Mrs. King would go
down to Durban with her friends, so that there was no need for her son
to accompany her.
It had been agreed by the other lads that they would all meet at ten
o'clock at the hotel where Chris put up, and the party mustered in
greater strength than had been expected, for they found that the boys
who had preceded them had all waited in the town, and were stopping at
the various hotels. They too had been as badly treated by the Boers as
the last arrivals, and were all eager to begin work.
"There is no getting a private room here," Chris said, "so we had better
go outside the town and talk things over." As they went they chatted
over their adventures on the road, and great satisfaction was felt among
those who had not been present on hearing how Chris had thrashed the
Boer, and had gone tip to him in spite of his threat to shoot. At their
last meeting at Johannesburg they had elected him their captain, but he
had at the time refused to accept the post, saying that it would be
wiser to decide that afterwards, as one of the others might show himself
better fitted for the position. However, their first step when they sat
down by the bank of the little river outside the town was to again elect
him by acclamation.
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