To the younger of these two men the splendid vastness of this magnificent panorama, framing the picturesque figures of its barbarous inhabitants, made up a scene of which he never wearied, for though at present a Kaffrarian stock farmer, he had the mind of a thinker, a philosopher, and a poet. To the elder, however, there was nothing noteworthy or attractive about it. We fear he regarded the beautiful rolling plains as so much better or worse _veldt_ for purposes of stock-feeding, and was apt to resent the continued and unbroken blue of the glorious vault above as likely to lead to an inconvenient scarcity of rain, if not to a positive drought. As for the dozen Kafirs in the foreground, so far from discerning anything poetical or picturesque about them, he looked upon them as just that number of black scoundrels making their way to the nearest canteen to get drunk on the proceeds of the barter of skins flayed from stolen sheep--his own sheep among those of others. As if to emphasise this last idea, cresting the ridge at that moment, they came in sight of a large, straggling flock. Straggling indeed! In twos and threes, in clumps of a dozen, and in clumps of fifty, the animals, though numbering but eleven hundred, were spread over nearly two miles of _veldt_. It was the flock in charge of the defaulting and contumacious Goniwe, who, however, having caught a glimpse of the approach of his two masters, might be descried hurriedly collecting his scattered charges. Carhayes ground his teeth. "I'll rip his black hide off him. I'll teach him to let the sheep go to the devil while he hunts our bucks." And gripping his reins he drove his spurs into his horse's flanks, with fell intent toward the offending Kafir. "Wait--wait!" urged the more prudent Eustace. "For Heaven's sake, don't give yourself away again. If you must lick the boy, wait until you get him--and the sheep--safe home this evening. If you give him beans now, its more than likely he'll leave the whole flock in the _veldt_ and won't come back at all--not forgetting, of course, to drive off a dozen or two to Nteya's location." There was reason in this, and Carhayes acquiesced with a snarl. To collect the scattered sheep was to the two mounted men a labour of no great difficulty or time, and with a stern injunction to Goniwe not to be found playing the fool a second time, the pair turned their horses' heads and rode homeward. CHAPTER THREE. EANSWYTH. Anta's Kloof--such was the name of Tom Carhayes' farm--was situated on the very edge of the Gaika location. This was unfortunate, because its owner got on but poorly with his barbarous neighbours. They, for their part, bore him no good will either.