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He nodded towards a party of girls in light dresses who were sitting down at a table close by. Langberg shook his head. He was greedy for news from the great world without, which he had never had the luck to see. "I've often wondered," he went on, "how you managed to come to the front so in that sort of work railways and barrages, and so forth when, your original line was mechanical engineering.
It was well for De Wet that he had shown such promptness in getting away, for within three hours of the end of the action the two regiments of Imperial Horse appeared upon the scene, having travelled seventeen miles in the time. Already, however, the rearguard of the Boers was disappearing into the fastness of the Langberg, where all pursuit was vain.
"I hardly knew you again," said Peer, grasping the other's hand. "And you're a millionaire, so they say and famous, out in the big world?" "Not quite so bad as that, old fellow. But what about you?" "I? Oh, don't talk about me." And as they walked down the street together, Langberg poured out his tale, of how times were desperately bad, and conditions at home here simply strangled a man.
What I'm longing for is a country watermill that takes twenty-four hours to grind a sack of corn." "What? What do you say?" Langberg bounced in his chair. "Ha-ha-ha! You're the same old man, I can see." "I'm perfectly serious," said Peer, lifting his glass towards the other. "Come. Here's to our old days together!" "Aye thanks, a thousand thanks to our old days together! Ah, delicious!
One of these divisions I posted behind the eastern end of the Langberg, about forty miles from Bethlehem; the other on the banks of the Tijgerkloofspruit, at the point where the road to Harrismith crosses the stream. I gave strict orders to both divisions that as soon as I opened fire on the English with the Maxim-Nordenfeldt, they were to charge down on them from both sides at the same time.
They spend Christmas Eve playing tunes from The Dollar Princess on the gramophone." Langberg sat for a while watching the other attentively. Peer sat smoking slowly; his face was flushed with the wine, but from time to time his eyes half-closed, and his thoughts seemed to be wandering in other fields than these. "And what do you think of doing now you are home again?" asked his companion at last.
There was no possibility of inducing my men to charge, and so I thought it wisest to retreat, swallowing my disappointment as best I could. The burghers re-assembled to the south of the Langberg; and we found that our loss was two killed and nine wounded, of whom two subsequently died. We could not ascertain the English losses, but we saw their ambulances very busy.
I tell you, as long as Western Europe with all its wonders of modern science and its Christianity and its political reforms hasn't turned out a better type of humanity than the mean ruck of men we have now we'd do best to stay at home and hold our counfounded jaw. Here's ourselves!" and Peer emptied his glass. This was a sad hearing for poor Langberg.
There's music there." "Right will you come and dine with me there, to-night shall we say eight o'clock?" "Thanks. I should think I would!" Peer arrived in good time, and engaged a table on a verandah. Langberg made his appearance shortly after, dressed in his well-saved Sunday best faded frock-coat, light trousers bagged at the knees, and a straw hat yellow with age.
De Wet's general aim in his operations seems to have been to check the British blockhouse building. With his main force in the Langberg he could threaten the line which was now being erected between Bethlehem and Harrismith, a line against which his main commando was destined, only two months later, to beat itself in vain.
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