The air was thick with rumours, most of them brought by natives, and one or two by passing Boers, to which Silas Croft declined to pay any attention.

Soon, however, it became abundantly clear that an armistice was concluded between the English and the Boers, but what were its terms or its object they were quite unable to decide.

Silas Croft thought that the Boers, overawed by the advance of an overwhelming force, meant to give in without further fighting;[*] but Bessie shook her head.
[*] This is said on good authority to have been their intention had not Mr.Gladstone surprised them by his sudden surrender .-- Author.
One day--it was the same on which John and Jess left Pretoria--a Kafir brought the news that the armistice was at an end, that the English were advancing up to the Nek in thousands, and were going to force it on the morrow and relieve the garrisons--a piece of intelligence that brought some of the old light back to Bessie's eyes.

As for her uncle, he was jubilant.
"The tide is going to turn, at last, my love," he said, "and we shall have our innings.

Well, it is time we should, after all the disgrace, loss and agony of mind we have gone through.