Part 4 (2/2)
”Bos.h.!.+” came in chorus.
”Ah, you may laugh, but they've got Majuba Hill on the brain. The idiots think they fought and thrashed the whole British Army instead of a few hundred men. Here, Ingleborough, you heard what was said?”
The young man addressed left off chatting with West and nodded.
”You went to Pretoria with the superintendent of police about that diamond case, and you were there a couple of months.”
”Yes,” said Ingleborough. ”What of that?”
”Why, you must have seen a good deal of the Boers then!”
”Of course I did.”
”Well, what do you say? Will they fight if it comes to a row?”
”Certainly they will!” replied Ingleborough.
There was a derisive laugh at his words, and West flushed a little on hearing it, as the volunteers gathered round.
”Bah! It's all bluff!” cried a voice. ”They know that by holding out they can get what they want. They'd cave in directly if we showed a bold front.”
”Moral,” said West; ”show a bold front.”
”That's what we're doing,” said one of the men; ”but there's too much of it. Some of the officers have war on the brain, and want to force the soldiering element to the very front. We've done enough to show the Doppers that we should fight if there was any occasion. There was no drilling going on when you were at Pretoria, eh, Ingleborough?”
”Yes, there was, a good deal,” said the young man slowly. ”They did not make any fuss, but in a quiet way they were hard at work, especially with their gun drill.”
”Gun drill!” cried one of the group contemptuously. ”What, with a few rusty old cannon and some wooden quakers?”
There was a roar of laughter at this, and West coloured a little more deeply with annoyance, but Ingleborough shrugged his shoulders, turned his little finger into a tobacco-stopper, and went on smoking.
”The Boers are puffed-up with conceit,” he said gravely, ”and they believe that their victory at Majuba Hill has made them invincible; but all the same they've got some level-headed men amongst them, and I believe before long that it will come to a fight and that they will fight desperately.”
His hearers laughed.
”What for?” shouted one.
”To drive the British out of South Africa, seize Cape Colony and Natal, and make the country a Dutch republic.”
There was a momentary silence before someone cried: ”I say, Ingleborough, are you going mad?”
”I hope not,” said the young man quietly. ”Why?”
”Because you are talking the greatest bosh I've heard for months!”
”I don't think I am,” said Ingleborough gravely. ”I know that the Boers are terribly inflated with vanity and belief in themselves, but they have wisdom in their heads as well.”
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