ruth of this; the locks were off,
and Roden seemed to be piecing them together with his hand. Lambert
stared. He was lost in amazement. Had not Sonnenberg assured him
jubilantly that all had gone well, that the bait had taken, that their
mutual enemy was safe within the net? Yet here was the gun still in its
owner's possession, and the diabolical plot had clean broken down.

Replying confusedly and at random to certain remarks on the part of Mr
Van Stolz, who had at that moment entered, Lambert finally broke away,
and betook himself post-haste to his confederate. The latter's rage was
a sight to witness. He went out there and then to the yard. Tom was at
work in the stable, and alone.

"Tom."

"_Baas_."

"Didn't you tell me this morning that it was all right--_that it was all
right_?" repeated the Jew in his fury hissing the words through his set
teeth.

"_Ja, Baas_."

"But it isn't all right, you _schepsel_!" Then lowering his voice to a
whisper, "Where is the gun?"

"_Yau_! What gun, _Baas_?"

Sonnenberg nearly choked with fury, and made a step forward as though to
strike the Kaffir. The latter, however, moved not a muscle, standing
there as imperturbably as though there were no infuriated white man
within a mile of him.

"Look here!" stuttered the Jew, "if you don't drop this infernal fooling
I'll--I'll--kill you. Didn't you tell me you had got the gun all right?
Didn't you?"

"Childlike and bland" hardly expresses the mild open reproachfulness
which sat upon Tom's broad and sable countenance. He shook his head
with a pleasant smile.

"Nay what, _Baas_. I said no word about any gun. You asked me if I got
what I wanted, and I replied that I did."

The Jew fairly danced; to the vast but veiled amusement of his retainer,
who would have a delicious incident to relate from kraal to kraal, from
hut to hut, in his wanderings for many a long day; for Kaffirs are keen
mimics, and the reproduction of Sonnenberg in his wrath would throw
crowds into roaring, rolling, riotous laughter, whenever he should feel
like bringing it forth.

"You damnable black scoundrel!" hissed the Jew. "Give me back my money,
and then go--g-go to hell."

"Nay what, _Baas_. You gave me some money to buy a gun, and now you ask
it back. Besides, I have not got it. My brother Ndimbi is taking care
of it."

"I'll have you both in the _tronk_ for theft. You'll get five years at
least, the pair of you infernal thieves