Sean stood up and they closed in on the camp.
'Wake up, gentlemen. Breakfast is ready.' Sean shouted in the Taal,
and each burgher woke to find a man standing over him and the muzzle of
a Lee, Metford pressing into his chest.
'Build up that fire, ' Sean ordered. 'Take their rifles. ' It had
been too easy, he spoke roughly in the irritation of anti, climax,
'Mbejane, bring the one from the rock, I want to see how gently YOU
dealt with him.
Mbejane dragged him into the firelight and Sean's lips tightened as he
saw the way the man's head lolled and his legs hung
'He's dead,'
Sean accused.
'He sleeps, Nkosi,' MbeJane denied.
Sean knelt beside him and twisted his face to catch the light.
Not a man, a lad with a thin bitter face and the fluff of pale, imature
beard on his cheeks. In the corner of his eye a stye had burst to matt
the closed lashes with yellow pus. He was breathing.
Sean glanced up at the other prisoners. They were being herded away
out of earshot.
'Water, Mbejane. ' And the Zulu brought a canteen from the fire while
Sean explored the hard swelling above the boy's temple 'He'll do,' Sean
grunted, and curled his lips in distaste at what he must do as soon as
the lad recovered. He must do it while he was still groggy and bemused
by the blow. From his cupped hand he splashed cold water into his face
and the boy gasped and rolled his head.
'Wake up,' Sean urged quietly in the Taal. 'Wake up.
'Oom Paul?' The Boer mumbled.
'Wake up. ' The lad struggled to sit.
'Where ... You're English! ' As he saw the uniform.
'Yes,' Sean snapped. 'We're English. You've been caught.'
'Oom. Paul?' The boy looked round wildly.
Don't worry about him. He'll be with you on the boat to Mt. Helena.
Leroux and Zietsmann were both caught on the Vaal yesterday. We were
waiting for them at the Padda and they walked right into the trap.'
'Oorn Paul caught!' The boy's eyes were wide with shock.
still dazed and out of focus. 'But how did you know? There must have
been a traitor, someone must have told. How did you know about the
meeting, place? ' He stopped abruptly as his brain caught up with his
tongue. 'But how ... Oom Paul couldn't be on the Vaal yet, we left him
only yesterday. ' Then sickeningly he realized what he had done. 'You
tricked me,' he whispered. 'You tricked me.'
'I'm sorry, ' Sean said simply. He stood up and walked across to where
Eccles was securing his prisoners.
'When Captain Friedman arrives tell him to bring the column into the
garrison at Vereeniging and wait for me there. I am going ahead with
my servant, ' he said abruptly, then called across to Mbejane.
'Mbeiane, bring my horse.' He would trust no one else to carry the
news to Acheson.
The following afternoon Sean reached the railway line guarded by its
blockhouses and flagged a northbound train. The next morning he
