Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland | Page 5

with his arms
stretched out and the blood dropping from his feet. Then Peter Halket

thought of the tower at the ruins which he had climbed so often for
birds' eggs; and he saw his mother standing at her cottage gate when he
came home in the evening, and he felt her arms round his neck as she
kissed him; but he felt her tears on his cheek, because he had run away
from school all day; and he seemed to be making apologies to her, and
promising he never would do it again if only she would not cry. He had
often thought of her since he left her, on board ship, and when he was
working with the prospectors, and since he had joined the troop; but it
had been in a vague way; he had not distinctly seen and felt her. But
tonight he wished for her as he used to when he was a small boy and
lay in his bed in the next room, and saw her shadow through the door as
she bent over her wash-tub earning the money which was to feed and
clothe him. He remembered how he called her and she came and tucked
him in and called him "Little Simon," which was his second name and
had been his father's, and which she only called him when he was in
bed at night, or when he was hurt.
He sat there staring into the blaze. He resolved he would make a great
deal of money, and she should live with him. He would build a large
house in the West End of London, the biggest that had ever been seen,
and another in the country, and they should never work any more.
Peter Halket sat as one turned into stone, staring into the fire.
All men made money when they came to South Africa,--Barney
Barnato, Rhodes- -they all made money out of the country, eight
millions, twelve millions, twenty-six millions, forty millions; why
should not he!
Peter Halket started suddenly and listened. But it was only the wind
coming up the kopje like a great wheezy beast creeping upwards; and
he looked back into the fire.
He considered his business prospects. When he had served his time as
volunteer he would have a large piece of land given him, and the
Mashonas and Matabeles would have all their land taken away from
them in time, and the Chartered Company would pass a law that they
had to work for the white men; and he, Peter Halket, would make them

work for him. He would make money.
Then he reflected on what he should do with the land if it were no good
and he could not make anything out of it. Then, he should have to start
a syndicate; called the Peter Halket Gold, or the Peter Halket
Iron-mining, or some such name, Syndicate. Peter Halket was not very
clear as to how it ought to be started; but he felt certain that he and
some other men would have to take shares. They would not have to pay
for them. And then they would get some big man in London to take
shares. He need not pay for them; they would give them to him; and
then the company would be floated. No one would have to pay
anything; it was just the name--"The Peter Halket Gold Mining
Company, Limited." It would float in London; and people there who
didn't know the country would buy the shares; THEY would have to
give ready money for them, of course; perhaps fifteen pounds a share
when they were up!--Peter Halket's eyes blinked as he looked into the
fire.--And then, when the market was up, he, Peter Halket, would sell
out all his shares. If he gave himself only six thousand and sold them
each for ten pounds, then he, Peter Halket, would have sixty thousand
pounds! And then he would start another company, and another.
Peter Halket struck his knee softly with his hand.
That was the great thing--"Always sell out at the right time." That point
Peter Halket was very clear on. He had heard it so often discussed.
Give some shares to men with big names, and sell out: they can sell out
too at the right time.
Peter Halket stroked his knee thoughtfully.
And then the other people, that bought the shares for cash! Well, they
could sell out too; they could all sell out!
Then Peter Halket's mind got a little hazy. The matter was getting too
difficult for him, like a rule of three sum at school when he could not
see the relation between the two first terms and the third. Well, if they
didn't like to sell out at the right time, it was their own