tten word
for word, and it is to the existence of this diary that we owe our
accurate information of what otherwise would have been lost for ever.

I may add here that it was only the re-reading of the White Diary
after so many years, and the surprising amount of half-forgotten
information Hansie found in it, that suggested the idea to her mind of
publishing its contents in the form of a story.

It was on the morning of July 17th, 1901, that Mr. Botha was seen
coming up the garden path between the rows of orange trees at Harmony,
with his jauntiest air, by which it was evident that he was the bearer
of news from the front. Briefly he informed our heroines that two
spies had come in the previous night and wished to see Mrs. van
Warmelo about certain communications sent out by her to General Botha
a few weeks back. They were staying with Mrs. Joubert, widow of the
late Commandant-General P.J. Joubert, and were leaving again the next
night with dispatches.

In the interview with them at 9 o'clock the next morning Hansie
made her first acquaintance with Captain Naude, who plays the
principal part in the story here recorded, and whose courage and
resource gave him an unquestioned position of leadership.

[Illustration: W.J. BOTHA]

Good reader, do you know what it means to be an unwilling captive in
the hands of your enemy for more than a year, and then to find
yourself in the presence of men, healthy, brown, and hearty, _your own
men_, straight from the glorious freedom of their life in the veld?
Can you realise the sensation of shaking hands with them for the first
time and the atmosphere of wholesome unrestraint and unconscious
dignity which greeted you in their presence? Well, I do, and it would
be useless trying to tell any one what it is like, for those who know
will never forget, and those who don't will never understand.

In Mrs. Joubert's drawing-room they were waiting for their visitors
next day, Captain Naude and his private secretary, Mr. Greyling--the
former a tall, fair man, slightly built and boyish-looking and with a
noble, intelligent face, the latter a mere youth, but evidently shrewd
and brave.

The first eager questions naturally were for news of Fritz, the
youngest of the van Warmelos and the last remaining in the field since
the capture of his brother Dietlof in April of that year.

Mr. Greyling said that he had seen Fritz a few weeks back in perfect
health and in the best of spirits, but