Warrior

a horse picks his feet up which causes him to stumble, but how he places them down. Let us see his Capers.'

To the breeder's evident disappointment they dismissed the gelding and asked to see instead his Boerperds (which would command only half the price of the bloods).

Five minutes later he brought out half a dozen, in-hand, all much the same to look at in height and general conformation. The Hottentot stable-lads began walking them and then trotting in a large circle about the manege.

'You see, they all move true,' said Hervey after studying them a minute or so. 'No bridle, just a halter – no tricks.'

'But rather slighter than I had imagined for myself,' replied Colonel Smith, in a way that suggested he agreed but with some reluctance still. 'You think them up to weight?'

'Try the grey,' said Hervey (the mare with pronounced iron dappling looked the most active of the bunch). 'I fancy you would weigh in at fourteen stone' (he meant with saddle) 'and there's plenty of arab in them. They'd carry eighteen without complaint. And that black mane will go well with Rifle facings,' he added a shade drolly.

'I think I might.'

'But let's first see her run free.' He asked for the mare to be loosed in one of the turnouts.

The breeder seemed reluctant.

'Come, man; let her have her liberty.'

When the halter was off, the mare trotted confidently to the middle of the turnout – dusty even at this time of year – and began to roll. She got up, shook herself, looked about, and then walked to the far side.

'Would you call her, please, Menheer Kuyper?' asked Hervey, pleased so far with what he saw.

The breeder barked an order to one of the Hottentots, who cupped a hand to his mouth. 'Kuni!'

The mare turned her head.

'Komm, Kuni, komm!'

She began trotting back to the gate. The breeder looked pleasantly surprised.

Hervey smiled. 'Well, Colonel, if she's as well mannered under saddle, I would say that there is your hack.'

And to the breeder's evidently even greater surprise, the mare then went well in a simple snaffle. After five minutes of serpentines, Colonel Smith handed her back with an approving nod, and expressed himself pleased. 'Well, Hervey?'

'I find no fault.'

'Nothing at all?'

'If you were to press me, I might say she were a little cresty – more stallion-like than mare – but that is mere taste. Handsome is as handsome does; and she does well. And she is by no means illfavoured. No, quite the contrary.'

'Nothing more?' Colonel Smith had not expected to buy a country-bred, and he would be certain of his decision.

'Again, if you were to press me, I might say that her pasterns are long – I've never cared for length below the fetlock – but I myself would not be disobliged by such a fault in country such as this.

Were we back in the hills of the Peninsula, I might prefer them shorter, but here you will have no trouble in it, I'm sure.'

Colonel Smith nodded. 'I am glad you say so. I liked her.' He turned again to the breeder. 'Very well, Menheer . . .'

They settled on a price which pleased them both (for the mare showed more quality than either of them had expected), and with assurances of a full month's warranty, the breeder received the promise of a further visit, this next time for a saddle horse for Juana. They parted, if not exactly as friends, then as trusted men of business, the Hottentots assembled in a line, like a guard of honour.

'I will say that I am much taken with the Cape-bred, Hervey,' declared Colonel Smith as they drove away in his whiskey, Hervey's hack following on a long rein. 'And I thank you heartily for your counsel.'

'Think nothing of it. I was glad of the diversion, and in truth it was instructive. I'm not as a rule so interested in these things, but I should like to see Kuyper's stud books, or whatever he calls them. I think there's a deal more blood in his horses than I supposed.'

The sun was now high, and both men were glad of their widebrimmed straw hats. Hervey sat back, content to take his ease with another at the reins. Neither of them spoke for half a mile, the distant views and the Cape's invigorating air wholly diverting.

At length Colonel Smith's thoughts turned to Somervile and his expedition. 'I have a mind to take charge of the governor's escort myself for this affair of his,' he said, out of the blue.

Hervey cleared his throat. It had become a habit of his when faced with something unpalatable and which required a considered but instant response – rather as he would check a horse before a fence. 'Indeed?'

'Yes. I see both opportunity and trouble ahead.'

So did Hervey, but he did not want the complications of an officer his senior on the expedition. Besides aught else, he reckoned he would have considerably more influence – restraining influence – on Somervile than would another (even General Bourke). 'But would your duties at the castle permit it?'

'These things can always be arranged. What escort do you propose?'

'Fifty sabres, and a section from the Rifles,' he replied, and somewhat grudgingly. 'With Welsh, their