duties and 
 conditions that confronted him. 
 
 " Oom Willem," he said, raising himself once 
 more to a sitting posture, " it was to your farm 
 that I was coming, but how I got here I do not 
 know. I am a Boer prisoner, escaped from 
 Pietermaritzburg. All went well until I arrived 
 at the farm of Dirk Van Rooyen, your relative, 
 where they took me in with the greatest kind- 
 ness. Jan was to accompany me part of the 
 way to your place ; but at the very hour set for 
 160
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 our departure the police came upon us, and, 
 while I got safely off into the bush, the two 
 Van Rooyens were arrested and taken away." 
 
 Danie, as in one sense the author of the Van 
 Rooyens' misfortunes, looked doubtfully into 
 the face of their relative his host, as he 
 told the unpleasant story. But Willem Nels 
 neither doubted nor chided him. 
 -"That was not your fault, Danie," he said. 
 " So let us not speak of it again. But we must 
 get you started for the Transvaal as soon as 
 possible. If you can ride by to-night, it will 
 be best for you to do so." 
 
 Danie rose and dressed with much less feeble- 
 ness than he anticipated, and after the evening 
 meal announced himself as fit to resume his 
 journey. It was planned that he should leave 
 the Nels farm at about three in the morning, 
 so as to cross the Buffalo River into Zululand 
 by daybreak. 
 
 At the appointed hour he set forth, mounted 
 
 on a strong Trippelaar pony, the son of his 
 
 latest host acting as his guide through the passes 
 
 to the river. When Danie at last parted from 
 
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 his conductor, the great Buffalo River, broad 
 and swollen with many rains, lay before him, 
 the rising sun opposite just beginning to brighten 
 the seething waters of the stream. 
 
 He hesitated a moment on the brink. He 
 could see trunks of trees, thatched roofs of huts, 
 sections of garden palings, now and then a 
 drowned horse or cow, go floating past him 
 southward to the sea. The river looked as 
 dangerous as it did uninviting, yet he dared 
 not delay. Behind him lay Natal, in the hands 
 of his enemies. Before him just across the 
 river lay Zululand, a kind of Debatable Land, 
 fairly free from his foes, fairly close to his 
 friends. Peering between the trunks that lined 
 the flooded bank, he could see far to the north- 
 east, across the level veldt beyond the river, 
 the mountains that bordered his beloved Trans- 
 vaal. It was from over their tops that the sun 
 lighted up the world. The sight transported 
 him with enthusiasm. He drove his spurs into 
 the sides of the restive pony, and leaped between 
 the trunks into deep water almost at a bound. 
 The little animal, as astonished as his master 
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 at finding himself in the current at so short 
 notice, threw his head high up and snorted with 
 fear. Danie slipped from his back into the cold 
 water beside him, and, resting one hand on the 
 pony's shoulders, spoke to him in a cheering 
 voice, at the same time trying to keep his nose 
 pointed diagonally across the river. The pony 
 struck out manfully at first, but his best efforts 
 oould not keep him straight. The current 
 gradually forced him round until, for all that 
 the tired man beside him could do to prevent 
 it, he was being carried tail first down the 
 stream, sinking lower and lower into the water 
 at every repetition of the frantic but ineffect- 
 ual struggles that he made against his fate. 
 They were now in the middle of the river. 
 Danie, though thoroughly exhausted with his 
 own efforts, dared no longer rest any of his own 
 weight upon the shoulders of the weary and 
 agonised animal. So, striking out, he gained 
 painfully a few yards up stream, and seized hold 
 of a giant tree-trunk that was following them 
 directly down. He had hoped first to relieve 
 and then to assist the pony by offering him a 
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 support instead of a burden; but the loss of the 
 touch of his master's hand, light though it was, 
 seemed to deprive the brute of what little he 
 still possessed of hope or confidence either in 
 man or nature. He lifted his head with a 
 mournful scream, and sank without further 
 struggling below the turgid waters. When he 
 reappeared, it was with feet foremost. 
 
 Danie's situation was precarious. Helpless, 
 supported by the piece of flotsam which, of 
 itself secure, was nevertheless far too unstable 
 for its passenger's comfort or even safety, he 
 was being hurled southward down the river at 
 a rate which would by sunset return him prac- 
 tically to the very gates of the prison from 
 which he had escaped ten days before. He 
 had been in the water two hours. He began to 
 feel what he feared might be serious effects 
 from the long cold bath. Cramps seized his 
 legs, and, had he not been partially supported 
 by a submerged branch as well as by the trunk 
 across which his arm was thrown, he would have 
 followed his horse into the Elysian fields that 
 lay overflowed by the stream. 
 164
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Frightened at this further indication of his 
 danger, he managed to draw his legs out of 
 the water one after the other, and, by careful 
 balancing, to maintain a position on the tree- 
 trunk which, although both difficult and un- 
 dignified, was productive of a far greater de- 
 gree of warmth and comfort than he had as 
 yet enjoyed. But his spirits sank deeper and 
 -*3eeper as he watched to right and left the almost 
 equally distant shores move northward in paral- 
 lel procession. He knew he was too chilled, too 
 weak, to swim to either, and that to turn his 
 enormous bark out of the middle current was 
 a task more impossible still. He was armed 
 only with prayers, and with these he bom- 
 barded Heaven; but he had so little faith in 
 the efficacy of such pleas for preservation, born 
 of the exigencies of the moment, that he neither 
 hoped nor expected any answer to their fervour." 
 In fact, he kept his eyes lowered all the while 
 and fixed upon the surging stream before him, 
 out of which suddenly rose a point, a bulk, 
 an island. Even before he reached it, he saw 
 that the current of the river divided at its 
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 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 upper end, and swept around the obstruction 
 in wide curves to either side, two tumbling, 
 rock-broken streams of swirl and drift. Almost 
 before he realised what was happening, his un- 
 stable craft struck a sunken snag, careened, 
 and swung heavily around, sinking him to the 
 middle in its uneven movement, and nearly 
 causing him to lose his hold altogether. He 
 clambered painfully up the new surface pre- 
 sented by the half-turned log, and clung to its 
 wet excrescences with all the power that re- 
 mained in his cramped and chilled fingers. 
 His course was now as rough and erratic as 
 the chafed and swollen river, fuming at find- 
 ing an obstacle to its hitherto unhampered 
 progress, could well make it. He had continu- 
 ally to guard against being crushed by other 
 trees sweeping, like his own, down the river, 
 against losing his shaking grip when some great 
 stone, rising raggedly out of the water, opposed 
 with main force the passage of his unwieldy 
 raft. But every blow, every interruption, 
 every battle between these monsters of the 
 river, was forcing him nearer to the left, the 
 166
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 eastern, the long-desired bank of the Buffalo. 
 He was already counting the number of blows 
 it would take, the number of twists and turns 
 his craft would have to make, before he would 
 be within safe swimming or even leaping dis- 
 tance of Zululand. With eager eyes he watched 
 the space decrease. This time he would try 
 it, no, it was hardly possible, but now! 
 *X sudden and unexpected jar caught him too 
 delicately balanced, and he fell headlong into 
 the water from the stern of his impetuous craft. 
 Unnerved by the shock, he sank heavily, to 
 rise again nearer to the shore, but just in time 
 to receive in his side the full impact of a twenty- 
 foot log plunging straight down stream. He 
 was rolled over and driven a fathom across the 
 water before he sank once more, gasping for 
 breath. In accordance with the immemorial 
 and perhaps significant custom of the drowning, 
 he threw his hands above his head as he began 
 to disappear beneath the water. As he did so, 
 his right hand struck forcibly against some hard, 
 rough object, his wrist was immediately caught 
 as if in a vise, and he hung suspended by the 
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 arm, for a moment half inanimate, his partly 
 opened lips just washed by the passing river. 
 With a few gasps he regained strength enough 
 to blow his nose and mouth clear of the strang- 
 ling water and to look upward. The broken 
 and pointed end of a low stout branch over- 
 hanging the edge of the stream had passed 
 between his arm and the precious bracelet that 
 he wore, to intervene between him and death 
 at the last moment. 
 
 With a fierce effort, Danie managed to raise 
 himself so as to seize the branch with his left 
 hand and drag himself painfully to the shore, 
 where he fell, saved, but utterly exhausted. 
 
 168
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 KR a long time the half-drowned man lay 
 here he had fallen. By afternoon, and 
 when the wind and the sun had thoroughly 
 dried and warmed him, he recovered sufficient 
 energy to drag himself to a place of conceal- 
 ment amid some near-by bushes, where he in- 
 tended to remain until darkness fell. Toward 
 sundown he was aroused by a sound of clumsy 
 crashing through the underbrush. A little 
 Kaffir boy was driving a dozen lumbering oxen 
 to water at the edge of the river. In his hand 
 the boy carried a small pail, which Danie knew 
 must contain food of some sort for the driver's 
 evening meal. The very sight of it awakened 
 a wolf's hunger within him, and he puzzled his 
 brain with plots for getting hold of it. He did 
 not wish to make use of a violence that might, 
 for all he knew, stir up a now unsuspecting sec- 
 tion of this new country against its author. 
 Nor did he wish to betray even his presence, if 
 it were in any way possible to make a success 
 of the seizure without doing so. He half rose 
 169
 
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 to his feet, and carefully noted the position of 
 the animals as they lined up at the water's 
 brink. Then, dropping to his hands and knees 
 again, he stole cautiously through the bush 
 toward the centre of the herd. In a few mo- 
 ments, by means of little sounds and move- 
 ments known to his old experience, he had the 
 herd uneasy. They separated farther and 
 farther, until the boy, astonished and discon- 
 certed, slipped from the log on which he had 
 been seated, and ran to and along the river- 
 bank, with shrill screams and objurgations. 
 He left his pail behind him. As soon as his 
 back was well turned and he was thoroughly 
 engaged in the task of collecting his scattered 
 beasts, some of which were already in full 
 flight, Danie issued from his hiding-place, and 
 fell upon the enemy's depot of stores and pro- 
 visions. Completing his successful raid, he 
 wormed his way back to a safer place of conceal- 
 ment deeper in the bush. From this new lair he 
 had the early satisfaction of seeing the frightened 
 Kaffir hasten his reherded cattle eastward, 
 casting timid glances back over his shoulder. 
 170
 
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 When the darkness was complete, Danie 
 came out from his concealment, and started 
 east in the direction taken by the Kaffir and 
 the oxen. He reasoned that by following 
 their course he would soonest come upon a vil- 
 lage, either white or native, where he could 
 adjust his bearings, and, perhaps, even steal 
 a horse. His heart was beating high. He felt 
 sure that he was now within striking distance 
 of the Transvaal, that one lucky day's riding, 
 if he could secure the necessary means of trans- 
 portation, would place him once more on its 
 beloved soil. His hopes, his expectations 
 swelled; his feet grew wings. The increasing 
 certainty in his mind of reaching home without 
 further delay or hindrance so fed his arrogance 
 and conceit that he felt rather relieved than 
 alarmed when he saw before him about mid- 
 night the fires of a small camp. He observed 
 it for some little time to assure himself of its 
 character and peacefulness. It was evidently 
 English: it appeared substantially unguarded. 
 He could make out the dim forms of one or 
 two slow sentries patrolling outside the range 
 171
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 of the fire-lights. But the attitude of the whole 
 encampment seemed to be one of unsuspecting 
 confidence in the protection of the night. 
 
 A little to the left Danie could see against 
 the star-lit sky-line a number of horses standing 
 sleepily about on the veldt. Here was his op- 
 portunity. He stole cautiously around them 
 in a wide circle until they stood between him 
 and the camp. Then he rose to his feet, and 
 walked carelessly in among them. He could 
 see that some of them were knee-haltered and 
 that the rest were hoppled. Disturbing them 
 as little as possible, so as not to attract the at- 
 tention of the camp, he attempted to capture 
 first one and then another of the knee-haltered 
 animals, selecting the best among them. But 
 he soon found that they too successfully eluded 
 him, and that he was in danger of causing a 
 commotion that might easily be marked by the 
 sentries. Fearing to delay any longer in his 
 purpose, he seized the most attractive of the 
 hoppled horses at hand, and led it out of the 
 herd and away from the camp into the open 
 veldt. Placing the rope which had hoppled it 
 172
 
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 between its jaws to serve as a bridle, he leaped 
 to its bare back, looked up at the guiding stars, 
 and started off at full speed in the direction of 
 the Umvolosi River, a stream that marked the 
 line of separation between the free soil of the 
 Transvaal and the English-ridden territory of 
 Zululand. 
 
 The country he was now traversing, known 
 'as the "Reserve," had once been a portion of 
 the little Republic of Vryheid, itself later 
 incorporated into the Transvaal, but the 
 English had laid violent hands upon it, and it 
 was now again a part of the British-protected 
 Zululand. Its population of English settlers 
 and native squatters, although eminently un- 
 friendly to the Boers, was thin and widely 
 scattered, so that Danie felt comparatively 
 secure from unpleasant interruptions on his 
 northward ride. Yet, when the morning broke, 
 he could not help feeling somewhat disturbed 
 at the openness of the country about him, 
 which seemed to offer little or no opportunity 
 for concealment during the day. The almost 
 level plain, in the centre of which he found him- 
 173
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 self, stretched in every direction to the circum- 
 ference of the horizon, with nothing to break 
 the monotony of its surface but a few clumps 
 of thorn bushes and some low, flat koppies, 
 their grey, uncovered, stony ridges running 
 east and west in parallel lines, far apart. He 
 rode on for several miles with growing uneasi- 
 ness. The grass-covered stretches of the lower 
 veldt glistened brightly green in the sunlight, 
 the dew hanging in pearls upon the long blades. 
 The South African birds the kalkoentjes, 
 syesies, and wild canaries were singing their 
 matins in the air about him. From one or two 
 distant and as yet unseen kraals he could hear 
 through the clear air the strident morning 
 greetings of the lords of the barn-yard, doing 
 their best to announce the coming of day to all 
 creation. The presence in the veldt of the 
 strange and early rider was observed, if not 
 welcomed, by the little dwellers in the bush 
 and grass, who stared at him in surprise from 
 their coverts as he passed. Squirrels chattered 
 angrily at him, partridges whirred like animated 
 snare-drums from beneath his startled horse's 
 174
 
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 feet, pheasants and guinea fowl, or pullmen- 
 tater, fluttered aside from his path. 
 
 But he had eyes only for sources of possible 
 danger. To his left he could make out the line 
 of the river he had crossed with so much risk 
 and hardship the day before. Its dark fringe 
 of trees, the darker line of hills beyond it, 
 seemed still to menace him; and it was in this 
 'direction that he first turned his head as he 
 mounted the long, stony randt that lay in front 
 of him. The air was clear and calm, and he 
 neither saw nor heard any sight or sound of 
 danger from the west. But his horse's gaze 
 was turned in the opposite direction, his ears 
 were erect, and his nostrils flaring. Danie 
 looked suspiciously about for the cause of this 
 uneasy interest. To his right, a mile beyond 
 the edge of the randt, lay a small military 
 camp, its regular rows of white tents glistening 
 in the morning sunshine. He instantly jerked 
 his horse backward over the rise and out of 
 sight of the camp; but, looking around at the 
 same time, he saw to his horror that this move- 
 ment would not avail him. Already across the 
 175
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 rise, and circling slowly around him with the 
 evident intention of cutting off his retreat, were 
 two mounted troopers. There was but one 
 chance, and he had but one hope, to distance 
 them. His horse, a clean-limbed English ani- 
 mal, was comparatively fresh and full of spirit 
 notwithstanding his all-night's work. Danie 
 bent low over his neck, and drove his rusty 
 spurs into his steed's ungirthed sides. The 
 horse responded with a snort and a great bound 
 that landed them clean across the ridge, and 
 they were off at a mad run down the northern 
 side of the randt and in full sight of the camp. 
 The two troopers put speed to their wiry 
 Basuto ponies the instant Danie disappeared 
 from their view, and, reaching the ridge 
 hardly a minute after him, opened fire on the 
 fugitive while still on the run. The chase was 
 seen or the shots heard at the camp. Looking 
 back over his shoulder, Danie saw several more 
 mounted men riding out from its precincts at 
 a gallop to join in the chase. But these were 
 still a mile away, a disadvantage of distance he 
 felt sure they would not be able to overcome, 
 176
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 while over his two immediate pursuers who 
 were now halting, and sometimes dismounting 
 to take futile pot-shots at him he had the great 
 advantage of lightness of equipment and su- 
 periority in horseflesh. He could see their bul- 
 lets striking in the sand about him, and at times 
 he heard them whistle uncomfortably near; 
 but at the end of two miles he was practi- 
 cally out of their range. When he had cov- 
 ered three, they had given up the chase. He 
 feared that the country might be roused around 
 him, and he dared not slacken his speed for any 
 length of time. Drawing rein only when it was 
 absolutely necessary to breathe his now badly 
 blown animal, he managed by mid-day to put 
 twenty miles between himself and the camp of 
 his pursuers. 
 
 He was now in a rougher country, and the 
 rolling hills 'were in many places thickly cov- 
 ered with trees and high-growing bushes. The 
 rocky little gorges, or kloofs, offered him the 
 most favourable opportunities for rest and con- 
 cealment. Of the necessity, especially for the 
 former, there was no doubt. His horse was 
 177
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 trembling in every limb; and Danie himself, 
 now that the supreme excitement of the chase 
 was over, fully realised that he had been eigh- 
 teen hours on this last stage of his road, the 
 last twelve of which had been spent on horse- 
 back, yet not in the saddle. Leading his tired 
 animal, he picked his way down to the side of 
 a little stream that flowed northward from the 
 hills, at first half concealed between two over- 
 hanging and tree-grown walls of rock. In this 
 secluded retreat, with food and water for his 
 horse at hand, he spent the better part of three 
 hours. 
 
 It was well toward the middle of the after- 
 noon when he moved out on the open plain 
 into which the little stream led him, and saw 
 before him, some two or three miles ahead, a 
 long dark line of fringing trees, which, he knew, 
 must mark the course of the Umvolosi, and be- 
 hind it, brilliant in the glow of the afternoon 
 sun, the mountains of Vryheid. He was wild 
 with joy as he saw his goal lying before him. 
 He sang and shouted and wept. Even his 
 horse caught the infection of his spirits, and 
 178
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 tripped gayly across the level veldt to the river- 
 side as if he had done but four miles instead of 
 forty since the preceding day. 
 
 Upon reaching the banks, Danie dismounted 
 to make an inspection of the stream which sepa- 
 rated him from his home. Notwithstanding 
 his wild impatience to find himself once more 
 on Transvaal soil, he had had enough of swim- 
 ming wide and flooded rivers. The memory of 
 his terrible experience of the day before re- 
 curred to him with double force as he gazed 
 suspiciously on the waters of the quiet but 
 deep stream before him. He decided to find 
 a drift, or crossing, through which he could 
 ford the Umvolosi with less danger than dis- 
 comfort. He remounted, and moved slowly 
 east along the course of the river, under the 
 great kameelboomen that shaded its high 
 banks. A mile down he came upon a large, 
 open wagon-road leading through a deep cut in 
 the bank directly into the water. He slipped 
 down the cut to the road, headed his mount 
 into the stream, and let the faithful beast 
 splash his way across at his own gait. As he 
 179
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 neared the opposite bank, he could not contain 
 his joy. He spurred his horse suddenly out 
 of the water and into the cut with a great 
 shout of happiness. The action saved his life. 
 Just as his startled beast lifted forward and 
 into the drift, there rose up on either side of 
 the embankment some fifteen Zulu policemen, 
 and a scattering volley rang out, the bullets 
 cutting the edge of the water into spray. See- 
 ing they had missed him, they dropped like so 
 many apes into the road about him, cutting 
 him off either from advance or retreat. As 
 they swarmed about him in the road, each black 
 fore finger pressing menacingly on a trigger, 
 the white sergeant pushed up to his horse's 
 head. 
 
 "Hands up!" he shouted. "The game is 
 up!" 
 
 Danie snatched his revolver from his belt 
 and dropped his body along his horse's neck, 
 driving his spurs deep for the third time that 
 day. The sergeant saw the movement, but 
 too late. 
 
 "Dubula!" (Fire!) he cried. 
 180
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The word was hardly out of his mouth before 
 Dame's bullet was through his brain. At the 
 same moment the black police fired at the Boer; 
 but, circled around him as they were, they had 
 held too high, fearful of killing or wounding 
 each other. Danie burst unscathed over the 
 body of the white man and through the choking 
 Lee-Metford smoke; and, before the astonished 
 "and discomfited Zulus took in the situation, 
 he was out of sight among the trees. 
 
 Already the mountains were towering above 
 him, and, trusting to his instinct, he made di- 
 rectly for their high and secret enclosures 
 through a long and narrow valley that showed 
 at its far upper end but a bit of blue between 
 the snow-covered peaks. 
 
 Although he firmly believed that the Zulus, 
 chagrined at the loss of their leader and dis- 
 gusted at the ease of his escape from their very 
 midst, would refuse to follow him up, yet he 
 did not fail to put as much of the border land 
 as possible between himself and the place of 
 their ambush. At the end of a scant two hours 
 his horse absolutely refused to carry him farther. 
 181
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Dismounting, Danie saw that there was no hope 
 of the poor beast being able to resume the jour- 
 ney. He had been shot in the thigh during the 
 fracas at the ford, and the loss of blood, added 
 to the other hardships of that terrible day, 
 had brought him to his end. With heartfelt 
 regret, Danie left him where he fell, soon to be 
 a prey to those unclean denizens of the upper 
 deep, the great aasvogels, as yet mere specks in 
 the sky, which had already hopefully noted 
 the arrival of their victim and joyfully marked 
 his fall. 
 
 Wearied to his very marrow, Danie kept 
 doggedly on over the crest, where the little 
 valley, now become a mere pass, began to drop 
 on the northern slope. Here he found an old 
 mountain trail, which, a mile below the top, 
 began to show signs of recent use. He followed 
 it cautiously down under a bright moon. It 
 led him directly to a little valley homestead, 
 still high among the hills. From the shadow of 
 the nearest kraal he reconnoitred carefully. As 
 far as he could see, the kraals and the stables 
 were all empty: there were no signs of either 
 182
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 sheep or cattle anywhere. He crept nearer to 
 the raw brick dwelling-house with the thatched 
 grass roof, which glistened like silver in the 
 moonlight. There were no fowl roosting in 
 the old willow-tree beside the kitchen door, as 
 would have been the case in time of peace and 
 if all had been well with the dwellers on the 
 farm. 
 
 * Yet the house was evidently inhabited. The 
 old-fashioned window-blinds were closed, and 
 the doors he tried them gently were securely 
 bolted. Gaining nothing but a negative knowl- 
 edge from his investigations, he decided to 
 knock for admission at the door. Indeed, hun- 
 ger and exhaustion impelled him to the risk. 
 
 He tapped very softly at first, and, got no 
 answer. Again he made the attempt with the 
 same result. It was not until he thundered 
 heavily and in desperation that a response 
 finally came. A feeble female voice called out 
 to him from the inside, "Who is it?" 
 
 "Only a friend," he replied, "who seeks 
 nothing but food and information, and who will 
 do you no harm." 
 
 183
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Then all was silent for a minute or two. At 
 last a little girl, wrapped in a trailing shawl, 
 timidly opened the door. Her small white face 
 peered suspiciously up at the midnight intruder. 
 
 "Who lives here, my child?" asked Danie 
 as he stepped into the doorway. 
 
 The thin candle in the child's hand threw his 
 shadow in enormous bulk on the opposite wall, 
 and as she attempted to reply her hand trem- 
 bled so that he took the light from her with 
 a reassuring smile. 
 
 "My grandmother, the old widow Swartz, 
 lives here all alone, sir, except for me," she 
 finally managed to make answer; "but she has 
 been paralysed for years, and cannot get out 
 of her bed." 
 
 She was still standing in front of him, ap- 
 parently with the intention of preventing his 
 further passage, when another voice called from 
 within,- 
 
 "Child, bring the man in, and let me hear 
 what he wants." 
 
 Conducted into the chamber which served 
 both as parlor and bedroom for the old lady, 
 184
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Danie told his whole story of escape in all its 
 details, much to her interest and excitement. 
 He ended with an earnest request for food and 
 for information regarding the whereabouts of 
 the Republican forces. The child was sent at 
 once to ransack the poor, depleted larder for 
 his benefit. The old lady gave him such knowl- 
 edge of the state of the war in the Transvaal as 
 ^she could. 
 
 "Oh, how sorry I feel for you, young man!" 
 she answered volubly. "You have escaped 
 from all these dangers and hardships to find 
 your country in a terrible condition. All our 
 farms have been devastated, the cattle killed 
 or stolen, and the poor people taken away as 
 prisoners by the brutal English. I was allowed 
 to remain here with this child to help me be- 
 cause I was too ill to be moved; but all my stock 
 was taken, and I was left with nothing but a 
 small quantity of corn-meal, which was long 
 ago exhausted. If my sons, who are now with 
 Veldt-cornet Henderson and his men in the 
 mountains near by, did not bring me food at 
 night from time to time, we should starve." 
 185
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The child now came back with a strip of 
 dried biltong, cured in the sun without salt. 
 This she handed to Danie, who took it apolo- 
 getically. 
 
 "I would not take it," he said, "except that 
 I am starving." 
 
 He was munching the dried biltong in deep 
 content, but half listening to the old woman's 
 prattle, when the tramp of horses was heard 
 outside. He leaped to his feet and drew his 
 revolver, blowing out the little oil lamp as he 
 did so. 
 
 " If it is the rascally English, you must open 
 the back door and run out into the spruit. 
 There you will be safe," said the old lady. 
 "But no, stay here. It is my son's voice." 
 
 In fact, a man's voice was calling from with- 
 out. The little girl ran to let him in. He 
 strode through the hall, followed by two com- 
 panions, each with a rifle in his hand. 
 
 "Is all right, mother?" he began; but, as he 
 saw Danie, "Who is this?" he cried. 
 
 The old woman, delighted at the opportunity, 
 repeated the whole of Danie's story to her son 
 186
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 and his companions. Nor did she hesitate to 
 fill out its blanks with heroic thoughts, if not 
 deeds, or to embellish the hero's courage on all 
 occasions until Danie blushed as he smiled. 
 
 At dawn on the day following that of his 
 re-entrance into his beloved Transvaal, Danie 
 left with his three new brothers-in-arms to 
 join the Vryheid commando in the mountains, 
 until he should find an opportunity of getting 
 back to his own. 
 
 187
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 SIX weeks had passed since the destruction 
 of Blaauwkop. After they had crossed 
 the northern mountains into the plains of Ly- 
 denburg, the two poor women found themselves 
 not alone in their houseless, homeless wander- 
 ings. 
 
 Buller's columns were spreading north and 
 west from the gate of their entrance into the 
 Transvaal, like the fingers of a hand. The ir- 
 resistible lines of English intersected and 
 threaded the southern and central districts, 
 leaving the country a burned and barren waste 
 behind them as they pressed slowly on to join 
 the western army of conquerors near the capi- 
 tal of the Republic. Before and between these 
 columns, and in the midst of their ramifications, 
 twisting and turning like frightened ants hi 
 a garden path trying frantically to escape the 
 threatening ravages of the sweeper's broom, 
 fled an unhoused army of Boer women and 
 children. Those who straggled too far behind, 
 those who were captured by the advancing col- 
 188
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 umns, those who surrendered, were sent back 
 through the English lines under guard to the 
 great concentration camps, the nearest of which 
 lay at Volksrust, where the railroad entered 
 Natal. 
 
