peak to Father."

That evening Jack recounted the quarrel to Mr Hunter.

"Ah! I am sorry to hear it, Jack, for you have really made an enemy of
a dangerous fellow, as Wilfred says," remarked the latter. "But I am
glad in other respects, for it will keep him away. It would not be
policy for me to send him about his business, but as it is he is not
likely to trouble me again. For a long time he has spied upon me here,
but with what object I have never been able to discover, though I
suspect he is an agent of Kruger's and is suspicious that I have arms
concealed on the premises. He really is one of the most uppish of the
many bumptious Boers to be met with here and in Pretoria, and of course
in other towns in the Transvaal. Everywhere, all over the Transvaal,
Englishmen are belittled and sneered at, simply because, years ago, in a
fit of generosity we stayed our hands, and would not give them the
lesson they deserved. And now we have a very different matter to face.
We collectively outnumber them, I believe, but they are all armed,
whereas we are forbidden to carry, or even to possess, a weapon of
defence. Not only here, but in all the country parts, distrust of us is
the rule, and I very much fear things are getting to such a pass that
life will become intolerable to Englishmen who are worthy of that name.
Once the Boers are openly opposed to us, we shall find ourselves engaged
with an enemy nearly every one of whom is a sturdy, weather-hardened
fighter, full of pluck and determination, and with a cunning in warfare
which will try our troops, should they meet them, far more than is
believed. But some day I will tell you all about our troubles. For the
present I am glad you showed that fellow that you were by no means
afraid of him. He wanted a lesson, and has had it.

"I am going to Kimberley to-morrow, and suggest that you come with me.
Matters will have quieted down when you return."

Jack jumped at the offer, for he had heard much of the diamond city,
though when he got there he found that "city" was scarcely the term to
apply to it. The mines are situated on the western border of the Orange
Free State, which lies directly south of the Transvaal, and are about a
hundred miles from Bloemfontein.

It was a distinctly disappointing place at first, at least so Jack
thought, especially when compared with Johannesburg. But when he and
Mr Hunter had made a round of the mines, he was deeply impressed with
the