les of _reims_, emitting a
salt, rancid odour--kegs of sheep-dip, huge rolls of Boer tobacco,
bundles of yoke-skeys, and a dozen other things requisite to the details
of farm work were stowed around or disposed on shelves. On one side was
a grindstone and a carpenter's bench. Eustace cut off a liberal length
from one of the rolls of tobacco and gave it to the old Kafir. Then he
filled his own pipe.

"Josane?"

"_Nkose_!"

"You are no fool, Josane. You have lived a good many years, and your
head is nearly as snow-sprinkled as the summit of the Great Winterberg
in the autumn. What do you thing of last night's performance over
yonder?"

The old man's shrewd countenance melted into a slight smile and he shook
his head.

"The Gaikas are fools," he replied. "They have no quarrel with the
English, yet they are clamouring for war. Their country is fertile and
well watered, yet they want to throw it away with both hands. They are
mad."

"Will they fight, Josane?"

"_Au_! Who can say for certain," said the old man with an expressive
shrug of the shoulders. "Yet, was ever such a thing seen? The dog wags
his tail. But in this case it is the tail that wags the dog."

"How so, Josane?"

"The chiefs of the Gaikas do not wish for war. The old men do not wish
for it. But the young men--the boys--are eager for it. The women taunt
them, they say; tell them they have forgotten how to be warriors. So
the boys and the women clamour for war, and the chiefs and the old men
give way. Thus the tail wags the dog. _Hau_!"

"And what about the Gcalekas?"

"The Gcalekas? It is this way, _Nkose_. If you shut up two bulls alone
in the same kraal, if you put two scorpions into a mealie stamp, how
long will it be before they fight? So it is with the Gcalekas and the
Fingoes. The land is not large enough for both. The Gcalekas are ready
for war."

"And Kreli?"

"The Great Chief is in one of his red moods," answered Josane, in a
different tone to that which he had employed when speaking of the
Gaikas. "He has a powerful witch-doctress. I know her. Was I not
`smelt out' by her? Was I not `eaten up' at her `word'? The toad! The
impostor! The jackal cat! The slimy fish! I know her. Ha!"

[Eaten up: Idiom for the total sequestration of a person's possessions.]

The old man's eyes glared and his tone rose to one of fierce excitement
at the recollection of his wrongs. Eustace, accustomed to study his
fello