 Sometimes these helpless fugitives would 
 number hundreds, and their wagons aggregate 
 a caravan. But at the approach of a column 
 of the enemy or at the sound of the thunder of 
 cannon among the hills these flights of fright- 
 ened birds would lose their coherence, and sep- 
 arate into their component parts. At times 
 the scattering would be complete ; and for days 
 together solitary wagons would proceed half 
 aimlessly across the veldt or among the hills, 
 to drift together a week later by some indefi- 
 nite law of attraction of like for like. 
 
 Mrs. Uys and Bettie had grown unconsciously 
 to love their wagon, just as they had been at- 
 tached to the rooms in which they used to sleep. 
 The grief and horror of Gert's death and the 
 burning of their home still shadowed their 
 hearts; but man, the most adaptable of all liv- 
 ing creatures, turns dust over to dust in a 
 189
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 shorter time than he is ever willing to admit, 
 and recentres his attention on the present and 
 the future of the living. So did the two women, 
 cheered by the childish and hardly clouded joy 
 and excitement of the younger now the only 
 boy, strengthened by the unswerving care and 
 fidelity of old Maliwe, and prevented from 
 brooding over their bereavement by the con- 
 stant necessity for watchfulness and action, 
 find a ruder solace and a styptic for their wounds 
 in the open, hunted life they led upon the plains. 
 Many a stormy night, when it was blowing and 
 raining, did they and the old Kaffir struggle, 
 sometimes for an hour or more, to get the sail- 
 cloth covering firmly fixed tent-shape across 
 the wagon, so that they and the child might 
 sleep, if not in dry beds, at least in stable ones. 
 Over many a hill and across many a river their 
 wagon carried them safely, but only because 
 they lent their own assistance energetically to 
 the task, sometimes laid their own hands to the 
 wheel. 
 
 Occasionally hi their journeyings they came 
 to houses that had not been utterly destroyed, 
 190
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 where, perhaps, one room, or even more, would 
 still be under the shelter of the tipsy, fire-bent 
 corrugated iron roof. There they would stop, 
 and spend perhaps the heated part of one day, 
 perhaps several days. But they always had to 
 move on, sometimes in a numerous company, 
 sometimes entirely alone. The roads and passes 
 were stopped and held by English block- 
 houses, as were the railroads; and only the 
 veldt and the hills were free to these poor wan- 
 derers. Once they saw, far ahead in the path 
 they were travelling, a great grey mass lying 
 in the middle veldt. Upon approach, they 
 saw that it was composed of thousands of dead 
 sheep, killed in that spot by a passing English 
 column. The poor animals had not been able 
 to keep up with the march, and had been 
 slaughtered, not wantonly, as might have been 
 supposed from their appearance, but with the 
 cruel and deliberate purpose of keeping them 
 out of the hands of the starving Boers. They 
 lay massed together as they had fallen, some 
 shot, some stabbed or cut down, many witn 
 their heads completely severed by a sabre-cut. 
 191
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Bettie, who had been riding ahead of the wagon, 
 turned back with a chalk-like face and a sway- 
 ing seat as she saw the horrible sight, and real- 
 ised its meaning. 
 
 "0 my God," she whispered shakily, "were 
 not the men and the women and the children 
 enough? Oh, those English! Have they got 
 to kill every living thing in our poor country?" 
 
 Little Egbert cried himself sick at the sight, 
 and for long refused to be consoled. Bettie 
 and Maliwe had great difficulty in driving their 
 oxen and the little stock that remained to them 
 past this holocaust of thousands; for the smell 
 of blood was thick in the air. Yet they could 
 not turn back or even aside, for an advancing 
 column of the enemy was not six hours behind 
 them. 
 
 Not long after this they were enabled to stop 
 for a few days' rest in a little camp made up of 
 some of their fellow-fugitives. Mrs. Uys and 
 Bettie made the most of the opportunity. 
 Maliwe built them a little hut in the cool shade 
 of some trees. At their feet flowed the beauti- 
 ful Komati. It was a pleasant spot to stop in. 
 192
 
 "fiettie had been riding ahead of the 
 wagon" (seepauel92)
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 In company with some of the other women they 
 constructed a small oven of sticks and mud in 
 which they baked bread. They even went so 
 far as to make soap, of which they stood in 
 great need. The few Kaffirs and the boys 
 collected vogelsent. From the ashes of the 
 burnt vogels the women managed to make a 
 very good soap. The children spent the sunny 
 "days in searching for wild honey on the moun- 
 tain side. The little company could have re- 
 mained in this place with comfort as well as 
 happiness, had it not been for the eternal fear 
 of the khakis which hung over them. And 
 this fear, unfortunately, was soon realised. 
 
 On the tenth day of the Uyses' sojourn in 
 this little community a Kaffir boy came tear- 
 ing into the camp from the hillside, with star- 
 ing eyes and urgent voice. 
 
 "Inspan, missy, inspan!" he shouted to the 
 first woman he met. " The khakis are on us. 
 They are coming right over the hill!" 
 
 The words were hardly out of his mouth be- 
 fore two lines of dust-colored troopers appeared 
 over the heights at either side of the entrance 
 193
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 to the valley. The confusion in the little camp 
 was irremediable. The wagons were circled 
 not far from the huts in a sort of kraal, in which 
 the riding horses and few heads of stock were 
 accustomed to be confined at night. The 
 draught-oxen were grazing two miles away. 
 Only the day before the weary little band of 
 fugitives had received word from a near-by 
 commando in the mountains that no English 
 troops were within striking distance, or likely 
 to be for a week to come. They were taken 
 completely by surprise, and awaited their fate 
 with hearts variously tuned to every note on 
 the scale of misery and apprehension. 
 
 The hut which had been the home of the little 
 Uys family for more than a week was the first 
 to be encompassed in the net of the advancing 
 skirmish line of suspicious English. Rifle in 
 hand, these advanced cautiously, taking ad- 
 vantage of every stone and every bush that 
 seemed to offer the protection of a partial con- 
 cealment from the possible Boer marksmen. 
 For the second time poor Bettie and her mother 
 stood trembling in the doorway of all they 
 194
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 could call their own, watching the threatening 
 approach of the men they now hated more bit- 
 terly than ever. A tall, long-legged officer, 
 mounted on a ridiculously small pony, rode up 
 before their hut, fixing an eye-glass in his eye, 
 and seemingly unaware of the ludicrousness of 
 his appearance. Had it not been for the short- 
 ness of his English stirrup-leathers, his feet 
 "would have almost touched the ground. 
 
 "Where are the Boers?" he asked as sav- 
 agely as his lack of breath would allow. 
 
 Bettie answered in clear English: "Boers? 
 If you mean men, not one has been here for 
 days." 
 
 The officer turned and shouted an unintelli- 
 gible order to his men, who moved more freely 
 forward among the clustering women and into 
 the huts. 
 
 "Where are the commandos?" he demanded 
 again of Bettie, as fiercely as before. 
 
 The girl looked at him coldly. "We know 
 
 nothing of any commandos," she said. "How 
 
 should we? Your noble army has not only 
 
 driven us away from our homes after destroying 
 
 195
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 them, but has hunted us over the veldt like 
 wild beasts. We have gone so far, so many of 
 us are sick, so many have died," her voice 
 broke, "that we do not know whether we 
 shall ever again see the men we love, if, indeed, 
 you have not killed them also." 
 
 The officer laughed in her face. "Very 
 pretty, Miss Boer," he said; "but we happen to 
 know better." 
 
 Bettie flushed with anger. "If those same 
 men were here whom you pretend to be so anx- 
 ious to find, you would not dare to call their 
 women liars," she cried. She turned to her 
 mother, and furiously repeated the insult which, 
 she conceived, had been offered to her, together 
 with the answer she had made, translating 
 them both into Dutch. 
 
 History, even domestic history, has a habit 
 of repeating itself sooner or later. Mrs. Uys 
 was in the act of warning her daughter against 
 the further irritation of an already excited 
 enemy, when there was a stirring and a thump- 
 ing behind her, and Egbert broke between the 
 women, dragging an antiquated shot-gun half 
 196
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 as long again as himself. It had formed a use- 
 ful part of the paraphernalia of their passage. 
 
 "Mother zus' Bettie," he gasped, his face 
 flaming from his ire and his exertion, " do not 
 let the dirty khaki call you a liar. We will 
 shoot hmi first." And he tried to raise the 
 heavy gun to his shoulder. 
 
 The whole incident formed so close a parallel 
 "to the one which had taken place at Blaauwkop 
 early in the afternoon of the day which had 
 brought their first English persecutors and 
 brave little Gertie's bloody death that the same 
 chill of horror struck to the hearts of both 
 women. Before the boy had lifted the muzzle 
 of the piece clear of the ground, his mother 
 had fallen upon him with a cry of agony and 
 dashed it from his hands. Bettie, terrified at 
 this and sick at the memory of the former scene, 
 was leaning ashy white against the door post of 
 the hut. The officer, a little startled, but be- 
 yond measure enraged at what he understood 
 more from the pantomime than from the words, 
 dismounted, or rather stepped aside from his 
 meagre steed, and stooped in front of the group 
 197
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 in the doorway. With one hand he raised 
 the rusty weapon from the ground, while with 
 the back of the other he struck the boy, clasped 
 helplessly against his mother's breast, a hard 
 blow in the face. Then he turned, and called 
 loudly for a non-commissioned officer. A cor- 
 poral and four men came running up. 
 
 " Corporal, you will take this rifle and put it 
 among my baggage as evidence of attempted 
 assassination," he said, handing the man the 
 gun and turning significant eyes full on the 
 pallid girl before him. "Then you will return 
 and definitely arrest these women, keeping them 
 under special guard until they reach Volksrust, 
 when you will see that they are placed in the 
 common jail. The rest of the herd will go to 
 the concentration camp. ' ' He enunciated every 
 word distinctly and viciously, so that poor Bet- 
 tie might not and did not miss one syllable of 
 his meaning. Then he turned on his heel with 
 a cruel smile, and left them. 
 
 Within an hour the mournful little procession 
 was on its way southward to Volksrust. The 
 Boer women dreaded the concentration camps 
 198
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 no less than did the men expatriation; and, as 
 the line of creaking carts and mounted men 
 threaded its way out of the valley and over the 
 hills, there was hardly an eye among the women 
 not too blind with tears to see, hardly a heart 
 not too chilled with grief and fear to feel the 
 bright sun that still shone overhead. 
 
 The long journey south through the wasted 
 *"land was made over the roads and highways, 
 now no longer forbidden and avoided paths to 
 the captured refugees. The actual travelling 
 was easier for most of them than it had been 
 while they were crossing veldt and stream and 
 hill. But they suffered more. They were no 
 longer in their own wagons with what of their 
 own comforts they had been fortunate enough 
 to save. They were not grouped by families, 
 but were herded like cattle into comfortless con- 
 veyances, drawn by stubborn, capricious, evil- 
 tempered mules. In addition to the still acute 
 and drear memories they had of the destruction 
 of their various farms and homesteads, they 
 could and did recall with almost as bitter tears 
 their final capture, the ruthless burning and 
 199
 
 UNDER THE VTERKLEUR 
 
 pillaging of their late pitiful little halting- 
 place on the Komati, and the brutal slaughter 
 of such of their oxen and cattle as their captors 
 chose not to carry along with them. 
 
 Privacy and seclusion began already to be 
 things of the past. Bettie and her mother es- 
 pecially, under the orders of the officer in com- 
 mand of the column, were so closely guarded, 
 so constantly watched, that their lives became 
 greater burdens to them than either grief or 
 the monotony of which their days for the most 
 part consisted would otherwise have warranted. 
 Frightened as they were at the future in store 
 for them, they were nevertheless actually re- 
 lieved when, at the end of two dusty, windy 
 weeks, the tents and towers of Volksrust met 
 their sight. But here the mother's heart was to 
 suffer an additional pang. When the corporal 
 who had them in his charge came, embarrassed 
 and apologetic, to separate them from their 
 fellow-prisoners as they were entering the town, 
 he informed them that the boy, Egbert, would 
 not be allowed to accompany them to the jail, 
 but would have to go on to the concentration 
 200
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 camp with the rest of the prisoners. Poor Mrs. 
 Uys raised her hands hi frantic protest as Bettie 
 translated the order through her sobs. 
 
 "My God," she cried, "am I to have no child 
 left to care for? Is even my last little one to 
 be sacrificed by the bloody oppressors? Were 
 not my husband and my three grown sons 
 and God knows whether they are now dead or 
 p>~alive enough of a sacrifice for my country, 
 that they had to murder one of my little ones 
 before my eyes, and now wish to tear my last 
 chicken from me?" She could not see the boy 
 for her tears as she strained her arms about him. 
 
 He was taken from her and led away. 
 
 "Mother, dear mother," wailed Bettie, sink- 
 ing to the ground and clasping her mother's 
 knees. " I am here, I shall be with you. Look 
 at me, speak to me." 
 
 But the elder woman, a Niobe turned to 
 stone, neither saw nor heard her; and she was 
 taken to the jail heedless of her daughter's 
 tears, deaf to her pleadings as to her comfort- 
 ing, her own eyes pitifully fixed in the direction 
 of the camp. 
 
 201
 
 UNDER 
 
 THE 
 VIERKLEUR 
 
 BOOK II.
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE end of 1901 was in sight, and yet the 
 end of the war was not. But in the eyes 
 of England and, indeed, of those of the whole 
 pitying world, with the solitary exceptions of 
 the strangely partial and blinded little Dutch 
 Republics, the ultimate fate of the latter was 
 "signed and sealed. England wondered how 
 the truculent and rebellious Boers dared further 
 in fact, had dared at first oppose her power. 
 The world wondered how it was that so few 
 and undisciplined battalions so thin a second 
 line of "embattled farmers" could still hold 
 in check the quarter of a million fighting men 
 who had so long overflowed their country. 
 The Boers, partly recovered from the deep de- 
 jection into which their early losses had thrown 
 them, began timidly to wonder whether, after 
 so prolonged and desperate a defence, fortune 
 was not at last about to smile success upon 
 them and their cause. 
 
 Indeed, the state of affairs, which should 
 have been utterly discouraging to the Boers, 
 205
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 was in many ways as much so to the English. 
 It was not the fate, the freedom of England 
 which was at stake, nor the eventual success 
 of British arms; but it was the reputation of 
 these arms and of the nation they defended 
 which was imperilled before the eyes of all 
 Europe. And England knew it. 
 
 To conceal his own embarrassment and 
 that of his government, His Excellency Baron 
 Kitchener of Khartoum, G.C.B., K.C.M.G., 
 General Commander-in-chief of His Majesty's 
 forces in South Africa, High Commissioner of 
 South Africa, and Administrator of the Trans- 
 vaal, etc., issued on the 7th of August, 1901, 
 a proclamation which was calculated at once 
 to lay before the world the fulness and extent 
 of England's dearly bought dominion, and to 
 bring the stubborn and ignorant provinces to 
 a realisation of the criminal hopelessness of 
 further resistance. But, curiously enough, it 
 appeared that this proclamation served still 
 another turn. 
 
 "Whereas," stated Lord Kitchener," the 
 former Orange Free State and South African 
 206 
 
 ,'
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Republic are annexed to His Majesty's posses- 
 sions; 
 
 ("Not because you say so," answered the 
 Boers, emphatically. "To annex us on paper 
 does not convince us of our annexation.") 
 
 "And whereas His Majesty's forces have now 
 been for some considerable time in full possession 
 of the Government seats of both the above-men- 
 tioned territories, with all their public offices and 
 means of administration, as well as of the prin- 
 cipal towns and the whole railway; 
 
 ("Of our public offices, yes," replied the 
 Boers, "but not of our public officers.") 
 
 "And whereas the great majority of burghers 
 of the two late Republics (which number thirty- 
 five thousand over and above those who have been 
 killed in the war) are now prisoners of war, or 
 have subjected themselves to His Majesty's Govern- 
 ment, and are now living in safety, in villages or 
 camps under the protection of His Majesty's 
 forces; 
 
 ("We have still as many honest men to fight 
 you with as you have traitors and captured 
 prisoners from us," rejoined the burghers.) 
 207
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "And whereas the burghers of the late Repub- 
 lics, now under arms against His Majesty's 
 forces, are not only few in number, but have also 
 lost nearly all their guns, and war requisites, and 
 are without proper military organisation, and 
 are therefore not in a position to carry on a reg- 
 ular war, or to make any organised resistance 
 against His Majesty's forces in any part of the 
 country; 
 
 ("We are doing our best," said the Boers.) 
 
 " And whereas the burghers who are now still 
 under arms, although not in a position to carry on 
 a regular war, continue to make attacks on small 
 posts and divisions of His Majesty's forces, to 
 plunder and to destroy farms, and to cut the rail- 
 way and the telegraph lines, both in the Orange 
 River Colony and in the Transvaal and other 
 parts of His Majesty's South African posses- 
 sions; 
 
 ("We are doing our best," repeated the stub- 
 born Boers, "but we will try to do better.") 
 
 "And whereas the country is thus kept in a 
 state of unrest, and the carrying on of agriculture 
 and industries is hindered; 
 208
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ("We are trying to make it as unpleasant for 
 you as we can," suggested the Boers, politely.) 
 
 " And whereas His Majesty' s Government has 
 decided to make an end of the situation which 
 involves unnecessary bloodshed and devastation, 
 and which is ruining the great majority of the 
 inhabitants, who are willing to live in peace, 
 and are desirous of earning a livelihood for 
 tfwmsehes and their families" etc. 
 
 ("Get out and go home, then," said the 
 Boers, succinctly.) 
 
 Lord Kitchener's proclamation ended with 
 the threat of eternal banishment for all those 
 burghers who should prove so depraved as to 
 continue the war after the 15th of September. 
 But the burghers, finding that this, the noisiest 
 battle of the year, was but one of words, took 
 heart and breath, and replied in kind. 
 
 "Your Excellency tells us that our cause is 
 hopeless; but, upon looking the matter over, 
 we dare to disagree," responded their heavy 
 batteries. "A year ago the Cape Colony was 
 altogether free from our commandos. The 
 Orange Free State was almost entirely in your 
 209
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 hands; towns, railway, villages, practically the 
 whole country. In the South African Repub- 
 lic the situation was the same. But to-day the 
 Cape Colony is overrun with our commandos; 
 its greater part they really hold in temporary 
 possession. Many of the inhabitants of that 
 colony, angered at the injustice being done us 
 by you, are joining these commandos, adding 
 materially to our forces. In the Orange Free 
 State Your Excellency is in possession of the 
 capital, the railways, and half a dozen towns 
 not on the railways. The rest of the country 
 we hold absolutely. The same state of affairs 
 prevails in the Transvaal. In both States the 
 keeping of order and the administration of jus- 
 tice are managed by us. At the risk of seem- 
 ing discourteous we venture to state that Your 
 Excellency's jurisdiction in our countries is lim- 
 ited by the range of Your Excellency's guns." 
 The brave and simple Boers, heartened as 
 well as beguiled by the deceitful truths that 
 went to make up this natural, almost universal 
 response to the threat and bluster of England, 
 forgot that their country was ruined; that their 
 210 

 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 hearths and homes were wrecked; that their 
 cattle were looted and killed by the thousand; 
 that their women and children were made 
 prisoners, insulted, and carried away by the 
 troops and armed Kaffirs; that their rulers 
 and those high in government were either in the 
 field or fled the country, or, like random kings / 
 on a chess-board, were moving hither and 
 ffiither to avoid, to postpone, the final check. 
 They forgot all these things, and laughed a4, ' 
 the British proclamation. 
 
 "Can we now," they asked themselves, "when 
 it is merely a question of banishment, shrink 
 from our duty? Can we become faithless to 
 the hundreds of killed and prisoners who sacri- 
 ficed their lives and their freedom for the 
 fatherland? Can we lose faith in a just God, 
 who has so wonderfully upheld us until now? 
 No, should we do so, we should be despised, not 
 only by all honest men, but even by ourselves." 
 
 The war went on with renewed vigor. 
 
 Over the cold and long-deserted ruins of both 
 Baakenhoogte and Blaauwkop the grasses of 
 two seasons grew luxuriant and green. 
 211
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FOR some miles east of Pan, a station in cen- 
 tral Middelburg on the railway line that 
 leads from the Transvaal capital through Por- 
 tuguese East Africa to the sea, the road runs 
 level with the plain through an almost character- 
 less stretch of veldt. At distances of a thou- 
 sand yards something over half a mile apart 
 a series of little blockhouses, bristling with fero- 
 cious approaches and entanglements of barbed 
 wire, lay strung like infrequent beads along the 
 line. Parallel to the right of way, and reaching 
 as far up and down the line as the eye could 
 see, a wide strip of burned and blackened earth 
 marked unmistakably, as well by night as by 
 day, the location and direction of the railroad. 
 This strip had been cleared of the natural cloth- 
 ing of its soil by the English, as an additional 
 protection against raids on passing trains or 
 attacks on the road-bed itself by the Boer 
 commando operating in the district. At night 
 this scorched avenue of emptiness was unremit- 
 tingly swept by the search-lights of the Eng- 
 212
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 lish blockhouses. Under constant and minute 
 inspection by day from these same little forts, 
 no object could blot it, no living being could 
 cross it, without being observed. But the two 
 long parallel lines of bush and trees, green and 
 untouched by fire, that lay north and south 
 of the road, seemed almost to exist for purposes 
 of concealment, and, when so used, could serve 
 Jbheir purpose well. 
 
 On a certain day in September, 1901, a day 
 so late in the month that, according to Lord 
 Kitchener's proclamation, their capture meant 
 their deportation, a large party of His Maj- 
 esty's subjects by annexation, but rebels still, 
 lay in cheerful ambush in the edge of the woods 
 north of the railway line three miles to the east 
 of Pan. The majority of them, some hundred 
 men, had been in the vicinity since the previous 
 evening, and, while waiting for their commander, 
 a chosen few had during the night slipped across 
 the open space, avoiding the straying beams 
 of the search-lights, and with the aid of a 
 trowel, a couple of sticks of dynamite, a car- 
 tridge-primer, and a gunlock, arranged a grim 
 213
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 surprise for the next armoured train that 
 should pass that way. Their commander, 
 Danie Linde, had arrived during the morning 
 with a small escort, and now lay near the middle 
 of his line, watching the railroad. 
 
 At about this period of the war the Boer 
 generals had decided that they would be able 
 to do better work if their forces were divided 
 up into small commandos, and they acted upon 
 the decision. This new arrangement of forces 
 made it impossible for great battles to be 
 fought, but it offered the Boers the opportu- 
 nity of frequently and from more than one 
 point attacking the enemy when he was on the 
 march, of often engaging him in small but 
 disastrous skirmishes, and of harassing him 
 constantly and in widely separated localities at 
 the same time, with but little loss to themselves. 
 
 Danie, now at the head of his old commando, 
 which he had finally and safely rejoined more 
 than a year before, was on his way to the town 
 of Ermelo, where he expected to find and capt- 
 ure or dislodge a small English garrison which 
 had been quartered there in undisturbed quiet 
 214
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 for some months. He had grasped at the op- 
 portunity, when it was presented to him, with 
 an eagerness which had astounded the little 
 council of the officers of his district, who were 
 accustomed to meet at regular intervals for 
 the discussion and assignment of their local 
 campaigns. He explained to them that Ermelo 
 was a district where he was very well acquainted, 
 but he did not tell them he had not heard, even 
 by passing mention, of a little family at Blaauw- 
 kop with which his hopes for the future were 
 closely interwoven. He did not tell them that 
 his hopes, his fears, during the long period in 
 which he could get no word, no knowledge, of 
 Bettie or of Blaauwkop, had become moun- 
 tains to oppress his heart. But he was going 
 now to find out for himself. Even if ten thou- 
 sand men blocked his way at Ermelo, he would 
 make or find a passage through them to 
 Blaauwkop. His own home at Baakenhoogte 
 he had upon his return found burned to the 
 ground, his parents, his two sisters, seized and 
 taken to one of the numerous concentration 
 camps, he knew not which. His feelings about 
 215
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 that horror, and, indeed, up to this time his 
 terrible anxiety about Bettie, he had been able 
 to master. He had cursed bitterly, both aloud 
 and in his heart; but he had shut his teeth 
 grimly together, and aimed the straighter, 
 struck the harder, whenever afterward he had 
 come across one of that hated race. But now, 
 with the knowledge that he was soon to be 
 assured, either for good or ill, of the fate of those 
 others, of that one whom he loved best of all, 
 his emotions became overpowering. The 
 fierce eagerness of his spirit during the past few 
 days had infected his men. They lay restless 
 in the edge of the bush, their eyes scanning 
 the track, the distant blockhouses, and their 
 leader's stern, drawn face, while their hands 
 twitched nervously about the locks of their 
 rifles. 
 
 The sun was beating fiercely down from an 
 unclouded sky upon the rails. The hot iron 
 threw shimmering waves of heat into the vis- 
 ible air. The wire wound and meshed around 
 the distant blockhouses shone and glistened 
 wherever the brilliant sunlight rested upon its 
 216
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 strands and barbs. The reflectors of the search- 
 lights mounted on the tops of the blockhouses 
 caught and returned the sun's rays with such 
 intense brightness that they looked like globes 
 of white fire. 
 
 It had been Danie's intention, when he first 
 decided to cross the railroad at this point, to 
 make his attack at night. But he had learned 
 ,tipon his arrival that the road was patrolled 
 daily by an armoured train, and he had changed 
 his programme, to include, if possible, its de- 
 struction. The usual time for its passing came 
 and went. Danie was seized with a very devil 
 of impatience, and his heart, full fifty miles to 
 the south, was calling him, almost dragging 
 him, to Blaauwkop. He changed his mind 
 again, and decided to cross the line at once. 
 
 He leaped to his feet, and called his veldt- 
 cornet Koos Nel. The murmurs of conversation 
 among the men died down to an expectant 
 hush. In order to take his wagons across, 
 for his, like almost all of the Boer commandos, 
 was burdened even on short marches with these 
 encumbrances, he saw that there was but one 
 217
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 thing to do; namely, to storm the two nearest 
 blockhouses, overpower their garrisons, and 
 take his convoy across between them. The 
 final arrangements were hastily made. Danie 
 prepared to lead half his men against the block- 
 house on the right, from which direction the 
 armoured train had been expected to arrive. 
 His veldt-cornet was to take the other half, 
 and storm that to the left. 
 
 The sections left their horses behind with 
 the wagons, under the guard of a few men, and 
 marched in scattered order toward their re- 
 spective points of attack. When they had 
 reached to within three hundred yards of the 
 blockhouses, the garrisons opened with a hail 
 of Lee-Metford bullets, the British firing both 
 from within shelter of their forts and from be- 
 hind mounds of earth outside. The stronghold 
 attacked by Danie offered a most determined 
 resistance for about twenty minutes, and only 
 surrendered when the muzzles of the Boer 
 rifles were thrust through its loopholes. At the 
 cries for mercy and surrender the firing grad- 
 ually ceased. The English soldiers ran out, 
 218
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 holding up their hands. Danie was making 
 ready to proceed to the assistance of his lieu- 
 tenant at the other blockhouse, where the 
 attack still continued, when suddenly a long, 
 shrill scream sounded almost over his head, 
 he was borne backward off the rails by a fright- 
 ened, frantic rush of both his own men and 
 his new prisoners, and the long-expected train 
 went thundering by the captured blockhouse 
 at full speed, almost sucking some of the startled 
 by-standers into the whirlpool of its path. The 
 dozen seconds that followed its passing seemed 
 an age to the staring Boers, but the tram 
 reached the spot where the mine had been 
 laid. There was a terrific explosion, some- 
 thing went up in the air. Then the shrill 
 whistle stopped, and all was silent. 
 
