The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fire Trumpet, by Bertram Mitford

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org


Title: The Fire Trumpet
       A Romance of the Cape Frontier

Author: Bertram Mitford

Release Date: July 3, 2011 [EBook #36592]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FIRE TRUMPET ***




Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




The Fire Trumpet
A Romance of the Cape Frontier
By Bertram Mitford
Published by Spencer Blackett, London.
This edition dated 1889.


VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER ONE.

A QUEER LEGACY.

"To my valued friend, Arthur Claverton, I bequeath the sum of nine
thousand pounds."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

He to whom this announcement was made could not repress a start of
surprise.  The only other occupant of the room paused and laid down the
document from which he had been reading.  The room was a solicitor's
office.

"You hardly expected to be remembered, then?" said the latter.

"No.  At least I won't say that, exactly; but nothing like to such an
extent.  I thought poor Spalding might have left me some trifle to
remember him by--his pet breechloader, or something of the kind; but,
candidly, I never expected anything like this!"

"Yet you saved his life, once."

"Pooh!  Nothing at all.  The weather was hot, and the swim did me good.
If I hadn't gone in, the nearest Jack Tar would have, and have thought
nothing of it; nor do I.  Poor Spalding!"

The speaker is a man of about thirty to all appearance.  His face, which
is a handsome and a refined one, wears a look of firmness, not unmixed
with recklessness.  It is the countenance of one who has seen a good
deal of the world, and knows thoroughly well how to take care of
himself.  The other man is more than twice his age, and looks what he
is--every inch the comfortable, well-preserved family solicitor.

"I don't know about that, Mr Claverton," answered the latter.  "The
story our poor friend told me was something very different.  The vessel
was going at thirteen knots, the night being pitch dark, and a heavy sea
running.  And no one saw him fall overboard but yourself."

The other laughed in a would-be careless way.  "Oh, well, I think you
are making too much of it.  But the job was a risky one, I admit, and at
one time I did think we should never be picked up.  And now, Mr Smythe,
I'm going to ask you a question that you may think queer.  First of all,
you knew my poor friend intimately for a good many years?"

"I did.  When first I made his acquaintance, Herbert Spalding was a
little chap in Eton jackets.  I've known him tolerably intimately ever
since."

"Well, then, didn't it strike you that latterly he had something on his
mind?"

"Yes, it did.  And I happen to know he had.  The old story.  He was
jilted; and being one of those sensitive men with a high-strung nervous
organisation, he took it to heart too much.  I believe it shortened his
life.  Poor fellow."

"Well, whoever did it, has something to answer for, or would have had,
at least; for, between ourselves, that time he went overboard he went of
his own free will."

"I had suspected as much," said the lawyer, quietly.  "That was on the
voyage out, wasn't it?"

"It was.  We first became acquainted on board ship, you know.  He hardly
spoke to any one on board till, all of a sudden, he took a violent fancy
to me.  We occupied the same cabin.  In fact, I soon began to suspect
there was a petticoat in the case, the poor chap was so down on his
luck; but he didn't tell me in so many words, and it wasn't for me to
pry into another fellow's private affairs.  One evening I came into the
cabin, and found him loading a revolver.  There was nothing very
astonishing in that, you know, because fellows often go in for revolver
practice at sea--shooting bottles from the yard-arm, and all that sort
of thing; but it was the way in which it was done.  He hid the thing,
too, when he saw me, and that looked fishy.  However, I managed to get
hold of it, unknown to him, and stuck it right away, and made up my mind
to keep an eye on him.  That very night, or rather morning, for it was
in the small hours, I was awoke by something moving in the cabin.  I
sung out, but got no answer.  Then I went over to Spalding's bunk, and,
by Jove, it was empty.  When a fellow has been kicked about the world as
much as I have, he don't take long to think; consequently I was on deck
in about a second, with precious little on but my nightshirt, and
luckily so as it happened.  It was pitch dark, and blowing half a gale.
I didn't want to sing out if I could help it--wanted to avoid a fuss,
you understand; so I peered about for Spalding.  At last I made out a
dark figure standing behind the wheel, looking astern.  They don't use
the rudder wheel, you know--steer from the bridge.  I was just going to
sing out quietly, when the figure disappeared, and I heard a splash that
there was no mistaking.  Then, you bet, I gave a war-whoop loud enough
to wake the dead, as I went over the side after it.  Fortunately for
Spalding--for it was him all right--fortunately for us both, the
quarter-master had his wits about him, and pitched over one of those
fire-buoys that are kept handy for these occasions; but there was a
heavy, lamping sea on that nearly knocked the breath out of one.  I
wasn't long reaching Spalding; but he could hardly swim a stroke at the
best of times, and at that time was simply helpless.  But I can tell you
I had my work cut out for me.  By the time the ship was brought round to
us again, and we were picked up, we had been nearer half an hour in the
water than twenty minutes, and not many seconds more would have done for
us.  I was all right again next day, and, by way of explanation, I gave
out that Spalding was given to somnambulism.  The idea took; and no one
suspected anything, or, if they did, never said so, and the affair
created a deuce of a sensation on board."

"I should rather imagine it did," said the lawyer, who had been vividly
interested in the other's narrative.  "But you were with him when he
died, weren't you--I mean at the moment?"

"Yes and no.  After the affair I've been telling you about we became
greater chums than ever.  He seemed to pick up in health and spirits,
and I began to think the poor chap was going to forget all about his
troubles.  We stayed in Sydney a little while, and then went up country,
where we spent three or four months, knocking about from station to
station, for Spalding had no end of letters of introduction.  At last,
as ill luck would have it, the mail--that curse of existence--overtook
us even away up in the bush.  I don't know what news he got; but poor
Spalding became worse than ever.  Nothing would satisfy him but we must
return home to England immediately.  I say `we,' because I'll be hanged
if I could make him see that I, at any rate, hadn't come to Australia
for fun, but to try and find a means of livelihood.  No; I _must_ go
back with him.  He had influence and abundant means, and could get me a
much better berth in England than I should ever find out there, he
argued.  He wanted my company on the voyage home, and was determined to
have it; I shouldn't be out of pocket by it, and so on.  We nearly had a
tremendous row over it; but at last I yielded, partly to sentiment, for
we were great chums and the poor fellow seemed utterly cut up at the
prospect of my leaving him to go back alone, partly to carelessness,
for, I reasoned, I should be no worse off than when I left England, and
could always pick up some sort of a living anywhere.  So we sailed by
the first vessel we could catch, and a precious slow old tub she was.
Before we had been a week at sea, Spalding got a notion into his head
that he would never see England again, and all I could say or do to
cheer him was of no use.  Well, to cut the matter short, one evening
about half an hour before sundown, we were sitting aft smoking our
weeds.  I left him, wanting to do a constitutional before dinner.  I
hadn't been gone five minutes when the quarter-master came to say that
my chum didn't seem well.  Back I went like a shot.  There was Spalding
sitting in his deck-chair just as I left him with his book in front of
him.  But his head hung forward queerly.  I had only to take one look at
him to know what was up.  The poor chap was stone dead."

"Dear me--dear me!" said the lawyer.

Claverton paused a little--moved by the recollection.  He had never told
the story so circumstantially before.

"We carried him to the cabin, and the doctor made an official
examination and all that sort of thing.  Then the captain sealed up his
effects, and the next evening our poor friend was buried.  It was in the
tropical seas, you know, where they don't delay funerals longer than
they can help.  And, curiously enough, it could not have been far from
the spot where the poor fellow made his nocturnal plunge on the voyage
out.  Yes; whoever _she_ is, she'll have something to answer for.  The
doctor called it heart disease; but heart-break would have been nearer
the mark, I believe."

There was silence for a few moments.  It was at length broken by the
lawyer.

"And you actually knew nothing of that codicil?"

"Nothing whatever.  Hadn't the faintest suspicion of anything of the
kind.  It's all right, I suppose; can't be disputed or upset--eh?"

"No.  It's perfectly in order--adequately witnessed and everything.  If
Spalding had been a solicitor in busy practice, he couldn't have added
that codicil more correctly.  And he did it at sea, too!"

"What did he die worth?"

"It's hard to say at present.  Most of his property was landed--very
extensive, but all entailed.  He has bequeathed to yourself nearly all
that it was in his power to bequeath to anybody; but--"

"Oh, I wasn't thinking of that," interrupted the other impatiently, and
somewhat annoyed.  "I merely asked out of curiosity.  And, as I told you
before, I never expected anything at all."

"But, I was going to say, there's a queer stipulation attached to your
bequest.  I don't quite know what you'll think of it," went on Mr
Smythe, with a dry smile.  "You only profit by the bequest--which is
funded--provided you remain single until the age of thirty-five.  Should
you marry before then you forfeit the whole, which, in that case, would
pass to a distant relative.  But I should think you will not have very
long to wait.  Three or four years, perhaps?" and he looked inquiringly
at the other.  "Of course you draw the interest from now," he added.

"More likely eight years."

"You don't say so.  I declare you look much older!"

"The conditions are queer, certainly," said the legatee, with a smile.
"I think I can see through it, though.  Poor Spalding was played the
mischief with so severely by a woman, that he thought the best kindness
he could do me was to offer a counter inducement to me against making a
fool of myself in that line.  And, look, thirty-five is the age
stipulated--his own age at the time of his death."

"It's singular, certainly," said Smythe; "but there seems to be method
in it.  Probably he thought that he, not having arrived at years of
discretion at that time of life, neither would you.  As if a man ever
does arrive at years of discretion where the sex is concerned!  But I
congratulate you heartily--at least, I suppose I must; for you look
heart-whole enough at present, anyhow.  But you are young--you are
young."

"Not too young to know the value of nine thousand pounds and its yearly
interest, I can tell you, Mr Smythe," said the other, with a laugh.
And then he took his leave.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWO.

THE LEGATEE.

If there is one quality in this world which its fortunate possessor is
to be envied the enjoyment of, it is that of absolute _insouciance_.  I
don't mean the spurious article known as "putting a bold face on
things," though this is a gift by no means to be despised; but that
downright, thorough, devil-may-care way of taking the vicissitudes of
life, in such wise as these interfere neither with the appetite, sleep,
nor temper, which is well-nigh as rare--at any rate among us
Englishmen--as the Little Bustard.

When Claverton entered Mr Smythe's office, he owned barely enough
sovereigns in the world to make a creditable jingle in his breeches
pocket; when he left the lawyer he walked out into the street a man of
independent means.  Yet the change, welcome and wholly unexpected as it
was, in no wise disturbed his mental equilibrium.  He was conscious of
an increased feeling of complacency as he contemplated the world at
large by the light of his own improved prospects; but he would permit
himself no elation.  While going through the hardest times he had
known--and he had known some very hard ones indeed--he had cultivated
the severest philosophy; and now it had become second nature to him.
"Bad luck--no use growling, won't last; good luck--no use crowing, may
not last," was his self-invented and favourite maxim.

At the time when we first make his acquaintance, Arthur Claverton stood
absolutely alone in the world.  I don't mean to say that he had no
relatives, but they cold-shouldered him.  A few of them were near
relatives, others very distant; but the nearer they were, the more they
cold-shouldered him.  He was an only child and an orphan; his mother
having died at his birth, and his father being killed in a railway
accident sortie four years later, leaving him to the care of a guardian,
one of the near relatives aforesaid.  Near, too, in another sense of the
word; for, though very comfortably off, and indeed wealthy, this
conscientious and benevolent guardian impounded the scanty substance
left for the orphan's start in life, on the ground that his family was a
large one, and he could not afford the addition of his dead brother's
child.

His family certainly was a large one, which is to say that it was a
supremely disagreeable and discordant one.  The boys, rough and unruly,
worried the girls and their father.  The girls, underhand and spiteful,
tormented the boys and their mother.  Wrangling and mischief-making was
the order of the day.  After this it will not be surprising to learn
that it was a pious family, which is to say, that much attention was
given to morning and evening prayers; and that Sunday, jocosely termed
the day of rest, was to be employed getting up epistles and gospels by
heart, with a slice of catechism or so thrown in, what time the whole
master was not pent up in a square box undergoing edification at the
lips of a prolix and Geneva-clad Boanerges, who seldom said "And now to"
within an hour and a quarter from the enunciation of his text.  By an
odd coincidence, the day on which this exemplary piety had its full
scope--notably in the tabooing of all secular literature or any approach
to levity of demeanour--the reign of strife, squabble, and jar seemed to
reach its acme.

Such was the amiable family circle among which young Arthur's earlier
lot was cast.  But somehow he never assimilated.  He was a species of
Ishmael when "at home," which, by the way, was not often, for he spent
most of his holidays at school.  All things considered, a good thing for
him?  No.  For it was not a nice school where his educational lines were
cast.  It was a very cheap and a very nasty school; one in which he
learnt nothing but the art of getting into serious scrapes, and--perhaps
the only useful thing he did learn--the art of getting out of them.  A
bringing up of this kind would have been the ruin of most boys; but it
was not so with Arthur.  He came of a splendid stock, and the wretched
associations of his boyhood and youth, instead of destroying his
character, had the effect of forming it.  They hardened him.  True, they
rendered him cynical at an age when one looks for impulsiveness and
generosity, and if they had inspired him with a disgust for religion,
his mind was absolutely clear of cant.  They had taught him utterly to
despise sentiment, while leaving him capabilities of generosity and even
geniality.  And if any one showed him a kindness, he never forgot it.

One day, when he was seventeen, the second master of his school, the
clever son of an army Scripture reader, had the unwisdom to strike him.
In about ten seconds that ill-advised pedagogue was picking himself up
in a corner with a bleeding nose and otherwise in receipt of grievous
bodily harm.  Expulsion was imminent; but Arthur did not wait for it.
He took the first train, went straight to his guardian and told him he
wanted to emigrate.

His guardian looked acidly at the tall, handsome stripling before him,
and began a severe lecture.  He also looked uneasily; for it was evident
that Arthur had somehow got to learn that his father had not left him
absolutely penniless, which meant that no appeal on the grounds of
gratitude would lie--for the expenses of the orphan's bringing up and
education, such as it was, had by no means exhausted the sum which the
dead man had left.  Of this Arthur had gained a very shrewd idea; but he
merely asked for sufficient to pay his passage and a small sum towards a
necessary outfit, for he intended to go to one of our colonies.

Then his guardian, unlocking a desk, handed Arthur the sum of
thirty-five pounds, and told him--metaphorically, of course, good pious
man that he was, yet very plainly--to go to the devil.

He did not go to the devil; he went to the Cape.

Some of my readers may think this a distinction without a difference.
Well, that is a matter of opinion.  He turned his hand first to one
thing, then another; but nothing seemed to answer for long, possibly
because he was young and restless.  At last a small "coup" at the
Diamond Fields set him up with a few hundreds.  But fortune changed
round again; and, in disgust, he resolved to return to England previous
to trying his luck in some other colony.

He landed in his native country after several years of a hard,
adventurous life; but there was not a soul to welcome him.  Not long did
he stay; but, by the time he had taken his passage to Australia, not
much remained of the proceeds of his Diamond Fields' enterprise.  Then
on that eventful voyage he fell in with Herbert Spalding, and the rest
of his experiences we have heard from his own lips.

A few mornings after his interview with the lawyer, a card was brought
up to Claverton as he sat in his rooms.

"Rev George Wainwright," reading the name.  "Now, who the deuce is the
Rev George Wainwright?  Certainly not one of my kinsfolk or
acquaintance."

There entered an elderly man with stiff, iron-grey hair, a very red face
and fierce brown eyes, peering aggressively from beneath a pair of bushy
brows.  He wore clerical attire, and in his hand carried a tall hat like
unto a stove-pipe.  There was aggressiveness in his whole aspect,
especially in the short, stiff bow with which he greeted Claverton.
Farther, there was aggressiveness even in the knock and ring which had
heralded his arrival.

"A country rector," mused our friend, mentally reading off his visitor.
"In earlier life of the sporting order, now gouty and addicted to port.
Domineering in his parish, tyrant in domestic circle.  I know the breed.
What the deuce can he want with me?"  Then, aloud: "Pray be seated.
Cold morning, isn't it?" and he drew a chair to the fire for his
visitor.

"No doubt, Mr--er--Claverton, you will readily guess the object of my
visit," began the other, brusquely, leaning both, hands on the knob of
his umbrella, and staring his interlocutor straight in the face.

"Excuse me, but I hardly do."

"What!  You don't?  Why, about this will--this will of Spalding's?"

"Spalding's will!  My dear sir, I am afraid you have come to me by
mistake.  My poor friend's solicitor is Smythe of Chancery Lane.  I'll
give you his address in full."

"No mistake at all--no mistake at all," rejoined the other, abruptly.
"I've just come from Smythe, it was he who referred me to you.  I want
to know about that preposi--er--that bequest--the bequest to you.  Do
you intend to avail yourself of it, may I ask?"

"Well, really, that is a most astonishing question--"

"You don't.  No--of course you don't," came the angry interruption.  "No
young man with any independence of spirit, could possibly take the money
under such conditions.  It would be preposterous if he did--
preposterous."

"But, Mr Wainwright, I do intend to take the money."

"You do?"

"Every farthing of it--bar probate and succession dues."

The wrath struggling for suppression exhibited in the old man's
countenance beggars description.

"Well, well," he jerked out at last, "the case is a strange one--a very
strange one.  Wills have been upset on less fishy grounds than this.
Here you take this unfortunate man across the world and come back
without him, but profiting substantially by his death.  Putting it
mildly, what will be said?  Eh, sir, what will people say--what will
they say?" and, throwing out his hand, he glared at his interlocutor as
if awaiting a reply.

"I don't know what they'll say.  Equally certain is it that I don't
care.  As you remark, Mr Wainwright, wills have been upset, but I
hardly imagine there's any chance of this one being so dealt with.
Anyhow, I'm ready to take what chance there is.  However, you have no
doubt made yourself familiar with the conditions under which I inherit,"
he went on good-humouredly, but with a wicked twinkle in his eyes.
"Don't you know, for instance, of some young woman attractive enough to
induce me to pay forfeit?  She must be very attractive, mind; not too
young either--'teens mean selfishness; nor too passee--that carries
temper.  I incline to the dark style of beauty, or something between the
two.  And I should be sure to capitulate at discretion, if only because
it would be in a sense forbidden fruit."

The other sat speechless with anger.  At last he exploded.

"I did not come here to trifle, sir.  But, I tell you, this will bring
you no good.  Ill-gotten gains never do.  Ill-gotten gains, I say."
And, with a final glare, he bounced out of the room.

"Poor old man," thought Claverton, watching him from the window.  "Dare
say he's rather sore, and it was a sin to chaff him.  But then he
brought it upon himself by his bumptiousness.  Likely I'm going to cut
my own throat for his benefit.  The man must be a fool."

Had he but known it, his late visitor was at that very moment of the
same opinion, as, jolting along in the 'bus he had just hailed, a sudden
idea struck him.

"By Jingo!  What an ass I am!  He thought _I_ was the one who would
benefit.  I'll go back.  Hi!  Conductor--stop--stop!  No use, though.
The fellow has no sense of honour.  Still, if I hadn't lost my
confounded temper, I might have induced him to yield.  No, I shouldn't.
The man's a scamp any way--an utter scamp."

Wherein the old gentleman was wrong.  Had he entered upon the interview
with a clear head and courteous manner, it is highly probable that the
whole course of this not uneventful narrative would have been changed.

Having got rid of his choleric visitor, Claverton went out.  His face
was turned Citywards, and, as he walked, he pondered.

"Nine thousand pounds contingent on eight years of single blessedness.
Well, the terms oughtn't to be difficult.  Why, many a fellow would give
away double the amount for the same privilege, if I know anything of my
world.  But as I told that old parson in chaff just now--forbidden fruit
is what attracts.  Poor Spalding!  What on earth made him clog the
concern with such a condition?  The only thing is to turn the lot over--
capitalise and double it as soon as possible; and, fortunately, I'm not
particular how.  Grand thing, a careful training in a pious family."

An hour's walking, and he is in the heart of the City.  Turning down a
little lane out of Fenchurch Street, he looks about him carefully.
Through a doorway, then a couple of flights of stairs, and he is
hammering at a door labelled "Mr Silas B. Morkum."

"Boss engaged," said the sharp boy who appeared.

"Of course he is.  Take that pasteboard in at once."

Almost immediately the boy returned and ushered Claverton into an inner
office.  A thin, wiry-looking man, with a hooked nose and very keen grey
eyes; advanced with outstretched hand.

"Well, Claverton, my boy," he began, with a slight Yankee drawl.
"Thought you'd turn up again some day.  Devilish cold?  Yes.  Here's
some stuff, though, to counteract that," and he produced a
wicker-covered bottle and glasses.  "Fill up--that's right.  Here's to
old times.  Now what can I do for you?"

Claverton laughed drily.

"That's so like you, Morkum.  Can't you imagine any fellow looking you
up purely for the fun of the thing?"

"Well, not many do--not many," answered the American in an apologetic
tone.  "But--"

"But this time you've hit the right nail on the head.  There _is_
something you can do for me, if any one can.  You can put me in the way
of doubling a given sum in the shortest possible time."

"That all?" answered the other, almost disappointedly.  "Reckon I can--
and I'd do more than that for you--as you know.  Silas B. Morkum ain't
the boy to forget--well, we know what.  Now let's hear all about it."

Claverton told him.  The tie of gratitude to which Morkum had referred
went back to the time of the former's earlier wanderings, when our
friend had by the merest chance been able to do him a most important
service, and the American had never forgotten it.  He was a curious
unit.  By profession broker, money-lender, and half-a-dozen other
things; in reality, such of his dealings as were most remunerative were
known only to himself and to those immediately concerned.

"Well, then," he said, reflectively, lighting up a long Havana and
pushing the box across to his companion, "well, then--you want to turn
over this sum and ain't particular how?"

"Not in the least."

"Then I can lay you on to something.  But you are open to putting your
hide pretty considerably in pawn?"

"Quite open.  What is it?  Mines in Sonora?"

"No.  'Tain't that.  Two years ago I sent a party on that lay.
Twenty-three Western men, all well armed and mounted.  Game chickens all
round."

"What then?"

"They are there yet.  No one ever saw or heard of them again.  Beckon
the Apaches wiped 'em out.  No.  This is less risky; still, it is
risky--tarnation so."

"What is it?"

The other fixed his keen grey eyes upon Claverton for a moment.  Then he
delivered himself of just three words.

"The devil!" exclaimed Claverton, astonished, "I thought that game was
played out long ago."

"No, it ain't; not a bit of it.  And it's sure profits, quick returns;
but-all-fired risk."

"Well, let's hear all about it."

The other left the papers which he had been sorting, and, drawing his
chair to the fire, began to lay out his scheme.  And at last the dingy
office grew shadowy, and the boy came in to know if he shouldn't lock
up.

"Yes," assented Morkum.  "Come along and dine somewhere, Claverton, and
you shall tell me what you've been doing all this time.  We can talk
business to-morrow."

The clocks were chiming a quarter to twelve as they separated at King's
Cross Station.

"Going to walk home, are you?" said the American, reflectively.  "Queer
city, this.  Many a man disappears, and is never more heard of by his
inquiring relatives."

"It would be a precious risky job for any enterprising spirits to try
and conceal my whereabouts.  They'd get hurt," answered Claverton, with
a meaning laugh.

"That's right," said the other, approvingly.  "Never have your hand far
from your coat-pocket, and you'll do.  Good-night."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The wind howls dismally round a cosy old country rectory on this gloomy
March evening, but, within, all is snugness and warmth.  From one
well-lighted room comes a sound of many cheerful voices; but passing by
this, let us take a look into the library, where sits a girl all alone.
She is a lovely girl, as far as we can see by the uncertain firelight,
and may be nineteen or twenty.  Her well-shaped head is crowned with an
abundance of soft, dark hair, tinted with strange lights as the
flickering glow plays upon it.  Her sweet, lustrous eyes are gazing
pensively at the clock on the mantelpiece, while the rain rolls in gusts
against the old-fashioned casement.

"Past six.  Uncle George should be back by now.  The train must be late.
Ah, there he is!" as the sound of wheels is audible on the gravel
outside.

She hears the occupants of the other room rush to the front door to
welcome their father; but with a hasty kiss all round, the rector goes
straight to the library.

"Here I am, Uncle George," says the girl, meeting him in the doorway,
for she heard him inquiring for her.  "But do go and change first, you
must be very wet."

"No, I'm not, my dear; not in the least.  Come in here and shut the
door; I want to tell you about this."

Then he hesitates, clears his throat, manages to knock down the tongs
with a hideous clatter, and jerks out:

"I could do nothing."

His niece waits for him to continue.

"Nothing.  He says he intends to stick to the money, every penny of it.
Why, when I put it to him fairly, he laughed in my face; made some
ill-chosen jest about it being only a question of time.  He's a scamp, a
downright scamp, and will come to no good.  Mark my words."

"Who is he, Uncle George?  What's his name?"

"Some adventurer.  I was going to say _low_ adventurer, but he isn't
that; the man's a gentleman by birth, unmistakably.  Name!  Why, bless
my soul, I've quite forgotten.  What is it again?  Clinton--Emerson--
something like that--I forget exactly."

The girl stood silently gazing into the fire, with one arm on the old
man's shoulder.  She was an orphan niece, whom he had welcomed to his
home, nominally until it could be decided what should be done with her;
actually he had already decided this, and his decision was that that
home should be a permanent one.  He was a very soft-hearted man, was the
Rev. George Wainwright, in spite of his quick temper and aggressive
exterior.  But the girl, for her part, was equally determined in her own
mind not to remain a burden on him.  He had a large family of his own,
and she must manage to earn her own livelihood.  Then came the news of
the death of her distant cousin, Herbert Spalding, and of the legacy
which would revert to her, contingent upon the nuptials of a stranger.
The rector, with characteristic hot-headedness, had voted the
contingency absolutely monstrous.  No man of honour, he had said, could
possibly accept a bequest subject to it, especially as by doing so he
would be robbing a penniless orphan--and had started for town there and
then with the intention of inducing the legatee to forego his claim.  In
which laudable mission he had signally failed, as we have seen--a
failure due in no small measure to his own hot temper and want of tact.

"Never mind, Uncle George; we are only where we were before, you see,
and I think I shall get that situation I advertised for."

"No you won't, my dear.  We shan't let you go away from us."

She kisses him affectionately.  She is determined to carry her point,
but does not press it to-night.  "Now you must go and talk to the
others, Uncle George; I've been keeping you from them quite long
enough."  And with her arm still on the old man's shoulder she leads him
to the door, and they join the family circle in the cheerful lamplight.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER THREE.

THE SLAVE SETTLEMENT.

"Idiot!  Don't you see that the poor devil can't move an inch further to
save his wretched life.  Leave him alone.  You're the greatest brute
even in this bestial land?"

"Am I?  And if I am, what's that to you?" is the defiant reply.

The first speaker is a young Englishman, whose face, tanned to a coppery
brown by exposure to a torrid sun, bears a stamp of recklessness and
determination.  His bearded lips are set firm as he confronts the other,
a powerful, savage-looking mulatto, and his eyes are ablaze with
wrathful contempt.  Around stretches a wide, sun-baked desert in Central
Africa.  A few palms, dotted about here and there, throw a faint
pretence of a shadow, and not far from the cloudless horizon hangs the
now declining sun.  A gang of black men and women, weary and emaciated,
and a few of them tied together, are standing wearily contemplating one
of their number who lies prone upon the earth, sick, footsore, and
unable to move another step.  It is a slave-gang on the march.

"Here, you two," goes on the first speaker, addressing a couple of the
strongest-looking among the slaves, "pick him up and carry him along."

The two fellows designated pause, and look hesitatingly from one to the
other of their drivers.  They stand in mortal fear of the ruffianly
mulatto, and prefer to chance the wrath of the Englishman.

"Do you hear what I say?  Let him alone, Sharkey," repeats the latter in
a warning tone.

For all answer the ruffian addressed advances upon the fallen slave, and
with a frightful grin, disclosing two pointed, shark-like teeth--whence
his hideous _sobriquet_--curls his raw-hide lash round the naked body of
the emaciated wretch.  But a terrific blow full in the face sends him
reeling half-a-dozen paces.

"There!  Won't you listen?"  And the Englishman stands between the
miserable wretch and his smiter.  With a growl like a wild beast, the
latter springs up.

"Stand off, Sharkey!" cries his companion in a firm, warning tone.  Too
late.  With features working in fury, and foaming at the mouth, the
other rushes upon him knife in hand.

"Stand off, I say, or--"

Crack!

The savage makes one spring and rolls over and over at his slayer's
feet, digging his knife into the hard earth in his death-throes.

"Dog!  You would have it!" observes the Englishman, calmly reloading the
discharged chamber of his still smoking revolver.  "You won't bite
again.  Now then, you fellows, do as I told you just now--pick up that
chap and--march."

They obey apathetically; and, with many a furtive glance backward, the
slaves move wearily on, leaving the body of their late oppressor to the
vultures and jackals of the desert.

And now, after a march of several miles further, the melancholy
_cortege_ arrives at its destination.  In a natural clearing, surrounded
by dense jungle, stand a few thatched shanties.  In the centre is a
large barracoon, and into this the miserable human herd is turned.  The
last rays of the sun have disappeared, and here and there in the open
space a fire glows redly.  Several men are standing about; awful-looking
cut-throats, villainy personified.  Half-a-dozen of them are Portuguese,
the rest Arabs and negroes.  They crowd up to inspect the slaves.

"Well, Lidwell," says one of the first nationality in good English,
addressing the new arrival.  "You've brought in a poor-looking lot.  How
many did you lose?"

"Two.  Both died."

"And Sharkey--wasn't he with you?  Where's he?"

"Dead."

"Dead?  Nonsense!  What killed him?"  And the first speaker stares in
amazement.

"A pistol ball, regulation calibre."

A gleam of triumphant malice flits across the other's swarthy features.
He is young, and by no means bad-looking but for a chronic scowl.

"Comrade," he replies, "you have done a good thing in ridding us of that
beast."  But the man addressed as Lidwell has marked that exultant
expression, and he knows that it means mischief.  Sharkey has relatives
in the camp who will certainly do their utmost to revenge his death, and
it is doubtful whether the ruffianly European element will have either
the strength or resolution to stand out against these should they
clamour for his slayer's blood.  It is more than doubtful if they have
the will; for this Englishman is both hated and feared by them.  His
coolness and daring in the pursuit of their lawless traffic has not only
been the means of quadrupling their gains, but has twice saved the whole
party from capture red-handed, for of late the Union Jack has been--to
them--unpleasantly active in Zanzibar waters.  Yes, they hate him
bitterly.  He has won largely from them at play, for they are great
gamblers, and can they once get him into their power they are fully
determined to make him yield up--by torture if necessary--the large sums
which they know him to keep concealed somewhere.  But then, his revolver
is ever ready, and they are most of them cowards at heart.

Sternly he now looks the young Portuguese in the face.

"Juarez," he says, in a very significant tone.  "Do you know, I always
think I can never have enough revolver practice.  It makes a man
invulnerable, does this little bit of wood and iron."

The other turns away with an oily smile.  He has his own reasons for not
being fond of the Englishman.

The latter strolls leisurely into one of the huts, keeping his eyes
about him, though, unobtrusively.  Arrived there, he sits down for a few
minutes to rest and think out his plans.  For he is determined to take
leave of his repulsive surroundings; and the sooner the better.  Nearly
two years of his life have been spent in this detestable traffic, and
how sick he is of it, he himself hardly knows.  He has amassed wealth
with a rapidity little short of marvellous; but not for the ransom of an
empire would he go through the experiences of those two years over
again.  Many and many a scene of human suffering has it been his lot to
witness during that period--for he is a slave-dealer, a trafficker in
human flesh.  But he is guiltless of any single act of brutality or
wanton oppression towards the unfortunate wretches who have passed
through his hands.  In his eyes mere cattle, yet he would never allow
them to be tortured or ill-treated.  More than once has he stood between
the victim and the lash, occasionally at the risk of his life--as we
have seen--or interfered to save some worn-out wretch from being
abandoned to the beasts of the desert.  More than once, even, during a
long desert march when water was worth its weight in gold, has he shared
his scanty stock of the priceless fluid with some toiling, parched, and
exhausted slave, who, with tongue swollen and protruding, could hardly
drag one foot after the other.  Yet, what is he but a hard-hearted,
self-seeking slave-dealer, coining money out of suffering flesh and
blood?

The gloom deepens.  Lidwell, sitting there in his hut, can make out a
knot of his rascally confederates talking earnestly together by one of
the fires.  A strange instinct warns him.  Unless he leaves this place
to-night he will never leave it alive.  Quickly he stows away a flask
and some biscuits in his pockets.  Already his gains are secured about
his person, carefully sewn up in his clothes--a large sum, partly in
gold, partly in the paper currency of several nationalities.  For some
time past he has been prepared for a sudden flight, and he has a canoe
snugly concealed in a convenient place on the river bank.  To-night he
will cut the whole concern for ever, and woe betide the man who shall
try to stop him.

He looks out of the doorway, carelessly.  All seems quiet enough, and it
is now quite dark.  His sheath-knife is ready to his hand in case of
need; so, too, is the brace of revolvers without which he never moves.

"Now for a start," he muses; "but--hang it--I must go round and say
good-bye to Anita.  Can't leave without seeing the little one again."

Down a narrow path through the shadowy forest a few hundred yards, and
he reaches a small thatched dwelling, more substantially built than the
rest.  Within all is silence.  But for a lamp burning in one of the
windows the place would seem deserted.  He imitates the cry of a jackal
twice.  A moment, and then a dark figure glides swiftly round the corner
of the house and stands beside him.

"At last!  I wondered when you were coming to see me.  You have been
back hours, and never came near me."  The voice is low, soft, and
musical; but there is resentment in it.

"Didn't I?  Well, I came as soon as I could.  Don't scold me to-night,
little one."

And he looks down at her with a queer expression.  Every moment lost is
a nail in his coffin; yet he is wasting those precious moments gazing
into a pair of dark eyes.

She nestles close to his side.  "I hate it so when you are away.  And I
am always afraid you may get killed, or catch that terrible fever over
there, and never come back to me at all."

"Listen now, Anita," he says, gravely.  "I must go away again--now--
to-night, or my life is not worth a pebble, and I don't feel inclined to
throw it away for the benefit of those brutes."  Then he tells her about
the fate of Sharkey, and the unmistakable signs he had read among his
associates of their deadly intentions towards him.

The girl trembles with horror and apprehension as she listens.

"You must indeed go, and immediately.  You can do nothing against them,
and there are so many of them; and--Ah, I may as well die," she breaks
off in a wail of despair.

"Don't say that, little one.  You will soon learn to do without me; but
I am afraid you will forget all your English.  And you were getting on
with it so nicely, too."

The girl is silent; but looks up at him with a stricken, hopeless
expression that goes to his heart.  She is very lovely, standing there
in the starlight, lovely in the rich, southern, voluptuous type.  She is
quite young--barely sixteen--but the delicate arched features are fully
formed.  As regards education or mental culture, Anita de Castro is a
wild flower indeed.  Her father is the head of this slave-dealing
colony.  Formerly a merchant in the Portuguese settlement of Delagoa
Bay, his rascalities have landed him in outlawry, and he has taken his
daughter with him into exile.  Such is the girl who had attracted the
attention of the Englishman Lidwell, who in her had found the one
redeeming feature in his present reckless life.  He had to a certain
extent, and in a desultory sort of way, educated this girl; at any rate
had moulded her into something better than a mere mental blank; and the
process had been to him a real recreation, a refuge from the disgust
which he increasingly felt for his cold-blooded and lawless occupation.
And she?  Here, on the threshold of budding womanhood, this stranger,
who looked upon her as a mere plaything, possessed her whole heart.  How
it was she could not tell, even had she asked herself the question.
Juarez, her sworn admirer, was softer of speech and far more
deferential; whereas Lidwell sometimes seemed to ignore her very
existence.  Yet she would with a heavy heart anticipate the absence of
the latter on long and perilous expeditions, and look forward so
anxiously and so joyfully to his return.  And now he has returned only
to leave again immediately, and well she knew that she would see him no
more.  Suddenly she throws herself on his breast in a fit of passionate
weeping.

"Ah, love!  I shall never see you again.  Never--never."

A wave of wild temptation sweeps over the man.  Why should he not take
her with him?  She is beautiful enough in face and form, and it suddenly
strikes him that she is not the child he has hitherto been wont to
consider her.  She is in his arms now.  He has only to say the word and
she will stay there.  But Lidwell is gifted with a cool head, and a
strong one.  He knows the world well enough, and he also knows his own
nature.  He will not sacrifice this girl to a passing impulse, however
powerful.  So he resists the momentary temptation, and--it is the saving
of his life.

He strokes back the soft hair from her forehead.  "Anita, child--you
must not grieve like this for me--I don't say forget the times we have
spent together.  What I do say is, you are, made for something better
than this kind of life; leave it as soon as you are able, and--"

"Hush!"

She has heard something.  With a quick gesture she draws herself from
him, and stands erect and listening intently.  A glow suffuses the sky,
and the golden moon peeps above the tree-tops.  And now the sound of
stealthy footsteps and smothered voices may be heard approaching.

"Go!" exclaims the girl, imprinting a shower of kisses upon his lips.
"Go--quick.  They are coming.  You shall not die here.  Good-bye, love.
I shall never see you again.  Go."  And, as she pushes him from her, the
advancing voices are very near indeed.  She has barely time to regain
the house before several men are knocking at the door.  Feigning to be
half asleep, she opens.

"Well, father, what has gone wrong?"

"Oh, nothing, Anita.  Has Lidwell been here?  We want him down at the
camp.  He promised to help us through with the wine," answers De Castro.

"The Englishman?  No, he hasn't been here.  He must be in his own hut."

A glance goes round the group.

"But he must have been here, senorita," replies Juarez.  "He was seen to
come in this direction."

A thought strikes the girl.  She must gain time.  So with an
admirably-feigned glance of uneasiness at a side door leading into
another room, she reiterates that she has not seen him.

"Ah, well, comrades, I have some old wine in here," says her father,
advancing towards this door.  "We will try it."  He turns the handle;
but the door is locked.  "The key, Anita, the key!"

"The key?  Oh, here it is," and after a pretended search she finds the
key.  They throw open the door suddenly, and stand staring in stupid
surprise into an empty room.

"Juarez," said the girl, calling him apart from the rest--"keep quiet
now.  Do you want the Englishman?  You shall take him."

The other started, and his eyes lit up with savage triumph.

"How?  Where?  Where is he?"

"You shall have him.  Listen, Juarez.  He has been here, but if you try
to find him now you will fail.  I promised to meet him two hours after
midnight at the corner of the cane planting.  He thinks I love him, but
I hate him," she went on, working herself into a state of
admirably-feigned fury.  "He laughed at me and treated me as a
plaything--now I shall have revenge.  But listen.  Go back to the camp.
He is suspicious of you already; but he will come to me two hours after
midnight.  Then be in waiting, and you shall take him as easily as a
leopard in a net.  Don't tell the others about it until the time comes,
only get them away now."

If Juarez felt a qualm of suspicion, she acted her part so well, that he
fell headlong into the trap.  With difficulty, he persuaded his fellow
ruffians to abandon their quest for the present.  He trusted Anita
implicitly; and, full of elation at the speedy vengeance which would
overtake his rival, he returned with the others to their carousals.

The hours drag their length, and silence reigns in the tropical forest.
A damp, unwholesome mist rises from the river and spreads over the
tree-tops.  Now and again the shout of the revellers breaks upon the
silence, or the deep bass of a bloodhound is raised in dismal bay at the
moon.  Still Anita sits there, gazing out upon the forest, and following
in spirit every step of him whose life she has saved, further and
further as each step takes him from her.  At last she falls fast asleep,
worn out with the excitement and tension of the past few hours.  Then
comes a loud, angry knocking at the door.

Opening it, she is confronted with her father.  He is shaking with
wrath, and behind him are nine or ten others all armed to the teeth.

"Where is the Englishman?" he roared.  "Have you fooled us?  It is
nearly daybreak--and two hours after midnight we were to take him!
Where is he?"

"Where is he?" echoed Anita, her voice as clear as a bell.  "Where is
he?  Safe.  Far away--leagues and leagues.  You will never see him
again.  He is safe."  And her large eyes flashed upon the enraged and
astonished group in scornful defiance as she stood in the doorway.

With the yell of a wild beast baffled of its prey, the old ruffian
sprang at his daughter.  She never moved.  But his clenched hand was
seized in a firm grasp before it could descend.

"Softly--softly, patron!" said Juarez.  "You would not strike the
senorita!"

De Castro struggled in the grasp of the younger man and yelled the most
awful curses upon Lidwell, his daughter, and all present; but Juarez was
firm.  He was not all bad, and a glow of admiration went through him at
Anita's daring, and the shrewd way in which she had outwitted them.
Moreover, rivalry apart, he had rather liked Lidwell.  The latter they
would never see again, for had not Anita herself said as much.  On the
whole, therefore, it was just as well that he had escaped, and saved
them the necessity of killing a former brave comrade.  So he tried to
pacify the old man.

"Patron," he said, "be reasonable.  We are well rid of this English
devil.  Certainly, he has won a lot of our dollars; but then he will
lose his share in the profits of the last expedition."  Then, in a low
tone: "And he has rid us of that turbulent beast, Sharkey.  He is a
determined devil, and while he was with us he served us well.  Let him
go."

The old slave-dealer fumed and raved, then fell in with things as they
were.  "Ah well," he said at last, "what is--is, and we can't help it.
We will empty another skin of wine."  Then they withdrew to drown their
discomfiture in drink, though some of the party, less easily pacified,
would fain have started in pursuit of the fugitive, but that they knew
it would be useless.

Six weeks later the mail steamer from Zanzibar was securely docked in
the port of London, and Lidwell, bidding farewell to a few fellow
passengers, stepped ashore, and in a moment was lost among the busy
crowd in the great restless city.  He was now in easy circumstances for
life.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FOUR.

SERINGA VALE.

One round, black speck high up yonder on the stony hillside.  There he
sits--the large old baboon; wary sentinel that he is, keeping jealous
watch over the safety of the nimble troop under his charge, which,
scattered about amid the bush, is feasting upon succulent roots and
other vegetable provender afforded by its native wilds.  And from his
lofty perch he can descry something unwonted immediately beneath--danger
possibly, intrusion at any rate--and he lifts up his voice: "Baugch-m!
Baugch-m?"  The sun blazes in a blue, cloudless sky, darting down his
beams with a fierceness and vigour somewhat premature this lovely
afternoon of an early South African spring day, and all nature is at
rest in the drowsy stillness now broken by that loud, harsh cry.  A
cliff rears its perpendicular face from amid the bush-covered slopes,
which, meeting at its base, form a triangular hollow.  From the brow of
the cliff rises a rugged steep, thickly grown with dark prickly aloes,
whose bristling shapes, surmounted by bunches of red blossom, sprout
upwards from the dry, stony soil.  The tiniest thread of a streamlet
trickles down the face of the rock, losing itself in a pool beneath,
which reflects, as in a mirror, cliff, and overhanging bushes, and blue
sky.  A faint cattle track leading down to the water betokens that in a
land of droughts and burning skies even this reservoir, remote and
insignificant, is of account at times; but to-day here are no cattle.
The long-drawn piping whistle of a spreuw [of the starling species]
echoes now and again from the cool recesses of the rock; the hum of bees
among the blossoming spekboem and mimosa; the twittering of the finks,
whose pear-shaped pendulous nests sway to and fro over the water as the
light-hearted birds fly in and out--all tell of solitude and of the
peace of the wilderness.  Here a big butterfly flits lightly on spotted
wings above the flowering bushes; there, stalking solemnly among the
stones, an armour-plated tortoise seems to be in rivalry with a horny
and long-legged beetle as to which of them shall be the first to reach
the other side of the small open space.

"Baugch-m!  Baugch-m!"

Two round black specks high up there on the stony hillside.  The
resounding call is answered, and the two guardians of the troop sit
there, a couple of hundred yards apart, looking down into the
sequestered nook below.

The sleeper moves, then rolls over on his back and draws his
broad-brimmed hat right over his face.

Clearly he does not intend rousing himself just yet.  The sun's beams
strike full upon him, but he feels them not; evidently he is indisposed
to let even the monarch of light interfere with his siesta.  A few
minutes more, and, with a start, he raises himself on his elbow and
looks around.

"By Jove, how hot it is!  I must have been doing the sluggard trick to
some purpose, for the cliff was full in the sun when first I pricked for
the softest plank here, and now it's throwing out a shadow as long as an
attorney's bill of costs.  Past four!" looking at his watch.  "Now for a
pipe; then a start."

He picks himself up out of the pass, yawns and stretches.  The tortoise,
which had already stood motionless, its bright eye dilated with alarm,
now subsides into its shell, hoping to pass for one of the surrounding
stones; its scarabean competitor likewise is equal to the occasion,
after its own manner, and falling over on its side, with legs stiff and
extended, feigns death industriously.  Meanwhile the aloe-dotted steep
overhead is alive with the loud warning cries of the disturbed baboons,
whose ungainly but nimble shapes--some fifty in number--may be seen
making off helter-skelter up the hill, to disappear with all possible
despatch over the brow of the same.

"Noisy brutes!" grumbles the wayfarer, shading his eyes to watch them.
"But for your unprincipled shindy I could have done a good hour's more
snooze with all the pleasure in life.  If only I had a rifle here--even
a Government Snider--it would go hard but that one or two of you would
learn the golden art of silence."

Look at him as he stands there just six foot high in his boots--
well-proportioned, broad-shouldered, straight as a dart.  The face is of
a very uncommon type, with character and determination in its regular,
clear-cut features; but a look of _insouciance_ in the eyes--which are
neither grey nor blue, but sometimes one, sometimes the other--
neutralises what would otherwise be an energetic and restless
expression.  The mouth is nearly hidden by a drooping, golden-brown
moustache.  In the matter of age the man would have satisfied a census
collector by the casual reply, "Rising nine-and-twenty."

Colonial born you would certainly not pronounce him.  Yet not a touch of
the "rawness" of the greenhorn or "new chum" would you descry, even if
the serviceable suit of tancord and the quality of the saddle and riding
gear lying on the ground did not betoken a certain amount of
acquaintance with colonial life on the part of their owner.

He draws a rough cherrywood pipe from his pocket, fills and lights it,
sending forth vigorous blue puffs which hang upon the drowsy air.  He
stands for a moment looking at the sun, and decides that it is time to
start.

"Now, I wonder what has become of Sticks.  The old scamp is given to
erring and straying afar just when wanted.  When I don't require his
services he'll fool about the camp by the hour."

Sticks was his horse.  That estimable quadruped had at one time been
addicted to "sticking," an inconvenient vice of which his present owner
had thoroughly cured him.

Our wayfarer strolls leisurely to the ridge which shuts in the hollow,
and looks around.  Then a reddish object amid the green bush, some
hundreds of yards further down, catches his eye.  It is the object of
his search; and, with one hand thrust carelessly into a pocket, he makes
for the errant nag and returns leading his steed to the waterhole, where
clouds of yellow finks scatter right and left, vociferously giving vent
to their indignation at being thus invaded.

And now, having saddled up, he is on his way.  Steeper and steeper grows
the ascent; the bush meets here and there over the narrow path, nearly
sweeping the rider from his saddle, and the horse, blinded now and then
by a thick branch of spekboem flying back in his eyes, makes an approach
to a stumble, for which he is not to blame, for the track is rugged
enough in all conscience.  At length the narrow path comes to an end,
merging into a broad but stony waggon road.

But--excelsior!  The bay steps out at a brisk walk, ascending ever the
rough road which winds round the abrupt spurs of the hills like a ledge,
mounting higher and higher above the long sweep of bush-covered slope,
where, among the recesses of many a dark ravine, thickets of
"wait-a-bit" thorn, and mimosa, and tangled underwood, afford retreat to
the more retiring denizens of the waste--the sharp-horned bushbuck and
the tusked wild pig, the hooded cobra, and the deadly puff-adder.  And
beneath those shades, too, in the still gloom, the spotted leopard
creeps stealthily upon its prey, and the howl of the hyena and the
shrill yelping bay of the jackal resound weirdly through the night.

"It's waxing chilly.  Up, old Sticks!" ejaculates the traveller, with a
light tap of his riding-crop.  The horse picks up his head and scrambles
along with new zest.  A few minutes more and he is standing on the top
of the _randt_ [the high ground or ridge overlooking the valley of a
river] for a brief blow after his exertions, which his heaving flanks
proclaim to have been of no mean order, while his rider is contemplating
the fresh scene which opens out before his gaze.  For the wooded country
has been left, and now before him lies spread a panorama of broad and
rolling plains, dotted capriciously here and there with clumps of bush.
A lovely sweep of country stretches away in many undulations to the
wooded foothills of a beautiful mountain range which forms a background
to the whole view, extending, crescent-like, far as the eye can travel.
The snow-cap yet resting on the lofty peak of the Great Winterberg
flushes first with a delicate tinge and then blood-red; many a jutting
spur and grey cliff starts forth wondrously distinct, while the forest
trees upon a score of distant heights stand soft and feathery, touched
with a shimmer of green and gold from the long beams of the sinking sun
as he dips down and down to the purpling west.

The stranger rides on, enjoying the glorious beauty of this fair
landscape--never fairer than when seen thus, in the almost unearthly
lustre of a perfect evening.  A steinbuck leaps out of the grass, and
after a brief run halts and steadily surveys the intruder.  Down in the
hollow a pair of blue cranes utter their musical note of alarm, and
stalk rapidly hither and thither, as though undecided about the quarter
whence danger threatens, and the cooing of doves from yon clump of
euphorbia blends in soft harmony with the peaceful surroundings as in a
vesper chant of rest.

And now a strange group appears over the rise in front.  It is a Kafir
_trek_.  Two men, three women, and some children, driving before them
their modest possessions in live stock, consisting of three cows (one
with a calf), and a few sheep and goats.  The men wear an ample blanket
apiece thrown loosely round their shoulders, but other clothing have
they none, with the exception of a pair of boots, which however, each
carries slung over his shoulder, preferring to walk barefoot.  The women
are somewhat less scantily clad, with nondescript draperies of
blanketing and bead-work falling around them.  Each has her baby slung
on her back, and carries an enormous bundle on her head, containing pots
and pans, blankets and matting--the household goods and chattels; for
her lord disdains to bear anything but his kerries, or knobsticks, and
marches along in front looking as if the whole world belonged to him.
Some of the elder children are laden with smaller bundles, and even the
cows are pressed into the service as porters, each having a long roll of
mats fastened across her horns, and two or three mongrel curs slink
behind the group.  All Kafir garments are plentifully bedaubed with red
ochre, an adornment frequently extended to their wearers, giving them
the appearance of peripatetic flower-pots.

"Naand, Baas!"  [Note 1] sing out the men as they meet the traveller,
and then continue in their own tongue, "Nxazela."  [Tobacco.]

No bad specimens of their hardy and supple race are these two fellows as
they stand there, their well-knit, active figures glistening like bronze
in the setting sun.  They hold their heads well up, and each of their
shrewd and rather good-looking countenances is lighted by a pair of
clear, penetrating eyes.  The stranger chucks them a bit of the coveted
plant, and asks how much further it is to Seringa Vale.

"Over there," replies one of the Kafirs, pointing with his stick to the
second rise in the ground, about two miles off.  With a brief good-night
the horseman touches up his nag and breaks into a gentle canter, while
the natives, collecting their stock--which has taken advantage of the
halt to scatter over the _veldt_ and pick up a few mouthfuls of grass--
resume their way.

The sun has gone down, and the white peak of the Great Winterberg towers
up cold and spectral to the liquid sky, as the horseman crests the ridge
indicated, and lo--the broad roof of a substantial farmhouse lies
beneath.  Around, are several thatched outbuildings, and the whole is
charmingly situated, nestling in a grove of seringas and orange trees.
There is a fruit-garden in front of the house, or rather on one side of
it, though it may almost be said to have two fronts, for the verandah
and the _stoep_ run round the two sides which command the best and
widest view, while another and a larger garden, even more leafy and
inviting-looking, lies down in the kloof.  Close to the homestead are
the sheep and cattle kraals, with their prickly thorn-fences, into one
of which a white, fleecy flock is already being counted, while another,
preceded by its _voerbok_ [Note 2] is coming down the kloof, urged on by
the shout and whistle of its Kafir shepherd.  The cattle enclosure is
already alive with the dappled hides of its denizens, moving about among
whom are the bronzed forms of the cattle-herd and his small boys, who
are busily employed in sorting out the calves and shutting them up in
their pen for the night, away from their mothers, so that these may
contribute their share towards filling the milk-pails in the morning.
Behind the kraals stand the abodes of the Kafir farm servants, eight or
ten beehive-shaped huts to wit, and stepping along towards these,
calabash on head, comes a file of native women and girls who have been
to draw water from the spring.  They sing, as they walk, a monotonous
kind of savage chant, stopping now and then to bawl out some "chaff" to
the shepherd approaching with his flock as aforesaid, and going into
shrill peals of laughter over his reply.

The traveller draws rein for a little while, till the counting-in
process is accomplished, then rides down to the kraal gate and
dismounts.  A man turns away from giving some final directions to the
Kafir who is tying up the gate--an old man, over whose head at least
seventy summers must have passed, but yet stalwart of body and handsome
of feature, with hair and beard like silver.  He is dressed in the rough
cord suit and slouch hat of the ordinary frontier farmer, and in his
hand he carries a whip of plaited raw-hide.  His clothes have a timeworn
appearance, and his hands are large and hard-looking; but, in spite of
the roughness of his aspect and attire, you need only look once into
Walter Brathwaite's face to know that you were confronting a man of
gentle blood.

"Good evening," he says, heartily, advancing with outstretched hand
towards the stranger.  But a curious smile upon the tatter's face causes
him to pause with a half mystified, hesitating air, as if it were not
unfamiliar to him.  "Why, no.  It can't be.  Bless my soul, it is,
though.  Why, Claverton, how are you, my boy?  Glad to see you back
again in Africa," and he enclosed the younger man's hand in a strong
grip.  "But come in; the wife'll be delighted.  Here, Jacob," he
shouted, in stentorian tones which brought a young Hottentot upon the
scene in a twinkling, "take the Baas's horse and off-saddle him."

Passing through a hall, garnished with trophies of the chase, bushbuck
horns, and tusks of the wild pig, and a couple of grinning
panther-heads, they entered the dining-room, a large, homelike
apartment, plainly but comfortably furnished.

"Here, Mary, I've brought you a visitor," said the settler, as they
entered.  "You remember Arthur Claverton?"

A tall old lady, whose kindly and still handsome face bore unmistakable
signs of former beauty, rose from a sewing-machine at which she had been
working, with a start of surprise.

"What!  Arthur?  Why, so it is.  But I should never have known you,
you're so altered.  Ah, I always said we should see you out here again,"
she continued, shaking his hand cordially.

The stranger smiled, and a very pleasant smile it was.

"Well, yes, so you did, Mrs Brathwaite; but at least I have the faculty
of knowing when and where I am well off," he said, really touched by the
genuine warmth of his reception.

"So you've been all over the world since we saw you last--to Australia
and back?" she went on.  "And then the last thing we heard of you was
that you had gone to America."

"I attempted to; but Providence, or rather the blunder-headed lookout on
board a homeward-bound liner, willed otherwise."

"How do you mean?"

"Why! that the said idiotically-handled craft collided with ours, two
days out, cutting her down to the water's edge and sinking her in
thirteen minutes.  I and twenty-four others were picked up, but the rest
went to Davy Jones's locker.  There weren't many more of them, though,
for it was a small boat, and I was nearly the only passenger."

"Oh!  And you didn't try the voyage again?" said Mrs Brathwaite, in
subdued tones.  She was colonial born, and in her own element as brave a
woman as ever stepped.  In the earlier frontier wars she had stood by
her husband's side within the laager and loaded his guns for him, while
the conflict waxed long and desperate, and the night was ablaze with the
flash of volleys, and the air was heavy with asphyxiating smoke, and the
detonating crash of musketry and the battle-shouts of the savage foe,
and had never flinched.  But she had a shuddering horror of the sea, and
would almost have gone through all her terrible experiences again rather
than trust herself for one hour on its smiling, treacherous expanse.

"Well, no; I didn't," he answered.  "I took it as an omen, and concluded
to dismiss the Far West in favour of the `Sunny South.'  So here I am."

"Ah! well," put in the old settler.  "Perhaps we'll be able to find you
something in the way of excitement here, if that's what you were in
search of, and that before very long, too.  All isn't so quiet here as
they try to make out.  I've lived on the frontier, man and boy, all my
life, and I can see pretty plainly that there's mischief brewing."

"Is there?  I did hear something of the sort on my way up, now I think
of it; but I had an idea that the days of war were over, and that Jack
Kafir had got his quietus."

"Ha! ha!  Had you really, now?  Why, bless my soul, the Kafirs are far
more numerous than ever; they outnumber us by fifty to one.  They hate
us as much as ever they did, and for some time past have been steadily
collecting guns and ammunition.  Now, what do they want those guns and
that ammunition for?  Not for hunting, for there's next to no game in
all Kafirland.  No, it is to put them on an equal footing with us; and
then, with their numbers, they think to have it all their own way.
There's mischief brewing, mark my words."

"It wouldn't mean a scrimmage among themselves, would it?  They might be
anxious to exterminate each other," ventured Claverton.

The other smiled significantly, and was about to reply, when the
conversation was interrupted by the entrance of supper and--Hicks.

The latter was one of those young Englishmen often met with on colonial
farms, learning their business in the capacity of assistant, or general
factotum; and who may be divided into two categories: those who take
kindly to the life and throw themselves thoroughly into it and its
interests, and those who don't, and leave it after a trial.  Our friend
Hicks may be placed in the former of these.  He was a strong, energetic,
good-tempered fellow, who loved his calling, and was a favourite with
everybody.  He had served three years in the Frontier Mounted Police,
and had been two with Mr Brathwaite, and, by virtue of so much hard,
healthy, open-air life, was twice the man he had been when he left his
father's Midlandshire parsonage five years previously.

"You were asking if the Kafirs might not be preparing for a fight among
themselves?" resumed the old settler as they took their places at the
supper-table, which looked cheerful and homelike in the extreme.  He had
got upon a favourite hobby, and was not to be diverted from a congenial
ride.  "There isn't the slightest chance of it, because they know very
well we shan't let them.  We prefer encouraging them to hammer away at
us."

"Pickling a rod for our own backs?" remarked Claverton.

"Just so.  By patching up their tribal disputes we check just so much
salutary blood-letting, and foster hordes of lazy, thieving rascals
right on our border.  Even if the sham philanthropy, under which we
groan, obliges us to sit still while the savages grow fat on our stolen
cattle and laugh at us, the least it could do would be to allow them to
cut a few of each other's throats when they have a mind to."

"The Home Government, I suppose?"

"That's it.  A parcel of old women in Downing Street, ruled by Exeter
Hall and the Peace Society.  What do they know about the Colony, and
what do they care?  After British subjects have been murdered and
plundered all along the border, an official is sent to inquire into it.
Of course the chiefs all pretend ignorance, and throw the blame on
somebody else.  Then follows great palaver and buttering over.  The
chiefs are told to be good boys and not do it again, and are given
waggon-loads of presents--and a treaty is made.  A treaty!  With
savages--savages whose boast is that they are a nation of liars.  Can't
you imagine the wily rascals sniggering in their blankets, and wondering
how much longer they are going to allow themselves to be governed by
such a race of milksops!"

His listeners could not forbear a laugh.

"I can tell you it's no laughing matter to be burned out of house and
home three times as I have been," went on the old man, "and that through
the sentimental cant of our rulers.  No; coddling savages doesn't do--
never did do, and never will.  Treat them fairly and with the strictest
justice; but, if you are to rule them at all, you must do so with a
strong hand."

Walter Brathwaite had, as he said, lived on the frontier, man and boy,
all his life; for he was a mere child when his father, tempted by the
inducement of free grants of land, had transferred the family fortunes
to the shores of Southern Africa in the early days of the settlement of
the Cape Colony.  His youth and earlier manhood were passed amid the
hardships and obstacles of an emigrant's life.  And also its dangers--
for the tribes infesting the rugged and difficult country which then was
Kafirland, were wont to lay marauding hands on the settler's flocks and
herds--nor did the savages scruple about adding murder to pillage.
Still the emigrants throve; for those were the days of good seasons and
healthy flocks and herds--when pasturage was plentiful and succulent,
droughts were infrequent, and disease almost unknown.  Three successive
wars at short intervals swept away the fruits of the unfortunate
settlers' toil; but they managed to pick up again, and now, at this
period of our narrative, it is twenty years since the last of these, and
there are once more the same signs of restlessness among the tribes
which the experienced remember to have heralded former outbreaks.  So if
Walter Brathwaite expresses strong distrust of his barbarous neighbours,
it is not without ample justification.  He has done good service, too,
in the time of need; has fought valiantly and ungrudgingly on behalf of
his adopted country, and whether in peace or in war has ever enjoyed the
respect and good opinion of his fellows.  In truth, right justly so.
Gifted with strong, practical common sense; his straightforward nature
abhorring anything in the shape of humbug or meanness; of a thoroughly
kind-hearted, genial disposition and open-handed to a degree, he is a
splendid specimen of the colonist who is also by birth and tradition a
true English gentleman; and now in the latter years of his long, useful,
and honourable life, he is an object of esteem and affection to all who
know him--and they are many.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1.  Dutch, "Evening, master."  Dutch is nearly always employed in
the Cape Colony for intercourse with the natives, comparatively few
frontiersmen, even, being well versed in the Kafir language.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 2.  "The goat which goes before."--A goat is always used instead of
a bell-wether on the Cape sheep farms, and so accustomed do the flocks
become to their leader that it is a hard and toilsome business to induce
them to enter their fold without it.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FIVE.

THE BITER BITTEN.

It was early when Claverton awoke on the following morning; but, early
as it was, the occupant of the other bed had disappeared.  He had
"shaken down" in Hicks' room, and the two had talked and smoked
themselves to sleep; and, early as it was, there were plenty of sounds
outside, which told of the day's doings having begun.

The most epicurean of late sleepers will find it hard to keep up his
usual luxurious habit in a frontier house.  There is a something which
seems to preclude late lying--possibly the consciousness of exceptional
laziness, or a sneaking qualm over taking it easy in bed when every soul
on the place has long been astir; but even the most inveterate sluggard
will hardly find it in his conscience to roll over again, especially if
a companion's long since vacated conch is staring him reproachfully in
the face from the other side of the room.

Claverton, who was in no sense an epicurean, felt something of this, and
lost no time in turning out.  The sun had risen, but was unable to
pierce the heavy mist which hang over the earth in opaque folds.  He
found his host busy at the sheep kraals, the thorn-fence dividing which
had been broken through in the night, with the result of mixing the
flocks.  Three Kafirs were hard at work sorting them out again, and the
dust flew in clouds as the flock rushed hither and thither within the
confined space--the ground rumbling under their hoofs.

"Pleasure of farming!" remarked the old man, with a smile, after
greetings had been exchanged.  Both turned away their faces a minute as
a pungent and blinding cloud swept past them.  "The rascals might have
avoided all this by simply putting a thorn tack or two in its place last
night.  You can't trust them, you see--have to look to everything
yourself."

"Suppose so," replied Claverton, slipping out of his jacket.  "I'm going
to give your fellows a hand.  The brand, though, is rather indistinct.
Which come out?"

"All branded B, with the double ear mark."

"Right?"  And he dived into the thick of the fun, with all the energy
and more than the dexterity of the Kafirs, who paused for a moment with
a stare of astonishment and a smothered "Whouw!"  They did not know who
the strange _Baas_ was, but he was evidently no greenhorn.

Another hour's hard work and the flocks are separate again; but it is
rather too early to turn them out to grass.  So the two stroll round to
the cattle kraal, whose denizens stand patiently and ruminatingly about
for the most part, though some are restless and on the move, recognising
with responsive "moo" the voices of their calves in the pen.  Nearly all
the cows are of good breed--the serviceable and hardy cattle of the
country, crossed with imported stock, though now and again among them
can be descried the small head and straight back of an almost
thorough-bred Alderney.  Milking is going on.  There sits the old
cattle-herd beneath a wild young animal properly secured, milking away
and gossiping with his satellites as fast as he fills his pail--for
Kafirs are awful gossips.  Then he turns the frightened young cow loose,
and, removing the foaming pail out of the way of a possible upset,
proceeds in search of a fresh victim.  He salutes his master in passing,
and, with a rapid, keen glance at the stranger, extends his greeting to
him.

Mr Brathwaite is very proud of his choice and well-bred animals.  He
knows every hoof of them like ABC, almost every hair; and as they walk
about among the beasts he entertains his companion with the history of
each, and where it came from, and the events of its career in life.

"Hullo!  Who's this?" said Claverton suddenly, as two horsemen appeared
on the brow of the opposite hill.  "One's Hicks, the other looks like,
uncommonly like, Jim."

"Yes, it is Jim," assented Mr Brathwaite.  "What's brought him over
this morning, I wonder?"  The said Jim was his eldest son.  He was a
married man, and lived on a farm of his own some fifteen or sixteen
miles off.  A few minutes more, and the two horsemen drew rein in front
of the cattle kraal.

"Hullo, Arthur!" sang out Jim, jumping to the ground.  "Here we are
again!  Hicks told me I should find _you_ here, of all people.  Morning,
father!  Have Ethel and Laura arrived yet?"

"I believe so.  I saw Jeffreys' trap coming over the hill about an hour
ago, and he was to bring them.  I was busy and couldn't go in then.  My
brother's children, Arthur," he explained, noting a surprised look in
his guest's face.  "They have come from Cape Town to stay a couple of
months while their father is away up the country."

"Come to enliven us up a bit," said jovial Jim.  "Ethel will lead you a
life of it, or I'm a Trojan."

Jim Brathwaite was a fine, handsome fellow of thirty-five, over six feet
in height, strong as a bull and active as a leopard.  His bronzed and
bearded countenance was stamped with that air of dashing intrepidity
with which a genial disposition usually goes hand in hand.  He was a
quick-tempered man, and his native dependents stood in considerable awe
of him, for they knew--some of them to their cost--that he would stand
no nonsense.  Of untiring energy, and with all his father's practical
common sense, he had prospered exceedingly in good times, and had
managed to hold his own against bad ones.  Shrewd and clear-headed, he
was thoroughly well able to look after his own interests; and any one
given to sharp practice or rascality--whether cattle dealer or Dutchman,
Kafir or Hottentot--would have to get up very early indeed to reach the
blind side of him.

Claverton had been on very intimate terms with the Brathwaites some
years previously.  They had been good friends to him in the earlier days
of his wandering life, and he had a warm regard for them.  It was more
than pleasant, he thought, being among them again, laughing over many a
reminiscence evoked by the jest-loving Jim as they strolled towards the
house.

The long, low dining-room looked invitingly cool after the glare and
heat outside.  Mrs Brathwaite, who was seated at the table, scolded
them playfully for keeping breakfast waiting.  Beside her sat a girl--a
beautiful creature, with large blue eyes fringed with curling lashes,
and a sparkling, dimpled rosebud of a face made for capriciousness and
kisses.  The masses of her golden hair, drawn back from the brows, were
allowed to fall in a rippling shower below her waist, and a fresh, cool
morning-dress set off her neat little figure to perfection.

"Arthur.  This is my niece, Ethel," said Mrs Brathwaite.

Claverton started ever so slightly and bowed.  He was wondering where on
earth this vision of loveliness had suddenly dropped from in this
out-of-the-way place.  And Mr Brathwaite had said, "My brother's
_children_."

The girl shot one glance at him from under the curling lashes as she
acknowledged the introduction, and a gleam of merriment darted across
the bright face.  Each had been trying to read off the other, and each
had detected the other in the act.  She turned away to greet her cousin.

"Why, what in the world has brought _you_ here?" cried that jovial blade
in his hearty voice.  "We weren't expecting you for ever so long.
Where's Laura?"

"The Union Company's steamer _Basuto_.  Cobb and Co, and Mr Jeffreys'
trap.  Laura's in the next room.  One question at a time, please."

Jim roared with laughter as he took his seat at the table.  Between
himself and Ethel much sparring took place whenever the pair got
together.

"Sharp as ever, by Jingo," he cried.  "I say, Ethel, I wonder you
haven't been quodded for bribery and corruption.  They say Uncle George
only gets returned by sending you round to tout for votes."

The point of this joke lay in the fact that her father was a fervid
politician and a member of the Legislative Assembly.  Before Ethel could
retort, a diversion was created by the entrance of Mr Brathwaite and
his other niece.  Laura was her sister's junior by a year, and as unlike
her as it was possible to be.  She was a slight, graceful girl, with
dark hair and eyes, and as quiet and demure in manner as the other was
merry and impulsive; and though falling far short of her sister in
actual beauty, yet when interested her face would light up in a manner
that was very attractive.  So thought, at any rate, our friend Hicks, on
whom, during her last visit at Seringa Vale, Laura had made an
impression.  Not to put too fine a point upon it, Hicks was very hard
hit indeed.

"Really, those two are too bad," said Mrs Brathwaite.  "Beginning to
fight before they have been five minutes together.  Isn't it too bad of
them, Arthur?"

He appealed to, looked up just in time to catch Ethel's glance of
defiance which said as plainly as words: "You mind your own business."
She was not going to defer to the opinions of this stranger, and did not
see why he should be called upon to decide in the matter.  No doubt he
had come out there with the notion that they were a mere set of
half-civilised, ignorant colonials whom it was his business to set
right.  Those new arrivals from England always gave themselves such
airs, and expected to have everything their own way.  That might do with
the old people and good-natured Jim, but it would not go down with her,
Ethel Brathwaite, aged nineteen, and she intended to let him know it.
She had taken a dislike to this new arrival, which he saw at once, and
the idea rather entertained him.

"Uncle, I declare Jim gets worse and worse as he grows older.  Yes--
older, Jim, for you're quite grey since I saw you last, you know.  How
are you, Mr Hicks?" she continued, as that tardy youth entered the
room.  "Have you shot your twenty backs yet?  You know we said last year
we should vote you out of our good opinion unless you could show as
twenty pairs of horns fairly killed by your own gun when next we met?"

"Well, not yet," was the answer, somewhat reluctantly given.

"As you are strong, be merciful," put in Claverton, thereby drawing down
upon himself another indignant glance.

Our friend Hicks, like many a greater man, had his weaknesses.  One of
these was a passion for sport.  He would lay himself out to the most
arduous labours in the heat of the day, and forego many an hour of
well-earned rest at night, in the pursuit of his favourite pastime.  Not
that his efforts were always crowned with the success they deserved--
indeed, it was the exception rather than the rule if they were so--but
the mere pleasure of having his gun in his hand, expecting,
Micawber-like, something to turn up, satisfied him.  When he first came
to Seringa Vale he had been in the habit of starting off in quest of
game at times when by no possibility could he have obtained a shot, and
under such circumstances had been known to empty his gun at such small
fry as spreuws or meercats rather than not discharge it at all.  But
whatever he let off his gun at, it didn't make the least difference to
the object under fire.  He never hit anything, and much good-humoured
chaff was habitually indulged in at his expense.  "He couldn't hit a
house, couldn't Hicks," Mr Brathwaite was wont to observe jocosely,
"unless he were put inside and all the doors and shutters barred up."
Which witticism Jim would supplement by two or three of his own.  But
the subject of this rallying was the very essence of good humour.  He
didn't mind any amount of chaff, and devoted himself to the pursuit of
_ferae naturae_ with a perseverance which was literally as laid down by
the copy-books--its own reward.

"I move that we all go down and look at the ostriches," suggested Ethel,
ever anxious to be on the move.

"Who seconds that?" said Jim, looking around.  "Now, then, Arthur!"

"As junior member my innate modesty forbids," was the reply.

"That is meant satirically, Mr Claverton," cried Ethel.  "You deserve
to be voted out of the expedition, and if you don't apologise you shall
be."

"Then I withdraw the innate modesty.  What--that not enough?  Then
there's nothing for it but a pistol or a pipe.  Of the two evils here
goes for the pipe.  Hicks, we haven't blown our cloud this morning."  He
saw how the land lay.

"Er--well, you see--er--that is--er--I mean," stammered Hicks, who,
good-natured fellow, shrank from refusing outright.  "Er--the fact is,
I've got to go down and feed the ostriches some time, so I may as well
go now."

"Well, I am surprised at _you_, Mr Hicks," said Ethel.  "So the
pleasure of our company counts as nothing.  You deserve to be put on the
stool of repentance too."

"But really that's just what I meant--er--that is, I mean--it does, you
know--but--" stuttered the unlucky youth, putting his foot in it deeper
and deeper.

Laura had fled into another room under the pretext of finding her hat,
whence a stifled sob of suppressed laughter was audible now and again.
The originator of this turn of affairs was imperturbably sticking a
penknife through and through a piece of card, and contemplating the
actors in it as if he were unconscious of anything humorous in the
situation, though in reality he was repressing, with an effort, an
overpowering desire to go outside and roar for five minutes.

"Good-bye, Mr Claverton," said Ethel, with a mock bow, and emphasising
the first word.  She was rather disappointed at his ready acquiescence
in her ostracism of him, as it upset a little scheme of vengeance she
had been forming.

"Say rather `Au reservoir,' for your way, I believe, lies past the dam."

"Oh-h!" burst from the whole party at the villainy of the pun, as they
left him.

"I'm afraid your friend is a dreadful firebrand; Ethel and he will fight
awfully," said Laura to Hicks as they walked down to the large
enclosure.  These two had fallen behind, and Hicks was in the seventh
heaven of delight.  The mischief of it was that the arrangement would be
of such short duration.  Some twenty yards in front Ethel was keeping
her aunt and Jim in fits of laughter.

"Let me carry that for you," said Hicks, pouncing upon a tiny apology
for a basket which was in her hand.

"No, no; you've got quite enough to carry," she replied, referring to a
large colander containing the daily ration of maize for the ostriches,
and which formed his burden on the occasion.

"Not a bit of it.  Look, I can carry it easily.  Do let me," he went on
in his eagerness.

"Take care, or you'll drop the other," said she.

The warning was just one shade too late.  Down came the colander, its
contents promptly burying themselves in the long grass.  The salvage
which Hicks managed to effect was but a very small fraction of the
original portion.

"There now, I've spilt all the mealies," said he, ruefully, eyeing the
scattered grain.  He was not thinking of its intrinsic value, but that
the necessity of going back for more would do him out of the two or
three hundred yards left to him of his walk with Laura.

"Your friend would say `it's of no use crying over spilt mealies.'
Never mind, we can go back and get some more."

"What!" he exclaimed, delightfully.  "Do you mean to say you'll go all
the way back with me?  But really I can't let you take all that
trouble," he added, with reluctant compunction.

"I mean to say I'll go _all_ the way back with you, and I intend `to
take _all_ that trouble' with or with out permission," she replied,
looking up at him with a saucy gleam in her eyes.

Close to the storeroom they came upon Claverton.  He was sitting on the
disselboom of a tent-waggon smoking a pipe, and meditatively shying
pebbles at an itinerant scarabaeus, which was wandering aimlessly about
on a sun-baked open patch of ground about seven yards off.

"Well, has your sister thought better of it, and removed the ban?" asked
he, as the two came up.

"No, she hasn't," answered Laura, "but I see you're penitent, so I will
do so on her behalf.  You may come down with us," she added, demurely.
She knew he would do nothing of the sort, so could safely indulge the
temptation to mischief.

Poor Hicks was on thorns.  "Yes, come along, Claverton," he chimed in,
mechanically, in the plenitude of his self-abnegation fondly imagining
that his doleful tones were the acme of cordiality.

"Well, I think I will," pretended Claverton, making a feint at moving.
Hicks' countenance fell, and Laura turned away convulsed.  "Don't know,
though; think I'll join you later.  I must go in and get a fresh fill;
my pipe's gone out," and he sauntered away to Hicks' great relief, as he
and Laura started off to rejoin the others at the ostrich camp.

The male bird was very savage, and no sooner did he descry the party,
than he came bearing down upon them from the far end of the enclosure.

"What a grand fellow!" exclaimed Ethel, putting out her hand to stroke
the long serpentine neck of the huge biped, who, so far from
appreciating the caress, resented it by pressing the stone wall with his
hard breast-bone as though he would overthrow it, and making the
splinters fly with a vicious kick or two, in his futile longing to get
at and smash the whole party.  And standing there in all the bravery of
his jet-black array, the snowy plumes of his wings dazzling white in the
sun as he waved them in wrathful challenge, he certainly merited to the
full the encomium passed upon him.  Hicks emptied the contents of the
colander, which brought the hen bird running down to take her share--a
mild-eyed, grey, unobtrusive-looking creature.  She stood timidly
pecking on the outside of the "spread," every now and again running off
some twenty yards as her tyrannical lord made at her, with a sonorous
hiss, aiming a savage kick at her with his pointed toe.

"Oh, you odious wretch," cried Ethel, apostrophising the bird.  "Mr
Hicks, can't we give the poor hen some all to herself?"

"Behold the way of the world," said a voice behind her.  "Every man for
himself and--but I won't finish the saw."

She turned, and there was Claverton.  A cherrywood pipe was in his
mouth, and with one hand thrust carelessly into the pocket of a loose
shooting-coat, he stood regarding her from beneath his broad-brimmed
hat, looking the very personification of coolness and unconcern.

The sight of him angered her, but a thrill of malicious satisfaction
shot through her, as she thought of the rude shock she would inflict
upon that provoking imperturbability before he was an hour older.

"So you come down from the stool of repentance without permission," she
said, severely.

"Couldn't stop away any longer," he replied, without removing his
careless glance from her face.  "Besides, your sister absolved me in
your name."

"Then you may stay," she said, graciously, turning to look at the
ostriches.  The male bird was about fifty yards off, reluctant to leave
the spot, and rolling his fiery eye towards them with a frequency that
showed he had not quite given up all hopes of making mincemeat of some
one of the party that day.

"Mr Claverton," suddenly exclaimed Ethel, even more graciously.  "Do
get me those red flowers over there, the ones on the long stalks."

"With pleasure," he answered, coming to her side.  "Indicate them."

"There they are, those under that bush."

She pointed out ten or a dozen wiry-looking stalks with a few red
blossoms that would not have overburdened one of them, but were
injudiciously distributed amongst the group, which sprouted amid the
undergrowth in a small clump of thorn-bushes right in the enclosure.  To
reach it about seventy yards of open ground, destitute of all cover save
for a single mimosa bush growing half-way, must needs be traversed.

"Hold on, let's get the bird away first," said Jim, moving off with that
intent.

"Never mind the bird, Jim, he won't interfere with me," quietly answered
Claverton; and without even pocketing his pipe he climbed deliberately
over the wall.

"Don't go, Arthur.  Good gracious, he'll be killed!" cried Mrs
Brathwaite, in dire trepidation.  "Ethel, how could you?"

"No he won't, auntie; you'll see him run in a minute as for dear life.
I wanted to make him run," she added in a low tone, with a mischievous,
scornful laugh.

I know of no more perfect exemplification of the old adage about
familiarity breeding contempt than the case of the fall-grown male
ostrich.  In his wild state the most timid and wary of creatures, he is
up and away the moment you appear on the skyline, and fleetness and
endurance must be the character of your mount if you hope to overtake
him.  In a state of domesticity, however, his aggressiveness and
pugnacity know no bounds.  He will charge anything or everything,
resistance only adding to his blind ferocity--and when it is understood
that a single stroke of his sharp horny toe--for he kicks down, not
out--will shatter a man's skull, not to mention the possibility of a
broken limb, it will not be difficult for the reader to realise that
this gigantic fowl is a particularly awkward customer to deal with.  Of
course the bird is easily killed, or disabled, a very moderate blow from
a stick being sufficient to break its leg.  But it must be remembered
that the creature is, so to say, worth its weight in gold, and any one
would think more than, twice before slaying so valuable a possession,
even in self-defence.  So it is manifest that the expedition upon which
Claverton had now embarked was by no means free from the element of
peril.

Once over the wall he walked coolly forward, seeming altogether to
ignore his foe's existence.  The ostrich, however, was by no means
disposed to take matters so quietly, for before he had gone fifteen
paces it bore down upon him with a savage hiss; but a couple of light
bounds brought him to the small bash above mentioned, where he was safe
for the moment.  For the moment, because it was only a question which of
the two would tire first, and they dodged each other round the
precarious shelter which was only half-way to his destination.

Soon, however, besieger and besieged alike came to a complete
standstill, and the situation began to wax rather monotonous.  Then the
ostrich, withdrawing a couple of yards, dropped down on its shanks, and
contorting its neck, and at the same time fluttering its wings in
defiance, produced a curious drumming noise, of which grotesque
challenge its human antagonist took not the slightest notice, but waited
on as calmly as ever.  Suddenly it sprang up, and uttering its
trumpet-like hiss, dashed right through the bush at him; then, while it
was still blundering among the thorns, Claverton started off upon the
remainder of his journey.  This he could have accomplished with ease and
safety, but that above all he intended to do it quietly.  He knew why
Ethel had sent him in there as well as she did herself, and that astute
young lady should not have the pleasure of seeing him routed, or
enjoying a laugh at his expense.  Consequently he had not covered more
than half the distance that remained to him, at a quick but easy walk,
when the ostrich, now simply infuriate by reason of a few pricks from
the sharp mimosa thorns, which had penetrated even its tough hide, was
upon him.  And very huge and formidable looked the ferocious bird, as,
rearing itself up to its full height, its jetty plumage erect and
bristling, its eye glaring, and its fiery red bill wide open, it rushed
upon Claverton, hissing like a fiend.  No cover was at hand; there he
stood in the open, completely at the mercy of his savage assailant.

In vain Jim and Hicks ran into the enclosure shouting, to draw off the
creature's attention; it manifested a fell fixity of purpose, from which
it was not to be turned aside by any such puerile tricks.  Mrs
Brathwaite grew pale, and averted her head; even Ethel now saw that she
had carried her practical joke rather too far; but still her gaze was
riveted upon the combatants with a strange, eager fascination.

But Claverton's coolness always stood him in good stead.  He suddenly
advanced a couple of paces, thus forestalling the attack, and seizing
his powerful antagonist by the lower part of the neck, swung himself
nimbly aside, just managing to avoid a kick that would probably have
ripped him up, and held on firmly to the creature's throat, half choking
it.  It plunged and stamped, its great feet going all the time like
sledge-hammers, and to hold on was just as much as he could do, for it
was as powerful as a horse.  But hold on he did as for dear life; then,
watching his opportunity, he flung himself off, and before the bird,
half-dazed, had recovered from the effects of the choking it had
received, he stood safe within the friendly shelter of the clump of
bush, somewhat used up, but uninjured, except that his right hand was
torn and bleeding from contact with the bird's claw.  His pursuer,
indisposed to venture again among thorns, walked quickly up and down
before the entrance to the cover, flicking its wings about in baffled
wrath at the unaccountable escape of its victim.

The first thing he did was to gather every one of the flowers he had
come for.  Then the spectators could see him standing against a tree
doing something with a pencil and the back of an envelope.

"Hallo! what on earth are you up to now?" called out Jim.  "Tell us when
you're ready, and we'll get the bird away."

"By no means," was the reply.  "I'm making a rough sketch of the
situation, now that I'm master of the same.  Then you may call it a
drawing by one of the Masters."

This sally provoked a laugh from all but Ethel.  She was silent.  To
tell the truth, she was rather ashamed of herself.

In a few moments he put away his pencil and paper, and set to work to
cut a couple of large thorn branches.  This done, he issued forth from
his refuge to return.  The ostrich, apparently tired of the turn affairs
had taken, had drawn off a little way; but no sooner was he in the open
than it charged him again.  This time, however, it was out of its
reckoning; the _chevaux de frise_ of thorns that Claverton held before
him was not to be got over.  With a powerful kick or two it beat down
the branch, which, however, was immediately replaced by the other, and
kick and hiss as it would, it could not get rid of the formidable array
of prickly thorns which met its breast and unprotected neck whenever it
pressed on to the attack.  At last, convinced of the futility of the
undertaking, the savage bird turned round and trotted away about fifty
yards, and there stood, looking the picture of sullen defeat.  Its cool
opponent walked leisurely to the wall, and, abandoning his valuable
means of defence, climbed over and joined the party.

"By Jove, but you did that well," said Jim.  "Why, man, I expected to
see you most awfully mauled."

"I don't know.  `Needs must where the'--but I won't finish that
quotation, either.  Here are the flowers, Miss Brathwaite," he said,
handing her the innocent cause of all the pother.  "By the way, Hicks, I
forgot to tell you as I came down that there's been a porcupine in the
mealie-land during the night.  We might set the spring-gun for him, eh?"

"Rather!  We'll set it this evening," said Hicks, gleefully, his
instincts of destructiveness coming again to the fore.

That evening, between nine and ten o'clock, they were all sitting
indoors.  Jim had left in the afternoon to return to the bosom of his
family, after making them all promise to ride over in a day or two.
Suddenly a dull, heavy report was heard.

"_Pace_ the porcupine," remarked Claverton.

"I say," sputtered Hicks in his eagerness, "let's go down and see if
we've got him.  We might set the gun again, you know, in case another
came."

"Let's all go," cried Ethel.  "I'm dying to see the result of our
trap-setting.  Yes, _our_ trap-setting, Mr Hicks--you know you'd have
put that trigger too stiff if it hadn't been for me."

"But, my dear child," feebly protested Mrs Brathwaite, "the grass is as
wet as it can be, and--"

"And--there's a path all the way down, and--it's a lovely night--and--
you're a dear old auntie--and--we're going," she replied, with a hug and
a kiss; then darting into the other room reappeared, looking
inexpressibly killing, with a light-blue shawl thrown carelessly over
her golden head.

"Well, then, don't be too long, and don't get into any mischief.
Arthur, I shall look upon you as the responsible person.  Keep them in
order," said the old lady, with her kindly smile.

"All right, Mrs Brathwaite, I'll keep them well in hand, I promise
you."

"And--Arthur--just shy that old porcupine up in the air once or twice
for Hicks to practise at," sang out Mr Brathwaite jocosely as they left
the room.

It was a perfect night, the moon was at half, and the whole earth slept
in silence beneath its mantle of silver sheen, for a heavy dew had
fallen.  A grass fire or two shone forth redly upon the slopes of the
far Amatola.  Not a breath stirred the air, save for the faintest
suspicion of a cool zephyr which now and again partly dispelled the
light clouds of blue smoke which ascended from Claverton's pipe.  Hicks
and Laura were on in front.  Suddenly Ethel stopped.

"Mr Claverton," she said.  "Do you know I've been feeling quite ashamed
of myself all day?"

"What about?" asked her companion.

"Why, for sending you after those wretched flowers this morning--I
didn't mean you to get hurt, you know; of course I thought you would
easily be able to run away."

"I see.  But running away isn't altogether in my line--I don't mean
under any circumstances--those who declaim most against the lawfulness
of leg-bail at a push are generally the ones most prone to putting it to
the test.  In fact, I don't mind telling you that I have `run away'
before now, having no alternative."

"When I saw that dreadful creature coming at you, I declare I would have
given anything not to have sent you in there.  It was horrible."  And
she shivered.  "Do forgive me."

"But I assure you the whole affair was fun to me.  Keeps one in training
for emergencies.  Only--"

"Only what?"

"Only that I don't know whether your uncle quite likes his prize ostrich
being made the subject of a bull-fight."

"And--we are friends?"

"I hope so."

He looked with a trifle of wonder into the lovely eyes, now so soft in
the moonlight.  What an impulsive little thing it was, he thought.  Then
she said: "Do give me that drawing you made while the ostrich was
waiting for you.  It's sure to be fun."

"With pleasure.  Here it is," pulling the old envelope out of his
pocket.  "It about represents the position, though I'm no artist."

It did.  When Ethel examined it in her room half an hour later she found
a very comical sketch reproducing the situation with graphic and
whimsical distinctness.  It was labelled "Cornered--or Brute Force
_versus_ Intellect."

They found the other two standing over the mortal remains of a large old
porcupine.  The spring-gun had been set with the precision of clockwork,
and no sooner had the luckless rodent entered the mealie-land than he
ran his nose against the string and promptly received the contents of
the infernal machine clean through his marauding carcase.  There he
lay--a spoiler who would spoil no more.  Said Hicks:

"I'll come down in the morning and get some of his best quills."



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER SIX.

IN A NEW LINE.

"Of course you know the place well?"

"Every inch of it.  Two thousand _morgen_, rather over.  What did you
say Van Rooyen asks for it?"

"Three thousand.  Probably he'd take less."

"Far too much.  It isn't particularly good veldt; sheep don't do well
there, and the place is nearly all bush.  And then there's that stony
hill right over the river, about one-fifth of the whole area.  What sort
of house is it?"

"A classic tenement meriting the veneration of the Society for the
Preservation of Ancient Buildings."

"Humph!  You'd better have nothing to do with the concern."

The above dialogue took place about three weeks after the events
recorded in the former chapter, the speakers being Claverton and his
host, who were returning from a ride.

"You have made up your mind to settle here, then?" went on the latter.

"Yes, I've taken rather a fancy to this part of the country."

"H'm!  Well now, I'll tell you what I think.  Don't you be in too great
a hurry to buy; there's nothing like keeping your eyes open a bit first,
and biding your time.  Plenty of these fellows would be very glad to
clear out.  The Dutchmen round here are mostly a bankrupt lot, living
from hand to mouth, and you'll soon be able to make your own terms and
get a much better place than Springkaan's Hoek, which old Van Roozen, by
the way, has done his best to spoil."

"But do you know of another place about here that would be likely to
suit me?"

"Not at present--that is, not one that's in the market.  But I've been
thinking, why not stop on here a bit and help me?  You'd get into
practice and learn your craft, so to say.  You see, at present you know
precious little about it, though you're quicker at picking up wrinkles
than most new hands who come out.  I'm getting old now and am beginning
to feel it, and can't look after things as much as I should like them to
be looked after.  As for Hicks, he's a smart fellow enough, but then he
can't be everywhere _at_ once, and as it is he has his hands full.  Now
between you and him, all might be kept going, which would be a great
help to me, and, as I said before, you would get the experience you want
before setting up on your own account.  And it's not enough to see
things done, the great thing is to know how to do them yourself.  We do
a little of everything here, as you see, and I don't think you could be
much better placed for learning to farm," added the old man, with a
touch of pardonable pride.

Claverton readily closed with this offer.  Already during his stay he
had done many a hand's turn, helping Hicks to look up missing stock, or
seeing to odd jobs about the homestead when that invaluable majordomo
was out of the way; and his host's practised eye had gauged his
capabilities, seeing that he had all the makings of a first-rate
colonist.  The advantage of this offer Claverton could tell at a glance
was all on his own side.

"You see," pursued Mr Brathwaite, "farming now is not what it was.  You
needn't expect to make a fortune at it, but still you can always make a
very decent living, and then the position is a thoroughly independent
one, the life a free and healthy one, you are absolutely your own master
and need care for nobody.  Times are very far from what they used to be,
I admit; stock is more expensive, and there are more drawbacks in the
way of bad seasons, diseases, long droughts and used-up _veldt_; but
even then a good farmer can always manage to keep above water, and in a
fairly prosperous season can forge ahead.  Look at me: I've been burnt
out, stick and stone, by the Kafirs in three successive wars, and have
had to begin life over again, yet I've always got on.  The secret of it
is to look after everything yourself.  It won't do to set your people to
work and go away expecting them to do it, you must off with your jacket
and work _with_ them.  And you must be here, there, and everywhere at
once, Kafirs want continual looking after; directly they begin to think
the `Baas' is getting careless, good-bye to anything going straight.  I
don't mean to say that you must always be finding fault with them, they
are naturally stupid devils and you can't make them anything else; but
you can let them see that you've got your eye on them and will stand no
nonsense.  The great thing is to keep your temper with them, and, above
all, to treat them fairly but firmly.  Then again, you must make up your
mind to being out in all weathers.  The heavier and the colder the
rains, the more certain are the Kafirs to huddle in their blankets under
a bush or before a fire, and leave the flock to take care of itself.
With the result that at nightfall about a third of it is missing and
remains out in the _veldt_ for the benefit of the jackals and wolves;
what these leave perhaps stray to some Dutchman's place, and when you
get them again you find that they are covered with _brand ziekte_ [scab]
from his miserable brutes.  As I say, there are drawbacks innumerable,
but it rests with yourself to minimise them."

"Yes; I quite grasp the situation in all its bearings."

"Very well, then, that's settled, and I think you'll have reason to see
that my plan is the best."

They were nearing home now, and the sun, which was about an hour above
the horizon, shed a soft, golden lustre upon the broad, sloping plains
and on shining cliff and undulating vale, with many a dark patch of
forest here and there.  The peak of the Great Winterberg, his snowy cap
now removed--sleeping in a filmy haze against the horizon, and the lofty
backs of his lesser satellites purple and gold as they stood in the
shade or in the sun--formed a grand and effective background to the
picture, the beautiful range stretching from east to west, far as the
eye could travel.  Beneath lay the homestead, reposing among its shadowy
trees, looking the very abode of peace and prosperity.  Scarcely a
breath of wind to ruffle the balminess of the air, nor a sound to create
one, save for the occasional droning hum of some insect, while now and
again the soft mellow note of a hoopoe sounded through the slumbrous
dimness of the far distance.  Looking upon this vista of rest and
stillness, and in the midst of its influences, it was hard to realise
that the red tide of war could ever engulf this fair land, and its
fierce and jarring clangour break rudely upon such quiet calm.

On their return they found a visitor awaiting them.  This was one Will
Jeffreys, a sturdy, broad-shouldered fellow of five-and-twenty, with
rather a heavy expression of countenance bordering on the sullen.  A man
who was shrewd enough as regarded all matters directly in his line, but
would have a difficulty in grasping a very ordinary joke, and who was
totally deficient in appreciation of aught beyond the humdrum and
practical.  A man who might be a good fellow at bottom, but certainly
was a crusty dog on the surface.  He was the son of the neighbour
referred to in the foregoing chapter, as having brought the girls to
Seringa Vale, and was well-to-do.  But in one respect, at least, Will
Jeffreys wandered out of his natural groove.  He had a genuine
admiration for Ethel Brathwaite, whom he had met on previous occasions
of her staying at her uncle's, and though he had returned home only that
morning, had saddled up his horse and ridden over, under pretext of
consulting Mr Brathwaite about a certain span of oxen which he thought
of buying--most transparent of pretexts, which his good-natured father
saw through at once, and went into fits of laughter over as soon as his
hopeful's back was turned.

"Poor Will!" he would say to himself, "he's only singeing his wings.  He
hasn't the ghost of a chance in that quarter."

"Poor Will" certainly had not the ghost of a chance, for Ethel in no
wise reciprocated his admiration, though she would accept his homage
carelessly and half unconsciously at one time, and ruthlessly snub him
at another, particularly when the admiration became too open and
undisguised.  Now it so happened that that afternoon they had been
discussing the latest importation in all his bearings, with the result
that young Jeffreys greeted Claverton with no great show of cordiality
when the two were introduced.  Nor was it increased by Ethel's remark:
"At last, Mr Claverton!  I thought uncle and you were never coming
back.  Why, you've been out nearly the whole day."

"Well, Will," said the old settler, heartily.  "Had a good trip?"

"Yes, very good on the whole, thanks.  It's rather dry up Colesberg way,
and the locusts have been bad there, but my oxen were in good order, and
I came through quick."

He had just returned from a transport-riding trip up the country.

"H'm!  By the way, did your father manage to get back his horses?"

"No.  He and Bob followed them as far as Tembani.  The fellows had got a
forged pass [Note 1] and walked through right under the agent's nose.
After that the spoors separated; the thieves had taken two of the horses
in the direction of the Tambookie country, the other towards Sandili's;
and, of course, at every kraal they inquired at--for the spoor was soon
lost--the headmen did their best to put them on the wrong track,
although they set up to be no end sympathetic.  We've got a spy down in
the Gaika location, but a fat lot of good he'll do; he's sure to be in
league with the rest," growled Will, who was not in the best of humours.

"No, you can't do much when the whole country is in league against you.
We're quite at their mercy.  I'm afraid you'll never see a hoof of them
again," said the older man.

"Of course not.  Three as good all-round horses as we ever had on the
place, though Bles was a dev--er--a brute for bucking, at times.
By-the-bye, Mr Brathwaite, there seems to be an awful lot of
stock-lifting going on just now.  Seven of Dirk van Heerden's best cows
cleared off last week, and not a head of them has he been able to get
back, except one which had dislocated its shoulder, and the niggers
assegaied it to save its life."

"Well, it's time to count the sheep.  You'll stay to night, Will?"

He was delighted.

"Er--thanks--I--er, that is--"

"All right.  Better put your horse in the enclosure; only mind the
bird."

"How tiresome that Will Jeffreys is getting!" remarked Ethel that
evening, as some of them were standing outside in the garden.  "Listen
to him prosing away in there."

"Ssh!  He'll hear you," said Laura.

"I don't much care.  He comes over to see us, and instead of trying to
amuse one he bores us with tiresome yarns about this Dutchman losing his
cows and that Dutchman finding his horses."

"But what on earth do you want him to tell you about?" asked Hicks.

"Why, some of the news, of course.  The gossip, scandal, engagements,
and so forth."

"But he don't know anything about that sort of thing, so how can he tell
you about it?" said Hicks.

"Oh, you're just as bad.  Do go and join him and hear about Dirk van
Heerden's cows.  Please take my part, Mr Claverton.  Isn't Will
Jeffreys a bore?"

"Haven't been long enough in his company to answer with any certainty.
Will let you know later."

"How provoking you are!  Now I appeal to all of you.  If you see me
cornered by Will Jeffreys, come to the rescue."

"The greatest bore I ever knew," began Claverton, "was a lady--an
elderly lady.  She would volunteer instruction on any and every subject
under heaven, from the precise length of Aaron's beard, to the cost of
soup-kitchens; and once she cornered you, you had to listen or pretend
to.  One day she cornered me.  It was in the drawing-room, and there was
no escape; but there was a clock opposite.  It occurred to me to time
her.  For exactly twenty-one minutes she prosed on uninterruptedly, like
a stream flowing over its bed; never stopped to take breath once.  A
sermon was a joke to it.  Twenty-one minutes!  Heaven knows how much
longer she would have gone on, but for a lucky interruption."

"What was she prosing about?" said Ethel.

"I haven't the very faintest idea."

"Well, I don't believe a word of the story.  I believe you made it all
up."

"You don't believe a word of that story?" said Claverton, with a stare
of amazement, while Hicks and Laura went into fits.

"No, I don't; at least, I'll say this much--you may have known such a
bore, but if so it was a man, not a lady."

"I've told you a bare fact, upon my honour.  But if--"

They were interrupted by the appearance on the scene of Jeffreys
himself; but Ethel was too quick for him.  She had seen him coming, and
was already on her way indoors.  Then she began to sing duets with
Laura, whom she had manoeuvred to the piano by some mysterious signal.
Young Jeffreys, feeling very sulky and sore at his enslaver's
capriciousness and want of consideration, went and sat by himself at the
other side of the room, whence he could watch the author of his
discomfort.  The old people, under no necessity to talk, waxed drowsy,
and nodded through the music.  Presently Laura left the piano and, in a
trice, she and Hicks were deep in an animated conversation in a low tone
and in a snug corner, under pretence of looking through a pile of music.
Ethel the while was extracting wondrous combinations from the keys,
under cover of which she was carrying on a sharp running fire of banter,
or rather word-skirmish, with Claverton.

Jeffreys, watching them, was on thorns and tenterhooks.  Who the deuce
was this stranger?  A month ago no one had ever heard of him, and now
here he was, with his damned finicking ways and smooth tongue, thinking
that all the world was made for him.  A fellow, too, he'd be bound to
say, that with all his easy-going blarney, couldn't sit a bucking horse,
or hit a haystack at ten yards.  Yet there was Ethel carrying on
furiously with this fellow, while he, Jeffreys, was sent to the wall.
In reality, however, there was nothing that those two were saying that
all the world--Jeffreys included--would not have been perfectly welcome
to hear.

"Claverton," suddenly exclaimed Hicks, as two hours later they were
discussing the usual pipe before turning in.  Jeffreys had joined them,
but did not add much to the conversation.  "I hear you're going to stay
on here."

"Yes, I am."

Jeffreys' jaw fell at this announcement.  He had been laying balm to his
wounded spirit in the thought that this interloping stranger would soon
be going, and then--well, the field would be clear again.

"Glad to hear it, old fellow, awfully glad.  By Jove, it's the best news
I've heard for a long time."

"The deuce it is!  And why, may I ask?"

"Why?  Only hear him!  Haven't I had to do everything by myself, and
knock about by myself?  No fellow to talk to at work, or to go out and
sneak a buck with, or to blow a cloud with at night, and so on.  Now
we'll have a rare good time of it together."

"Especially when you go down to feed the ostriches," said Claverton,
with a mischievous laugh.

The other coloured and looked foolish, and was about to make some
stammering reply.

"Never mind, Hicks," said Claverton, in that wonderfully attractive
manner which he now and then exhibited, "I don't think you and I will
quarrel.  Now I'm going to turn in.  Good-night.  Good-night, Jeffreys."

"I say," inquired Jeffreys, after he had gone out.  "Is that
cattle-branding on to-morrow?"

"Yes."

"Well, I think I'll stay and give you a hand, if Mr Brathwaite doesn't
mind.  Times are slack, and there's nothing doing at home."

"Rather--mind you do; we'll be only too glad," answered Hicks with a
yawn, as he blew out the candle; and in five minutes more a mild snore
or so showed that he was out of reach of any further conversation.

Jeffreys lay and ruminated.  Here, at any rate, he would be in his
element.  What sort of a figure would that stuck-up, priggish fool--
again, reader, pardon a jealous man--cut in the cattle kraal among the
clashing horns and the charging of maddened beasts, and all the dash and
excitement of a piece of very rough work, by no means unattended with
danger?  He was all there in the drawing-room; but where would he be at
this?  And Jeffreys dropped off to sleep with a sardonic grin upon his
countenance, to dream of his rival--for so he had already begun to
regard Claverton--losing nerve, and being tossed and trampled by the
wildest brute in the herd.  As to the fulfilment of which benevolent
expectation the morrow would show.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1.  No native is allowed to remove stock from the colony without a
pass granted by his late employer to certify that he acquired it
lawfully.  This pass is countersigned by the various magistrates and
native agents along the road.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE CATTLE-BRANDING.

"Here they come.  Is the whole of that lot to be done to-day, Xuvani?"

"Ja, Baas," replied that worthy, swinging back the ponderous gate of the
cattle enclosure where he and Jeffreys were standing.

For the ground echoes a low rumble, drawing nearer every moment.  It is
the trample of many hoofs, and Jeffreys and his swart companion fix
their attention upon a troop of cattle coming up the kloof.  They are
mostly young beasts, and skittish.  Now and then one will leave the rest
and attempt to strike out a line for itself, but lo, one of the two
horsemen riding behind is down on it like lightning; a shout and a crack
of the whip, and the recreant is back in the ways of the herd again.
Peradventure half-a-dozen will start off headlong down some well-known
track, and with frolicsome bellow and heels tossed in the air away they
go, refusing to hear the voice of the driver; but the spirited horse
darts beneath the spur like a greyhound from the leash; over ant-heap
and through rhinoster bush straight as an arrow he flies; and behold,
suddenly, from around that clump of spekboem, appears the form of one of
the drivers.  A shout, half-a-dozen appalling whip-cracks, the errant
beasts stop short, heads go up and eyeballs dilate upon the unlooked-for
apparition with startled inquiry, then wheeling round they scamper back
to their comrades, helter-skelter, and the unruly mass moves swiftly on,
urged by the horsemen, eyes glaring, horns clashing, and now and again
an aggrieved "moo" as some quarrelsome brute playfully prods his nearest
neighbour, in the crush.  One young bull especially, a fine, well-made
animal with curving wicked-looking horns, and not a speck of alien
colour on his glistening red hide, is inordinately given to leading the
rest astray, nor does he take kindly to correction, but puts his head
down and throws his horns about as if he had more than half a mind to
charge his drivers; but he is not quite used to that terrible cracking
whip, and thinks better of it.

"That brute'll make things lively for some of us to-day," remarked
Hicks, as his companion fell behind after "collecting" it for about the
twentieth time.

"Shouldn't wonder.  The interesting quadruped appears to be getting his
hand in.  That last time I had fully made up my mind for a roll, and
should have got it too.  `Sticks' is an awful fool at getting out of
anything's way."

"Well, we're in now," said Hicks.  "Hey, Xuvani!" he called out, darting
forward to head the animals into the kraal, "Look out over there!"

The Kafir gave a couple of bounds and threw up his arms.  He was just in
time; two seconds later and the whole troop would have streamed past him
and galloped away across the _veldt_, which meant that a large part of
the morning's work would have to be done over again.  The animals
stopped short, glared at the sudden obstacle, then looked wildly round
on one side and on the other, but they were hemmed in; the rear part of
the herd cannoned against the leaders, who at length made for the only
egress open, and amid much crush and plunging, interlacing of horns, and
starting eyeballs, the whole crowd poured through the wide gateway, the
pungent dust rising in clouds from the trampling hoofs.

"Whew! that's warm work!" said Claverton, as Xuvani made fast the huge
gate and drew a heavy beam across above the top of it for additional
security.  "Now for breakfast, I suppose.  Hallo, Jeffreys.
Good-morning."

"Mornin'," replied Will, shortly, as they turned towards the stable to
off-saddle their horses.

Mr Brathwaite was somewhat unwell that day, and not at all sorry to
have the assistance of Will Jeffreys in the morning's operations.  So
with many cautions to Hicks about this and that, more by way of showing
that he didn't let everything slide because of a little indisposition,
than for any misgivings as to his lieutenant's skill, he made up his
mind to remain quiet in his room.  Rheumatism is no respecter of
persons, the only wonder being that the old farmer, after such a life of
hardship and exposure, should be let down as easily as he was.

"Mr Claverton," said Ethel, as they were all seated round the
breakfast-table, "Laura and I are going to see the branding, so I hope
you'll show us some fun."

"Are you?  That determination I should advise you to reconsider."

"But we won't.  Aha, I know why you don't want us.  You have never done
that sort of thing before, and you don't want us to see you make a bad
shot and run round the kraal with a cow after you.  That's it, isn't it,
Mr Jeffreys?" turning to him.  She was in a bright, teasing mood, and
looked bewitchingly pretty.

Jeffreys chuckled to himself at Claverton's expense, as he thought, and
mumbled something about "it being dangerous for her."

"Dangerous!  Not a bit of it.  We shall stand outside and look over the
gate, and we shall be perfectly safe."

Hicks looked up from his plate with a low whistle.

"Perfectly safe!" he reiterated.  "Why, it was only last branding that
that big black and white ox of Jim's, after chevying Tambusa twice round
the kraal and knocking him down, jumped the gate, charged a big hencoop
that was pitched close by and threw it fifty feet in the air, and then
streaked off to the bush like a mad buffalo."

"What nonsense, Ethel!  Of course you can't go," said her aunt, who had
re-entered the room during this conversation.  "Why, the things often
break out of the kraal."

"Very well, aunt, I don't want to be a witness to poor Mr Claverton's
discomfiture;" and she cast at him a glance of petulance, mingled with
compassion, whose effect upon the object thereof was absolutely nil.

A business-like appearance was that of the scene of operations.  The
animals were standing quietly about the large enclosure seventy yards in
diameter, with its solid, bristling thorn-fence eight or nine feet high
and its massive five-barred gate.  In the centre burnt--or rather
smouldered, for it was of the red-hot glowing order--a great fire, over
which bent the bronzed form of Xuvani, the cattle-herd, superintending
the due heating of the branding-irons and gossiping in subdued gutturals
with the other "hands"--two Kafirs and a smart, wiry little Hottentot,
who, with the _penchant_ of his race for scriptural appellations,
rejoiced in the time-honoured and patriarchal one of Abram.  Xuvani was
a man of between fifty and sixty, of middle height, and of powerful,
almost herculean build; the muscles stood out upon his limbs like great
ropes, and a blow from his fist--that is, if he had known how to make
use of his fists, which Kafirs very seldom do know--would have sufficed
to fell an ox.  He was rather light in colour, and his beard and woolly
head were just shot with grey; there was shrewdness in his rugged
features, and a twinkle of satiric humour lurked in his eye.  He had
been a long time in the service of his present master, who had found him
a cut above the average Kafir in honesty and trustworthiness.  Moreover,
he was greatly looked up to by the other natives, not only on account of
his great physical strength, but also as one who had shown his prowess
in a marked manner during the wars which have been alluded to.  Although
far from quarrelsome by nature, Xuvani never needed a second challenge.
His kerries were all ready, as more than one party of Fingoes passing
Seringa Vale in search of employment could testify, to its sorrow.
Indeed, once he had expiated his share in one of these African
Donnybrooks by a sentence of several months in gaol.

"Well, Xuvani!" sang out Hicks, as they slipped off their jackets and
flung them on to the kraal fence--"Got the iron hot?  All right, let's
begin.  Now then, Piet--what the devil are you standing there for,
grinning like a Cheshire cat?  Lay hold of the _reim_ and catch that
heifer."

