Part 50 (2/2)
”He soon came back and said it was impossible to get through.
”After a short consultation, Naude advised me to come home. They would stay in the bush and wait until the moon went down, he said. I hated leaving them in such a plight, but Naude insisted, and I only came away when he said he thought there would be more chance for them to get through un.o.bserved if they were fewer in number. How they managed without residential pa.s.ses and handicapped by those parcels, I do not know.”
”G.o.d only knows how they _do_ manage,” Hansie answered sombrely.
”Well, I have nothing good to relate either.”
She told him in a few words what had happened at Harmony, and the steadfast face opposite her, so calm and strong, grew more grave as she proceeded.
”This is very serious,” he said at last; ”then the fact of their being in town, and the route they had taken, must have been known to the enemy yesterday. That is why we found the drift guarded. But do not be downcast. I am sure they got through unharmed, for there has been no commotion of any sort in town. I always know when prisoners have been taken. We must be thankful they were not discovered in your house.”
Hansie nodded, and the quiet voice went on:
”You are in no danger now----”
But the girl broke in impetuously:
”Oh, that does not trouble me at all, but I would give my life to know that those men were with General Botha now. I am only anxious about them.”
”I am not,” he answered. ”The Captain is a man of vast experience.
This was not his first visit to Pretoria. Venter has been five times in Pretoria and nine times in Johannesburg under the same conditions.
Brenckmann, too, can speak of unique experiences--but I can bet you anything that _he_ will never come in again.”
”Why not?”
”Oh, he had an awful time here. There are khakis and handsuppers living all round his house, to some of whom he is well known by sight. It was found necessary to conceal him, and for three days and two nights the poor boy was stowed away in a tiny attic, just under the corrugated-iron roof and hardly large enough to hold a man. There he lay in the suffocating heat of those endless days, only coming out at night for a few hours like the bats and owls. No, he won't trouble us again!”
Before she left she told him what had been arranged about a sign on the gatepost and asked van der Westhuizen to warn her friends of the ”inner circle” that Harmony was no longer a safe place to visit, begging them to keep this information to themselves, ”because,” she added, ”the enemy must not know that we know.” Later on she hoped to see him again when the time approached for Naude to come again, but she advised him not to visit Harmony unnecessarily, as much would depend on him in the event of a raid on Harmony and the transportation of its inhabitants to other regions.
I can only say in conclusion of this chapter that the friends of the ”inner circle,” Mrs. Malan, Mrs. Joubert, Mrs. Armstrong, Mrs. Honey, and a few others, bravely scorned the idea of avoiding Harmony.
”Why should we not come?” Mrs. Armstrong asked, with her cheerful, ever-ready laugh; ”don't other people come here still?”
”Oh yes, but----”
”Then why not we? The more the better, say I! Surely we cannot _all_ be arrested and sent away!”
CHAPTER x.x.xVIII
THE RAID ON HARMONY
It was the peacefullest, decentest raid I ever heard of, and it would be difficult to think of anything with a termination more tame and commonplace.
But we have not got there yet.
<script>