With Buller in Natal | Page 6

plenty
of cold meat and bread in the house. I shall not be more than half an
hour, Robert."
In less than that time the party were ready. Chris's preparations had
been of the simplest. He carried over his arm a long, thick greatcoat, in
the pocket of which he had thrust a fur cap and two woollen comforters.
He had also a light but warm rug, for he thought it probable that he
might not be able to be next to his mother. He had on his usual light
tweed suit, but had in addition put on a cardigan waistcoat, which he
intended to take off when once in the train. In his pockets he had a
couple of packets of tobacco, for although he seldom smoked, he
thought that some of it might be very acceptable to his
fellow-passengers before the journey was over. He wore a light gray,
broad-brimmed wide-awake, with a white silk puggaree twisted round
it, for the heat of the sun in the middle of the day was already very
great, and would be greater still when they got down to Natal. The box,
which a Kaffir servant put on his shoulder, was about eight inches deep
and a foot wide, and eighteen inches long.
"What have you in it, mother?"
"Two tin bottles of cold tea, each holding a gallon."

"I should hardly have thought that we wanted as much as that."
"No; but there may be many women who have made no provision at all,
thinking that we shall at least be able to get water at any of the stations
we stop at. I have a small tin mug, and that joint of meat; the rest of the
box is filled up with bread-and-butter. I have cut it up and spread it, so
that it packs a good deal closer than it would do if we put the loaves in
whole."
Mr. King had his wife's thick-wadded winter cloak and a rug over his
arm, and a small hand-bag with a few necessaries for the journey. Mrs.
King was in her usual attire, and carried only a white umbrella.
"We look as if we were starting for a picnic rather than a journey that
will last three or four days," she said with an attempt at gaiety. "There
is one comfort, we shall have nothing to look after when we get to the
end."
Chris walked on ahead to let his father and mother talk together, for
although all arrangements had been discussed and settled during the
past two or three days, there was much they had to say to each other
now that the parting had come. The lad was a fine specimen of the
young Uitlander. A life passed largely in the open air, hard work and
exercise, had broadened his shoulders and made him look at least a year
older than he really was. He was a splendid rider and an excellent shot
with his rifle, for his father had obtained a permit from the authorities
for him to carry one, and he could bring down an antelope when
running at full speed as neatly as any of the young Boers. Four days a
week he had spent in the mines, for his father intended him to follow in
his footsteps, and he had worked by turns with the miners below and
the engineers on the surface, so that he might in the course of a few
years be thoroughly acquainted with all the details of his profession.
The last two days in each week he had to himself, and with three or
four lads of his own age went for long rides in search of sport. A couple
of hours every evening were spent in study under his father's direction.
He was quiet in manner, and talked but little. He deeply resented the
position in which the British population in the Transvaal were placed,

the insolence of the Boers towards them, and their brutal cruelty
towards the natives. The restraint which he so often found it necessary
to exercise had had no slight influence on his character, and had given a
certain grim expression to the naturally bright face. Many had been the
discussions between him and his friends as to the prospect of England's
taking up their cause. Their disappointment had been intense at the
miserable failure of the Jameson raid, which, however, they felt, and
rightly, must some day have a good result, inasmuch as it had brought
out the wretched position of the Uitlanders, who, though forming the
majority of the population, and the source of all the wealth of the
country, and paying all the taxes, were yet treated as an outcast race,
and deprived of every right possessed by people of all civilized nations.