rash avowal of
his intention to divulge his secret would make matters even more
unpleasant. And now he was free. He was on the point of thanking the
president and of retiring when his eyes lit upon Piet Maarten's angry
scowling face, and he at once remembered the young Boer's threat that he
and Hans Schloss together would have to be reckoned with.

"Your honour," he said, facing Oom Paul again, "I have a request to
make. You have commanded that I shall have my liberty. I ask for
protection. That man there, together with a German whom I had the
misfortune to wound when escaping from the magazine, have threatened to
deal with me should I receive my freedom at your hands. I ask you now
to grant me some kind of an escort to the frontier."

"Have I not ordered that you shall have your freedom?" answered Paul
Kruger brusquely. "That is enough. Should anyone attempt to molest you
he shall account for it."

Satisfied with his answer, Jack murmured his thanks and retired. He was
at once placed in charge of two Boers whom he had never seen before, and
was driven off into the veldt again. About an hour later an engine and
a single carriage steamed up and he was told to get in. Then they were
whirled away to Johannesburg just in time to catch a train starting on
the long run to Port Elizabeth.

One of the guards remained behind, but the other stayed on with Jack,
making himself most pleasant, and chatting with him constantly.

Many hours later he shook hands with him, and wished him good-bye.

"Don't come back to us," he said shortly, as the train ran into Norval's
Pont, the southern border of the Orange Free State. "You have escaped
with your life, but you would not do so a second time. Here is money
which the president told me to hand to you. It is just sufficient to
pay for your journey and comfort to Port Elizabeth, and here also is
your ticket."

Jack thanked him, pressed his hand, and then watched him depart. A few
moments later the train was in motion again. At Naauwpoort, the next
stopping point, there is a junction, with a connecting line running
westward to De Aar to join the Cape Town line to Kimberley and Mafeking,
and here Jack left the carriage and boarded another train. Late the
next evening he had reached the diamond city, and had called on Tom
Salter, an old friend of Mr Hunter's.

"Hallo, Jack!" exclaimed the latter, who had met him before. "What
brings you here? Your place should be al