With Roberts to Pretoria: A Tale of The South African War

YORKE MEETS AN OLD FRIEND.

WITH ROBERTS TO PRETORIA

A TALE OF

THE SOUTH AFRICAN WAR

BY

G.A. HENTY

Author of "With Buller in Natal" "In the Irish Brigade" "For Name and Fame" "With Cochrane the Dauntless" &c.

WITH TWELVE ILLUSTRATIONS BY WILLIAM RAINEY, R.I.
AND A MAP

NEW YORK

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

1901

Copyright, 1901,
BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

Published September, 1901

THE CAXTON PRESS
NEW YORK

PREFACE

The war in South Africa may be roughly divided into three parts. First, The desperate fighting in Natal, which culminated in the relief of Ladysmith. Second, The advance towards Kimberley begun by Lord Methuen but arrested at Magersfontein, and renewed with a vastly greater force by Lord Roberts and pushed forward to Pretoria, involving the relief of Kimberley and the capture of Cronje at Paardeberg, but unmarked by any resistance comparable with that experienced by Buller. Third, The advance to Komati Poort, the breaking down of all organized opposition, and the degeneration of the war into isolated efforts by guerilla bands capable of annoyance but powerless to affect the issue. The first of these chapters was told last year in With Buller in Natal.

The second phase of the struggle did not afford such examples of warfare on a large scale as might have been anticipated. The operations of Lord Methuen for the relief of Kimberley were brought to a stand-still by the inadequacy of the comparatively small force under his command for the task of breaking down the opposition of the Boer army, holding, like that before Ladysmith, a position of immense natural strength. With the advance, however, of the army under General Roberts, resistance on a large scale virtually collapsed.

It might have been supposed that the Boers would resist the advance upon their capital as sturdily as they had opposed the relief of Ladysmith, and that at least they would fight one great battle, supported by the forts with which they had surrounded Pretoria. It turned out otherwise. Although brave and tenacious when fighting under the cover of rocks, the Boers had not the heart to venture even once to face the British in the open, and were turned out of one after another of their carefully-prepared positions without making any determined stand. After Cronje's force had been captured at Paardeberg, and the force that had advanced to his assistance driven off the road to Bloemfontein, no serious opposition was offered to the advance to Pretoria.

The third phase was marked at first by many exciting incidents, but by no great battle. The Boers defended some of the positions taken up by them with bravery and determination, but when once the railway to Komati Poort had fallen into our hands the war degenerated into a guerilla struggle. It was a war of raids, sometimes by a comparatively strong force and at others by handfuls of plunderers; a war trying and fatiguing in the extreme, and demanding extraordinary endurance on the part of our troops, but of which the end was always in sight. The obstinacy of the Boers had only the effect of bringing ruin upon their own countrymen and women; it could by no possibility alter the final result.

I have now endeavoured to recount the leading incidents in the second phase of the war, and although events have moved so rapidly that the capture of Pretoria is already an old story, I may hope that it has not yet lost its interest with British boys, and that With Roberts to Pretoria will meet with as favourable a reception as that given last year to its companion volume.

G.A. HENTY.

CONTENTS

WITH ROBERTS TO PRETORIA

[CHAPTER I]

A CHANGE OF FORTUNE

IT was a sad morning at the Rectory of Waverfield, in Somersetshire. The living was not a valuable one, but the rector, John Harberton, possessed a private income derived from shares in a bank in the Midlands, that had hitherto been considered a stable and flourishing institution. That morning one of the first items in the paper that met his eye was: "Failure of the Birmingham and Coventry Banking Company. Reported heavy liabilities. Wide-spread dismay."

"It is a great misfortune, my dear," the rector said, after the first exclamations of surprise and lamentation had ceased. "Still, thank God, we have our church income remaining; that cannot be touched, and we are more fortunate than many others. Naturally it will make a great difference to us, but we can do without many of the things to which we have been hitherto accustomed. Of course we must sell our horses, the brougham, and dog-cart, and content ourselves with the pony and carriage. Fortunately the girls have nearly finished their education, and it has been already arranged that our good friend here, Miss Millar, should leave at midsummer. It is a comfort to think, Miss Millar, that our misfortune will not affect you."

"Not at all, sir," the governess said. "I have already arranged with the lady, to whom you recommended me, to enter her service at the end of the summer holidays; but I most deeply regret that such a misfortune has happened to you, and had the girls been younger I would gladly have remained to finish their education, without there being any question of salary between us."

"You are very good, Miss Millar, but happily the matter has already been arranged. The greatest difficulty will be about you, Yorke. I am afraid that there will be no possibility whatever of sending you back to Rugby."

"Don't worry about me, father," the lad said, with an effort at cheerfulness, though the thought of leaving the school he loved was a painful one indeed. "I shall get on all right somehow; and you know there was never any chance of my doing anything brilliant. Though I don't say that I shall not be sorry to leave Rugby, that is nothing beside your having to give up the horses and carriage and all sorts of other things."

"It will, of course, make a wide difference to us, Yorke," his father said gravely; "but this must be faced in the right spirit. Our lot has been an exceptionally pleasant one up to the present time, and I hope that none of us will repine. I shall henceforth be as other clergymen having nothing but my stipend to depend upon."

"But will nothing be saved out of the wreck, John?" Mrs. Harberton asked.

"It would be as well to assume at once, Annie that it will be all lost; and I can only trust that, when matters are gone into, all depositors who have trusted in the bank will be paid in full. Fortunately it is a limited concern, and the money I have invested elsewhere will be sufficient to pay the amount uncalled-up on our shares. Had it been otherwise, our home might have been sold up; as it is, we shall be able to keep all the surroundings to which we are accustomed. I shall at once give notice to the coachman and gardener. The boy must be kept on. He can look after the pony, and do the rough work in the garden with the aid of a man hired for a day occasionally. One of the maids must, of course, go. We shall see how well we can manage, and I hope we shall be able to keep on the other two. We shall have to practise many little economies. Owing to the fall in the tithes and the value of the glebe land, we shall not be able to reckon upon more than £250 a year at the outside from the living, and the interest upon a few hundred pounds that may remain after the shares are paid up."

The calm tone in which the rector spoke had its effect. His wife dried her eyes; the girls, who had looked stunned at the blow which had at once swept away three-fourths of their father's income, pressed each other's hands silently, and the elder said cheerfully: "Yes, father, Bella and I will take charge of the garden, and I am sure that we shall be able to make our own dresses after a little practice, and we can make ourselves useful in all sorts of ways."

"That is the right spirit, Lucy," her father said approvingly. "We shall all be called upon to make some sacrifices, you girls not least. Although doubtless, you will have less gaiety than you before looked forward to, you will still be able to have a good deal of society in a quiet way—more, probably, than falls to the lot of the daughters of most incumbents with slender incomes; and as we are intimate with all the gentry round, I am sure that none of those we care about knowing will turn a cold shoulder on us because we have, without any fault of our own, what is called 'come down in the world.' Those who like us for ourselves will continue to do so; those who only cared for us because of our garden parties and dinners can be very well dispensed with. We have always been a very happy family, and, if we choose, can be the same in the future. As to Yorke, I must myself take charge of his education in future."

"Thank you, father!" Yorke said quietly. He was about to say something more, but he checked himself.

"Of course we must give up the idea of going to the skating party in Sir William Morton's park to-morrow," Mrs. Harberton said.

"I see no reason for our doing so," the rector said gently. "We can't sell our horses and carriage in twenty-four hours, and I should certainly prefer to go. It would be but a bad example to our neighbours if it were seen that we are broken in spirit by a worldly misfortune. Many of them know that my income was chiefly drawn from the bank. I am always preaching patience and contentment to our congregation, very many of whom have suffered heavily from agricultural distress, and what I preach we can practise, and without undervaluing the advantages of money, we can show them that we have no idea of grieving over its loss. One of my greatest regrets is that in future we shall be somewhat stinted in our means of helping our neighbours."

The next day, accordingly, the rector, his wife, and daughters drove over to the skating party, and although a few knew how great was the change effected in their circumstances by the crash at the bank, the majority believed that the report that the greater part, if not the whole, of the rector's private property had been swept away, had been grossly exaggerated, for there was nothing in their manner or appearance to afford any indication of their changed position. Yorke said that he would rather stay at home, and, when the others, started, went to the stables, and patted and talked to the horses. He had ridden all of them; for, three years before, he had been promoted from his pony, and in his holidays took long rides with his father. He had learned also to take the horses over hurdles erected in the field behind the house, and, under the instruction of his father's coachman, who had once been a stud groom, had acquired an excellent seat.

"And what are you going to do, Master Yorke?" the man asked, for he had already heard from Mr. Harberton that circumstances had occurred that would oblige him to give up his carriage and horses, but that he would try to find him another situation.

"I am not going back to school, that is quite settled. Of course it is a beastly nuisance, but it can't be helped. My father says that he intends to teach me himself; but, what with parish work, and one thing and another, I know it would be a very tiresome job for him. But even if he did, I don't see that it would be of any great use to me. Of course I cannot go up to the University now; I am not altogether sorry for that, for, you know, my father always wished me to go into the church, and although, so far, I have said nothing against it, I don't feel that I am in any way cut out for the job. Anyhow, I don't like the thought of being a drag on his hands, for after I had done with work with him there would be a terrible difficulty about getting me a berth of some kind.

"I would rather do anything in the world than be a clerk and be stuck in an office all day. That is the worst of going to a public school, you get to hate the idea of an indoor life. I would rather a hundred times go to sea or enlist in the army, when I am old enough; at any rate in the army I should see something of the world and keep myself, and at the end of my five years' service might find some opening. Then there is my father's cousin out at the Cape. When he was here last year, I know he offered to take me out with him. Of course father would not hear of it then, there was no reason why he should; but things have changed, and I don't see why I should not go now. I am getting on for sixteen, you know, and can ride and all that sort of thing, and I shot regularly last winter, and brought down some partridges too."

"Not many, master," the man said with a grin.

"No, not many," the boy admitted; "still, it was my first year, and I had only a single barrel; father himself said I did very fairly, and that he had no doubt that I should make a good shot in time."

"I have no doubt that you would, Master Yorke," the man said heartily. "You have learned to ride well, and a man with a good seat on a horse is generally good behind a gun."

Yorke Harberton was, as he said, nearly sixteen, and was a typical public-school boy—straight and clean-limbed, free from all awkwardness, bright in expression, and possessed of a large amount of self-possession, or, as he himself would have called it, "cheek;" was a little particular about the set of his Eton jacket and trousers and the appearance of his boots; as hard as nails and almost tireless; a good specimen of the class by which Britain has been built up, her colonies formed, and her battle-fields won—a class in point of energy, fearlessness, the spirit of adventure, and a readiness to face and overcome all difficulties, unmatched in the world. His thoughts were turned into a fresh channel by his conversation with William, and he strolled away with his hands deep in his pockets and his mind busy.

