he said courteously. "Who employed you? Was it
the British Government?"

"No one employed me," answered Jack, looking Joubert straight in the
face. "It was purely by accident that I discovered the magazine down by
Volksrust, and since the men there were positive that I was a spy and
talked of shooting me, I was forced to escape for my life. That is all
I know about the matter; and now I will ask you by what right I am
removed in this manner from Johannesburg and brought here as a prisoner.
I am a British subject, come here for my health, and if I have done
anything wrong I am willing to stand my trial in the courts."

"Tush, boy!" Joubert replied harshly. "What do we care about subjects
of England here? You have acted as a spy, and that is why you are a
prisoner."

"Ask him on his honour whether he was a spy and whether he is telling
the truth," President Kruger broke in at this moment, using the English
tongue in his eagerness to put the question. "Ask him on his honour,"
he repeated. "All of his country pride themselves on that, and when
they are put upon it they will tell the truth."

"I am no spy," Jack said calmly. "I have told you the truth, and will
swear to it on my honour."

"Will you make use of the secret you have obtained, if I let you go and
send you outside the Transvaal?" asked the president, now fully awake,
leaning forward and favouring Jack with a piercing gaze.

"I cannot promise not to," replied Jack, after a moment's pause. "If
that magazine is a menace to England, as seems most probable, it will be
my duty to inform the Governor of Cape Colony of it, and I shall do so."

"Ah, you will!" growled Oom Paul angrily. Then he turned to General
Joubert, and the two conversed volubly for a few minutes, the president
hammering on the table with his hand in the most emphatic manner, and
evidently laying down the law.

"Bah!" he exclaimed at last. "What does it matter? It would do more
harm to us to injure this lad than for our secret to be known. The
British are already aware that we are purchasing arms. Let them know it
all. It will not harm us; though to act so as to cause the prisoner's
friends to make active enquiries for him might precipitate matters. Let
him go! Release him! He is a brave lad, which is unusual amongst these
hated Rooineks, and he deserves to go free as a reward for his boldness.
See to it, Joubert!"

Jack was overjoyed, for he had quite expected that the