Piet, a stalwart Kafir, grinned all the harder, and drawing out the
running noose of the _reim_ he made a cast, then, as the heifer ran over
it, with a mighty jerk he drew it taut and the animal, noosed by the
hind leg, fell.  Before it could rise again they all threw themselves
upon it, and in a trice its legs were securely bound while two men
firmly held its head.  In a second Hicks had taken the branding-iron
from one of the Kafirs, and held it for half a minute lightly but firmly
pressed against the fleshy part of the thigh.  The poor brute groaned
and struggled violently as it felt the hot iron; there was a sharp,
hissing sound from the singeing hair, a foetid smoke arose, diffusing a
smell of burnt flesh, and the operation was complete.  Whatever danger
there is in the performance generally falls to the lot of him who
releases the victim, which not unfrequently, as soon as it feels its
logs again, fiercely charges its emancipator, all the others having
previously withdrawn themselves behind some of the other cattle standing
about the kraal.  The first animal, however, was not of an inherently
vicious nature.  Consequently, no sooner was it free than it ran off
among its kindred, greatly scared and bewildered.  All went merrily
enough till they had got a fine black and white cow under the iron.  She
lay still, but there was rage mingled with pain in her groaning.

"She'll be at some of us when she gets up," said Jeffreys, exerting all
his strength to restrain the frenzied plunges of her pointed horns.

They stood aside, as, with a rapid turn of the wrist, Xuvani deftly cast
loose her bonds.  She sprang to her feet in a twinkling, and, lowering
her head, furiously charged the old cattle-herd, who, there being no
room for dodging, was constrained to run, with his late victim after
him, head down, all ready to fling him a dozen feet in the air.  But the
consummate coolness and agility of the Kafir was to the fore.  He
zigzagged as he ran, to avoid a charge, then, seizing his opportunity,
he sprang aside, and placing one hand between the animal's shoulders he
vaulted lightly over her back as she sped past him and got in among the
rest.  A cheer broke from the spectators at this splendid feat, but
before it had time to die, a shout of "Look out, she's coming this way,"
sent them all scattering; and sure enough, singling out Jeffreys, she
made at him like a streak of lightning.  He just avoided her charge by
dodging round the rear of a great trek ox, who was standing quietly
wondering what the deuce all the hubbub was about.  The furious charge
of the maddened cow into his unoffending flanks may, or may not, have
enlightened him on the point; anyhow, he resented the familiarity by
lashing out with his heels, one of which coming in violent contact with
the chin of his assailant had the effect of somewhat modifying that
exuberant animal's spirits, and she slunk off in aggrieved fashion, all
thoughts of vengeance at an end.

"By Jove!" said Claverton.  "Xuvani's a smart fellow.  That's one of the
neatest things I ever saw done."

The old Kafir grinned a little, and they went on with the programme.
After two or three more beasts had been branded, Jeffreys remarked:

"Now then, you fellows, there are lively times in store.  It's that
bull's turn.  I've been watching him, and he looks wicked--devilish
wicked."  He pointed to the young bull which had been troublesome in the
morning.

"All right," said Claverton.  "That's my speciality.  I made up my mind
to have the burning of that chap when I turned him back twenty-one times
this morning."

"The branding's nothing; it's the letting him up that's the fishy part,"
said Jeffreys, with a thinly-veiled sneer.

Noose in hand the Kafirs advanced towards the bull, who was standing in
a corner of the kraal, pawing up the ground, with his head down, and
rolling his eyes viciously.

"Look out," warned Hicks, "he's all ready for a charge!"

Scarcely were the words out of his mouth than the animal sprang forward
as the noose was thrown down in front of him; then, as he rushed over
it, the thong was tightened, and he fell sprawling on all-fours and
roaring hideously.  He plunged and struggled as for dear life, but
another jerk of the _reim_ threw him, and in ten seconds he was lying
bound and helpless.

"Now then, Tambusa, bring the iron.  Sharp's the word!" cried Claverton;
then receiving it, he deliberately imprinted a neat B upon his prostrate
foe, whose frenzied roars drowned the hissing of burnt flesh, as the
moist steam rose in clouds from his tortured thigh.

"By Jove, there's a spree sticking out!" said Hicks, emphatically.  "We
_shall_ have to mind our eye when he gets up.  Are you ready, Xuvani?"

"No, he isn't.  _I'm_ going to loosen the _reim_," answered Claverton,
preparing to make good his words.

"Bosh, old chap!  Better let him do it, he's used to it," remonstrated
Hicks.

"Devil a bit.  Now!  Stand aside!" and as the others made themselves
scarce, he drew off the noose, and the bull, springing to his feet,
vented his feelings in an appalling roar as he glared round in search of
somebody to pulverise.  As luck would have it, at this moment a cow
behind which Tambusa had taken refuge quietly walked away, thus
disclosing that unfortunate aboriginal to the full view of the
infuriated beast, which came straight at him there and then.  Now
Tambusa was a youthful Kafir, and naturally of a mild and unaggressive
disposition, and when he saw the fierce brute making for him, he lost
nerve and blindly fled.  The kraal gate towered in front of him, and
with the energy of despair he half leaped, half scrambled over it, and
his foot catching the topmost bar he was hurled headlong, half-stunned
and wholly bewildered, a dozen yards off upon the smooth green sward
outside.  His pursuer, without pausing, cleared the gate like a stag,
and there he lay entirely at the mercy of the infuriated bull.  Another
minute, and he would be gored and torn in pieces.  But a cool brain and
determined heart was between him and certain death.  Seizing his jacket
from the hedge whereon it had been flung, Claverton was through the
kraal gate in a twinkling, and not one second too soon, for the bull,
who had been carried on some fifty yards by the impetus of his leap, had
now turned, and with head lowered was thundering down upon his prostrate
prey, "brilling" [Note 1] savagely.  At this juncture Claverton darted
in front of him, and throwing out his jacket, after the manner of the
_cappa_ of a _torero_, he succeeded in drawing off the headlong charge,
which temporary respite Xuvani was able to make the most of by lugging
his young compatriot through the gate again.  Then the bull stopped,
glared for a moment, and with a terrific roar came at Claverton again.
This time he nimbly leapt aside, striking the animal across the eyes
with the jacket.  Had the bull charged at that moment it would probably
have gone hard with him, for what with the violent exertion and the
tension of the nerves, he was somewhat exhausted; but it did not.  And
what a picture was that upon the smooth sward.  There stood the red
savage brute, the sun glistening on his sleek hide and white horns,
lashing his tail and pawing up the ground with his hoofs; the foam
dropping from his mouth as with head lowered he gathered himself for one
more terrific rush.  Facing him ten yards off--his intrepid adversary,
unarmed and exposed to his full fury.  The spectators might well hold
their breath.  And yet as he slowly retreated step by step, and though
he never took his eyes off the bull, Claverton was aware of every single
movement that went on around him.  He knew that the doorway leading into
the garden was thronged, mistress and servant alike being attracted by
the frenzied roars of the maddened beast.  He saw Ethel faint dead away,
and then summoning up nerve and strength for one final effort, he flung
the coat right upon the gleaming horns of the ferocious brute, as with a
new fury begotten of its short respite it made its deadly charge.
Suddenly blinded, the bull stopped and began turning round and round in
its efforts to free itself, for the jacket had caught firmly on its
horns; but taking advantage of his dexterous _coup de main_, Claverton
was over the gate again and safe, while his antagonist, having amused
himself by tearing the garment to ribbons, trotted away down the kloof,
growling in baffled wrath.

"Well, he can go, we've done with him this time, but Heaven help any
nigger that has the ill luck to cross that chap's path within the next
quarter of an hour," were Claverton's first words.  He was panting and
breathless, but wanted to create a diversion from the string of
congratulations which he knew was forthcoming; for, of all things, he
hated a scene, and didn't see what there was to make a fuss about
because a fellow had had a little spree with a bull, to divert his
attention from a young idiot of a nigger who had been ass enough to
tumble head-over-heels just at the wrong moment.  Whatever his faults,
there wasn't a grain of vanity in the man.

"Now then, Xuvani--Piet!" he went on sharply, as the Kafirs, with a
chorus of emphatic "whouws," were gazing after the retreating form of
the cause of all the shindy.  "What the devil are you fellows staring
at?  Come on--fall to--we've lost enough time already."

They resumed operations.  Now and then a beast, when it was let up,
would run at the Kafirs, but in a bewildered, half-hearted sort of a
way, and without doing any damage; and all the younger cattle were
disposed of.  There yet remained four or five large oxen who had come
into their present owner's possession late in life, and who were to be
sealed.  These were not thrown down, however, but their heads made fast
to a post by a _reim_ round their horns, while with another _reim_ the
leg to be operated on was drawn out at tension.  They were sober, sedate
creatures who had undergone plenty of the troubles of life, common to
their race, in the shape of heavy loads, scarcity of water and often of
grass in dry seasons, but, as if to make up for it, a plentiful
allowance of whip; and took this additional affliction philosophically
enough.

The result of the day's doings was to open Jeffreys' eyes.  His
estimation of the other had undergone a considerable change since the
previous evening.  The dressed-up, finicking carpet skipper was fully
his own equal in pluck, and in cool-headedness immeasurably his
superior.  This he could not but recognise, though he regarded Claverton
with no increase of cordiality.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes, life would flow pleasantly enough in this unruffled fashion,
thought Claverton, as they were all strolling in the garden towards
sundown.  After the stirring events of the day, the quiet and rest of a
perfect evening seemed more than ordinarily grateful.  All was so still,
and calm, and soothing, and such sound as reached them seemed so
softened and mellowed by distance as to harmonise rather than to
disturb.  A dove cooed softly from an adjacent thorn-brake, and bees
returning to the old basket hive set in a nook in the wall, made a
tuneful hum upon the sensuous air.  Yonder a dragon-fly zigzagged on
gauzy wing above the glassy surface of the dam, seeking its prey among
the gnats whose chrysalids were hatched beneath the overhanging weeds.
Suddenly this idyllic scene was invaded by a brace of Kafirs.  They were
Xuvani and Tambusa, and they began to accost Claverton.

"What on earth do they want?  Something to do with that eternal bull, I
suppose.  I wish the brute had found its way into some butcher's shop
long ago!  Here, Hicks I come and interpret, there's a good fellow!"

"He says Tambusa is his sister's child, and that you saved his life,"
interpreted Hicks; "that is to say you saved his--Xuvani's life, Kafir
way of putting it, you know--and not only did you save his life, or
rather both their lives," went on Hicks, manfully unravelling the
native's long-winded oration; "but you nearly lost your own."

"That all?"

"No--don't interrupt him.  He says that they are grateful--both he and
the boy.  That the future is uncertain, and that we never know what turn
events will take--"

"He never spoke a truer word than that, anyhow."

"And that if ever at any time he or Tambusa can render you any service
they will do so, even should it be at the risk of their lives--a life
for a life--and that they are glad to have looked upon such a howling
big swell," concluded Hicks, with the result that Ethel was obliged to
turn away to stifle her laughter.

"Bosh, Hicks!  He didn't say that, you know."

"He did, upon my word.  At least, to be more literal, he said he was
glad to have looked upon so great a chief.  But my rendering was more
euphonious--more poetical, don't you see?"

Then Tambusa knelt down and kissed his rescuer's foot, and the two
Kafirs withdrew.  Claverton looked after them with a curious expression.

"That's all too thickly laid on," he said.  "Gratitude, `lively sense of
favours to come,' _i.e._ prospective 'bacco.  H'm! much too thick!"

"What a dreadful person you are!" expostulated Ethel.  "Why shouldn't
they mean what they say?  I declare that speech of Xuvani's was a
perfect flower of savage poetry, and you don't know what a good fellow
he is.  I think it's quite horrid of you to throw cold water on him."

"So it would be if I had.  The noble savage don't affect that fluid much
as a rule in any state of temperature."

Did the Kafir mean what he said?  We shall see.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1.  Frontier term for the growling noise which is neither roar nor
bellow, made by enraged cattle.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER EIGHT.

SPOEK KRANTZ.

It is Sunday.

Ride we behind the horseman who is picking his way down a stony path
through the ever present bush, making for yon thatched building down
there in the hollow.  A low, rough shanty, built in the roughest and
readiest fashion, and of the rawest of red brick.  Three windows,
cobwebbed and cloudy with many a patched-up pane of blue or brown paper,
admit light and air, and a door made to open in halves.  A smaller
edifice hard by, with tumble-down mud walls and in a state of more or
less rooflessness, does duty as a stable, and in front of the two an
open space slopes down a distance of one hundred and fifty yards to the
river, whose limpid waters dash and sparkle over their stony bed,
between cactus-lined banks--the stubbornly encroaching and well-nigh
ineradicable prickly pear.  Opposite rises a great cliff, whose base and
sides are set in the greenest and most luxuriant of forest trees, but
whose brow, like its stern face, is bare of foliage and stands out in
hard relief against the sky.  There seems no reason why this cliff
should be there at all, seeing that the hill would have been far more
symmetrical without it, unless in its wild irregularity it were destined
for the purpose alone of giving a magnificent--if a trifle forbidding--
frontage to the ill-looking and commonplace dwelling-house.  On all
sides the towering heights rise to the sky, shutting in this beautiful
and romantic spot which might be a veritable Sleepy Hollow, so far does
it seem from the sights and the sounds of men.  But it must be confessed
that its beauty and romance are utterly thrown away upon its present
occupant, who is wont to describe the place as "a beastly stifling hole
out of which I'd be only too glad to clear to-morrow, by Jove; but then
one can't chuck up the lease, you know, and it isn't half a bad place
for stock, too."  It rejoices in the inviting name of Spoek Krantz
(Ghost Cliff), and is held in awe and terror as an unholy and
demon-peopled locality by the superstitions natives, as well as by the
scarcely less superstitious Boer; and gruesome tales are told of
unearthly sights and sounds among the rocky caves at its base; shadowy
shapes and strange fearful cries, and now and again mysterious fires are
seen burning upon its ledges in the dead of night, while the most
careful exploration the next morning has utterly failed to discover the
smallest trace of footprint or cinder.  Native tradition has stamped the
spot as one to be avoided, for the spirit of a mighty wizard claims it
as his resting-place.  Even by day the place, shut in by its frowning
heights, is lonely and forbidding of aspect.

But utterly impervious to supernatural terrors is he who now dwells in
the haunted locality.  The grim traditions of a savage race are to him
as mere old wives' fables, and he laughs to scorn all notion of any
awesome associations whatever.  He would just like to see a ghost, that
was all, any and every night you pleased; if he didn't make it lively
for the spectral visitant with a bullet, call him a nigger.  Yes, he
would admit seeing strange lights on the cliff at times, and hearing
strange sounds; but to ascribe them to supernatural agency struck him as
utter bosh.  The lights were caused by a moonlight reflection, or
will-o'-the-wisps, or something of that sort; and the row, why, it was
only some jackal yowling in the krantz, and as for getting in a funk
about it, that would do for the niggers or white-livered Dutchmen, but
not for him.  Tradition said that there was a secret cavern in the
cliff, but the entrance was known to very few even among the natives
themselves, and only to their most redoubted magicians.  Certain it is
that no Kafir admitted knowledge of this, and when questioned carefully
evaded the subject.

And now, as the horseman we have been following emerges from the bush on
to the open space surrounding the low-roofed, thatched shanty, a man is
seated in his shirt-sleeves on a stone in front of the door, intently
watching something upon the ground.  It is a large circular glass cover,
such as might be used for placing over cheese or fruit; but to a very
different use is it now being put.  For imprisoned within it are two
scorpions of differing species--a red one and a black one--hideous
monsters, measuring five inches from their great lobster-like claws to
the tip of their armed tails, and there they crouch, each upon one side
of its glass prison-house, both, evidently, in that dubious state aptly
known among schoolboys as "one's funky, and t'other's afraid."

"Hold on a bit," called out the man in the shirt sleeves, but without
turning his head, as the trampling of hoofs behind him warned of the
approach of a visitor, "or, at any rate, come up quietly."

"Why, what in the name of all that's blue have you got there?" demanded
Hicks, dismounting; for he it is whom we have accompanied to this
out-of-the-way spot.  "Well, I'm blest?" he continued, going off into a
roar of laughter as he approached near enough to see the other's
occupation.

"Tsh! tsh!  Don't make such an infernal row, man, you'll spoil all the
fun, and make me lose my bet."

"What's the bet?"

"Why, I've got five goats against that blue schimmel heifer of old
Jafta's on these two beggars, that the black one'll polish off the red
'un; but they are to go at it of their own accord, and now I've been
watching them for the last half-hour, but the beggars won't fight,"
replied the other, still without moving, or even so much as looking over
his shoulder.

"Stir them up a bit," suggested Hicks.

"Can't; it'd scratch the bet."

"Where's Jafta?"

"Oh, he wouldn't wait.  Went away laughing in his sleeve.  He'll laugh
the other side of his mouth, the old _schelm_, when he has to fork out."

"Well, you must have been hard up for some one to run a bet with.  A
nice little occupation, too, for a Sunday morning," replied Hicks, with
sham irony.

"Sunday be somethinged.  There's no Sunday on the frontier.  Hullo!"

This exclamation was the result of a change of attitude on the part of
the grisly denizens of the glass.  Slack began slowly to move round the
circumference of his prison, in process of which he cannoned against
red, and Greek met Greek.  With claws interlaced, the venomous brutes
plied their sting-armed tails like a couple of striving demons, till at
length their grip relaxed, and red fell over on his back with his legs
doubled up and rigid.

"Hooroosh!  I've won," called out our new acquaintance, jumping up
gleefully.  "Hi!  Jafta, Jafta!" he bawled, anxious to notify his
triumph over his sceptical retainer.

"Hold on; not so fast," put in Hicks, "t'other fellow's a gone coon,
too, or not far from it.  Look," he added, pointing to the glass.

And in good sooth the victor began to show signs of approaching
dissolution, which increased to such an extent, that in a couple of
minutes he lay as rigid and motionless as the vanquished.

"Never mind, it all counts.  He did polish off the other.  Jafta, we'll
put my mark on that cow to-morrow."

"Nay, Baas," demurred that ancient servitor, who had just come up.  He
was a wiry little old Hottentot, with a yellow skin, and beady monkey
eyes, and as ugly as the seven deadly sins.  "Nay, Baas, the bet's an
even one; neither thrashed the other.  Isn't it so, Baas Hicks?"

"Well, as you put it to me, I think the bet's a draw," began Hicks.

"Oh, no, that won't do," objected Jafta's master, "the black did polish
off the red, you know.  If he went off himself afterwards, it was owing
to his uneasy conscience.  That wasn't provided for in the agreement.
But never mind, Jafta, you can keep your old `stomp-stert' this time."
[Note 1.]

The old Hottentot grinned all over his parchment countenance, and the
numerous and grimy wrinkles thereof puckered themselves like the skin of
a withered apple.  He, and his two sons, strapping lads of eighteen and
nineteen, constituted the whole staff of farm servants.  No Kafir could
be induced to stay on the place, owing to its weird associations; a
circumstance which, according to its occupant, was not without its
compensating advantage, for the marauding savage, in his nocturnal
forays, at any rate kept his hands off these flocks and herds.  The old
fellow, however, was fairly faithful to his employer, though not
scrupulously honest in all his dealings with the rest of mankind at
large; the place suited him, and as for ghosts, well, he had never seen
anything to frighten him.

And now the jolly frontiersman, who has been driven to so eccentric a
form of Sabbath amusement, rises, and we see a man of middle height,
with a humorous and gleeful countenance; in his eyes there lurks a
mirthful twinkle, and every sun-tanned lineament bespeaks "a character."
And he is a character.  Always on the look-out for the whimsical side
of events, he is light-hearted to childishness, and has a disastrous
weakness for the perpetration of practical jokes--a vein of humour far
more entertaining to its possessor than to its victims--and game to bet
upon any and every contingency.  He is about thirty, and his name is
Jack Armitage.

"Well, Hicks, old man," said this worthy.  "Taken pity on my lonely
estate, eh?  That's right; we'll make a day of it.  Had breakfast?"

"No."

"More have I; we'll have it now.  Er--Jafta!" he shouted, "Jafta!  Wheel
up those chops.  Sharp's the word."

"Ya, Baas.  Just now?" called out that menial, and from the kitchen
sounds of hissing and sputtering betokened the preparation of a
succulent fry.

"Just now!  Only listen.  Why, he'll be twenty minutes at least."

"Not he," said Hicks; "he's nearly ready, I can smell that much."

"Nearly ready!  Give you a dollar to five bob he's twenty minutes from
now.  Is that on?" he inquired, putting out his watch to take the time.
[Rix dollar, 1 shilling 6 pence.]

"No, it isn't.  I'm not going to encourage your disgraceful and sporting
proclivities," was the reply, as they entered the house.  Three
partitions boasted this domicile--a bedroom, a sitting-room, and the
kitchen aforesaid.  Of ceiling it was wholly guiltless, the sole canopy
overhead being plain, unadulterated thatch; and the mud floor, plastered
over with cow-dung, after the manner of the rougher frontier houses,
gave forth a musty, uninviting odour, which it required all the ingress
of the free air of Heaven to atone for.  A large, roomy wooden press,
and a row of shelves, with a green baize curtain in front, stood against
the whitewashed wall, and in the middle of the room a coarse cloth was
laid upon the wooden table, with a couple of plates and knives and
forks.  Armitage dived into the press and produced a great brown loaf, a
tin of milk, and a mighty jar of quince jam.

"Hallo! the ants are in possession again," said he, surveying the jar,
whence issued an irregular crowd of those industrious insects--too
industrious sometimes.  "Never mind, we can dodge them; besides, they
are fattening.  Ah, that's right, Jafta,"--as that worthy entered with a
dish of fizzing chops in one hand and a pot of strong black coffee in
the other.  "Now we can fall to."

"By the way, I shall have to go back soon," said Hicks.  "I only came to
see if any of those sheep we lost had got in amongst Van Rooyen's, and
thought I'd sponge on you for a feed whilst I was down this way."

"Oh, that can't be allowed; I thought you had come to help a fellow kill
Sunday.  Hang it, man, don't be in a hurry; stop and have some rifle
practice, and then we can take out that bees' nest down by the river.
Ah, but I forgot," he added, with a quizzical wink.  "Never mind, my
boy; I don't want to spoil fun, you'll be better employed at home."

Hicks was sorely puzzled.  He was a good-natured fellow, and could see
that the other had reckoned upon his company for the day.  Yet he had
his reasons for wanting to get back.  "Look here, Jack," he said, at
length, "I'll tell you what we'll do.  I'll hold on here a little and
help you to get out that bees' nest, then you can go back with me and
we'll get to Seringa Vale just nicely in time for dinner.  Will that
do?"

"All right," assented the other, "that'll do me well enough.  I've had
nothing but my own blessed company for the last fortnight, except for a
Dutchman or two now and again, and a little jaw with my fellow creatures
will do me a world of good.  By the way, is that chap Claverton still
with you?"

"Yes.  How d'you like him?"

"Oh, he seems good enough sort, but about the most casual bird I ever
saw.  He was down here one day; did he tell you about it?  No!  Well,
then, a couple of Dutchmen came in--Swaart Pexter and his brother
Marthinus--and Swaart, who is one of your bragging devils and `down on'
a `raw Englishman' like a ton of bricks, after yarning a little while
points to Claverton, who was sitting over there blowing a cloud in his
calm way, and says rather cheekily: `Who's that?'  I told him.  `Can he
talk Dutch?' was the next question.  `Don't know,' says I.  `How long
has he been in this country?' says he.  `Tell him a year,' says
Claverton, quietly, without moving a muscle.  I told him.  `A year!'
says Pexter, turning up his nose more cheekily than before.  `A year and
can't talk Dutch yet!  He must be _domm_,' [stupid].  Thereupon
Claverton looks the fellow bang in the eyes, and says in Dutch, `Can you
talk English?'  `No!' replies Pexter, with a stare of astonishment.
`And how long have _you_ been here?'  `Been here!' says the other, with
a contemptuous laugh at this--to him--new proof of the other fellow's
greenness.  `Why, I was born here.'  `How old are you?' goes on
Claverton in a tone of friendly interest.  `Forty-seven last May,' says
the Dutchman, wondering what the deuce is coming next.  `Forty-seven
last May!' repeats our friend, calmly knocking the ash out of his pipe.
`That is, you have been in this country forty-seven years, and can't
talk English yet.  Well, you must be _domm_!'  I roared and so did
Marthinus.  `Got you there, old chap,' says I.  Swaart Pexter looked
rather shirty and tried to laugh it off, but Claverton had him.  Had
him, sir, fairly--lock, stock, and barrel.  Well, after a while we went
outside and stuck up a bottle at four hundred yards to have some rifle
practice.  The Dutchmen are first-rate shots, and I--well, a buck or a
nigger would be anything but safe in front of me at that distance--but I
give you my word that none of us could touch that bottle.  When we had
fired a dozen shots apiece and nearly covered the beastly thing with
dust, and ploughed up the ground all round it as if a thunderbolt had
fallen, out saunters Claverton with a yellow-backed novel in his fist.
`Doesn't your friend shoot?' asks Marthinus.  `Suppose so,' says I.
`Have a shot, Claverton!'  `Don't mind,' says he, taking over my gun.  I
could see a malicious grin on Swaart's ugly mug, and hugely was he
preparing to chuckle over the `raw Englishman's' wide shooting.
Claverton lay down, and without much aiming--bang--crash--we could
hardly believe our eyes--the bottle had flown.  By Jove it had.  `Well
done,' says I, `but do that again, old chap'; yes, it was mean of me, I
allow, but I couldn't help it.  `Don't want to do for all your bottles,
Armitage,' says my joker as quietly as you please, as I sent the boy to
stick up another, and I had just time to start a bet of five bob with
Marthinus in his favour when--bang--and, by Jove, sir, would you believe
it? that bottle shared the fate of the first.  Well, we _were_
astonished.  `Aren't you going to shoot any more?' says Marthinus,
handing over the five bob with a very bad grace.  `Too hot out here,'
replies he, sloping into the shade of the house; and diving his nose
into the yellow-back again, leaves us to our bottle-breaking or rather
to our attempts at the same, for I'm dashed if we touched one after
that.  After the Pexters had gone I says, `Look here, old chap, we'll
have a quiet match between ourselves, five bob on every dozen shots--you
shall give me odds.'  `My dear fellow,' says he, `odds should be the
other way about.  I shan't touch that bottle again three times if I
blaze away at it the whole morning.'  `The Lord, you won't,' says I;
`never mind, let's try.'  He did, and was as good as his word, and
handed over fifteen bob at the close of the entertainment, having hit
the mark twice to my seven times.  `And how the deuce did you pink it
before--twice running can't be a fluke, you know?'  I asked, when we had
done.  `Well, you see, those louts were bent on seeing me shoot wide, so
I held straight just to spite them,' was his cool answer.  But didn't he
tell you all about it?"

"Not a word," said Hicks.  "He just said he had been down here, and a
couple of slouching Dutchmen had looked in and tried to take a rise out
of him, but didn't manage it."

"Well, he is a rum stick and no mistake.  What's in the wind now?" and
as the trampling of hoofs fell upon the speaker's ear, he got up hastily
and made for the door, knocking over a wooden chair in his progress, and
treading on the tail of a mongrel puppy which had sneaked in and was
lying under the table, and which now fled, yelling disconsolately.
"Here come two chaps," he went on, shading his eyes from the sun's glare
and looking out into the _veldt_.  "Dutchmen--no--one is--David Botha, I
think; t'other's Allen--no mistaking him.  Wheu-uw!  Now for some fun,
Hicks, my boy.  We'll make him help us with the bees' nest, and if you
don't kill yourself with almighty blue fits, call me a nigger."

The two drew near.  The Boer with his stolid, wooden face, slouch hat
(round which was twined a faded blue veil), and bob-tailed and ancient
tail-coat, was an ordinary specimen of his class and nation.  The
Englishman, however, was not.  He was rather a queer-looking fellow,
tall and loosely-built, with a great mop of yellow hair and an absent
expression of countenance.  His age might have been five or
six-and-twenty.  He had not been long in the colony, and was
theoretically supposed to be farming.  On horseback Allen was quaint of
aspect.  His seat in the saddle would not have been a good advertisement
to his riding-master, putting it mildly, and he invariably rode screws.
Moreover, he was great on jack-boots and huge spurs.

"Good day, David," said Armitage, as the Boer extended a damp and
uncleanly paw.  "Hallo, Allen! you're just in the nick of time.  We are
just going to get out a bees' nest, and you must come and bear a hand."

"But--er--I'm not much use at that sort of thing.  Botha will help you
much better."

"Won't do, old chap--won't do," said Armitage, decisively.  "In the
words of the poet, `Not to-day, baker!'  So come along."

Allen's jaw fell.  If there was one thing on this earth he hated, it was
depriving the little busy bee of the hard-earned fruits of his labours,
not on humanitarian grounds--oh, no--but the despoiled insects had a
knack of buzzing viciously around the noses and ears of the depredators
and their accomplices in a way that was highly trying to weak nerves, to
say nothing of the absolute certainty of two or three stings, if not
half-a-dozen.  He glanced instinctively towards David Botha as though
mutely to ask: "Why the deuce won't _he_ do?"  But that stolid Boer sat
puffing away at his pipe, and showed no inclination to come to the
rescue.

"Hicks, give Allen one of those big tins to put the honey in while I
hunt up some brown paper to make a smoke with," said Armitage, as they
went into the house.  It had been arranged that Allen should hold the
receptacle for the honey, otherwise he would inevitably have sloped off.

They went down to the river bank, Armitage leading the way.  A keg fixed
in the fork of a small tree constituted the hive, and the busy insects
were winging in and out with a murmuring hum.  Armitage divested himself
of his coat so that the bees shouldn't get up the sleeves, as he said,
and slouched his hat well over his face and neck; then with a chisel he
removed the head of the keg, while Hicks ignited the brown paper and
made the very deuce of a smoke.

"Not much in it--quite the wrong time of year to take it," said
Armitage, as the waxen combs in the hive were disclosed to view.  "Never
mind, they'll make a lot more.  Oh-h!" as one of the outraged insects
playfully stung him on the ear.  "Come a little nearer, Allen;" and he
threw a couple of combs into the tin dish, while Hicks stood close at
hand plying the smoke with all the energy of a Ritualistic thurifer.

"Oh-h--ah!" echoed Allen, in dismal staccato, as he received a sting on
the hand, and another on the back of the neck.

"Hang it, man, don't drop the concern!" exclaimed Armitage, pitching
another comb or two into the large tin; nor was the warning altogether
ill-timed, for poor Allen was undergoing a _mauvais quart d'heure_ with
a vengeance, ducking his head spasmodically as the angry insects
"bizzed" savagely around his ears, and all the time looking intensely
wretched under the infliction.

And in truth the fun began to wax warm.  Armitage's hat was invisible
beneath the clusters of bees which swarmed over it, while others were
crawling about on his clothes.  Now and then he would give vent to an
ejaculation, as a sting, inflicted more viciously than usual, told
through even his hardened skin; but he kept on manfully at his task,
cutting out the combs and depositing them in the tin, while the air was
filled with buzzing angry bees and suffocating smoke.

"Think we've got enough now," he said at last, drawing his face out of
the cask, and quickly heading up the latter.  Allen, to whom this dictum
was like a reprieve to a condemned criminal, gave a sigh of relief, and
began to breathe freely again.  But his self-gratulation was somewhat
premature, for at that moment a bee insinuated itself into his thick,
frizzly-hair just above the neck, and began stinging like mad.  Crash!
Down went the tin containing the honey-combs, while the victim danced
and capered and executed the most grotesque contortions for a moment;
then, in a perfect frenzy, away he rushed to the nearest point of the
river--a long, deep reach--where he plunged his head into the water, and
losing his centre of gravity, ended by incontinently tumbling in, while
the spectators were obliged to lie down and indulge their paroxysms of
uncontrollable mirth to the very uttermost.

"Oh, oh, oh-h-h!" roared Armitage.  "P-pick him out, some one; I'm n-not
equal to it."  And he lay back on the sward and howled again.

And in good sooth the warning came none too soon, for at that point the
current flowed swift and deep, and poor Allen, what with his exertions
and the weight of his jack-boots, was in a state of dire exhaustion, and
a few moments more would have put an end to his hopes and fears.  Hicks
and the Dutchman, who had managed to recover themselves, ran down to the
water's edge, and shouted to him to seize a branch which swept the
surface, and at length the involuntary swimmer was fished out and stood
dripping and shivering, and looking inexpressibly foolish, on the bank.

"Oh-h, Lord! oh, Lord!" roared Armitage, bursting out afresh as he
picked up the fallen tin, and gathered up the fragments that remained.
"I never saw anything to beat that, by the holy poker I never did!  Come
along, old man.  We'll tog you out while I get out some of these stings.
The brutes must have been under the impression that I was a jolly
pincushion, and have used me accordingly."

"Dud--dud--don't think I'll go up to Seringa Vale to-day," stuttered
Allen, as soon as he recovered breath.  He feared the chaff which he
knew full well awaited him on the strength of this latest escapade.

"Nonsense, man!  We'll tog you out in no time, and then we'll all ride
over together and have a jolly day of it," said Armitage.

Allen yielded, and was speedily arrayed in various garments which didn't
fit him.  The jack-boots were inevitably left behind, to the great
concern of their owner, for there was no possibility of their being dry
before sundown at the earliest.  Towards noon the horses were brought
round and saddled, and having locked up the house the three started,
while the Dutchman took his leave and rode off home to regale his
_vrouw_ and _hinders_, and his cousins and his aunts, with the story--
highly coloured--of the "raw Englishman's" discomfiture.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1.  "Stump tail."  Taillessness is frequent among colonial cattle--
the result of inoculation.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER NINE.

IN WHICH THE READER BECOMES A PARTY TO MORE CHAFF.

They rode merrily along, or rather two of them did, for ever and anon
Allen's steed would drop behind, and its sorry pace wax slower and
slower, till at length, taking advantage of its rider's abstraction, it
would stop and snatch up a tuft of grass here and there by the way-side.

"What the deuce has become of that fellow again?" exclaimed Armitage for
the fifth time since their start, as he rose in his stirrups and turned
to look back.  "Hi--Allen.  Come on, man, we shan't get there to-night!"
he bawled.

"All right," echoed feebly from afar; and the white top of a pith
helmet, which had escaped its owner's immersion, hove in sight over the
scrub like a peripatetic mushroom, as the laggard came trotting up.

"Come on!  We thought you had got another bee in your bonnet," was
Armitage's salutation.  "Hi--Bles you _schelm_--hold up!"  This to his
horse, which started violently as something sprang up at its very feet;
something lithe and red, with curious pointed ears, which darted away
over the ground with lightning speed.  "A _rooi-cat_ [lynx], by Moses!"
he went on, "after some of the late lambs.  Hicks, _where is_ that old
shooting-iron of yours?" and thinking that though powerless to hurt the
objectionable feline, at any rate he could frighten it, Armitage opened
his mouth and gave vent to a true Kafir war yell, which certainly had
the desired effect.

"Didn't bring it.  Sunday, you know; must respect people's prejudices,"
replies Hicks.

"Oh, Lord! and I would have liked to have peppered that chap's hide,"
groaned Armitage.

They rode on over hill and dale.  Suddenly the rasping cry of the wild
guinea-fowl brought Hicks' heart into his mouth, and he certainly did
not bless the good old-world prejudice in deference to which he had left
his beloved gun at home on the first day of the week, and as a cloud of
those splendid game birds rose from a grassy bottom within a few yards
of them and winged away with their chattering note, poor Hicks fairly
groaned.

"Look at that.  Only look at that!" he exclaimed in tones of wrathful
disgust.  "Such a chance; did you ever see them rise like that!  When a
fellow has his gun and is all ready for them, blest if they won't run
hundreds of yards before they'll get up, whereas--"

"I suppose they know it's Sunday," put in Allen, with a feeble attempt
at chaff.

The other turned from him impatiently, without replying.  Good-natured
as he was habitually, there were moments when even Hicks felt
justifiably cantankerous.  This was one of them.

They continued their way without event, and, cresting the last ridge,
descended into the long valley, at whose head stood the old farmhouse.

"Hallo! some one's turned up," said Armitage, indicating the white tent
of a Cape cart, which stood outspanned before the stable-door, with the
harness lying beside the swingle bars.

"Looks like Naylor's trap," said Hicks.

"Good.  The more the merrier," rejoined Armitage, as they cantered up
and dismounted.

An air of perfect rest and peace seemed to enshroud the place, as though
nature would supply the absence of all outward signs of the Sabbath.
The gates of the empty kraals stood open, and save for a sickly sheep or
two feeding about near the homestead, there was not a sign of animal
life.  Here and there a long rakish-looking hornet flitted beneath the
leaves of a trellised vine, or sought the entrance of his pendulous
paper-like nest in the verandah.  In the garden a few butterflies
disported, vying with the flowers in their bright colours; and big
bumble-bees boomed in the burning glow of the noonday sun.  There was
that about the sultry stillness which warned of thunder in the air, a
presage not unlikely to be borne out towards evening, judging from the
great solid bank of clouds which loomed up blackly from behind the
distant mountains.

Hicks was right as to the identity of the visitors, whose conveyance
they had descried.  Edward Naylor, Mr Brathwaite's son-in-law, a jolly
bluff frontiersman, whose weather-tanned face heavily bearded, was the
soul of geniality, was seated on the disselboom of a waggon, discoursing
on the state of the country with his host.  His wife, a pretty,
fair-haired woman of about thirty, was sitting with Ethel and Laura in
the verandah, and was at that moment arbitrating, amid much laughter, in
an argument which the former had started with Claverton, by way of
passing the time.

"Hallo, Armitage," said that worthy, as the new arrivals drew nigh.  "I
was expecting to be summoned to your funeral."

"My funeral!  What the dev--er--what d'you mean?"

"Well, you see, it's such a time since I beheld the light of your
countenance that I began to think you must be dead."

"Wheuw!  That's what I call a cheerful greeting," replied Armitage,
shaking hands with the rest of the party.

The two who had been talking shop now appeared on the scene.

"How do, Armitage?  Hallo, Allen, who's your outrigger?" said Naylor,
eyeing the unwonted garb of that luckless youth, which garb bore
unmistakable appearance of makeshift from head to foot.

"Er--I stumbled into the river, and--"

"What; boots and all?"  There was a joke about Allen's jack-boots, which
he was seldom seen without.

"`What is good for a bootless bene?'" quoted Claverton.  "Never mind,
Allen, don't you let them chaff you."

Naylor was an inveterate joker.  When he and Armitage got together the
same room would hardly hold them, and when the two got Allen between
them, then, Heaven help Allen.  Now this is precisely what happened, for
at that moment the dinner-bell rang, and all adjourned to the festive
board, when, as luck would have it, the unfortunate youth found
himself--partly owing to that curious practice which is, or was, so
often found in frontier houses, of all the men hanging together on one
side of the table, leaving the other to the fair sex--in the
neighbourhood of his tormentors; but he was a good-natured fellow, and
took chaff very equably.

"I say," began Armitage, "here's a riddle--a regular Sunday one."

"Is there?  Roll it up this way," said Claverton, from the other end of
the table, where he was seated between Mrs Naylor and Ethel, for he
resolutely defied the dividing custom above mentioned.

"Here you are, then.  Why is Allen like Moses?" asked Armitage.

"Oh, villainous!" laughed Claverton.  "Don't anybody attempt it.  I
really think you might trot out something a little more original,
Armitage."

Of course, every one then and there tried hard to solve the conundrum,
and, of course, half of them gave it up, and, of course, the reply came
even as was to be expected: "Because he was drawn out of the water."

"Oh-h!" groaned the whole party; while the object of the aqueous jest
sat and grinned placidly, and made play with his knife and fork as
though he were the perpetrator of it instead of its butt.

"I say, Allen," put in Naylor, on the other side, "has that shooting
match between you and Hicks come off yet?"

"What are the conditions?" asked Armitage.

"Dollar a side--Target, the shearing-house door--Distance, five yards--
Hicks to be allowed four yards on account of his want of practice.  I'll
bet on Hicks;" and the speaker roared at his own sorry wit.

"Eh! what's that about me?" called out Hicks from the other end of the
table, which was longer than usual, by reason of the advent of the
Naylors with their five olive-branches.  He had just caught his name.

"Nothing, old man, nothing; we were only talking of those three
guinea-fowl you shot this morning, coming up," replied Armitage,
grinning mischievously.

"But bother it, I had no gun," said Hicks, thrown off his guard for the
moment by this bare-faced accusation of Sabbath-breaking, and fairly
losing his head as he caught a reproachful glance from Laura, which
seemed to say: "Didn't you promise me you'd leave your gun at home when
you went out this morning?"  For he had confidentially imparted to her
his intention to take the trusty shooting-iron, as he was starting so
early that there would be no one about to be scandalised; and Laura, who
had her own ideas of right and wrong, had peremptorily forbidden his
doing anything of the kind.

"I say!" exclaimed Armitage, with admirably-feigned amazement.  He had
taken in the other's look of confusion, and, incorrigible joker as he
was, resolved to turn it to his own mischief-loving account.

"But, confound it!" began Hicks, wrathfully; for that mute upbraiding
glance made him really savage with his tormentor, who he thought was
carrying the joke too far.  Chaff was all very well, but this kind of
thing went beyond chaff, and he would give him a piece of his mind
by-and-by.

"Er--n-no--of course--you hadn't a gun--I forgot--er--I--was thinking of
yesterday," rejoined Armitage, with the well-simulated air of a man who
has "put his foot in it," and is endeavouring to withdraw that unlucky
member--and endeavouring deucedly badly, too.

"I say, Jack, what about the scorpion fight, eh?" and Hicks proceeded to
narrate how he had found that unscrupulous joker in the thick of the
useful and intellectual little amusement at which we saw him in the last
chapter, thus drawing upon him the laughter and sallies of the
assemblage, under cover of which he said quietly to Laura: "I didn't
really take the gun this morning, 'pon my word of honour I didn't; it's
only that fellow's lies.  He might draw the line somewhere; chaff's all
very well, you know, but hang it, that's beyond a joke."

"Yes, I think it's really too bad of him.  I oughtn't to have thought
you did what you told me you wouldn't do," she replied, with an almost
imperceptible stress on "me," and a glance which Hicks thought fully
compensated for the former doubt.  Leave we them beneath the friendly
shelter of the noise at the other end of the table, and turn to the
rest.

"Don't care, I won my bet," Armitage was saying.

"What!  And so you were betting on it, too--and on Sunday!  I think it's
disgraceful of you," said Ethel.

"He's come up here to be reformed," put in Allen.

"Oh, you needn't talk," said Armitage, turning off the attack on to the
last speaker.  "Miss Brathwaite, what do you think of a fellow who comes
down to my place on a Sunday, and bothers me to take out a bees' nest;
on a Sunday, too!"

There was a great laugh at this.  The notion of Allen bothering any one
to take out a bees' nest, Sunday or any other day, struck them all as
ineffably rich.  He would rather travel twenty miles than embark
knowingly in that lively enterprise.  And then the joke about the
stings, and the plunge into the river came out, and poor Allen was
roasted unmercifully on the strength of it, and the fun grew apace, when
a vivid flash darting in upon them, and playing upon the knives and
glasses with a blue steely gleam, brought the conversation up with a
round turn.

"We shall have a storm," said Mr Brathwaite, glancing at the window.
The deep azure of the heavens had become dark and overcast, and even as
he spoke there pealed forth a long, angry roll of thunder.

A general move from the table now took place, and every one adjourned to
the verandah, which looked out on the wide sweep of country constituting
the great charm of the situation of the house.  But now the joyous
sunlight had disappeared, and the earth slept in a dread and boding
stillness.  Tall pillars of cloud, black as night, moved steadily on,
their jagged edges taking the forms and faces of hideous and
open-mouthed monsters.  All nature seemed waiting for the battle of the
forces of the air, the discharge of the pent-up cloud artillery which
was to strike the awed surface of earth with its blasting fire.  Then,
athwart the hot, listening deadness of the atmosphere comes a dazzling
flash, bathing the valley in a sea of flame; and a roll of thunder,
long, loud, and close at hand, makes the expectant group, which is
standing on the verandah to watch the storm, involuntarily start, and
the silence is more intense than before.  And now a great chain of fire
shoots from the blackness immediately overhead, and before you could
count one, an appalling crash shakes the solid old house to its very
foundations, while the windows rattle like castanets.

"Let's go inside," suggested Ethel; "I don't like this."

"It's getting wicked," said Armitage.  "It was just such a shot as this
that killed old Simmonds.  That was up in Kaffraria, where the storms
are about as bad as anywhere.  He and I were standing in the doorway
watching the fun; I went in to light my pipe, and while I was fumbling
about for the matches something knocked me clean over, and I heard a
bang and a crash enough to wake the dead.  At first I thought I had
upset the crockery shelf on top of me; but no, there it stood; then my
head felt queer, and there was a smell of burning about the place.  Then
I remembered, and got up and went to the door.  There lay poor Simmonds,
half in and half out, as dead as a log.  The lightning had caught him
bang on the head, burnt his coat and waistcoat to rags, and mauled him
about horribly.  I can tell you it wasn't a nice thing for a fellow to
see, having just narrowly escaped the same luck himself--Ah!"

Again a sheet of flame darts down, and a roar and a crash as of the
discharge of a dozen eighty-one-ton guns follows upon it.  This time
they beat a retreat indoors; and when they had a little recovered from
the momentary shock, Armitage goes on.

"Well, as I was saying, poor Simmonds was so knocked about, that his
early sepulture became a matter of necessity; besides, the first thing
to do was to get him into the house.  He was enormously heavy, and I
couldn't get a Kafir on the place to give me a hand.  Not for the cattle
upon a thousand hills will they so much as touch anything that has been
killed by lightning with the end of their little fingers, and the
nearest neighbour was twenty miles off.  However, I managed to lug the
poor fellow in, and the next day we buried him."

"That's a cheerful old yarn of yours, Jack, and well calculated to
reassure Miss Brathwaite," struck in Claverton.

"I believe he's only trying to frighten us," said Ethel.

"'Pon my word of honour, every word of what I told you's true,"
protested Armitage; and with that love for the horrific implanted in the
human breast, one story led to another, and the storm raved and flashed
without, and a few preliminary hailstones rattled at intervals upon the
roof.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TEN.

CAVEANT!

"Well, you'll have a fine day for your ride.  Hicks, leave a buck or two
up at Jim's in case I should be coming over.  I suppose you'll all be
back the day after to-morrow.  Good-bye."

The speaker was Mr Brathwaite; the spoken to, an equestrian group of
four, consisting of Claverton, Hicks, and the two girls, who were
starting on a long-promised visit to Jim Brathwaite's place, where a
bushbuck hunt was to be organised on the following day.  It was the
morning after the narrow escape of the luckless Allen from a watery
demise--he and Armitage had returned home to fetch their guns, and were
to rejoin the others at the farm of a certain Dutchman who abode
half-way.  The Naylors had gone on ahead in their trap, and the four
equestrians were the last to start.  And such a morning!  The rain had
cleared away, and the great deep vault overhead was unflecked by a
single feathery cloud.  The sun shot his golden darts from his amber
wheel, and the outlines of the mountains slept in soft-toned relief
beneath the liquid blue.  A perfect day, with exhilaration in every
breath of the fresh, healthy atmosphere, now cooled by the thunderstorm
and rain of the previous evening.  And the glorious freshness and
radiant sunlight communicated itself to the spirits of the riders, as
they cantered gaily along, chatting and laughing in thorough enjoyment
of the unclouded present.

"Now, Mr Claverton," cried Ethel, as their horses bounded along over a
smooth level stretch, "we'll have our race--I'm to have a hundred yards
start, you know.  Shall we begin?"

"On no account.  I received strict injunctions from your aunt not to let
you do anything rash, and I intend exerting my authority to the
uttermost."

"Do you?  Well now, why don't you say you're afraid of being beaten?
You are, you know.  I'll tell you what.  _You_ shall have the hundred
yards start.  We shall easily walk in before that lazy old `Sticks,'
shan't we, Springbok, my beauty?" she said, banteringly, patting the
neck of her steed, a light, elastic-stepping animal with blood and
mettle in him, who arched his neck and shook his mane in response to the
caress.  She sat him to perfection, the little hand bearing ever so
lightly on the reins; and in a habit fitting her like a glove, and a
coquettish straw hat surrounded by a sweeping ostrich plume, beneath
which the blue eyes danced and sparkled in sheer light-heartedness, she
made as pretty a picture as ever one could wish to look upon.  At any
rate, so thought her companion.

"Well, Sticks is lazy--at times--I grant you; but there's method in his
laziness.  Don't abuse Sticks."

"Never mind, I know you're afraid.  Don't think any more about it.  Now
I suppose you're dying to.  You men always want to do a thing directly
you're told not to."

What will be the upshot, by-the-bye, of this standing arrangement of
quartette?  This is not the first ride by any means that those four have
taken together.  Together!  It has been shown that one of the party, at
any rate, had reached the "two's company, three's a crowd" stage--or for
the present purpose four.  Thus it followed that however often the group
may have started together, it was bound to split up before going very
far.  Frequently Hicks would manage to drop behind with one, and that
one was not Ethel.  Frequently, also, Ethel would, manoeuvre to rush
ahead in a swinging gallop, in which case she could not be suffered to
ride alone, but whoever undertook to superintend her on these occasions,
certainly it was not Hicks.  Whether she was wont to execute these
manoeuvres at Laura's previous instigation, or whether her motives were
less disinterested, deponent sayeth not.  As for Claverton, he accepted
the situation with, characteristic indifference.  Yet what could be more
fraught with elements of possible combustion?  As for the man, he was
perfectly unsusceptible, and wholly devoid of vanity.  He looked upon
his beautiful companion as a spoilt, pretty child, fond of teasing and
chaff, and who amused him, and if he thought anything about himself in
the matter, he supposed that he managed to amuse her.  This is how he
looked at it--but how did Ethel herself?

"Hallo!  There goes a buck!" cried Claverton, suddenly.  "May as well
have a shot," and he made a movement to dismount.

"No, don't--please don't!  Springbok won't stand fire, you know, and
he'll bolt with me."

"Oh, all right.  Then that lazy old Sticks has his good points after
all?"

"Yes; a steady old arm-chair has its good points too.  You can shoot
from it," she replied, scornfully.

"What a wooden comparison!  Why not say a clothes-horse?"

Bang!  The report of a gun behind them.  "Hicks to the fore," remarked
Claverton, shading his eyes to watch the effect of the shot.  But the
buck held on its way, caring not a straw for the bullet which buried
itself in the earth with a vicious thud some ten or a dozen yards
behind.

In this way they rode on in the pleasant sunshine, and eventually drew
rein in front of a prettily situated though roughly built house of red
brick, with thatched roof and high _stoep_.  This was the abode of a
Dutchman, Isaac Van Rooyen by name, and here they had arranged to stay
and have dinner, for on the frontier a standing hospitality is the rule,
and in travelling every one makes a convenience of his neighbour and is
made a convenience of in turn.  The Boer, a large corpulent man of about
sixty, advanced to welcome them as the clamorous tongues of a yelping
and mongrel pack gave warning of their approach, and consigning their
horses to a dilapidated-looking Hottentot, they entered the house.  A
long, low room furnished with the characteristic plainness of such an
abode; a substantial table, several chairs, on some of which none but a
lunatic or an inebriate would venture to trust his proportions for a
single instant.  In one corner stood an ancient and battered harmonium,
another contained a sewing-machine and a huge family Bible in ponderous
Dutch lettering, while the walls were garnished with sundry grievous
prints, high in colour and grisly in design, representing Moses
destroying the Tables of the Law, Elijah and the prophets of Baal, and
so on.  The _vrouw_ arose from her coffee-brewing as they entered--the
absorption of coffee is a _sine qua non_ in a Boer domicile on the
arrival of visitors--and greeted them with stolid and wooden greeting,
and a brace of great shy and ungainly damsels--exact reproductions of
their mother at twenty and twenty-one--looked scared as they limply
shook hands with the new-comers.  But others were there besides the
regular inmates, for the Naylors had arrived, as also Armitage and
Allen, and our friend Will Jeffreys, and these were keeping up a
laborious conversation with the worthy Boer and his ponderous _vrouw_,
whose daughters, aforesaid, eat together in speechless inanity, now and
again venturing a "Ja" or a "Nay" if addressed, and straightway
relapsing into a spasmodic giggle beneath their _kapjes_.

"Doesn't Miss Brathwaite play?" inquired the Boer, with a glance at
Ethel and then at the harmonium.

"`England expects.'  Go now and elicit wheezy strains from yon venerable
and timeworn fire-engine," said Claverton, in a low tone.

She drew off her gloves in a resigned manner, and was about to sit down
at the despised instrument, when some one putting a book on the
music-stool in order to heighten the seat, that fabric underwent a total
collapse and came to the ground with a crash.  Another seat was found,
and she began to play--but oh! what an instrument of torture it was--
more to the performer than to the audience.  Every other note stuck
fast, keeping up an earsplitting and discordant hum throughout; and the
bellows being afflicted with innumerable leaks, were the cause of much
labour and sorrow to the player.

"I can't play on this thing," she said.  "Every other note sticks down,
and the bellows are all in holes, and--I won't."

Naylor explained to the Dutchman that Ethel was a great pianist but was
nothing at harmoniums, which excuse covered her somewhat petulant
retreat from the abominable instrument, and just then dinner was brought
in.  Then it became a question of finding seats, many of the chairs
being _hors de combat_.

"Here you are, Allen; come and sit here," called out Armitage.  In a
confiding moment, and the table being full, the unsuspecting youth
dropped into the seat indicated, and then--dropped on the floor, for the
rickety concern forthwith "resigned," even as the music-stool had done
before it.  A roar of laughter went up from the incorrigible joker at
the success of his impromptu trap, and Allen arose from the ruins of the
chair, like Phoenix from the ashes.

"I say, though, that's better than the cruise down the river with the
bee in your bonnet, isn't it, old chap?" said Armitage, exploding again.
Allen looked rather glum, and another seat, not much less rickety than
the other, was found for him.

When he was settled, the Boer stood up and with closed eyes began a
long, rambling oration, presumably to the Creator, which was meant for
grace, and having discoursed unctuously on everything, or nothing, for
the space of several minutes, he set the example of falling to.

"Going up to Jim Brathwaite's for the hunt to-morrow, Oom Isaac?" asked
Armitage of his host.  [Note 1.]

"Ja," replied old Van Rooyen.  "Can _he_ shoot?" designating Claverton--
the popular idea on the frontier being that an "imported" Briton must
necessarily be an ass in all things pertaining to field pursuits.

"He just can.  Didn't you hear how he licked the Pexters down at my
place?"

"Yes, I did hear that; I remember now;" and the Dutchman looked at
Claverton with increased respect.

"But that's the fellow to bring down a buck at five hundred yards," went
on Armitage, indicating Allen, who, regardless of what went on around
him, was making terrific play with his knife and fork, and who, although
seated next the speaker, remained in blissful unconsciousness of being
the subject of any chaff, by reason of his ignorance of the Dutch
language.

"Is he now?  I shouldn't have thought that," was the deliberating reply;
the matter-of-fact Boer not dreaming for a moment that the other was
gammoning him.

And the ball of conversation rolled on, and the unseasoned stew was
succeeded by a ponderous jar of quince preserve, then another lengthy
grace and the inevitable coffee.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, Van Rooyen, with the freedom
of his countrymen, was discussing "present company."

"What a pretty girl she is!" he was saying, referring to Ethel.  "Is she
another of Mr Brathwaite's daughters?"

"No, a niece," replied Naylor, to whom the remark was addressed.  "Her
father is George Brathwaite, the M.L.A."

"`Ja,' I know him," replied the Dutchman.  "He isn't a good man (in the
sense of `a good politician').  He voted against our interests in
several things.  But she's a pretty girl, a very pretty girl.  And the
Englishman's a good-looking fellow, too.  Are they engaged?"

"Damned fool!" angrily muttered Claverton, who, while talking to Ethel,
had overheard the above conversation and wondered whether Ethel had too.

"What's the matter now?" said she, and the frown left his brow as the
question convinced him she had not heard.  But he turned and suggested
to Armitage that it was time to saddle up.

"Well, yes--I think it is," replied that worthy, who was busily debating
in his own mind whether it would be carrying a joke too far if he
inserted a burr or prickle of some sort beneath the saddle of Allen's
steady-going old mare; and forthwith a general move was made for the
horses, which were duly brought to the door.

"Now, Allen, old chap, keep those awful spurs of yours out of my horse's
flank, or there'll be the deuce to pay," called out Armitage, as the
absent-minded youth backed his steed violently into that of the
speaker--whereupon a kicking match became imminent.  Meanwhile Ethel was
waiting to be put on her horse, and glanced half involuntarily and
somewhat angrily in the direction of Claverton, who, whether by accident
or of set purpose, was still on the _stoep_ beginning to fill his pipe
from Van Rooyen's pouch, and apparently as ignorant of his actual
ungallantry as though the fair sex formed no ingredient of the party.
With concealed mortification she resigned herself to Will Jeffreys, who
advanced to perform that necessary office, and eagerly seized the
opportunity of riding by her side.

"Mr Armitage," she called out, speaking over her shoulder, "do tell me
that story about Spoek Krantz."

Armitage ranged his horse on her unoccupied side and began his
narrative, enlarging to an appalling extent as he went on.

"Don't take in all he says, Miss Brathwaite.  He's cooking up a yarn for
the occasion," said Jeffreys.

Armitage vehemently protested that nothing was further from his
intention, but to the jocular recrimination which followed, Ethel hardly
listened.  She thought that Claverton should be punished for his neglect
by being made to ride behind.  A punishment to which, by the way, the
delinquent seemed to submit with exemplary patience, for he puffed away
at his pipe, discoursing placidly to Allen, whom he was just in time to
prevent from inflicting himself on Laura, thereby rendering Hicks a
substantial service.  Nevertheless Ethel, before they had gone one-third
of the way, began to wish that Armitage was less garrulously disposed,
and would vacate the place to which she had summoned him, and once when
he dropped behind a little to light his pipe, she half turned her head
with a strange wistfulness, and her pulses beat quicker as she hoped
that the hoof-strokes which she heard overtaking her were not those of
_his_ steed.  But they were, and as that light-hearted mortal ranged up
beside her and launched out into a fresh stream of chaff and jocularity,
and the end of the ride drew near, it seemed to her that the sunshine
had gone out of the day, although there was not a cloud in the heavens
and the whole beautiful landscape was bathed in that wondrous golden
glow which precedes a South African sunset; and shall it be confessed,
she felt sore and angry, and snubbed poor Jeffreys, and irritably
checked the flow of Armitage's running fire of small wit, till at last
they drew rein at Jim Brathwaite's house and were received by its jovial
occupant in person.

"Hallo, Ethel; so you've come to help us shoot a buck.  But where's your
gun?" chaffed he.  "Keep quiet; get away you _schelms_," he went on,
shying a couple of big stones into the midst of some half-dozen huge
rough-haired dogs, which rushed open-mouthed towards the equestrians,
baying furiously.  The rude but serviceable pack, stopped in their
career, thought better of it and turned back, one of their number
howling piteously, and limping from the effects of another "rock" hurled
by Jim's forcible and practised hand.  "Well, Arthur," as the other two
came up, "we'll show you some fun to-morrow.  But come inside; I'll send
Klaas round to off-saddle."

Note 1.  "Uncle."  Among the Boers, "Oom" and "Tanta," "Uncle" and
"Aunt," are used as complimentary prefixes when addressing elderly
people, though these stand in no relation whatever to the speaker.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER ELEVEN.

VENATORIAL.

It is early morning, and a party of mounted men, consisting of our
friends of the previous day and their genial host, is riding along the
high ground away from Jim Brathwaite's homestead.  All carry guns,
mostly of the latest and most improved pattern, though one or two still
hold to the old-fashioned muzzle-loader, and a pack of great
rough-haired dogs, the same which greeted our travellers with such
hostile demonstration last evening, careers around and among the party,
now and then getting a paw or a tail under the horses' hoofs, and
yelping and snapping in consequence.  The horses step out briskly in the
fresh morning air--for the sun is not yet up--which briskness will, I
trow, have undergone considerable abatement when they return at the
close of the proceedings, laden with a buck apiece--perchance two--and
their riders to boot.  And the dogs break out afresh into a mighty
clamour, leaping and curvetting, and each striving to outbay his fellow
as he realises more and more fully the important part which is to be his
in the coming destruction; and as the full-mouthed chorus rings over
hill and valley, many a graceful spiral-horned antelope starts in his
dewy lair far down in the tangled brake, where yet a white curtain of
mist hangs, waiting till the rising beams shall disperse it into warmth
and sunshine, and listens, it may be, apprehensively to the distant
baying.

"Here.  Spry!  Tiger!  Shut up that infernal row, you brutes.  A fellow
can't hear himself speak!"  And loosening a strap from his saddle, Jim
makes a sudden cut with the buckle-end at one of the chief contributors
to the shindy, who, starting back hurriedly to avoid the infliction,
unwarily places his tail beneath the descending hoof of Naylor's horse,
and yells in frantic and heartrending fashion for the next five minutes.

"Noisy devils, they'll scare away all the bucks in the country-side
before we get near them," remarks that worthy, shading a match with his
hand and lighting his pipe without reining in.

"They haven't had a hunt for some time now, you see.  I've been away a
good deal, and now they're letting off steam a bit," says Jim.  "Hallo,
Allen!  Look out!  If you dig your heels into that horse like that,
he'll have you off as sure as his name's Waschbank."

For Allen, whose weedy nag had gone lame, is now bestriding a mount
which his host has provided for him--a youthful quadruped, given to
occasional bucking.  And at the time of the needed warning the playful
animal is going along with his back stiffly and ominously arched.

"Then it'll be a case of Allen washing the bank with his tears--to say
nothing of tears--for he is bound to _rend_ his `bags' if he falls among
these stones," strikes in Armitage.

"Jack, Jack!  I trust I may yet live to see you hanged," says Claverton.
"Jim, I put it to you as a man and a brother.  Can any success possibly
attend the steps of a hunting-party in whose midst is the perpetrator of
so outrageous a sally?"

"Name isn't Sally," promptly replies the joker; "I was christened Jack,
not John, mind--Jack; and Jack I'll live and die."

A laugh is evoked by this repartee, and they break into a canter, while
Allen's steed, the exuberance of whose spirits is in a measure let off
in the increased exercise, ceases to cause his rider more than a dormant
uneasiness.  And now the sun is rising slowly and majestically over the
eastern hills.  Birds are twittering, and the dewy grass shines beneath
and around.  Then the great beams dart forth over the rolling plains,
bathing them in first a red, then a golden light, and the firmament is
blue above, and the earth glows in a warm rich effulgence, the glory of
a new-born summer day.

Seated under a bush are three persons evidently awaiting the approach of
our party.  Their horses saddled, and with bridles trailing on the
ground, are cropping the short grass hard by.  The conversation is being
carried on in Dutch for the benefit of half the group, which owns to
that nationality, being in fact our portly friend, Isaac van Rooyen, and
one of his sons.  The other one is Thorman, a bearded, surly-looking
fellow, little given to conversation, but greatly addicted to the use of
strong language when he does speak.  He is a neighbour of Jim
Brathwaite's.

"Well, Jim," began Thorman, in response to the other's greeting.  "At
last!  We've been waiting here a whole damned half-hour."

"Never mind, old fellow," laughed the other, "patience is a virtue, you
know--especially in these piping times."

"And you've had an opportunity of seeing a most splendid sunrise," added
the incorrigible Jack.

"Sunrise be damned," growled Thorman, surlily.

"I thought we were to begin by sunrise, and now we've wasted half the
damned day.  Better get to work at once," and he turned away to catch
his horse.

The others took no notice of his ill-humour, and chatted among
themselves.  Then with its fresh addition the party moved on a quarter
of a mile or so lower down, where, in an open space in the bush, about
thirty Kafirs--boys and men--were assembled.  These were the beaters,
and many of them were accompanied by their dogs--slim greyhounds,
rough-haired lurchers, and curs of all shapes and sizes, and of
nondescript aspect.  The natives stood up and saluted the new arrivals,
and forthwith plans were laid for the operations.

"Now then, Jolwane," said Jim, addressing one of them, who, from his age
and standing, had constituted himself, or been constituted, head of his
countrymen there assembled, "we'll sweep down this bush first,"
indicating the long deep kloof which sloped away in front of them.
"Send half your fellows on the other side and I'll take my dogs and beat
this.  We'll take it straight down."

"Ewa 'nkos," (yes, chief), replied the Kafir, and he straightway issued
directions to his followers, involving much discussion and voluminous
explanation.

"Now then--confound it all, are you fellows going to stand jawing all
day?" said Jim, testily.  "Off you go," and the Kafirs gathering up
their kerries--a few of them carried assegais as well--moved off in twos
and threes, still chattering volubly.  "Jeffreys," he went on, "take
Arthur where he'll get a shot; better go on to that open place yonder,
that'll be exactly where I shall be driving down, and a buck always runs
out there.  Naylor, you put Allen up somewhere, better go the other
side.  The rest of you can _voerlay_ [lie in wait] anywhere down in the
bottom.  Thorman, you know the place as well as I do, so can go where
you like."

"Ik zal mit you ryd, ou kerel," (I shall ride with you, old fellow),
said Isaac van Rooyen.  "The younger ones want all the shots."

"All right, Oom Isaac," replied Jim.  "Now then, look sharp and get to
your places, and we'll begin."

All move off as directed, making a detour to get well round the tract to
be driven, so as not to alarm the quarry; and at length, now cantering,
now scrambling down some awfully steep and stony bit of ground, they
reach a tolerably open space about one thousand yards from where they
started.  Here they leave the horses, and, descending the steep
hillside, they separate.  A cordon of shooters is thus formed across the
valley, each man ensconcing himself in some snug ambush, where he lies
in wait with piece cocked and ready, silent and alert, waiting for the
quarry to break cover.

And now the whole ravine echoes with loud and discordant voices, the
yelling of the native curs in full cry mingles with the deeper bay of
the larger dogs; and the shouts of the Kafirs and the crashing of the
underwood as they force their way through it, beating to right and to
left with their sticks, draw nearer and nearer.  Bang!  The report of a
gun in the thick of the scrub is answered by a terrific yell from the
dogs, who rush to the spot.  A buck has got up in front of Jim, who,
with the Dutchman, is riding through the bush, hounding on his pack.
The path here is fairly open, consequently the animal has not gone many
yards before it falls in a heap, for an unerring eye is behind the
barrels that covered it.

"Got him," says Jim, putting a fresh cartridge into his smoking barrel.
"Bring him on, some of you fellows, I must go on driving;" and the
Kafirs, beating the dogs off the fallen animal, perform in a trice the
necessary preliminaries, while a loud exultant whoop, from one to the
other of them, tells that blood has been drawn.

"Look out, Allen," says Naylor, in a quick warning whisper, "there's
something coming out by you."  They were about a dozen yards apart,
Allen being of the two far the better placed, as his range commanded a
large open space, a clear sixty yards beneath him, across which
something was almost sure to run, while Naylor's only covered a higher
bit of ground where a snap shot was all he could hope for; but like a
good-natured fellow he had placed the other in the better position.

Allen starts, rigidly grips his gun in his excitement, and eyes the
brake in front of him.  The crashing of the underwood draws nearer and
nearer, and a large bushbuck ram breaks cover.  As it does so it catches
sight of Naylor half hidden behind a tree, shears off at a tangent, and
comes charging down nearly on the top of Allen, whose heart is in his
mouth, and he wildly bangs away with both barrels point-blank, as the
animal bounds past him within a yard, missing it clean.  In a moment it
will have reached covert, the dread open safely crossed, when--Crack!
the buck rolls over and over with three or four loopers from Naylor's
shot barrel fairly in his carcase.  But "many a slip"--he recovers
himself, leaps up and bounds away into the bush.

"He's hard hit," says his slayer, running to the spot; "it was a devil
of a long shot, though.  Look what a lot of blood he's dropped!  We'll
put the dogs on him directly.  He's a gone coon, anyhow."

"I can't make out how I managed to miss him," is Allen's doleful remark.
He is terribly mortified, poor fellow.

"You didn't get a fair shot at him.  I thought he was going clean over
you.  Never mind, you'll get a better chance soon," says good-natured
Naylor.  He thought the other rather a muff, but was too good a fellow
to say so.

Bang!  Bang!

Who is in luck's way now?  Bang, bang! again.  A couple of bucks have
dodged the ambushed shooters, and are making off along the high ground
outside the line, making for the adjacent kloof, and Armitage and the
younger Dutchman, who are nearest to them, are having rifle practice at
long range.  Four hundred yards--then the sights are altered to five.
Bang! bang! the animals still keep on, though the last shot has thrown
up a cloud of dust perilously near the hinder one.  Then the six hundred
yards is reached.  Another minute and they will be over the hill and
safe, at any rate for the present, when a ball from young Van Booyen's
rifle strikes the hindermost, which halts in mid course with a spring
and a shudder, and rolls over, dead as a door-nail.

"Well done, Piet.  By George, that was a good shot!" exclaimed the
unsuccessful competitor.

"_Ja, kerel_," replied the Dutchman, with a complacent grin, as he
fished out his tobacco-pouch.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Claverton is standing where he and Jeffreys had been directed to.  He
has refused to avail himself of his privilege of guest and to take the
best place, so they have split the difference by standing near each
other.  It is a fine open bit which promises two or three shots at
least, for whatever comes out on that side of the kloof is bound to
break cover there.  At last Jeffreys gets tired of waiting; he is of
opinion that everything has run across, and all the fun is on the other
side, so he makes for his horse and announces his intention of waiting
up above for Jim.  Claverton however, remains.  He is standing under a
mimosa tree and is partly sheltered from view by a large stone, and has
a beautiful clear space for at least eighty yards on either side of him.

Haow!--ow--ow!  The shouts of the Kafirs come nearer and nearer, and the
loud-mouthed chorus of the dogs in one incessant clamour which is never
suffered to die, so quickly is it taken up by fresh throats, rings from
the steep hillsides as the rout sweeps down the kloof.  A gentle
rustling approaches, and a graceful animal bounds into the open, and its
ambushed foe can mark the glint of its soft eye and the shiny points of
its straight horns.  It is a young bushbuck ram, and as it crosses the
open Claverton waits till it has just passed him and fires.  It is
scarcely twenty-five yards from him, yet it is unharmed, and disappears
in the opposite cover with a rush and a bound.

Claverton shakes his head and whistles softly.  "_What_ a shot!" he
says.  Then he looks up and catches sight of Will Jeffreys watching him
with a sneering smile upon his face, and the sight angers him for a
moment.

"Look out--look out, Arthur," sounds Jim's voice close at hand.
"There's a buck coming out, right at you."

He starts, throws open the breech of his gun, but the cartridge jams
half-way, and will neither come out nor go in again, and at that moment
another antelope breaks cover and crosses the open, if anything rather
nearer than the first.  It is a female and hornless, and its dappled
skin gleams in the sun like gold as it bounds along.  Immediately
afterwards Jim emerges from the bush.

"How is it you didn't shoot?" he asks, wonderingly, reining in his
horse.  "Why, the buck ran right over you."

"Look at that!" showing the state of the defaulting piece, in which the
cartridge was yet jammed.

"Oh!  What a nuisance!  And didn't you get the first one?"

"No.  Missed him clean.  You see, Jim, you build all your bucks eighteen
inches or so too short hereabouts."

Jim laughed.  Jeffreys, who had also come up, did likewise, but
sneeringly.  "Well, you've had the two best shots of the day," said the
former.

"My dear fellow, I'm aware of the fact.  Spare my blushes," answered
Claverton, nonchalantly.

And now dogs and beaters straggle out of the bash, the latter vehemently
discussing the ins and outs of the recent undertaking.  Kafirs are
inveterate chatterboxes, and when a number of them get together the
amount of promiscuous "jaw" that goes on is well-nigh incredible--and
the shooters assemble, preparatory to making a fresh start.

"How many came out?" says Jim.  "Let's see--two went up above, one of
them we got--two passed Claverton--one I got inside, and one went out by
Naylor--six.  Not bad for the first draw.  How is it Naylor didn't get
his?"

"He did," said the voice of that maligned person at his elbow.  "Just
bring some of the dogs up--there's a blood spoor as wide as a footpath.
It's a thundering big old ram, too."

They put the dogs on the track and followed as quickly as they could,
for the bush was thick, but before they had gone far an awful clamour
and a frenzied scream told that the quarry had been found.  The bushbuck
is the largest of the smaller antelopes, the male standing higher than a
large goat.  When wounded and brought to bay he is apt to prove
dangerous, as his long, nearly straight horns, from twelve to fifteen
inches in length, can inflict an ugly enough wound.  This one was
striking right and left with his horns as they came up, but being
weakened by loss of blood was soon pulled down, though not before he had
scored the sides of a couple of his canine foes with a nasty gash.

"By Jove, that is a fine fellow," said Jim, as he surveyed the
brown-grey hide with its white specks, and measured the long, pointed
horns.  "Who hit him first?"

"I didn't hit him at all," said Allen, somewhat ruefully.

"Never mind.  We've got him, anyhow.  Let's get on again."

On the ridge, overlooking the next large kloof which is to be driven,
Hicks joins them.  He isn't best pleased, isn't Hicks, for the simple
reason that he has seen nothing to empty his piece at, which to his
destructive mind is a very real grievance indeed.  It is quite likely
that, had he seen anything, the animal or animals in question would have
passed him unscathed, albeit rather startled by a double detonation; but
he has not had the chance, and meanwhile is dissatisfied, wherefore he
makes up his mind to strike out a line for himself.  Again the bush is
alive with the sinuous red forms of the Kafirs, and the dogs thread
through the underwood, giving tongue and rushing hither and thither as
they strike upon a passing scent, and the shooters ride off to _voerlay_
at their various posts, but Hicks quietly slips away from them all and
makes for a point far below, where the kloof merges into a number of
others.  It is a narrow defile, overhung with _krantzes_ on either side;
forest trees twined with monkey creepers rise apace, and beneath their
shadow, in the gloom of the thick scrub, a tiny stream trickles along.
Whatever leaves the kloof will pass this way, and our friend knows that
he is likely to get several shots in the ordinary course of things.

He conceals his horse, fastening him up among the bushes, then, with
piece all ready, he takes up his position in a cunning ambush, and waits
for whatever may appear.  At present all is still as death, except where
the whistle of a spreuw sounds from the overhanging cliffs; but the
sunbeams are focussed into the hollow as through a burning-glass, and
the distant shouting of the beaters, and an occasional shot, now and
again breaks the silence.  Nothing moves in grass or brake, and at last
Hicks begins to wax impatient.

"Whew! how hot it is!" he exclaims, taking off his hat to wipe his
forehead.  "They'll be a long while yet.  I'll have a drink so long."

He finds out a place where the stream runs through a deep, limpid basin,
and lying flat on the ground, takes a long and refreshing pull at the
cool water.  Then he rises, and something on the ground catches his eye.

"By Jove!  Wild pig, I do believe;" and he examines the furrows and ruts
in the grass, which has been rooted up by the tusks of something, and
not long ago either.  "Wild pig or baboons?  No, it's pig all right;
there are two distinct spoors.  If only I could get quietly among them."

By this time he has worked his way through the bush about a dozen yards,
following up the spoors, and finding fresh "sign" at every step.  "If
only I could get in among them," he repeats, bending over the traces.

His wish is gratified.  A fierce grunt right at his elbow makes him look
up, startled by its unexpected proximity; and within six paces, half out
of a bush, are the head and shoulders of a huge old boar, who, with
every hair of his dirty red-brown hide erect and bristling, and his
wicked little eyes scintillating, stands fearlessly confronting the
intruder, while on each side of his hideous snout his great white tusks
are champing and churning in an unpleasantly suggestive manner.

Hicks just has time to bring his gun to his shoulder; but the suddenness
of the encounter has a trifle thrown him off his equilibrium, and as he
discharges his piece, point-blank, instead of rolling the animal over,
the ball--for he has fired with his rifled barrel--merely scores its
flank, and with a scream of fury it comes at him.  Dropping his gun he
swings himself into the branches of a small tree under which he is
standing, as the ferocious brute rushes by, snapping viciously at empty
air, which within a fraction of a second ago was occupied by our
friend's legs.

Hicks draws a long breath of relief.  "Sold again, old _Baas_," he says,
derisively, contemplating the infuriated boar, who is running backwards
and forwards beneath the tree, the blood flowing freely from his wounded
flank.  "Only stay there a little longer, and I'll use your tusks for a
hat-peg yet."

The brute shows no signs of leaving him, for it charges the tree in
which he has found refuge, ripping off great pieces of bark in its fury;
and from his vantage ground, Hicks can see other wild swine making off
in the distance through the bushes.  And now the voices of men and dogs
are drawing near--very near--and the old tusker, wise in time, throws up
his head, sniffs the air a moment, and makes off into the cover with a
disappointed grunt, while Hicks shouts lustily for assistance.

"Here--Tiger--Punch--Erdwacht--Sah!  Sah--in, boys--Sah--Sah!" he calls
out, descending from his prison, as several of the larger dogs come
running up.  Then as they strike the scent of the wild pig, they rush
off on the spoor with full-throated chorus.

"What is it, Hicks?" sings out Jim, riding slowly through the bush.

"Pig--pig--He's hit, too!" replies Hicks, wild with excitement, as he
drags out his horse and springs into the saddle.

"Pig!  Come along; we'll have him," says Jim, spurring up; and the two
dash off in the wake of the dogs, whose clamour may be heard far ahead.
The bush is thick, and here and there they meet with a check; but thorns
and brambles are nothing when such quarry is in view, and Hicks hardly
notices a gash left in his ear by a specially wicked _wacht-am-bietje_
spike as he is half dragged through the thicket by his horse.

"He's at bay, by Jove!" says Jim, as the clamour becomes stationary just
in front of them.  "Come on; here he is!"  And in an open glade, in an
angle formed by two bushes of bristling thorns, stood the boar, the dogs
springing and snapping around him, but none of them quite liking to
tackle him.

"Wait!  I can get a good shot at him now," said Jim, dismounting.
"Better let _me_ do it; it's a ticklish shot, and you might hit one of
the dogs.  Besides, it's all the same; he's yours anyhow.  You drew
first blood."

The creature is hard pressed now, and the foam lies on him in flakes as
he chums with his tusks and snaps at his crowding, yelling foes.  Crack!
He sinks lifeless, the blood pouring from a hole in his forehead where
Jim's bullet has found its mark; and then the dogs throw themselves on
the carcase, snarling and tearing in their excitement.

"Off, you brutes, off!" sings out Jim, coming up.

"Off!  You're plucky enough when the pig's dead.  Maarman--Spry--you
_schelms_!  What's come over you?"  And dispersing them with a kick or
two, he and Hicks proceed to inspect the quarry.

"I'll make something out of those tusks," says Hicks.  "No, I won't,
though; I'll keep the whole skull."

"It's devilish lucky you had that tree handy," says Jim.  "He'd have cut
you to ribbons."

"Hullo!  Where's the pig?" asks Armitage, who, with the others, appear
on the scene; and the Kafirs, standing round the defunct animal, fire
off a volley of astonished "whaows," and Thorman is heard to mutter
something about "not having got a shot the whole damned morning, and
that the damned Britishers seem to get all the fun."

"By Jove!  Those brutes of dogs have wallowed in all the water!"
exclaimed Jim, in consternation, as the party arrived at their midday
halting-place.  "Faugh!  It's quite spoilt," he added, surveying the
fluid in question, which at no time specially inviting to any but a very
thirsty man, was now positively nauseous, as the tired animals had
rolled and splashed in it before any one had come up.  "What will we do?
Wait--there may be a little in the hole higher up; let's go and see.
Ah! it's all right?" he called out, his exploration having proved
satisfactory.  "Jolwane, keep the dogs away from this, whatever you do."

"That's fortunate," said Claverton.  "On a day like this, brandy without
water is pretty much the same as mustard without beef."

They sat down to eat their lunch in true hunter fashion.  Mighty
sandwiches, hastily rolled in a bit of newspaper, strips of _biltong_
[Note 1], and hunks of cheese, began to make their appearance from the
capacious pockets of shooting-coats, while the contents of the spring
were rendered more palatable by the addition of those of sundry flasks
which passed from hand to hand.

It was a picturesque scene enough.  The roughly-clad group lying and
sitting about in various attitudes, their guns resting against a tree,
and in rows upon the grass were the spoils, prominent among which was
the huge carcase of the boar.  Dogs lay panting in the shade, a few of
them sitting on their haunches behind the hungry sportsmen, waiting for
stray scraps which might be thrown them, and in the background squatted
the red forms of the Kafirs, whose deep voices kept up a continual hum
as they chattered among themselves and smoked their quaint, angular
pipes, or devoured a mess of cold mealies, while their kerries and
assegais lay on the ground beside them.  Above, a great cliff towered in
rugged masses; around stretched the evergreen bush.

"Have a _sopje_ (dram), Oom Isaac?" said Naylor, holding up a big flask,
and filling out a substantial measure, as the Dutchman replied in the
affirmative.

"Ach!  Det is alto lekker," (that's awfully good), said old Van Rooyen,
drawing his sleeve across his mouth, and Naylor replenished the cup for
the benefit of the youthful Piet.

"So you got a buck after all, Arthur?" said Jim.

"Yes, just now--up there."

"He thinks the bucks here are all eighteen inches too short," struck in
Jeffreys, with half a sneer.

"That was only in the first kloof, Jeffreys.  They're longer about here,
you see," replied Claverton, filling his pipe.  "Give us a light, Jack."

"Here you are, old Baas.  One good turn deserves another, so just throw
that flask at me--thanks.  Fancy Hicks treed by a pig--eh!"

"You shut up," called out that worthy.  "Didn't I see you turn tail when
that buck ran right over you?"

"No--you didn't--so help me Moses.  But Hicks, you ought not to have
missed the pig at no yards."

The other retorted, and so they went on, bandying chaff and fighting the
morning's battles over again, till at length it became time to resume
operations.  Horses were caught and saddled, and the Kafirs calling
their curs, started off to beat the bush again--but not with the same
spirit as before, for the day was piping hot and the dogs were beginning
to flag--some would hardly be induced to enter the bush at all, but
trotted along with lolling tongue, panting in the heat, and by the time
they had swept down a couple of bits of bush it became obvious that most
of the sport was already behind their backs.

"We'll just drive this kloof through and then knock off," said Jim.
"Now then, here's every one's last chance.  Allen, you haven't got your
buck yet."

They resumed the drive, and the slumbrous calm of the quiet valley was
broken now and again by a ringing shot, and the blue smoke curled up
through the golden haze in the still, summer afternoon; and every living
thing was routed out of its hitherto secure retreat before the advancing
line of beaters, to run the gauntlet for its life, to fall before its
ambushed foe, or haply to escape until some future field day.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1.  Biltong is meat which has been dried in the sun till it is
quite hard.  It is usually made of venison or beef.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWELVE.

A WILD NIGHT.

The morning after the hunt was gloomy and dispiriting, for the weather
had undergone a complete change daring the night, and now, instead of
blue sky and a sunny landscape, a dense vaporous curtain hung over the
kloofs, everywhere thick, heavy and impenetrable, while from the dull
grey sky fell a continuous and soaking drizzle.

"I say, but it'll be poor fun riding back in this," exclaimed Hicks,
contemplating the spongy ground splashed by the drippings from the iron
roof.  "We shall have to wait until it clears."

"Shall we?  Speak for yourself, Mr Hicks.  _We_ are not made of sugar,"
said Ethel, mockingly.  She was in high spirits this morning and
brimming over with mischief.

"Now that _is_ rational," put in a voice behind her.  "Hadn't we better
start at once?"

She turned.  "Oh, so you are afraid of the elements, too.  Then out of
consideration for you two, we shall have to wait.  Or shall we go on and
leave them, Laura?"

"They deserve it," said Laura.  Then dubiously: "It's a nuisance,
though, because I know aunt will be expecting us back."

"Now look here," rejoined Claverton, quietly.  "Your aunt specially
authorised me to see that you did nothing rash.  Getting wet through
under circumstances totally unnecessary is an eminently rash proceeding.
Wherefore I am constrained to lay an embargo on anything of the kind.
More especially as by two o'clock there will not be a cloud in the sky."

"Won't there?  Two to one there will.  What shall it be?" cut in
Armitage.

"Jack never bets.  At least I heard him not many days ago striving hard
to convince a Methodist parson of that fact," said Claverton, appealing
to the company in general.

"Wanted to throw him off his guard and book the devil-dodger for a
venture.  Besides, it wasn't a parson, it was only that humbugging old
Garthorpe, who goes about preaching, and--"

"I should have thought you had found out he wasn't such an ass as he
looked, Jack," said Naylor, significantly.

Armitage looked rather foolish at this; and one or two who knew the joke
tittered slightly.

"Hallo, what's the jest?  Trundle it up, Naylor, we don't often catch
Jack napping," said Claverton.

"Oh, I'll tell you myself," exclaimed the victim of it, airily.  "Well,
you know, I was down at Thorman's place one evening, and old Garthorpe
came jogging up on that spindle-shanked nag of his.  It was just about
feeding time, so he off-saddled and got his head well into the trough in
no time.  Daring the evening we were talking a lot about the war scare,
and the old chap stuck out that it was all bosh, in fact insinuated that
we were a pack of funks.  _He_ wasn't afraid of the Kafirs, he said, not
one of them would hurt him, and so on.  This rather put our backs up,
you know; there was myself, and Johnson, and Gough, and a couple of
Dutchmen, so we hit upon a little scheme to give the old fellow a bit of
a funk when he left.  It was as dark as pitch--"

"`And smelt of cheese,'" put in Claverton.  "Why not do justice to the
quotation?"

"Confound it, if you can spin the yarn better than I can, do so, by all
means," retorted Armitage, in mock dudgeon.

"He wants to get out of it," said Ethel.  "It won't do, though, we
insist upon hearing it."

"Well, then, as I was saying, when that fellow interrupted me, it was as
dark as pitch, but the moon would soon be up.  I and Johnson laid our
heads together, and arranged that we two and Gough should blacken our
faces and go and waylay old Garthorpe in the drift about half a mile
from the house.  Well, we slipped out one by one and got ourselves up in
style, red blankets and all, looked as thorough-paced cut-throats as
ever you clapped eyes on--"

"Can quite believe it," murmured the former interrupter.

"There he is again," exclaimed Armitage, wrathfully.  "Well, we got down
into the drift and soon we heard the horse's feet, and old Garthorpe
came mooning along, concocting some sermon or other for the next day,
which was Sunday.  The moon had just risen, but was not bright enough to
betray our identity.  We jumped out of the bush.  Johnson collared the
bridle, and the other two of us drew up in line across the path.  What
does the old chap do, but quick as lightning pull out a revolver and
poke it into Johnson's face.  He dropped the bridle like a hot potato
and skipped into the bush, and then old Garthorpe levels it dead at us.
We looked sharp to follow Johnson's example, and then the old chap rode
quietly on, chuckling to himself.  Gough swears he heard him say
`somethinged scoundrels,' but that may have been part of the sermon he
was concocting.  Anyhow, he turned the tables on us most completely."

"Probably the revolver wasn't loaded," suggested Claverton.

"Revolver!  Sorra a bit.  It was a pipe-case.  We three skedaddled for
our lives before a preaching old humbug at the fag-end of an old
pipe-case."

A roar went up from his auditors at the picture.

"Fact," repeated Armitage.  "Tell you what, though; that thing looked
plaguey like a pistol in the moonlight.  Besides, it's just the sort of
thing a fellow would bring out, you know, under the circumstances.  Old
Garthorpe went bragging about it all over the shop, and very soon the
joke got wind.  But this is all very well.  How about our bet,
Claverton?"

"Oh, all right, I'll take you.  Two to one in half-crowns there won't be
a cloud in the sky by two o'clock."

"Done," said Armitage.  "Any one else game?"

But no one was.  "We are not going to encourage anything so disreputable
as that betting mania of yours," said Ethel.

"Well, good people," called out Jim's jovial tones, as he swung himself
out of his dripping mackintosh, and stamped and scraped to rid his boots
of the mud before entering, "how about a start this morning?  Not much
chance of it, is there, unless you are ready to swim for it."

"Well, _we_ must," said Naylor; "I must be home to-day.  I'm expecting
Smith round my way about those slaughter-oxen this afternoon, and if I'm
not there, away goes a good bargain."

"Besides, we shall be all right in the trap," said his wife.  "Laura,
why not come with us, if you are in a hurry to get back?  We could
manage to make room for you and Ethel, and your horses could be led."

"Thanks; but I don't think we ought to desert our escort in that way,"
she answered.  The plan suggested in no wise fell in with her views--
nor, we may add, with those of Ethel.

"It'll be outrageously shabby of you if you do, and in fact we shan't
allow it," said Claverton.

"The damned Britishers are made of salt--afraid of a little rain,"
growled Thorman, in a low tone, at the other side of the room.

Jeffreys, to whom the remark was addressed, and who had reasons of his
own for abhorring the "imported" element, acquiesced in the sneer, and
just then they were summoned to breakfast.  It cleared in the afternoon
with startling suddenness, and as the equestrians started for home, the
blue sky was without a cloud.

"This is lovely," exclaimed Ethel, as they cantered along; "but,"--and
the bright laughing face clouded--"isn't it a nuisance?  Will Jeffreys
is going back with us."

"What, all the way?" said Claverton.  "I thought we were going to choke
him off at Van Rooyen's, where we picked him up."

"No such luck.  He's going back to Seringa Vale; at least, so Mr
Armitage says."

"Oh, that may be only Jack's chaff; but--"

He checked himself as something seemed to strike him.  "Bosh!" he
thought, "Jack only sees that she rather hates the bullet-headed fool,
and is trying to take a rise out of her."  Then aloud: "That fellow Jack
is a confounded nuisance at times, and yet on the whole I think he's an
acquisition."

"Oh, yes; he makes one laugh so often, which is a great thing.  Just
look at him now, for instance."

Both turned to watch the interesting object of their discussion, who was
evidently about to keep up his reputation--for Allen, whose decrepit
steed had gone dead lame, and was incapable of carrying him, had
received the loan of the volatile Waschbank, which sprightly quadruped
was evidently rather more than a handful to him.  Armitage perceiving
this, delighted to get behind and by dint of sundry clicking noises,
softly articulated, to induce the already excited animal to plunge and
shake his head frantically, and make violent attempts at bolting, to the
dire discomfiture of the rider, who clutched the bridle spasmodically
with both hands, holding on, as it were, "by the skin of his teeth."

"It's rather a shame," mused Claverton, as they contemplated the
performance.  "Why can't he let the poor devil alone, even for half an
hour?  Allen isn't a bad fellow, although he's an ass in some things."

"Look out, Allen.  Hold on, pay out your rein, or, by George, he'll have
you off!"  Armitage was saying, while Jeffreys rode behind sardonically
enjoying the other's discomfiture.  And the warning came none too soon,
for Waschbank, finding the increased pressure of the rather sharp curb,
which his rider was bearing on more and more heavily, defied his frantic
attempts at a bolt, sought to vary the entertainment by suddenly
rearing.  Then as Allen, in a panic, quickly slackened the reins,
grasping at the same time a bit of the mane, away went Waschbank with a
rush and a snort, his rider still clinging on like grim Death.  But this
was not to last long, for one of the said rider's long spurs digging
violently into his flank, the animal put down his head, and springing
into the air, all four feet at once, promptly shot the hapless Allen
into space and a thorn-bush which grew handy.  Then after vainly
endeavouring in the course of half-a-dozen more "bucks" to rid himself
of his saddle, the amiable brute gave a loud snort and started for home
at a hand gallop.

"Hallo, Allen!" cried Claverton, dismounting to haul him out of the
bush.  "Jump up, old man.  Not hurt, are you?  That's it?" as the other
staggered to his feet groaning and wincing; as well he might, for his
"continuations" were stuck as full of thorns as a well-stocked
pincushion is of pins.  "Better thorns than broken bones, you know.
What's to be done?  At the rate that brute's going he'll be within a
hundred yards of Buffel's Kloof by now, or we might have exchanged.
Sticks is as quiet as a village scold on board the ducking-stool."

"Plenty more thorn-bushes," sneered Jeffreys, in a load aside.  "But
it's a safe enough offer now that Waschbank's gone home."

"I say," began Jack, in mock concern, "what are we to do?  Toss up who
shall pursue the absconding Waschbank with a pinch of salt, eh?"

"Humbugging apart, though," said Claverton, "we are only about a mile
from Van Rooyen's; the best thing for Allen to do will be to walk on
there, and the Dutchman will be able to rig him out with some sort of a
mount to take him home."

This was arranged, and they rode on.

"I think Jack carries his jokes too far sometimes," remarked Claverton.
"He'll find his level some day."

They soon arrived at Van Rooyen's, and the Dutchman, having enjoyed a
hearty laugh over poor Allen's mishap, sent for the steadiest old
roadster in his paddock and mounted the dethroned hero thereon; and
after resting an hour, which somehow had nearly dragged itself out to
two, the party were in the saddle again, bound for their respective
homes.  But it is the Seringa Vale quartette--for the obnoxious Jeffreys
had, after all, left them at Van Rooyen's--whom we shall now follow.  It
was late when they left Buffel's Kloof, and now, as they rode over the
rising ground which shut the Dutchman's farmstead from sight behind, the
very short gloaming of a South African day was already drawing in.

"I don't know how it is; as a rule I enjoy a ride at night," said Ethel,
"but this evening I can't help wishing we were safe at home, I feel
quite low and nervous;" and she shivered.

"I know how it is.  You've caught cold," replied her companion.  "It's a
particularly warm evening, and you're shivering as if it were
mid-winter.  Here--wait a bit--and put this on."

In a trice he had unstrapped an ample waterproof cloak from his saddle,
and, dismounting, wrapped it twice round her, tightly and securely, yet
so as not to impede the management of the reins.

"Thanks.  No, I wasn't cold--it's very absurd--but I feel as if
something dreadful was going to happen.  A kind of presentiment."

"Nonsense, child.  You have been catching cold; but we shall both be
catching it hot soon for being so outrageously late.  Come along, here's
a nice level bit, and those two are a good mile ahead."

"Yes, it's too absurd of me," she said, as they cantered on; "but--I
felt a drop of rain."

They looked up.  Sure enough the sky had suddenly clouded over, and
several large raindrops splashed down upon the road.

"We are in for a shower, I'm afraid," said Claverton.  "Nothing for it
but leg-bail.  However, that ancient garment will keep you as dry as a
chip, unless it has suddenly performed the feat in physiology which Holy
Writ associates with the Ethiopian."

They rode on with heads bent forward, for a fierce gust drove the rain,
which had now increased to a deluging shower, right into their faces.

"Look at that!" exclaimed Ethel, in a terrified voice, as a vivid flash
played around them, causing the horses to start and swerve.  It was
followed by a deep roll of thunder--long, loud, and startlingly near.

"Who'd have thought it?" said her companion.  "It may be just a passing
flash or so, and we shall ride through it in a minute."  He spoke
cheerfully; nevertheless, there was anxiety in the quick, half-furtive
glance which he cast upwards and around.

"Do you think so?  It may not be much, after all; and I'm an awful
coward," she answered, trying to laugh; but her voice shook with
apprehension, and her face was pale in the vivid gleam which fell around
them, and faded, leaving the gathering gloom almost pitchy from
contrast.  "Do let's go back," she added.

"Too late.  It would take almost as long to get back to Van Rooyen's, as
to reach home.  Besides, we should get into the thick of it--it's all
behind us."

They rode on.  The path lay along a high ridge, and the surrounding
_veldt_ looked indescribably desolate as a furious blast tore and howled
over the wild waste, driving the rain into their eyes.  But suddenly
wind and rain alike ceased; and lo! a great stream of jagged fire shot
down upon the road in front, accompanied by a terrific crash--a crash as
though the earth had yawned asunder and they were floating in a sea of
flame.  The horses, affrighted by the appalling sight and the strong
smell of burning which was plainly perceptible, snorted and plunged, and
then stood still, trembling in every limb.

"We had better leave the road," said Claverton.  "We shall be safe
enough down in the kloof; though here it _is_ a trifle nasty."

"Shall I dismount?" she asked.

"No; sit still and follow me.  Can you steer your horse all right, or
would you rather I led him?"

"Oh, no; I can manage."

They went down and down, deeper and deeper through the long, wet grass
and dripping bushes; and now and again a flash would light up the far
depths of the great, dark kloof with a blue gleam, and the thunder
roared and reverberated among the rocks and krantzes beyond.  Before
they had gone far, Claverton dismounted and kept a firm hand on his
companion's bridle, for the horse slipped and stumbled over the wet
stones on the steep side of the kloof.  Ethel did not speak, but her
lips would convulsively tighten with fear as each vivid lightning-flash
played around them, with its terrific accompaniment.  She was horribly
afraid of thunderstorms, even when safe at home, but to be benighted
thus in the open _veldt_, in the midst of such a one as this, was simply
appalling.

"At any rate we are safe enough here, though it is infamously wet," said
her escort, reassuringly; "and--by George, we are in luck's way--there's
a house!"

A roof became apparent at the bottom of the ravine, and in a few minutes
they had reached it.  But disappointment was in store, for the welcome
haven of refuge turned out to be an old disused shanty, formerly run up
for the accommodation of some road party, or possibly had served as an
out-station for those in charge of grazing stock.  Nevertheless, though
a tumble-down and sorry-looking tenement, yet it would afford a
tolerably substantial shelter from the drenching fury of the storm.
Claverton lifted his companion from her saddle, and pushing open the
mouldering door, which creaked with an unearthly noise on its rusty
hinges, they stood inside.

"Not exactly the marble halls of the poet's dream--deuced cold they must
have been at times--but it's wet outside and dry in here, which makes
all the difference," he remarked, as he struck a match and surveyed the
interior of the sorry apartment.  The dilapidated thatch hung in
cobwebbed festoons, throwing out ghostly, waving shadows in the
flickering light; and a cockroach or two, alarmed by this sudden
intrusion, scurried along the worm-eaten beams.  "Wait half a second,"
he went on, "while I just go and hitch up the horses, and then we'll
proceed to make ourselves as comfortable as circumstances will allow."

"Oh, Arthur, don't leave me alone, even for a moment!  I am so
frightened!" she exclaimed, clinging to his arm.  The name slipped out
in her terror, but she was quite unhinged, and noticed it not.

"Frightened?  You foolish child," he answered, reassuringly; "there's
nothing to be afraid of now--Look.  We can afford to laugh at the storm
here, and will be as snug as anything directly."

"But it's so dark, and--"

"Dark.  Well, yes; unfortunately the last tenant forgot to leave any
candles for our benefit, which was uncivil of him, to say the least of
it.  However, `the Heaven above' is kindly doing its best to supply the
deficiency, and we'll meet it half-way by starting a famous blaze."

So saying, he gathered together some old bits of board which lay about,
and, chipping them into small fragments, built up a fire well in the
middle of the room--for the fireplace was choked up with dust and fallen
bricks--and, lighting it, the flames darted up, crackling and
sputtering, and diffusing a genial and revivifying warmth.

"There.  The smoke will go out through the thatch, and at any rate it
won't be worse than in a Kafir hut.  You're not very wet, are you?  No,
I thought my old poncho hadn't lost its cunning.  And now you won't be
afraid to stay by yourself a minute while I look after the horses.  It's
dark as pitch outside, and the brutes will be wandering Heaven knows
where if I don't make them fast at once."

He went out, and leading the horses round to the back of the house
proceeded to secure them in a sheltered place.  While thus engaged a low
scream, emanating from the room he had just quitted, fell on his ear.

Left alone, Ethel drew the cloak tighter round her, and crouched over
the bright, dancing flames; but in spite of their cheery glow she
shivered.  How long would it be before he came back?  He had hardly been
gone a minute, and it seemed an age.  Then a flash and a loud
thunderpeal made her start, and her face blanched, and she hid it in the
ample cloak, and cowered down in mortal dread.  How long would he be?
Supposing the horses had strayed, and he had gone after them, and had
lost his way, and should be unable to find the hut again.  Oh, horror of
horrors! if she were to be left alone there all night, alone, in the
silence of that deserted place--a silence only broken by an occasional
and mysterious rustle or creaking--and at the very thought of it her
brain reeled and sickened, and the muffled patter of the rain upon the
thatch sounded like the dull roar of many waters, and--Oh, Heavens! what
was that?

For a growl, as of some wild beast, fell upon her terrified ears.  She
dared not raise her head, and again that grisly sound arose--long, low,
and menacing.

Opposite to where she sat was a doorway leading into another compartment
of the hovel.  This was nearly concealed when the door by which they had
entered stood open, being behind it; but now that the entrance was shut
the gap yawned, dark and shadowy.  And as Ethel glanced towards it, her
gaze fell upon two glaring eyes in the blackness beyond.  Was she
dreaming?  No, there they were--two scintillating green stars--their
awful gaze fixed upon her with a terrible stare.  The blood curdled in
her veins; she tried to scream, but her tongue refused to fulfil its
office; her limbs shook, and had she been standing she would have fallen
to the earth prone as a log.  And still that piercing, baleful stare
shone through the blackness--and--God!--was she going mad?  Her heart
beat as if it would burst; every second was a lifetime; every pulsation
of her throbbing temples seemed like the blow of a sledge-hammer, and
her glance was fixed upon those terrible orbs with basilisk fascination.
Then the sound of Claverton's voice outside apostrophising the horses,
broke the spell, and she uttered the scream of helpless terror which
caught his attention.

Quickly, yet quietly, the door was opened, and he stood beside her.

"What is it?" he asked, in the calmest of tones.

"Look!" was all she could reply; but there was no necessity for
following the direction of her dilated eyes, for at that moment the
dreaded sound came through the doorway louder than ever.

"Oh!--That all?" he said.  "Now, look here, child, don't be in the very
least afraid, there's nothing to be afraid of, and we'll soon put an
extinguisher on that.  It's only some half-starved Kafir mongrel that's
got in."  His ear detected fear rather than rage in the snarl which to
her overwrought senses had sounded so dread and menacing.  He stretched
out his hand towards the gun, which he had placed against the wall on
entering.  "Now, sit still, and don't be afraid," he reiterated; but
before he could bring it to bear, there was a loud yell and a rush;
something large and heavy sprang into the room, cannoning against his
legs, and nearly overturning him, then sped out through the half-open
door into the rain and the darkness, while poor Ethel, who had had as
much fright as she could stand, fell backward in a dead faint.

Quickly he held his handkerchief beneath the dripping thatch before the
door, and in a moment it was soaked through and through.  Then,
supporting her head, he placed the cold wet bandage upon her temples,
and drawing forth his pocket-flask, which was about a third full of
brandy and water in equal proportions, he poured a little of the potent
mixture between her lips.  A deep sigh of returning consciousness, the
long lashes unfolded, and the blue eyes looked wonderingly into his.
Then, with a start, she made as if she would rise, but he restrained
her.

"Don't be in a hurry," he said.  "Take it easy for a little while
longer--there's lots of time."

She shivered.  "Oh, I've had an awful fright!  What was it?" she said,
with a shudder.

"Nothing.  Nothing whatever, except that your too-lively imagination ran
riot with you.  Anyhow, it's all right now, so what you've got to do is
just to keep perfectly still until I tell you to move.  By-and-by I'm
going to read you a lecture."

"But you won't leave me alone again," she entreated.

"No, not as long as you do what I tell you!"

She was silent, for she felt very weak and helpless after her fright.

"Take some more of this," he said.

"No, thanks."

"But you must."

She obeyed him passively.  Then revived by the invigorating spirit, she
sat up.

Her companion looked at her.

"Ethel," he said, "you're an awful little coward.  You're worse than any
town-bred English girl, getting into such a fright about nothing--
absolutely nothing--upon my word you are.  I shouldn't have thought it
of you, you know, I shouldn't, really."

He spoke in a serio-jesting tone of expostulation, not actually meaning
what he said, or that she had had no real cause for alarm.  But he did
not want her mind to revert too much to what had happened; wherefore he
treated the occurrence as a mere hallucination.  The line he adopted had
the desired effect, for a gleam of her old self shot from the blue eyes
as she answered:

"You had no business to leave me all alone, then.  And, do go and see
that there's nothing in that other room."

"All right," and he got up to comply; but she followed him.

"I can't remain here by myself," she pleaded.

"Can't you?  Well, but you see, you can't go with me.  So we'll solve
the difficulty by fastening up both doors, and we'll make ourselves
comfortable here till that jolly old sun sneaks up again;" and in a
moment he had secured the doors, and was beside her again.

"But--I am so hungry," she laughed.

"H'm, that's unfortunate, because there's nothing to eat unless we fall
to on the stirrup-leathers.  Wait a bit, though.  By Jove!"  He fumbled
in one of the numerous pockets of his shooting-coat, and produced a
packet done up in whitey-brown paper, which being unfolded, disclosed a
large and somewhat demoralised sandwich, considerably the worse for
wear.  "Not a very inviting morsel," he remarked, surveying the battered
comestible.  "Yet it may do at a pinch to keep the wolf from the door.
Though,"--he added to himself--"that amiable quadruped is likely to give
the door a deuced wide berth considering the mortal funk he was in when
he shot through it just now."

The girl laughed, quite in her old joyous, light-hearted way.  "I should
think so," she cried.  "We'll go halves."

"We'll do nothing of the sort," said her companion.  "I'll give you ten
minutes, and if there's a crumb left of that antique sandwich by then
I'll--well, I'll go out again and see how the horses are getting on."

"But--"

"No `buts.'  Really I'll go."

This awful threat was effective, and being ravenously hungry, Ethel
speedily made short work of the sandwich, protesting to the last against
the other's decision.  But he was firm.

"Two people under one umbrella, both get wet," he observed,
sententiously.  "What will feed one will starve two.  I'm going to have
a pipe instead.  Lucky that greedy beggar Jack didn't know I had any
more provender yesterday, or he would inevitably have cadged it.  I had
forgotten it myself till this moment."

"I wonder what has become of the others," said Ethel.

"Safe at home, long ago.  They'll think we went back to Van Rooyen's,"
he replied.

"But we might, you know; the storm seems to be over now."

"Not to be dreamt of," answered he, decisively.  "It's pitch dark, and
raining in a way that would set the patriarch Noah spinning yarns about
old times if he were with us.  We should be wandering about the _veldt_
all night, instead of being snug by a good fire."

"I suppose so," acquiesced the girl, "and, do you know, I'm getting so
sleepy."

"Glad to hear it," was the reply; and placing one of the saddles near
the fire, Claverton arranged a corner of his ample cloak over it so as
to form a pillow.  "Lie down here," he said, "you can imagine yourself
in a railway carriage or anywhere else that's infamously uncomfortable;"
and as she obeyed he wrapped the cloak well round her, and returned to
his former place.

Presently she opened her eyes--"Arthur."

"Well?"

"Promise you won't leave me--or I shan't be able to sleep a wink."

"Why, I thought you were fairly off.  It's twelve o'clock."

"No--I'm not--Promise!"

"All right--I won't budge."

"Thanks;" and in a few moments her regular breathing told that she had
forgotten her troubles in sleep.

Claverton piled some more wood on to the fire and drew in closer,
shivering slightly, the fact being that he was nearly wet through--
having given up his cloak as we have seen.  Then he proceeded to fill
his pipe.

"Poor little thing," he mused, contemplating the slumbering form of his
companion in adversity.  "What a fright she was in--and small blame to
her.  Wonder what the beast could have been," and getting up, he went
and examined the soft ground by the door to see if it had left any
spoor.  "Yes--I thought so: a wolf, and a damned big wolf, too."  [Note
1.]

He returned to his seat by the fire and sat dreamily smoking.  "What a
pretty picture she makes," he thought; and in good truth she did, as the
long lashes lay in a dark semicircle on the rounded cheek, while the
full red lips were parted ever so lightly, and the firelight danced and
flickered with a ruddy glow on the golden head of the sleeper.

"Very good fun now, no doubt, that is if it were not so infernally
cold," he went on, "but the situation may begin to look awkward in the
morning, when we are besieged by the kind inquiries of friends.
However, the gentle sex knows devilish well how to take care of itself,
that's one comfort.  `Self-preservation is the first law of woman,' I
truly believe to have been the original rendering of the proverb--the
reason of its alteration is but too obvious.  But assuredly the child
would have been dead, or deuced near it, by morning if we hadn't found
this place, whereas now, in half-a-dozen hours' time she'll wake up
fresh as paint, and probably abuse me like the prince of pickpockets,
and swear it would have been much better to have slept out in the
_veldt_ all night.  That's the way of them."

A flash of lighting lit up the room with a fitful gleam, and a loud roll
of thunder shook the old house to its very foundations.  The storm, as
frequently happens in those regions, had been travelling in a kind of
circle, and was now returning in all its former fury.

