THE FIRST INTERVIEW WITH SPIES, INTRODUCING TWO HEROES
Among other things, Mr. Willem Botha warned his friends at Harmony
against having a single incriminating document in the house.
"Detection means death for all concerned," he said one day, "but
without written evidence the worst the enemy can do is to send you out
of the country or to a Concentration Camp. Destroy every paper of a
dangerous nature you may have, as I have done, and then you need never
feel anxious."
This wise counsel was all very well, but Hansie had a mania for
"collecting," and she could not make up her mind to destroy what might
become a valuable relic of the war.
She therefore had her diaries and white envelopes removed to some safe
hiding-place and began a new book for future use.
In this book, in everyday pen and ink, she entered the ordinary events
of the day, but in another she wrote in lemon-juice her adventures
with the spies and all information of an incriminating character. Both
books lay open on her writing-table--the "White Diary," as she called
it, with its clean and spotless pages, with only here and there an
almost invisible mark to show how far she had got, and the misleading
record in pen and ink to throw the English off their guard in the
event of an unexpected search of the house.
The white diary gave a sense of security and satisfaction at the
thought of the secrets it contained for future reference, and it was
only after eight years that portions of the writing became visible to
the naked eye.
A few hours' exposure to the sun's rays, and the application of a hot
iron here and there, made it sufficiently legible to be rewritten word
for word, and it is to the existence of this diary that we owe our
accurate information of what otherwise would have been lost for ever.
I may add here that it was only the re-reading of the White Diary
after so many years, and the surprising amount of half-forgotten
information Hansie found in it, that suggested the idea to her mind of
publishing its contents in the form of a story.
It was on the morning of July 17th, 1901, that Mr. Botha was seen
coming up the garden path between the rows of orange trees at Harmony,
with his jauntiest air, by which it was evident that he was the bearer
of news from the front. Briefly he informed our heroines that two
spies had come in the previous night and wished to see Mrs. van
Warmelo about certain communications sent out by her to General Botha
a few weeks back. They were staying with Mrs. Joubert, widow of the
late Commandant-General P.J. Joubert, and were leaving again the next
night with dispatches.
In the interview with them at 9 o'clock the next morning Hansie
made her first acquaintance with Captain Naudé, who plays the
principal part in the story here recorded, and whose courage and
resource gave him an unquestioned position of leadership.
[Illustration: W.J. BOTHA]
Good reader, do you know what it means to be an unwilling captive in
the hands of your enemy for more than a year, and then to find
yourself in the presence of men, healthy, brown, and hearty, _your own
men_, straight from the glorious freedom of their life in the veld?
Can you realise the sensation of shaking hands with them for the first
time and the atmosphere of wholesome unrestraint and unconscious
dignity which greeted you in their presence? Well, I do, and it would
be useless trying to tell any one what it is like, for those who know
will never forget, and those who don't will never understand.
In Mrs. Joubert's drawing-room they were waiting for their visitors
next day, Captain Naudé and his private secretary, Mr. Greyling--the
former a tall, fair man, slightly built and boyish-looking and with a
noble, intelligent face, the latter a mere youth, but evidently shrewd
and brave.
The first eager questions naturally were for news of Fritz, the
youngest of the van Warmelos and the last remaining in the field since
the capture of his brother Dietlof in April of that year.
Mr. Greyling said that he had seen Fritz a few weeks back in perfect
health and in the best of spirits, but barefoot and in rags. His
trousers were so tattered that he might as well have been without, and
Mr. Greyling had provided him with another pair. With unkempt beard
and long hair he seemed to justify the jest about a "gorilla" war
with which some of our enemies amused themselves.
When the merriment occasioned by this description of the young warrior
had subsided, the conversation turned on more serious matters.
The Captain had with him a full report of the last conference held by
the generals, and a copy of the resolution passed by them and
President Steyn, a unanimous determination to stand together until
their independence had been secured. What the ultimate destination of
these documents was I am not at liberty to say, but copies of them
were despatched, smuggled through in one way or another to President
Kruger.
Captain Naudé also brought greetings from General Botha and told Mrs.
van Warmelo how pleased the General had been with the news she had
sent him on a previous occasion.
In order to explain the nature of the business which had brought the
Captain into Pretoria again, it will be necessary to turn our
attention for a moment to the matters referred to in the previous
chapter in connection with which he had once more risked the dangers
of a visit to the capital.
"Yes," in answer to his inquiries, "the dynamite has arrived and is at
Delagoa Bay. A sample will be brought to this house to-day, with
instructions for mixing it."
This was glad news for the two men, and Hansie soon after took her
leave, promising to come back in the course of the morning with the
dynamite.
Her manner was rather mysterious, and she took some unnecessary turns,
to make sure of not being followed, before she reached the house
where the dangerous article had been hidden. There a brown-paper
parcel was handed to her with a brief, "Read the instructions and
destroy them," and she was left alone in a quiet drawing-room.
On opening the parcel she found a small bottle of yellowish powder,
ostensibly a remedy for colic, to be used in the way prescribed, and a
pot of paste purporting to be an excellent salve for chapped hands.
The two, when mixed together in a certain way, made up one pound of
dynamite and had passed safely through the hands of the inspector of
goods on the frontier.
As Hansie was cycling back to Mrs. Joubert's house with her precious
parcel, she had to pass the Military Governor's offices on Church
Square, and the thought occurred to her that this was a fitting
opportunity to interview General Maxwell regarding her tour of
inspection to the Concentration Camps, and at the same time to procure
a permit for the Vocal Society to hold a charity concert.
