vantage upon the roof of Nixey's Hotel,
lowered his binoculars as the persistent whistle kept open. The lines
about his keen eyes and mouth curved into a cheerful smile. The sound was
coming nearer, and presently Engine 123 backed into view, a mile or so
from waiting, expectant Gueldersdorp, and snorting, raced at full speed
for her home in the railway-yard. Her driver was the young Irishman from
the County Kildare, and her guard hailed from Shoreditch. And both of them
had a tale to tell of what Taggart had called the Colonel's double
surprise-packet, to a tall man whom they found waiting on the metals by
the upper Signal Cabin.

"Six mile from the start, sorra a yard more or less, sorr! I sees a
comp'ny o' thim divils mustered on the bog, I mane the veld, sorr--smokin'
their pipes an' passin' the bottle, an' givin' the overlook to a gang av
odthers, that was rippin' up the rails undher the directions av a
head-gaffer wid a hat brim like me granny's tay-thray, an' a beard like
the Prophet Moses."

"I sor 'is whoppin' big 'at myself, though we was two mile off when we
picked the beggars out," the guard objected; "but 'ow could you twig 'is
beard or that the other blokes was smokin'?"

"Did ye ever know a Dutch boss av any kind clane-shaved an' not
hairy-faced?" was Kildare's just retort, "or see a crowd av Doppers
gathered together that the blue smoke av the Blessed Creature was not
curlin' out av their mouths an' ears an' noses, an' Old Square Face or Van
der Hump makin' the rounds?"

"You thought the blokes on the metals was a workin' gang of our chaps at
the fust go off," complained the guard, "an' you opened the whistle to
warn 'em!"

"He did that for sure," put in the Cardiff stoker. "But he was tipping me
the wink while he did it, so he was; as much as to say he knew they were
Boers all the time."

"Would they have stopped where they was, well widin range, av I had let on
I knew they was a parcel av unwashed Dutchmen?" demanded Kildare hotly.
"Would they have hung on as I pushed her towards thim--would they have
stopped to watch me uncouplin' the two thrucks, smilin' wid simple
interest in their haythen faces, av they had not taken me for a suckin'
lamb in oily overalls that took themselves for sheep av the same fold?"

"They got a bit suspicious when we steamed orf," said the guard; "more
than a bit suspicious, they did."

"They took the thrucks for the Armoured Thrain," recounted Kildare, with a
radian