ilities to ensure its safety.
He had ridden with them a day and a half to help start the _trek_, and
had then returned with all haste to enrol himself in the Kaffrarian
Rangers--a mounted corps, raised among the stock-farmers of the
district, of whom it consisted almost entirely.

"Wish I was you, Tom," Hoste had said ruefully. "Wouldn't I just like
to be going bang off to the front to have a slap at old Kreli instead of
humbugging around here looking after stock. This _laager_ business is
all fustian. I believe the things would be just as safe on the farm."

"Well, shunt them back there and come along," was Carhayes' reply.

"We are not all so fortunate as you, Mr Carhayes," retorted Mrs Hoste
with a trifle of asperity, for this advice was to her by no means
palatable. "What would you have done yourself, I should like to know,
but for that accommodating cousin, who has taken all the trouble off
your hands and left you free to go and get shot if you like?"

"Oh, Eustace? Yes, he's a useful chap," said Carhayes complacently,
beginning to cram his pipe. "What do you think the beggar has gone and
done? Why, he has inspanned four or five boys from Nteya's location to
help him with the _trek_! The very fellows we are trekking away from,
by Jove! And they will help him, too. An extraordinary fellow,
Eustace--I never saw such a chap for managing Kafirs. He can make 'em
do anything."

"Well, its a good thing he can. But doesn't he want to go and see some
of the fun himself?"

"Not he. Or, if he does, he can leave Bentley in charge and come back
as soon as he has put things straight. Bentley's my man down there. I
let him live at Swaanepoel's Hoek and run a little stock of his own on
consideration of keeping the place in order and looking after it
generally. He'll be glad enough to look after our stock now for a
consideration--if Eustace gets sick of it and really does elect to come
and have a shot at his `blanket friends'--Ho-ho!"

The Kaffrarian Rangers were, as we have said, a corps raised in the
district. The farmers composing it mounted and equipped themselves, and
elected their own leaders. There was little discipline, in the military
sense of the word, but the men knew each other and had thorough
confidence in their leaders. They understood the natives, and were as
much at home on the _veldt_ or in the bush as the Kafirs themselves.
They affected no uniforms, but all were clad in a serviceable at