Aletta Part 17

"Poor little girl! You must not run away with all those ideas," he said. "And, you are flattering me. Well, I will come over again soon, and have a talk, but I must go now. There, will that do?"

He was talking to her quite gently, quite soothingly, just as he used to do, and the effect was wonderful. All the dejection, the sullenness, disappeared from her face, dispelled by a bright, almost happy smile.

"Good-bye, then," she said. "I don't think I'll come and see you start this time. Good-bye, dear."

Her eyes shone soft and dewy in the upturned face. Her lips were raised invitingly. It was not in mortal man to refuse them, however stern rect.i.tude under the circ.u.mstances might dictate such a course. This one did not refuse them.

"Good-bye, my darling!" she breathed into his ear, in a voice so barely audible as to be almost inarticulate. And as he left her and went out to find his horse and see about saddling up, it was with a vague misgiving that the loose coil, to which he had made allusion in his own mind, had, within the last few moments, very perceptibly tightened.

We made use just above of the expression "under the circ.u.mstances." The "circ.u.mstances" were, that by that time this cautious, and cynical and experienced man of the world was deeply, devotedly, and entirely in love with Aletta De la Rey.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

JELF--CIVIL COMMISSIONER.

Nicholas Andrew Jelf was Civil Commissioner and Resident Magistrate for the town and division of Schalkburg.

In person he was a tall, middle-aged, rather good-looking man, with dark hair, and a grizzled, well-trimmed moustache, and whose general appearance fostered an idea which const.i.tuted one of his favourite weaknesses--that he resembled a retired military man. When mistaken for such openly, he positively beamed; and more than one shrewd rogue got the benefit of the doubt, or obtained material mitigation of the penalty due to his misdeeds, by appealing, with well-feigned ignorance, to the occupant of the Bench as "Colonel." By disposition he was easy-going and good-natured enough, and bore the reputation among his brother Civil servants of being something of a duffer.

By these the magistracy of Schalkburg was regarded as anything but a plum. It was very remote, the district large, and peopled almost entirely by Dutch farmers. The town itself was a great many miles from the nearest railway station; moreover, it was a dull little hole, with the limited ideas and pettifogging interests common to up-country townships. It boasted a large Dutch Reformed church--an unsightly, whitewashed parallelogram with staring, weather-beaten windows--item about a dozen stores, a branch of the Standard Bank, and two "hotels,"

designed to afford board and lodging, of a kind, to such of the storekeepers' clerks or bank clerks--to whom means, or inclination or opportunity, denied the advantages and felicities of the connubial state, for a stranger was an exceeding rarity. Half of its houses were untenanted, save for a few days on the occasion of the quarterly _Nachtmaal_ [The Lord's Supper] when the township would be filled with a great mult.i.tude of Boers and their families from far and near, those who did not own or hire houses, camping with their waggons on the town commonage. But it boasted no natural beauty to speak of, just dumped down, as it were, on a wide, flat plain. Some few of the houses had an _erf_ or two of garden ground attached, which in the spring const.i.tuted by contrast a pleasing spot of green amid the prevailing red dust, but for the rest the impression conveyed was that of a sun-baked, wind-swept, utterly depressing sort of place.

Nicholas Andrew Jelf was seated at his office table amid a pile of papers, and his countenance wore a very worried expression indeed. The post had just been delivered, and the contents of the bag had consisted of a greater crop than usual of Government circulars, eke requests for returns, as it seemed, upon every subject under heaven. Moreover, the newspapers, through which he had glanced hurriedly, were mainly remarkable for the number and conspicuousness of their scare headlines.

Sensation was the order of the day, and out of the chances of a rupture with the two Republics the canny editor managed to suck no small advantage. But poor Mr Jelf could lay to himself no such consolation.

His thoughts were for his already large and still increasing family, and the ruinous hole it would make in the by no means extravagant pay of a Civil servant were he obliged to send it away to a safer locality, as he greatly feared he ought to lose no time in doing.

