Time stood not still, even at Doppersdorp, and on the whole it went by
merrily. There were always mounted contingents proceeding to the seat
of war or returning thence, the latter quicker that they went, as the
misanthropic Emerson cynically, but we believe libellously, put it.
This kept things lively, especially for such good Doppersdorpers as had
anything to sell, and was a state of affairs likely to last
indefinitely, for, although actual hostilities were confined to the
Transkei, Kreli was scotched, not killed, and as long as the Paramount
Chief was at large and unconquered there was no telling how far the
rising might spread. Indeed the tribes within the Colonial border,
Gaikas, Hlambis, and a section of the Tembus, were reported more and
more restless, and ominous rumours filled the air, of a preconcerted
rising, of signal fires flashing their dread message nightly from the
most prominent mountain heights, of war-dances on a large scale, and the
sending of cattle away to places of concealment.
For all these alarms, Doppersdorp, secure in its comparative remoteness
from the theatre of strife, cared but little. Still, it must draw some
entertainment out of the prevailing excitement, wherefore its already
existing Volunteer Corps was promptly remodelled, and many recruits
poured in. It was a most important institution was this Volunteer
Corps, for did it not confer military rank on more than one of the most
prominent store-keepers, with whom Solomon in all his glory was not in
it, what time these majors and captains were swaggering around in a
silver-grey uniform adorned with a shining shoulder strap and a whistle
and jingling chain, the while striving hard to be at their ease and yet
not stumble over the sabre, which was the proudest adornment of all?
Further, did it not form a convenient outlet to the martial ardour of
many a waggon-wright's or blacksmith's apprentice, and perchance a
shopman or so--hight a store-clerk in local parlance--who, rising
suddenly from their hard-earned slumbers, to the sound of a bugle
ringing out the wildest of alarm, would fall into rank for a nocturnal
forced march along the waggon road, and, hearts beating high with
heroism, effect the surround and capture of three or four amazed and
perfectly harmless natives camped for the night? Then it was deemed
necessary to place a guard over the nocturnal safety of the township,
with periodical patrols, during which some warrior might perchance
distinguish himself by spitting with his bayonet a more rashly
aggressive cur than ordinary. These heroes found nightly asylum in a
"guard-house," devoted to the custody of many fleas and a few insignia
of the order of Good Templars, to whom the structure in fact belonged;
and when upon his round of inspection one of the newly gazetted majors
or captains aforesaid heard the ringing order, "Guard--turn out!" why
then indeed he felt he had not lived in vain. But that doughty corps
the Doppersdorp Volunteer Rifles had its uses, and in the fulness of
time its band learned to play more than two tunes.
Further, there would appear sporadically in Doppersdorp at this time
certain warlike individuals, arrayed in nondescript uniform, high boots,
and very bright spars, eke helmet, immaculately white. These warriors
would swagger around, tapping the boots aforesaid with a chowrie--a
weapon which, for some occult reason, they much affected--and giving out
darkly that they were recruiting for native levies, of which they were
to have command when a sufficient number of recruits had been raised.
In some few instances these "colonels," as the misanthropic Emerson
termed them, were _bond fide_, and able to produce credentials at the
public offices empowering them to receive rations and assistance in the
furtherance of their plans. Of such, the above misanthrope would
predict that, the next time they were heard of would be in connection
with "cooking" pay-sheets, or something of the kind. And, alas! for the
frailty of human nature, ministering to the triumphant laughter of the
cynic, in one or two such instances Emerson's sardonic predictions were
fulfilled.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Turning from public affairs to those of private persons, Mona Ridsdale's
behaviour, as regarded a certain one of such private persons, had
become, all things considered, strange. We say "all things considered"
advisedly, because the change in her demeanour was unaccountable, to say
the least of it. The sweet, subtle charm of those days of
convalescence, seemed, with the accomplishment of that convalescence, to
come to an abrupt termination. Her patient fairly off her hands, Mona
seemed to encase herself with a cold reserve, as in a shell. Had she
mistaken her feelings after all? Had she given herself away too much,
and now desired to draw back before it was too late? Her behaviour
puzzled those around her. Suffield noticed it, but like a wise man held
his tongue. His wife noticed it, and being a woman, did not hold, hers.
She remonstrated, giving her relative what she termed a little bit of
her mind--result, anger, and a lively passage of arms.
