It is a chilly evening in the early part of the Cape autumn, [March, April, and May are the autumn months in South Africa], and Captain Jamieson and his family are gathered round a blazing _castange hout_ fire in the general sitting-room of Ralfontein House. The captain looks anxious and fatigued, as well he may do, for he has just returned from Graham's Town, whither, ten days before, he was summoned by the Lieutenant-Governor of the Eastern District to attend a "palaver" with some troublesome Caffres; and he has ridden upwards of 100 miles over a difficult country in less than fourteen hours--not bad work for a man who will never see sixty again! "So we're in for another Caffre war!" Frank Jamieson said when his father informed them that the result of the "palaver" had been far from satisfactory. "That makes the third in sixteen years, to say nothing of minor affairs." "I suppose the Caffres have grown `fat' again," observed young James. "`Fat!'" exclaimed Mr Weston; "in the name of all that's sensible, what has their growing _fat_ got to do with their going to war?" Captain Jamieson and his sons laughed at their friend's astonishment, and the former replied: "You must know, my dear Weston, that our Cape wars rarely arise from political causes, but chiefly from a desire on the part of the young men of the various tribes to distinguish themselves and earn the coveted title of `warrior.' When a tribe has been some years at peace with its neighbours the number of young men increase; this they call growing `fat,' or, in other words, becoming ready to take the field. Once in this condition the young men never rest until they find a pretext for going to war either with us or their neighbours." "And what pretext have they now?" inquired Miss Janet. "A very simple one, my dear. Two Caffres, warriors of some standing in their tribe, were lately caught in the act of stealing an axe from a Beaufort storekeeper. They were secured, committed by the magistrate, and in due course were sent down to Graham's Town with some other prisoners to stand their trial at the criminal court--their escort consisting of five or six civil constables. Now the highroad between Fort Beaufort and Graham's Town runs close along the Caffre border; and before the constables had gone many miles they were suddenly attacked by a party of Gaikas, who had crossed the border with the express purpose of rescuing their fellow-tribesmen. The escort appear to have made a stout resistance, but, overcome by their weight of numbers, they were forced to beat a retreat and leave their prisoners in the hands of the victorious Gaikas. Now it so happened that the warriors who were the cause of this attack were handcuffed to two Hottentots; and their rescuers, not being able to unfasten the handcuffs, and being pressed for time, deliberately murdered these unhappy men, and, cutting off their arms at the elbow-joints, set their rascally friends at liberty.