"Well, Yorke, what have you been doing with yourself?" was his father's first question when he returned.

"I don't know that I have been doing anything, father."

"Which does not mean that you have been in mischief, I hope?"

"No," the boy laughed, "I haven't. I went to the stables first, and since then I have been walking about the garden."

"That is quite a new amusement, Yorke, especially in winter," one of his sisters said in a tone of astonishment. "Fancy you walking round and round the garden! Wonders will never cease!"

"Well, it is quite as sensible, anyhow, Lucy, as tearing about the grass playing lawn tennis on a hot summer's day."

Like most boys of that age, Yorke, though very fond of his sisters, regarded them as mere girls, and especially objected to being in any way, as he considered, patronized by them.

"But you know, my dear," his mother said gently, "it is not often you do walk about the garden by yourself, so it was natural that Lucy should be surprised."

"Quite natural, mother," Yorke admitted frankly. "Well, I have been thinking over something."

"And what conclusion have you arrived at, Yorke?" his father asked.

The boy hesitated. "I will tell you after breakfast to-morrow," he said, "it is too long to talk about now." Then he asked questions about the afternoon they had spent, and the subject was not alluded to before him until the next morning, although he was the chief topic of conversation between his father and mother that night.

"The boy has something in his head," Mr. Harberton said. "There can be no doubt that this very unfortunate business affects him more seriously than the rest of us. To us it means a quieter life, less gaiety, and a little pinching; to him it means a great deal more—it is a change in his whole prospects, a change in his career. I think that would have come anyhow; Yorke has never said that he disliked the thought of going into the church, but the mere fact that it was a topic he always avoided is quite sufficient to show that his heart was not in it. I should in no case have exercised any strong influence in the matter, for unless a man feels he has a call to the vocation it is better that he should not enter it. Now, I should be still more unwilling to put any pressure whatever upon him. Certainly I shall not be able to afford to send him to college, unless he could gain an open scholarship that would go far towards paying his expenses. But of that I see no prospect whatever.

"Yorke is no fool, but he has no great application, and his school reports show that, although not at the bottom of his form, he is never more than half-way up. If viewed merely as a worldly profession, the church is now the worst that a young man can enter. The value of the livings has long been falling off, owing to the drop in value of tithes and land. The number of curates is immensely larger than that of livings, and the chance of preferment, unless through powerful patronage, is but slight. In other professions a man's value is in proportion to his age. In the church it is otherwise. No incumbent likes having a curate older than himself, and a man of fifty will obtain less pay than one of five-and-twenty; and I see no prospect whatever of any improvement. While some classes have become more wealthy, the landed gentry, who may be considered the best supporters of the church, have become poorer, owing in part to the fall in the value of land, and to the very heavy death and succession duties. It would need much national effort to make any real improvement in our condition, and I see no hope of such a national effort being made. I should not be greatly surprised if, as a result of his cogitations to-day, Yorke tells me to-morrow that he has made up his mind to give up all idea of entering the church."

"I should be sorry," Mrs. Harberton said almost tearfully; "I have so looked forward to it."

"I doubt whether he would have gone in any circumstances," her husband said, "and I certainly should not have urged him to do so had he expressed any reluctance. It is in my opinion the highest and noblest career that man can adopt, but it must be only taken up with the highest motives. Yorke is a good lad, but neither studious nor serious in his disposition. Possibly, had I kept him at home and had a tutor for him, he would willingly have fallen in with our hopes and wishes; but it was on that very account that I sent him to a public school. There is nothing more unfortunate than that a man should too late discover that he has mistaken his avocation. As it is, his decision, if it is his decision, has been quickened by this crash. The path to the church is no longer easy for him, and I fancy that while we were away to-day he has been laying his own plans for the future."

"He is so young to have any plans at all, John."

"He is nearly sixteen," the rector said decidedly, "and a public-school boy of that age has learned to think more for himself, and to be more independent, than one two years older who has always been kept at home, or perhaps educated with two or three others by a clergyman. I have always taught him to be self-reliant, have let him ride my horses, and generally act on his own devices. As long as I was in a position to maintain and advance him in any career he might choose, I had a right to a very considerable influence over him. I still retain the right to advise and to warn; but I should no longer oppose his wishes, providing that these were not altogether impracticable."

"You would not let him go to sea, surely?" his wife said. "All boys seem to want to go to sea."

"I should certainly be sorry if he set his mind on that. He is too old for the Royal Navy, but I could afford to pay the usual premium required for his entry as an apprentice, as it is called, in a good firm of ship-owners. I should be sorry, because we should see him so seldom; otherwise, personally, I have no objection to the life. I had a younger brother in the merchant service. He died a few months before I married you. But his death had nothing to do with the sea service; he liked it very much, and never regretted having entered it. However, we can wait till we know what Yorke says in the morning."

When breakfast was over, the rector said: "Now, Yorke, come into my study and we will have a grand council. Now, sit down comfortably," he went on, "and tell me exactly what you have been thinking of. It is only natural that you should have considered seriously the changes that this unfortunate affair has necessitated, and as you have plenty of common sense, we will gladly hear your views about it."

"It is evident that I cannot go back to Rugby, father."

"I fear that is the case, Yorke. I don't see how it could be done. I shall have but a very small balance left after paying the calls that will be made upon me, and I must set apart a portion of my income to insure my life for the benefit of your mother and sisters, in case I should be called away. At the same time that need not necessarily deter you from carrying out your plan of entering the church. I took a second class at Oxford, and could work with you at home and push you forward, and I have no doubt that our bishop would ordain you when the time arrived."

"Thank you, father," Yorke said quietly, "but the more I think of it the less willing I am to enter the church. I don't think that I am fit for it, and I am sure that I should never make a good clergyman. I cannot fancy myself working for years, perhaps, among the poor in some manufactory town. I meant to tell you so before long in any case. I am sorry, because I know that you and the mater have always wished it."

"That is so, but I should not press you, Yorke," his father said. "In the church, above all other careers, a worker must be a willing worker, and his heart must be in it. If it is not, he is far better out of it. You have not surprised me at all. And now let us consider that settled. I suppose you have been thinking of something else?"

"I have been thinking of all sorts of things, father. I thought about going to sea, but I am not sure that I should like it. Besides, I want to get on; I want to be a help instead of a burden—not, of course, at first, but in something where there is a chance of making one's way, and in case—in case—You know what I mean, father?—I might be able to provide a home for the mater and the girls."

"Quite right, Yorke," his father said encouragingly. "Of course you are very young yet, and I am, so far as I know, a strong and healthy man. Still, life is always uncertain, and even if I am spared for many years, it is hardly likely that I shall be able to make any great provision for them. Certainly, I shall not be able to afford to insure my life for any adequate sum for their comfortable maintenance. I shall do my best. Still, I am in hopes that in the meanwhile your sisters will be married and provided for. Well, what were you thinking of, Yorke?"

"I was thinking that as my cousin, Herbert Allnutt, offered last year to take me back to the Cape with him for a year or two, it would be a good thing to go out there. If I were to stay with him for a couple of years, I should have got to know the country. You see, as he has been out there for so long, he must have lots of friends, and he would be able to give me plenty of introductions. He is near the railway from Cape Town, and he must know people up in the mining district, so I might get a good berth through him. What sort of post, of course, I cannot guess; but from what one hears, a young fellow who is steady, and so on, is sure to make his way. Of course I should never think of settling down to farming, as he has done, but there must be plenty of other openings. Out there, at any rate, I shall be able to earn my own living to start with, which is more than I could do here, and I would a thousand times rather lead that sort of life than take a place as a clerk."

Mr. Harberton was silent for a minute or two.

"The greatest objection I see to it," he said at last, "is that the state of things there is very unsettled. Ever since the Jameson raid, matters seem to have been getting worse. That expedition was a very unfortunate one. It was ill-advised and premature, but it was the outcome of great wrong. There is no doubt that the Europeans in the Transvaal are abominably treated by the Boers. Still, now that Chamberlain has taken up the matter, something must be done, and no doubt when the white colonists are placed on the same footing as the Boers, matters in the Transvaal will be greatly improved. Your cousin was saying that there are gold-fields yet untouched, because the amount of extortion on the part of the Boer people, the necessity for large bribes, the tremendous taxation, and the cost of powder and other matters, which are the subject of monopolies, are so great, that all fresh industries are stopped, and the existing ones crippled. When these are abolished, as they must be sooner or later, there will be an immense impetus to business.

"It may be two or three years before matters are placed upon a proper footing, and by the time you are old enough to avail yourself of such chances, things may have settled down, and there will be a rush of immigration. I do not know much about these matters, but I believe that steady and energetic young men, acquainted with the country, will have great opportunities. From what your cousin said, the Boers have for years been quietly building fortifications and collecting arms; but I can hardly think they will be mad enough to defy the demands of England for the fair treatment of the class they call Uitlanders, especially as the latter were guaranteed all rights of equality by the last treaty. Well, I will think it over, Yorke. It is quite a new idea to me, but at the first blush I am not inclined to reject it. There can be no doubt that a young fellow, fairly well educated, energetic, and above all, steady and well-conducted, has a far greater chance of making his way in South Africa than he would have in older, or at least more established, colonies. It would be a great advantage to you to have two or three years' experience there before you set out for yourself, and the benefit of Allnutt's introductions would, no doubt, be considerable."

A week passed before the subject was resumed. Yorke felt almost like a culprit. His mother and sisters had evidently been told about his project, and went about the house with faces far more gloomy than those they had shown when they first heard of the bank failure. Yorke felt that the girls, at any rate, highly disapproved of his plan, and kept out of their way as much as possible. At last he was called again into the study, and on this occasion his mother was also present.

"We have talked this matter over very seriously, Yorke," his father began, "and although at first your mother was very much against the idea, she has come to see that it is probably the best that could be done under the circumstances. She acknowledges that she would be less anxious about you than if you were at sea. She sees, also, that with your somewhat restless disposition, and the ideas with which you have been brought up, you would really never be happy in a London office, even if we could obtain a berth there for you. In that way I have no influence whatever; besides, you are two or three years too young for it. We have therefore agreed, that, at any rate for that time, you could not do better than be acquiring experience in South Africa. By the time you are eighteen you will be better able to estimate your chance of getting on there.

"You will then have acquired a knowledge of the world, so that, should you decide to come home, no harm will have been done, for you will not be too old to make a fresh start in some other direction. I am sure your cousin will be glad to see you, his invitation was a very hearty one. I hope you may remain with him for some time; but should you not do so, I have no doubt he will make comfortable arrangements for you elsewhere. I say this because I am sure, that though personally he would in all ways do his best to make you happy, I do not think he is a very strong man, and I fancy, from words that he let drop, that his wife is the head of the partnership. She is a Dutch woman, and her family are, as he told me, among the leaders of what is called the Africander party. What their wishes and intentions may be I really don't know, for I have scarcely given a thought to the matter, and seldom read the Cape news. However, I know that they hold that the Dutch party ought to be predominant at the Cape. However, this need not affect you, and certainly you could have no occasion to take any interest in the politics of the Cape for some years to come.

