With Roberts to Pretoria: A Tale of The South African War

by G. A. Henty

There was a murmur of approval from the others, and Dirck stood sulkily until Hans arrived with his horse; then he picked up his rifle, slung it over his shoulder, mounted, and rode off without a word. The others walked to the house.

"I am sorry to tell you, Mrs. Allnutt, that Dirck Jansen has behaved scandalously. He had a fair trial of skill with your husband's young cousin, and the lad beat him hollow. Then he falsely accused him of an unworthy trick, levelled his rifle, and pulled the trigger. It would have been murder had not, happily, the rifle been unloaded. Then he rushed to seize the lad, and was knocked senseless by him. I have apologized, and my friends here join me in the apology, to the young fellow, for the gross conduct of Dirck Jansen, and we trust that you will not receive Dirck in your house so long as the lad remains here."

"It seems hardly possible, Mr. Van Laun, that Dirck should have behaved so. He must have been grossly insulted to begin with. I hear that the shooting arose out of a quarrel."

"It was not exactly a quarrel, though both were angry. Dirck began by saying rough things to your lad, who was not to be blamed because he spoke up for his countrymen, just as I should have done, or any other Dutchman would have done, had an Englishman spoken so of our people."

"I am sorry to hear what you say, Mr. Van Laun," Mrs. Allnutt said somewhat stiffly. "I cannot but think that Dirck must have had great provocation."

"Dirck is a hot-headed young fool, cousin, and though I am as nearly related to him as you are, I say so without hesitation; and for my part, I am not altogether sorry that this young English lad should have given him a lesson. The fact that he is perhaps the best shot round here has cocked him up altogether unduly. He had it in his heart to commit murder to-day, for it would have been murder if there had been a cartridge in his gun; and though it would have been hard to testify against one of my own blood, I must have said so in open court had he been tried for the act. However, I hope we shall hear no more of it, and that the lads will not meet again till Dirck has come to his senses. He will hear the truth from all of us who were present at the affair, and may be all the better for finding that he is not such a fine fellow as he thought he was."

Mrs. Allnutt did not reply. It was evident that her sympathies were entirely with Dirck. The farmers did not stop, but, mounting their horses, rode off. Mr. Allnutt went out into the yard, and, as he expected, found Yorke talking in the stables to Hans. The latter was in high glee, for he hated Dirck Jansen, who had sworn at him many a time when he did not bring his horse round as quickly as he had expected, and was once on the point of laying his whip about his shoulders when Mr. Allnutt, coming out of the house, and seeing what was about to happen, had arrested the blow by saying sternly, "Drop that, Dirck, you are not master here yet. Hans is my servant and not yours; neither you nor anyone else shall touch him."

Yorke and he were still talking when Mr. Allnutt entered and motioned to Hans to go outside.

"This is an unfortunate affair, Yorke, very unfortunate. I do not consider that you were in any way to blame, but that hardly makes it less unfortunate. Here you have beaten a fellow was proud of his skill with the rifle; your shooting certainly astonished me, for although I knew that you had used a tremendous lot of cartridges in the past six months, I had no idea that you had done it to such good purpose. In the next place, you have floored him as neatly as I ever saw a man knocked down, and have done it with half a dozen of his own friends looking on. In the third place, you have brought him into disgrace with them, and as the story will soon get about, it will be a terrible blow to his pride.

"Now, I have never liked Dirck. He is a very bad type of the Dutchman in these parts, though, I have no doubt, he would pass muster in the Transvaal. He is rude and overbearing; and although a man may be all that, and yet at bottom a good fellow, I don't think Dirck is so. He will never forgive you, and unless I am greatly mistaken, he will try in some way to get even with you, and will not care what steps he takes to do so. Now, you know, lad, you have been talking for some little time past of going down to Cape Town, and joining a corps newly got up there, when the war breaks out, which I am afraid it will do very shortly. I tell you frankly that, sorry as I am to say so, I think it will be better for you to do this speedily. I don't mean to-morrow or next day, but shortly. I am also sorry to say that this affair will not make matters more comfortable at home. You know my wife is very fond of Dirck, and it will take a great deal to make her believe that he could be wrong in anything. Van Laun spoke out straight to her, and said that the fellow was altogether to blame; but I could see that her sympathies were nevertheless with him, and she believes that you were at fault in the matter."