"He means that the Boers want all the water for their own cattle, and swear that they will shoot any strange ox or horse that comes near the fountain," replied McCann. "Knowing that they are not the kind of people who make idle threats, I thought it best to keep the stock away from the water until you came."
Oscar was almost ready to boil over with rage. He had never heard of such a piece of impudence before in all his life.
CHAPTER XXVIII. OSCAR SHOWS HIS COURAGE.
Since crossing the Drackenberg Oscar had had but little intercourse with the Boers he had met along his route. Knowing them to be a stupid, pig-headed race, deaf to reason and blind to everything except self-interest, he wanted nothing to do with them if he could help it.
The only way in which they could be touched was through their pockets. He had found that they were quite willing to cheat him in a trade and to drink all the coffee he could afford to offer them, but they never thought of granting him a favor in return. They expected to be liberally paid for everything they did for him.
They believed that every hunter who came to Africa must of necessity be an Englishman, and they were very spiteful toward them, for they had somehow got it into their heads that England was laying plans to subjugate their country.
"Isn't that pool public property?" demanded Oscar as soon as his indignation would permit him to speak. "What right have they to say that my cattle shall not drink there?"
McCann shrugged his shoulders and waved his hand toward the fountain, as if to say that if his employer chose to use his eyes he would see something that would enable him to answer that question for himself.