‘But how is it that I hear your leader wrote, in reply to the protest of the Commandant of Marico against his entry into the country, that he came in reply to a request for help from leading men in Johannesburg to protect life and property, and to help them to obtain certain political rights, for which they had asked a week ago. He also gave you and others to understand that he was going to Johannesburg to protect women and children against goodness knows what. Now the only danger that Johannesburg and its inhabitants may be in might be because they have been in a revolutionary state for the last few days. How could Jameson have known months ago that this would be the case, if he has been preparing himself for months?’
‘Oh, you must be innocent! Do you believe, or do you think we ever believed this story about protecting women and children. Look here! I am a man of the world, and I know when two and two make four. I have kept my eyes and ears open, and I have found out a thing or two, and you may believe me when I say that the whole thing is a deep laid plot to dispossess your Government of all responsibility of the government of the Transvaal. You must know that Johannesburg is altogether too rich to be left in the possession of the Boers, and certain wealthy and avaricious persons in England, Cape Town and Johannesburg have formed a great plot to get possession of your country. You may thank your stars that you have defeated us; if you had allowed us to once enter Johannesburg, I think Paul Kruger and his people would have been lost, and instead of Paul Kruger, Cecil Rhodes would have been your chief, and I pity your people if Cecil Rhodes had them in his power; he would rule them with a rod of iron.’
‘Thank God, Cecil Rhodes is not all-powerful,’ said Steve; ‘even the power of a millionaire and diamond king is limited, and I hope that after this, the eyes of the Colonial Afrikander Bond will be opened, and that his power will be more limited still?’
‘Do your people then know that he is at the head of all this plot and revolution?’
‘We do not know yet positively, but we suspect a great deal, and will know all soon, I expect.’
Steve was very tired that evening, but he saw that many Burghers had had a very hard struggle to arrive in time, and that most of them had slept even less than he had done the last few days, and not one of them complained, or tried to shirk duty, therefore he volunteered for guard duty or anything else that he might be required for. He was then appointed to be one of the guards escorting the officers to Pretoria.