Mrs. van Warmelo held them up to her daughter's view with a significant look. "I am not surprised that he would not take them with him," she said. CHAPTER XXXVII BETRAYED Hansie was one of those unfortunate women who cannot cry, but I believe she cried that night when the awful strain was over, the house quiet and deserted, and the feeling of "nothing to do but wait" creeping over her. She and her mother lay for hours listening for sounds of commotion in the suburb, following in spirit the brave men on their route to the free veld, so perilous and insecure, watching and praying for their safety. At last Hansie fell into a heavy, unrefreshing sleep, from which she was roused in the early dawn by her mother's voice, hurried and extremely agitated. "Hansie, Hansie, come here quick!" "Where, mother? Where are you?" "In the dining-room! Come at once, come and look!" Hansie sprang out of bed, alarmed and now thoroughly roused, and ran into the dining-room, where she found her mother concealing herself behind the lace curtains and cautiously looking out of the window to the Military Camp. She half turned as her daughter approached and said in a whisper: "Don't show yourself. Look, Hansie, we have been betrayed. Our house is suspected. See how it is being watched." Hansie looked and looked again. There was no doubt of it. The sergeant was in excited conversation with a man on horseback, well known to Hansie by sight as a detective in plain clothes. Here and there the soldiers were grouped around other private detectives, on horseback and on foot, talking and gesticulating and pointing to the house in wild excitement. What struck Hansie as almost ludicrous, even at that moment, was the _unbounded astonishment_ betrayed by them. Their looks and gestures spoke as plainly as the plainest words: "Can it be possible? Has that been going on under our noses? And pray, how long?" "There is no doubt about it. We and our house have been betrayed. But cheer up, mother; forewarned is forearmed. Oh, silly fools, to give away their game like that!" "They have not seen us yet, Hansie. They think we are asleep." "Even so, the servants are about. Oh, mother!" "Go and get dressed, Hansie, and let us behave exactly the same as usual. All we can do now is to see that we do not betray that we _know_ we have been betrayed. How do you think this has come about?" "The crowd under the willows last night?" "Gentleman Jim?" "Flippie?" They looked at one another inquiringly and slowly shook their heads. Good reader, after more than ten years, when they talk about this period of their lives, they still look inquiringly at one another and slowly shake their heads. _Who could it have been? How did it come about?_ * * * * *