"Will it wake her?  She has had enough scare for one night," he thought,
uneasily glancing towards her.  But no; thoroughly wearied out, Ethel
never moved as the rickety casements rattled to the fierce gusts which
howled round the building, and Claverton felt relieved.  Presently he
got up and went to the window.  All was pitch dark outside, but every
now and then the sky would be ablaze with a sudden flash--blue,
plum-coloured, and gold, in its vivid incandescence--the hill tops stood
out as if cut in steel against the misty background, while beneath
yawned the intersecting rifts of black, chasm-like kloofs, every leaf
and twig wet and shining, as clearly definable as at noonday.  A
panorama of weirdness and desolation.  Then pitchy blackness and the
long heavy roll of the storm king's artillery.  Claverton resumed his
seat, and the thunder crashed and roared outside, the lightning played
in vivid gleams, and the rain fell in torrents with a noise like the
rush of many waters; but within, silence, only broken by the soft,
regular breathing of the sleeper, and the plash of a big drop on the
floor, for the tattered thatch was not so watertight as might be wished.
And the night wore on.  The fire burnt low, leaving the angles of the
ghostly old room in shadowy darkness, while now and again a scratching
noise might be heard as some creeping thing made its way through the
thatch or along the beams.  The storm lulled, and then passed, and, save
for the murmur of falling rain, perfect silence prevailed outside, and
still the chilled watcher sat there, upright and motionless.  Then he
fell into a doze.  The dismal bark of a jackal was now and again borne
from the lonely bush; but not a sound escaped him as he sat there, till
at last the first faint shiver of dawn thrilled upon the hushened air; a
red glow in the east, then a blood-coloured streak on the few light
clouds which,--but for the soaked earth, were the sole traces of a night
of fierce tempestuousness.

Claverton rose and went out softly, so as not to arouse his companion,
to where he had tied up the horses.  Those long-suffering animals
pricked up their ears and whinnied at his approach, and, except that one
of them had got its leg over the reim, were just as they had been left
the night before.  Then he went back to awaken Ethel.  A smile was upon
her lips, and as he stood over her a gleam of sunlight shot in at the
open door and played upon the beautiful face.  He lingered a few
moments, for he could hardly bring himself to arouse her; but time was
flying, the sun was up, and they must be going.  So he said, quietly but
distinctly: "Time to be off, Ethel."

The girl started slightly, opened her eyes, then started again in
bewilderment.  He watched her with an amused expression.

"Where am I?" she exclaimed, sitting upright and looking round.  "Oh, I
remember.  I thought it was all a dream."

"Well, we must be getting home.  I'm just going to take the horses down
into the kloof and give them a drink, and then we'll make tracks."

He went out, and Ethel got up and looked around.  "What a selfish little
wretch I am!" she thought, as her eyes rested on the relics of the
night's doings, the dying embers of the fire, beside which lay the empty
pocket-flask, and the bit of paper and string whence the opportune
sandwich had been extracted, and then on the cloak which she had just
thrown off.  "I took everything from him, and left him to sit there all
night, cold and wet and hungry.  I wish it had to come all over again,
that I might sit out in the rain and the thunder and lightning all
night.  That's what I'd do, I swear I would," she ended, vehemently.

A trampling of hoofs outside showed that the object of her meditations
was returning.

"Now then, I'll just put the saddles on and we shall get home in nice
time for breakfast," he said; "but, first of all, we'll see how our
friend of last night got in."

"What, did that actually happen?  I thought I dreamt it."

Claverton laughed.  "I intended you should," he said.  "It would never
have done for you to have thought about it all night long; but it was a
fact, nevertheless.  Come and look here."

He pointed out three great footmarks just inside the doorway, left by
the terrified animal as it rushed out; then bursting open the door of
the other room, they went in.

"There's no outlet," he said, looking around.  "Stay--yes, here's a hole
behind the fireplace; but it could never have got in there.  No; here's
the key to the mystery," as they came upon the mangled carcase of a
half-grown kid.  "This little brute must have got in somehow, and the
wolf, attracted by its yelling, charged through that door," showing one
which opened into the room from without; "then it must have banged to
and caught him in a trap.  Pity I wasn't able to shoot the scoundrel!"

Ethel shuddered at the recollection.  "Let's start," she said, turning
towards the door.

He put her into her saddle and they left their opportunely-found
shelter.  The sun was now up, and, as they ascended the side of the
kloof, the whole landscape sparkled and glowed beneath the scorching
beams, every leaf and blade of grass studded with diamonds; and the
birds carolled forth gaily in the glad morning air, and doves shook out
their soft plumage, and cooed to each other on the wet sprays, and it
was difficult to realise such a culmination to a night of storm and
terror.  Just before they reached the road a strange fancy moved
Claverton to turn and look back upon their late haven of refuge, and
then a clump of bush hid it from view.  He little thought when and under
what circumstances he should see it again.

"What was the joke just now, when I woke you up?" he asked, as they rode
along.

"Joke?  Why--when?" she exclaimed, wonderingly.

"Oh, only that you were having a downright good laugh all to yourself.
I thought it a pity to disturb you, so had the grace to give you a few
minutes longer, in reward for which I claim to know what it was about."

She looked at him curiously for a moment, and a faint flush suffused her
cheek; then she broke into a ringing laugh.  "I don't believe I was
laughing at all," she said; "and, if I was, I intend to keep the fun all
to myself this time.  But what will uncle and aunt say when we get
home?"

"Say?  Oh, that the very best thing we could do was to have--gone back
to Van Rooyen's--got under cover like sensible people," answered he, in
a cool, matter-of-fact tone.

Ethel was silent for a few moments.  She was not quite easy in her mind.
"I was in a great hurry to get home last night, but now it doesn't seem
quite so delightful," she thought, with a sort of strange bitterness;
and she wondered how in the world she could ever have allowed herself to
be so frightened.  But meanwhile there was Seringa Vale, and the
adventure, or misadventure, was at an end.

Greatly to Ethel's relief, neither anxiety nor surprise were manifested
on their return.

"Hullo!" sang out Hicks.  "You were fortunate in being so far behind.
We thought of going back, too; but it seemed no use, so we rode on as
hard as we could, and got here in the thick of the storm, wet through."

"Ethel doesn't like Dutch houses, but she had to sleep in a worse one
than Van Rooyen's once," said Mrs Brathwaite.  "There were only two
rooms, and five of us had to turn into one, while all the men took
possession of the other.  But it was such a place!  We couldn't sleep
all night."

"I suppose not," said Claverton.  If they were at cross purposes, it was
not his business to go out of his way to enlighten them, especially as,
in this instance, cross purposes were best.

And Ethel evidently thought so too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1.  The large striped hyaena is called "wolf" in South Afrioa, just
as the panther is always referred to as "tiger."  Both terms are, of
course, zoologically erroneous.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

"LIKE THUNDERBOLT FROM A CLEAR SKY."

"Drive on, Piet, Mopela!  Sharp's the word; don't give them time to
think.  Look alive, now!"

The speaker is Mr Brathwaite; the scene the wash-pool.  A long line of
fleecy backs is moving over the _veldt_, propelled by the shouts of
three or four Kafirs, whose naked bodies glisten in the sun as they
advance swiftly behind the flock, brandishing their red blankets and
whistling shrilly.  For it may be that the leaders of that sturdy mass
of fat wethers, over a thousand in number, may take a sudden freak into
their woolly heads, and refuse to go any further when once within that
_cul de sac_ of thorn-fence gradually narrowing down to an outlet, and
that outlet the water--which will mean that each particular animal must
be thrown in separately, not once, but four or five times.  Therefore
they must be kept on the move and run down as quickly as possible.  Once
they begin jumping all will follow, but should the foremost happen to
jib, then the morning's work will be a hard one indeed.

A pleasant spot is this; bush and open _veldt_ about in equal
proportion.  Yonder, across the river, rises a ridge of high ground
whose slopes are well wooded, and over the wash-pool, which consists of
a long, smooth reach, the finks are flitting about their pendulous,
swaying nests, and twittering in the sunshine; while that shadowy krantz
overhanging the stream further down echoes back the long-drawn piping of
spreuws and the "coo" of a solitary dove.

Mr Brathwaite and his two lieutenants are evidently got up for
business--rough shirts and trousers and broad-brimmed hats, the last a
very necessary safeguard, for the morning, though still young, is
unconscionably warm.

"Don't think these will give us any trouble, they always take to the
water like ducks.  It's the next lot, the ewes, that are brutes to funk;
and once on that tack the devil himself won't make them jump.  Bles, you
_schelm_!" he exclaims, with a crack of his whip to hasten the decision
of the _voerbok_, who is slackening pace dubiously at the entrance to
the _cul de sac_.  The old goat gives a start and resumes his course,
trotting down towards the water; the sheep stream after him, and before
he has time to think better of it, even if so disposed, his woolly
followers press so closely upon him that there is no help for it; he
springs from the rock into the water, about two feet and a half beneath,
and the whole flock hastens to follow by threes and fours, and swimming
across emerges dripping on the other side.  Indeed, so fast do they
press forward that it becomes necessary for some one to stand at the
water's edge and check them, lest they should injure themselves or their
neighbours by jumping upon each other's backs.

"That's how I like to see them jump.  Fine sheep like that ought never
to want throwing in," says the old farmer, watching his well-bred flock
with some pride.

On they come, their drivers keeping them well at it, and in a short time
the last jumps in.  The whole lot are through and scattering slowly over
the _veldt_ on the other side, the steam arising in clouds from their
dripping fleeces.

"Bring them on again," calls out Mr Brathwaite, after a little time has
been given them to rest and get warm again.  The animals are driven
through at a shallow place lower down the river, and brought round to
the jumping place again.  Then they are headed once more for the water,
going through this time even better than the first.

"Hallo!" cries Hicks, running down to the edge and scrutinising the
surface all alive with panting heads and spongy fleeces.  "One's down.
Yes, there it is," pointing to four kicking legs above the surface, but
which immediately disappear.  "In with you, Mopela--Piet--look sharp!"
The first addressed pretends not to hear, but Piet, throwing aside his
kaross, takes a header, and as he reappears he just catches sight of the
drowning animal.  In a twinkling he has seized it, and holding its head
above water, he strikes out for the bank, dragging his cumbersome and
struggling burthen.  The animal had been suddenly taken with a fit and
gone under--an occurrence which now and then happens, and but for Hicks'
promptitude would have been drowned.  As it was, it lay upon the ground,
and after some gasping staggered to its legs, tottered a little way,
then lay down again, and finally picked itself up and began nibbling a
little grass, and in a few minutes had quite recovered.

The operation is repeated in precisely the same way as at first, and
after the flock had been through four times, it wore a very different
appearance to what it had done before; every fleece looking almost snowy
white by contrast as the animals are slowly driven off to their ordinary
pasturage, nibbling as they go.

"Piet, go and tell Umgiswe to bring on his lot," says Mr Brathwaite.
"There are under five hundred, and it won't take us very long," he adds,
for the benefit of his lieutenants, "that is if they jump well.  'Tisn't
twelve o'clock yet, so there'll be lots of time for them to dry."

Twenty minutes' rest, and then a sound of approaching bleating told that
the other flock was at hand.

Then arises a deafening and hideous din as the sheep are driven into the
_cul de sac_.  Yelling, and shouting, and whistling, white and black
alike contributing towards the general row, waving karosses, cracking
whips, and beating the ground with branches.  The _voerbok_
spasmodically rushes on ahead, plunges into the water and swims through;
but the sheep, suddenly deserted by their leader, stop half-way down the
passage, and, in spite of the pressure from behind, and the earsplitting
shindy, steadfastly refuse to budge.

"We've bungled it somehow," says the old farmer, in a cool,
matter-of-fact tone.  "No use bothering them any more just now.  Bring
round the goat, and we'll try again."

Two of the Kafirs start off on that intent, but it takes some time to
"collect" the truant, who runs hither and thither, bleating idiotically.
At last he is brought back to his post of honour at the head of the
flock; the driving and the row recommences, and the goat leaps into the
water manfully; but he is leading a forlorn hope, indeed, for not one of
the sheep will follow him--devil a sheep--though they are on the brink
of the water.  There they stick, firmly and stubbornly.

"Come on, Claverton, we must pitch some of them in," cries Hicks, and
the two promptly shove their way through the closely-wedged flock, which
stands packed like sardines, wheezing and panting in the heat.  In a
twinkling they have seized half-a-dozen of the obstinate brutes and
shied them in; but the rest show no signs of following, and so they go
on, till at last they pause, breathless and bathed in perspiration, for
two of the Kafirs to take their places; and finally, by relays of
labour, the whole flock is through.

"Whew! but that's warm work," exclaims Claverton, as, after a short
rest, the word is given to bring them on again.  "Perhaps they'll jump
this time."

His conjecture proves correct.  Whether it is that they find their
plunge cool and refreshing on this hot day, or that they are tired of
resistance, or a little of both, is uncertain; but as again, amid
whistling and din, the stupid animals are driven down to the water's
edge, they follow their leader, at first gingerly and by twos and
threes, and then so fast that Hicks takes up his position at the jumping
place to check them; in process whereof, having imprudently got too near
the edge, he is upset bodily into the water, and disappears from mortal
view, to emerge, spluttering and puffing and making awful faces, as he
scrambles up the bank, dripping like a half-drowned rat.

I know of nothing more funny than the sudden and unexpected descent of
any one into deep water.  The utter woefulness, combined with an
indignant air of injured innocence, which the sufferer's countenance
invariably assumes on emerging, should make a cat laugh; anyhow, nothing
human can stand against it.  And the savagely furious way in which the
patient hisses between his chattering teeth, "What the devil is there to
grin at?"  While the _tout ensemble_, his garments clinging to his
shivering carcase, is in no wise calculated to invest his just
exasperation with the majesty of outraged dignity.

Poor Hicks formed no exception.  Everybody was convulsed; one of the
Kafirs to such an extent, that he could do nothing but roll on the
ground in the exuberance of his glee, though he managed to recover
sufficiently to dart out of the way just in time to avoid a mighty kick
aimed at his nether quarters by the infuriated object of his mirth.

"There's something for you to grin at, you sooty son of a Cheshire cat!"
exclaimed Hicks, savagely; but, as we have seen, he missed his aim, and
in a minute had recovered all his wonted good humour.

The sheep gave no more trouble, but went through after that as if they
liked it.  Two or three turned over in the water, and were rescued as
previously described, while one died; but these accidents were
inevitable, and soon the flock was straggling away across the _veldt_ to
its feeding ground--white, clean, and freshened up.

When they reached home, the dining-room table was strewn with letters
and newspapers.  The postbag, which was fetched from the nearest agency
once a week, had just arrived, and as they entered, Mrs Brathwaite was
reading a letter aloud for the public benefit.  The writer stated her
intention of profiting by an unexpectedly early opportunity, and
availing herself of a long-standing and oft-repeated invitation to visit
them at Seringa Vale, in about a fortnight from then, and subscribed
herself: "_Lilian Strange_."

"Poor thing!" said Mr Brathwaite.  "We'll soon bring the roses back to
her cheeks.  A couple of months of this splendid air, and she'll be that
strong and sunburnt they Won't know her when she goes back."

And the kindly, hospitable old couple went on discussing their
prospective visitor and her joys and sorrows, past, present, and to
come; projecting all manner of schemes for making her stay an enjoyable
and a happy one.

There was one present whom this letter had set thinking, and that was
Claverton.  The name seemed familiar and yet not, for he couldn't for
the life of him fit it to an individual.

"Lilian--Lilian Strange--Lilian," he kept repeating to himself.  "Now
where the deuce have I come across that name before?  Lilian--it's a
pretty name, too.  No, I can't remember for the life of me."  He could
see the writing as the letter lay open on the table.  It was rather
large and very distinct, but not masculine.  But neither it nor memory
seemed to aid him, and he gave it up.

"What is she like, aunt?" asked Ethel.  "And what sort of age is she?
Young or middling?"

The old lady laughed.  "Young or middling?  Gracious me, child.  She's
only twenty-three, is sweetly pretty, and has the loveliest eyes I ever
saw."

"Present company excepted--ahem!" cut in Hicks, thinking he had said an
excessively smart thing, and colouring and looking an ass on the
strength of it.

"We must make her enjoy her visit," went on Mrs Brathwaite.  "Poor
girl, I feel so sorry for her.  Her mother is dead, and her stepfather
was a country gentleman in England and a wealthy man.  When he died all
his property went to his own family, and Lilian was left without a
penny.  Her relations on the stepfather's side were not kind to her, and
she was thrown on the world to get her living as best she could, and now
she's teaching."

"Universal refuge for the destitute," murmured Ethel.  "What brought her
out here?"

"A ship," chimed in Hicks, intent on being funny.  But Ethel looked
angrily at him, and he collapsed.

"She came out as a companion to some lady," answered Mrs Brathwaite.
"Then the McColls at Port Elizabeth engaged her to teach their children,
and a nice handful she must find them.  I fancy her health has rather
broken down.  She looked anything but strong when we saw her last June."

"It'll be a great nuisance," said Ethel afterwards to her sister when
they were alone together, "to have to be always trundling this girl
about.  She'll probably give herself no end of airs and try to patronise
us all."

"I don't know," answered Laura, "I have an idea she'll be rather nice.
Her letter reads like it."

"Perhaps so," rejoined Ethel, a little ashamed of her inhospitable
speech; "let's hope so, anyhow."

In due course the shearers arrived, and all being ready, operations were
begun at once.  No more long rides or bushbuck bants or anything of the
kind, time was too valuable; and for about three weeks Mr Brathwaite
and his two lieutenants had their hands full in superintending and
otherwise furthering that most important phase of farm routine--
shearing; and from rosy morn till dewy eve, and often till late within
the latter, were they strictly on duty.

Yes, those were busy times indeed.  There were the Fingo shearers to be
set to their work and kept to it, wool bales to be pressed and sewn up,
rationing to be attended to, and a hundred and one things, large or
small, to tax the mind and employ the hand.  Moreover, a sharp eye had
to be kept on the natives aforesaid, lest in their laudable anxiety to
make the largest possible tally, they should inflict grievous bodily
harm upon the animals under operation, and haply remove the cuticle as
well as the fleece.  But those there employed were old hands at the
craft, and gave no trouble to speak of.  They would clip away by the
hour, chatting among themselves in that seemingly disjointed way wherein
these people are wont to exchange gossip.  Now and then they varied the
pastime by humming a barbarous tune on about three notes, whose terrible
monotony would be distracting were it not that the ear gets accustomed
to the wretched crooning, even as to the hum of a threshing machine or
the ticking of an obtrusive clock, but through this, as through all
other sounds, the clip, clip, clip of the shears went steadily on, from
morning till night, from day to day.

"I've just had another letter from Lilian Strange," said Mrs
Brathwaite, one evening towards the close of the busy time above
mentioned.

"What does she say?" asked the old settler, who was nodding in a roomy
arm-chair, tired with the heat and exertion of the day.

"She says she won't be able to come to us this week after all, because
the McColls have put off their start.  She may have to wait another ten
days in consequence."

"H'm.  Don't know that it isn't just as well.  It would have been
difficult to send for her during shearing time--means two days away from
home.  Hicks might have gone to fetch her, or Arthur, but they are both
wanted here.  Naylor's busy, too, and so is Jim.  Yes, it's just as
well, as things go."

"She thinks she will have an opportunity in about a fortnight, which
will save us the trouble of sending."

"Well, that's better still.  Besides, who's going to bring her?"

"She doesn't say," answered Mrs Brathwaite.  "She only promises to let
us know."

To one, at least, of the auditors of this dialogue, the postponement of
the expected guest's arrival was not a source of unmixed grief.  That
one was Ethel.  She would not own to herself that so commonplace a
failing as jealousy had anything to do with it; still the fact remained
that they were all very jolly together as it was.  "Two's company,
three's a bore," applies in principle to circles, and now it was
horribly likely that this Miss Strange would be, from Ethel's point of
view, _de trop_.  Her aunt had spoken in warm terms of the other's
beauty and attractiveness.  But Ethel herself was conscious of the
possession of a larger share of those commodities than most people.  Had
the other been of the colourless and inane order she could have
tolerated her--bore as she might be.  As matters stood, however, it was
not in feminine human nature that Ethel should be prepared to welcome
the unexpected guest with open arms.

"What has become of Arthur?" asked Mrs Brathwaite, as they sat down to
supper.

"Oh, he'll be here in a minute," said Hicks.  "I left him yarning with
Xuvani.  He says the old chap's teaching him Kafir, and I'll be hanged
if ever I knew a fellow pick it up so quickly.  He didn't know a word
when he came here, but Xavani says he must have really, and was keeping
it dark.  He let drop two or three idiomatic expressions which showed
that he must have known something about the language or the structure of
it."

At that moment the door opened, admitting the object of their
discussion.

"Late, I'm afraid," he said, sliding into his place.  "That long-legged
humbug, Ntyesa, swore he had left his jacket in the shearing-house, and
I had to go and unlock it again for him.  Awfully sorry."

"Mr Claverton can't tear himself away, even at half-past eight," said
Ethel, maliciously.  "He will soon be quite glued to the wool bales."

He glanced up with an amused look.  "While there is light, there is
work--in shearing time," he replied.

"Bother shearing time!" rejoined she, pettishly.  "I wish you'd be quick
and finish it.  We can't get about at all, because there's no one to
take us.  Laura and I have wanted to go over to Thirlestane, and to
Jim's, and a host of places, but we can't.  We are just as much shut up
in here as you are in there.  Aren't we, Laura?"

"Ha--ha--ha," laughed her uncle, with whom she was a prime favourite,
and who spoilt her outrageously.  "You'd better come and give us a hand,
Ethel.  You and Laura.  We shall get it over ever so much sooner then.
You shall have six shillings a hundred.  Eh?"

"They oughtn't to have more than five, because they don't bring their
own shears," cut in Hicks.

"They've got nail-scissors, though," murmured Claverton.

"Ah, I could see you were going to say something horrid," cried Ethel.

"There are those two sparring again," was Laura's comment, "as usual."

Now there was a good deal more underlying Ethel's impatience with the
shearing time than appeared on the surface.  It deprived them of their
usual escort on their journeyings abroad, even as she had said, and with
her own particular body-guard on those occasions she found herself less
and less able to dispense.  And yet, as her sister had just remarked,
they two were always at daggers-drawn.  She had begun by cordially
detesting this man, as she thought.  In reality, there had been more of
resentment than of dislike in the matter.  She had resented his
coolness, his utter indifference to her charms, his way of treating her
like a spoilt child; laughing at her petulance, and turning off her most
pointed shafts on an impenetrable shield of mild satire, mingled with
surprised amusement.  She, Ethel Brathwaite, at whose shrine, when she
shone in the society of the capital, all crowded and fell down and
worshipped, to be thus treated!  She counted, among her sworn admirers,
more than one whose name was in many mouths, who boasted much-prized
decorations, well and fairly won, and yet here on the distant frontier
this man, whom, in reality, no one had ever heard of, treated her with a
sort of good-humoured indulgence!  And in spite of it--shall we not
rather say, because of it?--she was not angry with him.  It was a new
thing to find one who, instead of looking up at, if anything, looked
down to her; and to the wilful little beauty the change was positively
refreshing.  Then how helpless she had been in his hands on one or two
occasions--that of the storm, for instance, and the subsequent
terrifying episode--and he had not been wanting.  There were many men
within and without the circle of her admirers whom she could snub
capriciously and ruthlessly tyrannise over, but Arthur Claverton was not
one of them, and this she knew full well.  And now she had discovered
that his society was becoming very necessary to her, and what had forced
that discovery irresistibly upon her mind was the announcement, two
weeks ago, of the arrival of a new character upon the stage whereon she
and one other were the chief actors.  Verily it seemed to Ethel as if a
bomb had emanated from that harmless-looking postbag, and was destined
shortly to explode in their midst.

Then had come the shearing, and, except on Sundays, from dawn till dark,
Mr Brathwaite's two lieutenants found the whole of their time taken up.
In the middle of the day they would come in, by turns, to get their
dinners, but it was a case of off again directly after.  No more long
rides home in the twilight, or quiet strolls in the sunny afternoon, at
least not for some time to come, and then--another would have appeared
on the scene, thought Ethel, with a dire presentiment that those times
which now she looked back on with a sinking kind of regret would never
come round again.  Will it be better for her--for both of them--if they
do not?  We shall see.

She is looking bewitchingly pretty to-night as she sits throwing her
bright shafts of laughter and mockery at those around, and at Claverton
in particular--at the latter, indeed, to such an extent as to call forth
Laura's remark.  But a very close observer might have detected a kind of
latent wistfulness beneath the brilliant, lively manner, and only then
if he had specially looked for it.

"So you have been trying your hand at shearing, I hear, Mr Claverton?"
she said.

"I have."

"How did you get on, and how did you like it?" asked Laura.

"Hicks will best tell you how I got on.  As for liking it, the
occupation would be a wholly delightful one had a beneficent Providence
but seen fit to arrange the small of one's back upon hinges.  By the
way, Armitage wasn't here to-day, was he?  We could have sworn we heard
that laugh of his; couldn't we, Hicks?"

"No; he hasn't been here--and a good thing too," rejoined Mr
Brathwaite.  "He'd only have got playing the fool, or something.  He
carries that habit of his rather far at times.  You heard what he did
over at Naylor's the year before last?"

"No.  What was it?"

"Well, Naylor was hard at work with his shearing, and one day, in
turning out a lot of old hurdles to fence in the yard with, they came
upon a snake--a thundering big ringhals--and killed it.  Jack Armitage
dropped in just afterwards, and Edward showed him the snake, rather
crowing over having killed such a big one.  Jack said nothing at the
time, but a little while after, when they were all in the
shearing-house, they heard a yell, and a big black brute of a ringhals
came scooting in among them all, and there stood that villain Jack in
the door, grinning and chuckling, and nearly splitting his sides with
laughter."

"The beggar!" said Claverton.  "Did he scare them?"

"Didn't he!  You never saw such a commotion as it made.  The shearers
gave one `whouw,' dropped their sheep, and made for the door with a
rush--they're mortally afraid of a snake, you know--and there were sheep
rushing about the place half shorn, and kicking against the shears which
the fellows had let drop, and making a most infernal clatter.  And the
niggers were all crowding to get out, and raising a hubbub, and all the
rest of it.  The worst of it, though, was that they got so mad that they
one and all struck work--flatly refused to come back--and it was some
time before Naylor could persuade them to."

"The mischief!  And what did Jack do?"

"Do?  Jumped on his horse and rode away, laughing fit to kill himself.
Naylor was very savage with him though, and now he vows he won't have
Jack on the place at shearing time, not at any price.  By the way, that
long fellow, Ntyesa, was one of them.  You ask him to-morrow if he
remembers the snake in the shearing-house."



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

LILIAN.

"There.  I'm quite ready now.  I'm so sorry if I have delayed you, and I
fear I have."

"Not at all.  We are starting in very good time as it is, and have the
whole day before us."

The place is the drawing-room of an hotel in Grahamstown; the time,
rather early in the morning; and the first of the two speakers, a tall,
beautiful girl, who has just finished fastening together two or three
articles of light hand-baggage as the second enters to tell her that the
conveyance is all ready at the door.  She wears a close-fitting dress of
cool white, which, though making her appear taller, sets off to the
fullest advantage a graceful, undulating figure.  Waves of dark hair,
touched, as it were, with a glint of bronze, half conceal the smooth
brow, and the beautiful oval face, with its straight,
delicately-chiselled features, is most killingly and becomingly framed
in a large garden hat, lined with soft lace.  The eyes are of that
difficult-to-determine hue which is best defined as green hazel, and a
sensitive curve about the lips imparts to the whole face a tinge of
melancholy when in repose.  In fact, there is a trifle of coldness about
its normal expression.  But when it lights up--when its owner smiles--as
she now does very sweetly upon him, who is to be her travelling
companion and escort throughout that day--then its charm becomes
dangerous, so inexpressibly captivating is it.

"_Is sweetly pretty, and has the loveliest eyes I ever saw_," had been
Mrs Brathwaite's dictum.  And Claverton there and then mentally
acquitted the old lady of one jot of exaggeration as his glance rested
for the first time upon Lilian Strange when she entered the room
prepared for the journey--fresh, cool, and in all the composure of her
stately beauty.  She greeted him perfectly naturally and unaffectedly,
and apologised for delay, real or imaginary, as we have seen.

He had called at the hotel the evening before, to deliver a note from
Mrs Brathwaite, and to inform Miss Strange in person about her journey.
In the latter object he was disappointed.  Miss Strange sent down a
message, apologising for being unable to see him, on the ground of
fatigue.  She would, however, be quite ready to start at the hour named.
And Claverton, beyond a slight curiosity to inspect one who would be
for a considerable time an inmate of the same household as himself,
didn't care one way or another.  Miss Strange would be there all right
on the morrow, and he meanwhile would go and look up a friend at the
very poor attempt at a club which the city boasted.

He had expected to see a pretty girl, possibly a very pretty girl, but
nothing like this.  As it has been said, he was not a susceptible man.
In point of fact, he rather looked down on the fair sex, a few
individual members of it excepted.  Yet now, as he handed his charge
into the light buggy which stood waiting at the door, he was conscious
of an unwonted quickening of the pulse.  Not then was he able to analyse
the subtle fascination of her beauty and of her manner, the
extraordinary charm of her voice--such a voice as it was, too; low,
rich, musical; the kind of voice that could not by any possibility have
belonged to a plain woman.

"Thanks; they are not in my way in the least," said that bewildering
voice as Claverton was making impossible efforts to move certain parcels
in the bottom of the trap--impossible, because of the very limited space
afforded by the confines of a buggy--at the same time keeping a firm
hand on the rather fresh pair of horses which were bowling down the
street at a fine pace.  Early as it was, the streets were filling with
traffic; huge loads of wool on buck-waggons from up the country crawling
in behind their long spans of oxen; farmers' carts and buggies;
horsemen; and everywhere the inevitable native, male and female.

"The worst of it is that the bare fact of coming to the town entails
upon one multifold commissions, utterly regardless of space or carrying
power," he answered.  "Look at those bundles, for instance.  Not a third
of what I was to have fetched, and shall catch it for not bringing out."

Lilian laughed.

"Never mind.  I'll bear witness in your favour.  And now tell me, when
do we reach Seringa Vale?"

"Not before sundown.  I'm afraid you'll be dreadfully done up.  It's
very spirited of you to travel two days running like this.  I wonder you
didn't allow yourself a day here to rest after coming up all the way
from Port Elizabeth yesterday."

"It was tiring, certainly.  But I've had a good night's rest, and this
sort of travelling is quite luxurious after the passenger-cart.  Is it
going to be very hot?"

"I'm afraid it'll be warm, but not dusty, which is something to be
thankful for.  The heavy shower in the night has done that much for us.
Look!  Grahamstown shows well from here."

A curve in the road brought the city into full view, lying beneath,
embowered in its bosky gardens.

"Yes.  But I don't see anything to admire in these colonial towns.  They
are not even picturesque.  Frightfully dusty, oppressively hot, and
streets and buildings absolutely hideous."

"I agree with you.  Look at this one, for instance.  That mound of baked
clay, plastered up wet and left to dry, which we passed at starting and
which can hardly be distinguished now, doesn't look much like a
cathedral, does it?  Yet it is.  Then that fifth-rate mongrel Corn
Exchange you see--there--is the Eastern Districts Court, second temple
of Justice in the land.  That square barn-like wool-store, beyond the
clay cathedral, is a Methodist chapel with a truly appalling front.  It
is the prize barracoon of that connexion, and its habitues fondly
cherish the conviction that it is a second Milan.  The building away
there against the hill is to be admired, isn't it?  Built for a barrack
it remains a barrack, though it is now a public hospital.  The town is
pretty, thanks to its situation and trees, but there isn't a
decent-looking building in it."

"I want to see something of the country," went on Lilian.  "It ought to
be lovely, judging from what I saw of it coming along in the post-cart
yesterday.  And I've seen nothing of it as yet."

"Here we are, then.  What do you think of that?" said her companion, as,
having crested the hill which shut the city from view, he whipped up his
horses and they sped merrily along an elevated flat, dashing aside the
dewdrops which lay thickly studding the short grass like a field of
diamonds.  The sun was not long up, and a white morning mist hung here
and there among the sprays of the bush, but overhead all was dazzling
blue.  The view was extensive.  Wooded ridges melted away afar in the
soft morning light, and in the distant background the crescent range of
the Great Winterberg rose purple and dim.

"Oh, but this is lovely!" cried Lilian.  "Don't laugh at me, Mr
Claverton, but it is like drinking in new life after being pent up in a
dusty town."

"I'd rather be shot than laugh at you," he answered, with an earnestness
very unwonted in him.  "I am only too glad you should find anything to
enjoy in what I feared would be to you a very tedious journey.  Still
more glad am I that it has been my luck to escort you."

It was about the first genuine compliment he had ever paid to a woman in
his life, and yet he seemed totally unconscious of intending any
compliment at all.  He could hardly take his glance off the beautiful,
animated face beside him.  And how was it that this same escort duty had
fallen to his lot?  When Lilian Strange found out at nearly the last
moment that the opportunity on which she relied of getting to Seringa
Vale had fallen through, Mr Brathwaite had made arrangements to go to
Grahamstown and fetch her himself.  But a sharp attack of rheumatism
precluded this, and Hicks, who otherwise would have been told off on
this mission, and who had his own reasons for not wishing to be away
from home two days, easily prevailed on his friend to go instead of him.

On they sped, now ascending a hill at a foot's pace, now bowling briskly
down the next declivity, as the road wound over the rolling country.  To
Lilian the journey, so far from being a tedious one, was wholly
delightful.  She was vividly interested in everything.  Even the little
meercats, which sat upright on their hind legs a few yards from the road
and then bolted into their burrows at the approach of the horses, came
in for a share of her notice and admiration.  A solitary secretary bird,
stalking away down in the hollow, became the subject of numerous
inquiries, and she gazed with awe upon a cloud of great white vultures
soaring overhead bound for some defunct horse or sheep, appearing from
nowhere and disappearing as mysteriously.  To the English girl, with her
keen love of Nature, even these insignificant representatives of wild
African animal life were full of interest.

They passed a large ostrich farm lying beneath them on the slope, and
she could hardly believe her companion's statement that the distant
black specks at the farther ends of their respective enclosures were as
formidable as the traditional mad bull, until a large troop of
ten-months-old ostriches, under charge of herds, swept past, and he drew
her attention to their size, and the strength of those long legs
terminating in a sharp, horny toe, capable of ripping a man up.  But the
birds looked very handsome, very picturesque as they careered by, their
snowy plumes extended and waving, and she was delighted with the picture
they made, though her enjoyment was tempered with alarm as the horses
showed signs of restiveness.  But Claverton reassured her, and the
ostriches and their keepers were soon left far behind.

"You live at Seringa Vale, do you not, Mr Claverton?"

"Well, yes; I do at present.  I am jackarooing there, as they say in
Australia, which is to say that I am imbibing instruction in the craft
in consideration of my valuable services."

"And are you going to settle out here, then?"

"To settle!  H'm!  How do you know I wasn't born and bred out here?"

"I suppose because there's some sort of secret sign by which one
importation can detect another," answered Lilian.  "I don't believe you
have been out here as long as I have."

"Do I look so thoroughly the `new chum,' then?  Point out the
conspicuous sign of `rawness,' that I may at once eradicate it, if it is
worth eradicating, that is."

"No.  I refuse to reveal my masonic sign," she answered, gaily; "but I
know I am right in my conjecture.  I could tell the moment I saw you.
Am I not right?  Now confess!"

"Yes and no.  That is to say, it is only three months since I left
England this time; but before that I was out here in South Africa for
several years."

"Then I cannot claim seniority of standing, after all.  Are there any
more `importations' at Seringa Vale?"

"Yes.  Hicks.  But he's so thoroughly acclimatised that he don't count.
You and I are exiles and sojourners in a far country.  I foresee we
shall be talking British `shop' to a grievous extent," said Claverton,
not that he cared a rush about England, or had any great reason to, for
the matter of that, but it would establish an _entente_ with his
beautiful travelling companion, a something quite between themselves.
He was surprised to notice a wearied and even pained expression flit
across the lovely face, like the shadow of a cloud passing over the
bright smooth surface of a mountain lake.

"I don't know.  I think I would rather forget all about England," she
replied, sadly.  "It is a subject with no fascination for me.  As I'm
here in this country I want to like it, and it is highly probable that I
shall, at any rate during the next two months.  By-the-bye, what dear
old people Mr and Mrs Brathwaite are!"

"That they are," assented the other, heartily.  And then for the life of
him he could not help subsiding into silence.  She had a history, then.
She would fain forget the land of her birth.  It was not wholly the
stern law of necessity that had banished her to a distant land to fight
the rough, hard battle of life.  There was another cause, and glancing
at her as she sat beside him, Claverton thought he could in a measure
guess at the nature of that cause.  His pulses were strangely stirred,
and even then he was conscious of a longing to comfort her, of a wild,
unreasoning resentment against some person unknown.  Remarkable, wasn't
it, considering he had only seen her for the first time in his life that
morning, and that now it was still far short of midday?

But two persons of opposite sexes, both young, both goodly to look upon,
and under circumstances situated such as these two, will, I trow, find
it difficult to preserve silence for long--seated side by side in the
circumscribed space of a buggy.  Lilian was the first to break it.

"What was that?" she asked, eagerly, as a loud resounding bark echoed
forth from the hillside above them.

"Only a baboon.  Look, there he is--that black speck up there; and the
others are not far off."

They were driving through a wild and narrow pass.  High overhead great
masses of rock cut the skyline in fantastic piles, castellated here,
riven there, and apparently about to crumble in pieces, and hurl
themselves down upon the road.  Thick bush grew right down to the road
winding along the side of the hill, which here and there fell straight
away from it in rather an alarming and precipitous manner.

It was just at the most alarming of these places that a few puffs of
dust and a crack or two of a whip betokened the approach of waggons, and
the next moment the foremost of them appeared round a jutting corner of
rock.  Claverton muttered an imprecation as he noted that the oxen were
without a leader, straggling across the very narrow road at their own
sweet will, and bearing down upon him and his charge a great deal faster
than he liked.  The waggon, loaded sky high with wool bales, was still a
couple of hundred yards off, but the road from it to the buggy was a
brisk declivity; there seemed very insufficient brake on, and no sign of
any one in charge.  One of two things was likely to happen: either the
buggy would be splintered into matchwood against the inner side of the
road, or hurled into perdition over the outer one, by the ponderous mass
now bearing down uncontrolled upon it.  Claverton reined in his horses
and hallooed angrily.

An ugly, mud-coloured head rose from the apex of the pile; then
apparently subsided.

"Where's your `leader,' you _schepsel_?" he shouted in Dutch.  "Get off
and stop your fore oxen, or, by God, I'll shoot them dead on the spot."

The situation was critical, it must be remembered.  A sooty imp of a boy
glided to the front of the span, and succeeded in bringing them up just
in time.  The huge, unwieldy machine rolled creaking past the buggy,
narrowly grazing it with the wool bales.  The Hottentot driver raised
his ugly head and leered insolently.

"Hey, you, Engelschman!  Don't you know how to pass a waggon yet?" he
shouted.

Quickly Claverton stood up, and by dint of a dexterous "flick," cut the
fellow with his driving-whip in such wise as to chip a weal of skin out
of his face, and then the pace of the passing vehicles carried him out
of reach.

The Hottentot yelled and cursed with rage and pain; but there was
something so threatening in Claverton's face and the sudden movement he
made as if to descend and make a further example of him that the fellow
thought better of it, and dropped the empty grog bottle which he had
been about to shy after the trap.  He solaced himself, however, with a
shower of parting curses.

"Lord, Lord!  To think that I should have to sit still and be cheeked by
a dirty drunken Tottie," said Claverton to himself yet aloud, as if
oblivious of his companion.  Yet he had to.  He could hardly drop the
reins and leave her there in the middle of an excessively narrow and
dangerous bit of road, with a pair of very fresh and somewhat restive
horses on hand, while he went to wreak further vengeance on the impudent
rascal whose carelessness might have been productive of a serious
catastrophe.  He was handicapped altogether.

It was an earnest of real life.  By himself, with only himself to think
of, he could take care of himself.  In charge of another, would he not
have to swallow tons and tons over and above the traditional peck of
"matter in the wrong place" without a murmur?  He would be handicapped
altogether.  Philosopher as he was, it was hardly likely that such a
consideration should obtrude at this moment.

The other waggon was engineered by a couple of quiet-looking and civil
Kafirs, who gave them plenty of roadway and the good-morning as they
passed.

Claverton stole a glance at his companion's face.  She had been not a
little startled, he could see that, yet she kept her composure, and the
fact pleased him.  Most women under the circumstances would have let fly
exclamations of alarm, perhaps shrieked, possibly even might have
grabbed convulsively at the reins--that most blindly idiotic and utterly
exasperating phase of feminine scare upon wheels.  This one, however,
only changed colour ever so little, but did and said nothing.

"Here we are at an `hotel,' as they call it in this country," he
remarked, pointing out a seedy-looking domicile, like unto a fifth-rate
Dutch farmhouse, which hove in sight before them.  "We can either stop
there, or drive on a little farther and outspan in the _veldt_,
whichever you prefer."

"Oh, do let us outspan in the _veldt_," answered Lilian, gleefully.
"The drive is lovely, and a picnic in the middle of it will be quite the
right thing."

"Of course it will--or rather two picnics, for we shall have to outspan
again.  Look, we don't lose much by giving that barracoon the go-by," he
went on, as they passed the edifice in question.  "Goat chops very
tough, pumpkin and rice, and Cape sherry, are about the only items in
its bill of fare, I venture to predict."

"Horrible!" declared Lilian, with a laughing grimace.

They drove on a little farther, and halted in a beautiful spot, by a
pool of clear, but brackish water, thickly overhung with bush and
trailing plants, where Lilian was delighted with the colony of pendulous
finks' nests swaying to and fro as their startled occupants dashed in
and out, chirping volubly.  Claverton took the horses to the water, then
knee-haltered and allowed them to roll while he placed on the ground one
of the couple of bundles of oat-hay which were carried in the buggy for
their benefit.  Then he returned to his charge.

"I must apologise, Miss Strange.  The rule of the _veldt_ is not that of
society.  Here it is, `horses first.'"

He spread the wraps, which kind, thoughtful Mrs Brathwaite had sent for
Lilian's use, under a shady tree, making her a comfortable seat.  Then
he unearthed the commissariat, of which the staple articles were a
chicken and a bottle of Moselle.

"But this is far too luxurious," protested Lilian, her beautiful face
sparkling with animation.  She was thoroughly enjoying the
unconventionally of the whole thing.  "I declare it does not seem like
camping in the bush if we are to revel in luxury."

"Take it easy while you can.  That's the secret of true philosophy.  The
goat chops and pumpkin and rice will come, all in good time."

She laughed gaily.  Then she threw off her large straw hat, and pushed
up her dark hair as if to ease it of the weight.  Not a detail of the
movement or its effect escaped her companion.  He had not yet seen her
without her hat.  It is surprising what a difference this outdoor
appendage makes in the appearance of some women.  He noted, without
surprise, that Lilian Strange looked equally beautiful either way.

"Mr Claverton, why don't you smoke?" she asked, as, having lunched,
there was a dreamy pause in the conversation.

"I thought you might object.  But--how do you know I indulge in the
chimney trick?"

"Object?  No, I'm not so selfish as that.  And as for how I knew, I
might answer all men do, but I won't.  The fact is, you made a quite
unconscious and mechanical dive at your pocket, and brought out half a
pipe.  I'll give you credit that the move _was_ quite unconscious."

"It was, upon my honour.  What a magician you are--you notice
everything."

It has been stated that Lilian Strange possessed an extraordinarily
dangerous and captivating smile.  She was in one of her softest moods
now, thoroughly enjoying the fresh air and wild, extensive scenery; and
the drive, the impromptu picnic _a deux_, and above all her late
emancipation from distasteful drudgery amid uncongenial surroundings,
and the prospect of two months' rest from the same.  Then she had taken
a great liking to her travelling escort; short as had been the period of
their acquaintance.  So that now as she lay back, laughing over the
quaint dryness of the said escort's remarks, it could not be but that
her winning and attractive spell should weave itself around him to the
full.  This girl was something quite new in Claverton's experience.  The
soft, sweet tones of her voice, her glorious beauty, her very ways and
movements, seemed to cast a glamour over him such as he had never known
before in the course of his life.  Bright, teasing Ethel Brathwaite,
blue-eyed, sunny, impulsive, seemed poor clay when contrasted with this
new arrival with the lovely, expressive face and the undulating,
sensuous form--so stately and yet so unaffected and appreciative--so
cold of demeanour, at times, and withal so sweet and considerate.  Yet
nineteen men out of twenty would have given the preference to Ethel; but
then it may be that this other one would have favoured the nineteen with
the coldness devoid of the consideration.

Be this as it may, Claverton was certainly the twentieth in both senses,
and, as they sat there, resting in the golden sunshine, the drowsy air
around them made musical by the whistling of spreuws and the hum of
summer insects, he, at any rate, found himself wishing that that hour
might last throughout an eternity.

And the curious part of it was that he had not known her for hours
enough to make a double figure.

But time cannot be trifled with, and they were due at Seringa Vale
before dark.  So the horses were put to in a trice.

"Can't I help you in any way?" said Lilian.  "It seems so hard that you
should have all the trouble while I sit still and look on."

"It's no trouble at all," answered the other, tugging vigorously at a
refractory strap.  "I wouldn't let you bother about this sort of thing
for the world.  In fact, I am only too glad that you are not tired to
death with the long, hot ride.  And I think we'll put the hood up, for
there's no shade between this and the next outspan."

Now came the hottest stage of the journey.  The full glare of the sun
focussed down into the broad valley, beat fiercely upon the tent of the
buggy, and, but for the rapid movement creating its own draught, there
was not a breath of air.  Lilian began to feel drowsy and could have
pleaded guilty to an incipient headache, but she did not complain.  Her
companion, however, detected the tired look in her eyes, and was greatly
concerned; but she laughed it off.  She would be all right again when it
got cooler, she said.  It was really very silly of her, but she was just
a trifle below par.

On this point he rather vehemently reassured her.  Why, he himself often
felt as if about to get a sunstroke riding through these long, hot
valleys, just in the middle of the day--and he was a tolerably
well-seasoned traveller.  But it is to be feared that, for once in his
life, he forgot to spare the horses in his anxiety to reach the end of
that stage.

Lilian, however, forgot her fatigue, as after the next outspan they
wended up the rugged, but picturesque bush-road, in the golden light of
the waning afternoon.  They were in shade for the most part now, and the
air grew cooler as they ascended gradually out of the stifling valley,
where the river they had crossed a little while ago, flowed sparkling in
the sun like a silver thread.  Opposite, a row of stiff euphorbia reared
their plumed heads, their stems, straight and regular as a line of
organ-pipes, standing out from the darksome, rocky glen behind them like
the bars of a gloomy cage enclosing some ferocious beast.  There, a
great cliff, overhung with lichens and monkey ropes, starting
capriciously from among the greenness, and everywhere a shining sea of
bush; not silent, either, but resounding with evidence of animal and
insect life.  Far away, almost inaudible, the harsh bark of the sentinel
baboon; close at hand, oppressive in its vociferation, the shrill
chirrup of crickets.  Hoopoes were softly calling to each other from the
tangled recesses of some cool and shady nook; and a bright louri, in all
the pride of his crimson wings and glossy plumage, darted across the
road.

When they arrived at Seringa Vale, all its inmates were at the door to
welcome Lilian.

"I hope Arthur took great care of you, my dear," said Mrs Brathwaite,
the first genial greetings over.

"I have to thank Mr Claverton for taking the greatest possible care of
me," answered Lilian, flashing at him one of her sweetest smiles.

For a brief second their eyes met.  One standing there noted both those
glances and read them like an open book--read in one, possibility; in
the other, certainty.  And Ethel was forced to admit that her aunt's
description of their visitor's attractions was not one whit exaggerated.

And it had all come about in a single day.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

IN A SINGLE DAY.

"Mopela, what on earth have you been doing all this time?  I sent you
for that water half an hour ago."

There is menace as well as wrath in the tones of the speaker as he
confronts the individual addressed, who is calmly squatting on the
ground between two pails containing water just drawn out of the dam.  It
is midday, and a blazing sun pours down upon them, to the delectation of
certain mud turtles basking on the hard, cracked surface of the baked
ooze, and who, alarmed by the sound of angry voices, scuttle away into
the water as fast as their legs can carry them; while, in the noontide
stillness, the smooth surface of the reservoir glows like copper beneath
the burnished rays.  Again Claverton--for it is he--repeats his question
in a more irate tone than before.

Mopela rises and eyes his interlocutor in a manner that betokens
mischief.  He is a huge Kafir, tall and broad-shouldered, and his
bronze, sinewy frame, whose nudity shows the development of great
muscular power, looks formidable enough.  He hates Claverton, who has
more than once had occasion to be "down on" him for careless herding, or
other derelictions, and never loses an opportunity, whether by covert
insolence or neglect of orders, of showing it.  And for some time past
the relations between the two have been--in the language of diplomacy--a
trifle "strained."

"I _haven't_ been half an hour," he replies, defiantly, "I only stopped
a minute to light my pipe."

"You infernal blackguard, do you mean to give me the lie direct?" says
Claverton; and his voice shakes with pent-up fury as he advances a pace
nearer the last speaker.  "Take up those buckets and get away at once!"

The savage gives an exclamation of disgust, and his eyes glare.  Then
throwing back his head contemptuously, he says with an insolent sneer:
"You are not _Baas_ here."

"The devil I'm not!"  Crack!--woof!--a right and left-hander straight
from the shoulder, and the huge barbarian goes down like a ninepin.
"You dog! you've played the fool with me long enough, and now you've
come to the end of your tether.  Get up," he continues, spurning with
his foot the prostrate man, from whose mouth and nostrils a red torrent
is gushing.  "Get up, and I'll floor you again!"  His fierce temper is
now completely beyond his control, and for the moment he is as
thoroughly a savage as the dusky giant lying at his feet.

How it will end Heaven only knows, but at this juncture a low cry of
horror behind him causes him to turn, and what he sees brings a hot
flush to his face, up till now livid with rage.  For there stands Lilian
Strange, and her white face and dilated eyes betray that she has been a
terrified witness of the whole scene.

Claverton started as if he had been shot.

"I fear you have been dreadfully frightened," he said.  "Needless to
explain I had no idea of your presence."

He felt very concerned, and his face flushed hotly again as he thought
what an awful ruffian he must seem in her eyes.  This was the second
time within twenty-four hours that she had seen him lose his temper,
though yesterday, anxiety for her own safety had been the justification.
His clothes were plentifully splashed with sulphur and lime, in which
salutary decoction he had been dipping sheep when the _fracas_ occurred.
At his feet lay the hulking form of the Kafir, breathing stertorously
and bleeding like a pig.  Yes, what a cut-throat he must seem to her!

But Lilian could not have been of this opinion, for the startled
expression faded from her eyes and a delicate tinge showed in the warm
paleness of her cheek.

"I had been for a walk in the garden, and came suddenly upon you.  I
couldn't help seeing it all.  He seems badly hurt; can't we do anything
for him?" she pursued, going up to look at the prostrate barbarian, and
again growing pale at the sight of the blood.  For Mopela lying there,
with all the results on his countenance of the punishment he had
received, was not an exhilarating object to gaze upon.

"Do anything for him?  Oh, no; he's all right.  Look."

The Kafir opened his eyes stupidly and staggered to his feet.  Then,
with a glance of deadly hatred at his chastiser, he took up the buckets
and walked away, his gait rolling and uneven.

"You don't know what I've had to put up with from that bru--that rascal
for some time past.  Well, he's got it now, at all events.  I knew it
was only a question of time.  The only thing I regret is that it should
have been at so inopportune a time," he added, in tones of deep concern.
He was exceedingly vexed and disgusted with himself.  Mopela might have
inflicted upon him a whole vocabulary of impudence before he would have
afforded Lilian such an exhibition had he but foreseen.

"I suppose you find these natives very trying?" she said.

"Not as a rule.  On the contrary, I always pull well enough with them.
But that chap's defiance had reached such a point that one of us had to
knuckle under.  It would never have done for that one to have been
myself."

"I suppose not," answered Lilian, with a little smile at the idea of her
escort of yesterday "knuckling under" to anybody.  "And now I must not
delay you.  I see you are busy--but--would you mind walking back to the
house with me?  I am easily frightened, and these savages do look so
dreadful when they are angry."

"Would I mind?  But don't _you_ mind being seen in such ragged company?"
he added, drily, with a glance at his rough and besplashed attire.

"In Bond Street it is just possible that I should.  On an African sheep
farm the escort is appropriate," she answered, with a flash of merriment
in her lovely, changing eyes.

The distance to the house was not great, but Claverton contrived to
render it as great as possible.

"How is it you are out all alone?" he asked, as they walked along.

"Oh, the fact is, Mrs Brathwaite and the girls were busy, very busy.  I
wouldn't for the world abuse my guest's privilege, so I slipped off on a
solitary voyage of discovery."

"And a pretty sort of discovery you made!  By-the-bye, I have had no
opportunity of asking if you had quite recovered from yesterday's
fatigue, and it has been lying heavily on my conscience.  You did not
appear at breakfast, and we have been desperately busy all the morning."

There was a tender ring in his tones as he made this very commonplace
observation which could hardly have escaped the other.  She answered
very sweetly:

"I am afraid I was dreadfully lazy.  But I was a little tired this
morning.  It shan't occur again; there!"

"You must rest to-day, then, because they are getting up a dance
to-night in your honour.  You are literally to make your _debut_ here.
Didn't they tell you?"

"Now I think of it, they did.  Here we are at the house, Mr Claverton.
Thanks, so much, for accompanying me."

"And now I shall catch it.  The dear old man hates any of us to thrash a
nigger.  Stand by and support me under my castigation."

Claverton had seen Mr Brathwaite in the hall, and lost no time in
telling him what had happened.  The old settler shook his head as he
listened.

"It won't do," he said.  "You'll never get any good out of them if you
take to hammering them.  They cut off to the district town and lay an
information against you, and you're summoned before the magistrate, and
put to no end of bother.  And that's not all.  It has a bad effect on
the others.  They know they'll get the better of you in court, and
invariably do get it; and once a black fellow thinks he can get the
better of you in any way, then good-bye to your authority.  Besides, it
earns you a bad name among the Kafirs, which means a constant difficulty
in obtaining labour, and when you do obtain it you only get the refuse.
There's Thorman, for instance.  He used to lick his Kafirs for the least
thing, and he never kept a decent servant on his place two months at a
time.  I advised him to knock off that plan, and he did; but for years
afterwards he suffered from its effects, in the shape of a constant lack
of decent labour.  No; it doesn't pay, take my word for it."

"Well, but you've no idea how cheeky that fellow was, and has been for
some time past," urged Claverton.

The other merely shrugged his shoulders with the air of a man
unconvinced, and repeated as he turned away: "It doesn't do."

Claverton shot a glance at his late companion as much as to say; "There,
I told you how it would be," and caught a bright, rapid smile in return.
Then he went back to his work.

Hard by the scene of the recent row was the dipping tank, oblong in
shape, fifteen feet by five and about eight in depth.  It was two-thirds
full of a decoction of lime and sulphur, and into this the sheep were
dropped, and after swimming about for a couple of minutes or so were
suffered to emerge, by the raising of a sliding door at one end.  This
end, unlike the other, was not perpendicular, but the floor was on a
sufficient slope to enable the animals to walk out, which they did, and
stood dripping in a stone-paved enclosure also with a shelving floor so
that the liquid that drained off them should run back into the tank.  At
the other end was a larger enclosure containing several hundred sheep,
which four or five Kafirs, among them the recreant Mopela, were busy
catching for the purpose of dipping them in the unsavoury but
scab-eradicating mixture.  Over which operation presided Hicks and
Claverton, each with a forked pole in his hand, wherewith to administer
the necessary ducking to the immersed quadrupeds.  At last Hicks
proposed that they should knock off, and come back and finish after
dinner.

"Not worth while, is it?" was the reply.  "Let's finish off now we're at
it, then we can take things easy, clothed and in our right minds.  We
can hardly go inside the house, even, in this beastly mess."

Claverton carries his point, as he generally does.  So they work on and
on in the heat and the dust, and the air is full of splashes as the
kicking animals are dropped into the tank, and redolent with the ill
savour of sulphur and lime and perspiring natives; and the contents of
one of the great cauldrons simmering over the fire are thrown in to
replenish the medicinal bath, and the number of sheep left undipped
waxes smaller and beautifully less, till at length the last half-dozen
are disposed of and the job is at an end.

Then Hicks suggested a swim in the dam, and the proposal was soon
carried into effect.  After which, in renewed attire and presentable
once more, they appeared among the rest of the household.

To some at least in that household has come among them a change; an
element of upheaval certainly not even dreamed of by all whom it shall
concern.  A change.  The acquisition of a beautiful and agreeable young
lady visitor by this circle?  No, something more than that.

Mrs Brathwaite playfully upbraided Claverton for being the unconscious
cause of frightening her visitor on the first morning of her arrival.
Then Lilian came to the rescue.  If she had been startled it was her own
fault or ill fortune for going where she was not wanted.  Here vehement
protest from him whose cause she was pleading.  Then, she urged, he who
had been the means of startling her had made all the amends in his power
by seeing her safely home, coward as she was to need it.  Here more
vehement protest.

What does this vehemence mean on the part of a man to whose nature it is
wholly foreign, who is calmness and equability itself?

This question--partly its own answer--flashed through Ethel's mind.  She
was to all appearances deep in discussion with Laura and Hicks as to
certain debatable arrangements for the coming festivity.  In reality she
was performing that extremely difficult feat, keeping an ear for two
distinct conversations.  In the course of which difficult feat Ethel was
wondering how it was that these adventuresses (yes, that is the word she
used) with nothing on earth to recommend them, should have the power of
taking everybody by storm in the way their visitor seemed to be doing.

Lilian was wondering how it was that her visit seemed likely to be far
more pleasant and enjoyable than she had at first anticipated, which was
saying a great deal.  Also what there was about this man, now talking so
unconcernedly to herself and her hostess, that raised him on a pedestal
considerably above the residue of the species.

Claverton was wondering how it was, that his life seemed to have been
cut in two distinct halves since yesterday.

And Ethel again read both faces like an open book.  And this time she
read in the one, greater possibility; in the other, absolute certainty.
Such was the situation.

And it had all come about in a single day.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

"MINGLE SHADES OF JOY AND WOE."

The long dining-room is in a blaze of light, such as it has not sparkled
with for some considerable time, and only then on rare and special
occasions such as the present one.  The polished floor reflects the glow
of numerous candles, and, as Hicks vigorously puts it, the decks are
thoroughly cleared for action.  Expectant groups stand about the room or
throng the doorways--for the fun has not yet commenced, and meanwhile
talk and laughter goes on among the jovial spirits there foregathered,
and the graver ones, when not the subjects of rally, are intent on
contemplating the floor, the ceiling, the fireplace, or anything or
nothing.  The party might be an English one to all appearances.  You may
descry the usual phases in its ingredients.  There is shy humanity,
confident humanity, blatant humanity, fussy humanity, even pompous
humanity.  There, however, the resemblance ends.  Of stiffness there is
none.  Everybody knows everybody, or soon will--meanwhile acts as if it
does.  Then, in the little matter of attire, many of the "lords of
creation" are arrayed in orthodox evening costume and white-chokered,
others in black coats of the "go-to-meeting" order, while three or four
Dutchmen, bidden to the festivity on neighbourly grounds, sport raiment
fearfully and wonderfully made, whose effect is enhanced by terrific
neckties, varying in shades from scarlet to green.  The company is
composed almost entirely of the settler class.  Jolly old fellows who
have come to look on at the enjoyment of their extensive and
well-looking families in various stages of adolescence, and who, in
spite of their white hair and sixty or seventy summers, seem more than
half inclined not to remain passive spectators of the fun.  One or two
of these, by the way, judging from nasal rubicundity and other signs,
will, I trow, be found more frequently hovering around the charmed
circle where flows the genial dram, than in the immediate neighbourhood
of the giddy rout.  Middle-aged men, bronzed and bearded, looking
serious as they contemplate what is expected of them, for assuredly we
English, in whatever part of the world we be, "take our pleasures
sadly."  Young settlers are there, stalwart fellows, several of whom
have ridden from far, carrying their gala array in a saddle-bag, and who
by the time they return will have been three days away from home.  But
distance is nothing; their horses are strong and hardy, and the roads
are good, and if not, what matters?  Life is nothing without its
enjoyments, and accordingly they intend to enjoy themselves, and do.

Of the fair sex there is a goodly muster--though fewer in proportion to
that of the men, as is frequently the case at frontier dances--
consisting of the wives and daughters of the settlers.  Some are pretty,
some plain; some are bright and lively, and nicely dressed; others again
are badly attired, and neither bright nor lively; and at present they
are mostly gathered together in the room opening out of the one which is
to be the scene of the fray.

"Now then, Hicks, Armitage, some of you fellows, let's set the ball
rolling," cried the jovial voice of Jim Brathwaite, as a volunteer
pianist (the orchestral department must be worked entirely by volunteer
agency) sat down at the instrument and dashed off a lively galop.  "Come
along, Arthur, give these fellows a lead," he went on.

Claverton was standing in the doorway.  He turned as Jim addressed him.
"Well, if it's all the same, I think I'll cut in later.  Fact is, I'm
not much of a dancer.  Besides, it's a ridiculous exercise."

"Aren't you!  `England expects,'" said Ethel, maliciously, as she
floated by, a dream-like vision in pink gauziness.  Her golden hair,
confined by some cunning device at the back of her head, flowed in
shining ripples below her waist, and the deep blue eyes flashed
laughingly into his as she made her mocking rejoinder.

"Does it?  Expectations are notoriously unsafe assets," was the quiet
reply.

"Well, we must make a start or we shall never get these fellows to
begin," said Jim.  "Come along, Ethel, you promised me the first dance.
If you didn't you ought to have."

They glided off, and Claverton stood and followed them mechanically with
his glance; but, as a matter of fact, he hardly saw them.  He was
wondering what on earth had become of Lilian Strange.  The dance wore
on, and then the next, still Claverton stood in the doorway, which coign
of vantage he held conjointly with an uncouth-looking Dutchman and a
burly but bashful compatriot, and still _she_ did not appear.  At
length, while crossing the inner room with a vague idea of putting an
artless and roundabout inquiry or two to Mrs Brathwaite as to why
Lilian did not appear, he heard himself hailed by his host.  Turning
quickly he perceived the latter sitting in confab with a contemporary in
age, but vastly different in appearance.

"Arthur, this is an old friend of mine, Mr Garrett."

Then arose a queer-looking old fellow, short, rotund of person, and
whose exceeding rubicundity of visage betokened, I fear, anything but
aversion for ardent spirits.  Running one stubby hand through his
bristly grey hair, he extended the other to Claverton.

"'Ow do--'ow do?  Not been long in the country, have you?  My word, but
it's a fine country, this is--fine country for young fellers like you."

Claverton thought the country contained also some advantages for the
speaker; and he was right.  Here was old Joe Garrett, who never knew his
father, if he had one, and who, having early in the century deserted
from a two-hundred-ton merchant brig lying in Algoa Bay, had started in
colonial life as a journeyman carpenter.  By hook or by crook he had
made his way, and now, by virtue of the four fine farms which he owned,
he deemed himself very much of a landed proprietor, and every whit the
equal of Walter Brathwaite, "whose ancestors wore chain-armour in the
fourteenth century," as some one or other's definition of a gentleman
runs.

"I was jest such a young feller as you once," went on this embodiment of
colonial progress.  "I landed in this country in nothin' but the clothes
to my back, and look at me now.  Now, I'll tell you what I did," and the
oracle, slapping one finger into the palm of the of her hand, looked up
into his victim's face with would-be impressive gravity, "I worked;
that's what I did--I worked.  Now, you may depend upon it, that for a
young feller there's nothin' like a noo country--and work!"

"I suppose so," acquiesced Claverton, horribly sick of this biography.

"Now a noo country," went on the oracle, "a noo country, sez I, ain't an
old one.  'Ere you're free; there," flinging out a stubby hand in the
imaginary direction of Great Britain, "nothing but forms and sticklin'.
Now, 'ere I can sit down to dinner without putting on a
swallow-tail-coat and a white choker, for instance.  No; give me a noo
country and freedom, sez I."

"Quite right, Mr Garrett.  A swallow-tailed coat plays the mischief
with the digestion, and science has discovered that a white choker
tarnishes the silver.  Something in the starch, you know--arsenic, they
say."

"No!  You don't say so now?" returned the other, open-mouthed, and not
detecting the fine irony of his banterer's tone.

"Yes, of course.  And now excuse me.  I must go and find my partner."

"Certainly--certainly.  You young fellers!  I was a young feller once,
ha, ha, ha!"  And old Garrett winked, and contorted his visage in the
direction of his recent interlocutor in such wise as should mean
volumes.

"This is ours, Miss Strange."

Lilian had just come in.  She had passed close behind the speaker while
he was talking to old Garrett, and her entrance did not remain long
undiscovered.

"Do you know, I had quite begun to fear you were not going to appear
to-night--that you were tired or unwell," he said, as they made their
way to the dancing-room.

"Bight and wrong.  I was tired, and so rested instead of dressing
earlier.  Now I am all right again, and never felt so well in my life."

"Nor looked it."

It slipped out.  The slightest possible flush came into Lilian's face.

"You must not pay me compliments, Mr Claverton," she said, gravely, but
with a smile lurking in her eyes.  "They are what you men call `bad
form.'"

"But consider the provocation."

"Again?  What am I to do to you?  I know.  I shall scold you.  This is
the second time to-day that you have reproached me for being late.  This
morning and now."

_Certes_ the provocation was excessive.  She was looking surpassingly
beautiful this evening, in creamy white, with a velvety rose of deepest
crimson on her breast; another bud, a white one, nestling among the
thick coils of her bronze-tinted dark hair.  Many a glance of astonished
admiration greeted her entrance, and followed her about the room; but
the quiet repose of the lovely face was devoid of the least sign of
self-consciousness.

"By Jove!" remarked Armitage to his partner, a chubby little "bunch"
with big blue eyes and a button mouth.  "Claverton's a sly dog.
_That's_ why he was in no hurry to begin.  Oho, I see now."

"She _is_ pretty.  How well they look together!" was the reply, as the
two stood against the wall to watch them.

Ethel, whirling by with the Civil Commissioner's clerk, caught the last
remark.  She would have given much to have been able to box poor little
Gertie Wray's ears severely, then and there.  That young lady babbled
on, utterly void of offence.

"I say, though," said her partner.  "She cut you out.  Claverton was
just on his way to ask you when she came in.  He was, really."

"Was he?  Then he should have asked me before.  My programme's full
now."

Meanwhile let us follow the pair under discussion.

"Who was that poor old man you were chaffing so, just now?"  Lilian was
saying.

"Only a curious specimen of natural history.  But how do you know I was
chaffing anybody?"

"Because I heard you.  Who is he?"

"What perception you have got!  `He' is old Garrett, hight Joe, who
migrated hither in the year one, to escape the terrible evil of having
to dress for dinner."

Lilian could not speak for laughing.

"Fact, really; he's just been telling me all about it.  Bother!  This
dance is at an end.  We are down for some more together, though."

"Too many."

"I claim priority of right.  I claim your sympathy as a fellow sojourner
in a far country.  I appeal to your compassion to rescue me from
standing out in the cold, in that you are the only one with whom I can
gravitate round this festal room without peril to my neighbours' elbows
and shins, and they know it, and shunt me accordingly."

"I don't believe a word of it," laughed Lilian.  "It is you who shunt
them."

"No, I am telling you solemn truth.  And now have I not made it clear to
you that it is your bounden duty to take pity on me and help the
proverbial lame dog over the ditto stile?"

"Well then, I'll see what I can do for you.  Now find me a seat--there,
thank you--and go and `victimise' some one else," she added, flashing up
at him a bright, mischievous glance.

"Not yet.  Have pity on--the public elbow and shin.  I want to rest,
too, after discharging my recent heavy responsibility without disaster;"
and he made a move towards the seat beside her.

"No.  You are not to shirk your duty.  Go and do as I wish, or I shall
consider it my duty to lose my programme.  That means a new one, blank,
and then memory is not a trustworthy guide."  And as at that moment some
one came up to ask her for a dance, Claverton was constrained
unwillingly to obey, or rather, partially to obey, for he fell back on
his old position in the convenient doorway, whence his eyes followed her
round and round the room, to the complete exclusion of the other score
of revolving couples.

"Mr Claverton, do prove a friend in need, and save me from the clutches
of that awful Dutchman bearing down upon me from over there," said a
flurried, but familiar voice at his elbow.  "I promised him in a weak
moment, and now he's coming.  Say you've got me down for this, and
persuade him it's his mistake.  Quick! here he comes."

"All right.  But you told me once you'd rather go round with a chair,
you know, than with me."

"Did I?  Never mind; don't be mean and rake up things," replied Ethel,
and away they went, while the defrauded Boer, thinking his own sluggish
brain was at fault in the reckoning, adjourned to a certain corner of
the other room in order to solace his wounded feelings with a _sopje_
(dram).

"How about England's disappointment?" said Ethel, maliciously, during a
pause.

"That affliction has been indefinitely averted.  By the way, I never
thought to see Allen so screwed."

"Er--I'm not screwed," mildly objected that long-suffering youth, who
had pulled up with a swaying jerk alongside of them.

"Aren't you?  My good fellow, a man who is capable of mistaking my
substantial and visible means of support for this exceedingly
well-polished floor, must be in a critical condition."

"Oh--ah--er--was that you I trod upon?  I didn't know--I'm awfully
sorry."

Half-a-dozen bystanders exploded at this, and the dance over, Claverton
began to think he had done a considerable share of duty, and sought an
opportunity of claiming an instalment of the promised reward; but his
turn had not yet come.  Presently he overheard a girl near him say:

"What do you think of that Miss Strange?"

He recognised in the speaker one Jessie Garrett, a daughter of Joe of
that ilk.

"Well, she's very pretty, there's no doubt about that," answered her
partner, a stalwart young ostrich-farmer from the Graaff Reinet
district.

"Should you admire her as much as Ethel Brathwaite?"

"No; I don't think she's a patch on Miss Brathwaite; but there's
something awfully fetching about her, for all that."

"Well, there's no accounting for tastes.  I think she's too colourless--
washed-out looking,"--a fault the speaker herself could in no wise plead
guilty to.  She was a pretty girl herself, in the florid, barmaid style,
but as different a creature to Lilian Strange as a plump dabchick to an
Arctic tern.

Claverton's lips curled as he looked from the offending couple to the
object of their remarks.

_She_ to be discussed according to the clod-hopping ideas of louts and
scullery-maids.  He turned away disgusted.  Suddenly he heard himself
hailed in loud and jovial tones, and, looking up, found himself in the
vicinity of the refreshment table, where three or four ancient settlers
were exchanging reminiscences, and occasionally clinking glasses.
Prominent among them was old Garrett, his rubicund visage now nearly
purple.

"I sh-shay, C-Claveringsh!" called out this worthy.  "C-come and have a
what-sh-may call a eye-opener--hic!"

"All right."

"Thas righ'sh.  Told yer 'ee ain't proud," cried the old fellow, beaming
triumphantly on the rest, and attempting to bestow upon Claverton a
friendly slap on the back, which the latter quietly evaded.  He
contemplated the individual before him with vast amusement, and
speculated as to how soon this worthy's early retirement would become
imperative.

The rout went on, and presently Naylor and his violin were pressed into
the service to second the piano.  In the passage outside a number of the
Hottentot servants, emulative of their betters, had got up a dance of
their own and waxed merry, and laughed and chattered exceedingly, till
at last Jim Brathwaite, hearing the row, sallied forth and cleared them
all out summarily.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The hours wear on apace.  In the silence of the garden the air is
fragrant with the cool breaths of night distilling from the myrtle and
the flowering pomegranate.  High in the heavens hangs a gold half-moon
whose lustre pierces a leafy canopy, scattering a network of filmy light
upon the shaded earth.  In and out of the gloomy shadows of the orange
trees a firefly or two trails in mid air a floating spark.  All is rest.
Now and again a burst of voices and music is borne from the house, yet
here it penetrates but feebly, and Night--silver, moon-pierced,
star-studded Night--is queen amid the mysterious silence of her witching
court.

Two figures wandering down the orange walk in the alternate light, and
gloom, and dimness.  Listen!  That low, melodious voice can belong to no
other than Lilian Strange.

"I am so glad we came out here for a little.  I had no idea there could
be such a night as this except in books."

"Perhaps it strikes you the more, contrasted with the row and junketing
indoors," said her companion.

"No.  In any case it would be delicious.  And yet there is something of
awe about a night like this--don't laugh at me--it always seems a
mysterious shadow-land connecting us with another world."

"Laugh at you!  Why won't you give me credit for a capability of
entering into any of your ideas?"

"But I do.  You are more capable of it than any one I know.  There."

"Thanks for that, anyway."

"Don't stop my rhapsodies, but listen.  Doesn't it seem--standing here
in this stillness--as if the world lay far beneath one's feet; that all
the littlenesses and prosaic worries of every-day life could not enter
such an enchanted realm?  Ah-h!"

She uttered a little cry and instinctively drew closer to him as the
sudden, yelping bark of a jackal sounded from the bush apparently within
fifty yards of them, but really much further off, the stillness and a
slight echo adding loudness to the unlooked-for and ill-sounding "bay."

"Don't be afraid," he said, reassuringly.  "It's only a jackal.  What
would you have done if it had been a wolf?"

"I should have been dreadfully frightened.  What a coward I am!"

"At any rate, this time I am not the author of the scare, which is
subject-matter for gratulation," he said.

She laughed.  "No; but the interruption came in most opportunely, in
time to stay my flights.  Here am I, inveighing against, and thinking to
rise superior to the prosaic commonplaces of life, when a sound, a mere
sound, fills me with an overwhelming impulse to rush headlong back into
the despised prose.  What a step from the sublime to the ridiculous!"

"I was thinking something of the kind," replied Claverton, with a half
smile; and his voice grew very soft as he looked at her sweet, serious
face.  "But don't be in the least afraid.  A jackal is about as
formidable or aggressive as a tabby cat, though he does make a
diabolical row; and as for wolves, they are very scarce, and even more
cowardly; and a yet bolder animal would flee from two such unwonted
apparitions in the South African bush," he added, with a laugh, as he
glanced at the regulation "evening-dress" of his companion and himself.
"Come this way."

He opened a small gate in the high quince hedge, and they passed out
into a narrow bush path which, wound along through the _spekboem_ and
feathery mimosa.

"Don't be in the very least afraid," he repeated, as they wandered on.
"I want you thoroughly to appreciate and enjoy about the most perfect
night I ever knew--and I've seen a good many--and you can't do so if
you're expecting a wolf or a tiger to spring out of every bush."

She laughed.  "I'll try and be less of a coward, and keep my too-vivid
imagination under control."  Yet the light hand which rested on his arm
seemed to lean there with ever so increased a pressure of trust or
dependence, or both.

Is it the movement of bird or beast in the adjoining brake, or is it the
tread of a stealthy foot, that makes Claverton suddenly turn and gaze
behind him?  "I could swear I heard some one," he thinks to himself; but
not a word of this does he say to his companion.  Then he laughs at
himself for a fool.  But he sees not a tall, shadowy figure standing
back beneath the shelter of a mimosa tree, watching them over the sprays
of the lower scrub.  He hears not again that cautious footfall
following--following silently as they wend their way along the moonlit
path.  And what should be farther from his thoughts than danger, real or
imaginary?

Presently the plash of falling water is heard, and they emerge from the
path on to a high, open bank.  Beneath, the moon is reflected in the
depths of the still, round pool, whose rocky sides throw a black shadow
on the surface, while a small cascade slides from a height of ten or
twelve feet, and, glancing like a silver thread through festoons of
delicate maidenhair fern fringing the polished face of the rock,
plunges, with a bell-like plash, into the glassy depths.

"That's pretty, isn't it?" said Claverton.  "In the daytime it isn't
much to look at, but by moonlight it shows up rather well."

"It's lovely!  A perfect picture!"

"I thought you'd like it.  Sit down there," he continued, pointing to
the smooth, sloping sward, which he has narrowly scrutinised to make
sure that no noxious reptile, whether serpent or centipede, is at hand.
Yet may he have overlooked the presence of deadlier foe than serpent or
centipede, ay, and wolf or leopard, in that peaceful retreat.  "How do
you think you'll like being here?"

"Very much.  I like it already.  It is so different to any kind of life
I have ever known before--so strange, and wild, and interesting.  And
then every one here is so kind.  Why, I might be a very near relative
instead of only a recent acquaintance!  The worst of it is, I fear it
will spoil me by the time I have to go back to my work."

Her listener bit his lip until the blood flowed.  His quick perception
had detected the faintest possible sigh of wearyful import which escaped
her.

"It shall be no fault of mine if you do go back to that same miserable
drudgery," he thought.  But it was too early yet to utter the thought
aloud, even he felt that.  So he only said--and there was a world of
tender sympathy in his tone:

"I'm afraid you have been working much too hard, and I don't believe you
are in the least fitted for it."

"You must not try and make me discontented, Mr Claverton," was the
answer, with a sad little smile.  "The fact is, I do feel the change a
great deal more than I ought.  Only lately I had a very dear and happy
home, now I am entirely alone in the world."

Again that irresistible impulse came over her auditor.  Was it really
too soon?  Why, it seemed as though he had known her for ages.  Yet
forty-eight hours ago he had not set eyes upon her.  For a few moments
he could hardly trust himself to speak.  Then he said, gently:

"Tell me about your old home."  The bush behind them parts, suddenly,
noiselessly.  A head rises; a great grim black head, with distended
eyeballs rolling in the moonlight.  Then it sinks again and disappears,
but they have not seen it.

"I suppose I have no right to feel leaving the old place as I did," went
on Lilian.  "We were in a way interlopers, for it belonged to my
stepfather, not to our family.  I lived there, though, ever since I can
remember, and my mother died there.  We were very happy but for one
thing: I had a stepsister about my own age who detested me.  In short,
we couldn't get on together, hard though I tried to like her.  So when
Mr Dynevard died--"

"Who?"

"Mr Dynevard.  My stepfather," repeated Lilian.

"Of Dynevard Chase, near Sandcombe?"

"Yes.  Why, you don't mean to say you know it?" cried Lilian, lost in
wonder.

"I wish I did.  I'm afraid my utmost acquaintance with it lies in having
driven past the place once or twice.  Some distant relatives of mine
lived not far from Sandcombe years ago.  So that's where you used to
live?"

"Yes.  This is a surprise.  I shall make you talk to me such a lot about
it," she cried, gleefully.  "You will soon be heartily tired of the
subject, and will wish you had preserved a discreet silence."

Claverton remembered the reluctance to dwell upon home topics which she
had expressed when the two of them were driving up from the town, and it
was with an extraordinary sense of relief that he did so.  There was
nothing more behind it than the painfulness of her change of
circumstances to a proud and sensitive nature.

"After my stepfather's death," went on Lilian, "I thought it best to
relieve Eveline Dynevard of my presence, and did so.  There you have the
whole of my history."

"And then you struck out a line for yourself, and thought to open that
miserably hard old oyster, the world, with the blade of a miniature
penknife.  How enterprising of you!"

"No, not at once--at least--at the first, that is--" and she hesitated
slightly and the colour rose to her face, as at some painful
recollection.  Her trepidation was not lost upon her listener, on whom
it threw a momentary chill.

Again that grim head rises from the bushes, ten yards behind the
unsuspecting couple, followed this time by a pair of brawny dark
shoulders bent forward in an attitude of intense watchfulness--the
attitude of a crouching tiger.  Again the moonbeams fall upon a fierce
visage and eyes glaring with vengeful hate.  They fall on something
more--on the gleaming blade of a great assegai, and then the mighty
frame of a gigantic savage slowly begins to emerge from the covert.

Claverton sees not the baleful stare of his deadly foe, for he is too
intent upon gazing at the lovely preoccupied eyes before him, and
wondering what is their exact colour, changing as it ever does in the
varying light.  His companion sees it not, for she is living again in
the past.  And no zephyr quivers through the silvered leaves or ruffles
the pool at their feet, no cloud comes over the calm, fair beauty of the
night, no shadow warns of a secret and terrible death hovering over
those two, who sit there beneath the witching influences of restful
calm, of moonlight, and to one of them--of love.

"Confound it!" angrily exclaims Claverton, half rising as the sound of
approaching voices and laughter is borne upon the stillness.  The
threatening form of the watcher disappears--but they have not seen it--
and the voices draw nearer.  "Our retreat is a retreat no longer.  The
whole lot of them are bearing down upon us.  Always the way."

"Always the way."  So it is.  As in small things so in great; we see not
the finger of Providence in fortune's hardest knocks.  Yet it must be
admitted that these seldom wear the guise of blessings, and we mortals
are weak--lamentably weak--and our foresight is simply nil.  You two,
who resent the intrusion of your fellows into this slumbrous retreat,
you little reck that that intrusion is the saving of the life of at
least one of you.

"But anyhow we must be going back now.  As it is they will be wondering
what has become of as," said Lilian, rising.

"I suppose we must," assented her companion, ruefully.  He thought he
could have sat for ever in that enchanted glade, gazing into the
beautiful face and listening to the modulation of that low, tuneful
voice.  "Ah, well.  Now for the madding crowd again."

He wrapped her shawl around her, and they wandered back along the narrow
path and beneath the orange trees again.  Then as they gained the last
gate and the sound of music and laughter betokened that they were close
to the house, Lilian lingered a moment to look back towards the moonlit
pool.

"It is a sweet place, and we have had a lovely walk," she said.  "I did
enjoy it so.  Thanks so much for bringing me."

What did she mean?  Was she blind?  He paused with his hand on the
half-open gate, and glanced at her with a curious expression.

A small runnel of water coursed along at their feet, shining and glowing
in the moonlight, and she was standing on the single plank that spanned
it.  Was she blind, that she failed to read even one-tenth of what that
look expressed?  But he made some ordinary remark, and they passed on.

"Why, where in the world have you two been?" said Mrs Brathwaite as
they entered.

"Playing truant.  Miss Strange had a slight headache, and I recommended
fresh air as a counteracting influence.  Then we discovered that we had
been near neighbours for some years without knowing it, and got talking
English `shop'," answered Claverton.  The latter half of his statement
was not strictly historical, but the speaker salved his conscience with
the trite reflection that "all's fair in love and war."

"How curious!" said the old lady, in her interest in the coincidence
losing sight of the delinquency and forgetting mildly to scold him
therefor.  "But it's astonishing how small the world is, when one comes
to think of it."

"Mr Claverton," said Lilian, reproachfully, an hour later.  "I'm
surprised at you.  How could you say we were neighbours for `some years'
when you knew we were not?"

He laughed.  "Were we not?  Then we ought to have been.  It was the
merest accident of time and place that precluded it."  He could not make
to her the excuse he had made to his own conscience--at least--not yet.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pass we again to the silence of the garden.  Who is this leaning against
yonder fence alone and gazing with stony, set face straight in front of
her?  Can it be Ethel?  Yes, it is.  The laughing, saucy lips, so ready
with badinage and repartee, are closed tightly together, and the blue
eyes, erewhile flashing and sparkling with light-hearted mirth, now
start forth with a hard stare.  Must we, in the interests of our story,
partially withdraw the curtain from her reflections?  Even so, let us do
it as gently as possible.

"He never looked at _me_ like that," she murmured, referring to the two
on the little plank bridge.  "Ought I to have betrayed my presence?  I
don't know.  I couldn't, somehow; and they weren't saying anything.  But
that look--how plainly I saw it!  O, God! if only it had been given to
me--to _me_," she went on, passionately, "I would cheerfully have died
at this moment."

She paused, and slowly the tears welled to the swimming eyes, and
glistened in the moonlight.  "All the walks and rides we've had
together; all the time we have been thrown together!  Good God! if I
could but live it over again!  Since the very moment I saw him come in,
and he looked me up and down in that calm, searching way of his--it
seems only like yesterday.  He never thought of me but as something to
amuse him--a pretty plaything--to be thrown aside for a better.  No, I
am wronging him; never by word or look did he deceive me.  It is I who
am a fool--an idiot--and must pay the penalty of my folly; but--how
could I help it?"

And the sounds of revelry came ever and anon from the lighted windows;
and, without, all nature slept in a tranquil hush, and the pale stars
gleamed in the sky--gleamed coldly down upon the lonely watcher.

"How I flouted you, and said hard, sharp things to you, darling; every
one of them goes through me like a knife as I remember it.  Yet that was
at first, and--how could I tell?" and a great sob shook the delicate
frame.  "But help me, my pride!  Oh, love, you will never know.  The
same roof will cover us, and I must talk and even laugh with you as
before--and see you and her together; but--you will never know.  Ah!
what a deal it takes to break one poor little heart!  And--how I hate
_her_!"

A voice intrudes upon her reflections, quick, gruff, and horribly
familiar.  "Oh, there you are, Miss Brathwaite," it says, "I've been
looking for you everywhere."

The voice acts upon her even as the trumpet blast upon the proverbial
charger.  Not a trace of any recent emotion is visible as she turns and
faces her persistent but unwelcome admirer, Will Jeffreys.

"And you've found me.  What can I do for you?"

The young fellow is staggered.  The fact is that, warmed by the
exhilarating exercise and the yet more exhilarating stimulant which he
has imbibed pretty freely in the course of the evening, he has screwed
up his courage to the sticking point, and intends to throw the dice of
his fate with Ethel before the said exalted quality has time to cool,
which process of refrigeration, it may be remarked, has already begun.

"Well, there _is_ something you can do for me," he says.

"What is it?  Do you want a partner for the next dance?--because, I'll
be in directly," she asks, quickly.

The very tones of her voice ought to have brought home to Jeffreys the
inexpediency of pursuing his subject for the present; but some persons
are singularly deficient in a sense of the fitness of things or of
times, and he was one.

"No; it isn't that.  I want to say something--something about me--and
about you," he blunders, lamely; but she will give him no help, "and--I
must--say it--to-night--Ethel!" he jerks out.

"For goodness' sake don't say it to-night, or at any other time,"
replies she, decisively, putting out her hand, with a gesture as if to
stop him.  It has the desired effect.  Even Jeffreys' dull wits are
alive to the conviction that his is not merely a losing game, but a lost
one; and the reflection exasperates him.

"Oh, I might have known," was the sneering reply.  "Of course--no one
has been fit to speak to since that fellow Claverton came."

She turned upon him, her face white with wrath in the moonlight.
"Wilfred Jeffreys, you are a brave fellow.  You have found me here
alone, and have taken the opportunity of insulting me.  Now what do you
think I am going to do?"

"What?"

"I am going in to ask uncle to put away the brandy decanter," said she,
in tones of bitter scorn; and without another word she walked away,
leaving him standing there looking and feeling, from the crown of his
head to the soles of his feet, a thorough fool.

Within doors the fun is kept up with a zest characteristic of such
entertainments.  There are no shy ones left now, all are merged in the
ranks of the confident.

Crash!

Down comes Hicks like a felled tree, right in the middle of the room.
Matters are at a momentary standstill, and the unlucky one slowly and
shamefacedly picks himself up, red and wrathful and covered with
confusion.  He is muttering maledictions on the head of the guileless
Allen, which ass, he declares, not content with cannoning against him,
tripped him up.

"Never mind, jump up.  Lucky it's _before_ supper," laughs jovial Jim
Brathwaite.

"Hicks, old man, I _told_ you to draw the line at that fourth glass,"
says the irrepressible Armitage in a mighty stage whisper as he whirls
by, grinning with malicious delight.  The truth being that Hicks is the
most abstemious wight in the world.  But the remark does not pass
unheeded, and a laugh, varying in tone from open guffaw to suppressed
titter, further exasperates and discomfits the luckless stumbler, who
vows vengeance on his tormentor.

Then comes supper, which must be attended to in relays, space being
limited.  A Dutchman is desperately anxious to make a speech, and is
with difficulty quelled; while Jack Armitage, who has a bet on with some
one that old Garrett being too far gone to detect the fraud, he will
make him drink three tumblers of water under the impression that it is
grog, is using the noble spur, emulation, to induce that worthy to
swallow the third, and winks and grins triumphantly at the loser as he
succeeds.  Meanwhile piano and violin never flag, till at length the
waning summer night begins to hint pretty broadly that it is time to
knock off.

Then a great deal of inspanning and saddling up; of hunting for stray
saddle-cloths and bridles which have gone adrift; not a little wrangling
among the coloured stable hands belonging to the place or to the guests,
and finally most of the latter are gone.  The residue will tarry for a
shakedown and a rest.

"Good-night--at sunrise!"

A pressure from a soft, taper hand; a sweet glance from a pair of rather
tired eyes, and the door closes on a tall vision in soft creamy
draperies.

The recipient of that pressure of the hand, that playful glance, turns
away like a man in a dream.  Half instinctively he makes his way to
Hicks' quarters.  Here he is enthusiastically hailed.

"Hallo, Arthur.  Come and blow a cloud before you turn in.  All these
chaps are asleep already."

"All right," was the reply, and the speaker, picking his way among
several slumbering wights who rolled in blankets had compassed impromptu
shakedowns on the floor of Hicks' room, seated himself at the foot of
the latter's stretcher.  "Give us a fill."



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

BAULKED.

"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall," is a good
and safe maxim in other senses than the theological, for it goes to the
very root of human nature.

Here was a man in the zenith of his strength, at an age when the fire of
youth would be tempered and steeled by rare physical powers of
endurance; a man to whose lot had befallen stirring and eventful
experiences beyond the lot of most men, and in befalling had hardened; a
man of cool judgment and keen, clear, reasoning powers far beyond his
years; a man to whom the other sex would accord a full share of
attention, and who hitherto has been utterly unsusceptible to any such
excusable weakness, has hitherto never known a quickened pulse in
response to soft glance or welcoming smile.  And this man has now
surrendered at sight--absolutely, and without the smallest reservation.

And it had all come about in a single day.

Just so.  It is your apparent icicle that annihilates itself with the
most startling rapidity when suddenly touched by the scorching beam of
the unlooked-for sun.  It is the unsusceptible one who goes down
forehead to the earth, not pausing to spread rug or carpet in the way,
when the self-constituted idol appears.  And oh, how frequently too, not
the feet only, but the head, the hands, and the heart of the image prove
to be of the veriest clay!

To-morrow!

Who among us ever gives a thought to this commonplace word?  Not, I
mean, when we are passing through some momentous crisis of our lives,
some care, some expectation for good or for ill, which may either make
us, or crush us well-nigh out of existence.  Not then, but when our
lives are flowing on, smooth and undisturbed, then it is that we
practically ignore the possibility of to-morrow bringing with it
anything eventful, or being, in short, other than a mere twenty-four
hours' repetition of to-day.

To-morrow!

We go to bed lightly with the word on our lips, our arrangements for it
are all mapped out, all ordered for the next twenty-four hours, ay, and
beyond them, as though there existed not in the sublime philosophy of
the Wise King that most portentous of all warnings: "Boast not thyself
of the morrow, for thou canst not tell what a day may bring forth."

For an exemplification of both warnings behold it perfected in him who
rides abroad this morning.  A single day, and his life has been cut into
two halves.  Nor is it even a day that has wrought this change, nor yet
an hour, nor a minute.  A moment, a brief flash of time, just so long as
that presence took to appear before him, and he was conquered.  One
look, and he fell prostrate, to rise again a slave.  And this man, till
the day before yesterday, had not a care in the world.

He rides slowly on.  On the high ground which will directly shut the
homestead out of sight, he turns for a moment to gaze upon the quiet old
place sleeping embowered in trees; to gaze upon it with a lingering and
reverential gaze, as pilgrim taking a last look at some deeply venerated
shrine.  Then he urges his horse along a narrow track which leads down
into the wildest part of the farm.  Dark bush covers the valley on
either hand, broken only by a beetling _krantz_, frowning down as it
were upon great jagged rocks which, hurled at some remote period from
its face, lie embedded beneath.  Yonder, in a sequestered glade, a
couple of spans of fine trek-oxen are grazing, the sun glistening on
their sleek hides; a bushbuck ewe stalks timidly across an open
clearing, and the alarmed note of a pheasant sounds close to the
horseman; but he who rides abroad thus early is neither on business bent
nor on the pleasures of the chase.  He is only thinking--ruminating.

Mechanically his hand grasps the reins, as his steed, which he makes no
attempt to guide, steps briskly out, skilfully avoiding the sweeping
boughs which here and there overhang the path.  Monkeys grin and gibber
at him among the branches, and a large secretary bird floats away from
its nest of sticks hard by.  In the dewy webs which quiver from the
sprays of the bushes, and sparkle in the sun like strings of gems, he
reads but one name, one name written as it were, in delicate gossamer
characters, and the breaths of morning in this fresh cool retreat are
fraught with a faint but thrilling harmony--the music of low, tuneful
notes which are something more than a recollection, so clearly present
are they in the fancy of the thinker.

Then he ponders over the three months which have slipped by in such
calm, easy fashion since he cast in his lot here, and found among these
kindly and genial friends a home in its best and truest sense.  It seems
to him a marvellous thing that he could have enjoyed, so much
contentment until this new star suddenly blazed forth in the firmament
of his life.  He was not susceptible, never had been.  How much had not
he and Ethel Brathwaite been thrown together, for instance!  Ethel with
her sunny spirits and laughing, wayward moods, and her capacity for
working havoc among his own sex.  They had been thrown daily, hourly,
together, from sheer force of circumstances, yet never a pulse of his
had been stirred in the faintest degree by any spell of hers.

"Too soon."

He is again seated in imagination by the moonlit pool while that shade
of unhappy recollection steals across his companion's beautiful face.
Again the longing is upon him to clear up the mystery and learn his own
fate.  In but a couple of days!  Ridiculous!  And half aloud he utters
his thoughts:

"Too soon!"

Zip!--

A metallic ring on the stones behind him.  Something lies gleaming on
the sun-baked slope of the hill.  It is an assegai.

From the weapon, which has missed his body by about six inches, his
glance darts searchingly in the direction whence it came.  All his
coolness has returned, and now his sole idea in life is the discovery of
his hidden assailant.  Yet he is unarmed; it is highly probable that
there are more spears where the first came from; the spot is a lonely
one, and for all present purposes as far removed from human aid as the
centre of the Great Sahara.

"Ah, I thought as much.  I see you, Mopela, you skulking vagabond.  Come
down here, you dog, and I'll brain you."

For a head had appeared from behind a low rock some eighteen or twenty
yards from the speaker, and after watching him for a moment, half the
body of its owner followed.  A strip of thick bush lay between him and
Claverton, who he guessed was unarmed, as no weapon was levelled at him.

"Whaow!" mocked the savage, as he poised another assegai.  "Whaow!
Lenzimbi [Note 1].  Yesterday I; to-day, you.  What do you say?  Can
your fists reach me here?  You are as good as dead, and then Mopela will
hang you to a tree by the hind leg, and in an hour the aasvogels will be
tearing away at your carcase;" and springing upon the rock he again
levelled his formidable spear.

Claverton never moved in his saddle, but sat confronting his deadly foe
as calmly as though he were asking the road; and there, above, stood the
athletic form of the huge barbarian, who, entirely naked, and smeared
from head to foot with red ochre, which glistened in the sun, looked a
very demon of the forest.  He knew that the other's words were true, and
that the chances were a hundred to one that in five minutes he would be
a dead man.  He was quite unarmed, and his adversary still had two
assegais.  Yet he replied quite unconcernedly:

"You're a fool, Mopela.  You can't hurt _me_, and, moreover, let me tell
you this--you're a damned bad shot."

His coolness rather disconcerted the other, who laughed mockingly.
"Can't I?  Mopela's assegais are too sharp for Lenzimbi's `charm,' and
his God is asleep; _He_ can't help him.  Look, I have two more assegais,
one for Lenzimbi, and one for his God.  His God is asleep, I say."

"Is he?  Look there!" exclaimed Claverton in a sharp, warning tone,
pointing behind the other.  The superstitious Kafir turned his head, for
the moment completely thrown off his guard; quick as thought Claverton
slipped from the saddle, and, wrenching off one of the stirrups, dashed
into the bush and made straight for his enemy.  He was just in time, for
the other, having recovered himself, launched an assegai with such
unerring effect as to graze the seat of the saddle; the horse, startled
by the unwonted proceedings, threw up his head, snorted and backed, and
finally trotted off by the way he had come.  The Kafir, secure in his
point of vantage, awaited the onset, grasping his remaining assegai.
Claverton knew better than to hesitate, and, rushing at his adversary,
dealt him a violent blow on the leg with the stirrup-iron.  Maddened by
the pain, Mopela sprang upon him with a wild beast's roar, but Claverton
was ready.  Dropping the stirrup he clutched the other's wrists, and
they struggled like fiends.  The athletic savage, twice the Englishman's
match for sheer muscular strength, strove with might and main to free
the hand which held his assegai; but the other, knowing full well that
his very life depended on his not doing so, held firm--firm as iron.
Their breath came in quick, short gasps, and every muscle was distended
and rigid.  Then the savage, with a hyaena-like howl, opened his great
teeth and made a mighty snap at his antagonist's face, but Claverton
lowered his head and the other's teeth met in his slouch hat; then,
taking advantage of Mopela being off his guard, he drove his right knee
with all the force he could muster into the Kafir's stomach.  The game
was now his own.  His gigantic foe staggered back ten or a dozen yards,
then fell gasping for breath, and dropping his weapon as he rolled and
writhed among the bush below.  With a fierce shout, Claverton seized the
spear and rushed upon his enemy, but it was too late.  Mopela had had as
much as he could stomach in more ways than one, and hastened to make
himself scarce; moreover, the trampling of approaching hoofs was heard
and a horseman appeared, leading Claverton's defaulting steed.

"Hullo!  What the very deuce is the row?  Is that you, Claverton?"

"It is.  Five minutes ago the chances in favour of the same being fact
were infinitesimal."

"Well, you _are_ a cool hand," began the new arrival, when a shout far
above them in the bush interrupted him and drew both their attention.
They looked up and beheld Mopela.

"Gough, have you got a revolver?" asked Claverton in quick, eager tones.
"He's a long way off, but I think I can pink him.  No?  Haven't you?
I'd give 50 pounds for a single shot at the beast."  Then, raising his
voice: "Aha, Mopela, you dog; whose god is asleep now, eh?  Come down
here again," he went on, jeeringly; "come down and have another
thrashing; I'll give you one--I alone.  The other _Baas_ will see fair
play.  You won't?  You're not such a fool as I thought, then.  Only,
look here, the next time I come across you, wherever it may be, I'll
kill you--kill you, by God.  So keep out of my way."

The savage shook his hand towards the speaker with a menacing gesture.
"Whaow!" he called out.  "The next time we meet Lenzimbi will sing to a
different tune.  When the land is red with the blood of the _abelungu_
[whites], and their sheep and cattle are in our kraals, Lenzimbi shall
yet hang by the heels, and Mopela will, with his own hand, put out his
eyes with a red-hot firestick before he is roasted--Haow!  Then the
warriors of the Amaxosa will have great sport in hunting out the last of
the whites from their hiding-places, and all the white men will be dead;
but there will be plenty of white women--ha! ha! ha!--plenty of white
women," went on the savage, in his great mocking tones.  "And the dark
lily of Seringa Vale," (jerking his thumb in the direction of that
locality), "when Lenzimbi's body and spirit is burnt up in the slow
fire, she and Mopela will--Ha!"  He disappeared suddenly, for with a
furious oath Claverton plunged into the bush in pursuit; but he might as
well have searched for the proverbial needle as for the crafty savage,
who simply dodged him in the thick covert, laughing in his sleeve the
while.  In less than half an hour he returned to his wondering
companion.

"Where are you bound for, Gough?"

"Thorman's--I'm thinking of buying that horse of his."

"All right.  I'll go part of the way with you and get back round by the
_vij-kraal_ [Note 2].  But let's pick up these carving-knives first."
He gathered up the three assegais, all well-made weapons with keen
blades and long, tapering handles; then, as they mounted and rode off,
he told his companion what had happened.

John Gough was a young man of about twenty-three, who had migrated to
the colony about a year before in search of employment.  This he had
found in the capacity of tutor to Naylor's children--four healthy young
romps, as disinclined for their books as frontier children usually are.
He was of a quiet and retiring disposition, but a good fellow.  For some
reason or another he rather disliked Claverton, but was too good-natured
to show it; and now, as they rode along in silence--for Claverton had
relapsed into a fit of taciturnity--he began to think he had done him an
injustice.

"Well, I think I shall turn here," said that worthy, when they had gone
a little way further.  "Gough, I'm going to ask you to do me a favour."

"What is it?" inquired the other, somewhat surprised.

"To oblige me by not mentioning this little shindy to any one--will
you?"

"Yes, certainly, if you wish it," answered Gough, rather reluctantly.
He was disappointed as well as surprised; topics of conversation were
scarce, and such a jolly row as Claverton had just had would be nuts;
even as it was, he had been thinking how he would entertain the Thormans
with an account of it, and now it was to be kept dark.  Well, Claverton
was a queer fellow, but it was his own business.  So he gave the
required undertaking.

"Thanks; I knew you would.  I don't fancy that scoundrel will come near
me again.  Good-bye."  They shook hands, and went their respective ways.

A few hundred yards further, and a blue smoke reek above the bush
betokened a dwelling.  In an open space stood two huts, dome-shaped, and
constructed of thatch, and hard by, a thorn enclosure at that moment
full of sheep.  This was one of the out-stations, where one of the
flocks was wont to be kept.  A mangy and spindle-shanked cur rushed
yapping forth, roused by the tread of the horse's hoofs.  A mighty crack
of the rider's whip, however, caused it to beat a precipitate retreat,
and also had the effect of bringing a head to the small, beehivelike
entrance of one of the huts.  The head was promptly followed by its
owner, who stood up and saluted Claverton.

"Well, Umgiswe, it's some time since any of us have been down here to
count, so I'll do so now.  Turn them out."

"Ewa 'nkos," (yes, chief), replied the Kafir, curiously eyeing the
assegais which the other carried; and opening the kraal he threw off his
red blanket and began driving out the sheep, while Claverton stood at
the gate and counted.

"Eighty-one--eighty-three--eighty-seven--ninety--ninety-two--
ninety-three--six hundred and ninety-three.  Why, how's this, Umgiswe?
There are three missing?"

The old Kafir shrugged his shoulders and muttered something to the
effect that they had died in the _veldt_.  Then he fumbled about with
the fastenings of the gate.

"Now, look here, Umgiswe!  When sheep die they don't melt into air.  If
these three are dead, I must see their skins.  Do you hear?  If they are
not dead they must be found.  I shall come down to-morrow and count
again; then they must be here," said Claverton, decisively, looking the
man straight in the eyes.

He was a quick linguist, and, during the short time he had been on the
frontier, had mastered enough of the Kafir language in its tortuous
verbosity, combined with what he had picked up during his former sojourn
in the colony, to be able to converse with tolerable ease, an
acquirement which added in no small degree to his influence with the
natives, who always hold in greater respect a European who can discourse
with them in their own tongue.

"Ewa 'nkos," said the Kafir again.  "They shall be found."  Then he
asked for some tobacco.

"You shall have some, Umgiswe, you shall have some--when the three sheep
are found."

The man's countenance fell.  Then he asked, quietly and respectfully
enough, where the assegais came from.

"I picked them up.  Good spears, are they not?  Do you know the owner,
Umgiswe?  If you do, tell him to come and claim them, and the sooner he
comes the better."  Then nodding in response to the other's farewell
greeting, Claverton touched his horse with the spur and struck into the
bush path.  The Kafir stood gazing after him.

"He is a wizard; he knows everything," said Umgiswe to himself; and then
he turned away, intending to restore the two sheep he had hidden away so
securely till it should be safe to send them off to his kraal in the
Gaika location, there to swell the fruits of his pickings and stealings,
and planning how he could doctor up the skin of the one which he and a
boon companion had devoured two nights ago, so as to make it appear that
the animal had died a natural death.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1.  One with the qualities of iron.  Kafirs are fond of bestowing
nicknames, though frequently of a less complimentary nature than this.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 2.  An outlying fold for flocks whose range is at a distance from
the homestead.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

"AT THE FULL OF THE MOON."

Midnight.

The silence of desolation.  The river, plashing on its sandy bars, makes
faint, tuneful murmur.  At intervals the wild weird hoot of an owl, high
up on the wooded hillside, breaks startlingly upon the dead, solemn
stillness.  The air hangs heavy down here in this silent hollow, and
above, the dark face of the haunted cliff rises, stern and tremendous,
in clear outline against the stars.

What are those shadowy figures ranged in a semicircle round the hollow,
motionless as the grave?  Are they of earth?  Not a whisper, not a
movement in that terrible phalanx.  Only two hundred pair of eyes fixed
upon vacancy, with strained and expectant stare, show that these ghostly
shapes have life, or had.  But what are they?  Grim phantom warriors
gathered there to re-enact the tragedy of blood which the dim legend of
savage tradition associates with the spot.

And now a glow suffuses the sky, faint at first, then spreading nearly
to the zenith.  A great golden disc peers above yonder bush-clad height,
and slowly mounting upward, soars majestically into space.  Half of the
valley beneath is flooded with light, but the face of the haunted cliff
is still in gloom, casting a long black shadow upon the plashing river
whence the mist is rising in white wreathe.

"At the full of the moon."

A dull, moaning sound is heard in the cliff, seeming to come from the
very heart of the rocky wall, now rising, now falling, awesome and
mysterious.  It is as the voices of the spirits of the dead.  There is
an overpowering and mesmeric influence in the very atmosphere.  Then
gleams forth a flickering green light which plays on the face of the
rock like a corpse candle.  Suddenly the whole of that crouching phalanx
starts up erect.  A deep-toned murmur, sounding like a muffled roar,
goes forth from the throats of two hundred dark warriors, and the
ghostly light glints on a forest of bristling assegais.

"At the full of the moon."

Small wonder that the orb of night, about which poets love to rave,
should be constituted the presiding goddess at the gruesome rites of
savage and superstitious races all the world over; that its changing
quarters should be endued with power to sway their weightiest
undertakings in war or in the chase.  It would be strange if the great
lustrous disc stamped with a cold, impassive, remorseless-looking human
countenance, floating silently over the darkened earth, did not appeal
powerfully to the spiritual side of untaught and imaginative races.  And
then, just think of the myriads upon myriads of scenes of violence and
treachery--fraud, rapine, murder, and wholesale massacre--upon which
that cold, spectral countenance has looked down, and still looks down;
ay, and will continue to do as long as this miserable world shall be
peopled with countless generations of the tailless and biped demon known
as Man.

"At the full of the moon."

And now the black shadow passes from the cliff, revealing a shape--a
shape which seems to have arisen from the earth itself, or peradventure
to have sprung from the smooth wall of rock behind, so sudden is its
appearance.  Amid dead silence it glides into the midst of the expectant
semicircle.  Truly an appalling monster.  The moonlight, now well-nigh
as clear as day, plays upon a pair of glittering, wolf-like eyes and a
lean, gaunt figure, about whose long limbs are dangling ox-tails and
strings of beads.  The grinning head-piece of a hyaena rests helmet-like
upon this creature's skull, and from between the open jaws of the beast
starts forth the horrible head of a live serpent, whose sinuous coils
are wound about the wearer's body.  The latter, smeared from head to
foot with a glistening pigment, is hung about with birds' claws, reptile
heads and festoons of entrails.  A horrible and disgusting object.  The
right arm of the wizard is red to the elbow with blood, and in his hand
he carries nothing but one short, broad-headed assegai.

"Hear the words of Sefele, the spirit of this place, speaking by the
mouth of his descendant, Nomadudwana, the son of Mtyusi."

Silently the whole phalanx of dark warriors sank back into a crouching
attitude, gazing upon the speaker, expectant and motionless.

"There are voices above and voices beneath.  There are voices in the air
and voices in the water.  Lo, I see a mighty host; an army gathered for
battle; an army which fills the earth and the air; many warriors with
their chiefs and leaders; and their right hands are even as this,"
(holding up his gore-stained fingers), "and their shields are dinted and
their assegais are broken.  And the warriors are angry and they are sad,
for they have fought and fought, always bravely, and now they are tired
and may not rest.  And I see another army--an army not of warriors but
of women--and they, too, cannot rest; they must take weapons and go
forth to battle, for there are no men left."

A deep murmur from the listeners, who, squatted on their haunches, with
bodies bent eagerly forward, drink in every word the wizard speaks.

"Again, I look.  This time I see another army--differing tribes, but all
one host--thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of fighting men;
the land is red with them, but they are all asleep.  They have arms--
they have the sharp weapons which their fathers had, but they have
forgotten how to use them.  They have more--they have the fire-weapons
of the whites, but they know not how to use them.  The white fools put
their weapons into our hands willingly, joyfully, for money, but we do
not know how to use them.  We drink of the white men's poisoned strong
waters and our hearts melt away--we become children--we wallow like
swine upon the ground.  The fighting men of the Amaxosa have become dogs
and slaves."

