This delay was
rendered more aggravating by the fact that, on the very day of our
arrival,[43] the same law ceased to exist, and that our ship was the
last to have to submit to the ordeal. Many and sad were the changes that
had come to pass in the two years, and nowhere did they seem more
evident than when one crossed the threshold of Mr. Rhodes's home. The
central figure, so often referred to in the foregoing pages, was no
more, and one soon perceived that the void left by that giant spirit, so
inseparably connected with vast enterprises, could never be filled. This
was not merely apparent in the silent, echoing house, on the slopes of
the mountain he loved so well, in the circle of devoted friends and
adherents, who seemed left like sheep without a shepherd, but also in
the political arena, in the future prospects of that extensive Northern
Territory which he had practically discovered and opened up. It seemed
as if Providence had been very hard in allowing one individual to
acquire such vast influence, and to be possessed of so much genius, and
then not to permit the half-done task to be accomplished.
That this must also have been Mr. Rhodes's reflection was proved by the
pathetic words he so often repeated during his last illness: "So little
done, so much to do."
Groot Schuurr was outwardly the same as in the old days, and kept up in
the way one knew that the great man would have wished.
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