ll write you, and arrange where you are to meet us. As
to the magazine, I will see that the consul hears all about it. Now let
us go into the dining-room and have something to eat. There is a train
for Bloemfontein in two hours' time. It will be dark then, and you can
easily slip away. When you arrive you must procure a pony and ride to
Kimberley."

Accordingly they left the verandah and joined Mrs Hunter in the
dining-room, where dinner was already laid. About half an hour later,
as they were in the middle of an animated conversation as to whether
Paul Kruger would or would not grant concessions to the Uitlanders, Tom
Thumb, the Kafir boy, entered the room hurriedly, and cried in a low
voice, "Baas, de Zarps outside, and that angry man, Piet Maartens, him
knock at door. De Zarps all round de house. I know 'cos I look through
de window."

"Then they are after you, Jack," exclaimed Mr Hunter. "Go on eating
for a moment, lads, while I think how we can escape those fellows."

"I'll tell you, Mr Hunter," said Jack calmly. "They know you dine
about this time. Go on with your dinner, and let Tom Thumb remove my
glass and seat at once, and make it appear as though I was not here.
I'll slip out and get away somehow. When he comes you will not know
where I am, and can honestly say so. Good-bye all! We shall meet again
soon. Don't forget to send my things on to Kimberley, Mr Hunter."

A moment later he had slipped out of the room, and Tom Thumb had swept
away his glass and plate, and had made it appear that he had never been
there. Meanwhile there was loud knocking at the door.

Jack darted through the hall, seized a broad-brimmed and somewhat shabby
hat which Mr Hunter sometimes wore about the country, so as to make
himself look less like a foreigner, and ran up the stairs. As he got to
the top the front door was flung open by another Kafir, just as Tom
Thumb walked across from the kitchen to the dining-room with a steaming
dish in his hand.

"Mr Hunter in?" asked Piet Maartens roughly, stepping into the hall and
rudely staring into the dining-room. "Tell him I want him."

"Baas at dinner; finish in half-hour," said Tom Thumb, standing in his
way.

At this moment Mr Hunter called out to the "boy" to show Piet in, and a
moment later the latter had entered the dining-room.

"I've a warrant here for the expulsion of John Somerton, who has been
living with you," he said with a malicious smile. "Where is