"Well, my boy, it is a very grave step to take; but I own that it does appear to me the best that is open to you, and should it turn out otherwise, you will have plenty of time to remedy it. I shall pay fifty pounds into a bank at the Cape in your name, so that if at any time you decide that you have made a mistake, you can take your passage home again, and you will certainly be none the worse for having spent a year or two out there."

"Thank you both heartily, father. I hope I sha'n't come back like a bad penny. I feel sure that the life will just suit me; and when I have once learned to make myself useful on a farm I shall have no difficulty in getting employment elsewhere, if, as I hope will not be the case, I do not get on well with Mr. Allnutt's wife."

"Your father says the climate is very good, Yorke," Mrs. Harberton said tearfully. "It seems to me a terrible thing for a boy like you to go out there alone; but going to a relation is not like going among strangers, and I know you liked Mr. Allnutt when he was here."

"Yes, I thought him very jolly, and I am sure I shall get on capitally with him. Of course I had no fancy for going out when he spoke to me, because things were different; but I thought of it at once when I began to wonder what would be the best thing for me to do."

"I should have liked you to stay at home for a time, Yorke," his mother said, with a quiver in her voice, "but your father is of opinion that as you are to go, the sooner you go the better."

"I think so, mother. The horses will be sold next week, and I should only be idling about the house and doing no good; and it would be just as painful saying good-bye three months hence as it is now."

"Yes, and we should be looking forward to it all the time. Besides, we want you to see if you like the business, and whether you think that you will be able to get on; and if you don't, we want you back again in time for anything that may turn up. Therefore, in all respects, the sooner you go the better. I don't suppose there will be much trouble about your outfit. You will want two or three suits of rough, strong material, coats made like shooting-jackets, with big pockets, also flannel shirts and a good supply of stout boots and strong stockings coming up to the knees. You had better have your trousers made knickerbocker fashion, and get a couple of pairs of soft leather gaiters.

"I will get you a double-barrel small-bore gun, they are coming into fashion now; and though I would rather have a twelve-bore, they say the smaller ones make very good shooting, and they are a good deal lighter to carry. It will be time enough for you to think of getting a rifle in a couple of years, if you decide to stay there. Besides, as everyone seems to use rifles out there, and no doubt you will practise at a mark—Mr. Allnutt will lend you one. We will drive over to Yeovil this afternoon and get you measured for the clothes. Mother will go with us to see about the shirts, and so on. To-morrow I will write to Donald Currie's people and secure a second-class berth for you. The more occupied we are the less time there will be for fretting. I shall lose no time in writing to your head-master stating why I am obliged to take you away. I dare say you will have letters to write to your chums."

From that moment all was busy. In spite of the assurances that the Cape was a warm climate, the girls applied themselves to knitting comforters and mittens. There was a general overhauling of Yorke's clothes, as white shirts and English clothes would probably be required on Sundays.

"We shall not get you any more things of this sort," his father said. "It is of no use your carrying about more clothes than you want, and it is likely that you will outgrow those you have before you wear them out. I shall give you a letter to post to Mr. Allnutt as soon as you land, and then you can stop two days at Cape Town before starting, and won't come upon him altogether by surprise. I hope you will get on well with his wife—there is no fear of your getting a hearty welcome from him—but I shall tell him that if, after you have been with him a short time, he finds that his wife is not pleased with the arrangement, as his cordial invitation was given without consultation with her, he should take you to some nice people—English, of course—where the work you might do in the first place would be considered an equivalent for your board—for, naturally, whether you stay with him or anyone else, you will have to work."

"Certainly, father; that is what I am going out for. If I wasn't to work, I might as well stop here and idle my time away as at the Cape. I suppose one of the first things to do will be to learn Dutch and something of the native language, for although in farming one might be able to get on well without it, one would certainly want it if one were going into any business in the mining regions. I will get a Dutch grammar if I can before I start, and learn as many words as I can on the voyage."

"It might be very well worth your while, Yorke. I believe that the language spoken is a sort of dialect they call taal. Still, it is founded upon Dutch, and anything that you can learn of it would help you."

"Well, I shall make a point of working hard at it, father. My own idea is to go up to Kimberley or Johannesburg, when I have been out a couple of years, with an introduction from Mr. Allnutt to some store-keeper or manager of mines there, and then work my way up. Of course I don't expect to make much money for a time, but I shall certainly lay by every penny I earn over and above keeping myself."

"Whatever you do, don't be too sanguine, because if you do you will assuredly meet with severe disappointment."

"I don't mean to, father; once I get into a thing that seems likely to turn out well, I will stick to it patiently. There is one comfort—I have read that out in the colonies men do not care what they turn their hands to; no one thinks the worse of a young man for doing any honest job, so that he keeps himself straight. I mean to keep myself straight. I am determined that I will never touch liquor of any kind unless I am ill, or under extraordinary circumstances."

"You could not make a better resolution, Yorke. I believe that in the colonies, even more than here, drink is the bane of too many young men, and it is certainly an obstacle to success with all. I know your cousin, when he was here, said nineteen out of twenty of the young fellows who go to the bad, after arriving full of hope and energy, owe their downfall solely to drink. The life at the back stations is lonely, there is an entire absence of amusement, and it is especially dull of an evening. The temptation, therefore, to take drink to cheer up the spirits is strong, and when he has once yielded to it a man is almost sure to go from bad to worse. 'In my experience,' he said, 'I have known of no instance where a young man who resisted all temptations to drink was a complete failure. He may suffer very heavily from droughts, and have misfortunes over which he has no control, but he can keep his head afloat and so do fairly well in the end.' The native spirit, that is to say, the Boer spirit—Cape smoke it is called—is vile, and is simply liquid poison. However, the Dutch are not a drunken set, and do not very often drink to excess; perhaps the very badness of the liquor keeps them from it. That being the case, Yorke, it is evident that you cannot be too careful, and it would be a comfort both to your mother and me to know that you have set out with a stern resolution to avoid liquor—except, of course, in case of illness or in exceptional circumstances, such as a long journey in a pouring rain, when a small amount of spirits may prevent bad consequences. But Mr. Allnutt said that even then it was more effective if you stripped, poured some of it into your hand, and thoroughly rubbed yourself with it."

"That is a good idea, father, and I will try it under such circumstances."

A week later, after a tearful parting from his mother and sisters, Yorke went up to town accompanied by his father, who took him on board one of the Castle Line steamers, and remained with him until she went out of dock. The voyage was altogether uneventful. There were several young fellows, sons of gentlemen, going out in the second class. Yorke was three or four years younger than any of them, but they all took to him, and he had a pleasant time. For three or four hours a day he worked steadily at Dutch, and received a good deal of assistance in the pronunciation from a Dutch gentleman returning home from a visit, who took an interest in the boy who so steadily sat apart from the rest and studied his language. Yorke also made the acquaintance of several of the third-class passengers, miners, carpenters, and other workers, who had been back to the old country to see their friends, and from them he learned a good deal more of the colony than he had hitherto known.

"I don't say that it is not necessary to learn Dutch," one of them said in answer to a question, "if you are going into a store or mean to farm, but in the towns it is not much needed, for we and the Dutch don't have much to do with each other. Very few of them are engaged at the mines or even in the stores. They treat us as dirt under their feet. But the general idea is that it won't be very long before there is a change. England is a long while making up her mind to see us righted, but she will do so some day. When she does, she will find it a tougher job than she expects. For the past four or five years they have been importing arms and ammunition of every sort. No one can understand out there why England does not put a stop to it. She will certainly pay heavily for it in the future. The Boers have an idea that we cannot fight. That is a big mistake, you know, but with such a great country, with hills—big hills, too—and passes, and that sort of thing, the Boers, who are mostly good shots, will be able to make a desperate resistance, even if it is only the Transvaal. But there is a general idea that the Orange Free State will join them, and in that case it will be a big job, especially as there are Dutch all over Cape Colony, who likely enough will rise also. People in England do not seem to have an idea what a big place South Africa is. Why, it is as big as England and Scotland and Ireland and France all thrown together, and you can count your miles by the thousand instead of the hundred. All these fellows, too, have horses, any number of them, and men marching on foot would not have a ghost of a chance of catching them. I tell you it will be a big business if it ever begins."

[CHAPTER II]

ON A DUTCH FARM

The voyage had passed so pleasantly that Yorke was quite sorry when it was over. The acquaintances he had made were all going up-country, a few to farms where they had friends, but the greater part to Kimberley or Johannesburg, where they thought they would be sure to find something to turn their hands to. Three or four were going on to Durban, having friends or relatives in Natal. On landing Yorke was almost bewildered by the crowd of laughing, shouting men, for the most part blacks, though there were many whose red fezzes showed them to be Mohammedans, mostly Malays. All of these were offering to carry luggage, or recommending rival hotels or boarding-houses. Fortunately Yorke had arranged with one of his friends to go to the same hotel. Pushing their way through the throng, they hired a vehicle somewhat resembling a hansom in appearance, and bearing in large letters its name, "Old England," and were driven to the hotel which one of the ship's officers had recommended to them.

"There is no mistake about our being abroad, Harberton," Howard, Yorke's companion, laughed. "What a mixed crowd, Kaffirs and Malays, whitey-brown mixtures, Dutchmen and British! But even without them, the vehicles are as un-English as possible. They are certainly ahead of us in the way of traction-engines; that fellow dragging two waggons behind it is the third we have seen. The tram-cars are more like ours, but the row they keep up with those gongs is enough to frighten any well-conducted horse. Look at that funny two-wheeled vehicle drawn by a pair of horses. I suppose it is what they call a Cape cart; you see it has a hood. I don't think I ever saw a two-wheeled trap with two horses before. Evidently Dutch is the language here, for even the Kaffirs and Malays jabber in it. I rather wish now that I had followed your example, Harberton, and tried to learn enough to make a start with. It makes you feel like an ass if you can't ask for the simplest thing and get understood in a country under your own flag."

After reaching the hotel, Yorke made enquiries of an English clerk as to the hour at which the trains for Kimberley left. He found there were only two a day, and that the morning one arrived at Brakpoort Station, his destination, a distance of some four hundred miles from Cape Town, at twelve o'clock on the following day. The letter to Mr. Allnutt had been left open, so that he could give that gentleman some idea of when he might be expected. The clerk told him that Brakpoort was a comparatively small place, but that he would have no difficulty in hiring a cart there to drive him out to the farm, which lay eighteen miles west, being about midway between the station and the town of Richmond. Yorke now added a line or two indicating the time at which he would arrive at Brakpoort, closed the letter, and went out and posted it.

