e of the night, and
thinking it had escaped from Emerson's Zoo, reckoned it a Christian duty
to restore the wanderer. So he took it to the street leading to the
bank-yard, tied one of those detonating squibs to its tail, and headed
it for the gate. Heavens! you never heard such an awful row in your
life. Phiz! bang! went the cracker, and there was the mongrel scooting
round and round the yard, dragging a shower of fiery sparks, and every
now and then bang would go the cracker like pistol-shots. You can just
imagine the result. Everything kicked up the most fearful clamour--the
dogs, and the cats, and the peacock, and the _aasvogel_, and the
monkeys, all yelling at once; and the more they yelled, the more the
thing seemed to bang off. It didn't hurt the cur though, for it was a
long way behind him. But the best of the joke is that the banging of
the crackers started the notion that the town was being attacked, and
Lambert and some other fellows--myself among them--came slinking up
gingerly with rifles. The squib had long burnt out by the time we got
there; but the sight that met our astonished gaze was magnificent.
Emerson was standing on the top step, clad in a short nightshirt,
emptying all the furniture into the backyard, and, oh, his language!
Well, I can only give you some idea of it by saying that it was so
thick, that the chairs and tables he was hurling out stuck in it. They
could not even reach the ground."

"It looks as if you had a finger in the pie yourself, Smith. You seem
to know all the details," said Roden. But Emerson merely grinned
sardonically. He did not think the recital worthy of comment. Besides,
he had heard it so often.

"I? Not I. It only came in at the end, as I tell you," protested
Smith.

At this juncture a note was handed to Roden. It was from Mr Van Stolz.

"Here's a little more excitement for Doppersdorp to-night," he said when
he had read it. This was its burden. "One hundred and thirty-three
mounted men from Barabastadt, _en route_ for the front, are passing
through. They will camp here to-night. Volunteers and band going out
to meet them. Tell everybody."

This was news indeed. In a trice the table was deserted. All who heard
it were in first-rate spirits--those who belonged to the newly formed
Volunteer Corps, because it would afford an opportunity for a lively
game of soldiers; those who did not, because it meant more excitement;
while Jones, perhaps, was