"Please pass it round, cornet. I am afraid it won't go very far, but you are heartily welcome to it. I don't drink it myself, but I generally carry it in case I should get hurt anyhow, or sprain my ankle among your rocks. I may as well hand you this pistol too," Yorke said--it had been unnoticed in the dark by the men who had taken his rifle--"it is certain that your people will not let me keep it, and you may as well have it as another; but I do not suppose your cartridges will fit it." He had dropped his own on the way. "As you say, I may as well have it as another," the field cornet said taking it. "Besides, it might go off by the way, and it is well to avoid the possibility of accidents. Now, as you have given me your word of honour that you will not try to escape to-night, will you assure me, on your word of honour, that you have not come out to gather information--in fact, that you are not a spy?" "Willingly, sir. I give you my word of honour that I am not sent out on any such mission. I was simply told to make my way to the Modder, and, so far from trying to make out your arrangements, my great object was to try to avoid coming near any of you." "What he says is true, I am certain," the Boer said in Dutch to his companions. "I am sure by his face that he is not lying. It is a shame to have sent a lad like this on such an errand. However, I will send a strong letter with him in the morning to the commandant at Boshof, and assure him that there is no question whatever that this young officer's story is true, and that he is entitled to be treated as a prisoner of war. We have not gone into this fight in order to kill as many Englishmen as possible, but because we want to help our friends of the Transvaal to keep their independence; and I for one hope that there will be no more bloodshed than necessary. Young fellows like this simply do what they are ordered, just as we do. "Of course we both do our best when we are fighting. Certainly we have no ground for animosity against England; she has always kept her engagements with us, and we have been just as independent as if there were no one in South Africa but ourselves. We have always been good friends with the English who live among us. Once it comes to killing spies they could kill a hundred of our men to every one we could kill. We know everything that passes in Natal or Cape Colony from our friends there, and it is only natural that they should want to know what is passing among us. If we shoot a man on the ground that he is a spy, they may shoot hundreds of Dutch, who are sending us news from among them. We have not heard of their shooting one; and I say if we find an Englishman doing what so many of our men are doing let us stop his work by imprisoning him until the war is over. If the Transvaalers like to act differently we cannot help it. They hate the English. Why, I don't know, for they have all got rich at their expense. Still, they do hate them.