And he turned his steps
northward.
At the farmhouses where he stopped the ooms and tantes remembered clearly
the spider with its four grey horses. At one place the Boer-wife told how
the tall, blue-eyed Englishman had bought milk, and asked the way to the
next farm. At the next farm the Englishman had bought a bunch of flowers,
and given half a crown for them to the little girl. It was quite true; the
Boer-mother made her get it out of the box and show it. At the next place
they had slept. Here they told him that the great bulldog, who hated all
strangers, had walked in in the evening and laid its head in the lady's
lap. So at every place he heard something, and traced them step by step.
At one desolate farm the Boer had a good deal to tell. The lady had said
she liked a wagon that stood before the door. Without asking the price the
Englishman had offered a hundred and fifty pounds for the old thing, and
bought oxen worth ten pounds for sixteen. The Dutchman chuckled, for he
had the Salt-riem's money in the box under his bed. Gregory laughed too,
in silence; he could not lose sight of them now, so slowly they would have
to move with that cumbrous ox-wagon. Yet, when that evening came, and he
reached a little wayside inn, no one could tell him anything of the
travellers.
The master, a surly creature, half stupid with Boer-brandy, sat on the
bench before the door smoking.
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