It was an order, and he obeyed. Nevertheless, he shrank from
the very mention of Cape Town. It had been the core of his universe;
but now the core had gone bad. But his time of service had expired.
Red tape demanded that he receive the papers for his discharge from
the Cape Town citadel. That done, he would take the first outgoing
steamer for London. Afterwards, he would leave his life in the hands
of Fate. He took no note of the fact that Fate might step into the
game earlier than he then foresaw.
For full seven hundred miles, the train lumbered on to the
southward. It was tedious, exhausting; yet Weldon found a certain
interest in the jar of the rolling wheels to which he fitted the
measure of his whirring thoughts. As long as the rhythm of the
wheels lasted, his thoughts slowed down to meet their time. When the
train halted, his thoughts dashed off again; but they resumed their
slower course as soon as the wheels began once more. He took no note
of the country about him, as they passed from veldt to karroo, from
karroo to the coast plateau, and from the coast plateau down across
the Cape Flats, sparsely covered with pipe grass and acacias.
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