ming, and
whether it goes for you or against you, you must suffer. You Englishmen
have many enemies. You have got all the trade and own nearly half the
land, and you are always standing up for the black people, whom the
Boers hate. It will go hard with you if there is a war. You will be shot
and your houses will be burnt, and if you lose the day those who escape
will be driven out of the country. It will be the Transvaal for the
Transvaalers, then, and Africa for the Africanders."

"Well, Frank Muller, and if all this should come to pass, what of it?
What are you driving at, Frank Muller? You don't show me your hand like
this for nothing."

The Boer laughed. "Of course I don't, _Oom_ Silas. Well, if you want to
know, I will tell you what I mean. I mean that I alone can protect you
and your place and people in the bad times which are coming. I have more
influence in the land than you know of. Perhaps even, I could stave
off the war, and if it suited me to do so I would do it. At the least
I could keep you from being harmed, that I know. But I have my price,
_Oom_ Silas, as we all have, and it must be money down and no credit."

"I don't understand you and your dark sayings," said the old man coldly.
"I am a straightforward man, and if you will tell me what you mean I
will give you my answer; if not, I don't see the good of our going on
talking."

"Very well; I will tell you what I mean. I mean _Bessie_. I mean that I
love your niece and want to marry her--ay, I mean to marry her by fair
means or foul--and that she will have nothing to say to me."

"And what have I to do with that, Frank Muller? The girl is her own
mistress. I cannot dispose of her in marriage, even if I wished it, as
though she were a colt or an ox. You must plead your own suit and take
your own answer."

"I have pleaded my suit and I have got my answer," replied the Boer with
passion. "Don't you understand, she will have nothing to say to me? She
is in love with that damned _rooibaatje_ Niel whom you have brought up
here. She is in love with him, I say, and will not look at me."

"Ah," replied Silas Croft calmly, "is it so? Then she shows very good
taste, for John Niel is an honest man, Frank Muller, and you are not.
Listen to me," he went on, with a sudden outburst of passion; "I tell
you that you are a dishonourable man and a villain. I tell you that you
murdered the Hottentot Jantje's father, mother, and uncle in cold blood
when you were yet