l drive these English out with the help
of the Kafirs, and then I will kill the Kafirs and take their country.
Ah!"--and his eyes flashed and his nostrils dilated as he said it to
himself--"then life will be worth living! What a thing is power! What
a thing it is to be able to destroy! Take that Englishman, my rival:
to-day he is well and strong; in three days he will be gone utterly, and
I--I shall have sent him away. That is power. But when the time
comes that I have only to stretch out my hand to send thousands after
him!--that will be absolute power; and then with Bessie I shall be
happy."

And so he dreamed on for an hour or more, till at last the fumes of
his untutored imagination actually drowned his reason in a spiritual
drunkenness. Picture after picture rose and unrolled itself before his
mind's eye. He saw himself as President addressing the _Volksraad_,
and compelling it to his will. He saw himself, the supreme general of
a great host, defeating the forces of England with awful carnage, and
driving them before him; ay, he even selected the battle-ground on the
slopes of the Biggarsberg in Natal. Then he saw himself again, sweeping
the natives out of South Africa with the relentless besom of his might,
and ruling unquestioned over a submissive people. And, last of all, he
saw something glittering at his feet--it was a crown!

This was the climax of his dream. Then there came an anticlimax. The
rich imagination which had been leading him on as a gaudy butterfly does
a child, suddenly changed colour and dropped to earth; and there rose
up in his mind the memory of the General's words: "God sets a limit to a
man's doings. If he is going too far, _God kills him_."

The butterfly had settled on a coffin!

CHAPTER XXI

JESS GETS A PASS

About half-past ten on the morning following her interview with
Hans Coetzee, Jess was at "The Palatial" as usual, and John was just
finishing packing the cart with such few goods as they possessed. There
was little chance of his labour proving of material use, for he did not
in the slightest degree expect that they would get the pass; but, as he
said cheerfully, it was as good an amusement as any other.

"I say, Jess," he called out presently, "come here."

"What for?" asked Jess, who was seated on the doorstep mending
something, and looking at her favourite view.

"Because I want to speak to you."

She rose and went, feeling rather angry with herself for going.