 Nothing was left of the heavily armoured 
 engine and cars but a few fragments on the 
 spot. The rest of the material of which the 
 train had been composed, and the shreds of 
 the bodies of the men who had manned it, 
 were scattered hi indistinguishable remnants 
 far and wide. As soon as the Boers could re- 
 219
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 cover from their stupefaction, Danie led them 
 forward to aid in the storming of the other 
 blockhouse; but there was no need of such ac- 
 tion. All firing had ceased upon the blowing 
 up of the mine, and the garrison was already 
 surrendering. 
 
 That night the commando, having covered 
 the intervening miles of country at a rapid 
 gait, crossed the Middelburg-Ermelo road 
 where it entered the Klipstapel Berg, and 
 pitched their camp on the northern confines 
 of that great mountain. After a few hours' 
 rest they were again upon the march; and in 
 the grey dawn they descended upon the little 
 town of Ermelo, asleep on the plateau beyond. 
 The surprise was well planned and as well ex- 
 ecuted. From four different points of the com- 
 pass did the gallant Boers burst simultane- 
 ously past the silent, outlying farrn-houses and 
 into the leafy streets of the quiet town. Their 
 shouts and cheers, the thunderous clatter of 
 their horses' hoofs, aroused the few and peace- 
 ful inhabitants, who stared, white-faced and 
 open-mouthed, from doors and windows. But 
 220
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 no terrified English voices were heard shouting 
 through the morning mist, no bugle blared 
 alarm, no rifle blazed forth at them, no khaki 
 uniforms were seen pouring from the houses or 
 dodging through the streets. It was indeed a 
 peaceful victory. The four small assaulting 
 columns met in the middle of Ermelo, and 
 pulled up at sight of each other, astonished, 
 f wondering, a little crestfallen. Then, as the 
 truth of the matter broke upon them, the 
 men burst into a roar of laughter. 
 
 "Hi, old Oom!" shouted one of them to an 
 old man with a long white beard who stood by 
 in the grassy square, still staring at them with 
 open mouth, his fingers spread wide apart, 
 "what do you think of us now, eh? We have 
 taken you and your whole town without the 
 loss of a man on either side and without firing 
 a shot." 
 
 The old man grinned in toothless apprecia- 
 tion of the joke. "We thought you were the 
 English come again," he said. "They, too, 
 captured us in the early morning without losing 
 a man, when they first came to us last winter, 
 221
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 but only after much firing of cannons and 
 rifles, although there was not a burgher to fight 
 them within twenty miles. Luckily, the khakis 
 cannot shoot straight; and so nobody was killed 
 but old Vrouw Pienaar's donkey, which was 
 grazing in the veldt the other side of the town." 
 
 Danie rode up to the speaker. "When did 
 the English go away, Oom?" he asked. 
 
 "The damned khaki dogs went away into 
 the mountains two weeks ago, General," re- 
 sponded the old man. "Why did you not 
 come to us sooner? You would have eaten 
 them up. We are now free from them, and 
 God grant that they never come back to us." 
 
 Danie still sat quiet on his horse, looking 
 down on the village patriarch. Three times he 
 tried to put to him the question that haunted 
 his soul; but, though he licked his dry lips, 
 summoned up all his courage, he could not, 
 dared not, form it. He turned away at last, 
 and rode up to his veldt-cornet. 
 
 "I am going to leave you for a little while, 
 Koos," he said, "and I shall take two men with 
 me. I may not be back before night. Make 
 222
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 what arrangements you think best for quarters 
 in the town. We shall remain here for a day 
 or two." He turned and called two burghers, 
 and galloped down the street. 
 
 The ten miles that lay between Blaauwkop 
 and the town he covered within the hour. As 
 he approached the vicinity of the farm, his 
 heart misgave him; for he could see over the 
 ^vide areas that used to proclaim the industry 
 and prosperity of Dirk Uys no grazing sheep, 
 no high-stacked ricks of corn or grain, no signs 
 of tilled or cultivated fields. The air above 
 the little randt that still hid the farmstead from 
 his sight was clear and free from smoke. With 
 the fear of a great misfortune clutching at his 
 heart, he pulled up his horse, and waved back 
 the two men who were following him at a little 
 distance. Slowly, almost reluctantly, he moved 
 to the top of the rise before him. 
 
 The scene of utter desolation that met his 
 eyes, the untold horrors conjured up by his 
 imagination in connection with that scene, par- 
 tially paralysed for the moment his nerves, his 
 centres of action as well as of feeling. He sat 
 223
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 motionless, breathless, as if carved in stone, 
 his wide eyes fixed on the silent ruins. Then 
 with a ferocious cry of agony he drove his spurs 
 into his horse's flanks, and dashed down the 
 well-remembered road to where the home of 
 his beloved, the treasury of his happiness, had 
 once stood. 
 
 Some ragged portions of the red brick walls 
 were still standing, overrun with grass and 
 climbing vines. From one firm corner a sec- 
 tion of the corrugated iron roof slanted to the 
 ground, brown with dirt and rust. The wide 
 stone steps that had led up to the pleasant 
 stoep lay tumbled to a shapeless heap, half 
 buried in the encroaching soil. He dismounted 
 and walked, trembling in every limb, into the 
 middle of the cold and repelling space whose 
 faint outlines yet marked the bounds and 
 limits of the human habitation that had once 
 occupied it. He tried to trace from the signs 
 at his feet rather than from memory the loca- 
 tions of the different living rooms. But the 
 flames had been so thorough in their work, the 
 destruction of the house so complete, that he 
 224
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 could not do so. A twisted mass of rusty and 
 fragile wires tangled among the rank kwitch 
 grass convinced him that he was looking at all 
 that remained of the piano to the accompani- 
 ment of which Bettie had sung him so many 
 happy songs. The recollection almost over- 
 came him, and he strode hastily out of the rums 
 of the house. He looked about him further. 
 Great circles where the grass seemed to grow 
 more luxuriantly green than elsewhere were all 
 that showed the old location of the kraals. 
 There were left no traces of the neat, clipped 
 hedges that had enclosed the garden and bor- 
 dered the paths. The once bright and bloom- 
 ing beds had long been choked and overgrown 
 with the grass and weeds of the veldt. Their 
 sites were alone indicated by a few hardy peren- 
 nial blossoms that still managed to struggle 
 through the tangled mass around them. Danie 
 turned and walked out to the road, his eyes 
 blinded by tears. He could look no longer on 
 the grave of Blaauwkop. He went up to his 
 horse, which had stood patiently awaiting him, 
 and, placing his hand on the saddle and his 
 225
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 foot in the stirrup, prepared to mount and ride 
 away. Just as he raised himself from the 
 ground, he thought he heard his name called. 
 He dropped to the road, and whirled about. 
 
 From the direction of the ruins a strangely 
 familiar figure was approaching. 
 
 "Maliwe!" cried Danie, in the utmost as- 
 tonishment. "Maliwe! how come you here 
 where what ?" 
 
 The old Kaffir came running to him, and fell 
 on his knees in front of him, clasping Danie 's 
 legs in his withered arms. 
 
 "Oh, Baas Danie, Baas Danie," he cried, 
 "I came back, and now you have come back; 
 but the others, they are gone, they will not 
 return. I have waited so long" 
 
 With a sinking at his heart, Danie grasped 
 hmi roughly by the shoulders. " What do you 
 mean?" he gasped. "Are they is Miss Bettie 
 dead?" 
 
 Maliwe rose tottering, with the tears stream- 
 ing down his face. " I do not know, Baas, I do 
 not know. But little Baas Gert is dead, my 
 little Gertie. They drove his skull in here in 
 226
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 front of the house where we are standing, more 
 than two rains ago, the day that Blaauwkop 
 was burned and we started out on the long 
 trek over the mountains. We buried him far 
 out there on the veldt." And he pointed north 
 with shaking finger. 
 
 "Tell me all about it," said Danie, in a hoarse 
 voice. "What happened? The old man, 
 >ur the grown sons, were they not here?" 
 
 Maliwe shook his head mournfully. "No," 
 he answered, "no one was here of the men of 
 the family except myself. The way of it was 
 this: We had managed the farm for months 
 alone. The old baas had been home but once 
 since he went off to fight the English, and the 
 others not at all. I have heard since that 
 Baas Piet was killed at Elandslaagte. But one 
 day, just before the rains, the Natal khakis 
 came to Ermelo, and burned some of the farms 
 near the town. We saw the great fires in the 
 sky that night. The next day they came to 
 Blaauwkop, and spoke many words; but it was 
 in English, and Miss Bettie talked to them, 
 so all I understood was that they were coming 
 227
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 again to burn the place. Anyway, they went 
 off without doing anything. But the night of 
 the burning at Ermelo all our Kaffirs had 
 stolen away, and there were no servants left 
 on the farm. But, after the khakis left, they 
 came back, and with them other Kaffirs in 
 swarms, and many of them wore the uniforms 
 of the police, and said that they were ma- 
 sodga. Then they set fire to the houses and 
 kraals, and danced dances around the fires. 
 But we had loaded the wagon, and little Baas 
 Egbert had driven some sheep and cattle into 
 the hills; and the others were riding behind, 
 and I was following with the wagon. Then 
 Gert came back to help me, and a great Kaffir 
 masodga stole his horse, and struck him on 
 the head with his kerrie, so that he fell dead 
 to the ground. Oh, Baas Danie, but it was 
 awful! I lifted him, and placed him in the 
 wagon; and we carried him with us until we 
 buried him at the foot of the hill. Then we 
 trekked over the mountains." 
 
 "And what happened then?" whispered 
 Danie. 
 
 228
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Well," continued Maliwe, with a sigh, "for 
 a great many days we trekked about on the 
 veldt and crossed many rivers, hardly resting 
 anywhere, running away from the khakis. 
 And there were many other people in wagons, 
 mostly women and children, who were also 
 running away from them. But at last they 
 caught us together with a lot of others as we 
 j^ere resting by a river in Lydenburg. They 
 burned our wagons and killed our cattle, and 
 took us to a great laager in Natal. But I, 
 who could do nothing more for my mistress, 
 ran away and came back to Blaauwkop, where 
 I have been waiting for some one to return." 
 
 There was silence for a few moments. Danie 
 looked out across the mountains over which 
 Bettie and her mother and brother, attended 
 alone by this faithful servant, had made their 
 lonesome flight only to fall into the hands of 
 the enemy they were attempting to escape. 
 And his thoughts stopped for a moment at the 
 solitary little grave that lay somewhere far out 
 on the veldt. He turned with tears in his eyes 
 to the old Kaffir, and held out his hands. 
 229
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "I can give you but poor thanks, Maliwe," 
 he began, "for what you did for me and mine; 
 for you know how it was between your young 
 mistress and myself. But I should like to ask 
 one thing more. I wish to see little Gert's 
 grave, if you can guide me to it." 
 
 "I have not forgotten it, Baas Danie," re- 
 sponded Maliwe; "for I dug it myself, and 
 covered it with great stones. But it is far. If 
 you will get me one of those horses," and he 
 pointed toward Danie's two companions wait- 
 ing on the rise, "I will take you to it now." 
 
 Danie mounted, and, riding to the randt, soon 
 returned with a horse. The Kaffir leaped upon 
 its back, and together they galloped north- 
 ward into the rolling veldt. 
 
 When they returned, it was already after- 
 noon. Rejoining the two patient burghers 
 where these had made themselves a comfort- 
 able shelter beneath some trees near the devas- 
 tated homestead, they slipped from their 
 horses, and loosened the girths to rest and ease 
 them. The Kaffir silently turned toward the 
 ruins. 
 
 230
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Stay, Maliwe," called Danie, "you cannot 
 live here. Come back with me to the village, 
 and I will give you a horse and a rifle and take 
 you with me when I go." 
 
 The old Kaffir shook his head. "No, Baas 
 Danie," he answered. "I like you very much. 
 You are almost one of the family, and I should 
 be glad to go with you. Also I should enjoy 
 r very much shooting Englishmen. But I must 
 remain where I am. I must be here when old 
 Baas Dirk gets home, to tell him what has 
 happened. For he will surely come." And 
 he disappeared around a corner of the broken 
 wall. r c 
 
 A few minutes later Danie and his two com- 
 panions mounted their horses, and rode away 
 in the direction of the town. At the top of 
 the little randt over which the road led, he 
 stopped and took one long, last look at the rums 
 of Blaauwkop. Then he set his face finally 
 toward Ermelo, and was lost to view. 
 
 That very night the commando marched 
 northward again, and before dawn the Klip- 
 stapel Berg had swallowed it up. 
 231
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A MONTH after his return from his fruit- 
 less and somewhat inglorious raid on 
 Ermelo and his equally fruitless but infinitely 
 more dispiriting visit to Blaauwkop, Danie 
 Linde found himself within the borders of the 
 Orange Free State, at the head of a special 
 and selected commando of four hundred men. 
 The object of his expedition was, after passing 
 through the Free State, as the fighting bur- 
 ghers still persisted in calling it, the invasion 
 of Cape Colony. 
 
 Such expeditions of invasion had become 
 more and more numerous as the war progressed; 
 and during its last year, especially, they were 
 of as frequent occurrence as they were desper- 
 ately daring in character. One well-known 
 Free State commando had crossed the Orange 
 River, and fought its way south through Cape 
 Colony, by way of Maraisburg and Cradock 
 and Pearston, until it actually reached the 
 coast at Algoa Bay, cutting the railroad at 
 Alicedale Junction, scarcely forty miles north 
 232
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 of Port Elizabeth. Another, even more daring, 
 had passed south-west through the Cape Colony 
 by way of Burghersdorp, Middelburg, Aber- 
 deen, Willowmore, Uniondale, and Oudtshoorn, 
 striking west from the latter place to within 
 twenty miles of the Capetown railway, and 
 south from Uniondale to Mossel Bay. Still a 
 third crossed the Free State boundary where 
 J/he Zand River joins the Orange, and made its 
 way westward through Britstown, Carnarvon, 
 Williston, Calvinia, and Van Ryn's Dorp to 
 the Atlantic Ocean itself, which it struck at 
 Lambert's Bay. This commando, moreover, 
 made several destructive descents on the main 
 line of the great railroad which lay to the 
 south of its course, seriously, if only tempo- 
 rarily, interrupting the only line of communica- 
 tion of the English armies in the north. 
 
 The success of these expeditions, the fever 
 of unrest which they bred, and the increasing 
 enlistment in the service of the Republics 
 which they stimulated among the Cape Colony 
 Boers, together with the wide alarm they 
 caused among the British authorities, gained 
 233
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 them great favour with the leaders of the Boer 
 forces. Picked commandos from the Trans- 
 vaal, of which Danie Linde's was one, were 
 sent to aid the adventurous Free Staters in the 
 new invasion, or, rather, series of invasions, 
 into British territory. 
 
 Danie passed slowly and uneventfully through 
 the greater part of the Free State. Guided 
 and guarded by the forces of those districts 
 through which he travelled, he managed to 
 avoid collision with any of the numerous British 
 columns that were operating in and occupying 
 the Orange Free State. It was his duty to 
 get his commando across the border into the 
 Cape Colony in as effective a condition as 
 possible. He dared not risk weakening the 
 force of the blows he might have to strike by 
 even the small loss he would be sure to sustain, 
 should he engage with the enemy while on 
 his way through the Free State. In trying to 
 avoid an English force stationed at Wepener, 
 he had been forced to the railroad, then upon 
 his right, and was for some time in considerable 
 danger of being hemmed in and compelled to 
 234
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 fight. But he had managed to escape an ac- 
 tion, and the net spread by his enemies at the 
 same time, by leading his men across, or, rather, 
 underneath, the railroad, by way of the Kaffir 
 Spruit, concealed by the night and by its high 
 banks. 
 
 Having the railroad now on his left, he 
 attempted to continue his movement south. 
 Rut he had been observed, he had made trouble, 
 he had withdrawn himself unaccountably from 
 one net spread for him, his aim was guessed. 
 His location to the west of the railroad was de- 
 termined, small bodies of troops were massing 
 on his right and rear. His scouts began to 
 bring him in suspicious tidings. He began to 
 feel very uneasy without actually seeing any 
 numbers of the enemy at first. But he noticed 
 that he was being pressed out of his course on 
 to the line of the railway, which, guarded as it 
 was, he particularly wished to avoid. Soon 
 he found that he was being inveigled into little 
 rear-guard actions, which, while still of small 
 moment, convinced him that something more 
 serious was near. 
 
 235
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 It was about seven o'clock of a warm spring 
 evening in October. As the darkness increased, 
 the pressure on his rear became more distinct, 
 and he had to send back an additional fifty 
 men to stand off the impetuous enemy. He 
 was being attacked by well-mounted cavalry, 
 which, he knew by his reports, already over- 
 matched him, and was growing in numbers 
 every moment. His front was not only be- 
 coming embarrassed by the increasingly difficult 
 nature of the ground, but was also menaced 
 from a distance by a small body of infantry he 
 knew to be stationed some miles ahead in an- 
 ticipation of his coming. Forced to decide 
 upon an immediate course of action, Danie 
 came to the conclusion that a bold attempt 
 to recross the railroad under the cover of dark- 
 ness would be the safest plan for him to pursue. 
 
 He knew that he was opposite to the station 
 of Springfontein. The building, like all sta- 
 tions along the railway line held by the British, 
 had been fortified and sheathed with iron to 
 serve as a blockhouse. The embankments along 
 the right of way, everywhere else protected by 
 236
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 rifle-pits behind broad ditches and rows of wire 
 entanglements, sloped, just to the south of the 
 station, down to a flat, wide crossing. This 
 crossing was that of the important highway 
 that ran between Fauresmith and Bethulie, 
 and was protected and guarded by small earth- 
 works flanking the highway and at acute angles 
 to the railroad, each of the four short lines of 
 dtfbrks finally refusing to the open country. 
 
 Danie rode to the head of his little column, 
 and, bending his course to the east, led it to 
 within a quarter of a mile of the railway. There 
 he halted, and sent back word to his energetic 
 rear-guard to force back the attacking cavalry, 
 if possible, and at the same time to be prepared 
 to make a dash over the crossing when they 
 should receive the order. He then moved for- 
 ward himself in the dusk with fifty men to 
 within a hundred yards of the crossing, and 
 opened a savage and sustained fire upon its 
 defenders, paying little or no attention to the 
 noisy but ineffective blockhouse nearly two 
 hundred yards up the line, and now barely 
 visible through the semi-darkness. When his 
 237
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 advance had been engaged for ten minutes and 
 their fire was at its hottest, he sent back the 
 expected word to the rear-guard, and at the 
 same time ordered his main body to advance. 
 As it reached the skirmish line, he placed him- 
 self at its head, shouting for a charge. With 
 a storm of yells and cheers the ponderous mass 
 of men, crowded into the closest order in the 
 narrow road, bore down upon the crossing in 
 an indistinguishable whirlwind of dust and 
 smoke and thunder. The countlessly succes- 
 sive, yard-long flashes from the frantic rifles 
 levelled at them across the earthworks and 
 enbankment served but to light up strangely 
 and intermittently the tossed arms, the mass 
 of white, set faces, the blazing eyes and foam- 
 ing bits of the crowded hundreds of horses. 
 The thin, unshrinking line thrown hastily along 
 the track at the crossing to check the charge 
 crumpled like tissue at the first touch of the 
 onrushing mass. Steadily, swiftly, resistlessly 
 the commando streamed across the railway 
 and into the road beyond, the skirmishers fall- 
 ing into its rear as it rushed by them, and 
 238
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 crossing with it. The noise of its passing was 
 like that of a heavily loaded freight train roll- 
 ing over a bridge. In its wake, stamped and 
 trodden out of all semblance to humanity, lay 
 the crushed corpses of the brave English line 
 and of the twenty hapless Boers who had fallen 
 in front of the charge. 
 As soon as he was across, Danie divided the 
 
 commando, and from the fields at both sides 
 
 * 
 
 of the road re-engaged the full attention of the 
 enemy by a withering fire upon their works. 
 Just in time to profit by this effective diversion, 
 the gallant rear-guard burst from the further 
 darkness to the confusion of the unexpectant 
 English, and followed the main division across 
 the railroad almost without loss. 
 
 Gradually withdrawing the commando from 
 the railroad, and replacing the rear-guard in 
 its old position, Danie made his way into a line 
 of hills that rose about a mile from the scene 
 of his action. As he entered its defiles with 
 the last of his rear-guard, the sound of renewed 
 and fierce firing at the crossing was faintly 
 heard through the still night air. 
 239
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 " Allemagtig, Commandant!" exclaimed one 
 of the men, looking back. "What was that?" 
 
 Danie grinned amiably. "I expect it is 
 your old friends the English cavalry trying to 
 cross the railroad after us, " he answered. " Per- 
 haps they look too much like Boers in the 
 darkness." 
 
 Whether he was right or wrong in his sur- 
 mise, he was nevertheless able two hours later 
 to make his laager without being disturbed. 
 It was evident that for the time being, at least, 
 the British pursuit had been discontinued. The 
 hurts of the slightly injured men were dressed 
 that night in camp. Danie himself was among 
 them with a clean bullet wound through the 
 calf of his left leg. He had no seriously wounded 
 with him. If there had been such, he hated 
 to think so, they had fallen to meet death in 
 a horrible form beneath the horses' feet in the 
 charge at the crossing. 
 
 The next morning Danie managed to get in 
 touch with one of the small Free State com- 
 mandos that laagered among the mountains 
 to watch and harass the English. From them 
 240
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 he procured not only forage and the horses 
 which he needed, but also, with the permission 
 of its commandant, enough eager recruits to 
 make up for half his losses of the night before. 
 The dozen new men were twice welcome for 
 that, knowing the country, they would also be 
 able to guide him intelligently through the 
 passes and between the English columns to 
 the Orange River, which he hoped to cross 
 within twenty-four hours. This river now lay 
 but twenty miles to the south of him. He was 
 practically certain that no further obstructions, 
 with the exception of the crude barriers of 
 nature, lay between him and the Cape Colony, 
 his goal. By noon his laager was struck, and 
 he was ready for the march. All his scouts 
 but two had returned. These two, Jan and 
 Hendrek by name, had not come back. Danie, 
 impatient, called his adjutant. 
 
 "What about Jan and the other man, Re- 
 delinghuis?" he asked. 
 
 The adjutant thumbed his chin. " I wonder, 
 Commandant," he answered. "They should 
 have been in two hours ago. It may be that 
 241
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 they have sighted a column from the hills, and 
 are waiting to make sure of its direction be- 
 fore they report." 
 
 Danie waved his hand irritably. "Go and 
 see" he began. But at that moment a mur- 
 mur arose among the men. The two officers 
 turned their heads in the direction of the sound. 
 
 ""Here they come," exclaimed the adju- 
 tant, "but there are four of them. I believe 
 they have captured a couple of khakis." 
 
 In fact, four men were appearing over the 
 crest of a distant rise, still silhouetted in black 
 against the sky. Danie rode slowly forward 
 to meet them; but, as they approached him, 
 his wonder and doubt were changed to surprise 
 and joy. For two of the men were, as he had 
 felt assured, the missing scouts, while of the 
 two strangers he recognised the first as one of 
 General Cris Botha's adjutants, whom he had 
 known before the war, and the other as Abra- 
 ham Uys, Bettie's eldest brother. 
 
 He leaped from his horse, and ran toward 
 them with outstretched hands. 
 
 "Groenwald! Abraham, Abraham!" he cried 
 242
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 as he seized their hands. " How is it that you 
 are here? Where did you come from?" 
 
 " We have been following you for three days," 
 they explained, "ever since we came upon 
 your spoor. We are riding with despatches 
 for two of the commandos in the Cape Colony, 
 and we have had a hard enough time of it. 
 Hearing that you were ahead of us, we tried 
 to join you; but you made such a racket at 
 Sf)ringfontein that we could not follow you 
 through. So we had to go around." 
 
 Danie shook their hands again. "Well, I 
 am mighty glad that you got here, anyway. 
 I suppose you two tried to follow my example, 
 and charge across the line. I saw and heard 
 more heavy firing down there some time after 
 we had got into the hills." 
 
 " No, Danie, Groenwald and I are not as reck- 
 less as all that, although we are very brave," 
 laughed Abraham, "and although two Boers 
 should be a match for a hundred Englishmen. 
 That second battle was the cavalry under Gen- 
 eral Kelly-Kenny trying to follow you. The 
 English general wasted an hour before he 
 243
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 found out that you had slipped away; and, 
 when he came to the crossing hot-haste after 
 you, his friends thought it was another Boer 
 commando, and played the devil with him. 
 And I really believe he thought you had capt- 
 ured the line, and were holding it against 
 him. They fought for more than an hour be- 
 fore they discovered their mistake." 
 
 " That was why I was not pursued any further 
 then," laughed Danie. And they rode back 
 arm in arm to the commando. 
 
 The start was at last made. The two de- 
 spatch riders were to accompany Danie to the 
 Orange River, where he had agreed to take 
 their despatches over into the Cape Colony for 
 delivery. As the long column of horsemen 
 wound forth upon the march, its commander 
 dropped to the rear with Abraham, burning 
 with anxiety for the news he hoped his intended 
 brother-in-law could give him. 
 
 "Abraham," he broke the silence, "you know 
 
 what I am wild to hear. I was a prisoner with 
 
 the English after Dundee for six months. And 
 
 after I escaped I was for more than a year 
 
 244
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 fighting in the mountains, with never a word 
 from parent or friend. Eight weeks ago I was 
 sent to Ermelo, and rode out to Blaauwkop 
 to find it level with the ground. It might have 
 been sown with salt. Abraham, where are 
 your mother and sister ? Are they is she dead ?" 
 
 Abraham sighed. "Ach," he said, "Danie, 
 what have I to tell you? Mother and Bettie 
 -and the little brothers were alive when we last 
 heard of them. They were in the concentra- 
 tion camp at Pietermaritzburg. This news 
 came through General Botha's wife, who came 
 out, by permission of the English, to see her 
 husband when he was ill." 
 
 "Then they are alive, thank God!" said 
 Danie, gratefully; "but," he added gently, "not 
 all, Abraham. Brave little Gertie was killed 
 while trying to defend his father's family and 
 property." And he laid his hand softly on 
 the young man's arm. 
 
 Abraham blanched, and bit his lip. "That 
 is the second," he said simply. "Piet was 
 killed at Elandslaagte. And father, you know, 
 was captured in Lichtenburg." 
 245
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Danie did not know what to say. The two 
 friends rode along for a mile or two side by 
 side in silence. 
 
 "Well," said Danie, finally, "we are all suf- 
 fering dreadfully from this war. My own par- 
 ents and my dear sisters have long been in 
 one of their concentration camps, and I do not 
 know whether they are alive or dead. But 
 I can tell you, Abraham, to hear that Bettie 
 is alive and probably well has taken a frightful 
 load off my heart." 
 