After having done this he walked about for a time. The town impressed him favourably. Some of the old Dutch houses still remained, but their appearance was scarcely picturesque. Their fronts were of almost unbroken flatness, and distinguished only by their superabundance of windows. The shops were excellent, and far superior to those of Yeovil. The articles were all European, and he looked in vain for anything that had the appearance of native manufacture. If he had found any small distinctive articles he would have bought them to send home to his mother and sisters. Howard, who was going up to Kimberley, told him that evening that, instead of starting as he had intended to do on the following morning, he would wait another day.

"It will be pleasanter for us both," he said. "It is slow work travelling with half a dozen fellows whose language one does not understand, and I know the Boers are not inclined to be civil. While you were out, I was chatting to a man who had just come down from Pretoria, and he says that everything there looked very gloomy. Of course our people have had their hopes raised owing to the fact that their case has been taken up at last by the home authorities. They are convinced that Kruger, who, by all accounts, is one of the most obstinate and conceited old brutes that ever lived, will never give way an inch, and that, in fact, he will fight rather than do so. Indeed, they believe that he is bent on forcing on a war; and the Boers say openly that in another year the Rooineks will have to go—Rooineks means English. So it will be much more pleasant for us to travel together. I heard you just now trying to talk to that coffee-coloured servant, and I saw that you were able to make him understand a little, so if we want to ask any questions about stopping-places, and so on, you will be useful."

"Dutch seems hard when you first look at it," Yorke said, "but you soon see that most of the words are really very like English, though they are spelt differently. One of my books is a sort of conversation book, with questions and answers on useful subjects, such as you are likely to meet with when you are travelling, when you are at a hotel, and so on. Of course they put a 'J' where we put an 'I,' and it puzzles one at first, but I think that in a month or two I shall begin to get on fairly well with it."

"Well, if what they say is true, we shall have a lively time of it before long; but though they brag a great deal, I can hardly believe they will be mad enough to go to war with us. If they do, it will put a stop to business for a time, and, as Kimberley is close to the frontier, we shall bear the brunt of it."

They started by the train arranged, carrying with them a basket of provisions for the journey, having been warned that this was absolutely necessary, as, except at one or two of the stations, there was nothing whatever to be had. In the old waggon days, their informant had told them, every traveller had to provide himself for the whole journey, and the custom had become so general, that it would hardly pay speculators to set up refreshment places except at the principal stations. Even these could only rely upon the custom of Europeans, as the Boers are far too parsimonious to think of buying provisions when they can carry their own with them.

They went to the station early so as to secure corner seats. The carriage filled up at starting, but several left at the stations nearest to the town, and after travelling for a couple of hours, only four remained in the carriage besides themselves. These were all Dutch. They carried on a very animated conversation among themselves.

"I think it is just as well that we don't understand them," Yorke said quietly. "I can only catch a few words here and there, but I am sure they are running us down. I don't mean us, but the English in general."

"Then it is quite as well we don't understand them, for I certainly should not sit quiet and hear them abusing us; and as there are four of them, all big fellows, a quarrel might have very disagreeable consequences. I was warned down at Cape Town that if I wished to live in peace and quiet I must keep in with these fellows; and if it is bad here, it must be a great deal worse for our people up in the Transvaal."

The journey was for the most part uninteresting; but there was some superb scenery at the Flex River, and through a series of grand slopes where the line crosses a mountain range. Sometimes the country was hilly, but it was bare of trees; farmhouses were sparsely scattered about; the vegetation was all parched up, for it was now the middle of summer, and no rain had fallen for a considerable time.

"Unless the cattle have learnt to eat sand," Yorke said with a laugh, "I don't know how they can exist; and yet the land seemed rich enough for the first part of the journey."

"I believe it is very rich where it is cultivated, and either wells are sunk, or dams constructed in narrow valleys or dips to catch the water. I believe the vineyards and orchards lying in the districts north of the Cape are extremely rich, but as a rule the Boer farmers are too ignorant to make improvements. They are cattle-raisers rather than farmers. The British settlers are, for the most part, men of insufficient capital. Some day, no doubt, when the country is more thickly settled, and there are better markets, there will be a very different state of things. I have no doubt that artesian wells would furnish an abundant supply of water in most places, and with them and irrigation and the planting of trees, it will be a splendid country. Where there are plenty of trees, the rainfall always increases; and what is of almost equal importance, the ground round them retains the moisture, instead of the rain rushing off and being carried down in torrents before it has had time to do much good. However, I have no idea of farming; but I am sure that anyone with capital coming out, and planting a few hundred acres of trees near Kimberley, would make a bigger fortune than by investing in mines."

"He would have to wait a long time for his money," Yorke said.

"Yes, but he could raise vegetables between the young trees; and my uncle, whom I am going to, says that vegetables fetch a tremendous price at Kimberley."

After a weary journey of twenty-eight hours they arrived at Brakpoort.

"Here you are, Harberton!"

"Well, I hope we shall meet again. I am sure to come up to Kimberley, sooner or later."

"If you do, don't forget that I have given you my uncle's address, and you are sure to find me there, or, at any rate, to find out where I am."

It was but a small wayside station, and Yorke felt somewhat desolate after he had shaken hands with his friend and got out with his portmanteau and bag. The feeling was speedily dispelled, for hurrying towards him he saw Mr. Allnutt.

"How are you, Yorke, my boy?" his cousin said, as he grasped his hand. "I am glad to see you, though I am sorry to hear of the cause that has sent you out here. I only received your letter this morning. Luckily I had sent a Kaffir over yesterday for a parcel. I started ten minutes after I got it, and only arrived here a quarter of an hour ago. I thought that you might have some difficulty in getting a cart to carry you so far. We shall have to wait two hours to give the horses a rest, for I have driven fast, and the road—I don't suppose you would call it a road—is very heavy."

"It is very kind of you to come over to meet me," Yorke said, much affected with the heartiness of the reception. "I should certainly be very glad of a drink, for it was so terribly hot yesterday and this morning, that, though we thought we had laid in a good supply of water, we finished it all at our first meal this morning."

"Well, we shall get a very fair lunch at this store here. These stations are used, you see, by people for many miles round. Your father tells me that you are all well at home, but, I suppose, greatly upset at this bad business."

"No. Of course it will make a lot of difference to us, but I think they troubled more about my coming away than they did about the loss of the money."

"Well, lad, a year or two of our rough life will do you good, and they won't know you when you go back to them."

"Is Mrs. Allnutt quite well, sir?"

"Yes," the colonist said, "she is very well, Yorke; she always is well." But the lad detected a change in the tone in which he spoke.

"I hope it wasn't a disagreeable surprise to her, sir, my coming so suddenly upon you?"

"No, it was not. She was surprised, of course, but I am sure that she will make you comfortable. My wife is a good woman, a very good woman; but, you see, she is Dutch, and she does not take to new ideas suddenly. I have no doubt she will be just as pleased as I am at your coming, when she gets to know you, and will feel that, having no children of our own, you will be a great acquisition, and brighten us up very much. There is one thing I must warn you about: she is prejudiced, I must admit that. You see, almost all the people round us are Dutch, and of late there has been what I may call a nasty feeling among them. There is an association called the Africander Bond, and its object, as far as I can see, is to establish the supremacy of the Dutch in Africa. It is doing a lot of harm. Until a short time back, the English and Dutch got on very well together, and as far as supremacy goes, the greater part of the members of the assembly were Dutch, and almost all the officials. We did not mind that. No doubt the colony would have gone ahead a good deal faster if our people had had more voice in affairs, for it cannot be denied that the Dutch hate changes of any kind, and would like the world to stand still. A Dutchman would still rather travel in his lumbering waggon, and take a week over it, than make a railway journey of a few hours. That gives you a fair sample of their dislike to change. Of course I am accustomed to these things, and keep quiet when my neighbours come in and set to work talking over affairs, and discussing the possibility of a great Dutch Republic over the whole of South Africa. It does not worry me. I know well enough that England will never let them have it; but I don't tell them so. I like peace and quiet, and I say nothing; and you must say nothing, Yorke. That is the one thing that I have to impress upon you. Never argue with my wife on that subject. She is a good woman, but, naturally enough, being Dutch, she thinks as her countrymen do. That is the one rock ahead; if you steer clear of that, we shall get on capitally."

By this time they were seated in a large room at the store eating their lunch, while a Kaffir boy was squatting near the four horses, which were munching mealies. Mr. Allnutt had come out a young man to the Cape thirty years before. He was of an easy disposition, and did not succeed; he was therefore glad to obtain employment on the farm of a large Dutch farmer. The latter had an only child, a daughter of sixteen years old, who, before the good-looking young Englishman had been there many months, fell in love with him, and announced to her father her intention of marrying him. The old man raved and stormed, shut her up for a time, and even threatened to beat her. Finding that she was still obstinate, he sent her for two years to a school in Cape Town. This had no effect whatever. She returned with very enlarged ideas as to the decencies of living, and wanted, as he said, to turn the house upside down. Finding it impossible to bend her to his will, he gave in. She had kept up a correspondence with Allnutt, who had, of course, been discharged as soon as the farmer had discovered his daughter's fancy for him.

He had not been insensible to the advantages of the position. Her father owned large numbers of cattle and horses, and an extensive tract of land watered by a stream that, except at very dry seasons, was always full. He had been working at a farm near Colesberg, and on the receipt of a letter from her announcing that her father was willing to sanction the match he at once returned and married her. A year later her father died, to Allnutt's great relief, and his wife at once set to work to transmogrify the interior of the house, and to equip it in the fashion which she had learned to value at the Cape.

The great stove which had before been in use was removed and replaced by an open fire, and the room fitted with carpets and English furniture. The upstairs rooms were similarly altered and furnished, curtains were hung at all the windows, and though outside the house retained the appearance of an ordinary Boer homestead, the interior had the appearance of the house of a well-to-do British colonist. Once a year Mrs. Allnutt and her husband had gone down to Cape Town, and remained there for a month; this had kept her in touch with civilization. Out of doors the farm was managed entirely by her husband, but inside the house she was absolute mistress.

After giving the horses an hour's rest, Mr. Allnutt and Yorke started in a Cape cart, the Kaffir taking the reins, while they sat on the seat behind him. Mr. Allnutt chatted pleasantly as they drove, and although the road crossed the veldt, it was not uninteresting.

Yorke was surprised when the farmer pointed to a house on a low nek between two hills and said, "That is my place, Yorke. It is two miles away yet, but I am on my own ground now. Roughly, the farm contains nearly six square miles of level ground and two of hill; it is worth a good deal more than when I took it. I saw that if it had water it would support three times as many cattle as there were on it, and I dammed the stream up in the hills and brought water down, and have irrigated three or four hundred acres. It took a lot of work, but Kaffir labour is cheap. I cut the grass twice and make hay of it; six months in the year I let the cattle feed on it, and it has fully answered my expectations, and every year repays me all the expense of carrying the job out. The Dutch farmers around come here and admire, and envy the green pasture when their own is burnt up, but though they see the advantage well enough, there is not one of them has attempted to imitate it."

"It must have been a big job fencing it in," Yorke said.

