Part 8 (1/2)
I was secretly not a little pleased withbeen cleaned, was loaded up behind my saddle, and we took our way hoet anything like so good a chance again, without beaters and with only three dogs Moreover, it was rather out of season, and they had come out solely on ly thought it just as well not to spoil the effect of my first prowess by potential and subsequent misses
Yes, I felt decidedly satisfied with myself and at peace with all the world, as we drew near the homestead an hour or so later, with my quarry strapped behind my saddle I heeded not--was rather proud, in fact--of the widening patch of gore which theduring our progress The ”fellow just out from home,” the ”raw Britisher,” had vindicated hie seeed respect, and the very intonations in the voices of a couple of Kaffirs hanging around, as we rode up, were intelligible totoon the stoep e arrived, came out to meet us
”Well done, Mr Holt!” said the forlad you've had some luck”
”I think it was due to your last aspiration, Miss Matterson,” I answered, feeling with a satisfaction wholly uncalled for by the occasion that soone up in her estimation
”Got him just above the krantz in the Zwaart Kloof, did you?” commented her father ”That's the place where you'll nearly always get a chance
I suppose this is your first experience of this kind of sport; but I can tell you there's many a man, not a bad shot either, who doesn't fall into it just so soon George, take the horses round--let's see, keep Bles up though, I o in to dinner”
Throughout that welcoerly with questions as to the conditions of colonial life, and the vagaries of stock-faro it seeis, an unconscious voyage of discovery which should terht too many Kafirs near us,” he said, in answer to one of reat drawback They take toorestless lately Some people set up a periodical scare, but I don't believe in that sort of thing As they are here wewith them as best we can, and I must say they bother me less than they do--or seem to do--soes”
”I suppose not,” I answered, thinking of the tussle I had witnessed that eful looks of the defeated barbarian as he slunk out by the cattle kraal ”But couldn't they render the position--well, rather impossible for you, here, for instance, if they were to combine”
”That's just it--they can't combine But if you kno to take theels under a red blanket and a daub of _root klip_, you can pull with them as well as with anybody else Only you ine you're afraid of theht then how near was the time when I should witness Septimus Matterson's theory tested--and that severely Yet that was to co events calling for readiness of resource and cool judg now, the sky unclouded Yet was the stor afar
CHAPTER TEN
TWO PACTS
It will be rearded Beryl Matterson savoured somewhat of disappointment By the time I had dwelt a week beneath the same roof I could only marvel how such could have been the case Now I had dwelt beneath it a month, and the prospect of life apart fro To such a pass had things coolden, idyllic! When I was not acco Brian or his father upon their rides or walks, on stock supervision or sport intent, I would inveigle Beryl forth on the plea of being put _au courant_ with the flora and fauna of the country Nor was the plea a fictitious one, for I had always had a leaning towards natural history, albeit precious little ti the same; but noith such a co rides, the glorious sense of freedo enjoyment, the exhilaration of the at bush country--earth, air, foliage, all athrill with pulsating life, animal or insect life, never silent, never for a o by as in a very dream of Paradise!
But real life is not idyllic, only its episodes, and they but rarely; wherefore, fearing to outstayon Brian's blank stare of a to behold
”Why, Holt, you've only just begun to know us,” he said, ”and it would be affectation to suppose you are not enjoying your stay, because any one could see that you are, even if you hadn't said so yourself You can't leave us yet You mustn't think of it--must he, dad?”
”Certainly not,” declared Septimus Matterson with all his wonted decision ”Why, Iris would cry her eyes out She's quite fallen in love with you, Holt”
For the little girl had returned ho hero--had been made known She had bound Brian to secrecy on the subject during her absence, lest her amusements should be restricted and herself placed under an irksome surveillance
Further than that he refused to be bound, nor did she herself desire it
On receipt of which tidings I really have the most confused recollection of as said to me by each and all, or of the banalities I stuttered out as the nearest approach to a ”suitable reply” The only definite thing that lives in ony I strove to repress what tirip enclosed my own far from delicate pahile he declared that his house was henceforth as much my ho as I chose to make use of it--a declaration which went far to neutralise the excruciating experience which e that the said horaciously pleased to approve of me, and in the result ceased to play me monkey tricks or to make me the butt of his covert impertinence
”Man, Mr Holt, but that was fine!” he pronounced in reference to the episode ”_Ja_, I'd like to have been there! But I thought fellows fro of that sort”
”Let it be a lesson to you then, George,” I said with dignity, ”that 'fellows froland' are not necessarily asses”