A fierce ejaculation here went round the circle, while many a sinewy
hand grasped the tough wood of assegai hafts.  The grim prophet
continued, his deep tones waxing more and more ferocious like the savage
growl of a beast:

"We are the dogs and slaves of the white men, even as the cowardly
Amafengu were our dogs.  Not to the white men only, also to their women.
Do not our warriors drop their weapons, and take service, and plough
the land, and hoe corn, and milk the cows, and drive waggons for white
women?  Ha!  We, a free, a brave nation, whose fathers conquered the
land ages and ages before one accursed white-foot trod these mountains
and valleys--our _men_ to be dogs to the white _women_!  Ha!  Ask
Ncanda, there, who, at the word of a white woman, was tied up and lashed
with whips!  Ask Mopela, the brother of Nxabahlana of the house of
Sandili the Great Chief, who was beaten and kicked like a dog in the
presence of a white woman--Hah!"

A frenzied howl burst from the audience at these words of the wily
wizard, while the two savages referred to by name, gnashed their teeth
with rage.

"Who are these people that rule us?  Who are they?  As a calabash of
water is to the Nxumba River in flood, as five stones are to the pebbles
on the sea-shore, so are the whites in this land to the fighting men of
the Amaxosa, to the warriors of the Amanqgika, and of the Amagcaleka,
and even of the peace-loving Abatembu.  And we call ourselves men!"

Then, raising his voice: "Let the omens be sought."

A stir among the throng.  Two stalwart savages rose and stood before the
orator.  They were magnificent specimens of their race, prior to its
deterioration in morale and physique through the destroying agencies of
ardent spirits and contagious disease.  Of commanding stature and
herculean build, these men represented a type, once common enough, but
now becoming more and more rare among the border tribes.  The wizard
muttered an incantation over each, and the two betook themselves to the
bush.  A moment of dead silence and they reappeared, dragging with them
two goats--one spotlessly white, the other, jet black.

The animals were thrown upon the ground in front of the wizard, and
securely tied; even their mouths being bound up, lest the sound of their
agonised bleatings upon the still night air, should reach unwelcome
ears.  Then, still chanting his hellish incantation, the cruel monster
bent down, and, with his keen assegai, gashed and mutilated the wretched
creatures in a manner too shocking for detailment, beginning with the
white one.  A hoarse rattle, smothered by the precautionary gag, burst
from their tortured throats, and their convulsive struggles were
frightful to behold.  Yet they aroused no spark of compassion in these
merciless breasts.

In silence the Kafirs contemplated the barbarous performance; then,
unable to contain themselves any longer, they sprang to their feet and
burst into a low war-song, rattling the shafts of their assegais as they
beat time to the savage rhythm.  It was a weird and gruesome scene, such
a sight as a man might witness once and remember all his life long.
Above, the great beetling cliff looming up against the midnight sky;
around, the shadowy sleeping heights; in the midst that band of demon
warriors, the green light of the magic fire touching their grim
countenances with an unearthly hue as they circled round the hideous
wizard and the quivering bodies of his tortured victims, chanting their
terrific war-song.  Every now and again a convulsive shudder would heave
through the bodies of the miserable animals, whose glazing eyes rolled
piteously as they writhed their necks and bared their jaws in their
terrible agony.

For upwards of half an hour the dance went on, the chief men deeming it
necessary from time to time to put in a restraining word, lest the
suppressed excitement of their followers should break bounds; for sound
travels far at night, and it would never do to attract attention.
Suddenly several voices exclaimed:

"The omen!  The omen!"

In a moment all gathered round the gory and mangled carcases.  One of
the goats had ceased its struggles.  The wizard pricked it with his
assegai, but without producing the smallest sign of sensibility.  The
poor creature was stone dead.  _It was the black one_.

The savages stared at each other in awed silence, then their
astonishment found words.

"Ha!  The black goat dies!  The black goat dies and the white goat
lives!  Ha!"

This patent fact established, they troubled themselves no more about the
other wretched victim, which showed unmistakable signs of lingering for
some time to come, but turned attentively to the wizard in subdued and
eager expectancy.  Nomadudwana's tone was now no longer one of fiery
exhortation.  When he spoke it was with deliberation, even solemnity.

"The omen is sure.  The black goat dies and the white goat lives.  This
night I have heard a voice--the voice of Sefele whom his brethren cast
from yonder height and thought to slay.  To slay!  One who holds
converse with the spirits!  This night I have talked with Sefele in that
cave which none can find but he who is loved by the shades of our
ancestors.  These are the words of Sefele: `The fulness of time is not
yet.  Though it be long in coming, let not the fighting men of the
Amaxosa fall asleep; let them watch the whites with sure and wakeful
glance; let them take of their flocks and of their herds, when they can.
Let them go and work for the whites and cast dust in their eyes--even
as we have led away on a false search the fool who lives yonder,'
(pointing to Armitage's homestead, lying silent and deserted on the
other side of the river) `and have made helpless with drink the
wallowing Hottentot, his dog.  But above all, let them acquire the
fire-weapons of the whites and plenty of ammunition.'  Thus speaks
Sefele.  Take his words with you.  The fulness of time is not yet, but
the omen is sure.  Lo, the dawn is not far distant.  Return as you
came."

An awed murmur went round the band.  The magic fire disappeared.  They
looked wonderingly at each other.  Nomadudwana had vanished.

Breaking up into twos and threes the Kafirs rapidly dispersed, eager to
be gone from the dreaded spot when no longer under the protecting
presence of the powerful magician who communed with the spirit in the
unknown cave.  They were impatient, but not disheartened.  They must
continue to deceive the hated and masterful whites with soft words and
lying promises.  These superstitious souls, with their faith in the
assurances of their wizards, saw their triumph ahead.  What they did not
see was their broken and decimated tribes hunted and starving, driven
out of the land of their forefathers, utterly cowed and submissive.
What they did not see was the flower and pick of their manhood strewing
their native hills and kloofs with stiffened corpses in thousands, to
the advantage of the _aasvogel_ and the jackal.

There was something else that they did not see.  They did not see a
recumbent human figure which, from the very brow of the sacred cliff,
had watched the uncanny and repulsive rites from beginning to end.  They
did not see this figure, snugly concealed and motionless, watch till the
last of their outlying scouts finally left his post and moved away, and
then descend from the airy vantage ground with the dry chuckle of one
who has stolen a march on an uncommonly shrewd adversary, and going to
where a horse was securely hidden, mount and ride off.  Even their keen
vision failed to descry this.

By sunrise these fierce warriors, who had borne such eager part in the
wild war-dance and the hideous and cruel rites of the night through,
would be once more so many quiet, civil herds and waggon-drivers, for,
with few exceptions, they were all in farm service in the surrounding
neighbourhood.  But how came they here, how did they preserve so
inviolate the secret of the nocturnal gathering?  The whole thing is
very simple.  Two or three natives, inoffensive of aspect and
deferential of manner, provided moreover with unimpeachable passes, had
gone the round of the various employers of labour seeking for work here,
come to visit a relative there, anxious for a day or two's job in
another place, and so on.  And wherever they had been they had delivered
their "word" among all fellow-countrymen there employed, provided these
were to be trusted, that is to say.  That "word" was brief if slightly
obscure to the uninitiated.  Moreover, it occurred quite incidentally in
the thick of conversation on ordinary topics.  But those to whom it was
addressed understood perfectly its import.

"At the full of the moon."



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER NINETEEN.

"WHAT HAS THE WORLD BEEN SINCE?--THEE ALONE!"

One of the most blissful delusions, and unaccountable withal, under
which a man desperately in love invariably labours, is the profound
unconsciousness of his state wherewith he credits those among whom he
lives and moves.  What renders the delusion all the more inexplicable is
the certainty that its victim himself in his unsmitten days must have
frequently spotted more than one of his friends labouring under the
ravages of the intoxicating malady, or at any rate his feminine kinsfolk
and acquaintance were not slow to make the discovery for him.  Yet when
his own turn comes he may, with absolute certainty, be counted upon to
imagine that his own incoherencies of speech and action, in short, all
the symptoms of acute delirium entirely escape the multifold optics of
the Argus feminine; and that his Beeret remains all his own, so
effectually has he guarded it.  Which thing, by the way, no _man_ ever
succeeded in accomplishing yet.

Lilian was singing; a sweet pathetic ballad, rendered with infinite
feeling.  The song ended; a final chord or two; and the singer threw it
aside and turned away from the piano.

"Thanks, Lilian.  Why, my child, you sing like an angel," said her
hostess, moved almost to tears by the full, rich voice which, keeping
well within its compass, fills the room just so much as it will bear and
no more, while every word is as distinctly enunciated as though the
singer were reciting it.  Even Mr Brathwaite had forgotten to fall into
his post-coenal doze, and sat upright in his arm-chair, wide awake and
listening.

The three above mentioned are alone in the room this evening--yet stay--
there enters a fourth.  He had been standing quietly in the doorway
during the song, and refrained from entering, for fear of disturbing the
singer.  He had been obliged to go out after supper to give some orders
to Xuvani about the morrow, and returning, was surprised and entranced
by the sound of Lilian's voice in song.  So he stood in the doorway,
drinking in every note.

"Why, you vowed you never sang," he exclaimed, reproachfully, advancing
to the piano.  "And then you wait until a fellow is out of the way, and
this is the result."

She turned to him with the most bewitching of smiles.  "Well, I don't,"
she replied, in a deprecatory tone.  "At least, I haven't for a long,
long time, and now I'm only trying over something I picked up the other
day.  Just by ourselves, you know."

"Having carefully waited till I was out of the room."

"Perhaps I was just a little bit shy, from being so long out of
practice," answered she, with a glance that would have melted a stone.

But her auditor, though stony enough in all other respects, was wax in
her hands, and her glance thrilled through him like an electric shock.
She had penetrated the one weak joint in his armour most thoroughly.
Did she know it?

"Shyness, like all other weaknesses, should be conquered," he rejoined.
"The best way of conquering it in this instance is to sing that over
again.  Just by ourselves, you know."

"But Mrs Brathwaite won't thank me.  She must have had enough of it,"
objected Lilian, with a laugh.

"Enough of it!" exclaimed the old lady.  "My dear child, I would have
asked you myself but I didn't quite like to.  Now do.  Arthur hasn't
heard the first part."

Thus adjured, she gave way; but this time the shyness to which she had
pleaded guilty, made itself manifest by an occasional slight tremor in
the sweet, clear voice.  Which, however, rendered the pathetic ballad
all the more entrancing to her new auditor.

There was silence for a minute when she had ended Claverton broke it.

"That's the loveliest thing I ever heard."

"What!  Did you never hear it before?"

"Never.  But I don't care how soon I hear it again."

"Now we must have something cheerful," said Lilian.

"But it will counteract the other."

She laughed.

"Just what it should do.  What, Mr Claverton?  _You_ get the dismals
over a song?  Won't do at all."  And without giving him time to reply,
she rattled off a lively little ditty, doing full justice to the spirit
and archness of the composition.

Ethel and Laura were away, spending two or three days with the Naylors,
and to-night Hicks had taken himself there, too; thus these two and the
old people had the house to themselves.  To one of the quartett that
afternoon was to be marked with the traditional white stone.  A
deliciously long walk with Lilian, unhindered and unrestrained by the
presence of any third person.  She had talked freely about the old home,
and her eyes had brightened, and her cheeks had glowed with the
loveliest flush, while on that most congenial of topics.  Yet a thorn
beneath every rose.  Never could she revert to the favourite subject
without that indefinable moment of restraint coming in.  Again this
afternoon it had gone home to her companion, strengthening the resolve
which he had already formed.

The door stood open.  Attracted by the beauty of the night, Lilian went
out on the verandah.

"Better have a shawl, my child; you'll catch cold," said Mrs
Brathwaite.

"A shawl!" she echoed.  "Dear Mrs Brathwaite, I should be roasted.
It's as warm almost as at midday."

"Yes, it's a regulation summer evening," said Claverton, following her
on to the _stoep_.  "And a light one, too, considering that there's no
moon."

"I do think you get such glorious starlight here," continued Lilian.
"An English starlight night is the feeblest of misty twinkles, in
comparison.  What's that?" as a luminous spark floated by.  "A firefly?"

"Yes.  There are lots of them about.  Look! there's another."

"What do they look like, close?  Couldn't we catch one?"

"Oh, yes; nothing easier.  I'll get Hicks' butterfly net, it's only in
the passage.  Now then," he went on, returning with the implement,
"which shall it be?  There's a bright one.  We'll go for him."  So
saying he made a dexterous cast, ensnaring the shining insect.  Their
quest had led them some twenty yards from the house.

"They are not so brilliant as I thought," remarked Lilian, as they
inspected the captive.  "It's rather an insignificant-looking thing,"
she continued, allowing the insect to crawl over her delicate palm.
"Let's take it to the light."

This didn't suit Claverton's purpose at all.  "It won't shine there," he
said, "and you'll be disenchanted with it, and--Ah!  It's gone."  For
the creature, evidently thinking it had instructed them enough in a new
branch of entomology, suddenly opened its wings and soared off among the
orange trees.

"It's a perfect shame to go indoors on such a night as this," murmured
Lilian, half to herself.

"No earthly reason exists why we should," replied her companion.  "At
least not just yet.  Let's stroll round the garden."

"Shall we?  But what will Mrs Brathwaite say?" added Lilian, dubiously.

"Say?  Oh, nothing.  The dear old couple generally drop off in their
arm-chairs of an evening, when Ethel isn't here to make a racket; but
to-night you have charmed them back from the land of Nod with those
delicious songs.  Come along."

She yielded, and they wandered down the garden path in the starlight.

But Claverton was out of his reckoning, for once.  The "dear old couple"
in this instance happened to be wide awake, and were discussing him in a
manner that was very much to the point.

"Walter," began Mrs Brathwaite, when the voices outside were out of
earshot, "I'm greatly afraid Arthur has lost his heart in that quarter."

"Bah!" replied her husband, with a good-natured laugh; "not he.
Arthur's made of tougher stuff than that.  And," he added, "you women
think of nothing but match-making."

"But I tell you he has," persisted she, ignoring the latter insinuation.
"Now look here.  For the last fortnight he has been a changed man.  I
can see it, if you can't.  Why, he hardly speaks to any one else when
Lilian is there.  Every moment that he is not at work he is in the
house, or in the garden, or wherever she is.  For some days he has been
looking pale and worn, and no wonder, for he doesn't eat enough to
support life in a child of three years old.  And he has become, for him,
quite captious and irritable.  Now," she concluded, triumphantly, "do
you mean to tell me all this is only my imagination?"

"Well, perhaps you are right," answered the old settler, reflectively.
"But somehow I've almost thought, of late, he was rather fond of Ethel."

"That's because you're not a woman," rejoined his wife.  "Now I never
thought so.  And I've noticed what I've been telling you ever since the
night of the dance, that is, ever since the day after Lilian's arrival.
You'll see I'm right."

"Not sure I don't hope you are.  It would be a good thing for both of
them.  She's one of the sweetest girls I ever saw, as well as the
prettiest.  And to be thrown upon the world like that, gaining her
livelihood by hammering a lot of dirty, uproarious brats into shape--
it's abominable; and if it is as you say I heartily congratulate
Arthur."

Mrs Brathwaite laughed rather dubiously.  "Not so fast," she said, "I'm
by no means sure that Arthur will find it all plain sailing.  Mark my
words, that girl has a history, and she isn't to be won by any chance
comer.  Ah, well; we shall see."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Meanwhile the objects of their discussion are wandering on beneath the
orange trees, even as they had done barely a fortnight ago for the first
time.

"You are highly entertaining, I must say," remarked Lilian, amusedly,
when they had strolled some hundred yards further in absolute silence.
"I suppose I ought to offer you the regulation penny."

"You must make a much higher bid, then.  I was thinking of what you have
just been singing."

"Really now?  I should never have thought you were so easily impressed."

"I don't know.  There is a world of pathos in that composition.  Those
few lines contain the story of two people who might have been happy.
Why weren't they?  Because it pleased a beneficent Providence--
beneficent, mark you--to decree otherwise, and so Death put in his oar.
Now if all hadn't been going well with them, it isn't likely that
Providence would have been so accommodating."

There is a brusque harshness in his tones which causes his listener to
glance up at him in surprise and dismay, and she can see that his
features are haggard.  She is even alarmed, for she remembers hearing
vaguely that her companion's life had been a stirring and chequered one.
Has she now unwittingly rasped some hidden but unforgotten chord?  It
must be so, and she feels sorely troubled.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

They are standing on the brink of the little rock-bound pool where they
lingered and talked on the night of the dance.  Almost mechanically they
have struck out the same path and wandered down it, but this time no
deadly foe dogs their footsteps.  They are alone; alone in the dim hush
of the African night.  Overhead the dark vault is bespangled with its
myriads of golden eyes, which are reflected in the still waters of the
pool, and the Southern Cross flames from a starry zone.  Now and then a
large insect of the locust species sends forth a weird, twanging note
from far down the kloof, but no sign of life is there among the
_spekboem_ sprays, which sleep around them as still as if cut out of
steel.

He picks up a pebble and jerks it into the pool.  It strikes the surface
with a dull splashless thud, and sinks.  A night-jar darts from beneath
one of the fern-fringed rocks and skims across the water, uttering a
whirring note of alarm.

"Hadn't we better be going back?" hazards Lilian, at last.  Anxious to
withdraw from the dangerous topic, she takes refuge in a commonplace.
"It was rather late when we came out."

Claverton is standing half turned away from her--his face working
curiously as he looks down into the water.  For a minute he makes no
answer; then he faces round upon her, and his voice, hoarse and thick,
can scarcely make its way through his labouring throat.

"Lilian, Lilian--my darling--my sweet--my own sweetest love.  For God's
sake tell me what I would die at this moment to know?"

He has taken both her hands in his and is gazing hungrily down into the
lovely eyes.  She gives a slight start of unfeigned surprise, and he can
see the sweet face pale in the starlight.  Trying to speak firm she
gently repeats her former question: "Hadn't we better be going back?"

Can he read his fate in her eyes?  Do those gentle tones echo his
sentence?  It seems so.

"No," he replies, with all the vehemence of a foregone cause--the
passion of shattered hope.  "No--not until you have heard everything."
His arms are around her now, and she cannot stir from the spot if she
would, but she does not try.  "Listen," he goes on, speaking in a low,
quick, eager voice.  "Since the very first day I saw you I have loved
you as no woman was ever yet loved.  From the first minute, from the
first glance I caught of you that day you flashed upon me like an angel
of light.  Stop.  It is true, so help me God, every word of it,"--for
she started as if in surprise.  "From the very first moment.  Couldn't
you see it?  Couldn't you even see it that first day?"

"No--I could not," is her earnest answer.  "I vow to you I could not.  I
had no idea of--of anything of the kind.  I would have gone away from
here at once--anywhere--sooner than have wrecked your peace!  And now
this is what I have done.  Heaven knows I never intended it!"

The sweet eyes are brimming with tears as she stands with bent head
before him, and Claverton is convulsed with a wild, helpless yearning.
The first thought is to comfort her.

"Don't I know that?  Heavens!  The intention is a mere superfluity.  One
has only to see you to love you.  Can the sun help shining?"

She looks up at him.  "Then you believe me?  It would be dreadful to
me--the thought that you could imagine I had trifled with you."

"I could not think so.  It would be an impossibility," replies he.  For
the moment he almost forgets the death blow which she has dealt to his
own hopes, in his great eagerness to set her at ease with herself, to
reassure her.  Forgets?  No.  Rather he rises above himself.

"Listen, darling.  Every day since you came here I have only seemed to
live when with you.  I have never been a fraction of a moment away from
you if I could possibly have been near you.  Night after night through I
have lain awake, restlessly longing for morning that I might look upon
you again, and then when I have left you to go about the day's work, how
I have treasured up the last glance of those dear eyes, the last ring of
that sweet voice, till the very air seemed all sunshine and music.
Lilian, darling, I never can live again without you, and--by God, I
never will."

He pauses; his voice failing him.  The expression of his face as he
hangs upon her reply is terrible to behold.  It might be compared to
that worn by a convicted murderer when the return of the jury to give
their verdict is announced.  And this is the man who, at a comparatively
early age, has looked upon many a harrowing scene of human suffering
unmoved, who has thoroughly steeled himself against all the tenderer
feelings of nature, ever presenting a cold philosophical front to the
fortunes, good or ill, of himself or of his neighbours.  Who would know
him standing there, ghastly white, the whole of his being shaken to the
very core?  Yet but a few days have wrought this change.

She makes no answer at first, for she is silently weeping.  Then with an
effort she looks at him, and her face wears an expression of unutterable
sadness.

"Hush!  You don't know what you are saying.  You must never talk to me
like this again.  Try and forget that you have done so.  Remember what a
short time you have known me.  How can you know anything of me in a
fortnight?"

His answer is a harsh, jarring laugh.  "Forget what I have been saying?
Only a fortnight?  Is everything to be subject to the unalterable rule
of thumb?  Only a fortnight!  My love--my life; do you remember the
first time we were here together?  I could have told you even then, what
I am telling you now.  Do you remember telling me about yourself; how
you were all alone in the world--you?  Only say the word and your life
shall be without a care--all brightness and sunshine, and such love.
Listen, my own!  I, too, am alone in the world.  I have never found any
one to love--it has all been treasured up--kept for you.  Now, take it.
Lilian, Lilian, it cannot be that--you--will not?"

His voice sinks to a fierce, passionate whisper, and he holds her to him
as if he would never let her go.  Above, in the sky, a lustrous meteor
gleams--and then fades.  A flight of plover, rising from the ground,
circles in the gloom, with soft and ghostly whistle, and all is still,
save for the beating of two hearts.  Around float the fragrant breaths
of the rich, balmy night.

"I can give you--no--comfort," she replies, dropping out her words as if
with an effort.  "Oh, why did you ever tell me this?  Do you think it is
nothing to me to see you made wretched for my sake?  I tell you it is
heart-breaking--utterly heart-breaking.  Yet it cannot be.  You must
never, never talk to me like that again.  And you have given me all the
best of yourself," she exclaims, the very depth of sadness in her tone,
"and I--can give you--nothing!"

"Nothing?" he echoes, mechanically, looking down into the white, sad
face, out of which every trace of its usual calm serenity has
disappeared, leaving a weary, hopeless expression that is infinitely
touching.  "Ah, I can see that your life has not been without its sore
troubles.  It is not for me to pry into them."

"I can give you this amount of comfort, if it be any comfort," she says,
throwing back her head with a quick movement and fixing her eyes on his.
"I look back upon the hours which I have spent in your society as an
unmixed pleasure, and I look forward to many more, selfish as I am in
doing so.  I formed my opinion of you the very first few moments we were
together--and our first meeting was a queer one, was it not?" with a sad
little smile at the recollection.  "That opinion is unchanged, except,
perhaps, for the better.  I cannot bring myself to forego your society,
though it is only fair to warn you that I can give you no hope; and you
must never ask me to.  Are the conditions too hard?"

"No, they are not."

Her words had a soothing effect upon her listener, and he began to see a
gleam of light.  He was not indifferent to her as it was, and, given the
opportunity, he would make himself absolutely indispensable.  Moreover,
it was just possible that he had been premature in his declaration.
Yes, more time and opportunity; that was what he wanted--and he would
succeed.  Determination, which had never yet failed him, should effect
that--determination, combined with patience.  He would not even ask her
her reasons for refusing him now.  No; he would trust her absolutely and
wholly, and take not only her but her cares, whatever they might be.
And at the prospect of a contest, a strife with circumstances, though
the odds were dead against him, his spirits revived.

"Promise me one thing," he said.  "You will not avoid me in any way?"

She hesitated.

"No, not in any way," she repeated at last.

"And all shall be as it has been?"

"Yes."  Then after a pause: "We must really go in."

He released her, and they moved away, but her steps were unsteady.  The
strain had told upon her, and she felt weak and faint.  Quickly he
passed his arm round her.  "No, not that," she said, gently, but firmly.
"I will take your arm, if I may."  And in silence they retraced the
bush path and entered the little gate, then through the orange garden
over the runnel of water where they had stood that night when
accidentally watched by Ethel.  A light was burning in the room as they
entered, and in an arm-chair eat Mrs Brathwaite, fast asleep, her lord
having retired half an hour ago.

"Why, Lilian!" she exclaimed, starting up.  "You have been out a long
time!  I hope you haven't caught cold, child!"

"Oh, no; it's such a warm night.  We have been astronomising," replied
she, with an attempt at a laugh which fell mournfully flat; but the old
lady was too sleepy to detect its hollowness.

"Well, better get to bed.  I suppose you'll do the same, Arthur, now you
haven't got any one to sit up and smoke all night with."  For Hicks was
away, as afore stated.

"No, I don't feel restful.  Good-night.  Would that to-morrow were here
now!" he added, in a low, tender voice as he held Lilian's hand in a
lingering clasp.  A responsive pressure, and she was gone.

He withdrew to his quarters--to bed, but not to sleep--and hour followed
hour as he lay with his gaze fixed upon the square patch of golden stars
bounded by the framework of his open window.  Well, the die had been
thrown at last.  He knew where he was now, at any rate.  But it was too
soon to despair, for had he not close upon two months wherein to make
the most of his opportunities?  Determination should win, as it always
had in his case.  Ah, but this was outside all previous experience.
Well, they had still nearly two months together.  Then he began to
wonder whether he was actually undergoing this feeling, or if it were
not a dream from which he would presently awaken.

He started up from a fitful and disturbed doze before dawn, and resolved
to go for a ride.  He would go down to the vij-kraal and count out
Umgiswe's flock.

During the night the sky had become overcast, and now, as he rode along
in the grey dawn, dark clouds were lowering to the very earth, and the
mist swept in powdery flakes through the sprays of the bush.  It was a
thoroughly depressing morning, and the horseman's reflections were
coloured thereby.  And through the chill drizzle seemed to echo the
far-off tones of a sweet, low voice: "I can give you no comfort.  You
have given me the best of yourself, and I can give you--nothing."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

We allow that to sheep from disappointed love is something of a
transition.  Nevertheless, the incident which occurred at the shepherd's
kraal that morning must be narrated, because it is not without its
bearing on the future events of our story.

"Now, Umgiswe, turn out, and let's count," said Claverton, making a
slash with his whip at a couple of lean, ill-looking curs, which sneaked
sniffing round his horse's heels.  "Eh--what's that you've got there?"
as the Kafir, having saluted him, began fumbling about with something on
the kraal fence.

"Two dead sheep," answered the old fellow, producing a couple of skins,
with the air of a man who has triumphantly vindicated his character
against all aspersions.

Claverton examined the skins narrowly.  Having satisfied himself that
their sometime wearers had died of disease, and had not been slain to
appease the insatiable appetites of Umgiswe and a few boon companions,
he proceeded to count out the flock.  The score was correct.

"All right, Umgiswe; here's some smoke for you," he said, throwing the
old herd a bit of tobacco.  "But I say, though--whose dogs are those?"

The Kafir glanced uneasily at the curs aforesaid.

"A man who slept here last night left them.  They are sure to go after
him.  He has not been long gone."

"No," replied Claverton, carelessly, "he has not been long gone, or
rather _they_ have not been long gone, for they are still here.  Turn
them out, Umgiswe."  For his ear had detected the sound of several male
voices in the hut as he passed its door.

"Whouw!" exclaimed the old man, turning half aside to conceal an
embarrassed smile.  "They are my brothers, _'Nkos_.  They just came to
visit me."

"Of course they are.  If the half of Kafirland were to turn up here they
would all be your brothers, just come to visit you.  It won't do.  So
turn them out, you old shuffler, and let's have a look at them."

Then the intruders, to the number of three, who had been attentive
listeners to the above confabulation, turned out and saluted Claverton.
All three were finely-made fellows, but the elder was a man of almost
herculean build.  His powerful frame, which was scantily clad, was
smeared from head to foot with red ochre; above his left elbow he wore
an armlet of solid ivory, and from his appearance he was evidently a man
of rank.  In his hand he held a couple of kerries made of heavy
iron-wood; one of his companions was similarly armed, while the third
carried a bundle of assegais.

Claverton looked them up and down, noting every detail in their persons
and weapons.  "Loafers all three, and up to no good," was his mental
estimation of them, "but devilish awkward customers to tackle.  Never
mind.  Off they must go--quietly or the reverse--but go they must."
Then he asked them the usual questions--where they came from, where they
were going, and so on--they being ready with an answer of which he knew
exactly how much to believe.

"Came only last night, did you?  That is strange, because the evening
before and all day yesterday there were three Kafirs here, and one of
them was a tall man with an armlet on, and _they_ had a couple of yellow
dogs with them.  How queer that exactly the same thing, should happen
two days in succession!" he said in a quiet, bantering tone.  In point
of fact he was drawing a bow at a venture, but could see by the shifty
eyes of the man to whom he was speaking that the shaft had gone home.

This fellow grinned and shook his head with an exclamation of intense
amusement.

"_Inkos_ must be _Umtagati_," [one who has dealings with magic or
witchcraft] he said, "to see all that went on when he was not here."

"_Umtagati_?  Well, perhaps," was the easy reply.  Then, fixing his eyes
on those of the tall chief, who had been regarding him with a haughty
and indifferent stare, Claverton went on in the same easy tone.  "What
do _you_ think, Nxabahlana?"  He addressed, started perceptibly.  How
did the white man know his name?  "What do _you_ think of _Umtagati_?
But listen.  No one has any right loafing here without permission from
the _Baas_ up yonder.  So now, off you go, all three--now and at once,
or you'll assuredly come to grief.  And, be careful, for remember: _The
black goat dies and the white goat lives_."

"Whouw!" cried all four, unable to conceal their amazement.  Then,
without another word, one of the fellows diving into the hut, returned
with the light impedimenta belonging to the three, and with their curs
at their heels, the Kafirs strode off.  Just before they entered the
bush the chief turned and gazed fixedly at Claverton for a minute.  Then
they disappeared.

"All right, my friend.  I shall know you again when next we meet."  Then
to the old herd, who stood holding his stirrup: "Those men must not come
back, Umgiswe.  And I tell you what, if you go harbouring any more
conspiring loafers you'll get into trouble."  And he rode away.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY.

ONE GOLDEN DAY.

The clouds were parting and revealing patches of blue through their
rifts as Claverton reached home, and with the returning sunshine his
spirits revived.  It was going to be a lovely day, and he would have
Lilian all to himself for two whole hours that morning, for he was to
take her over to Thirlestane, Naylor's place, and return with the rest
of the party in the afternoon.

It was just breakfast-time, and Lilian entered at the same time as
himself.  Her face looked worn and anxious, as if not much sleep had
fallen to her lot, and though he would have cut off his right hand to
spare her the lightest anxiety, yet he could not feel guiltless of a
sense of consolation that she should have sorrowed with him and for him.
The voice of Mr Brathwaite recalled him to himself with a start.

"Well, Arthur; where did you go this morning?"

"Down to Umgiswe's."

"Was his count all right?"

"Yes.  Which is extraordinary, seeing that he had been entertaining
visitors," and he narrated the presence there of the three strange
Kafirs.

"Did you find out the big fellow's name?" asked Mr Brathwaite.

"Yes.  It was Nxabahlana.  Do you know him?  He looked as if he held the
right of succession to the paramount chieftainship of Kafirland."

"Nxabahlana?  Oh, yes, I know him," replied the old man.  "He's a kind
of sub-chief, and a relation of Sandili's.  One of the greatest
blackguards that ever stepped.  Good thing you turned them out; they
were up to no good, that much is certain."

"A chief!" exclaimed Lilian, raising her eyes, "I _should_ like to see a
real Kafir chief."

"Would you?" said Claverton.  "I wish I had known that; you should have
seen him.  I'd have brought him here."

The others laughed, thinking he was joking, but Lilian knew that he
meant it, every word.

"Ah, but," she said in a repentant tone, "you couldn't have captured
him, there were three of them; at least I mean--it would not have been
worth the risk."

Claverton laughed quietly.

"No such severe measures would have been necessary.  If I had promised
his chieftainship a glass of grog and an old hat, he would have come
trundling up here with an alacrity that would surprise you."

"Really?  That quite takes away from the poetry of the idea.  I thought
these savage chiefs were very proud."

"They are proud enough just as far as it suits them to be so--inasmuch
as they affect to look upon us as dust beneath their feet; but they will
condescend to accept anything we may think proper to give them, whether
it be a `tickey' (threepence) or a pair of old boots.  In fact Jack
Kafir, of whatever degree, has the bump of acquisitiveness very highly
developed, I assure you.  Hullo! who's this?"

For the door opened and a Dutchman entered--the same who witnessed poor
Allen's immersion at the taking out of the bees' nest.  A good-humoured
grin was on his stolid countenance, which looked suggestively warm, and
perhaps not too clean, and his beady black eyes sparkled at the prospect
of a good feed.  His corduroy trousers were tucked into a pair of top
boots, and a _sjambok_, or raw-hide whip, dangled from his wrist.  Not
until he had gone all round, extending a limp, moist paw to each, did it
occur to him to remove his hat.

"_Autre pays, autre moeurs_," murmured Claverton in response to a
charming little grimace of amusement which Lilian flashed at him from
across the table, in reference to the new arrival.

A seat was found for the Dutchman, and a well-garnished plate, and being
provided with a knife and fork he began to make voracious play with the
same.  Then having removed the edge of a very exuberant appetite, he
raised his head from the platter and waxed talkative.

"Oom Walter is well?"

"Ja.  Pretty so so."

"And Mrs Brathwaite?"

"Also."

"_Det is goed_," and then having given a like satisfactory account of
his _vrouw_ and _kinders_ the Boer informed them that he was on his way
to Thirlestane, with the object of purchasing some oxen from Naylor.

"Claverton's going over there this morning," said Mr Brathwaite,
unthinkingly.  "You can go over with him."

"So," said the Dutchman with a nod of approval.  "We will ride
together."

This didn't meet Claverton's wishes at all.

"I'm afraid not," he said.  "Sticks is rather lame, and I shall have to
send for my other horse.  They'll hardly find him till the afternoon--if
then.  It won't be worth Botha's while to wait."

"No.  I don't think it will," said good-natured Mrs Brathwaite, who had
taken in the situation at a glance.  Lilian, not understanding the Boer
dialect, was an unconscious auditor of what was going on.

Breakfast over, the Dutchman sat for about half an hour outside, smoking
his pipe and talking over the usual subjects with his host--sheep,
ostriches, the state of the country, how much longer they could do
without rain, and so on.  Then, saddling up his small, rough-looking
nag, he shook hands all round and departed, thoroughly content with
himself and all the world.

"What a queer fellow!" said Lilian, gazing after the awkward, receding
figure of their late guest, who, with his feet jammed to the heels in
the stirrups, was shuffling leisurely along, pipe in mouth.

"Yes, isn't he?" answered Claverton.  "But he's a fair specimen of the
typical Boer.  Washes three times a year, sleeps in his clothes, and
wears his hat in the house."

"Lilian, dear; hadn't you better get ready to start?" suggested Mrs
Brathwaite.

"I was just thinking the same," said Claverton; "but," he added, in a
lower tone, "I couldn't find it in my conscience to hasten even such a
temporary separation, and yet I was racked with apprehension lest some
other wayfarer should turn up and make a third."

She gave him a bright smile as she flitted indoors; then he, having got
into his riding-gear, went round to the stable and simply made Jan the
Hottentot groom's life a burden to him over the caparisoning of Lilian's
steed.  This bit was too sharp--that too soft--those reins were too hard
for the hands--and what the devil did he mean by leaving those two
specks of rust on the stirrup-iron?  Jan and his deputy--an
impish-looking little bushman--couldn't make it out at all; Baas
Clav'ton was usually so easy-going, and now here he was fidgeting worse
than the "sir" in the long boots (Allen).

Then Lilian came out, looking lovely in her well-fitting blue habit.
There was just a little air of timidity about her which was
inexpressibly charming, as Claverton put her into the saddle.  She was
not a bold horsewoman, she confessed.  She was ashamed to say that if
anything she was just a wee bit afraid every time she mounted a horse.
Nevertheless she sat beautifully, and the somewhat timid hand held the
reins as gracefully if not quite as firmly as that of any hard-riding
Amazon.  To-day she was mounted on a handsome old bay horse of Mr
Brathwaite's, who carried his head well, had a firm, easy walk, and was
as safe as a church, while Claverton rode a dark chestnut just flecked
with white, a fine, spirited animal which he had bought to supplement
the faithful "Sticks," using the latter for the rougher kinds of work.

"Do you know, nothing but my unblushing mendacity kept that seedy
Dutchman from inflicting himself upon our ride?" remarked Claverton,
when they had started; and he told her of his little subterfuge.

"Shocking!  You had no right to tell such a story," she answered, with a
laugh.

"Hadn't I?  Which would have been best--the lie or the Dutchman?  `Of
the two evils,' you know, and I thought the lie the least.  Perhaps you
would have preferred the Dutchman?"

"No, I would not.  But I think--well, I think--you did about the very
best thing you could have done," she replied, breaking into a silvery
laugh.  "But don't take that as any encouragement to persevere in the
art.  It's a dangerous one, and I believe you are quite an adept in it
already.  In fact, I've heard you tell one or two shocking fibs myself."

"All's fair in love and war."  Then noting the look which stole over her
face he wished the quotation unsaid.  "But I promise you I won't indulge
in mendacity any more than I can help."

"You must not do it at all.  Seriously, it isn't right."

"Except as a choice of evils.  How would society get on without its
mendacities?"

"Never mind about society," retorted Lilian, brushing aside an
inconvenient argument in right womanly fashion.  "And now promise you'll
do what I'm going to ask you."

"Oh, cheerfully."

"I'm going to set you a penance."

"Consider it performed.  But what is it?"

"Well, the next time a choice of evils is offered you, you are to choose
the one which does not involve romancing."

"That must depend upon its nature."

"Oh, you promised!"

"So I did, and so did Herod, and look what came of it."

"Never mind about Herod," was the laughing reply.  "I have got you at a
disadvantage, and I mean to keep you at it.  Look, are not those Kafirs
picturesque, in their red blankets, filing through the dark green of the
bush?" she broke off, pointing out half-a-dozen ochre-painted beings who
were crossing the valley some distance from them.  They were walking in
single file, and every now and then one would half stop and throw a
remark over his shoulder in a deep bass tone.  Their necklaces of
jackals' teeth showed white against their red bodies, which glistened in
the sun, and as they marched along, head erect and with their kerries
over their shoulders, they certainly did look picturesque.

"Yes, and do you notice how clear the air is?  I can make out nearly
every word those fellows are saying," answered Claverton.

"Can you really?  What are they talking about?"

"What are they talking about?  Now look at them.  The noble savage on
his native heath, looking too, as if it actually did belong to him,
striding with free and independent bearing, proud and scornful in mien.
You think they are talking of war and tribal greatness, and the
extermination of the hated white man, and such-like lofty and ambitious
schemes?  Nothing of the sort.  One fellow is narrating how he got a
thorn in his right heel, and how badly his brother extracted it for him,
while three of the others are all trying to say at once what a fool the
brother was, and that they could have done it much better."

Lilian broke into a peal of laughter.  "How absurd you are!  You have
quite taken the poetry out of them, and now they look like a very
commonplace lot of beings.  But is that really what they were saying?"

"It is, upon my word.  To see a lot of Kafirs talking you would think
they were letting off a stream of oratory, what with all their
gesticulation and modulation of voice.  In nine cases out of ten they
are discussing the veriest trivialities."

"I'm not sure that I'm glad I know that.  It spoils the romance of the
thing.  I shan't look at them with the same interest."

"You are given to idealisation, I see," he said.  "It is a delightful
pastime, and I must not do anything to shock it.  But, look!  That, at
all events, is entirely free from the commonplace."

They had reached the brow of an eminence, and before them lay unfolded a
panorama which brought a flush of delight to Lilian's face.  Upland and
valley lay sleeping in the golden sunshine, a rolling expanse of
verdure, now open and grassy, now covered with thick bush, or dotted
here and there with feathery mimosas.  Wave upon wave of rise and swell,
there seemed no end to the wide beautiful plains; and the eye wandered
on, over and over it, drinking in a new delight in the far-seeing
vision, then turning to refresh itself in the grand mountain chain which
bounded its range in front.  Stretching afar, in a hundred and fifty
miles of stately crescent, rose those lofty mountains with their sunny
slopes and beetling cliffs, and black forest-clad sides seen through the
dim uncertainty of the summer haze; while, towering above the rest, the
Great Winterberg raised his weather-beaten crest to the cloudless bine.
The thatch and white walls of a farmhouse or two, visible here and there
in the distance, redeemed the spectacle from the utter wildness of a
newly-trodden land, but on the other hand added to the peaceful
solemnity of the scene.  Hard by, the air resounded with the low hum of
bees busily gathering their stores from the blossoming sprays of a
neighbouring clump of bush; spreuws whistled, and a dainty little
sugar-bird--the humming-bird of Southern Africa--flitted across the
path, his painted plumage glittering in the sun.  Down in the valley two
or three pairs of blue cranes roamed about picking in the grass, and
every now and then their strange rasping note floated not unmelodiously
through the calm.

Lilian, in her intense love of the beautiful, could not restrain a cry
of delight as she gazed upon the splendid panorama before them.  The
exhilarating exercise and the warm balminess of the air had brought the
loveliest flush into her clear olive cheeks, and as she sat there
lightly reining in her horse, while the sweet eyes sparkled and dilated
and a witching smile carved the usually sad mouth, her companion thought
he had never seen such a picture in his life.

"A lovely background with a lovelier central figure," he murmured.
"Look at it well," he added.  "Take it all in thoroughly, now; it will
never look the same again.  Nothing ever strikes us as it does the first
time."

She looked half round at him.  "Am I delaying you?"

"Delaying _me_?  Good heavens!" is all the reply he can make just then.
Often in the time to come will he remember this day, this moment.  Often
will he stand in imagination as he does now with one arm over the pommel
of his saddle, watching the radiant face of this girl in its almost
divine beauty, set in entranced contemplation of the glorious landscape
all gleaming with purple and gold in the flooding sunshine.  And
remembering it he will feel as though he had lost Heaven.  A dull,
gnawing pain tugs at his heart as a forecast of the future runs darkly
through him, but with a great effort he thrusts it aside; he will live
in the present, and sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

"What are those, down there?" cried Lilian.  "Bucks of some sort?"

"Yes.  Springbok.  There are a few on this side of the place."

Some two dozen of the graceful creatures were trotting leisurely along
on the slope below them.  They were near enough for the dark stripe upon
their shining sides to be plainly discernible, as also the rings on
their black curved horns, as they kept turning their heads to gaze
inquiringly at their human observers.

"How pretty they are!" said Lilian.  "We are seeing ever so many queer
things to-day, and this beautiful country.  Do you know, I am thoroughly
enjoying this ride."

"Are you?  I wish it might last for ever."

His face wears the same look of longing desperation which it wore in the
starlight, while they stood by the pool.  Quickly the gladness fades
from hers as a light that has gone out.  She thinks how selfish she is
to throw her joyousness at him thus, while his heart is aching for love
of her.

"Hush!" she says, in a low compassionate tone.  "Remember our compact."

Claverton dare not trust himself to look at her.  His eyes are fixed on
the hazy slopes of the far-off mountains, whose green and purple sides
he scarcely so much as sees.  For some minutes neither speaks.  Then
with a quick restless sigh he throws himself into the saddle.

"You are right," he says, huskily.  "It is I who am weak; weak as water.
Only this once.  I will not transgress again."

They resumed their way.  The springboks, startled by the sudden move
forward, bounded off.  On the brow of the rise, several of them began
leaping high into the air, with all four feet off the ground together,
and their bodies in the form of a semicircle.  Being in relief against
the sky, the effect was not a little bizarre.

"What ridiculous creatures!" said Lilian, watching them.  "I never saw
such contortions."

"Yes, they are vindicating their name," said her companion, tranquilly.
He had recovered his composure, and was thankful for this diversion.

Cresting the next ridge they came suddenly upon a couple of advancing
horsemen, heavy-faced, lumbering-looking fellows, their complexions
tanned to the colour of brickdust, and it needed but a glance at their
general untidiness, and seedy get-up, to pronounce upon their
nationality.

They stopped and shook hands with Claverton, doffing their greasy hats
to his companion, at sight of whom even their wooden countenances showed
signs of animation.  A few commonplace questions and answers were
exchanged, then one of the Boers, glancing at Lilian, asked with the
freedom of speech customary among that delightfully primitive people:
"Is that your wife?"

He answered without moving a muscle, and enlightened them.  They were
only ignorant brutes, he reasoned, half savages almost; yet just then,
the question had come upon him with a kind of shock.  He was thankful
that Lilian had not understood the conversation.

"I really must learn Dutch," she said.  "It isn't nearly such an
inviting tongue as the full melodious flow of the Kafir language; but
far more useful, I should think.  Everybody seems to speak it."

"Yes, it's the regular go-between jargon here.  Very few even of the
frontier people speak Kafir, and not one Kafir in five hundred can talk
English, hence the necessity of a go-between.  Look!  There's our
destination."

They had reached the brow of one of those long rolling undulations which
formed a leading feature in the landscape, and on the rise opposite
stood a large single-storeyed house, with an iron roof and deep
verandah.  A block of out-buildings adjoined, and several spacious
enclosures sloped down into the hollow; but save for a few tall blue
gums overshadowing the house, the surroundings were destitute of trees.

"Ah, you've found your way over to us at last," said Emily Naylor, who
with Laura Brathwaite had come out on the stoep to meet Lilian.  "So
glad to see you.  Was it very hot, riding?  You must be tired."

"Oh, no," answered Lilian, "the air was delightful, and the view--I
never saw anything so perfect;" and she turned to look again at the
wide, sweeping landscape stretching away in front.

"Yes; it's very pretty," said her hostess.  "It is not so pretty here as
at Seringa Vale, because we have no trees, but the look-out is much
wider.  But come inside and sit down, or shall we sit out here?  You
must be tired after your ride."

"I'm not though, really.  And you must not make me out an invalid,"
answered Lilian, with a smile.  "I'm far from that."

"Then come and see the young ostriches."

Lilian readily assented, and the whole party moved thither accordingly.

"Well, Miss Laura, you're looking all the better for your change of air;
in fact, blooming," remarked Claverton, who was walking beside her.  "By
the way, where's the twin?"

"Ethel?  Oh, she's down at the ostrich enclosure, where we are going.
Mr Allen is there, too, and Will Jeffreys."

"_Alias_ Scowling Will.  So he's here, is he?"

"Yes.  But I can't return you the compliment you just paid me.  You look
as if you had been up all night for a week," answered Laura, with a
spice of demure malice.

"Oh, don't make personal remarks; it's rude," murmured Claverton,
languidly.

"Ha--ha," struck in Naylor.  "Claverton's been getting on the spree, I
expect, now that you two are not there to keep him in order.  And now
here we are," he went on, as they arrived at an improvised yard some
twenty feet square, wherein a number of little oval-shaped woolly things
were running about.  "They are strong little beggars, not a seedy one
among the lot."

They had not been long hatched, and as they scuttled about, stopping
occasionally to peck at the chopped lucerne strewn on the ground, they
were just the size and shape of the parent egg, plus legs and a neck.
Naylor picked one of them up.

"You'd never think that this little chap in less than a year's time
would be able to kick a fellow into the middle of next week, would you?"
he said, showing it to Lilian.

"No, indeed," replied she, stroking the little creature's glossy brown
neck, and passing her fingers through the thick coating of hair-like
feathers like the soft quills of the porcupine, which covered its back.
"What dear little things they are.  They ought always to keep small."

"Oho!" laughed Naylor.  "Bad look out for those who farm them, if they
did.  You wouldn't get much for a plucking off this little beggar, for
instance."

"Of course I didn't mean that," she explained.  "I meant that it was a
pity such pretty little things should grow up big, and ugly, and
vicious."

"It's a good thing sometimes that they are vicious," said Naylor.  "It
keeps the niggers from going into the enclosures and stealing the eggs,
and even plucking the birds.  They are taking to that already."

"Are they not too much afraid of them?"

"Not always.  Look at those two black chaps in yonder camp.  They are
four-year-old birds, and the nigger isn't born who'd go in and pluck
them.  Look, you can see them both now," added Naylor, pointing out a
couple of black moving balls, many hundred yards off, in the middle of
their enclosures.

"It is all very interesting," exclaimed Lilian, half to herself, gazing
around.  Far away on the sunlit plains a herd of cattle was lazily
moving; down by the dam in the hollow, whose glassy waters shone like
burnished silver in the midday heat, stood a few horses, recently turned
out of the kraal, swishing the flies with their tails, or scratching
each other's backs with their teeth, while in the ostrich "camps," whose
long, low walls ran up the slope, the great bipeds stalked majestically
about, pecking at the herbage on the ground, or, with head erect and
neck distended, looked and listened suspiciously, equally ready for a
feed of corn or for an intruder.  All seemed to tell of peace, and
sunshine, and prosperity.

"How you must enjoy your life in this beautiful country!" she went on.

Naylor was hugely gratified.  Subsequently he took occasion to remark to
his wife that Lilian Strange was the nicest and the most sensible girl
he had ever seen.  "Why doesn't Claverton cut in for her?" added the
blunt, jovial fellow, in his free-and-easy way.  "Then they could get
hold of one of these places round here.  He's a fool if he doesn't."  To
which his wife answered, with a provoking smile of superior knowledge,
that she supposed most people knew their own business best.

Now, however, he looked pleased.  "Well, yes; we've been brought up in
it, you see, and shouldn't be happy in any other.  But I should have
thought that you, coming out from England, would have found it rather
slow.  Perhaps you haven't had time to, though, as yet."

"You mean that the novelty hasn't worn off yet?  No more it has; but
even when it did, that would make but little difference.  There is a
charm about this beautiful country, with its solitudes, its grand
mountains, and rolling plains, and wild associations, which, so far from
becoming tame, would grow upon one.  And the climate, too, is perfect."

Naylor laughed diffidently.  "Yes; but there's another side to that
picture.  How about bad seasons, and drought, and war, and locusts, and
stock-lifting, and so on?  It isn't all fun here on the frontier."

"Now, I won't be disenchanted," she retorted, with a bright smile.  "You
must not try and spoil the picture I have drawn."

"Then I won't.  Hallo, Ethel!  We've been looking for you," he added,
turning as he, for the first time, discovered she had joined them.
"Here's Miss Strange prepared to swear by the frontier--in fact, she has
done so already."

"Yes?" said Ethel, coming forward to greet Lilian; and Claverton could
not help contrasting the two as they stood together: the one with her
soft, dark, winning beauty, the lovely eyes never losing for a moment
their serene composure; the other, bright, laughing, and golden, the
full red lips ever ready to curl in mischief-loving jest or mocking
retort, and hair like a rippling sunbeam.  Yet nine men out of ten would
probably have awarded the palm to Ethel.  "Yes?" she said, and, in her
heart of hearts, added, "and with her own reasons."  She did not feel
very cordially towards Lilian just then.

"She says it's perfect, all round," went on Naylor--"a young Paradise."

"I don't know," said Ethel.  "I shouldn't like to stay on the frontier
all the year round.  One would miss the balls and theatre in Cape Town."

"Aha!" laughed Emily, "Ethel is still intent on slaughter.  She made
such havoc last session; ever so many poor fellows threw themselves off
the cliffs on Table Mountain on her account; how many was it, Ethel--
twenty-five?--that she had to be spirited away in the night for fear of
the vengeance of their bereaved mammas."

"Call it fifty while you're about it," she answered.  "How awfully hot
it has become!"

This served as a pretext for a move indoors, which was made accordingly.

"So you're all determined to go back this evening," said Naylor, as they
sat in the verandah after dinner.

"I think we must," answered Ethel; "aunt will think we are never coming
back."

Hicks, who at the other end of the verandah was "assisting" Laura to
play with the children--these having finished their morning's lessons,
had invaded the party--pricked up his ears and looked rueful in advance.
If they were persuaded to stay, he would have to go anyhow; but Ethel
was firm, and he breathed freely again.

"But, Claverton, you and Miss Strange might stop--to-night, at any
rate," persisted Naylor.

It was Ethel's turn to feel apprehensive.  She had schooled herself into
accepting the situation, and accepting it patiently.  The strife had
been a hard one, and she had suffered in it--suffered acutely, but she
had conquered.  Yet the struggle had not been won in a moment, and it
had left its traces; but she seemed not to show them; she was a trifle
graver, and more subdued in manner, that was all.  A few days ago she
had longed, with an intense longing, to get away--away from the sound of
his voice, from the glance of his eyes; yet now that it is a question as
to whether they shall return without him, her heart beats quick, and she
seems to hang upon the verdict which they are all discussing so calmly.

"I don't think we can to-day, Naylor," answered Claverton, a glance at
Lilian having satisfied him that she did not favour the scheme.

"But look here," Naylor was beginning, when his wife cut him short.

"Why shouldn't we inspan and go back with them, Ned?  We can leave
Seringa Vale again before breakfast if you like, and there's something I
want to see mother about."

"All right, we'll do that.  Don't you think Seringa Vale is rather a
good name for a place, Miss Strange?"

"Yes--so pretty," answered Lilian; "it's a poem in itself."

"How do you like Thirlestane?"

"I like it, too.  Did you name it?"

"Yes," replied Naylor, "it's called after a small place my grandfather
had in England.  Its original name is a Dutch one--_Uitkyk_, a look-out;
but Thirlestane's better than _Uitkyk_, isn't it?"

"Jack Armitage calls it `Oatcake' even to this day," put in Claverton.

Suddenly, a loud booming noise came from one of the enclosures.  All
looked in that direction.  The great ostrich was plainly visible, his
neck inflated to six times its size as he emitted his deep call,
volleying it out in heavy booms, three at a time.

"Fancy an ostrich making such a row as that!  You wouldn't have thought
it possible, would you, Miss Strange?" said Gough, the tutor.  He had
joined the party at dinner-time, when school was over.

"I don't think I should," answered Lilian.  "The first time I heard it,
I was so frightened.  It was at Seringa Vale.  I was lying awake at
night, and this great booming sounded so awful in the dead of night.  I
hadn't a notion what it was; the first thing I thought of was some wild
beast."

"A lion, I suppose," said Naylor.

"I think the whole of the Zoological Gardens ran through my vivid
imagination.  How Mr Brathwaite laughed when I told him about it next
morning!  Yet I was terribly frightened."

"No wonder," said Claverton.  "It's a precious uncanny sort of row to
strike up in the middle of the night, especially when you don't know
where it comes from, or what it's all about."

It was now voted time to be getting the horses in.  This served as a
signal for a general break-up, the masculine element of the party making
towards the stable, or the enclosure, where some manoeuvring was needed,
as we have seen, to obtain possession of the requisite steeds without
exciting the wrath of the autocratic biped who reigned there.

Claverton having, as before, submitted Lilian's steed and its gear to a
rigid examination, now whisking a speck of dust off the saddle, or
letting down a link of the curb-chain and readjusting it, assisted her
to mount.

"Wish that fool would go on," he muttered savagely, referring to Allen,
whose ancient screw was mooning along with a kind of crop-the-grass
gait.  The rest of the party were on ahead.  "He needn't wait for us,"
and flinging himself on his spirited chestnut he bade the groom let go
the reins.  The fine animal tossed his head and sidled and champed his
bit as he felt himself free; free yet not free, for his rider was a
consummate horseman and had him perfectly in hand.

Lilian laughed.  "Poor fellow," she said.  "Do you know, I sometimes
feel so sorry for him.  You all chaff him dreadfully and--Oh!"

The last exclamation is one of alarm, for at that moment a troop of
ostriches--young ten-month-old birds--having deserted its herd in one of
those stampedes to which these idiotic bipeds are so liable, whirls past
them, with wings outstretched and snowy plumes sparkling in the sun, and
Lilian's steed, which has not yet become quite accustomed to the
gigantic fowls, shows signs of restiveness.

"Don't be frightened--darling.  You're quite safe," says her escort,
noting the scared look in her face, as the old horse tugs at his bridle
and snorts and plunges a little.  "He'll be perfectly quiet in half a
minute."

He is so close beside her all the time, and speaks in such a reassuring
tone that her alarm subsides, and the old steed drops into his normal
steadiness as though half ashamed of himself.

"Are you not utterly disgusted with such a coward?" says she, with a
faint apologetic laugh.  "I ought to have enjoyed the affair as a good
opportunity for showing off, oughtn't I?"

"One must show on before showing off.  I wouldn't have you anything but
timid on board a horse for the world, except for your own sake.  It
suits you to perfection."

He is in earnest.  These oft-recurring little alarms of hers are so
captivating in their pure unaffectedness, so womanly; and, withal, the
sense of protection imparted to himself is delicious.  And if she is at
times somewhat shrinking, as at present, even that lends an additional
attraction to her delicate refinement.

"Every one is not an Amazon, thank heaven," he continued, "and you will
soon be as much at home on horseback as in a chair.  We will have a lot
of practice.  Besides, you know, lately you have not been very well, and
that is calculated to unnerve you.  We will do our best to set you up
thoroughly--while--you are here."  He tried to speak firmly, but it was
of no use, that tell-tale tremor shook his voice over the last four
words, for they conjured up a picture of when she should be no longer
"here," and he dared not think of it.  At present he would thrust the
thought far from him.

They had now overtaken Allen, and were obliged to shape the conversation
accordingly.  "Shall we canter on a little?" suggested Claverton.  "The
rest are a good way ahead."

Lilian acquiesced, and their steeds bounded along the grassy slopes at
an easy elastic canter, but Allen's sorry screw finding a difficulty in
keeping pace with the long stride of the well-bred horses, that
disconsolate youth soon dropped behind.

"Here is our panorama again," said Claverton, reining in on the top of
the hill, whence they had enjoyed the view that morning.

"It looks different already.  This golden light sheds a rare
peacefulness--an evening repose--upon it, which is perfectly enchanting.
It is hard to determine, but of the two I think I preferred it this
morning.  There was an exhilaration in the very air that made one feel
the pleasure of merely living."

"I liked it best this morning, too," he answered gravely.  Then all the
day was before him--so many hours with _her_.  Now they had come--never
to return.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

HICKS WAXES INTREPID.

"Phew-w!" whistled Hicks, staring in consternation at the scene before
him.  Then he added in a determined voice: "But I'm going straight over
that bridge or down the river, one of the two."

"Umph!  More fool you," growled his companion.  "I'm damned if I am."

"But look here, Thorman.  If we don't get across now while we've a
chance, Heaven only knows when we shall.  The river's `down' as it has
never been before, and all along the road we have heard nothing but how
it's coming down harder.  Every blessed one of the bridges will go, and
we shall be stuck on this side, it may be for weeks."

Thorman made no reply, but sat on his horse scowling ferociously at the
flood in front of them.

The spot was a drift on the Great Fish River crossed by an important
main road which was one of the principal lines of transport up-country.
Some years previously a fine bridge had been thrown across the bed of
the river, which at that point was about fifty feet deep and twice the
distance in width, thus rendering traffic independent of the rise or
fall of the water or the state of the drift--at no time a first-rate
one.  But although the actual bed of the river was wide and deep, the
stream itself was an insignificant trickle, dabbling along over stones,
with here and there along sandy reach, after the manner of a North
Country trout stream, but without its dash and sparkle.  Except in rainy
seasons; and then its red turbid waters, swelled by the contributions of
numerous confluents and the drainings of the high watershed on either
side, tore foaming between their high banks, carrying down drift-wood
and trunks of trees in their swift pent-up course.  But the bridge, a
fine iron one, standing sixty feet from the bottom of the river to its
parapet, rendered the transport-riders [carriers] absolutely independent
of these floods, as has been said.  Whether the stream was almost dry in
its bed, or rolling down rocks and tree-stumps, mattered nothing to them
now.  Instead of the tedious delay of several days on the bank, and then
the trouble and risk of crossing a bad, washed-out drift, their waggons
rolled as gaily across the bridge as along the road, and they kept on
their way as if there was no river there at all.  Once or twice since
the bridge had been built, the water had risen within a few feet of its
roadway; but though an occasional prediction would be made that the
river was capable of rising a great deal higher still, yet it had not
done so.  The bridge was of enormous strength, said they who were most
concerned, and would stand against anything.

But now it seemed as if the predictions of disaster were going to be
verified.  For several days and nights it had rained incessantly; not a
series of heavy deluging showers, but a steady, telling downpour.  No
break had occurred, not even a pause of ten minutes--rain, rain, rain,
till people became as accustomed to the continuous fall upon their roofs
of zinc or thatch as to the ticking of a clock--and the parched earth,
now thoroughly soft and moistened, ran off the superfluous water in
streams from every runnel and gully, which emptying themselves into the
larger rivers, these in their turn came down in such force as to flood
their banks, doing much and serious damage.

And the prospect before the two who sat there on their horses swathed
from head to foot in long mackintoshes was, it must be allowed,
sufficient justification for Thorman's retort.  An expanse of tossing,
swirling water lay in front, and in the middle of this stood the bridge,
or rather all that could be seen of it, for its roadway lay at least a
foot beneath the surface.  The banks of the river were overflowed to
some distance, and here it was comparatively smooth; but in the middle
the mighty stream rushed on its way with a dulling and ever deafening
roar, rolling its huge red waves; curling, hissing, splashing; now
heaving up a great tree-stump which, tossing for a moment, and leaping
half out like a live thing, disappeared again in the boiling depths; now
floating down the carcase of an ox or half-a-dozen drowned sheep.
Against the bridge lay jammed an accumulation of drift-wood and logs,
which groaned and grated with half-human shriek as the fierce current
hurled itself continually upon the obstructing mass, which as yet it was
unable to break through.

For sky, a pall of dark rain-cloud--heavy, opaque, and without a break
anywhere--resting, in a regular line, low down upon the sides of the
high hills on either side of the valley.  Not a breath of wind to toss
about the showers--nor, indeed, could the term shower apply.  A
downpour--straight, penetrating, and incessant.  On the opposite bank of
the river many waggons lay outspanned, their number augmenting as more
kept on arriving in twos and fours from up-country, and the cracking of
long whips, and the peculiar "carrying" yells of their drivers, were
borne through the roar of the flood in front.  Though early in the
afternoon it was dark and gloomy, and the great rolling river, its red,
turbid, hissing surface covered with evidences of damage and
destruction, the lowering sky, the oppressive and woe-begone aspect of
the surroundings, made up a picture of indescribable weirdness and
threatening grandeur.  The elements were supreme; man was nowhere.

"Oh, hang it, Thorman," went on Hicks, impatiently.  "You're not afraid
of a little water?  I must get home to-night, and it's now or never."

The two had left some days earlier to attend a sale a good distance from
home; for Hicks, as we have said, was an energetic fellow, and always
alive to the main chance.  The rain had just begun at the time they
started; but they hadn't bargained for this.

"Well, one damned fool makes two damned fools.  Come along then,"
growled Thorman.  It would never do for it to be said he was afraid--and
by a "Britisher," too.

"That's the sort, old _Baas_.  I knew you were humbugging," rejoined
Hicks, heartily.  He would have gone through more than the present
undertaking, though that was no child's play, when he thought of the
alternative--several days' weary waiting at the wretched little inn just
left behind.  Why, one evening of it would be too awful.  But things
gain or suffer by comparison, and now the comparison lay between this
contingency and Seringa Vale, a cheerful room, a snug home circle, and--
Laura.  So quite airily he prepared to risk his life, having persuaded
his companion to follow his wise example.

A group of men stood at the water's edge exchanging speculations on the
probable turn of affairs, for a few waggons, bound up-country, lay
outspanned on this side, though the large majority, coming down country,
were on the opposite bank.  They eyed the two travellers inquiringly.

"I say, Mister," said a tall fellow, with a beard the size of a
peacock's tail, falling over his chest.  "You're never going to try and
get through, are you?"

"We are going to do just that," growled Thorman.

"We are not going to try, but we are going to get through," asserted
Hicks confidently.

"Well, I hope you may," said the other, "but take my advice and don't
attempt it."

"I'm going to attempt it, at any rate," answered Hicks.  "Thanks all the
same."

"Much better not," said another sturdy purveyor.  "Joe's right.  There's
nearly a yard of water on the bridge, and the thing's been cracking and
groaning under all that drift-wood.  It'll go any minute, I tell you.  I
wouldn't go across for fifty pound.  Besides, you've got to get to it
first, and there's a lot of water on either side.  Better give it up."

"Oh, I know the road all right, every inch of it," was the reply.  "Come
along, Thorman."

Fortunately for them they did know the road, for on either side of it
lay deep fissures and gullies, now, of course, all under water.  To
flounder into one of these would be just better than getting into the
river itself.  Still it would be extremely dangerous.

"Well, good-bye," called out the men on the bank as the two went
plashing into the surging water.  "So long!  We shall meet in the next
world."

A jest which contained more than half the truth for all the likelihood
of their ever meeting again in this, and so its utterers knew, perhaps
better than the two on whose ears it fell; yet the rough, venturesome
life led by these men rendered them reckless and indifferent in the face
of danger.  They could jest with Death, with his grim hand put out
before them.

"Well, now we're in for it you'd better let me go first," said Thorman.
"I know these rivers better than you do."

Hicks acquiesced, and they plunged on.  As they neared the bridge the
current increased in strength, but not yet did they feel anything like
its full force.

"Quick!  Turn to your right," shouted Thorman, wheeling his horse.  His
experienced eye detected one of those deep fissures above mentioned,
into which his steed even then nearly slipped.  A plunge and a splash,
and he was on firm ground again, Hicks following.

And now, as they neared the bridge, the horses began to show signs of
terror: snorting and tossing their heads, their eyes rolling wildly as
they began to feel the effect of the swift, powerful current flowing
round the great piers at the entrance to the bridge, and had the riders
lost nerve their doom was sealed.  And in truth the situation was
somewhat awful, and well calculated to try the strongest nerves.  Before
them lay the submerged bridge, the water tearing over its roadway so as
to hide it completely--to what depth they could hardly guess.  Even
Hicks began to repent of his headstrong rashness as he looked giddily at
the red, heaving flood rearing up its great waves as it thundered
against the bridge; but it was too late now, there was no turning back.

"So-ho, boy!--careful!--so-ho!" he cried, patting the neck of his
frightened steed, which, terrified at the roar and rush of water through
the ironwork, showed signs of backing; but the current upon the bridge
shallowing after rather a deep plunge just before reaching it, in a
measure reassured the animals.

"Don't look at the river, Hicks; keep your eyes on your horse, and look
only at where you're going," said Thorman, in a set, deep voice,
speaking over his shoulder; but the warning was nearly lost in the
deafening roar of the flood.  Overhead, on either side, rose the parapet
of the bridge, and, as they splashed along the submerged roadway, every
now and then an uprooted tree or a huge stump would be hurled with an
appalling crash upon the accumulation of drift-wood which lay against
the quivering mass of ironwork.  In one place the head of a drowned ox
protruded through an aperture as though the animal were looking into a
road; having been dashed there by the current, and its body being unable
to follow.  A bizarre and ghastly sight was this great head, with its
fixed, glassy eyes, and yet living aspect, glaring from out of the ruin.
But such things as these our adventurers saw as in a dream.  All their
attention was turned to their horses and their own safety.  They could
feel the huge structure quiver and shake as they passed along it, and
ever in their ears was the stunning, deafening roar of the mighty flood
as it boomed beneath and around them.

And now the worst was over.  They had gained the other end of the
bridge, but before them lay an expanse of submerged land, where the
current, if not so strong and deep as on the side they had started from,
was at any rate wide enough still to constitute a source of peril in the
exhausted state of their steeds.  But the bottom was a smooth gentle
slope, free from any of the occasional cracks and fissures which had
troubled them at first.

"Don't stop, Hicks!  Keep his head _up_ the stream.  We'll be through in
a minute!" cried Thorman; and cramming his hat down, he settled himself
firmer in the saddle, and struck into the open flood again.

But the horses knew that the worst was over, and kept up bravely,
snorting and puffing like traction-engines as they struggled to maintain
their footing in the swirling tide.  As in a dream, the riders could see
a crowd of men at the water's edge; could hear their cheers of
encouragement; then the resistance of the current slackened and ceased,
and the exhausted animals walked despondently out, and stood, their
dripping flanks panting and heaving, as Hicks and Thorman slid to the
ground, little less done up than their steeds.

"I say--did you do that for a bet?" asked one of the crowd which had
been standing ready to afford them what assistance they could, as well
as to watch an event of some excitement, a perfect godsend to these men
delayed there for many tedious days.

"No.  Bet be damned," growled Thorman.  "I did it because that fool
persuaded me to; and I wouldn't do it again for a thousand pounds."

"Oh, hang it, old man, don't be shirty," cried Hicks.  "We are through
now, you know, and the proof of the pudding's in the eating.  Besides,
we've shown what our horses can do."

"By the way, Mister, d'you care to part with that same animal?" said a
tall, lank transport-rider, critically eyeing Hicks' steed.  "Because I
want a horse that ain't afraid o' water.  I have a lot of drift work to
do at times, and that critter o' yours 'ud just suit me.  What's the
figure?"

"Well, no, I don't," answered Hicks.  "It would be rather rough to get
rid of him, just as he's brought me through that, wouldn't it?"

"Oh, all right," rejoined the other, good-humouredly, "I'd kind of taken
a fancy to him, that's all.  When you do, just drop a line to John Kemp,
Salem, Lower Albany."

The two turned and waved their hats in response to a cheer which arose
from the other side.

"Well, we shan't meet in the next world yet, my friends," remarked
Hicks, with a laugh, referring to the last God-speed hurled after them
as they began their perilous crossing.  Then, leading their horses, they
turned towards the roadside inn, which lay a couple of hundred yards
from the river bank, and whose landlord, by reason of the presence of a
number of men in a state of enforced idleness, was driving a roaring
trade.  The inn, or "hotel" as it was usually called, was, this
afternoon, in a state of exceeding liveliness, for it was full of
transport-riders, making merry--one or two of them, indeed, decidedly
"cut," and in that condition affording huge entertainment to the rest.
Ordinarily a sober class of men, they were now indulging through sheer
_ennui_, being driven, as one of them expressed it, "to get on the spree
in self-defence," and to keep their spirits up.  So the place rang with
the boisterous mirth of many jovial souls, and the air was heavy with
the fumes of grog and Boer tobacco which not all the open windows and
the door sufficed to carry off.  Hicks started, as a dog and an empty
whisky-bottle shot past his legs at the same time in the doorway.

"Beg pardon, mate," cried a giant in corduroy, from across the room, not
moving from his place on a dingy sofa, where he sat wedged in among
other boon companions.  "Sims here bet me I couldn't hit that Kafir cur
on the side of the ear, the loser to stand drinks all round."

"And, by jingo, you've lost," rejoined Hicks, good-humouredly, "so we
claim to cut in to the penalty."

"Right you are," cried the other, with a jolly laugh.  "What's it to
be--`French'--Whisky?  All right.  Here, Sims, whisky and soda for these
gentlemen here; Hennessy for me," and then followed much discussion and
questioning among the rest as to what they would take, one rather surly
fellow coming near to having his head punched for curtly declining to
benefit by the general "treat."

The hotel-keeper, a thin, wiry-looking man, with grey whiskers and a
sharp face, now came forward.

"Where might you be from?" he began.  "Want to off-saddle?  You see I'm
pretty busy just now," he went on, as if apologising for the delay.

"We _might_ be from the bottom of the river, thanks to this fellow, and
we don't _want_ to off-saddle, because we have," growled Thorman.  He
was determined, characteristically, to make the worst of the situation,
and resented having been made a fool of, as he phrased it, by Hicks.

"Why, it can't be that you've come across the river?" cried the landlord
in amazement.

"The devil it can't!  We have, though, unless we've gone down it and got
into hell," fiercely replied the other, with a contemptuous glance
around; but the sulky rejoinder was received with a loud laugh by the
boisterous but good-natured crew as a capital joke.

"Come through the river?" exclaimed a rough-looking fellow sitting close
by.  "Here, Mister, you and your friend must have a drink with me.
What's it to be?"

"No fear," called out the thrower of the bottle.  "The gentlemen are
going to have one with me, Robins; they can have one with you after.
Here, Sims, look alive, trundle up those drinks."

"Keep your temper, Hallett," replied the imperturbable landlord.  "A man
can't wait on a dozen fellows at once, you see; and there are a precious
deal more than a dozen of you here."

"And devilish glad you are of that same, you old humbug," retorted the
other, cheerily.

"Tell you what it is," an oracle of "the road" was saying in a loud
voice, for the benefit of the assemblage.  "That bridge'll go, I say,
before night; but, anyhow, it's bound to go before morning."

"Don't know about that, Bill," said another.  "It's a good strong bit of
iron, and my opinion is that it'll hold out."

"It won't, though.  It'll never stand the crush of drift-wood that's
against it now.  And, mind you, the river's coming down harder nor ever
it was--I know.  It's raining like blazes up the country, far more'n it
is here, and what with the Tarka and the Little Fish and half-a-dozen
other streams besides, emptying into this, the bridge is bound to go.
Mark my words."

"Well, p'raps you're right, Bill.  We haven't had such a flood as this
in my time, and I've known this road, man and boy, for over fifty years.
Still I should have thought the bridge'd stand.  It's a good bit of
iron.  But what do you say, Mister?" he added, appealing to Thorman.
"You've just come over it, I hear."

"What do I say?  Why, that the damned thing won't hold out till night,"
was the gruff reply.  "It jumped about like a twenty-foot swing while we
were on it.  And the fool that made it ought to be strapped upon it now,
say I."

"I've known one flood bigger than this, but that was before your time,"
observed a wiry-looking little man, with white hair and a weasel-like
face, self-complacent in the consciousness of having the pull over the
two last speakers, and, indeed, over most of those present.  "That was
the time poor Owens was drowned.  The river rose to within a foot of
where we are sitting now before it went down again."

"Who was Owens, and how was he drowned?" inquired Hicks, spotting an
episode.

"Who was Owens?" repeated the old man, placidly filling his pipe.  "A
fool; because he thought he was smarter than any of us, and thought he
could cross the river when we couldn't.  He went in on horseback.  The
river was running just as it was to-day, only not quite so deep.  He
went down, as a matter of course, before he was half-way through."

"Couldn't any of you help him?" asked Hicks.

The old fellow glanced up with a look of silent contempt for any one
capable of putting such a question.  Then he calmly struck a match and
lighted his pipe, and having done so he continued:

"The river was full of drift-wood, and we saw one big tree bearing down
upon Owens full swing.  We hollered out to warn him, but the water was
kicking up such a row that he couldn't hear, nor would it have helped
him much if he had.  Well, the tree came bang against him, entangling
him and the horse in the branches.  They rolled over and over; and tree,
and horse, and Owens disappeared.  We never saw him again, but the next
I heard of him was that his body had been found a week afterwards, when
the water had run off, sticking in the bed of the river, among the
drift-wood down Peddie way."

"Poor devil," exclaimed several of his auditors.

"No one but a fool would have gone into the river at all," concluded the
old man, sententiously, as he tossed off the remainder of his grog.

"I say, Thorman, we must be going," said Hicks.

"All right," replied that worthy, knocking the ashes out of his pipe and
rising to his feet.

"Oh, but you needn't be off yet," objected he addressed as Hallett.
"Stay here with us and make a night of it; you can go on in the
morning."

But Hicks was firm.  It was not for this he had risked his life.

"Awfully sorry, old man, but I must get back to-night."

"Hang it!  Well, then, have another drink--just an `off-setter,'"
persisted the other.  "No?  Well, then, good-bye.  If you're round my
way any time, mind you give us a look up.  We'll get up a buck hunt, and
some fun of some sort.  Ta, ta!  Take care of yourself.  But you're well
able to do that now, I should think."

They settled for their horses' forage, and going round to the stable,
saddled-up, and were soon on their way; the steeds, after a good feed
and a rub down, looking none the worse for their gallant efforts in
crossing the perilous flood.  And a carious sight was that which the
neighbourhood of the drift presented as they rode forth.  In every
direction waggons were outspanned, standing in rows of six or seven, or
in twos and threes, according to the number owned by or in charge of any
one man, but everywhere waggons.  A few were empty, but most of them
were loaded high up with wool-bales, sent from up-country stores to the
seaboard--or with hides, and horns, or other produce--for it was before
the days of railroads, and the carrying trade was abundant and thriving.
Their owners stood about in knots, watching the gathering flood; others
passed to and from the inn.  Some again sat stolidly by their fires
smoking their pipes as they waited for the pot to boil, while a cloud of
native servants--drivers and leaders--hung about the canteen or lolled
by the fires, the deep bass of the manly Kafir mingling with the shrill
chatter of Hottentots and Bastards [Note 1].  A kind of twilight had
come on prematurely, by reason of the lowering sky, and the red
watch-fires glowed forth, and the crowd of waggons, considerably over a
hundred, standing about, gave the place the appearance of a mining-camp,
or a commissariat train halted while on the march.  And every now and
then, more waggons would come lumbering over the rise, the cracking of
whips and the harsh yells of their drivers echoing through the heavy
air.

"Hi!  Here!  Where the hell are you coming to?  Can't you keep the right
side of the road, instead of the side of the bullocks, damn you?"

The voice proceeded from an unkempt and perspiring individual, in
flannel shirt and corduroy trousers, who, wielding his long whip, walked
beside a full span of sixteen oxen, the motive power of a mighty load of
wool-bales.  So insolent and aggressive was it in its tone, that even
good-natured Hicks, to whom the query was addressed, and than whom a
less quarrelsome fellow never lived, was moved to anger, and answered
the incensed transport-rider pretty much in the same strain.

"Oh, so you think I ought to get out of _your_ way, do you?" roared the
other.

"I think you might be civil, confound it all!" fumed Hicks.

"Suppose I ought to say `sir,' eh?" went on the other, in wrathful,
sneering tones.

"Oh, go to the devil," cried Hicks, fairly boiling over; "I've no time
to stay jawing here all night with you," he added, contemptuously,
making as if he would ride on.

"Haven't you?  Just get down; I'll soon show you who's the best hand at
jawing, and at hitting, too.  Come down here and try, if you're not a
blanked coward!" yelled the fellow.  He thought that the other was
afraid of him; but he reckoned without his host.

"Oh, that's your game, is it?" cried Hicks, springing to the ground, and
throwing off his mackintosh.  "Come on, I'm your Moses."  And he
advanced towards the irate transport-rider, looking him fall in the
eyes.

The fellow, who now saw that he had a tough customer to deal with, began
to repent of his hastiness, and would fain have backed out of the scrape
into which his insolent, overbearing temper had led him, but it was too
late to decline the contest, for several of his contemporaries,
attracted by the prospect of a row, had gathered round.  So he rushed at
his opponent, hitting out blindly, right and left.  But Hicks, who knew
something of "the art of self-defence," and was of sturdy, powerful
build besides, found no difficulty in parrying this unscientific attack.
Then with a well-planted "one--two," straight from the shoulder, he
landed his adversary in a heap on the slippery, trodden-down grass by
the roadside.

"He's down--give him law," cried one of the bystanders.  "Who is it?
What's it all about?"

"Dick Martin," answered another voice.  "He cheeked t'other fellow, or
t'other fellow cheeked him, it don't matter which; so they're having it
out.  Get up, Dick, and go in at him again."

But Dick manifested no such inclination.  He raised himself half up and
sat glowering stupidly around, as if dazed.  His nose was bleeding, and
a huge lump over his eye betokened pretty plainly that he would wake on
the morrow with that useful organ somewhat obscured.

"Never mind.  Get up and have another try, man," called out the last
speaker.

"He can't; he's had enough.  T'other's been one too many for him," said
some one else.  And he had.

Hicks, who was far too good-hearted a fellow to exult over a fallen foe,
however great the provocation received, said nothing.  He lingered a
moment to see if his adversary would show any sign of renewing battle,
and then began to mount his horse.  Just then a loud shout went up from
the water's edge about four hundred yards below them.  All turned.

"The bridge!  It's going!" cried some one.

The spot where they stood, being on an eminence, overlooked the river,
and they could see the strong ironwork of the parapet bend to the
ponderous mass of accumulated drift-wood heaped against it.  It
yielded--then snapped; and with a thunder-crash sounding loud above the
continuous roar of the flood, the vast obstruction of _debris_ bore it
down.  A huge wave reared its head many feet in the air, and fell with a
mighty hiss, covering the rushing surface with seething foam.  Then, the
obstruction removed, the mighty river hurled itself forward, its
horrible, many-tongued voices bellowing as if in savage joy at having
overthrown and defeated the works of human ingenuity.  All that could
now be seen of the once fine bridge was a few strands of twisted
ironwork clinging about what remained of the piers at each of its ends.

"Let's give the old bridge three cheers," cried one of the spectators.
"She's been a good friend to us, and now we shall be put about as we
were before for the want of her."

They did so; and a great shout went up from the outspan, echoing far
along the sides of the darkening hills, where the lowering rain-clouds
rested in an unbroken pall.  The bridge had been a good friend to them,
and now it was gone they would sorely feel the want of it for some time
to come, until another should replace it, which might not be for years.
So they cheered right heartily; but with a feeling of genuine regret.

Meanwhile, at Seringa Vale, everything was at a standstill.  The stock
was kept at home, and in the soaked kraals the sheep stood huddled
together, stolidly chewing the cad, and looking very forlorn in the
dripping rain.  But their owner's watchful eye was everywhere, as,
wrapped in a waterproof coat, he moved about, noting where it became
necessary to cut a channel for the drainage of a fast accumulating body
of water which threatened damage, and all hands would be turned out with
spade and pick for this and such like duty.  Even he was more than
satisfied with the rainfall this time, and now and then cast an anxious
look at the weather quarter.

"I don't think I ever saw the kloof so full as this before, and it's
still rising," he said.

"No?" answered Claverton, who was meditatively jerking a pebble or two
across the broad, surging rush of water in front of them.  "All the
rivers in the country must be tolerably well down.  Why, the bridges
will never stand."

"No, they won't.  If it goes on like this till morning there won't be a
bridge left in the country, that's my opinion.  There'll be a heap of
damage done besides.  Well, we can't do anything more now, and it's
getting dark," and they turned towards the house.

Very cosy and cheerful looked the interior of that domicile, as a few
minutes later, Claverton found his way thither, and got into dry
clothes.  No one was about--wait--yes--there was some one in the inner
room.  It was Lilian.  She had been reading, and was seated by the
window with her book open in her hand, just as the twilight and then the
darkness had surprised her.

"Trying to read in the dark?  Worst thing possible for the eyes," he
said.  "What have you been doing with yourself all day?"

She turned to him.

"Very much what you see me doing now--reading and--dreaming."

"The best possible occupation for a day like this.  I've been doing the
latter--dreaming," he said.

"You?  Why, you have been hard at work all day," said she.  "I've been
watching you walking about in the rain with a spade, and pitying you for
being so uncomfortable, while we were all sitting indoors, dry and
warm."

"Pitying me?"

"To any extent," she answered, looking up at him with a bright smile.

He bent over her.  "Yes, I was dreaming--of such a moment as this."

She did not answer.  Her eyes were fixed on the gloom without and the
soft falling rain.  Oh, the continuous drip, drip of that ceaseless rain
throughout this livelong day, turning the daylight into dusk, and
beating time in her heart to the echoes of the past!  And throughout it
all was a vague, indefinable longing for this man's presence.  The
enforced imprisonment in the house had been doubly irksome without him,
and at last she had been constrained to own it to herself.  Once she had
seen him coming towards the door, and all unconsciously had made ready
such a bright smile of welcome; but he had turned back, and the smile
had faded, and a chill, sickly feeling around her heart had taken its
place.  What right had she to feel thus, she thought?  In a few weeks
they would part as friends, acquaintances, nothing more, and then--well,
at any rate he knew the worst.  But now as he found her in the darkening
twilight, her heart gave a bound, and her voice assumed a dangerous
tenderness as she replied to him.

"The rain has been very cruel," he went on.  "I couldn't catch so much
as one stray glimpse throughout the whole afternoon.  If you are
blockaded indoors, you might look out of the window now and then."

"Why, I've done nothing else.  And you, did you get very wet?"  And
there is a little inflection as of anxiety in her voice as she raises
her eyes to his.

"Don't let's talk about me, but about a far more interesting subject--
yourself.  Haven't you been frightfully bored to-day?"

"Well, I have rather--at least, I mean, I oughtn't to say that, but one
gets rather low sometimes, you know, even without much cause, and I've
been so to-day," she answered, her tone relapsing into one of dejection,
and he, standing there beside her, began to feel deliriously happy,
though well knowing that it was for the moment.  But the gloaming was
about them, and they were alone together.  What more could he--could
they--want?

A light flashed from the other room; then a sound of voices.  It was not
exactly a blessing that Claverton gulped down, as some one was heard
calling:

"Lilian.  Are you there?  It's supper-time.  Why, what has become of
her?" added the voice, parenthetically.

Lilian started as if from a reverie.  "Here I am," and she rose hastily.
Claverton was not the only one who watched her as she came out into the
light, but the serene, beautiful face was as calm and unmoved as if she
had been in their midst all the time.

Very cheerful and homelike looked the lighted room, and the table with
its hissing tea-urn, and knives and forks and dish-covers sparkling on
the snowy cloth.  Very bright and exhilarating in contrast to the wet,
chill gloom without, and to those two, who had been at work in the rain
all day, especially so.

"The flood will do no end of damage," Mr Brathwaite was saying, as he
began to make play with the carving-knife.  "There'll be lots of stock
swept away, I fear, and the homesteads along the river banks stand a
good chance of following."

"That's cheerful, for their owners," remarked Claverton.  "I should
think old Garthorpe's place would be one of the first to go."

"Serve him right, I was nearly saying.  He doesn't deserve to own a good
farm like that--always preaching to the Kafirs instead of looking after
it."

"Is he a missionary?" asked Lilian.

"No.  He ought to be, though.  He's quite humbug enough."

"Tsh!" laughed Mrs Brathwaite.  "Lilian will think you a regular
heathen."

"Can't help it," retorted the old man.  "I know what I'm talking about,
which is more than everybody does who professes to give an opinion on
the subject.  Any grocer's boy, who in England would never get further
than a shop-counter, makes a fine good trade of it by coming out here to
`preach the Gospel' to the heathen.  It's less trouble and pays
infinitely better.  What is the consequence?  Kafirland is chock-full of
bumptious, uneducated, hypocritical scamps, who live on the fat of the
land, and are never happy unless meddling with what doesn't concern
them.  All the disturbances which crop up from time to time, are hatched
and fomented by these rascals.  Call themselves teachers, indeed!  What
do they teach their lambs?  To keep their hands off their neighbours'
property?  Not a bit of it.  And what missionary ever stuck to his post
when war did break out, I should like to know?  Not one.  They clear out
in time to save their own skins, never fear, and sneak off to befool the
British public, while we are defending our lives and property.  A set of
meddlesome, mischief-brewing, slander-mongering frauds.  They are the
curse of the colony."

On this congenial theme the old man continued to descant for some time.
Then the tread of horses was heard outside, and the arrival of Hicks and
Thorman created a diversion.

"So the bridge has gone," said Mr Brathwaite, dropping the missionary
question.  "I thought it would.  It should have been built ten feet
higher from the first.  This flood, though, is a flood, and no mistake.
I only remember one like it."

"Ha, ha?" laughed Thorman, who was quite in a genial mood.  "You should
have seen Hicks pitching into a transport-rider.  He doubled him up by
the roadside like a ninepin."

"And how would he double up a ninepin, Mr Thorman?" queried Ethel,
mischievously.

Meanwhile, Hicks looked sheepish.  "I couldn't help it," he said.  "The
fellow challenged me."

As predicted, the flood did an immense amount of damage.  Every bridge
was torn away by the force of the waters, as if it had been a bit of
stick.  Homesteads by the river-side flooded or swept away; gardens and
corn lands swamped and utterly laid waste; every runnel or golly washed
out as clean as a tube, the piles of drift-wood and rubbish, deposited
here and there on their banks, alone showing the height to which the
waters had risen.  And when in a few days the rain ceased, and it was
practicable to ascertain the fall extent of devastation--though even
then in parts of the _veldt_ it was impossible to ride with any safety
or comfort, for a horse would sink knee-deep in the spongy soil--the
land was noisome with the carcases of drowned animals, sheep and goats
lying by tens and by twenties rotting in the sun in roadway and golly.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1.  Hottentots with an admixture of white blood are thus known in
Colonial parlance.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

THE BUSHMAN'S CAVE.

Christmas has come and gone, bringing with it, contrary to expectation,
peace instead of a sword.  The dreaded outbreak, by some inexplicable
turn of events, has been averted, and instead of deluging the land in
blood, and scattering rain and desolation broadcast, the tribes are, in
their own expressive idiom, "sitting still," and the frontier is at
peace.

No one can tell exactly how this welcome turn in the tide of affairs
came about.  Whether it was that the different sections of the Amaxosa
race distrusted each other, suspicion being a leading trait in the
savage character, and were unable to coalesce; or that they deemed the
time not yet come when they could venture to strike a blow with any hope
of success; or whether the counsels of the peace-loving party in the
nation--the older men, who had everything to lose and nothing to gain by
war, and who, moreover, had learnt by sad experience of former
struggles, the futility of embarking in such undertakings--prevailed, no
one can say for certain.  Some contended that with the prospect of such
a thriving good season before them, the Kafirs could not afford to throw
it away, for the recent rains had made the land to blossom like a rose.
Anyhow, the natives were tilling their mealie gardens, and the more
well-to-do of them were laying out cash in the purchase of ploughs and
other agricultural implements, which certainly did not point in the
direction of hostilities.  Christmas was past, and once well over
Christmas without an outbreak, there was no fear of war this year, at
any rate.  So said the old frontiersmen, and they ought to know.
Anyhow, at that moment, the tribes within and beyond the colonial border
were more quiet and settled than they had been for some years past.
Stock-stealing had decreased with a rapidity bordering on the
miraculous, and daring outrages, which a month ago had been waxing
alarmingly common, were now absolutely unknown.

So peace reigned, and with it its twin blessing, plenty.  In the gardens
the trees groaned beneath their weighted branches; yellow apricots, with
a warm red flush through their golden skin as they turned lovingly
towards the sun; velvety peaches, rosy-cheeked and fragrant, dragged
down the branches, or lay scattered upon the earth in lavish profusion.
Up among the purple figs, the spreuws were having a rare good time, but
nobody grudged even those mischievous birds their share, for was there
not abundance for all?  And the long green pears hanging on the drooping
boughs, which swept as in a natural harbour round the wooden seat at the
foot of the tree, what a luscious refection they promised in two or
three weeks' time, when they should have felt a little more sun, to
those who would avail themselves of that cool, shady retreat!

In the fold, as in the lands, plenty reigned.  The flocks and herds were
fat and well-liking, for the grass was abundant and good; and,
strengthened by the sweet and nutritious pasturage, the animals remained
free alike from the ravages of disease or tick, and the better able to
stand against the attacks of those insidious foes, that they were in
excellent condition and likely so to remain; for, as if in compensation
for the widespread havoc it had wrought, the great flood, besides
washing away many impurities, both in noxious herb and insect, had
thoroughly permeated the long parched-up soil, softening it to a depth
of many feet.  It had done more than this, for it had broken up the long
continuation of settled drought; and periodical showers, soft and
penetrating, had fallen from time to time since, so that the land had
lost its brown, sun-baked aspect, and lay everywhere green and well
watered, luxuriously reposing in the rich, generous glow of the Southern
summer.

And now we shall transport the reader to a deep wooded valley, similar
to many of those already described, though it would be hard to find one
to equal it.  It is a romantic and beautiful spot.  At the upper end is
a deep pool, some thirty yards across, and pear-shaped.  Into this, when
there is a rush of water in the stream, falls a really magnificent
cascade; when there is not, well--there is the rock, perpendicular,
black and shining, a film of water silvering down it to plunge into the
pool beneath with a pleasant, cool tinkle.  As you stand facing the
cascade or its lofty wall of shining rock, on the left hand, starting
sheer out of the depths of the pool, is a mighty cliff, rising up in
rugged tiers or ledges--which afford root-hold to a profusion of mosses
and trailing plants, with here and there an aloe--to a height of two
hundred feet.  Just below the exit of the pool these natural terraces
all culminate in a jutting angle of the cliff, which protrudes, sharp
and awful in its unbroken perpendicularity.  On the right hand is also a
cliff, but it stands back, leaving a slope of forest trees and bush
between it and the water's edge.  The exit from the basin discloses a
lovely view--with the jutting cliff, above mentioned, as a foreground--
of the valley, whose wooded slopes, undulating in spurs, either
culminate in a precipice, or cleave the blue sky with a line of feathery
tree-tops.

But to-day there is not a rush of water in the stream above, though
there is enough to fall into the pool with a resounding plunge, and to
carry off a clear, sparkling stream at the pointed end of the
pear-shape.  The cascade is not in force; if it were, the merry party
gathered around its base would be constrained to put up with some less
inviting resting-place, for it would fill all the hollow with a cloud of
showery spray--thick, penetrating as rain.  The place is in an outlying
corner of Jim Brathwaite's farm, and, sure enough, there sits jovial Jim
himself, in a shady corner beneath the rock, his legs dangling over the
water, a pipe in his mouth, and in his hand a fishing-rod.  Other pipes
and other fishing-rods surround the water-hole, "the fool at the other
end" of each staring stolidly and apathetically at the water or watching
his float with a despairing eagerness begotten of hope deferred,
according to temperament.  But the fish are either replete and
satisfied, or cursed with the wiliness characteristic of their species,
for not a float shows any sign of agitation.  One rod, indeed, is
submerged even to the second joint, while its manipulator, George
Garrett--a stolid-looking youth of twenty-one--is occupied lying on his
back upon a ledge of rock blowing rings of tobacco smoke skyward, and no
one seems very keen on the sport.  A line of blue smoke, curling beneath
the cliff on the more open side of the pool, betokens "camp."

It may as well be stated that the gathering is nominally a fishing
picnic.  I say, nominally, for no one is idiotic enough to suppose for a
moment that the _fishing_ part of it will turn out aught but the veriest
farce, for the day is hot and cloudless, and the still depths of the
water are glassy and translucent.

"I say, but this is deuced exciting work," cried Jim, who had not had a
bite the whole morning, a misfortune wherein he was not alone.  "Let's
knock off."

"That's right, Jim, always fall back on my advice," said Ethel, who was
seated near him, likewise trying to fish.  "I suggested that an hour
ago."

"You?  I like that.  Why, it was you who said we didn't deserve our
dinner unless we caught it."

"Did I?  Well, I very soon recanted," laughed she, throwing down her rod
with a yawn.  "We are getting sleepy over this, and that's the
preliminary stage to getting quarrelsome, you know.  So let's go and see
what the others are about."

"W-wait a bit," stuttered Allen, eagerly.  "I've got a bite."

He had.  Suddenly, after one or two violent bobs, his float
disappeared--down, down--far into the depths.

"Hallo, Allen, you've got a whale on there, at least," cried Jim.  "Hold
on to him and be ready to cut the line before he lugs you in."

Allen's hands trembled with excitement, and he could hardly work his
tackle for fear of losing the prize, as he felt the series of jerks and
tugs as if something powerful was kicking at the end.  At last he
succeeded in bringing it to the surface.  It was a huge eel.

But the next thing was to land his capture.  For Allen, with infinite
difficulty, had succeeded in making his way round the rock-bound sides
of the pool to a narrow ledge, whereon he now stood.  There was just
standing-room, but only just, and the eel, as it leaped and squirmed on
the narrow ledge, soon made it evident that there was not room for
itself and its captor too.  Once it fell back into the water and Allen,
losing his balance, nearly followed; but the tackle was good and he
succeeded in landing it again.  Finally he managed to get his heel upon
it and end its writhings by a process of semi-decapitation, but, oh,
Heavens!  His jack-boots on which he had that morning bestowed an extra
amount of care and blacking, were profusely defiled by contact with the
slimy reptile as it twisted over them in its death-throes, leaving
trails and trails of slime upon their polished surface.

"I say, Allen, you'll be wanting to catch another eel after that, I
should think," cried Jim, while Ethel, whom Allen's silent expression of
hopeless woe had convulsed, was nearly choking in her efforts to stifle
her laughter.

It became necessary to rive a line through the eel and haul it across
the water, as all its captor's efforts were needed to ensure himself a
safe return along the slippery face of the cliff.  But he was downcast
and subdued, and the good-natured chaff that fell to his lot as the only
successful angler, was bitter to him.

"Well, Jim," said his father, as the fishing contingent returned to the
halting-place.  "Caught anything?"

"No.  At least Allen has.  Caught enough for the lot of us put together.
A regular young python.  Look here," and he produced the eel.

"My! that is a big 'un," cried old Garrett, who was sitting in the shade
with Mr Brathwaite, and talking over old times.  "I say, you're a lucky
feller, Allen.  We ought to 'ave a drop o' grog over this."

Mr Brathwaite's eye twinkled as he heard this characteristic remark,
and he turned to say something to Jim as a pretext for not hearing it.
He shrewdly suspected that his old friend and companion-in-arms would
have quite as much grog on board as he could carry before the day was
out, and he didn't want him to get "cumbersome" too early.  He had had
more than one "tot" already.

A dozen yards off, on the other side of the glade, talking to Mrs
Brathwaite, sat Lilian Strange; and the rich, sweet tones were well in
keeping with the languorous beauty of the spot as she now and then
raised her head from some crewel-work she had brought with her, to tell
some little joke to the old lady.  She was in cool white and looking
lovelier than ever, for the fresh, healthy air had acted with tonic
result, and she hardly knew herself, so thoroughly bracing had been its
effect upon her.  And she had been happy here, too--yes, happy; putting
both past and future resolutely away from her--and happiness and
contentment is a better restorative than all the tonics or bracing
climes in the world.

Claverton was away with the rest of the party, roaming about the kloof.
She had asked him, as a special favour, to go with them, not feeling
equal to a walk herself in the morning, as it was rather hot.  And she
must not monopolise him, she said, with a witching little smile.  He
must do his duty, and then, perhaps--no one knew what might happen in
the afternoon.  He had complied, as he took occasion to tell her, as he
would have complied with any wish of hers however difficult, and
irrespective of that veiled half-promise; to which latter, however, he
intended holding her, and lived in anticipation on the thought.  But it
must be admitted that his presence among the exploring party did not, on
the whole, constitute an adjunct of cheerfulness, though now and again,
by an effort, he would make them laugh.  And he persisted in piloting
them to places involving a toilsome climb, ostensibly to descant on the
view; but in his heart of hearts, hoping that the point of vantage would
command the camp--where haply his eye might catch the gleam of a white
dress against the foliage.  Whereby it is manifest that, other points in
his favour notwithstanding, Claverton was, after all, a consummate ass.

"Well, Miss Strange," cried Jim, "how do you like this sort of thing?
Has mother been taking care of you, or have you been taking care of her?
Why, you look as cool as if we were not in a sort of natural oven."

"I don't know about the oven," replied Lilian.  "I know that this is a
delightful place, and falling water always makes a current of air.  But
I do feel somewhat guilty, sitting lazily here while every one else is
on the move."

"_We've_ been taking it rather easy, too.  Fishing, you know, is
proverbially a lazy amusement."

"Is it?  Anyhow, I have been pitying all of you poor creatures broiling
in the sun, looking at the water."

"Ho, ho!  Broiling in the sun?" laughed Jim.  "Why, you should just have
seen that fellow George, for instance, lying on his back in the shadiest
corner of the place, blowing clouds, and his rod nearly at the bottom of
the water?"

The youth named grinned shyly and looked sheepish.

"How about going to look after the others?" suggested Jim, ever
energetic and anxious to be moving.  "Do you feel inclined to venture,
Miss Strange, or would you rather stay here?"

Now the fact was, Lilian had become a little tired of sitting still, and
the proposal was rather a welcome one.  She would fain have strolled
away under the cool shade of the trees, but she had resisted her lover's
longing entreaty to make one of the former party, on the ground of
wishing to rest, and now he would come back and find her away with Jim
and the others, and perhaps be hurt.  No; he should not.  If she could
not give him all he asked--namely, herself--at any rate she would show
an unselfish regard for his feelings in everything else.  It was a poor
consolation, but this she could do, no matter what it cost herself; and
this was only one out of a hundred little instances of the kind, all of
which Claverton had seen, and, seeing, could have worshipped her.  And
yet, would it not make their parting a hundredfold more bitter when it
came?

So unhesitatingly she answered: "I think I'll stop here just at
present."

"That's right, Lilian," said Mrs Brathwaite.  "I'm sure you oughtn't to
go scrambling about all day.  It'll be much better for you to wait till
this afternoon, dear, when it's a little cooler."

"Well, I shall go," cried Jim.  "Come along, you fellows.  Ethel, you'll
come?"

"No, I won't."

"What?  Well, I didn't think you'd be so lazy!"

"Thank you, Mr Brathwaite," said Lilian, with a quiet little laugh.
"That's one at me."

"Oh, no; really not.  It's different with you, you see, and--and--Hang
it!  I'd better clear out of this; it's getting too warm for me," cried
Jim, in mock helplessness.

"Well, I think you had," laughed his mother.  And he and young Garrett
wandered off.

Soon the ramblers began to drop in, hot and tired, but in high spirits.
Luncheon was ready laid out.

"Oh, Ethel, you ought to have come with us!  It's lovely down there!"
cried Gertie Wray, who, with Armitage, was the first to arrive.

"Yes?  What _have_ you been doing to yourself?"

Following the direction of her glance, Gertie put both hands to her hat.
Her mischief-loving cavalier had amused himself by sticking the ends of
several pieces of long grass into it, and these were standing out a yard
above her head, nodding like plumes.  There was a laugh at her expense.

"Oh, you horrid tease!" she cried, crushing them up and throwing them at
him.

"What?  Why, 'pon my word it wasn't me!  I didn't do it; it was
Claverton."

"Was it?" repeated she, indignantly.  "It was you.  Mr Claverton never
plays practical jokes, and you--"

"Oh!--h'm!--ah!  I say--awfully sorry!  Didn't know, really--have put my
foot in it--must be more careful," cried the mischievous dog, in tones
of mock consternation.

"You're a perfect horror!" cried Gertie, laughing, and blushing
furiously.  "I declare I'll never speak to you again?"

"And was that Claverton, too?" tranquilly asked the owner of the
patronymic in question.  For Jessie Garrett, who had also been with
Armitage and Gertie, now arrived on the scene--having lingered behind a
little--similarly adorned.

"What a mischievous fellow he is!" cried Jim's wife, who had just come
up.  "We ought to make him go without his dinner."

"Or duck him--he deserves ducking," put in Jessie Garrett.  "Mr
Claverton; can't some of you duck him?"

"Too hot for any such violent exertion," replied Claverton,
nonchalantly, as he turned away, and sat down on the ground by the side
of Lilian Strange, while old Garrett was heard to remark that "young
fellers would 'ave their fun."

"Do you know, I'm a shocking bad waiter," he observed.  "I invariably
upset everything--cut over a wing of chicken into somebody's lap, or
pour a tumbler full of liquid down their back, or shoot some one
opposite bang in the eye with a soda-water cork."

"But to-day you won't do any of these things," laughed Lilian.  "And you
seem to have taken care of me pretty well."

"Have I?  As a rule, on these occasions, I skulk in the background, and
pretend not to know that people have begun to feed.  Then, when they are
well under weigh, some motherly soul spots me, and makes a descent upon
me, singing out: `Why, I declare, you haven't got anything.  Do come and
have some of this and of that, and so on;' and I find myself looked
after as if I was the prodigal calf--prodigal son.  I mean--same thing.
Thus the public back is saved from a baptism of soda-water, and I from
making an ass of myself, and every one's happy."

"Don't be so utterly absurd," said Lilian, laughing as if she could
never stop.

"Here, I say, what's the joke over there, Claverton?" cried Armitage.
"Roll it down this end."

"I was only telling Miss Strange about you tumbling into the puddle
yonder, Jack," answered he.

"Did he?  When?  How?  Do tell us, Mr Claverton," cried Gertie Wray.

"Oh, hang it, that's not fair," growled he most concerned.

"Well, he and Hicks went fishing here one Sunday.  They were told that
only naughty little boys went fishing on Sunday; but anyhow they went,
and so were bound to come to grief, and come to grief they did--at least
one of them did.  The other was spared that he might take warning by it.
Friend Jack, finding it slow, I suppose, lay down on that first flat
rock and went to sleep, and--_presto_!--he found himself floundering in
deep water."

"You weren't there," retorted Jack.

"_No_; else you would not have been here to-day, for I should have
deserved well of the State by leaving you in the deep.  But the story
goes that Hicks was so immensely tickled by the circumstance as to be
unable for some time to render any help to poor Jack, who in consequence
was nearly drowned, for the rock is perpendicular, and high out of the
water, as you see.  My impression is, that Hicks, likewise, wae in the
land of Nod; but if so, no historian was present to record the fact."

There was a laugh all round at Armitage's expense, and amid the clatter
of knives and forks, and the popping of corks, conversation and chaff
waxed high.

"By the way, did any one go up to the cave?" asked Mr Brathwaite,
suddenly.

"No, I think not," replied Hicks.  While others inquired: "What cave?"

"Why, the cave up yonder.  It's a regular Bushman's cave.  A lot of them
used to live there; but the Dutchmen, who owned the place just below,
polished off the last of them.  That was during the '46 war.  Some of
their bones are there still, I believe; but it's a long time since I've
been into it."

"That sounds interesting, but rather ghastly," said Lilian.  "But why
were they killed?  Did they join the Kafirs in the war?"

"No.  The Kafirs hated them almost more than the Boers did.  But they're
mischievous little devils, you see.  One scratch of their poisoned
arrows, and it was all up with you."

"Where is the place?" asked Claverton.

"Just a little way down the bend, there," pointing to the jutting wall
of cliff.  "There's a path leading up to it--a sort of cattle track--you
ought to go and look at it.  And there are a lot of regular Bushman
drawings in the rock, which are rather curious things if you haven't
seen them before.  Take Miss Strange up to see them, she might like to
make sketches of them."

For Lilian was an adept in the art of water-colour drawing, and had
already portrayed much of the wild bush scenery in the neighbourhood,
which had never before been reduced to paper.

"That would be so nice," she said.  "I've brought my drawing things with
me, too."

"Claverton, old feller," cried old Garrett.  "We 'aven't 'ad a glass
together all day; let's have one now."

"All right."

"That's it.  Better late than never.  'Ere's my respects," cried the old
chap, nodding; his rubicund countenance aglow with geniality--and grog.
"I suppose, Miss Strange," he went on, turning to Lilian, "you'd never
'ave thought we could get up such a pleasant little picnic in these
out-of-the-way parts, would you?"

"Well, yes, I think I should, Mr Garrett," she replied.

"Aha, yes.  I dare say 'e's bin putting you up to the ropes," went on
the old fellow, leering and winking at Claverton, and speaking in a tone
which he thought was the perfection of genial banter; but which made its
object wildly long to shy a bottle at his head.  Ordinarily he looked
upon old Garrett with a kind of amused contempt; but to be made the butt
of his muzzy jests, that was quite another thing.  So, completely
ignoring him, he drew Lilian's attention to an effect of light and shade
high above them on the cliff opposite.

"Now we'll make for the cave," he said, as, feeding operations over,
pipes began to appear.

"Yes.  I'll get my drawing things," answered Lilian, rising.

"Are you going up to the cave?" said Miss Smithson, a pretty,
fair-haired girl, who lived in the neighbourhood and whom they saw a
good deal of.  "That'll be delightful--I should so like to see it.  Mr
Gough, will you come, too; there are some beautiful ferns up there?"

Gough assented, while Claverton inwardly anathematised poor Lucy
Smithson, little thinking how unjustly, for she was really going out of
her way to render him a service.

The four started.  No one else seemed inclined to embark in the
undertaking, having had enough knocking about at present, they said; old
Garrett adding: "We old fogies don't feel up to climbing, so we'll just
sit and 'ave a nice comfortable chat and a smoke."

"And a big drink," added Claverton, cynically, to his companion.  "What
an infliction that old fool can become!"

"He is rather overpowering," assented Lilian.  "Who can the old fellow
have been?"

"A bricklayer, most likely, or a clodhopper of some sort.  These fellows
save a little coin, or make a lucky venture at the Diamond Fields, and
buy a farm, and then, there they are.  There's precious little class
distinction here."

"I suppose so.  But as the country gets more thickly settled, that'll
all come."

"Yes.  You see, in the old times when all these older men had to rough
it together, and were dependent on each other for mutual help and
defence, it was the smartest fellow who was made most of, irrespective
of social grade.  And these bricklayer chaps and journeymen were always
in request, and could not only command high wages at any time, but
didn't care what they did, so they made their pile quickly enough.  In a
few generations most of the class distinctions of the old country will
prevail here, as education and the importation of educated people grows.
As it is, the rising generation, if you notice, is better educated than
its parents, and in many instances undisguisedly looks down on its
grandparents."

"Yes, I've noticed that," said Lilian.  "And my predilection generally
lies with the old people, who, if somewhat uncultured, are kindness
itself."

"And their very roughness makes them the fittest people to open up a new
colony," went on Claverton.  "Now look at that scowling fellow
Jeffreys--how weary I am of his eternal scowl, by the way.  Well, his
grandfather would hardly have been taken on as valet to Mr Brathwaite's
father in the old country, and yet here the Jeffreys mix with us as
equals, and are among the most well-to-do people anywhere about.  Isn't
this shade delightful?"

