" he added, "I have thought the whole matter out, I have decided
what is best to be done, so I am all right again, and I do not consider
at forty-three that my career is ended."

"I am quite sure it is not, Mr. Rhodes," was my reply; "and, what is
more, I have a small bet with Mr. Lawson that in a year's time you will
be in office again, or, if not absolutely in office, as great a factor
in South African politics as you have been up to now."

He thought a minute, and then said:

"It will take ten years; better cancel your bet."[5] was careful not to
ask him any questions which might be embarrassing for him to answer, but
he volunteered that the objects of his visit to England were, first, to
do the best he could for his friends at Johannesburg, including his
brother Frank, who were now political prisoners, practically at the
mercy of the Boers, unless the Imperial Government bestirred itself on
their behalf; and, secondly, to save his Charter, if by any means it
could be saved. This doubt seemed to haunt him. "My argument is," I
remember he said, "they may take away the Charter or leave it, but there
is one fact that no man can alter--viz., that a vast and valuable
territory has been opened up by that Company in about half the time, and
at about a quarter the cost, which the Imperial Government would have
required for a like task; so that whether, in consequence of one bad
blunder, and partly in order to snub me, Cecil Rhodes, the Company is to
cease, or whether it is allowed to go on with its work, its achievements
and their results must and will speak for themselves." With reference to
the political prisoners, I recollect he repeated more than once:

"You see, I stand in so much stronger a position than they do, in that I
am not encumbered with wife and children; so I am resolved to strain
every nerve on their behalf." About six o'clock the last bell rang, and,
cutting short our conversation, I hurriedly wished him good-bye and good
luck, and from the deck of our little steamer we watched the big ship
pass out into the night.

We had now been a month in South Africa, and had seen very little of the
country, and it appeared that we had chosen a very unfavourable moment
for our visit. We were determined, however, not to return home without
seeing the Transvaal, peaceful or the reverse. The question was, how to
get there. By train one had to allow three days and four nights, and,
since the rebellion, to put up with i