riders, now and then a company promoter or a mining engineer
or surveyor, settlers on farms, an occasional brace of troopers of the
Matabeleland Mounted Police--would all roll up at Jekyll's in turn; but
by reason of the wide distances over which the sparse population was
scattered, there were seldom more than a dozen gathered together there
at once--usually less. But even there the characteristics of the
gathering were much akin to those pervading similar groups as seen in
older civilisation--the bore simple and the bore reiterative, the local
Ananias, usually triplicated; the assumptive bore; the literary critic--
the last especially in full bloom after a few rounds of "squareface" or
John Dewar--and other varieties. Such characteristics, however, were
well known to the sound residue of the assemblage, who would delight to
"draw" the individual owners thereof--after the few rounds aforesaid.

Within the store and canteen part of the building about a dozen men were
gathered when Moseley and Tarrant rode up. All were attired in the
usual light marching order of the country--shirt and trousers, high
boots and wide-brimmed hat. Some were lounging against the counter,
others squatting on sacks or packing-cases, and all were smoking.
Jekyll, himself, a tall man with a grizzled beard, and who had been a
good many years in the country before the entry of the first Pioneer
force, was dispensing drinks, with the help of his assistant, a young
Englishman who had been ploughed for his degree at Oxford. To several
of these the new arrivals were known, and forthwith there was a fresh
call on the resources of the bar department.

"News?" said Jekyll, in reply to a question from Moseley. "Thought
maybe you'd have brought some. There's talk of a rising among the
niggers down beyond Sikumbutana. Heard anything of it?"

"Not a word."

"Gah on. There won't be no bloomin' rahsin'," cut in a prospector, a
Cockney ex-ship-steward. "Nothink but a lot o' gas. The wy to treat
niggers is my wy."

"And what might that be?" said another prospector, a tall, bronzed,
fine-looking man, who _had_ taken _his_ degree at Oxford.

"Why, one o' my boys cheeked me yesterday, so I ups with a bloomin'
pick-'andle and jes lets 'im 'ave it over the bloomin' boko. That's my
wy with 'em."

And the speaker cocked his head and looked around with the defiant
bounce of a cad with a couple of drinks too many on board.

"H'm!" rejoined the other