Part 25 (1/2)

”Your stuff'll be all right, Mr Denham, never fear,” said Charlie Newnes, as they shook hands Then he started to overtake the waggon

”That's a fine young fellow,” said Denha after the outfit ”I should think he and his like would count for so run”

”Oh, I don't know They are rather between the devil and the deep sea,”

answered the trader ”There are quite a lot of them about--decent, respectable chaps for thenor the other

I knew his father well in the old days Bob Newnes ran the whole north-western part of this country before and after the war of '79 Heyourself away,” laughed Verna

”Oh, I've done that already before Well, what does it matter? Any fool can see I'm no chicken”

”You're a jolly well-preserved one, Halse,” said Denhaiven you credit for such far-back experiences if you hadn't told theun-runner, you know, Denhaunrunners in those days, as I was telling you just now

But what the devil did itthe war of '79, except in a couple of stray instances, for the average Zulu is such a wretched shot he couldn't hit a cathedral Since then--well, when they fought each other, there was no har the to feel uncomfortable, and some mysterious telepathy made Denham aware of the fact

”Of course,” he answered cheerily ”Don't we build war-shi+ps on the Clyde and Tyne and at Belfast for foreign Powers to use against ourselves if they want to? It seems to me there's precious little difference, if any at all”

”Bless your soul, no Well, I raft up sohties, when they were at each other's throats here

The Usutu paid the best, you see The other side had got their ohite men--John Dunn and others We weren't over-ridden with officialdoone

Verna, if you're still on to that picnic, suppose you give us breakfast”

”That picnic” was a ride which she and Denham had planned down into the forest country in search of specimens They had taken several of the kind already

Yes, several And Denhairl, had come to the conclusion that such society was necessary to him, daily, and thenceforward His life since he had been here had been an idyll, he told himself, a sheer idyll Why should it not be a peres and experiences Denhaularly modest Why should he expect Verna to leave her father at the call of a er? Why should he expect her father to be ready to part with her? They were so happy together, so wrapt up in each other; and he, after all, as he but adarker at the back of that, but it he put away frohts Still, it would obtrude

Soht of his wealth and position would come to his aid

But i here

If ever there was an independently-minded man on earth it was his host, and as for Verna, why, she was clean outside all his experience of the other sex Then again would coe and subtle sy their close and daily companionshi+p

The atmosphere of the Lu now A touch of approaching winter was upon it, and froer shot down rays of torrid heat So as the pair threaded the narrow path, closely shut in overhead by towering tree-tops, the horses showed no sign of weariness or distress

”I don'tthem in here,” Verna said ”There's tsetse at times But it has turned soin single file, she leading It was a wonderful road

Tall trees shutting out the light; ropes of rowth and long grassthat peculiar translucent hue such as youa deep dive into a tropical sea Not many bird voices, but here and there one, for birds prefer the outskirts of inhabited lands, and the remotest depths of forest are not to their taste