"Yes; I could not do that the first year, but the aloes and prickly-pear of which it is made grow very quickly. The farm itself is enclosed by barbed-wire fencing. The law obliges every settler to fence his land."

As they drove up to the door Mrs. Allnutt came out. Her two years at Cape Town and her subsequent visits there had prevented her from falling into the loose and slovenly way of the ordinary Boer farmer's wife. She was a large woman and somewhat stout, but her dress was neat and well-fitting. She had a strong but not unpleasant face, and welcomed Yorke with more geniality than he expected.

"You are welcome," she said. "It is a long journey for you to have made alone. Were you sent out here, or did you come at your own wish?"

"It was my own proposal," Yorke replied. "I could not remain idle at home, and I was too young to go into any business there. I am fond of outdoor exercise, and as Mr. Allnutt, when in England, had kindly invited me to come over, I thought it would be best for me to accept his offer, and to learn something of the country and its ways before I made a start for myself."

"You were quite right," she said. "Certainly a stay here for a time will do that for you. But come in. Of course you will find our ways a little strange at first, but you look sensible, and I have no doubt you will soon feel at home."

After what Yorke had heard of the mode of life of the Dutch farmer, he was surprised to find, when he entered the house, an air of English comfort pervading it. The room prepared for him was such as he would meet with in the house of a well-to-do farmer in England; the furniture was good and substantial, muslin curtains hung at the windows. Looking out, he saw that the whole back of the house was covered with roses in full bloom, and that there was a small but pretty garden behind; round this was a large orchard—apple, pear, peach, and other fruit trees. He had seen nothing like this in any of the farmhouses they had passed on the road. On returning downstairs, after indulging in a good wash, he expressed his thanks to Mrs. Allnutt for the comfort of his bedroom, and his admiration for the gorgeous show of roses in the garden.

"Yes," she said, "I saw the gardens of many of the English mansions round Cape Town, and I made up my mind to have something like them here. My neighbours at first all thought it a terrible waste of labour, but I do not as a rule care much for other folks' opinions; and though I do not pretend to like your people, I do not see why we should not adopt their customs when we see that they are better than our own—especially when so many of our people living near Cape Town have taken to them."

"Everything looks very nice and comfortable, Mrs. Allnutt, and if I had not looked out of the window I should not have known that I was not at home."

"Can you ride?" she asked abruptly; for although her residence at Cape Town had taught her to appreciate the modes of life there, she did not like being thought, even in such a matter, to copy the British, and chose to consider that they were those of the better class of her own people—as, indeed, was the case.

"Yes, I can ride," Yorke said. "I am very fond of it."

"Can you shoot?"

"I have begun," he said. "You see, I have been at school, and it is only during the winter holidays that I have had any chance, and just the last fortnight of the long holiday in summer."

"But how is that?" she asked. "Why do you not shoot all the year round?"

"Because it is a close time up to the 1st of September, and there is not much shooting after January; people begin to hunt about that time."

"Yes, game is protected here also."

Yorke had told his cousin that he had begun to learn Dutch, and was very anxious to get to speak the language well, and on the latter telling his wife, she nodded approvingly.

"You will have plenty of opportunities, for Dutch is the language of the house. Sometimes I speak in English with my husband, because I wish to keep it up, but he speaks Dutch as well as I do. But as the Kaffirs speak our language, and do not understand English, it is much more convenient to speak that language. You had better get Hans," she went on, turning to her husband, "to go about with him; in that way he will soon learn to speak Taal. He is very little use to me about the house; he is very lazy, and if it wasn't for his father having been killed on the place, I would not keep him a day."

Hans had taken the horses when the cart drew up. He was a rough, slouching lad of about Yorke's age, loosely built, and altogether unkempt and slovenly; his father, who had been Mr. Allnutt's head cattleman, had been thrown from his horse and pitched on his head, breaking his neck instantly. Hans Smidt, who was ten years old at the time, having no relations, had been taken on at the house, and was supposed to aid in looking after the horses there, watering the garden, and doing odd jobs. He was now receiving the same wages as the Kaffir labourers, although, as Mrs. Allnutt declared, a Kaffir boy was worth a dozen of him.

For the next few days Yorke rode about the farm with his cousin, inspecting the herds and getting a general idea of the place.

"You will save me a good deal of trouble, Yorke," his cousin, who objected to trouble of any kind, said. "You can ride down twice a day and see that the Kaffirs are doing their work and preventing the cattle from straying too far away. Beyond that you can amuse yourself as you like. There are a dozen young horses which want breaking in. I see you have a good seat, and you will, no doubt, be able to manage that. There is no shooting about here, though you can occasionally get a deer among the hills. Still, it is just as well that you should learn to use a rifle. Every man in this country is a fair marksman, and, even when there is little chance of coming upon game, often rides with his rifle slung across his back. I am sure you would not like to be beaten by any of the Dutch lads. They are not such good shots now as they used to be when game was plentiful, and of course shooting is not so important here as it is in the Transvaal, where every man may be called upon at any moment to go out on commando against the natives. Still, it is the accomplishment on which Boers pride themselves, and you may find it useful if you stay in the country. For if one is to believe all these Dutchmen say, there is likely to be a lot of trouble out here before long."

"Not in this part, I suppose, uncle,"—for so Yorke had taken to call his cousin. "I know there may be a row in the Transvaal, but surely not here?"

"I don't know, Yorke. If it begins in one part, there is no saying how it will spread. I believe that if the Transvaal begins war, the Orange Free State will join. They have not a shadow of grievance. They are wholly independent of us, and have always been quiet and peaceful, and there does not seem to be any of the ill-feeling against the English that prevails in the Transvaal. Still, there is never any saying; and I believe that Steyn, their president, is a very ambitious man. This Africander Bond is doing a great deal of mischief in Cape Colony, and although the Dutch element have it pretty nearly their own way, I doubt if they will not join the Dutch across the Orange River if these rise."

"But what is it they really want?" Yorke asked.

"They want to be masters here altogether. They see the gold mines and diamond mines prospering enormously, and they think that if they could drive us out, all this wealth would come into their hands. They dream of one great Republic, and of their flag waving everywhere. I don't say that they would drive the English out altogether; their talents and energy would be useful to them, and, as in the Transvaal, they would make them pay all the taxes of the country. Kruger would, of course, be President of the Republic, but he is an old man, and Steyn would naturally be his successor. That is why he may be expected to drag the Free State into the matter should there be a row."

"But they can hardly think that England would consent to let them go?"

"That is what they do think, Yorke. Since that Majuba business, and the fatal surrender afterwards, they despise us altogether. They do not believe for a moment that we shall fight, and they are positive that if we should venture to do so, they would thrash us without the slightest difficulty. They have accumulated enormous stores of rifles and artillery, and believe that, as they licked us so easily when they were unprovided with these things, it will be a mere walk over now. Kruger will keep up a correspondence with Chamberlain until everything is absolutely ready, then he will break off negotiations, and there will be war—that is, if England is bold enough to venture upon it. That is the Boer idea of things, Yorke. You will hear it openly discussed up at the house. Even in the farms round here there are stores of ammunition hidden away, and if war does begin, and a material advantage is gained, you will see the whole country on fire from Cape Town to Pretoria.

"Of course, there are many of the Dutch of the better class who would far rather let things remain as they are at present. They have no ground of complaint against us; they are free to elect their own representatives, and to make their own laws; the British authority is little more than nominal, and we have not five thousand soldiers in this colony or Natal. It seems to me that the peril is a very serious one. There is nothing to prevent twenty-five thousand Boers marching into Durban, and another force of the same strength capturing Cape Town. Each force would be swollen as it went. Every man would be mounted; they would be armed with the best rifles that money could purchase, and they are good shots. They would need no transport, for they would seize the cattle of the British colonists, and plunder stores as they went. I ask you, what could five thousand infantry do against such a force?"

"It certainly looks bad, uncle—much worse than I thought."

"As far as I am concerned, Yorke, it would, I think, make but little difference to us; and as for my wife, she would hoist their flag as they came along, and probably ride herself to welcome them. So I may take it that they would not interfere with anything here; and personally I should be no worse off, for the Assembly at Cape Town could hardly be more Dutch than it is at present. The only change that I should feel would be, that on holidays we should have the Republican flag flying on the flagstaff instead of the Union Jack, which would be a bitter pill to swallow."

"But the British colonists would join the troops, surely?"

"The British colonists are neither armed nor organized. I have no doubt that many of the younger men would try and make their way down to Cape Town, and join any force that was raised there. But all that would take time; and even if twenty thousand joined here and in Natal, what use could they be against an insurrection over a million square miles, with a great nucleus of well-armed men?"

"Well, uncle, at any rate I will steadily practise shooting; and if, as seems likely, trouble is really coming on, I shall go down to Cape Town and try to get into a new corps that is being raised."

"Well, Yorke, I shall not try to dissuade you; I have no legal authority over you; and if I were a young man, that is what I should do myself. But if you wish for any peace and quiet here, you must keep your intentions to yourself, and, above all, hold your tongue when you hear treason talked up at the house. My wife has taken to you much better than I expected. But though she, from having been at school at Cape Town, and going down there pretty often, and reading a good deal, has much better ideas of the power of England than most of her countrymen, she believes that England will not fight, and that even if it does, it will soon see the impossibility of reconquering such a tremendous country as this. And really, I cannot disagree with her after what we saw in the last war, and from what we know of the preparations the Boers have made."

"I think she is wrong, uncle. I don't say that we may be able to reconquer the whole of South Africa, but I feel sure that, whatever it costs, England will hold the Cape and Durban and the other seaports, for they are of immense importance to her."

"Let us say no more about it, lad. It is causing me a deal of trouble; so I hold my tongue, for I can't afford to be on bad terms with all the neighbours, and in constant hot water at home. There is any amount of ammunition in the house, so you can practise as much as you like, and there are plenty of spots among the hills where you can do it quietly, and so far away from the house that there would be no chance of being heard. Of course you could occasionally fire near, for it would seem only natural to my wife that you should like to learn to shoot when everyone else does. This will be the last day that I shall ride with you; but always take Hans. He may look like a fool, but I don't think he is one. He is slim, as the Dutch say, that is, he is crafty. If he could turn his hand to anything, he would have to do a good deal more work than at present. He is like the monkeys, you know. They say they could talk well enough if they liked, but they know that if they did they would be compelled to work."

Hans' face brightened up greatly when he was told that he was freed from all other duties, and was to consider himself entirely at Yorke's disposal—a young Kaffir being at once engaged to perform the work he had previously done—and henceforth no complaint could be made of his laziness. Whatever the hour at which Yorke wanted to start, the horses were ready for him, and the boys were often out on the veldt before anyone else in the house was moving. Yorke threw himself into his work with ardour, for it suited him admirably. There were the cattle to look after, and sometimes long rides to be undertaken in search of animals that had strayed. The horses gave little trouble. A few bundles of freshly-cut grass were carried to them every morning, and with the stream handy to them they had the sense to know that they could do no better elsewhere. Several Kaffir labourers cut the corn-cobs and carried them up to a large shed near the house, while the stalks and leaves were piled into a stack for mixing with the hay in the winter.

