MY DEAR AUNT ERNIE,-At last I have a chance of sending you a letter -and,this time at any rate,you won't have to complain about my sending you no news.I'll promise you that,before Ibegin,and you needn't get scared either,because it's all good.
I've been awfully lucky,and all because that fellow Cathcart turned out such a funk and a bounder.It's the oddest thing in the world too,that old Cis should have written me to pick up all the news I could about Scarlett Trent and send it to you.Why,he's within a few feet of me at this moment,and I've been seeing him continually ever since I came here.But there,I'll try and begin at the beginning.
"You know Cathcart got the post of Consulting Surveyor and Engineer to the Bekwando Syndicate,and he was head man at our London place.
Well,they sent me from Capetown to be junior to him,and a jolly good move for me too.I never did see anything in Cathcart!He's a lazy sort of chap,hates work,and I guess he only got the job because his uncle had got a lot of shares in the business.It seems he never wanted to come,hates any place except London,which accounts for a good deal.
"All the time when we were waiting,he wasn't a bit keen and kept on rotting about the good times he might have been having in London,and what a fearful country we were stranded in,till he almost gave me the blues,and if there hadn't been some jolly good shooting and a few nice chaps up at the Fort,I should have been miserable.As it was,I left him to himself a good deal,and he didn't like that either.I think Attra was a jolly place,and the landing in surf boats was no end of fun.Cathcart got beastly wet,and you should have seen what a stew he was in because he'd put on a beautiful white suit and it got spoilt.Well,things weren't very lively at Attra at first,I'm bound to admit.No one seemed to know much about the Bekwando Land Company,and the country that way was very rough.However,we got sent out at last,and Cathcart,he simply scoffed at the whole thing from the first.There was no proper labour,not half enough machinery,and none of the right sort -and the gradients and country between Bekwando and the sea were awful.
Cathcart made a few reports and we did nothing but kick our heels about until HE came.You'll see I've written that in big letters,and I tell you if ever a man deserved to have his name written in capitals Scarlett Trent does,and the oddest part of it is he knows you,and he was awfully decent to me all the time.
"Well,out he went prospecting,before he'd been in the country twenty-four hours,and he came back quite cheerful.Then he spoke to Cathcart about starting work,and Cathcart was a perfect beast.
He as good as told him that he'd come out under false pretences,that the whole affair was a swindle and that the road could not be made.Trent didn't hesitate,I can tell you.There were no arguments or promises with him.He chucked Cathcart on the spot,turned him out of the place,and swore he'd make the road himself.
I asked if I might stop,and I think he was glad,anyhow we've been ever such pals ever since,and I never expect to have such a time again as long as I live!But do you know,Auntie,we've about made that road.When I see what we've done,sometimes I can't believe it.I only wish some of the bigwigs who've never been out of an office could see it.I know I'll hate to come away.
