e scrawled his
big coarse signature on the paper.

"I propose, with your permission, to escort the cart down with two other
men. As you are aware, I go to take over the command of the Wakkerstroom
district to-morrow."

"Very good. It is your affair; you are responsible. I shall ask no
questions, provided your friends do no harm to the cause;" and he left
the room without another word.

When the great man had gone, Frank Muller sat down again on the bench
and looked at the pass, and communed with himself, for he was far too
wise to commune with anybody else. "The Lord hath delivered mine enemy
into mine hand," he said with a smile, and stroked his golden beard.
"Well, well, I will not waste His merciful opportunities as I did that
day out buck-shooting. And then for Bessie. I suppose I shall have
to kill old Croft too. I am sorry for that, but it can't be helped;
besides, if anything should happen to Jess, Bessie will take
Mooifontein, and that is worth having. Not that I want more land; I have
enough. Yes, I will marry her. It would serve her right if I didn't;
but, after all, marriage is more respectable; also one has more hold of
a wife. Nobody will interfere for her. Then, she will be of use to
me by-and-by, for a beautiful woman is a power even among these
fellow-countrymen of mine, if only a man knows how to bait his lines
with her. Yes, I shall marry her. Bah! that is the way to win a
woman--by capture; and, what is more, they like it. It makes her worth
winning too. It will be a courtship of blood. Well, the kisses will be
the sweeter, and in the end she will love me the more for what I have
dared for her.

"So, Frank Muller, so! Ten years ago you said to yourself: 'There are
three things worth having in the world--first, wealth; secondly, women,
if they take your fancy, or, better still, one woman, if you desire her
above all others; thirdly, power.' Now, you have got the wealth, for one
way or another you are the richest man in the Transvaal. In a week you
will have the woman you love, and who is sweeter to you than all the
world besides. In five years' time you will have the power--absolute
power. That old man is clever; he will be President. But I am cleverer.
I shall soon take his seat, thus"--and he rose and seated himself in the
General's chair--"and he will go down a step and take mine. Ay, and then
I will reign. My tongue shall be honey and my hand iron. I will pass
over the land like a storm. I wil