sprang up to meet her, barking an affectionate "good morning,"
as he playfully capered round his mistress.

As she stooped down to pat him she glanced through her hair to the
camp, where some of the men were bending over their camp-fires and
others were rubbing down and feeding their horses.

Will you believe it? At the first sight of the girl every man dropped
his work, stood up straight and stared at her in open-mouthed
astonishment as if he had never seen her before. They even got
together again in little groups of twos and threes and began talking
rapidly to one another. Their amazement, their consternation was so
obvious that Hansie found it difficult to pretend that she saw nothing
unusual in their behaviour, and when she joined her mother at the
breakfast-table and told her what a commotion her appearance had
created, Mrs. van Warmelo said: "It is the same with me. Wherever I
show myself under the verandahs or in the garden, I am met with stares
that can only be described as thunderstruck."

"And that, after all the months they have spent within earshot of all
that went on at Harmony! Why, mother, those men have never lifted
their heads when we have passed them for a year and more, they had got
so used to us, but now----!"

She went on more seriously:

"We can never be thankful enough that you found this out in time. The
members of the Committee must be warned not to come to Harmony, but we
must invite lots of other people. Let us give a few fruit parties and
musical evenings for the young people, and above all, let us invite
the Consuls and their families." Hansie was feeling hopeful, buoyed up
by the unlooked-for privilege of having been put on her guard, but
Mrs. van Warmelo was silent and depressed.

"I am thinking about the spies," she said at last. "How can we ever
harbour them here again? How can we let them know that Harmony is
being watched? How shall we get through the anxiety and suspense when
we begin to expect them again? Naude's last words to me were, 'We
shall be with you four weeks from now, when the moon is young again.'"

Hansie looked thoughtful, but brightened up again immediately.

"We have always the sign on the gatepost to fall back on, you know,
mother dear, but I hope it won't be necessary to put that up. In the
meantime let us watch developments. We have nothing to be anxious
about _yet_, and when the time comes we shall know what to do. Just
think how terrible it would have be