Part 2 (2/2)

”Any more questions?”

”No”

So the prosecutor steps down, and is replaced by the police sergeant, who deposes to the finding of the skin and the arrest of the prisoner

The latter made no remark except that he supposed so about it This witness is not cross-examined

No evidence has Mr Darrell to call But he draws a pathetic picture of his unfortunate client, wrongfully accused--mistakenly rather, for nobody who knows Mr Suffield would suspect hi a false accusation This unfortunate es him to be alone in the lonely veldt, cannot of course call any rebutting evidence, cannot prove an _alibi_--is being victimised by the real culprit, but would rather take the punishainst the real culprit; and so on, and so on The while Gonjana, standing nonchalantly in the dock, isat the stupendous idiocy of the whitethe plainest and clearest proofs of his guilt And the Bench shares in substance his opinion

”This case,” says the Bench, ”is as plain as the nose on one's face

Mr Darrell has made the best of a bad job on behalf of his client, but even he could hardly be sanguine enough to expect to succeed Tell hiistrate And the constable interprets accordingly

”What is he saying?” as the

”He say, sir, nobody see him kill dat sheep”

”Of course not If every crime had to be seen by an eye-witness, how many cri a fine? It will make a difference in his sentence”

”Yes, sir He say he has one cow and fifteen sheep and goats”

This stateoes on:--

”If he had possessed nohim the heaviest sentence in my power, namely, a year's i has assu proportions of late, and I a an example of every offender As it is, I sentence Gonjana to pay a fine of 4 pounds, to pay Mr Suffield 1 pound, the value of the sheep, and to receive twenty-five lashes with the 'cat' Call on the next case”

Kaffirs are stoical folk This one's expression of countenance undergoes no change, nor does hebeen interpreted to him, he shambles down from the dock to take his seat on the prisoners' bench until the rising of the court His place is taken by a fellow-country the Masters and Servants Act by refusing to obey the lawful commands of his master, Petrus Jacobus Botha

The latter, an unkempt, corduroy-clad Dutchreasy slouch hat on the rail, spits on the floor two or three times, Sartly from nervousness, partly from sheer force of habit; then he takes the oath, unctuously and with right hand uplifted, as the manner of his countrymen is He, too, is a farmer, and the accused native is a herd The facts of the case are soon got at, and resolve themselves into a matter of ”six of one, and half a dozen of the other” The accused has no legal representative, but Mr Van Stolz holds the scale of justice with rigid evenness He listens to the stateiven the prosecutor a little of his mind, he summarily dismisses the case, with the metaphor that ”people should come into court with clean hands, which is just what the prosecutor has not done”; a rerasp the hu it

Two Hottentot wo drunk about the streets, and then the civil business begins This consists of a series of unimportant cases, mostly recovery suits, which are soon disposed of; and by one o'clock the court work is over for the day

”Well, Musgrave,” says the little ether towards their respective dinners ”You are getting quite into the swi you have only been at it ten days”

”If I am, Mr Van Stolz, it's thanks to the kindness and patience you have shown to an utterly inexperienced hand, in teaching him what to do, and how to do it”

”Oh, no one can be expected to know all about a thing by instinct Some men expect absurdities A new clerk is appointed to the whatever of his work, naturally, and they don't give hi at his fingers'

ends the day he joins the Service, as much as if he had twenty years of it at his back It isn't fair on a young fellow; though by the way, you're not a young fellow either, Musgrave Soe are already Civil Coh ht whatever, was one of those which caused the hearer to shrink ih he had been ten days in the place, not a soul in Doppersdorp knew a thing about him, beyond that he was entirely new to the Service It was a rare thing for a ster It was a rare thing, too, in a place like Doppersdorp, for a hly a sealed book; there where everybody knew as hbour's concerns as he did about his own, ofttiot on ith my clerks,” pursues Mr Van Stolz, ”except one, and I worked the oracle so as to get hied; but, with that exception, they have always been sorry to leave me, even when it meant promotion”

The boast is a very pardonable one because true The et on with nobody An excellent official, he was theof entlemen he was more like a comrade than an official chief They were all fellow Civil Servants, and he held that there should be a strong _esprit de corps_ aht e of a district ninety per cent, of whose population consisted of Boers He was deservedly popular, for he held the scale evenly between all parties and all nationalities, whether Boers, natives, or British, and in his judicial capacities, wherever it was possible with due regard to strict justice to err on the side of indulgence, he was sure to do so In outward aspect he was a little man, sturdy and well knit withal, extremely brisk in his movements, yet not in the least fussy; indeed, such briskness see nature, and when a joke or a good story was to the fore, no laugh was more spontaneous or heartier than his

Their ways part here, and they separate Roden, as he strolls doards the hotel where he has for the present taken up his quarters, recalls the verdict which had irresistibly been forced upon his mind, as he had been rattled into the place in the rao

”Heavens! what a God-forsaken looking hole!” had been his unspoken utterance as he viewed for the first ti town, and realised that this was to be his home for an indefinite period