Part 24 (1/2)

Now, whether this unfortunate conversation had anything to do with the next developments I do not know. I do not _think_ so, for the Governor was a broadminded and just man, not to be deterred from his purpose by any small consideration, but the fact remains that Hansie received a curt note from him four days later, informing her that he had changed his mind about allowing her to inspect the Camps, and that all her permits had been cancelled. No word of apology or regret, but a curt request to return to him the pa.s.sports and letters of introduction she had received from him.

”Serves you right,” her mother said, ”for showing your enemy your hand.”

”Oh no,” Hansie said, ”I am positive that has nothing to do with it; in fact, I don't believe General Maxwell is responsible for this at all. He is acting under orders, and if I am not mistaken Lord Kitchener is at the bottom of it. _He_ has put down that awful foot of his, mother, and there is nothing more to be done.”

”Perhaps”--Mrs. van Warmelo looked grave--”perhaps they have found out something. I have often wondered at finding myself still at large after the commotion made about the pet.i.tions and the report of the Consuls. I can't forget how critical things seemed to me when three Consuls came to Harmony late at night, while you were at Irene, to warn me that the whole detective force was on the track of the pet.i.tioners. Poor Mr. Cinatti was frightfully excited and said that it was his duty to see that his pet.i.tioners' names did not become known.

He warned me that everything would be done to find us out, traps would be set for us, and he advised me, if ever any one came to Harmony and said that my name had been revealed, I was to say No! No!! No!!! and he danced about the room, striking his left hand with his clenched right fist at every 'No!'”

Hansie laughed and said, ”There is no fear of your being found out.

The pet.i.tioners won't talk of that, you may be quite sure, and all the Consuls are to be trusted.”

”What are you going to do about this?” her mother asked, touching the General's note.

”Oh, I am going to wait a few days to make him 'feel bad' and then, I suppose, I must return my pa.s.sports to him.”

She waited three days, and then the General's behaviour strengthened her in her belief that he was not to blame for the shabby way in which he had treated her.

He was most penitent, begged her to forgive him for having caused her so much inconvenience, and said he had been ”very weak” in entertaining the idea of her visiting the Camps.

They talked about certain improvements which Hansie had suggested, and on which she had intended to lay much stress in her reports.

He promised that everything in his power would be done to arrest the high mortality, and, encouraged by his sympathetic att.i.tude, she pleaded for ”poor Middelburg.”

”I have just been told that there were 503 deaths in that Camp during last month [July]. Can that be possible?”

”I am afraid it is only too true,” he answered, sighing heavily. ”The people on the High Veld are very badly off during this bitter weather.”

”Will you allow me to send the warm clothing and blankets which I intended to distribute in the Camps?” she asked.

”Certainly, the more the better. Every facility will be afforded you in this.”

Hansie felt happier after this conversation with the Governor, more convinced that something would be done to alleviate the sufferings in the Camps.

Now, if our heroine had been allowed to carry out her tour of inspection, she would have been out of ”mischief's way” for many months, and much of what I am about to relate would not have taken place at all.

”Fair play is bonny play,” and a breach of faith is bound, at some time or other, to be followed by undesirable consequences.

Hansie made up her mind to serve her country in another, perhaps better way, and in this she was a.s.sisted by the resistless hand of Fate, as we shall see in the following chapters.

That she was never ”caught” is a marvel indeed, for she was most reckless of danger.

There were a number of intimate and trusted friends with whom she came into frequent contact, but who had no idea of the work which was being carried on at Harmony.

To these friends, however, she went with her ”reliable war news” (more especially news brought into town by the spies, of the Boer victories) when anything of importance became known, and in time her friends found out that her news could always be depended upon as reliable indeed, although they had no inkling of the source whence it had been derived. There was danger of her becoming altogether too ”c.o.c.ksure,”

when she was one day pulled up sharply by the following occurrence:

Captain Naude was in town again, was, if I remember rightly, under her very roof, when she visited a man for whom she entertained feelings of great affection and esteem, with the object of gladdening his heart with news of a particularly gratifying nature from the front.