which I have forgotten.  Yet within five-and-thirty minutes the long, lean mare stood before the door.  Behind her, with a tall crane’s feather in his hat, was Hans, mounted on the roan stallion, and leading the chestnut, a four-year-old which I had bought as a foal on the mare as part of the bargain.  Having been corn fed from a colt it was a very sound and well-grown horse, though not the equal of its mother in speed.

In the passage my poor old father, who was quite bewildered by the rapidity and urgent nature of this business, embraced me.

“God bless you, my dear boy,” he said.  “I have had little time to think, but I pray that this may be all for the best, and that we may meet again in the world.  But if not, remember what I have taught you, and if I survive you, for my part I shall remember that you died trying to do your duty.  Oh, what trouble has the blind madness of Henri Marais brought upon us all!  Well, I warned him that it would be so.  Good-bye, my dear boy, good-bye:  my prayers will follow you, and for the rest—­ Well, I am old, and what does it matter if my grey hairs come with sorrow to the grave?”

I kissed him back, and with an aching heart sprang to the saddle.  In five more minutes the station was out of sight.

Thirteen and a half hours later I pulled rein upon the quay of Port Elizabeth just, only just, in time to catch Captain Richardson as he was entering his boat to row out to the Seven Stars, on which the canvas was already being hoisted.  As well as I could in my exhausted state, I explained matters and persuaded him to wait till the next tide.  Then, thanking God for the mare’s speed—­the roan had been left foundered thirty miles away, and Hans was following on the chestnut, but not yet up—­I dragged the poor beast to an inn at hand.  There she lay down and died.  Well, she had done her work, and there was no other horse in the country that could have caught that boat.

An hour or so later Hans came in flogging the chestnut, and here I may add that both it and the roan recovered.  Indeed I rode them for many years, until they were quite old.  When I had eaten, or tried to eat something and rested awhile, I went to the bank, succeeded in explaining the state of the case to the manager, and after some difficulty, for gold was not very plentiful in Port Elizabeth, procured three hundred pounds in sovereigns.  For the other two he gave me a bill upon some agent in Delagoa Bay, together with a letter of recommendation to him and the Portuguese governor, who, it appeared, was in debt to their establishment.  By an afterthought, however, although I kept the letters, I returned him the bill and spent the #200 in purchasing a great variety of goods which I will not enumerate, that I knew would be useful for trading purposes among the east coast Kaffirs.  Indeed, I practically cleared out the Port Elizabeth stores, and barely had time, with the help of Hans and the storekeepers, to pack and ship the goods before the Seven Stars put out to sea.