"Stop here for a bit, and I will go and look."
He slipped off all his clothing and left it lying in a heap, and stole
away in the darkness, practically naked. Evidently he was going to
visit them to see what was going on.
The worst of spying is that it makes you always suspicious, even of
your best friends. So, as soon as Grootboom was gone in one direction,
I quietly crept away in another, and got among some rocks in a
small kopje, where I should have some kind of a chance if he had any
intention of betraying me and returning with a few Matabele to capture
me.
For an hour or two I lay there, until presently I saw Grootboom
creeping back through the grass--alone.
Ashamed of my doubts, I therefore came out and went to our rendezvous,
and found him grinning all over with satisfaction while he was putting
on his clothes again. He said that he had found as he had expected,
an ambush laid for us. The thing that had made him suspicious was that
the fires, instead of lighting up all over the hillside at different
points about the same time, had been lighted in steady succession one
after another, evidently by one man going round. This struck him as
suspicious, and he then assumed that it was done to lead us on, if we
were anywhere around, to go and examine more closely the locality.
He had crept in towards them by a devious path, from which he was able
to perceive a whole party of the Matabele lying low in the grass by
the track which we should probably have used in getting there, and
they would have pounced upon us and captured us.
To make sure of this suspicion he crept round till near their
stronghold, and coming from there he got in among them and chatted
away with them, finding out what was their intention with regard to
ourselves, and also what were their plans for the near future. Then,
having left them, and walked boldly back towards their stronghold, he
crept away amongst some rocks and rejoined me.
His was an example of the work of a field spy which, although in a way
it may be cunning and deceitful, at the same time demands the greatest
personal courage and astuteness. It is something greater than the
ordinary bravery of a soldier in action, who is carried on by the
enthusiasm of those around him under the leadership of an officer, and
with the competition and admiration of others.
The pluck of the man who goes out alone, unobserved and unapplauded,
and at the risk of his life, is surely equally great.
The Boers used field spies freely against us in South Africa.
One English-speaking Boer used to boast how, during the war, he made
frequent visits to Johannesburg dressed in the uniform taken from a
British major who had been killed in action. He used to ride past
the sentries, who, instead of shooting him, merely saluted, and he
frequented the clubs and other resorts of the officers, picking up
such information as he required from them first hand, till evening
came and he was able to ride back to his commando.