icer. Indeed, the
Inspector in command had undergone a narrow escape, having turned up at
a distant post the following day without his hat. Such was the report
which had come in; every word of which, especially the latter
circumstance, being implicitly believed by the good burgesses of
Doppersdorp--probably because Inspectors in that useful force, the
Frontier Armed and Mounted Police, did not at any time, when on duty,
wear "hats." But it was all the same to Doppersdorp.

"Any more news, Mr Musgrave?" said Jones eagerly, as Roden entered.

"If there is, for the Lord's sake wait until we've all done," struck in
Emerson, the bank-manager, who was of a grim and sardonic habit of mind.
"As it is, we can scarcely any of us get through our oats, we are all
in such a cast-iron hurry to start for the Transkei."

"There isn't any."

"Good. Then we needn't prepare for the siege of Doppersdorp just yet--
we poor devils who can't rush forth, to death or glory."

"We could hold out for ever, for we should always have Emerson's Chamber
of Horrors to fall back upon," laughed a storekeeper opposite; "that is,
if it is not already dead of fright from the _schrek_ it got last week."

While others guffawed the bank-manager grinned sourly at this allusion.
It happened that the premises provided by his Corporation for the
housing of its employe's contained a spacious backyard, with an open
shed and some stabling. This yard Emerson had seen fit to populate with
the most miscellaneous of zoological collections, comprising a young
_aasvogel_, two or three blue cranes, an owl and a peacock, besides a
few moulting and demoralised-looking fowls, a tame meerkat, a shocking
reprobate of a baboon--whose liberty and influences for evil were only
restricted by a post and chain--several monkeys; item, Kaffir curs of
slinking and sinister aspect; and, in fact, innumerable specimens which
it was impossible to include within the inventory with any degree of
assurance, for the inhabitants of the menagerie were continually being
added to, or disappearing, the latter according to the degree of
watchfulness maintained on their own part, or that of aggression on the
part of their neighbours. This collection was known in Doppersdorp as
Emerson's Chamber of Horrors.

"You weren't here that night, Musgrave. Away at Suffield's place, I
think," went on the last speaker, with a wink at the others. "Well,
some fellow got hold of a cur dog in the middl