It is to be hoped that he was forgiven, for the provocation was not small.

It is not pleasant to be universally set down not only as a _leugenaar_ (liar), but as one of the very feeblest order.
In another minute old Hans Coetzee came out and patted him warmly on the shoulder, in a way that seemed to say that, whatever others might think of the insufficiency of his powers of falsehood, he, for one, quite appreciated them, and announced that it was time to be moving.
Accordingly the party climbed into their carts or on to their shooting-horses, as the case might be, and started.

Frank Muller, John noticed, was mounted as usual on his fine black horse.

After driving for more than half an hour along an indefinite kind of waggon track, the leading cart, in which were old Hans Coetzee himself, a Malay driver, and a coloured Cape boy, turned to the left across the open veldt, and the others followed in turn.

This went on for some time, till at last they reached the crest of a rise that commanded a large sweep of open country, and here Hans halted and held up his hand, whereon the others halted too.