Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
Perils in the Transvaal and ZululandBy Rev. H.C. AdamsIllustrations by J. GreenawayPublished by Griffith, Farran, Okeden and Welsh, London.This edition dated 1887.
Perils in the Transvaal and Zululand, by Rev H.C. Adams.
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________________________________________________________________________PERILS IN THE TRANSVAAL AND ZULULAND, BY REV H.C. ADAMS.
CHAPTER ONE.
School was just over. The boys belonging to Arlingford College pouredout into the playing fields, the juniors tumbling over one another inhaste and confusion, as though the premises were on fire behind them;the seniors strolling leisurely out, or gathering in small groups nearthe school door, to arrange their plans for the afternoon. DrStansfield, the headmaster, still remained, in conversation withReginald Margetts, a connection of his wife's, a young man oftwo-and-twenty, who was passing the Oxford long vacation at his house,and had come in with a message from Mrs Stansfield. One of theassistant masters also, George Rivers by name, sat at his desk, lookingover some exercises of which he had not completed the revision. He wasnear about Margetts' age, a well-built young fellow with an intelligentand pleasant face.
"Well, that will do, Redgy," said the Doctor. "You may tell MrsStansfield that I do not know, and cannot conjecture who her visitor mayhave been; but if he is to return in half an hour, I shall be in thelibrary ready to receive him. At present I must have a little talk withGeorge Rivers here, before I leave the school."
"I am going to walk with Rivers presently, sir," said Margetts. "Shallyou be long?"
"A quarter of an hour, I daresay. George will join you when we havedone. George," he continued, as Margetts left the room, "I have lookedover the papers you have sent me. I intended to have had thisconversation, even if you had not invited it. It is time that someconclusion was come to. You have not, I fear, received any freshinformation?"
"I am sorry to say I have not."
"I am sorry too; but I hardly expected anything else. You are, I think,more than one-and-twenty?"
"Two-and-twenty in a few months, sir."
"Indeed. Well, there ought to be no further delay in the arrangement ofyour plans for the future. Do you not think so?"
"Yes, sir; and I believe I have made up my mind."
"What have you resolved to do?"
"Before I go into that, Dr Stansfield, I ought to thank you for thegreat kindness you have shown me. I should be a pauper, or somethinglike it, but for you."
"We need not speak of that. Go on."
"Well, sir, I feel that I ought not to remain longer in England. I havealready trespassed too long on your bounty."
"If that is your reason for leaving England, you had better reconsiderit. Whatever might have been the case three years and a half ago, youare not costing me anything now. Your assistant-mastership, small asthe salary is, with what you have of your own, is enough to keep you,and you fully earn it. You have, I believe, once or twice expressed awish to enter holy orders?"
"It has been my wish for some time past, sir."
"Very well. You could not be ordained for more than a year. Beforethat I think I could arrange with the Bishop for you to be ordained onyour mastership here. There is not so much difficulty made about atitle as used to be the case."
"You are most kind, sir. I hope you will not think me ungrateful; but Ifeel it to be my first duty to find my mother and sister, if I can."
"I cannot blame you. But I should like to know what steps you mean totake. I understood you to say you had obtained no further information."
"No; and I do not expect to obtain any information, so long as I am inEngland. But if I were out in Australia, it might be different."
"What do you propose to do, then?"
"Well, in the first place, to work my passage out to Australia--to SwanRiver, you know."
"Ay, to Dalby's Plot, to which it was ascertained that your mother wentwhen she landed in Australia. But you doubtless remember that weascertained, two years and a half ago, that she had left the colony, andhad gone--some said to Tasmania, and others to Cape Town; but no one hasever given us a clue, by which we might discover the place to which shehad really removed."
"That is so. But if I were on the spot I think I might be able to huntout information, which no one, who was not as deeply interested as I am,would be able to obtain."
"You may be right in that. Well, suppose you went out, and succeeded infinding Mrs Rivers--what then?"
"Then I should like to buy land--a small farm. A little money goes along way out there, you know, sir. Then, when I was getting on prettywell, I might be ordained by one of the colonial bishops, and doclerical work combined with farming. It isn't the same kind of thingout there, I am told, that it is in England. There are no largepopulations--except, of course, in the towns--which take up a man'swhole time."
"You are right, I believe. A number of educated and zealous mensupporting themselves by their own industry, and yet having the power ofministering to their neighbours, would be a great boon in the colonies.I would willingly lend you all the assistance in my power towardscarrying out your scheme; but, as I have already said, I am afraid I seebut little hope of learning what has become of your mother and sister."
"I do not see much more; but I think it my duty to make the trial."
"Be it so then. What money have you?"
"Enough to pay my passage to Australia, sir,--that is, as a third-classpassenger, if I should prefer that to serving as a sailor on board oneof the steamers,--and perhaps 100 pounds over."
"I think you must go as a passenger. It might prejudice your errand,when you get there, if you had been before the mast. We must contriveto get you a letter of introduction to one of the Australian bishops."
"I'll give him one!" exclaimed a voice. "I know two or three of them aswell as I know my own brother."
Dr Stansfield started up in great surprise. "What, Rogers!" heexclaimed. "Are you the visitor whom Mrs Stansfield told me to expect?I knew you were coming to England, but not so soon as this."
"To be sure I am. I was told you would be out of school by a quarterpast twelve at latest, and now it is half-past, and you are stillthere!"
"We had forgotten the lapse of time," said the Doctor. "But tell mewhat has brought you to England so much earlier than was expected."
"The rows with the Boers and the Zulus," said Mr Rogers. "I have comehome--partly at the request of many of the leading men in Natal, partlybecause my own interests were deeply concerned--to try and induce theGovernment to put matters on some satisfactory footing."
"I had better leave you, sir, had I not?" said George, rising. "You canspeak to me further at another time."
Both the gentlemen turned and looked at the speaker, whose presenceperhaps they had forgotten.
"Oh yes," said Dr Stansfield; "I will bear what you have told me inmind, and speak to you about it in a day or two."
George bowed, and left the room.
"Who is that lad?" inquired Mr Rogers. "I don't suppose I can haveseen him before; but his face seems strangely familiar to me."
"No; you can't have seen him before," rejoined the Doctor, smiling,"unless it was in a dream. He has never been in South Africa, and you,I think, have never left it since he was a child."
"No; I have never left the Transvaal, unless to visit Cape Town, orZululand, or Natal, for twenty years. I wonder you knew me, Stansfield;but, to be sure, you were expecting me before long. But as regards thislad--has he any relatives in the Transvaal?"
"His mother an
d sister may be in the Transvaal for all I can tell. Theyleft England some years ago, and the place where they are living isquite unknown."
"What is his name?" asked Mr Rogers.
"Rivers," answered the headmaster,--"George Rivers." Mr Rogers shookhis head. "I know no person of that name," he said. "It must be a merechance resemblance. But I should like to know his history; for somereason or other he interests me."
"Well, I can tell it you now," said the Doctor. "Sophia will not expectus until luncheon-time, and that is not for another half-hour yet. Sitdown in that chair, and you shall hear it.
"George's father was a country doctor;