For they were walking beneath a growth of massive yellow-wood trees,
whose great twisted limbs overhead shut out the sunlight, though here
and there it struggled through and lay in a golden network on the
ground.  Masses of lichen festooned from trunk and bough, and monkey
ropes and trailers of every description hung here straight and
cord-like, there tangled together in the most hopeless confusion.  A
gloom lay beneath the shadowing trees, but it was the softened gloom of
a cathedral aisle; and the column-like trunks, firm and massive, stood
in rows along the coarse of the stream which bubbled along--now in
little clear pools, now brawling over a stony shallow.

"Yes, perfectly sweet," answered Lilian.

"Then, like all things to which that description applies, it isn't to
last, for here we turn upward."

A ragged track, half path, half water-course, diverged from the stream,
leading up the bush-covered hillside, steep as a flight of steps.

"Wait a minute," called out Lucy Smithson, who was overtaking them.  "I
don't think I'll go up after all.  It's turned out so hot, and here we
leave the shade.  Do you mind, Mr Gough?" she added to her companion.
"But don't let me keep you from going, I can easily go back alone.  It
isn't far."

This was out of the question, and she knew it.  The fact being that the
whole move was a little ruse on her part with the object of befriending
Claverton and Lilian, in a way covering their retreat, so as not to make
it quite so conspicuous.  Who knew, thought the good-natured girl, but
that this very afternoon might decide the future of those two?  So she
had laid her little plan.

Gough, who had his own reasons for wanting to rejoin the others,
professed that turning back was the very course he should have thought
advisable, so with a conventional word or two of regret, they separated.

"Now one can breathe again," exclaimed Claverton, in a tone of relief.

"I don't know," laughed his companion; "climbing a flight of very steep
steps is likely to put one out of breath.  And it's awfully steep here."

"It is rather," he answered, taking her arm to help her up the rough
bush path, which was, in truth, like a flight of stairs.  "But you'll go
wild with delight when we get to the top, I expect.  It's just one of
those views you revel in.  And," he added, tenderly, "this is the first
time I have had you all to myself to-day."

"I thought I should have ridden this morning," she said.

"Were you sorry you didn't?"

"They said it was too far for me to ride," she went on as if not hearing
his question.  Then, looking suddenly at him: "Yes, I was sorry; but--"

Claverton's heart gave a bound.  Was this anything to augur from, after
all?  No.  Lilian was not as most girls.

"But what?" he asked, eagerly.  "Nothing," and the expression of her
face was grave and troubled.

Of late she had been a prey to sad misgivings; at times she felt as if
she had been playing a deceitful and unworthy part.  She had let this
man go on thinking she was learning to care for him--for she was sure
that he did think so--knowing the while that she could never be anything
to him; and now the time of her stay was drawing very near its close,
and she must explain to him that the fact of having given him so much of
her society, and sought his confidence, and shown her unmistakable
esteem for him, was only her side to the compact which they had ratified
that evening under the stars, and that they must part as they had met--
strangers, or what to him would seem but little less cold--friends only.
Yet she had been very happy with him, happier even than she dared own
to herself.  And now she must explain all this, and what would he think
of her?  Would he hate her?  Would his powerful, all-in-all love change
to bitter contempt?  Ah! there lay the sting.  But, no!  She felt that
he was different somehow to other men.  He would understand perhaps, and
pity her, and even not withdraw his love.  She could not bear the
thought of losing that--and she was so lonely.  Yes; she would explain;
this very day, she had made up her mind as to that.  But when she tried
to begin she had stopped short, and when he would have had her continue,
had answered "Nothing."

Claverton did not urge her.  He respected her sudden reticence, as he
respected her every word, her lightest look.  He, too, had his own
thoughts to occupy him.  With the shadow of her approaching departure
lying upon his mind, deepening day by day as the time drew on, he was
fast relapsing into the state of restless despondency to which he had
been a prey before he tempted his fate so futilely.  The wave of
reckless happiness into which he had unquestioningly plunged, with
nearly two months of Lilian's society before him, had rolled on, leaving
him even worse than before.  He would cast the dice again; but,
instinctively, he felt that this time the throw would be fatal.  Should
he do it to-day?  The opportunity was a rarely favourable one.  But, no!
He would not mar the recollection of this one golden day, one of the
few last they would spend together.

So in silence they continued the ascent, every now and then pausing to
rest and look back.  At length the arching trees overhead gave way, and
a wall of rock rose in front.

"We are nearly there now," said Claverton, leading the way along beneath
the rock.  "This is our way."

"Oh, look!"

There was a rustle among the bushes, as a buck, which had been lying in
the sun at the base of the cliff, sprang up and plunged into the cover,
where they could hear it bounding away down the hill.

"How pretty!  I've never seen one so close before--at least, not alive,"
she went on.  "I could see its eyes quite plainly; but how it startled
me!" she added, with a laugh.

"All the unwonted eights that you do see are always when you are with
me," said Claverton, with a pleased smile.  "But here we are at last.
One more staircase, though."

They stood before a yawning fissure falling back so as to make a natural
staircase to the brow of the cliff.  Nearly a hundred feet above, queer
jagged pinnacles stood one above the other all up the sides of the
gully, at whose entrance rose a great perpendicular tower of rock, with
a huge boulder resting fantastically upon its summit.  A tiny thread of
water trickled down a well-worn channel, and from every cornice and
cranny trailed a profusion of the most delicate maiden-hair ferns.

Lilian was enchanted.  While pausing for a moment to rest, she dipped
her hands into some clear water gathered in its little stony basin.  In
the act of withdrawing them, a ring slipped from one of her fingers and
fell to the bottom of the water.  It was a curious ring, consisting of
two ropes of solid gold twisted together.  Her companion fished it out,
and, as he returned it to her, he noticed that she was deathly pale.
But he made no remark, only glanced in the opposite direction for a
moment, in order to give her time to recover her self-possession.  Yet
he connected the circumstance with her former lapses of hesitation and
restraint.  In silence they resumed their way, and at length gained a
wide ledge at the other end of which was the cave.  It seemed of some
depth, being wider and loftier at the month, narrowing thence into
darkness.

"Wait, let me go in first and explore," he went on, as a matter of
precaution holding ready in his pocket the small revolver which had been
his constant companion since Mopela's attempt on his life.  Then
striking a match he was about to advance.

"What's that?" exclaimed Lilian.  But he had seen it as soon as she had,
and placed himself in front of her.  It was a human skull, standing on a
ledge of rock about breast-high, and the eyeless sockets and white teeth
looked ghastly enough, grinning at them dimly through the darkness.  In
an instant he had laid hold of it and jerked it away out of the cave
down into the bush beneath.

"What was it?" she repeated.

"Only a stone.  A rolling one, like yours truly.  I don't suppose it has
stopped yet."

He was glad she had not seen the hideous thing, and lighting another
match he peered cautiously around, lest there should be a second skull.
There was, but it was lying on the ground with the face turned away from
them, and Lilian took it for a stone.  There would have been to her
something horribly ghastly in these grisly death's-heads, lying there in
that gloomy cavern, just faintly visible by the flickering light of the
match he carried.

"That's all right," he said, as they returned to the light.  "I didn't
much think we should find anything very terrific, but it's as well to
look.  Sometimes a snake takes up his quarters in a place like this."

"What's this?" cried she, as something crackled beneath her feet.

"Oh, some of those old bones the _Baas_ was telling us about.  I don't
suppose there's much left of them now, five-and-twenty years after."

Lilian shuddered slightly.

"Let's get into the air again," she said.  "This place is rather
awesome."

"Very well.  But look, here are the Bushman drawings."

The walls of the cavern were plentifully adorned with hieroglyphics--
rude figures of men and animals--worked into the smoother parts of the
rock with a kind of blue dye.  Here and there the surface had been
smoothed away to admit of the barbarous frescoes.

"They are very queer," said Lilian, "but candidly I am just a little
disappointed in them.  I thought they were much more artistically done."

"Yes, I always think people make more fuss about them than they are
worth.  They are sorry attempts after all."

"I think I shall make a sketch of the kloof, bringing in that great
jutting cliff.  What a pity it just hides the waterfall!" continued she.

He undid her basket and got out her drawing materials.  Then they
discovered that the little portable water-tin was empty.

"I'll get you some from down there in half a minute," he said, starting
to his feet.

"But--but--I don't quite like being left alone here," she said,
hesitatingly, casting an apprehensive look backward at the gloomy cave.

Claverton stopped.

"Then we must go together," he said.  "As far as the end of the ledge,
anyhow.  Then I shall have you in sight while I scramble down the
rocks."

"What a helpless creature I am!" she exclaimed, with a sad little smile.

"I wouldn't have you otherwise for all the world," replied he, tenderly;
and they started on their quest.  Swinging himself over the ledge he
filled the little vessel from the trickle of water in the gully, and was
with her again in a minute.

"Now," he went on, arranging a large flat stone as a seat for her, just
in the shade of the cavern's month.  "Now, you must make the most of the
time, and knock up an adequate representation of the scene, and I
believe I shall have the cheek to ask you to copy it again for me," and
he threw himself down on the rock beside her.

"Don't sit there in the sun," said she.  "And I shall tire you out,
keeping you tied here by the hour.  It would be much more amusing to you
to be away with the others."

Claverton indulged in a long, quiet laugh.  "That idea strikes me as
something too rich.  Tire me out!  When I have been longing the whole
day to be with you, and with you only and alone.  When I could sit here
for ever and ever only to be by your side and to see you and to hear the
music of your voice, darling.  I never want a better heaven than this--
than this one--here, at this moment," he went on, with a burst of
passionate abandonment as different from his ordinary self-control of
speech as the beautiful scene before them was from a Lincolnshire fen.

Lilian made no reply, but bent her head rather lower over her drawing,
and her fingers trembled ever so slightly.  Clouds of spreuws flitted
among the crags opposite, their shrill whistle echoing melodiously from
rock to rock.  Bright-eyed little conies sat up peering warily around
for a moment, and then scampering into their holes among the stones and
ledges; and a large bird of prey circled slowly overhead uttering a loud
rasping cry, then soared away over the valley.  Beneath, the forest lay
sleeping in the lustrous sunlight, and now and again from its cool
recess would be upborne the soft note of a hoopoe.

Lilian worked on, neither of them speaking much.  Claverton, for his
part, was content to lounge there, as he had said, for ever, so that
only he might watch that graceful white figure--bending over the
sketch-block--and the delicate patrician profile, the fringed eyelid
opening wide as she kept looking up from the paper to take in the scene.
The sound of his own voice had a tendency to break the charm, so he
kept silence.  And thus the time wore on, till at last the sketch was
finished, and Lilian, laying down the block to dry, rose to her feet.

"There," she said; "I think we must be going."

Her companion's countenance fell.  "Not yet.  Look.  You haven't filled
in that tuft of aloes on the krantz, and there's more shading wanted
here."

She laughed.  "I can fill that in at home.  And the shading's quite
right, really.  Do you know how long we have been here?"

"I know how long we haven't been here--half long enough."

"Two hours and a quarter.  We must really be going.  They'll be
wondering what has become of us."

"Really not.  They won't trouble their heads about us.  A little longer.
Heaven knows when I shall get you all to myself like this again," he
pleaded.  "And--Why, Lilian--darling--what is it?"  For she had suddenly
grown very white.

"You are tired," he went on.  "The heat and the climb have been too much
for you.  What a ruffian I was to have made you come!  But it's shady
and cool here, let's wait a little longer; the rest will do you good."

"No, I am not tired; but we will wait a little longer.  I--I have
something to say to you, and this is a good opportunity of saying it."

"Yes.  What is it?"

"Do you remember our compact?" she went on, with a sort of shiver, and
speaking in a dead, mechanical voice.  "Have you forgotten it--that
night by the water?  I had no right to bind you to such a one-sided
agreement.  It was not fair to you.  I only thought of myself, and it
was selfish of me--sinfully selfish--to ask you to consent to such a
thing."

"Selfish!  You selfish?  Well, what next?"

There was silence for a moment.  Before--beneath them lay the beautiful
valley, its abrupt slopes and iron-bound krantzes soft in the golden
sunshine.  A couple of crimson-winged louris flitted among the tree-tops
beneath, and the hum of insects floated up with a faint and far-away
sound.  Behind--above them yawned the gloomy cave, those whited relics
of primeval barbarism lying silent and ghastly on the shadowed floor,
the sole witnesses of this conflict of love in all its heart-wrung
hopelessness.  What a mocking irony of circumstances is that which has
caused such a scene in the drama of civilisation--civilisation in its
highest and most refined phase, to be enacted here in this savage spot,
where lie the dead bones of the most degraded of the human race.

"Yes, selfish.  I valued your society, your friendship, so much, I could
not bear to lose it.  I was afraid you would leave me, then and there;
and, oh!  I have never known what real chivalrous sympathy was till I
met you, and I have needed it so.  Yet I might have known what would be
the result of tasking you to the utmost of your strength--beyond it,
rather.  Well, our compact," she went on, in an altered voice, as if
nerving herself for an effort.  "You have not kept to it.  You must not
talk to me as you have been doing lately--to-day even.  You must not--"

She turned half away; she felt faint and sick at heart and dared not
look at him.  What would he say to her?  Suddenly something struck her
on the shoulder, just behind the neck.  The concussion was of the nature
of a blow, rather quick than violent.  She turned upon her companion,
lost in a kind of scared wonder.

He had sprang to his feet and was shaking something from his hand.  It
fell on the ground, and he stamped upon it and crushed it.

"What is that?" she asked, glancing from the ground to his face, which
was growing very white.

"Only entomology," he replied.  "Look at it."

A huge red scorpion lay on the ground, where he had trodden upon it.  It
died hard, however, and though half-crashed it lay writhing and darting
out its formidable sting in its rage.

"In half a second it would have been on your neck; it was going there as
fast as it could crawl when I picked it off," he said.

"Has it stung you?  Of course it has," she cried, her rich voice
vibrating with concern.  "Why, Arthur," she went on, all in a glow of
admiration; "do you mean to say that you snatched that dreadful creature
off me with your bare hand?"

It was the first time she had ever called him "Arthur," and for a moment
he almost forgot the furious pain of the sting.

"Just that.  I'd lay hold of the devil himself under far less
provocation, I assure you.  It was the only way of getting it off quick
enough.  By Jingo, it hurts, though.  Look away for a moment, I'm going
to slash it."

Opening his knife, which was keen and sharp as a razor, he drew its
blade across the wound in a couple of deep gashes.  The blood spurted
freely, and he ground his teeth in the convulsive anguish caused by the
venomous brute's sting, which seemed to go through his whole frame.
Then he applied his lips to the wound and sucked.

"Good thing it missed that large vein," he said.  For he had been just
in time to seize the creature and crush it up in his fingers, during
which process it had whipped up its tail and stung him twice just round
the back of the hand.  "Oh, I shall be all right, but we'd better get
back.  The Baas sometimes carries a bottle of Croft's Tincture.  That'll
put it right in no time," continued he, with rather a ghastly smile.
For the sting of a scorpion is terribly painful; indeed, unless a remedy
is at hand the sufferer will undergo the most acute agony.  The sting of
the Apocalyptical locusts has been well compared.

"Yes, yes.  Let us be going," she said, hurriedly.  "Is it dreadfully
painful?"

"I hardly feel it when I look into your eyes, darling.  And your very
voice has a soothing effect."

She had just been taking him to task for talking to her in this strain,
regardless of their compact, but how could she upbraid him now--when he
was in this terrible pain--and all for her?  Suddenly he reeled giddily,
and his face became even more livid; and the perspiration stood in beads
upon his forehead.  An awful fear gripped her heart.  All the grim
stories she had heard of deaths from stings and snakebites crowded up.
If this were to prove fatal and he were to die at her feet, having laid
down his life for her!  At this moment she knew her own heart if she had
never done so before.  Further self-disguise was useless.  This incident
had swept away the veil.

"Ah, why did you do it?" cried she, in tones of thrilling anguish.  "I
would sooner it had stung me a hundred times!  You can hardly walk!
Lean on me.  See!  I am not such a weak support, after all."

She had passed her arm through his, and, for the moment, felt as strong
and determined as even he could have been.  All thoughts of prudence and
conventionality were scattered to the winds in her awful apprehension.
He was suffering horribly--it might be, even, that his life was in
danger.

"Why, how childishly weak I am!" said he, with another forced smile.
"The thing can't hurt so much, after all; hang it, it can't!"

But it did.  There was no getting rid of that fact, try as he might to
ignore it.  Thus they made their way back.

"Look, now, I mustn't make a crutch of you any more.  We shall be coming
upon the others directly," said Claverton, as they drew near to the
halting-place.

"I don't care if we do," she replied, fearlessly.

"But I care; and I'm not going to let you do what you might regret
afterwards," rejoined he, sadly, remembering the burden of their
conversation at the time of the occurrence.

"Ah, why did you do it?" she repeated.  And by that time they were in
sight and earshot of the rest of the party.

"Hallo, Arthur!  What's up?" asked Mr Brathwaite, noticing his unwonted
aspect.

"Nothing much; only a sting.  Got any Croft's Tincture?"

"Is it a snake?" inquired the old man, with more alarm in his voice than
he intended to betray.

"No; a scorpion."

The while Mr Brathwaite had been uncorking a small bottle.  "Lucky I
didn't change my coat at the last moment this morning.  I was as nearly
as possible doing so, and this would have been left behind if I had,
sure as fate.  Now, let's have a look at it."

An infusion of the healing fluid was applied, and soon the sufferer
began to feel perceptibly relieved.  The throbbing became less violent,
and, although much swollen already, the hand grew no larger.  Old
Garrett stood by, watching the doctoring process, lecturing the while,
his theme the deterioration from its ancestry of the rising generation.

"There," he was saying, "I'll be bound that none of you young fellers
'ave any of that stuff with you--and what would you 'ave done without
it?  We old stagers is always ready for any emergence," (his auditors
presumed he meant emergency)--"always ready.  All there, sir; all
there?"

"Have you got any of it yourself?" asked the patient, catting him short.

"'Ave I?  Well, let's see.  No, I 'aven't to-day, but I generally 'ave."

"Oh!" said the patient, significantly.

"There, you'll do now," said Mr Brathwaite, tying up the hand with a
handkerchief.  "It'll hurt a little for a time, but the swelling will
soon go down.  But how did it happen?"

"The scorpion was on my shoulder, and Mr Claverton snatched it off with
his bare hand," answered Lilian, quickly, in her clear tones.

"Awkwardly enough, too, as the result shows," rejoined Claverton.  "By
the way, has Hicks slain anything?  We heard him cannonading away down
the kloof like the Siege of Paris."  He said this with the object of
changing the topic, and the statement was not strictly historical in
every particular.

"Ha, ha!" laughed Mr Brathwaite.  "Hicks banging away, as usual.  He
never will move without his gun.  One thing, though, if he isn't
dangerous to beast, he isn't to man either.  He's always careful
enough."

"I've sent for the horses," said Jim, who had just come up.  "Hallo,
Claverton!  What's the row with your hand?"

Then the story was raked up afresh, and all eyes were turned upon its
hero, which he hated, and looked around seeking a means of escape, when,
to his intense relief, a diversion occurred, in the shape of Hicks and
Allen dragging between them a huge bushbuck ram, which the former had
shot.

"Hicks to the fore.  Hooray!" cried Armitage.  "How much salt did you
lodge on its tail, old man?"

"Go to Bath, Jack.  You're not the only fellow in the world who ever
shot anything," retorted Hicks, who was hot and testy.  Then there was a
general laugh, and at length the jollity was cut short by the inexorable
hand of Time.  The vehicles were in-spanned, for they must needs depart.
Those who were to ride were busy saddling up, and at length farewells
having been exchanged, all started on their respective ways, some
riding, some driving.  Armitage declared that the last thing he saw of
old Garrett was that worthy balancing himself in his trap trying to draw
a cork, while his hopeful held the reins; but no one knew whether to
believe the statement or not.  One thing, however, presumption was all
in favour of its veracity, so they gave the old toper the benefit of the
doubt--in the wrong direction.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

"SUNSHINE OUTSIDE--ICE AT THE CORE."

"After all, this is a glorious sort of life!" exclaimed Hicks, striking
his hatchet into a thorn-stump and standing upright, in all the elation
of his health and strength, to gaze at the sun--now rather more than an
hour high--and then at the surrounding _veldt_, all dewy and sparkling.

"It is," assented his companion, making a final chop at a thorn-bush
which he had cut down.  "Here, Tambusa, lay hold of that `tack' and bang
it up against the others.  There.  The devil himself would yell if
chucked against that hedge now."

For they were repairing sundry breaches in the fence of the wet-weather
kraal.

Tambusa obeyed; but in the act of doing so stumbled, and, trying to save
himself, sat right on the most thorny end of the branch he was
manipulating.

"I never did see such a nigger for blundering," laughed Claverton, as
Tambusa, picking himself up, endeavoured to extract the sharp mimosa
spikes which had stuck in his naked carcase.  "Hang it, man; you had the
whole district for as far round as you can see to sit down in, and yet
you pick out such a seat as that."

The Kafir grinned dolefully, not much relishing this keen jest; but he
liked its propounder, and so he grinned.

"Yes.  It's a glorious life," continued Hicks, bent on philosophising,
apparently.  "One never feels off one's chump.  Suits a fellow down to
the ground."

"It does," acquiesced the other.  "By the way, I hear the Brathwaite
girls are going away next week."

"Eh!--what?  No.  Who told you that?" cried Hicks, turning sharply.

"Oh! didn't you know?  My informant was Ethel herself.  I thought you
knew."

Hicks looked "off his chump" enough now, to use his own expression, and
his companion's satirical soul discovered something irresistibly comic
in this sudden transition from elation to crestfallenness, which would
have amused him vastly, but that the laugh was not entirely on his own
side.  So he only repeated: "I made sure you knew."

"No, I didn't.  But, I say, though, that's a blue look out.  I don't
know how we shall get on without them, it'll be slow as slow can be,"
and then, remembering that his companion might have good reasons for not
agreeing with this latter statement, Hicks stopped short, and began
blundering out something about "it making all the difference, you know,
having a lot of people in the house--or only a few."

"Let's knock off," suggested Claverton.  "We're about done here.
Tambusa, lug along those `tacks,' we'll bang them up somewhere and go."

It was a couple of days after the fishing picnic, and just each a
morning.  There had been plenty of work of one kind or another to occupy
the whole of the time since then; but to-day they would only ride round
the place, and give an eye to the stock, picking up, perchance, a stray
shot or two on the way.

"Arthur," said Mr Brathwaite, meeting the two young men on the _stoep_.
"Driscoll's just sent over to say he can take you down to see that
place of his to-day.  I advise you to ride over there and go with him.
It's a good place, and going for a mere song.  I'd think twice, if I
were you, before letting it slip."

"You're right; I'll go over and see it.  But could you come too, and
give me the benefit of your experience?"

"I can't to-day, I'm afraid.  It's a long way, and I don't feel up to
it.  Still, you have a good eye to the capabilities of a place, I should
say.  Anyhow, go and look at it."

On second thoughts, Claverton was rather glad.  He would be more the
master of his own movements if alone, and would be able to return as
soon as possible, whereas, at the ordinary regulation speed, the
undertaking would carry him through the whole day.

"Have you far to go?" asked Lilian, as after breakfast he sat buckling
on his spurs in the passage.

"Yes; it's a good way.  I may not be back till nearly dark," he
answered, ruefully, taking down his riding-crop from the peg.  "But
to-day I'm going to imagine myself riding another fellow's horse with my
own spurs.  I may as well be off, there's that little chatterbox,
Gertie, bearing down upon us.  Good-bye."

He mounted and rode off in a very discontented frame of mind.  What did
he care if any one made him a present of the whole continent of Africa,
if he were not to win _her_?  The days were so precious and so few now,
and here he was throwing away a whole one for the sake of a wretched
"bargain."  He wouldn't go--he would let the thing slide--he would turn
back.  And his face, as he rode, wore an aspect of troubled
preoccupation.

Turning from the door, Lilian encountered Gertie Wray in the passage.

"Oh, there you are, Lilian," exclaimed that volatile young lady.  "I was
just coming to look for you.  Do come and teach me that lovely song you
promised to, last night.  We shall have it all to ourselves.  Ethel and
Laura are fixed for the morning with Mrs Brathwaite, making dresses or
something."

"Very well, dear," assented Lilian, always ready to oblige others.  She
was not feeling inclined just then to sit hammering out accompaniments
for a not very apt learner to murder a song to; but self came second
with her.  So she did her best to instil the desired accompaniment into
the other's understanding; but in about half an hour her pupil got tired
of it.

"I think I shall sit indoors and read," said Gertie.  "It's too hot to
go out."

"Is it?  I like the heat," said Lilian.  "I think I shall go for one of
what you call my `somnambulisms.'"

"And a very good name for them," laughed the other.  "To see you walking
along, so still and stately, any one would think you were walking in
your sleep, but that your eyes are open.  Well, go for your
`somnambulism,' my peerless Lilian, only don't get too much in the sun
or you'll get freckles," and the speaker nestled down comfortably in a
chair in a cool corner to while away the morning over a novel.

"You silly child," replied Lilian, laughing as she bent down to kiss
her.  "You'll be asleep yourself, really and in good effect, in about
half an hour at that rate.  Good-bye."

She went out, and paused for a moment on the _stoep_ with head
gracefully poised and the beautiful figure erect as she stood gazing,
with eyes opened wide, upon the glories of the sun-steeped landscape.
Then she picked up a volume which lay on a chair under the verandah.

"I'll sit and read a little on that comfortable old seat under the large
pear-tree when I'm tired," she thought, and, with the book in her hand,
she passed on, down between the orange-trees, and out through the gate
in the wooden fence, where the great scarlet-cactus blossoms twined in
all their prismatic gorgeousness.  Now and then she would stop and bend
down to pick a wild flower or to examine some queer insect, and the warm
glow of the summer morning seemed to favour her scheme of solitude and
meditation.  It was hot, but she loved the warmth, there was nothing of
enervation in it to her; on the contrary, her thoughts and intellect
never had clearer or freer play than on a day like this.

Dreamily and in meditative mood, Lilian wandered on; along the wall of
the mealie-land, where the tall stalks spread their broad, drooping
leaves, and many a white tufted ear, just bursting through its vernal
husk, gave promise of an abundant crop; past the dam, where she lingered
a moment to mark the clear shadows in its burning waters now cleft into
ripples as, one by one, the mud-turtles, who had been basking on the
bank, shuffled their slimy, flat shapes in with an ungainly slide; then
by the ostrich camp, whose fierce occupant lazily ambled towards the
wall, and then stopped half-way as if changing his mind.  Dreamily still
she leaned, looking over the wall, her taper fingers gathering together
little fragments of stone, which, hardly knowing what she did, she threw
into the enclosure, as if enticing the bird to approach.  Then turning
to pursue her way, behold, a high quince hedge barred it.

"How tiresome!" she said to herself.  "I shall have to go such a long
way round."

But she had not.  A friendly gap opened a few yards further down, and,
passing through it, she found herself in a wild, seldom visited part of
the garden.  Here tangled grass flourished in delightful confusion; and
tall fig-trees, branching overhead, cast the sunlight in a network upon
the shadowy ground, while among the topmost boughs a few spreuws lazily
piped to each other as they revelled in the purple fruit.  Then an open
bit and sunshine, and the boughs of a large peach-tree swept nearly to
the earth, as though to lay its load at her feet.  She plucked off one
of the peaches, and pressed its blushing, velvety skin against her own
soft cheek.

"It seems almost a pity to eat such lovely fruit," she murmured.  "They
look so smooth and delicate."

Still turning over the peach in her hands, she swept aside the long
drooping boughs of a great espalier.  A rustic seat was fixed to the
trunk, forming a shady nook--though sun-pierced here and there in a
qualified degree--and on this she sat down.  The surrounding branches
falling around, shut in the spot as if it were a tent.

"It is delicious here, after that glare.  I wonder who made this seat,"
mused Lilian, throwing off her hat and preparing to discuss her peach
and otherwise enjoy to the full the glories of the golden noontide.
Mechanically she opened the book she had caught up as she came out; but
without attempting to read.  The call of birds echoed through the leafy
arches; bees droned in subdued murmur; now and again a tree-cricket
broke the quietude with a shrill screech; the air, though not close or
sultry, was rich and warm and languorous, and presently Lilian's
thoughts began to get confused; her eyes closed; then the book slid from
her lap.  The influences of the prevailing calm had conquered--she
slept.

And what a picture she made, reclining against the rough, twisted arm of
the old rustic seat, one hand supporting the graceful head, and the
delicate oval face, with its refined beauty of feature!  The long lashes
lay in a dark fringe upon each smooth cheek, which, lovingly kissed by
the warm, generous air, was tinged with a faint but inexpressibly
charming flush.  The sweet, red lips were closed, but without a trace of
hardness in their tender curves; and the whole attitude one of ease,
abandonment, and yet of infinite grace in its every contour.  A figure
thoroughly in harmony with the place, clime, and hour.  A lovely picture
indeed.

So thought its only spectator, as, with a rapturous yearning pain at his
heart, he noiselessly moved aside the trailing boughs and stepped within
their shade.  He would not disturb the spell, but stood gazing entranced
upon the slumbering form in all its wealth of refinement of beauty.

A large pear fell to the ground with a dull thud.  Lilian stirred
uneasily, then half rose, letting fall the hand she had been leaning
upon.  It was seized in a firm grasp by two other hands, and in tones
wherein earnest tenderness struggled with a gleeful laugh, a voice
whispered:

"One doesn't wear gloves on the frontier, or what a chance of being set
up in them for life!"

The long lashes unclosed, and she started ever so slightly.  It was too
much.  The hot blood rushed through Claverton's veins as though it were
molten liquid, and lifting her from the seat, he pressed her to him,
raining down warm, passionate kisses upon her lips, forehead, eyes, and
the soft dark hair which lay against his cheek, whispering wild,
delirious words of love and entreaty.  Then he felt ashamed of his
fierce impulsiveness--his brutality as it seemed, in taking her at a
disadvantage.  Was she angry or humiliated, or both?  She made no
resistance as he held her there.  Or had he about frightened her to
death?  Then he held her from him.

"You--here?" she cried, in astonishment; but there was no anger in her
tone, although a lovely blush suffused her face, even to the very roots
of her dark hair.  "I thought you were going to be away all day.  You
told me you would hardly get back before night."

"I thought better of it.  I couldn't remain away from you anything like
so long; wherefore I turned back.  That's the plain, unvarnished truth.
Am I not improving in veracity?"

"Oh!  I am hurting your hand!" she exclaimed, suddenly becoming aware
that her fingers had been leaning hardly on the place where the scorpion
had stung him.  No fault of hers, by the way, for she could not have
withdrawn them if she would.

"Say, rather, you are healing it.  Your touch would have more effect in
that line, with me, than that of a whole legion of Apostles," he
replied, still holding her.

"Hush!  You must not talk like that," said she, gently.  Then, referring
to the sting: "But I ought not to lecture you, when it was done for me.
Ah, why do you take such care of me?" she cried, in conclusion, and her
eyes were brimming.

"Why do--Oh, I do take care of you, then, do I?"

"Always.  If I want anything, you are sure to have it ready.  If ever I
have a misgiving about anything, you are sure to be there to dispel it
and reassure me.  In fact, I can't walk a yard but you are spreading
metaphorical carpets before my feet.  And yet--Oh, Arthur, why did we
ever meet?"

She turned away from him, standing with hands clasped before her, and
her eyes fixed on the ground.

"Why did we ever meet?" he repeated, again drawing her to him and
bending down to whisper in her ear, a low, quick, passionate whisper.
"Because you and I were made for each other.  Because we were brought
together here, both of us, from the other side of the world on purpose
for each other.  Darling, that was the first thought that flashed
through me the very moment I saw you that first day.  All of me before
that, was a different self; I hardly recognise it, now.  You remember
that night by the water--it was the hardest blow I ever had, that that
little hand dealt me.  But I wouldn't take it as final, I wouldn't give
it up, and now I've served my apprenticeship fairly well, haven't I?
What you've just said tells me that, even if nothing else did."

There was a frightened, despairing look in her eyes; her lips moved as
if she were trying to speak, but the words would not come, and she made
as if she would draw away from him.

"Lilian--sweetest--life of my life!  Don't look so frightened, darling,"
he cried, in a tone of thrilling tenderness.  "Remember what you have
just told me, and for God's sake don't look so frightened.  Tell me now
that you are going to give me the care of your whole life--your sweet,
love-diffusing life.  Tell me this: Haven't I fairly established a claim
to it?  Look at the sunshine around.  That shall be an earnest of your
life, if you give it to me.  My darling--my more than Heaven--only say
you will."

He paused, hanging breathlessly on the reply.  Again she struggled to
speak.  The tension was fearful.  Would she faint or die?  Then he bent
his ear yet lower to catch two words hoarsely whispered:

"I--cannot!"

And then again the black bolt of despair shot through Claverton's heart.
This was the last throw of the dice, the last chance, and he felt it
was.  Hitherto he had been almost confident in his hopefulness, now the
cup was dashed to the ground.  Thus they stood for a space, neither
speaking.  To Lilian it seemed as if the hour of her death had come, and
with her own hand she must drive home the weapon--down, down to her very
heart.  The stray sunbeams crept along the ground beneath the old
pear-tree, insects hummed, and a bird twittered in the radiant light
without, and all told of calm and peace, and the very air seemed like a
glow from Heaven.  With that mysterious instinct which stamps upon the
mind the veriest trifles at the time of some momentous crisis, she
marked the efforts of two large black ants who were carrying the dead
body of a cricket up the trunk of the tree; and to the end of her days
she would remember the persevering attempts of the laborious insects as
they dragged their burden, regardless of check or stumble, over the
rough bark of the old espalier.  It seemed to her that hours had passed
instead of moments.  Then he spoke, but his voice had lost its
confident, hopeful ring.  "Don't say that.  Say you can, and you will!"
She tried to lift her head, to speak firmly, but the attempt was a
failure.

"I cannot," she repeated.  "Forget me--hate me, if you will," and she
shuddered; but he clasped her closer to him.  "I can be nothing to you.
I am bound--tied--bound firmly.  Nothing can release me--nothing!"

A look so stony and awful came into Claverton's face that, had she seen
it, she would inevitably have fainted away then and there.

"Oh, Lilian!  It can't be--that you are--that--you are--married?" he
gasped, and his brow was livid as he hang upon her answer.

"No," she replied, "I am not--that," and again she shuddered.

For a moment the other did not speak, but his face would have made a
study passing curious as he analysed the position.  In the midst of the
shock his coolness seemed to have come back to him in a sudden and
dangerous degree.

"Listen, now, Lilian," he said.  "You are under a promise to some one--a
rash, hasty promise.  That much I might almost have seen for myself.  I
don't care whether it was made in Heaven or in hell; but you are going
to annul it, and to annul it in favour of me.  For it was a rash
promise, and if you keep it you will be doing evil that good may come of
it.  Your own creed would tell you that much, and would forbid it, too."

"You don't care for this man, whoever he is," went on Claverton, having
paused for her reply, but none came, "and he doesn't care for you, or he
would never have allowed you to throw yourself on the world's tender
mercies as he has done," and his voice grew hard at the thought.  "You
don't care for him, and you do--for--me," he said, in a desperation
which rose far above conventionalities of speech.

Again she made no reply, so he continued; but now his tones were very
soft and pleading.

"Yes, you do for me, darling.  I could see it.  Haven't I seen your
sweet face light up at my approach?  Haven't I noticed the softening in
that exquisite voice when you turned to me?  You remember when I came
back that time we went after the stolen oxen," (referring to an episode
which had involved a three days' absence from Seringa Vale).  "You were
so glad to see me, then, sweetest.  There was no mistaking the speech of
those divine eyes of yours.  There's no conceit in my saying this,
because love sometimes begets love, and have not I poured out the whole
of mine at your feet?  And I should be a fool not to see that you had
been happy when with me.  Oh, my darling, I cannot lose you.  We cannot
part.  Only think of it!  How can we?  What will life be worth?  Lilian,
I won't live without you.  Only give me your future, your past shall
never trouble you in your future's sunshine.  This wretched promise, it
is nothing.  It was made unthinkingly; you must retract it.  You dare
not wreck two lives for the sake of keeping a rash promise.  You cannot,
you dare not?"

He was terribly in earnest.  There was something heartrending in the
wild and, as it were, clinging tones of his entreaty, as he saw the
prize slipping from his grasp just as he had thought to win it.  He had
played a bold stake, but it was his last, and the game must be boldly
played if it was to be won.

To Lilian the moment was awful.  She looked up at the dark, pleading
face bent over her, drank in every tone of the strong, earnest voice.
It was maddening, delirious.  Ah! what happiness might be hers!  She
would yield.  Then came the recollection of another face, another voice
none the less pleading, a promise given, spoken low in a darkened
chamber and at the side of a deathbed, but spoken in all pure faith and
trust, a promise which was to hold good to the end of time, come weal,
come woe.  A promise--and such a promise--was sacred.  She might tear
out her own heart in keeping it, but it must be kept.  Oh, God! this was
indeed awful.  Would she be able to bear up much longer, or would she
die?  And in her ears kept ringing _his_ voice--his loving, earnest,
firm voice--firm now, though at times so terribly shaken.  "You dare not
wreck two lives for the sake of keeping a rash promise."  And the
picture he had drawn for her!  Oh, no; the price to be paid was to be
counted in tears of blood, but a promise is sacred to the end of time.

"Only think of the future, Lilian," he whispered, entreatingly.  "The
future, the bright future.  Always sunny like this," glancing at the
surroundings.  "An earnest of our lives.  Yours and mine."

With a low cry she tore herself from his hold and sank down upon the
rustic seat.

"Ah, don't tempt me!" she wailed, despairingly, with her face buried in
her hands.  "You don't know what you are saying.  Why do you tempt me
like this?  It is not fair, it is not manly of you."

The first words of reproach he had ever heard pass her lips--and they
were addressed to him!

"I want to save two lives from shipwreck," he said.  "Yours and mine."

"Then listen," she said, sitting up, and for the first time speaking
firmly.  "You must forget all this--you must forget me--hate me, if you
will, for having brought you to this.  I told you from the first that I
could give you no hope whatever, and yet I was selfish enough to ask you
to undertake a one-sided bargain.  All through, I have been deceiving
you, more and more.  Think me utterly heartless--but forget me.  And
you--you have urged me to break a sacred promise for you," she went on
in a hard, dry, monotonous voice, as unlike her usual tones as it was
possible to be.  "Arthur Claverton, I have treated you shamefully.  You
will always; look back upon my memory with the scorn and contempt it
deserves; but on one point you are wrong: _I do not love you_!"

"You do."

The answer came quietly and confidently, as if he had been setting her
right upon some trivial point under discussion.

She looked up at him with burning, tearless eyes; for she wae about to
pluck her very heart out.

"What! you refuse to believe me?  I must have sunk low in your
estimation.  I have told you the truth, and--and--you must leave me.
Will you?" she went on, speaking fast in her fear lest she should break
down in the act of sacrifice.  "Will you go quite away until I leave
this place?  It will only be for a few days now, and it will be best for
both of us.  Will you do this for me?"

"No."

"No?  You will not?  Then that is the extent of your love for me?" she
said.  "Ah! now I know you."

Claverton reeled giddily, as if her words had struck him, as he stood
facing her.  He passed his hand across his eyes as though to clear away
a mist.  Was it indeed Lilian Strange who sat there before him, dealing
out her pitiless, scornful words in that hard, steely voice--Lilian
Strange, his ideal of all that was tender, and loving, and pitiful--or
had some beautiful demon assumed her form to torment him?  He felt half
inclined to break away, and dash off to the house, where he would find
the real Lilian in all her truth and sweetness.  No; he was under a
spell.

Taking a couple of turns of half-a-dozen steps, he again stood before
her.

"Lilian, do you indeed mean what you say?" he asked, in a quiet,
hopeless tone.  "Are you really going to drive me from you?  I will go--
your lightest wish has ever been sacred to me.  After this day you will
never see me again; but that will be nothing to you.  I see I was quite
mistaken, darling," he said, wishing to spare her the humiliation of
thinking that he knew her love to be his, "quite mistaken.  Forgive me--
it was my fault, not yours--but it does not matter now, we shall never
meet again.  Am I to stay or--go?"

She did not lift her eyes to his--she did not move from her fixed, rigid
position; but, hoarsely her lips framed a single small word:

"Go."

With a quick shudder, as one who feels the stab of a knife, Claverton
heard it.  And he knew there was no disputing the decree.

"Lilian, for the love of my whole life which I have laid down before
you--for the sake of the time that is past--give me one more kiss before
we part for ever."

He bent down to her, and she did not resist.  He took her to his heart,
but the burning eyes, dilated and tearless, did not seek his; he pressed
one long, warm, passionate kiss upon her pallid lips, such as he might
have done if he had been looking upon her for the last time ere the lid
of her coffin was shut down, but she made no response.  Then he released
her.

"There.  No other woman's lips shall meet mine, after this, till the
grave closes over me--Lilian--my darling love--Heaven send you all
happiness--Good-bye!"

Still she did not look up.  She could not, she dared not.  There was a
rustle as the surrounding branches were parted, a sound as of retreating
footsteps, and he was gone.  Then, as the last of his footsteps died
away, Lilian fell prone to the ground, and, with her face buried in her
hands, sobbed as if her heart was reft in twain.  She had driven him
away--driven him from her with scornful words and with a lie--he, whose
love was to her as something more than life.  Now she had kept her
promise.  She had been true to that sacred bond, but at what a cost!
She had torn out her own heart, and her act of self-immolation was
complete.  Never again in life would she see him whom she had now sent
from her.  Ah God! it was terrible.

So she lay with her face to the earth, watering it with her tears.  Yet
the sun continued to shine above; the sky was all cloudless in its azure
glory; bright butterflies glanced from leaf to leaf; birds piped
blithely and called to each other; all nature rejoiced in the golden
forenoon; and there, prostrate on the grass, lay the beautiful form of
that stricken woman pouring out her very heart in tears.  For the light
of her life had gone out, and her own was the hand that had quenched it.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

FORTH--A WANDERER.

After that last heart-breaking farewell, Claverton tried to walk quickly
away, but in vain.  Several times he paused to listen.  Once he turned
and retraced his steps a few yards, feeling sure he had heard his name
called.  But no.  It was only the rustle of the leaves as a bird
fluttered among them, or the murmur of a tiny whirlwind which now and
again whisked round a few leaves and bits of stick in the stillness of
the summer morning.  On, on he strode, whither he knew not nor cared,
his lips drawn tight over his set teeth, a tumult of desperate thoughts
raging wildly in his breast, a glare almost of mania in his eyes,
dragging his steps heavily as one who staggered beneath a load.  This
dream which he had been cherishing, this sweet hope which had made a new
man of him, was dashed from his grasp, and so cruelly, so mercilessly.
Ah, good God! how he had loved her--how he did love her!  He had never
loved any living thing before, and now the long-pent-up torrent had
burst its barrier and overwhelmed him; and he tried to look into the
black, bitter future till his brain reeled and all was confusion again--
wild, surging, chaotic thoughts--as he strode on through the shadeless
glare of the burning _veldt_.  Shade or bud, what was it to him?  But
human endurance has its limits.  Even his iron frame, weakened by the
mental strain, began to fail after hours of tramping beneath that fierce
sun, and he sank to the ground nearly exhausted at the foot of a small
mimosa-tree.  He was desperately hard hit, if ever man was.

"Why, Arthur!  What on earth brings you here?  I thought you were away
at Driscoll's!" said a voice behind him.

In his preoccupation he had not heard the tramp of a horse's hoofs.
Turning quickly, he saw Mr Brathwaite.

"Oh, I didn't go there after all--and I've been taking a little stroll,"
he answered, with a ghastly attempt at a laugh, and in a voice so harsh
and strange that the old man, looking at him, began to think he had had
a sunstroke, and was a little off his head.

"Anything the matter?" he asked, kindly.  "You don't look at all the
thing.  Have you heard any bad news?"

Ah, that was a good idea!  Claverton remembered that the post had come
in that morning, bringing him two or three letters, which he had thrust
unopened into his pocket.  This would cover his retreat.  He would be
able to leave without any awkward explanations--called away suddenly.
They would think he had heard of the death of some relative; and grimly
he thought to himself how the death of a hecatomb of relatives would be
mere gossip compared with the "news" he really had heard.

"Yes," he replied, "that's what it is; and I am afraid I must leave here
as soon as possible."

"H'm!  But where's your horse?"

"My horse?  Oh, I walked."

"H'm," said the old man again.  "Now look here, Arthur, my boy, I've got
through a pretty long spell of life, during which I've learnt the art of
putting two and two together.  Whatever you may have heard to upset you,
didn't come through the post.  Now I don't want to pry into your
affairs, but I can see tolerably well now how things have gone.  Is it
so bad as you think?"

There was a world of delicate, kindly-hearted sympathy in the other's
voice, and Claverton felt as if it did him good.  Grasping the hand
extended to him, he replied:

"It is.  I will not try to convince you that you have got upon the wrong
tack, even if it would not be useless to do so.  I must go from here;
you will understand, you will appreciate my reasons, and know why this
place, which has been a dear home to me, the only real home I have ever
known, has become unendurable now, at any rate for a time."

His voice failed him, and he broke down.  Recovering himself with an
effort, he went on:

"I know it seems abominably hard-hearted, ungrateful even, suddenly to
leave the best and kindest friends I have, in this way, to say nothing
of the possible inconvenience to you.  Yet I am going to trespass even
more upon your large-heartedness.  I am going to ask you to help me to
leave quietly, not to make it known that I have done so until after I am
gone, and even then to let it be supposed that something I heard through
the post has compelled my departure.  Is this too much?  I do not ask it
so much for my own sake, as for--for another's."

Mr Brathwaite mused a moment.

"You're sure you're right about this, Arthur?" he said.  "Well, I
suppose you are; you're hardly the sort of fellow to do a thing by
halves.  Now listen: if things are as bad as you say, I think your plan
is a good one.  Go away for a change, and do some travel or up-country
hunting.  You're naturally a restless man, and a little excitement and
change may do you a world of good now.  As to any inconvenience to me,
that's nothing.  We are not very busy just now, and though we shall all
miss you terribly, Hicks and I will manage to rub along somehow.  And
I'll do what you want about getting off.  When do you want to leave?"

"To-night, or to-morrow morning, rather.  There's a good moon now,
nearly at half."

"All right; but look here, my boy.  Don't remain away from us a minute
longer than you feel inclined; and whatever happens, or wherever you may
be, remember that my door is always open to you, all you have to do is
to walk in and make your home with us, as long as we are above ground if
you feel inclined.  Now we'd better be going.  You are looking very ill;
get on my horse, I'll walk a bit."

But this the other firmly refused to do.  "I feel much better now," he
said, "I'll walk alongside."

They were not very far from home, for Claverton's wandering had been of
a somewhat tortuous nature, so that he had got over a great deal of
ground without covering much of actual distance.  So they started upon
their way back, and for the time he felt calmed by the other's strong,
manly sympathy; but it was the calm of exhaustion rather than that of
relief.

Assuredly there were disturbing elements underlying the surface of the
household at Seringa Vale, or, at any rate, of its younger members.  Yet
that evening, when they met, there was little or no sign of anything of
the kind.  Claverton looked rather worn and haggard, but not
conspicuously so, and though quieter than usual, this was accounted for
by one or two hints that Mr Brathwaite had let drop in accordance with
the plan the two had agreed upon.  Hicks, however, counterbalanced this
by being uproariously lively on his own account.  He had had a rare old
time of it in the _veldt_ that afternoon, having brought back a wild
guinea-fowl, three partridges, and a red koorhaan slung to his saddle,
the spoils of his bow and spear.  "Not bad, you know," as he said.  "To
say nothing of that other guinea-fowl and another partridge, too, that I
ought to have got."

"Why didn't you get them, then?" asked Mr Brathwaite.

"Oh, I dropped them all right, but the grass was so long and they got
away somehow," at which reply the old man laughed meaningly, and
remarked that Hicks was becoming such a crack shot that he felt himself
bound to leave something for another time.

"By the way, where's Lilian?" went on Mr Brathwaite, forgetting.

"She isn't very well to-night," replied his wife.  "Poor child, I told
her it was too hot to sit out this morning, and she stayed out too long.
It's only a headache, she says, that will be all right to-morrow.  I
made her go to bed early and sent her some tea in her room."

"Well, yes, it has been rather warm to-day," rejoined Mr Brathwaite.
"She ought to be more careful."

"--And then I heard no end of a cackling on the opposite bank,"
continued Hicks, who was narrating how he had circumvented his quarry,
"and I crawled along from bush to bush, and came bang into the middle of
a lot of guinea-fowl.  The ground was black with them--by George it
was--perfectly black.  Well, the beggars wouldn't rise; they kept
legging it along till I thought I should never get a shot."

"Well, but don't you know what you should have done then?" said Mr
Brathwaite.

"What?"

"Why, shot one on the ground.  They'd have got up then."

So the evening wore on, and Claverton thought it would never end.  Was
it a subtle instinct that this would be their last meeting, he wondered,
that made Ethel persist in talking to him the whole evening, while Laura
and Gertie Wray were singing duets together, with Hicks in attendance
turning over, usually at the wrong place, by the way, for which he was
rewarded by a half-angry, half-amused glance from Gertie's big blue
eyes?  Somehow or other, things reminded him of that earlier time
there--before this turning-point in his by no means uneventful life--but
he remembered it only as a far-away recollection.  Then at last
good-night was said all round, and he found himself alone, though not
yet, for Mr Brathwaite followed him to his room just to say a more
formal good-bye.

"So you haven't changed your mind about going, Arthur?  Well, I didn't
much think you would, and perhaps it's best, for a time.  You've got
your horse I see, and we can send on anything you may want after you.
The women will be sorry when they find you've gone.  I'll only say what
I did this afternoon--come back when, and as soon as you like, the
sooner the better.  Good-bye, now, my boy.  Don't take things too much
to heart, all comes right in time, as you'll see when you get to my
age."

Claverton wrung his hand in silence, then the door closed on the figure
of the old man.  Would he ever see that kindly face and genial presence
again?

He went round to the stable to see that his horse was all ready for him
in the morning.  Yes, there stood the fine chestnut, and it snorted and
then whinnied as it recognised its master by the dim light of the
stable-lantern.  He cut up a bundle of forage and threw it into the
manger.

"Ah, Fleck!" he said, as he stood watching the horse eat it.  "You and I
have had many a good time of it together, and now we'll have many a bad
time, but we'll never part, old horse.  That glossy skin of yours, which
_her_ hand used to stroke half timidly and _her_ eyes used to look upon
and admire, shall never belong to any one but me, go we north, south,
east, or west."

He patted the shining neck, and passed his hand down each of the smooth
forelegs, and the horse, making one or two playful bites at his
shoulder, whinnied again.  Then he extinguished the lantern and went out
of the stable.

"No use trying to go to sleep.  I'll take a walk."

So saying he strolled away down into the kloof.  The moon, nearly at
half, was shining above, silvery and clear.  Not a breath stirred the
sleeping foliage, and, except that now and again something would rustle
in the grass or bushes, the stillness was oppressive.  He skirted the
dam, whose dark glassy surface twinkled with the reflected stars, and
passing through the gap in the quince hedge, stood under the old
pear-tree, and the network of light beneath its moon-pierced shade was
there still, but paler than that of the golden sun.  A gleam of
something lying on the ground caught his eye.  He picked it up.  It was
a ring--two ropes of twisted gold welded together.  Moved by the same
instinct that chilled him the last time he held this trinket in his
hand, he dropped it as if it had been some live thing.  Then he changed
his mind, and, picking it up again, slipped it into his pocket,
intending to restore it to its owner, somehow.  But the finding of it
created a sudden revulsion of feeling--fierce resentment drove out the
sad, heart-breaking thoughts with which he had come to that spot--and
dark, murderous projects crowded upon his raging soul.  Why could he not
find out the original owner of that bauble, and remove him from his
path?  The end would more than justify the means.  He had shot a man
before to-night, merely to save his own life; and the stake to be won
here was far more than his own life.  He would keep the ring, it might
be turned to account.  Thus ruminating he passed through the
wicket-gate, and on along the path towards the rocky pool.  Here was
where Lilian had started in alarm at the cry of the jackal that first
evening; and then how happily they had conversed, wending their way down
this path--but, be it remembered, with Death stalking the while unknown
to them upon their footsteps.

At last he returned to the house, and re-entering his room threw himself
upon his couch, sinking, from sheer exhaustion, into a troubled sleep.
And the Southern Cross turned in the heavens, and the moon sank lower,
and the world slumbered; but, at length, that worn-out brain was awake
again.

Claverton rose, plunged his head into cold water, dressed himself for
travelling, and within half an hour of awaking had saddled-up Fleck, and
nothing remained but to start.  Stay--something did remain.  Where was
his riding-crop?  Then he remembered that he had left it in the
dining-room.  It had slipped down behind the sideboard, and something
had diverted his attention at the time so that he had forgotten to pick
it up.  Noiselessly he turned the handle of the door and let himself
into the dark passage; then into the dining-room, fearing lest the tread
of his riding-boots or the creak of the floor should disturb the house;
but no--all was still.  He found the missing article just where he had
left it; quietly he regained the passage again, in another instant he
would be gone, when--What was that?

For the dining-room door, which he had just come through, was softly
opened, and a figure stood at the end of the passage--a female figure--
wrapped in a dressing-gown.  Heavens! how his heart leaped!  Had she
yielded?  Was this indeed her, come to cancel his departure?  His
thoughts were running so entirely upon her, or he would have seen that
the figure before him was not tall enough for that of Lilian.  But he
turned towards it transfixed.

"Arthur," whispered a voice, dispelling the illusion at once.  "Arthur.
You are going away--for good; I know you are."

"Ethel!  Good Heavens, child!  What are you doing here?" he exclaimed in
blank astonishment.

"You are going away," she answered.  "I guessed it last night.  I could
feel it, somehow.  And you were going to leave us all without saying
good-bye--to leave us without a word," she went on in tones of
suppressed excitement.

"Ethel, for goodness' sake go back to your room at once," said Claverton
gently, yet firmly.  "You don't know what you are doing.  Only think, if
any one were to hear you and to come out now."

To do him justice, he was anxious far more for her than for himself in
the exceedingly awkward position in which her impulsiveness was in
danger of placing them both.

"Oh, I don't know what I am doing?" repeated the girl, bitterly, and
stifling down a sob.  "And you are very anxious to see the last of me;
but remember this, Arthur.  At any rate, I did not let you go without
wishing you good-bye, however imprudent I may have been in doing so."

"Ethel, believe me, I was thinking entirely for you.  You never would
think for yourself, you know," he parenthesised, with a sad smile.  "I
can't tell you how I appreciate your doing this; but I have too much
regard for you to allow you to remain a moment longer.  Now do go back
to your room, if it is the last thing I ever ask you."

For a moment the girl made no reply.  A flood of moonlight streamed in
at the open door, playing with her golden hair, which fell in waves upon
her shoulders as she stood with her hands clasped before her.

"Good-bye, Arthur.  And remember, I was the only one here who saw the
very last of you," she added in a tone of strange triumph, lifting her
eyes suddenly to his.  Was it that he had seen that look before in other
eyes, and, recognising it, desired to save her from herself?  Was it
that in his mind was seared that last vow, uttered that morning and
wrung from a breaking heart?  Who may tell?  He pressed both her little
hands in his own, and, without again looking at her, passed through the
doorway and was gone.

The red half-moon glowered in the sky, with its points turned angrily
upwards, and a cloud-cap stole over the distant mountains one by one,
spreading, creeping over the face of the land, and day broke.  And in
the cold grey dawn the wanderer rode on--on in the misty drizzle which
swept through the dark spekboem sprays and made the big stones on the
hillside, far and near, gleam like lumps of ice.  Rain or shine, warmth
or chill, it was nothing to him.  Down the bush path, smooth or rugged;
winding along a kloof; through a river; neither looking to the right nor
to the left he held on his way, on, on--ever on.



VOLUME ONE, CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

"I DIE, AND FAR AWAY.  HAST THOU KNOWN?"

A cheerful wood fire is crackling and sparkling in the grate, throwing
out tremulous shadows upon the plain, massive furniture and polished
floor, ever and anon lighting up the old room with a sudden glow.

The glow quivers upon a pale, beautiful face and on a coronal of dusky
hair, whose owner sits gazing into the bright caverns formed by the
burning wood, the picture of retrospective meditation.  A book lies open
upon her lap, proclaiming that the twilight has overtaken her and
compelled her to give up reading in favour of a more idle but not always
more pleasant resource--reflection; which pastime, in the present
instance, seems to bring her more of sorrow than of joy, for there are
tears brimming in the sweet eyes, and the curves of her mouth are even a
little more wistfully sad than usual.

It is four months since we saw that horseman, with despair and gloom
upon his countenance, riding away in the cold grey dawn, on, whither he
knew not, neither cared; and Lilian Strange is still at Seringa Vale.  A
few days before her projected departure, news came from the McColls to
the effect that they would not be returning to the colony for another
six months, and offering, if she wished it, to release her from her
engagement, otherwise they would be glad to have her back with them at
the time of their return.  Mrs Brathwaite, however, who had secretly
formed a plan in her own mind for keeping Lilian altogether, soon
persuaded her to prolong her stay, at any rate until the McColls
returned.  "You see, dear," she had said, "you are not nearly strong
enough to go back to work again yet, even if you had anywhere to go.
And just as we have got a little colour into your cheeks and set you up,
here you go getting ill again.  Besides, we shan't be able to do without
your bright face, dearie, so if you can put up with such a quiet house
as this is now, don't say anything more about leaving."  And Lilian,
lonely and friendless as she was, and shaken and upset by the recent
events, had thrown her arms round the old lady's neck and indulged in a
good cry, and declaring that she loved the dear old place almost beyond
her old home, had done as she was told.

"_You will be doing evil that good may come of it_."  Was this so,
indeed?  Had she better have broken that promise?  Ah! better not dwell
on that now.  And then would arise the thought of him--wandering afar
and alone, uncheered, heartsick and weary in spirit; it might be in
daily peril of death.  It was at night--by day she could in a life of
usefulness in a measure lose herself--at night, in the dead, dark,
lonesome hours, that such thoughts would come upon her, and with an
awful feeling of forsakenness, she would lie through the long, silent
watches hardly able to sob out the bitter, voiceless anguish that
overwhelmed her soul.  And as yet, Time, the merciful healer, had
brought little or no consolation.  She would go about her daily
avocations even cheerfully, always tender and thoughtful, smiling often,
though as yet so sadly, for she would, as she had resolved to herself,
live in the happiness of others.  And the event which had kindled this
resolve occurred very shortly after the death-blow to her own happiness.

One day Hicks and Laura, who had been taking a walk round the garden
together, came in looking a little flurried, and the former at once and
feverishly sought out his employer, whom he informed, with much
stammering and bashfulness, that he had just proposed to and been
accepted by Laura, and he trusted Mr Brathwaite would see no objection,
etc, etc.  The old man heard him out, and then mused for a moment in
silence.

"H'm!  You see, Hicks--you'll have to wait a bit, but I don't know that
that'll do you any harm," he replied.  "My brother George'll be round
here in a few days--but you did quite right to tell me at once--then you
can speak to him yourself.  I dare say he won't object, and I'll do what
I can for you.  Ever since you've been with me you've given me nothing
but satisfaction in every respect, and I don't forget it, my lad.
You've learned your work well, and what's better, you've done it well;
go on as you've begun, and you'll make your way.  But, as I told you
before, you'll have to wait a bit."

Hicks mumbled out a string of incoherent thanks, and wrung his
employer's hand.

"Ah, it's a grand thing to be young and to have all one's life before
one," said the old man, kindly.  "Well, it's nearly time to go and
count--or perhaps I'd better do it.  Your head will hardly hold such
commonplace things as sheep this evening," added he, with a good-natured
laugh, as he turned away.

In great elation Hicks bolted off, and, not looking where he was going,
collided against Lilian in the doorway, with such violence as nearly to
upset her.

"Oh, Miss Strange.  I beg your pardon!  What a blundering ass I am!
Have I hurt you?" he cried, in abject, remorseful consternation.  "How
confoundedly careless of me!  Do forgive me?"

"I'm not in the least hurt, really," answered Lilian, leaning against
the chair, which she had just seized in time to save herself from
falling.  "But I'll forgive you, only upon one condition," she added,
with a smile.  "That you tell me what you are looking so ridiculously
happy about."

Hicks told her, there and then.

"I'm so glad," Lilian said.  "I congratulate you most truly.  You will
be very happy, and from what I have heard of you, you will deserve to
be."

Again Hicks mumbled something as he pressed the hand she extended to
him, and passed on.  Lilian gazed after him, and the tears rose to her
eyes; but they were grateful, healing tears.  "Thank God!" she murmured,
"there is happiness left in the world for some people, and that is a
sight good to look upon."  A warm glow crept round her heart--so
stricken and desolate--and she felt that life might be worth living
after all, to take part in the joys and sorrows of others.  It was a
turning-point, and the crisis was past; but, oh! the road was to be an
uphill one upon whose thorny way the toiler would oft-times sink crushed
and heartbroken.  Then she had kissed and congratulated Laura, who,
though outwardly very demure and reticent, yet felt thoroughly satisfied
with her bargain.

Mr Brathwaite was as good as his word, and with such a powerful
advocate Hicks' suit was bound to prosper.  George Brathwaite, an
easy-going man in any matter wholly dissociated with politics, listened,
and was convinced, as his brother put the case before him.  Hicks was a
quiet, steady, hard-working fellow, in fact, bound to make his way.  He
had a little stock of his own, and lately some money had been left him,
not much, but enough to help him on a bit when he should set up for
himself, and with a little help from them, would do well enough.  He was
good-tempered, and by no means a fool, and, in fact, Laura might have
done worse.  And Laura's father thought the same, and the result was
notified to the pair concerned.  They must wait, of course, but the
great thing was to have the consent of the authorities, and to know that
it was a settled thing.  But a thorn in the rose lay in the fact that in
a couple of days or so George Brathwaite would take both his daughters
away with him--that being the errand upon which he had come to Seringa
Vale.  However, they could write.  A new experience to Hicks, by the
way, who, with the exception of a stereotyped and brief letter home at
rare intervals, seldom used the weapon mightier than the sword.  But he
would find plenty to say now, never fear.

"How I wish Claverton was back again," Hicks had said to Laura, the day
before she left.  "Poor old Arthur.  I suppose he's started off on some
mad expedition.  The place won't seem the same without him."

"Won't it?  It would have been a good deal better for the place if it
had always remained without him," she retorted, rather bitterly.

He looked at her with surprise.  "Why, Laura, what has he done?  I
thought you all liked him no end?"

"Yes, rather too much," she rejoined, to herself--thinking of Ethel--but
she only said: "Well, I don't know why I said that.  Never mind, Alfred,
perhaps I'll tell you what I mean, some day; perhaps I won't; probably I
won't.  Try and forget it now, at any rate.  You will, won't you?"

"On one condition," replied Hicks, looking at her.

What that condition was need not be specified.  Nor does it concern the
thread of this narrative whether it was consented to or not.

Then the two girls had gone; and sorely did those left behind miss the
bright young presences and the merry, jestful times which had prevailed,
and the old farmhouse had settled down into the slumbrous quietude in
which we first saw it that glowing August evening, the best part of a
year back; and the events intervening had melted like a dream, for all
the outward traces they had left.  But a dream from which that pale, sad
watcher, now gazing at the fire, would never awaken to life again.

Twice only had Claverton been heard of since he left.  The first time he
had written to Mrs Brathwaite explaining how nothing but the gravest
reasons had induced him to leave thus suddenly--and more to the same
effect; directing where his things were to be sent, and concluding with
the sincerest expressions of appreciation and regard--and the old lady,
who knew pretty well by that time how matters stood, had felt inclined
to cry as she read it.  The second letter, after an interval, was to
Hicks, and bore the Durban postmark.  The writer was going up-country,
he said, far into the interior, to do a little shooting, and some
knocking about.  He wanted to be quite independent, so would go alone,
with a nigger or two to carry the things and look after a spare horse.
He didn't want some cantankerous compatriot with him to worry his life
out at every turn, not he.  A few things had been left at Seringa Vale
which Hicks might look after for him, and if he never came back could
stick to--a horse, for instance, and some gimcrackery in the shape of
riding-gear and one or two things.  No doubt they'd clash again some of
these days; if not, well, it would come all right in the end, he
supposed, and life was not such a blissful thing, after all.  It was not
worth while answering this, concluded the writer, for he would be away
on his travels almost before it had started.

And it is the crowd of memories and conjectures evoked by this letter
which Lilian is pondering over this evening, alone in the firelight.  A
few days ago, Hicks had asked her if she would like to see it, as she
was not in the room when he read out its contents.  She had kept it ever
since, and good-natured Hicks, noticing the light in her eyes, and the
tremor of her hand as he gave it her, had "forgotten" to ask her for it
again.  She has read every word of it until she knows it by heart, and
has conjured up many and many a picture of that lonely traveller,
wandering on, mile after mile, far into that vast continent of which
this locality was merely the outskirts.  And it is her doing!  She can
"read between the lines" that time has brought no more healing to him
than to herself, and, thinking over it this evening, one of those
terrible paroxysms of woe is nearly upon her, and she half rises to
leave the room when a step is heard in the passage, then the door opens
and some one enters, whistling a lively tune which stops suddenly as the
whistler becomes aware of her presence.

"That you, Miss Strange?  Good evening; are you trying to read in the
dark?  By Jove, how cold it's turned!" rattles on Hicks, rubbing his
hands briskly, and kicking up the logs in the grate.

"Yes," answered Lilian, for the diversion has called her back to
herself.  "And how the days are drawing in!"

"Rather!  And cold?  This morning, down there in Aasvogel Kloof, the
ground was white with frost, and at eight o'clock, long after the sun
was up, it was nipping cold.  I had to keep changing my bridle-hand
about every minute and a half, keeping one in my pocket till it got
warm, you know; not that it did get warm even then, still it thawed a
bit."

"Fancy that.  And yet there are people who would stare if you mentioned
the word cold, in connection with Africa."

"Yes, I know.  `Afric's sunny fountains,' and all that kind of thing.
The only `fountains' we see here are after a jolly big rain, and then
they're not sunny, but precious muddy.  Those poetic fellows do talk
awful bosh."

Lilian smiled.  "Don't try to be satirical, it doesn't suit you at all,"
she said.  "And now tell me what have you been doing all day?"

"Oh, I went down and counted at Umgiswe's.  He's a regular old humbug,
and is always losing sheep.  I'm certain he kills them.  Don't I wish I
could catch him, that's all.  I thought I had, the other day.  Anyhow,
the _Baas_ ought to give him the sack."

"I shouldn't have thought it.  I thought he had such a nice old face,
and he always says, `morning, missis,' to me, so prettily, whenever he
comes up here."

"A bigger humbug than him couldn't help doing that," said Hicks,
gallantly.  "Well, then, I went on to Driscoll's, to see if I couldn't
beat him down in what he asks for that place of his.  He wants a great
deal too much, the beggar does; far more than he offered it to Clav--"
and then honest Hicks, suddenly remembering that this very place was the
one Claverton had started to inspect on that day which, somehow, seemed
connected with his abrupt departure and Lilian's simultaneous
depression, waxed very red in the face, and, bending over the fire,
began stirring it and banging it about, as if he would pulverise the
charred, smouldering faggots.

"And did you succeed?" asked Lilian, so quietly that he thought the
reminiscence involved by the association of ideas had passed unnoticed
by her.

"N-no," replied Hicks.  "But I think I'll manage it in time.  He's a
tight fist, is old Driscoll."

"You will like settling in the old locality, I should think.  You are
not one of those who are always longing for change just for the sake of
change."

"No.  In fact, as it is, I hardly like leaving the old place."

"What--not even with Laura?" said Lilian, with a smile.

"Well, of course.  But you know, when a fellow has been long on a place
like this, and had such a rare good time of it, as I've had, he's bound
to cut up a little rough when it comes to leaving it, no matter how."

"Naturally.  But one must look forward--not back, unless it is for a
pure, strengthening recollection.  One might look longingly back from
the rough, toilsome ascent of a steep hill into the sunlit, peaceful
valley one had rested in behind; then to keep on and on till the ascent
was conquered, and an easy road led smoothly down into another restful
calm.  That is how you must look at life, when things go the reverse of
smoothly with you at first--as perhaps they will."

Poor Lilian!  Not yet could she realise this herself, and she knew it.
Yet she laid it down in theory to her companion, for he had told her
that he liked that sort of talk--that it did him good, in fact--and its
remembrance encouraged him when he was inclined to take a gloomy view of
things.  They had become great friends, those two, thrown together thus
by force of circumstances; and Lilian had never tired of listening to
her companion's hopes and fears, any more than he had ever tired of
confiding them to her--it must be confessed, with something of wearisome
reiteration, the more so that he had found so gentle and sympathetic a
listener.

"But I forgot.  I must not talk like that, or you will say I'm getting
poetic; and `those poetic fellows do talk awful bosh,'" concluded
Lilian, looking up at him with a bright, arch smile.

"Oh, I say!  As if I should think anything of the kind!" exclaimed
Hicks.  "It was I who was talking nonsense.  I suppose the firelight
makes a fellow get sentimental.  The firelight in winter is pretty much
what the moonlight is in summer, I suppose."

But the sentimental side of this firelight talk was brought to an end by
the entrance of Mr Brathwaite, followed almost immediately by that of
his wife.

"Sharp evening!" he said, joining the two on the hearth.  "We must
expect winter now, at the end of May; and this year it'll be a cold one.
I see there's a little snow on the mountains already--just a
sprinkling."

"When shall we have a good fall?" asked Lilian.  "The mountains must
look perfectly beautiful, all covered, and with such a sun as this upon
them.  It must be very cold up there."

"Cold?  I believe you.  I was nearly frozen to death up there myself
once.  It was some years ago now.  I was coming over the Katberg road
with a waggon-load of mealies--I and Ben Jackson.  He had three waggons.
We were caught in a snowstorm, and had to outspan.  Couldn't see ten
yards in front of us.  Ten yards!  Not one; for the wind whirled the
powdery stuff into our eyes till we were nearly blinded.  It was no
joke, I can tell you.  There are some lively _krantzes_ about there; and
it's the easiest thing in the world to drop a few hundred feet before
you know where you are."

"And how did you manage?"

"Well, we outspanned, and tied the oxen to the yokes.  We couldn't make
a fire, so we turned into our blankets and piled up everything in the
way of covering; but that wasn't enough, and I was quite frozen.
Nothing to eat all the time, except a bit of frozen bread to gnaw at.
One of my Kafirs was nearly dead, and thirteen out of sixteen oxen died
from cold and starvation.  Ben was more unlucky still, and lost two
whole spans.  Yes, that was a time!"

Then came the lamp and supper.

"You were asking when we should have a good fall?" went on Mr
Brathwaite.  "The first rains we get here will leave the mountains white
as a sugarloaf down to their very foot."

Thus, with many an anecdote and reminiscence, the evening wore on.
Eventually the lights were extinguished in the slumbering house, one by
one, till all was dark and silent.  And shining upon upland and valley,
and upon homestead and fold, cleaving the frosty sky with a broad path
of pale incandescence, gleamed the Milky Way, with many a brilliant
constellation flashing around its track.  Hour follows upon hour, but
the calm influences of the peaceful night bring no relief to that
broken-hearted woman lying there with her face buried in the pillows,
sorrowing as one who is without hope.  And every now and then a great
anguished sob shook the prostrate form, for a very torrent of
long-pent-up grief had come over her this evening, fresh and poignant as
on that terrible day when the glories of the radiant summer world were
as staring mockeries.

Lilian rose and threw open the door.  The cool night air flowed in
refreshing waves upon her burning brow, and, oh! how solemnly the golden
stars twinkled in the far blue vault as though the eyes of their Creator
Himself were visibly looking down upon her woe.

"Come back to me, darling!" she wailed, her brimming eyes fixed on the
cold, star-spangled sky.  "Only come back.  Ah, love!  I sent you away
from me, drove you away with hard, cruel, bitter words, and now my heart
is breaking--breaking.  My life is done.  I killed it when I sent you
away."

A ghostly beam streamed in through the open casement.  Above hung the
pointed moon, pale, glassy, and cold.

"My life, my love, come back!" she continued, sinking into a chair by
the window, with her hands tightly locked, in the extremity of her
anguish.  "Come back, and we will never part again, never.  I will
abjure my word, which I have pledged by a dying bed.  I will risk
everything.  We will never, never part again, no, not for an hour.  Only
come back.  Oh!  What am I saying?  I shall never see you again.
Perhaps even now you are--dead, and it is I who killed you.  Ah, love,
my heart is broken!  If you are not in life, come and look at me in
death--in pale, cold, still death--and take me with you.  Only let me
look upon you once more!"

The moonbeam crept further along the polished floor, and a puff of air
entered.  Ah!  What was that?  Was it a voice--a name--faint, dreamy,
more felt than heard--a voice from the awesome, mysterious spirit world?
Quickly Lilian raised her head.

"I thought you would come to me, darling," she murmured, in low, firm
tones, as though she had nerved herself for an effort.  "I thought you
would come to me, even though dead.  But let me see you!  I can hear
your voice.  I can hear you call me, once, twice.  But, oh! let me see
you.  Ah--!"

She sat upright and rigid, gazing in front of her.  For a form floated
upon the shadowy moonlight, seeming to rest everywhere, yet nowhere.
And the features of the recumbent figure she knew too well--pale,
haggard, and drawn as they were.

"Ah, come to me, my love, my life!" she wailed, stretching out her arms
in wild entreaty, but the apparition vanished.  She rushed to the open
window.  Only the eyes of a myriad gleaming stars met hers, and a filmy
dark cloud passed over the moon, veiling it for a moment.

"I have seen his spirit," she exclaimed, passionately, her eyes fixed
upon the dim horizon.  "I have seen him, but he is gone.  Ah, Christ!
Thou hast a tender and a pitying heart.  Let me see my love again--my
sweet lost love!"

Look out into the still night, Lilian.  Fix your eyes upon those distant
mountain-tops, and then can your gaze travel many hundreds of miles
beyond them, you may see--what it is better that you should not see.

Far away on the wild border of Northern Matabililand, night draws on.
In one of a group of neat, circular kraals lying in a hollow between two
great mountains, it is evident that something momentous has either
happened or is going to happen this evening, for the chief men are
standing together in a knot, talking in low tones and with an anxious
look upon their grave, dignified faces.  From the eastward, a mighty
black cloud is rolling up along the rugged, iron-girded heights, and
upon the fitful gusts is borne, ever and anon, a low, heavy boom.  Down
the mountain paths the cattle are wending, the shrill whoop of the
children driving them, sounding loud and near, while the chatter of two
or three withered crones, gossiping outside one of the domed huts, is
strangely, distinct in the brooding atmosphere, hushed as it is before
the gathering storm.  The shades deepen, and the red fires twinkle out
one by one in the gloaming; but still the men keep on their earnest
discussion.

"He will die," one of them is saying.  "It will bring us ill-luck.  The
king, when he hears of it, will visit it upon us--he wants to stand well
just now with the whites.  And if this stranger dies here, he will say
it is our fault.  Haow!"

And, with true savage philosophy, the speaker and his auditors refresh
themselves with a huge pinch of snuff.

"There is a white man living away beyond Intaba Nkulu," says another.
"He might be able to do something to save the stranger."

"No, he is only a trader--not a medicine-man," exclaim two or three
more, simultaneously.

A flash; a peal of thunder, loud and long, and one or two large drops of
rain.  The Matabili start, look upward, and adjourn to carry on their
discussion inside a hut; but they are soon interrupted by the entrance
of a young Natal native, who, with anxiety and fear on his countenance,
cries:

"Mgcekweni--Sikoto--come quick and look.  My chief is dying."

With a hurried exclamation the two addressed rise, and, following the
speaker, stoop and enter an adjoining hut.  Lying on some native
blankets on the floor, is the form of a man--an Englishman.  A rolled-up
mat serves him for a pillow, and he lies tossing about in the wild
throes of fever.  A saddle and bridle, a waterproof cloak, a gun, and
one or two small things are scattered around; a bit of candle stuck in
the neck of a bottle, throwing a ghastly flickering light upon the
whole, and making the cockroaches which swarm in the thatch, glisten
like scales.

"Water, water," moans the sick man, throwing his arms wildly out of bed.

"_Aow!  Manzi_!" murmur the two Matabili, not understanding, but with
ready wit guessing the burden of his cry, and simultaneously making a
move towards the earthen bowl containing the desired fluid.

But the young native was before them, and, motioning one of them to
raise him, he held the bowl to his master's lips.

"Ah-h-h," exclaimed the dying man, falling back with a relieved sigh,
and lying with closed eyes.  Then he started again.  "Where is it?" he
cried, his fingers clutching spasmodically at something in his breast,
which he drew out and held tightly clasped in his hand.  "Lilian--
Lilian--It died with me.  Your writing--the only thing I have left of
you--Lilian--!"  He paused a moment, breathless.

Then he sprang up raving.  "Sam!  Sam!  Where are you, you damned
rascal?  Sam; do you hear?  Go and tell her--find Lilian," and then as
if the beloved name calmed and soothed him, he sank back with a quiet
smile.

"What does he say?" asked the two Matabili of each other.  "Liliane--
Liliane.  Aow!  That must be the name of the white man's God."  And they
repeated the name over and over to themselves, so as to remember exactly
what the stranger had said, when they should report the matter to their
king.

He had come there, this stranger, but a few days previously, he and his
native attendant.  He had come alone, travelling through their land, as
he said, on his way far, far into the interior beyond, and had stayed
with them, living as they lived, talking with them a little, but usually
grave, taciturn, and sad.  He would wander about all day in the
mountains with his double gun, bringing back game at night, buck or
birds, which he shared freely with them, and now he had become ill; no
doubt caught the malaria while lying out all night down by the river,
trying to get a shot at the lion, whose spoor had been seen by a boy who
was wandering on its banks, and who had fled terrified at the sight of
the great round pads in the sand.  And Mgcekweni, the petty chief of the
neighbourhood, was in sore perplexity about this stranger lying at the
point of death within their gates; and over and above the fear that his
royal master, with all the unreasoning caprice of a despot, would hold
him and his responsible, he had a genuine liking for the white man--the
grave, quiet traveller, whom he had at once set down as a big "_Inkoa_"
among his own people.

Crash!

The thunder pealed without; a vivid blaze of lightning lit up the
interior of the hut, leaving it more gloomy than before in its
semi-darkness; the rain poured in torrents, lashing up the hard earth
outside, and there, in the weird light, stood the tall, erect forms of
the Matabili chief and his brother, conversing in subdued whispers, and
with a world of concern clouding their dark, expressive faces.  Kneeling
beside his master, intently watching every change of his countenance,
crouched the native boy, Sam.  Again the thunder crashed and roared, and
the scathing blaze darted through the pouring rainfall which hurled
itself to the earth with a deafening rush; and amid the fierce warring
of the elements let loose the wanderer lay dying.  Yes, dying.  Alone in
a barbarous hut, racked with fever; tossing on a rude couch, almost on
the bare earth; far from friendly or loving glance or touch; not even a
countryman within hundreds of miles; alone in that gloomy apartment, the
cockroaches chasing each other along the wattles of the thatch overhead,
and tall, savage warriors watching his failing moments in wondering,
half-superstitious concern.  Thus he lay.

Suddenly he raised himself and sat upright.

"Lilian!  Lilian!" he cried, in a voice so loud and clear that it
startled his savage auditors.  "Ah, I _will_ see you," he went on, his
eyes dilating and fixed on the opposite wall as if to pierce through it
and all space.

"I _will_ see you--and I can.  I see you here, now, here beside me.  Are
you going with me?  Keep those sweet eyes upon mine, as they are now,
darling--ever--ever--ever."

His voice sank, and with a glad smile he fell back and lay perfectly
still, and without the faintest movement.

"He is dead!" exclaimed the savages, holding their breath.

Precisely at that moment Lilian Strange was uttering her passionate,
despairing invocation, as she gazed through her open casement far into
the clear, starry night.

The day broke upon Seringa Vale, and the rain gusts howled along the
wind-swept wastes--violent, biting, and chill.  But by noon there was
not a cloud in the heavens, and Lilian had her wish, for the mountains
were thickly covered with snow to their very base.  And as she gazed
upon the distant peaks starting forth from the blue sky, spotless and
dazzling in their whiteness, it seemed to her that they might be a meet
embodiment of her own frozen despair--ever the same--icebound sight and
day--through calm and through storm.

And the sun shone down upon the land in his undimmed glory, plenty and
prosperity reigned everywhere; not a whisper of war or disturbance was
in the air, indeed, all such had died away as completely as if it had
never been.  And the hearts of the dwellers on the frontier were glad
within them--for the red tide, once threatening, had been stayed, and
upon their borders rested, in all its fulness, the blessing of Peace.

Part II.

  Once where Amatola mountains rise up purple to the snow,
  Where the forests hide the fountains,
  And green pastures sleep below--
  Sweeter far than song of battle,
  On the breezes of the morn,
  Came the lowing of our cattle
  And the rustling of our corn.
  Where our flocks and herds were feeding
  Now the white man's homestead stands;
  And while yet his sword lies bleeding,
  Lo, his plough is in new lands.

  _Lament of Tyala_--Anon.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER ONE.

"IS IT PEACE OR WAR?  BETTER WAR."

George Payne rode slowly away from the village of Komgha.

The air was warm and balmy, for the time of the southern winter was
past, and on this September day not even the lightest of feathery clouds
flecked the sky above the sunny plains of British Kaffraria.  Now and
again on the brow of one of the rolling eminences, which, smooth grassy,
and round, alternated with mimosa-dotted vales, the rider might feel a
puff of fresh air from the bine Indian Ocean thirty miles away, and
which he was leaving further and further behind him with every tread of
his steed.  On his left front rose the round tops of the Kabousie hills,
while beyond them a ridge of wooded heights slept in the golden haze of
the early afternoon.

But he had little thought to spare for beauties of scenery, had this
man, as he mechanically urged on his steed--a compact, well-stepping
roadster--now at a long easy canter, now subsiding into a fast walk; for
all his reflections were at that moment concentrated on the leading
question of the day, a question which for weeks past had been in the
mind of every dweller on that restless line of frontier, a question
which to them was fraught with weighty apprehension--Peace or War?

And this topic, which was in everybody's month, had it any foundation to
rest upon, or was it merely a recurrence of one of those periodical
scares which, with more or less reason, had of late years seriously
disturbed the border districts?  Ministers and legislators might, from
their places in the Assembly, deny all grounds for it; merchants and
snug citizens of the western capital might deride it; the
pseudo-philanthropic party, likewise at safe distance, might decry it as
a libel upon and a plot against the native population, to despoil them
of their lands, and what not.  Yet Cape Town was many hundred miles from
the unprotected border, and it is so very easy at a safe distance to
ridicule the apprehensions of those to whom the fulfilment of their
fears would mean ruin and death.  For ignore it as some would, the fact
remained that a cloud, at first no bigger than a man's hand, but already
of sufficiently alarming proportions, was gathering beyond the Kei, to
roll on and on till it should overwhelm all within reach--unless stopped
in time, that is.  And such check the country's rulers apparently deemed
it their special mission not to facilitate.

This, then, was the topic whereon George Payne's thoughts were fixed as
he rode over those grassy Kaffrarian plains in the direction of his
home; and some additional rumours which he had heard that morning, had
gone far towards seriously disquieting him.

He was a broad-shouldered, strongly-built man, about five feet ten in
his shoes, though a slight stoop made him look shorter.  He had a quiet,
sensible face, and was sparing and deliberate of speech; this on first
acquaintance might lead one to pronounce him "slow," were it not for an
occasional satiric burst, accompanied by a twinkle in the keen grey
eyes, which alone would suffice to show that he was very far from being
a fool.  And, though quiet and reserved on first acquaintance, he had a
sunny geniality of manner which was very taking--in fact, was as
good-natured a fellow as ever lived.  He was thirty-six years of age,
and of colonial birth; and though he had made a couple of visits to the
mother country he seldom spoke of it.  When he did, his audience, who
had settled in its own mind that he had never been out of the colony,
would be mightily taken aback by his shrewd insight into men and things.

Around lay the broad, rolling country; here and there in the distance
might be seen the white walls of a homestead or two, glistening in the
sun; or a clump of Kafir huts, smoky, squalid-looking, and tumble-down,
lay about, whence a tribe of yelling mongrels rushed clamouring down to
the path to mouth at the equestrian and snap at his horse's heels, while
their owners stood, with kerries grasped in their dark, sinewy hands,
scowling at the passer-by, and making no attempt to call off their
detestable property.  But the horseman cared little or nothing for this.
If the four-footed pests came too near, he slashed them unmercifully
with his long raw-hide whip, sending them howling back to their savage
masters.  At length he drew rein before a thatched, white-washed
dwelling, a typical specimen of the rougher class of frontier farmhouse.
A man came out--a tall man, clad in a grey flannel shirt and corduroy
trousers; a slouch hat was stuck on one side of his head, a mighty red
heard descended over his chest, and in his mouth was a short wooden
pipe.

"Well, Marshall," cried Payne, dismounting.  "How's the world been using
you of late?"

"So so," replied the other, shaking hands.  "Where are you from?"

"Komgha."

"Any news?"

"N-no.  Nothing but `gas,' in fact.  One gets so sick of all the yarns
that have been flying about that really one doesn't know what to
believe.  I've got into the way of believing nothing."

"Ah.  Well, now, I think there's something in them.  And I'll tell you
what it is, Payne.  If I were a married man like you I'd send my family
away to King [King Williamstown.  The chief town of British Kaffraria,
commonly thus abbreviated] or somewhere, for depend upon it we shall
have hot work here before long.  They're not safe out there at your
place, I tell you."

Payne laughed lightly.  "Why, Marshall," he said, "if you're not
becoming as great an old scare-monger as the rest!  Oh, by the way,
there was some news.  It's said that the new Governor's coming up to the
frontier."

"Worse and worse--if it's true.  He wouldn't be coming if there wasn't
good cause for it, I can tell you.  What sort of a feller is he?"

"First-rate, from all accounts."

"H'm.  Did you hear anything else?"

"Two troops of police been ordered across the Kei."

"Fat lot of good they'll do," growled Marshall.  "A lot o' greenhorns.
Why, some of them can't stick on their horses, and hardly know the butt
from the muzzle of their carbines.  The police are not what they used to
be, since they've taken to getting out these raw chaps from England.
Time was when the force was made up of good colonial men, who could ride
and shoot, and follow spoor as easily as a waggon-road, and now--pooh!"
And the speaker knocked the ashes out of his pipe with a contemptuous
jerk.

"That's all very well," said Payne.  "They may not be good for much at
spoor, and there are a few greenhorns among them, as you say.  But there
are some fine fellows, too--fellows with any amount of fight in them--
and, after all, that's what we want now.  You'll see, they'll do good
service yet, if they get a fair chance."

The other shook his head.  "Dunno.  But--have a drop of grog?"

"No, thanks; I must be moving on."

"Won't you, really?  Do."

"No, thanks.  But I say, Marshall, when are you coming over our way?  We
haven't seen you for about ten years.  Come on Sunday."

The other filled and lighted his pipe.  "Well, the fact is, I've had a
lot to do of late," he replied at length, between sundry vigorous puffs.
"And then, you see, I'm a rough sort of feller and haven't got any
company manners, and now you've got company.  Perhaps, after all, I'm
best here."

"You surly old humbug," said Payne, with a laugh, "I never heard such
bosh.  You come up on Sunday at latest, or we shall quarrel.  Call
yourself a neighbour, indeed!  Now you'll come, won't you?"

"I'll try."

"All right, that's settled.  Ta-ta;" and mounting his horse Payne rode
off.

Gradually the long smooth slopes became steeper, falling off into abrupt
ravines, affording a glimpse of the Great Kei, which glided along, far
down between its lofty banks--now winding round a smooth-headed knoll,
now straightening as it washed the base of some huge wall of rock--a
distant musical murmur being upborne upon the still air as it rushed
over a stony shallow.  From the far plains beyond, many a blue column of
smoke rose into the sunshine, where dotted about lay the clustering
kraals of the savage Gcalekas, whose hordes, even then, were gathering
for the long-expected and somewhat dreaded inroad upon the peace of the
colony.  A bird sang in the thick thorn-protected brake adjoining the
path, a white vulture or two soared lazily from one of the huge krantzes
overhanging the river, insects hummed in the sunlight, and it seemed as
if nothing but the savagery of man could avail to break the peaceful
calm of that glorious scene, amid which Payne pursued his way wrapped in
uneasy thought; for in spite of his sceptical tone when talking to
Marshall he felt by no means the assurance that he would have had that
worthy believe.

His horse suddenly pricked up its ears as the sound of deep voices
immediately in front became audible, and in a moment three tall,
savage-looking Kafirs, their athletic bodies smeared from head to foot
with red ochre, advanced down the path at a run, swinging their kerries.

Now the said path was, just there, only wide enough for a single
horseman, being shut in on either side by high thorn-bushes, and Payne
naturally expected the pedestrians to make way for him.  They, however,
had no such intention, and his steed began to show signs of terror at
the sudden appearance of the brawny, ochre-smeared barbarians, with
their gleaming necklaces of jackal's teeth rattling as they advanced.

"Out of the way, you vagabonds," shouted Payne, angrily.  "Out of the
road; d'you hear?" and he raised his whip menacingly.

"Aow!  Out of the way yourself, _umlungu_!"  [white man] insolently
replied the foremost Kafir in his great deep tones, at the same time
seizing the bridle and trying to jerk the horse's head round.  "We won't
get out of the way for you."

Payne's whip descended, the lash curling with an angry "swish" round the
naked body of the speaker.

"Take that, you hound!" he cried.  "And now let go."  And he clubbed his
whip to strike with the heavy loaded end.

"Haoo-ow!  Hah!" roared the savage, dropping the bridle and stepping
back a pace or two, while the lurid lightnings of wild-beast wrath shot
from his eyes.  Then he sprang at Payne like a tiger-cat, aiming a
sledge-hammer blow at him with his heavy stick.

Fortunately for Payne he managed to throw up his arm in time to save his
head, or he would have fallen to the ground, brained by the terrific
force of the blow.  Fortunately, too, for him, his adversaries carried
no assegais, or he would there and then have been stabbed through and
through and his body flung over the adjacent cliff into the Kei, for he
need expect no mercy from such foes.  The land was almost in a state of
war, and brutal outrages of this kind were only too terribly common.  He
made a furious blow at his opponent with the butt of his whip, but
ineffectively, for at the moment of striking he felt himself seized by a
powerful hand and dragged from his horse, which backed into the bushes
terrified and snorting.  Then nearly stunned by the fall he lay upon the
ground, and the sky and earth and foliage all went round in one giddy,
sickening whirl, and still he could see the gigantic figure of the
savage, who, with glaring eyes and white gleaming teeth, was advancing
upon him with kerrie upraised to strike, and he lay there, powerless
even to avoid the blow.  In a second it would fall, when--woof!
something descended through the air, a large dark object darted between
him and the sky, and his enemy fell heavily to the earth.  He heard the
clash of kerries in strike and parry, a fierce imprecation, and the ring
of a pistol-shot; then he knew no more till he awoke to consciousness
with some one bending over him and fanning his brow.

"Don't move," said the stranger.  "Take it easy a little longer, and
then you'll feel better."

Payne looked wonderingly at the dark sun-browned face bent over him,
with the calm, resolute, blue-grey eyes and clear-cut features, and it
seemed to him that he had seen the owner of it before.

"Oh, I feel all right now," he said, raising himself upon one elbow and
then sitting up.  "A little muddled, you know, that's all."

"I venture to say that our friend here, feels `a little muddled,'"
remarked the other, pushing with his foot the form of a prostrate Kafir.

Payne stood up, rather giddily, and recognised his assailant in the
inert, motionless mass.

"I say, though, but the brute isn't dead?" he said, with just a tinge of
concern, bending over the fallen savage.

"He isn't dead.  A stirrup-iron properly handled is a grand weapon; but
Kafir skulls are notoriously thick.  The chances are a hundred to one,
though, that yours would have been split at this moment, had that
individual carried out his amiable little programme just then."

"Of course--I was forgetting.  You saved my life.  Why, what an
ungracious dog you must think me!"

"And I could have dropped the other two so nicely in their tracks,"
continued the stranger, as if he had not heard Payne's remark.  "They
both came at me with their kerries; but directly they saw this,"--
producing a revolver--"off they went.  I wanted to fell another chap, so
I didn't trot out the barker at first, till they began to think they had
it all their own way, and pressed me so hard that I was obliged to.
Lord, how they streaked it off!"

"But you did let drive, didn't you?  At least, I thought I heard a
shot."

"Yes, I did.  Couldn't resist the temptation; but just at the moment it
flashed across me how infernally near civilisation we were, and it's a
ticklish moment just now.  The authorities would think nothing of
running us in and making scapegoats of us, swearing we had brought on
the war, you know, or something of that sort.  So I just blazed over the
fellow's head, to give him a bit of a scare, otherwise I could have
dropped the pair of them--oh, so sweetly!  But how did it all happen?"

Payne told him.

"H'm," said the other, reflectively.  "We could run this fellow over to
the gaol if that would be any satisfaction to you, and if you cared to
go through the bother.  But then, unfortunately, you struck the first
blow, as you couldn't have helped doing--and the result would have been
the same in any case--and the chances are some pettifogging attorney, or
meddling missionary, would take up the scoundrel's case and turn the
tables on you.  So that's out of the question."

"Shall we bring him to?" asked Payne.

"A few slashes of your whip would do it if you're anxious on his
account; if not, let him lie."

"Poor devil, he seems to be in bad order," said Payne, inspecting his
late foe, who lay with the crown of his head cut and bleeding, exactly
as he had fallen beneath the blow of the stirrup-iron, and breathing
heavily.  "I'll take his kerries as a trophy, anyhow."  Moved by a
sudden impulse, he glanced narrowly at the stranger, a man of apparently
about his own age, or not far from it; and it still seemed to him that
the dark, handsome face, and determined eyes, no less than the rather
mournful ring in the quiet voice, were familiar to him.

"Well, then, we'll be moving," continued Payne.  "My place isn't far
from here, and of course you are going with me.  Don't say no, for I
insist upon it."

There came an amused gleam into the other's eyes, and he stroked his
long, brown moustache once or twice to conceal a smile.  "There's no
need to insist," he said, "because it so happens that that was my
original intention.  The first thing I meant to ask you, when you came
round, was the way to George Payne's; but it would be rather superfluous
to ask it of George Payne himself, wouldn't it?"

"What!  Why, good heavens!  Who the deuce are you?  We've met before
somewhere, I'll swear!" said Payne, looking at him in a puzzled manner.

The other broke into one of his long, quiet laughs, as if hugely
enjoying the situation, as he steadily returned the puzzled, inquiring
gaze.  "Don't you remember that refreshing row close to De Klerk--that
time you were coming from the gold fields?  Hang it, it wasn't much more
than two years ago!"  Payne burst forth into a mighty expletive--a thing
he very rarely did.  "My dear fellow, this is a piece of luck!  And I
never recognised you!  But you were bearded like the pard then, you
know; and, another thing--my head must have been spinning round, for I
felt an awful whack.  Of course.  So it is!  Why, I ought to have
recognised you by the neat-handed way in which you dropped that nigger,
if by nothing else!  That's the second time you saved my hide," and he
seized the hand extended to him, in a mighty grip.

"Well, these niggers were tougher customers than those four swaggering
Dutchmen, when all's said and done.  I haven't been in a good honest row
for a long while.  It does one good."

Mounting their horses they moved off, taking a farewell glance at the
place where the fallen savage still lay at full length, though he began
to show signs of returning consciousness.  And the still sunshine glowed
in all its former calmness, as though no fierce and deadly struggle had
just occurred to mar its peace.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER TWO.

RALPH TRUSCOTT'S QUEST.

On the same day that these events are occurring on the far Kaffrarian
border, two men are seated together in a dingy office just out of
Chancery Lane.  One is a solicitor, evidently the presiding genius of
the place--a man with a high, bald forehead, iron-grey hair, and a keen,
intellectual face; the other is a tall, dark, military-looking man,
faultlessly attired, who sits impatiently tapping his boots with his
cane while he listens to the lawyer in a half-incredulous and wholly
discontented frame of mind, which betrays itself only too plainly in his
eyes.  A striking-looking man, in age about five-and-thirty; but there
is an unmistakable air of dissipation, not to say excess, about the
lines of the handsome face--the air of one who had lived too hard and
too fast, and would be prematurely old.  And a superciliousness about
the mouth which the short black moustache did not conceal, and a cold,
unscrupulous look in the eyes, would effectually prevent the face from
ever being a pleasing one.

Ralph Truscott, late Captain in Her Majesty's --th Foot, was a firm
believer in the adage, "All's fair in love and war"--in the former half
of it literally, as more than one rather shady episode in his gallant
career might serve to show, were it known, which it was not, even within
his intimate circle; in the latter half as representing the multifold
'cute devices whereby he had staved off and otherwise evaded the just or
unjust demands of a swarm of importunate creditors, Jew and Gentile.  In
a word, the man was a born spendthrift; and having run through one large
fortune, and a second smaller one, in an incredibly short space of time,
found himself compelled to sell, and had been living upon his wits and
high play ever since.  Not that he had degenerated into a mere card-room
sharper--far from it--but he was noted as a man with an extraordinary
run of luck; and though some held significantly aloof from him in
connection with the card-table or the billiard-room, yet, on the whole,
he had not lost caste.  Of course it had occurred to him that he might
retrieve his fallen fortunes by picking up an heiress.  It ought not to
be difficult, for he was just the sort of individual who, gifted with a
striking exterior and unlimited assurance, might carry things pretty
much as he pleased among the society women of his--or of any--set.  But
this course was open to two objections.  One lay in his own inner
consciousness, which made him fully aware that in three years, at the
outside, he would inevitably have run through the lady's fortune, in
which case he would find himself again destitute, and saddled with a
wife to boot; the other, in the fact that though heiresses themselves
might be soft of heart and compliant of head, their parents or guardians
were not.  Indeed, some of these, in the obduracy of their stony hearts,
had been known to veto the transaction forthwith; while others, after a
few private inquiries into the circumstances and antecedents of this
enterprising individual, had briefly refused to entertain any of his
proposals, and had carried off their charges out of harm's way.  So,
Captain Ralph, repeatedly thwarted in his schemes of advancement, was
compelled perforce to abandon them.  He consoled himself, however, with
the thought that after all it was better to be a free man, even if
living was somewhat precarious, and gave up laying siege to the fair
sex, with an eye to the main chance.  But meanwhile his liabilities
decreased not, and at the time the reader has the honour of making his
acquaintance, he was, to use his own expression, "at his last kick" for
want of the needful.

Such was the man who now sat in the inner office of Messrs. Grantham and
Grantham, solicitors, in close confabulation with the senior partner.

"Then you can give me no more positive information?" he was saying.

"I'm sorry to say we can't," replied the lawyer.  "The young lady left
England more than four years ago--went to the Cape, I believe, as
governess or companion, or something or other in that line.  Since then
we have heard nothing of her."

"Do you think she is out there still?"

"My dear sir, it is impossible for us to say.  I repeat that it was more
than four years ago, and that we have not heard one word of her since."

"Well, I am surprised that you, of all people, should be so blankly
ignorant of her whereabouts, considering that it might be necessary to
communi--" He checked himself hurriedly, seeing that he had let out too
much.  "I mean--that her friends might be making inquiries after her."

The faintest possible smile lurked round the corners of the lawyer's
mouth.  He fancied that the other had let down his guard in that
incautious speech into which vexation had betrayed him.  And it was even
so.

"You are very interested in this lady's whereabouts," he said.

"Naturally.  We are relations--distant relations, that is."

"Indeed!  How, may I ask?"

"Well, you know--hang it all, I'm a deuced bad hand at pedigrees and all
that sort of thing, but we are, in a way, cousins, on the mother's
side," replied Truscott, testily, in a sort of tone which resented the
doubt thrown upon his statement by the other's inquisitiveness.

"I see," said the lawyer, balancing a paper-cutter upon his forefinger.
But though his features preserved their polite imperturbability, the
fact was, he did not believe one word of this statement.  "Let me see,
though," he went on, musingly; "I know who might be able to give you
some information."

"Who?" asked Truscott, eagerly looking up.

"Miss Dynevard, of Dynevard Chase.  She, you are aware, is Miss
Strange's stepsister."

The other's countenance fell.  He was more disappointed than he cared to
say.  Eveline Dynevard was the last person he could communicate with on
the subject.

"Er--yes; of course," he said, hurriedly.  "I had forgotten.  I will
write to Miss Dynevard."

"Can I make the inquiry for you?" asked the lawyer, politely.

"No--no, thanks.  I needn't trouble you further.  Much obliged; good
morning," and taking up his hat Truscott made his way out into the
street.

The lawyer went to the window and watched him turn the dingy corner.
"John," he said to his brother and junior partner, who at that moment
entered.  "You saw that chap who just went out from here.  He's got an
inkling of the contents of old Dynevard's will.  I read him like a book
as he sat there, clumsily trying to fish out the whereabouts of Miss
Strange."

"H'm!  Has he?" grunted John Grantham, who was the greatest possible
contrast to his more astute brother, in that he was short, red-faced,
and irritable.  "He didn't succeed, I hope?"

"No.  I couldn't have told him if I had wanted to, for the simple reason
that I don't know.  But he says he's her cousin."

"Hanky-panky," replied the other, with a contemptuous snort.  "I don't
believe a word of it.  It's easy to see what he's after.  And it would
be a bad day for Lilian Strange, or indeed for any other pretty girl,
when that rascal got making up to her.  I know Master Ralph Truscott and
his goings on, a good deal better than he thinks."

"Well, it's my opinion that the young lady's married long ago.  An
attractive girl like that is sure to be able to pick and choose in a
country where gentlewomen are scarce, I should imagine."

"Bless my soul--yes," assented the other, changing his coat, and
brushing his hat, preparatory to a start for home.  "And the sooner
friend Truscott goes to the devil, the better for society at large; he's
going there as fast as he can, as it is."

Meanwhile, the subject of this charitable remark was seated in a hansom
with his face turned westward.

"That damned lawyer was lying," he mused, "lying all the time.  I could
see it in his face, and it's those chaps' trade to lie.  He could have
told me if he had chosen.  Never mind, I'll be even with him yet.  I'll
go to the Cape; by Jove, I will, and at once; the sooner the better, and
this place is getting too hot for me just now.  A few months of travel
and sport, and it'll cool down again, and then, if I find the fair
Lilian--Find her?  I must find her, and I will."  Then a suggestion,
which Mr Grantham had thrown out, crossed his mind, and he turned hot
and cold over the idea.

"I think it not improbable that we might have to seek for her under
another name," the lawyer had said.  "Miss Strange, you are aware, was a
young lady of considerable attractions.  She may have married."

"No, she will not," repeated Truscott to himself, "I know her better
than that.  Unless--I don't know.  Time works queer changes.  What a
fool I was ever to let her out of my sight!  And yet how could I tell
that she would ever be worth keeping in it?  It was the merest fluke
that took me to Doctors' Commons this morning, and a still greater one
that moved me to look at old Dynevard's will.  I'll go out and look for
her, the game's worth the candle, and, by George, if I win--and why
shouldn't I?  She will almost throw herself into my arms, if only as a
contrast to the Kafirs and Boers she is living amongst.  Then I'll turn
over a new leaf.  I could with Lilian, almost, I think.  I never saw any
woman to come up to her, unless it was--well, never mind.  Yes, my luck
is on the turn.  Nearly six years ago, though.  I wonder what she's like
now."

He chuckled gleefully to himself as he leaned back in the cab and
lighted a cigar.  Then a thought struck him, and opening the trap in the
roof he shouted a direction to the driver.  The man turned his horse's
head and in a moment was speeding away Citywards.  Somehow, the reader
has already seen the dusty office-door before which Truscott leaped out
of his cab, as also the sharp boy who opened it.

"Is your master in?"

The boy nodded and jerked his thumb over his shoulder.  Quickly mounting
the stairs Truscott found himself in the same dingy apartment wherein
Claverton had sat, several years previously.

"Hullo, where's Morkum?" he asked, disappointedly.

"He is out for de day, sair," replied the occupant of the room, a
hook-nosed son of Benjamin, rising from the table at which he was
seated, and washing his hands with invisible soap, a process they
greatly needed with the material article.  "Can I not do anydings for
you?"

"Yes, you can, Schultz," said the other, in a conciliatory tone.  "The
fact is, I want to renew."

The Jew looked keenly at him, and his little eyes twinkled maliciously.

"I can't do it, sair.  De monish, you see, must be paid.  It is
over-due--over-due."

"What's the amount now?"

"Fifteen hundred and twenty-fife--six," answered Schultz, having duly
consulted a ponderous tome bound in leather.

"The devil!  Now look here, Schultz.  We'll renew, say for three months,
and you shall let me have the odd five hundred on your own terms."

"No, sair.  Mishter Morkum he said he cood not renew.  I was haf de
monish or--" and the speaker shrugged his shoulders in a way that was
highly suggestive.

"But don't you see, Schultz, I must renew, at any rate," said the other,
angrily.  "Don't be a damned fool now.  I'm on a good thing, I tell you,
and you shall be paid in full in a few months' time.  Don't you see?"

But the Israelite apparently did not see.  He was as obdurate towards
this Gentile, as the Egyptian Gentile had erewhile been towards his own
ancestors.  He only shrugged his shoulders and repeated: "Mishter
Morkum, he say I was haf de monish.  Fifteen hundred and twenty-fife--
six."

Then Truscott saw that it was useless, and, unfortunately for him, his
temper got the better of him.  He raved, and swore, and shook his fist
under the other's nose, threatening him with swift and sudden
annihilation, and abusing him and his partner in a torrent of the
coarsest invective he could lay tongue to.  But of his violence the
little Jew was not one whit afraid, for his hand was in his coat-pocket
and his fingers were grasping the butt of a revolver.  His wicked little
eyes sparkled like those of a rhinoceros, and the short grey bristles
stood up upon his upper lip, as he turned upon Truscott in wrath.

"Hein!  Vat do you shay?  You shall not bully me, I can tell you dat
much.  You call yourself a shentelman, inteed?  Yesh, you shall repent
of this, ven you are in shail, dat's vere you shall be.  If you come a
step nearer, I shall shoot you," he went on, producing his weapon, for
Truscott in another minute would have seized him by the throat and
dashed him to the floor.  But a bullet-wound would in no wise facilitate
the success of his enterprise, if the result were no worse, and this he
had the sense to see in a glimmering of reason which flashed in upon his
rage.  So he stopped, and, shaking his fist at the Jew, rushed from the
room with a final curse--the parting epithet and scornful laugh flung
after him by that worthy in no wise tending to allay his ire.

"Say, sonny," remarked the cabman to the smart boy at the door.  "The
Kernel's dustin' your guv'nor's jacket, ain't he?"  For the row going on
upstairs was in a measure audible in the street.

"Reckon he'll be the fust what's done it--and the last," replied the
imp, pulling a handful of nuts from his breeches-pocket, and proceeding
to crack them.  Then Truscott emerged, and, flinging himself into the
cab, started off westward.

"What a fool I was to get in a rage with the brute!" he thought,
bitterly.  "An utter fool!  Now I've about done for myself, unless I can
get away at once.  I'm starting on a fool's errand, though.  Six years--
or even five; it's a long time.  She may laugh in my face even if I find
her; and then again--Hang it!  I'll just have another look at the will
to make sure.  No; it's right enough, though.  Still, I'm starting off
on a regular fool's errand.  I've a good mind to give it up--a devilish
good mind.  But nothing venture, nothing win."

The last ray of the sickly September sunlight was slanting garishly over
the dust and whirl and roar of the great city, as he alighted at the
steps of his club.  Yes, a change would do him good, he thought, looking
around; and when he came back, why, then--Somehow he felt certain of
winning the game which he had set himself to play, and was quite elate.
But the only thorn in his side--and a very sharp one it was--lay in the
haunting fear lest the Jew should have him arrested before he could get
away.  And he could not get away for nearly a week.  He would go down in
the morning and see Morkum himself, and make it all right with that
dirty little Schultz.  Morkum was a reasonable fellow, and would be sure
to renew, if not to accommodate him further, once an inkling of the case
was laid before him; and as for Schultz, why, a bottle of champagne and
a slap on the back would salve his wounded feelings.

With this comforting resolve, Truscott dined sumptuously, and, in high
good-humour, started off to a friendly rubber, at which he reckoned to
make some nice little pickings.  It was a fine evening--he would walk;
so, lighting a cigar, he stepped out briskly, humming a popular tune,
and thinking over his prospects if this move succeeded.

Before he had gone far, some one accosted him.

"Beg pardon, Capting.  Sorry to trouble a gentleman--"

"What the devil do you want?" cried Truscott, angrily, an uncomfortable
idea taking hold of him.

"I must arrest you, Capting, at the soot of Silas B. Morkum and Co,"
replied the other, touching him on the shoulder.  "Very sorry, sir,
extremely sorry; but dooty is dooty--ain't that right, Tom?"

