Part 12 (2/2)

Well, we shall see, but if there is to be a row I' seeathered from Mr Hunter,” remarked Jack, ”and I, too, ht sort of lad!” exclai him on the back ”And mind you, if you want to be in the thick of it, you ed, and there will be stirring times There will be work, too, for everyone Every lad here will give a hand; all the civilians will join in with our soldiers, and will show our friends the Boers that we mean business”

”If there is trouble, and the Uitlanders have to leave the Transvaal, I shall return to Johnny's Burg, Toed it all with Wilfred before I left; in fact, weeks ago You see, Mr Hunter means to stay on and look after his property, so someone will be wanted to take Mrs Hunter down to the frontier, for, by all accounts, once the Boers are let loose there are likely to be unpleasant tiees

After that I shall coh I don't know about staying for good There will be little fun if the siege lasts for months, as see in”

”Ah, I never thought of that, Jack! My property and money are here, and naturally I shall stick by it and defend it as long as I can; but for you it is a different matter But there will be lots of despatches to be carried south, for our telegraph wires and communications are certain to be cut You could volunteer after a little while as a erous work, but I dare say all the more to your taste, and after the feeeks you ork here withthe country You have arrived just in ti tour Mr Hunter and I, with two others, have been in partnershi+p forfroold reefs They report their finds to me, and I ride or drive over and inspect Then, if it is likely to prove of any value, we buy the property and secure thenorth to-morrow, and expect to be away for a month

You lad to have you”

Jack gladly ju, after a visit to a local store, where he purchased so every inch a young colonist, dressed in riding-breeches and gaiters and a dark-blue shi+rt On his head he wore a slouch hat, and over his shoulder was a bandolier filled with cartridges which fitted the Lee-Metford rifle which Tom had lent hier concealed, and thus equipped he and To north-west, made for a country which was noted for its wildness

More than six weeks passed, and during that time he and Tom Salter made many expeditions, sometimes to the west into an ale Free State or the Transvaal After each one they would return to Kimberley, and Tom would write reports on the properties he approved of, and leave Mr Hunter and the other partners to purchase thehts In this way Jack quickly became hardened to the saddle, acclimatised and weather-beaten, and moreover was a rider who by constant practice could have held his o in an American ranche out west by the Rockies He was, as even Piet Maartens would have been co fellohose laughing lips and open face al squareness of his chin, and the daring, unflinching look in his eyes The sun had tanned his cheeks and arms, and as he sat his native pony, his left hand well dohile his right grasped his rifle and leant the butt against his thigh, the natural, upright pose of his body and set of his head, together with a certain jauntiness, don't-care-who-co sort of style, imparted by an artful bend in the brim of his hat, made Jack Solishh it in this far-away country, and had done exactly what he had intended

But Jack was not only a fine-looking young fellow His rough life and his contact with the Boer had oing, and appeared to take little heed of what he heard or saw; but he ide-awake, very wide-awake He , and he put all he saay to be remembered Thus his various rides had not only made him acquainted withcountry, and could have found his way over it in the darkest of nights

In addition, he had hadwith his weapon

”You've got a gun there, Jack, my lad,” To, ”and it's not for appearances only You want to learn to use it I never ood shot, I can tell you, without the slightest wish to boast

Still, I aets out of so easily You ood eyes, and can spare the time to shoot, you're bound to turn out aoutside the towns is a crack shot, si and sticks to it Nohat you want to do is to take a pot shot at any likely object we come across out in some of these deserted places The trunk of a tree, a white stone on the side of a distant kopje, or even a vulture, of which there are numbers hereabouts They are brutes, and the ot a Mauser pistol too, and had better make use of it If this war comes, you'll find your time has not been wasted”

Jack followed this advice During their long, and generally lonely, rides, he would often fire asup to the object afterwards to see what success he had had

As a rule, he fired froround and aiestion, he would slip froround, taking advantage of every boulder or ant-hill, and firing at an iinary enee, or a piece of better cover, a glance from his trained eye would pick out the best spot to fire froround, without so , while the muzzle of his rifle projected between two boulders and hurled forth a streaazine

