" Thafa what's been puzzlin' me since I 'ad the pleas-
ure o' meetin' you," said Copper. "You ain't 'alf-
caste, but you talk chee^hee — jmkka bazar chee-cbee-
Pnxxied."



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156 TRAFFICS AND DISCOVERIES

'* Hullo/' said the Sergeant of the picket^ twenty min-
utes later^ "where did you round him up?'*

"On the top o' yonder craggy mounting. There's a
mob of *em sitting round their Bibles seventeen 'undred
yards (you said it was seventeen 'undred ?) t'other side
— ^an' I want some coflfee." He sat down on the smoke-i
blackened stones by the fire.
"'Ow did you get 'im?" said McBride, professional
himiorist, quietly filching the English weekly from
under Copper's armpit.
"On the chin — ^while 'e was waggin' it at me."

"What is 'e? 'Nother Colonial rebel to be 'orribly
disenfranchised, or a Cape Minister, or only a loyal
farmer with dynamite in both boots. Tell us all about
it, Burjer!"

"You leave my prisoner alone," said Private Copper.
"'E's 'ad losses an' trouble; an' it's in the family too.
'E thought I never read the papers, so 'e kindly lent me
his very own Jerrold^B Weekly — ^an' 'e explained it to mc
as patronisin' as a — ^as a militia subaltern doin' Railway
Staff Officer. 'E's a left-over from Majuba— one of
the worst kind, an' 'earin' the evidence as I did, I don't
exactly blame 'im. It was this way."

To the picket Private Copper held forth for ten min-
utes on the life-history of his captive. Allowing for
some purple patches, it was an absolute fair rendering.