On many farms all this was burnt as fuel, but the colonist had, soon after he became master of the farm, planted fifty acres of fir-trees on the slopes of one of the valleys, and the clearings of these furnished an abundant stock of firewood, and indeed added materially to the returns of the farm by the sale of the surplus to neighbours.

Every day Yorke practised for an hour with the rifle, firing, not at a target, which, with its white square, resembles nothing that a soldier would have to aim at in a battle, but at some mark on a stone on the hillside, or a block of wood of the size of a man's head, half hidden in a tussock of coarse grass on the veldt. This block Hans always carried with him when they were going shooting. Yorke practised judging distance on level and broken ground, both from the saddle and on foot, guessing it as nearly as he could, and then stepping it. At the end of four months he could judge very closely the distance of any object he saw up to seven or eight hundred yards, and was tolerably sure of hitting it. He had practised, too, shooting from the saddle.

After he had been there a short time Mr. Allnutt, seeing that he could sit any horse on the farm, had given him one of his own, which was as yet unbroken. Yorke took great pains in training it, teaching it to halt when at full gallop, to remain immovable while he fired from the saddle, or, standing by it, used it as a rest for his barrel. It would lie down when he told it, and come at his whistle. Its sire was an English hunter which Mr. Allnutt had bought to improve the strain of his horses, so that it was a faster, as well as a more powerful, animal than the native-bred horses, while possessing an equal amount of hardiness and endurance.

"I think it is the best I ever bred," he said to Yorke three months after the latter had arrived at the farm. "And I chose it for you especially, because I saw at once that you would do it credit, and that some day it might be of the utmost importance to you to be well mounted. As to myself, it does not make any difference whether I ride a mile slower or a mile faster an hour; and on the whole, I prefer going a mile slower. Besides, you see, as a relation of mine I wish you to do me credit, and I like to take the conceit out of some of these Dutch lads, who think so much of themselves. I don't know when I was more pleased than when you beat Dirck Jansen yesterday by twenty lengths. He was always boasting that he had the best horse in this part of the colony. Of course you had the advantage of being at least two stone the lighter; but they don't take any account of weight out here. Besides, I could see that if you wanted to, you could have beaten him by twice as much. Between ourselves, I don't think your aunt was quite as well pleased as I. He is a great favourite of hers, and moreover is her cousin. However, we needn't mind that, except that I fancy you have made an enemy, and may have trouble with him by and by. These Dutch don't often forgive an injury; if they cannot avenge it at once, it rankles in their minds till they see an opportunity for wiping it out."

[CHAPTER III]

A QUARREL

As time went on Yorke felt his position increasingly uncomfortable. The Dutch farmers became more and more aggressive in their talk. They regarded war as certain, and spoke so scoffingly of the courage of the British soldiers, and of the easiness with which they would be defeated and driven out of the country, that Yorke found it well-nigh impossible to hold his tongue, and had often to leave the room to prevent himself from breaking out.

"I am sorry, lad," his cousin said to him one day. "It is a trial to me, and I myself have sometimes to leave while they are talking. I can't well quarrel with these people, as I have to live among them; but I hope the time will come when I shall have the satisfaction of seeing a mighty change in their tone."

"I don't mind the rest so much," Yorke said; "they are middle-aged men, and they certainly believe what they say. You have been so long with them that you are almost regarded as one of themselves, and they certainly do not take any notice of my being present, and have no thought of hurting my feelings. But it is different with Dirck Jansen; he has been unpleasant ever since I came, and now he seems bent upon picking a quarrel with me. He talks at me when he is saying insulting things about our soldiers and our people. If I stay here, one of these days I shall have a desperate row with him, which is just what he wants."

"I am afraid it is so. I have noticed it myself, and have even spoken to my wife about it; but she is prejudiced in his favour, and says that he speaks no more strongly than every true Afrikander should speak. Besides, what good could come of your having a quarrel with him? He is nearly nineteen, two years older than you are, and a big powerful fellow. It is what he is trying to do, and nothing would please him better than for you to give him the chance of thrashing you."

"He is a great deal stronger and bigger than I am, uncle; but I don't suppose that he has the slightest idea of boxing, and I can use my fists pretty well. I might get thrashed, but I certainly should not be thrashed easily. However, I am anxious not to have a row, and the sooner the war begins and I can enlist the better. I have stood as much as I can do, my patience has pretty well come to an end. I should not have put up with so much but for your sake."

It happened unfortunately that Dirck Jansen came over next day with four or five other farmers. The house was a favourite resort, for Mrs. Allnutt was far more hospitable than was the custom, and always produced a bottle of spirits when she had visitors, and the inducement of a free drink is one that few Boers can withstand.

"The news is good!" Dirck Jansen shouted boisterously as they rode up. "We hear there is no doubt that Steyn will go with the Transvaal, and they say that Kruger will very soon stop fooling the Rooineks, and that he has got everything now ready for kicking them out of South Africa. I should advise you to be packing up at once, young fellow. You won't have much time when we get your soldiers on the run."

"Wait till you get them on the run," Yorke replied. "It will be time enough to begin to brag then."

"Brag!" the other said scornfully. "What can fellows who don't know one end of a gun from another do against us?"

"There are a good many who know more than that, as you will find to your cost, Dirck, if you are man enough to go out and try them. There are some who can shoot straight, anyhow."

"Yourself, for instance," Dirck said scoffingly. "I hear you have been popping away among the hills, but I have not heard of your bringing in much game."

"I don't care about shooting at things that can't shoot back in return. But maybe I can shoot as straight as some of you can do."

"Do you mean myself?" Dirck replied angrily.

"Yes, I mean yourself among others, Dirck Jansen."

"Will you try?" Dirck shouted as he dismounted.

"Certainly I will. I am told you are the best shot in the neighbourhood; and if you can't beat me, who have only taken to it lately, you may acknowledge that those who shoot worse than you will have no great chance against Englishmen who shoot a great deal better than I."

"You see, all of you, this insolent young fellow has challenged me to a trial of skill," Dirck said to his companions. "I would not have condescended to compete with him, for there is no credit to be gained in beating such a boy; but he wants taking down, and I am glad to have the opportunity of doing it. Now, Mr. Allnutt, I will leave it to you to settle the distance and the mark. I say anything between a hundred and five hundred yards; but two hundred is the general distance we have for our matches."

"What do you say to two hundred, Yorke?"

"That will suit me very well, though I should prefer a thousand."

The Boers had all dismounted.

"Then let us go out behind the house, Mr. Allnutt," one of them said, "we can easily choose a mark there."

Yorke went into the house to get his rifle and soon joined them. They went a short distance, and then the Boer said, "That rock there is about two hundred yards away, it will make a very fair mark."

"It would be difficult to judge which is the centre," Yorke said, "and might give rise to dispute."

"That is so," the Boer said gravely. "I saw an empty tin in the yard, the bottom of that will make a very good bull's-eye."

Mr. Allnutt shouted, "Hans!" The lad was standing at the gate of the yard looking after them. He had heard the conversation, but dared not follow them. "Hans, wrench the top off that tin by the kitchen door and bring it here."

They then walked on to the rock, where, in two or three minutes, Hans joined them with the top of the tin. It had been a two-pound tin, and the circle was some four inches across.

"It will stand very well on this projection on the face," the Boer said. "It will then be as nearly as possible in the centre."

"But it will tumble down every time it is hit."

"Hans will stand near and pick it up again," Mr. Allnutt said.

"It had better be fixed," the Boer remarked. "There is a little crack in the rock, a nail driven through the tin would hold it there. It is better to do the thing properly."

Dirck laughed. "By all means do it properly, though I cannot see why we should trouble about such a farce as this."

Mr. Allnutt paid no attention to this speech, but said, "Go and take a hammer, Hans, and a good-sized nail, and cut the bottom out of another tin and bring that here too. If three or four holes are made, the question may arise as to which is the last."

The lad ran off.

"Now, Mr. Van Laun, while he is away we may as well arrange as to how they had better shoot—how many shots each shall fire, whether they shall shoot alternately, or one fire his shots at one of the pieces of tin, and then the other take the new target. I think that will be the best, then no dispute can arise."

"I agree with you. How many times shall each fire?"

After discussion it was agreed that each should fire ten shots.

"Now, it will be fair," the Boer said, "to toss up for who shall fire first. What do you say? Heads shall mean Dirck, tails your lad."

"Do you mean, whichever wins is to have the choice?"

"No, which ever wins fires first."

The coin was spun in the air. It came down "heads". When Hans returned one of the discs of tin was nailed up at the spot arranged, then Mr. Allnutt stepped two hundred yards. Dirck unslung his rifle, and filled the magazine. Hans stood three or four yards from the rock; he knew that there was little chance of either of them missing the stone. Although Dirck had so far treated the affair as almost a joke he was not disposed to be careless, for the quiet and composed air of his young antagonist seemed to show that the latter must be at least a fair shot or he would never have carried the thing so far. As soon, therefore, as he had loaded his rifle, he took his place with greater seriousness and gravity than he had hitherto manifested. He put the gun up to his shoulder and then lowered it again.

"Is there any time-limit?" he asked.

The Boers and Mr. Allnutt consulted together a moment, then the latter said, "We have agreed that there may be half a minute between each of the first five shots, a limit of two minutes for reloading, and then half a minute between each of the last five shots."

Dirck again raised his rifle to his shoulder and almost instantaneously fired. There was a clang. Hans ran forward and pointed, with a stick he had cut, to a spot near the edge of the tin. As soon as he retired again the rifle cracked. The ten shots were all fired well within time. Hans took down the tin and ran with it to the group, and then, going to the rock, fastened the other there. Seven of the bullets had hit the tin fairly, another had cut a semicircular bit out of the edge, the other two had been outside the circle. The holes were dotted about all over the tin, but, with one exception, none was within an inch of the centre.

"That is very good shooting," Mr. Allnutt said. "Four inches are not much of a mark at two hundred yards."

"I have done better," Dirck said carelessly, "but I fancy it is quite good enough for the purpose."

Yorke now took his place at the firing-point. There was not a breath of wind blowing, and, as he had practised so often at a similar mark, he felt pretty confident that he could do better than Dirck had done. He shouted to Hans, "Do not trouble to point out where the shots strike. I would rather fire quicker."

The first five shots went off at intervals of only about ten seconds. He reloaded quickly, and again fired rapidly.

"You have not overrated your shooting," the Boer who had taken the lead in the matter said. "Every shot hit."

They walked up in a body to the target. As they neared it they uttered exclamations of surprise. The ten shots had all fairly struck the tin.

"It is a trick, an infamous trick!" Dirck exclaimed furiously. "That boy must have punched the holes before he put the tin up. It is not the one he showed us as he went along."

