Part 6 (2/2)
”That you, Holt?” said Brian, without, however, taking his eyes off his discomfited adversary, to whoue of the Around, rose to his feet some little way off and slunk away out of the enclosure, snarling out a deep-toned running fire of what sounded not in the least like benediction
”What's the row?” I said
”Oh, nothing h, it should have happened the very first gliet of us Still, it had to be That fellow, Sibuko, ith us here once, but we turned hi, and it's ot his wish”
”Rather,” I said, in hearty admiration for the masterly way in which my former schoolfellow had reduced to order a formidable and muscular barbarian, an encounter hom I myself would far rather have avoided than welcomed ”You did that well, Brian Yet I don't remember you as a superlative bruiser at old wankley's”
”Nor a These chaps can't use their fists, you know”
”How about their sticks?”
”Yes, that coe contract--quickness is the great thing with either Still, it's unpleasant, and I don't care about it But you'll hardly believe me when I tell you the necessity may not arise once in a year Only, you can't be defied on your own place I told that chap to clear, and he answered point-blank that he wouldn't There was only one way of settling that difference of opinion, you see”
And he turned to give an order to one of his Kafirs, cal had happened
”Have a smoke,” he went on, ”or is it too early for you? Yes? Oh well, perhaps a fellow is better in h I expect you'll soon tuhted his pipe, while we chatted, but not for a ed upon, the superintending of the , and there was so in the extreht to myself Already the old life seemed far away, and all behind The charlorious cli upon me; why should I not embark in it?
I had the ine for a moment there was a fortune in it, but neither was there in the branch of business in which my lines had hitherto been cast And soe of Beryl Matterson; which was quite too absurd, reo I had never seen her
”Don't you ever carry a six-shooter, Matterson?” I said,to the little difference of opinion I had just seen so effectually settled
”Very seldom You see, we are not outside the law here, and if I shot a fellow I should almost certainly find myself in a nasty aard mess”
”What--even in self-defence?”
”Even then The English law is curiously wooden-headed on some points
The 'sacredness of hue or te have here ill always go against a white man in favour of a Kafir; and if you were known to habitually carry arainst you still”
”But what about your sister?”
”That's different There isn't a jury on the frontier would convict a wo a Kafir, because they know perfectly well that such a thing couldn't happen except in a case of the direst necessity In fact, there are far too feoirls who are able to take care of theht to be”
”I should very much think so,” I said, and the time was to come when these remarks were destined to recur to hty force
”Hallo!” said Brian, ”here's the governor colance, I saw the white tent of a trap co down the road fro before A minute or so more and it drew up opposite the kraals
”Don't say anything about what you've just seen, Holt,” he went on, as we , but for all that it's sometimes inevitable”