ed
over. "You deserve all that's happened for keeping a place like that
practically unfenced, for one can't call that broken-down thing a fence.
And right by the roadside, too! Shouldn't wonder if it was left that
way on purpose."

The man yelled out a fresh torrent of blasphemy. The last remark had
all-unwittingly hit the right nail on the head. That mealie patch was a
source of revenue to its owner beyond the mere value of its crop. But
he hesitated to come to close quarters.

"Fence or no fence," he shouted, "I'm going to have twenty pound out of
that paper-collared, monkey-headed son of a bandbox. His brute of a
horse has done more than twice that amount of damage. So shell out,
Shiny-boots!"

Harry, to whom this remark was addressed, though, as his comrade had
said, somewhat shaken by his fall, was quite alive to the situation. He
realised what a tower of strength lay in Gerard's thews and sinews, and
was not at all unwilling that his comrade should fight his battles for
him. So he answered with a spirit born of that confidence.

"Keep your confounded cheek to yourself, you dirty-looking clodhopper.
Twenty pounds! Why, I'll summon you for shying stones at me and
starting off my horse. And if he's lost you'll have to pay for him."

"Look here," said Gerard, "if you think you've any claim upon us, we are
staying in Maritzburg, at the Imperial. I'll give you our names and
addresses, and you can do what you like. But we are not going to stick
fooling around here all day."

"Oh, you're not, eh? We'll soon see about that." And turning, he began
bawling out something in a language they did not understand.

A house stood back from the road. This building they had at first
hardly noticed. Now, from around it, a swarm of natives were pouring,
about a dozen of whom, leaving the rest, came running down to the scene
of the dispute.

"This is getting serious," said Gerard to himself. "I'm afraid we're in
for a ripe old row."

The natives had surrounded our two friends. They were mostly
well-set-up, stalwart fellows, some clad in European clothes, others
wearing only the _mutya_, a sort of apron which hangs from the loins
before and behind. All carried sticks.

The white man was haranguing them vehemently in their own tongue--in
fact, binding them to his interests by promises of grog and tobacco.
Gerard cast an eager glance up and down the long riband of dusty road,
over the shimmering expanse of