ger,
I think I had better begin to pack at once, for we shall certainly be
sent away."

"All right, mother," Hansie laughed; "pack away, and I'll come home as
soon as I can to help you."

She took tender leave of her mother, cheering her with hopeful words
and whistling gaily to Carlo to come and protect her on her
adventurous expedition.

No one could have been more surprised to see Hansie than Mrs. Botha.
She stared as if she could not believe her eyes, and then fell sobbing
on her young friend's shoulder.

"How could you risk it to come here?" she exclaimed.

"No one else has been near me, and I am deserted by all my friends
since----" here she fell a-weeping again, and clung to Hansie for
support.

As soon as she could speak, she gave an account of all that had taken
place.

She and her husband were sitting under the verandah the night before,
talking about the miserable business of the spy's infidelity and its
disastrous results to so many people in town. Mr. Botha was just
saying that, in the event of his arrest, his wife need have no fear of
his betraying a friend, and that the English might shoot him, but they
would not get a shred of information out of him, when two detectives
on bicycles rode up and dismounted at the steps.

Mrs. Botha just had time to whisper hurriedly to her husband that she
would rather see him dead than have him come back to her a traitor,
when the detectives, producing a warrant for his arrest, approached
him.

He gave himself up quietly; there was nothing else for him to do. He
was unarmed, for it was one of the first rules of the Committee and
practically their only safeguard in the event of an arrest, to carry
on their work without weapons of any sort.

The house was thoroughly searched for spies and all books and papers
were taken away, but, thanks to Mr. Botha's prudence and foresight,
not a single incriminating document was found.

The remembrance of this was a source of great comfort to his wife,
for, without proofs, his life was safe, although he would probably be
sent as prisoner of war to one of the distant islands.

Mrs. Botha was a brave and true woman. She did not think of herself at
all, but she was so much concerned for Hansie's safety that she urged
her to go home at once and not to come again. The first part of her
injunctions Hansie obeyed, but she refused to promise not to be seen
at that house again.

It was being closely watched, there was no doubt