cle, and look in the
house, and you too, Hendrik."

The Kafir obeyed with alacrity, tumbling out of his saddle with all the
grace of a sack of coals, but the Boer hesitated.

"Uncle Silas is an angry man," he ventured; "he might shoot if he found
me poking about his house."

"Don't answer me!" thundered Muller; "get down and do as I bid you!"

"Ah, what a devil of a man!" murmured the unfortunate Hans as he hurried
to obey.

Meanwhile, Hendrik the one-eyed had jumped upon the verandah and was
peering through the windows.

"Here they are, Baas; here they are!" he sung out; "the old cock and the
pullet too!" and he gave a kick to the window, which, being unlatched,
swung wide, revealing the old man sitting in his wooden armchair, his
rifle on his knees, and holding by the hand his fair-haired niece, who
was standing at his side. Frank Muller dismounted and came on to the
verandah, and behind him crowded a dozen or more of his followers.

"What is it that you want, Frank Muller, that you come to my house with
all these armed men?" asked Silas Croft from his chair.

"I call upon you, Silas Croft, to surrender to take your trial as a
land betrayer and a rebel against the Republic," was the answer. "I am
sorry," he added, with a bow towards Bessie, on whom his eyes had been
fixed all the time, "to be obliged to take you prisoner in the presence
of a lady, but my duty gives me no choice."

"I do not know what you mean," said the old man. "I am a subject of
Queen Victoria and an Englishman. How, then, can I be a rebel against
any republic? I am an Englishman, I say," he went on with rising anger,
speaking so high that his powerful voice rang till every Boer there
could hear it, "and I acknowledge the authority of no republics. This
is my house, and I order you to leave it. I claim my rights as an
Englishman----"

"Here," interrupted Muller coldly, "Englishmen have no rights, except
such as we choose to allow to them."

"Shoot him!" cried a voice.

"Treat him as Buskes treated Van der Linden at Potchefstroom!" cried
another.

"Yes, make him swallow the same pill that we gave to Dr. Barber," put in
a third.

"Silas Croft, are you going to surrender?" asked Muller in the same cold
voice.

"_No!_" thundered the old man in his English pride. "I surrender to no
rebels in arms against the Queen. I will shoot the first man who tries
to lay a finger on me!" and he rose to his feet and lifted his rifle.

"Shall I sh