"Have you a room disengaged?" he asked the landlord on entering. The landlord looked doubtful. "I don't want to commandeer a room," Yorke went on; "I pay for what I have." The landlord's face brightened. "Yes, I have a double-bedded room vacant." "That will do, though I should have liked two single ones. My native boy will of course sleep in the stable with the horses. If you will show me my room he will carry up my spare rifle and blankets there. We shall want a meal at once, for we have but just arrived by train from Bloemfontein." The meal was a good one, and after it was eaten Yorke went to the bar; the landlord was standing behind it. "I will pay for our meals as we have them," Yorke said, "and for the room for to-night. I don't know when I may be off, and I may be sent suddenly away, so that it is as well to keep things squared up. So please add the charge for the stable and food for the horses." The landlord made out the bill, and when he had paid it Yorke said, "I should like to have a talk with you. It is difficult to get news at Bloemfontein as to what is going on down here, and as I have only just arrived, I am altogether ignorant as to the situation." "If you will come into my parlour behind the bar I will tell you what I know." "I dare say you have some good cigars?" Yorke asked when they were seated. "Yes, but I don't sell many of them at present." He took a box out of a cupboard, where it was hidden under some corks and dusters. Yorke took out two, handed one to the landlord and lighted the other himself. "You are English, I see." "Yes, we are mostly English here--worse luck just at present." "I am English too," Yorke said, speaking for the first time in his own language. The landlord looked at him in astonishment. "I should never have thought it," he said. "You speak Dutch ever so much better than I do, and you look like a Boer all over." "Yes, I am disguised. I have made my way down from Johannesburg, and I want to get through the Boer lines. That is what I want to talk to you about. Where are they now? First, tell me what has been done here." "Well, on the 1st of November the Boers came in here, and had their own way for two months. Then on the 1st of January General French came up and surrounded the place, and there was fighting in the hills for two or three days; but the Boers captured a company of the Suffolks who attacked a hill outside the town, and they were afterwards reinforced so strongly that, after repulsing one attack, French retired, and things have been quiet since. The English hold Molteno. A good many men have gone down that way." "Do you know what commandos are here now?" "They are principally Colonial rebels, some from the west and some from the south." "You have the Philippolis commando here, have you not?" "We had till yesterday, and then they were summoned to go to Steynsburg, for they say that one of our columns is advancing against Dordrecht."