ere they will at the next place. We may just as well
get their custom as the other Johnny. Besides, it's good for trade all
round. They will always deal for choice at a place where they know they
can get a glass or a bottle of grog when they want it."

Apart from being in itself an abstraction, the "law" is a thing which
stands in much the same relationship towards the average respectable
citizen its the schoolmaster does towards even the best-disposed of
boys--to wit, there is about it a smack of the "natural enemy." This
being so--we record it with grief--Gerard, who was young, and though a
well-principled lad, very much removed from a prig, allowed his
conscience to be so far seared as to accept and indeed act upon this
explanation. We further regret to add that he filled many and many a
subsequent bottle with "paraffin," as set forward in Smith's
instructions, receiving the price therefor without a qualm.

He was now in charge of the whole place, and his sense of authority and
responsibility had gone far towards reconciling him to the irksomeness
of the life. He was able to write home with some pride, saying that he
had found employment from the very first, and not only employment, but
fair prospects of advancement--thanks to Anstey--which entailed upon
that worthy a more grateful letter of acknowledgment than he deserved,
as we shall see. He had mastered a good many Zulu words--that being the
language of nearly all the natives of Natal, whether of pure or mixed
race--and was getting on well all round. He had made his rough quarters
as comfortable as he could, having sent over to Maritzburg for his
outfit. Still, the life, as we have said, was terribly irksome. Day
after day, the same monotonous round. He had no acquaintances of his
own age or social standing. Now and again some friend of his employer's
would drop in and literally make a night of it, and then his disgust and
depression knew no bounds. Then, too, his prospects seemed to vanish
into clouds and mist. Would he, too, become one day like Anstey,
stagnating out his life in a dead grey level, without a thought or
interest beyond the exigencies of the hour? And he would gaze wearily
out upon the open level flat of the _veldt_, which surrounded the place,
and the dusty monotonous riband of road, and it would seem, young as he
was, that life was hardly worth living at the price. Still, he was
earning his own livelihood, and the novelty and inde