feathered informer alighted on his shoulder
and warbled "_wacht-een-beitje_, what price oil?" The Colonel had no
hesitation in pouring it on troubled waters, by making eighteen
shillings the maximum charge per case.

What the feelings of the syndicate were is not recorded. There was only
one thing certain, the deal was not a profitable thing--for the
_buyers_. Rumour had it that one gentleman, "with a pigtail," had paid
fifty shillings each for two hundred cases. The story was false--rumour
is never quite right; the man wore no pigtail. A Celestial speculator
indeed he was, but he had long since discarded, if he had ever sported,
his national plait.

The afternoon brought a fight--a fight at last. Nothing less sensational
could explain the wave of excitement that set men, women, and children
struggling in a wild scramble for the debris heaps, which commanded a
view of the match. Yes; a battle at last, was the cry on all
sides,--varied with divers witticisms _apropos_ of the "beans" the
Boers were sure to be given. The military critic, perched high above
everybody else, held his glass to his eye, giving expression the while
to a paradoxical longing to be "blind," etc. He criticised, candidly,
the tactics displayed by both sides--but this chapter would never be
finished if I reproduced, in their entirety, the banalities of the
military critic.

The railway line had been torn up again, and a patrol of mounted men
under the command of Colonel Scott-Turner had been out since early
morning to superintend repairs. The repairs were soon effected, and
after the patrol had rested at Macfarlane's Farm it meandered in the
direction of Riverton. A large body of the enemy shortly became visible
to the right of Riverton, and after a little seductive manoeuvring on
the part of Turner's men, they were drawn within range of Turner's
rifles. The rifles went off; a few Boers toppled from their horses,
while the rest drew rein and rode back at a goodly speed.
Reinforcements, however, were galloping to their assistance, and soon a
lively duel was in full swing. Colonel Kekewich, who was an interested
spectator away back on the conning tower, thought he detected a movement
on the enemy's part to surround Turner; and to frustrate this design, he
forthwith despatched a "loaded" armoured train. The maxims (in the
armoured train) came into play, and spread confusion in the Boer ranks.
Their Commandant was killed and left behind on the field. T