"That is about what I have heard, Master Yorke. There were bits that I did not hear, for sometimes they talked so low that I could not catch the words. Then they called the wine-shop keeper to pay for what they had had, and went out in a body. I didn't move for half an hour. I thought that perhaps one of them might be watching me from outside the window, and if I had woke up too soon, they might suspect that I had not been really asleep, in which case I should not have gone far before I got a knife between my shoulders. But luckily the landlord came in, and after speaking to me twice, seized me by the collar and shook me. 'Now,' he said, 'you can't be sleeping here any longer. Wake up! You have a shilling to pay for what you have drunk.' "I pretended to fumble about for some time trying to find the money, and then stumbled out of the room. Then I came along in hopes of finding you or Peter to tell you about it." "You have done quite right, Hans. We must join in the game. In the first place, we must find out where the place is. It is seven o'clock now, and there is no time to be lost. Peter, you had better go and get your rifle at once; hide it under your clothes if you can, for it will be daylight for another half hour, and it would never do for you to walk through the streets with a rifle on your shoulder. Be as quick as you can and come back here. I will find out where the place is from the German at my hotel. You come back in half an hour, Hans; it will take Peter that time to get his rifle and return." Then he walked back to his hotel, while the Kaffir went off at a run. "Where about is the Parfontein mine? I forgot I had to go there to see how many cattle he will want next week." "I thought that the mine was shut down," the German said. "No, not altogether. At any rate, he wants some cattle. I forgot all about it until now. But if it is not too far I will walk over." "It is about three miles." "Then I had better take my horse." "It is Chambers's house that you want, I suppose?" "Yes." "Well, you cannot go very far wrong. Go out by the western road, and walk straight on about two miles. You will see a shaft and some tips half a mile away to the left. The house stands a quarter of a mile from there. You can hardly mistake it; it is a large house with a big garden round it. Chambers keeps it watered by a pipe from the engine that pumps the mine." Hans was, as arranged, waiting a short distance away; it had been settled that he had better get a straw-hat instead of the one he was wearing, and walk on alone for a bit.