 Under the guidance of the Free State re- 
 cruits the day passed without incident. When 
 evening fell, the great river lay before them, 
 its broad waters ominously crimsoned by the 
 lurid afterglow, sullenly black where they 
 flowed beneath the shadow of the banks. Two 
 small parties of burghers were sent to scout, 
 one east, one west, along the stream. Within 
 the hour they returned to report an unguarded 
 drift three miles below the junction of the 
 Caledon with the Orange. 
 
 The two despatch riders warmly shook hands 
 with Danie and mounted to ride back a few 
 246
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 miles into the hills for the night, that they 
 might safely rest themselves and their horses 
 preparatory to starting on their long return 
 journey to the Transvaal. Danie accompanied 
 them a little way into the veldt. He looked 
 long and earnestly at Abraham as he rode be- 
 side him. His thoughts were many. Finally 
 he spoke aloud. 
 
 ^ " Forgive me for my uncompanionable mood, 
 *boy," he said with a faint smile, "but you re- 
 mind me so much of your sister that I cannot 
 keep my mind off her for a moment. Your 
 news of her, meagre as it was, made me very 
 happy. And I cannot help thinking that your 
 coming upon me here so accidentally, so many 
 miles from home, especially after my late dread- 
 ful visit to Blaauwkop, is of great good omen." 
 Even as he spoke, his pale face set and changed 
 at the recollection of the dark forebodings with 
 which the bloody waters of the Orange had 
 filled his mind scarcely an hour before. "I 
 hope, Abraham," he continued after a mo- 
 ment, " that, when you return to General Botha, 
 you will manage to send, either through him 
 247
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 or his wife, my love to Bettie and your mother. 
 Tell them, if you can, all that I have told you, 
 and more. You know what I mean." 
 
 "I will do so if it is possible, Danie," returned 
 the other. "You may trust me to do all that 
 I can. But you know how remote such oppor- 
 tunities are." 
 
 "Yes," answered Danie, slowly, "I know. 
 But I must go back. It is time to say good- 
 bye." 
 
 With a new impulse the two young men who 
 were so nearly brothers embraced each other; 
 and, after a warm clasp of the hand and a hearty 
 "God bless you!" from Groenwald, Danie once 
 more turned his back on the free mountains 
 and his face to the river. 
 
 As nine o'clock he and his commando were 
 trampling British soil. 
 
 248
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE concentration camp at Pietermaritz- 
 burg was established after the war was 
 more than half over with the object of relieving 
 the pressure in the camps that lay farther north 
 and west in the zone of hostilities. The ever- 
 increasing number of captured women and chil- 
 dren, which toward the last of the year of 
 1901 amounted to over seventy thousand, 
 and the growing scarcity of food-products in 
 the devastated and overrun Republics, swarm- 
 ing with armies aggregating more than three 
 hundred thousand men, compelled the British 
 authorities to remove to their own unharassed 
 and still fertile and productive territories the 
 majority of their helpless captives. The larger 
 camps, such as that of Pietermaritzburg, soon 
 began to show signs of overcrowding. The 
 Boer women and children, totally unaccus- 
 tomed to their new way of living, deprived not 
 only of the ordinary comforts, but of many 
 of the actual necessities of health as well as 
 life, began early to succumb to many diseases, 
 249
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 of which typhoid was the most disastrous, and 
 among which homesickness proved not the 
 least fatal. 
 
 The concentration camp was situated east 
 of the town. Its wide white sea of tents 
 stretched far in every direction, for it was a 
 canvas city of five thousand souls. To the 
 southward the ground dropped in a series of 
 small and gentle declivities to the bed of a 
 little spruit, the laundry of the camp. From 
 Monday morning until Saturday night the 
 sloping banks and the tall sour grass of the 
 surrounding field were covered with white and 
 drying clothing, so that from a distance the 
 vicinity looked like an extension of this city 
 of tents. At almost any time from sunrise to 
 sunset, on any one of the secular days of the 
 week, rows of women in white kappies, or sun- 
 bonnets, could be seen lining both sides of the 
 stream and laboring in its waters. But above 
 a certain point in its course they never went 
 for the purposes of washing or rinsing clothes. 
 The stream above this point a mere rivulet 
 and pool among the rocks of the little kloof in 
 250
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 which it rose was sacred to a line, almost un- 
 ending by day, of white-kappied bucket-bearers, 
 bringing the supply of water for drinking and 
 cooking, a never-ending need. 
 
 Looking at the camp from the spruit, it ap- 
 peared to be surrounded at all times during 
 six days of the week with a white wall. This 
 was because the high barbed-wire fence that 
 s enclosed the prisoners or, as the British govern- 
 ment chose to put it, its "guests" was also 
 used for the purpose of drying clothes. It was 
 usually hung with white as high as the women 
 could reach. The evenness of its circumference 
 was broken by day by sentry-guarded but open 
 gates, through which the women passed to such 
 of their avocations as called them to the spruit. 
 The main gate, near which the galvanised iron 
 office of the superintendent stood, faced the 
 town of Pietermaritzburg. But except on 
 bright and sunny days Pietermaritzburg was 
 but a misty vision in the distance. 
 
 In front of one among the innumerable rows 
 of tents, striving fruitlessly to bring a damp 
 bunch of poplar sticks to a blaze beneath 
 251
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 her kettle, crouched Mrs. Uys, wan, pale, and 
 feeble. The nine months that she had passed 
 in this hell in the centre of Natal, since she 
 and her two children had been moved south 
 from their first captivity at Volksrust, had in 
 part broken her spirit, but had not accustomed 
 her body to the new conditions and exigencies 
 of captive existence. She hated her captors 
 her jailers as she called them, her guardians and 
 protectors as they called themselves with a 
 deeper hatred than ever. But step by step, 
 since that fateful day at Blaauwkop a year and 
 a half ago, they had proved their power, she 
 her weakness. She had heard long since of the 
 death of her beloved Piet at Elandslaagte, of 
 her husband's capture and exile. With her 
 own hands she had laid her little Gert in his 
 lonely grave on the veldt. With her own eyes, 
 strained and weakened by weeping though they 
 had been for months, she could see her daugh- 
 ter and her youngest child daily decline. She 
 believed that she should never see her husband 
 again, that her two tall sons would never re- 
 turn to her. 
 
 252
 
 UNDER THE VTERKLEUR 
 
 The day, which had broken bright and sunny, 
 had clouded over. A raw east wind from the 
 direction of Durban and the ocean swept gustily 
 down the long, bare streets of the camp, ma- 
 liciously snatching at the innumerable garments 
 that whitened the fields outside and flapped 
 from the encircling barricade. Within the 
 camp the scanty grass that stood yet untrodden 
 between the protecting guy-ropes of the tents 
 '"shrank tremulously from the chill blow, and the 
 thin, weak flames of the noon fires at the ends 
 and corners of the streets paled and flickered 
 at its touch. 
 
 The morning of Monday, the world's wash- 
 day, was nearly over. Bettie Uys, who had 
 just finished her own and her mother's washing, 
 came wearily back from the spruit. Her pale 
 face looked pathetically tired and drawn; but 
 her dark eyes, under-ringed with the shadows 
 of care and grief, looked more deep, more lu- 
 minous than ever. She stopped near her 
 mother, who was still struggling against the 
 disadvantages of wind and wet to induce the 
 reluctant poplar sticks to burn. 
 253
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "What are you doing, mother?" asked Bettie. 
 
 Mrs. Uys raised her eyes, red and watery 
 from the smoke, to her daughter's face. 
 
 " I am trying to make some poffertjes [dough 
 cakes] for our dinner," she answered queru- 
 lously; " but I am afraid that we shall never eat 
 them. This was all the wood that Egbert could 
 get this morning, and it is too wet to burn." 
 
 Bettie dropped to her knees to windward of 
 the fire with a bright smile. "I think that I 
 can make it burn, mother dear," she said 
 cheerily; and, lifting her apron, she fanned the 
 fire vigorously from above. In a few mo- 
 ments the sputtering embers burst into a flame, 
 and the defeated sticks blazed obediently up 
 into the raw air. 
 
 Bettie sank back from her exertions with a 
 sigh. Her mother looked at her at once grate- 
 fully and anxiously. 
 
 "Thank you, my dear child," she said, "you 
 always find tune to help me, even though you 
 do much more than your share of the work of 
 this horrible existence. How are you feeling, 
 dear? Are you any better to-day?" 
 254
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Bettie closed her eyes wearily, and passed 
 her hand across her brow. "Not very well 
 to-day, mother," she answered. "My head is 
 aching badly this morning." 
 
 The third member of the little family, the 
 boy Egbert, came running up from the camp 
 canteen, whither his mother had sent him for 
 a can of condensed milk. 
 
 "0 mother, Bettie," he cried as he dropped 
 
 * the can into his mother's lap, " the officer in 
 
 the office down at the gate says he wishes to 
 
 speak with you, zus' Bettie, and that you must 
 
 come at once." 
 
 Bettie flushed angrily. " Why can't he come 
 himself to see me?" she demanded petulantly. 
 "Does he think Boer women are Kaffirs, that 
 he sends for them in such a fashion? I will 
 not go. But I wonder what he wants," she 
 continued reflectively. 
 
 Mrs. Uys clasped her hands together in great 
 anxiety. "Oh," she cried, "you must go, 
 Bettie. I am afraid not to have you. Who 
 knows what the reason is, or what may happen 
 if you don't?" 
 
 255
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Bettie rose resignedly. "Well, mother," she 
 said, " if you want me to, I will go. But I hate 
 to be called like a dog, and to have to obey just 
 as if these English were our masters. It is al- 
 most more than I can stand." 
 
 " I know, dear," returned her mother, humbly. 
 " You are yet young, and your pride is not yet 
 broken. But I am getting old, and I have 
 suffered so much since this frightful war started 
 that I am only too ready to avoid any further 
 pain or trouble by submission and obedience 
 to those who hold me in their power. For, say 
 what you will, the English are your masters 
 and mine." 
 
 Bettie answered nothing, but she bit her lip 
 and her dark eyes flashed as she walked to her 
 tent to put on a clean skirt and a fresh waist 
 of her own washing in which to answer the un- 
 pleasant summons. 
 
 The flaps of the tent had been neatly rolled 
 up that morning as usual, according to the 
 strict rules of the camp; and the cold east wind 
 was blowing dismally through the open sides. 
 The girl untied and let down the canvas walls 
 256
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 with a toss of her head and a defiant shake of 
 her little fist toward headquarters at the main 
 entrance. A few minutes later she emerged 
 in her clean but unstarched cotton, and made 
 her way up the street. 
 
 The single door of the square little office of 
 the superintendent was closed and locked. 
 From behind the open but grated window that 
 official was, according to his usual habit from 
 "eight in the morning till six at night, upholding 
 the dignity and administering the duties of his 
 office as benignantly and as humanely as he 
 could. The usual excited crowd of angry, com- 
 plaining, and pleading women surrounded and 
 stormed his window. It was against their 
 daily and ceaseless importunities that he had 
 long ago been forced to barricade his door and 
 grate his window. For he, like most English- 
 men, especially official Englishmen, failed to 
 understand the Boers and their national and 
 deeply rooted habits and characteristics as 
 completely as the Boers failed to understand 
 the instincts and impulses of the equally stub- 
 born and very insular English race. 
 257
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUB 
 
 From the outskirts of the crowd, into which 
 she could scarcely worm her way at first, Bettie 
 could hear the storm of prayers and questions 
 and demands made upon the unhappy but 
 fortunately caged arbiter of destiny within the 
 concentration camp. Her honest conscience 
 reproached her as she listened, although she 
 could not help smiling at the form that its 
 reproach took. 
 
 "Poor man," she said to herself, "he had to 
 send for me. He could not have come to see 
 me himself, even if he had wanted to ten times 
 over; for he would have been torn to pieces the 
 minute he left his office." 
 
 Indeed, the superintendent was having a hard 
 time of it. 
 
 " I want a permit right away to visit Pieter- 
 maritzburg this afternoon," cried one. 
 
 "My child is in the hospital, and I want to 
 be allowed to go there at once to see it," ener- 
 getically demanded another, the tears of dis- 
 trust standing in her eyes. 
 
 "And mine," cried a third, pushing her way 
 up to the window, " my child is in the hospital, 
 258
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 too; and it must be taken out right away. I 
 can nurse it better myself." 
 
 A fourth complained that the flour or meal 
 she had lately drawn from the Commissary De- 
 partment was so bad that neither she nor her 
 neighbours could use it. Yet another alleged 
 that the corned beef had been so rotten for the 
 last three mornings that it had made her and 
 her children sick. In support of her allegations 
 she shoved two open tins of very high-smelling 
 meat through the grating right under the nose 
 of the almost delirious official behind it. A 
 little, blue-eyed woman, straining a healthy, 
 chubby two-year-old to her thin breast, wailed 
 from behind her stouter and stronger com- 
 patriots nearer the window that her tent was 
 old and worn, that she could not and would 
 not patch it any more, that both she and her 
 child were suffering bitterly at night from the 
 cold, and that it must be fixed! 
 
 After edging forward for nearly half an hour 
 Bettie managed to get within reaching distance 
 of the window. She was almost out of breath. 
 
 "You wished to see me, Colonel West, 
 259
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Miss Uys ?" she gasped as she struggled to 
 hold her place in front of the grating. 
 
 He wiped the perspiration from his brow, and 
 gazed at her helplessly, uncomprehending. 
 Then a sudden light dawned upon his mind, 
 and penetrated through his system until it 
 illuminated his hot, red countenance. 
 
 "Oh, yes, Miss Uys, yes, yes." He smiled 
 broadly upon her, and fumbled among his 
 papers. "I have a letter for you, a letter in 
 an official envelope that has not been disturbed 
 by the censor." So saying, he handed out to 
 her a long blue missive, so covered with official 
 stamps and seals that she began to have a dread- 
 ful fear of its contents. 
 
 "Thank you," she said faintly as she took it. 
 
 "Ah, yes," he beamed, "I hope it is good 
 news, Miss Uys. Good-day." 
 
 Bettie walked hastily back through the camp, 
 trembling with excitement about the mysterious 
 envelope. She burned to know its contents, 
 yet she dreaded opening it lest it should be the 
 herald of some new grief or misfortune soon to 
 fall upon the little family. 
 260
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "See here, mother," she stammered as she 
 entered the tent. "Here is what he had for 
 me. I am afraid to open it." And she held 
 out the suspected envelope to Mrs. Uys. 
 
 "Sit down, sit down," said her mother, look- 
 ing anxiously at Bettie's flushed face and brill- 
 iant eyes. " You do not look well at all. You 
 frighten me." 
 
 The nervously excited girl twisted her fingers 
 "together in an effort to control herself. She 
 was quivering in every limb. 
 
 "Open it, open it!" she commanded. With 
 feverish intensity she watched her mother gin- 
 gerly open the envelope and extract some 
 folded sheets of paper. 
 
 "Why, Bettie," began her mother, in a 
 puzzled tone of voice, " this is a letter to you, 
 and in English, but I see Danie Linde's name 
 in it." 
 
 "Oh!" Bettie gave a great cry of hope and 
 fear, and snatched the paper from her mother's 
 hands. She ran it over with excited eyes from 
 start to finish. 
 
 " Listen, mamma," she cried joyously. " Lis- 
 261
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ten to this. Danie is alive, he is safe, he is 
 famous! I will read you the letter. 'Dear 
 Miss Uys/ it begins, ' some days ago I was capt- 
 ured at Hopeton in the Cape Colony by Com- 
 mandant Danie Linde, who, I may say, is an 
 old friend of mine, and who is, unfortunately 
 for me and for a good many other Englishmen, 
 making a famous raid into the Cape Colony. I 
 promised him, as once before, during the 
 siege of Ladysmith, to forward you news of 
 him. Two years ago he was unable to write 
 for himself, so that my poor letter, which I 
 hope you received promptly, had to suffice. 
 But this time he writes a letter for himself, 
 which I herewith enclose. It is with great 
 pleasure that I carry out my promise to him, 
 and I trust sincerely that this will reach you 
 in good time.' " 
 
 Mrs. Uys never knew until later the name of 
 the writer of this friendly epistle ; for Bettie 
 at the end of the last word made one swoop 
 upon her mother's lap, and seized to clasp 
 to her heart the other, the more than pre- 
 cious contents of the long blue envelope. Out 
 262
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 into the damp field she went, under the misty 
 sun and in the sharp wind. But she was away 
 from the world. Over and over again she read 
 and reread her lover's letter through the long 
 afternoon, bedewing it with her happy tears, 
 pressing to it her lips, her heart, between the 
 reading. 
 
 She did not return to the camp until the hour 
 at which its gates closed ; and during the evening 
 *sHe sat silent in the tent, her starlike eyes 
 gazing raptly through its canvas walls into the 
 great spaces of the night beyond. 
 
 At dawn the next morning she was raging 
 with the fatal fever; and as soon as the gates 
 were opened she was taken to the camp hos- 
 pital with a desperate attack of the prevalent 
 scourge, typhoid malaria. 
 
 263
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 ON the third evening after crossing the 
 Orange River into the Cape Colony 
 Danie's commando was trekking slowly south- 
 ward over the veldt in a long, thin line. The 
 sky was cloudless. The great African full moon 
 shone brightly down upon the moving column 
 and the rugged landscape. The many irregular 
 and isolated kopjes stood out like solemn sen- 
 tinels over the land, casting long and slowly 
 circling shadows of impenetrable depth. The 
 barren ground for wide extents lacked nature's 
 usual soft covering of grass, but was thickly 
 decked with rolling limestones and with a low 
 brush that resembled the karroobosje of the 
 great desert farther south. Here and there rose 
 hi lonely majesty, its dark foliage tipped and 
 crowned with silver, a tall karreebosch domi- 
 nating the darker plain at its feet. 
 
 Every half-hour the commando was halted 
 to allow the rear to come up, and for its com- 
 mander to receive regularly the reports of the 
 scouts that guarded his front and flanks. Then 
 264
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the column would recommence its silent march 
 across the veldt. 
 
 At ten o'clock the young lieutenant in charge 
 of the vanguard reported a light straight ahead, 
 and that he thought he had heard dogs barking 
 in the distance. Danie ordered a halt at once, 
 and sent two men ahead to investigate. Forty 
 minutes later the scouts returned, and stated 
 that they had found a small English farmstead 
 ^m their front, occupied only by women. They 
 further stated that, passing themselves off as 
 British foragers, they had learned that the 
 owner of the farm was away, serving in the 
 town guard of Hopeton, a village lying some 
 few miles off to the westward. The two women, 
 they said, were at first terribly frightened, and 
 had told them that it was only lately that a 
 Free State commando had started to loot the 
 farm, but had been driven away by the English 
 force stationed at Hopeton. 
 
 After a short conference with his officers, 
 
 Danie ordered the commando forward, and 
 
 their next halt was made at the farmstead. 
 
 The lights in the house had disappeared, and 
 
 265
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 there was no sign of life about the place. Dis- 
 mounting, Danie and his adjutant, Redeling- 
 huis, went up to the door, followed by the two 
 scouts, who had entered it before. The ad- 
 jutant knocked heavily. After some delay 
 the door was timidly opened, and in the light 
 of an unsteady hand-lamp three shaking women 
 revealed themselves, evidently a mother and 
 her two daughters. 
 
 "I will not deceive you, ladies," said Danie, 
 politely. "I am Commandant Linde of the 
 federal forces. I am in great need of food and 
 fodder, and I shall have to have some from this 
 place. But I wish to assure you that neither 
 I nor my men will do you any hacm or take 
 anything from you that we do not pay for." 
 
 The three looked frightened enough. The 
 old lady began to stammer apologies for some 
 remarks she had made to the scouts uncom- 
 plimentary to the Boers. But Danie laughed. 
 
 "Don't bother about that, madam," he said. 
 " We are not fighting against women, nor do I 
 expect an Englishwoman to be other than 
 English." 
 
 266
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Reassured by his words and manner, the old 
 lady chirked up and smiled a feeble smile. 
 
 "I er you are welcome to whatever we 
 have, sir," she quavered, "but, as I told the 
 two your men who were here before we 
 have almost nothing left. A few ricks of corn, 
 a few cattle, a few sheep." 
 
 " Three or four of each of those items will be 
 enough, thank you, ma'am," answered Danie, 
 ^returning her smile. 
 
 He went himself with some of the men to 
 see that the commando's wants were moder- 
 ately supplied, and that no harm, besides the 
 necessary slaughter of the animals turned over 
 to him, was perpetrated. Then, accepting an 
 invitation of his hostess, he and his officers en- 
 tered the house for a meal less lately on the 
 hoof. 
 
 During the entertainment he learned to his 
 satisfaction that the village of Hopeton lay 
 only five miles distant, and that its garrison, 
 so far as the knowledge of the women went, 
 consisted only of two troops of regular cavalry 
 and one hundred volunteer militia, with a small 
 267
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 battery of light guns. He decided, after a brief 
 consultation with his officers, to pass the rest 
 of that night at the farm and to attack Hopeton 
 at daybreak. A cordon was immediately sta- 
 tioned around the farmstead to see that the 
 good women sent no information to the little 
 village of their visitor's presence, while some 
 scouts were sent out at once to reconnoitre in 
 the direction of the town, and to visit the 
 several farms in the neighborhood to obtain 
 one or two colonial Boers to act as guides when 
 the attack was made. 
 
 As the column moved westward to the attack 
 through the last dead hour that precedes the 
 dawn, the descending moon lay low in front 
 of it. The intervening karreebossen threw a 
 shadowy tracery of leaves in bewildering beauty 
 over the faces and forms of the advancing horse- 
 men. Rising high to each side of the moon, 
 so that she seemed to lie a lake of living fire 
 caught in the valley bowl that joined them, 
 stood two sombre hills. These, said their 
 guides, were the Twee Zusters; and behind 
 them lay Hopeton. Borne on the sweet, early 
 268
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 breeze from their dark sides and from the mys- 
 terious night around, the dismal howls of the 
 Maanhaar jackals, and, from time to time, more 
 mournful shrieks than theirs, quivered across 
 the veldt. Some of the men moved uneasily 
 in their saddles. "Hear the 'weer' wolves," 
 they murmured, and cast sidelong glances into 
 the night. But they spoke only in whispers. 
 The spell of night was upon them. The only 
 Bother sounds that broke the stillness were the 
 monotonous clatter of the iron-shod feet on the 
 rough ground and the occasional snort, the in- 
 frequent stumble, of a horse. 
 
 As they approached the Twee Zusters, the 
 first faint flushes of morning lighted the east. 
 Danie brought his commando to a last halt 
 between the two tall sister hills. The village 
 lay beneath them in the plain, close around it 
 the white tents of its guardians. Two small, 
 dun mounds on little rises to right and left of 
 the town and camp indicated the probable lo- 
 cations of the batteries. 
 
 Dawn now began to break in earnest. The 
 purple cloaks of darkness that had wrapped 
 269
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the hills during the night began to slip down 
 their sides. The curtain of the night slowly 
 lifted, and revealed the wide stage of nature, 
 whereon man in the light of a new day was 
 once more to make his bow and proceed with 
 his part, mean or noble, degrading or ideal, as 
 God should will or his own desires dictate. 
 
 Danie surveyed the scene before him, and 
 quickly made up his mind how to act. At his 
 orders the commando divided and filed out to 
 right and left along the bases of the hills in 
 two thin ribbons, to surround and close in upon 
 the village with a grip of steel. One swift 
 charge Danie hoped would accomplish his pur- 
 pose. He knew from experience that the Eng- 
 lish, if given breathing-space, could be stub- 
 born and troublesome to the last degree, but 
 that sudden rushes in the early morning be- 
 fore "Tommy" had had his breakfast or even 
 rubbed the sleep out of his eyes paralysed him 
 with astonishment, and rendered him helpless 
 with confusion and disgust. 
 
 Both camp and town slept calmly on, unsus- 
 picious, unconscious of the danger that was al- 
 270
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 most upon them. The sentries of the home- 
 guard of militia were frankly and sweetly slum- 
 bering in the lee of the green acacia hedges at 
 the outskirts of the village, or in the edges of 
 the vineyards where the famous Hanepoot and 
 the swart Miskedell grapes grew along the banks 
 of the little stream. Even the regular videttes 
 of the cavalry sat their horses in the hollows 
 with nodding heads and frequent glances toward 
 the camp to which they were so soon to be 
 withdrawn. The very aspect of the town it- 
 self, with its still and as yet smokeless houses, 
 was one of the utmost peace and quiet. The 
 shady streets, the restful flower gardens, the 
 little park with its dark green hedgerows of 
 microcaba, looked as if there were no such 
 thing as war. Across the veldt, their circle 
 narrowing with uncanny rapidity, the Boers 
 were approaching to turn this little paradise 
 into a bloody arena of strife. And only the old 
 Dutch church seemed to take notice of their 
 coming. It was with something like a guilty 
 tug at his heart that Danie saw its tall, straight 
 tower pointing finger-like toward heaven, as if 
 271
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 claiming God's attention, demanding His inter- 
 vention in what was happening below. 
 
 The thunder of their horses' hoofs first 
 awakened the perception of the nearest vidette. 
 With white face and frightened eyes he shakily 
 fired his carbine at the advancing line, and, turn- 
 ing his steed, dashed yelling toward the camp. 
 But the unhappy neglecter of his duty did not 
 get far. The single shot that signalled the 
 final charge of the Boers passed through his 
 perturbed heart. He rolled from his horse, 
 and crashed to the ground just in time to be 
 ridden over by the furious rush. A few feeble 
 and harmless volleys from garrison and town, 
 the short, sharp thunder of one three-pounder, 
 the rattling speech of a machine gun, interrupted 
 before the first half-dozen words were fairly 
 out of its mouth, a few more scattering shots, 
 and all was over. The only crew that had 
 reached its gun in the little battery had been 
 ridden down by sheer weight of horseflesh after 
 the first discharge. Except for the guard of 
 the regular camp, few of its occupants had even 
 raised their rifles. The militia, almost to a 
 272
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 man, had awakened to a state of peace almost 
 as deep as that in which they had slept. But 
 they were prisoners of war. 
 
 A great shout of "Hoera voor die Boere!" 
 rang out from the throats of the victorious 
 Transvaalers. Their success was complete. 
 At the slight cost of two men wounded they 
 had captured over three hundred prisoners 
 ^with horses and accoutrements to correspond, 
 six small guns, and forage, provision, and loot 
 unlimited. The enemy himself had lost but 
 four men killed and a scant two dozen wounded. 
 His chagrin was naturally in inverse proportion 
 to his loss. 
 
 Danie Linde, conqueror in his own right, sat 
 and took his ease in the office of the little hotel 
 of Hopetou. Before him came the captured 
 British officers. As the first one entered the 
 door of the ground-floor apartment which 
 served in the piping times of peace as office, 
 bar-room, and parlour, but which now was 
 raised to the dignity of an audience chamber, 
 Danie sprang up from his chair in amaze- 
 ment. 
 
 273
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Campbell, Captain Campbell!" he shouted, 
 running forward with outstretched hands. " My 
 old friend, my kind friend, how glad I am to 
 see you! How glad I am it is you whom I have 
 captured!" 
 
 "The devil you are!" cried the Englishman, 
 clasping his hand warmly. "I am far from 
 glad that I have been captured. But, if it 
 had to happen, I had rather have had you do 
 it than any other Boer I can think off. But 
 how do you do, Linde? You are looking much 
 better than when I saw you last," he said. 
 
