a fool after
all when he talked of his great Dutch Republic. I have been twice to
England now and I know the Englishman. I could measure him for his
_veldtschoens_ (shoes). He knows nothing--nothing. He understands his
shop; he is buried in his shop, and can think of nothing else. Sometimes
he goes away and starts a shop in other places, and buries himself in
it, and makes it a big shop, because he understands shops. But it is all
a question of shops, and if the shops abroad interfere with the shops at
home, or if it is thought that they do, which comes to the same thing,
then the shops at home put an end to the shops abroad. Bah! they talk a
great deal there in England, but, at the bottom of it, it is shop, shop,
shop. They talk of honour, and patriotism too, but they both give way
to the shop. And I tell you this, Frank Muller: it is the shop that has
made the English, and it is the shop that will destroy them. Well, so be
it. We shall have our slice: Africa for the Africanders. The Transvaal
for the Transvaalers first, then the rest. Shepstone was a clever man;
he would have made it all into an English shop, with the black men for
shop-boys. We have changed all that, but we ought to be grateful to
Shepstone. The English have paid our debts, they have eaten up the
Zulus, who would otherwise have destroyed us, and they have let us beat
them, and now we are going to have our turn again, and, as you say, I
shall be the first President."

"Yes, uncle," replied the younger man calmly, "and I shall be the
second."

The General looked at him. "You are a bold man," he said; "but boldness
makes the man and the country. I dare say you will. You have the head;
and one clear head can turn many fools, as the rudder does the ship, and
guide them when they are turned. I dare say that you will be President
one day."

"Yes, I shall be President, and when I am I will drive the Englishmen
out of South Africa. This I will do with the help of the Natal Zulus.
Then I will destroy the natives, as T'Chaka destroyed, keeping only
enough for slaves. That is my plan, uncle; it is a good one."

"It is a big one; I am not certain that it is a good one. But good or
bad, who shall say? You may carry it out, nephew, if you live. A man
with brains and wealth may carry out anything if he lives. But there is
a God. I believe, Frank Muller, that there is a God, and I believe that
God sets a limit to a man's doings. If he is going too far, God kills