I tried to forget this, and listened to the captain's words, for he grew more and more loquacious.

I gathered that he reckoned upon picking up other two young fellows of my own stamp at the farm twenty miles from ours; and I noted that, no matter what he said, his words were listened to in gloomy silence or received with grunting monosyllables, while the Boers talked among themselves only about home and farming work or the sale of stock.

More than once, too, I heard one of the men near me wonder how the housewife would be getting on with the beasts and sheep.
The words were spoken in Boer Dutch; but in the course of years I had become pretty well acquainted with the expressions of ordinary life.
Thus it seemed as if the men were anything but contented followers of their noisy, vapouring leader.
At last the farm was reached, and we halted for refreshment, spending about half-an-hour to water and feed the horses, during which time I was carefully guarded.

There was no opposition here.

The two recruits to the commando, as they termed it, had been duly served with notice, and within the time named they were ready with their horses, and armed; but when we made our start I could see with what surly unwillingness they took their places in the rank, and noticed too that they were nearly as strictly watched as I was.