“Look here, Mr. Anscombe,” I said, “it’s no use. I cannot possibly go on a shooting expedition with you just now. Only to-day I have heard from Natal that my boy is not well and must undergo an operation which will lay him up for quite six weeks, and may be dangerous. So I must get down to Durban before it takes place. After that I have a contract in Matabeleland whence you have just come, to take charge of a trading store there for a year; also perhaps to try to shoot a little ivory for myself. So I am fully booked up till, let us say, October, 1878, that is for about eighteen months, by which time I daresay I shall be dead.”
“Eighteen months,” replied this cool young man. “That will suit me very well. I will go on to India as I intended, then home for a bit and will meet you on the 1st of October, 1878, after which we will proceed to the Lydenburg district and shoot those buffalo, or if they have departed, other buffalo. Is it a bargain?”
I stared at him, thinking that the Administrator’s champagne had got into his head.
“Nonsense,” I exclaimed. “Who knows where you will be in eighteen months? Why, by that time you will have forgotten all about me.”
“If I am alive and well, on the 1st of October, 1878, I shall be exactly where I am now, upon this very square in Pretoria, with a wagon, or wagons, prepared for a hunting trip. But as not unnaturally you have doubts upon that point, I am prepared to pay forfeit if I fail, or even if circumstances cause you to fail.”
Here he took a cheque-book from his letter-case and spread it out on the little table in the tent, on which there were ink and a pen, adding—
“Now, Mr. Quatermain, will it meet your views if I fill this up for £250?”
“No,” I answered; “taking everything into consideration the sum is excessive. But if you do not mind facing the risks of my non-appearance, to say nothing of your own, you may make it £50.”
“You are very moderate in your demands,” he said as he handed me the cheque which I put in my pocket, reflecting that it would just pay for my son’s operation.
“And you are very foolish in your offers,” I replied. “Tell me, why do you make such crack-brained arrangements?”