the great black horse,
making it plunge and caper gallantly.

"And then," he went on, giving his ambition wing, "when I have won
Bessie, and we have kicked all these Englishmen out of the land, in a
very few years I shall rule this country, and what next? Why, then I
will stir up the Dutch feeling in Natal and in the old Colony, and we
will push the Englishmen back into the sea, make a clean sweep of the
natives, only keeping enough for servants, and have a united South
Africa, like that poor silly man Burgers used to prate of, but did not
know how to bring about. A united Dutch South Africa, and Frank Muller
to rule it! Well, such things have been, and may be again. Give me forty
years of life and strength, and we shall see----"

Just then he reached the verandah of the house, and, dismissing his
secret ambitions from his mind, Frank Muller dismounted and entered. In
the sitting-room he found Silas Croft reading a newspaper.

"Good-day, _Oom_ Silas," he said, extending his hand.

"Good-day, _Meinheer_ Frank Muller," replied the old man very coldly,
for John had told him of the incident at the shooting-party which so
nearly ended fatally, and though he made no remark he had formed his own
conclusions.

"What are you reading about in the _Volkstem_, _Oom_ Silas--about the
Bezuidenhout affair?"

"No; what was that?"

"It was that the _volk_ are rising against you English, that is all. The
sheriff seized Bezuidenhout's waggon in execution of taxes, and put it
up to sale at Potchefstroom. But the _volk_ kicked the auctioneer off
the waggon and hunted him round the town; and now Governor Lanyon is
sending Raaf down with power to swear in special constables and enforce
the law at Potchefstroom. He might as well try to stop a river by
throwing stones. Let me see, the big meeting at Paarde Kraal was to have
been on the fifteenth of December, now it is to be on the eighth, and
then we shall know if it will be peace or war."

"Peace or war?" answered the old man testily. "That has been the cry for
years. How many big meetings have there been since Shepstone annexed
the country? Six, I think. And what has come of it all? Just nothing but
talk. And what can come of it? Suppose the Boers did fight, what would
the end of it be? They would be beaten, and a lot of people would be
killed, and that would be the end of it. You don't suppose that England
would give in to a handful of Boers, do you? What did General Wolseley
say t