werful of build. His face, tanned to a red bronze, was half hidden in
a thick and flowing beard just turning grey, but the jet black of his
shaggy eyebrows had not begun to turn. Under them his eyes, black and
piercing, glittered like those of a snake. Now they began to roll till
you could see scarcely anything but the whites. He seemed on the verge
of a fit.

"Don't put yourself in a passion," I said, for I had become cool in
proportion to the other's rage. "There's no occasion for it, you know.
Only I may as well tell you that I don't take any man's bounce, and the
idea of you, or any other man coming along here to give me orders
strikes me as a joke. See?"

"Joke does it?" he gasped. "You'll find it a mighty dear joke." Then
followed more talk which it is impossible to reproduce on paper. "A
joke does it? D'you know I've killed men for less than this--yes,
killed more men than you've even fought. A joke eh? Now--you'll see."

He was just turning to the noisy crowd, who however had sunk into
silence, and, with eyeballs strained, were watching developments, when
Falkner, whose restraint had come to an end on seeing a white man, and
therefore as he afterwards put it one who could stand up to him, instead
of a lot of miserable niggers who couldn't--lounged forward.

"Here, I say. You'll hurt yourself directly, old man," he drawled--I
suspected purposely putting on his most offensive manner.

"Hurt myself will I--aw haw?" returned the other, imitating Falkner's
drawl. "Hurt myself will I, my blanked popinjay? But first of all I'm
going to hurt you--I'm going to hammer you within an inch of your life,
and I won't promise to leave you that."

He jumped off his horse, and Falkner winked at me, for this was just
what he wanted.

"I say, you know, I can't hit you. You're too old," he said, in a tone
calculated to exasperate the other, and it had just that effect, for
literally bellowing with rage Dolf came straight at him. At first
Falkner undertook to play with him, but soon found that he had got his
hands full, for the other had weight and was enormously strong, and
although he was inferior in science his mad rushes were nearly as
irresistible as those of a buffalo bull, which was just what he reminded
me of, with his eyes swollen and glaring, and his beard red and shaggy
with blood. But he was uncommonly quick on his pins, and did not fight
blindly by any means--indeed for some time I should have be