"The Red Derelict" from Bertram Mitford. Colonial writer, novelist, essayist and cultural critic (1855-1914).

"The Ruby Sword" from Bertram Mitford. Colonial writer, novelist, essayist and cultural critic (1855-1914).

"The Sign of the Spider" from Bertram Mitford. Colonial writer, novelist, essayist and cultural critic (1855-1914).

"The Sirdar's Oath" from Bertram Mitford. Colonial writer, novelist, essayist and cultural critic (1855-1914).

"The Triumph of Hilary Blachland" from Bertram Mitford. Colonial writer, novelist, essayist and cultural critic (1855-1914).

"The White Hand and the Black" from Bertram Mitford. Colonial writer, novelist, essayist and cultural critic (1855-1914).

"The White Shield" from Bertram Mitford. Colonial writer, novelist, essayist and cultural critic (1855-1914).

"Tween Snow and Fire" from Bertram Mitford. Colonial writer, novelist, essayist and cultural critic (1855-1914).

Twilight was fast closing in upon the desolate site of the old Kambula Camp, and the short, sharp thunderstorm which at the moment of outspanning had effectually drenched the scant supply of fuel, rendering that evening's repast, of necessity, cold commons, had left in its wake a thin but steady downpour. Already the line of low hills hard by was indistinct in the growing gloom, and a far-reaching expanse of cold and treeless plains made up a surrounding as mournful and depressing as could be."

"Now where the very mischief is Doppersdorp?" He who thus uttered his thoughts aloud looked up from the sheet of paper in his hand, and gazed forth over the blue waters of Algoa Bay. Over the vessels riding at their anchorage his gaze wandered, over the stately hulls of two or three large mail steamships similar to that upon whose deck he then stood; over the tall, tapering masts and web-like rigging of numerous sailing craft; over the flotilla of cargo-boats and lighters; over the low, sandy shores and sunbaked buildings of busy, dusty Port Elizabeth, right away to the bold ridges of the...