just. He is not
as zwart as he is painted. He caught me mousing round his hoofd laager at
Tweipans--and what does he do?'" The pause was impressive. Then the
roaring voice resumed:

"'He sends me marching down to the gaol at Groenfontein, that is packed
with dirty white and dirty coloured schelms until there is not room for
one more----"

He named the homely parasite hymned by Burns ...

--"'Or he packs me up to Oom Paul at Pretoria, chained to the waggon-tail
like the others.' ..."

Lady Hannah wondered, while the stuffy room spun round her, who the others
were.

"Geen, I will tell you what he does." He pitched the crumpled
transformation contemptuously into the corner. "He writes to the Engelsch
Commandant at Gueldersdorp and says: 'I have here a silly female thing
that is no use to me. Take her you, and give me in exchange a man of
mine.' ..."

"And he ... what does ...?" She could get out nothing more.

"He agrees. Mevrouw Vrynks"--"Dutch for Wrynche," thought Lady Hannah
dizzily--"you will now pay the Mevrouw Kink what is owing for her amiable
entertainment, and you will start for Gueldersdorp in ten minutes' time."

The roaring voice of the stern, fierce-eyed man, sounded lovelier than the
swan-song of De Rezke. She faltered, with her joyful heart leaping at the
gates of utterance:

"The--mare and spider. You will be so kind as to return them----?"

His face became as a human countenance rudely carved in seasoned oak.

"I know nothing of a mare and spider," blared the great voice.

She looked him straight between the hot fierce eyes, and spoke out
pluckily.

"They are not my property. I hired the trap and the trotter from a
hotel-keeper at Gueldersdorp. And Mr. Van Busch tells me that they have
recently been commandeered for the service of the United Forces of the
Transvaal and Orange Free State."

"So!... Well, that is what I would have done, if they were worth having.
Where is Van Busch?" The angry glance pounced on that patriot in the
remote corner to which he had modestly retired. Van Busch cringed
forwards, hat in hand, explaining:

"The English Mevrouw mistakes, Myjnheer. Sure, now, I never told her
anything of that kind. How could I, when there was no mare and no spider?
Didn't I drive her and the other woman over from Haargrond, with Bough's
little beast pulling in a cart of my own? Call the other woman, and she
will tell you it was as I say."

Lady Hannah, supremely disdainful, turned