"Haggle? Rather! Haggle like any Italian. Only they're much more difficult to bring down. But, won't you come round now and have tea? I've had a waggon sail rigged up for shade because I thought you'd prefer it outside." The ladies were delighted, and I will own in candour that there didn't seem to be anything wanting, if about four kinds of biscuits; and rolls, white and fresh, done on a gridiron; some very excellent tinned jam; butter and potted meats; tea and coffee, and for us men a decanter of first-rate Boer brandy--contributed a sufficient afternoon tea. "So this is the `roughing it' you warned us against, Mr Glanton?" laughed Mrs Sewin, who was pouring out. "Why, it is luxury, positive luxury." "But it's a great occasion," I answered. "Major, have a glass of grog after your ride." "Well, that's no bad idea. Capital stuff this," holding up his glass. "So it is," pronounced Falkner, tossing off his. "Here's luck, Glanton. By Jove, you've got an uncommonly snug crib up here. Hanged if it don't feel like turning Zulu trader myself." "And if Tyingoza came here rather often, and stuck here a little longer than you wanted, how long would it be before you started to kick him off the place?" "Oh, not long, I expect," answered Falkner equably, amid the general laugh at his expense. "Quite so. Then from that, moment you might as well shut up shop." "Isn't this Tyingoza the chief of the location?" asked Miss Sewin. "Yes. He was here this morning." "Oh, I should like to see him." "You shall," I answered. "He's sure to be here to-night. If not I'll send over for him the first thing in the morning. He's a great friend of mine." Falkner guffawed. "Friend of yours! Oh, I say now, Glanton. A nigger!" "All serene, Sewin. I've known quite as fine fellows in their way among `niggers' as you call them--as among white men. Strange, isn't it? But, fact, for all that." "Now I come to think of it," said the Major, "I've noticed that the men I've met over here, who have large experience of natives, invariably speak well of them." I rejoiced that the old man was coming to his senses on that point, because there was less likelihood of him getting disgusted with and leaving the neighbourhood. "You have a perfectly lovely view from here, at any rate," said Miss Sewin, when he had debated the oft-threshed-out question a little further. "How black and jagged the Drakensberg peaks look over there. And so that is Zululand?" turning to the expanse beyond the Tugela. "By Jove!" said the Major. "It strikes me we are pretty much at Cetywayo's mercy, right on the border as we are." "If you're never at the mercy of anybody worse, you won't have cause for uneasiness, Major," I said. "As long as he's let alone he'll let us alone. There isn't a native chief in the whole of Africa who is less likely to molest us in any way."