somehow
arrange to send in to Port Elizabeth for a supply. The nuisance of it
is that I have nobody about my place whom I can trust upon such an
errand--"

"Oh, as to that," interrupted my father, "if you are so hard up as that,
Ned shall go in and get it for you! We are not very busy here just now,
and a trip to Port Elizabeth will do him no harm. But why do you
require such a large quantity? Are you contemplating an up-country
jaunt; or what is in the wind?"

"No," answered Lestrange; "I am certainly not contemplating an
up-country expedition of any sort. And as to what is in the wind, I
don't know; I very much wish I did. But during the last month I have
heard a thing or two with regard to the natives that make me feel just a
trifle uneasy, and I thought I ought to mention the matter to you--if it
has not already reached your ears."

"No," said my father, "we have heard nothing here. What is it?"

"Well," said Lestrange, "I have heard nothing very definite, thus far--
only enough, in fact, to render me somewhat uneasy. Just vague hints,
more than anything else, you know. But I have been putting two and two
together, and therefrom I deduce the fact that the natives are growing a
bit restive at the steadily increasing number of whites who are coming
into the country--"

My father interrupted with a loud laugh. "Is that all, my dear chap?"
he exclaimed. "Why, it has been like that ever since I came here,
sixteen years ago. There were rumours then that the natives intended to
rise and drive us all into the sea; but nothing has ever come of it,
excepting an occasional small raid upon some outlying farm, and the
driving off of a few sheep or cattle. Surely you have been here long
enough to know that these mysterious hints and rumours should not be
taken seriously!"

"Yes, I have," returned Lestrange. "But, to my mind, things look a bit
different just now. From what I have heard I gather that there is
somebody--whether a white man or a native I cannot make out, but it
looks rather like a white man--who is going round among the natives,
urging the various tribes to combine together for the purpose of
attacking and exterminating the whites forthwith; pointing out that,
unless this is very speedily done, the whites will get such a footing in
the country that it will be impossible to drive them out, with the
result that the natives will be robbed of their land and driven into the
interior, to perish on th