"Why not go in now?" she thought. "There is some fun in going to see
the Governor with one pound of dynamite in one's hands, and it would
save me the trouble of coming into town again. Another thing: if I
_am_ being watched or followed, I am sure there can be nothing like a
visit to Government Buildings to disarm the most suspicious."
Arrived at the Governor's office, she noticed with some amusement that
the urchin at the door wrote on the card, under her name, "Nature of
business: permission _to have a consort_." (This was indeed to come
later!)
The German Consul was engaged with General Maxwell and Hansie had a
long time to wait, and when at last she was shown in she found the
affable Governor in a very bad temper and his A.D.C., Major Hoskins,
looking anything but comfortable.
The former shook hands and greeted her with a curt, "Well, what is the
matter with you now?"
"That is very unkind of you, General," she said.
"Why?" he demanded.
"Oh, because it sounds as if I trouble you every day."
"Well," he answered, smiling slightly, "what can I do for you?"
"That's better, thank you," exclaimed Hansie cheerfully, and
straightway plunged into business.
With her mind dwelling on explosives and Secret Service men, she
reminded him of a promise he had given her soon after her return from
the Irene Camp, that she should visit all the Camps in the Transvaal
and write reports for him, to be sent to London if necessary, for
publication in the Blue books.
"I have come to arrange with you about my tour," she said.
"Yes," he answered. "I have thought about it and will give you the
necessary permits and every facility. You will travel at Government
expense, and I will do all I can to make your way easy, on one
condition. You must promise to give me a full and true report of
things exactly as you find them."
Hansie was deeply touched by his confidence in her truth, which she
knew was not misplaced, and gladly gave the promise he asked from her.
"What you are undertaking," he continued, "will not only be
difficult, but dangerous. The accommodation in the Camps will probably
be very bad, and what would you think of a charge of dynamite under
your train?"
Hansie glanced down at the parcel on her lap and said something about
thinking she would risk it.
The conversation was taking an unexpected turn, and she longed to get
away, but the Governor still had much to say to her.
"You can safely visit all the Camps except those in the north, in the
Zoutpansberg and Waterberg districts, and the one in Potchefstroom."
("Boers ahead!" was Hansie's mental comment.) "And I don't think you
ought to go alone. Have you thought of any one who could accompany
you?"
"Yes," Hansie replied. "A friend of mine, Mrs. Stiemens, who nursed
with me at Irene, would like to go with me. She is the right woman for
such an undertaking, strong and healthy and very cheerful."
This suggestion meeting with the Governor's approval, it was arranged
that they should visit the camp at Middelburg first, and while they
were preparing for the tour he would notify their visit to the various
commandants and arrange about the permits.
Permission to hold a concert was instantly granted, and she was on the
point of leaving, when he asked her whether she had heard of President
Steyn's narrow escape.
Yes, she had heard something, but would like to know more about it.
With evident enjoyment he proceeded to relate how the President had
slept in Reitz, a small, deserted village in the Free State, with
twenty-seven men, how they had stabled their horses and made
themselves generally comfortable for the night, how they were
surrounded and surprised by the English, who took all their horses
before the alarm could be given, how the President escaped on a small
pony, which was standing unnoticed in the back yard, and how all the
other men were captured, General Cronjé (the second), General Wessels,
General Fraser, and many other well-known and prominent men. The
President must have fled in the open in nothing but a shirt, because
all his clothes and even his boots were left behind. In his pockets
were many valuable letters and documents.
Altogether this event must have given the English great joy, but I
think they forgot it in their chagrin at the President's escape, for
when Hansie openly rejoiced and blessed the "small unnoticed pony,"
expressing her great admiration for the brave President, the Governor
suddenly turned crusty again and said he could not understand how any
one could admire a man who had been the ruin of his country.
"Poor old General!" Hansie mused as she cycled slowly up to Mrs.
Joubert's house, where the spies were waiting for her. "I have never
known him so quarrelsome and unkind. I wonder what it could have been!
The German Consul's visit or the President's escape? What a mercy that
he knew nothing of----" She cycled faster, suddenly remembering that
it was late and there was still much to do before the two men could
begin their perilous journey that night.
After she had handed the parcel over to them, with verbal
instructions for its use, she bade them good-bye and went home to
lunch.
That evening Mrs. van Warmelo took important documents, of which we
speak later, and European newspaper cuttings to the Captain, with some
money for her tattered son, and a letter for him in a disguised hand.
No names were mentioned, and in the event of the spies falling into
the hands of the enemy, nothing found on them could have incriminated
any one.
They were about to leave when she arrived at Mrs. Joubert's house.
Their preparations were conducted in perfect silence, except for an
occasional whispered command, while outside, guard was kept by an
alert figure, slender and upright, the figure of the aged hostess of
the spies, who, it is said, was never visible to the spies and never
slept by day or night as long as these men were being sheltered under
her roof.
A brave and dauntless woman she was, knowing no fear for herself, but
filled with concern for the fate of the men whose capture meant
certain death, for it was whispered in town that on the head of Koos
Naudé, Captain of the Secret Service, a price of £1,000 had been
fixed.
The men left Pretoria that night for the "nest" of the spies in the
Skurvebergen, west from Pretoria, and from there they proceeded to
where they expected to find the Generals.