He turned to his correspondence. The Government desired to be informed of this--or the member for Slaapdorp had moved for a return of that--or Civil Commissioners were requested to obtain the opinion of the leading farmers of their divisions as to how far rinderpest microbes were likely to affect donkeys, given certain conditions of temperature and climate... and nearly a dozen more of like practical utility. Mr Jelf threw down the papers with a grunt of disgust and swore mildly to himself.

"They seem to think a Civil Commissioner must be a whole d.a.m.ned walking 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,'" he growled. "What's this? More of the same stuff, I suppose."

But, as he read, his attention became more riveted and his face anxious and graver. For the official communication, marked "Confidential," was one urgently requesting information as to the tone and disposition of the Dutch farmers in his division as bearing upon the present state of affairs, and desiring a full and circ.u.mstantial report at the very earliest opportunity. The effect of this was to deepen the worried look upon his face and to cause him to swear a little more. Just then a tap came at the door, and his clerk entered.

"Anything by the post that wants seeing to, sir?"

"Anything? I should think so. Just look at all this, Morkel," pointing to the heap of stuff upon the table.

Morkel did look at it--looked somewhat blue, moreover. He was fond of sport and had intended to ask for a day or two's leave to join a buck hunt on one of the farms, and was fully capable of grasping the amount of work all that confounded correspondence was going to entail. He was a well-set-up, good-looking young fellow of five and twenty, very proud of his fair proportions and waxed moustache and somewhat dandified attire; for there were three or four pa.s.sable-looking girls in Schalkburg, and the Civil Commissioner's clerk was Somebody in the place.

"One would think, at such a time as this, Government would have plenty to do without off-loading all these insane circulars upon us," went on his chief, irritably. "It isn't as if the things they want to know were of any practical use--they might as well move for a return of the number of b.u.t.tons on every prisoner's breeches over at the gaol as some of the things they do ask, but we've got to humour them. By the way, though, there's one thing they want to know that has a practical side, and that ought to be looked after by a special department manufactured for this emergency. _We_ have quite enough to do without going on the stump, so to say. Look at this."

He handed the letter marked "Confidential" to his subordinate. The latter read it through carefully, and as he did so he saw light. He thought he was going to get his shoot after all, and a good deal more of it than he had at first hoped for.

"The thing is so unreasonable," went on Mr Jelf. "Every mortal fad sprung on the House by some tin-pot country member, some retired canteen-keeper and proportionately consequential, is off-loaded on the Civil Commissioner. The Civil Commissioner is requested to do this, and the Civil Commissioner is desired to supply information upon that--as if we hadn't quite enough to do with our financial and judicial duties.

Why the deuce can't Government have its own Secret Service department as Oom Paul is supposed to have?"

Morkel listened sympathetically, as he always did when his chief indulged in a grumble. The two were on very good terms. Jelf had a liking for his subordinate, who officially was smart and well up to his work, and socially was the only man in the place with whom he could a.s.sociate on even terms, except the District Surgeon, who was a trifle too fond of his gla.s.s, and inclined to be dictatorial. Morkel, for his part, reciprocated the liking. His chief was easy-going, and good-natured in the matter of leave officially, and socially took a sort of paternal and friendly interest in him. These two Civil servants, therefore, got on admirably together.

"Well, the thing has got to be done," went on Jelf, "and the only way to find out Dutch feeling is to go around among the Dutch. I haven't the time to do it, and if I had it wouldn't help, because they'd all shut up like oysters before me. But with you it would be different, Morkel.

They'd look upon you as one of themselves." He little thought how hard he was stamping on the corns of his subordinate; the fact being that, although born of Dutch parentage on either side, Morkel's weakness was to imagine himself thoroughly and intensely English. "You would have to affect Boer sympathies, though, and we know that under the present Ministry that doesn't damage a Civil servant at headquarters, eh? What do you think of the idea?"