"Tom," a thin, quiet-looking individual, who might be anything, from a
Russian spy to a Methodist class leader, nodded, and replied:

"That's so, Bill."

"But look here," cried Truscott, "I'm going down to see Morkum the first
thing in the morning.  Can't we make some arrangement for to-night?  The
fact is, I've got an important engagement now."

The sheriff's officer smiled pityingly.

"Extremely sorry, Capting, but the thing can't be done.  We'll jest go
quietly to my little crib now, and in the morning you can send and let
your friends know.  Here's the writ; better look at it for yourself,
Capting, and see that all's fair, square, and above-board.  Fifteen
hundred and twenty-five--six.  Cab, Tom."

"Damn the writ!" cried Truscott, savagely.

And then, as they entered the rickety, jolting vehicle, he relapsed into
silence.  Fifteen hundred and twenty-five pounds!  It might be fifteen
million for all the chance there was of his being able to pay a third of
it; for even he had at last come to the end of his tether.  And no one
would be likely to help him either; and this scheme, upon which he had
been building such hopes, must fall through, for every day was of
importance now.  And all its glowing chances looked fairer than ever now
that he was compelled to abandon it; and his bright castles in the air
seemed crumbling away in the very dust.  So, with rage and despair in
his heart, Ralph Truscott alighted at the door of the low
sponging-house--his prison; whither he was consigned at the suit of
Silas B. Morkum and Co, and whence he should not depart until he had
satisfied the debt to the very last farthing; a requirement which at
present he saw remarkably small prospect of fulfilling.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER THREE.

THE FRIEND IN NEED.

George Payne and his newly-found friend--a veritable friend in need upon
this occasion even as on a former one--kept on their way, winding along
the picturesque heights overlooking the Kei, and exchanging many a
reminiscence of their past acquaintance.

"To think of your turning up like this," said the former.  "Why, I
thought you were still away up in the interior and never meant to come
near these parts again."

"Well, I don't know.  Fact is, after a few years of wandering, one has
pretty well done this not too interesting continent, at least the
southern part of it; and now I'm thinking of going somewhere else."

"And you've come straight down country, now?"

"Yes; ridden all the way.  It would be inconvenient in some ways were it
not that one is indifferent to the exigencies of civilisation after such
a spell of savagery as I've been having.  One can't carry much baggage,
for instance."

"Is that all you've got?" said Payne, glancing at the valise strapped
across the other's saddle.

"Yes; I had the rest sent to Komgha.  It's a good way from your place,
but we might pick it up if it was wanted."

"Better leave it there at present."

"Why?"

"Well, it's an even chance that we may all have to trek into laager
there or somewhere, any day; and it's safe there, at any rate."

"Are things as fishy as that?"

"They are," replied Payne.  "A lot of the Dutchmen down towards the
coast are already in laager; but they're a white-livered lot, when all's
said and done, so that doesn't mean much.  Still, from one or two things
I heard to-day, I should say that we shall have some tall rifle practice
before long.  I'm no alarmist; on the contrary, I've more than once been
advised to send the wife and kids away to the town, but I don't think
there's any occasion for that just yet."

"No, perhaps not.  And it's as well to keep straight as long as you can.
Directly one begins to trek, another does--then another--and soon
there's a regular panic."

"Rather.  Now there was a scare on in the year of the big flood, and a
lot of fellows round here began laagering, and one heard such a lot of
war shop talked, that one almost wished there was some reason for it.
Well, I remained through it all.  I had only just come up here then, and
didn't see the fun of leaving my place to run to wrack and ruin just as
I had got it a little square and shipshape, so I stuck to it, and other
fellows did the same; and we had the laugh of those who ran away in a
funk."

"That was a bad scare, though."

"It was," said Payne.  "The niggers were quite as cheeky then as they
are now, and you've just had a specimen of what that is.  By the way,
don't mention that little scrimmage to the wife; she's very susceptible
to scare, as it is, and once she heard of that, life would be a burden
to her whenever I was away from home.  Lately, she's done nothing but
predict that I should come to grief."

"All right.  I'll keep dark."

"Here we are at last," said Payne, as they entered a narrow gorge
between two high hills, and emerging upon a sort of basin-like hollow,
beheld a substantial-looking farmhouse.  In front, a sweep of smooth
sward sloping down to the dam, in whose still surface a cluster of
willows lay mirrored, as they drooped their boughs to the water's edge;
around this a few strips of enclosed and cultivated land, and a
fruit-garden bordered by high quince hedges.  On either side of the
hollow, just far enough apart for the place not to be "shut in," rose
green lofty heights, with here and there a clump of dark bush in their
rifts and chasms; and two little streams of clear water met in the
valley and dashed along past the homestead, sparkling as they joined
their forces in a leaping, rushing rivulet--an invaluable boon in that
land of drought.  But it was not until one reached the house, which was
situated on a slight eminence in the hollow, that the full charm of the
situation became appreciable.  Then, standing on the _stoep_, which ran
round two sides of the building, on the one hand the Kei hills bounded
the limit of vision; while on the other, focussed, as through a glass,
between the double range of green heights narrowing as they stretched
further and further away, a panorama of rolling bush country, with here
and there a purple ridge rising in the sunny air, found its limit on the
distant horizon.  The house itself was a good specimen of the
old-fashioned frontier abode, with its thatched roof and canvas
ceilings.  It had been added to by the present owner, and was fairly
roomy and comfortable.  A passage intersected it, on either side of
which, a door opened into a sitting-room and dining-room respectively,
while another door from the latter communicated with the continuation of
the _stoep_, which ran round that side of the building.  Such was
Payne's home--Fountain's Gap--so called from the two streams which met
and flowed through the beautiful hollow, at either end of which one
looked out upon the country beyond as through a gap.

"So this is your crib," remarked our new acquaintance, glancing
critically around, as if to take in all the capabilities of the
situation.  "It strikes me as an uncommonly good one.  Why, that stream
alone ought to be a fortune to you."

"Yes; it's a good all-round place," assented Payne, perceptibly
gratified.  "You see, I've got a good deal of land under cultivation
here round the dam.  I'm going to break up any amount more, and go in
strong for agriculture, as soon as this confounded scare, or war,
whichever it's to be (and I don't care which), is over.  It's of no use
making a lot of improvements, only to be ravaged by these black devils--
is it?"

"Not in the least."

They were now skirting the stream, which here flowed past the dam,
communicating with it by a runnel cut with spades.

"Let's dismount here," said Payne, "unless you're tired, and would
rather go in.  You're not?  Well then, look.  Here's where I was
thinking I might run up a mill one of these days; with this water power
one might do anything.  Higher up it's even better.  Wait, we'll get rid
of our horses and stroll along a bit," and a stentorian call brought a
young Kafir running down from the out-buildings, as also three or four
rough, fierce-looking dogs in open-mouthed clamour.  The latter were
soon pacified, and leaped around their master in boisterous glee,
wagging their tails and whining joyously as he patted them, or bestowed
a playful punch upon some shaggy hide, while a precautionary sniff
having satisfied them as to the stranger's respectability, they
forthwith took him into their confidence in a less mirthful and more
dignified manner.

"Here, Booi," went on Payne.  "Take the horses up to the stable, and
off-saddle them.  Is the missis in?"

"Don't know, Baas," answered the Kafir, grinning.

"Don't you?  When did one of you fellows ever know anything?  Now hook
it," and as the boy led away their steeds, the two strolled on, Payne
pointing out the capabilities of his water advantages, and enlarging on
his schemes of improvement; for this farm of his was his hobby, and in
his heart of hearts he hoped some day to make it a model in the way of
progress, as showing what might be done even there by a fellow with a
little "go" in him.

They crossed the stream by a plank bridge, and now stood looking down
it, scarcely, a hundred yards from the house, Payne still expatiating.

"Yes, with a place like this," he said, "one ought to be able to do
anything.  It's splendid pasturage, well situated, any amount of water,
in fact, everything.  And now comes this confounded war to upset the
whole coach--Hullo!"

The exclamation is one of surprise and alarm as he turns round.  His
companion is standing rigid and motionless.  Every particle of blood has
fled from his face, leaving the sun-browned cheeks sallow and livid.
His eyes are fixed and dilated, and one hand nervously grips the rail of
the bridge against which he is leaning.

"Man alive--what's up?" cried Payne, anxiously.  "You look as if you had
seen a ghost."

"Nothing--nothing at all," replied the other, with a faint smile.  "I'm
all right again now; don't make a fuss, it's nothing.  I think it's a
remnant of that infernal up-country fever which I can't thoroughly shake
off.  It left me as weak as a rat, and even yet I feel the effects now
and then, as you see," and again he made a ghastly attempt at a laugh.

"By Jove!" cried Payne, in alarm.  "Did you get hit in that shindy just
now?"

"No; don't be afraid--I'm all right.  It was only a slight seizure," and
his hand, as he removed it from the rail, still trembled a little, but
the colour returned to his cheek.

What should have so violently moved this man, who looked as if nothing
could disturb his placid equanimity for an instant?  It could not be
that he was in a weak state of health or of nerve, for had he not just
engaged, single-handed, in an encounter with three daring ruffians, and
come off victorious?  And his weather-tanned features betokened health
and strength as clearly as if he had not known a day's illness for
years.  The heat was not overpowering; he had not been riding fast, or
in any way exerting himself, nor was he subject to attacks of faintness.
No, there was nothing.  Unless it was that through the quiet air of
that sunlit valley came the sound of a woman's voice--a rich, full,
sweet voice, distant but clear--singing a pathetic ballad.

"Are you sure?" went on Payne, looking at him concernedly.  "Well, let's
go up to the house and have some brandy and water, you'll want it, after
that, and the sooner the better."

"Payne," said the other, with a sort of sternness, laying his hand on
his arm.  "I don't want anything just now.  If you make a fraction of
fuss about me or my idiotic attack, I'll ascend that horse of mine and
say good-bye this very evening."

"Eccentric as ever!" replied Payne, with a laugh.  "My dear fellow, you
shall do nothing of the sort, and I'll promise not to bother you in any
way.  Come along, let's go in."

They walked towards the house, and as they approached it the song ended.
Had that man been afflicted with heart disease he would assuredly have
dropped down dead on the threshold, for a mist was before his eyes and
his heart was beating as if it would burst.

"This way," said Payne, ushering his guest into the empty sitting-room.
"I'll tell the wife you're here," and, closing the door, he left him
alone.

Alone?  Payne, while he stood holding the door open, could not see the
piano at the far end of the room, and now as he closed it, the graceful
figure of a lady, who had apparently been occupied in looking through a
pile of music in the corner, rose to greet the new arrival.  His back
was to the light as she first saw him.

"Have you ridden far to-day?" she began, in a pleasant conversational
voice.  Then with a faint, gasping cry as if she had been stabbed, she
reeled back and leaned against the piano, her face ashy white, and
trembling in every limb.

"Arthur!"

"Lilian!"

He made three steps towards her, and stopped short.  No, he dared not
even touch her.  She belonged to another, now.  She was the wife of his
host and friend, the man whose life he had just saved.  Why had _he_, of
all others, been sent there only just in time to rescue that life, and
then have been brought on to this house to witness what the saving of
that life involved?  What power of evil had sent him to this fiery
torment--this pang which was worse than hell--as he stood there looking
upon the woman who possessed the love of his whole nature, and whose
pure-souled, beautiful face had ever been before his mental gaze, night
and day, during three years and a half of lonely wanderings?  What had
he done to deserve this torture?  Like a lightning flash these
reflections pierced through his brain as he stood gazing, with a
terrible agonised stare, upon the delicate beauty of face and form which
had taken all the sunshine and gladness out of his existence, and now
stood before him owned by another, and that other the man whose life he
had just saved.

Something in his look froze her where she stood.  Was she thinking much
the same as himself?  With hands clasped tightly before her, and eyes
fixed upon his with a despairing fear, she whispered hoarsely:

"I thought I should never see you again.  I thought--Oh, God--I
thought--that you were--dead!"

The last ray of the sinking son shot from over the western hills,
entering the window and flooding with a golden and then a ruddy halo the
pale, anguish-stricken face and the wealth of dusky hair.  And there
they stood, those two who had been parted three long weary years and
twice that number of months.  There they stood--suddenly thrown
together, as it were, by the hand of Fate--facing each other, yet
speechless.  Three years and a half of parting, and now to meet again--
thus.

"I knew it must be you," he said at length, slowly.  "When I heard those
words I knew they could be sung by no one else--like that."

For it was the same ballad which she had sung on that night at Seringa
Vale, when he was betrayed into the first avowal of his love, nearly
four years ago; and the first words which had thrilled upon his ear now,
as he recovered from his sudden attack of faintness, was the conclusion
of the sad and mournful refrain.

And then this man, whose death she had mourned long and in secret,
suddenly stood before her.

When last we saw Claverton lying fever-racked in the Matabili hut, he
was certainly as near to death's door as ever man was without actually
passing that grim portal; and when the uncivilised bystanders, with
bated breath, whispered their verdict, it was only the one which would
have been returned by any onlooker.  Falling back, he had lain to all
appearance dead; but that very swoon had been the means of saving his
life, at least, such was the unhesitating opinion of one or two to whom
he afterwards told the circumstances, though of course not what had
caused the swoon, and who, from their training and practice, were
qualified to judge.  His life must have been saved by a miracle, said
they.  What that miracle was he did not feel called upon to tell them.
The sight--sudden and vivid in its distinctness--of a face the dying man
had longed, with a terrible hopeless longing, to see; death had no
terrors for him, his whole soul was concentrated on this one agonising
desire, and it had been fulfilled.  The sight of that loved face,
momentary as it was, had calmed him into a peaceful, death-like sleep,
and the crisis was past.  Had it been that in some mysterious manner,
triumphing over nature, spirit had gone to meet spirit on that dark
winter night?  Who can tell?  The end effected would have sufficed to
justify such a departure from the law of nature, for it is certain that
the apparition, whether due to the imagination of a fever-distorted
brain, or to whatever cause, was the saving of Claverton's life.

Then, almost too soon after his recovery, he had wandered on.  He had
come through the Transvaal, and past the gold fields of the great Dutch
Republic, and now he pushed on beyond the haunts of man striving after
gain, farther and farther into the interior, where the gnu and quagga
roamed the vast plains in countless herds; where the giraffe browsed in
the green mimosa dales, and the elephant and rhinoceros crushed through
the tangled jungle--at night terrific with the resounding roar of the
forest king.  On--ever on--alone, save for three or four native
followers to look after his waggon and aid in the chase.

And he had borne a charmed life.  He it was who had shot the huge lion
in mid-air as it leaped right over him to seize one of the oxen tied
fast for the night in the strong brushwood enclosure, the mighty frame
falling nearly upon him as it bit and ramped in the agonies of death.
He it was who had confronted the hostile Matabili chief and his six
hundred men, when that truculent potentate had demanded the person of
one of his followers in satisfaction for some trifling larceny committed
by the hapless lad upon their mealie gardens, and dared the barbarian
and his armed warriors so much as to lay a finger upon him or his; and
the fierce savage, in admiring awe of his sublime indifference to death
or danger, had suddenly become his fast friend, though a moment before,
the chances were a hundred to one against his leaving the spot alive.
He it was who had swum out into the river swarming with crocodiles, and
rescued this very follower, none other than the same, the Natal boy,
Sam--who had watched him through his illness at the Matabili kraal--who,
carried off his feet by the force of the current, was being borne away
down the river, and the other natives had given him up as lost.  And
many and many a hair-breadth escape had he, by field and flood, until
the natives began to look upon him as a sort of god, and his own body
servants felt safer in his service from danger or sickness than they
would have done surrounded by British regiments in the former
contingency, or protected by all the "charms" of their most renowned
_izanusi_ [wizards] in the latter.  For he was absolutely indifferent to
death, and consequently death was indifferent to him.

And ever before him, whether amid all the rapturous excitement of the
chase, in the glowing noonday, or in the awesome solitude of the
midnight camp far in the heart of the wilderness, hundreds of miles from
the nearest haunt of civilised man, with the roar of the lion and the
howl of the hyaena echoing along the reedy bank of some turbid lagoon;
while he watched the scintillating eyes of savage beasts glowing like
live coals out of the surrounding gloom as they prowled around his
encampment, haply waiting for the sinking watch-fire to fade
altogether--amid all this, and ever before him, there was one beautiful
face present to his mind's eye, as he had seen it, looking smilingly at
him in the soft moonlight, or set and despairing as he had last gazed
upon it that day in the golden noontide, beneath the old pear-tree.  And
as years went on they brought with them no solace, and now he had
returned to civilisation, intending shortly to leave for ever the land
which had made only to mar the successes of his life.

He had changed slightly--and changed for the better--for his years of
wandering in the wilderness.  He was in splendid condition, broader of
chest and firmer-looking, though not one whit less active than in the
old days; but the impatient, restless expression had departed from his
eyes, leaving one of settled calm, the imperturbability of a man who
feels that he has lived his life, and that his past is a far-away
state--a vista, fair and lovely, perhaps, to look back upon, as the
traveller looks back in memory upon some beautiful tract he has left
behind--but still another and a different state of being.  Such was
Arthur Claverton, as brought there by a marvellous freak of the hand of
Fate, he stood once more face to face with his first and only love.

Suddenly the voice of his host on the _stoep_ recalled him to himself;
recalled both of them, and, with a sigh, Lilian turned round as if to
resume what she had been doing, in reality to collect herself, and Payne
entered.

"Hallo," he said.  "You here, Miss Strange?  Let me introduce my friend;
or have you already been making acquaintance?"

Claverton started as if he had been shot, and the room seemed to go
round with him.  "Miss Strange!"  She was not this man's wife, then, or
anybody's.  He hardly heard what was said after that; though outwardly
cool and collected.  Then the revulsion of feeling was succeeded by a
relapse almost as overwhelming as the first.  For was it likely, he
argued, that she would listen to him now, any more than that morning
three years and a half ago--when for the second time she refused his
love?  And his reason answered, No.  Still it was a weight lifted, the
discovery that she was not married to his host, as he had at first
thought.  He had never seen Payne's wife, nor had that genial-hearted
soul ever touched upon the subject of his spouse in such way as to
enable him to form any idea of her personal appearance.  Nor had Payne
mentioned the fact of there being a guest in his house.  And then
Lilian's own words--"_I_ thought that I should never see you again--I
thought that you were dead," spoken as if in explanation of her own
circumstances.  No wonder he had jumped to that conclusion.  Well, it
did not matter either way, he told himself.  He would importune her no
more--he could follow the only course open to him--he would go.  She
might tolerate his presence just this one evening, and on the morrow he
could depart before any of the household were astir, even as he had done
once before.

It may be wondered what Payne had been about all this time, after
unconsciously leaving these two together.  On going to the back of the
house, the first sight that met his gaze was a troop of young cattle
plunging over a fence and careering madly about one of his cultivated
strips destined to become a model kitchen garden.  To dash off then and
there, and eject the intruders before damage, widespread and sore, was
done, became at once the object of his life, and forgetting for the
moment the very existence of his guest--or, indeed, of anybody--away he
started; but the work of reparation was also one of time, and not until
all possibility of a recurrence of the damage had been practically
guarded against, did he so much as begin to think of returning to the
house.

Fortunately the darkness of the room, as the shades of evening deepened,
kept Payne from noticing Lilian's deathly paleness, and he chatted on in
high good-humour, till the sound of voices and laughter in the passage
proclaimed the advent of his wife and olive-branches--the latter,
Lilian's charges; for she was still plying that delightfully
remunerative and much appreciated craft--teaching the young idea.

"Well, Lilian," cried Mrs Payne, a bright, cheery little woman of about
her own age, or perhaps a year or two older.  "You'd much better have
come out with me instead of moping indoors, on this lovely afternoon,
over that wretched music.  Why, who's this?"  Then a due introduction
having been effected, she shook hands cordially with the new arrival.
"Ah, Mr Claverton, I'm so glad to see you.  I'm always at that dear,
stupid old George for not bringing you here, after saving his life that
time; but I'm so glad you've found us out at last."

"That dear, stupid old George," the while, was winking at Claverton over
his spouse's shoulder, his satirical nature hugely tickled by the
flutter which the news of the other's opportune aid a second time
rendered would cast her into.  He would tell her some day, but not just
yet.

Claverton laughed.  "Well, you see, Mrs Payne, he could hardly have
done that, because I was bound in the opposite direction, but I've taken
advantage of my opportunity as soon as I fell in with it, and here I
am."

"What!  Do you mean to say you've been wandering about up the country
ever since?"

"Of course he has," struck in Payne.  "But hadn't we better get all snug
for the evening?  It's about feeding-time!  Here, Claverton, come this
way, I dare say you'll like to put your head into cold water.  And,
Annie, just tell those kids to shut up that infernal clatter," he added,
as the uproar of juvenile romping, mingled with many a shrill laugh,
came rather too distinctly from an inner room.

And how comes it that Lilian Strange, whom we last saw at Seringa Vale,
should be quietly installed in this Kaffrarian border dwelling?  It will
be necessary to glance back.

Not long after we saw her, hopeless and heartbroken, more than three
years back, an event happened which caused her to forget for a time her
own grief in the sore affliction of others, of her dearest and truest
friends.  One day Mr Brathwaite started for his accustomed ride round
the farm, but the afternoon slipped by and then evening came, and he did
not return.  His horse, however, did; for just as Mrs Brathwaite, in
anxiety and alarm, was about to send forth in search of him, that
quadruped put in an appearance, with the rein still on its neck, and
limping up to the stable-door as if it had been injured.  Then they
started in search, leaving Mrs Brathwaite a prey to the most terrible
forebodings, which were realised only too soon.  The old settler was
found lying in the _veldt_, unable to move.  His horse, he said, had put
its foot in a hole, stumbled and rolled over with him, falling upon him;
no bones were broken, but he feared he had received some internal injury
as he could not move without great pain.  Carefully they carried him
home, and he was put to bed.  Tenderly did his wife and Lilian watch
beside him the night through, while Hicks was riding at a hand-gallop to
fetch a doctor from the district town.  An errand, alas, which was only
too futile; for as the clear dawn quivered glowing and chill over the
homestead at Seringa Vale the sufferer's spirit passed slowly away, and
the beams of the rising sun, darting in at the window, lighted upon the
face of a corpse and two watchers weeping by a bedside.

Thus died Walter Brathwaite--the staunch, persevering settler, the
pioneer of industry and advancement in a new and far-away land, and,
above all, the genial, noble-hearted gentleman.  One who had never
turned his back on friend or foe, a man who had never been guilty of a
mean action or reaped advantage from the misfortune of his fellows; open
of hand, kindly of heart and firm of head, he died as he had lived,
regretted, loved, and respected by all who knew him.  And that country
is fortunate which can show many of his like.

And in the dark and rayless days that followed, it was Lilian's task to
whisper words of consolation and hope to the sorrowing widow, crushed to
the very earth in her sudden and comfortless grief; and in no better
hands could it have devolved.  But within the year Mrs Brathwaite had
followed her husband, and Lilian, who, up to then, had tended her with
more than all the loving care of a daughter, watched over her to the
last.

"God bless you, dearie," had been the dying woman's parting words to
her.  "You have given yourself up to the comfort and happiness of
others; some day it will return to you a hundredfold.  Only be patient."

They buried her beside her husband; and in one disastrous day, sad
indeed had been the change wrought in that peaceful, happy home.  And
then Lilian, craving for work and diversion, had gone back to her old
line of life, which, involving a constant tax on her energies, would
afford her both the one and the other.  So here she was, after a lapse
of years, installed at Fountain's Gap, ostensibly as the preceptress of
Mrs Payne's children, in reality as companion to that good-hearted
little woman herself, who had taken an immense fancy to her, and,
moreover, hated being left alone, as must, otherwise, inevitably be
frequently the case from the very nature of her husband's pursuits.

"Did you hear anything fresh in Komgha to-day, George?" asked his wife,
when they were seated at the table.  The curtains were drawn and the
room looked snug and homelike.

"Two more troops of Police ordered over the Kei."

"Oh, dear.  That looks bad.  We are in a dreadful state of scare now,
Mr Claverton," she explained.  "I can hardly sleep at night for
thinking of it--and right in the middle of those wretches, too."

"_We_ are!" rejoined Payne, good-humouredly.  "Say, rather, you are.
The fact is, Claverton, my wife thinks of nothing but fire and sword,
morning, noon, and night, till she's worked herself up to such a pitch
that every time a drunken nigger howls in the _veldt_ she vows they are
raising the war-cry."

"Well, but you know there is reason for it," retorted she.  "And if it
gets any worse, Lilian and I will go away with the children to
Grahamstown or somewhere.  I really am frightened."

"That's a long way," said Payne, banteringly.  "I also heard that the
new Governor was coming up to the frontier."

"Ah, we're getting the news by degrees," exclaimed his wife.  "What else
did you hear?"

"That a policeman rode in from the Transkei this morning."

"What news did he bring?"

"I don't know."

"There now.  You never find out anything.  Some day we shall all be
taken by surprise and murdered in our beds."

"Ha, ha, ha?" laughed Payne.  "Well, at any rate, you're no worse than
the people at Komgha.  If an express rides in, they jump to the
conclusion that Kreli is marching on their precious town at the head of
twenty thousand men.  For my part I don't believe there'll be a shindy
at all.  It's only another case of scare."

But he did believe it, only he thought a pious fraud justifiable to
reassure the womenkind.

"When I'm big," remarked Harry Payne, aged seven, "I'll have a gun and
shoot a great _schelm_ Kafir."

"But, Harry, he may shoot you first," said Lilian, during the laugh that
followed upon this interruption.

"No he won't," persisted the embryo warrior.  "I'll shoot him."

It was the first time Lilian had spoken, and Claverton, who was sitting
opposite her and almost as silent, heard with a thrill that low, sweet
voice which had haunted his dreams and his waking thoughts during the
long years of solitude.  He had been furtively watching her, noting
every turn of the beautifully poised head, striving to catch a glance
from the sweet, serious eyes, which somehow were never suffered to meet
his.  And he likewise noted that Lilian Strange at twenty-seven was, if
possible, even more lovely and winning to behold than on that day just
four years ago, when he had first gazed upon the vision which had
completely altered the course of his life.  Not even the most spiteful
of critics could say of her that she had "gone off."  A trifle graver
perhaps, but it was a gravity that suited well her soft, dark beauty;
and the smile, when it did come, lit up the serene, exquisite face as
the ripple of a sunbeam on a sleeping pool.  And it was just such a
smile as this which caused a tug of pain at Claverton's heart, when the
urchin uttered his bellicose aspiration.

"By the time you're big enough for that, sonny, there may be occasion
for it, not before," said Payne, as he wheeled back his chair.  "Come
and have a smoke on the _stoep_, Claverton.  What!  Did you say, `No'?"

"That's what I said."

"Well!  Here's a transformation!  Why, you haven't given up the only
sociable habit--Ah, I see.  Ladies, you may score a triumph; you have
tamed this savage.  He is going to give up the soothing weed in favour
of your more soothing society.  But I am not, therefore for the
present--so long," and with a laugh the light-hearted fellow went out,
cramming his pipe as he went.

"Now, Mr Claverton, we shall expect you to tell us some most thrilling
adventures," said his hostess.  "You must have a great stock of them."

"I assure you I have none," he began.

"Oh, that won't do.  But tell me the ins and outs of that affair when
you first met George."

Claverton started.  His wits were, in popular phraseology,
wool-gathering; and at first he thought of to-day's row.  Then he
remembered.

"That affair at De Klerk?  It wasn't much of a thing.  Payne was holding
his own gallantly against four big Dutchmen, and I came up in time to
turn the scale.  You said something about his life just now, but his
life wasn't in danger; the most they'd have done would have been to have
given him rather a mauling."

"What was it about?" asked Lilian.

"The right of outspan, usual bone of contention in Dutch neighbourhoods.
And just then the Boers were rather sore about the Gold Fields, and
made themselves very nasty to any one coming from or going to that sham
El Dorado."

"Sham!  Yes, it is a sham; George did no good by going," said Mrs
Payne, rising.  "Now, children, bed-time," and with the reluctant
juveniles she left the room; and again those two were alone together.

Claverton, who had hoped for such a moment, now that it had come, felt
utterly tongue-tied.  He felt that he had no right to rake up the past.
She herself had buried it, and now that they were unexpectedly thrown
together again, he felt that it would be unfair to her, not to say
obtrusive, to revert to the forbidden subject.  And yet what was he to
say to her?  Every topic they had in common was inextricably interwoven
with that terribly painful past, which was as fresh and unhealed in his
heart as on the morning when she had bidden him leave her.

"Do you know, I had not the remotest idea I should find you here
to-day?" he began, rather lamely.

"Hadn't you?  I suppose not," she answered, speaking quickly, and her
fingers busy at some needlework, trembled ever so slightly.

"How long have you known the Paynes?"

"Nearly three years.  Just before Mrs Brathwaite's death."

"What!  Is Mrs Brathwaite dead?" he asked, in astonishment.

"Didn't you know?" she replied.  And then she gave him the history of
the sad events which had followed so soon upon his leaving Seringa Vale,
and he listened in amazement, for he had only just returned straight
from the interior, and thus, as it were, into the world again.

"I am very grieved to hear this," he said, when she had finished.  "They
were the truest, kindest friends that ever man had.  I little thought I
should never see them again.  And I suppose Jim reigns in the old place,
now?"

"Yes," she answered sadly, and then there was silence for a few moments.
The conversation was taking a decidedly dangerous turn, and Lilian
began to feel embarrassed.  Perhaps it was as well that Mrs Payne
returned, having disposed of her offspring in their various couches, and
almost immediately her lord entered from the _stoep_, bringing in a
whiff of fresh night air not guiltless of tobacco smoke.

"Grand night!" he exclaimed, flinging down his hat in high good-humour.
"We'll have a ride over the place to-morrow, eh, Claverton?"

Claverton assented mechanically, thinking the while how he might be far
enough away by that time.  Then a little more conversation, and a move
was made to retire.  How narrowly he scanned Lilian's face, while he
held her fingers in ever so lingering a clasp as he bade her good-night!
He could read nothing there.  And then, mechanically again, he followed
his host to the room prepared for him, and once more he was alone.

Then what a rush of recollections swept over his mind, as he sat at the
open window looking out upon the still night!  All the years of
wandering, of peril, and of hardship, were bridged over as by a single
night, and once more it seemed as if he had just heard his doom only a
few hours since, in the garden at Seringa Vale.  And now Fate had thrown
him beneath the same roof with this woman, whom he had never expected
nor dared hope to see again.  He had once more looked into her eyes, and
drank in the sound of her voice--once more had held her hand in his, and
now the old wound, never even so much as cicatrised over, was lacerated
afresh, and gaped open and bleeding.  Could he have been brought here
for the mere sport of circumstances, or was it with a purpose--a deeper
import?  And with the superstition in small things which often, and in
spite of himself, clings to a man who has travelled much and in
solitude, he grasped the idea.  Yet he dared not hope.  Hope and he had
parted company long since, he told himself.  But he made up his mind
that, at any rate, he would not leave his friend's hospitable roof the
next day; and having arrived at that conclusion he fell asleep, and
slept soundly.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FOUR.

"SO THE FACE BEFORE HER LIVED, DARK-SPLENDID..."

And what of her to whom this long, weary period had been so many years
and so many months of terrible self-reproach?  To her, though Time had
brought no solace, it had brought a certain amount of resignation; and
she had been able to school herself to face the future as best she
might.  Then suddenly, without so much as a moment's warning, this man
whom she had mourned as dead, whom she had wept and prayed for, night
and morning, as one whom she would never again behold here on earth,
stood before her.  She had looked up, expecting to see a stranger--and
there _he_ stood!  No wonder the blood forsook her ashy face and her
heart stood still.

And now, in the dark, silent hours, she can scarcely realise it.  It
must be a dream--such a one as she had many and many a time awakened
from to find her pillow wet with tears.  Would she now awaken to find
herself once more the dupe of one of those cruel hallucinations?  No,
this was real, she told herself; and looking back upon that meeting,
awful in its suddenness, she wondered how she had so preserved her
calmness.  And he--he had shrunk from her--stopped short as soon as he
recognised her.  No wonder.  She had sent him away with bitter words,
with hard, cruel words, as a last recollection.  How could he tell the
agonies of remorse, of repentance, of vain, passionate yearning, which
her life had since undergone?  Time had gone by--perhaps he had
eradicated from his heart the image of her who had made a plaything of
it, as it must seem to him; perhaps some other image had taken its
place.  Better she could have continued to mourn him as dead than that.
She forgot, in her anguish, how he had been wandering ever since they
two parted--wandering afar in the wild interior, among its wilder
inhabitants, alone with his own thoughts and her memory.  She forgot all
this as, the night through, she lay and tortured herself with these and
kindred reflections.

And even if things were not so, and he had come back as he went, was
there not the same barrier between them?  Now that she was face to face
with it once more, could she be false to her word any more now than
then?  Did not the old obstacle once more arise?  No, it did not.  From
that fatal promise she had been absolved since then, absolved by the
inexorable hand of Death--not always a merciless enemy--and at this
moment she was free, absolutely free.  But what availed her freedom now?
Years ago it would have meant everything--life, love, and happiness--
but now--

One by one the stars paled overhead, a faint glow suffused the eastern
sky, and, with a chill tremor, the dawn swept clearer and clearer over
the sleeping earth.  Very soothing to Lilian's tired brow was the fresh,
cool air as she leaned out of the window, restless and fevered, after a
sleepless night.  For a few moments thus she stood, watching the shadows
lightening upon the hills around, then, dressing hurriedly, she
descended, intending to enjoy the early freshness before any one should
be astir.

Noiselessly unlocking the front door, she passed out; and never had the
pure morning air seemed more grateful or invigorating.  She walked to
the gate at the end of the _stoep_ and turned the key--tried to turn it,
rather, for it was firm.  Then she tried again with all the strength of
her two hands; but no; the wretched instrument moved not a hair's
breadth, and she stood contemplating a deep-blue imprint on her own
delicate palm--the sole result of her attempt.

"Allow me," said a voice, and immediately the recalcitrant key yielded,
with a creak and a snap, to the vigorous turn of a strong hand.
"There," said the new arrival, swinging open the gate.  "Are you taking
an early stroll?"

Upon what a startled ear had that voice fallen!  Her first impulse was
to disclaim all intention of early exercise, and to go back indoors; but
she answered in the affirmative.

"I wonder if my company would bore you greatly?" went on Claverton.
"Singularly enough, I turned out early with the same intent, and Fate
seems to have thrown us together."

Did he say this with a meaning? she wondered.  Fate had indeed thrown
them together.

"It would be very ungrateful of me to refuse it," she answered, with a
smile, "when you have just overcome such an obstacle in the way of my
going out at all."

They walked along in silence for a few moments, side by side--those two,
who had been so long parted.

"Do you find this place as pretty as Seringa Vale?" he asked.

The question somewhat took her aback.  Why did he wish to recur to the
past?  "No; I have never seen anything like that," answered she.  "Still
this is very beautiful in its way.  Mr Payne thinks it the most perfect
spot on earth."

"And--are you happy here, Lilian?"

"Yes; I have no right to be otherwise.  In fact, I consider myself very
fortunate."

"Oh."

They had reached the little wooden bridge whence he had first caught the
notes of the old, familiar ballad the evening before.  Crossing it, they
turned down a path between two high pomegranate hedges.  Beyond was a
garden--cool, leafy, and inviting--where birds twittered and chirped in
the morning air.  A gleam beyond the Kei hills betokened the advent of
the sun.

"It's marvellously warm for daybreak at this time of year," began
Claverton after a pause.  "I hope it doesn't mean a storm in the
afternoon, because that isn't exactly an auspicious opening to a
journey."

"A journey!" echoed Lilian, blank dismay in her face and in her tone.
"_You_ are not going away--to-day?"  And moved by an uncontrollable
impulse she looked at him, and in that look was a world of entreaty, of
despair, and of love; such a look as would be with him to his dying day.

"And is it not better so?" he said, gently.  "Believe me, I did not come
here to make it uncomfortable for you--darling."  Then, seeing the
imploring look deepen in the white face, he went on in a strangely
altered tone: "What?  It cannot be!  Oh, Lilian--tell me--am I to--?"

"Stay."  The word was spoken in a low, thrilling voice.  "Stay! unless
you want to break my heart.  It is only what I should deserve," and a
great sob convulsed the beautiful frame, which was instantly locked fast
in Claverton's embrace; and heart beat against heart as he covered the
shrinking face and the soft hair which lay against his shoulder with
wild, delirious kisses.

Then the great, golden chariot of day mounted majestically above the
eastern hills, and flamed from the azure vault, darting a bright beam
upon those two happy ones as if in benediction, and flooding the valley
with light and gladness; and the bleat and low of the flocks and herds
sounded from the fold, and the voices of humankind echoed cheerily
through the morning air--and the day was begun.  And in that quiet
garden the birds fluttered and piped, bees droned in the sunlight as
they winged their way in search of the luscious store, and now and then
the leaves would tremble in a faint breeze.  Birds, insects, whispering
trees, all seemed but to echo one voice, one glad, joyous refrain--"We
will never part again, love, never, never."

Lilian was the first to break the silence.

"Oh, Arthur, is this, too, a dream?" she murmured.  "Shall I wake up in
a moment and find you vanished, as I have so often done?"

"Have you, sweetest?" he replied in a tone of reverent tenderness, as if
he could not speak too softly, or too gently, to her.  "It is reality
now--if ever anything was--sweet reality;" and at the picture which her
words opened up before his mind he clasped her again to his heart as
though he could never let her go.

"Let me have a look at you, darling," she said, suddenly raising her
head with a bright, lovely blush, and gazing into the firm, serious face
bent over hers.  "You have become so brown, and you are looking ever so
much older, and--"

"And am quite a battered and hardened campaigner."

"And are looking ever so much better--ever so much better than you used
to.  There, you don't deserve that for interrupting me," she added, with
one of her most bewitching smiles.

"Let's sit down here," he suggested, as, with his arm still round her,
he drew her towards a rustic seat which might be twin brother to the one
under the pear-tree where that dread parting had taken place those years
ago.  "Now tell me all about yourself--about everything."

She did so.  She told him of her life since they parted, and previous to
their first meeting; told him the story of that promise which had
entailed such misery upon both of them.  It was the old story--a former
suitor--and the promise had been most solemnly given beside her mother's
deathbed.  The man was worthless to the core, selfish, dissipated, and
unprincipled, but he was fascinating both in manner and appearance; and
Lilian, at any rate, fancied him genuine.  Over her mother he had cast
the spell of an extraordinary infatuation, and Mrs Dynevard had not a
little to do with the bringing about of her daughter's engagement.
Certain it was that nothing else prevented that daughter from breaking
it, for when--her stepfather dying shortly afterwards--Lilian could no
longer make her home at Dynevard Chase, this fair-weather suitor kept
aloof.  He was obliged to leave England, he explained, in order to
better his fortunes, which were in a very bad way.  By this time,
however, Lilian had gained some insight into his real character, and
then the weight of that rash promise began to make itself felt.  Once
she appealed to him to release her from it, but met with a decided
refusal, and, as though to rivet the bond still tighter, the man
reminded her that her promise was not only given to him but also to her
dead mother.  So poor Lilian clung fast to her only hope, which was that
he might not think it worth his while to claim its fulfilment.
Meanwhile she sacrificed herself to sentiment--as men and women have so
sacrificed themselves at the faggot pile, or helpless and defenceless
before ravening beasts in the arena.  Then, like a lightning flash, had
come the consciousness of real love, but still she immolated herself to
the sacredness of a rash promise.

Let us leave them there, those two, in the sunny garden, amid the
unclouded glory of the new-born day.  Their cup is full--full and
brimming with such happiness as this world rarely affords.  Let them
revel in it while they may, for a dark cloud is rolling up, gathering as
it rolls--a cloud whose edges are red with blood, and whose gruesome
shadow is fraught with desolation, with ruin, and with Death.

"Payne," quietly remarked Claverton, two hours later, as he and his host
were standing at the gate of one of the sheep-kraals, the latter
counting: "I wonder if I shall succeed in astonishing you directly--by
what I'm going to tell you."

"Twenty-three--five--seven--thirty-two--six," counted Payne.  "Don't
speak to a man on his stroke--or count.  Nine--forty-one--forty-four--
seven hundred and forty-four.  Right, Booi.  Now, off you go, and keep
away from old Smith's boundary.  He's a cantankerous beggar, and I don't
want to have a tiff with him.  What were you saying, Claverton?" he
continued, making a playful cut at a native urchin with his whip, which
the boy dodged, and gambolled away swinging his sheepskin kaross and
grinning from ear to ear.

"I was saying--would it surprise you greatly to learn that I am about to
perpetrate matrimony?"

Payne whistled.  "N-no--I don't know--most fellows fall victims sooner
or later.  And after all the knocking about you've had it'll do you good
to settle down for a bit.  By the way--if it's not an impertinent
question--who's the lady?"

"Lilian Strange."

"Eh?"

"Lilian Strange."

"The devil!"

"No--nothing of the kind.  That's deuced uncomplimentary of you when I
tell you a piece of news before I've imparted it to any one else.  In
fact, I call it downright shabby," replied Claverton in a tone of mock
remonstrance, while his eyes sparkled with suppressed merriment.  For
Payne was staring blankly at him as if he distrusted his sense of
hearing.

"But--but--Hang it all, how do you know she'll have you?  Why, you never
set eyes on her till yesterday."

Claverton laughed.  "I know it because I have it from the very best
authority--her own lips.  And I knew her--well, long before I had the
advantage of first beholding the light of your supremely honest and
genial old countenance," he said, quietly.  "Come, don't stare at a
fellow as if you thought him a candidate for a glass-case, but say
something decent.  Make us a speech, you know."

"Why, of course, I congratulate you, old chap, and all that sort of
thing; but you've taken one a little aback.  Hang it, it's as good as a
play.  Aha! that's what we get up so dismally early for, hey?"

And, indeed, honest Payne was so taken aback by the announcement that he
walked beside the other speechless, with his hands in his pockets, and
whistling.

Never before had the duties of the schoolroom seemed so irksome to
Lilian as this morning.  The warm, sunny air streamed in at the open
windows, and just audible was the hum of male voices in conversation,
and her heart thrilled as every now and then her ear caught a low,
gleeful laugh, which she had learned to know so well.  Once, indeed, she
went to the window, in the hope of catching a glimpse of the talkers, or
rather of one of them; but the result was lamentable, for she found
herself dogmatically asserting to her pupils that Pekin, not Paris, was
the capital of France--they staring the while as if they did not quite
know what to make of her.

"Miss Strange," exclaimed the eldest girl, "do let's have the map of
this country instead.  France and Germany, and all those, are so stupid.
We can see where all the Kafirs live, who are coming to fight us."

"They're not going to fight us," struck in Harry, somewhat indignantly.
"Pa says they're not.  They're funky."

Lilian smiled at this retort, and nipped in the bud an argument, which
promised to wax warm, by producing a large map of the Eastern Province.

"Now look here, Harry," she said; "here's the River Kei, and here are
we.  Here are all the Kafirs and--"

"But where's Fountain's Gap?" inquired Rose, aged nine.

"It isn't marked.  Look.  We'll put a pencil spot for it.  Here's King
Williamstown."

"What, all that way off?" said Harry.

"Yes.  It is a long way off."

"But we should have to run there if the Kafirs came," protested that
doughty youth.

"Aha!  Who's funky now?  Who wants to run away now--eh?" jeered his
sister.

"Hush!" said Lilian, in that sweet, soothing way of hers, that stood her
in far better stead than any amount of sternness.  "You mustn't quarrel
now, you know."  Suddenly the urchin fixed his gaze upon her, and, with
mischief gleaming from his blue eyes, exclaimed:

"I saw you this morning--you and that man."

Lilian felt herself flushing all over.  She tried to direct his
attention to the lesson, but the imp, with that mixture of mulishness
and malice which seems the invariable attribute of the infant prodigy
oft-times petted, continued:

"I did.  I saw you ki--"

"Harry!" cried Rose, making as if she would rush upon the delinquent.
"I'll go and tell mamma about you, at once.  Send him out of the room,
Miss Strange--do!"

Poor Lilian!  Her delicate, sensitive nature was indeed undergoing acute
laceration at the tongue of this urchin, on whom she had lavished
nothing but tenderness and care.  Whether from perversity, or with a
savage enjoyment of the pain he was inflicting, the cub went on:

"I don't care, Rose!  I did see them.  They were--"

What they were or were not doing remained unsolved, for the door opened,
and Mrs Payne entered.

"I want you to give them a holiday to-day, Lilian," she said.  "Now
then, children, run away out into the garden.  You can put your books
away after.  Out you go--quick."

They obeyed with double alacrity.  For their mother, in spite of her
warm-heartedness, had a very decided will of her own at times.  And
Rose, taking into consideration all the circumstances, deemed it
advisable to say nothing about Master Harry's ill-conditionedness.

"Lilian, dear!" exclaimed the good-hearted little woman, as soon as the
children had gone out, "I'm so glad about this.  Directly I heard of it
I came straight here.  I couldn't let you remain drudging in here
another moment, to-day.  You must go out, and at once, or a certain
person will be getting so impatient that he'll be wanting to quarrel
with George, which would be a pity, as they have always been such good
friends."

And then Lilian, somewhat unnerved by the recent juvenile disclosure,
cried a little, and there was a good deal of kissing.

"By the way," exclaimed Mrs Payne, ruefully, "of course, I shall lose
you very soon, now; and I don't know how I shall get on without you at
all, dear."



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FIVE.

SANDILI.

Never was war or outbreak more entirely without reason or provocation
than the Kafir rising of 1877-8.

It is a well-known rule that savage races go under before the
encroachments of white civilisation.  The case of the native tribes in
Southern Africa is a notable exception.  Far from diminishing, every
year sees their population actually increased.  And the reason need not
be sought for long.  It lies in the security to life and property
afforded these people by British rule, the quelling of intertribal wars,
the breaking of the power of the chiefs, the abolition of sanguinary
laws relating to witchcraft, the opening up of a vast field for native
labour, and the resources of civilisation brought more and more within
the reach of the tribes, who, for their part, are not slow to avail
themselves of the same.  True that, as well as ploughs, and waggons, and
smithies, and schools, British rule has also conferred upon them grog.
That would have come anyhow; but even as things are, in this respect the
natives are no worse than our own countrymen.

This outbreak was devoid of a shadow of excuse.  The different locations
occupied by these tribes were fair and fertile tracts of country.  They
had no encroachments to complain of on the part of the colonists, for
their territory was jealously secured to them--good pasturage, fertile
lands, and well watered withal.  For their surplus population there wae
abundance of work to be obtained in the colony, and whatever property
they might accumulate it was beyond the power of any hostile tribe or
tyrannical potentate to wrest from them.  Yet they were not content.
And the reason thereof does not require much seeking.

They were thorough savages.  They had great martial traditions.  For
more than twenty years their warrior energies had found no outlet.  Such
a state of things could not be suffered to continue.

Not all, however, were of this mind.  Broadly speaking, public opinion
was divided into two factors.  The first consisted of old and elderly
men, who owned property and had something to lose, and, moreover, having
actually fought, knew that war was not all beer and skittles.  The
second consisted of young men, who, owning nothing, had the same to
lose; who had only _heard_ of fighting, and consequently imagined that
war _was_ all beer and skittles.  And the voice of the latter faction
carried the day.

As was right and proper the first to take the initiative were the
Gcalekas in the Transkei, the tribe ruled by Kreli, Chief Paramount of
all the Amaxosa divisions.  These proceeded to organise a series of
raids against the Fingoes, whose emancipation from serfdom to themselves
had long been a sore point.  Matters became serious.  The Fingoes were
British subjects and must be protected accordingly.

The High Commissioner, then newly appointed, proceeded to the border.
Settlers' meetings were held to discuss the important matter of defence,
and deputations waited upon the Governor to a considerable extent.  His
Excellency was hopeful and reassuring in his replies, and, winning
golden opinions by his courtesy and decisiveness, he passed on into the
Transkei with the object of conferring with the Paramount Chief in
person.  That astute savage, however, plumed himself on being too old a
bird to be caught upon so obviously limed a twig.  While at large, he
was safe.  At large, therefore, he would remain.  So he returned all
manner of evasive replies, even the timeworn native excuse of illness.
It became a case of Mohammed and the mountain, with the difference that
in this case, whereas Kreli would not go to the High Commissioner, it
was morally impossible that His Excellency should go to Kreli.  He
accordingly returned to the colony, and preparations were at once made
for the inevitable campaign.

Even then it was hoped that hostilities would be confined to the
Transkei--hoped, but not believed.  The Gcalekas were a warlike tribe,
who could put many thousands of fighting men into the field.  It would
be a troublesome matter to subdue them, for they had long been prepared,
and were well supplied with food.  But if the tribes within the colonial
border--the Gaikas, Hlambis, Emigrant Tembus, but especially the first
named--should join them, then the war would become a formidable affair,
and, in all probability, a matter of years.  Whether this state of
things came about or not will appear in the course of this narrative,
which it closely concerns.

To-day, however, all seems peaceful enough as the sun beats down upon
the rolling plains and silent kloofs of British Kaffraria, with unwonted
force for a spring day.  His rays also fall upon two equestrians, who
are leisurely traversing the mimosa-dotted dales, as led by the
capricious windings of a somewhat tortuous track.  Two equestrians, who
are riding very close beside each other, and whose attention seems
somewhat unequally divided between the surrounding scenery and each
other's eyes, to the advantage of which mattereth not.  Indeed, so
engrossed are they in each other's conversation, that the tread of hoofs
behind entirely escapes them; but an expression comes over their faces,
of anger on one, and of--well--not best pleased on the other; and they
look over their shoulder as a rough voice exclaims: "Ahem!--er--how d'ye
do?"  The last time we saw those two persons, they were together in a
garden, some time about the hour of sunrise; and they were absurdly
happy.  They look equally happy now, as side by side they ride leisurely
along, this grand afternoon.  To them, at this moment, all the
surroundings are as the sights and sounds of Paradise; for they are
together and alone.  More than a week has passed since the sun rose upon
that knitting together of two severed hearts, that transformation of two
sorrowing lives into, as it were, one of joy; more than a week of long,
happy days, so perfect in their unbroken, blissful peace, that to the
wanderer it seemed as if he had "cast" his old self and taken a fresh
personality--that the old loveless existence and restless longing for
excitement could never have belonged to him at all, but to some other
being, so all-satisfying was this new atmosphere of peace.  And on
Lilian the outward change wrought was marvellous.  As by magic the sad
expression had given place to one of sunny contentment, and there was a
sweet, tender curve in her lips, and the colour of perfect health
returned to her cheek, as no longer grave she moved about the house and
garden, trilling out little snatches of song, with a soft love-light in
her eyes which rendered her more irresistibly charming than ever she had
been in the old time.  And now the two were returning from one of those
long rides which they had been in the habit of taking together during
those halcyon days of love deferred but now requited to the full, when
that horribly grating voice burst upon them:

"Ahem!  Er--how d'ye do?"  And red-bearded Joe Marshall, overtaking
them, doffed his slouch hat to Lilian, and shook hands with her escort,
as he reined in his raw-boned nag by the side of the latter.

"Hallo, Marshall!  Where have you dropped from?"

"Oh, I've just been making a round.  I'm going home now.  Won't you come
round by my place, and rest a bit?  'Tisn't far.  No?  Ah, well, it's
hardly worth your while, perhaps, so near home."  For honest Joe could
see pretty plainly that the two would prefer his room to his company,
though they had conscientiously, at least, suffered no indication of
such preference to escape them.  "How are the Paynes?"

"Flourishing.  Any news?"

"N-no.  Kreli won't meet the Governor.  Says he's sick.  But that's all
an excuse, you know."

"Yes; we heard that.  Anything fresh?"

"N-no," said Marshall again, with a dubious glance towards Lilian.
"Nothing certain, at least.  Some more fellows round me gone into
laager, that's all."

"H'm.  I'm inclined to think with Payne, that the scare's all bosh,"
said Claverton.  "Look at the one four years ago.  That all ended in
smoke.  Why shouldn't this?"

Lilian, too, remembered that time; nor was she ever likely to forget it.
A soft light came into her eyes, and she wished mightily that Marshall
was not with them.

"Well, I dunno," rejoined that worthy.  "It may, and it mayn't.  We
shall see, and very soon.  Why, who's this?"

They looked up.  The track they had been following merged into a
waggon-road, and about a hundred yards in front of them stood a low
thatched building.  It was a native trading-store.  Not this, however,
but the sight of a characteristic group, drew forth the remark.  Seated
on the ground, with his back against the wall, was a Kafir, an old man,
with a full white beard, and a face which might have been at one time
pleasing and intelligent.  A blanket was thrown over his shoulders, and
his lower limbs were encased in a pair of ancient trousers, from whose
tattered extremities projected his bare, dusty feet, one of which was
deformed.  He was surrounded by a group of his compatriots; some in
European attire, others in blankets only, and red with ochre; some
sitting, some standing, some running in and out, but all jabbering.

"Why, I declare?" exclaimed Marshall, in surprise.  "If it isn't
Sandili!  What on earth can the old blackguard be doing here?"

"Sandili?" cried Lilian.  "The chief?  Oh, do let's go and talk to him."

"We will," agreed Claverton.  "Prepare for an interview with royalty."

The Kafirs stopped jabbering for a minute to stare in astonishment at
the party as it rode into their midst, then went on harder than ever.
It was as Marshall had said.  This old savage, with nothing
remarkable-looking about him, unless it were that his countenance wore
an air of semi-drunken stupidity--for he had been imbibing freely,
according to his wont--was none other than Sandili, the chief of the
powerful and warlike Gaika tribe, who, of all the Amaxosa race, had, in
former wars, ever been the most formidable of the colonists' foes.

"He says he's glad to see us," explained Claverton, as having conferred
for a little with the old chief, he turned, in response to his
companion's inquiring glance.  "In a minute he'll be even more glad.
Look," and he emptied half the contents of his tobacco-pouch into the
chief's hands, who immediately instructed one of his followers to fill
his pipe, and looked quite benevolently at the donor.

"Why, how delighted he is with it!" said Lilian, watching the
interesting individual before her, with a curious glance.

"Yes, but unless I mistake, he'll want farther delighting directly,"
answered Claverton.  "The principle of extending the proverbial inch to
the ditto ell, is thoroughly well understood in Kafirland."

And sure enough the old fellow began making signs and pointing to his
month, after a few words in his own language.

"What does he say?" asked Lilian.

"Just what I told you.  He's thirsty, and wants sixpence to get a
drink."

"Old blackguard," said Marshall.  "He's got quite as much grog on board
already as is good for him."

Lilian laughed.  "Only think of a great chief like him, asking for
sixpence like a crossing-sweeper," she said.

The Kafirs standing around had stopped their conversation, and were
gazing admiringly at Lilian, with many a half-smothered exclamation of
astonishment.  They had seen many white women on the farms, and when
they had visited King Williamstown; but never had they seen any more
bewitchingly lovely than this one, who sat there looking down on their
chief.

Claverton produced a sixpence and handed it to one of the attendants,
who disappeared into the store, which was also a canteen, shortly
returning with a measure of the ordinary bad brandy sold to the natives.
This Sandili drained without a pause, and looked up again at the group,
remarking that it was good.

"Oh, what can be the matter?" exclaimed Lilian, in a frightened tone, as
a hubbub of angry voices arose within the store; and before she could
receive an answer, a brawny red Kafir suddenly shot out of the door,
reeling forward with a quick yet uneven gait suggestive of artificial
propulsion, and half-a-dozen others, with excited "whouws!" also emerged
and stood around the door, as if expecting something.

They had not long to expect, for the evicted savage, having staggered a
dozen yards, polled himself together and stood shaking his kerries at
some one inside, as with flashing eyes he hurled a torrent of abuse at
the unseen antagonist.  But a bottle, which came whizzing through the
open door, hit him on the shoulder, cutting his eloquence suddenly
short, and, deeming discretion the better part of valour, he sneaked
round the angle of the wall, muttering and growling, while the others
stood looking on in dead silence.

"Don't be frightened, Lilian," said Claverton, reassuringly, noting that
she was growing rather pale.  "It's only a fellow been kicked out by the
storekeeper, probably for making himself a nuisance.  It's a thing that
happens every day."

"But he looks as if he'd kill him.  I never saw a man look so
ferocious," she faltered.

"Oh no, he won't," answered Claverton, with a laugh.  "In half an hour
he'll sneak round, and ask for a drink to make it square again.  That's
what they do."

"Really?" she said, still with a misgiving.

"Really.  There won't be a vestige of a row, so don't be in the least
afraid.  Look.  What do you think old Sandili is saying?"

"What?"

"That he never saw a white woman who was really pretty until this
moment.  And faith, I agree with him."

Lilian laughed, and flushed softly; not so much at the old savage's
compliment as at her lover's endorsement of it.

"Eh--what?" cried Claverton, who was listening to something Sandili was
saying.  "Fancy spoiling that pretty speech.  The old brute?"

"What does he say?"

"He says that _you_ haven't given him anything, and must give him
sixpence.  I told him you would do nothing of the sort."

"But I will.  I should like to, just for the fun of the thing," she
laughed.  "Only, tell him he mustn't drink it; he must buy tobacco or
something else with it.  He looks awfully tipsy already."

This Claverton duly translated, and the old savage nodded assent--of
course as a mere matter of form--and Lilian gave him the sixpence with
her own hand.  Then he looked up at Marshall and made the same request;
but that worthy, who had been watching the proceedings with disapproval,
growled out, with something very like an oath, that "the old blackguard
would get nothing out of him."

"He's going away now," said Claverton.  "We'll watch him start.  I
imagine there'll be some difficulty in getting him under weigh."

And there was.  For when his horse was brought round--a sorry quadruped,
with ragged caparisonings in keeping with those of its owner--behold,
the old chief was so much the worse for liquor that, when helped into
the saddle, he would have tumbled off on the other side but for the
timely support of one of his followers, who was ready to hand.  Then two
others mounted, one on each side of their exalted ruler, and thus
supporting him, rode off, the whole trio swaying and lurching from side
to side; for the supporters were only a degree less "screwed" than the
supported.  About thirty followers, mounted and on foot, brought up the
rear, chattering, shouting, and laughing, as they went.

"There goes the Great Chief of the Gaikas," remarked Claverton,
ironically, as they stood gazing after the receding party; "the man upon
whose nod it depends as to whether the colony will be swamped in war, or
whether the outbreak will be just an abortive affair in the Transkei, to
be settled by the Police.  And--look at him!"

"Drunken brute!" growled Marshall.  A tall man, with grizzled hair and
beard, now strolled up to them.  It was the storekeeper.  "Evenin'," he
said, laconically, doffing his hat as he caught sight of Lilian.  "I
heard some one talking outside; but there were too many of those chaps
within, and I couldn't get away for a minute, or they'd have looted the
place.  Hello, Joe!  Where're you from?"

"Been the rounds.  What was up with that nigger jes' now?"

"Oh, I kicked him out.  He kept plaguing me to give him some 'bacca--
said he was Sandili's brother.  I told him to clear, or, if he was
Sandili himself, I'd kick him out.  And I did."

"Aw, aw!" guffawed Joe.  "But I say, Thompson, you don't seem to lay
yourself out much to amuse the chief!"

"Who?  Sandili?  Oh, no.  He often comes here.  I just give him a glass
of grog and a bit of 'bacca, and let him sit down and make himself happy
till he goes.  I never bother about him.  He cadges a lot of `tickeys',"
(threepenny-bits) "out of his fellows.  They come here to get a drink,
and then the old rascal makes them `stand' him instead."

Marshall guffawed again.  "I say," he said, "those chaps are making a
jolly row.  Why don't you clear them out?"

"Where?" said the trader, turning.  "Oh, they'll go when they're tired."

"They" being a group of Kafirs, sitting round the man lately ejected,
who was declaiming violently, and waxing more excited every moment, as
he flung his arms about and brandished his sticks, and his language
became more and more threatening.  Claverton, who foresaw a row, was
divided between a wish to get Lilian away and reluctance to desert a
countryman under the circumstances; but the first consideration was
paramount.

"Well, we must be going.  Good day to you," he said, shaking hands with
the trader.  "Good day, Marshall.  Are you coming?"

"N-no; I think I'll rest a bit longer."

Just then the whole party, numbering perhaps a dozen, walked up to
Thompson, the injured individual in advance.  The latter, in an
insulting and aggressive tone, demanded a sovereign in satisfaction for
his wrongs.

Calmly eyeing the braggart and the muttering group behind him, the
storekeeper lighted his pipe and repeated his order to quit.

"No, we won't!" roared the savage.  "We'll roast you in your own
_winkel_ [shop] before long.  Only wait a bit."  And then the others
began all talking at once, louder and louder, and in a threatening and
excited way, pressing closer and closer upon the two white men.

"Got a revolver, Joe?  That's right; so have I.  Always carry it in
these troublous times.  Now then, Umsila; off you go--you and all the
rest of them."

The Kafirs, who saw that both the white men were armed, drew back, and,
still muttering and threatening, they began to depart.  Then, with loud
jeering laughter and many threats, they started off at a trot along the
plain, sending forth a long, resounding whoop upon the evening air.  It
was taken up by the kraals on the hillsides, and echoed farther and
farther, fainter and fainter, till it died in the distance.  The two men
looked at each other.

"I say, Thompson, if I were you I should pack up my traps and clear out
of this," said Marshall.

Lilian was rather silent as they rode away from the place.  The sight of
that fierce-looking, loud-talking group of angry savages confronting the
two white men had frightened her, and then the voices rose more violent
in tone.

"Don't be afraid, dear," said her companion, tenderly, "Those two are
perfectly well able to take care of themselves, and Jack Kafir barks a
great deal more than he bites.  They're all right."

"Yes, I know," she replied, trying to smile.  "I am so easily
frightened."

"For your own sake I wish you were not, otherwise I like it, and it
seems rather to suit you.  But now, only think what a lot you'll have to
tell them.  Why, you've had an interview with no end of a big chief;
and--well, it's a pity that row should have come in just in time to
spoil the recollection of the ride, but it was really nothing."

Suddenly arose that wild, weird whoop; and turning their heads, they
could see the Kafirs bounding along the hillside waving their karosses
and gesticulating, and calling to each other as they ran.

"There, I told you so," he went on.  "They've had enough `jaw,' and now
they're going home."

But a gloom seemed to have fallen upon Lilian's spirits.  To her, in
those fierce, dark forms bounding along the distant ridge, and in the
weird, savage cry--like the gathering cry of a host--pealing forth and
echoing in sudden answer from point to point till it died away against
the purple slopes of the far mountains, there was something terrible, as
though it pictured forth an earnest of the coming strife--and the smile
faded from her lips.

"Oh, Arthur, can they do nothing to avert this dreadful war?"

"I'm afraid not, dearest.  The only thing--if only it's done--will be to
nip it in the bud.  Let them break out, and then give them a crashing
defeat at the start."

"And--you will have to go?"

He was silent for a moment.  "Yes," he said at length, "I don't see how
I can sit still when the whole country turns out to a man."

"Of course not; you must go.  I shall have to spare you for a time--
darling.  It will be only for a time, won't it?" she said, beseechingly.

"It will.  There isn't a shadow of danger for me.  I truly believe I
bear a charmed life for some reason or other, a reason I think I've
discovered," he added, meaningly.  "But I've had so many narrow shaves--
more than fall to the lot of most people--that I have become a bit of a
fatalist."

A sudden impulse seized her.  "Arthur, I'm going to tell you something I
never told you before."  And then she told him the events of that night
at Seringa Vale, shortly before Mr Brathwaite's death.  "Now do you see
why I said I thought you were dead?  But you'll laugh at the whole thing
as a mere fancy."

He showed no disposition to laugh; his face wore a grave, even a solemn
look.

"When was this?" he asked.

She told him the exact day and hour.

"Lilian," he said, very solemnly, "it was you and no other agency
whatever that saved my life--saved it for yourself.  Therefore, it is
certain that it is not to be taken now, yet awhile."  And awestruck, she
listened as he told her how he had lain fevered at the very point of
death in the Matabili hut, and that the sight of her had sent him into
that soothing sleep which was the turning-point.

And then, as they drew near home, and the soft light faded from the
lofty Kei hills, between which the river flowed far down in the silent
gloom between its frowning krantzes, the calming effects of the hour was
upon these two.  The present was very, very sweet.  They had had a brief
period of perfect happiness, after the years of dreary waiting, and now,
if separation was to come, it would not be for long, and they would look
forward hopefully to the time when, the disturbances over, peace should
be restored.

That night Claverton and his host were sitting out on the _stoep_
smoking their pipes, the rest of the party having long since retired.
The conversation throughout the evening had turned upon the state of
affairs, and now the same topic held.

"By-the-bye," said Payne, "there was a strange nigger here this evening,
a deuced fine-looking fellow, but an infernal scoundrel, I suspect.  He
asked if he might sleep at the huts, and I let him."

"Why did you?"

"Well, you see, it would have done no good to turn him away.  If he's up
to mischief he'd carry it out anyhow; and if he isn't, well, there's no
harm done."

"H'm.  Marshall seems in a bit of a funk.  He told me a couple of yarns
to-day about fellows whose servants had warned them to clear.  I should
think that trick's played out, though."

"Dunno.  You'll still find people to believe in it.  The niggers, of
course, make it pay.  Jack, in his capacity of old and faithful servant,
warns his Baas.  His Baas believes him.  Henceforth Jack has a high old
time of it, and, provided he is careful in the yarns he invents, may go
on to the end of the chapter.  For my part, I don't believe in any
nigger's fidelity.  You can't trust one of them."

"Except my chap, Sam," said Claverton.

"Ah, that's different.  He's away from his own country, you see; and
then you and he have chummed it for ever so long in places where he has
learnt to depend on you."

It was a still, clear night, the sky seemed crowded with stars, and the
air was warm and balmy for the time of year.  Scarce a sound was
audible, save that now and again the faintest possible echo of a savage
song was borne from some kraal many miles across country.  Otherwise
there was a stillness that might be felt, and the voices of the two men,
subdued as they were, sounded almost loud.

"Hallo!  What the deuce is that?" said Payne, suddenly.  For there arose
a terrific clamour from the dogs at the back of the house.  There was a
preliminary "woof" as those vigilant guardians first scented intrusion;
then the whole pack dashed off violently, and showing a very decided
fixity of purpose, towards an angle of the high quince hedge which
bounded the garden--baying savagely.

Both men rose to their feet.

"They've got something there, I'll swear," said Claverton in a low tone.
"Wonder what."

"Very likely a prowling nigger," answered Payne.  "We'll just get out
our shooting-irons and go and see."



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIX.

THE FIRE TRUMPET.

With weapons cocked and ready, and keeping a sharp look-out ahead, our
two friends stole quietly and warily along the shadow of the quince
hedge.  Meanwhile the canine clamour increased tenfold; such a yelling,
and growling, and full-voiced baying as never before was heard.

"Why, they've treed something--look there!" whispered Claverton, as they
arrived upon the scene of the disturbance.  And sure enough in the
branches of a small apricot-tree, which grew a little higher than the
quince hedge, they could make out the dark figure of a man, clinging
there as for dear life, while the dogs were leaping, and snapping, and
rolling over upon one another and into the ditch in their frantic
efforts to reach him.  And, but for this timely refuge, he would have
been torn in pieces by the great fierce brutes.

"Come down, whoever you are," said Payne, speaking in the Kafir
language, "or I'll fire.  If you attempt to run away the dogs will soon
catch you.  Come down."

They could hear a muttered exclamation or two, and then the unknown
replied:

"Keep in the dogs, 'Nkos.  I came here to visit you, to tell you some
news."

"All right.  Come down.  Here, Neptune, Corker, Slow--keep still, you
brutes.  _Voertsek, Huis! to_!"  [be off; home] cried Payne; and the
excited hounds reluctantly drew off with many a savage growl.

Then something dropped from the tree, there was a rustle in the quince
hedge, and a man stood before them in the darkness.  Payne had just time
to restrain the dogs, who would have flung themselves upon this sudden
apparition there and then.

"Now, then, who are you and what do you want?" he asked.

"'Nkos, you remember me?  But I can't talk here, it's cold and I've been
frightened, and I am old and weak."

"Why, it's Mhlanga," cried Payne, in astonishment.  "But what the devil
d'you want with me at this time of night?"

"Hadn't we better take him to the house and give him a tot of grog?"
said Claverton.  "He looks rather shaky."

"Of course.  Come with us, Mhlanga," and they returned to the house,
where a liberal ration of undiluted spirit having sent a generous glow
through the Kafir's frame, that unexpected visitor squatted down on the
_stoep_ with his blanket huddled round him, and fired off an ejaculation
or two.

He was an old man, with a white head and a lean, gaunt frame, and in
spite of the potation shivered slightly from time to time as he sat
there, for he had had a very narrow escape from the jaws of the dogs.
Then he began, speaking in a low, rapid tone:

"When the grass-fire sweeps along the mountain side, who would stand in
its way because he had built a hut there?  When yonder river rushes down
in a flood after the thunderstorms, who would stand in the drift and try
to beat it back with his hands?  Why are you still here?"

"Why not, Mhlanga?  You must speak plainer."  The old Kafir made a
gesture of impatience.  "Are you waiting till this moon is dead?" he
went on.  "If so _you_ will never see it die.  Go.  Go while there is
time.  What can two men do to stay the roaring flame through the long,
dry grass?  Nothing.  Will they stand in the middle and be consumed?
The grass is thoroughly dry and the torch is put in, the flame will
spread and devour all in its way.  Even now it is kindled.  Are you
tired of life?" concluded the old man in a more eager tone than he had
hitherto employed.

"The gist of the parable is obvious," remarked Payne to his companion,
who nodded assent.  "By the way, this old bird was with me several years
and left suddenly some time ago, because he wanted a change.  Now, you
see, he's doing the very confidence trick we were just talking about.
Have some more grog, Mhlanga."

The old man held out his tin mug with alacrity for Payne to replenish.
Then he tossed off the contents, heaved a sigh or two and was about to
speak, when suddenly he stopped short and appeared to be listening
intently.

"Come," he said, rising.  "Come with me, _Amakosi_!"

"Oh, that's another pair of shoes," said Payne, suspiciously.  "But,
Mhlanga; why should you come here to tell me this--eh?"

"I was with you for several years, 'Nkosi, and when the snake bit me you
put in the medicine stuff that healed it.  I do not wish harm to befall
you."

"Oho! gratitude's the order of the day, is it?"  Then to the Kafir:
"Steer ahead, Mhlanga."

They followed the old man as he led the way to the brow of a slight
eminence a few hundred yards from the homestead.  Above, the stars
twinkled in their silent watch, twinkled on ever the same.  The midnight
sky, moonless, and arching overhead like a heavy pall of blue-black
velvet besprinkled with gold-dust, was oppressive in its darksome
serenity, and there was something in the mystery and suddenness of the
whole situation which even to the tried nerves of the two white men was
intolerably awesome and thrilling.  Far away in the distance, beyond the
mouth of the defile or gap, a few fires glowed like sparks.

"Listen," said the Kafir, pointing with his sticks in the direction of
this.  "When the _amajoni_ [soldiers] are mustered _kwa Rini_ [at King
Williamstown], the trumpet is blown in the morning sunshine, and all the
town hears it, for its voice is of brass.  Ha!  When the chiefs of the
Amaxosa gather their fighting men the trumpet is sounded too, but it is
sounded in the blackness of midnight; and all the country hears it, for
its voice is of fire.  Look," he went on.  "Even now the chiefs are
talking to each other.  The Fire Trumpet is calling the tribes to war."

As he spoke a red tongue of flame leapt forth from the darkness against
the distant horizon, where it flashed and burned for a few minutes.
Then from another high point a second beacon-fire gleamed, followed by a
third; and as the watchers gazed in half-incredulous wonder, not unmixed
with awe, a strange, weird, resounding cry rose upon the midnight air,
gathering volume as it rolled, as if kindled by those threatening
beacons which glowed in the midnight firmament from the Kei to the far
Amatola.  Again and again pealed forth that dismal sound, and then all
was still as the fiery signal shot up redly from half-a-dozen lofty
elevations, and then sank as suddenly as it had blazed forth, until
nearly invisible.  And that unearthly and ominous cry might well strike
a chill to the hearts of the listeners, for it was the war-cry of the
formidable Gaika clans.

"Who was the man who asked leave to sleep in the huts, to-night?" asked
the old Kafir, meaningly.  "If he is here to-morrow, if your three herds
are here to-morrow, if they answer when you call them, then I have been
telling you lies.  Listen, 'Nkosi," he concluded, impressively.  "You
are a good man.  You saved my life once, and I have come far to talk to
you to-night.  Take your wife and your children, and your sheep, and
cattle, and go--go away into the town where they will be safe, and that
to-morrow, _for the call of the Fire Trumpet has rung in the heavens,
and the land is dead_."

Payne was more impressed than he would care to own, and made up his mind
to act upon the other's words, if not to-morrow, yet at no distant date.

"Well, Mhlanga," he began, "if it's as you say, and--Why, by George,
what's become of the fellow?" he broke off, in astonishment.

For the Kafir had disappeared.  He had vanished as he had come--
silently, mysteriously.  They called to him once or twice, but without
result.  His mission was accomplished and he was gone.

They turned towards the house.  Suddenly, from the summit of one of the
highest of the Kei hills, there blazed forth another fire, reddening the
sky overhead, and they could make out distinctly the darting, leaping
flames, shooting upward like demon tongues.  And this startling answer
from the opposite direction brought home to these two more vividly than
ever a sense of their position, hemmed in between the plotting tribes
now flashing their gruesome midnight messages of fire the one to the
other, conveying in a moment to thousands of eager barbarians the dread
signal, of which the destructive element was a terribly fitting
exponent.

"I say," suddenly exclaimed Payne; "let's go and see if that nigger that
came this afternoon is still in the huts."

They went to the huts.  A snore from inside told that these were still
inhabited, and a sleepy growl or two as in obedience to their master's
summons the slumbering Kafirs aroused themselves.  By the light of a
match, which Payne held in his hand, several recumbent forms huddled in
their blankets became visible.

"Here, Booi; where's the chap who came here this afternoon?" asked
Payne.

There was a momentary hesitation.  "He's gone, Baas."

"Has he?  Oh, all right, go to sleep again.  Faugh?" he continued, as
they stood once more in the open air.  "The whiff in there reminds one
of the 'tween-decks of a ship in a good rolling sea.  The first part of
old Mhlanga's prediction holds good, but I must confess I don't quite
believe the second.  Those fellows will be here in the morning."

After this, neither felt much inclined to sleep, so they sat up chatting
in a low tone far into the small hours.  Then Payne's answers began to
get very confused, till at last his pipe dropped from his mouth, and
came to the ground with a clatter.

"Look here, Payne, go and do the horizontal there on the sofa," said his
companion, with a laugh.  "I'll do sentry-go, and it's no good both
doing it."

"Well, if you really aren't sleepy--the fact is, I am, confoundedly,"
and, rolling himself in a jackal-skin rug, Payne stretched himself on
the couch, and in a minute was snoring peacefully.

His companion, well accustomed to long night-watches, sat at the window,
motionless, but wide awake, looking out into the starlit gloom.  Now and
then he would doze off into that half-slumber known as "sleeping with
one eye open," wherein the wakeful faculties seem even more developed
than during actual wakefulness, but nothing occurred of a disturbing
nature.  Once the dogs began to bark, but quieted down very soon, and
the hours wore on till the clear still dawn lightened upon the hills and
the sleeping valley.

Payne opened his eyes with a start, and met those of his companion.
"Hullo!  Haven't you had a snooze?"

"No; that would be a queer way of mounting guard, wouldn't it?  I think
I'll have one now, though."

"Well, I should recommend you to turn in altogether.  I'll call you
presently.  There'll be no one up for the next three hours, you know,"
continued Payne, with a meaning wink.

Two hours later Claverton was awake again, and found Payne just where he
had left him, snoring in regular cadence.  Though the sun was up there
was no sign of life about the place.

"I wonder if that old Kafir was gammoning us," remarked Payne, as the
two made their way to the kraals.  In that cheerful sunshine, the
effects of the dour midnight warning had faded somewhat, as such effects
will, and he was inclined to make light of it.  "Here, Booi, Gcoku!" he
shouted; "tumble out--look sharp!"

There was no answer.

Meaningly, the two looked at each other.  Then they made their way to
the huts, and kicked open the doors.  The huts were empty.  _If your
three herds are here to-morrow--if they answer when you call them--then
I have been telling you lies_, had been Mhlanga's words.  Therefore, no
doubt now existed in his hearers' minds that his strange, mysterious
warning was true.  The three Kafirs, with their families and belongings,
had departed, obedient to the "word" of the stranger, the chief's
emissary; had gone to add three more warriors to the martial gathering
of their tribe.

For a few moments Payne did not speak.  He was rapidly revolving the
situation in his mind.  War would mean ruinous loss to him.  He would
have to send his family away to the settlements for safety, and go into
_laager_ himself; which latter meant months of armed tending of his
stock, in common with others in like predicament; and then, even if the
animals escaped capture at the hands of the savage foe, there were the
chances of catching lung sickness or other diseases from the inferior
and ill-bred stock of less careful or less successful farmers, with whom
they would necessarily mix during all the owners' joint occupation of
the defensive camp.

"By Jove!" he exclaimed, at length, as his eyes fell upon some spoor.
"The _schelms_ have gone, and they've not gone empty-handed."

On counting the cattle his worst suspicions were verified.  Four of his
finest cows were missing, and there was no difficulty whatever in making
out by the tracks that they had been driven off by his treacherous and
defecting retainers.  Payne swore a great oath.

"We'll go after them!" he cried.  "We'll give them pepper.  Hallo!
There's Marshall.  He's getting quite neighbourly."

The countenance of that stalwart frontiersman evinced no surprise as,
alighting from his nag, he learnt what had happened.  He had come over
to see how they were all getting on, and had also been making a little
patrol on his own hook, he said.

"You're just in the nick of time, Joe," cried Payne.  "You can come with
us."

"And are you going to leave the ladies here all alone?" replied
Marshall.  "I wouldn't, if I were you."

"I had thought of that, too," said Claverton, quietly.  "One of us must
stay."

"Then I will," said Marshall.  "If you fellers are determined to rush
off, you'd better do so at once.  Mind, I don't think you'll catch the
beggars in any case; they've got a good start of you.  And my old nag
hasn't got go enough in her for a raid into Kreli's country just now."

"Very well, then, that settles it," said Payne.  "It's awfully good of
you, Joe.  We'll get breakfast sharp, and then start.  By the way, we'd
better not tell the women where we're going."



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SEVEN.

A TIMELY FLIGHT.

Marshall's prediction was verified.  Claverton and his host returned to
Fountain's Gap at desk; but without the lost stock.  They had spoored
the animals down to a drift of the Kei River, and had even crossed; but
in the then state of things they deemed it imprudent to a degree to
venture farther into the enemy's country; and the thieves, having a good
start of them, escaped with their booty.

Careful watch was kept that night in Payne's household; but beyond a
couple of alarms--not unjustifiable after the events of the last
twenty-four hours, though happily false--nothing transpired.

Under the influence of the cheering sunshine all were disposed to think
more lightly of the situation; but Payne had formed his plans.  It would
not do to remain there any longer.  He, in common with other settlers on
that part of the Kaffrarian border, was very precariously situated.
What with Kreli, just across the river, in a state of declared war; and
the powerful Gaika clans, within colonial territory, liable to rise at
any moment and make common cause with their brethren, George fully
realised that he was in a cleft stick, hemmed in as he would thus be by
hostile natives on every side.  So he made up his mind to abandon
Fountain's Gap, and remove his family to Komgha; then he would have his
hands free to take the field if it were still necessary.  The move was
to be made that morning, and all the household were hastily preparing
for it.

It was arranged that they should remain in the settlement for the
present, till it could be seen how things would turn out.  There they
would be safe, as the place would be a kind of depot and the
headquarters whence all operations for guarding the border would be
carried on.

"And now, George, I suppose the Kafirs will have made a bonfire of the
house before I see it again," remarked his wife, as a turn of the road
hid the homestead from view.

"Dunno.  Impossible to predict.  They may, and they may not,"
sententiously replied George, whose chief object in life, at that
moment, was the lighting of his pipe under the adverse circumstances of
being at the same time obliged to control a pair of strong, fresh
horses, none of the quietest at the best of times.  He was driving a
Cape cart, the ordinary family coach of the frontier settler, which,
besides the said family, contained very little else, for he intended to
return at once as soon as the womenkind were in safety, and load up a
waggon with such of his lares and penates as it was most desirable to
preserve; for the rest, well, he supposed it must take its chance.
Lilian was riding--needless to specify with what escort--and Marshall,
who was leading a young horse, and whose attention was wholly taken up
with that intractable animal--or at any rate, said it was--rode a little
way behind.

"I wonder when I shall get you all to myself again, Arthur," she said,
softly.

"I was thinking very much the same," he replied.  "But keep the mercury
up, dear.  The row may not last long."

"Yes.  I must not be such a coward," she said.  "But somehow this
morning, in spite of the sunshine and the glorious weather, there is
something so awfully depressing over everything.  The whole country
seems deserted.  That farmhouse we just passed spoke volumes, standing
there all shut up; and there are no natives about even.  It is
dreadful."

She was rather pale, after the long, anxious night, depressed as with
the shadow of coming woe.  Claverton looked tenderly at the sweet face
in its sad, delicate beauty, and wished to Heaven the Kafirs would leave
them all in peace.  A fight was very good fun, but, for his part, he had
had enough in the way of excitement to last him all his life, at least
so he thought; and now he would ask nothing better than to spend the
remainder of his days in calm, undisturbed quiet, with this, his
long-lost love.

"Look," he said; "there are some people coming across there--and they
are Kafirs."

Lilian started.  "Where?  Oh, there are only a few," said she, in a
relieved tone.  For now, every member of the Amaxosa race assumed, in
her imagination, the form of a fierce enemy threatening destruction to
her and hers.

The natives, who had been crossing a bushy hollow some four hundred
yards off, suddenly stopped, and began peering over the trees at the
party, as if uncertain as to the reception they would meet with.  Far
away stretched the rolling sunny plains, and the lines of wooded hills,
where here and there a thick column of smoke ascended through the clear
air.  One or two distant homesteads were visible--empty, and their
pastures tenantless, for a general flight had taken place and the land
seemed dead indeed; and there, a little way off, were the red forms of
the Kafirs watching them from the bush, while the pleasant sun shone
upon the bright points of their assegais.

"It reminds me rather of our ride over to Thirlestane that day," said
Claverton.  "It's just such another day for sunshine and scenery."

"But not for peace," she rejoined, softly.  "Ah, if all was only as
peaceful now."

"But it will be, darling.  Only a little while longer," replied he, glad
to have diverted her thoughts from this unexpected source of fear.  And
as they rode on further and further from it, the group of armed savages
could still be seen watching them from the hill, but these were too few
in number to be formidable, and, moreover, the settlement was near at
hand.  To which another hour of journeying brought them in due course.

And how changed was the aspect of the ordinarily quiet little village
now!  Waggons stood about everywhere, the three or four irregular
streets were filled with a bustling crowd--men mounted and men afoot--
men of every class and pursuit--farmer, mechanic, storekeeper, frontier
policeman, with here and there a military uniform, and, amid the crowd,
dark-skinned natives moved quietly about, or stood in knots at the
corners, discussing the latest _indaba_.  And the softer sex, too, held
its own, in the shape of the wives and daughters of the settlers--these,
for their part, of as varied a class as their lords--the ponderous frame
of the blowzy Dutch _vrouw_, side by side with the regular features and
straight profile of some tastefully-attired daughter of an old English
line.

But although at first sight the place wore an air of bustle and
confusion, it must not be supposed that chaos reigned.  A regular system
of defence had been organised in the event of attack, and certain points
of vantage entrenched and fortified, and the safety of the place was
provided for ably and well.  The surrounding country, undulating and
grassy, was dotted with horses and cattle grazing.  These could be
driven in at a moment's warning; and the approaches to the place, being
quite open and devoid of cover, were abundantly commanded by the
artillery barracks of the Frontier Armed and Mounted Police, which stood
upon a hill some eight hundred yards from the village.  The church, a
brick and plaster building of unparalleled ugliness, would make an
efficient block-house in the last extremity--surrounded as it was with a
high sod wall.  For those to whom their fellows' necessities were their
own opportunities, the existing state of affairs promised a rich
harvest, for the stores were doing a brisk trade, and the canteens and
hotels were full morning, noon, and night.  On the steps of one of the
latter lounged a group of men as our friends arrived.

"Hullo, Payne!  You don't mean to say that's yourself?" cried one.
"Why, I thought you were going to stick to your place through it all."

"Well, and who says I'm not?" retorted Payne.  "Can't a fellow drive
into the village for the day without having trekked?"

"Oh, for the day!" repeated the first speaker, significantly.  "Then, my
good fellow, let me recommend you to remain.  After that last affair we
shall have old Kreli coming straight across to give as a look up, he'll
be so cock-a-hoop."

"Wish he would," growled another.  "We'd give him particular toko."

"What last affair?" said Payne, half anticipating the answer.  "Has
there been a fight?"

"I should jes' think there had.  A few of the Police and a lot of
Fingoes were tackled by the Gcalekas; but you must have heard!"

"No, I haven't; not a word."

"Well, then," went on the other, brightening up as a man will do when he
is the first to impart to you a big bit of news; "the thing was this.  A
lot of Gcalekas--five thousand, they say--were going across to thrash
the Fingoes, and the Police were ordered out to support the Fingoes.
They met, and the gun opened fire--one of them seven-pounders they were
practising here with t'other day.  It appears that they made very good
shootin', and mowed down the Kafirs like smoke; and then somehow or
other the gun broke down, and, by George, sir, before you could say
`knife' the Fingoes turned tail and ran--bolted clean.  Well, of course
it wasn't to be expected a few Police--a mere handful as it were--How
many were there, Jim?" broke off the narrator, turning to a companion.

"About one hundred and sixty."

"Yes.  Well, it wasn't to be expected they could stand against five
thousand of Kreli's chaps; and they didn't.  The order was given to
retire, and then it became a job to catch the horses, and, as the Kafirs
charged them, they were obliged to run for it.  Some who couldn't catch
their horses were killed--six--six privates and a sub-inspector; and now
old Kreli's cock of the walk--for the time being."

"Where was the row?" asked Claverton.

"Well, it was at a place called Guadana--just on the boundary of the
Idutywa Reserve."

"When was it--yesterday?" inquired Payne.

"No--day before.  I'm expecting a chap round here directly who's
straight from up there.  Come in and liquor, and we'll get him to tell
us all about it."

"The day before yesterday!" echoed Payne, opening his eyes wide--and he
and Claverton looked meaningly at each other--for it was on the evening
of that very day that the old Kafir had come to them with his stealthy
warning, and the dread Fire Trumpet had blazed forth on the Kei hills,
signalling to the expectant tribes within the colonial boundary, the
news of their brethren's victory.  And it was on the following day that
they two had so nearly carried the war into the enemy's country in
pursuit of the stolen cattle, all unconscious, then, of the mad rashness
of the undertaking--an undertaking, which, had it been carried out,
would assuredly have cost them their lives.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER EIGHT.

THE ATTACK ON THE "GREAT PLACE."

It is night.  Night, that is to say, for all practical purposes, though
strict chronological accuracy might compel us to define it as morning;
for nearly three hours have elapsed since midnight.  But, be that as it
may, at present it is as dark as the nethermost shades, as one of that
long, silent file of horsemen, wending its way through the gloom,
remarks to a comrade.

A chill breeze stirs the raw atmosphere, and sweeps before it puffs of
misty vapour which have been resting thickly alike upon hill-top and
low-lying bottom.  Overhead a few sickly stars shine forth through the
flying scud, to be quickly veiled again, and replaced by another
spangled patch.  And, advancing at a foot-pace, comes line upon line of
mounted men, moving through the darkness like the phantom horsemen of
some eerie legend.  Very little talking is there in the ranks.  Muffled
in their overcoats and with hats slouched over their faces the men ride
on, stolid, and meditative, and little inclined for conversation in the
damp, raw air which has a corresponding effect upon their spirits, even
if orders had not been issued for quiet and caution; for it is a night
march in the heart of the enemy's country.

It is difficult to distinguish face or feature of any description in the
profundity of the gloom; but now and again the dull silence and the dead
monotonous tramp of hoofs is relieved by the clank of arms and the
jingle of a bit; or the smothered imprecation of some one whose horse
has stumbled in the darkness, as he holds up the careless animal, who
gives a snort of alarm.  And the march continues on through the night,
till at last the gloom shows signs of lightening, and we begin to make
out the aspect of this bellicose-looking cavalcade advancing over the
hills and dales of savage Gcalekaland.  We see a number of roughly-clad,
bearded men, mostly attired in serviceable corduroy and with a
gaily-coloured handkerchief twined round their slouch hats, mounted on
tough, wiry steeds.  On their saddles are strapped blankets or
mackintoshes and for arms each man carries a rifle of some sort--from
the Government Snider, to the double-barrelled weapon in ordinary
frontier use, rifled and smooth-barrel for varying distance or quarry.
Not a few have revolvers also; and broad, heavy belts, holding at least
two hundred rounds of cartridge, are buckled round them or slung over
their shoulders.  Many of which bullets will, I trow, find their mark in
the dusky bodies of the savage enemy before the day is very far
advanced.  This is a corps of Irregular Horse, frontiersmen all of them.
Another side of the column we see, in the gathering dawn, is composed
of mounted volunteers--townsmen--whose gay uniforms, cavalry sabres, and
glittering accoutrements, show out in contrast to the more sombre
trappings of the corps first noticed.  Yet of the two it is not
difficult to predict which the enemy would rather meet in battle.
Another ingredient in this martial array is the Frontier Armed and
Mounted Police, two or three troops of which useful force, looking ready
and soldier-like in their helmets and sober uniforms, flank the march--
these are armed with short carbine and revolver.  And lo, moving along,
drawn by several stout horses, black and rakish-looking in the uncertain
light, are the field-pieces, with their attendant gunners--a smart and
efficient selection of men.

The object of the expedition may be divulged by a scrap of the
conversation of one of its members.

"So we shall smoke the old fox out of his own earth at last," is saying
a sturdy young fellow in the ranks of the Irregular Horse.

"Ha, ha!  Shall we?  You don't suppose old Kreli is sitting at home
waiting for us, do you?" is his comrade's reply.  "Why, he's miles off,
I expect."

"Bet you he isn't," cut in a third.  "Bet you one to five in half-crowns
we nobble old Kreli to-day."

"Ha, ha!" laughed the first speaker.  "Jack's so sure of his bet that he
wants all the odds in his favour."

"Well, well, yes," rejoined the other, briskly.  "We must have a bet on,
you know, just as a matter of form.  But you'll have to hand over,
Hicks, my boy.  You laid me long odds when we started that we shouldn't
burn Kreli's Great Place before Christmas, and--"

"And we haven't," interrupted Hicks.  "There's many a slip, you know,
and we are not there yet; and the commander may take it into his head
to--"

"Ssh-h!  Silence there forward, please?"

The two disputants subsided.  They were very near the scene of
operations now, and almost immediately a halt was called.  Beneath, in a
hollow, lay the "Great Place," a large collection of huts--well placed
for convenience and comfort, but extremely badly for purposes of
defence--on a bend of the Xora River, whose clear waters flowed gurgling
past.  Overshadowing the village on the one side was a great krantz, and
around lay pleasant slopes of rolling pasture, relieved here and there
by patches of mimosa thorns.  All was wrapped in the most profound
silence as the day broke.  The inhabitants of the village slumbered
unsuspectingly; and if the old chief was there it was extremely likely
that the attacking column, drawing a cordon round the place, would have
him fast shut within the trap.  Meanwhile the said column rested upon
its oars, and grumbled.

"What the devil _are_ we waiting for?" fumed Hicks.  "The niggers'll all
get away before we get so much as a long shot at them.  And a fellow
mayn't even have a pipe while he's waiting."

"Keep cool, old man," replied Armitage.  "Or ask Captain Jim."

"Captain Jim," being none other than our old friend Jim Brathwaite, who,
with characteristic energy, the moment war was fairly declared, had set
to work to raise a select corps of his own--not a difficult proceeding,
for men flocked from all parts to take service under a leader so popular
and so well known for dash and daring--and in three days he had enrolled
nearly a hundred picked men.  This corps comprised all of our old
Seringa Vale friends, and, being mainly of local origin, its members
knew and trusted thoroughly each other and their leaders.

"Ah, now we shall hear something," went on Hicks, as a Police orderly
was seen to ride up and confer with their leader.  "The advance, I
expect."

"Or the retreat," suggested another, cynically.  "Just as likely the one
as the other, from all accounts."

"Hallo.  There's the enemy, by Jupiter!" cried another young fellow.

All turned.  A dark column was seen rapidly advancing up the hill in
their rear, and more than one heart beat quicker as its owner watched
the approach of this new factor in the state of affairs.

"Not it," said Naylor, quietly.  "It's the Fingoes for whom we've been
waiting all this time.  Now we shall be able to go forward."

An exclamation of wrath went along the line.

"Lazy brutes!"

"Waiting for _them_, indeed!" and so on.

"Now, men," said Naylor, who was second in command, "here's the
programme.  We are to attack on the right with the Kaffrarian fellows.
At the sound of the bugle we advance, in skirmishing order, according to
the number of Kafirs in the kraal, and the fight they show.  If
possible, we are to surround them.  Now--mount!"

The last order had not to be given twice, and in a moment the whole
troop was moving round behind the hills, to take up their allotted
position--where they waited, each man, rifle in hand, burning with
impatience to begin.  Scarce a sound was audible in that quiet vale; now
and then a small bird fluttered up from the grass with a piping twitter,
once a great black ringhals rustled away, half inflating his hood in
surprised wrath at the unwonted disturbance, but even of this abhorred
foe the men took no notice.  They were after heavier game to-day--the
heaviest of all--human game.  And the mist rolled back over the bills.

Suddenly a shot rings out on the morning air, then another and another.
And now, on every face is an expression of the most eager expectancy,
and every one grips his rifle.  The hands of some of the younger men,
who have never been in action before, begin to shake; but not with fear.
There is something intensely exciting in this silent waiting, and they
are only longing to begin.  Then a volume of white-blue smoke spouts
forth from a point above, a heavy boom, a hurtling rush through the air,
and the shrapnel bursts with a screech and a detonation right over the
nearest cluster of huts.  At the same time the bugle-notes peal out from
the hill-top loud and clear--the signal for the attack to begin.

And the kraal wears the appearance of a disturbed ants' nest.  From
everywhere and nowhere, apparently, dark forms are starting up, and the
whole place is alive with fierce warriors, and shining gun-barrels, and
bristling assegais; and puffs of smoke among the thatch huts, and many
an ugly "whiz" in the ears of the attacking force, show that the Kafirs
have opened a tolerably smart fire in return.

Crack--crack--crack! echo the rifles of the assailants, as the jets of
flame, which in an advancing line play upon the doomed village, draw
nearer and nearer--the sharpshooters taking advantage of every bit of
cover during their approach.  And over and above the rattle of
small-arms booms out the thunderous roar of cannon, losing itself in a
hundred echoes on the wall of the great cliff opposite, and again and
again bursts the screeching shell over that swarm of human beings, and
very soon the groans of the stricken and the maimed and the dying begin
to mingle with the fierce war-shouts of the Gcaleka warriors.  These,
indeed, are beginning to fall thick and fast, but still their bullets
and bits of potleg [Note 1] whistle about the ears of the attacking
party.

"Now, men!" cries Jim Brathwaite.  "One more volley and then at them.
Ready!"

A rattling crash as every rifle is emptied, and then with a wild cheer
the men, revolver in hand, are riding at a gallop upon the kraal; but
first and foremost throughout is their undaunted leader.  And the
Kafirs, their ranks already sadly thinned out, unable to withstand the
onslaught of this mad charge, turn and fly for dear life.

"Hurrah!  At them, boys!" yells Jim, discharging his revolver at the
foremost of two stalwart Gcalekas, who have sprung like lightning out of
the very ground, as it were.  The savage, however, dives to avoid the
shot, which hits one of his fellow-countrymen fair in the back, and,
gathering himself like a panther, leaps at his assailant, assegai in
hand, aiming a furious stab at his side--but too late.  The impetus of
his pace carries Jim past, and the Kafir, missing his blow and his
footing, falls forward on his face, to be trampled into a lifeless pulp
beneath the hoofs of the horses, as the whole troop pours through the
village, pistolling the fleeing or opposing enemy, and the ground is
strewn with human forms, dead and dying.

And now the fight has become a stampede and a rout.  Shut in on three
sides by the horsemen bearing down upon them, the fleeing Kafirs run
like bucks along the river bank, to make good their escape ere yon dark
cloud of advancing Fingoes, sweeping steadily down to cut them off,
shall get in front of them.  Can they do this, they may yet hope to
count up their scattered remnant in the welcome shelter of that dark
forest line a few miles off.  At any rate, they will cut their way
through the Fingo dogs, and many a fierce warrior, grinding his teeth as
he grips his assegai, starts off with renewed vigour, to pour out the
heart's blood of at any rate one of his despised foes before he dies.

Suddenly the flight stops, and with a rallying cry a body of the Kafirs
make a stand.  They are beyond the reach of the shells, and by this time
the rout has scattered far over the plain; and the nearest Fingoes, who
have been slowly overtaking their enemies, waver and hesitate, quailing
before their former masters, who throw out at them threats and fierce
taunts.  The fugitives have nothing but empty guns, which being mostly
muzzle-loaders, they have no time to reload.  Assegais are thrown, and
more than one whooping and hitherto exultant Fingo wallows in the dust,
transfixed by the deadly javelin.  In another minute these cowardly
auxiliaries will turn and fly, as the Gcalekas, with clubbed guns and
gripping their large stabbing assegais, furiously charge them, uttering
their war-cry--when behold, a body of horsemen comes sweeping up, Jim
Brathwaite's troop leading, and the tide is turned.  The Fingoes,
inspired with fresh courage, stand, and sneak behind the whites, waiting
for these to disperse the enemy, and then go quietly after them and
assegai the wounded lying upon the ground.

"Hallo!" cried Armitage.  "Hold on; Gough's down."

"Oh, it's nothing, I'm not hurt," is the plucky reply, as the young
fellow leaps clear of his horse, which, stabbed to the heart by a
wounded Kafir who lay on the ground, had fallen with a crash.

"Bight you are.  Better fall in with the dismounted men," and away rides
the speaker.

Suddenly one of the Kafirs, watching his opportunity, springs like a cat
on to the saddle of a trooper, and gripping him round the neck with one
arm, stabs him to the heart with the other; then loosing his murderous
embrace as he and his victim slide to the earth together, he runs like
the wind, casting his glance from side to side in search of another
possible victim, when he falls, pierced by a couple of revolver bullets.
Another savage is suddenly descried by Hicks and Armitage, who are
riding together, rushing at a man, who with his bridle over his arm
stands coolly awaiting his approach.  This man both of them have noticed
during the pursuit.  Working apparently alone, he has kept himself
entirely free from flurry and excitement, reining in every now and then
and taking a deliberate shot at long range, almost invariably bringing
down one of the foe.  And now they watch him, as a great sinewy Kafir
rushes at him like a wild beast, now leaping high in the air, now
dropping into the grass, then zig-zagging as if to get round the white
man, who stands perfectly calm through it all, with a slightly sneering
smile upon his face, but covering this dancing, leaping assailant with
his gun-barrels.

Crack!  The savage falls.  Then, as suddenly, he picks himself up, and
with a wild shout rushes at his cool antagonist.

"He's got him, by God!" cries Hicks, as in a tension of excitement he
marks the artful feint of the barbarian and, as he thinks, the turning
of the tables.  But the other never moves, nor does the expression of
his countenance alter by a single hair's breadth.

Crack!  Another report, and the fierce warrior falls, this time
stone-dead, leaping nearly against the barrel which at point-blank had
sent a full charge of "loopers" straight through his heart.

"Whoop!  Hooray!" yelled Hicks, wild with excitement.  "Grand old shot,
that!  Thought you were a gone coon, by Jove!"

The other quickly slipped a couple of cartridges into the smoking breech
of his gun, and looked up with a slight smile at this remark; and what
he saw soon changed the smile into an outright laugh.  For Hicks was
staring at him, speechless and open-mouthed, while even Armitage looked
somewhat dumbfoundered.

"The devil!" ejaculated Hicks, and relapsed into staring again.

"That's uncivil," remarked the stranger, drily.

"Why, hang it, it is--Claverton, no one else!  Arthur, old boy, where on
earth _have_ you dropped from?  I vow this is the best thing that's
happened for years.  We thought you must be dead and buried, hearing
nothing about you," and leaping to the ground, honest Hicks wrung his
former comrade's hand as if he would crush that remarkably useful
member.

Something in the last phrase jarred upon Claverton.  Lilian had said
much the same thing when they had met.

"Well, here I am at any rate.  Turned up again like the proverbial
`shise' coin," he replied.  "How's yourself?  Flourishing apparently.
You look as if `the holy estate' agreed with you.  And Jack?  I say,
Jack; bet you two to one in anything you like you don't drop that chap
scuttling away over there."

"Done for you!" cried Armitage, sighting his rifle and drawing a bead on
one of the retreating enemy, distant some seven hundred yards.

"No.  Hand over!" cried Claverton.  "Missed him clean.  Give you another
shot, though."

But the other shot was likewise a failure; and the Gcaleka got off
scot-free to rejoin, if he listed, the bosom of his family.

"Never mind, Jack.  I won't dun you for the stakes, I only wanted to see
if you had left off that villainous sporting habit of yours."

"But, Arthur--how the deuce did you come here?" went on Hicks.  "You're
not a Volunteer--those fellows are all jingling with chains and
whistles."

"Yes, I am.  Kaffrarian Rangers, full private.  And then?"

"And then?  Why, you must join us without any further _indaba_.  We'll
have a high old time of it.  Do you mean to say you can cut all your old
friends and go and fight among strangers?  Bosh!"

Claverton whistled meditatively as he surveyed the field of battle and
of flight.  Here and there lay a dark object in a heap amid the grass,
just as it had fallen--the slain body of a Gcaleka warrior--and
scattered afar rode the pursuing horsemen.

"Well, I don't know," he said.  "I should rather like to cut in with you
fellows.  I'll see if it can be managed."

"Of course you will," said Hicks, light-heartedly.  "By Jove, if that
isn't `the retire.'"

For the clear notes of the bugle were ringing afar, and in obedience to
the summons the straggling horsemen began to collect from all parts of
the field, and to retrace their steps, marvelling not a little at this
sudden and unlooked-for mandate.  And from the chief's village, the
"Great Place," went up a great cloud of smoke, as, having hunted out its
fleeing inhabitants, the last of the attacking force had flung a torch
into the thatch tenements, setting the whole in a blaze; and above the
bursting flames great rolling pillars of smoke mounted to the sky.

Slowly the pursuers straggled back, their horses and themselves wet with
perspiration and grimy with dust and powder; many hatless, having lost
their "roofing," they said, in the hurry-scurry of the charge or of the
pursuit; while a darker stain showed upon others, whether on their
clothes or accoutrements--the stain of blood.  The horses were panting
after their long gallop, and the riders commenting freely on the events
of the morning in a loud, excited tone.  Many carried assegais, whole or
broken, which they had taken as trophies, also bead-work, and other
articles of native apparel or adornment.  And in the rear marched the
Fingo contingent, howling their war-song and looking intensely valiant
now that the danger was over.

"_Manzi!  Ndipe manzi_!"  ["Water.  Give me water."] besought a faint
voice.

Our party stopped, looking searchingly around.  Several bodies of the
enemy lay about, all apparently lifeless.

"Let the skunk die," said a rough-looking fellow, who, with several
others, had joined them when the rally was sounded.  "Or give him his
quietus in the shape of a leaden pill.  A pretty dance they've led us
all this time, and now to be calling on us to do hospital nurse for
them.  Damned if I do."

"Well, a pretty dance we've led them to-day, at any rate.  Poor devil!
It won't do any one any harm to give him a drink," rejoined Claverton,
dismounting and scrutinising the only one who showed sign of life.  A
tall, finely-made young Kafir lay with eyes half unclosed, and breathing
heavily, apparently in great pain.  Claverton bent over him as he
repeated his fevered entreaty.

"Well, you may do nurse, I shan't, so good day to you," jeered the first
speaker, riding on, while Hicks and Armitage reined in a moment, looking
from their newly-found chum to the wounded man as if wondering what was
coming next.  But Claverton, without heeding anybody, took a large flask
from his pocket, and poured a little of its contents between the Kafir's
teeth.  Then filling the cup with water from the river, which ran hard
by, he raised the wounded man's head, and let him drain off the desired
fluid.

"More," whispered the Kafir; and having filled the little vessel again,
Claverton watched his _protege_ drink the contents greedily.  Then, with
a deep sigh of relief, the sufferer lay back with closed eyes.

"That'll do, Arthur.  Come on, now, and leave the beggar alone," cried
Hicks, impatiently.  "Or are you going to set up an `ambulance' all over
the field?"

"Don't know," replied the other, imperturbably.  "It's not much trouble,
and we've been shooting such a lot of the poor devils that one may as
well give one of them the consolation of a drink _in extremis_."  And he
stood contemplating his _protege_, who he had ascertained was not
dangerously though badly wounded by a ball in the side.  Then it
occurred to him that the face of the stricken savage was not altogether
unfamiliar to him; but where he had seen it he could not remember.

And now the war-song of the Fingoes drew nearer, and hearing it, the
wounded man once more unclosed his eyes, with a mingled expression of
despair and resignation and contempt.  There was not a chance for him,
he thought.  The "dogs" would come up, and the white man would stand by
and tell them to kill him.  Well, what did it matter?  They were dogs,
and he was a warrior of the Amaxosa--nothing could get rid of that fact.
Then, just as he thought his hour had come, the white man remarked in
his own tongue: "Lie perfectly still and shut your eyes.  If the Fingoes
see that you're alive, even though I may save you now, they will surely
come back and kill you before you can get away."  And the other obeyed.

Claverton slowly proceeded to fill and light his pipe, as if he had
dismounted with that object and that alone, and the Fingoes, their
assegais red and blood-stained, marched past, looking about as though in
search of any of the dreaded foe still living.  They saluted the white
man with servile acclamation, and passed on.

"Now," continued he, when the savage auxiliaries were well out of the
way, "wait until the coast's clear, and then hook it.  Go and tell Kreli
that if he's wise he'll shut up fighting and come and sing small, and
acknowledge that he's made an ass of himself.  You see, we don't want to
kill you fellows unless we are obliged, and then we'll do for the lot of
you.  Now be off as soon as you can."

The young Kafir, who was by no means a bad-looking fellow, smiled as he
softly murmured assent, and, with a grateful look in his eyes, he laid
hold of his benefactor's foot and drew it to his lips in token of
gratitude.

"All right," said the latter; "now look to yourself," and mounting his
horse he overtook the rest, who had been making merry over their
friend's eccentricity.

"Now you've done the wet-nurse trick, old chap, we'll get back to camp
and have a glass of grog," said Armitage.

"That's a good idea," assented Claverton.  He did not mind their chaff,
and would not have even if it were more ill-natured.  A passing impulse
had moved him to befriend this wounded savage, and he had obeyed it.
And it may be that an even yet more humanising influence was at work,
and that on that fierce battle-field, reeking with blood and carnage,
the image of Lilian stood, viewing him with a sweet, approving smile as
he listened to the agonised prayer of the stricken barbarian, who might
be the first, if ever opportunity offered, to repay his charity with an
assegai thrust.  But having done this thing he was glad, and a softer
feeling centred round his heart as if he actually heard Lilian's
approving voice in his ear.

Much growling was indulged in as the burghers and volunteers, returning
to camp, learned that the pursuit was to be discontinued.  They had
struck a decisive blow, and now were not to be allowed to follow it up.
Public discontent found its expression freely and in forcible language.

"Infernal nonsense?" repeated one big fellow in reply to a comrade's
observation.  "I believe you.  Why, what we've done to-day is no good at
all--not one blessed ha'porth.  We've shot a few of these fellers and
chevied a few more; but what o' that?  They're thick as bees over
yonder," and the speaker jerked one hand in the direction of the flight,
while with the other he viciously crammed his short, wooden pipe.

"Ay, that's so," assented a small, wiry-looking man.  "If we had only
gone straight on we could have cleared out the Manubi Bush right down to
the coast, and driven the whole lot into the sea."

"Where they were going to drive us," chimed in another.

"And it's there we should have nobbled old Kreli," went on the former
speaker.  "He's in there, mark my words--in there waiting for news--he,
and Sicgau, and Botmane, and the whole bilin' of 'em.  Now we've burnt
his old beehives here; but that's no good, they're built again in a day.
No, sir; what we want is the old fox himself."

"And don't we wish we may get 'im?  No; it's nurses we want to look
after us," put in another.

There was a reluctant guffaw at this; but the gloom had deepened on
their warlike souls.

"Well, we may as well go back, streak it straight home again, if we're
going to be commanded by a set of old women," growled the first speaker.
"We didn't come out here to _play_ with the niggers, did we?"

"Looks like it, anyhow, mate."

