Numbers of them are working men, either from
Johannesburg or belonging to Natal; they would find it very difficult to
get work here, and the five shillings a day pay is therefore of the
greatest importance to them. But it is different with us. We don't draw
pay, we simply agreed to band ourselves together to have an opportunity
of paying out the Boers for their treatment of us. At the time we agreed
to that, we had no idea that they would invade Natal. Of course that was
an additional inducement to us to fight. As loyalists, and capable of
bearing arms, it would have been our duty, even if we had no personal
feeling in the matter, to enlist to help to clear the country of the
enemy who invaded it. Now that Ladysmith is rescued and there are
certainly enough troops in South Africa to finish the business up, I do
not see that it is our duty to continue our service. Anyhow, I have
pretty well made up my mind to resign and go round to Cape Town. There I
am almost sure to find my mother, and perhaps my father, for we know
that they have expelled almost all the English remaining about the
mines, and he may have been among them."
"I agree with you heartily," Sankey said. "At any rate, I should vote
for our breaking up for the present.
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