”That's it, ly ”That's just how our Boer friends fight, and it's the only method nowadays, when bullets carry so far, and everyone is armed with a modern weapon of precision

It'll be ticklish work, I can tell you, if our fellows have to attack from the open, and that's what it will have to co theht behind their boulders, and we shall have to turn them out at the point of the bayonet Yes, it will be ticklish work, and will require real grit, but I'll bet anything our boys will tackle it

There's another thing too Every youngster arazine rifles is inclined to blaze off all his aes, which cannot always be spared; and what is more, it is apt to deainst Never use thepell-mell at you If there's a rush, then is the time to pump in the lead as fast as you possibly can

”Then, too, youyou to use your rifle, I may as well instruct you in the otherto learn Riding all day long across the open veldt was somewhat monotonous at times, and his rifle practice and other manoeuvres helped to make the journeys pass more pleasantly

Thanks to the allowance which his father had left hiland, he was always supplied with an aes paid hiiven hi to ride was one of theof them, and with Tom's help he had, soon after his arrival at Kimberley, become possessed of two Basuto ponies, noted for their hardiness and agility They were about the size of an English cob,But for all that they iry little animals, with plenty of spirit, but not vicious Jack named one Victoria and the other Prince, and had no need to complain of his purchases They turned out to be fast and sturdy little animals, who could easily thrive on the veldt when stable-fed horses would have starved In addition, they were absolutely sure-footed, so that one could trust theh kopje, with the reins on their neck, without fear of an accident, for they were used to the work, and could be left to themselves to leap the boulders which came in their path, and steer clear of the ant-bear holes and nullahs which cut up the ground in every direction

A feeeks' training was sufficient, and before the prospecting tour came to an end they would stand stock-still while Jack fired above their heads, or at a touch from his heel would canter on, and turn swiftly with the merest pressure of a knee A jerk of the reins across their necks, and down they would drop on the ground, the rider standing in his stirrups and easily freeing himself, and there they would lie while Jack fired his rifle over them Soraze unattended This knee-haltering was rapidly effected A long thong of untanned hide was passed over the neck, close up to the head, and one end put through a slit in the other The free end was then taken round the leg just above the knee and secured with a clove hitch The anirass, but could not get far, and the halter could be thrown off at a moment's notice

But by this tie his attention There was an o over South Africa It affected all, and filled thehts, for none knehen it would burst and let loose the thunder and lightning of a terrible war

Already negotiations between the Boers and the British Govern, the former with the absolute certainty and wish for war, and the latter slowly and with evident sorrow Suspicion was in the air, and hatred between the two races unconcealed A conference at Bloemfontein had been held between Sir Alfred Milner, the Governor of Cape Colony, and President Kruger, but had led to no result, save a further deadlock Kruger would make no satisfactory proposals He was firmly determined that the Transvaal should be for Boers alone, and that no Englishland asked for equal rights, and was laughed at-- defied Yes, this small state, with a history which could only record some two hundred years of peasant existence, and a total population less than that of one of our big northern towns, had as good as cast down the glove at the British Lion's feet And the Lion still sat half-crouched, silently waiting, and hoping that land's forces was a ers at her and practically daring her to retaliate Once before the Transvaal had acted in a similar manner, and then, because there was some doubt as to the justice of our cause, and because we have ever been nani, the South African Republic had continued yapping at us, distracting our attention while she grew and thrived, and armed herself to the teeth And now that she had attained to full proportions, the conceit of youth and the iuns had led her to seek a quarrel, the result of which she hoped would for ever free her froive her that independence for which she longed

And on every side the world looked on and laughed in its sleeve at our difficulties, while it openly upbraided us for having ulterior designs on so small a state

Matters could not remain as they were Business was at a standstill, and crowds of refugees were fleeing froe Free State intimated that in the event of hostilities it would cast in its lot with the Transvaal, while there was open disloyalty ast a portion of the Dutch Cape Colonists, which proved the existence of a wide-spread conspiracy