CHAPTER XXXI.
JESS FINDS A FRIEND The Boers swooped down on them with a shout, like hawks on a sparrow.
John pulled up his horse and drew his revolver.
"Don't, don't!" cried Jess; "our only chance is to be civil;" whereon, thinking better of the matter, he replaced it, and wished the leading Boer good-day.
"What are you doing here ?" asked the Dutchman; whereon Jess explained that they had a pass--which John promptly produced--and were proceeding to Mooifontein.
"Ah, _Oom_ Croft's!" said the Boer as he took the pass, "you are likely to meet a burying party there," but at the time Jess did not understand what he meant.

He eyed the pass suspiciously all over, and then asked how it came to be stained with water.
Jess, not daring to tell the truth, said that it had been dropped into a puddle.

The Boer was about to return it when suddenly his eye fell upon Jess's saddle.
"How is it that the girl is riding on a man's saddle ?" he asked.

"Why, I know that saddle; let me look at the other side.

Yes, there is a bullet-hole through the flap.