The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1903-09-11
The Mercy of the Boer
A Wartime
Story of the TronsvooI

&s$&S sSsSs X X X * II X y
Night had just fallen upon the veldt.
The short dusk had suddenly deepened
into a heavy, thick obscurity, i'm
penetrable for space until there rose
the rim of full moon over the edge
clear against the great disk. The ant
hills, that alone broke the monotonous
fairness, flung interminable inky shad-
ows as the cold white glare, electric
in it's fierce intensity, shone out level
across the plains.
BY the edge of the marsh a transport
wagon had outspanned for the night,
and within the circle of freight,
where moon and fame struggled for
the mastery, doomed the wavering
outlines of the trek oxen tethered to
the disselboom, and now and again
the figure of a man.
The only sounds were the cracking
chirps of the bullfrogs in the vlei, and
the voices of two men who sat leaning
back against the kaross of meer-kat
skins flung over one OF the wagon
wheels.
moi" repeated the elder man, the
transport rider and owner of the
wagon-raising his voice. with us
they shall not come-either she or the
brat"
But look, Jakob," persisted the
other; sit is now three weeks, four
weeks, that we are on the trek, and
she has followed all the time, and car
ried the child, too. How the poor girl
lives l do not know. Take only the
child, Jakob."
How are we to eat? How is the
vrouw to eat?" demanded the Boer
Querulously Are there not enough
mouths to fill already? And God
knows how much further the span can
go without water in this accursed
country; they have enough to pull, as
it is. And why should / feed the wife
and child of every black schelm that
is fool enough to want them? Yer
domte swartzkop!" And he spat
angrily into the fire.
But the child" persisted Piet;
chat is small and eats but little, not
quarter as much as a dog. Besides,
Klaus may run away if the girl falls
sick, and he alone knows the road and
the drifts across the river"
There was a moments pause. well,
then, the brat, in Gods name" snap
ped the other. The girl can walk, as
she has walked these three weeks he
added, and rolled himself into his rug
to avoid further surrender.
Piet rose stiffly to his feet; the night
breeze was growing chill. He knocked
the ashes out of his pipe, kicked some
fuel into the embers of the fire and
went around to the other side of the
wagon, where the three Basuto boys
were lying.
"Klaus!" he called. "Here a mo-
ment!"
A grunt from one of the blankets
answered him.
''Baas Jakob says baby may ride
with the vrouw In the wagon, but the
girl must still walk"
There was sudden movement at his
feet and dark figure rolled out of
81 Tue DlankeI.
No, boy. no! Not that" His hand
was being covered with kisses. Piet
drew it sharply away, and, taking a
strip of biltong from his pocket, thrust
It into the Basuto's grasp. Here, this
may help for the girl; 1t was all !
4 could get" he answered roughly, and
I turning on his heel he went back to
where his brother lay sleeping. Baas
3 Piet was as ayerse to being generous
as the transport rider. though for
other reasons.
ss Fora while Klaus lay still. ss
Presently carrying the piece Of hard
ssSundried meat and his own supper Of
boiled mealies, he crept shivering from
Y Hi blanket and went slowly out to the
K silent yeldt, n the direction b from
4 which the wagon had come, @ Is had
d zone every sight II listen for ths
sixn1l that told ht1ls Retta ~ Tiers
n Anoag - mi hills Then rs 1oni6
eleSf ~ w and nj lbsside M Whlls
- ~ soils otts III: spooF fa&ie