Bacon told me hehad gone to Durban--went about a week ago."
"Indeed. Do you know what took him there?"
"I fancy he was sent for to make some report of the state of things inthis neighbourhood. You know he now holds an official position of someimportance."
"Yes, which you might have had if you had liked it, George. He has thecredit of having given them warning at Rorke's Drift in time to preparethemselves for the defence of the place. But it was you who broughtthem that information."
"I did not want the post, Redgy; and, if I had, Hardy was the personreally entitled to it. I did not know the way from Isandhlwana toRorke's Drift, and could not have found it. And to say the truth, Ishould not have thought of the garrison at Rorke's Drift, if he had notreminded me of it. No, he fully deserved his appointment, and I amheartily glad he got it. But I believe, when he gets to Durban, he willwarn the Government that the Transvaal is not merely in a condition ofdiscontent and disloyalty, but on the verge of an armed outbreak."
"Do you think it goes so far as that, George? An armed outbreak means awar with England, remember. What possible hope can they have insucceeding in that?"
"No reasonable hope, of course. The hundredth part of England's powerwould be enough to crush them. I don't suppose the Boers could bring5000 men into the field, and England could easily send five times thatnumber, or twenty times that number, if she chose. The Boers have butlittle discipline or material of war, or knowledge of strategy. Englandis a first-rate power in all those respects. It would be as absolutemadness for the Transvaal to go to war with England, as it would be fora terrier dog to provoke a lion to fight with it. But, however greatthe madness, it does not follow that they will not do it."
"What can induce them?"
"Their profound ignorance of the relative strength of the two countries.I was talking with a Boer of some intelligence, who, I found, reallybelieved that Holland was one of the Great Powers in Europe--the equal,if not the superior of England. He knew nothing of history, apparently,since the times of Van Trompe and Admiral Blake. He fancied Isandhlwanahad only been redeemed by a desperate and exhausting effort, which wouldmake it impossible for us to engage in any other war for a generation tocome. The accidental circumstance that a quantity of newly-coined moneyhad been sent out here to pay the troops was enough to convince him thatEngland was bankrupt, and driven to expend its last guinea. People whoknow no more than that of the true state of things may perpetrate anyact of folly."
"No doubt, George; and I daresay also they argued that the disasters atIsandhlwana and Intombe proved that the English were not so formidablein the field as their own troops had always been. They had repeatedlyfought these Zulus, remember, and always with complete success."
"Exactly; no doubt they did, and do, so argue. They were always ontheir guard, and we were taken off ours, and that made all thedifference. But though the Dutch might practise their rude tactics withsuccess on the natives, they will hardly get the English to approachthem and be shot down after the same fashion. That is reckoning rathertoo much on even an Englishman's contempt for his enemy. But they meanmischief, these Boers. They are flocking down this way from all partsof the Transvaal. Whom do you think I saw to-day, of all people in theworld?"
"I don't know, indeed--not old Kransberg, I suppose?"
"Not _old_ Kransberg, but I did meet the young one--our friend Rudolf.What should bring him here, or Gottlob Lisberg, or Hans Stockmar, orJulius Vanderbilt, or half a dozen other fellows from near Zeerust, whomI have seen about in the course of the last week, unless what they sayis true, and they are going to rebel against the English Government."
"It looks like it, I'm afraid. But about Rudolf Kransberg--did you cometo speech of him? How did he receive you?"
"I didn't come to speech of him, as he didn't say a single word. Hereceived me as Dido did Aeneas in the infernal regions."
"What! he bears us some grudge for the trick played on him at Umtongo?"
"I am not at all sure that he realises the fact that any trick wasplayed on him. From what Lisberg told me,--Lisberg is very intimatewith him, you know,--he fancies the explosion was the work of the EvilOne, and that we are in league with him. You know Thyrza wrote us wordthat he had never turned up at Umtongo again. My mother thought it veryodd, but she apparently still believes he is a suitor for Thyrza'shand."