There was one whom this behaviour did not puzzle, and that was Roden
Musgrave himself. To him it afforded no surprise; for it was precisely
such as might have been expected. The only thing that did surprise him
was that he himself should have been temporarily lulled into believing
in, not so much the genuineness, as the durability of the feeling Mona
had shown; that a cool, practised head, such as his, should have been
thrown off its level, even for the moment. He had been ill, which might
account for it. Well, he was well now, and awakened from that fantastic
dream. Mona had undoubtedly saved his life by her cool, ready courage;
yet now he hardly felt grateful to her. Possibly, she herself regretted
she had done so now, in that the failure of her efforts would have
spared her the small degree of vexation which might attend her sudden
change of front. Those words, those acts at the time, had been wrung
from her by a certain warm, hysterical superabundance of feeling which
must find an outlet somewhere. This it had found, and the volcano was
quiescent again--until the advent of some fresh cause of eruption; some
_freak_ cause, be it understood. Clearly hers was one of those
surcharged, excitable temperaments, which, craving a new sensation, will
conceive an ardent passion, flaming with fiercely consuming brilliancy
and heat, only to sink, like a burnt-out building, as quickly as it
flared--to die into dark, cold, unprofitable ashes. He had seen such
before--not once, nor twice--and the outcome was ever the same.
He remembered his first instincts with regard to her. Why had he
suffered himself, even partially, to lose sight of them? Well,
fortunate that it was only partially, and there was no harm done. Yet,
after all, he was human.
Few and far between now were his rides out to Suffield's farm, and then
for a visit of but short duration. His spare time he spent mostly in
buck-shooting among the mountains, and his ordinary working time was
now, since the war, pretty full. For her part, Mona seldom came into
Doppersdorp.
But if Roden's visits to the Suffields were infrequent, the same could
not be said for those of Lambert. Quick to perceive the state of
affairs, the young doctor judged his own opportunity to have come round
again, and was not slow to improve it. If Musgrave was out of the
running, now was his own time to chip in, as he put it; and truth to
tell, his efforts in that direction were received very graciously.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"I'm surprised at you, Mr Musgrave," said Mrs Van Stolz one evening.
"You are letting the doctor cut you out most completely."
"Cut me out?"
"Yes. He is always at the Suffields' now. I thought when you were
invalided there, your chance had come, but you seem to have thrown it
away again, somehow."
"My chance! My dear Mrs Van Stolz, what on earth `chance' are you
alluding to?"
"Oh, how very innocent we are!" she rejoined archly, while her husband
chuckled. "Well, it may not be true, but they say Miss Ridsdale and the
doctor take moonlight walks together."
This shaft, meant to be deadly, seemed to fly utterly wide. Roden, who
was engaged lighting his pipe at the moment, continued to do so with
unmoved countenance and hand as steady as a rock.
"And if it is true, I don't see what earthly business it is of mine," he
answered, in so perfectly equable a voice as to astonish his hearers.
"Really I have no more right to challenge Miss Ridsdale's acts than,
say, Lambert himself has."
"Perhaps he has by this time, Musgrave," struck in Mr Van Stolz
mischievously.
"In that event, still less can it be any business of mine," was the
perfectly good-humoured rejoinder. As a matter of fact, Roden disliked
this form of chaff; but he liked the utterers of it more than a little,
and knew that they meant it as nothing but sheer fun; moreover, he was
far too thorough a student of human nature to afford prominence to a
distasteful topic by appearing to shrink from it. Nor was his unconcern
in any degree forced. It was not in him to be jealous of Lambert, or
indeed, of anybody. Jealousy was a word which, done into a definition,
meant going begging to a given person for a consideration beyond what
that person felt--a despicable lowering of himself, towards which Roden
Musgrave felt no temptation. He rated himself at far too high a value
for that.
If Mona's apparently unaccountable conduct were of set design, if her
distant reserve were intended to draw him the more ardently to her feet,
to bind him more closely in her chains, if she were really making use of
the rather stale and transparent trick of playing off one against the
other, why then she was indulging in a very risky game. With nine men
out of ten that sort of thing might answer; with this one, never. He
was beginning to think of her with something of aversion, bordering on
contempt.
So the weeks went by and Christmas had come, but there was a sullen,
boding, uneasy feeling; for the restlessness of the border tribes had
been growing apace. Doppersdorp, however, managed to make merry, after
its kind, and got up rifle matches, and athletics, and balls, of a mixed
and republican sort, and the band made a nocturnal round from house to
house, discoursing from its limited repertory much bad music, which grew
worse in proportion to the cumulative hospitality of those serenaded.
Then vast numbers of natives swarmed in from the locations, drawn by a
big tab of the worst kind of grog, broached by Jones of the Barkly
Hotel, and on tap for all comers; and by midday the township was overran
by such racing, whooping blackfellows as were not too drank for that
form of seasonable exuberance; yet in view of the novel reflection that
Christmas occurred but once in a year, these and other little
irregularities were winked at.
