Part 26 (1/2)

”_Au_! I thought not I thought not,” was the e)?”

”He is with his father,” said Beryl eagerly ”Why?”

The oldquickly to himself Then aloud--

”They have not returned? That is well _Inkosikazi_, take horse, and go and tell theht--dark, dark Let them sleep where they are, and return beneath the sun”

”Dark?” I interrupted, like an idiot ”Dark? Why it's nearly full lanced at me impatiently, eke somewhat contemptuously

”_Au_!” he said ”I have not been away for nothing Why did I leave here? Why did I fill up the ears of my father with a tale? Why did I take away e”-- open--”but I wanted mine to be so, too So I went no further than the further border of Kuliso's location, giving out that I had a grievance against my father, whose milk and corn I had eaten for nearly the half ofout, too, that I wanted it not to be known to those I had left, that I elling beneath the shadow of Kuliso Then the people of Kuliso feared not to talk within

Say, _Inkosikazi_, why has not your father--and hastly white

”Why, Dumela,” she said ”The compensation cattle have been paid, and Kuliso has assured us the unfortunate affair was settled He is the chief We have his word”

”You have his word But the fathers of the children have not the compensation cattle--no, not any of thee

That which is poured into them does not overflow and fall out The fathers of the children ere killed have no compensation, and--the boy was not punished Justice--the white man's justice--has not been done, they say Why was he still kept here?”

Beryl's face seemed cut out of stone She made a step towards the old Kafir, and placed a hand on each shoulder They were about the sahten, on hier now, and where? Quick, do you hear? Quick”

”Take the shortest way to the house of the Chatterer (Trask),” he answered, thus directly cornered ”_Au_! were there not two lives taken, two lives! And these are two lives”

Al him froesture, was a very ind of apprehension, of frenzied despair

”Kenrick, what horses are in the stable?”

”Fortunately two--yours, Meerkat--and mine”

”Saddle the did it take me to obey her behest, and indeed, no sooner had I done so than Beryl herself appeared at the stable door, equipped for our expedition

Giving no further thought to old Dumela, we fared forth over the moonlit veldt

”My presentiment was a true one after all, Kenrick,” remarked Beryl, as we rode side by side

”That remains to be seen,” I said ”Old Dumela may have found a mare's nest”

”No He would not have coood reason And all the ti us--watching over our interests, our safety”

The short cut to Trask's lay along the botto kloofs, but the path would only allow of riding single file Beryl and I had a sharp skirht, and firht to discover it and nised

Heavens! the sickening, creepingawe of it, as we took our way through the dark gloo scrub, the sharp contrast of its blackness with the vivid glare of the fulldown upon us, as from a scene in Dante

Our way took us by the lower end of the Zwaart Kloof, the site of that other tragedy--the scene, too, of my fell and fatal discovery when all my castles in the air had melted ahen I had learned that I was ruined, and as we entered its bushy recesses a thrill of superstitious dread ran through me It was an ill-o of woe Surely--surely--not again were its shades destined to cover another tragedy--another outpouring of the cup of horror and of evil