Part 5 (2/2)

A well-known et what his profession was Moore was quite sixty years of age, and was exceedingly corpulent; nevertheless, he was aree

There was a re and Martin's bar, and with her Moore fell in love This circuilded youth A plot was concocted, the lady consenting to take part in it

A certain D approached Moore and persuaded him that it was only fear of her employers on the part of the da his addresses ed she would be willing to accompany him At the same tiaze with a disingenuously languishi+ng eye, she pressed his hand at , she replied to his frequent letters in fervent if ungrahted anticipation

D acted the part of ed; it was to take place on the following Saturday night, after the bar had closed The lady's absence would thus not be noticed, the bar being closed on Sunday By Monday the lovers would be over the Boshof Hills and far away across the wide plains of the Orange Free State Old Moore acquiesced ecstatically, and engaged, at a very heavy cost, a cart with a spanking team of horses

At the specified tie stood ready at the appointed spot Soon a cloaked figure, heavily veiled, was seen to approach with faltering steps, leaning on the arm of the mutual friend The latter whispered to the iged that she s becaly and in silence she cli the Boshof road

The first stopping-place was at a wayside hotel a fewso to the cart he was astonished to find that his companion had so far recovered froht as well

She was standing in the road A full moon, appropriate to the occasion inthat the ties of a lover, Moore approached and attempted to slip an arm around his charmer's waist To his astonishan to dance a ”can-can” in the road It then becas were clothed in trousers The lady was at ho cub whose stature was about the sa ons loaded with game Most of this was shot on the flats beyond the Boshof Hills that range which is visible, about ten miles to the north-eastward, frobucks sold for a shi+lling apiece; blesbucks and wildebeeste for half a crown The tails of the latter were in great demand for use as ”chowries” ith to keep off the flies I have seen a pound of fresh butter sold for seventeen and sixpence, a dish of peas for thirty shi+llings, and a head of cabbage for thirty five The latter prices were, of course, quite exceptional

Shortly after the summer of 1871 set in, I, in common with many others, went doith enteric fever Doctors were plentiful enough, but there was no hospital, and nurses were unknown However, with the help of a sound constitution I ed to keep alive on a diet of black coffee and roster koek administered by our Hottentot, David My most painful recollections of that horrible tiave one no rest, night or day, for at night the slightestBetter ot the notion that I, too, would inevitably die unless I could et away, so by an effort of will I crawled out of bed and took a passage in the coach for Queenstown

I collapsed a few hours after starting, but the other passengers were very kind The coach was so arranged that they sat facing each other in a double row, so they s laid on their knees, and on this I rested I reached Queenstown more dead than alive, but a few days of rest there pickedWilliam's Town

A feeeks at home, followed by a trip to the seaside near the Tshalumna Mouth, co desire to return to the diae-sale was held at King Williaon, which see whatever the matter with it It was knocked down toit repaired and painted, and in providing the necessary tackle This wagon was the best wagon of its kind I have ever owned or traveled in What caused it to be classed as ”condemned” was a problem none but a ht strong oxen

One day when strolling along one of the King Williae and faan to stir; yes it was Toby's mouth expanded into Toby's wholesale srown into a ht At that time the plays of Shakespeare were the only serious literature I had read Unbidden, the song of the Page to Mariana which in some freakish fashi+on I had always connected with Toby's physiognoue

”Take, O, take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn”

Toby was fortunately disengaged, so we struck a bargain on the spot He agreed to accompany me back to the diaht de to take withthat would ensure profit I eventually decided upon onions Colossal varieties of this wholesorown by the German farmers in the vicinity, and were to be purchased at a reasonable rate

I obtained twenty full sackfuls, piled theo smelt to heaven but what of that? I could always, except in the rare event of rain, sleep well to ard Neverthelessthe course of that journey But the circumstance that I realized 400 per cent, profit onSnider carbine and four hundred cartridges This weapon was the worst but one of all thethe years in which aun which I used some years afterwards, and whichten shots from my vicious little Snider my shoulder would turn black and blue But it could drive a bullet straight, as ood cause to know

It had been arranged that at Kiuest, for a time, of Major Drury, formerly of the Cape Mounted Riflemen I fancy that Major Drury must at the time have been on leave, for when I ied to a ”mess” at as known as the ”West End” The ether on a rise a few hundred yards from the western end of the alvanized iron and canvas

It hen Major Drury's guest that I first met Cecil John Rhodes

Major Drury, Dr Thorne (fore Paton (who afterwards represented Barkly West in Parliament), Mr H C Becher (subsequently well known in Hatton Garden), Mr Rhodes and the latter's brother, Herbert Rhodes, all belonged to this ht-faced lad of eighteen, but who looked considerably younger He had passed the necessary exa a no such charm of manner as did Frank Rhodes at this period He was, I fancy, a year or so younger than his brother Cecil

Herbert Rhodes, the eldest brother, was a tall, lean, hatchet-faced h sparely built his strength was considerable, and he was a splendid boxer Cecil Rhodes was long and loose liht, curly hair He was, I think, some three or four years e tent stretched over a skeleton frahteen feet I fancy the site of our caustines,”

where a mine was subsequently opened

Within a few yards of the mess tent were camped Norman Garstin and his partner ”Tommy” Townsend Garstin has since become noted as a painter

He is, or recently was, the patriarch of the artist colony at Newlyn

Although Garstin and Townsend did not belong to the Drury Rhodes mess, they were very intimate with the members thereof After the co which I slept in on, I pitched a tent a few yards away, and messed for a tiinal anized Severalthe latter were Garstin and I Anotherat Kimberley I struck my tent and went to live with the Rhodes brothers in theirs

Everything connected with any phase in the life of a man such as Cecil John Rhodes is necessarily of interest, so I will endeavor to recall what I can of our mutual relations I received several kindly favors at his hands, but we never became really intimate He was even then somewhat intolerant in discussion While Rhodes was already a norant, self-opinionated, arguiven to practical joking, and I played off one practical joke upon Cecil Rhodes of which I a seen each other for nearly a quarter of a century, I felt sure he still remembered this (to me) discreditable episode However, with Frank Rhodes, whose age was nearer mine, I was more in sympathy We were, as a matter of fact, inti which elt together Herbert Rhodes was generally away on some adventure or another He appeared to be one of those e was an imperative necessity