itate the visitor, for she blandly
answered his question herself. "Of course he knows the way to
Zwingelspan. Why, he lives there himself!"

_I. O._ "Then he is the very man I want. (_To the man_) You must come
along with me over to my cart and wait there in case the general wants
a guide to Zwingelspan between this and midnight."

A complete silence overtook the whole group after the Intelligence
officer had delivered himself of this speech. It seemed as if he had
inadvertently upset some plan. But the only thing he noticed at the
moment was that the pale face of the bride, as she stood limply in
front of him, grew a shade paler, and that her great blue eyes filled
with tears, which poised a moment on her eyelashes and then trickled
down her cheeks. If, as the Intelligence officer was only too ready to
surmise, he had upset an elaborate ruse to shield one of Brand's
special envoys, then the girl was an accomplished actress; but if, as
possibly was the case, she was moved to weeping in anticipation of
peril to her husband or lover, then she had adopted a course most
likely to serve her purpose with the man about to place himself
between her and the man she loved. There are few British officers who
can persevere in a distasteful task in face of the reproach furnished
by a silent weeping woman.

_I. O._ (_softening the authoritative tone in his speech_) "You need
not be distressed. I promise you we will not take him farther than
Zwingelspan, even if we take him there at all."

_Weeping Bride._ "If you take him, how shall I ever know what you will
do with him? You say here that you are going to Zwingelspan; but we
know that you are not going there. You would not tell us if you were.
Besides, the British were at Zwingelspan this morning, and you are
following the Boers."

_F._ "Oh leave her, Mr Secretary, she is only a child, and she loves
her 'man.' She is afraid that you will take him, and that the Boers
will catch him with you and treat him as a traitor!"

The Intelligence officer led the man out to hand him over to the
Tiger, when the latter returned from "noseing" round the outhouses.
Though perplexed in his mind as to the real attitude of the inmates of
the farm, yet he had elicited something, namely, that information
would be sent to the nearest armed Burghers that the column was not
bound for Zwingelspan, and that a British force had been at
Zwingelspan that morning. The latter was important, since the only