Aletta: A Tale of the Boer Invasion

The long room was packed full--full of male Boers of all ages: that is to say, from those in earliest manhood to the white-bearded great-grandfathers of the community--Boers of...

"You are in no hurry to go on, are you, Colvin?" said Stephanus De la Rey, while they were at breakfast. "Because, if not, we might take guns and go down to the _hoek_. It's swa...

By nature he was a genial soul was Hans Vermaak, by inclination a jovial one. He would not wantonly have hurt a fly or an Englishman, let alone so companionable a one as Colvin...

That visit to the Wenlocks had been productive of result in more directions than one; still, why should it have affected Aletta De la Rey of all people? Yet affect her it did, i...

A striking contrast no less than a striking personality was offered by the two leading figures in this group as Stephanus De la Rey advanced to welcome his noted visitor. Both w...

Down by the river bed a girl was standing. The river bed was dry. So, too, was the wide, flat expanse of veldt stretching before and around her, and the slopes of two low cliff-...

It was a curious court-martial this before which he was now convened, thought Colvin, the ridiculous side of things striking him, as an hour later he stood once more before the...

The speaker is a big Dutchman, the scene the stoep of a roadside hotel in the Karroo, the spoken-to Frank Wenlock. We regret, however, to be obliged to record that our friend ha...

Up till now Aletta had asked no questions. She had accepted Gert's assurance, of which the man's obvious distress was sufficient confirmation. Her quick-witted, practical nature...

A vision of the portraits flashed through Colvin's mind--the portraits at which he had so often looked, with but faint interest, representing as they did a heavy-looking awkward...

How had it all come about? What was there in this girl that had seized and held his mind--his every thought--ever since he had first set eyes on her, all unexpectedly, that even...

It was beginning to get rather exciting. The big gun, just below, had roared forth its message, and the spectators on the kopje had their field-glasses glued to their eyes, as t...

At the end of the prescribed time Frank Wenlock was marched before the Commandant. His demeanour was very different now to what it had been upon the last occasion. All the swagg...

The scene upon the platform was one of indescribable hubbub and confusion. Passengers, representing all ages and sexes, vociferated in various tongues, and tumbled over piles of...

She had come up there in a fit of the dolefullest dumps, as she herself put it, and in fact those with whom she sojourned hardly recognised her for the blithe, light-hearted gir...

Thus Colvin Kershaw to his henchman, Gert Bondelzwart. The latter was a bastard Griqua--an elderly man, of good height and powerful build. He had taken part in the Langeberg ris...

Petrus Johannes Stephanus Gerhardus Du Plessis, commonly known to his kinsfolk and acquaintance and to the crowd at large as Piet Plessis, was a high official in not the least i...

"We shall have to turn you into a prisoner of war, Colvin," said Piet Plessis a week or so after the breaking out of hostilities. "And, as I feel sort of responsible for your sa...

Standing there within the cave, which had now become his hiding-place, Colvin Kershaw was conscious of very mingled feelings. His hiding-place! Why should he be in hiding? why s...

She had got up in one, and throughout the morning her mother and brother had had the full benefit of it. Why she was in it she could not have told, at least with any degree of d...

"Curious sort of `condemned cell' this," whimsically thought Colvin Kershaw to himself, as he gazed around the place wherein he was confined, and whence Frank Wenlock had escape...

In person he was a tall, middle-aged, rather good-looking man, with dark hair, and a grizzled, well-trimmed moustache, and whose general appearance fostered an idea which consti...

He had spent some weeks with Cronje's force, and into that short space about half a lifetime of strange and stirring experience seemed to have crowded itself. Besides the Modder...

It was a prosperous-looking place. The homestead was large and roomy, and not unpicturesque, with its deep verandah shaded by growing creepers, which, however, at that time of y...

"Oh--. No, don't have him put in the camp," as a Hottentot came up to take the horse. "Just knee-halter him, and let him run. He can pick up enough round the house."

"Who on earth is making all that row?" was Colvin's first remark on awakening from sleep the following morning to the well-worn strains of "Ta-ra-Boomdeay" bellowed in stentoria...

Kenneth Kershaw narrowly scanned the face of this very opportune new arrival, and decided that he didn't know him from Adam. The other looked at him no less fixedly, and it was...

Why had she let him go? she asked herself, a score of times a day. She could have restrained him had she put forth all her influence. Why were men so restless? Why could not thi...

It was Morkel who brought the news. Their deliberations on Frank's fate had lasted for some hours, being interspersed with a sort of impromptu prayer-meeting or two--and in the...

The town of Schalkburg was still in possession of the enemy. The Free State flag waved above the Court-house, and the "patriot" burghers, whether of the Free State commando or r...

The sun had mounted above the eastern end of the Wildschutsberg, and now an arrowy beam, sweeping down from the gilded crags, pierced like a searchlight the cold grey mists of e...

The wind, singing in fitful puffs athwart the coarse grass belts which spring from the stony side of ridge or kopje, alone breaks the dead eerie silence, for the ordinary voices...

good-humoured, smiling, which seemed to strike her. She had been favourably impressed with him the evening before, when he had not shown externally to the best advantage, and, w...

"I like him, mother," replied Aletta. "I oughtn't to because I have heard so much about him. That is sure to start one with a prejudice against anybody. Still, I think I shall....