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Updated: June 29, 2025
"Don't fret, dear, I shall be back in five days. Those four horses can go sixty miles a day for that time, and more. They are fat as butter, and there is lots of grass along the road if I can't get forage for them. Besides, the cart will be nearly empty, so I can carry a muid of mealies and fifty bundles of forage. I will take that Zulu boy, Mouti, with me.
By the time that the horses had eaten their forage and Mouti had forced the bits into their reluctant mouths, the angry splendour of the sunset faded, and the quiet night was falling over the glowing veldt like the pall on one scarce dead. Fortunately for the travellers, there was a bright half moon, and by its light John managed to direct the cart over many a weary mile.
Mouti was lying still in the bottom of it on the bed-plank, a bullet between his broad shoulders and another in his skull: but John felt that his life was yet whole in him, though something had hissed past his face and stung it. Instinctively he reached across the cart and drew Jess on to his knee, and cowered over her, thinking dimly that perhaps his body would protect her from the bullets.
Then they began to run after the cart shouting, but were soon lost in the darkness. John and Mouti did not spare the whip, but pressed on up the stony hills on the Pretoria side of Heidelberg without a halt. They were, however, unable to keep up with the cart ahead of them, which was evidently more freshly horsed.
He is ninety-four, and rather soft, but I dare say he will like to hear from me," and she hurried into the house to give her aged relative who, by the way, laboured under the impression that she was still a little girl of four years of age as minute an account of the siege of Pretoria as time would allow. "Well, John, you had better tell Mouti to put the horses in.
"Now, Inkoos," whispered the Zulu Mouti, "drive on! drive on!" John took the hint and lashed the horses with his long whip; while Mouti, bending forward over the splashboard, thrashed the wheelers with a sjambock. Off went the team in a spasmodic gallop, and it had covered a hundred yards of ground before the two sentries realised what had happened.
Neville's fervent embrace to burst out into a sob or two. In another minute they were in the cart, and Mouti was scrambling up behind. "Don't cry, old girl," said John, laying his hand upon her shoulder. "What can't be cured must be endured." "Yes, John," she answered, and dried her tears. At the headquarter camp John went in and explained the circumstances of his departure.
On came the cart and the knot of men, then suddenly John looked up and saw her gazing at him with those dark eyes that at times did indeed seem as though they were the windows of her soul. He turned and said something to his companions and to the Zulu Mouti, who went on with the cart, then he came towards her smiling and with outstretched hand. "How do you do, Jess?" he said.
Jantje let go the horses' heads and uttered a whoop. Mouti, giving up star-gazing, suddenly became an animated being and scrambled into the cart with surprising alacrity; the horses sprang forward at a hand gallop, and were soon hidden from Bessie's dim sight in a cloud of dust.
"Thank you," he answered simply; "yes, I think I am a very lucky fellow." "And now," she said, "we had better go and see about the cart. You will have to find a stand for it in that wretched laager. You must be very tired and hungry." A few minutes' walk brought them to the cart, which Mouti had outspanned close to Mrs.
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