At her instance a trusted mechanic, working secretly at dead of night, made half a dozen tiny branding-irons in the form of a cross, to be used for branding the traitors between the eyes, when captured red-handed. This drastic measure was, however, not resorted to.
The following story was related to Hansie by her mother soon after her return from the Irene Camp, and must be repeated here for its connection with subsequent events.
One afternoon in June Mrs. van Warmelo had been visited by a young friend, Miss F., with a man whom she introduced as her brother, an unexpected arrival from Europe.
"Indeed!" Mrs. van Warmelo exclaimed. "What a delightful surprise it must have been to you!"
"Yes, but he is leaving again very, very soon. In fact"--here Miss F.'s manner became mysterious--"he is here on a mission and we shall see very little of him."
Mrs. van Warmelo expressed her regret at this, and the conversation naturally turned to the general topic, the war.
Leading questions were put to Mrs. van Warmelo, and she felt that her assistance was required for some purpose or other; but being too discreet to invite her visitors' confidence, she waited.
After beating about the bush a good deal, Miss F. remarked:
"You know the Zoutpansberg District very well, do you not?"
"Yes," Mrs. van Warmelo answered; "we lived there formerly."
"Then you will perhaps know trustworthy people in Pietersburg, people on whom one can thoroughly rely in these days."
"Yes--there is one, at least, on whom I can depend."
"Would there be much risk and difficulty in communicating with General Botha through such a person?" Miss F. inquired.
"General Botha!" Mrs. van Warmelo exclaimed. "But he is not in the north. He is on the High Veld, somewhere south-east of Transvaal, and much easier to communicate with than if he had been in Zoutpansberg."
"How could one get a message through to him?" Miss F. asked, and her hostess decided to beat about the bush no longer.
"Do you not think it would be better to trust me and tell me what you wish to do? I would be better able to answer and help you."
Miss F. then turned to her brother and said:
"Mrs. van Warmelo is quite right. Tell her everything." Upon which the young man explained that he had been sent out on a secret mission connected with a consignment of dynamite which lay buried on the eastern frontier. News had been received in Europe that there was a dearth of explosives and, consequently, a temporary cessation of adventures on the railway lines, and it was for the purpose of communicating the fact that this consignment had arrived that he had travelled to Pretoria via the East Coast and over Durban. How to get into touch with some reliable person in Pretoria who was in direct communication with the Boer forces had been his greatest problem, and he was grateful indeed for Mrs. van Warmelo's guarded promise of assistance.