Then, with the closing days of the year, the thunderclap burst, the
pent-up electricity so long in the air blazed forth. The tribes within
the border had risen, and that with a spontaneity and fixity of purpose
which should have been gratifying to all overs of the thorough-going,
and the hot, Southern midsummer nights of the closing year echoed the
fierce thunder of the war-song, where crowds of excited savages danced
fiend-like in the lurid glow of flaming homesteads.
The news of the outbreak, grim as it might be, was received by
Doppersdorp as by no means an unmixed evil; for did it not mean more
excitement, and was not excitement a most blessed boon to that
slow-going community? First, there was the delight of discussing the
news, and, on the part of each citizen, the inestimable joy of carrying
on the whole campaign exactly as it should be carried on--from Jones'
bar-room. Then, there was the exhilaration of many Volunteer parades,
and the sounding of wholly strange and uncalled-for alarms at all hours
of the day and night, not to mention midnight swoops into the town
location in quest of potential spies, and the rude disturbance of the
slumbers of its population, resulting in two or even three decrepit and
otherwise inoffensive natives, unable in the scurry and alarm to produce
their passes, being marched off to gaol, triumphantly and securely
escorted by some three-score fixed bayonets. All these, and many more
doughty deeds of valour, were achieved by the armed manhood of
Doppersdorp daring those trying times.
Perhaps, however, the acme of jubilation was attained when the Burgher
law was put in force in the district. Then a monster meeting was
convened, and to it swarmed a vast number of armed Boers of all sorts
and sizes, and the atmosphere of the Court-house was terrific, even with
all the windows wide open, in its combined reek of humanity and general
unwashenness, and honest sweat, and gun-oil, and seldom-changed
corduroy, and hoarse, uncouth, clamouring voices. For the enthusiasm
was intense, so that, with all the excuses and prayers for exemption,
Mr Van Stolz had no difficulty in enrolling a good solid command some
three hundred strong, and when this was mustered on the following day in
front of the Court-house, and marched out, duly armed and mounted, to
the usual accompaniments of the Volunteer band and "God save the Queen,"
and the whole population of Doppersdorp, reputable or ragged, yelling
itself hoarse with patriotism and enthusiasm, all felt that very great
things had been done, and that even a Kaffir war had its bright side--
for those who stayed at home.
After this, things quieted down a little, and just then, on Mr Van
Stolz' recommendation, Roden found himself placed on the Commission of
the Peace, and nominated Assistant Magistrate; for the district was a
large one, and there was a periodical Court held at an outlying
township.
"You see, Musgrave," said the former, "it will get you on quicker, even
if it means precious little more pay. You can go and hold the
periodical Court at Luipaard's Vlei, and that'll get you into practice;
and then, if I go on leave, as I want to do soon, I'll make them appoint
you to act here. It all helps you on, betters your chances. I like to
help a fellow on all I can, when he's the sort of fellow to help; and
I've often been able to. The only one I'm damned if I've been able to
help is myself," he broke off, with a jolly laugh, careering away down
the Court-house to stop somebody passing in the street, whom he more or
less particularly wanted to see.
Just before these matters took place, Mona's demeanour underwent a
further change. She showed a disposition to revert to the old state of
things. Yet the bird was too scared to return at once to the lure. As
we have said, Roden Musgrave set too high a value upon himself to give
vent to so commonplace and vulgar an emotion as jealousy, and as a
matter of fact he had felt none. But he had undergone a mental shaking
up, so to say, had had time to pull himself together and think. Yet, we
know not now it happened, so imperceptibly, so gradually, but the sweet,
subtle spell was beginning to weave itself around him again, and the
worst of it was he knew it.
He began to find reason in her former reserve. She had said too much at
first. She wanted an opportunity of drawing back. She had mistaken her
own feeling, her own heart--had been too impulsive. Well, such an
opportunity she should have, and accordingly he had left her
undisturbed. And now once more she had broken down the barriers, and
how it came about he knew not any more than we do. Her image began to
hover around him during his official work, to accompany his long
solitary rides, taken for purposes of business or pleasure. Yes, the
chains were weaving themselves about him again, and somehow or other he
seemed not unwilling that they should.
In due time glowing reports arrived as to the doings of the Doppersdorp
Burghers, who had met the enemy more than once with dire results to that
barbarous entity, both in slaughter and the capture of numerous head of
cattle. Presently, too, arrived, on a few days' leave, our old
acquaintance, Darrell, the attorney, whose practice being of a
precarious, not to say hand-to-mouth nature, might profitably be
neglected for a while in favour of the more certain pay of a
Field-captain in the Doppersdorp Burghers, to which office he had been
duly elected. He, his leave expired, returning to the field of glory,
pressed Roden to accompany him to the Main Camp for a few days, and go
on a patrol or two, and see something of the war; which invitation
Roden, with the sanction of his official superior--for there was a lull
in the extra work just then--decided to accept.