 Danie laughed. "I am feeling very much 
 better, thank you, than when we parted in the 
 neutral camp at Ladysmith. It was not until 
 after many weeks of the special consideration 
 your kindness procured for me in the Pieter- 
 maritzburg prison-hospital that I really began 
 to recover." 
 
 "I hardly believed that you had any chance 
 of living after the frightful mauling you received 
 at Dundee," responded Campbell, seriously. 
 ''But you certainly look remarkably healthy 
 now. Perhaps," he added whimsically, "if I 
 274
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 had known what was going to happen to-day, 
 I should have fired straighter two years ago at 
 Dundee or arranged to have them make away 
 with you at Pietermaritzburg." 
 
 "Fortune of war, Campbell," grinned Danie, 
 "I am glad that I didn't tell you what I was 
 going to do. But it is breakfast time; and, as 
 I am afraid I slightly upset your own arrange- 
 ments for that meal, I will make up for it by 
 asking you to share mine with me." 
 
 "You killed the best cook that I have had 
 so far in this war," answered the other, grimly; 
 "and so I shall accept your invitation with 
 pleasure." 
 
 Turning Major Campbell's subordinates over 
 to the care of his own, Danie took his friend with 
 him into the little dining-room, where a table 
 supplied with what the house could afford was 
 already laid for him. When they were nearly 
 through with their meal, their friendly flow of 
 conversation was interrupted by a series of 
 loud explosions. The Englishman started up 
 in his chair. 
 
 "Ha! what is that?" he cried. 
 275
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Danie smiled calmly. "Be seated, Camp- 
 bell," he answered. "I am sorry, but it is noc 
 yet the relief column come to help you out. 
 My men are blowing up your pretty guns, be- 
 cause we cannot take them with us." 
 
 The other's face fell. "Good Lord!" he ex- 
 claimed. "I wonder what they will say to 
 me! I may have to resign, and go home in 
 disgrace. My beautiful guns!" 
 
 Danie tried to console him. "You couldn't 
 help it, my dear Major," he said kindly. "I 
 was bound to get you. It was what I started 
 out to do." 
 
 Major Campbell smiled a dry smile. "That 
 is poor consolation," he said. "What / started 
 out to do was not to be caught napping. But 
 excuse me for grumbling. I won't do so any 
 more." 
 
 As they rose from the table, Danie held out 
 his hand again to his prisoner. 
 
 "Now," he said, "I will tell you what I am 
 
 going to do. I am going to march your men a 
 
 number of miles north under guard, and turn 
 
 them loose across the Orange River. I can't 
 
 276
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 kill them or keep them, and that will get them 
 out of the way. I had intended to hold you 
 and your officers prisoners, and to take you 
 along with us," he smiled, "just to show you 
 how the thing is done. But seeing that it is 
 you, Campbell, I have softened my heart. I 
 am going to release you, and with you all your 
 officers, on condition that you give me your 
 word to go straight to Cradock, and not to give 
 ahy information about me in any way until 
 you get there." 
 
 Campbell flushed gratefully. "You are very 
 generous," he answered. "Nothing could be 
 fairer. I formally accept your offer now for 
 myself and my officers. But I shall ask your 
 permission, however, to send a captain along 
 with the men to take charge of them when your 
 people leave them, and who will agree to keep 
 them in order on the march." 
 
 "Certainly you may do so," answered Danie, 
 heartily. "And it will be of great assistance. 
 And now I have a favour to ask of you, similar 
 to the one I asked of you two years ago at 
 Ladysmith. I want very much to send a letter 
 277
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 to a lady who is now confined in the concentra- 
 tion camp at Pietermaritzburg. The letter will 
 be purely personal, I assure you, and will con- 
 tain nothing that your censors would not pass." 
 He blushed. "Still, I should prefer that they 
 did not open it. It is to the same lady to whom 
 you promised to send word of me when we were 
 at Ladysmith," he added hurriedly. "Do you 
 still remember?" 
 
 "By Jove, I do remember," said Campbell. 
 " I will gladly take charge of your letter, and I 
 am sure that I can agree to forward it for you 
 without its being opened. By the way, I think I 
 have the man here whom I sent especially with 
 a letter to the young lady's home about the 
 time of your escape from Natal. As I was 
 wounded again two days after I saw you last 
 by a shell inside Ladysmith, where, you 
 know, I went when I left you, I could not 
 keep my promise for some months. But I re- 
 membered it; and, when I did write, I filled the 
 letter with wonderful news concerning you and 
 your recovery, which I got from the hospital 
 officials, to compensate for the delay." 
 278 ,
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "You have the man here who went with the 
 letter?" asked Dame, eagerly. "I should like 
 to see him very much. Except the news that 
 Miss Uys and her mother were in the Pieter- 
 maritzburg camp, which I received very lately, 
 I have not heard one word from or of them 
 since before the battle of Dundee. But I 
 should be delighted to know that she, at least, 
 had heard of me." 
 
 "^By Jove/' said Campbell, in amazement, 
 "now who would believe it? Devilish hard 
 luck, my boy! We will look the man up right 
 away if you like." 
 
 Danie was more than willing; and the two 
 officers left the hotel, and strode down the street 
 to where Campbell's disconsolate khakis were 
 seated or stood in groups in the middle of the 
 green, surrounded and guarded by a cordon of 
 many Boers, freshly mounted on great English 
 cavalry horses and cheerfully fondling extra 
 rifles and cartridge belts that had once been 
 the property of the British government. Danie 
 followed his friend as the English officer made 
 his way through the crowd of prisoners, the men 
 279
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 jumping stiffly up to salute him as he passed. 
 But his footsteps dragged a little and he put 
 a detaining hand on Campbell's arm as he no- 
 ticed that they were approaching a group of 
 uniformed Kaffir police. 
 
 "I am sorry to see that you condescend to 
 arm savages to fight against us," he said coldly. 
 " It is against all the dictates of civilisation, and 
 should not be permitted in civilised warfare. I 
 emphatically repeat the protest that has 
 already been made so many times by my higher 
 officers." 
 
 Major Campbell's face flushed, and his voice 
 betrayed his embarrassment. "I cannot re- 
 fuse to command men who are placed under 
 me," he replied lamely; "but, as a matter of 
 fact, these police were armed only for defence, 
 and served only in the home guard of the town. 
 However, the man we want is among them." 
 
 Danie said no more, and moved toward the 
 Kaffirs with the Englishman. 
 
 Major Campbell looked sharply over them as 
 they rose from their seats upon the ground. 
 "Kalaza!" he called. 
 
 280
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 A small, ugly native with beady eyes stepped 
 forward, and saluted. 
 
 "Kalaza," the officer continued, "do you re- 
 member when I sent you with a letter to a farm 
 in the Ermelo district just after the British 
 troops had entered the Transvaal at Volksrust? " 
 
 "Yes, sir," answered the Kaffir, stolidly. 
 
 "Did you deliver it?" 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 '"""Do you remember to whom you gave it?" 
 
 The little Kaffir looked the Englishman 
 blandly in the eye. "I gave it to an old man 
 with a long white beard, sir. There were three 
 girls there who were surely his daughters " 
 
 " Stop ! ' ' interrupted Danie. " What letter 
 what farm was this?" 
 
 " The name of the farm was Blaauwkop, and 
 the name of the old man was Uys," answered 
 the Kaffir, slowly, shifting his small eyes for 
 a second to Danie's face, but dropping them 
 immediately to the ground. 
 
 "There," began the major; but Danie did 
 not listen. Seizing the man's arm in a hand 
 like a vise, he drew him slowly toward him. 
 281
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "You black villain," he said harshly, "I 
 know you are lying! If you do not answer 
 truly every question I put to you, I will 
 first have you stripped of your uniform, out 
 of a respect for it which those who put it 
 on you never had, and then I will have one 
 of my men bring his sjambok and cut your 
 back slowly to pieces! Do not forget that 
 you are absolutely in my power." He went 
 on heedless of the startled major's protests 
 at his energy of language. "Now," he said, 
 "first, to what farm were you sent with the 
 letter?" 
 
 The native shivered at the threat. "The 
 name of the farm was Blaauwkop, baas," he 
 answered, dropping instinctively into the use 
 of the title he associated with those who had 
 first taught him the fear of God. 
 
 "To whom did you deliver the letter?" 
 
 "To no one, baas." 
 
 The astonished major heard this revelation 
 of iniquity, and all at once ceased his protest. 
 Danie drew a long breath, and loosened his 
 grip a little. 
 
 282
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 " Ah! that is better," he said at last. " Then 
 you did not deliver the letter?" 
 
 "Yes, baas." 
 
 "Well, what did you do with it?" thundered 
 the exasperated Boer. 
 
 "Oh, baas, do not be angry with me. The 
 house was burning, and I laid it on the door- 
 step." 
 
 Danie's face whitened. Suddenly all the de- 
 tails of the dreadful scene as related to him by 
 old Maliwe rose, adjuring and vindictive 
 ghosts, in his mind. He released his grip on 
 the Kaffir's shoulder, and towered above him 
 with nervous fingers. "Dog," he said in a 
 terrible voice, "was it thou who slew the boy, 
 the innocent?" 
 
 The trembling Kaffir sank to his knees on 
 the ground with an ashen face. "No, baas, no, 
 it was not I. I had but arrived to deliver the 
 letter, and others drove away the family and 
 slew the boy, burning the house. It was not 
 I!" 
 
 "Tell me the truth, dog! Was it one in thy 
 company?" 
 
 283
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Yes, baas," whimpered the Kaffir: "it was 
 a policeman." 
 
 Danie seized him, and jerked him to his feet. 
 "Look about," he commanded, "and see if 
 he is here. If he is, point him out to me!" 
 
 The other licked his dry lips. "I dare not," 
 he whispered. "He would kill me." 
 
 "Fear not," said Danie, grimly. "He will 
 die first." 
 
 Slowly and silently the Kaffir turned and 
 pointed his finger toward one of his fellows, 
 a tall, burly black, who stood about ten paces 
 off, regarding the little group with sullen and 
 suspicious eyes. 
 
 Danie turned, and called to some of his own 
 men who were standing talking to several of 
 then* prisoners on the edge of the green. They 
 came running up. Major Campbell hi his turn 
 laid an anxious hand on his friend's arm. 
 
 "What are you going to do?" he asked 
 quickly. 
 
 " Hang him within three minutes," answered 
 Danie, briefly, " if he is the man. Come here, 
 you!" he shouted, beckoning to the fellow. 
 284
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The Kaffir moved slowly forward, his eye 
 shifting between his captor and his accuser. 
 
 "What is your name?" demanded the Boer. 
 
 The man glanced at him. "Jim Kond- 
 wana," he answered sullenly. 
 
 Danie's eyes gleamed. "You killed a boy 
 at Blaauwkop in Ermelo," he began. 
 
 But the Kaffir understood. With the spring 
 of a lion he had driven his Judas to the ground 
 ""face foremost, and, kneeling on his back, 
 grasped his head with both hands and wrenched 
 it backward with so fierce and quick a motion 
 that it lay limply resting between the victim's 
 shoulder blades, its fading eyes gazing straight 
 at the sky above, before even a single shriek 
 could issue from between its miserable lips. A 
 dozen forms hurled themselves upon the 
 murderer, a dozen arms seized him. But the 
 deed was done. 
 
 Danie cleared a space through the crowd to 
 the nearest tree. Behind him was borne the 
 roaring Kaffir, struggling furiously, but fu- 
 tilely, in the hands of his Transvaal guardians. 
 A rope was immediately procured, and within 
 285
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 a few short moments the wretch hung twitching 
 from its end. 
 
 Leaving a guard at the tree, so that the body 
 should not be interfered with, Danie walked 
 silently back to the hotel to write his letter to 
 Bettie. It was not without an almost savage 
 thrill of joy that he concluded his tale with an 
 account of the summary vengeance he had 
 just executed upon the slayer of little Gert. 
 
 At noon his prisoners were marched out of 
 Hopeton under guard on their way to the 
 Orange Free State, while their officers were 
 sent south toward Cradock, Major Campbell 
 with the letter for Bettie in his pocket. In 
 another hour the commando followed them 
 out of the little town, and turned to the west- 
 ward after it had crossed a few miles of the 
 veldt. 
 
 But hi the green square at Hopeton the 
 body of Jim Kondwana swung dangling from 
 its tree all that day, for no one dared to touch 
 it. And all through the night the tree groaned 
 and whispered to the winds that blew of the 
 dreadful burden of its fruit. 
 286
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE wide waste in the southern part of the 
 Cape Colony known as "The Ghouph," 
 and the broad desert below itj the "Great 
 Karroo," are, except in the spring of the year, 
 almost untraversable by man. At all other 
 seasons a dismal scarcity of water secludes 
 these regions from the paths and habitations 
 "of nearly all animals endowed with either 
 reason or instinct. Even Nature herself ap- 
 pears to withdraw from the poisonous waste; 
 for its only growths are the low karroobosje 
 and a few other species of brush that gather 
 together in dark patches on the face of the 
 desert, as if for mutual protection. In the 
 South African spring, for a short time during 
 and after the rains, which fall over this dark 
 section of the continent but once a year, 
 these bushes luxuriate in bright green leaves 
 and brilliant flowers, coloured like the rainbow. 
 Then strange blossoms, bright and beautiful, 
 the gousblom, the angeliertje, etc., rise like 
 fairies over night in the deep hollows (laagtes) 
 287
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 and river-beds, and fill the surrounding air with 
 such sweetness that, with closed eyes, it is al- 
 most impossible for the traveller to believe 
 that he is not in one of Nature's paradises. 
 
 But in a month, or two at the most, this 
 illusion of beauty is transformed again into the 
 likeness of a grave; and for the rest of the 
 year the suffocating sun unintermittently 
 parches and burns its surface; the streams 
 and rivers disappear suddenly into the sand, 
 leaving only a few rolled stones in uncertain gul- 
 lies to indicate their past and future presences; 
 the fresh winds from the sea, only sixty miles 
 to the south, desert the dry barrens for fresher 
 pastures; and all life once more avoids the 
 flowerless, greenless waste. Only the railroad 
 that cuts across its western end, shrinking be- 
 neath the shadow and protection of the Winter 
 Berg, the desert's northern boundary, and the 
 far, thin trails of smoke that sometimes show 
 among the tops of the dim, blue mountains that 
 entirely surround the Karroo and the Ghouph, 
 mark the presence of life on or near their treach- 
 erous faces. 
 
 288
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Keeping well to the westward, the invading 
 commando passed along the spurs of the Zour 
 Bergen, crossing and cutting the railroad just 
 south of Naauw Port. They held their west- 
 ern course as far as Richmond, where Danie 
 made a demonstration; but, finding that he 
 could effect nothing, and that further delay 
 might subject him to the dangerous attack of 
 a large British column which was being rushed 
 ^-forward to intercept him, he turned suddenly 
 south, and passed through the valley at Nels 
 Poort into the Great Karroo. 
 
 The rainy season was still on, although it 
 was now liable to come to an end with almost 
 any week. At Nels Poort and in the valley 
 south of the Winter Berg he removed and 
 destroyed more than five miles of the telegraph, 
 poles and all, cutting the wire into sections and 
 transporting them and the poles back to Nels 
 Poort, where with the little wooden station, 
 the wire, the poles, and almost half a mile of 
 the single railroad track, ties and irons, he 
 built a beautiful bonfire to celebrate his devo- 
 tion to his country. 
 
 289
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Danie's intention was, after crossing the 
 desert, to ride eastward along the narrow strip 
 of coast that, with its fertile lands and many 
 little towns, lay between the desert and the 
 sea, to ride perhaps as far as the Transkei. He 
 would pick up the necessities, even the lux- 
 uries of life, including all the fresh horses he 
 should require, along the way. He would cross 
 the desert to Willowmore, then south to Union- 
 dale, then east. Everything would lie open 
 to him, the Unexpected. Port Elizabeth would 
 lie in his path, and the other towns on Algoa 
 Bay. Then Bathurst, Grahamstown, per- 
 haps Port Alfred, and King William's Town 
 and Alice, or East London, another railroad 
 terminal on the coast. Then north along the 
 Tsomo River through Barkly East, and back 
 into the Orange Free State right at the border 
 of Basuto Land. An enticing programme. 
 He could be at home in the Transvaal before 
 the winter set in. And who knew? the Eng- 
 lish might withdraw even as many as ten 
 thousand men from the two Republics to send 
 against him. Why, he might have a thousand 
 290
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 men himself inside the month. The young Cape 
 Colony Boers were fine fellows, and there were 
 many of them. Their sympathies were strong 
 and of the right kind; and they were ready, 
 even anxious, to enlist with him. He had 
 already added fifty of them to his commando. 
 But, in any case, he felt sure his numbers as 
 well as his successes would be tremendously 
 magnified by the weakened and frightened 
 people over whom he would gain the latter. 
 So that, even if their exaggerations alone 
 should suffice to draw southward in pursuit of 
 him a respectable portion of the enemy's force, 
 he would at least have freed his country and 
 her ally of some of their burden, and could by 
 so much be satisfied. 
 
 Thus ran the young leader's thoughts as he 
 began his journey south across the desert. His 
 commando was strong in numbers and in fine 
 condition. During the three weeks that had 
 passed since his capture of Hopeton he had 
 replaced all his mounts (even his thirty extra 
 horses) with fresh, strong animals, unworn by 
 long war-service, the very cream of the hun- 
 291
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 dreds he had had under his hand since he 
 had been in the Cape Colony. 
 
 Although the desert still bloomed, the rains 
 of the season were falling at longer and longer 
 intervals. The streams were beginning to sub- 
 side, and became more and more infrequent 
 as the commando advanced. Danie judged 
 it wiser to divide his force, and proceed in two 
 parallel lines of march several miles apart, the 
 two divisions to be rejoined at the southern 
 boundary of the Great Karroo. He gave the 
 command of the second division to his oldest 
 lieutenant, Koos Nel, who had served him 
 as veldt-cornet in the old Lydenburg com- 
 mando at the time of its raid into Ermelo. 
 
 Toward the end of the third day, when the 
 two commandos were nearing the hills that lay 
 north of Willowmore and had begun to breathe 
 the fresher, purer air of the mountains, Danie 
 was suddenly notified by his advance scouts 
 of the approach of a large British column from 
 the direction of Willowmore and the railroad. 
 His plans were for the time being completely 
 upset. He halted his column, and sent mes- 
 292
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 sengers to Nel, warning him of the approach 
 of the enemy and urging him to rejoin with 
 his men at once. But Nel was miles away 
 and out of sight; and long before he arrived, 
 or could arrive, Danie was forced to move 
 from his position, and take up a new one far 
 to the south-west, among the Prince Albert 
 mountains. At nightfall he had fixed his 
 laager near the entrance of a small rocky valley 
 ..'between two spurs that ran out into the Karroo. 
 These spurs were so precipitous that they were 
 practically inaccessible from their outer sides, 
 so that he felt comparatively safe for the night. 
 But the men were worn and tired from their 
 dusty, depressing march along the edge of the 
 desert, into which they had suddenly been 
 driven back just as they thought they had 
 finished with its hardships for good and all. 
 
 The weary Boers occupied and, as well as 
 they could, strengthened their new position 
 while the sun was descending, a bloody ball, 
 behind the western ranges. But between the 
 crevice-like neks that split the jagged moun- 
 tain tops its fiery rays still lighted the broad, 
 293
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 dusty flats into which the valley opened. And 
 across these flats the pursuing English were 
 spreading rapidly into a fanlike order of attack. 
 Two small batteries, just out of sight behind 
 the spurs that protected the valley, were al- 
 ready seeking the range of the laager with ten- 
 tative shells, evidently corrected, to judge 
 from the improvement in their fall, by obser- 
 vations made from the flats in the Boers' 
 front. 
 
 To Danie's surprise, everything seemed to 
 indicate that the English, not content with 
 having cornered him, intended to attack him 
 that evening. A large battalion of mounted 
 infantry was being dismounted just out of 
 range, and was very evidently preparing for 
 immediate action, while cavalry skirmishers 
 were already deploying in front of his position. 
 The cannonade was becoming fast and furious, 
 although as not yet destructive. He had sent 
 his horses nearly a mile up the valley, and his 
 men were experts in finding cover. 
 
 "There is not more than half an hour of 
 daylight left," said Danie to himself as he 
 294
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 glanced up at the sky. "They are going to 
 make their attack at once." 
 
 Hardly had the thought passed through his 
 mind when the cavalry skirmishers disappeared 
 toward the sides in the direction of the con- 
 cealed batteries; and a long, thin line of men 
 rose from among the thick bosjes behind them, 
 and swept, silently converging, toward the 
 mouth of the valley. When they had arrived 
 ^within three hundred yards, the Boers opened 
 a steady but irregular fire upon then* ranks, 
 and in a few moments the line wavered, halted, 
 and broke, leaving a large number of dead 
 and wounded where they fell. The Boer fire 
 died down to a few scattered shots, and then all 
 was silent. With the repulse of the infantry 
 the artillery had suddenly ceased. 
 
 Danie walked up and down from group to 
 group, laughing and joking. 
 
 "Well, boys, that must have made them 
 pretty sick. If they are foolish enough to 
 come again before dark, we will give them 
 some more." He stopped before a little party 
 of six who were engaged, behind a well-sheltered 
 295
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 and far-retired boulder, with a dirty, well- 
 thumbed pack of cards and six glowing, com- 
 fortable pipes. "Here, you lazy kerels, bestir 
 yourselves." He bent, and felt of the barrels 
 of the rifles leaning up against the stone. They 
 were cold. "You lazy devils have not fired 
 a shot. But I will give you something to do. 
 I can make you useful, even if you think you 
 are too good to fight. Now you six get up, 
 drop your cards, and make us all some hot 
 coffee. See that every man gets his, and 
 bring me mine last." 
 
 They grinned up at him, and rose to do his 
 bidding. He went on. 
 
 As he reached the extreme right of his line, 
 the English guns suddenly reopened with ter- 
 rific rapidity of service. The bursting shells 
 covered the Boer position with smoke and dust. 
 He turned, and ran back toward the centre of 
 the little valley. Right ahead of him, still be- 
 hind their boulder, the six card-players sat 
 grouped about a new-made fire, engaged in pre- 
 paring the coffee he had ordered. They were 
 still laughing, and, as he could see, were pay- 
 296
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ing no attention to the renewed shell-fire, ap- 
 parently with the feeling that, as long as they 
 were not in the fighting line, it concerned them 
 nothing. As he was almost upon them, as he 
 leaned his body to one side to avoid them in 
 his run, he heard a fierce whir of infinitesimal 
 shortness, before his very eyes a great mass of 
 fluffy, bright yellow cotton evolved from noth- 
 ing directly above their heads, it streaked and 
 -"circled with red, there was a tremendous crash! 
 For the briefest fraction of a second he had a 
 horrible vision of a world full of doubled and 
 disjointed, of broken and contorted men, of 
 dirt and dust and ashes and flaming brands, all 
 suspended in a horrible golden haze. Then 
 the world went black. 
 
 When he woke to consciousness, it seemed 
 to him as if hours had passed. In reality it 
 was but seconds. He was lying on his back, 
 bent across the round top of the great boulder; 
 his eyes smarted fearfully; his mouth was open, 
 his tongue and throat dry and burning, except 
 where at one of the corners a little stream was 
 pouring into the hollow of his cheek. With 
 297
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 much care and as much pain he gradually sat 
 up, to find, to his relief, that no bones were 
 broken, and that his face was bloody from what 
 was merely an unimportant scalp wound. He 
 began to see, although his eyes still smarted 
 fiercely. He slipped down from the boulder to 
 fall in a helpless heap upon the ground, so un- 
 steady were his joints. But he picked himself 
 up, and looked around. His brain cleared it- 
 self of confusion, and recollection returned to 
 him. 
 
 Where the fire had burned, a great gash was 
 torn in the earth. At the bottom of the ragged 
 hole a naked human fore arm, with the shat- 
 tered bone of the elbow protruding from its 
 upper end, lay amid some few charred sticks 
 of wood, still clasping in its stiffened fingers a 
 twisted iron ladle. Within a radius of twenty 
 paces of the spot six torn and mangled bodies, 
 almost unrecognisable as human earth, defiled 
 the grass. The acrid fumes of the lyddite still 
 hung heavily in the air. The corpses, the 
 ground itself, his own hands as he looked at 
 them, were tinged with its yellow. His ears 
 298
 
 " '/'"" <n-t>at lines of cavalry were sweeping 
 in at a full gallop " (seepage 299)
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 began to recover from the shock of the explo- 
 sion; and the continuous thunder of the guns, 
 the crashes of the bursting shells, once more 
 conveyed then* meaning to his mind. He re- 
 membered his errand, and ran on. 
 
 When he arrived at the middle of his posi- 
 tion, he brushed the dirt and blood from his 
 eyes, and looked out into the open at the en- 
 trance of the little valley. Two great lines of 
 Cavalry were sweeping in toward him at a full 
 gallop. They had already reached the entrance 
 of the dell, and were between the two cape-like 
 spurs which projected into the desert. A strange 
 feeling as if of the annihilation of time and 
 space swept over him. He could have believed 
 that he was again before Dundee, watching that 
 last, fierce charge of the lancers that had 
 ended by driving his little remnant from the 
 ridge they had held so long, and in sending him 
 into the valley of the shadow of death. As he 
 had done on the day he remembered so strangely 
 well, he now ran up and down behind his men, 
 urging them, cheering them, cautioning them. 
 But these men lost none of their steadiness. 
 299
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The sight of the rapidly nearing, foaming, yell- 
 ing line of horsemen, served only to make 
 themselves cooler, their fire more murderous. 
 Up to within one hundred yards the mad 
 charge was led. Then the cavalry, as if by 
 unanimous consent, broke and fled before the 
 withering sheets of lead and steel they could 
 no longer face. With their flight, as with that 
 of the infantry which had preceded it, the 
 spitting guns were hushed. And, as if it had 
 been waiting for the action to end, the sun 
 finally disappeared. Night had fallen at last. 
 
 In a short time the camp-fires of the English 
 began to flicker out through the darkness on 
 the desert. Danie lighted his own. He knew 
 that his enemies believed that they had him 
 finally penned, and that in all probability, 
 taking a leaf from the Boers' own book, they 
 would renew their attack with the dawn. He 
 also knew that, although he had lost but the 
 six men he himself had seen killed, he could 
 not possibly hold out for many hours in the 
 face of such overwhelming power. So he re- 
 sorted to a page in that same book which the 
 300
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 English had not yet turned, and determined 
 to circumvent them. He sent three of his 
 ablest scouts to find their way over the hills 
 and to the other division under Lieutenant Nel, 
 who must have retired or been driven into the 
 mountains a dozen miles to the east. To him 
 they were to report Danie's position, and to 
 state that within a few hours, if it were possi- 
 ble for man or beast to compass it, their com- 
 'inander would follow them through the hills 
 to join him. Having despatched them on their 
 desperate errand, Danie turned his attention 
 to the commando, saw that the horses were 
 fed and watered, that the dead were duly 
 buried, the living heartened and made comfort- 
 able, and the position carefully guarded against 
 a night surprise. Then, weakened as he was 
 by the shock that had so nearly cost his life, 
 and worn out with his exertions, he fell into 
 a deep sleep. 
 
