*

On their way back to the Rest Camp the armed escort, becoming
confidential, positively assured his charge that peace would be
proclaimed before October 10th. The "Powers" had intervened, he said,
and the English were leaving the country!

He was an Irishman.

CHAPTER XXX

FORMING A NEW COMMITTEE

Not until it became positively known at Harmony, towards the middle of
October, that the members of the Secret Committee had been sent away
to Bermuda, did Mrs. van Warmelo and Hansie breathe freely again.

The suspense of five full weeks was over at last, a suspense not to be
described, and never to be forgotten by those who endured it.

It did not seem possible to grasp the fact that those brave men had
escaped with their lives, and Hansie, looking up at the stars that
night, felt that she had learnt something of unspeakable value in the
relief and gratitude with which that period of concentrated suffering
had been followed.

Carlo looked up at the stars too, for he invariably followed his young
mistress's gaze, but on this occasion, seeing nothing unusual in that
vast expanse, he stood up on his hind legs before her and gave a short
bark of inquiry.

"They have gone, Carlo," she said. "I know you won't believe it, but
they have really gone, and if 'Gentleman Jim' knew anything about
this, he would surely say, 'I 'spose their time hadn't come yet,
little missie.' That's it, Carlo. Their time had not come yet. But
they have left things in a fearful muddle, and we will have to work as
we never worked before. The first thing to be done to-morrow morning
will be----"

She stopped suddenly--not even to her faithful Carlo could she confide
the secret plan which she had made for reorganising and
re-establishing on a safer footing the Secret Service of the Boers in
town.

She would form a new Committee, of five women this time, who would
carry on the work on the same lines which had been adopted by the
Secret Committee, and this plan, when she unfolded it to her mother
that night, was received with warm approval.

The first and last meeting was held at Harmony on October 15th and was
attended by Mrs. Malan, Mrs. Armstrong, Mrs. Honey, Mrs. van Warmelo,
and Hansie, who was appointed secretary.

Bound together by the sacred oath of fidelity and secrecy, these five
women vowed to serve their country and people, as an organised body of
workers, as long as they had the power to do so.

On the occasion of his