urghers.

The men in town were unarmed. It was one of the first rules of the
Committee that no spy entering the town should carry arms of any
description, this rule having been made to safeguard them from death
in the event of their being taken by the enemy.

Too often was this precaution disregarded by young and hot-headed
spies, who took the risk upon themselves, preferring death to falling
into the hands of the English.

Captain Naude's case was recognised by the Committee as an exception
when once it became known to them that a heavy price had been set on
his head.

Incidentally I may remark here that this sum was known, during the
early part of the war, to be L500 and that it was gradually increased
to L1,500, as the Captain became more notorious for the daring nature
of his enterprises. He was told by an English officer; after the war,
that the British had spent over L9,000 in the vain attempt to capture
him. This statement may, or may not, have been correct, but certain it
is that nothing was left undone to put an end to his activities,
numbers of men and women being employed, under liberal payment, to
trap him when he visited Pretoria.

In the field, too, his life was known to be even more precarious than
in town, for many were the hirelings surrounding him, watching their
chances to capture him and hand him, dead or living, into the power of
his foes.

It was therefore an understood thing that Captain Naude should at all
times be armed, heavily armed, in the field and when he came to town.

Not so the Secret Committee. What might be his only safeguard would,
in the event of their arrest, prove to be their undoing, and this they
fully realised as they remonstrated, not once, but many times, with
the young spies who worked for them.

The violation of this rule, which they wished to see enforced so
rigorously, was sometimes followed by most terrible consequences.

That this brave band of earnest men should have continued their work
so long, beset, as they were, with a thousand dangers and
difficulties, is a marvel indeed. With so much treachery in the air,
it is a wonder to us still that they were able to carry out their
daring enterprise with so much success and to escape detection for so
long.

But they were prudent and cautious, they knew and trusted one another,
and they observed, with conscientious thoroughness, the unwritten
motto of the Committee:

"Think quickly, act firmly, calmly, prudentl