dt
contingent, if the first, was not the only mounted corps to pass through
the township; and did not each and all require forage and rations?
Again, the martial ardour gave a great impetus to volunteering,
distinctly to the advantage of the community at large, in that this
afforded an outlet to the energy of the local youth in the shape of
nightly drill. Such energy was thus better utilised than in taking to
pieces the vehicle of some unoffending and unsuspecting Boer, which
might be standing unguarded in an accessible spot, or in balancing a
beam of wood with murderous intent against the door of some unpopular
citizen. Further, it had the effect of drafting off a selection of
volunteers upon active service to the front; and, whereas these
consisted, for the most part, of rowdy and undisciplined spirits, their
absence could not fail to be advantageous to Doppersdorp. What their
respective commanders at the seat of hostilities might be found to say
on the matter was another thing. Even the Resident Magistrate was
bitten with the prevailing death-or-glory fever; but alas! his proposal
to turn out the whole district under arms at a day's notice, and to lead
it in the field at the service of the Government, provided the requisite
leave and Field-commandant's commission were granted him, was met on the
part of that unappreciative entity with signal ingratitude--curt
refusal, to wit, bordering on snub. So having sworn for about five
minutes upon the perusal of this reply, cheery little Peter Van Stolz
lounged into the clerk's office, and having once more delivered himself
of his views on the subject of Governments in general, and that of the
Cape Colony in particular, lighted his pipe, declared that he didn't
care a damn, and that, after all, he'd be the same sort of fool to fling
away his accumulation of leave, roughing it in the veldt and feeding on
unvaried trek-ox, instead of running down to Cape Town to put in the
same period among his relatives and old friends, and having a
particularly good time. So he stayed at home perforce, to direct the
labours of the Civil establishment of Doppersdorp, which, in common with
most of those in the border districts, were very much swelled by the
outbreak of hostilities.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

A LIMED TWIG.

Roden Musgrave was seated in his quarters, alone.

It was a dark, rainy night, and rather a cold one. A snug wood fire
burned in the grate, and this he was loath to l