been the principal actor, positively he loathed the sight of him. He
jumped out of the cart, and was going to walk round to the back of the
house in order to avoid him, when Muller, suddenly seeming to become
aware of his presence, advanced to meet him with the utmost cordiality.

"How do you do, Captain?" he said, holding out his hand, which John just
touched. "So you have come to shoot buck with _Oom_ Coetzee; going to
show us Transvaalers how do to it, eh? There, Captain, don't look as
stiff as a rifle barrel. I know what you are thinking of; that little
business at Wakkerstroom on Friday, is it not? Well, now, I tell you
what it is, I was in the wrong, and I am not afraid to say so as between
man and man. I had had a glass, that was the fact, and did not quite
know what I was about. We have got to live as neighbours here, so let us
forget all about it and be brothers again. I never bear malice, not I.
It is not the Lord's will that we should bear malice. Hit out from the
shoulder, I say, and then forget all about it. If it hadn't been for
that little monkey," he added, jerking his thumb in the direction
of Jantje, who was holding the horses' heads, "it would never have
happened, and it is not nice that two Christians should quarrel about
such as he."

Muller jerked out this long speech in a succession of sentences,
something as a schoolboy repeats a hardly learnt lesson, fidgeting his
feet and letting his restless eyes travel about the ground as he spoke.
It was evident to John, who stood quite still and listened to it in icy
silence, that his address was by no means extemporary; clearly it had
been composed for the occasion.

"I do not wish to quarrel with anybody, _Meinheer_ Muller," he answered
at length. "I never do quarrel unless it is forced on me, and then,"