Part 15 (2/2)
Incidentally the rest of us thought it just as well that Trask had accounted for him, because Trask was the weak link in the chain, whereas now that he was the one iving away the affair under an i
”You see,” pronounced Brian, ”as long as we keep dark the Kafirs'll keep dark, too They'll think nothing of one fellow getting hurt, because it's quite in accordance with their laws and custoet hurt in a little affair of the kind But if we start stirring up things--setting the police on to the track, and so forth-- why then it's likely the other business will crop up, and that'll befor us, but running away Running away, mind There's no doubt about it but that we--or rather, Holt--struck upon a regular nest of cattle-thieves; but we can do nothing further under the circu whatever So mum's the word, absolutely Is that understood?”
All hands agreed to this, but none more emphatically than Trask, who, by the as a little less proud of his feat now that it was put in this new and exceedingly aard light
”Very well, then, that's settled,” declared Brian, characteristically diss settled down at Gonya's Kloof, ordinarily and without incident And yet, to e compared with all my former life, that every day seemed replete with incident, even what to the others was mere ordinary routine I threw , and both Brian and his father declared after a month or two that if I went on at this rate I should know as much as they could teach reat deal more than Trask did after four: a pronounce tothe very happiest ofby any means There was plenty of work-- hard, at times distasteful, even unpleasant There were tirey dawn, and spending the whole long day ranging the veldt in quest of strayed stock, and that beneath a steady, cold, incessant downpour, which soon defiedpipe but for the over-sheltering hat bri down upon hill and kloof, until one felt al, which meant a daily round frorease and wool, and sheep, andinto weeks But there was always so, and seldom indeed could one call any time actually and indisputably one's own
Does this sound hardly compatible with the statement I have made above?
It need not; for however hard or arduous the work, I was happy in it I felt that I was hly attractive and independent one I was si with health, and in condition as hard as nails, for although the weather would now and again run into a trying extreloriously healthy and exhilarating Then, too, I was sharing in the only real home I had ever known--certainly the very happiest one I had ever seen It mattered not how hard the day had been, there was always the evening, and ould sit restfully out on the stoep, s beneath the dark firmament aflame with stars, while the shrill bay of jackals ran weirdly along the distant hillside, and the ghostly whistle of plover circled diht air were sith the distillation fro plant or shrub Or, within the house Beryl would play for us, or sing a song or two in her sweet, natural, unaffected way Or even the harh
”Tired, Kenrick?” said Septi, after an unusually hard day of it ”Ha-ha! Stock-far and sport, is it?”
”Not much; but then I never expected it would be,” I answered ”I ahly appreciate this prize co just twice the man you hen you came
Isn't he, Beryl?”
”Hardly that, father, or we should have to widen the front door,” she answered dehed
”Man, Beryl That rerunted that ih tie,”
returned Beryl, equable and so there now, and sharp”
Her as law in e slouched off accordingly,he was beastly tired, and further had only stopped up to help amuse us; which final speech certainly carried that effect
Beryl reer, then she, too, went inside
”What on earth I should do without irl, Kenrick, I don't know,”
thereafter said her father ”Yet I suppose I shall have to some day”
”Will you?” I said vacuously, for the words raised an uncoe
”Why, yes, I suppose so, in the ordinary way of things”
”Oh! u devoutly thankful that the gloo which I could feel spreading overif the other detected the inconsequent inanity of the rejoinder begotten of an _arriere-pensee_ But I realised keenly the only side of the situation that would reconcileto do without her
I had now had tie for having h this could not be done yet, by reason of its invest notice of withdrawal
I had caused such of s as I needed--and such were not extensive--to be shi+pped out to me, also some money which I could touch, and this I promptly invested in live stock, under the advice of my most competent of instructors So by now I reckoned myself fairly and squarely launched By the way, the e of fortunes, having found out my identity, had put in a claim for compensation, but had been directed to wait Now he too was paid in full, and so everybody was satisfied
We were nearing midsu heat notwithstanding, the face of the veldt was sreen, for we had had a series of splendid rains Such a season, it was pronounced, had not been known for years Stock was fat and thriving, and there was little or no disease Even our turbulent neighbours had quieted down, and were busy ploughing and sowing, with the result that there was an abnors along the border, whose white inhabitants were, for the nonce, content