Part 25 (2/2)

”Oh, they'll turn up any ht at Trask's, I suppose?”

”Not in the least likely But--I wish they'd co with soether But as she dropped into one of the roomy cane chairs beside me, I could see that she had hardly an ear for half ht, wore a strangely anxious and troubled look The slightest sound would start her up, listening intently I watched her with amazement

”Why, Beryl,” I said ”What on earth is the reason of all this anxiety?

They--all of us--have been out as late as this before?”

”And I have never been as anxious as this before Quite true But, do you believe in instincts, in presentiments, Kenrick?”

”Well, in a way perhaps But--I hardly know They are generally to be traced to overwrought nerves, and that's a coht would be the last for you to suffer froe All the more reason whyterrible was about to happen--was happening--and I--we--can do nothing--nothing Oh, I can't sit still”

She rose and paced the stoep up and down, then descended the steps and stood looking out into the night This sort of thing is catching And that Beryl, the courageous, the clear-headed, the strong-nerved, should be thus thrown off her balance, was inexplicable,of a cold creep seeely still; warht to have been sharp and frosty Even the intermittent voices of nocturnal bird or insect were hushed, but every now and then the silence would be broken by the disathered round the slaughter place behind the waggon shed But these iave way to the love which welled up within azed into the sweet troubled eyes, for I had joined her where she stood in front of the stoep

”Dearest, don't give way to these irow upon you till you make yourself quite ill What can there be to fear?

Nothing”

Great heavens! my secret was out What had I said? And--hoould Beryl take it?

The latter I was not destined to learn--at any rate not then The dogs, which had been lying behind the house, uttering an occasional sleepy grohen thecattle becaed wildly forward, uttering such a clamour as to have been heard for miles

”Here they are, you see I told you they'd be home directly,” I said

”And here they are”

But the intense relief whichway to a look of deepened anxiety and disappointment

”It is not them at all,” she , the dogs ate The cla intently, we could detect no sound of voices nor yet of hoof strokes, both of which would have been audible a ht Yet, from an occasional ”woof” or so, which they could not restrain, we could hear that the dogs were returning

But their tuh partially and ate

An exclaure caasped

”_Inkosikazi_,” began the old Kafir, e all thought considerably ht of him at all, that is ”_Inkosikazi_ Where is your father? I would speak with him, now at once”

”He is not here, Duh”