to be
hitting with them. It became clear that they aimed at the capture of
the trolley. There was only a feeble struggle for the trolley; it was
captured and hauled through the scattered spectators in the square
to the protection of a small impassive body of regular cavalry at the
opposite corner. Then quite a number of people seemed to be getting
excited and fighting. They appeared to be vaguely fighting the
foot-police, and the police seemed to be vaguely pushing through
them and dispersing them. The roof of a little one-story shop became
prominent as a centre of vigorous stone-throwing.

It was no sort of battle. Merely the normal inconsecutiveness of human
affairs had become exaggerated and pugnacious. A meeting was being
prevented, and the police engaged in the operation were being pelted or
obstructed. Mostly people were just looking on.

"It amounts to nothing," said Benham. "Even if they held a meeting, what
could happen? Why does the Government try to stop it?"

The drifting and charging and a little booing went on for some time.
Every now and then some one clambered to a point of vantage, began
a speech and was pulled down by policemen. And at last across the
confusion came an idea, like a wind across a pond.

The strikers were to go to the Power Station.

That had the effect of a distinct move in the game. The Power Station
was the centre of Johannesburg's light and energy. There if anywhere it
would be possible to express one's disapproval of the administration,
one's desire to embarrass and confute it. One could stop all sorts of
things from the Power Station. At any rate it was a repartee to the
suppression of the meeting. Everybody seemed gladdened by a definite
project.

Benham and White went with the crowd.

At the intersection of two streets they were held up for a time; the
scattered drift of people became congested. Gliding slowly across the
mass came an electric tram, an entirely unbattered tram with even its
glass undamaged, and then another and another. Strikers, with the
happy expression of men who have found something expressive to do, were
escorting the trams off the street. They were being meticulously careful
with them. Never was there less mob violence in a riot. They walked by
the captured cars almost deferentially, like rough men honoured by a
real lady's company. And when White and Benham reached the Power House
the marvel grew. The rioters were already in possession and going fre