"
"Yes, Chris; but it will be more trying now that you have your mother
under your charge. It is for her sake as well as your own that I impress
this so strongly upon you. Now, will you go down at once to the railway-
station and enquire about the trains? I shall go myself to the manager
and see whether I can get him to make any special arrangement in your
mother's favour, though I have no great hopes of that; for though I know
him well, he is, like all these Dutchmen in office, an uncivilized brute
puffed up with his own importance."
Chris started at once, and returned an hour later with a very
discouraging report. The station was crowded with people. No regular
trains were running, but while he was there a large number of cattle-
trucks had been run up to the platform, and in these as many of the
fugitives as could be packed in were stowed away. As soon as this was
done the train had started, but not half the number collected on the
platform had found room in it. His father had left a few minutes after
him, and presently returned.
"From what I can hear," he said, "there is no chance whatever of your
being able to get any accommodation, but must take your chance with the
others. Viljoen told me that except the waggons there was not a carriage
of any sort or class left here, and that there was no saying at all when
any would return; but that even if they did, they would be taken for the
use of the troops going south.
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