Paulus warned him.
'Are you his friend?'
'And his kinsman too.
'The hell with you then also.' The sentry laughed again.
'Will you drink coffee with us?
It was an ideal opportunity for Jan Paulus to mingle with his men and
gauge their temper for tomorrow. 'Dankie. ' He accepted the
invitation.
'Good.' The sentry straightened up and Jan Paulus saw he was a big
man, made taller by the homburg hat he wore. 'Karl, is there any
coffee left in the pot?' He yelled into the darkness beyond the rocks
and was answered immediately.
'in the name of God, must you bellow? This is a battlefield, not a
political meeting.
'The English are as loud. I've heard them all night.'
'The English are fools. Must you be the same?'
'For you, only for you.' The sentry dropped his voice to a sepulchral
whisper, and then roared again suddenly: 'But what about that damned
coffee?'
This one is not short of stomach, Jan Paulus grinned to himself, as the
man, still chuckling happily, placed an arm about his shoulder and led
him to the screened fire among the rocks.
Three burghers squatted about it with blankets draped over their
shoulders. They were talking among themselves as the sentry and Jan
Paulus approached.
'The moon will be down in half an hour,' one of them said.
'Ja. I will not be happy to see it gone. If the English plan a night
attack, then they will come in the dark of the moon. ' 'Who is with
you?' Karl asked as they came towards the fire.
'A friend,' the sentry replied.
'From what commando?'
'The Wynbergers,' Jan Paulus answered for himself, and Karl nodded and
lifted the battered enamel coffee-pot from the fire, you are with Oorn
Paul. And what does he think of our chances for tomorrow?'
'That of a man with one bullet left in thick cat bush with a lung shot
buffalo coming down in full charge.'
'And does it worry him?'
'Only a madman knows no fear. Oom Paul is afraid. But he tries not to
show it, for fear spreads among men like the white sore throat
diphtheria,' Jan Paulus replied as he accepted the mug of coffee and
settled down against a rock out of the firelight so they would not
recognize his face nor the colour of his beard.
'Show it or not,' grunted the sentry as he filled his mug.
'But I reckon he'd give one of his eyeballs to be back on his farm at
Wynberg with his wife beside him in the double bed.'
Jan Paulus felt the glow of anger in his belly and his voice as he
replied as harsh.
'You think him a coward!'
'I think I would rather stand on a hill a mile behind the fighting and