"It's a first-rate one, sir. I might go around as if on a sort of wandering shoot."

"Yes. Take your gun with you. That'll give colour to the affair. You can have my trap and horses, only spare the springs all you can in going through some of those bad drifts. You'd better take a week of it.

Harvey can do a lot of your work for you. He's almost too good a man for a chief constable. You'd better get as far up into the Wildschutsberg part as you can; they say the Boers up that way are the worst--especially since that firebrand, Andries Botma, has been his rounds. Look up Kershaw too; they say the fellow is three parts Boer in his sympathies. You might be able to get something out of him."

A knock at the door and the Court constable, being bidden to enter, announced that Mynheer Stepha.n.u.s De la Rey wanted to see the Civil Commissioner.

"The very man," exclaimed the latter. "You must get to his farm, Morkel. You're sure to hear something there. Show him in, Hendrik."

Stepha.n.u.s entered, and as he did so Morkel went out, laden with the circulars that needed attention.

Left alone with the magistrate, Stepha.n.u.s looked a trifle ill-at-ease.

His frank geniality seemed to have left him as he replied to that official's inquiries after his family and concerns wherewith the Boer is wont to preface any and every interview if on anything like friendly terms with his interlocutor. Then he came to the point. He wished to resign his field-cornetcy.

Jelf looked annoyed, and felt it too. What was the reason, he asked. A reliable, influential man like Stepha.n.u.s was just the man for the office. He would be hard to replace. Would he not reconsider his decision?

But Stepha.n.u.s was firm; the fact being that since he had become converted to the "patriot" cause he was too honest to continue holding a post under the British Government, honorary as such might be. He did not, however, desire to say as much to the Government representative before him.

But the latter saw through his constraint, and went straight to the root of the thing. He was irritated at the obstinacy, as he called it, of this Boer, and the latter, to his amazement and indignation, found himself being roundly lectured. The Civil Commissioner had heard reports of disaffection among some of the farmers--notably those in the Wildschutsberg district, but he had never expected to find among the disloyal a man so universally respected as the one before him, and much more to the same effect Stepha.n.u.s, however, kept both his temper and his dignity.

If that was the way the representative of the Government regarded him, he replied, all the more reason why he should adhere to his original resolve, and resign the field-cornetcy in favour of somebody who would be more acceptable. Would Mynheer kindly receive his formal resignation?

Yes, Mynheer would, in that case. But the farewell greeting between the two was stiff and unfriendly.

Left alone, Jelf felt rather small. He had failed in judiciousness, in tact, and he knew it. He had rubbed his interviewer the wrong way, just at a time when it was essential to keep such a man well disposed and friendly. At any rate, here was one item for his report. If Stepha.n.u.s De la Rey was disaffected, why, then, the whole of the Wildschutsberg district must be a hotbed of seething sedition.

Thus he expressed matters to his subordinate, as, Stepha.n.u.s having departed, he called Morkel in to talk over their plan.

"He has all but come round, sir," said the latter. "I talked him over a good deal, and his is one of the places I'm to go to. He won't give way about the field-cornetcy, though."

"Oh, well, we must find somebody else, I suppose. They are all rebels at heart, I believe, and he's as great a rebel as any. Yes? Come in."

Again the Court constable entered.

"Mynheer Grobbelaar wishes to see you, sir."

"Grobbelaar? Is it Jan Grobbelaar?"

"Yes, sir."

"Show him in. This is getting warm, Morkel. Another d.a.m.ned Field-cornet. I suppose _he_ wants to resign now."

Swaart Jan entered, his projecting buck-teeth more prominent than ever in an oily grin, as he shook hands with the two officials. Jelf's manner was short, and he wasted no time in preliminaries.

"Well, Mynheer Grobbelaar, and what can I do for you?"

"Nay, Mynheer, thank you. I have not called on business; just to make a little friendly visit."