 Three hours later he began to withdraw his 
 men quietly and in small sections up the val- 
 ley. He appointed a small guard to remain 
 at the laager for an hour after his departure to 
 301
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 keep the fires well fed, and to leave them at 
 last in such condition that they would burn 
 fairly evenly until morning. By midnight the 
 commando had crossed the ridge of the hills 
 behind the valley, and was making its way 
 eastward on the other side of the slope as fast 
 as the darkness would allow. His evasion had 
 been so silently, so skilfully conducted that no 
 suspicion of it disturbed the English until his 
 laager was discovered empty and cold at dawn, 
 at which time Danie, having rejoined his lieu- 
 tenant, was trekking westward again across 
 the Great Karroo ten miles in rear of the camp 
 of. his attackers. 
 
 The game was stolen away: they could not 
 even find its spoor; and the pursuit was not 
 renewed until several days had given the com- 
 mando full opportunity to recuperate after its 
 hard fight and its long, wearing march. 
 
 302
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IN the great hills south of Prince Albert 
 the mountains that separate the Karroo 
 from the Olifant's River valley below lies, al- 
 most between the topmost peaks, a cup-shaped 
 depression in the ridge, a green little dale down 
 whose sides trickle the rivulets which, combin- 
 ing on the southern slope, form the source of 
 "one of the Olifant's minor tributaries. To this 
 secluded harbourage the Transvaal commando 
 of Danie Linde was led, and here it rested for 
 ten days undisturbed. Its commander, who 
 had suffered more by the explosion of the shell 
 than he had cared to acknowledge or even to 
 believe, had succumbed to a general collapse and 
 a rising fever immediately upon his arrival at 
 a place of comparative safety. His faithful 
 lieutenant, Nel, had discovered a high moun- 
 tain farm lying just outside of the valley at 
 the side of the infant stream. His reckless in- 
 quiries had fortunately developed the fact that 
 it belonged to a Cape Colony Boer named Van 
 Niekerk, who, though fearing openly to express 
 303
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 his sympathies, was a thorough rebel at heart. 
 To this farm he transported Danie, taking 
 charge himself of the commando and arranging 
 for the most careful guard to be kept over their 
 as yet unsuspected retreat. 
 
 Danie's needs were, like those of the com- 
 mando itself, better salved by the period of 
 complete rest and quiet than they could have 
 been by any of the medicaments of man. Ease 
 and sleep and good food and day-dreaming at 
 the white clouds that sailed overhead during 
 the long afternoons did as much for him as the 
 tender nursing of the women of the household. 
 At the end of a week he felt himself again. 
 His jaded horses, after seven days of peaceful 
 grazing on the rich green carpet of the slopes, 
 were once more in condition. The men had 
 recovered their spirits. He had, to their full- 
 est extent, regained his own; and he felt that 
 it was time for him to be up and doing. But 
 his officers, affectionately solicitous, persuaded 
 him to remain three days longer hi the restful 
 comfort of the Van Niekerk home. He con- 
 sented. 
 
 304
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Once again, notwithstanding his reverse and 
 his enforced retreat westward, he began to lay 
 his plans for a long raid up the easterly coast. 
 He spent many hours looking south toward 
 Oudtshoorn, ten miles away, where the railroad 
 curved up from the coast into the valley of the 
 Olifant. He thought at first of making his 
 descent from the mountains in that direction, 
 but his friendly hosts dissuaded him. Oudts- 
 K -hoorn, they said, was well garrisoned, chiefly 
 in his honour, and other bodies of troops were 
 known to be stationed in the valley and along 
 the railroad. He realised that, once in the 
 narrow valley of the Olifant, escape would prove 
 almost impossible, should he be attacked in 
 force; that, once across the railroad and the 
 river, absolute success would have to attend 
 his battles, or he would be subject either to 
 capture or to annihilation. He finally and re- 
 luctantly decided that the safer, if not the 
 only, chance of winning his way to the south- 
 eastern coast lay in once more tempting the 
 Karroo flats, where he would have ample space 
 in which to fight or to run, and in retracing 
 305
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 his steps toward Willowmore, where he could 
 resume his originally projected but interrupted 
 line of march. So on the eleventh day the 
 commando broke its comfortable camp, and 
 trekked out of its refuge through the same pass 
 by which it had entered. 
 
 The morning had broken wild and uncer- 
 tain. Slate-blue clouds, mingling near the 
 horizon with others of a darker, angrier tint, 
 covered the sky. A sharp, gusty wind from 
 the south-east drove these clouds unevenly be- 
 fore it, like flocks of frightened sheep, across 
 the heavens. Occasionally through the gaps 
 in the struggling herd the fitful sun gleamed 
 forth, as if with but one eye, illumining the 
 ragged cliffs of the mountain side, the green 
 sweeps of the outstanding ridges, and the dry 
 desert beyond with irregular blotches of a pale 
 and sickly yellow. About mid-afternoon they 
 re-entered the wide expanse of the Great 
 Karroo. The wind slackened, and within an 
 hour died completely down. Far to the south 
 behind them rose an occasional murmur of 
 thunder, like the distant ruffle of many drums. 
 306
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 It grew darker and darker, and the thunder 
 increased. Soon big drops of rain began to 
 fall, and the wind rose again, driving these, 
 intermingled with hail-stones, mercilessly into 
 the face of man and beast. But the darkness 
 was so intense that the men were obliged to 
 disregard this inconvenience, and to keep their 
 faces uplifted, their eyes open, in order to avoid 
 breaking the line or losing touch with their 
 comrades. The thunder now became continu- 
 ous and terrific. An unbroken sheet of rain 
 and hail streamed almost horizontally across 
 the plain from the cold south. Danie made 
 a desperate attempt to turn back to the shelter 
 of the hills the commando had left scarcely 
 an hour before. The horses, however, could 
 not be brought to face the storm of ice and 
 water. Indeed, it was almost more than 
 human flesh and blood could stand. So he 
 was compelled to give it u*p, and keep to his 
 northerly course into the waste. 
 
 Suddenly the furious thunder ceased, the 
 wind broke, the bitter stream of sleet shook, 
 flapped like a sail in the wind, and fell drizzling 
 307
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 to the ground. The sky lifted and lightened. 
 Everything was hushed. It seemed as if 
 Nature, ashamed at lashing with the tempest 
 of her rage so mean, so helpless, so unresisting 
 a creature as man, had on a sudden impulse 
 withdrawn to her chamber, her silent spaces, 
 and left her elements to steal or sneak away 
 as best they might according to their kinds. 
 But she had not laid aside her tools. She was 
 but taking breath for a final effort, preparing 
 an exhibition of her weirdest might, equipping 
 to eclipse all her previous performance. From 
 the very bosom of the mountains out of which 
 the commando itself had but lately emerged, a 
 cloud of the colour of ashes and funnel-shaped 
 arose. Swaying gently, as if in the remnant 
 of the retiring wind, it pirouetted for a few 
 moments like a dancer on one toe, and then 
 swept down the mountain side, whirling, roar- 
 ing, yet still dancing daintily. The very air 
 seemed to give way before it. As it approached, 
 it could be seen that its dance steps were mon- 
 strous leaps and bounds of at times hundreds 
 of feet in length. Wherever it touched or came 
 308
 
 UNDEK THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 near to the ground, it sucked up or hurled afar 
 rocks, sand, bushes. Within its enormous cup 
 dreadful lightnings played, and great trees and 
 boulders were tossed from side to side and up 
 into the air, like balls in a hollow jet of water. 
 Around its base great circles of material torn 
 from the surface of the earth revolved in ever- 
 rising spirals, melting into the towering horror 
 above when they had climbed the dizzy height 
 *5F its stem. It swayed and swung in its course 
 like a giant flower; it pitched erratically like 
 an ill-flown kite. Every now and then it shook 
 the lightnings from its bowl in its tortuous con- 
 vulsions, and they darted to. the ground at its 
 foot like escaped serpents, splashing wide fire 
 where they struck. 
 
 The men, terrified beyond measure at so 
 dire, so menacing a manifestation, crowded to- 
 gether hi fear and disorder. When it was al- 
 most upon them, they lost all sense of organ- 
 isation or direction, and, scarcely able to man- 
 age their snorting, plunging, sweating horses, 
 broke into maddened flight before it. But it 
 was too late, if, indeed, escape had at any 
 309
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 time been possible. The Thing leaped at their 
 mass. They were immediately enveloped in a 
 Stygian night of dust and sand and stones. 
 They were beaten with flying solids, balls of 
 blue electric fire burst and blazed and spattered 
 in their midst. 
 
 It was all over in a moment. Through the 
 dense wall of rain that followed it behind, those 
 who were still standing or mounted could 
 scarcely see it as it bounded off into the dark- 
 ness of the desert. 
 
 Danie had escaped all injury. His horse, 
 plunging and struggling in the black confusion, 
 had thrown him heavily; but he had retained 
 his hold on the bridle, and, as the agitated air 
 cleared, prepared to remount. The poor brute, 
 however, which was shaking in every foam- 
 covered limb, sank to its haunches as he placed 
 his foot in the stirrup. He tried to pull it up; 
 but three times the miserable animal fell help- 
 lessly back, and finally rolled over on its side 
 into the sand. Danie gave it up, and ran 
 toward the nearest group of men. His adju- 
 tant, Redelinghuis, was one of them. 
 310
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Where is Lieutenant Nel?" Danie de- 
 manded. "Are you all here? Ride and col- 
 lect the men, Redelinghuis. My horse is dead. 
 Oh, the poor fellows! Oh, it was dreadful!" 
 
 The young adjutant rode off, swaying diz- 
 zily in his saddle. 
 
 The commando was slowly gathered together, 
 some of its number on foot. Of the score of its 
 members who were found senseless on the 
 ground, six: still lay stark with marble faces, 
 whom neither the cold rain nor their com- 
 rades' frantic efforts could ever awaken. Nine 
 horses were dead, as many disappeared. 
 
 The burial of the six took place at once ac- 
 cording to command. Their common grave 
 was dug with knives and trenching-tools al- 
 most where they fell, and the soft earth laid 
 over them was covered with protecting stones. 
 Then the commando rode away from the 
 dreadful spot with heavy hearts. 
 
 Danie's own grief was intense. The loss of 
 six brave men in so strange and unnatural a 
 fashion seemed to him infinitely more deplora- 
 ble than even a greater sacrifice in battle. He 
 311
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 could not help thinking that it was an ill hap- 
 pening with which to recommence his march 
 to the coast, an evil omen. He remembered 
 with an additional sinking at his heart the 
 bloody glow that overlay the Orange River at 
 his crossing, and how deeply it had impressed 
 a drear significance upon his mind. He re- 
 membered how mischance uncalculated had 
 met him, to prevent his passage to the coast, 
 in the very valley toward which, under even 
 more dismal auspices, he was now heading for 
 the second time. He cursed himself for a 
 superstitious fool, and tried to remember his 
 success at Hopeton, his line of little conquests 
 the other side of the desert, the gallantry of 
 his men, and the spirit with which they had 
 followed him the many hundred miles of their 
 march of invasion. 
 
 Ah! but how about that spirit now? The 
 thought roused him from his gloom, and he 
 rode back along the line. He recognised with 
 a shock that he was not alone in his dark mood. 
 The men were not grumbling in their usual 
 jovial discontent: they were sullen and silent. 
 312
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Some though none of those from his old com- 
 mando even gazed at him with unmantled 
 ill-will as he passed them, as if he were to 
 blame for their misfortune and discomfort. He 
 stopped, and spoke cheerily to these, weighing 
 his words ; but he saw no immediate good come 
 of it. They listened to him with downcast 
 eyes in silence. He began to fear that half 
 the commando would refuse to follow him if 
 -fee tried to lead them further south. Almost 
 in despair he cantered back to the head of the 
 column. 
 
 The expedition was now once more on the 
 fringe of the desert, where suddenly outcropping 
 ridges, irregular ravines, and separated kopjes 
 marked the close approaches of the mountain 
 chain. Half recognising the place as one feat- 
 ured like and in all probability not far removed 
 from the scene of his last encounter with the 
 enemy, Danie gazed dully about him. The 
 vanguard of scouts, riding some hundred yards 
 ahead, had led the commando into a little 
 valley, almost a ravine, that formed the natural 
 passage between two steep hillocks. Danie 
 313
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 looked up at the bush-covered slopes of the 
 kopje to his left. 
 
 He looked up at the bush-covered slopes of the 
 kopje to the left. His mechanical hands reined 
 his horse to a halt. The head of the column 
 passed him, went unsuspiciously on. His eyes 
 were fixed. They were fixed on the face of a 
 man in khaki who was looking along the barrel 
 of a levelled rifle. Beside that man lay an- 
 other partly concealed in the bush, and beside 
 him still another. Danie's blood froze in his 
 veins. This, then, was the end. With a tre- 
 mendous, almost a physical effort he recovered 
 his voice, at the same time forcing his horse 
 round toward the rear of the column and driv- 
 ing the spurs into its flanks. 
 
 "Ambush!" he shouted hoarsely. "For- 
 ward! Ambush!" 
 
 The words were hardly out of his mouth, 
 the startled Boers in the vicinity had not taken 
 in their meaning, were still gazing in aston- 
 ishment at their excited commander, when 
 two sheets of flame burst from the opposing 
 hillsides, a thunderous volley rang out, and 
 314
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the whole line was thrown into helpless but 
 destructive confusion. There was no thought 
 of resistance. Heedless, careless of the dead 
 and wounded who fell with screams and clutch- 
 ings or with uplifted hands and white, convulsed 
 faces beneath the feet of the plunging, frantic 
 horses, the column broke near its centre and 
 dashed in a wild flight for safety in two direc- 
 tions, one half turning backward to retrace 
 the road they had come, the others flying 
 wildly straight ahead in the direction of their 
 march. Danie's horse, struck to the heart, 
 crashed to the ground. Its rider extricated 
 himself by a fortunate movement, and leaped 
 to his feet. He seized the offered stirrup of 
 the last man in the forward flight, and half 
 ran, was half dragged out of the ravine into 
 the open beyond. But the English were there 
 also. Mounted troopers were galloping about, 
 shooting and cutting down the demoralised 
 and scattered Boers, who were fleeing toward 
 every point in the compass. 
 
 Danie's companion and saviour, a young Cape 
 Colony Afrikander, Mare by name, sprang 
 315
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 from his horse the better to escape among the 
 bush and long grass. Even as he did so, the 
 animal, still in a full run, was struck and fell, 
 rolling over and over like a shot rabbit with 
 the impetus of its rapid motion. Danie and 
 Mare plunged over the rocks and the bushes 
 to the brow of a little descent, down which they 
 ran to hide in the thick grass and bush at the 
 bottom of a kloof with high, wooded krantzes 
 at either side. As they ran into their conceal- 
 ment, Mare fell heavily, shot through the ab- 
 domen. Danie stopped, and, seizing him under 
 the arms, lifted and dragged him fifty yards 
 further into better cover, where he fell himself, 
 wounded through the thigh by a chance shot 
 fired at the swaying foliage. They lay silent, 
 covering themselves with the long grass and 
 under-bushes as well as they could. 
 
 The English had killed or captured almost 
 all the Boers who had not escaped to a dis- 
 tance by breaking through their lines. But 
 they were still beating the bush and firing 
 scattering shots at real or imaginary fugitives 
 and at suspected places of concealment. The 
 316
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 dozen scouts of the Boer advance-guard had 
 taken up a position on a stony ridge, and 
 opened fire upon the ambushed enemy as soon 
 as they had discovered what was taking place. 
 But they had been almost immediately sur- 
 rounded, and forced to surrender in a body. 
 Theirs were the only shots fired by the Boer 
 commando that day against the English. The 
 surprise had been complete. 
 
 Danie and his single companion lay at the 
 bottom of the thickly grown canyon. The 
 British soldiers who had seen them go in were 
 firing at random from the rocks on either side 
 into the jungle below, and were rolling heavy 
 stones down wherever they thought the two 
 men might be hiding. Tired of this resultless 
 work at last, they began to call to the fugitives 
 to come out, or they would set fire to the grass 
 and burn them out. Their threats were em- 
 phasised with dire oaths and insulting epi- 
 thets. 
 
 Danie's thigh wound had been bleedin&freely, 
 and was paining him a good deal. But Mare's 
 eyes were closed, and his face and lips were 
 317
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ashen. His breath was coming quick and short. 
 His hands, already thin and white, twitched 
 nervously from time to time. Danie turned, 
 and took one of the white hands in his. 
 
 " What shall we do ?" he whispered. " If we 
 stay here, and they set fire to the grass, we 
 shall burn to death. If we rise, and we are 
 both badly wounded, they will probably 
 shoot us." 
 
 The boy for he was but eighteen feebly 
 pressed his commander's hand, and answered 
 firmly, but in short gasps and with great dif- 
 ficulty: 
 
 "I am dying in agony now, Commandant. 
 Do not trouble about me. Save yourself. If 
 I burn to death or die this way, it matters 
 little. Let the flames destroy my body: it will 
 be better. They might identify me, and visit 
 my crime on my poor father and mother. Be- 
 sides, it would please the dogs to know they 
 had killed another rebel." 
 
 Danie painfully hitched himself a little nearer 
 to the dying Mare, and laid his hand gently 
 on the boy's chilled forehead, already damp 
 318
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 with death. He suddenly remembered his 
 field-flask, and, taking it out, moistened the 
 other's lips with a little brandy and water. 
 The tears came to his eyes. 
 
 "Poor, dear boy," he said feelingly, "it is 
 on my account to save my life that you are 
 dying. If you had not stopped to offer me 
 your stirrup in the nek, you might have es- 
 caped with the others. I will stay with you, 
 and die with you. Do not be afraid." 
 
 Mare could no longer speak, but he half 
 opened his eyes and smiled. Then his soul 
 passed from him. 
 
 A voice called out from the far side of the 
 kloof: "Well, Sergeant, set fire to the grass, 
 and let 'em burn if they won't come out. But 
 they are probably dead now, if they ever went 
 in there." 
 
 "So," thought Danie, raising his head, "they 
 are not quite sure, after all, that any one is 
 here." 
 
 He fell back beside the dead man, and stared 
 up at the sky, for the time being resigned, even 
 anxious for his fate, yet listening with all his 
 319
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ears for the first crackle of the flames. The 
 past, the present, the possible future, moved 
 swiftly in parade before his mind. He could 
 see in the first place that his plans had failed, 
 that he could no longer attempt to carry out 
 his plan of moving to and up the coast. The 
 effect of this new disaster upon the commando, 
 if, indeed, there was any commando left, 
 added to that of the storm and fight, the re- 
 treat that preceded it, would of itself put an 
 end to the plan. 
 
 What had he done? He had taken Hope- 
 ton, beaten the enemy at Springfontein, capt- 
 ured and killed a few Englishmen, taken a 
 few horses and supplies, and lost his commando, 
 the best equipped, the finest that the Transvaal 
 had ever sent across its borders. He had 
 better die. His death alone would wipe out 
 the disgrace of his failure. Besides, he owed 
 it to young Mare who had so bravely passed 
 through the gates before him, who was already 
 standing on the other side of the dark river 
 waiting for his commander, with all those 
 others (and how many they now must be!) 
 320
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 who had left the ranks of the commando to 
 join the countless host of the dead. They 
 would be waiting for him, not accusingly, but 
 with friendly and familiar hands outstretched 
 to welcome him back to their midst. 
 
 Then he thought of Bettie, and his heart 
 smote him. But, after all, what had he now 
 to offer her? He saw clearly that not only he 
 had failed, but that the cause for which he was 
 ghting was doomed. And, as he thought it 
 over, he decided that that fact in itself was 
 cause and warrant for his extinction. He 
 closed his eyes, and waited. The wait grew 
 long. He opened them again to notice a red 
 glow on the darkened sky, for it was already 
 evening. A faint whiff of smoke blew past 
 him, then another. It was coming. 
 
 He closed his eyes again. He wished it to 
 surprise him. He did not have to watch its 
 slow or swift approach. Strange to tell, his 
 mind stole imperceptibly back from a horrid 
 contemplation of his death to its old musings. 
 The truth was, the loss of blood had so weak- 
 ened him that he could hardly distinguish be- 
 321
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 tween the imminent future and the past, be- 
 tween the present of which he was a part and 
 the dreams that were but a part of himself. 
 His mind was wandering aimlessly through 
 a forest of unreal visions and conjectures, when 
 it come all at once upon a clearing. For he 
 waked with the sudden thought that perhaps 
 he had no right to die. The newness of the 
 idea surprised him into a consideration of its 
 worth. And, as he thought it over hi his 
 freshened mind, he found all the arguments 
 against him. His debt to the living was greater 
 than that he owed the dead; he should be the 
 last rather than the first to desert his country's 
 cause; Bettie loved him for himself, not for 
 his fame, she had accepted him long before 
 the war, he could go back to her, if no greater, 
 at least no less a man, and find her unchanged 
 and satisfied. Failure was not disgraceful, 
 however bitter it tasted, to the man who had 
 really tried; and there came always the oppor- 
 tunity to try again. He roused himself more 
 and more with such thoughts as these, and 
 suddenly, to his astonishment, he found himself 
 322
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 sitting up and staring straight at the advancing 
 line of fire. 
 
 Had it not been for the fierce torrents of 
 rain that had fallen early that afternoon, Danie 
 would already have been overwhelmed. Even 
 as it was, the hot desert sun had so dried the 
 grass and bush that, once fairly started, the 
 flames swept onward only moderately hindered 
 by the little moisture that remained above the 
 ground. His saner reason having told him that 
 his duty was still to escape, if possible, Danie 
 looked about him for a way to do so. The 
 fire, fanned by the evening breeze, was work- 
 ing its way more and more rapidly down the 
 kloof directly toward him. He struggled to 
 his hands and knees, and aimed his course 
 diagonally across the kloof and away from the 
 fire. His progress was both slow and painful. 
 Thick clouds of black smoke began to fill the 
 air about him. Sparks began to fly over his 
 head, to settle smouldering in front of him, 
 starting new fires in his path; and he had to 
 avoid these as well as the stones and bushes 
 over which he could not step or climb. The 
 323
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 flames gained on him. Great waves of heat 
 swept over him, almost scorching in their in- 
 tensity. With the willingness to prolong life 
 had come the desire, and to the hope had suc- 
 ceeded a great fear lest he should fail even in 
 that. He prayed as he had never prayed be- 
 fore, fiercely, almost imperatively. He felt 
 that God, having warned him through his con- 
 science that his duty was to live, should see 
 to it that he did live. But he also began to 
 feel a fear that God did not hear or was not 
 listening to his prayers, that he had been for- 
 gotten. 
 
 Just as the heat became intolerable, just 
 as he began absolutely to despair, he passed 
 around a great rock on which the lichens were 
 already curling and browning, and found on 
 its other side a little stream issuing from be- 
 neath it and flowing away into the dense 
 thicket. He splashed lengthwise into it, and 
 rolled over, burying his face in its cool waters. 
 Then with a roar the hungry flames leaped over 
 him. 
 
 324
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 IN the clear light of the early morning two 
 men stood talking earnestly on a little 
 plateau from which, with the exception of two 
 points of interest, the whole battle, or rather 
 slaughter field, of the day before could be seen. 
 The two places which their eyes or the glass 
 of which they made anxious use could not 
 s'earch were the nek in which, between the two 
 hills, the ambush had been laid and the kloof 
 in which the last death had been done, the 
 final outrage perpetrated. The two kopjes, 
 between them the fatal nek, lay in line half a 
 mile to the front of the observers. The kloof 
 opened almost at their feet. The nearer kopje 
 concealed the nek: a fringe of bush along the 
 edge of the nearer krantz, which ran parallel 
 to their left a few yards distant, hid the gulf 
 of the kloof from their view. 
 
 In a klip scheur, or crevice, in the side of 
 
 the kloof close to the top of the krantz, a man 
 
 who looked more like a scarecrow was 
 
 crouching hi concealment, not forty feet from 
 
 325
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 the two horsemen on the plateau. He, too, was 
 evincing great anxiety and interest; but to 
 gratify his desires, to gain whatever knowledge 
 or information he might be seeking, he was 
 compelled to depend alone on the sense of hear- 
 ing. For to see he must risk being seen; and 
 he dared not as yet show himself. The rather 
 restrained tones of the two men who talked 
 carried clearly enough through the silence; but 
 the man who listened, although he could hear 
 the sound of the voices well enough, could not 
 for all his earnestness distinguish to his satis- 
 faction even the language in which they spoke. 
 
 The taller horseman, who had once more been 
 passing his glass over every possible foot of 
 the wide plain before him, over the already 
 half-eaten and noisome carcasses of the horses, 
 contemplatively over the long trench near the 
 foot of the kopjes, which had been reopened 
 for the examination of its gruesome contents 
 scarcely an hour before, slipped it into its 
 case with a sigh. 
 
 "Well, Jan," he said, "it is no use. Will- 
 iamson must have been deceived last night, 
 326
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 They either lied to him or the men he spoke to 
 did not know. Let us go back." 
 
 The other man rose in his stirrups. "Wait 
 a little, Lieutenant," he said. "Here is the 
 kloof Davel spoke of, the one that was burned 
 out." And he rode his horse to its edge, and 
 dismounted. 
 
 " Ons kan hier afklim" (We can climb down 
 here), he called. 
 
 ""The man under the edge of the krantz started. 
 He seized a bush growing directly over his 
 head, and half pulled himself up to the plateau. 
 Leaning far out, he fixed his eyes on the dis- 
 mounted man, who had begun to climb down 
 into the kloof some twenty yards away. 
 
 "It is not possible," he muttered to himself. 
 "I must see the other." And he pulled him- 
 self up again until his head reached over the 
 edge of the plateau. His awkward movement 
 started a few stones rattling down the side of 
 the kloof. Both the other men turned in his 
 direction, but the fringe of bushes along the 
 krantz yet protected him from the sight of the 
 one who had remained on horseback. The 
 327
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUK 
 
 other, now on a level with the ragged and reck- 
 less watcher, stared at him for a moment in 
 open-mouthed amazement. Then he suddenly 
 scrambled back to the plateau. 
 
 "Goede Hemel, daar is die Kommandant!" 
 he shouted, and ran down the edge of the cliff 
 to help him up. The mounted man leaped 
 from his horse, and hastened after his com- 
 panion. 
 
 "Jan Kock! and Nel! Koos Nel! How 
 glad I am to see you!" stammered Danie, his 
 voice quivering with cold and with emotion as 
 they drew him gently to the level of the plain 
 and laid him tenderly on the short grass. 
 
 He was black from head to foot with smoke 
 and grime, his clothes were charred and torn, 
 his hair and beard singed and matted. But 
 his wound a clean flesh wound through his 
 thigh, which had chipped, but not broken the 
 bone was in better condition than he had ex- 
 pected or dreamed. He had managed to bind 
 it roughly during the night; and the stream, in 
 which he had cooled its fever until morning, 
 had served him well as a cold compress and 
 328
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 febrifuge. He had been able at dawn to drag 
 himself across the blackened kloof and up its 
 precipitous wall without much difficulty. There 
 had been no spreading bush, no tangled grass, 
 left to impede his progress. At the sound of 
 the voices he had concealed himself in the crev- 
 ice of the cliff, until he should be able to 
 discover whether their owners were friends or 
 foemen. 
 
