e; we're
not going to have him with us."

"It doesn't look as if he is a prisoner," said Ingleborough; "they all
seem too friendly. I believe the scoundrel has deserted from the town
and come to join the Boers. What has old Norton been about?"

"Is it possible?"

"Oh, it's possible enough, if old Norton has been to sleep. Rats desert
sinking ships!"

"Kimberley isn't a sinking ship!" said West indignantly.

"I don't know so much about that, lad! There is a very small force
ready to defend it; it's a long way from help; and, as we see here, the
enemy is swarming down upon it from all directions. You see, it's so
far from our forces and so near to the Free State border."

"Ah, there he is plainly enough, laughing with the commandant! Look, he
clapped him on the shoulder!"

"Yes, I give him credit for anything!" said Ingleborough. "I shouldn't
wonder if he was in full correspondence with the Boers and is ready to
sell us as well as buy diamonds. As likely as not, he has slipped away
with his swag so as to escape before the fighting begins. But how
Norton can have let him get away is more than I can understand!"

"Well, it's plain enough that he's here!" said West; "and I can't help
feeling glad that he is not a prisoner, for if he had been put with us
it must have come to a quarrel. Look here, seeing what the treacherous
thief is, we ought to denounce him to the commandant."

"Don't do anything of the kind! What good would it do?"

"But he is such a despicable wretch!"

"What's that to you?"

"Ingleborough!"

"Oh yes, I know what you're ready to say; but you've got something else
to do besides playing the virtuous part of denouncing Master Anson as a
diamond-dealer. Besides, I don't believe the Boers would think any the
less of him if they believed you."

"They couldn't help believing our evidence!" said West.

"Nonsense! It isn't your business!"

"It's every honest man's business!" cried West hotly.

"Not if he is on Government service with a despatch to deliver in
Mafeking," said Ingleborough, with a peculiar look at his companion.

"Hah!" cried West; "you are right again! But--oh!"

"Oh, what?"

"Why, he was present when we volunteered to carry the despatch!"

"To be sure, so he was!" cried Ingleborough excitedly.

"Then as soon as he knows we have been captured he'll denounce me to the
commandant as the bearer of the message, and oh, Ingle, we shall be
searched again!"

"Yes,