The Diamond-Fields Horse had drilled one evening till they were tired,
and after it was all over, including a fair amount of firing, the smell
of blank cartridges began to give way to the more pleasant odour of
tobacco smoke, the officers lighting their cigars, and the privates
filling up their pipes to incense the crisp evening air.
"I'm about tired of this game," said one of a group who were chatting
together; "there's too much hard work about it."
"Yes," said another. "Someone told me it was playing at soldiers. I
don't see where the play comes."
"Look at the honour of it," said another. "We shall be defending the
town directly from an attack by the Boers."
There was a burst of laughter at this, and when it ended the first
speaker broke out contemptuously with: "The Boers! We shall have to
wait a longtime before they attack us."
"I don't know so much about that," said the man who had spoken of the
attack. "I believe they mean mischief."
"Bosh!" came in chorus.
"Ah, you may laugh, but they've got Majuba Hill on the brain. The
idiots think they fought and thrashed the whole British Army instead of
a few hundred men. Here, Ingleborough, you heard what was said?"
The young man addressed left off chatting with West and nodded.
"You went to Pretoria with the superintendent of police about that
diamond case, and you were there a couple of months."
"Yes," said Ingleborough. "What of that?"
"Why, you must have seen a good deal of the Boers then!"
"Of course I did."
"Well, what do you say? Will they fight if it comes to a row?"
"Certainly they will!" replied Ingleborough.
There was a derisive laugh at his words, and West flushed a little on
hearing it, as the volunteers gathered round.
"Bah! It's all bluff!" cried a voice. "They know that by holding out
they can get what they want. They'd cave in directly if we showed a
bold front."
"Moral," said West; "show a bold front."
"That's what we're doing," said one of the men; "but there's too much of
it. Some of the officers have war on the brain, and want to force the
soldiering element to the very front. We've done enough to show the
Doppers that we should fight if there was any occasion. There was no
drilling going on when you were at Pretoria, eh, Ingleborough?"
"Yes, there was, a good deal," said the young man slowly. "They did not
make any fuss, but in a quiet way they were hard at work, especially
with their gun drill."
"Gun drill!" cried one of the group contemptuously. "What, with a few
rusty old cannon and some wooden quakers?"
There was a roar of laughter at this, and West coloured a little more
deeply with annoyance, but Ingleborough shrugged his shoulders, turned
his little finger into a tobacco-stopper, and went on smoking.
"The Boers are puffed-up with conceit," he said gravely, "and they
believe that their victory at Majuba Hill has made them invincible; but
all the same they've got some level-headed men amongst them, and I
believe before long that it will come to a fight and that they will
fight desperately."
His hearers laughed.
"What for?" shouted one.
"To drive the British out of South Africa, seize Cape Colony and Natal,
and make the country a Dutch republic."
There was a momentary silence before someone cried: "I say,
Ingleborough, are you going mad?"
"I hope not," said the young man quietly. "Why?"
"Because you are talking the greatest bosh I've heard for months!"
"I don't think I am," said Ingleborough gravely. "I know that the Boers
are terribly inflated with vanity and belief in themselves, but they
have wisdom in their heads as well."
"I've never seen any of it!" said the previous speaker. "Bah! Rubbish!
They drive us out of South Africa! Why, that would mean taking
Rhodesia too."
"Of course," replied Ingleborough, "and that's what they believe they
are going to do."
"With popguns?"
"No," said Ingleborough gravely; "but with their rifles. Do you know
that they can at any time arm a hundred thousand men with the best
magazine-rifles in the world?"
"No!" came in chorus. "We don't."
"And that they have a magnificent force of artillery, which includes
such guns as would dwarf any that we could bring against them,
thoroughly outrange ours, and that in addition they have a great number
of repeating-cannon--Maxims and Nordenfelts? Above all, they have a
vast supply of ammunition."
"Where did they get it from?" cried one.
"The moon," shouted another, and there was a roar.
"The fellow's a regular Boer himself," shouted a man behind; and there
was a hiss raised, followed by a menacing groan, which made West's blood
tingle as he closed up to his friend's side.
"The old story," said Ingleborough contemptuously, "You can't bear the
honest truth."
"Yes, we can," cried one of the men; "but we can't bear lies. Do you
think we are fools to believe your cock-and-bull stories about
magazine-rifles and guns that would dwarf all that the British Army
could bring up against the Boers?"
"You can do as you like about believing," said Ingleborough coldly. "I
have only told you what I learned for myself when I was staying in
Pretoria."
"And do you mean to tell us that the Boers have guns like that?"
"I do," said Ingleborough.
"Then where did they get them?"
"From the great French and German makers, From Creusot and Krupp."
"And how did they get them up to Pretoria?"
"From the Cape and Delagoa Bay."
"What nonsense!" cried another voice. "Their arms and ammunition would
have been stopped at once. What do you say to that?"
"The Boers are slim," said Ingleborough. "Hundreds of tons of war
material have been going up-country for years as ironmongery goods and
machinery. They have a tremendous arsenal there, and they mean to
fight, as you'll see before long."
The hissing and threatening sounds ceased, for there was so much
conviction in the tone adopted by the speaker that his hearers began to
feel uneasy and as if there might be something in the declarations,
while, upon Ingleborough turning to West with: "Come Oliver, let's get
home!" the little crowd of volunteers hedged the pair in, and the man
who had been the most ready to laugh laid a hand upon his arm.
"Hold hard a minute," he cried frankly. "I felt ready to laugh at you
and chaff all your words; but I'm not going to be a dunder-headed fool
and shut my eyes to danger if there really is any. Look here,
Ingleborough: are you an alarmist, or is there really any truth in what
you have said?"
"It is all true," replied the young man calmly.
"Well, then, I for one will believe you, my lad; for, now you have
spoken out as you have, I begin to put that and that together and I feel
that the Boers have been playing dark."
"They have been playing dark," said Ingleborough warmly, "and I should
not be surprised to hear any day that they had declared war and found us
anything but prepared."
"They only want to be free," said a voice.
"Free?" cried Ingleborough. "Yes, free to do exactly what they please:
to tax every stranger, or outlander, as they call us, for their own
benefit: to rob and enslave the unfortunate natives, and even murder
them if it suits their hand. Free? Yes, look at their history from the
first. Why, their whole history has been a course of taking land from
the original owners by force."
That very night rumours reached Kimberley which sent a tingle into the
cheeks of every man who had joined in the demonstration against
Ingleborough: though the greatest news of all had not yet arrived, that
the Transvaal Government had thrown down the glove and made the advance.