Thus amid much growling, which, however, was not directed at our friend
Jim, but at the power behind that gallant leader, the camps were
pitched.  A portion of the Police force started off back to their
headquarters at Ibeka; but here, close to the scene of their late
victory, the volunteers and burgher forces remained; and at nightfall
the horses were driven in and "rung," that is to say, tethered in
circles; while additional sentries were posted, and every precaution
taken, the recent success notwithstanding, for they were in the enemy's
country.

Jim Brathwaite was mightily glad, and no less surprised at the
unexpected meeting, and warmly seconded Hicks' suggestion that Claverton
should join his corps.

"Twice I noticed a fellow to-day, Arthur," he said, "who reminded me of
your straight riding; and, by George, it must have been you yourself.
Well, well; we are all bound to meet again some day, however we may
scatter.  But what do you think that fellow Hicks has done?"

"What?"

"Committed matrimony.  And so has Jack."

"Has he?  Jack, I mean.  I knew about the other.  Who, and when, and
where?"

"Oh, that's a very old story, Jim," said Armitage, trying to look quite
at his ease.  "Claverton heard it ages ago.  Give us some baccy."

They were sitting round the camp-fire.  The afternoon had merged into
night, and now the circle was discussing old times.

"Who?--Gertie Wray--you remember her--now Mrs Jack Armitage, promoted.
When?--last year.  Where?--in Grahamstown," replied Jim.

And then, as others joined them, the conversation turned from things
personal and retrospective, to things political and present; and the
state of affairs was discussed in all its bearings.

"Well, we've a big enough force in the field to thrash out the Gcaleka
country," Jim was saying; "but then we shall have to be constantly
playing hide-and-seek with the Kafirs until we catch old Kreli.  If the
Gaikas don't break out, all that the people on the border will have to
do will be to guard their line so that none of these chaps can cross.
If the Gaikas rise, why, then our friends there will be between two
fires."

"And the Gaikas will rise," put in Garnier--Jim's second lieutenant--a
quiet-looking, brown-bearded man of about five-and-forty.  "You may take
my word for that.  It isn't for nothing that they've been going through
all the war-dancing and farrago.  It isn't for nothing they've been
sending all their cattle away to the thickest parts of the Amatola
forest.  And it isn't likely they'd sit still--they, the warrior race of
all others--and let Kreli do all the fighting.  And to hear 'em talk,
too!  Why, they've been coming round my place in shoals, and they don't
care what they say.  Mind, they mean mischief."

"But, then, how is it they haven't broken out already?" ventured Hicks.

Garnier looked pityingly at him.  "For several reasons.  There's a
strong peace party among them, for one thing.  For another, they heard,
or rather saw--for there were lots of them present--what a hammering the
Gcalekas got the other day when they attacked Ibeka; and they're not
ready.  But if any of these chaps of Kreli's get through and join them--
then look out."

"Well, we can put a tremendous force into the field," went on Jim.
"Why, in the Eastern Province alone we could raise enough to finish the
war in a couple of months, if they're only put to it and not kept
fooling about doing nothing."

"Yes; and if they're properly looked after in the field," said another.
"No one can fight unless he's fed; and with the commissariat always two
days behind, no body of men will remain long contented."

"And, while they are fooling about, all their property's going to wrack
and ruin, as ours is at this damned moment," growled Thorman, who was
one of the party.

"Never mind.  All the more reason why we should make a thorough good
thing of it while we are about it," said another, of more cheerful
disposition.  "We'll teach Jack Kafir a lesson this time, that he'll
remember."

Thus talking, they sat round that red camp-fire, which threw a fitful
glow upon bronzed faces and attire, fantastic-looking in the
semi-darkness and in its wild picturesqueness, until at length the bugle
sounded, "lights out," and gradually all subsided to silence.  Now and
again the yelp and snarl of a jackal came up from beneath, where lay the
unburied corpses of the slain foe, and where a number of heaps of black
smouldering ashes were all that remained of what in the morning had been
the Kraal of the Paramount Chief of Kafirland.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1.  In war-time, when lead is scarce, Kafirs manufacture tolerably
efficient slugs by cutting up the legs of their iron cooking-pots.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER NINE.

A LULL IN THE STORM.

A dry, scorching wind is whirling the pungent red dust-clouds along the
streets of King Williamstown, and early though it be, not much more than
nine o'clock, life is at the moment exceeding unpleasant for dwellers in
the Kaffrarian capital as the hot blast sweeps down the wide streets and
over the great arid square, powdering the thirsty eucalyptus trees with
a layer of sand, penetrating even the coolest and tightest of houses.  A
day on which an easy-chair and nankeen garments seem absolute
necessities, and yet in the busy frontier town there is as much life and
stir as usual.  Waggons load and unload before the principal stores;
their oxen standing or lying in the yokes, poor and attenuated, for the
season is a bad one indeed, further up, the country is suffering from a
veritable drought.  Men move about singly or by twos and threes, some in
the semi-military uniform affected by officers holding a command in some
frontier corps, others lightly clad and in broad sombrero-like hat or
pith helmet.  Round the native shops and canteens bronzed Kafirs squat
and jabber, or, jumping on their weedy, undersized nags, dash off at a
gallop down the street.  Here and there, a Police trooper, the
snow-white cover of his peaked cap gleaming in the son, rides briskly
away from the telegraph office, and the scarlet uniforms of a detachment
of regulars, as they march up from the river, returning from their
morning bathe, make a glow of shining colour in the close, dusty street.
It is an ill wind, however, that blows nobody good, as the
drinking-bars could testify; for the number of persons who enter those
useful institutions in the course of the morning--each and all with
precisely the same remark, that it being externally so dry they stand
all the more in need of a wet within--is so large that I will not
attempt to reveal it.

Leaving the stir and the whirl of the brisk trading centre, we will pass
to a comparatively quiet quarter.  In the verandah of a small house, on
the outskirts of the town, some one is standing, looking intently
through a pair of field-glasses, which are levelled at a distant object,
evidently a horseman rapidly approaching by the road leading from the
Transkei.  For a moment she stands eager and motionless, gazing with all
her might at that dusty road in the distance; then a red flush of
disappointment tinges the beautiful face as she drops the glass from her
eyes, and the graceful, erect figure suddenly assumes an unconscious
droop.

"The fifth time this morning," she murmurs to herself, dejectedly.  "I
declare I won't look again, it's unlucky."

"So it is, dear.  `A watched kettle never boils,' you know," says a
cheery female voice at her elbow.  "That's why I haven't been watching
for George.  He'll come, all in good time; and so will the other one.
But you really mustn't stay out in this heat, Lilian, you'll be ill, and
then shan't I catch it!"

"Oh no, I won't," answered Lilian, with a laugh and a blush.  "Besides,
I like the heat."

"Do you?  I wish I did, for I've got to go out in it.  I'm not even
going to ask you to come, because I know it will be impossible to get
you off that verandah until--until--well, until," concluded Annie Payne
with another cheerful laugh, as she started upon her unwilling errand,
whatever it was.

Left to herself, Lilian looked wearily out on the wide expanse of
sun-baked _veldt_, watching ever the white straggling road where it lost
itself over the rise.  Once a figure appeared on the sky-line, and her
heart gave a great bound, but it was only a pedestrian, her eyes were
sufficiently practised now to tell her that, without the necessity of
looking through the glass.  The heat and the scorching wind were nothing
to her.  It might have been the most exhilarating weather, and she would
not have felt the difference, for to-day her lover would return--return
to her, after more than two months of campaigning, two months of danger
and hardship and separation; and now she watched the road, impatiently
pacing the verandah, and longing for his arrival.  Yet he came not.  She
had done nothing but scan the approaches to the town through the
field-glass; but what to the naked eye had more than once looked like
the well-known form, had speedily changed to that of some ungainly
Dutchman, or sooty native, when the powerful lens was brought to bear
upon it.

Yes, the campaign is over now--at least, for the present; and the
volunteers and burgher forces are returning home, leaving to the Mounted
Police and Regulars the task of patrolling the Gcaleka country--that
being about all there is left to do.  The summer is well advanced; in
fact, it wants only a fortnight to Christmas, and the frontiersmen
composing the colonial forces decline to remain any longer doing mere
patrol work.  They have borne their part gallantly in the actual
fighting, and now that this is at an end they rightly deem themselves
entitled to return.  So there is great rejoicing in the little domicile
in King Williamstown where George Payne has installed his household
during his absence at the front, and now, on this bright, though
overpoweringly hot day, Lilian stands in the verandah watching for the
return of her lover.

What an anxious time to her have been those two months!  How she has
thought of him, and in spirit been with him all through the campaign!
How eagerly she has sought out every scrap of news of the forces in the
field, whether in the newspaper reports or the telegrams _affiche_-d
outside the post office!  And at night she has lain awake picturing all
manner of dreadful contingencies till her pillow was wet with tears; but
she can do nothing--nothing but weep and pray.  And now the time of
waiting is past, and she will see him again to-day, and lay her head
upon his breast and feel that life is too good to live.

But if he should not come till to-morrow or the next day!  Something may
have detained him.  An accident perhaps, such things do happen.  Her
head begins to ache, and she goes into the house in search of some
cooling restorative.  She has the house to herself fortunately--for the
children are out somewhere--and sinking into a low chair she holds her
handkerchief, steeped in the grateful liquid, to her throbbing brows.
At last, with a sickening sense of blankness--of hope deferred, at her
heart, she falls asleep, worn out by the heat and the watching coming
upon a night of wakefulness.

The molten hours creep on.  The deep bass voices of a group of Kafir
passers-by, momentarily break their stillness; the thrifty German
housewife opens the door of the dwelling opposite--for it is a new
quarter, and the houses are built almost in the _veldt_--and throws a
pailful of stuff to her fowls, which run clucking up; but no tramp of
hoofs disturbs the midday quiet.

Suddenly Lilian awakes.  Is it an instinct, or is it the clink of a spur
and a light, firm tread on the _stoep_ outside, that makes her start up
and hasten to the door?  In the passage she collides against a man who
is entering, and with a quick exclamation he catches her in his arms.

"Arthur--love--is it indeed you?  I am not dreaming, am I?" she murmurs,
clinging tightly to him, the rich voice vibrating with uncontrollable
emotion.  "It is you--at last--darling.  And I have been waiting and
watching so long--till I began to think all sorts of dreadful things
must have happened," and raising her head from his breast she looks at
him, laughing and weeping at the same time in her ecstasy of joy.

"Yes; it's myself all right," he replies, kissing away the tears from
her cheeks and eyes.  "But I shall begin to think it's some one else
directly, because this is far and away too good for me--too good for me
to believe in.  Lilian, my life!  Every day since we parted I have been
looking forward to and waiting for this."

"Ah God!  I have got my darling back again safe--safe!" she murmurs
almost inaudibly, but Claverton hears it, and he does not answer, he
only tightens his clasp of the lithe, willowy figure which he holds in
his embrace, and covers the soft dusky hair, lying against his cheek,
with passionate kisses.  A thousand years of ten times the peril and
hardship he has gone through since they parted would be a small price to
pay for such a moment as this, he thinks.  They make a pleasant picture,
those two, as they stand there.  He--well-knit, grave, handsome, in the
rough picturesqueness of his campaigning attire, his features bronzed by
exposure to sun and climate, and with his normal air of quiet resolution
deepened and enhanced by a sense of many dangers recently passed
through; looking at her with a tender, protecting reverence.  She--soft,
graceful, and clinging--the sweet lips curving into a succession of
radiant smiles even while her eyes are yet wet with the tears which an
uncontrollable feeling of love and thankfulness has evoked.

"So you thought I was never going to put in an appearance, darling?" he
says, at length.

"Ah, how I waited and longed!  But I can forget it now--now that I have
got you.  Wait!  You look so much better for the dreadful time you have
been through, dearest, so strong and well.  And you are not going off
again, are you?  The war is over now."

"I hope so," is his rather weary reply.  "I'm tired of ruffians and camp
life--utterly sick of them.  Not but what the said ruffians are rather
good fellows; but peace is better than fighting, when all's said and
done.  By the way, how is it we have the house all to ourselves?  This
is an unusual run of luck, my Lilian."

"Mrs Payne is out somewhere, and the children too.  And--"

"And--why didn't you go with them, instead of moping in here alone all
the morning?"

"Arthur!"

"Lilian!  Don't look so shocked, my darling.  Do you think I don't know
perfectly, that you wouldn't lose a chance of getting the first glimpse
of a certain broken-down and war-worn ragamuffin?"

A shadow darkened the light.  Both looked up quickly as a slim,
well-made native, standing in the doorway, raised his hand above his
head and sang out lustily, "Inkos!"

"Hallo, Sam!" cried Claverton, not best pleased with the interruption.
"How are you getting on?"

The native showed a double row of dazzling "ivories" as he grinned in
genuine delight at seeing his master back again.

"Did you kill many--very many of the Amaxosa, my chief?" he asked, in
the Zulu tongue.

"H'm.  Many of those who got in front of my gun-barrels up there, met
with bad accidents," replied his master, drily.

Sam chuckled and grinned.  His exultation could hardly contain itself.

"Ha, Missie Liliane," he said, in his broken English, "Sam he tell you
so.  Inkos, he kill lots, lots of Amaxosa nigga.  He shoot, shoot them--
so, so," and he began snapping his fingers vehemently, and otherwise
pantomiming the sharp-shooting of a body of skirmishers.  "Sam, he tell
you so, Missie Liliane.  Amaxosa nigga no good!  They no can hurt Inkos.
Sam, he tell you so.  Inkos, he shoot, shoot them instead.  Amaxosa
nigga no good.  Haow!"

"Sam, you rascal, shut up that," cried Claverton, good-humouredly.  "Cut
found to the stable and look after the horse; I've ridden the poor brute
nearly to death.  Give him a good rub down, and see that he's cool
before he drinks.  D'you hear?"

"Teh bo 'Nkos," answered Sam, and he disappeared; and they could hear
him as he passed beneath the open window, humming to a sort of chant of
his own: "Aow!  Amaxosa nigga no good--no good."

"Has that chap behaved himself while I've been away, darling?" asked
Claverton.

"Behaved himself?  Why, he's the best of boys.  Sometimes when I felt
very, very downhearted about the war, that dear, good Sam would try all
in his power to cheer me up, and persuade me that you would be sure not
to come to harm, love.  He used to declare that the Kafirs were sure to
run away whenever you appeared, and he cut such extraordinary antics,
always bringing in that ridiculous phrase of his, that he kept me in
fits of laughter.  Yes, he has been as good as possible."

"That's a feather in Sam's cap, and a deuced good thing for him.  Wasn't
it queer, my falling in with all the old lot up there?  They were all
just the same; even Jeffreys hasn't quite laid by his scowl, and as for
Jack Armitage, he's a greater lunatic than ever.  I hope our little
friend keeps a tight rein on him at his hearth and home, for in the
field there was no holding the fellow.  He has started a frightful thing
in bugles, which he toots upon vehemently on the smallest provocation,
though, by Jove, I was glad enough to hear that braying old post-horn
once, when Brathwaite's men turned the tables in our favour in an
awkwardish scrimmage."

It was a remarkable coincidence that as he uttered these words a
terrific fanfare should be sounded outside.

"That's it!  Jack's post-horn for anything!" cried he, making for the
window.  "Talk of the--ah'm!  Wonder what the fellow's doing here.  And,
look, there's George Payne and the rest of them."

The whole lot of them it was, and a minute later they all entered,
laughing and talking at a great rate.

"Why, Jack, what the deuce are _you_ doing up here?" cried Claverton, in
astonishment.

"We forgot it might be necessary to obtain Mr Claverton's permission to
tread the streets of King Williamstown," demurely said a voice at his
elbow, before the other could reply.

Claverton turned.

"Oh--ah--ah'm!  So _we_ did.  I forgot.  How d'you do, Mrs Armitage?"
he said, looking quizzically down at the bright, saucy face of the
speaker.

Gertie Armitage--_nee_ Wray--laughed and blushed as she shook hands with
him.  She looked much the same as when last we saw her, a trifle
saucier, perhaps, but that was only natural, said her friends, seeing
that she had to look after madcap Jack.

That worthy, meanwhile, was endeavouring to initiate Payne's son and
heir into the mysteries of the key bugle, but the youngster could evoke
no sound from the same, and was ready to cry with chagrin.

"Look here, Harry, this is the dodge," and, putting the instrument to
his lips, he emitted a series of diabolical and heartrending blasts.

"Jack--Jack!" cried Claverton, stopping his ears, "for Heaven's sake
drop that fiendish row, or you'll have all the Germans in the quarter
scuttling under their beds, thinking that the Gaikas have risen, and
some fellow has come to commandeer them to go to the front."

"Fiendish row!  There's gratitude for you," retorted Armitage.  "He
didn't call it a fiendish row that day down near the Bashi, did he,
Payne?"

"No, it was all right then," rejoined Claverton.  "Music in the wrong
place, you know, degenerates into a diabolical row.  Keep the old
post-horn for the ghosts at Spoek Krantz, Jack.  They'd appreciate it
keenly."

"Oh, the ingratitude of human nature!" exclaimed the bugler.  "But I've
left Spoek Krantz."

"Have you?  Ah, I thought the ghosts would be too much for you some day.
Where are you now?"

"Nowhere.  Got a roving commission.  When the country's quiet again I'm
going to take over that place next door to Hicks.  By the way, you
should just see Hicks now, a model family man.  Would hardly leave his
missis and brace of kids even to go and have a shot at old Kreli.  We
almost had to lug him away by force."

"When the country is quiet again I'm going to do this," he had said, and
in such wise do we mortals airily make our plans.  Meanwhile all was
hilarity and gladness and contentment in that circle, for was it not a
reunion of those dear to each other, after the trials, and perils, and
privations of a hard chapter of savage warfare?

Lilian was very happy in the days that followed; and to her lover, after
the rough camp life, the toil and the battle, with all the hardening
associations, the sunny quiet spent in the companionship of this
refined, beautiful woman, was as the very peace of Heaven.  Oft-times as
he watched the sweet eyes kindle at his approach, and heard the firm,
low voice shake ever so slightly, his heart would thrill and his cheek
flush with a fierce elation over his absolute sense of possessing the
rich, the priceless gift of her entire love; and then would succeed a
momentary wave of despondency as he thought how this must be far too
much happiness to fall to his lot, and with the thought something very
like an unspoken prayer--wild, passionate, and unbridled in burden even
as his own resolute nature--would shape itself within his heart, that
rather than again experience such a blow as that which had sent him
forth a desolate wanderer years ago--he might die--a hundred deaths, if
need be, so that obliteration came to him at last.  And had there been
room for it, his tenderness towards Lilian would have redoubled with
these reflections; but there was not--it was always the same.

"Be quick, darling," he said to her one day, as she was leaving the room
for a moment to fetch some necessary implement missing from her
work-basket.  "I hate to have you out of my sight for half a minute more
than is inevitable."

The two were alone together, and he pitched his book across the room
impatiently as he spoke.  She turned and came back to him.

"Why, I wonder you're not quite tired of me," she said, with her sunny
smile, bending over him and toying with his hair.

"Tired of you!  _My_ Lilian.  The only being on earth for me to love.
The capacity has been kept so long in reserve that now there's no
holding it."

She bent lower and laid her cheek against his brow.  "Yes, Arthur.  We
are both alone in the world for each other--are we not?" she whispered;
then, suddenly escaping from his would-be detaining arm, she darted to
the door, turning to flash upon him a bright, loving look before she
went out; and he, rising, kicked over a chair and then another, and
opened and threw down three or four books without gleaning an idea of
their contents, and walked to the window, then back again, and whistled,
and otherwise fidgeted outrageously until her return.

Lose not a minute of your happiness, ye two; gather to the full the
sweets of the present, even while ye may, for ye know not what the
future may have in store.  Even yet the war-cloud hangs threatening on
the horizon; it has lifted, but has not vanished.  Amid the rage of the
elements may suddenly fall peace.  It is but a lull in the tempest.

To some of his former companions-in-arms, who lived in the town or
neighbourhood, Claverton was an unfailing source of wonder.

"I should never have known the fellow," one of them would say, as they
discussed him among themselves.  "Why, most of us in camp used to look
upon Claverton as a man with no more heart than a stone.  A fellow who
would close the eyes of his twin brother and then sit down to a jolly
good breakfast, and crack a joke about it,"--the speaker's idea of the
acme of callousness.  "And now he's making a perfect fool of himself
about a girl--hardly leaves her for a moment, they say.  I can't
understand it," and the speaker knocked the ashes out of his pipe with a
jerk and a shrug, implying half pity, half contempt.

"You could if you had seen her," said another, quietly.  "She's awfully
fetching."

"So I'm told.  But still--such a hard nail as Claverton.  I can't make
it out."

Thus spoke his companions-in-arms.  It could not be expected, however,
that these plain, honest, matter-of-fact frontiersmen should give him
credit for possessing a two-sided nature.  They merely spoke of him as
they had seen him.

One day the two were walking along the upper end of the market-square.
It was in the middle of the forenoon, and though warm, a fine day, and
the traffic on the footway was tolerably brisk, while around an
auctioneer's table a goodly crowd was assembled, and the sale went on in
spirited fashion.  They were stopped by some mutual acquaintance, and
Claverton, taking advantage of the incident, left Lilian talking to
these, while he dived into the throng for a moment to speak to some one
whom he had suddenly caught sight of.  When he returned, he found Lilian
standing alone, their friends having taken their leave and passed on.

"So sorry you've had to wait, darling--even a minute.  Why, what is it?"
For she was looking a trifle perturbed.

"Nothing.  Really nothing.  Let's go on."

"Is it the heat?  We'll go home.  It is rather overwhelming, of course;
I ought to have remembered," he said, anxiously.

"No, it isn't too hot in the least," she answered.  Then taking a quick,
furtive look behind: "Arthur--wait--now look round--quick!  There's
somebody following us."

He turned rapidly and scanned the crowd.  No one seemed to be making of
them a special point of observation.

"I don't see any one out of the common.  See if you can point him out,
dear."

"No.  He is gone; I could see him shrink out of sight directly I looked
round the second time," she said, excitedly, twirling the handle of her
sun-shade.  "I wouldn't say anything at first, thinking it might be my
fancy; but I could see him eyeing you as you went in among all those
people just now.  He was standing on the pavement--there."

"Well, he's disappeared now, at any rate," said Claverton, again looking
carefully around.  "What was the animal like--white or black?"

"Neither.  A sort of dirty brown colour, not at all like a native of
these parts.  He had woolly hair, though, and a hideous, wrinkled face
with two pointed, shark-like teeth; and he was looking at you so
fiercely," and she shuddered.  "And oh--Arthur--when I looked round
again and saw those glaring eyes following on so close behind us, it
quite frightened me."

Claverton was puzzled.  Nine Englishmen out of ten would have gently
pooh-poohed the idea as mere fancy; but his life had been too full of
strange and startling experiences for that.

"Have you no secret enemy?  No one who would owe you a grudge?" she
continued, in a tone of deep anxiety.  "That man looked murder at you."

"N-no; I can't call to mind any.  Most likely a case of mistaken
identity.  The fellow must have taken me for some one else, and bolted
directly I looked round for fear of being brought to book.  That was it,
dear, depend upon it; so don't think anything more about the concern,"
he concluded, with the air of a man who has successfully solved a
mystery.  But he wished he had caught a glimpse of the mysterious
individual all the same.

The incident had a depressing effect upon Lilian which she was quite
unable to shake off.  That some terrible danger was hovering over and
threatening her lover she was certain; and the idea of being tracked and
watched by a secret foe was to her fraught with horror.  But it was for
him she feared--for this man whom every day rendered more unspeakably
dear to her, and for whom, retiring, even timid as her nature was, she
could be brave as a lion, even to the giving of her own life to shield
him from harm.  Of his past she knew but little--as yet he had not told
her much, and in all the fulness of her love and trust she took a pride
in abstaining from asking him; but that it had been more eventful than
the lives of most men of his age she had gathered, and what relentless
enemies might he not have, now surely and stealthily pursuing him?  Many
a glance of admiration was cast on her--in her serene, dignified beauty,
which the troubled thoughtfulness now clouding her face only seemed to
enhance--as they passed along the busy streets; and people began to
inquire of each other who those two were who were never seen apart, and
who looked such a well-matched couple.

Meanwhile, the political outlook was becoming gloomier every day, for
the warlike tribes of the Gaikas and Hlambis--whose locations comprised
some of the wildest and most inaccessible parts of Kaffraria--were on
the verge of revolt.  The stage of sullen restlessness and daring
outrage was about to culminate in open warfare, and no doubt now existed
that these savages intended to rise and make common cause with their
brethren the Gcalekas, who, though decimated and dispersed, were as far
as ever from being subdued.  And, when compared with the rising now
threatening, the fighting in Gcalekaland was a mere fleabite, for the
latter had been localised in the Transkei, whereas this would envelope
the whole Eastern frontier in the flames of war.  Day by day the low
rumblings of the gathering storm increased, and from far and near the
families of the settlers came crowding into King Williamstown.  Every
hotel and lodging-house was crammed, and not a room was obtainable for
love or money.  Many lived in their tent-waggons, failing more
substantial shelter, and the pastureland in the immediate neighbourhood
seemed in danger of exhaustion from the multitudes of live stock which
grazed thereon.  The telegraph was actively at work, hourly flashing its
messages of alarm or reassurance according as the latest turn of events
warranted; while many-tongued rumour hinted at a decisive move pending
on the part of the enemy beyond the border simultaneously with the
rising of the tribes within the same.  It was understood that the
burgher forces were liable to be called out at any moment, and among the
townsmen fresh volunteers were enrolled, and drill and parades went on
night and day in view of the probability that the regular troops in
garrison would be ordered to take the field, and that the townspeople
must be ready to protect themselves.

And as if the scourge of impending war--the merciless warfare of the
savage--was not enough, the land lay parched up with drought.
Transport-riders from up-country had gruesome tales to tell of roads
lined with rotting carcases or bleached skeletons of trek-oxen, which
had succumbed unable to find nourishment in the burnt-up grass, or
perishing on the margin of water-holes reduced to patches of dry, baked
mud--pointing to their own attenuated spans in corroboration of their
statements.  The crops were failing, and, already in some districts, the
appearance of locusts in sufficiently formidable swarms was reported;
and the scant herbage, which the drought had spared, would be in danger
of disappearing entirely before this new and redoubtable plague.  Trade
was at a standstill, and, amid the all-pervading apprehension and gloomy
outlook, it was universally held that the sooner the rising took place
the better.  So Christmas approached; but it was not with joy or
gladness that men's hearts looked forward to the kindly festival in that
burning Southern midsummer, for the deserted farms and homesteads told
their own tale, and the savage enemy sullenly sat still, biding his own
time.  The war-cloud hung brooding over the land darker and darker.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER TEN.

THE FIRE TRUMPET AGAIN.

Payne had removed his household to Grahamstown, as being further from
the seat of hostilities, and a very agreeable change to our party was
the city of the old settlers, nestling in its basin-like hollow, and
with its tree-shaded streets and leafy gardens, after the dust and glare
and over-crowding of the Kaffrarian capital.  Here, too, the talk was
all of the war, but its dire evidences were less obtrusive, and, on the
whole, the Paynes made themselves tolerably comfortable.  To Lilian
Strange, the time was fraught with a wondrous joy, and she often took
herself to task for feeling so supremely happy while so much suffering
and anxiety was pending over those around her.  But she need not have,
for the days of her rejoicing were already numbered.

She was out riding with her lover one afternoon, when a turn in the road
brought them suddenly upon a man--only a native, apparently on the
tramp--a half-caste Hottentot, and a dark-browed, ruffianly-looking
specimen of the breed.  Directly this fellow caught sight of them he
stopped, and, stooping down, pretended to be tying his shoestring, at
the same time keeping his face turned away from them as they passed.
Lilian grew very pale.

"Arthur," she whispered.  "That's the same man who was following us the
other day in King Williamstown.  I knew him at once; and he knew me.
Didn't you see how quickly he stopped and pretended not to take any
notice of us?"  And glancing at her lover, she saw that his face wore a
slightly puzzled expression and a frown which, however, disappeared as
she spoke.

"Only some loafer.  One often runs against the same specimens of that
class," he said, carelessly.

"But see how quickly he has come here.  Arthur--I can't help looking
upon the circumstance as an ill omen.  I never saw such a
murderous-looking ruffian; and I'm certain he knows you.  You may laugh
at my silly superstition, dear, but I can't get rid of the feeling."

He did laugh; but so pleasantly, so tenderly, as he tried to reassure
her.

"But you must get rid of the feeling.  Look now, my darling.  We are not
even on the road from King Williamstown, but on one leading almost in
the opposite direction.  If that nigger had been following me, and I
don't care a brass doit if he is, he would have come straight and not
all round the country.  So let the affair slide.  I want you to enjoy
this afternoon; we may not have many more together, for some time, you
know."

He threw in this to counteract the effect of the unexpected encounter.
Shaking off her depression, she looked up at him with a bright smile.

"You dreadful prophet of ill.  I won't have you predict such things.
Let's have another of those glorious canters.  I'm not nearly such a
coward as I was, am I?"

"No.  You're as fearless as a circus-rider," answered he, with a laugh;
and then they started off into a long, level, swinging canter.  And the
golden hours of the afternoon fled as they kept on their way, over
breezy grassland and shady bush road; and not till after sundown did
they draw rein at their door, just as the labours of the day were at an
end in the pleasant old frontier city, whose inhabitants were strolling
up the wide streets, or turning into the ever open bars in quest of
their evening "peg," or standing in knots at the corners discussing the
news from the front.

"Oh, there you are," said Payne, meeting them in the doorway, and
handing Claverton a couple of letters.  "Heard the news?"

"No."

"Well, here's the deuce to pay all round.  A telegram came in to-day
saying that a chap named Kiva, with five or six hundred Gcalekas, has
crossed into the Gaika location, that the Gaikas have risen as one man,
and the whole country is up in arms.  The hotel and store at Draaibosch
is burnt to the ground and a lot of farmhouses besides, mine among them,
I expect.  The road from `King' to the Transkei is blocked, and Komgha
in a state of siege.  A pretty kettle of fish, isn't it?"

"H'm.  Rather.  What's going to be done?"

"They're calling out men.  Our old corps is in the thick of it now, I
expect.  Brathwaite's will soon be there, too, I should think."

"I should rather like to take service in that.  But, look here," went on
Claverton, who had been opening his letters the while, extending one of
them to Payne.  It was an official one, offering him on the
recommendation of Jim Brathwaite the command of a corps of Hottentot
levies which was being raised; the other was from Jim himself strongly
advising him to accept it.

It was hard--very hard, to leave Lilian again so soon, and for an
indefinite time--but, after all, it had been more than half expected.
He supposed he must go.  All would most likely be called out for service
at a later stage of hostilities, perhaps almost at once, and even if it
were not so, how could he hold back?  Besides, now, at any rate, here
was a definite command which might lead to something much better.

"Take it, Arthur.  You can't refuse it," Lilian said, bravely, when he
showed her the letter.  "You must go; but you need not to-morrow.  We
will have one more whole day together, my darling--will we not?"

"This is Saturday.  They will want me to start to-morrow, but they may
want.  I can't put it off later than Monday, I'm afraid, or they'll
pitch-fork some other fellow into the concern instead.  So we will make
the most of to-morrow.  But cheer up, dearest.  It won't be for so long
as last time."

She only answered with a smile, a little forced.  She kept her tears for
when she was alone, then they flowed freely enough.  Such are the
results of war--glorious war!  Men's blood, mingled with women's tears,
fills the cup of the destructive demon.

That evening Claverton went round to the official to whom the letter
referred him, and notified his acceptance of the post.

"Ah!  Yes.  The levies--I remember," and he unearthed one or two papers
from a pile.  "You will go round by Fort Beaufort, and Victoria East,
and pick up contingents that have been recruited there, and then report
yourself at King Williamstown, where you will receive further
instructions.  Of course you will be ready to start at once--to-morrow
at the latest."

"No."

The official looked up quickly, with a stare of astonishment.

"Pardon me," he said, with some acerbity.  "Did I understand you to say
that you could not start upon this service to-morrow?"

"Not so fast, my dear sir; I didn't say I couldn't, I said I wouldn't.
A vastly different thing," said the other, with a pleasant laugh.

"But, Mr--Mr Claverton, I would really advise you not to throw up this
appointment.  I assure you that I could name at least a dozen men who
would jump at the chance."

"In that case it might be as well to give them the opportunity of
practising their leaping powers," was the cool, smiling reply, and he
made a movement as if to rise.

The official was sorely perplexed.  To let Claverton go would entail no
end of correspondence and bother before he could fix upon another man
altogether fit for the post; and, what with all the disturbance and
worry of the past few days, he had more than enough on his hands
already, as the heap of letters and telegrams lying before him all
demanding "immediate" attention, and the lateness of the hour for him to
be in his office, abundantly testified.

"How soon will you be ready, then?" he said at last, wearily pushing
back his chair.

"On Monday morning--an hour before daylight."

"Very well, then, that's settled.  I suppose a day won't make any great
difference after all.  And you might turn the time to account by picking
up three or four likely-looking fellows here.  If you want any further
information you'll find me here all to-morrow.  No rest for us public
servants, not even on Sunday, since these confounded wars; I feel quite
ashamed to look a parson in the face now--ha, ha, ha!  Good-night!" and
chuckling in a dispirited manner over his feeble jest, the official
shook hands with Claverton and returned to grind away at his vouchers,
and requisitions, and reports until midnight.  And our new commandant of
levies sallied forth, a flash of satirical mirth lurking in his eyes
over his interlocutor's parting suggestion.  So likely that, on the last
day he would spend with Lilian, he was going to bother himself
recruiting a lot of dirty niggers among the grog-shops of Bog-na-fin
[the popular name for a low quarter of Grahamstown].

But his fame must have spread very rapidly, for early the next morning
before he was half-dressed, his faithful henchman came to tell him that
a man was asking for him in the back-yard.  "What does he look like,
Sam?"

"An ugly Hottentot, Inkos.  Big and strong, though."

"All right, tell him to wait.  And, Sam!"

"Inkos?"

"I shall take you with me to the front.  So you'll be able to try your
hand at shooting Amaxosa."

Sam jumped with delight at this.  He could hardly believe his ears.  The
last time, he had begged and prayed to be allowed to go; but then his
master had gone in the capacity of a private trooper, and couldn't be
encumbered with a servant.  Now it was different, and subsequently Sam
might be heard imparting his good news over the wall to the Hottentot
groom belonging to the neighbouring house, winding up with his cherished
formula--"Amaxosa nigga no good."

In a few minutes Claverton went out to interview his intending recruit,
as he supposed the visitor to be, and an almost imperceptible shade of
annoyance came over his face as he saw before him the man whose sudden
appearance yesterday had so sorely troubled Lilian during their ride.
"Ghosts don't talk!" said he to himself, sardonically and with meaning,
"or this might be one."

"Good mornin', Baas?" said the new arrival, with his eyes keenly fixed
on the other's face.

"Morning," replied Claverton, shortly.  "What d'you want with me?"

"I want to join your levies, Baas."

"Oh, do you?  What's your name?"

"Vargas Smith, Baas," replied the fellow, who spoke English fluently,
narrowly watching the effect of his words.  But the said effect was
simply nil.

"Queer name that.  Where d'you come from?"

"I've bin up Zanzibar way--three, four, five years ago--up the river,"
answered the fellow, in a tone full of significance, jerking his thumb
over his shoulder in the supposed direction of that locality.  Then
sinking his voice to a whisper: "Don't you know me, Baas?"

"Never saw you before in my life," replied Claverton, looking him up and
down with a cold stare of astonishment.

The coolness of this rejoinder fairly staggered Smith, who, for a
minute, stood dumbfoundered.  Then he said, still in a would-be
significant whisper:

"They used to call me `Sharkey,' Baas, up yonder."

"Did they?  A devilish good name, too.  But what's `up yonder,' and
where do you hail from, when all's said and done?  Are you from these
parts?"

"No, sah, I'm Cuban gentleman."

"Cuban gentleman, are you?" said Claverton, with a sneer.  "Then let me
tell you this, Mr Vargas Smith, alias Sharkey, that I don't want
_gentlemen_ in my corps; so you won't do for me.  Now we understand each
other."

"Yes, sar.  I was only jokin'.  Of course I un'stand.  But I want to
serve under you, Baas Lidwell--ah--I mean, Baas Claverton--and you'll
let me join."

Claverton thought for a moment.  If the fellow intended mischief, it
would be as well to keep him under his own eye.  It might only be, after
all, that Smith wae really desirous of joining his corps, for he,
Claverton, had something of a reputation for coolness and daring, and
this fellow, too, was in no wise wanting in pluck.  And he had shown the
man that he was determined not to recognise him, and that any attempt to
trade upon a knowledge, real or imaginary, of former days, would be
worse than useless.  So he replied:

"Well, Smith, you're a likely-looking fellow enough, and, on second
thoughts, I'll take you.  But it's only fair to warn you that, as to
promotion or recommendation or anything of that kind, you'll stand just
the same chances as any one else: no more and no less, d'you hear?  Now,
you show up at the Public Offices at one o'clock, and I'll let you know
when you will be sworn in, and the rest of it."

"Very well, Baas," said the other, respectfully.  "I'll be there.  Good
morning."

Just then Lilian, throwing open her window, caught sight of the
retreating figure of Smith.  Her heart sank.  What had this evil-looking
ruffian to do with her lover?  Had not his appearance heralded
misfortune already?--for, with true feminine logic, she could not help
connecting him in some way with the turn affairs had taken.  And
Claverton, knowing the idea she had taken upon the subject of the man,
purposely forbore to mention the circumstance, and she, fearing to
trouble him, would not ask him.

All along the frontier the tide of war was rising.  The spark had fallen
in dry grass, and now the flame flashed forth with lightning rapidity as
one after another the insurgent tribes rose in open revolt.  And amid
the wild glens and bushy wastes of their secluded fastnesses lurked
armed hordes of fierce savages, hungering for prey and plunder; and the
smoke of burning homesteads hung in a pall over the land, telling of the
toil and industry of years laid in ruins.  On many a hill-top hovered
dark clouds of the enemy, ever watchful, and ready to swoop down upon
the lonely traveller, or patrol scanty in numbers; and the war-cry, grim
and defiant, mingling with the crackling of musketry, told that each red
wave was rolling on its course.  And night after night, beneath the
blackness of the heavens, the terrible Fire Trumpet rang out its lurid
message of destruction, and pillage, and death.

Thus the year closed.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER ELEVEN.

"HAVE YOU NO SECRET ENEMY?"

"Good-bye!"

Who among us has not uttered the mournful word?  Not merely in airy,
hollow fashion, when passing out of a drawing-room door, but in dire
sadness, as we look our last upon the face from which we are about to be
divided by time or distance--and, it may be, upon which there is small
chance of our ever looking again in life?  The train rolls out of the
station; the plank is hurriedly thrown back on to the thronged quay,
and, as the great ship glides from her moorings handkerchiefs wave and
voices no longer audible to each other still continue to articulate, it
may be in accents of heartsick pain, or through a forced and broken
smile, or even in tones of genuine cheerfulness, the saddest of all
words--"Good-bye."

The fatal Monday morning has come at last; and there, in the grey dawn,
Lilian stands bidding farewell to her lover.  A light is burning in the
sitting-room, and without it is almost dark, for the morning is lowering
and cloudy.  Now and then a puff of warm wind, which seems to herald
rain, sighs mournfully through the trees, whirling up the dust in little
eddies along the empty street--and they two are alone, for none of the
household are astir, which neither regrets.  And thus they stand,
looking into each other's eyes and both hesitating to frame the
word--"Good-bye."

The conditions of parting are unequal, it is true.  To the man, going
forth on this dark, desolate morning, the time of separation will be
abundantly occupied--downright hard, honest soldiering--no mere child's
play, and if during those long months there is hardship and privation,
there is also the excitement of peril and the stir of strife, the rough
sociality of camp, and the healthful glow and energy of life in the
open.  To the woman it means a period of weary and inactive waiting; of
days unbrightened by the strong, tender presence she has learnt to love
so dearly; of nights, wakeful and self-tormenting, when the overwrought
brain will conjure up visions of deadly peril, of the flashing spears
and wild war-cry of the savage foe, of the wasting form of fell disease
following on wet and exposure, of the swift lightning and the raging of
flooded rivers, and every contingency probable and improbable, attendant
upon campaigning in a barbarous land.

"Wherever you are, and whatever you do, you _will_ take care of
yourself," she is saying.  "You will not run any unnecessary risks, even
for other people.  Your life belongs to me now, love."

"It does," he answers, softly and tenderly.  "Keep up a good heart, my
sweet.  Don't go imagining all sorts of horrors while I am away, for,
remember, that after these years I was not sent back to you to be taken
away again.  Mine is a charmed life--never fear."

"I believe so, indeed," she answers, looking at him fondly--proudly, and
smiling through her tears.

"Why, Arthur, I would not keep you if I could, now.  It is such as you
who should be to the fore at present, and how could they supply _your_
place?"

He makes no reply for a moment, but presses his kisses faster upon the
soft hair and sweet, up-turned face, and he is sad and heavy at heart;
though he will affect as much cheerfulness as he can, with the object of
making light of things.  And there seems some excuse for her implied
encomium, looking at him as he stands--ready and calm, entirely devoid
of any affectation of the military in his dress or accoutrements; but
yet, the very ideal of the frontier civilian soldier.

"Keep up a brave heart, my own," he murmurs again.  "The day will soon
come when we shall look back to this, as one of the sad experiences of
the past, even as we look back to that other time.  This is a mere
passing minute compared with that."

"Ah, yes.  Now I am delaying you, and you must go.  God keep you,
darling, and bring you back to me safe again.  Good-bye."

One more strong, loving embrace, and he is gone.  He throws himself upon
his horse, which Sam has with difficulty been holding, and its impatient
hoof-strokes ring through the empty street as he turns for one last look
at the graceful figure waving him a farewell from the gate, and for the
moment he feels inclined to retrace his steps, go straight back and
resign the post which, all unsought, has been thrust upon him, and allow
the war to take care of itself as far as he is concerned.

And Lilian, returning to the deserted room, now so desolate and empty to
her, as the dawn reduces the light of the candles to a pale garish
flicker, feels the tears welling up afresh as she reproaches herself for
not having kept him at any cost, for round her heart is a terrible
foreboding of evil to come--how, when, and in what form the future will
reveal.  Yet the feeling is there.

We must follow the wayfarer.  Throughout the whole day he rode
mechanically forward, absorbed in his own thoughts.  A heavy storm drove
him for shelter to a wretched roadside inn; but ever impatient to be
moving, he left before it was nearly over.  The roads wet and slippery
with the rain rendered progress slow, so that by the time it grew dark
he was still some miles from Hicks' farm, where he intended to pass the
night.

"I'm afraid we've lost the way," he ruminated, as having gone some
distance up a long, bush-covered valley, he began to feel rather out of
his bearings.  "Sam!  Where the devil are we?"

"Don't know, Inkos.  I never was here before.  Look.  There's a house!"

"So there is.  We'll make for it," and, picking up their horses' heads,
they approached the dwelling, which was a sorry-looking affair.  Darker
and darker it grew, and a drizzling shower began to fall.  Suddenly a
light gleamed from the ill-closed window, and at the same time a man's
voice, raised high in expostulation, reached their ears--a voice not
unfamiliar to Claverton, withal, and in its tones he caught his own
name.  Quickly he dismounted.

"Sam," he whispered.  "Take the horses out of sight, there, in the
bush--quietly, d'you hear?  And if you hear a row, come and look after
me without a moment's loss.  You'll soon see which way to shoot."

"Yeh bo 'Nkos," replied the ready-witted native, whose eyes sparkled
with excitement.  Then silently, and with a rapid glide, Claverton made
his way round to the back of the house.  Through a chink under the
window-joist he could see the interior of a room--a mouldy, disused
room, with damp, discoloured walls, and rotting beams festooned with
cobwebs; but the place wore a look of familiarity to him, even as a
sight or a sound which now and then will strike our imaginations as in
no wise to be accounted for save in the previous experience of a dream.
For a moment he was puzzled; then it flashed upon him that he was
looking into the room where he and Ethel Brathwaite had taken refuge on
the night of the storm.  Yes; there was the very place where she had
slept and he had covered her with his cloak, and where she had sat when
terrified by the wolf; and, straining his gaze further, he almost
expected to see that quadruped's footsteps in the dust by the half-open
door.  A fire burnt in the middle of the room, and there by the side of
it lay the very stone he had used for a seat.  It all seemed so strange
that he seriously began to think he must be dreaming.

But he was wide awake enough as the sound of voices was heard, and two
men entered the room from outside, closing the door after them.  And in
one of them Claverton recognised his recruit of yesterday; the other he
had never seen before.  He was an Englishman--a tall, dark man, well
made and erect of carriage, evidently a gentleman by birth, and yet with
a certain sinister expression that would have led the watcher to regard
him with distrust even had he not heard his own name brought into the
conversation.

"It's all right, Sharkey," this one was saying.

"Your ears must have played you tricks.  There's no sign of any one
moving."

"No, there ain't.  Well, now, Cap'n, about this devil Claverton?"

"Yes, I'll be as good as my word.  One hundred pounds, this day six
months."

"Make it two, Cap'n; make it two.  He's a devil to deal with--a very
devil.  You don't know him as well as I do."

"No; one.  Not another stiver.  And now, are you downright sure that
Arthur Lidwell and Arthur Claverton are one and the same man?  Could you
swear to him?"

The mulatto laughed--a hideous, hyaena-like grin--showing the long,
sharp, canine teeth which had gained him his repellent sobriquet.

"Swear to him?" he cried.  "I'd swear to him in a million!  I recognised
him directly I set eyes on him in the crowd at `King.'  But the young
lady spotted me sharp as a needle, and I had to hide.  She does seem
awful fond of him.  Why, when I--"

"Drop that damned nonsense, Sharkey, and stick to the point?" exclaimed
the Englishman, with a deep frown.

"Very sorry, Cap'n.  Well, I was going to say, I knew him, and, what's
more, he knew me."

"The devil he did!"

"Yes.  He recognised me first when I met him on the road on Saturday,
riding with the young lady; then afterwards I spoke to him, but he was
that high and lofty!  I told him my name, and watched him closely; then
I called him by his name that he carried up there--just let it slip,
like--and, would you believe it?--he never winced!"

"Didn't he?"

"No, he didn't.  Says he: `Never saw you before in my life!' as cool as
you please.  Ah, he's a plucky devil is Lidwell; he always was!" said
the mulatto, with a sigh of admiration.

"Why do you owe him a grudge?" asked the other, curiously.

"He knocked me down once, Cap'n--hit me here, bang on the nose."  And
the speaker's features assumed a look of deadly malice.  "He shot me,
too, and left me for dead.  I could forgive him that, but not the whack
on the nose."

"So help me Heaven, I'll repeat that operation with interest before
you're many weeks older, friend Sharkey," muttered the watcher, between
his set teeth.

"And then--one hundred pounds," went on the fellow.  "Hist!  I'm certain
I heard something."  And both men sat in an attitude of listening.  For
a moment there was dead silence; then the Englishman rose.  "I'll just
take a look round, to make sure," he said, producing a revolver and
going out into the night, while Claverton, drawing his own weapon,
crouched there, covering the angle of the tenement round which he
expected his enemy to appear; for that this man was, for some cause or
other, his deadly enemy was obvious.  He would have the advantage of
him, however, for his eyes were accustomed to the darkness, whereas the
other had just come out of the light.  For a moment he waited--anxious,
expectant--but no one appeared; then he heard the two men's voices
inside again, and, peering through the crevice, saw the Englishman
return, shutting the door behind him.

"All right; there's no one moving.  You do hear the most unaccountable
noises, though, in this infernal bush at night."

"Ha, ha, ha!  So you do, Cap'n; and you'll hear plenty more when you get
up there to the front among the Kafirs," said the other, with a mocking
laugh.  "When do you leave?"

"As soon as I get my command.  Now, no tricks, Sharkey.  In three months
this fellow must have disappeared.  No violence, mind; _but he must be
induced to leave the country_;" and he emphasised the words with a
significant look into the other's face.  "Mind, you mustn't hurt him."

"All right, Cap'n.  I've joined his levies.  What d'you think of that,
hey?  I'm not a bad shot, you know, and there's no fear of my mistaking
a Kafir for any one else, or any one else for a Kafir, eh?  Ha, ha, ha!"
and the villain winked his yellow eyes with a murderous leer.

The Englishman's dark features grew red and then white.  "By Jove,
Sharkey, but you're a knowing one," he said.  "I'm deuced glad I ran
against you.  One hundred pounds, fair and square."

"Bight you are, Cap'n.  One hundred pounds, and," sinking his voice to a
whisper, every word of which was audible to the listener, "in three
months he'll be out of your way, never fear."

The gloom spread around, pitchy black, and the rain pattered upon the
bush and upon the crouched form of the man who, with his eye to the
chink in the wall, and gripping his revolver, witnessed these two calmly
plotting his death, for there could be no mistaking the drift of their
scarcely veiled hints.  A wave of fierce wrath surged up in his heart as
he gazed upon his would-be murderers.  Why should he not quietly walk
round and, flinging open the door, shoot the pair dead?  It would be but
the work of a moment.  Then came the cold but none the less dangerous
caution which always stood his friend--dangerous to the objects of his
resentment in proportion as it preserved to him his own coolness.  It
would not do.  How could he prove to the world at large that he had done
it to save his own life?  No.  He would keep a close eye upon this
ruffianly mulatto, and then the first time they were in action he could
easily turn the tables on his sneaking assassin by shooting him quietly
through the head--_in mistake for one of the enemy_--and he laughed
sardonically at the thought of hoisting the villain with his own petard.
He had no compunction, no nice scruples of honour in such a matter as
this.  It was _vae victis_.  The other had put the weapon into his hand.
And who was this Englishman who seemed bent on pursuing him in such a
deadly manner?  Who was this secret foe, so eager and anxious to plant
the assassin's steel in his back?  And as the firelight flickered into
the corners of the grim old room, lighting up the faces of these two
midnight plotters, Claverton scanned every feature of the reckless
lineaments of the arch-schemer again and again, but could detect nothing
familiar in them.  He had never seen the man before.

Suddenly the latter rose.

"Well, now I shall be off," he said.  "I leave it to you, Sharkey.
Here's something to go on with," and there was a chink as of gold as he
passed something into the mulatto's hand, who clutched it greedily.  "We
understand each other.  Now, the sooner you join your regiment the
better," he added, with a harsh laugh.  "Good-bye.  Are you going to
stay here to-night?"

"Why, yes, Cap'n; it's warm and dry."

"Ha, ha!  Supposing Claverton should want to off-saddle here.  That
would be a joke--eh?"

"He's better employed, that devil," replied the Cuban mulatto, and he
chuckled to himself as the other passed out, frowning.  And the listener
heard the sound of footsteps, and then the tread of a horse receding in
the distance.  The man was evidently riding away up the kloof.

Left to himself Sharkey got up, fastened the cranky door, and threw some
more wood on the fire.  Then he took out his pipe, filled and lighted
it, and drawing his blanket around him, lay down, prepared to make
himself thoroughly comfortable.  He grunted once or twice as his pipe
went out, and then with a muttered imprecation threw it down, and,
pulling the blanket over his head, began to snore.  A few moments more,
and the watcher arose and softly stole away into the bush, for he was
revolving a merciless and coldblooded plan.

"Sam!"

"Inkos?"

"Tie the horses up and come with me.  You remember the scoundrel we
enlisted yesterday?"

"Yeh bo 'Nkos."

"Well, he is in that place, and you and I are going to take him.
Directly I kick down the door, you will follow on my heels and collar
him.  Now come."

They stole back to the house, and Claverton took the precaution of once
more peeping in.  The mulatto lay quite still, rolled in his blanket,
evidently asleep.  Then he returned to the front of the building.

"Now, Sam--ready!" he whispered.

A sudden rush, and a tremendous kick, and the door went down with an
appalling crash, as, staggering with the shock and the impetus,
Claverton half fell half rushed upon the sleeper, gripping him by the
throat before he had time to move; while Sam, seizing both his hands,
twisted them behind him, and rolled him over on to his stomach.

"That's it, Sam; tie him up," cried Claverton, in a steely voice,
restraining with difficulty his longing to throttle the life out of the
prostrate villain, who, for his part, did not yield without a struggle--
and a violent one.  Indeed, it required all their efforts to hold him,
for the mulatto was of powerful and athletic build.

"So!" said Claverton, approvingly, as Sam dexterously made fast the
prisoner's feet with a _reim_ he had brought for the purpose, having
previously pinioned his hands.  "Now, Mr Vargas Smith, alias Sharkey,
alias the Cuban gentleman--now, may I ask, what the devil are you doing
here?"

The man regarded him with a scowl of hatred.  "I was on the way to join
the levy, Baas, and came in here for shelter from the rain," he replied,
sullenly.

"On the way to join the levy, were you?  My good friend, this is not the
way to King Williamstown.  That, I believe, is where you were consigned
to--but never mind that.  Now, I want to know, who was the _gentleman_
who has just left?"

The ruffian's yellow hide grew a dirty, livid colour.  "I don't know his
name, Baas," he said, falteringly.

"It's surprising how we live and learn," said the other, coolly.
"Before I count twenty you'll not only have learnt his name, but you'll
have told it to me.  Sam, put up that door.  And Sam, go to the corner
and keep watch; and let me know if you hear anybody coming.  It isn't in
the least likely, but there's nothing like caution.  Now, friend
Sharkey, what is his name?  Out with it."

"Don't know, Baas," repeated the other.

"That's unfortunate for you.  Now, you see this?" taking a glowing
faggot from the fire and blowing upon it.  "With this I am about to
tickle the soles of your feet until you do know.  Come!  Out with it,"
and he approached his victim.

"Mercy, mercy!  I'll tell you, Baas," pleaded the mulatto.

"Well?"

"It's Wallace--Cap'n Wallace, Baas."

"Oh.  No lies, mind," said Claverton, with a determined look.  "You know
me.  I stand no nonsense.  Well, now, where did you first fall in with
this Captain Wallace?"

"At Port Elizabeth."

"Who is he?"

"That I don't know, really, Baas," pleaded the fellow, piteously.  "He's
going to raise a levy and fight the Kafirs, and he wanted me to join
it."

"H'm.  I believe the first statement, the last is a lie.  No more lies,
friend Sharkey, if you please, or we shall quarrel.  And now, tell me,
how do you purpose earning your hundred pounds?"

The mulatto's face grew livid as death, and great beads of perspiration
stood out upon his forehead.  He knew that from this man, whose murder
he had just been plotting, he need expect no mercy; and he read his doom
in every line of the other's features, as he stared at his captor with
the haggard and hunted expression of a trapped wild creature.  Again his
shaking lips reiterated a prayer for mercy.

"You were going to be very merciful to the man whom you were about to
put out of this Captain Wallace's way in three months, were you not?
Who was the man, by the way?"

"Yourself.  He hates you, Baas, I don't know why, I swear I don't.  I
think it's about some money you have that he ought to have--at least, so
he says."

"Quite so.  And he set you to watch me?"

"Yes."

"I see."

Then there was dead silence.  It was a strange sight that the ghostly
firelight flickered and danced upon in that lonely hut.  The bound and
prostrate-ruffian, and the quiet, refined-looking man sitting opposite
him--sitting in judgment on his would-be murderer.  Outside, the rain
pattered with a monotonous, dismal sound, and the distant cry of a
jackal floated upon the heavy night air.

"Well, now, Sharkey," said Claverton at length, "you are the greatest
scoundrel that ever breathed, you know.  I had almost made up my mind to
amuse myself for the rest of the night by drawing figures on your
carcase with this," and again he held up the glowing faggot; "but I will
be merciful, and won't do that."

A look of relief came into the prisoner's eyes; but his tormentor went
on:

"But, you see, you have confessed to having intended to murder me for
the sake of a hundred pounds.  Now, do you know what we do with
murderers?  We hang them; but I won't hang you."  The look of relief
increased, and the fellow began to murmur his thanks.

"Wait, wait, not so fast.  I won't hang you.  I say, because, to begin
with, I haven't got a rope.  But a couple of prods with this,"--touching
the handle of a long, keen sheath-knife--"will answer the purpose a
great deal better.  For this is war-time, you know, Sharkey, and this
hut is a devilish lonely place, so that when in about a month you are
found here, a yarn will go the round of the papers as to how the body of
a poor devil of a Hottentot--not even a Cuban _gentleman_, mind, they
don't understand that distinction here--was found slain by Kafirs, with
no end of assegai holes in him.  Or it might be safer for us to dig a
hole in the next room, and quietly drop you in--alive, of course--and
cover you up.  It would, perhaps, be a little more trouble, but safer."

The expression of the miserable man's face, as he stared at his
tormentor with a frozen, hopeless look of despair, was awful to behold,
while he listened to the terrible doom which the other pronounced upon
him.  Not a gleam of relenting could he trace in that stern, impassive
countenance.

"Mercy--mercy," he moaned.  "I will be your slave--your dog.  I will
kill the other man if you wish, only spare me," and his dry, bloodless
lips could hardly articulate his hopeless entreaty.  "Only spare my
life--it is yours--I deserve to die; but spare me," and the miserable
wretch grovelled on the earth.

Claverton contemplated him for a few moments with calm equanimity,
unmoved by the extremity of his terror.

"Upon my word, Sharkey, I gave you credit for more gameness.  Well, now,
listen to me.  It is as you say--you deserve to die, and your life is
mine.  Never mind about the other man, I won't have him hurt for
anything.  Now for yourself.  You have gone through all the bitterness
of death in the last few minutes, as I intended you should.  That is
enough.  I will spare your life--richly as you have deserved to lose
it--but listen to me.  You will go from here as a prisoner, and not be
released from arrest till we have joined the others.  I will make no
conditions with you--first of all, because you are absolutely powerless
to harm me, now, or at any future time--the very events of to-night
prove that; secondly, because, if I did, you would not keep them.  So I
forgive you completely your plot to murder me, and you shall join the
corps as if nothing had happened.  One word of warning, though.  I shall
have my eye upon you always, and wherever you may be.  And remember
this, in case we go into action together--_I'm not a bad shot, you know;
and there's no fear of my mistaking a Kafir for any one else, or any one
else for a Kafir_.  Bear all this in mind, for if you are up to any more
tricks, what you have just gone through is a mere joke compared with
what's in store for you.  You know _me_."

The prisoner looked at Claverton with a wild, superstitious awe.  This
man must be something more than mortal, and he shuddered as he reflected
that he was indeed powerless to harm him.  Then, as he realised that his
life was spared, the look of relief returned to his livid features.  He
knew the other only too well, and that every word had been spoken in no
mere spirit of empty threat, but in sober earnest.  And now he felt like
a man who has been reprieved from under the very gallows-tree itself.
He had spoken the truth in his revelation in all good faith--indeed, he
dared not have done otherwise--and had told all he knew, marvelling that
he had been asked so few questions.

Claverton, meanwhile, was sitting opposite, watching his prisoner with a
curious and thoughtful expression.  By what stroke of luck had he been
made to lose his way and brought to this place in time to overhear the
plot against his own life?  Who on earth could the other man be--the
arch mover in the scheme?  He had never seen him before; had never even
heard his name; and then what the mulatto had said, about it being a
question of money.  Stay, could it be that some will existed of which
he, Claverton, knew nothing, and under which the other would benefit in
the event of his death?  It seemed strange, certainly; but then his
experience had taught him that nothing was too strange to be true.  And
then recurred to his mind, with all the force of a prophecy, the words
which Lilian had spoken when first she discovered the ruffian was
following them in the square at King Williamstown: "_Have you no secret
enemy?  No one who would owe you a grudge_?" and he had answered lightly
in the negative; whereas, he was actually being dogged by two secret
assassins--one of them no mere common ruffian like the cut-throat lying
there before him, but a man apparently his equal in birth and station.
With whom, however, he promised himself a full and complete reckoning,
all in good time.

Then the recollection of Lilian's words naturally recalled the image of
Lilian herself.  What was she doing then?  Thinking of him ever--at that
hour most likely praying for him--and he?  With difficulty had he just
restrained himself from an act of wild, lawless vengeance--justified,
perhaps, but still vengeance--one which in earlier days he would not
have shrunk from; and now, as he thought of her, his whole mood softened
and he felt glad that he had spared the villain opposite, even though by
doing so he might have jeopardised his own life.  Not that he gave this
side of the question a thought, for his experiences had made him a
fatalist, and he really believed himself under a special protection for
some purpose or other--be that purpose what it might.  Thus musing, he
fell into a doze; while the faithful Sam, having stabled the horses in
the adjoining apartment, had barred up the door as well as he could, and
sat, huddled in his blanket, smoking his pipe and keeping watch over the
prisoner and over his master's safety.

With the first ray of dawn they were astir.  The horses being saddled,
the prisoner's feet were untied to allow him to walk.

"Yon dam Hottentot nigga?" said Sam, administering a sly kick to the
crestfallen Sharkey, when his master's back was turned.  "You cheek my
chief, eh?  Now, you try to run away, I shoot--shoot you--so.  My chief,
he good shot, shoot you dead--ha, ha!"

With which salutary warning they set out.  Sam, in his heart of hearts,
hoping that it would be disregarded, and that the mulatto would really
make an attempt at escape.  But that worthy was wise in his generation,
and the Natal native had no opportunity of showing his skill with the
new Snider rifle wherewith a paternal Goverment had supplied him on the
occasion of his joining "Claverton's Levies."

A curious contrast did this grim _cortege_ present to the last occasion
of his leaving that place in the early dawn, thought Claverton.  Instead
of the bright, laughing girl who was his companion then, he cast his eye
on the sullen prisoner and his guard, and then on his own warlike
equipment; and mingled, indeed, were his reflections as he found himself
traversing the old roads, with all the features of the familiar
landscape stretching around.  There was old Isaac Van Rooyen's
homestead, down in the hollow, on the right, looking just the same as of
yore, except that that slow-going old Boer had built a new room on to
it, probably for the accommodation of the family of one of his children,
who had quartered themselves upon him.  In front, in the distance, rose
the frowning face of Spoek Krantz and the heights from among which it
stood forth.  The mountains, too, on the sky-line, wore their well-known
aspect; and every feature of the surroundings, whether bush or open,
seemed to bring back the past.  Even Hicks' farm, whither he was now
wending, was the one he himself had started to treat for, and had turned
back, that day when he had heard his fate and been sent forth into
banishment from all that made life for him--four years ago.

"Hallo, hallo!" cried honest Hicks, looking up in astonishment from some
carpentering he was doing behind the house, as the trio rode up.  "Well,
this is a piece of luck!  How are you, Arthur, old boy?  And who the
deuce have you got there?"

"A chap who joined my corps and began his service by desertion; I
chanced to pick him up on the way."

Hicks looked mystified for a moment.  "Oh--ah--yes, now I remember!  Jim
told me you had got the command of some of the greatest blackguards
under heaven.  That bird, by the way, looks as if he would be quite in
his element among them.  But I should think you'd manage to lick them
into shape if any one would, eh?"

"Oh, yes.  And they're not bad fellows to fight, once you get them away
from the canteens.  I'll manage them, never fear."

"But come in.  Laura will be surprised.  Don't bother about the horses,
I'll see to them; and your boy will be enough to look after the
prisoner, I should think."

"He will.  The rascal has been licking his chops over him like a
bull-terrier contemplating a cat in a tree.  There's nothing he'd like
better than a chance of practising at the fellow running away."

By this time they had entered the house, which was a trifle small
perhaps, but comfortable, after the style of the ordinary frontier
dwelling, and Claverton took in at a glance the air of neatness and
domesticity that pervaded it, from the sewing-machine and work-basket on
the table to the rocking-cradle standing in the corner, which latter was
the sole work of Hicks' skilful hands.

And Laura?  She was but little changed in appearance, and that, if
anything, for the better.  More matronly-looking and a trifle more
demure perhaps than formerly, and if her greeting to Claverton lacked
ever so slightly in cordiality, it might have been that she still
cherished a latent spark of resentment against him on Ethel's account.
But, after all, there was no altering the past.  Whatever was to be--
was--and there was no help for it.  And being a good-hearted little
woman she soon cast aside her first veil of reserve, and talked to him
as in the old times, for she had always liked him, and besides, he had
done her husband more than one good turn.

"And where is Ethel now, and how is she getting on?" asked Claverton,
presently.

"She's down at Cape Town still."

"Does she ever come up to the frontier?"

"Oh, yes.  Sometimes.  She would have been coming just about now, only
this new war broke out."

"Who's that?  Ethel?" asked Hicks, returning.  He had left the room for
a moment to give some directions to one of his natives outside.  "Oh,
yes.  She was engaged to some fellow down there and then choked him off
all at once, no one quite knew why.  Laura vows that--" Here the speaker
became aware of a battery of warning glances being levelled at him from
his wife's dark eyes, and suddenly collapsed in a violent fit of
coughing, on recovery from which he threw open the door, and looking
frantically up at the heavens declared, with a vehemence wholly unsuited
to the occasion, that the rain would inevitably clear away before twelve
o'clock.  Claverton, on whom not one fraction of this by-play was lost,
although he pretended not to see it, could hardly restrain his mirth.
Good old Hicks, he thought, was always a whale at blundering, and he had
done for himself again.  Even in trying to extricate it, he had put his
unlucky foot in yet deeper; for, to any one who did not know him, this
violent prognostication as to the weather, taken in conjunction with
what had gone before, would have had slightly an inhospitable smack; but
Claverton enjoyed the situation only too well.  By-and-by, when pursuing
his journey, he would shout with laughter over the recollection; now,
however, not a muscle of his countenance moved as he said, in the most
matter-of-fact way:

"You might remember me to Ethel, when you write.  We used to have rather
fun together in the old times."

Laura said something in assent, though she mentally resolved to do
nothing of the kind.  No good would come of waking up old recollections,
she reasoned, by mentioning this man who, even if through no fault of
his own, had, at any rate, she told herself, cast a cloud over her
bright, wayward, beautiful sister's life, and the sooner he was
forgotten the better.  For that sister's sake she by no means shared her
husband's joy over his reappearance, and she sincerely hoped that those
two might not meet again, and wished that he would be quick and marry
Lilian Strange, or leave this part of the country, or both.  Meanwhile
here he was, still on the frontier, and Ethel might be coming up to
visit her at any time.

Just then a chubby toddling--an exact infantile reproduction of his
father--rushed into the room; and Laura, with a touch of pride that was
very becoming, exhibited him to her guest, while the urchin opened his
big blue eyes wide, and stood staring, with his finger in his mouth, at
Claverton's long boots and shining spurs.

"Go and say how d'you do to Mr Claverton, Jimmy," said his mother, in
the tone of half command, half entreaty, usual under the circumstances.
"He's a soldier, you know, going to fight the Kafirs, like Uncle Jim."

"Uncle Jim" being Jim Brathwaite, who was the urchin's godfather.

"I'll be soja, when I big," lisped the prodigy, toddling up to
Claverton, and tentatively stroking with one finger the shin of his high
boot.  "I got gun--shoot de Kaffa--bang!"

"Halloa," cried Hicks, re-entering.  "Don't let that kid bother you,
Arthur.  Kids are a confounded nuisance unless they happen to belong to
a fellow, and very often even then."

But Jimmy was not to be detached from his new acquaintance, to whom he
had taken an immense fancy, and just then, fortunately for his peace of
mind, a move was made in favour of breakfast.

They talked of the war and its progress.  Hicks declared his intention
of holding on a bit for the present, and joining Jim Brathwaite--who,
with his troop, had already left for the front--later, if things got
worse.  Laura had been in a terrible fright the last time when he had
gone, he said; but now, since she saw that none of them had been hurt,
she didn't care--in fact, concluded Hicks, he rather believed she wanted
to get rid of him, so he was determined to stay, just to spite her.
Listening to the playful recrimination that followed, Claverton found
himself thinking what a good thing it was to see two people happy like
this, for there could be no doubt but that happy they were--thoroughly
so--in their quiet and hitherto peaceful (for the tide of war had not
yet rolled in so far as this) frontier home; though such may appear
incredible to those who find their enjoyment of life in the whirl and
feverishness of fashionable civilisation.  And thinking it, he rejoiced
greatly on his old chum's account.

And the said "old chum" was considerably crestfallen at the announcement
that he must take the road again.  "Why, hang it all," he grumbled;
"you've hardly had time to look at us."

"My dear fellow--duty--inexorable duty calls.  But I shall assuredly
knock you up again, soon."

"Why, here's baby!" exclaimed Laura, as an approaching squall resounded
through the passage.  "You will just be able to have a peep at her
before you go," and regardless of her lord's impatient protest that
"Claverton didn't want to be bothered with a lot of kids," she took a
limp bundle of clothes from the arms of its bearer and uncovered a wee
red and--shall it be confessed?--rather wet physiognomy for her guest's
inspection.

"H'm, I'm no judge of infants, Laura," said Claverton, good-humouredly,
"but I should say this one ought to fetch first prize at the next show.
But now I must be off--good-bye."

"Must you go?  I'm so sorry," said Laura.  "I should like to get Lilian
up here to stay for a bit, only `some one' would be sure to forbid it as
unsafe," she added, archly.

"Well, good-bye, old fellow," said Hicks.  "My horses are out in the
_veldt_, and will take hours to get in, or I'd go part of the way with
you.  Mind you look us up again as soon as ever you can."  He was going
to add something about hoping "to see you both here before long"; but
with his recent slip fresh in his mind, he refrained, fearing lest in
some unaccountable manner he should put his foot in it again.
"Good-bye--success to you.  Mind you shoot lots of niggers and come back
all jolly," and with a hearty hand-shake the two men parted.

Claverton rode on, reaching Fort Beaufort, where he tarried a day to
recruit his men, or rather to collect them, for they had already been
recruited by his lieutenant, a young Englishman named Lumley; and it was
high time he appeared on the scene, for the rascals had taken the
opportunity of getting on the spree, indulging in much inebriate
jollification preparatory to starting for the seat of war.  They would
be all right, though, once away from the canteens and under proper
discipline--and under proper discipline he intended they should be.  So
promptly mustering them he marched them off without any farther delay,
not even waiting a day in Alice, the divisional town of Victoria East,
where a fresh batch was picked up.  At the latter place, however, a
despatch awaited him, ordering him, instead of going to King
Williamstown, to proceed straight through to join the main column on the
borders of Sandili's location.

All along the road he met with fresh rumours and alarms.  The rebellion
was spreading; the whole of British Kaffraria and the Transkei was
over-ran; nearly all the settlers' houses in the more exposed districts
were burnt down; the Police express-riders carried their lives in their
hands, as they darted across the hostile country, several of them having
been cut off already.  Added to which these districts were in a dire
state of alarm, by reason of impending troubles nearer home, for the
Gaika clans in the Waterkloof and Blinkwater fastnesses, under the
chiefs Tini Macomo and Oba, were in a state of restlessness, and
meanwhile signal fires burnt nightly on the higher peaks of the Amatola.

It was, indeed, a motley crew, was this "levy" of which the two
Englishmen were in command, numbering between sixty and seventy men.
Yellow-skinned Hottentots; dark Korannas; tall, light-coloured Bastards;
every shade and kindred of the race which though inferior to them in
many respects, yet looked upon themselves as the natural foes of the
Kafirs, and with far more sympathies of rule, of civilisation, or rather
semi-civilisation, and even of blood, with the white man, for few indeed
but had some drops of white blood in them.  Even two or three specimens
of the ape-like Bushmen found part in the motley gathering--wiry, active
little rascals, with skulls hard as iron and the agility of cats--and
one and all by virtue of their white strain, and the weapons wherewith
they had been supplied; and confidence in their leaders, felt themselves
immeasurably superior in prowess to the naked tribesmen against whom
they were burning to be led.  Not a few of the older men--wrinkled,
shrivelled-looking, sinewy creatures, but game to the backbone--had been
rebels in the war of '50, when the old Cape Mounted Rifles, then
composed of such fellows as these, had gone over in a body to the enemy,
and, bearing in mind the salutary lesson they had been taught, both by
their ill-chosen friends and their deserted employers, were now only too
ready to retrieve the past, and to avenge themselves upon the
treacherous savages who had then misled them.  They were mostly plucky;
fair shots and reliable at a pinch; but, as yet, in a state of
indifferent discipline; and it required all their leader's promptitude
and firmness to lick them into anything like decent shape.  His first
address to them was short and to the point.

"Now, men," he said, in the ordinary Boer Dutch, which was their mother
tongue.  "We are going out to fight--to fight in real earnest, and not
to play.  I have seen fellows I would far less sooner command than I
would you, for I know you can hold your own against any number of these
rascally Gaikas.  Many of you are good shots, I know, and we'll soon
have plenty of opportunity of peppering Jack Kafir handsomely, I promise
you.  Remember, we are going to fight--and to fight we must always be in
a state of readiness and of order, because we are in the enemy's country
and never know when we may have him down upon us.  Now, mark my words.
Any man who gets drunk, or is found asleep at his post, shall have six
dozen well laid on with a couple of new _reims_, as sure as my name's
Claverton, and the second time he'll be shot.  Mind, I'll stand no
hanky-panky.  When we get home again you can get on the spree as much as
you like; in camp, steadiness is the order of the day.  Your rations
you'll get just as I get mine, neither better nor worse.  I shall ask no
man to go where I won't lead him, and now we'll just go and thrash Jack
Kafir into a cocked hat--yourselves and Mr Lumley and I.  So we
understand each other.  I am commanding men, not fools or children--
isn't it so?"

"Ja, kaptyn--ja!" they cried, cheering him vociferously.  "We shall show
you we are all men--good men and true."

"That's right.  Now I am going to let you elect your own sergeants and
corporals, and, having elected them, by Jove, you'll have to obey them.
I should recommend, for choice, Gert Spielman, Cobus Windvogel, Dirk
Hesler," and he ran through a list of about a dozen of the most
trustworthy veterans, knowing full well that those who were elected
would be devoted to him, and those who were not, scarcely less so for
his having recommended them.  And thus having got his corps into working
order, and, in fact, it became more manageable every day, Claverton and
his lieutenant journeyed with light hearts towards the seat of war.

"These fellows will turn out a very creditable lot, or I'm much
mistaken," remarked Lumley, as they were advancing through one of the
defiles of the Amatola.  "They are cool and reliable at a pinch, and not
susceptible to panic like the Fingoes.  I'd rather have fifty of them
than five hundred Fingoes."

"I quite believe it," assented Claverton.  "Some of them are tough
customers, and once beyond the reach of grog they're all right."

"Yes.  Look at that old Gert Spielman, for instance," pointing to a
shrivelled, little old Hottentot, with a skin like parchment.  "He's a
dead shot.  The infernal old scoundrel was a rebel last war, and only
escaped hanging by the skin of his teeth.  I suspect he's drawn a bead
with effect many a time on poor Tommy Atkins in those days.  Well, now--
if occasion offers--you'll see he'll turn out to be one of our best
men."

"No doubt.  But I say; this is a queer place, and the sooner we get
through it the better."

They were threading a long, narrow defile.  Overhead the forest-covered
slopes rose to the sky, and down to the path stretched the jungly bush--
dense, tangled, and apparently impenetrable.  Great yellow-wood trees
here and there reared their grey, massive limbs, from which the lichens
dangled, above the lower scrub, and monkeys chattered, and birds flitted
screaming from the road as the troop moved forward.  Some fifteen or
twenty of the men had horses of their own, and these, Claverton, like a
prudent commander, had thrown forward as scouts, if not to clear the way
at any rate to give warning of any assemblage of the foe threatening to
oppose their progress--which they could easily do, being as quick of eye
and as agile of limb as the Kafirs themselves.  But no sign of
obstruction was encountered, and soon, emerging from the gorge, they
found themselves in more open country, bushy still, but not densely so--
indeed, such that in the event of attack the advantage would not be
wholly on the enemy's side.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER TWELVE.

"THE LAND IS DEAD."

For two days "Claverton's Levy" has continued its march farther and
further into the disturbed country, meeting, as yet, with no opposition.
Now and again, far away on a hill-top, like a black speck, would be
descried the form of a Kafir scout watching their movements, and on two
or three of these occasions shots had been fired, though futilely, for
at present the wily foe was showing a discretion eminently the better
part of valour, and kept his distance.  Deserted kraals and
mealie-lands, here and there even the ruins of a once prosperous
homestead, tell in significant, if voiceless testimony, that the "land
is dead" indeed; and no sign of life is visible along the path, save for
the occasional presence of the wild creatures of the waste, who, for
their part, lose no time in getting out of the way of this
quaint-looking crew.  Once, indeed, a number of Kafir women came into
the camp with a plausible tale of how they were fleeing from the rebels,
and were on their way to join their husbands and fathers in the colony,
who were loyal to the Government, and wouldn't the white captain give
them rations to carry them on their road?  But Claverton, who saw
through the trick, had ordered them out of camp at once, threatening to
make prisoners of the lot if they were even within sight half an hour
later.  He knew they were spies--these confiding creatures--sent in by
the enemy to see how great a fool the white chief was, and to report
accordingly; but in the present instance they found him in no sense a
fool at all.

Very careful and precise has Claverton been in the matter of guard;
visiting the sentries himself, and that often.  Indeed, there has been a
tendency among the men to growl a little--always in secret, for they
have already begun to look upon their leader with no inconsiderable
awe--at the extra precautions he takes in posting rather more than the
absolutely necessary number of guards.  Very careful and precise is he
in matters of discipline, although, within limits, the men are allowed
and encouraged to make the time pass as cheerfully as possible; and many
are the yells of laughter round the evening camp-fire over the antics of
some yellow-skinned monkey; or another discourses the sweet music of a
Dutch Hottentot song to the accompaniment of a concertina and a battered
old fiddle, for they are fond of music in their way, are these
light-hearted, scatter-brained half-breeds--their own music, that is--a
weird, shrill, bag-pipish chorus, unparalleled in its discordant
monotony.  But at a given time all lights out, and woe to the delinquent
who should think it safe to begin "trying it on" in this or any other
respect.  So the corps is in capital order for its rough work, and,
thanks to the carefulness of its leaders, runs no more jeopardy than
that provided by the ordinary chances of war--which, indeed, is fully
sufficient.

And now the troop is halted in a hollow, by the side of a small stream--
at this season nearly dry--dry, that is, in places where it should run,
though there are several deep pools of standing water very inviting on a
morning like this, for, though not yet high, the sun is making his rays
disagreeably felt.  Around, for a distance of about half a mile, the
slopes are dotted with _spekboem_ and aloes; the straight, prickly stems
of the latter looking like an array of dark Kafirs stationed about in
the shimmer of the rising heat.  It is the third morning of their march,
and to-day they expect to reach the main body; meanwhile, having been on
the move since dawn, they are halted for breakfast.

As usual, the sentries have been carefully posted, for their leader has
noticed among his men a certain tendency to carelessness, in proportion
as their advance is made without sign of opposition, and, knowing their
characteristics and their failings well, his watchfulness never relaxes.
And now, as the sun shines pleasantly down, on this cloudless morning,
the men sit and lounge about, taking their well-earned rest ere the word
is given to set forward again.  Some are cooking their breakfasts and
those of their fellows; others lie about smoking their pipes and
indulging in drowsy gossip; some lying on their backs, with their ragged
hats between their faces and the son, are fast asleep; while others are
still splashing merrily in one or two of the water-holes, diving into
the water or sitting on the brink basking in the sun.  Claverton himself
has just returned from his bath, and stands, in scanty attire, looking
placidly round upon those under his command, in their various attitudes
of ease and restfulness.

"Not much use tubbing if one has to walk a hundred yards after it," he
is saying.  "One wants to go in again directly one gets here."

"Yes," answers his lieutenant, dreamily.  "By the way, I was thinking
what we should do if Jack Kafir were to make a sudden rush on us while
we were splashing away down there.  But I don't believe we shall get a
glimpse of the beggar until--"

Bang!

A shot is heard just over the brow of the rise about seven hundred yards
off.  It rings out on the still morning air with a sharp clearness that
is startling, and immediately it is followed by a second.  The effect is
like magic: loungers sit bolt upright, sleepers wake, those in the water
scurry out, and all eyes in camp are turned in the direction of this
unlooked-for alarm.

"Kaptyn, Kaptyn--Kyk dar so!"  [Captain, Captain--Look there!] cries one
of the sergeants, a wiry little Hottentot of some sixty summers.  But
even before his warning is uttered Claverton's quick eye has caught the
cause of alarm, and more, has mastered the fact that nothing but the
utmost coolness and determination will save every soul in that camp from
destruction.  For the whole ridge is alive with Kafir warriors, swarming
over the brow of the hill like a crowd of red ants; on they come,
straight for the camp, evidently with the intention of carrying it by a
rush.  A man is fleeing before them as hard as ever he can run--
apparently the sentry who has fired the shot--but he has a small start
and they are gaining upon him.  Suddenly he falls, then disappears,
pierced by a score of assegais, and the crowd pours over him.

"Steady, men--steady!" cries Claverton, his clear voice ringing like a
trumpet.  "Every man to his place.  No one to fire before the word is
given."

And now the state of discipline into which the corps had been brought,
bore its fruit, as, quickly and without flurry, each man knew exactly
where to find his rifle and ammunition, and found it--for the arms had
been placed separately in a circle, not piled--and now, inspired by
their leader's coolness, every man stood armed and ready, only waiting
the word of command.  Once or twice Claverton detected signs of flurry
and scrambling; but a word or two thrown in, and an invincible
coolness--which could not have been greater had they been on parade,
instead of waiting the furious onslaught of a savage horde, rushing down
at a pace which three minutes at the outside would bring right upon
them--instantly had the effect of restoring order.

"Steady, men," cried Claverton again, as the whole force knelt behind
the light breastwork of thorn-bushes, which a quarter of an hour's work
had sufficed to throw round the camp when they first halted.  "Steady.
Don't put up any sights, and aim low.  Now--Fire!"

Truly the attacking force presented a terrific and appalling spectacle.
In a semi-circular formation on they came at a run--hundreds and
hundreds of fierce savages, their naked bodies gleaming with red ochre,
as they poured through the bush like demons, shrilling their wild
war-whistles, and snapping their assegais across their knees to shorten
them for the charge and the irresistible hand-to-hand encounter which it
seemed nothing could stay.

Crash!

A roar of the detonation of many rifles.  The smoke clears away, and a
confused mass of fallen bodies and red struggling limbs, is descried.
Another and another volley; the assailants roll over in heaps, their
ranks literally ploughed through by the heavy and terribly destructive
Snider bullets--almost explosive in their effects--poured in at such
close quarters.  The advancing mass halts a moment like a wave suddenly
stopped by a breakwater, fairly impeded by the fallen bodies of its
slain and the frantic convulsive throes of the stricken.

"That's right, men!" shouts Claverton.  "Give it them again!  Hurrah!"

A wild cheer breaks from his followers as they pour in their fire--a
shrill yell of maddening excitement, nearly drowned by the fierce,
frenzied war-cry of the Gaika warriors.  But these are beginning to
waver.  The tremendous loss they have suffered, the determined and
wholly unexpected resistance they have met with, all tells, and promptly
they drop down into cover, and commence a rapid and heavy fire upon the
camp.  Their shooting, however, is ludicrously bad, and the bullets and
"pot-legs" whiz high overhead, imperilling no one.  The Hottentots
answer with a derisive cheer, and every time a Kafir shows his head a
dozen shots are blazed into him, generally with effect.

Suddenly a tremendous fire is opened upon the camp from quite a new
quarter.  One man drops dead, and two or three others are badly hit, and
then on the opposite side a great mass of Kafirs rises from the bush and
sweeps down upon the frail breastwork, uttering a terrific shout.  A
chief is at their head--a slightly-built, handsome man, with bright,
clear eyes and a heavy beard for a Kafir--waving his tiger-skin kaross
as, sounding his rallying-cry, he charges straight forward.  Claverton
spots him at once, and, coolly drawing a bead upon him, fires and
misses.  The chief laughs--a bold, defiant laugh--showing a splendid set
of white teeth, and poising an assegai, hurls it with good aim at his
would-be destroyer, who manages to dodge it, or his hopes and fears
would come to an untimely end then and there.  And the rifles roar and
crash into the red, bounding mass, and the smell of powder is heavy in
its asphyxiating denseness; and the demon figures flit athwart the smoke
and jets of belching flame, while the gun-barrels grow hot, and the
brain begins to reel amid that awful, deafening din, and the foot slips
in a dark stain of fresh warm life-blood welling forth upon the grass.
Truly all this is unsurpassed by Pandemonium in its wildest conception.

The last volley has broken the neck of the charge, but the impetus has
carried a number of the enemy within the breastwork, and among them the
chief, who, grasping a short, broad-bladed assegai, is stabbing right
and left.  Claverton sees him, and, amid the frightful turmoil of the
hand-to-hand conflict, cannot help admiring the cool intrepidity of the
man.  He tries to get at him, but finds enough on his hands with a huge
Kafir who hurls himself upon him, making herculean efforts to brain him
with a clubbed rifle.  A neat revolver shot and the savage falls--the
bullet cleaving his skull, entering straight through the right eye--and
in falling nearly upsets Claverton by stumbling forward on him.

"The chief!  Stop him or kill him!" cries the latter.  "Twenty pounds to
whoever kills the chief!"

He cannot get near him himself, however.  He sees his quondam prisoner,
Sharkey, lay hold of one of the enemy and by main force brain the Gaika
warrior as he hurls him head downwards upon a stone.  He sees Sam kill
two Kafirs with his own hand by as many strokes with a powerful
Zulu-made assegai, as he replies to their fierce challenge with the most
ear-splitting of whistles.  He can make out Lumley and the cool-headed
little Hottentot, Gert Spielmann, with the utmost calmness keeping up,
together with a section of their men, such a fire upon the Kafirs
outside that these are already in full retreat; but get at the chief he
cannot.  And, indeed, that bold leader seems to bear a charmed life as
he charges through the camp, till, seeing that the game is up, he bounds
like a deer over the breastwork unharmed amid the shower of bullets that
flies round him, and, shouting his war-cry, regains the friendly cover
with such few of his followers as have had the good fortune to escape.

The fight is over and the day is saved, and the Kafirs may be seen
slinking off in squads through the bush--some, indeed, dragging the
wounded with them.  Orders are given to cease firing, and then about
twenty of the best shots are told off to pepper the retreating enemy at
long range, while the rest are held ready in the event of a fresh and
unexpected attack; for their leader is not the man to overlook the
smallest possibility in the chances of war.  But a rally is not among
them in this instance, and, after a sufficient time has elapsed, the men
are paraded.  It is found that the loss has been fire killed and twelve
wounded.  Silence is restored--all but restored, that is--for a voice
might still be heard in the ranks in half-smothered dispute with a
comrade, and then, with a vehemence which sounded loud upon the silence,
it exclaimed: "Haow!  Amaxosa nigga no good!"  And at this sudden and
evidently unintentional interruption a roar of laughter broke from one
and all of those present, from their leader downwards, while our friend
Sam, whose feedings had found vent, in his uncontrollable excitement, in
his favourite ejaculation, stood there looking sheepish and guilty to a
degree.  Then Claverton addressed them.

"My men," he said, "you have just shown the stuff you are made of.  Half
an hour ago we didn't know there was a Kafir within ten miles of us, and
now in that time, taken by surprise as you were, you have beaten off an
enemy outnumbering you by six to one.  You have behaved splendidly
to-day--splendidly, I say--and I am proud to command you.  You fought as
well as any Englishmen could have done, in a tough action partly
hand-to-hand, and you have won it by sheer pluck and hard fighting.  We
have lost five men, unfortunately--five good men and true.  They fell
doing their duty--fell with arms in their hands, like soldiers, and I
shall make it my business strongly to recommend their families to the
Government for a pension.  Now, we must keep up our discipline in the
camp stricter than ever after this, as you must see, if only for our
common safety.  So we'll just give three cheers for the Queen, and then
we'll set to work and get into marching order.  Now, then--"

Cheer upon cheer went up--three times three again and again; but it is
to be feared that amid their acclamations the men thought far more of
their present leaders than of their absent Sovereign.  However, the
effect was that intended--an inspiriting one.

"One word more," cried Claverton.  "The Kafirs have fought us like men--
in fair, open fight, and we've thrashed them, and thrashed them well.
Now, there are many of them lying wounded round here in the bush.  It is
hardly necessary to remind you that soldiers--true soldiers--don't hurt
wounded men after a battle; so when we go round to count the dead
directly, no harm is to be done to the wounded.  Leave the poor devils
in peace until their kinsmen come to carry them off, as they will do
when we are gone.  So mind--they are not to be hurt."

"Ja, ja, Kaptyn.  Det is recht!" cried many of them.

"You put that neatly," remarked Lumley.  "There's nothing like giving
people a good opinion of themselves."

"Well, yes," answered the other, with a slightly cynical laugh.  "These
fellows are like children--take in everything you tell them in praise of
themselves.  Now they're as pleased as Punch, and ready to go anywhere."

"I wonder what would have been the upshot if the Kafirs had come on more
slowly.  These chaps of ours are not half such good shots as they think
themselves, for I noticed some of them firing awfully wide.  They
couldn't help hitting the crowd, you see; and being under the influence
of excitement, didn't stop to think.  Otherwise the effect of their poor
shooting would have been disheartening to them and encouraging to the
enemy.  And the odds were frightfully against us, you know."

Claverton looked grave.  "There's a great deal in what you say, Lumley.
More than ever, then, must we keep the fellows thoroughly up to the
mark."

Accompanied by ten mounted men, Claverton made a wide circuit of the
camp, by way of reconnaissance.  From the ridges not a Kafir was to be
seen, and it seemed incredible that on this spot, within the last
half-hour, a furious conflict had raged.  Beyond the camp a film of
smoke still hung heavily upon the air, and there was a thick, sulphurous
smell; otherwise, all was quiet and serene, as if the peace of the
morning had never been disturbed.  And then they came upon the bodies of
the slain foe, lying thickly around the camp, most of them struck dead
where they lay, and terribly mangled by the great tearing shock of the
Snider bullets.  Some had managed to crawl a few yards, and lay with
their fingers dug deep into the hard earth, which they had clutched in
their convulsive agony.  Now and then a shuddering tremor would run
through one of the bodies, and lips would move, and glazed eyes half
unclose.  It was a terrible thing to contemplate that mass of humanity
so lately pulsating with life and vigour, now a mere heap of inert
corpses, mangled and hideous, lying there doubled up and contorted by
the throes of death--a sight which, could the intriguing heads of the
war faction in the tribe have seen, would surely have caused a dire
sinking of heart and a regret, all too late, that the counsel of the
older men should have been set at naught.  _They_ had had experience of
these things; and such a sight as this hecatomb of their nation's
manhood in its vigour and prime, must have been before their eyes when
they uttered their warning, oft repeated but all unheeded.

Suddenly they came upon a horrible sight.  In the midst of a pile of
bodies, about thirty yards in front of them, a great gaunt savage rose
slowly up to a sitting posture.  The whole of his face, neck, and
shoulders was one mass of blood, and he appeared to be intently
listening.  Not a muscle moved as, with his head turned sideways towards
them, he awaited their approach.  "Poor devil!" muttered Claverton,
contemplating the grisly figure, while even the Hottentots were vehement
in their expressions of commiseration.  Then a rapid movement was seen
to agitate the Kafir's limbs, and, springing half up, he discharged his
gun quick as thought right into the astonished party barely ten yards
distant, slightly wounding one of the horses, but doing no further
damage.

"Stop!" cried Claverton in a tone of command, seeing that his men were
about to fire on the unfortunate savage.  "Stop!  Not a shot to be
fired; his gun's empty now."  Then halting, he ordered the Kafir to lay
down his arms; but the man never moved.

"Whaow!" he cried, ferociously.  "Did I kill any one?  But come and kill
me, cowards, as you have sent me into night.  Come and kill me.  Do you
hear, cowards?  Or are you afraid of a man _who cannot see_?"

His last words were indeed true.  A ball had passed through the upper
part of his face, taking away both his eyes.  The poor wretch was
stone-blind.  And in this condition, maddened by the frightful pain of
his wound and a sense of his calamity, he had quietly awaited their
approach, and then, guided by the sound, had struck a parting blow at
his hated foes.  Something very like a shudder ran through the
spectators.

"No.  We are not going to kill you," replied Claverton.  "Listen.  We
shall soon be away from here, and then your friends will come back and
find you.  You may yet live a long time, and there may yet be some
little pleasure in life even for a man who cannot see.  So we shall not
harm you.  It's the fortune of war--you to-day, myself to-morrow."

The only answer was a moan of exhaustion as the sufferer sank back on
the ground.  Claverton sent one of his men for some water, of which the
wounded man drank copiously.  Then he washed his face, and, placing the
poor wretch in a more comfortable position, left him and passed on his
round of the field of slaughter.  Many a sickening sight met his gaze--a
sight to curdle the heart's blood and make the brain grow sad, but none
to equal that, and never in after years would he quite forget the
spectacle of the stricken savage all covered with blood, rearing himself
up in the agony of his sightlessness, guided by his hearing alone, to
strike one last blow at his hated foes.

No time was there to do more than hurriedly bury their dead.  They must
get on, and the sooner the better.  So the five slain Hottentots were
buried in a common grave, one wizened little old fellow, by virtue of
his office as "elder" of a native chapel in one of the settlements,
making a rambling, incoherent prayer, and leading off, in a nasal twang,
a cracked, doleful Dutch psalm.  Scarcely was this impromptu dirge
brought to a close when a group was descried advancing towards the camp,
waving something white.

"Three Kafirs with a white flag, by Jove!" said Lumley, scanning the
approaching group through his field-glass.  "Ah!  Lucky for him," he
went on, as on further investigation he made out the sentry, with his
piece at "present," walking distrustfully some twenty yards behind.

All present were disposed so as to be in readiness should this last move
prove to be a mere ruse--it would not be the first instance in savage
warfare of the abuse of the white flag--and the Kafirs were suffered to
approach.  All three were good-looking men of about middle age, shrewd
of countenance, and lithe and well-made of figure.  They halted just
outside the camp, and saluted Claverton gravely as he went forth to meet
them.  He nodded in reply, looked them rapidly up and down and asked
shortly:

"What do you want?"

"We have come to ask the white chief to let us carry away our wounded.
Many of our brethren have fallen, and are lying about in the bushes.
They will die if we do not attend to them."

For a few moments Claverton made no reply, but stood meditatively
flicking his boot with a small switch he held in his hand, the savage
delegates, the while, eyeing him narrowly.  He was turning over the
situation in his mind.  Why were they in such a hurry to look after
their wounded--it was not in accordance with their usual practice?
Could it be with the object of keeping his attention employed, of
disarming watchfulness while a large force stole up to surprise them?
Or were they merely enacting the part of spies?  At length he replied--
and his suspicion and deliberateness, so far from offending, caused him
to rise in their estimation; for anything like hastiness either of
speech or decision does not find favour in the eyes of these people:

"How is it you were not afraid to trust yourselves in our hands?  It is
not the time of peace."

"Aow!  The white captain is brave.  He will not hurt three men alone in
his camp," replied the spokesman.  "We are not afraid.  See--we have the
white flag."

The insidious flattery conveyed in this speech was quite thrown away.
For all the change that came over Claverton's face he might not have
heard it.

"Who was your leader?" he said.  "The man with the leopard-skin cloak?"

"Matanzima."

"The son of Sandili?"

"Yes."

"He is a brave man and fought well.  Now, why are you so anxious to look
after your wounded at once, instead of waiting until we are gone?"

"The chief's uncle is among them.  The chief fears that his kinsman will
die."

"H'm.  Who are you?"

"I am Usivulele the son of Sikunaya," replied the spokesman of the
three.

"H'm.  Well, now, listen you three.  These are my terms," said
Claverton, decisively.  "If you, Usivulele, will remain with me as a
hostage till the sun is there" (designating a point in the heavens which
that luminary would reach by about four o'clock), "then your people may
come and look after their wounded, but not until we are over that second
hill.  Should they come before, we shall fire on them again, and if they
attack us before the hour named, you, Usivulele, shall die the moment a
shot is fired.  At that hour, if your people observe my conditions, you
shall go free and unharmed.  Those are my terms, they are not hard; you
are at liberty to accept or to reject them."

The Kafirs debated rapidly for a moment in an undertone.  Then Usivulele
stepped forward, looking Claverton full in the face.

"We accept them," he said.  "I am ready."

"Very well.  Now you two may return and carry my `word' to Matanzima.
When he comes he will find his friends just as they fell.  We do not
harm wounded men."

The two ambassadors saluted again, and turning, strode away from the
camp, escorted to the brow of the hill by a couple of sentries, while
the hostage was placed under a strict guard.  They gave him something to
eat, and he was well treated though carefully watched.  But not for a
moment would he unbend from the grave, dignified reserve wherewith he
had wrapped himself.  Communicativeness was not in the bond, and to all
their questions he returned laconic and evasive replies.  It was evident
that he was not to be "drawn."  Once during their march Lumley, having
just given him a pipe of tobacco, asked where Sandili was.

"Chief," replied the Kafir, in a tone of quiet rebuke.  "If I were to
ask you where your general and your _amasoja_ (soldiers) were at this
moment--what should you say?"

"I should say, `Damn your impudence,'" muttered Lumley, half angrily, as
he turned away feeling very much snubbed; but Claverton, listening,
thoroughly enjoyed the retort.

"Don't be unfair, Lumley," he said.  "This fellow has his wits about
him.  He's no ordinary nigger, I can see."

"No, he isn't, confound him," growled the other, unmollified.

Meanwhile the hostage stalked along among his guards, and showed not the
smallest concern as to his own fate.  Evidently the conditions would be
observed in good faith, and of that fact he was aware.  In a trifle more
than an hour, now, he would be set at liberty--when lo, cresting the
brow of a hill, one of the saddest and most eloquent tokens of savage
warfare burst upon the eyes of the party.  Beneath, lay what had been a
flourishing homestead, now a heap of _debris_ and blackened ruins, from
which, as they gazed, little lines of smoke still arose, showing that
the work of destruction was but recent.  The roof had fallen in but the
walls still stood, with their gaping window-holes like the eyeless
sockets of a skull, and fragments of charred rafters stood out overhead,
the fleshless ribs of the frame of the once sheltering roof-tree.  And
in contrast to this sad work of desolation, a fine fruit-garden fronted
the house, the trees weighed down beneath their luscious burdens--the
fig and the pomegranate, blushing peaches and yellow pears, golden
apricots, and quinces ripening in the high, straight hedges which shut
in the orchard.  Extensive lands under cultivation lay along in the
bottom, and these had not been interfered with.

"This can't have been done long," observed Lumley, surveying the ruin.
"Shouldn't wonder if it was the same gang that attacked us."

"Very likely.  Stop.  Here's a part of it not so smashed up.  Let's have
a look round," said Claverton, dismounting.

One end of the building seemed to have partially escaped--a largish
apartment, evidently a bedroom.  A fall of rubbish across the narrow
window had blocked it, and it was almost in darkness.

"Good heavens! look here," cried Lumley, with a shudder, examining the
ground.  Their eyes had become accustomed to the gloom, and both made
out a broad red stain, whose nature there was no mistaking.  Upon that
rude floor had been spilt the stream of life, and the greedy earth had
absorbed it.  "I don't care for this sort of investigation," continued
he.  "It's one thing bowling fellows over in the open air, in fair,
lively scrimmage; but, hang it all, nosing about in this infernal gloomy
den is another.  Let's get outside," and again he shuddered, as if
dreading what they might find.

"Wait a bit," said Claverton, "Look.  Some one has come to grief here--
there's no doubt about it."

Nor was there.  Another great red patch and a few smaller ones were
seen, and then, following a mark made by something heavy trailed along
in the dust, they came to a doorway leading into the burnt part of the
house, and here, among the dust, and bricks, and fallen _debris_, lying
in the gloom cast by an overshadowing fragment of roof, which looked as
if it was about to fall on them, they came upon the charred remains of
three human beings--apparently two men and a woman, for portions of
female attire still hung about one of them.  Indeed, only presumably
could their European nationality be pronounced upon, for the ghastly
relics were little more than a few calcined bones.

"Good God!" exclaimed Lumley, turning sick and faint at the horrid
sight.  "They've been burnt alive."

"No; I don't think that," said Claverton.  "Poor wretches--they were
killed first and then flung in here.  The marks in the other room show
that, if it's any comfort.  They were probably surprised in their beds
and murdered; this very morning, too, I should say.  What's this?"

Something shining, which lay on the floor in a dark corner, had caught
his eye.  He picked it up.  It was a small crucifix, about eight inches
in length, such as is constructed to stand on a bracket.  The cross was
broken and splintered in two or three places, but the figure, being of
metal, was intact.  It was exquisitely wrought, and Claverton stood
gazing sadly down upon the holy symbol, which he held in his hand amid
this gloomy scene of ashes, and tears, and blood; and it seemed to him
that a wave of ineffable sorrow swept across the suffering, lifelike
countenance as he gazed.  Wrapping the relic in his handkerchief, he
placed it carefully in his pocket.  Lilian would certainly value it.

"By Jove, Lumley; but war isn't all fun, after all!" he said, with
something like a sigh.

"No, it isn't.  I'm glad now that we peppered those black devils this
morning--cowardly, sneaking brutes.  I wish we had done for a thousand
of them."

"Let's see if we can find anything more among this rubbish," went on
Claverton, not heeding his lieutenant's honest vehemence.  But nothing
was to be found.  The savages had gutted the place, and how the holy
relic had escaped them was incomprehensible, unless it were that, with
superstitious awe, they feared to touch it.  A few battered bits of
iron, the remains of a bedstead, and some broken crockery lay strewn
about; but everything combustible--chairs, tables, curtains, etcetera--
had been given to the flames.

They went out into the air again.  The sun shone placidly down from an
unclouded sky upon this gloomy scene of desolation and death; around, a
fair vision of hill and dale lay spread afar, and now and then the
melodious call of the hoepoe would float upon the summer air as if no
frightful tragedy had been enacted in that peaceful spot, where the
torch and assegai of the savage had been glutted in his lust for blood.

"I suppose we must let this devil go, too," said Lumley, with a fierce,
vengeful glance at their hostage.

"Oh, yes," said Claverton, decisively; "no question about that.
Usivulele," he went on, addressing the Kafir, "is this the work of your
band?  It'll make no difference to you; I shall let you go all the
same."

The man gave a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"Chief," he replied, "we are not the only party of warriors in the bush.
The land is full of them.  Some were here this morning, and are yonder
to-night," pointing to the horizon.  "Why should it be our work?"

"A true native answer, but a fair one," said Claverton.  "No one's bound
to criminate himself.  Hallo; here's a book!"

For, agitated by the faint breeze, some leaves of paper might be seen
stirring amid the grass a few yards off.  He picked it up.  It was not a
book, but a few pages of one, in the German language--a hymn-book, from
all appearances--and it must have been flung there by the savages when
they had completed their ruthless work.  The finding of it, however, and
some other fragments of books all in the same language, scattered
around, threw additional light upon the incident.  Evidently the unhappy
victims were German immigrants, of whom there were many in Kaffraria,
and who either disbelieving the alarming reports, or trusting to the
friendliness of the natives, had been loth to leave their prosperous,
and, as they thought, peaceful home; and had suffered the penalty of
their imprudence.

A grave having been dug the remains were carefully deposited within it,
and, knocking together a rude cross out of some of the wood-work of the
ruined dwelling, Claverton planted it over the last resting-place of the
unfortunate immigrants slaughtered beneath their own roof-tree.  Then
comparing his watch with the sun he addressed the hostage:

"Usivulele, you have kept your side of the compact and I will keep mine.
The time has come and you are at liberty to return to your chief.  Go.
You are free."

The Kafir's impassive countenance relaxed into a slight smile, and, with
a murmur of assent and a courteous salute to Claverton, he gathered his
blanket about him and strode away into the _veldt_.  Many a scowl
followed the retreating figure as the bystanders grasped their rifles
and stole a furtive glance at their leader's face.  They longed to send
a volley after the retiring Kafir; but each man knew that to do so would
mean instant death to himself.

Claverton watched his late prisoner till he was out of sight, and then
returned to explore the ruins afresh, while his men regaled themselves
on the ripe fruit which grew in the garden in such profusion; and very
grateful was the luscious feast to their throats, dry with the smoke of
powder and the shouting and excitement of the morning's fray.  Just as
he was about to enter, the part of the roof which had escaped fell in
with a crash, nearly smothering him in a cloud of dust and cinders.

"I say, Lumley.  That was a narrow share of your getting promotion," was
all he said.

Further investigation was of course barred, and the time for halting
having expired, the "fall-in" was sounded.  As they wound their way out
of the valley, they turned to look back.  The fall of the roof had
disturbed the still smouldering embers beneath, and now a volume of
smoke was rolling up from the blackened ruins, darkening the azure sky,
and casting a fell shadow upon the sunlit earth.  And all Nature smiled
around, in fair, mocking contrast to these hideous tokens of the
vengeful hate of men.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

THE MAIN CAMP.

It was after sundown when "Claverton's Levy" reached the camp of the
main body of the forces detailed to operate in the Gaika Location.

The camp was pitched on an open flat, well situated for defensive
purposes, and commanding a wide open sweep of half a mile on the most
closed-in side.  In the event of attack upon it the enemy would have to
bring more than his wonted _verve_ and determination to the fore, if he
would render the chance of even partial success so much as possible; for
here were gathered over eight hundred men, all handy with the rifle, and
a few volleys, sweeping across that open approach, would tumble the
advancing foe over so quickly that he would turn and flee before half
the space was covered.  A likely-looking force.  Border farmers,
up-country transport-riders, frontiersmen all--ready for the roughest
work and the hardest of tussles, at the earliest opportunity--with many
a long score of petty depredation and wholesale marauding, and
insolence, and defiance, and menace, and desertion of service to pay off
upon their erewhile turbulent neighbours, and now open enemies.  Dutch
burghers, from the Tarka and Cradock districts--past masters in the art
of skirmishing, competent to pick off an object the size of an orange at
three or four hundred yards, while exposing the smallest fraction of
their own ungainly frames to the enemy's fire.  Volunteers--mostly
townsmen--full of fight, if less reliable in their aim than their more
practised brethren, all had their separate camps pitched in close
proximity.  Some of the corps were fortunate and had tents, others were
unfortunate and had none.  A few waggons were there, containing the
supplies and baggage of each corps, or the ventures of private and
speculative individuals, who retailed indifferent grog and other
"luxuries" at their own prices.  On one side of the camp, like a dark
cloud, might be seen a swarm of native warriors; this was the bivouac of
the Fingo levies, and like a disturbed ants' nest, its area was alive
with black forms moving to and fro and making themselves comfortable for
the night, while the hum and murmur of their deep-toned voices rose upon
the air.

Having fixed upon a camping ground for his men--to augment whose numbers
an additional batch had arrived from King Williamstown--Claverton left
his lieutenant in charge, and proceeded to report himself at
head-quarters.

"I think you've done exceedingly well, Mr Claverton," said the
Commandant of Colonial Forces--a tall, quiet-looking, middle-aged man--
as he listened to the narrative of the attack upon the Hottentot levy.
He was a frontier farmer, and something of a politician, clever and
prompt in the field, and of good administrative capacity, by virtue of
which qualities he had been elected to, and subsequently confirmed in
his present post.  "In fact, we hardly expected you so soon.  I'm very
glad to find that your fellows are made of such good fighting stuff;
and, by the way, you may hardly like to leave them now.  I mean," he
went on, seeing the other's look of surprise, "when I say, you may not
like to leave them, that I think we can find you something better.  The
fact is, Brathwaite wants to get you into his troop--Garnier, his third
man, was invalided on the way up, fever, result of bad water or
something; and he wants to pitchfork you into his place.  I told him I
didn't think you'd care to give up a regular command of your own to put
yourself under another fellow, and, now, while I think of it, you have
managed those Hottentot chaps so well, that I don't much like your
leaving them just as you've got them ship-shape.  Still, you'd probably
rather be among your friends, and if you care about taking the post,
I'll get you appointed at once."

"It's very kind of you," replied Claverton.  "If I might, I should like
to think it over.  Would it do if I let you know in an hour's time?"  It
was even as the other had said; he was not quite prepared to throw up an
absolute command of his own to serve in a subordinate capacity, even
among his old comrades.

"Oh, yes.  Let me know to-morrow morning, that will be time enough," was
the good-natured answer.  "Why, there is Brathwaite," and, gaining the
door of the tent with a couple of strides, he called out: "Here,
Brathwaite.  Tumble in here for a minute, will you."

"What's up?" cried Jim, turning.  "Why, Arthur!  You here?  When did you
turn up?"

"He's had a scrimmage, and a good one," pat in the Commandant before he
could answer.  "But look here, Brathwaite.  I've been telling Claverton
about your idea, and he'll let us know in the morning.  If you can talk
him over meanwhile so much the better--for you," he added, with a smile.

"Oh!  Well, look here, Arthur.  Fetch up at my tent as soon as you've
got your camp fixed, and we'll talk things over and make an evening of
it.  I can't stop now--got to see about that ammunition that's just
come.  So long!" and he wae gone.

