on, rising, "but
one day you will be able to go and look for him yourself. I did not mean
that; what I meant was that I could take a letter to Frank Muller. A
live Boer is better than a dead Englishman; and Frank Muller will make
a fine husband for any girl. If you shut your eyes you won't know the
difference."

"Go!" said Bessie, in a choked voice, and pointing her hands towards the
avenue.

Such was the suppressed energy in her tone that the man sprang to his
feet, and while he rose, interpreting her gesture as an encouragement to
action, the old dog, Stomp, who had been watching him all the time, and
occasionally giving utterance to a low growl of animosity, flew straight
at his throat from the verandah. The dog, which was a heavy one, struck
the man full in the chest and knocked him backwards. Down came dog and
man on the drive together, and then ensued a terrible scene, the man
cursing and shrieking and striking out at the dog, and the dog worrying
the man in a fashion that he was not liable to forget for the remainder
of his life.

Bessie, whose energy seemed again to be exhausted, took absolutely
no notice of the fray, and it was at this juncture that her old uncle
arrived upon the scene, together with two Kafirs--the same whom Bessie
had seen idling.

"Hullo! hullo!" he halloed in his stentorian tones, "what is all this
about? Get off, you brute!" and what between his voice and the blows
of the Kafirs the dog was persuaded to let go his hold of the man, who
staggered to his feet, severely mauled, and bleeding from half a dozen
bites.

For a moment he did not say anything, but picked up his sticks. Then,
however, having first made sure that the dog was being held by the
Kafirs, he turned, his face streaming with blood, his one eye blazing
with fury, and, shaking both his clenched fists at poor Bessie, broke
into a scream of cursing.

"You shall pay for this--Frank Muller shall make you pay for it. I am
his servant. I----"

"Get out of this, however you are," thundered old Silas, "or by Heaven
I will let the dog on you again!" and he pointed to Stomp, who was
struggling wildly with the two Kafirs.

The man paused and looked at the dog, then, with a final shake of the
fist, he departed at a run down the avenue, turning once only to look if
the dog were coming.

With empty eyes Bessie watched him go, taking no more notice of him
than she had of the noise of the fighting. Then, as though struck by a
tho