 "Danie, Danie," cried Nel, as he bent over 
 nim, "we thought we had surely lost you! 
 After we got the remnant of the commando 
 together," Danie winced at the words, "and 
 could not find you among them, we did every- 
 thing! Jan and I have been here since the 
 English drew off to pursue us, looking for you 
 or your body. We had all the poor dead out 
 of their graves, and then reburied them. The 
 khakis had just thrown a little sand on top 
 of them. Williamson even went back to the 
 English camp to see if he could see or hear of 
 you. But he heard nothing, and they nearly 
 suspected him for all his clever lies. What a 
 time! And here you are at last, thank God,
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 safe and fairly sound. Bring my horse here, 
 Jan. We must get him right away." 
 
 "Tell me," said Danie, "tell me first, dear 
 Koos, how many men there are left. How 
 many" he hesitated at the words. 
 
 "There were one hundred and eighty-one, 
 including yourself, who were not there when 
 I called the roll early this morning," answered 
 Lieutenant Nel, mournfully. "But some of 
 them were taken prisoners, I know. And we 
 have nearly twenty wounded men with us now. 
 Oh, we are in bad shape! But never so bad 
 that we might not be worse," he added, as he 
 saw the pallor grow on Danie's cheek. 
 
 "No, no, Koos," said his commander, "we 
 can do no more. If God permits us, we must 
 get back to the Transvaal as soon as we can, 
 without looking for any more fighting. The 
 men will not follow any further, and you will 
 see that all our new recruits will leave us and 
 go back to their homes. I saw the commando's 
 temper yesterday on the march after the storm, 
 and I know. Confess it yourself. How do 
 they seem to feel now?" 
 330
 
 UNDER THE VTERKLEUR 
 
 "Well," Nel replied with a little embarrass- 
 ment, "their spirit is not what it used to be. 
 There was talk this morning about surrender 
 as well as about going home. Men like Jan 
 here would follow you to hell, and you know 
 I will always be with you; but we are a small 
 minority. Now that is enough, old fellow. 
 Let us lift you to the horse. We have a couple 
 of miles to go before we reach the commando, 
 ,snd the English may find us at any hour." 
 
 "Let us go," said Danie, sadly. And they 
 disappeared among the little kopjes toward 
 the mountains. 
 
 The laager of the depleted and despondent 
 commando was in as secret a place as could 
 be found in the outer borders of the range it 
 knew so well. Here Lieutenant Nel had gath- 
 ered the men, as soon as he had succeeded hi 
 throwing the English off the track of the rem- 
 nant that escaped with him; and here the two 
 or three score of burghers who had fled sep- 
 arately into the mountains had easily found 
 their way by means of secret signals and the 
 scouts sent out to search for them. The great 
 331
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 joy in the little laager at seeing Danie again 
 was not to be mistaken. But the men's joy, 
 their enthusiasm, neither deceived their com- 
 mander nor themselves. Their old spirit was 
 gone. They were like rats in a closed room, 
 with the dogs barking and howling at the door 
 for luck to let them in; and they knew it only 
 too well. Reduced to a bare third of their 
 original strength, their captain wounded and 
 sick, their horses almost completely knocked up, 
 their stomachs empty and abused, their enemies 
 gathering from every side against them, fresh, 
 strong, in overpowering force, what was to be 
 their fate? What could it be but one? And 
 yet these men, knowing better than their 
 enemies their own weakness and their oppo- 
 nent's preponderance in power, knowing that 
 the north was barred against them with bars 
 as impassable as those which closed the south 
 to them, or the east or the west, would have 
 marched gayly out into the desert that same 
 day, ready and willing to cut their way back 
 through the Colony, through the Free State, 
 back. to. their home, their beloved Transvaal,
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 had their captain given them the word. Or, 
 in the attempt, they would have died at his 
 command, his beck. 
 
 But however much he meant to lead them 
 homeward, whatever his mind was for the 
 morrow, it was not to be. That very night 
 he was placed on a horse and strapped to the 
 saddle; and, buoyed between two faithful at- 
 tendants, he led the van westward along the 
 "gloomy track they had twice traversed, while 
 more than half the commando was engaged 
 throughout the night in a series of desperate 
 rear-guard actions, trying to hold the ever-in- 
 creasing pursuit at bay. 
 
 For nearly two days Danie rode as if in a 
 dream. The alternately following columns of 
 the English never slackened in the pursuit. 
 The only rest that the Boers could get was 
 when hi desperation they dropped behind some 
 randt, set their backs against some wall, and 
 one-half fought madly to stand off the enemy, 
 while the other half slept and the worn-out 
 horses were ungirthed for a few hours of such 
 poor ease as they could find. 
 333
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 In forty-eight hours the strain became ter- 
 rific. Men and horses dropped at every mile. 
 Small English columns were crawling up on the 
 Boer flanks. Directly in front of the commando 
 lay the Capetown railroad, heavily fortified and 
 guarded. Danie's little force now number- 
 ing less than a hundred men was being driven 
 right against the line at Maatjesfontein. One 
 more hopeless dash, one last fight, and it was 
 all over. The wounded leader called up every 
 reserve of his powers as he approached the 
 railroad. His gaunt face was deeply flushed, 
 his sunken eyes gleamed with an unnatural 
 light. He took back the command from Nel, 
 who had held it for him during the last two 
 dreadful days. 
 
 "Give it to me," he said, "and tell the men 
 that I myself will lead them. It will not be 
 long. We shall either break through or we 
 shall not. In any case it will be my last fight, 
 at least for some tune, and fight it myself I 
 will!" 
 
 The men, nerved by despair, cheered him to 
 the echo in the midst of the British bullets as 
 334
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 he rode alone to the head of their column with 
 his old careless smile. He nodded and threw 
 his felt hat to the ground, riding bare-headed 
 up and down the line. 
 
 "There is no way to do it but to do it!" he 
 repeated again and again. "We must get 
 through or die. But kill as many khakis as 
 possible. Make them pay dear for the three 
 hundred who lie buried in the desert, who will 
 'never again see their homes, their wives, their 
 children. Think of your own, and try to re- 
 turn to them. There lies the road," he 
 pointed ahead, " I will lead you to it. Come!" 
 
 There was indeed no alternative. The little 
 commando hurled itself, yelling, against the 
 defences of the railroad only to recoil, dazed 
 and shattered, from the rain of steel that the 
 heavy line of infantry, aided by Maxims, poured 
 forth straight into its face. Once again the 
 thinned and broken column rode at the embank- 
 ment, its mad, indomitable leader carrying his 
 little remnant right up to the muzzles of the 
 rifles. And then, alas! the end really came. 
 There was none to lead, there were none to 
 335
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 follow, for a third charge. But twenty-seven 
 men remained unwounded when Danie crashed 
 to the ground, his horse riddled with steel. To 
 save themselves from murder, they threw up 
 their hands. It was a brave surrender. 
 
 Danie was stunned by the fall, and was 
 spared the sight of the surrender, which, after 
 all, might well have cheered his poor heart, as 
 far as the knowledge that his men were not all 
 to die that day could do so. When he came 
 to himself, he found a number of very peaceful- 
 looking English soldiers engaged in lifting his 
 dead horse from off one of his legs, which, he 
 was aware, was giving him intense agony. He 
 saw, dimly, a couple of English officers stand- 
 ing over him. He could not see as far as to 
 their faces, which seemed a great distance off. 
 But he did not fail to understand that he was 
 in the hands of his enemies for the second 
 time, and, he feared, forever. Then he calmly 
 closed his eyes, and fainted away. 
 
 336
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 TWO weeks later the kindly surgeon came 
 one morning to the side of Danie's cot 
 in the hospital at Maatjesfontein. He felt of 
 his patient's pulse, took his temperature, re- 
 placed the bandages about his fast healing 
 wound, and examined the splints which bound 
 "his broken leg. Then he sent for a pair of 
 crutches, and ordered that the prisoner be as- 
 sisted to rise and dress. 
 
 Danie opened his eyes in astonishment. 
 "Why, I cannot walk, doctor. Am I to be 
 sent away?" he asked. 
 
 "Not far," answered the surgeon, reassur- 
 ingly. "Just across the square to the court- 
 house. The court-martial will sit in an hour 
 to try you." 
 
 "Court-martial? Try me?" gasped Danie. 
 "Why, I am a prisoner of war. What have I 
 to do with a court-martial, what has a court- 
 martial to do with me?" 
 
 "That you must know best yourself, Mr. 
 Linde. You have undoubtedly been informed 
 337
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 of the charges against you. I cannot, of course, 
 discuss the matter with you." And he walked 
 away. 
 
 Danie was stupefied. "What have I done 
 that I should be tried by court-martial? What 
 have they against me?" he asked again, as he 
 was being dressed, of the old soldier who served 
 as hospital attendant. 
 
 "Hi'm sure I don't know, sir," replied the 
 man, looking cautiously around to make sure 
 that he was not overheard. Danie's patience 
 and his gratitude for ordinary kindnesses during 
 his two weeks' confinement in the hospital had 
 touched his attendant's heart. "Hi under- 
 stand they 'ave a lot of charges against you. 
 Probably like those that were brought against 
 your Commandant Scheepers." 
 
 " Scheepers ? " exclaimed Danie. " Scheepers ? 
 I know him well. Was he captured and tried 
 by court-martial? What did they do to him? 
 Did they send him into exile?" 
 
 "No, sir," answered the attendant, in a low 
 voice. "They found 'im guilty of hall sorts o' 
 things, and shot 'im." 
 
 338
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Dame's heart sank into his boots. "Shot 
 him?" he repeated hoarsely. "My God! What 
 did they shoot him for? Tell me what you 
 know about it!" 
 
 "W'y, sir," said the man, "they captured 
 'im when 'e was sick with a fever, and tried 
 'im within a week. They 'ad to carry 'im both 
 before the court-martial and to the grave. The 
 two men who was to 'old 'im up refuses to 
 stnd in front of the bullets, and small blame 
 to 'em, says I. Nor I wouldn't 'a' done it, 
 neither. So they sets 'im in a chire with 'is 
 eyes tied up. Hi wasn't there, but I 'card 
 that 'e hasked to be allowed to stand be'ind 
 the chire and 'old on to it, and to 'ave his eyes 
 unbandaged. But they wouldn't let 'im. 
 Hand so 'e died." 
 
 A cheerful outlook, thought Danie. He 
 asked no more questions. 
 
 Before the hour had passed, he was escorted 
 by an armed guard across the square to the 
 building in which the court-martial was to 
 hold its session. He entered the room leaning 
 heavily on the shoulders of two of his guards, 
 339
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 and was allowed to sit down. The court was 
 opened with all due form and ceremony. 
 
 "Mr. Linde," began the colonel who pre- 
 sided over the proceedings. 
 
 Danie straightened in his chair. "I have a 
 military title," he interrupted, "as I hold a 
 military commission regularly issued by my 
 government. I beg to be addressed by it." 
 
 The colonel frowned slightly. "Command- 
 ant Linde, then," he began once more. "There 
 are thirteen charges against you in the indict- 
 ment presented before this court. They" 
 
 Danie interrupted again. "I have heard 
 nothing about them," he said. "I understand 
 that according to all military law I should have 
 seen them some time ago." 
 
 The colonel coughed. "They were sent you, 
 sir, as soon as they were made up, to assist 
 you in preparing your defence. If you have 
 not received them, that is your misfortune, and 
 not the fault of the court. The indictment will 
 be read to you, however, and you will have the 
 opportunity of hearing the charges to which 
 you are to answer. The court will now pro- 
 340
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ceed without further interruption on the part 
 of the prisoner. Mr. Clerk, read the indict- 
 ment." 
 
 Danie sank hopelessly back in his chair. It 
 became evident that he was to have but little 
 chance for his life ; and, as the officer who acted 
 as clerk commenced to read the strange in- 
 dictment, it appeared to the poor prisoner that 
 his dismal conviction could not have been 
 better founded. 
 
 The specifications alleged: 
 
 First. That on a certain day in the month 
 of May, 1900, the prisoner before the court had 
 escaped from the hospital of the military prison 
 at Pietermaritzburg in Natal, breaking a parole 
 which, if not given directly by word of mouth 
 or in writing, had nevertheless been implied 
 and understood, and for a time tacitly agreed 
 to by both parties to the implied agreement, 
 until the prisoner had himself violated it by 
 his escape. 
 
 Second. That a few days after his escape 
 from Pietermaritzburg he had appeared at the 
 farm of a certain Hockley in the Pomeroy dis- 
 341
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 trict of Natal, and by means of a false and 
 forged order upon the provost-marshal at 
 Pietermaritzburg, purporting to be signed by 
 a certain Captain F. H. Ainslee of the Intelli- 
 gence Department, had procured a horse of 
 the value of twenty pounds to aid him in fur- 
 thering his escape, by his action breaking both 
 the military and the civil laws governing the 
 land. 
 
 Third. That on the evening of the sixth 
 day subsequent to the date mentioned in the 
 preceding charge of the indictment he had 
 without provocation or just cause treacher- 
 ously shot and slain a sergeant of mounted 
 police who was acting legally and in the proper 
 discharge of his duty on the borders of Zulu- 
 land and the Vaal River Colony. 
 
 The Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth specifications 
 charged that the prisoner, while conducting a 
 guerilla warfare in the northern and central 
 districts of the Vaal River Colony, had on 
 three different occasions by the use of dyna- 
 mite destroyed passing trains filled with pas- 
 sengers, both military and civilian, in direct 
 342
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 contravention to the rules and precepts of 
 civilised warfare. 
 
 Seventh. That he had hanged, or that others 
 by his order and under his direction had hanged, 
 in violation of one of the most important and 
 widely recognised laws of war, and against all 
 principles of common humanity, one of His 
 Majesty's subjects who had surrendered as a 
 prisoner of war to the prisoner before the court 
 fit" the town of Hopeton in the Cape Colony 
 in October of the present year, and who was 
 therefore under the care and protection of the 
 latter, the murdered man being by name Jim 
 Kondwana, and at the time of his capture and 
 surrender serving as a member of the mounted 
 police force under His Majesty's officers. 
 
 The Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh, Twelfth, 
 and Thirteenth specifications charged separate 
 instances of the prisoner's seducing from their 
 allegiance certain subjects of His Majesty in 
 the Cape Colony, and of arming and inducing 
 them to fight with arms in their hands as rebels 
 against the legal and constituted authority of 
 their country. 
 
 343
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The clerk completed the reading of the long 
 and formal document amid a profound silence. 
 For a minute after he had finished there was 
 no sound heard in the court-room except the 
 stamp and snort of one of the judges' horses, 
 tied in a shed outside the open window. The 
 eyes of the court were cast solemnly down, while 
 those of the few military spectators were turned 
 upon the face of the prisoner. 
 
 Danie alternately flushed and paled. He 
 was as furious as he was amazed at the twists 
 and turns they had given some of his acts, 
 at the infernal ingenuity with which they si- 
 lently based the illegality of those acts alleged 
 as having been committed in Natal on his lack 
 of legal standing as a parole-breaker who had 
 forfeited all belligerent rights; at the fiendish 
 impudence of their description of a parole 
 "not given directly by word of mouth or in 
 writing," but nevertheless u implied and under- 
 stood" and "tacitly agreed to"! As if such an 
 anomaly could exist! But he saw from these 
 very facts of distortion that his cause was lost 
 in advance, that whatever he should say in 
 344
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 his own defence or in condemnation of his 
 judges would be but careless waste of the little 
 breath left to him in life. So he sat motion- 
 less in his chair, looking steadily at the wall 
 above their heads. 
 
 Then the presiding officer broke the silence. 
 "What have you to say for yourself, prisoner?" 
 he said, raising his head. "Are you guilty or 
 not guilty?" 
 
 ""iDanie still sat dumb, staring at the wall. 
 There was a little rustle in the room. Sud- 
 denly two of the younger officers at the table 
 leaned across to their senior, and whispered 
 busily to him for a moment. 
 
 "Ah! yes," he answered them, nodding 
 rapidly. Then he looked up again. "You 
 need not plead to the whole indictment, but to 
 its separate clauses, one by one, Linde. Are 
 you guilty or not guilty of the first act charged, 
 of breaking your parole and escaping from 
 Pietermaritzburg ? " 
 
 Danie could restrain his wild indignation no 
 longer. It seemed as if all the little blood 
 left in his body leaped to his face. " Oh, they 
 345
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 are worse than Kaffirs," he said within himself. 
 "Well, to hell with them! I will tell them 
 what I think, if it is my last act!" He tottered 
 to his feet with blazing eyes, and gripped 
 unsteadily for support at the shoulder of the 
 armed guard who stood beside his chair. "I 
 am not guilty!" he thundered. 
 
 The colonel raised his hand. "He pleads 
 Not Guilty to the first charge, Mr. Clerk," he 
 said coldly. "Set it down." 
 
 Danie caught his breath, and continued, "I 
 did escape from Pietermaritzburg" 
 
 The colonel leaned forward, and interrupted 
 him. "You will change the plea to guilty, 
 Mr. Clerk." 
 
 "but I was not on parole. There was no 
 parole offered or demanded, ' implied ' or other- 
 wise," went on Danie, hotly. "Bring your 
 witnesses, that I may question them!" 
 
 The colonel laid his hand on a mass of papers 
 lying on the table before him. "We need no 
 witnesses," he said calmly. "We have here, 
 concerning that charge as well as concerning 
 all the other charges, statements and affida- 
 346
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 vits from British officers and from others that 
 are quite sufficient and satisfactory." 
 
 "Let me see them!" demanded Danie. 
 
 "You cannot," returned his judge, briefly. 
 
 "Then I denounce them now and forever as 
 lies, as false, infamous lies!" roared Danie, 
 beside himself. "As to the rest, I did hang 
 the dirty Kaffir in Hopeton. I would have 
 hanged him fifty tunes over with my own 
 "hands if it had been necessary. He had done 
 brutal murder on an innocent boy in Ermelo 
 some months before, and committed another 
 one right before my eyes and those of Major 
 Campbell while a prisoner under my control. 
 My shooting of the sergeant of police by the 
 Umvolosi River was a legal act of war as well 
 as of self-defence. He would have shot me if 
 I had not been too quick for him. As to my 
 dynamiting of trains being contrary to the rules 
 of civilised warfare, I will only say that when- 
 ever I did such unpalatable work I followed 
 the instructions set forth hi your Lord Wolse- 
 ley's own handbook on the subject. To finish, 
 I am proud to have proved, as has every other 
 347
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 of our officers who have invaded the Cape 
 Colony, that it still holds Afrikander Boers 
 who are one in heart with their brothers of 
 the Republics, and who are true enough to 
 their real fatherland to fight for it." He fell 
 back quivering with wrath and exertion. 
 
 The president bent forward again. "The 
 prisoner pleads guilty to all counts but the 
 second," he said. "So set it down, Mr. Clerk. 
 You have not pleaded to the charge of forgery, 
 prisoner," he added, looking at Danie. 
 
 The Boer struggled to rise once more, but 
 could not. "Forgery!" he cried, panting. 
 "Oh, the Hockley horse, forgery ! The 
 charge is too silly, too cowardly, to discuss. I 
 signed him an order with the first name that 
 came into my mind. If the man was fool 
 enough to present an order given him by one 
 whom within six hours he knew to be an es- 
 caping prisoner of war" 
 
 "Hold!" cried the president, lifting his hand. 
 "Cap tarn Ainslee, please step forward." 
 
 An officer arose near the end of the room, 
 and walked up to the table. 
 348
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Your name?" asked the court. 
 
 "Charles Theodore Ainslee, sir," he answered. 
 
 "Are you connected with the Intelligence 
 Staff?" 
 
 "lam, sir." 
 
 The president smiled triumphantly. "That 
 will do, sir. You may sit down." 
 
 Danie had watched the astonishing little 
 farce with wide-open eyes. For a moment 
 ~ftie slight coincidence of name and service puz- 
 zled him; but, as he saw that it did not in any 
 way touch the real matter of the signature, he 
 let it pass scornfully. "They are not after 
 proof," he said to himself. "They are hunting 
 for blood. All they wish is an excuse, be it 
 slight as it may." 
 
 The members of the court consulted for a 
 few moments in whispers over their table. Then 
 the president rose to his feet. 
 
 " Daniel Linde," he said, " stand up." Danie 
 was helped to his feet. The colonel continued, 
 "This court finds you guilty on all counts 
 charged in the indictment against you, and 
 sentences you to be shot to death, the sentence 
 349
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 not to be carried out until after its confirmation 
 by the commander-in-chief of His Majesty's 
 forces in South Africa." 
 
 The court-martial was now officially declared 
 closed. Dame's guards led him from the room 
 and back to the hospital, where he sat for 
 hours on the edge of his cot, trying to digest, 
 to grasp the idea that he was soon to be taken 
 out to an open grave, to have his eyes ban- 
 daged, and to kneel upon the good earth to 
 be killed, like a dog or a traitor, hated, help- 
 less, miserable, despicable. Death had never 
 before confronted him in so low, so base a 
 form; and it was as incomprehensible as it was 
 almost unrecognisable. 
 
 That very evening a letter was brought to 
 the condemned prisoner from his friend Camp- 
 bell, dated at Pietermaritzburg. Its tenor was 
 not calculated to raise his depressed spirits or 
 strengthen his heart against the ordeal that 
 impended. 
 
 " My dear Linde," he read, " I was almost as 
 sorry to hear of your capture as I should feel 
 glad. I sincerely hope that my countrymen 
 350
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 at Maatjesfontein are treating you with some 
 of the kindness and consideration you lately 
 showed to me and my officers. It is with great 
 sorrow that I have to inform you that Miss 
 Uys to whom your letter was safely deliv- 
 ered has been for some time very ill with 
 typhoid malaria, and lies now in a most serious 
 condition. I will try to inform you if any- 
 thing of importance takes place." 
 
 351
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE population of Pietermaritzburg, 
 scarcely sixteen thousand at the begin- 
 ning of the war, had nearly doubled as it pro- 
 gressed by reason of the influx of soldiers, of 
 strangers and sight-seers of all descriptions on 
 then* way inland, and of the troops and trains 
 of sick and wounded and prisoners on their 
 way out or to the sea. Everything that came 
 to Durban, the port of Natal, passed to or 
 through Pietermaritzburg, as did also every- 
 thing going back to Durban and the coast. 
 The new suburbs of the town, the military 
 camps, the camps for the wounded, and the 
 concentration camp held the great majority 
 A those who went to make up the temporary 
 uprease to the population. But the streets 
 o3F -the little city could have been paved from 
 end to end with the officers and strangers of 
 all nationalities and the correspondents, real 
 and pretended, who somehow stowed them- 
 selves away night after night within its pre- 
 cincts, and filled its streets by day. 
 352
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 The wheels of every kind of society turned 
 at full speed. The social machinery of every 
 class of the inhabitants, and of many a new 
 class imported and set up by the new-comers, 
 ran at full blast. Almost every family of any 
 pretension in the town and many who made 
 no such claims at all entertained feverishly 
 night and day. There were houses partisan to 
 both sides; there were houses unaffected to 
 "either. The great saloons of public halls and 
 hotels resounded evening after evening to the 
 blaring music of military balls and prome- 
 nades; there were teas and garden parties and 
 receptions given by and attended by persons 
 of every shade of social and political persua- 
 sion. The strangers, the correspondents, and 
 even the British officers were impartial and 
 ubiquitous. They all found their pleasure and 
 excitement wherever they sought it; and they 
 sought it all the time and everywhere. 
 
 The great house of the Maritzes was one 
 
 of the centres of attraction and amusement. 
 
 Constant streams of invitations passed out of 
 
 its portals to return in the shape of guests of 
 
 353
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 all the sorts and conditions the town and 
 camps could afford. Mrs. Maritz offered her 
 hand as often and as imperturbably to the Boer 
 inmate of the concentration camp, out by per- 
 mission for the evening, as to the British officer 
 about to return to the front; as well to the 
 dubious French correspondent, whose bills at 
 the hotel were in long arrears, as to the silent 
 refugee from the Transvaal, whose eyes were 
 constantly shifting around among the faces of 
 the rest of the company. Martha played tennis 
 with the young, athletic English lieutenants, 
 danced with the stiff, tightly laced Russian 
 attache", with as bright a face, as apparently 
 warm a heart, as she served tea to the frightened, 
 awkward Boer girl from the northern Trans- 
 vaal or chatted with the quick, observant 
 American who had "just come over to look 
 on." It was not an unusual thing for a shy, 
 pretty girl of the conquered race to be taken 
 down to dinner on the arm of one of her coun- 
 try's stalwart conquerors, for the commander 
 of the concentration camp to meet as his full 
 and free equal the prisoner to whom he had 
 354
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 that very afternoon grudgingly granted a pass 
 to visit the city. For in the hospitable home 
 of the Maritzes no divisions of class or nation- 
 ality were, at this period, recognised. Many 
 honest and sincere, as well as many envious 
 or jealous, tongues were stirred to utter con- 
 demnation and detraction strong and bitter 
 at the impartially genial course adopted by 
 the Maritzes, remembering that their real sym- 
 pathies had always professed to lie with the 
 cause of the Republics. But few or none of 
 these harsh and unjust judges understood or 
 appreciated the real service that the two 
 women actually rendered to the burgher cause 
 in their gentle and quiet way. The lot of the 
 poor women in the concentration camp was 
 alleviated, improved, more than once and in 
 more than one way, because the commanding 
 officer had met and talked with and under- 
 stood, as he never could have done in camp, 
 many of his sad-eyed prisoners for a free mo- 
 ment beneath the Maritz roof. More than a 
 few indeed, who could say how many? 
 farms and homesteads in the far Transvaal 
 355
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 and Free State were spared from the flames 
 because the officer in command of the dread 
 detachment wilfully forgot his orders, remem- 
 bering instead, at sight of the white and trem- 
 bling inmates, the sweet, pale face and shy 
 tones of the girl into whose eyes he had once 
 looked in the Maritz drawing-rooms or to whom 
 he had talked at that hospitable table. 
 
 But Martha Maritz did not neglect the more 
 direct, if less open, opportunities to help and 
 hearten those for whom her own heart went 
 out, greatly though such opportunities had in- 
 creased since Danie's prison life in Pietermaritz- 
 burg had ended through her intervention. Her 
 gentle face, her sympathetic voice, became as 
 familiar in the concentration camp, in the 
 women's hospitals, in the guard-camps of the 
 poor exiles on their way to Saint Helena, as they 
 were still in the old prison-hospital. A part of 
 every day, no matter how she felt nor what the 
 demands of the afternoon or evening, she spent 
 among the sick, the wounded, or the imprisoned. 
 She was their sister of mercy, their angel of 
 hope. 
 
 356
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 One day, as she was passing down a street 
 in the concentration camp on her usual errand 
 of mercy and kindness, she saw a girl leaning 
 with white cheeks and closed eyes, scarce 
 shadowed by the short black curls that fell 
 languidly about her face, back against the 
 stays of a tent. Struck by something strangely, 
 yet, oh! so faintly familiar in the girl's look, 
 she stopped and gazed at her. The pale girl 
 'opened her eyes. Martha started. A feeling 
 of cold apprehension seized her heart, but of 
 what she could not tell. An instinctive fear 
 it was not, could not be, dislike or repulsion 
 of the pale girl rose within her. She could not 
 understand it. Then, because she was Martha 
 Maritz, she crushed it down at once and for- 
 ever. She advanced toward the girl. 
 
 "What is your name?" was, against her 
 will, the first thing she said. 
 
