ie 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 Cronje (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 hou