"It is a lie," Yorke said, "and you know it. I thought it wasn't in you to take a licking in good part. Fellows who boast so much very seldom stand being collared."

With a howl of rage Dirck pointed his rifle at him, forgetting that he had not reloaded it. He pulled the trigger, but as there was no report, he threw the gun down with an oath and flew at Yorke. The latter stood steadily, and as his assailant was on the point of closing with him, struck out with his right fist, throwing his whole strength into the blow; it caught Dirck just on the point of the chin, and he went backwards as if he had been shot. It had all passed so rapidly that the others had no time to interfere. In a moment they ran in.

"I am sorry this has happened, sir," the leading Boer said to Mr. Allnutt. "Dirck has been wrong altogether. He was the aggressor, and was fairly beaten by your lad, who is certainly a marvellous shot. He has been more thoroughly beaten now. If his rifle had been charged, he would have shot his opponent, so he richly deserved the punishment he has got. You had better take your lad away now; we will see to Dirck." Then he turned, and, as Yorke walked off with the colonist, assisted the others to raise Dirck, who was half-stunned by the blow, on to his feet.

YORKE PROVES HIS METAL.

"You have behaved shamefully, Dirck Jansen," he said sternly when he found that the young man could understand him. "You have brought discredit upon yourself and us. You have been beaten at shooting by a mere boy, and instead of taking it fairly and in a good spirit, you first accuse him of playing a trick upon you, and then try to murder him. And now, big as you are, he has knocked you silly. We are ashamed of you. Hans, go and fetch Mr. Jansen's pony. Now, Dirck, you will mount and ride off at once, and I will tell Mrs. Allnutt that you will not come to the farm again for some time, and why."

There was a murmur of approval from the others, and Dirck stood sulkily until Hans arrived with his horse; then he picked up his rifle, slung it over his shoulder, mounted, and rode off without a word. The others walked to the house.

"I am sorry to tell you, Mrs. Allnutt, that Dirck Jansen has behaved scandalously. He had a fair trial of skill with your husband's young cousin, and the lad beat him hollow. Then he falsely accused him of an unworthy trick, levelled his rifle, and pulled the trigger. It would have been murder had not, happily, the rifle been unloaded. Then he rushed to seize the lad, and was knocked senseless by him. I have apologized, and my friends here join me in the apology, to the young fellow, for the gross conduct of Dirck Jansen, and we trust that you will not receive Dirck in your house so long as the lad remains here."

"It seems hardly possible, Mr. Van Laun, that Dirck should have behaved so. He must have been grossly insulted to begin with. I hear that the shooting arose out of a quarrel."

"It was not exactly a quarrel, though both were angry. Dirck began by saying rough things to your lad, who was not to be blamed because he spoke up for his countrymen, just as I should have done, or any other Dutchman would have done, had an Englishman spoken so of our people."

"I am sorry to hear what you say, Mr. Van Laun," Mrs. Allnutt said somewhat stiffly. "I cannot but think that Dirck must have had great provocation."

"Dirck is a hot-headed young fool, cousin, and though I am as nearly related to him as you are, I say so without hesitation; and for my part, I am not altogether sorry that this young English lad should have given him a lesson. The fact that he is perhaps the best shot round here has cocked him up altogether unduly. He had it in his heart to commit murder to-day, for it would have been murder if there had been a cartridge in his gun; and though it would have been hard to testify against one of my own blood, I must have said so in open court had he been tried for the act. However, I hope we shall hear no more of it, and that the lads will not meet again till Dirck has come to his senses. He will hear the truth from all of us who were present at the affair, and may be all the better for finding that he is not such a fine fellow as he thought he was."

Mrs. Allnutt did not reply. It was evident that her sympathies were entirely with Dirck. The farmers did not stop, but, mounting their horses, rode off. Mr. Allnutt went out into the yard, and, as he expected, found Yorke talking in the stables to Hans. The latter was in high glee, for he hated Dirck Jansen, who had sworn at him many a time when he did not bring his horse round as quickly as he had expected, and was once on the point of laying his whip about his shoulders when Mr. Allnutt, coming out of the house, and seeing what was about to happen, had arrested the blow by saying sternly, "Drop that, Dirck, you are not master here yet. Hans is my servant and not yours; neither you nor anyone else shall touch him."

Yorke and he were still talking when Mr. Allnutt entered and motioned to Hans to go outside.

"This is an unfortunate affair, Yorke, very unfortunate. I do not consider that you were in any way to blame, but that hardly makes it less unfortunate. Here you have beaten a fellow was proud of his skill with the rifle; your shooting certainly astonished me, for although I knew that you had used a tremendous lot of cartridges in the past six months, I had no idea that you had done it to such good purpose. In the next place, you have floored him as neatly as I ever saw a man knocked down, and have done it with half a dozen of his own friends looking on. In the third place, you have brought him into disgrace with them, and as the story will soon get about, it will be a terrible blow to his pride.

"Now, I have never liked Dirck. He is a very bad type of the Dutchman in these parts, though, I have no doubt, he would pass muster in the Transvaal. He is rude and overbearing; and although a man may be all that, and yet at bottom a good fellow, I don't think Dirck is so. He will never forgive you, and unless I am greatly mistaken, he will try in some way to get even with you, and will not care what steps he takes to do so. Now, you know, lad, you have been talking for some little time past of going down to Cape Town, and joining a corps newly got up there, when the war breaks out, which I am afraid it will do very shortly. I tell you frankly that, sorry as I am to say so, I think it will be better for you to do this speedily. I don't mean to-morrow or next day, but shortly. I am also sorry to say that this affair will not make matters more comfortable at home. You know my wife is very fond of Dirck, and it will take a great deal to make her believe that he could be wrong in anything. Van Laun spoke out straight to her, and said that the fellow was altogether to blame; but I could see that her sympathies were nevertheless with him, and she believes that you were at fault in the matter."

"I would go to-morrow, uncle," Yorke said; "but it would look like running away. I will stay at home for another week, and then I will go. I don't mind whether aunt is displeased with me or not. I am conscious of having done no wrong, and if she shows me that I am no longer welcome I shall tell her quietly that she will only have to put up with me for another week. It may be unpleasant, but I am not going to disappear as if I were a culprit, and afraid of Dirck Jansen."

"All right, Yorke! I can quite understand your feelings. I am heartily sorry, but I feel that you could not hope to be comfortable if you stayed here. I am sorry now that I asked you out here, but at the time I did not foresee that this ill-feeling on the part of the Dutch would become so deep and bitter. Had I done so, I would not have asked you, knowing that my wife is as prejudiced as her neighbours."

"You need not be sorry, uncle, that you invited me here. I have had a pleasant time and I have learned a great deal. If I had not been out here I should be slaving at Greek and mathematics at home, whereas now, if war breaks out, which seems almost certain, I shall have a most exciting time of it, and when it is over I may see some way of making a start for myself."

Mrs. Allnutt did not appear at supper.

"Will you tell her, uncle," Yorke said, after talking the matter over for some time, "that I shall leave this day week, and that if my presence is obnoxious to her I will take my meals apart. I am awfully sorry that my presence here should inconvenience her, but I really cannot go away as if I had been sent off in disgrace, or were afraid to meet Dirck Jansen again."

"Quite right, lad! I hope that your aunt will be in a better state of mind to-morrow morning; but when once she takes a thing into her head she is, between ourselves, as obstinate as a mule. Well, whatever she may think of this quarrel, angry as she may be at it, she cannot but feel, after what Van Laun said, that Dirck brought it upon himself. She is a fair-minded woman when she is cool, and I have no doubt, before you go, she will be really sorry; for although I acknowledge that her affections are very strongly devoted to Dirck, she has certainly during the time you have been here taken to you a good deal, and she has several times said it was wonderful how little trouble you were in the house."

"She has always been very kind, and I am really very sorry that, however innocently, I have incurred her displeasure. You know that this is so, uncle, and if there were any place near which I could go to without seeming to run away, I would leave at once rather than stop here where I am not welcome."

"Don't trouble about it, Yorke. I invited you here, and I ask you to stay. If my wife, in the teeth of what her own friends tell her, chooses to consider you to have been in the wrong, I can't help it, and no one else can. I shall not attempt to argue the matter with her. I know that presently she will see that she has acted very unfairly towards you, and I hope that she will even in time recognize that Dirck Jansen is by no means what she thinks him. It matters not to me whom she leaves the farm to, but I should not like to see it go to him."

"But would you not have it, uncle?"

"No. It was a curious arrangement. The old man left his farm to her, and her children after her if she should have any; if not, she had the power of leaving it at her death to any of the descendants of his married sisters whom she might choose. But it was at her death to be valued, and should it under my management have increased in value, the increase was to be estimated by a firm of Dutch valuers whom he named, in Cape Town, and I was to receive either in cash, or as a mortgage upon the farm, the sum which they fixed as the increase in its value. The old man saw that I had good ideas and that I should improve the place, and he said to me a short time before his death, 'I should not like myself to see all these changes that you tell me you wish to make, but I have no doubt that they will increase its value. It is fair that, if my daughter dies before you, you should have the benefit of the work that you have done, so I have had the farm valued, and it will be valued again by the same firm if she dies before you, and you will receive the difference. Does that seem to you to be fair?'

"'Quite fair,' I said.

"'It will be the same thing during her lifetime. I have set down what the farm has brought me in for the past twenty years. She is to receive the average rental and to be its mistress. As I warned you before you married her, I will have no Englishman master here; but you may have the use of one-third of the income to be laid out in improvements. It is to be as a loan to you, and to be repaid from the extra profits of the place.'

"I thought the arrangement, although curious, was very fair. I need hardly say that the income is now four times as great as it was when the old man died. The money I used for improvements has long since been paid off, and I have laid by a very considerable sum. My wife and I never talk about money matters. She has the amount that was annually made by her father, with which she runs the house, and spends as she likes. She neither asks what the farm now brings in, nor interferes with me in any way, so that we get on very well together. If she dies before me, I shall, in addition to what I have laid by, have a heavy mortgage on the farm; and between ourselves, it is morally certain that Dirck Jansen, if she leaves it to him, will never be able to pay the interest, for he will work on the old grooves, so far as he works at all, and in a couple of years after he takes possession I shall foreclose and have the farm put up to auction, in which case I hope that some Englishman will buy it. I should certainly not remain in the colony after her death.

"These are the plans I had formed for myself, Yorke, and when I was in England, and invited you to come up, it was with a vague idea that some day you might possibly succeed me here. The mortgage which I shall hold over the property is larger than anyone would be likely to bid for the farm, and I thought that I might therefore purchase it in your name. But since you have been here, I have seen that this would not do. In the first place, you would never be contented to settle down here, you have too much energy to take to the life of a farmer; and this quarrel with Dirck would alone render that plan impossible. There is an enmity already established; and if he, after coming into possession of the farm, were turned out by you, he would become your deadly enemy, and would assuredly have the sympathy of his relations, and, indeed, of all the Boers around. Therefore I shall not particularly care who buys the farm and pays off my mortgage.

