Let Bessie and _Oom_ Silas judge.

I would slaughter every Englishman in the Transvaal to gain Bessie--ay! and every Boer too, and throw all the natives in;" and he laughed aloud, and struck the great black horse, making it plunge and caper gallantly.
"And then," he went on, giving his ambition wing, "when I have won Bessie, and we have kicked all these Englishmen out of the land, in a very few years I shall rule this country, and what next?
Why, then I will stir up the Dutch feeling in Natal and in the old Colony, and we will push the Englishmen back into the sea, make a clean sweep of the natives, only keeping enough for servants, and have a united South Africa, like that poor silly man Burgers used to prate of, but did not know how to bring about.

A united Dutch South Africa, and Frank Muller to rule it! Well, such things have been, and may be again.

Give me forty years of life and strength, and we shall see----" Just then he reached the verandah of the house, and, dismissing his secret ambitions from his mind, Frank Muller dismounted and entered.

In the sitting-room he found Silas Croft reading a newspaper.
"Good-day, _Oom_ Silas," he said, extending his hand.
"Good-day, _Meinheer_ Frank Muller," replied the old man very coldly, for John had told him of the incident at the shooting-party which so nearly ended fatally, and though he made no remark he had formed his own conclusions.
"What are you reading about in the _Volkstem_, _Oom_ Silas--about the Bezuidenhout affair ?" "No; what was that ?" "It was that the _volk_ are rising against you English, that is all.