and
swinging backwards and forwards and from side to side as the van jerked.

But what was, perhaps, more surprising than all, was to find four men
seated on as many boxes in the space that was walled off, playing a game
of cards. They were typical Boers; that is to say, three of them were
big, bearded men dressed in rough suits and felt hats, whilst the fourth
was none other than Piet Maartens, more carefully clothed than his
companions, and with a clean-shaven and evil-looking face. Close beside
each man was a Mauser rifle and a bandolier full of cartridges.

"Whew!" whistled Jack under his breath, climbing stealthily down. "What
are those men doing here, and armed too! What does it mean, I wonder?"

For a few moments he sat on the floor puzzling his brains, and then a
suspicion that he had accidentally made a discovery dawned upon him.

"They're up to no good, those fellows," he said to himself, "and it
looks very much as though they were in charge of this van-load of boxes.
I wonder what's inside them! Let me see. They're labelled `Grapes--to
be kept cool', and are addressed to President Kruger himself."

Having inspected the outside of the cases, Jack's suspicions led him to
test the weight of one of them, for, like every other Uitlander, he had
heard that quantities of ammunition and arms were being secretly
imported by the Boers.

"Phew!" he muttered, hurriedly putting it back in its place. "Not
grapes, but Mauser cartridges, I'll be bound. It's twenty times as
heavy as a case of grapes would be."

There was no doubt now that Jack had hit upon something more than
curious, and, having discovered a van loaded presumably with grapes but
undoubtedly with Mauser cartridges, and in charge of a party of Boers
whilst still in an English colony, his curiosity led him to persevere
and probe the matter thoroughly.

"I'll just see what is at this end now," he thought, "and if I find the
same I shall certainly get out of this as soon as possible. Those
fellows would have no hesitation in shooting me to ensure my keeping a
silent tongue; and Piet Maartens would certainly help them to get rid of
me."

Jack now crept across the narrow space which had been left opposite the
doors of the van, and inspected the end nearest the engine. It, too,
was apparently full of cases of grapes, but on climbing along on the
top--for the boxes were here several tiers in thickness--he came to
another large space left in the ce