 The other half rose with astonished eyes 
 from the bench on which she was seated. " My 
 name? It is Bettie Uys. But why" 
 
 Martha held out her impulsive hands and 
 slipped to the bench beside her. "I do not 
 357
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 know, my dear," she said. "Forgive me for 
 the rudeness; but your face attracted me 
 strongly. Lean back again as you were. You 
 look ill. Have you been ill?" 
 
 "I have been in the hospital nearly six 
 weeks with typhoid. They thought that I was 
 going to die," answered Bettie, simply. 
 
 "Oh!" said Martha, shocked. "That is why 
 I did not see you there. I come from Pieter- 
 maritzburg every day to see my poor people, 
 and try to help and comfort them ; for they are 
 my people, although I was born in Natal and 
 am an English subject. Are you here alone?" 
 
 "No," answered Bettie, still a little dazed, 
 " my mother and my little brother are here, 
 too. We came from Ermelo." 
 
 With a sudden determination Martha jumped 
 up. "Show me your mother, take me to your 
 mother. I must see her and Colonel West at 
 once. I know him very well, and he will do 
 just what I say." 
 
 What Colonel West was to do the surprised 
 Bettie had no idea. But she obeyed her im- 
 pulsive little visitor, and called her mother. 
 358
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Martha had a long talk with Mrs. Uys, and 
 then went straight back up the street to Col- 
 onel West's office. 
 
 That afternoon Martha returned in her car- 
 riage, and took Bettie back with her to Pieter- 
 maritzburg on a three weeks' leave of absence 
 granted by the gallant commander of the 
 camp. 
 
 Bettie thrived like a sunned and watered 
 flower in the luxurious shelter of the Maritz 
 home and under the fostering care her tender 
 hostesses bestowed on her. Every hour of her 
 presence there helped to restore the bloom to 
 her cheeks, the glow to her now shortened 
 curls, and their old brightness to her eyes. 
 Those comforts of civilisation which she had 
 done so long without, and the lack of which 
 had broken down her system and brought her 
 to the gates of death, played no small part in 
 her rapid recovery. A week of daily drives 
 with Martha, of proper food properly prepared, 
 of sound and comfortable sleep at night in the 
 long unwonted luxury of a real bed, served so 
 to set her up that her new friends hardly rec- 
 359
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 ognised her from day to day, so appreciably 
 and agreeably did her appearance change. The 
 advent of her mother and brother, whom 
 Martha also rescued from the durance of Col- 
 onel West's camp, helped greatly toward the 
 improvement of her condition. But Martha 
 was still and constantly haunted by a misty 
 recollection of her face. With this recollec- 
 tion, which she could not place or account for, 
 a dark anxiety, or rather dread, was coupled 
 in her mind. On many an occasion when her 
 pretty guest was occupied with her book or 
 needlework, or with others, Martha studied 
 her face in a desperate mental effort to re- 
 member where she had seen it, what it meant 
 to her. But she could not solve the problem. 
 One of the most frequent of Martha's guests 
 and companions during the previous month 
 had been a certain Major Arthur Campbell, 
 whose acquaintance she had made during the 
 winter of 1900, at which time he had been 
 stationed at Pietermaritzburg. He had re- 
 turned or rather been brought back into 
 Natal six or seven weeks before from the Cape 
 360
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Colony, where in a desperate fight at Crad- 
 ock, in which with a much inferior force he 
 had routed and dispersed one of the numerous 
 Free State commandos then operating in that 
 colony, he had been severely wounded. Upon 
 his arrival at Pietermaritzburg the hospital 
 surgeons had been obliged to amputate his left 
 arm, which had been badly shattered. After 
 his recovery, which had been rapid, he had 
 devoted a noticeable proportion of the time 
 which hung upon his hands to calling upon the 
 Maritzes and to serving Martha in the capacity 
 of escort or chief of staff in her many expedi- 
 tions of relief and ministry to the wounded 
 prisoners of war and among the mournful in- 
 mates of the concentration camp. 
 
 One morning, after Bettie had been in the 
 house some days, he called at his usual hour 
 to ask, as he smilingly put it, for his "orders 
 of the day." Martha received him with the 
 more than ordinary cordiality she had consist- 
 ently shown him ever since his misfortune. 
 
 "Sit down and talk to me, Captain Camp- 
 bell. I am not going out this morning. We 
 361
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 can have a social little chat together at the 
 expense of nobody's conscience." And she 
 drew a comfortable chair into the sunniest 
 window, setting another near it for herself. 
 
 He sat down, and talked commonplaces for 
 a few minutes. But a gradual uneasiness or 
 embarrassment grew upon him, and he soon 
 rose to his feet and began walking up and 
 down before her. She looked up at him in 
 innocent surprise. 
 
 "Why, what is the matter with you, you 
 restless invalid? You are not yet as strong 
 as you ought to be; and," she smiled, "with 
 an easy-chair to sit in and a pretty girl to talk 
 to, you ought to be content to remain quiet." 
 
 He stopped abruptly in front of her. " That 
 is just the trouble, Miss Maritz," he broke out, 
 blushing painfully. "I could always supply 
 both the easy-chair and the comfortable content 
 if I could have the pretty girl all my life." 
 
 Her face grew pale. She rose with dire 
 
 apprehension in her heart, half opened her 
 
 lips, and lifted her hand as if to hush him. 
 
 Being once started, however, he kept stolidly 
 
 362
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 on, his face burning, his single hand fumbling 
 nervously with the back of his chair, but with 
 his eyes fixed bravely on her face. 
 
 "I did not mean to say what I have said," 
 he continued. "I never meant to trouble you 
 or sadden you with my feelings. But they 
 got away from me ; and, as I have said so much, 
 I will go on and say it all. I love you. I 
 have loved you ever since I first saw you a 
 year and a half ago. But I have always felt 
 I feel now that there is little or no chance of 
 your ever regarding me as I would like to 
 have you. No," as he saw her attempt to 
 speak, "do not stop me now. I must go 
 through with it. I know that I am a cripple, 
 and shall be half helpless all the rest of my 
 life, and that for that very reason I have no 
 right to ask any woman to share her lot 
 with mine. I tell you that I realise the fact 
 even more clearly than you can, for it is I who 
 suffer from it day and night. And yet now, 
 coward that I am, I am asking you to marry 
 me, without any hope of your caring for me 
 enough to do so," he added hurriedly, as he 
 363
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 saw her lips again begin to move. "But, if 
 you could, Martha, God! if you could" 
 He was suddenly silent, and looked at her with 
 half a hope almost daring to dawn hi his eyes. 
 
 Her own were filled with tears of the sin- 
 cerest sorrow. She shook her head. 
 
 "It is impossible," she whispered, "although 
 you are very dear to me as a friend. But you 
 are an enemy of my real country, and and" 
 She clasped her hands together in her emotion. 
 "But I I would never have you believe that 
 it was on account of your poor arm that I 
 would not marry you! If I could love you 
 as much as much as that, I should never 
 think of it, or, rather, it would be something 
 to make me more loving, more helpful, more 
 tender to you than ever. It is not all the fact 
 that you are English, either, although on that 
 account I should cut myself off from my coun- 
 trymen for years. But that would be nothing. 
 There is Oh, go now, and forgive me; and 
 come back to-morrow as you were, a friend!" 
 
 His face was white as he held out his hand. 
 "I shall have to go forever," he said sorrow- 
 364
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 fully. "For I could not return as I was. 
 Good-bye." 
 
 She let him go. 
 
 As he moved toward the door, it was sud- 
 denly thrown open, and Bettie ran in with a 
 horror-stricken face, holding an open news- 
 paper in her hand. He had to jump back to 
 avoid her. But the girl did not see him. She 
 ran straight to Martha, who was still standing 
 Ih the window. 
 
 "Oh," she gasped, "oh, they are going to 
 kill him, to murder him, my love, my own! 
 What can I do to save him, my God!" She 
 stumbled over a chair, and fell into it, half 
 fainting. 
 
 Campbell, who had sprung after her as he 
 thought to see her fall, took the paper from 
 her hands, and glanced at the spot at which 
 she held her finger. He gave a cry of aston- 
 ishment and horror almost equal to her own, 
 and read the paragraph aloud: 
 
 "The Boer commandant, Daniel Linde, who 
 was wounded and captured at Maatjesfontein 
 on the 18th of November after a desperate 
 365
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 struggle at the railroad, was last week sentenced 
 by a court-martial held in the same town to 
 be shot for his numerous illegal acts of war. 
 The sentence was sent to Pretoria to the com- 
 mander-in-chief for confirmation. The con- 
 firmation, which has been delayed, is expected 
 to arrive at any moment." 
 "Oh!" he cried again. "Linde! My" 
 He was interrupted from behind. "Let me 
 see it," whispered Martha, tensely. Her face, 
 as pale and cold as marble, was bending over 
 his arm, her odorous hair nearly touching his 
 cheek, while her burning eyes sought the page. 
 She read the little paragraph in silence, once, 
 twice, slowly and again. Then she raised 
 her regard to his. "What can be done, in- 
 deed?" she asked in tones of utter grief. 
 
 Campbell's own feelings were such that he 
 had hardly noticed the new expression of horror 
 on his beloved's face, the pitiful agony in her 
 eyes. But it suddenly struck him that here 
 was something more than mere sympathy 
 seemed to warrant. "Did you know him, 
 also?" he cried. 
 
 366
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 "Ah!" she said with a new look in her 
 eyes, "then you did! It was / who saved him, 
 who helped him to his escape from the prison- 
 hospital here in Pietermaritzburg more than a 
 year ago. It is you, you alone, who can save 
 him now." 
 
 Before the man had comprehended more 
 than half the import of her tones, her words, 
 Bettie, who had caught the sense of the last, 
 ran forward to Campbell, and hung upon his 
 arm. 
 
 "Oh, yes," she wailed, "whoever you are, 
 have pity. You can save him, you must save 
 him. He is mine! Do not let them take him 
 from me forever!" 
 
 Martha had forgotten the very existence of 
 the girl in her first terrible stress of emotion at 
 hearing of Danie's fate. But, as she looked 
 at her now in astonishment, there suddenly 
 arose before her eyes the picture of a man 
 dressed in the uniform of a British captain of 
 cavalry, standing at a window in a little house 
 near by, gazing intently at a locket on his wrist. 
 And the portrait at which he was gazing was 
 367
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 that of the girl who stood before her! The 
 memory rushed upon her mind with all com- 
 pleteness. Here was the resemblance, the rec- 
 ollection that so long had puzzled and dis- 
 turbed her. This was the girl who had stared 
 so calmly out at her from the miniature while 
 her very heart was breaking within her! This 
 was the girl for whom she had saved the man 
 whom now neither of them had power to save 
 again, for whom she would then, as now, have 
 saved him at the cost of her own life, had it 
 come to that, with glad and utter resignation! 
 Because she loved him. And she loved him 
 still. The second renunciation was at hand. 
 
 "I know you now, Bettie Uys," she said 
 gently. "I have seen your face before, even 
 in the bracelet which Mr. Linde wore. He 
 showed it to me the night he escaped from 
 Pietermaritzburg. Trust me, my dear, we will 
 save his life again. I promise you we will do 
 so." 
 
 She led the half-conscious girl to the chair, 
 and laid her back in it, kissing her forehead 
 softly. Then she crossed again to Campbell, 
 368
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 and said with a quivering voice : " You told me 
 a few minutes ago that you would could 
 never return to me on the old footing. But 
 go now, at once, to Pretoria. You have in- 
 fluence: you have deserved reward. See the 
 commander-in-chief, see whom you can in 
 power. Save Mr. Linde's life for for Bettie's 
 sake. Then, when you have done so," she 
 lowered her eyes and dropped her tone to a 
 Wnisper he could scarcely hear, "then come 
 back to me as as you wish." 
 
 He raised her cold hand to his lips, and was 
 gone. 
 
 Two days later a telegram was brought to 
 Martha. She opened it with a chill of terror. 
 It contained just six words: "Sentence com- 
 muted. I am coming back." She called the 
 trembling Bettie, handed it to her silently, 
 with averted face, and then, escaping to her 
 own room, threw herself on her bed in a par- 
 oxysm of tears. 
 
 369
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ON the morning of the memorable 1st of 
 June, 1902, the church bells of every 
 town and village hi South Africa pealed forth 
 the happy tidings of peace as the news from 
 Pretoria was flashed the length and breadth 
 of the continent. The war was over. 
 
 In a small, square, whitewashed cell of the 
 big prison at Graaff Reinet a lonely prisoner, 
 sitting mournfully on his little pallet, raised 
 his head. Through the narrow, barred open- 
 ing of the window high in the wall above him 
 came the stirring and unwonted sound of the 
 merry chimes from the bell-towers down the 
 long street. Faint shouts of an apparently 
 joyful tenor, the far but seemingly hilarious 
 murmurs of a crowd, accompanied the ringing. 
 What had happened? he asked himself. Had 
 the English won another great victory over 
 his miserable countrymen? He laid his face 
 hi his hands, and groaned aloud. 
 
 After waiting two weeks at Maatjesfontein 
 for the confirmation of his death sentence to 
 370
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 arrive from army headquarters, Danie had one 
 day been taken out under guard to a train, 
 and carried to Graaff Reinet a little town in 
 the eastern centre of the colony by way of 
 De Aar Junction and Middelburg, thus crossing 
 for the second time the Richmond district which 
 he had on the first occasion of his passing swept 
 from end to end with his brave commando. 
 He was told nothing, while on the way, of his 
 fate or of his destination. Upon his arrival 
 he had been taken straight to the prison, and 
 put into the cell he had since occupied for six 
 long, weary months. Had his sentence been 
 confirmed? He did not know. There were 
 tunes when he even feared that it had not. 
 Even death itself was better than this living 
 death; for he had no expectation of ever leav- 
 ing his prison except for a worse one, possibly 
 Saint Helena. As for Bettie, she was dead. 
 He had made up his mind to that. What was 
 there then to live for? Why did they make 
 him live? 
 
 His country, too, he assured himself for the 
 hundredth time, sitting there in his solitary 
 371
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 cell, was dead or dying. The merry bells, 
 the joyful shouts outside, but announced an- 
 other, possibly the last blow struck at its fad- 
 ing life. More misery! 
 
 Suddenly the door of his cell was flung wide, 
 and his burly, red-faced jailer stamped jovially 
 in, accompanied by a strong smell of liquor. 
 How strangely he was acting, thought Danie, 
 raising his head hi his surprise; but he had no 
 time for further thought. The man grasped 
 his hand, and shook it strenuously. 
 
 "Come out, you chappie," he said with a 
 broad grin, "come out! What are you stay- 
 ing in this dirty place for? Come out! You 
 are free. It's peace, peace, I tell you! I 
 got my orders to release all my prisoners this 
 morning. Come out, and have a drink!" 
 
 Danie was so dazed that he hardly under- 
 stood what the man was saying; but, taught 
 a strange obedience by his prison life, he rose, 
 and followed mechanically without objection. 
 It was not until they had passed out of the 
 prison gates into the free air and sunlight of 
 the street outside that he noticed that he was 
 372
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 unguarded, unwatched. He turned, trembling, 
 to his erst- while jailer. 
 
 " What was it you were saying a minute ago, 
 about peace, or my being free, or something?" 
 
 The other roared with great laughter, and 
 clapped him on the shoulder. "Well, danp 
 if the cuss don't want to go back! W-ast 
 man," he shouted, "peace has been d^r; but 
 I^tell you. You're no Boer now asher, like 
 iree man in every sense of the ^ie to his lips, 
 colonial, you're a British F ./u 
 
 understand? That's wha-astily followed hifgin' 
 for! That's what we'reurrah which >^k tot 
 Come on with me!" 
 
 The trees, the people in the street, danced 
 before Danie's eyes. So it had really come at 
 last! The war was over! The Transvaal was 
 no more, and he himself was now a legal sub- 
 ject of Great Britain. He had known for a 
 long time that it would come. The pangs, the 
 agony of his first realisation of the inevitable 
 end, had long passed away. The dull, heavy 
 grief that was left, that filled him yet, was 
 nevertheless unable quite to still or even to 
 373
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 check the great gladness that rose within him 
 
 as he felt that he was free, that he could at 
 
 last look the trees, the grass, the flowers, and 
 
 the birds hi the face without let or hindrance, 
 
 without envy or shame! He threw his arms 
 
 aloft, and, turning his mouth upward, drew 
 
 "at breaths of cold, clean ah* into his lungs, 
 
 How T his face in the full sunlight. Yes, if 
 
 raising i. Britisn su bj e ct, he was also a free 
 
 time for fu^ k Bettie (ghe might n( ^ ^^ 
 
 a] his hand, and sho^ rents> Mg frien ds,-those 
 
 that" Come out ' y u i Baakenhoogte-home! 
 
 The de&F> " come -ocks, the trees, the little 
 
 stream, would still remain. They could not 
 
 have taken away or destroyed nature itself! 
 
 He followed the lead of his old jailer now 
 his jailer no longer, thank God! across the 
 street to the tap-room. A vociferous, cheer- 
 ing, shouting crowd stood in front of the bar, 
 almost filled the room. It was very evident 
 that something of importance had happened. 
 The jailer jumped on top of the bar itself, 
 covered as it was with glasses and bottles. Not 
 at all disturbed by the crash which followed the 
 374
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 intrusion of his clumsy feet among the crock- 
 ery and glassware, he seized a bottle from the 
 wood beside him and held it high. 
 
 "Silence!" he shouted, "silence! I want 
 you gentlemen to drink with me line up, all 
 of you to the health of this gentleman here. 
 His name is Linde, Commandant Linde ! Last 
 night he was still a Boer and a prisoner; but 
 now, by God, he's a true blue Britisher, like 
 ourselves!" He raised the bottle to his lips, 
 and drank long and deep. 
 
 The surprised crowd hastily followed his ex- 
 ample, after a short hurrah which testified, 
 perhaps, as much to their appreciation of the 
 hospitality of their entertainer as to their feel- 
 ing for the new-made subject of His Majesty. 
 However, those who formed with the em- 
 barrassed Boer the outskirt of the assemblage, 
 either through choice or through inability to 
 force their way to the front, turned to him, 
 and shook his hand until it ached, with every 
 evidence of kindliness and welcome. 
 
 Thus was Danie initiated into the brother- 
 hood of Britons. 
 
 375
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 As he passed out into the street five minutes 
 later, homeless, penniless, hungry, friendless, 
 having said farewell to the riotous crowd and 
 their leader, his late guardian, in the tap- 
 room where it was apparent they meant to 
 spend the rest of the day, he felt some one 
 touch him on the shoulder. A well-dressed 
 man with a sad face partly covered by a grey 
 beard stood at his elbow. 
 
 "Commandant," said the stranger, speaking 
 hi Dutch, "my name is Ockert Els. I am a 
 Colonial Boer. I shall feel greatly honoured if 
 you will come and spend the night at my house, 
 and allow me to offer you the assistance neces- 
 sary to carry you back to the Transvaal, where 
 I suppose your heart is urging you. I can well 
 imagine that you have no means left after what 
 you have gone through." 
 
 Tears of gratitude started to Danie's eyes. 
 He held out his hand. "I will accept your 
 offer with all my heart, Mr. Els," he stam- 
 mered. " As you say, I have nothing left me, 
 nothing; and I was wondering to myself how 
 in the world I should ever get home to my 
 376
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 friends and family. I rather fear that my 
 brother Englishmen in there would forget that 
 I had become a Briton, and only remember 
 that I was a Boer and an enemy, if it were 
 proposed that I should share anything more 
 than a drink with them." 
 
 He went with Mr. Els to his house, where 
 he received the greatest kindness and consid- 
 * eration from each one of the family. The 
 next morning, provided with respectable cloth- 
 ing and funds enough to proceed to Lyden- 
 burg by rail, Danie shook the dust of Graaff 
 Reinet from his feet. 
 
 At Middelburg hi the Transvaal he heard 
 that his parents were still there in the concen- 
 tration camp. He left the train, and crossed 
 through the town to the camp, that lay spread 
 against the slope of the randt beside the river. 
 At the entrance of the camp he inquired from 
 the British sentry still on duty the location of 
 Fanie Linde's tent. 
 
 " It's the third tent down the second street, 
 on the right, sir," answered the man, politely; 
 "but old Linde died some months ago." 
 377
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 Danie stopped short. His heart froze within 
 him at the dreadful news. But he said nothing, 
 and, recovering himself, at once walked on. 
 
 The flaps of the tent were not drawn back, 
 but hung loosely, closing its entrance. With 
 his blood pounding at his pulses, he cautiously 
 drew one of them aside, and peered in. His 
 mother and two sisters, dressed in such poor 
 mourning as they had been able to collect, sat 
 despondently on their rough, unmattressed 
 cots. Their faces were browned by the long 
 camp We; but otherwise how changed! Their 
 cheeks and temples were thin and sunken, 
 their faded eyes, tired by much weeping, lacked 
 lustre, even interest. Nevertheless, as the 
 tent flap was lifted and the unexpected light 
 broke in on their dismal surroundings, they 
 looked up startled at the face within the en- 
 trance. 
 
 None of them recognised him. Well, if that 
 white-haired old woman was his mother, these 
 two thin, sickly women his pretty sisters, why, 
 perhaps he, too, had changed more than he 
 thought. He stifled his disappointment. 
 378
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUK 
 
 "Goeden dag, Moeder," he said, smiling at 
 her. 
 
 Ah, that was his voice! That voice neither 
 the lapse of years nor the semi-obscurity hi 
 which he stood could change, could prevent 
 her recognising. With a great cry she was 
 about his neck hi an instant. 
 _ "0 Danie, my boy," she sobbed, "is it 
 you, is it really you? Have you come back 
 to me once more? Thank God! Thank God! 
 Oh, if your poor father" She broke com- 
 pletely down. He picked her wasted body up 
 in his arms, and carried her over to her cot, 
 and laid her down, kneeling beside her. 
 
 "I know, dear mother, I know," he whis- 
 pered. "I was told outside. But I have 
 come to take you home, and there is not to 
 be any more war or any more parting." 
 
 He soothed her agitation with words and 
 caresses, at the same time drawing his sisters 
 down beside him. "Dear Lenie, dear Elsie!" 
 he said, embracing them with his free arm. 
 "Oh, how that bright hair is faded! How 
 white and pinched your faces are, dear girls! 
 379
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 But we are going back, going home! And 
 six months at Baakenhoogte will bring the 
 shine and the flesh and the roses back. We 
 will build the old place up as it was before, 
 all the kraals and the sheds and your flower 
 gardens in the same old places. There is some 
 of the house yet standing. I saw the place a 
 year ago. It shall be all the same!" But with 
 the assurance the thought of his father came 
 to him, and he bit his lip and was silent. No, 
 it could never be quite the same again. 
 
 The next day Danie managed to borrow some 
 money of one of his father's old friends, and 
 arranged with the authorities for the loan of 
 a team of oxen, a wagon, and a tent to serve 
 as a shelter on the farm until he could rebuild, 
 at least in part, the house. 
 
 Then, with his mother and sisters, he started 
 on the seventy-mile trek for Lydenburg and 
 home. 
 
 380
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 IT was indeed a sad home-coming. The 
 once beautiful farmstead was now a miser- 
 able heap of ruins. The few bare walls still 
 standing could not be depended upon as supports 
 for new floors or a new roof, weakened and 
 shaken as they had been by the flames that 
 so long ago had surged about them. The trees 
 and hedges that had surrounded the house at 
 the time of its destruction were yet bare of 
 leaves, the scorched and naked branches reach- 
 ing out like appealing arms to the serene skies 
 above them. The stones of the kraals were 
 overgrown with the grass that covered them, 
 as if trying to conceal, not only their pitiful 
 remnants, but the very places of their location. 
 Danie set to work with feverish energy to 
 construct as comfortable a temporary dwelling 
 for his little family as he could with the work 
 of his own hands. The few Kaffirs who occu- 
 pied the wrecks of the native huts on the place 
 could not be induced to work for their old 
 employers. The English, they stated had 
 381
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 taken the country, so that the farm no longer 
 belonged to the Lindes; and they themselves, 
 having assisted the British troops hi their con- 
 quest, were, according to the promises of the 
 English officers, the rightful owners of the 
 soil. They even went so far as to threaten 
 Danie with violence; and he was obliged to 
 seek protection from the authorities stationed, 
 during the interregnum, at Lydenburg. Such, 
 and worse, were the conditions that for a while 
 obtained in the Transvaal after the end of the 
 war. 
 
 He was wild with desire to see or hear from 
 Bettie, although his extreme anxiety and un- 
 certainty had been partly stilled by the infor- 
 mation given him by his sisters on the way 
 home, to the effect that they had learned a 
 month before that Bettie was recovered from 
 her illness and living in comfort at Pieter- 
 maritzburg. But he felt it to be his first duty 
 to provide some sort of comfort for his widowed 
 mother and his sisters before he could decently 
 leave them to seek the girl of his heart. So 
 he resolutely set his desires aside, and toiled 
 382
 
 "Before hint stood Uettie, . . . her arms out- 
 stretched" (seepage 3S6)
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUB 
 
 faithfully and energetically on in his work of 
 restoration and evolution. 
 
 Toward the end of July, Danie obtained 
 possession, after a deal of trouble, of his father's 
 interdicted moneys. He was then enabled to 
 buy the necessary building material for the 
 construction of new buildings, and to restock 
 the farm. 
 
 By the end of the next month Baakenhoogte 
 had resumed much of its old appearance. The 
 new buildings were up, though some of them 
 in crude fashion, and new servants indentured 
 and broken in, doing their work under the 
 superintendence of two of Danie's old com- 
 panions in his first commando, who had come 
 to make with him all the home they expected 
 to care for further in this world. He felt now 
 that he could safely and honourably leave his 
 mother for a short period of days, while he 
 went to Ermelo. For the Uyses also had at 
 last returned. 
 
 The ten miles that lay between Blaauwkop 
 and the town he covered within the hour. As 
 383
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 he approached the vicinity of the farm, his 
 heart gave a great leap; for over the wide area 
 that used to proclaim the industry and pros- 
 perity of Dirk Uys he saw again the grazing 
 sheep, the high-stacked ricks of corn and grain, 
 the signs of the tilled and cultivated fields. 
 Through the calm afternoon air above the little 
 randt that still hid the farmstead from his 
 sight a curling wreath of smoke rose peacefully 
 toward the track of the sun. With the ecstasy 
 of a great joy surging over his heart he moved 
 to the top of the rise before him. 
 
 The scene that met his eyes was one of peace- 
 ful charm and promise of delight. Blaauwkop, 
 like Baakenhoogte, had rerisen from its ashes, 
 though smaller, frailer, less substantial than 
 it had once been. But the gardens grew again, 
 and their flowers bloomed about its walls and 
 doors. He sat motionless, breathless, as if 
 carved in stone, his eyes fixed through their 
 glad tears on the quiet dwelling. Then with 
 a great cry of love he drove his spurs into his 
 horse's flanks, and dashed down the well-re- 
 
 384
 
 UNDER THE VIERKLEUR 
 
 membered road to the home of his beloved, 
 the treasury of his happiness. 
 
 He flung himself from his horse in front of 
 the house, and ran up the little stoep. But, 
 ere he could reach it, the door was opened. 
 Before him stood Bettie, the bright, the beau- 
 tiful, with rose-flushed cheeks and shining eyes, 
 her arms outstretched. 
 
 -K. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 385
 
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