Part 6 (2/2)

Herbert Rhodes, now in sorry case, was incarcerated in the fortress

This, in the seventies, was a horrible place in which to be confined

The cells were ses full of man-traps in the for the prisoner was confined in, but if his cell were anything like the one from which, in 1874, I helped to carry the dead body of my poor friend Pat Foote, he was not to be envied However, the durance apparently did not last long The captive probablyhe could do most effectively He was, perhaps, found to be an embarrassment Possibly that potent solver of difficulties, paleon so effectively that they slipped back soot away after a co has been recorded as to what became of the pint of diamonds

Herbert Rhodes came to a terrible end A few years after the event just related, he was living in a hut on the shores of Lake Nyassa One night, acco refreshment he found none available except so This liquor is extrehly infla; so burst and the contents wrapped the unhappy man in a sheet of flaer was dispatched to Blantyre, some forty miles away, to call for medical aid

I believe it was Dr Jane Waterston, now of Cape Toho caony shortly after her arrival

CHAPTER VI

Big ga--Von Schlichmann--Norman Garstin--The painter of St

Michael's Mount--Start for the gold fields--”I aah Veld--Narrow escape fro--”Artful Joe”--Penalty for suicide--Pilgri--Explorations--The Great Plateau--Prospect of the Low Country--Elands

I was told the following tale on good authority Three men held a claim jointly in the ”New Rush” mine They worked it for about six months, and found a considerable nurew hot and the caed, and the flies becaed for the coast and the cool sea-breezes One of the partners proposed that two of theo away on a visit and the third stay behind to keep the clai settled by lot Another proposed, as an amendment, that they should toss ”odd man out” as to own the claim; then each could please himself No sooner said than done Three coins spun into the air, and two third portions of a claim, worth even then about 2,000, were lost and ithin the space of ten seconds

Aswas very rife I well renitude of the stakes, at a ga-house called ”The Gridiron,” the proprietor of which was an ex-cavalry -house type; it had a wooden frae were tables with benches at each side, the tables being cut off froame in question there were four players: Richardson (the proprietor), H B Webb (a noted diamond dealer), his partner Joe Posno, and the celebrated Ikey Sonnenberg Sonitude of the stakes may be formed when it is stated that at one time 1,700 was in the pool

A man I knew fairly as Von Schlichmann He had been secretary to Count Arnim when that unfortunate nobleman was German Ambassador to France When Arnim fell, the possibilities of the diplomatic career, for which his secretary had been intended, were destroyed Von Schlichth, and was reure His curled yellow hair was thick, long, and silky in texture One of his favorite ways of showing his strength was to get four rasp handfuls of his locks, each with one hand, as firmly as they could He would then sway his head round with a jerk, and the four would fall, sprawling, in different directions

I think it was in 1875 that Von Schlichmann went north and entered the military service of the Transvaal It was, I knohen preparations were being made to attack Sekukuni I was one of those enrolled in the expedition that escorted the aroa Bay to Pretoria in the latter part of 1874 So far as my me year But he was killed in one of the attacks on Sekukuni's stronghold When leading his s He lay exposed on the flat rock on which he fell, waving his sword and encouraging his men to advance to the attack, until blood choked his utterance One of my best friends, a man named Macaulay, was shot on the same occasion He received a bullet in the brain from which he, unfortunately, did not die until after several hours of great agony Macaulay was noted at Pilgrim's Rest as the first in the locality who used dyna operations

But I have allowed myself to run ahead too fast, so must hark back to Kimberley, as ”New Rush” had now come to be called

One of my most intimate friends was Norman Garstin, a htenedwith his eyes wide open, but of this I was quite unaware

Returning ho on his back, his eyes fixed and glassy I seized hied hihtsman His caricatures, which were never ill-natured, and his black and white ”parables” brought hiathered

The Cape Times was started by Garstin in conjunction with the late Mr

F Y St Leger I forget exactly when this happened, but I think it was in the late seventies After he had severed his connection with the Cape Times, Garstin went to Europe, where he studied serious art for several years I was his guest at Newlyn, Penzance, in 1899; at the time of my visit he was patriarch of the well-known artist colony there Garstin's pictures, although they have never been ”boomed,” and have consequently not reached public favor, are thought very highly of by other artists To record that they have been hung in the Royal Acade of an author's books that they have been on sale in a railway bookstall Two very beautiful examples of his hich I specially recall are ”The Scarlet Letter” and ”The Lost Piece of Silver”

Garstin told nificant tale He kept an art school at Newlyn One day an intelligent young Cornish miner came and asked to be received as a pupil; he at once paid a quarter's fees in advance Then he informed Garstin that he wanted to learn to paint pictures of St

Michael's Mount Garstin, finding that his pupil was ignorant of the very rudi, endeavored to explain that so ue the point

St Michael's Mount, and nothing else, was to be the subject; all he wanted Garstin to do was to show hiive him an occasional direction

Canvas, easel, brushes, and paints were all purchased according to a list which Garstin supplied hi of the best A pupil is a pupil, especially when he pays in advance, and when pictures are not as saleable as they should be, so Garstin did all he could to further this particular pupil's desire The latter was very apt; after a comparatively short ti of which could be ed St Michael's Mount from one side, Garstin's pupil attacked it froh noon, at dewy eve, and at all inter, in summer, in autumn, and in winter; St Michael's Mount lapped by a calress Before the second quarter was at an end this remarkable pupil had produced several presentments of the celebrated Cornish excrescence, which were not raphs, and were quite as suggestive of their subject as is Turner's celebrated masterpiece When the quarter came to an end, the pupil announced that he considered he had now learnt enough

Accordingly he left