IMPERTINENT PIKE - KEEPER. 311 



towards Cape Town. Upon approaching the pike, I saw 

 two men, as though watching me, standing each side of 

 the gate. I, however, rode on, quite unconscious of the 

 storm hanging over my head. Since my last ride through 

 this pike, Peter had been turned out of his place, and a 

 bankrupt butcher installed in office ; of this change, how- 

 ever, I was ignorant at the time. As I was passing through 

 the gate, one of the men rushed at me, caught the bridle 

 of my horse, and said, " Come, pay the fare ; you ain't going 

 to bilk me a second time ! " I asked what he meant, 

 telling him that the pikeman owed me at least a shilling. 

 To this he responded, "You're a blackguard cheat, and 

 I'll pull you off your horse." Suiting the action to the 

 word, he caught hold of my leg and 'tried to unseat me,. 

 I have ever given myself great credit for not having 

 dropped my heavy handled whip on this rascal's head at 

 the time. The man who was standing by said, "No don't 

 strike the gentleman." During the scene, a person, 

 whom I had met but a day or two before at a private 

 house, and who happened to be a man in authority 

 over the police, came out from a building at the back of 

 the turnpike. I told him the case, and that unfortunately 

 I had no money to pay the penny, or twopence, turnpike. 

 With the pomposity of office he pretended not to re- 

 cognize me, but merely asserted as an axiom, that no one 

 was allowed to ride through turnpikes without paying 

 the fare. The man who had hold of my bridle seemed 

 to consider the sentence as a verdict in his favour, and 

 told me to " pay up without any more humbug." The 

 horse that I was riding happened to be a thoroughbred 