From head-quarters Claverton betook himself to the commissariat
department to arrange for the rationing of his men.  He was well pleased
with his reception, and might have been more so had he heard the remark
of the chief authority to a volunteer officer who had dropped in just
after he left.

"A smart fellow, that--a fine, smart fellow.  Wish we had a few more
like him!  A cool hand, too.  I could see it in his eye."  And as the
officer turned to gaze curiously after the receding form, he told him
about the action which Claverton had reported; and the listener,
brimming over with such a piece of veritable "news"--gleaned, too, at
first hand, on the very best authority--was not long in delivering
himself of the same, first to one auditor, then another, till the story,
gathering sundry additions and exaggerations as it went, soon spread
throughout the camp.

The daylight waned, and hundreds of red fires shone out in the gloaming
as the cooking of the evening meal went merrily forward.  Here and there
might be seen a rough, bearded fellow in shirt and trousers, seated on a
log or an upturned biscuit tin, stirring the contents of a three-legged
pot with a long wooden spoon, while his comrades lay or sat around,
smoking their pipes and chaffing the elective cook--on duty by
rotation--suggesting that, as long as he watched the old pot with that
hungry and particularly wolfish stare, it would never boil; or that he
needn't think to keep them all waiting long enough to send them to
sleep, and enable him to polish off half the rations--and so on.  Here
and there, too, through the open door of a tent, a man might be seen, by
the light of a lantern, writing on a box turned bottom upwards; or
others, needle in hand, busily stitching at some article of saddlery, or
haply of more personal accoutrement; but for the most part they were
taking it easy.  And now and again a buzz of voices suddenly raised or a
burst of laughter was heard, telling of discussion or argument, or jest,
or successful chaff.  Prompt at "spotting" a new arrival, not a few were
the glances of inquiry turned upon Claverton as he made his way back to
his quarters.  "Who is he?"

"Where's he from?" would be the half-whispered inquiries as each group,
sinking its occupation for the moment, turned to gaze after the
stranger.  "Looks fit, anyhow!"

"One of Brathwaite's chaps?"

"Not a `swell,' is he?" was the varying comment as he passed.

True to his promise, Claverton, as soon as he had seen to the
requirements of his men and posted his sentries, made his way to Jim
Brathwaite's tent.  That jovial leader wae busily occupied in setting
out a variety of stores comestible upon a couple of upturned
packing-cases; preserved-meat tins, biscuit, pepper and salt, cheese,
knives and forks, and plates of debatable crockery warranted not to
break, while upon the ground stood several bottles of Bass, and two or
three of something stronger.

"Now, Klaas," he was saying to his sable acolyte, "I don't want you here
any more, so collar that bucket and go and `skep' out some water from
the clean part of the river--up above; you understand.  And look out
that the sentries don't shoot you, or your own countrymen either.
Hallo, Arthur! here we are.  Got a dinner-party on to-night."

"Looks like it--"

"Rather!  No one admitted if not in evening-dress," cried Armitage,
bursting into the tent, followed by Naylor and another man belonging to
the troop.

"Where's the post-horn, Jack?" was Claverton's first inquiry.

"Left it at home," replied Armitage, looking rather sheepish.

"Now bring yourselves to an anchor," cried Jim.  "You must sit where you
can, and balance your plates somehow.  They forgot to send a supply of
tables.  Here, Klaas, drag in that stew.  We won't wait for the other
fellows."

"Won't ye?  Indade and that's illigant of ye!  Company manners, I should
call it!"  And the speaker--a tall, broad-shouldered fellow, with a
curly, reddish beard--entered the tent, a whimsical expression lurking
in his blue Milesian eyes.  His companion--a volunteer officer, by name
Barlow--not looking where he was going, stumbled over the tent-rope and
would have fallen had not the Irishman caught him in his athletic grasp.

"Hould up, me boy!  Sure it's too soon by six morthal hours for ye to be
thrying to stand on one leg!"

The other laughed, and there was a fresh move in order to make way for
the late arrivals, during which a newly-opened tin of salmon emptied its
contents into Armitage's hat, while simultaneously some one managed to
upset and extinguish the lantern.

"Hold on!  Don't move!" cried Jim, striking a match.  "There?"  And
lighting the lantern again, they surveyed the damage.

"See what comes of unpunctuality, McShane," said Armitage, gravely,
holding up his hat.

"Bedad, and ye oughtn't to complain, for ye've got your own rations and
all of ours, too," retorted the Irishman.

"Never mind; shy it outside, Jack, or give it to Klaas.  He'll soon
polish it off," said Jim.  "Here," he went on, handing round the Bass
bottles.  "Just one apiece; make the most of it because it's the last."

"Last of the Mohicans," inevitably and simultaneously quoted every one.

Corks popped and jollification reigned paramount; and sitting there in
that rough tent, whose sole furniture consisted of a camp-stool or so,
and a few old packing-cases turned upside down, Claverton began to find
himself in a very comfortable frame of mind.  The not very brilliant
light of the tin lantern shone upon faces full of mirth and good
fellowship, and many a hearty laugh rang out as they discussed the cheer
before them--rough in all conscience, but plentiful and indeed luxurious
compared with what awaited them.  His mind was made up.  He would accept
the post offered to him.

The tinned meats disappeared, and so did the rather tough camp rations
in their turn; and the Bass having long since vanished, the grog-bottles
were beginning to show symptoms of decay.

"Tell you what it is, Claverton, old boy," began Armitage, benignly
contemplating him through a cloud of tobacco smoke.  "You'd better cut
in with us; just look how well we live here."

"Jack, an' it's blarneyin' ye are," remarked the Irishman.  "Ye needn't
think to find such a spread ivery night, me boy.  It's glad ye'll be to
get your eye-teeth into the hind quarters of the toughest old trek-ox in
the span before you're a week oulder--'dade and it'll be Hobson's choice
for ye then.  Tell ye what, Misther Claverton; that fellow Jack
Armitage's the damnedest old humbug in this camp.  Now, what d'ye think
he did, when we first came up here?"

"What?"  Claverton was bottling up his mirth.  He saw at a glance that
this droll Irishman and Jack were sworn foes--rival wags, in fact--and
was prepared for some fun.

"Why, he had a dirty, batthered ould tin trumpet, that his father used
to toot on when he drove the Dublin coach, and it's no wonder that same
shandradan came to mortal smash twice a week wid such a dhriver.  Well,
this fellow Jack, the first time--and it won't be the last, I'm
thinking--he got his skin too full of Cape smoke, what's he do but go
outside his tent in the middle of the night and blow off a blast on his
old post-horn.  I give ye me word it was enough to wake the dead;
anyhow, it woke the whole camp.  Ye needn't laff, Jack, ye unfalin'
divil, when it's five innocent men ye blew to death with that trumpet--
five--I give ye me word."

"How was that?" asked Claverton.

"Well, in this way," went on the other, delighted to find a new listener
whom he could regale with Armitage's delinquencies.  "Ye see the fellow
kicked up such a shilloo that every one tumbled out like mad, thinkin'
the camp was attacked, and the Fingo levies there, began lettin' off
their guns as hard as they could bang.  They knocked over five of their
own men and winged a lot besides, and the bullets were flying about all
over the place.  As soon as they could be prevailed on to cease fire,
and the cause of the scare was known, no end of fellows came cruising up
this way, wanting to find the chap who'd sounded the alarm, but Jack,
the villain, he stowed away the old trumpet and joined in the search
louder than any of them, and it hasn't been seen or heard of since.
Anyhow, he killed five innocent men wid his infernal old bray, and about
thirteen of 'em--well, I was hard at work for hours next morning
dhiggin' out the bullets their chums had plugged 'em wid, and nately
they'd done it, too.  One chap had his--"

"Oh, don't go lugging your old butcher's shop in here, Dennis,"
interrupted Armitage.  "Even at your own trade you're the clumsiest old
sawbones that ever hoodwinked the examiners and slipped through."

"Clumsy, am I?  The divil!" cried McShane, who was accompanying the
colonial forces in the capacity of surgeon.  "Wait till I get me probes
into ye, Master Jack Armitage--some of these days when ye get a couple
of pot-legs through ye--and we'll see if it's clumsy I am."

"Oh, hang it, Jim, only listen to the fellow.  Do put an extinguisher on
him.  If we must have a butcher, at any rate he might leave the shop
outside."

There was a laugh.

"Wait a bit, Jack, me boy.  It's meself who'll live to hear ye change
your tone, as sure as me name's Dennis McShane!" cried the other.

"Well, this is lively sort of talk," put in Barlow, who was of a
melancholy disposition, except when "elevated," and then he was
uproarious to a degree.  "Haven't you two fellows ever heard of the
proverb, `Many a true word spoken in jest'?"

"If Jack gets hit now at any time, he ought to sue the doctor for big
damages," said Naylor, blowing out a cloud of smoke.

"Or make him put him right for nothing," said Jim.

"An' that's what I'll do, faith," said the Irishman, "an' it's mighty
small he'll sing when the time comes."

"You!  I wouldn't have you digging for bullets in me, if I had to carry
them for the rest of my natural life," cried Armitage in withering
scorn.  "If it came to that I'd send across for old Pollock.  A
blacksmith's better than a butcher under those circumstances, and being
a Cornishman he might understand lead mining."

"An' if it was in your head he had to look for the lead, it's a
bull's-eye lanthern he'd want, for he'd find it mighty foggy in there,
I'm thinkin'," retorted McShane.

"By Jove, Dennis," cried Armitage, suddenly, "It's deuced queer that I
never noticed it before; but as you sit there you're the very image of
poor Walker--Obadiah Walker."

"I am, am I?  An' who the divil is Obadiah Walker?"

"The man who wouldn't help himself and wouldn't pass the bottle, though
I must say that it's only in the last particular the likeness holds
good."

"The bottle!" cried McShane, amid the roar that followed, for it was not
often that even such an old hand as Jack managed to get a rise out of
the astute Milesian.  "Is it this one ye mane?" holding it up to the
light.  "Because, if so, she's come to an end--as the gossoon said when
he slid down the cow's tail and she kicked him into the praist's
strawberry bed."

There was other sign of the bottle having come to an end, and it needed
not the misadventure of the too-enterprising youth just quoted, to
support the announcement, for Barlow having passed out of the
confidential stage, during which he had endeavoured to impart to
Claverton, who was sitting next to him, his whole family history and
circumstances, was beginning to wax extremely talkative, his utterance
increasing in levity in proportion to its thickness.  Armitage, who had
his eye upon the unconscious sinner, was meditating what practical joke,
that would bear the additional charm of originality, he could play off
upon him as soon as it should be time to convey him to his own tent,
when a tremendous row was heard outside--voices in remonstrance, and,
loud above them, one screaming out torrents of imprecation upon
everything and everybody.  Quickly they all turned out, and there, not
half-a-dozen yards off, stood a man of tall, powerful build, brandishing
a revolver, while following on his footsteps, but keeping their
respectful distance, were at least a dozen others.  The fellow was mad
drunk, and, as he stood there in the uncertain light, raving and dancing
as he flourished his weapon, and bellowing out the most awful
blasphemies, he looked quite formidable enough to afford a very
sufficient excuse to the onlookers for their scrupulous and praiseworthy
resolve to refrain from interfering in what was not their business.  An
infuriated drunkard brandishing a loaded six-shooter, is not an
attractive person to interfere with.

Quickly McShane stepped up to the raving giant.

"See here, Flint," he said, in his persuasive Irish way.  "What's all
this about, now?"

The madman glared at him and started back a pace, gnashing his teeth and
foaming at the mouth.

"I want my officer," he yelled.  "Where the hell's my blanked officer?
I want to blow his blanked brains out."

"But see; your pistol isn't loaded," said McShane, in the quietest way.

The fellow stared, struck all of a heap by the idea, and, holding up the
weapon to his eyes, began examining it in the dim flickering light.  In
a moment it was snatched from his hand by the intrepid Irishman who
repelled his immediate onslaught with a blow in the chest, which sent
him staggering back half-a-dozen paces, and before he had recovered his
balance he was seized by the bystanders and firmly held.

"And why the divil didn't some of ye do that before?" asked McShane,
wrathfully.  "Why, he might have blown up the whole camp while a dozen
of ye were standin' thur open-mouthed.  Is it afraid of him ye were?"

The men looked sheepish, and muttered something about "were just going
to" as they secured the arms of their fallen comrade, who lay on the
ground still raving and cursing.

"Just going to, were ye!" cried the irascible doctor.  "It'd serve ye
right if he'd blown half your heads off.  Now take him away.  Don't
knock the poor divil about, Saunders," he added, noticing a disposition
to use the prisoner roughly.

They marched off the erring Flint, who had subsided suddenly, and became
quite rational again; but it would not do to let him get abroad that
night, so he was kept under arrest.

"Who's that fellow?" said Jim.  "If he belonged to my corps I'd bundle
him out, sharp."

"Yis; it's bad enough havin' such a chap in it as Jack Armitage.  He's a
handful in himself, bedad."

"Well, I'm going to turn in," said Naylor.  "Any one going my way?"

"Yis; hould on," replied the doctor--and there was a general move made.
Now and then a burst of laughter came from one of the tents, which, like
this one, had been holding festival; but for the rest the camp was in
slumbrous quiet, only disturbed by the occasional challenge of sentry,
or the footfall of such loiterers as these our friends.

"Jim," said Claverton, the last thing as he bade him good-night, "I've
made up my mind about that offer of yours."

"You'll take it?"

"Yes."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the morning, who should turn up but Hicks and some twenty others,
whose restless spirits would not allow them to remain quiet at home; and
later in the day two more troops of burghers from the Western districts.
And the available forces being thus strengthened, it was resolved that
a forward move should take place at once.

Claverton's swarthy followers growled considerably at losing their
chief, whom, in the short time he had been with them, they had already
began to look up to and respect.  Lumley, especially, put his discontent
into words.

"Always the way," he grumbled.  "Directly you get a fellow you pull well
with--off he goes."

"But, Lumley; you'll be in command yourself now, don't you see?"

Lumley evidently didn't see, for this side of the question now burst
upon him with a new light.

"Don't know.  They're sure to keep me out of it," he growled, but as if
he thought the contingency not an unmixed evil.  And the fact was, his
late chief thought the same.

So Claverton, with the faithful Sam as body-servant, entered upon his
new rank of Field-Captain in "Brathwaite's Horse," _vice_ Philip Garnier
resigned.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

"SUMMER HAS STOPPED."

"No, it's of no use, old fellow.  But look as much as you like, that's
everybody's privilege.  Deuced pretty girl, isn't she?"

"Well, yes, now you mention it--that is, I think so."

"Now I mention it!  That's good.  Of course it was all piety, pure and
simple, that trundled such a hardened reprobate as your redoubtable self
into church on Sunday evening; an institution you, I make bold to say,
have not patronised since the days of your downy youth.  And, of course,
it was by the merest accident that you happened to find a seat not far
from the beautiful Miss Strange within that same tabernacle.
Furthermore, it is purely accidental that she should be on one side of
the street this morning, and you staring at her from the other.  No, old
boy.  In the words of the poet, it won't wash," ironically concludes the
first speaker.

A crowd has assembled in High Street to-day to witness the passage
through Grahamstown of a body of men _en route_ for the seat of war,
and, for the time being, those who can do so, leave their shop, or
store, or office, to come and look at this fresh batch of defenders, and
give them a good, hearty cheer as they file away up the King
Williamstown road.  Those who have time and inclination to do so, make
their way along the said road to the point where the band, which,
discoursing inspiriting music, precedes the intending warriors, will cut
adrift from them, and where some of the honest townsmen will, in the
fulness of their hearts, air their rhetoric in speeches of an
encouraging order as they weep over their martial brethren.  And among
those assembled at this point, to witness the ceremonial, is Payne and
his household, and merged in the crowd about thirty yards away stand our
two speakers.

"Bosh, Chadwick," answers the butt of the good-humoured raillery.
"Can't a fellow look at a girl without your trying to evolve a `case'?"

The other laughs light-heartedly.  He is a young fellow of
five-and-twenty--slight, fair, and of middle height.  His companion is
ten years older, and exactly his opposite in personal appearance.

"A fellow can do anything he likes in that line--at least, a fellow like
yourself can," he replies.  "But in this instance I fancy not.  She's
booked, my good friend--booked as deep as the Dead Sea--and you haven't
a chance.  You're a day late for the fair."

The elder man frowns slightly, which to conceal he half turns away.

"Who's the fortunate individual?" he asks, carelessly, with a sneer.

"A man named Claverton.  He's away at the front now, and the fair Lilian
is looking forward to the time when he shall come back `crowned with
Triumph's flushing honours.'  I deeply sympathise; but, barring the
friendly thrust of an assegai, or the good offices of a peripatetic
pot-leg discharged from the blunderbuss of the noble savage, you haven't
a chance.  Not even then, for, from all accounts, I don't think she'd
let go the shadow of the departed Claverton in favour of the substance
of even such a fascinating dog as Ralph Truscott.  It is with grief that
I say so."

"It is with grief that I find myself constrained to listen to your
maundering bosh.  Now shut up for a moment, Chadwick, because I can't
talk amid the infernal din of this tin-kettle band."

Shrill shrieks of laughter, much chatter, and some vituperation, drown
their voices as the ragged portion of the crowd--slatternly Hottentot
women and impish dust-coloured brats--fall back precipitately before the
advancing _cortege_.  Big drum puffs up the hill letting off a worthy
sense of the importance of the event in well-timed whacks lustily laid
on; and red in the face, hot and breathless, and with loving thoughts of
that cool brandy and soda awaiting their return at the "Masonic Hotel"
bar, the gallant musicians do their utmost to render with effect the
cheery quick-step march destined to invigorate the pilgrimage of their
brethren, going--as one of the orators subsequently puts it--to defend
"their 'arths, 'omes, and haltars."  Then a halt is called, and, after
some speech-making, the guard of honour--formed by a detachment of
volunteer infantry--lining the road, presents arms, as the band strikes
up the National Anthem, and the cavalcade of tough-looking, sunburnt
men, two hundred and sixty strong, rifle on hip, and mounted on wiry,
serviceable nags, files past, two deep, between the open ranks, and
everybody feels exuberantly patriotic, and hoorays, and waves hats and
handkerchiefs accordingly.

"Good compact lot of men, that," is Payne's verdict, as he watches the
retreating burghers somewhat wistfully, for he is tired of hanging about
the town, as he calls it, and would fain go to the front, only just at
present he cannot.  His wife detects the wistful expression, and rejoins
mischievously:

"Yes.  If anything, a trifle smarter than your old corps, George."

"Not a bit of it," says Payne, stoutly.  "But--I forgot--you never saw
it.  They were all away, and in the field, before I got back from
looking after you womenfolk.  As it was, you did me out of half the
fun."

"Of course.  Look, Lilian.  There's such a handsome man over there, who
has done nothing but stare at you.  He almost seems as if he knew you."

Lilian is gazing after the retreating troop.  It is little more than a
fortnight since she bade farewell to her lover in the grey dawn, and now
she is thinking that in three or four days that body of mounted men will
be his camp-fellows; for the forces in the field have been concentrated
for a combined movement.  She has heard from him more than once--long,
cheerful, tender letters, written during hours snatched from his
hard-earned sleep, and despatched as opportunity served--rough scrawls,
indeed, as was inevitable from the lack of appliances, and even of a
knowledge of what time there would be to finish in--but to her so
precious.  And to-day, as she stands here gazing up the road, with a
soft love-light in her eyes reflecting the burden of her own reverie, it
is no wonder that the beautiful figure in the cool summer dress, with
the dark, straight, patrician features, attracts many a look of
admiration from several in the crowd.  She starts, and softly twirling
the handle of the open sunshade resting upon her shoulder--a pretty
trick of hers when absent-minded--follows the direction of Annie Payne's
gaze.  And a sudden flush suffuses her cheek, and fades, leaving it
deathly white.  Her glance is riveted to the spot, and it seems as if
she must fall to the ground beneath the suddenness of the shock, for she
gazes upon a face which she had never expected to look upon again in
life.  No, it could not be.  He was dead, she had heard it for certain.
It could not be.  It must be a likeness--a marvellously startling one--
but still a likeness.  But on this point she is prevented from
reassuring herself, for the owner of the face has turned, and is walking
away through the crowd.

"Hallo!" says Payne, and it seems as if he was talking inside her brain.
"There's Truscott."

"Who?" inquires his wife.

"Truscott.  A man I met in the town yesterday.  He was asking a lot
about the war.  Says he wants to raise a corps or something.  That's
him--that tall fellow walking away."

His wife manifests no further interest in the stranger, but with ready
tact begins to talk about other things.  Poor Lilian's agitation has not
escaped the kind-hearted little woman, who would rather die than do
anything to increase it, as they return home.  And Lilian, if she had a
doubt before, Payne's words have mercilessly dispelled it; and now she
understands the foreboding of evil which came over her at the sight of
the spy following them at King Williamstown for an unerring instinct
leads her to connect that incident with the one of to-day.  Her heart
seems made of lead within her, and daring the walk home she hardly
speaks, and even then at random.  Even good-natured Payne notices it,
but puts it down to the remembrances called forth by the sight of a
number of men going to the war; but the remembrances called forth are,
in fact, of a very different nature.  They go back to a time when she
was light-hearted and happy, and without a care or anxiety in the world;
then to a time of love and trust succeeded by blank, bitter
disappointment; to a hard, uphill struggle for daily bread, alone,
uncheered and unaided.  Still her memory carries heron, over afresh
start in a sunny new world, free, indeed, all but for one shackle which
the captive herself had riveted.  Then a period of brief, contraband
happiness, and long years of a kind of living death; the fetter falls
off and she is free, and then the cup of life is full--full to
overflowing.  These are some of the memories which the sight of that
face in the crowd calls forth.  Yet, why should she dread?  What can
harm her, secure as they are in each other's love--a love which has been
tried, as by fire, and has come out brighter and more beautiful from the
flame?  Yet an unaccountable foreboding is upon her--a dread, chill
presentiment of evil to come.

The day is overwhelmingly hot, and Payne playfully chides her for
running the risk of sunstroke by standing all the morning on that dusty
road, in which event he would, by the first law of nature, be compelled
to spend the rest of his days speeding about the habitable and
uninhabitable globe, with Claverton six hours behind him, fiercely on
his trail with pistols and coffee.  It is not fair of her to risk the
life of a respectable father of a family, he says, even if she is tired
of her own.  As it is she is let down easy with a headache, whereat no
one can wonder.

Poor Lilian smiles, rather faintly.  Yes, she has a bit of a headache,
she says; nothing much, she will go and lie down for a little while.
Once in her room, however, she does not lie down, but sits and thinks.
Then she opens a writing-case and begins a long letter to her lover.
She does not know when it may reach him, perhaps not for more than a
week, the movements of the Colonial Forces are so uncertain; but still
the very fact of writing it is a source of comfort to her just now.  She
will tell him all about her foolish fears and forebodings, and as she
does so it almost seems as if the calm, tender presence on which she has
learnt to lean is at her side now, and for two hours she writes on,
feeling comforted and happy.  She lays aside her pen at last, thinks
awhile, and then begins to read over the letter.  She will not send it;
on second thoughts--no; she will not worry him with mere foolish and
superstitious fancies such as these--why should she?  Has he not enough
to think about up there, without having his mind troubled by such
chimeras, perhaps just at the time when it should be most undisturbed to
attend to the more serious game of war?  As it is, she looks back to the
way in which she yielded to her imaginary fears before, and will not
trouble him with them now, when perhaps his life is in hourly danger.
So with a sigh, she tears up and burns the letter which has taken her
hours to write.  Still, the composition of it has done her good, and her
spirits have in great measure returned as she goes downstairs.  The
house seems deserted, so quiet is it.  Payne is lying fast asleep in a
hammock which he has slang in the little garden at the back, and his
wife is either in the same blissful state of oblivion, or has gone out;
the children are at school, and, meanwhile, quiet reigns.  Lilian
reaches the passage just as a man stands in the front doorway, holding
the knocker in his hand as if about to knock, and, seeing her, refrains,
and advances into the hall.  She stops short, seeming rooted to the
ground.  For the man to whom she made that fatal promise which has
blighted some of the best years of her life, is standing before her.

"Why, Lilian," he exclaims, taking the hand which she mechanically holds
out.  "You look as if you hardly knew me."

"Do I?  This is--rather sudden, you know.  But, come in.  I'll tell Mrs
Payne you're here."

"By no means," says Truscott, quickly, placing himself between her and
the door--they are in the drawing-room by now.  "This is the most
fortunate thing in the world.  Couldn't have been better if we had
arranged it so.  You don't suppose I want a third party present the very
first moment we are together again after all this time."

This bracketing of them jars horribly on Lilian's ear; but she only
answers, somewhat irrelevantly:

"I thought you knew the Paynes.  You do; don't you?"

"Confound the Paynes.  Here have I been searching the world for you
these years and found you at last, and--hang it all, Lilian, you don't
seem in the least glad to see me."

In fact, she is not.  And the statement as to the comprehensiveness of
his search she does not altogether believe.  She cannot forget that when
she was thrown upon the world, destitute almost, and alone, at a time
when she most needed help, encouragement, protection, this man had held
himself aloof from her, and now, when after years of desolation of
spirit and of a struggle almost beyond her strength, the battle is won,
and she has found happiness and rest and peace, he jauntily tells her
that she doesn't seem in the least glad to see him.  Her heart hardens
towards him; but she checks the impulse which arises to tell him in
words of withering scorn that she is not.  Yet she does not contradict
him, for she remembers vividly with what relief she heard that news, and
how thankfully she had accepted the restfulness it brought her--a
restfulness undisturbed until that morning.

"H'm, well, you don't seem very glad.  And yet I've come a good way to
find you, and had a narrow shave of my life, too--as narrow a shave as a
man could well have and escape."

"Yes?  How was that?" she asks, hardly able to restrain her eagerness.
He sees it and is gratified.  The old interest is waking, he thinks;
Lilian was always tender-hearted to a fault.

"Why, out in California.  Fact is, I was awfully down on my luck and
went wandering.  Well, I got into one of these street rows and was hit--
hit badly.  For thirteen weeks I was lying in a hospital, the most awful
lazar-house you could imagine, and at the end I crawled out more dead
than alive.  The best of the joke is that my affectionate relatives
thought I was dead, and advertised me accordingly."

Lilian makes no answer.  It was this advertisement that, seen haphazard
two years ago, had emancipated her from her fatal bond.

"But didn't you hear of all this?" he asks.

"You know I have been out of the world for more than four years.  When
did it happen?"

"Only a year ago," is his reply.  And then she knows that he is lying to
her--endeavouring to play upon her sympathies--for she has the number of
the newspaper containing the advertisement safely locked up in an inner
drawer of her writing-table, and its date is rather more than two years
previous.  "Those fools Grantham, the lawyers, could tell me nothing
about you, though I pestered them with inquiries, till at last I began
to suspect they were telling lies just for practice, to keep their hands
in.  But at last I've found you?"  And there is a ring of real warmth,
to Lilian's ear, in his voice, which fills her with dismay.  Can it be
that he has not heard of her position now, that he comes upon her
suddenly like this and takes possession of her in his tone, so to say?
At all risks she must tell him.

Just then a cheery voice is heard in the passage, humming an old
colonial song, and Payne walks into the room.  He stops short on seeing
the visitor, snatching his pipe from his mouth with one hand, while with
the other he welcomes the unexpected guest.

"How d'you do?" says Truscott, in his silkiest manner.  "I was hoping to
have found Mrs Payne at home this afternoon.  Meanwhile, I have been
fortunate enough to renew a very old acquaintance with Miss Strange
here."

"So?" replies Payne, looking from one to the other.  "Well, I'm glad
you've found your way up.  I saw you this morning, at a distance, when
we were seeing those men off to the front.  Good all-round lot, weren't
they?"

"Yes, yes; a very fair lot indeed.  I suppose there's a tidy number of
men in the field by now?"

"Too many.  If it depended on mere numbers, the war would be finished
to-morrow; but it's the management--we always break down in that.  If we
were allowed to go ahead in our own way, we should do the thing
properly; but there's such a tremendous lot of red-tape and
despatch-writing that the forces are kept doing nothing for weeks,
eating their heads off in camp.  By the way, have you heard anything
more about your application?"

"No, nothing.  I suppose I shall in a day or two."

They talked about the war for a little longer, and criticised the
Government, the tactics, and the Commandant-General, and all connected
with the campaign, and then Truscott got up to leave.  He was sorry, he
said, but he could not wait; perhaps another day he would be more
fortunate.  And so, with a cordial hand-shake from his host, on whom he
had made a golden impression, he took himself off.

"I like that fellow!" said Payne, returning to the room.  "No nonsense
about him."

"He can be very pleasant," assented Lilian, ambiguously.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Doubtless the reader is wondering how Truscott got out of durance vile,
whither he had just been consigned when last we saw him.  The method of
his liberation is immaterial to this narrative; suffice it that he did
get out--obviously, since here he is, at large in Grahamstown.  And now,
as he walks away from Payne's door, he is turning over in his mind the
results of the speculation.  So far, he is bound to admit, they are not
promising.  His influence with Lilian is evidently dead, and to revive
it, he feels, will be no easy task; but that everything depends upon his
ability to revive it he is only too fully aware.  Moreover, there is an
additional incentive to success which hitherto he had left entirely out
of his calculations.  He was prepared to find Lilian "gone off" in
appearance; a number of years like that--how many he did not care to
reckon--are apt to tell.  But the hand of Time, so far from buffeting,
had been laid caressingly on the soft but stately beauty, which had
grown graver, indeed, but far more sweet and attractive than in the
earlier days of girlhood; and when he met her eyes that morning in the
crowd a thrill shot through him as he thought how luck might throw into
his hands, at one _coup_, such loveliness combined with such a
reversion.  Might?  It should!  And now, as he walked down the street,
he revolved and elaborated his plans.  He had never seen this lover of
hers, who, he more than feared, would be no ordinary rival; but then the
fact of his absence was an immense advantage.  He might be killed in
action, as the light-hearted Chadwick had airily remarked; and there's
many a true word spoken in jest, as we all know.  But putting aside this
contingency into the category of exceptional luck, he--Truscott--had
other cards to play, and that warily, for he would not endanger success
by any rash move.  If the worst came to the worst, he could always use
the double-edged weapon which chance had thrown into his hand in the
shape of his scoundrelly friend, Sharkey; but win he must.  Meanwhile,
he would begin by sedulously ignoring Lilian's engagement.  He would
show her the most marked attentions--in fact, compromise her--till at
length this absent lover of hers should hear of it, and hear of it, too,
in such a way that a split would be inevitable.  Not that he intended to
do this all at once--oh, no.  He would take time, and the while his
rival might be removed to a better sphere by accident or--well, things
could not always be helped.

So he lost no time in calling again at the Paynes'; and having, with the
attractive manner that he could so well assume, won the heart of that
honest frontiersman, set himself to lay siege to that of his hostess,
and succeeded.  Not altogether, for Annie Payne was a shrewd little
woman, and though she found this new acquaintance pleasant and amusing,
watched him narrowly.  She remembered the look which had passed between
him and Lilian, and held her true opinion of him in reserve.  Meanwhile,
she waited and watched.

In his intercourse with Lilian, too, he was all that was kind and
thoughtful--scarcely ever referring to the past, and only then with a
half regretful, half aggrieved air that was the perfection of acting.
But somehow or other he was seldom away from her.  If she went out, she
was sure to meet Truscott; if she stayed at home, he was sure to call;
or Payne would pick him up in the street--of course, by chance--and
bring him home to lunch; and though she avoided him as much as she
possibly could, without being rude, yet somehow it seemed to her that
she was never seen in public without this man at her side, till at last
the gossips used to say to each other, with a wink and a smile, that "it
was a very convenient arrangement to have a lover away at the front, my
dear, whose place could be so well supplied; and that really Miss
Strange, for all her demureness, was no better than the rest," and so
on.  Which tattle, however, fortunately or unfortunately, never reached
Lilian's ears; and the intimacy between Truscott and the house of Payne
grew apace.  Not that this state of things had come about all at once--
Truscott was far too cautious for that; on the contrary, it had been one
of the most gradual growth--so gradual, indeed, that the plotter had
been inclined to blame himself for dilatoriness; but it was a fault in
the right direction.  So he bided his time, and was rewarded.  Things
were progressing as smoothly as he could wish.

To Lilian herself, his attentions are a terrible source of annoyance,
and at times she feels as if the toils were closing in about her.  She
has never mentioned this new trouble in her letters to Claverton,
thinking--and rightly--that it would bring him to her side at once; and
she does not wish that, for his sake, if it can be avoided; but for her
own, oh, how she longs for it!  Why should this man, whom she had
thought never to see again, return to persecute her?  Had he not
escaped--by a hair's breadth merely--blighting her whole life, after
embittering some of the best years of it?  She feels that she is
beginning to hate him; and it is while in this vein that she goes down
to the drawing-room one afternoon to fetch a book, for she has taken to
remaining in her room when the Paynes are out, as they are now.  To her
intense mortification, Truscott is there.

"Ah!  At last!" is his greeting, in a tone which to her ear is provoking
in its cool assurance.  "I knew I should find you here, Lilian mine.
The rest of the world has gone picnicking, hasn't it?"

She had intended to make some excuse, and to leave him at once; but that
possessive alters her plan.  Now, once and for all, he must be made to
understand her position, and that this tacitly assertive air of
ownership which he has chosen to set up over her must cease.

"I don't know why you should _know_ anything of the sort," she replies,
very coldly.

"Don't be angry, Lilian.  You never used to fly out about trifles.  What
I meant was, we've had so little opportunity for a quiet talk together
of late, that when I heard you had not gone with the others I thought it
would be a capital opportunity for one now."

It happened that that day a picnic in a small way had been organised;
but Lilian, somewhat to the Paynes' surprise, excused herself from
going.  She felt she could not take part in anything approaching to a
festivity at such a time as this.  It might be only a silly fad of hers,
she said, and no one need know of it; still, she would rather stay
quietly at home.

"But Lilian, child," objected Mrs Payne.  "It'll do you a world of
good, and, after all, it's a very mild form of festivity--not like a
ball, you know.  And I'm sure Arthur wouldn't wish you to mope yourself
to death just because he is away."

"It isn't because he's away, but because he's away _as_ he is," she
answered.  "He may be risking his life every moment, while I am enjoying
myself as if no one I cared for in the world was in danger.  Only think,
he might be lying shot down in the bush at the very moment we are all
laughing and joking," and her voice sank to an awed whisper.  "No.  I'd
rather stay at home quietly to-day."  And the good-hearted little woman
had kissed her, and vowed she was perfectly right; and then they had
gone, and Lilian had her way and the house to herself, instead of
accompanying them to rove about the deep rocky recesses of Fern Kloof
and to eat a scrambling luncheon beneath its tangled shade, looking
down, as in a splendid panorama, on the sunlit plains of Lower Albany.

The consciousness of this, in conjunction with Truscott's remark, causes
her face to flush with something very like anger, and she answers,
icily:

"In other words, you thought I had remained at home to receive visitors
in Mrs Payne's absence.  Thank you.  I might have remembered--were it
not that our acquaintance was a matter of such a long time ago--that
that would be just the interpretation Ralph Truscott might be expected
to put upon my actions."

"Why will you always harp upon that string, Lilian?  You know it wasn't
my fault.  You would run away from every one and bury yourself in this
beastly country among Dutchmen, and niggers, and all that sort of thing,
where it has taken me years to find you; and now, when I have found you,
you turn the cold shoulder on me.  But, perhaps, you don't believe that
I have done this?" he concludes, dashing his tone of sorrowful reproach
with a touch of irony.

"No.  I do not."

She looks him straight in the face, and there is a shade of contempt in
the calm eyes.  Why should the man tell her such a pitiful falsehood?

"Oh, you don't?" he says, staring at her from the arm-chair in which he
is lounging, fairly startled by her straightforwardness.

"No.  But why talk about that?" she answers.  Her hands nervously grasp
the back of a chair as she stands, speaking in a low, rapid voice.  "It
is past, and there is an end of it.  What I have to say to you now is of
the present, and it is best said frankly and without reserve.  You have
come here and assumed a kind of possession over me, which I must ask you
to discontinue.  Of course I have no actual right to request you to drop
your intimacy with the Paynes, but I have a moral right as a defenceless
woman appealing to a gentleman, and therefore presumably an honourable
man, to ask you to discontinue those very marked attentions by which you
have made me conspicuous of late.  Whatever has been is past and done
with, nothing can alter that, and under the circumstances there can be
no question even of intimacy between us.  I do not wish to say anything
unkind, but it would be better for us not to meet again, much better,
believe me."

All this time Truscott's countenance has been wearing an expression of
blank and well-feigned amazement.

"Better not to meet again?  No question of intimacy between us?  Good
Heavens!  Why, Lilian, what _do_ you suppose I've come from one end of
the world to the other for, then?"

"I don't pretend to guess.  But it must be even as I say, and I am sure
you will agree with me that it is best so."

"Indeed, I am sure I shall do nothing of the sort," he cries.  "You are
only playing with me, Lilian, only doing this just to try me.  You are;
say you are, my darling.  It is not kind of you after I have come far to
find you."

For all reply she shakes her head, sadly but firmly, and Truscott can
see that every particle of faith she ever had in him is dead and buried.

"But your promise!" he cries.  "I have your promise, at all events.  You
cannot get out of that, nor do I intend to let you."

"My promise!" she answers, and there is a scornful curve in the
beautiful lips and a hard ring in the rich voice.  "My promise!  To a
man who woos in prosperity and deserts in adversity; who sees an
unprotected girl thrown upon the world, lonely and unfriended; and makes
no sign.  Who, when she departs to live among strangers in a far-off
land, suffers her to go without so much as a word of farewell and
encouragement; and that, too, the girl whom in palmier days he professed
to love.  No, Ralph Truscott, you have cancelled my promise by your own
act, and, even if no other bar existed its conditions should never be
yours."

Truscott's face is white with rage.  He sees that his game is played
out--that there is not a chance.  He was prepared for some reproaches;
in short, a good deal of unpleasantness, but not for such decision as
this.  His whole being quivers beneath a sense of overwhelming defeat,
mortification, disappointment--nay, despair--and now, as he sees the
prize slipping from his grasp, he is not sure whether he hates or loves
her most.

"So the good, the pious, the saintly Lilian Strange can perjure herself
in a way the most unregenerate would shrink from," he sneers.  "The
privilege of godliness, I suppose.  Oh, so a `bar' does exist, does it?
You should have told me that before."

"It is impossible that you could not have known of it," she replies,
gently, but with quiet dignity.  "That I am plighted--to another."

His answer is a harsh, jeering laugh.

"Oh, I have heard some nonsensical story of the kind, but I knew it
couldn't be true.  I thought you were only amusing yourself, in fact,
knowing that anything serious was impossible, considering.  So, of
course, I didn't believe it."

"What do you mean?" says Lilian, outwardly calm, but with indignation
and contempt in her voice, for there is something so maliciously
significant in his tone that she is disturbed in spite of herself.
"Don't deal in hints and innuendoes.  Speak out--if you dare."

"If I dare?  Well, then, I will speak out," answers Truscott, stung to
madness by her scornful look.  He will bring her to her knees, he
thinks.  "This is what I mean," dropping out his words deliberately.  "I
knew it couldn't be true, because I knew it was impossible that Lilian
Strange could be engaged to an ex-pirate, a murderer, and what, in her
eyes, is probably much worse."

"Do you know of whom you are speaking?"

"Of the man who calls himself Arthur Claverton."

There is dead silence.  The clock on the mantelpiece ticks loudly; the
crack of a waggon-whip in the High Street, and the harsh, long-drawn
shout of the driver, sound plainly though distant through the still
afternoon, and in the little garden the bees hum drowsily.

"You must be mad?"

Every vestige of colour has fled from Lilian's face, as she stands cold
and statuesque, looking down upon her lover's traducer.  But she is
perfectly calm, for she does not believe one word of this, though the
bare suggestion has upset her.  He shall speak more plainly, though.

"Of course you don't believe me," he says.  "I wasn't fool enough to
expect you would--without proof.  To begin, then.  How much has this
Claverton told you of his antecedents?"

"As much as I wish to know.  But this is not proof."

"Wait a bit.  All in good time.  He came to South Africa four years ago;
quite so.  Now has he by chance ever told you where he spent the two
previous years--what he was doing?"

In spite of herself Lilian feels her heart sink somewhat.  It happens
that concerning that very portion of his career her lover has been
conspicuously reticent.  But she says carelessly:

"I dare say he has."

"Indeed!  You surprise me.  Then it will be no news to you to learn that
he was in Central Africa?"

"I believe he has been there.  Go on."

For Truscott pauses.  He is watching her narrowly--playing with her in
devilish malice.  But he goes on in affected commiseration.

"Lilian, Lilian.  I don't think I'll tell you any more.  Forget what I
have said.  Perhaps I am wrong.  Perhaps my informants are mistaken as
to the man.  Let it pass."

"No.  You have made charges against one who is absent; you must not
leave this room until you have proved them.  Otherwise the gallant
Captain Truscott will stand branded as a liar and a coward."

He stares at her in amazement, quite nonplussed.  He never could have
given Lilian Strange credit for so much firmness, he thinks.  Yet there
she stands over him, calm, even judicial, as she awaits his answer.

"You would not dare to say these things if he were here," she adds.

"If he is wise he will not give me the chance," is the prompt reply.
"To be brief, then, our friend, at that period of his history, in
company with seven other spirits more wicked than himself, let us say,
dealt in ebony.  Slaves, you understand."

"Go on."

"He made a good thing of it, I'm told--a very good thing.  But then,
unfortunately, by British law, and, indeed, by international law,
slavery is piracy; and piracy is--a hanging matter."

"I see," she answers in a dry, stony voice.  "We have disposed of the
piracy, now let us get on to the murder; after that to the other thing."

Truscott's astonishment knows no bounds.  "Upon my word, Lilian, you
have a judicial mind.  Why, you ought to be a Q.C.," he says,
admiringly.

She smiles slightly--a hard, defiant smile.

"Well, then," he continues, "you recollect the affair with the _Sea
Foam_?  In case you don't, I'll just go over the facts again.  The _Sea
Foam_, then, was a gunboat stationed in Zanzibar waters, where there was
a good deal of dhow-running just at that time--in fact, several captures
were made.  But it so happened that on one occasion four dhows got clean
off, beating back the boats' crews with a loss of three men killed and
several wounded.  It was a secret expedition, betrayed to the captain of
the man-of-war by a spy, and, but for one man, the whole concern would
have been captured red-handed.  That man was Arthur Lidwell--the
commander of the slavers--now known as Arthur Claverton.  The
authorities, at that time, did not know who the leader was whose
coolness and daring caused their retreat, with loss; but they suspected
him to be a renegade European, and a price was set on his head; but,
with his usual luck, our friend escaped.  Three men were killed, I say;
and recollect our friend is a good shot, and, moreover, not likely to
stand by with his hands in his pockets while fighting is going on,"
concludes Truscott, significantly.

Lilian remembers the circumstance perfectly.  She had listened
shudderingly while her stepfather read out the details from the
newspaper, one evening years ago in the cosy, lighted drawing-room at
Dynevard Chase, expressing a hope, as became "a fine, old English
gentleman," that the scoundrels would all be caught and hanged, and
especially their rascally leader.  And now this same leader--but it is
incredible--her brain is dazed.  Her eyes are fixed on Truscott's face,
but she does not speak.

"For the other thing," he goes on, narrowly watching her, "the next time
you see Claverton ask him what became of Anita de Castro.  Ask him, at
the same time, what made him suddenly give up so paying a thing as the
slave trade."

Lilian becomes a shade whiter, and Truscott, noting it, feels a fiendish
delight in having at length disturbed her equanimity.

"Who is Anita de Castro?" she asks, still in a firm voice.

"The daughter of the chief of the gang.  Spanish or Portuguese; but,
they tell me, a lovely girl.  Our friend Claverton, to do him justice,
is a man of taste, and, these Spaniards are terribly revengeful when you
take an undue advantage of them."

Lilian stands in the same attitude as before.  Her fingers clutch more
nervously the back of the chair; but that is the only sign she shows of
having even heard.  She would fain not believe this; but then, how
confidently this man speaks!  He cannot have invented such a story, the
way in which he tells it is enough to show that.  And, in spite of
herself, recollections crop up of more than one hint which Claverton has
let fall to the effect that there is a chapter in his life's history
which he would fain forget; mere nothings at the time, and which on one
or two occasions she even gently rallied him about, but now with what
fell significance do they stand out!  She knows his bold and daring
disposition, his coolness and powers of administration or command; his
cynical vein, which might under adverse circumstances render him
unscrupulous and even cruel; and all this seems to lend likelihood to
the other's statements.  But, ah! how she loves him!  Even if every word
of what she has just heard is true, she feels that, in spite of it all,
she loves him if possible ten times more dearly than she did before.
She remembers his neglected and uncared-for childhood and youth which
might palliate, if not excuse, far worse crimes than these; and her
whole soul goes out in a pitying, tender yearning to make his life so
different, so happy with her love, and in time to lead him gradually and
gently to what she reckoned a more lasting source of joy.  She hardly
sees Truscott; she is looking out through the open window beyond him
with a soft, pensive expression that is wondrously lovely, and he who
watches her gnaws his lip in fury, and the very fiend of mad burning
jealousy shakes his soul.  This prize was within _his_ grasp once, but
he threw it away.

"Well?" he says, impatiently.

She brings down her eyes to his, calm and serene as before.  "Quite a
romance.  But, as yet, we are no farther than when we started.  You have
given me no proof."

"Romance, eh?  Well, like many romances, it may have a tragic ending.  I
have two witnesses.  You remember the man you saw following you in the
crowd at King Williamstown?"

Again Lilian grows ashy white.  It was something more than instinct,
then.  And, like a flash, she remembers the troubled look which had come
over her lover's face when they met the man on the road during their
ride, and how the two had been conversing under her window that last
Sunday morning.  Doubtless the fellow had been trying to trade on his
knowledge.  Merciful heavens!  That ruffian--and Arthur in his power!

"Yes, I see you do.  Now for the other.  You don't suppose Anita de
Castro would spare him?"

Lilian gives an imperceptible shudder.  "All this may, or may not be,"
she replies.  "But in the former event, it all happened years ago, and
the bare word of these people would go for nothing here.  The idea is
absurd."

"Ha, ha, ha!  Really I shall have to retract what I said just now about
your having a judicial mind," sneers Truscott.  "The bare word of these
people would go for just this much here.  It would make out a strong
_prima facie_ case for the committal of this precious scoundrel--bail
refused, of course--pending the making of inquiries and the procuring of
more witnesses at Zanzibar, when he would be put upon his trial for
piracy--piracy in its worst phase, mind--and murder.  What do you think
of that, Lilian Strange?  In either case a conviction is certain, and in
either case with the same result--the rope.  So that is the fate in
store for our gallows-bird before six months are over--a dance on
nothing--and I shall get a pass to go into the gaol-yard and witness the
fun."

He has risen and is standing before her, his features working with a
livid rage that is absolutely devilish.  Suddenly the full, awful force
of the situation sweeps across Lilian's mind, and with a low cry, like
that of a stricken animal, and a shrinking motion, she drops her face
into her hands.

"Ah, good God!  Spare him!" she moans.  "Why will you harm him?  _He_
never injured you!"

Heaven help her!  She has let down her guard, and the enemy is prompt to
rush in over it.  From that moment she is completely at his mercy.

"Never injured me?  What is she dreaming of?  Good heavens! hasn't he
robbed me of you--of you?  Isn't that enough?" is the harsh, pitiless
reply.  "Ha, ha!  Six months about will do it.  It'll be winter then--
June or July.  The mornings are cold then.  Perhaps, as a last kind act,
I'll give the poor wretch a `nip' out of my flask, before he's swung
off, just to keep his spirits up, you know."

"Demon," whispers Lilian, hoarsely, gazing at him in set, stony despair.

"I am just what you and he have made me.  It is your own doing.  You
know I was never one of your godly lot.  If a man does me an ill turn I
repay it with interest, that is, if I am in a position to do so, which,
in this case, fortunately I am.  Five o'clock"--glancing at his
watch--"I shall just have time to beat up my informant and take him
round to the Public Offices before the magistrate goes away, or the
Clerk of the Peace will do as well; and by making his deposition this
evening we can get a warrant out and save the whole night by it.  So you
will soon see our friend again, Lilian, sooner than you expected, eh?
Now good-bye for the present.  I am sorry you have driven me to this,
but--" and he moves towards the door.  Before he can reach it, she
throws herself in front of him.  He cannot leave the room without actual
violence.

"Stop!  Have you no mercy?  No pity--for me--for me whom you once
professed to love?" and the clear accents of her voice are wrung with
despair--with a sense of her utter helplessness.

"None for _him_.  None.  Less than none.  I _hate_ the man who has
robbed me of you.  He shall die, and I will go and witness his last
struggles."

"No.  Spare him, Ralph, spare him!  In killing him you will be killing
me.  Ah, God!  Why was I ever sent into this world?  I am the
destruction of all whom I would gladly die for!" and she presses her
hands tightly upon her temples, and a tremor of hopeless agony shakes
the tall, beautiful figure.

Even the heart of that fiend in human shape smites him as he witnesses
her awful grief, listens to her wild, despairing accents.  But she is
playing into his hands now--perfectly.  At one time he almost thought
the game a lost one, and was about to throw it up, when lo! one false
move, and it is entirely his own.

"All whom you would gladly die for," he repeats, echoing her words.
"Would you, then, die for this fellow?"

"God knows I would--a hundred times over," she wails.

"Well then, listen.  I will not require you to do that.  What I require
you to do is to live for him."

She looks up quickly--her face transformed in wonderment, which is on
the point of breaking out into joy.  He is relenting.

"I mean, to live for him by living without him.  That is the only way in
which you can save his life."

Her head droops again, and a shudder runs through her frame at this
alternative, and Truscott, watching her, gloats over her anguish,
remembering how she defied him at first.

"The conditions are not so hard as they might be," he continues.  "I
only stipulate that you shall never see him again, never hold another
word of communication with him, either orally, on paper, or through a
third person, henceforth from this moment.  On those conditions I spare
his life--otherwise--well, you know the alternative."

"May I not even write him one line of farewell?" she asks, with a look
in her dry, tearless eyes that would melt a stone.  Her tormentor sees
it, and turns his glance away, fearing for his resolution.  One word of
communication might undo the whole plot.  At all costs he must separate
them now and for ever.  So again he invokes the demon of jealousy to his
aid, and goads and lashes himself to his fiend-like work.

"No.  I will spare his life, but nothing else.  Those are my conditions.
Accept them or not.  In three minutes it will be too late," and he
stands holding his watch in his hand.

Lilian is beside herself.  An awful numbing sense of fatalism creeps
over her.  Is it to be?  Ah, well, she will give her life for his, for
this will kill her.

"Well?  In another moment it may be too late."

"I give in," she says, in the same dreamy, hopeless tone.

"And you promise to hold no further communication whatever with Arthur
Claverton from this day forward?"

"I promise!"

The agony of that moment, as with her own lips she dooms herself and
him!

"If I were inclined to be hard, Lilian, I might remind you that you are
not wholly superior to the weakness of breaking your promises; but let
that pass.  You will find my conditions are not so hard.  I only ask
that one thing."  By-and-by he intended to ask one other thing--and to
obtain it, too.  For the present she had been tried as much as she was
capable of bearing.  She would get used to the idea in time, and then,
with the same hold on her as he had now, he would snatch the prize for
which he had risked so much and plotted so wickedly.

"Now I must go.  Don't look like that, Lilian," he says in a kinder
tone.  "You have gained one great object at any rate, and in this world
we must be thankful for small mercies.  So keep up your spirits."

She makes no answer to this, at best, cruel mockery.  She is leaning
against the wall, with her hands still clasped over her face.  Not a
tear falls, her grief is too great for that.  He glances uneasily at her
again, for he is anxious to get away.  He has already been here more
than two hours; and it would never do, under the circumstances, for him
to be here still when the Paynes return.  Besides, she might faint, and
that would still further complicate the situation.

"Good-bye," he repeats.  "Remember, now--everything depends on you."
And she is left alone.

How long she stands thus she cannot tell.  At length the sound of
familiar voices, with many a happy laugh, approaching down the street,
warns her of the return of the party, and gaining her room with
staggering, uneven steps, she locks herself in, and, throwing herself on
the bed, yields herself unrestrained to her terrible, hopeless agony.
"Oh God!" she prays, "let me die! let me die!"  And beneath, the house
is filled with merry voices, laughing and talking all at once; and there
in the golden eventide, while the soft flush gathers in its purpling
suffusion over the western mountains where fades the sun, the riven
heart quivers and throbs in its voiceless despair.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

"THERE IS ONE AMONGST US MISSING."

Meanwhile at the seat of war, events were developing.  Several weeks had
now gone by, during which the rebellion had spread.  With the insane
fatuity which was luring these people to their destruction, it seemed
that to every disaffected tribe hitherto peaceful, the news of a
crushing blow sustained by its brethren was the signal for itself to
take up arms.  There was a lack of cohesion in the enemy's councils and
undertakings that was simply incomprehensible.  And now Emigrant
Tembuland had broken out into revolt, threatening Queenstown; and the
Hlambi section of the Gaikas, under the chiefs Ndimba and Seyolo, were
making common cause with Sandili in British Kaffraria, while within the
colony, the clans under Tini Macomo, from their rugged fastnesses in the
Blinkwater forest--famous battle-ground in days gone by--defied the
colonial authorities.  Yet as each rose in succession, tribe after
tribe, it seemed as though in their very half-heartedness, they were
fighting against their will.

For several weeks, then, have the colonial forces been occupied in
clearing out the Gaika location from end to end by a series of
well-arranged patrols--sometimes meeting the wily foe in pitched
battle--or as near approaching it as Jack Kafir deems wise to venture--
more often exchanging shots in desultory skirmish, with the result of
dispersing the savages after a few of their number had been laid low.
Much cattle has been taken, too--thousands of head--which though an
effective deterrent to the enemy aforesaid, is by no means an unmixed
blessing to the captors; at least, so say more than one of their
leaders.  For large numbers of captured cattle in the camp can be
nothing less than a nuisance of the first magnitude; leading to
confusion and worry, the telling off of a considerable body of men as
guards or as escort who might be better employed in the field; and
conducive to much friction and irritability among the various native
levies, each only too anxious to suspect and accuse the other of quiet
purloining from the herds under their charge.

It was only yesterday that Jim Brathwaite, with feelings of intense
relief, watched the last of a large herd, as it made its way over the
hill under a strong escort, en route for Komgha; and now, with an air of
semi-disgust, he is pondering over a despatch which has just arrived,
bidding him push forward at once, for that a body of rebels, in
considerable force, are known to be on their way through at a point some
fifteen miles lower down, to join Sandili in the Perie forest.  Not that
this is the fact which calls an expression of disgust to the brown face
of the dashing and fearless commander; on the contrary.  But the sting
of the document--like that of the scorpion--is in its tail, and is to
the effect that an immense number of cattle are with them, which, can
they but be taken, by thus cutting off their resources, a heavy blow
will be struck at the concealed foe, even if he is not so seriously
crippled as to be compelled to surrender.

"Oh, blazes," growled Jim.  "Even the glorious fan of a good old
rough-and-tumble--if the beggars stand, that is--is dashed by the
certainty of the camp being turned into a cattle-market for the next
week or so.  Naylor--Claverton, get the men into the saddle at once.  No
need to take rations.  We shall be back to-night or to-morrow at the
latest, and, if not, we shall find plenty of beefsteaks down there.
Sharp's the word, or we shall have those lumbering Dutchmen away before
us."

The door of the tent is darkened, and one of "those lumbering Dutchmen"
enters--a tall, strong, but awkward-looking man, who, in that way, seems
to deserve the slightly contemptuous epithet.  It is the Commandant of
one of the troops of Dutch Burghers, and he is anxious to confer with
Jim anent the despatch he has just received, and of which, by the way,
being ignorant of English, he cannot make out one word.

"What have you got to do?" echoes Jim, somewhat impatiently--for he
foresees delay.  "Why, you've got to hang it all, Arthur--you're good at
lingo.  Translate the orders to him as sharp as you can."

Gladly the Boer relinquishes the sheet of blue foolscap which he has
been turning over and over in his great hands with a pitiably puzzled
expression to Claverton, who translates it for the benefit of him and
his four "field-captains," who stand round eagerly listening.

"This is what it says," goes on Claverton, having translated the first
part, which is in all particulars similar to Jim's.  "Your troop must
keep on about four miles ahead of us, so as to cut them off from the
pass over yonder.  The Fingo levies will also work with it."

"Ja, kaptyn."

"We shall keep on this side and drive them into you," and then followed
a few rapid details.

"Ja, kaptyn, ja, ja!"

"Well, then, we will work round to you.  And now we must be off.  You
understand, Mynheer Van Heerden!"

"Ja, kaptyn."

"That's all right," and away goes Claverton, jumps on his horse, which
is held ready by the faithful Sam, while the Boer leaders make their way
back to get their men under arms; still a little hazy, perhaps, as to
the plan of operations; but trusting with characteristic phlegm, that
_det sal als recht kom_.

The camp is placed on an open bit of ground forming the summit of a
small eminence, and commanding a good wide sweep all round.  It is shut
in, however, as to view, save on one side, and it is from this side that
they are able to lay their plans.  Far away--at least two hours' ride--
is a bold spur, where rises conspicuous a cliff of considerable
altitude; its brow, crowned by a row of stiff euphorbia trees, whose
straight stems and plumed heads stand out from the soft profusion of the
surrounding forest.  At the foot of this cliff is the defile by which
the enemy is expected to pass; and, to reach it, at least three hours of
rough scramble along the bushy valleys branching out in every direction,
will be necessary.

In an incredibly short space of time all is ready, and the _veldt_ is
alive with horsemen, hastening to make their way to the scene of
operations.  Opposite--across the ravine--the Dutch troop, about three
hundred men, is hurrying forward; while beyond them some eight hundred
Fingoes, marching in four columns, advance no less rapidly, chanting
their war-song in a deep bass, and the sun gleams upon the gun-barrels
and assegai blades; and, now and again, the tinkle of a bit and the
neigh of a horse is heard as the expedition moves on.

It is the middle of the forenoon, and not a cloud is in the heavens to
break the endless blue, and the heat is to be felt.  As yet there is no
sign of life.  The other column has long been out of sight, and now
carefully Jim's troop moves forward, expecting every moment to get touch
of the enemy, while nearer and nearer rises the lofty krantz which is to
be the rallying-point.  No one speaks; all are on the _qui vive_; but
nothing disturbs the stillness of the deep valley into which they have
been constrained to dip down in order to conceal the march as much as
possible.

Suddenly, from the bush in front, breaks forth a puff of smoke, followed
by another and another, till a regular line of fire bars their progress.
The horses start and swerve, terrified by the detonation, as the
bullets come whizzing about their riders' ears with a horribly near and
suggestive "sing."  One volley in return--for as yet they can see no
one--and the order is given to seek cover, for, crack! crack! crack! on
every side now the jets of flame are belching forth from the thick green
bush, and it is evident that the enemy is in strong force.  But he has
caught a Tartar.  Cool and self-possessed to a man, Brathwaite's Horse
are but waiting their opportunity, and ere long they begin to catch
glimpses of the Kafirs, dodging in and out among the trees.  Then the
game becomes two-sided, as the experienced frontiersmen, with many a
deft snap-shot, begin to "drop" their concealed enemy--so quickly,
indeed, that in a quarter of an hour the latter begins to draw off.
Still the fire is unusually warm on their front, and the sagacious Jim
strongly suspects a deliberate intention to hold him in check there
while the main body gets safely off with its spoil, as intimated.

"Claverton," he says, coming quickly to his lieutenant's side.  "Take
about thirty men, and advance upon those fellows in front, while we keep
them occupied here.  Try and get round them and take them in the flank;
knock over as many as ever you can, and drive the rest on."

Claverton hastens to obey, and, with his contingent, makes his way
swiftly and stealthily by a circuit so as, if possible, to take the
enemy in the rear.  Meanwhile the fusillade goes on, and the smoke hangs
in a cloud above the valley as the concealed forces, each under cover,
pepper away, but with a caution that, on the part of the Kafirs, is
somewhat unwonted.

And now the "special service" band has reached the ridge some five
hundred yards above and beyond the main body, and its leader begins to
think about doubling upon the wily foe.  A smothered chuckle at his
elbow makes him turn.  Below, not six yards off, lying on his stomach on
a rock, is a huge red Kafir.  His piece is cocked, and he is worming
himself into a good position for a safe and sure shot; and the chuckle
proceeds from Hicks, who stands with his revolver aimed well between the
greasy shoulders of the recumbent barbarian.  But the quick ears of the
savage detect the sound.  In a twinkling he wriggles round, but, before
he has time to spring up, his "Youw!" of consternation is cut short in
his throat as Hicks' revolver cracks, and the ball passing fair through
the Kafir's ribs, the huge carcase rolls from its perch, falling with a
crash into the bush below.

"Sold again?" exclaims Hicks, smothering a shout of laughter.  "Not this
journey, my boy.  I never saw anything more comic than that bird's face
when he looked round."

Three more Kafirs spring up at their very feet, but before they can lift
an assegai even, or at any rate use one, they are shot dead, almost
point-blank.  And now several dark heads may be detected peering in the
direction of this new danger, but this is just what our friends have
been expecting, and, crack! crack! crack! go their trusty breech-loaders
as they advance down through the scrub, driving the enemy before them.

But the said enemy is in full retreat.  He has had enough, and yonder
over the ridge, dark bodies are running, by twos and threes, while the
fire of the victorious whites still tells as it is kept constantly
playing upon the discomfited savages.  Then Jim gives the order to mount
and push forward.  No time is to be lost after this delay, or the plan
will fall through.  His troop has suffered by two men wounded and the
loss of three horses, the dismounted riders making their way as best
they can by holding on to the stirrup of a comrade.  Nothing, indeed,
could have been worse than the enemy's marksmanship.

They make their way out of the hollow without any further opposition and
are upon the heights overlooking the pass.  Have they been misinformed,
or are they too soon?  Jim hardly thinks they are too late.  It may be
that the Kafirs in charge of the cattle, hearing the firing, have driven
these off in another direction.  Suddenly an exclamation breaks from his
lips.

"Oh-h-h!  Good Lord!  Where on earth _are_ those damned Dutchmen?"

For he has been descending all this time, and is standing looking up the
pass.  There is the great cliff, towering many hundreds of feet above,
and there about two miles off the whole defile is filled with a dense
mass of cattle, a cloud of dust arising before them as their drivers
urge them along with many a shout which is borne to the ears of the
disappointed pursuers.  Even the very spoors at their feet were
tantalisingly fresh.

"Perhaps they've gone round up above," suggested Naylor.

"Maybe.  In the meantime we'll go down and lie in wait so as to hem the
niggers in when they turn.  Van Heerden's sure to have got his men round
too far."

An outpost was left on the rising ground, and the rest descended.  They
were about to take up a position on either side of the road and wait;
when, without any warning, a tremendous volley is poured into them; and
all the bush is alive with dark shapes--hundreds and hundreds of them--
darting from cover to cover, yelling and brandishing their assegais as
they advance nearer and nearer, while a constant fire is kept up by
those in front.

So sudden and unlooked-for is this attack, that Jim's men are for the
moment completely taken by surprise.  It is, moreover, unparalleled in
its fierceness and determination, for the Kafirs press boldly forward,
waving their weapons.  Some of them even may be seen snapping off their
assegais in preparation for a charge.

"Steady, Allen, old boy.  That's a new kind of a tuning-fork," remarks
Claverton, as a bit of pot-leg whistles between his ear and that of him
addressed, with a vicious whirr.  "No use ducking when it's past, you
know.  Hallo!"

His attention is drawn by two men struggling, a white man and a Kafir.
The savage, pinned against the very base of the cliff described, is
vainly striving to free his right wrist from his antagonist's grasp, so
as to use the assegai which, held flat against the rock, is useless to
him; the white man, finding it all he can do to hold on to the other's
throat; and thus the two are struggling, each unable to use his weapon.
Then, in response to a half-choked shout from the Kafir, several of his
countrymen are seen rushing through the bush to his assistance, when lo,
a quick movement, something gleams; the white man throws his adversary
off, and with a couple of bounds is at Claverton's side panting, as,
crouching behind a bush to dodge several shots aimed at him, he wipes
the blade of his sheath-knife on the ground.

"Ripped--the beggar--up."

"Deuce you did!  Well done, Gough.  A smart bit of work that," rejoins
his chief.

And now the great cliff thunders back in tremendous echoes the
volley-firing.  Two of Brathwaite's men have fallen, shot dead, another
has been overwhelmed in a sudden rush of the fierce foe, who becomes
more and more daring, and assegaied in a moment.  Several are slightly
wounded; and Jim, seeing that no time is to be lost if they are to avoid
being surrounded, gives the word to fall back on higher ground, to a
point where his practised eye detects better facilities for defence, and
for holding out until assistance comes.  Suddenly somebody exclaims:

"Any one seen Jack Armitage?"  A chill of blank consternation goes
through all who hear it.

"Eh, what?  Where's Jack?  Where's Jack?" echo several voices.

"He was close to me when first we began to retire," says Claverton.  "He
may be there yet.  Come along, boys, we'll pick him up, wherever he is.
Who'll volunteer?  We can't leave poor Jack to be chopped up by these
devils?"  Even as he speaks there floats through his brain the echo of
those soft, entreating words whispered in the hour of parting: "_You
will not run any unnecessary risks, even for other people.  Your life
belongs to me now, love_!"  And side by side with the tender thought,
runs the consciousness that he cannot leave a comrade to a certain and
cruel death.

"I will."  "I will."  "The devil's in it but we'll find Jack."

"Come on, straight at 'em," were some of the cries in answer to his
appeal, and among the confusion and smoke--for the firing was pretty
brisk--Claverton and a dozen others, gliding rapidly from bush to bush,
revolver in hand, made their way to where the missing man was last seen.
And in doing so they went further and further into the most deadly
peril, and separated themselves more and more from their retreating
comrades; but still they went.

A couple of hundred yards further, and it seemed as if they had even got
behind the enemy's lines.  Two or three Kafirs had sprung up before
them, but these had been immediately shot down, and, amid the confusion
and firing on all sides, they succeeded in breaking through almost
unobserved.

"Here's where I saw him last," said Claverton.  "Jack!  Jack!" he called
in a low, penetrating tone.  "Where are you, man?"

No answer.

A double report, and a couple of bullets came singing over their heads.

"Half-a-dozen of you fellows keep an eye on our rear," said Claverton.
"We shall have them down upon us directly.  But we won't give up yet."

"Hallo?" cried a faint voice some twenty yards off.

"There he is, by all that's blue!" exclaimed several.  "Hooray?"

There he was sure enough.  Lying under a huge, overhanging yellow-wood
tree--several of which grew along the course of the small stream flowing
through the valley--half hidden away in the long grass, whither he had
crawled in the hope of escaping notice, lay poor Jack Armitage, his
right foot shattered by a ball, while another had penetrated his side.
His only hope was to be allowed to die in peace, though more than once
as he lay there, alone with the anguish of his wounds, forgotten and
left behind in that wild forest, he had thought of calling out to the
savages to come and put an end to him.  But hope would again reassert
itself, and his own natural buoyancy of spirits, combined with the
thought of his young wife, whom he would yet live to return to, made him
resolve to cling on at all costs, as he put it.  Poor Jack!

The rescuers were none too soon, for just then a Kafir, attracted by his
faint shout, glided from behind the trunk of a tree, assegai uplifted;
but a couple of revolver bullets, well aimed, stretched him beside his
intended victim.

"Jack, old man, are you badly hit?" asked Claverton, with a thrill of
concern in his voice, bending over him and grasping his hand.

"Infernally," was the reply in a weak voice; and the poor fellow's face
was bathed in moisture from the agonies he was undergoing.

"Well, cheer up, old chap; we'll get you out of this, and you'll live to
have the laugh of John Kafir yet."

"Ping, ping!"  A bullet embedded itself in the trunk of the tree, while
a second whistled perilously close to the speaker's ear.

"The devil!  There's some one among those fellows who can shoot.  Lie
close, every one.  There's fairly good cover here, and we'll pepper them
a few."

"Hallo, Allen; you there?" said the wounded man.  "Shake hands, old
chap.  You're a good sort to come down here and look after a fellow."

Allen looked a little sheepish.  He might be a duffer in some respects,
but he was not deficient in pluck, and had been one of the first to
volunteer in the search.

The place where they stood, or rather crouched, was a ring of bush.
Above, rose the great yellow-wood tree, with long, tangled monkey ropes
trailing from its boughs.  Around, however, all was tolerably open,
although the trunks of the large forest trees which overshadowed the
spot, shutting out the sunlight, might afford some cover to the foe.
And this openness of the surroundings might yet prove the salvation of
the devoted group, who stood there hemmed in by relentless and eager
foes.

"We'll hold our own, never fear!" cried Claverton.  "We were in a worse
fix that day down by the Bashi--you remember, Jack?--when a blast of
your old post-horn sent the niggers flying in every direction."

The wounded man smiled faintly at the reminiscence.

"Give us a revolver, some one," he said.  "I can still draw a bead lying
here."

"No, you can't.  Just lie quiet, old chap, and leave the fun to us this
time.  The Dutchmen are sure to come up soon, and then we'll turn the
tables, as we did that other time."

It was their only chance.  Not for ever could that brave handful hope to
hold their own against such desperate odds.  They could hear the firing
of their comrades on the hillside far away; but these had enough to do
to act on the defensive; no relief was to be looked for from them.  And
now the savages began to call to each other, and scores of dark shapes
could be seen flitting amid the semi-gloom of the forest--now running a
few yards, now sinking down, as it were, into the very earth, as the
well-directed fire of the defenders began to tell, but each time
springing up again, and more of them crowding on behind, and advancing
nearer--nearer--nearer.

"Now, then, you six, blaze a volley into that low bush there, at the
foot of the tree.  At least three niggers are lying there," said
Claverton.

They obeyed, and upon the detonation came a loud yell and groans from
more than one throat, notifying that the move had been effective.  Two
bodies rolled out into the open, and two more, badly hit, staggered
behind the huge trunk.

"That's it, boys!  Hurrah!  We'll give them pepper!  They won't come to
close quarters, not they!"  And catching their leader's spirit, the men,
all young fellows brimful of pluck, cheered wildly and gazed eagerly
round in search of more targets.

There was silence for a moment, and then a crowd of Kafirs could be seen
gliding like spectres among the trees.

"Here they come, by Jingo!" muttered several of the group, but the
savages hardly seemed to see them.  They passed on, running, as for dear
life, many of them turning their heads to look back.  And the reason of
this soon became evident, as a strong, harsh voice was heard exclaiming:
"_Nouw kerels, skiet maar!  Skiet em doed, die verdomde schepsels_,"
["Now, boys, shoot away!  Shoot them dead, the damned rascals."] and
immediately a tremendous volley was poured into the retreating foe.

Never was any sound more welcome to mortal ear than the harsh, familiar
dialect to the ears of the beleaguered group to whom it brought
deliverance, and a ringing cheer went up from their midst as they
recognised the voice of the old Dutch commandant, who with his men had
thus arrived timely to the rescue.  Spread out in a long line through
the bush the Boers advanced, cautiously but rapidly, shooting down the
flying foe in every direction.  And another wild cheer went up in reply,
as Jim Brathwaite, at the head of his mounted men, charged up the path
in the hope of cutting off the enemy's retreat, or at any rate of
thinning his numbers while crossing the open ground some two miles
beyond.

"Hallo, Claverton!" he cried as he rode past.  "Better fall back, as
you're dismounted.  The ground's quite clear behind."  And the battle,
which had now become a rout, swept on, farther and farther up the pass.

Indeed our friends had as much as they could, manage in transporting
their wounded comrade with all the comfort--rough at best--that they
could muster under the circumstances; but it had to be done, and the
poor fellow went through agonies.  His pluck and cheerfulness never
failed him.  "I say, Claverton," he remarked, with an attempt at a
smile, "that old humbug McShane will have the laugh of me now.  How the
old beggar will crow!"  But the speaker knew full well that not a soul
among the forces now in the field would be more concerned and grieved on
his account than the fiery but soft-hearted Irish doctor.

The camp was reached at last; but long before it was reached, the whole
force had overtaken them, returning from the pursuit.  The bodies of
those who had fallen were found, horribly mutilated, and were hastily
buried where they fell.  But the undertaking had been a failure.  The
Boer commando had been unable to arrive at the rendezvous in time, owing
to the same reason which had delayed Brathwaite's Horse.  It had been
engaged by a large body of the enemy evidently thrown out for the
purpose, and as soon as it had beaten these off it hastened to the
relief of our friends, as we have seen.  And the upshot of the whole
affair was that nearly two thousand rebels, with an immense number of
cattle, had succeeded in breaking through, and had gone to join their
countrymen in the fastnesses of the Amatola Mountains.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

All through that night the wounded man lay, watched in turns by his old
comrades, those among whom he had spent his life.  A stupor had
succeeded the agony which he had first undergone, and now he lay
comparatively free from pain and breathing heavily.  It happened that
there was no surgeon in the camp, McShane being with the larger column
some twenty-five miles off; and though three men were galloping across
country to fetch him, it had long since become evident to all, even the
sufferer himself, that the whole Faculty of Medicine could not save his
life.  He was doomed from the very first; that ball in the side had
decided his fate.  So they watched beside him there, and many times in
the course of the night would his companions-in-arms steal to the door
of the tent to whisper for news, for poor Jack was a favourite with the
whole corps.  So still and beautiful was the night that it required some
extent of imagination to realise the stirring drama which had been
enacted the day before, and an hour after midnight the camp was wrapped
in slumber and darkness, save for that one faint light burning in the
dying man's tent, a meet symbol of the life that was flickering within,
fainter, and fainter, and fainter.  Away on the slopes of the far
Amatola the red signal fires of the savages twinkled and glowed, and
above rose the eternal peaks in dark outline.

It was towards dawn.  Jim Brathwaite and Claverton alone were in the
tent when Armitage seemed suddenly to awake from his death-like stupor.

"Who's there?" he whispered.  "That you, Jim?"

In a moment Jim was at his side.

"Well, look here, old chap, I'm off the hooks this time, and no mistake.
It wouldn't much matter--only--" and he paused.

"It wouldn't much matter," he continued, as if with an effort; "but--
Jim--hang it, it's Gertie I'm thinking of.  Poor little girl, she'll be
left all alone--," again he seemed to hesitate, and by the light of the
dim lantern, it could be seen that the dying man's eyes were very moist.
"You'll look after her a little, now and then, won't you, Jim, for the
sake of old times?  There'll be enough to keep her comfortably--when
everything's realised--that's one consolation.  And tell the little girl
not to fret.  It can't be helped."

Solemnly Jim promised to carry out his wishes.  He was a man of few
words, but they were from his heart.

"Claverton--it was downright good of you to bring a fellow up here to
die among his old friends," went on Armitage, suddenly catching sight of
the other.  "Better fun than pegging out with only the sooty-faced
niggers prodding away at you," he added, with an attempt at his old
light-heartedness.  "After all, what does it matter?  I say, though, you
fellows, don't go bothering to drag me off to `King.'  Just slip me in
somewhere here.  I'd rather, you see.  Best sort of grave for a fellow
campaigning--and it's all God's earth."

His voice grew somewhat fainter as he ceased.  There was silence for a
few minutes, and he lay with closed eyes.  The watchers stole a look at
each other, and just then three more figures slipped softly into the
tent.  They were Hicks, and Allen, and Naylor.  The dying man's lips
began to move, but Claverton, bending over him, could not catch his
words, though he thought he could just detect the name of his wife.

"Where's Hicks?" he suddenly exclaimed, opening his eyes.  "And Naylor,
and all of them?  I should just like to say good-bye to them.  Oh, hang
it all--it's too soon to give way.  One more shot and the beggars'll
run.  Ah-h-h!  That chap's down."  His mind was wandering, and he
fancied himself in the conflict again, "N-no.  Where am I?  It's awfully
dark.  Open those shutters, somebody.  A fellow can't see."

Again the watchers look at each other.  This was the beginning of the
end.  Hicks had knelt down beside his dying comrade, and, grasping his
hand, something very like a sob is heard to proceed from his broad
chest.  The candle in the lantern burns low, flickers, and goes out.
They put back the flaps of the tent door, and just then the first red
flush of dawn glows in the east.  Then they bend down to look at their
comrade; but it is all over.  The spirit has fled, only the clay
remains--cold and tenantless.

Thus died, in his full manhood, the joyous, mischief-loving,
sunny-tempered Jack Armitage--light-hearted to the very last; fearless,
for he had never done anything to be ashamed of, or contrary to his
simple, straightforward code.  Never a dishonest or malicious action
could he blame himself with, and now he was at peace with all mankind.
And if any one is tempted to ask: "Was the man a Pagan?  Was he utterly
Godless?"  I reply, not necessarily.  He died as he had lived, among his
old comrades, careless and unthinking, perhaps, and with his thoughts
apparently all for those he left behind; but genuinely regretted by all,
and without an enemy in the world.  And, O pious reader, when your time
comes and the grim monarch lays his icy grasp upon you, will they be
able to say of you even thus much?



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

FACE TO FACE.

They buried poor Jack Armitage in the afternoon, and all turned out to
render the last honours to their departed comrade.  Brathwaite's Horse,
with arms reversed, formed the principal guard of honour, the improvised
bier being borne by the dead man's most intimate friends.  All the Dutch
burghers followed in the _cortege_, and, hovering around in dark groups,
the men of the Fingo Levies gazed curiously but respectfully upon the
white man's burial.  No surpliced priest stood to hallow this newly-made
grave in the wilderness, or speak the commendatory words; but all the
solemnity which real feeling could impart was supplied in the demeanour
of these rough bands of armed horsemen, pacing along so silent, and
orderly, and mournful.

The grave had been dug beneath a couple of euphorbia trees, upon a green
knoll commanding a lovely view of hill and dale, and sweeping grassland
and distant mountain, all blending into one soft picture in the golden
lustre of the afternoon sun.  The steady tramp of hoof-strokes ceased as
the horsemen ranged themselves in a semicircle around the grave, and
there was dead silence.  All uncovered as Jim Brathwaite, who, as senior
commander and the dead man's intimate friend, had been unanimously voted
to the duty, began to read--in the subdued and serious voice of one
wholly unaccustomed to the performance of such offices--the Anglican
burial service.  At its close a firing party stepped forward, and a
threefold volley sounded forth upon the hushened air, rolling its echoes
afar, till the Amaxosa warriors, listening from their tangled fastnesses
to its distant thunder, told each other, with grim satisfaction, that
the English must be burying one of their principal captains.

So poor Jack Armitage was laid to rest there in his lonely grave amid
the sunny wilds of Kaffraria, and a gloom hung over the camp because of
the cheerful spirit taken from its midst.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

That evening they were joined by the other column, forming part of which
was Claverton's old corps.  It happened that Lumley, who had been given
the provisional command on the transfer of his chief, was in hot water.
An excellent subordinate, he was quite unfit for a wholly responsible
position, and, as was disgustedly said by those on whom his mistakes had
nearly entailed serious disaster, he had made an utter mess of it.
Consequently he had been superseded, and was daily expecting the arrival
of the man appointed to take his place.  "Quite a new hand," as he said,
in an injured tone; "a fellow only just out from England."  All this he
told Claverton, seated that evening in the latter's tent, where he had
come to pour out his grievances.  He would clear out, he vowed, and let
the beastly war go to the deuce.  Naylor was also present.

"Don't do anything rash, Lumley.  Wait and see who the new fellow is,"
was Claverton's advice.  "You and I had very good fun together, and so
may you and he.  It isn't all walnuts and Madeira being in command, I
can tell you.  Anyhow, I found it quite within my conscience to throw
over mine in favour of subordinacy--and am not sorry.  No, believe me,
responsibility's a mistake except for the gifted few; and you and I can
have a much better time of it playing second fiddle."

With such arguments he soothed the other's wounded spirit, and at length
persuaded him that so far from feeling ill-used he ought to rejoice.

"'Pon my soul, I believe you're right," was poor Lumley's parting
remark, made in a tone of intense relief, partly owing to his former
chief's friendliness and encouragement, partly--it may be--the result of
a couple of glasses of grog warming the cockles of his heart.  "But I
wish it was you they were going to put back again, Claverton.  It would
be all right then.  Good-night--good-night," and he went out.

"Poor Lumley," remarked Claverton, after he had left.  "I'm sorry for
him; but he's no more fit to be at the head of a body of men than I am
to command the Channel Fleet."

"H'm, isn't he?" said Naylor.  "At any rate you have sent him away in
quite a contented frame of mind.  I was watching the process leading up
to it, somewhat narrowly."

Claverton laughed.  "Oh, I can always talk over a fool, that is, an
ordinary one, when it's worth while taking the trouble, which in this
case it is, for Lumley's a good fellow in most ways.  But I can't talk
over the fool blatant, for he is too overwhelmed with a sense of his own
infallibility to give the slightest attention to any one else's
suggestions.  By the way, I must go across and see Jim Brathwaite.  Will
you come, or would you rather stay here?  Our `business' won't take a
minute."

"I may as well walk across," and they went out.  On arrival at Jim's
tent, however, that redoubted warrior was not there.

"Probably making a night of it with some of the fellows who have just
come," was Claverton's remark.  "Ah, here's what I want," pouncing upon
a bit of blue paper which lay ostentatiously upon an old packing-case,
and was directed to himself.  "Now we'll go back."

The night was moonless and rather dark, for a curtain of cloud had
drifted across the sky; here and there one or two stars twinkled through
its rifts, and the outline of the sombre ridge beyond was scarcely
visible.  All was quiet in the camp, the voices of the men made a kind
of monotonous hum, and now and then a laugh arose from some centre of
jollity for the time being.

A light burned in Claverton's tent as they were about to enter, and,
pausing for a moment, the figures of the two men were thrown out into
full relief.

Crack!

A bright jet shoots out of the gloom just beneath the shadowy outline of
the ridge overlooking the camp, and the sharp report rolls away in dull
echo upon the night.  Then another flash, and, amid the roar that
follows, Claverton and his companion both experience a strange, jarring
sensation, for a bullet has passed, with a shrill whiz, between them,
narrowly missing the head of either.

"Good shot that, whoever it is," remarked Naylor, coolly, while his
companion, who had quickly extinguished the light, was by his side
again.  "There'll be tall cannonading for the next half-hour, and
tolerably wild shooting, too."

And there was.  The effect of the double shot upon that camp--which
fancied itself so secure--was marvellous.  In a moment every man had
seized his piece, and was standing eagerly peering into the gloom in the
direction of the shot--and not merely that, for many discharged their
weapons haphazard--and presently, as Naylor had said, the cannonading
waxed alarming.  The frontier corps, beyond a few shots fired on the
impulse of the moment, had remained cool; they knew the futility of
blazing at random into the darkness, and had too much respect for
themselves and their reputation to be made the subject of a practical
joke played by one or two skulking Kafirs.  But the camps of the Fingo
and Hottentot levies were like a disturbed ants' nest; and heeding the
voices of their officers no more than the wind, those startled and
panic-stricken auxiliaries poured a terrific fire into the darkness, and
the air was aflame with the flash of their wild, reckless volleys as
they blazed away--round after round--as fast as ever they could reload.
It was in vain that their officers strove to restrain them--their voices
were lost in the constant bellow of musketry.  Now and then they would
knock down a refractory nigger or two within reach, but it had no effect
upon the others, and confusion reigned supreme.

"Well, Lumley, here's a lively kettle of fish."

He addressed, turned, perspiring and despairing in his frantic attempts
to restore order.

"Good God!  Claverton, is that you?  Now just look at these damned
fools.  Drop that, will you?" he roared, bestowing a violent kick on one
of his men who was blazing away without even bringing his piece to his
shoulder.  The fellow gave a yell of pain and made off.

At length the confusion began to abate.  Seeing no further sign of an
attack upon the camp, and their ammunition having decreased alarmingly,
the native auxiliaries ceased firing by degrees, each man, as he did so,
sneaking off looking very much ashamed of himself.

"Damned fools, in sooth," assented Claverton, when the uproar had calmed
down.  "But, Lumley, I wish you'd just turn up that fellow Smith--Vargas
Smith.  There's something I want to see him about at once."

"Certainly.  Here, pass the word there for Corporal Smith," he called
out.

"Oh, he's promoted, then?"

"Well, yes.  A sharp fellow, you know; helps me no end."

But Corporal Smith was not forthcoming.  He was nowhere to be found, in
fact.  He was not on guard, for he had been in the camp not long before
the alarm, they said, but now there was no trace of him.

"How long before?"

Well, it might have been half an hour since he was seen, certainly not
much more.

"Not less?"

No, not less.  On that point they were all ready to swear.

"Even as I suspected," thought Claverton to himself.  And he waited some
time longer talking to Lumley, and ironically bantering some of his
former men for their contribution to the recent chaos.

"A set of smart fellows you are, eh, old Cobus?" he said, addressing one
of the sergeants.  "Blazing away all night at the stars and bushes."

"Nay what, kaptyn," rejoined the old Hottentot, shamefacedly.  "You see
a lot of us shooting like that must hit somebody.  We shall find many of
the _schelms_ lying there in the morning."

"Many of the _schelms_?  Devil a bit.  One or two of your own sentries,
perhaps."

"No--Kafirs, kaptyn."

"Bah.  There won't be a leaf or a twig left on the bushes within a
circle of two miles, perhaps, but if you find a single Kafir lying
within it, I'll engage to eat him."

There was a roar of laughter, half deprecatory, half of intense
amusement, from the group of listeners who had drawn near, at this
sarcastic hit.  But just then a diversion occurred in the shape of the
reappearance of the missing Corporal Smith.

"Hallo, Smith; where the devil have you been?" cried Lumley.

"Been on guard, sir," was the reply, in a tone which seemed to add, "and
now shut up."

"You weren't told off."

"I went because they said Gert Flinders was ill, and I took his place,"
he said, with a touch of defiance.

Claverton, meanwhile, eyed him narrowly.  Two impressions were present
to his mind--one, the extremely loose state of discipline into which
Lumley had let the corps drift; the other, which more nearly concerned
himself, the evident anxiety of the Cuban mulatto to avoid further
questioning.  He noticed also, with one keen, swift glance, that that
worthy wore a pair of new veldtschoens.

"By the way, on second thoughts it doesn't matter to-night," he said,
carelessly.  "To-morrow will do just as well, Smith.  It's late now, and
it's best to get things ship-shape after the row.  Good-night, Lumley,"
he added.  "Come round and feed to-morrow night if we are still here,"
and he went away.

By the time Claverton reached his tent all was quiet again.  His
companion had turned in, and was sleeping as unconcernedly as if beneath
the roof of an English dwelling instead of having narrowly escaped being
shot through the head by a nocturnal foe in the wilds of Kafirland.  He
hastened to turn in likewise, but not to sleep.  Instinct led him to
connect this last attempt upon his life with some evil hovering over
himself and Lilian.  For that he was the intended mark of the assassin's
bullet he had known the moment it was fired.

While it was yet dark Claverton left the camp quietly, and the first
glimmer of dawn saw him narrowly searching for the spot whence the shot
had been fired.  It took him nearly an hour, but he found it at last.
And he found something more: he found three distinct footmarks--the
print of a pair of new veldtschoens--in the damp soil, for a heavy dew
had fallen in the night; and furthermore, sticking among the thorns, the
tiny fragment of a flannel shirt of peculiar pattern.  And a vindictive
light came into the blue-grey eyes as he walked straight back to camp,
murmuring to himself complacently:

"Just so--just as I suspected!  Mr Corporal Vargas Smith--_alias_
Sharkey--you have chosen to throw away your life again, and now, if you
are above ground in six weeks at the outside from to-day, may I be
beneath it!"

For a moment the resolve seized him to have the ruffian arrested.  There
was abundant evidence to convict him before a drum-head court-martial,
but then the heads of the field forces would inevitably shrink from
administering the extreme penalty; and besides, the question of motive
must arise, which would be an inconvenient thing to be ventilated in
public just then.  No; the safest and best plan would be to pay the
assassin in his own coin; and, strong-headed and unscrupulous in such a
case as this, Claverton doubted not his ability to discharge the debt
with interest.

He reached his tent in time to find a trooper dismounting there.  The
man looked hot, dusty, and tired, having ridden express from Cathcart
with letters and despatches for the camp.  Saluting, he handed a
telegram to Claverton and withdrew.  The latter held the ominous missive
for a moment, regarding it with a blank stare, then, with a jerk, tore
it open, and, at the first glimpse of its purport, his face became ashy.
This is what he saw:

  From _Payne, Grahamstown_.

  To _Claverton, Brathwaite's Horse, Colonial Forces in Gaika Location,
  via Cathcart_.

  _Come at once, and at all risks.  No cause for alarm, but come_.

He looked at the date.  The message had been handed in two days before,
and had been lying at Cathcart for lack of an opportunity of transport.
The words swam before his eyes, and his blood ran cold with a chill
fear.  This brooding presentiment, then, had not come upon him for
nothing.  Handing his companion the telegram, he strode to the door and
called for Sam.

"'Nkos?" and the native came running up with alacrity.

"Saddle-up Fleck and the young horse, Sam, and be ready to start in half
an hour at the outside."

"Yeh bo, 'Nkos," replied Sam, too well accustomed to his master's ways
to be astonished at anything; and he retired to carry out his orders.

Quickly Claverton went over to arrange with Jim Brathwaite for his
absence, and long before the appointed time he was ready to start.  He
fidgeted about, looking at his watch every moment; and lo, just three
minutes short of the half-hour his retainer appeared with the two
horses.

"My dear fellow, don't give a thought to me," said Naylor, warmly, in
response to his explanations of this sudden departure.  "I shall make
myself comfortable while you are away, never fear.  Now, don't delay any
longer.  Your duty shall be looked after all right," he added, and with
a close hand grip he bade his friend farewell.

Claverton, with his trusty follower, sped on across the hostile ground,
every yard of which might conceal a foe; but of this he took less than
no heed.  All his thoughts were ahead of him by the hundred and odd
miles or so which he had to traverse.  His plan was to change horses
half-way, leaving Sam to follow at leisure, once they were well out of
the localities where they might fall in with roving bands of the enemy;
and to push on, even if he killed his steed in the undertaking.  Away in
the blue heavens clouds of vultures, the ubiquitous scavengers of
Southern Africa, were visible, poised above the scene of the late
conflict; and these grew fainter and fainter, till they were lost to
view in the far distance, and the sun began to decline in the west as
the travellers kept steadily on over hill and dale, carefully eschewing
short cuts and keeping to the beaten track.  Once they were descried by
a group of Kafir scouts, who, from their position on a hill-top, opened
fire at long range, and of course ineffectually.

"Sam," exclaimed Claverton, as they were saddling up to continue their
road, after a short halt, "there's a devil of a storm coming up.  Look
there."

The native glanced upwards.  "There is, Inkos," he replied; "but we may
just ride through it and escape."

Great inky clouds were gathering with alarming rapidity, and hastening
to unite themselves to the dense black pall which drew on, silent,
spectral, and gigantic, over the mountain-tops, and a dull, muffled roar
boomed nearer and nearer between the fitful puffs of hot wind which
fanned the travellers' faces.  And now the scene was a weird one indeed.
They were just entering a long defile--for they had reached the
mountains--and along the rugged crags of the lonely heights towering
above on either side, the red flashes were playing.  Higher and higher
piled the solid cloud-masses, and a few large drops of rain began to
patter upon the stones.  The gloom deepened, and all Nature was hushed
as if in preparation for the coming battle of the elements.

Hark!  Was that the ring of a horse's hoof far down the pass?  No.  Not
a human creature is abroad in this awesome place to-night, with the
black, brooding storm overhead, and the clans of the savage enemy
besetting every step of the road with peril.  A huge bird of prey soars
away from one of the desolate crags, uttering a hoarse, long-drawn cry
like the wailing of a lost soul.  It is pitch dark.  Then a flash lights
up the road, and Claverton, profiting by it, peers anxiously ahead.

"Come along, Sam.  There's a smooth bit here, anyhow, and we can get
over a good stride of ground," and, spurring up his horse, away he goes
at a long, even canter, with the Natal boy close behind him striving to
keep up; and the sparks fly from beneath the horses' hoofs as they dash
on through the night.  A roll of thunder--long, heavy, and appalling--
peals through the pass, a vivid flash of plum-coloured flame, and
Claverton suddenly reins in his steed--who, with a snort of terror,
rears and shies--just in time to avoid charging headlong into another
horseman advancing at an equally rapid pace from the contrary direction,
and who also reins in with a jerk.  A powerfully-built, dark-featured
man who stifles a half-spoken ejaculation; but beyond that neither
speak.

What is the spell thrown over these two as they sit their horses gazing
at each other in the lightning's horrible, scathing gleam in that gloomy
pass?  Is it an instinct?  It is more.  In that one vivid flash
occupying not a second of time, Claverton has recognised in this sudden
apparition the man whom he had seen and heard in the deserted hut,
deliberately instigating his assassination.  He recognises something
more.  As, with a muttered "good-night," the other passes on into the
gloom, the lightning flashes again, revealing upon his bridle-hand a
curious ring.  It is an exact facsimile of the lost ring which glittered
in the moonbeams beneath the old pear-tree on that last night at Seringa
Vale.



VOLUME TWO, CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

"GIVE US LONG REST...  DARE DEATH OR DREAMFUL EASE."

We left Lilian crushed beneath the weight of this fresh blow dealt her
by the man who had been the curse of her life.

To a night of anguish--anguish so poignant that she sometimes feared for
her very reason--succeeded days of dull and hopeless apathy.  Her whole
being, body and soul alike, seemed to be numb and dead.  She could not
talk, she dared not think, nor could she pray.  Even that last resource
was denied her; for there came upon her a miserable feeling of fatality,
that her God had forsaken her, leaving her to be the sport of some cruel
demon.  And, amid her apathy, her thoughts would, in spite of herself,
float dreamily back in a mechanical kind of way to all that had gone
before.  She had been sad-hearted then in the temporary separation from
her lover; but now! that time was ecstasy itself in comparison with
this.  Somehow, it never occurred to her to doubt one word of Truscott's
statement.  He had been so positive, so resolute, that it must be true.
And then she remembered the hundred and one little incidents--hints that
her lover had let fall--uneasiness manifested on an occasion--the veiled
compunction with which he had touched upon his former life--all stood
out now in startling conspicuousness.  Even that day had opened so
propitiously, and lo, within one single hour, life was ended for her.

Sorely anxious were the Paynes over this fell change which had come upon
her on that sunny afternoon.  They could elicit nothing from her.  She
was not well, she admitted, but would be all right in a day or two, no
doubt.  And this, with such a ghost of a smile upon her white face, that
Payne, suddenly struck with an idea, snatched up his hat and rushed down
into the town to inquire if any fresh news had been received from the
seat of war.  Had she, unknown to them, heard that harm had befallen her
lover?  If so, that would amply account for the depression.  So he went
diligently to work to hunt up news; but no telegrams of a dispiriting
nature had been received, quite the contrary--the enemy had had another
thrashing, and there was no mention of loss on the colonial side.  All
this was a relief to Payne.  But sorely puzzled; indeed, completely
baffled; he returned to his wife and reported accordingly.

"I tell you what, George," she began, and her face wore a troubled and
concerned expression.  "I've heard something--something that makes me
think this Captain Truscott's at the bottom of it."

"Eh?"

"Well, he was here yesterday afternoon for more than two hours, and
Lilian hasn't been herself since.  She didn't tell me, but I heard it
while you were out."

Payne stared at her blankly, but made no reply.

"You know I never did like that man," continued she.  "I told you so at
first.  And I'm perfectly certain that he and Lilian are something more
than merely old acquaintances."  And then she told him of the latter's
dismayed look on first recognising Truscott in the crowd, and one or two
other things that had not escaped her observation.  "He has been
persecuting her in some way, I'm sure, and I won't have her persecuted,"
concluded the warm-hearted little woman.

Payne was whistling meditatively.  He had a high opinion of his wife's
intelligence in all matters relating to the idiosyncrasies of her sex,
so he would just let her go on.

"Well, what's to be done?" he said.  "We can't ask the fellow what the
devil he's been up to, and Lilian won't tell us."

"Can't we?  I think we can, and ought."

Payne shook his head, and looked gloomy.  The affair was beginning to
assume a serious phase.  It was a delicate business, and the honest
frontiersman felt thoroughly perplexed.  He did not want to make a fool
of himself, or of any one else, through officiousness or meddling.

"I know a trick worth two of that, Annie," he said at last.

"What is it?"

"Wire to Claverton.  Eh?"

She paused.  "Well, perhaps that would be the best plan."

"Good.  I'll cut down and do it now."  And, sliding from the table
whereon he had been seated swinging his legs, he reached down a jar of
tobacco from a shelf, and hastily cramming his pipe, started off.  "What
shall I tell him, though?" he asked, suddenly stopping in the doorway.
"Won't do to pitch it too strong, eh?"

"N-no.  Wait a bit," and then she concocted the message which we have
seen Claverton receive; and Payne being on his way to despatch it, she
turned away with a look of relief over the prospect of decreasing
responsibility.

Lilian, meanwhile, had become a mere shadow of her old self, and the one
spark of comfort left to her was that her persecutor had kept himself
out of her sight.  For he had left the city, bound for the seat of war,
and, for reasons of his own, he had refrained from bidding farewell to
the Paynes in person, but had sent a note explaining that he was ordered
off at a minute's warning.  He had got a command at last, he said; only
some levies, at present, but still that was something to go on with, and
he must leave for the front immediately.  Which missive was read by its
recipients with feelings of decided relief.

The fact was, the gallant Truscott began to suspect that it might be
advisable for him to take himself out of the way for a time, and he had
no desire to meet his rival in person.  Let the two settle it as best
they might, was his cynical reflection; settle it they must, and to his,
Truscott's, satisfaction--on that point he felt perfectly safe.  He had
played a bold game and had won, and, now that he had won, it would never
do to spoil it by any chance blundering.  So with a few lines of renewed
warning, merciless, pithy, and to the point, posted to Lilian--the wily
scoundrel departed for the seat of war, and unless a well-aimed bullet
should pierce the black, scheming heart, and of that there was but small
chance, there would be no more happiness for her on earth.  There were
times when she would almost make up her mind to throw off the hateful
thrall, to defy him to do his worst, whatever that worst might be; but
then would rise up the frightful facts, as he had laid them before her
in all their nakedness, and she would fall asleep, only to be haunted by
a series of terrible dreams; visions of a crowded court hushened to a
deathly silence in expectation of the dread sentence; of a small group
in a grim gaol-yard, in the chill morning--one face among them lit up
with fiendish exaltation--a noose, a gallows, and a black, hideous beam.

"My love--my sweet lost love!" she would moan, waking from one of these
frightful fantasies in a flood of streaming tears.  "Was it for this you
were restored to me again?  Ah, why did we ever meet?"  And the black,
silent hours melted away into dawn, but brought with them no comfort.
More than once had her affectionate hostess tried to get at the secret
of her grief--but Lilian was firm.  Meanwhile, the Paynes began to grow
seriously alarmed.  A very little more of this, and the results would be
disastrous.  Nothing had been heard of the telegram, and they became
more and more anxious every day.

"Miss Strange, do let's go for a walk when I come back; it'll be such a
lovely evening."  The speaker was Rose Payne, who was hurriedly
gathering up her books, and cramming them into a bag, preparatory to
starting for afternoon school.

"So we will, dear.  Only you must come back in good time."

"Won't I?" gleefully cried the little girl, flinging her arms round
Lilian's neck.  She was rapturously fond of her former preceptress, all
the more so, perhaps, now that she was subjected to the sterner
discipline of school; and a long, quiet evening walk with Lilian, all to
herself, was a treat indeed.  "Won't I just come straight back!  It'll
be nice and cool then, and we can go ever so far over the hill, above
Fern Kloof.  So long, till four."

"Good-bye, Rosie dear," replied Lilian, kissing the child
affectionately, and, with a sigh, watching her bound light-heartedly
away.  Then she turned from the doorway, and, with a drooping gesture of
abandonment, threw herself into a low chair.  The Paynes were out
somewhere, and, as on that former afternoon, she had the house entirely
to herself.  The soft air came in through the open windows, warm but not
oppressive, from the tree-fringed shade.  A great striped butterfly
floated in, and, scarcely aware of its mistake, fluttered around a large
vase of flowers upon the table.  And still she sat, heedless of
everything, with her hands pressed to her face, thinking, thinking--ever
thinking.

"Only four days ago," she said to herself, "four short days--and now!
Ah, God, it is too cruel!" and the tears welled forth and slowly began
to force their way through the closed fingers.

The hum of the voices of a couple of passers-by sound drowsily upon the
calm; then, the ring of hoofs coming up the street at a rapid canter.
It stops, as if some one had reined in before the door--but she heeds it
not.  Some one dismounting at the next house, she thinks.  Then a quick,
firm tread in the passage, and a man is standing inside the room.  With
a low, startled cry, Lilian looks up and falls back in her chair in a
deathly faint.  It is Claverton.

In a moment he is beside her, and has her in his arms.  "Oh, Lilian, my
darling!  What _is_ this?  They did right to send for me--Good God,
Lilian!  Why, what have you been doing with yourself to get like this?"
he adds, in a tone of undisguised alarm, startled by her white and
dejected looks.

But no reply can she make.  Fairly taken by storm, she is clinging
tightly to him, her face buried in his breast.  Only a convulsive sob
shakes her frame from head to foot.

"What have you been doing with yourself, child?" he continues,
vehemently.  "Why, you are as white and pale as the mere ghost of your
former self.  Lilian!" but still she cannot answer.  "Lilian; look at
me, I say.  I have ridden straight here, day and night as hard as I
could ride, to come to you and never to leave you again."

He paused; but the expected words of joy and of love came not.  Suddenly
she drew herself away from him, and the look on her face was as the look
of death.  Already she had failed to keep her side of the compact--that
compact written in tears, and sealed with the throes of a breaking
heart--and she had doomed him.  No, but she would not.

"Arthur, you must leave me.  Now, at once, before it is too late," she
exclaimed, in a quick, alarmed tone.

"Lilian.  Are you mad?"

Not a shade of anger or reproach is there in his voice.  Amazement and
indulgent tenderness alone are to be traced.

And she?  Frantic with apprehension, she knew not what to say.  To warn
him of danger would be but to drive him right into its jaws.  What
should she do?  Ah!  That was it.  The old promise.

"Lilian, what has come between us, now?  Only tell me, darling, and it
will all be cleared away."

It was terrible.  Her brain reeled as, with wild, dilated eyes, she
stood gazing at him.  His presence was so unexpected--it had burst upon
her like a thunderbolt.  He had, as he said, travelled night and day to
reach her side--and now she must bid him leave her for ever though it
broke her heart, as it certainly would.  They two must never look upon
each other again in life.  Then her brain grew cold and steady.  She
must not flinch, she must save him from this ruthless enemy at all and
whatever cost to herself.  To herself!  Ah, but--and to him?  The answer
to this question flashed across her determination--the consciousness of
how valueless would be the life she was about to save.  Yet--O God! the
recollection of those terrible, menacing words!  She sank her head into
her clasped hands and shuddered.  Again, so softly, so tenderly, he
repeated his question:

"Lilian; what has come between us?  Tell me, darling!"

She threw back her head with a quick movement, as if quivering beneath
the torture.

"My former promise, Arthur.  You remember," and averting her face, again
she shuddered from head to foot.  "He is not--dead--as I thought."

"And then--?"

"I cannot break it.  I thought him dead--but now--I cannot break it.
God help me!--help us both!"

A devil took possession of Claverton's heart, and the fixed, vengeful
look in his face was awful to behold as he murmured to himself: "God
help _him_.  If he is not dead he soon will be--or I."  Then aloud:
"Lilian, you vowed once that nothing ever should part us.  You remember,
darling."

The voice was even more gentle than before.  Had it been otherwise she
could almost better have borne it--and yet not.  A fraction of a second
and she had yielded, had thrown herself into his arms; but again the
savage threats of Truscott and the diabolical malice of his tones and
looks rose up before her, and she felt strong again.  In a paroxysm of
that love, which was at once her strength and her weakness, she cried:

"I cannot--I cannot, Arthur.  I am too weak, and that you must see.  I
cannot break that promise.  You must go--go and curse my name and
memory--if it be worth cursing, to the end of your days.  And I--O God!
let me die!"

The forced, unnatural hardness which she had thrown into her voice,
struck upon his ear, filling him with amazement and dismay.  It was all
like a bad dream.  He could hardly realise that she was actually trying
to cast him off.  From any other living soul guilty of such vacillating
treachery, he would have turned away in scarcely surprised scorn.  To
this woman, rather than speak one word of anger, reproach, or blame--and
what is harder--rather than think it, he would have died a thousand
deaths.  How he loved her!  Her very weakness was sacred to him.  It was
thrown upon his tenderness, now; it was for him to handle it tenderly,
not to crush it--and her.  And a curious thrill of ghastly comfort shot
through him in the thought that even at this fearful moment, when his
heart was sick with bitter despair, he was really proving the strength
of his love by something more than words.  Three times now had she
repulsed him, each under circumstances more cruel than the previous
one--but the loyal love of the man never flinched--never swerved by a
single hair's breadth.  And he must be very gentle and indulgent with
her now.

"Lilian, my sweet, you hardly know what you are saying," he answered,
imprinting a shower of passionate kisses on the trembling, ashy lips.
"I'm not going to take what you tell me, in earnest at all."

"Spare me--spare me," she moaned, shuddering in his embrace.  "I meant
it--all, and--"

"Hi--Halloa!  Here's some fellow's horse got into the garden!" cried a
man's voice outside.  "Yek--yek!  Hi!  Jafta.  Turn the infernal brute
out.  He's broken down the fence in two places--confound it--which means
a claim for five pounds from old Cooke next door.  Out, you brute!" and
a sound was heard of a stone, launched by an incensed hand, striking
violently against the paling, while the offending quadruped, tearing his
way through and carrying with him two yards of fence, bolted off,
snorting and kicking, down the road.

"What'll the owner do, George?" said another voice approaching the front
door.  "Goodness knows where that horse'll bolt to, now."

"Blazes, I hope--and his owner after him," replied Payne, surveying
resentfully the receding form of the trespasser.  "Why the deuce can't
fellows tie their horses up when they leave 'em in the streets?  O
Lord!"

This last ejaculation was caused by the sight of Claverton, who had come
quickly to the door to meet them and to give Lilian time to recover
herself, and at whom the speaker stood staring open-mouthed and somewhat
dismayed.

"Was that _your_ horse, old chap?" he asked, dubiously, shaking hands
with the new arrival and experiencing a sensation of huge relief because
of his presence.

"It was; but it may be the possession of some one else by now.  Bother
the horse, though.  I say, Payne, I want to talk to you."

"One minute, old chap.  Here, Jafta--Jafta," he called out to his boy.
"Go and catch that horse again.  Look sharp--run like the devil.  If you
bring him back within a quarter of an hour I'll give you a shilling."

Away went Jafta, and Payne, glad of the momentary delay, returned to
Claverton sorely perplexed.  He had sent for him, indeed, but didn't
know what the deuce to say to him now that he had come.  It was more
within a woman's province, he thought; and there and then his spouse
came to the rescue, taking the affair into her own hands.

"Come inside, Mr Claverton," she said.  "I'm so glad you're here."  And
then, when they were alone, she told him everything that had happened,
from the day they had first seen Truscott until the moment of their
going out that afternoon just before his arrival.

He listened quietly.  A deadly resolve was shaping itself within his
heart.

"What sort of a man is this Truscott--I mean what sort of a looking
man?" he asked.

She described him, and the listener immediately recognised the portrait.
The whole scheme was clear to him now.  There was no question of money
at the bottom of this man's hostility towards him.  Either the mulatto
was lying when he had told him this, or, more probably, the other had
given such a reason in order to conceal the real one.  No.  It was to
rob him of Lilian that his would-be assassin was plotting.  He was wise,
indeed, to hire the bravo's steel in the shape of Sharkey--for he might
have been sure that only death would part him from Lilian.  Ralph
Truscott, look to yourself now.  It is no woman, weak in the very
helplessness of her love, with whom you have to deal this time.  You
have, indeed, cause to meditate.

"He's gone to the front, has he?" continued Claverton.  "Whereabouts?
Do you know?"

Annie Payne looked at him with a troubled air.  She knew well her
interlocutor's determination and daring, and she saw breakers ahead.

"But it will be all right now that you are back again," she ventured.
She greatly feared otherwise; still, one must hope for the best.

The dark look deepened over his features.  He hardly seemed to hear her,
but stood gazing through the open window.

"I must go," he exclaimed, suddenly.  "Where is Lilian?" and with three
strides he gained the other room.  It was empty.  "Ah, better so,
perhaps," he muttered to himself.  "Mrs Payne, tell her, with my love,
that a very few days will see me back here again, and everything will
come right then.  Now I must not lose another moment.  Good-bye, for a
few days."

"What are you going to do?" was the reply, spoken in a tone of alarm.
"Wait.  Don't be in such a hurry.  You can't rush off at once.  You must
off-saddle if only for an hour.