Part 4 (2/2)

'Ah! you weep, messieurs,' he said 'No wonder--it is a sad story'

'Perhaps,' said Sir Henry, 'the heroic blood of your grandparent will triureat At any rate we shall see And now I vote we go to bed I am dead tired, and we had not ht'

And so we did, and very strange the tidy rooms and clean white sheets seemed to us after our recent experiences

CHAPTER V UMSLOPOGAAS MAKES A PROMISE

Nextat breakfast I missed Flossie and asked where she was

'Well,' said herI found a note put outside my door in which--But here it is, you can read it for yourself,'

and she gaveritten:--

'Dearest M--,--It is just dawn, and I aet Mr Q--a bloom of the lily he wants, so don't expect me till you see me I have taken the white donkey; and nurse and a couple of boys are co to eat, as I et the lily if I have to go twenty ht,' I said, a little anxiously; 'I never meant her to trouble after the flower'

'Ah, Flossie can look after herself,' said her oes off in this way like a true child of the wilderness' But Mr Mackenzie, who came in just then and saw the note for the first ti

After breakfast was over I took him aside and asked hiirl and get her back, having in view the possibility of there still being soht come to harm

'I fear it would be of no use,' he answered 'She may be fifteen miles off by now, and it is impossible to say what path she has taken

There are the hills;' and he pointed to a long range of rising ground stretching almost parallel with the course followed by the river Tana, but gradually sloping down to a dense bush-clad plain about five ht get up the great tree over the house and search the country round with a spyglass; and this, after Mr Mackenzie had given some orders to his people to try and follow Flossie's spoor, we did

The ascent of theperformance, even with a sound rope-ladder fixed at both ends to clihter

On reaching the height at which the first fern-shaped boughs sprang from the bole, we stepped without any difficulty upon a platfore enough to accolorious

In every direction the bush rolled away in great billows for lass would show, only here and there broken by the brighter green of patches of cultivation, or by the glittering surface of lakes To the northwest, Kenia reared hislike a silver snake almost from his feet, and far away beyond us towards the ocean It is a glorious country, and only wants the hand of civilized man to make it a most productive one

But look as ould, we could see no signs of Flossie and her donkey, so at last we had to coaas sitting there, slowly and lightly sharpening his axe with a small whetstone he always carried with hiaas?' I asked

'I set no ain went up the tree and searched the surrounding country with a spyglass, but without result When we cah she already had an edge like a razor Standing in front of hi him with a mixture of fear and fascination, was Alphonse And certainly he did see there, Zulu fashi+on, on his haunches, a wild look upon his intensely savage and yet intellectual face, sharpening, sharpening, sharpening at theaxe

'Oh, the monster, the horriblehis hands in amazement 'See but the hole in his head; the skin beats on it up and down like a baby's! Who would nurse such a baby?' and he burst out laughing at the idea

For a , and a sort of evil light played in his dark eyes

'What does the little ”buffalo-heifer” [so naaas, on account of his mustachios and feminine characteristics] say? Let him be careful, or I will cut his horns Beware, little etting over his fear of hi at 'ce drole d'un monsieur noir' I was about to warn hie Zulu bounded off the veranda on to the open space where Alphonse was standing, his features alive with a sort ofthe axe round and round over the Frenchman's head

'Stand still,' I shouted; 'do not move as you value your life--he will not hurt you;' but I doubt if Alphonse heard , fortunately for himself, almost petrified with horror