"I suppose Thyrza herself has a pretty shrewd suspicion of the truth."
"I suppose she has, but if she guessed that Rudolf had taken up thatnotion, she would be quite content to let him entertain it. But theupshot, I fancy, is that Rudolf owes us one, and will pay it if he hasthe opportunity. He is as thorough a specimen of the sullen Boer as Iknow, and your sullen Boer is not a pleasant article. But, Redgy," headded, after a few minutes' silence, "there is a matter which I haveonce or twice wished to speak to you about, but have always put it off.I have a fancy that you really do care for Thyrza, notwithstanding yourchaff about her. We are very old friends, and out here, cut off fromall the rest of the world, we are like brothers. I wish you would tellme the plain truth about this matter."
"Well, old fellow, where is the use of telling it? I don't see how anyone could live as long as I did in your sister's society, and not carefor her. She is simply the sweetest and most beautiful creature I haveever seen. But where is the good of my saying this, George? I can'task her to marry me; I have nothing but a precarious allowance of ahundred pounds a year, and I am not likely to have anything more, unlessI can make it myself out here."
"But if Thyrza likes you--"
"I don't know that she does," broke in Margetts. "I have fancied onceor twice that she does. But most likely it was all fancy."
"I am only saying, if she _does_ like you, she will have something.Umtongo belongs to my mother, not to Mr Mansen."
"But Umtongo will come to you, George," said Margetts, surprised.
"I shall not want it. I shall never marry; and this life here suits memuch better than such a farm as Umtongo, though, no doubt, that is avery good farm."
"No doubt," assented his friend. "I see what you mean, and I believe Iunderstand you, when you say you won't marry. But, in the first place,I hope you are mistaken there; and, in the next, supposing everythingelse arranged as you wish, Thyrza and I could never deprive you of yourinheritance. No, George; I mean to stay here and work as I am doingnow. I shall never make a parson; I'm not cut out for that. But Ithink I shall do well enough at farming and teaching; and, by and by, ifyour sister doesn't marry a Boer, I may be in a position to ask her."
"Be it so, Redgy. I believe you are right, and this had better not bementioned again. And here, in good time, comes Mr Rogers. He is backfrom Newcastle earlier than I had expected."
Mr Rogers, whose acquaintance the reader made in the first chapter ofthis story, was an extremely worthy man. It would have been well forboth England and South Africa if there had been more like him. Left anorphan when quite young, and possessed of a considerable fortune, he hadalways disliked the ordinary round of English social life, and desiredthe freer air and habits of a new country. As soon as he could overcomethe reluctance of his guardian to the step, he had visited the colonies,and chosen out from among them the border country of Natal and theTransvaal. There he had bought a large farm,--large even for farms inthat country,--and built two or three different stations on variousparts of it. Spielman's Vley and Rylands were two of these, and here heplaced men whose views accorded with his own. Ludwig Mansen, though aDutchman, had been one of these; and it was with considerable regretthat he heard, soon after his arrival in England, of Mrs Mansen'ssuccession to her uncle's property near Zeerust and their removalthither. Notwithstanding his affection for colonial life, he was anEnglishman to the backbone, and the blunders made by ColonialSecretaries, one after another, sorely disturbed him. In particular,the gigantic mistake of the annexation of the Transvaal so troubled him,that he made an expedition to England in the hope of persuading theGo
vernment to reconsider that disastrous measure. There was no doubt itwas, for the moment, advantageous to the Boers, as a sentence of penalservitude would be less unwelcome to a convicted prisoner than asentence of death. But when the danger of being hanged had passed away,it was not likely that penal servitude would be cheerfully accepted.Foreseeing the inevitable mischief that would ensue, Mr Rogers hadurged the repeal, or, at all events, some modification of the decree.But the new Government could not be induced to pay any heed to SouthAfrican matters, being completely absorbed by domestic and Continentalquestions; and Mr Rogers went back to Umvalosa, to do the best he couldunder the circumstances of the case.
On the present