"I have been very much pleased with you ever since you came here, and what was two years ago only a vague idea is now my fixed intention, and you will be my heir at my death. I have no nearer relation, and I have not felt attracted towards anyone whom I have met, except your family. Of course, I may die before my wife. In that case, my claim to the estate for the improvements I have effected will drop, though, of course, the sum I have laid by will not be affected. My opinion was asked on this subject when the old man made his will, and I willingly agreed to it, because it seemed to me a fair one; and besides, there was no one at that time whom I cared particularly to benefit after my death."

Yorke, who was greatly surprised at what Mr. Allnutt said, began to thank him for the kindness of his intentions towards him, but the latter said: "There is no occasion at all for that. I must leave my money to someone, and as I like you better than any of my other relations it is only natural that you should be my heir. It may be a good many years before you benefit largely by it. I am only some three or four and twenty years older than you are. I live a healthy outdoor life, and I may, for aught I know, go on till I am eighty. However, now that I regard you as my heir, of course I shall give you a helping hand when you need it, and when these troubles are over, and you have learned the ways of the country, and are able to start a business with a good chance of success, I shall be ready to give you a thousand pounds to set you up in it. Or, if you decide that you would like to return home and settle in England, you will have that sum to pay your expenses at college, and such further sum as may be required to maintain you until you are in a position to keep yourself. There, do not let us say anything more about it now, my boy. I should advise you not to go outside the farm until you leave. The Boers seldom forgive an injury. Certainly Dirck Jansen will not be an exception to the rule, and, if he has a chance, will attempt to do you harm. For example, he might pick a quarrel with you, which might come to a shooting affray, and although you may be a better shot than he is, he would not hesitate to fire first. We had an example of that to-day, so you must keep out of his way till you go. He certainly will not come here for the next week, after what Van Laun, who may be considered the head of his family, said. Now, lad, I feel tired after this unusual excitement, so we may as well go off to bed."

Yorke did not get to sleep for some time. He was naturally excited as well as surprised at the news of his cousin's intentions towards him, and felt that it would make an immense difference to him. In the most favourable circumstances, he could not have hoped to save a sum that would enable him to start for himself, or to obtain a share in any established business. Now, his cousin's generous offer would enable him to begin to climb the ladder as soon as he was qualified to do so. As to the alternative of returning to England and going to the University, he set it aside at once. He liked the life in South Africa, and would not have cared to take up that of a student again, with the prospect of becoming a hard-working curate in a poor neighbourhood, or years of waiting for briefs as a young barrister. With a business out there, he might soon be able to help them at home, to supply his sisters with pocket-money, and, most pleasant of all, to be able to present his mother with a carriage, and a pair of horses, such as they used to drive before. With such pleasant thoughts in his mind he at last fell off to sleep, and in the morning, after as usual partaking of a bowl of milk and bread, started for his ride round the farm with Hans in attendance.

Three days passed quietly. Mrs. Allnutt had so far relaxed as to come down to meals, and although she spoke as little as possible to Yorke, she was at least civil. On the fourth morning he took his rifle and went up the valley to practise for the first time since his contest with Dirck. Hans was some little distance behind him. As he was on the point of dismounting, he caught the gleam of a rifle-barrel behind a rock two hundred yards away. He did not hesitate for an instant, but threw himself from his horse. The action saved his life, for, as he did so, a shot was fired, and the ball went through his hat, slightly grazing his head. As his feet touched the ground he fell with his face towards the rock, unslinging his rifle as he did so and letting it fall in front of him, still grasping it close to the trigger.

With an almost imperceptible movement he brought the butt to his shoulder, and then lay perfectly still. His face was downward, and from a short distance seemed to be on the ground, but in reality he was able to look under the brim of his hat. For two or three minutes he lay thus, then he saw Dirck Jansen cautiously look out from behind the rock. For a minute he did not move, then he slowly rose and pointed his rifle at some object behind Yorke. The latter did not doubt that he was taking aim at Hans. The moment the thought struck him, he fired, and Dirck dropped his rifle, which exploded as it touched the ground, and fell forwards. A few seconds later Hans galloped up.

"Are you hurt, master?" he exclaimed. "I heard the shot, and thought that you had not waited for me, until I saw you lying there. I then caught sight of Dirck, and saw him point his rifle at me. I thought I was dead; for although you beat Dirck, he is a fine shot, and at three hundred yards could not have missed me. Then I saw your rifle flash."

"It is a bad business, Hans. He tried to take my life, and thought that he had succeeded. It was a near shave, as you see; the bullet went through my hat. But I was in the act of dismounting, and he fired an inch or two too high." He put his hand on the top of his head. When he looked at it it was covered with blood.

"It is just as well," he said, as Hans uttered an exclamation of alarm. "It is only a graze. If he had missed me altogether, my story might not have been believed. Now, let us go and see what has happened to him. I hope I have not killed him. If I had had time I should have aimed at his shoulder, but I knew that in another instant he would have fired at you, and I just sighted him and pulled the trigger."

They went over to where Dirck was lying. He had been hit high up in the chest. "Three inches farther up and I should only have broken his collar-bone," Yorke said regretfully. "Even as it is, I hope that he may recover. These Mauser bullets do comparatively little damage if they do not hit a vital point. It is certainly so with game. Now, Hans, lay him down as before. I will ride back to the farm and send back help to bring him in."

Yorke returned to his horse, mounted it, and rode back at full speed. Mr. Allnutt had just risen and come out into the yard.

"What is it, Yorke?" he asked in alarm on seeing the lad's pale face and a small stream of blood running down his face.

Yorke related what had happened.

"The young scoundrel!" the colonist exclaimed indignantly. "Well, at any rate you are not to blame, Yorke; but it is a desperately bad business. Fortunately you have Hans to prove that your account of the attempt at assassination is true, and you were perfectly justified in shooting; but still, it will make the feud worse than ever. I trust sincerely that his wound will not prove mortal. I will send off a mounted man at once to Richmond for a surgeon, and will go out with four Kaffirs to bring the unfortunate young fellow in. Then I will ride over with you and Hans to Van Laun's; he is a justice of the peace. You can make your deposition before him, and I will give my guarantee to produce you if Dirck should die. Having done this, you had better start at once for Cape Town, and when you get there telegraph your address to me, so that I can send for you if necessary."

"Very well, uncle, that will certainly be the best way. I could not stop here now. I trust most earnestly that he will recover. If I had had time to take aim I would only have disabled him, but I knew that if I did not fire instantly he would have shot Hans."

"No doubt he thought that he had shot you through the head, and intended to rid himself of the only witness. I do not pity him one bit, whatever happens to him. He was a murderer in intention, and if he has failed, it is not his fault. I think that even my wife will have her eyes opened now as to his real character. That he should have aimed his rifle at you before in the heat of passion was to some extent excusable; but this was an attempt at premeditated murder, and if he recovers he ought to have a few years in prison. However, that will be for you to decide."

"If I were coming back to live here I would certainly prosecute him, for he might make another attempt with better success; but, as it is, I shall not move in the matter. I will go out with you and the Kaffirs now. I could not be hanging about here doing nothing until he is brought in."

On arriving at the spot they found that Dirck was still alive, though unconscious. He was carefully placed on the hurdle that a Kaffir had brought with him, and was taken back to the house, Mr. Allnutt going on before to tell his wife what had happened. He came out of the door as Yorke arrived with the bearers, saw Dirck carried upstairs, and then came down again.

"I will leave him there in her care," he said; "she will see after him. She did not make any remark when I told her what had happened, beyond saying, 'Is there any proof as to the truth of this story?' 'There is this for proof,' I said. 'Hans heard one shot, and one shot only, fired as he rode up, then he saw Dirck rise and take aim at him. Then, as Yorke fired he saw him fall. The first shot that was fired was fired by Dirck, and the proof is that the ball went through Yorke's hat, and the lad is bleeding from a scalp wound there. As the affair happened on our farm there could have been no quarrel between the two lads, for Hans was but a short distance behind when the first shot was fired; and as Dirck fell nearly three hundred yards from the spot where Yorke was lying they could not have been near enough for them to have had words. What is more, he saw Dirck rise from behind the rock where he had been lying hid, and when he pointed that out to me I found the empty cartridge lying there.' She then only said, 'Bring him up here; he is my cousin.' Now we will ride over to Van Laun's. We shall have time to do so before the doctor arrives; it is only a quarter of an hour's gallop."

Ordering Hans to follow him he mounted and galloped off with Yorke. Mr. Van Laun looked very grave when he heard the story.

"Unfortunate lad," he said; "this is the result of his unrestrained passions. Now, Mr. Harberton, will you please write down your account of the affair, and I will swear you to it. Then I will get you to retire, and will have Hans in."

When the two statements had been sworn to he called Yorke in again.

"Of course," he said, "If Dirck dies there must be an enquiry into this. In any case, there must be an enquiry, if you insist upon it. Mr. Allnutt will give us his surety that you will appear if he dies."

"I should be well content to drop the matter, sir, if Dirck lives, as I sincerely hope he will. It is a most unfortunate affair, and greatly to be regretted. However, related as he is to Mrs. Allnutt, I certainly have no wish to press the matter against him. I am going away from here, and am not likely to return unless I am obliged to do so. And for my aunt's sake, if for no other reason, I should regret extremely to bring so heavy a charge against one to whom she is so attached."

"I thank you, sir. I am the unhappy fellow's uncle, and for my own part and that of the family I feel deeply indebted to you for your forbearance. I am glad, however, that you are about to leave, for the ties of blood here count for a great deal. Although we older men see his fault in the gravest light, there are hot spirits among the young men who might, in spite of the fact that he had been utterly in the wrong, take up his quarrel. I will now ride back with you and hear the surgeon's report."

This turned out to be favourable rather than otherwise. Without being able to give any decided opinion, the surgeon said that if all went well, and no fever set in, Dirck might recover. "The ball," he said, "has gone right through, and has undoubtedly passed through the upper part of the lung; but the wound is so small that it will probably heal up without leaving any after effects. If, however, fever sets in, I do not disguise from you that the result may be fatal, although I regard the probabilities as being altogether the other way. As the bullet has passed through there is little for me to do. He must be kept very quiet, and given cooling drinks for some days. I shall ride over and see him to-morrow. If he is going on well, he will be able to take a little nourishment in the way of soup in the course of two or three days."

The news was an immense relief to Yorke. He felt that had the affair happened again he could not have acted otherwise; but the thought that he might have taken life was very painful. If it had been done in the course of a battle he would have thought comparatively little of it, but this was altogether different; and although Dirck had been exceptionally rude and discourteous to him, and he would have liked to give him a good thrashing, he would have given much rather than be the cause of his death. When the surgeon had left, and Mr. Van Laun, after a few words with Mrs. Allnutt, had also ridden off, the colonist said: