De Wet, Christiaan Rudolf, 1854-1922; South African War, 1899-1902 -- Personal narratives
_Miss P._ "I expected that you would ask that. I did not tell him
personally, nor would I in any circumstances have done so. But the
fact that I arrived in great haste in the small hours of the morning
had a peculiar meaning to the commando, and it was not necessary for
me to open my mouth. I daresay to-night there will be one hundred
Africander girls in the saddle in different parts of the Colony. When
the urgency is great, a girl is more reliable than a Kaffir. It is one
of our means of communication. There; is not that an admission worthy
of a loyal Africander?"
_I. O._ (_holding out his hand_) "Good-bye, Miss Pretorius."
* * * * *
It would have been difficult to analyse the Intelligence officer's
feelings as he strode back along the Britstown main street to keep his
appointment with his brigadier. He was at a loss to understand two
things,--the anomalism of his second meeting with the Pretorius girl,
and the latter's attitude towards the Tiger. He could not divest
himself of a feeling of suspicion that all was not quite as it
appeared. There is no walk in life which breeds distrust in one's
fellows so rapidly as that of military Intelligence. And although the
Intelligence officer had only formed an atom in this great structure
of British incompetency in South Africa for two days, yet sufficient
had been borne in upon him during this period to cause him uneasiness
as to the sincerity of motive in those that moved round him. It is
said that the only person that a race-horse trainer will trust is his
wife, and that as long as he trusts her he remains an unsuccessful
man. We cannot say what truth there may be in this ancient turf adage;
but we do know that administrative work successfully performed in the
Intelligence Department of an army in the field leads a man to place
the lowest estimate upon the integrity of his fellows. The first
lesson is of an inverse nature, and compels a man, however he may
dislike the procedure, to believe those who move about him to be
knaves, until he has had opportunity to test their honesty. Young in
his knowledge of the people against whom he had been warring for
eighteen months, the Intelligence officer was exceedingly puzzled at
the strange anomaly presented by the Africander girl he had just left.
He could not help feeling that this daughter of a nation which he had
led himself, if not to despise, at least to depreciate, had fathomed
him in two short interviews, while he had penetrated little beyond the
surface of her feminine attractions and lively wit. He was puzzled at
the outcome of his interview, even perhaps a little alarmed at the
manner in which he had been treated--shocked at the erroneous estimate
which he had formed of Dutch women after eighteen months in their
midst. But this rebuff had served its purpose: it had sown in him the
seeds of that appreciation of our enemy which will have to generally
exist if we are ultimately to live in peace and concord, united as
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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