"I am particularly indebted to you for your solicitation," replied John; "but I may remark, I had sufficient confidence in myself to feel assured that I would have neither received, nor given any pain in the manner in which I presume you mean. And I may also state that, but for the desire I had to give you some information that may be of vital importance to you, I would have disdained your bidding."
"Then, may I beg to know the object of your call," enquired Rainsfield.
"I have two," replied John, "first I have been informed by one of my black boys that you severely maltreated him; and considering myself aggrieved by the act, as it was the means of depriving me of his services, I beg you to explain the cause for so unwarrantable a procedure."
"I justify my acts to no man," exclaimed Rainsfield, "and recognise no blacks as others than members of their general community; who take upon themselves to perform various acts of aggression. The laws of our country not being potent enough to protect us from their marauding, we do it ourselves; and if you think fit to gainsay our right, you know what course to pursue; and now, sir, for your second object."
"I might with equal justice," said John, "decline to afford you the information I by accident obtained, but I have no desire to show such churlishness, and I believe that by judiciously acting upon it, you may save yourself from some calamity; which I have good cause to believe is impending. My two black boys who left me after your assault on one of them, and who were only persuaded to return after their great corroboree by my conciliating their chief, have informed me, in an imperfect manner, that some overt act of aggression, on the part of the tribe, is meditated; and it is to put you on your guard against this that I have ventured to trouble you with my presence."
"Then it was at that corroboree on the spoliation of my property that you heard this?" exclaimed Rainsfield. "My goods were purloined to feast those imps of darkness, and you lent your presence to grace their proceedings? I always thought you encouraged the villains in their infamies, and I now perceive my suspicions were well founded. However, sir, I am perfectly independent of you, and your so called information. I have decided upon my course of action, and will not therefore trouble you further to interest yourself in my behalf. You will no doubt readily perceive that your presence here at any time would be extremely unpleasant; and I must therefore request that you absent yourself from my house as much as possible. I shall now wish you good day;" saying which Rainsfield quitted the room.
John Ferguson was so taken by surprise at the violent tirade he had just listened to, that he had had no idea of defending himself from an accusation, the manifest absurdity of which merely struck him as contemptuous. But he felt a source of grief at being summarily estranged from the other members of the family; and whatever his feelings had been when he came to the station, he left it with a heavy heart, and returned home to meet the cavalcade, which we have seen in a previous chapter had gone over.