Shall I win her Author:James Grant Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Despite the skill and exertions of Hans van Bommel, his brother boors, and myself, no further track or trace could be discovered. An entire day w... more »e lingered on the western bank of the Keiskamma Eiver, searching, but in vain. A long, sorrowful, and agonising conference ensued between Douglas and me, and we came at last to the grim and bitter conclusion that there was nothing for us left now but to commit those we loved to the providence of heaven, while we pushed on to head-quarters and joined the troops in the field. Indeed, Douglas's strict line of duty required him to do so imperatively, as he had been wandering too long with his detachment already, but chiefly in consequence of his guide, the Cape Rifleman, having misled him. If the boors would have accompanied me, I was not disinclined to have ventured intothe bush, in search of intelligence; but they shrunk from a task so perilous, so I now resumed my former plan of accompanying Douglas, and joining the field force as a volunteer, inspired only by the emotions of desperation and revenge. ' If, by the general's permission, a flag of truce were sent to Sandilli, to inquire into the fate of the two captives, I would gladly be its bearer, and for such a duty none could be better fitted than I.' ' But a flag of truce to such utter savages!' urged Douglas. ' True, true,' said I bitterly. It did seem a hopeless errand, certainly;- but I thought much might be achieved by one accustomed to five years' wandering in the land of the boors, and even far beyond its dangerous frontier. If the sisters were surviving even when that attempt was made, what might they not have endured from toil, privation, heat, and exposure? Fever was, perhaps, the smallest human ill; but, more than all, what might they not h...« less