he possession of which would have entailed upon them, and upon all
concerned, if detected, the direst of pains and penalties. Yet there
was nothing suspicious-looking about those bundles, nothing to make any
reasonable being under the sun think it worthwhile investigating their
contents.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I wonder what sort of a man this Mr Denham is, father?" said Verna, as
she stood, in the middle of the morning, watching the cleaning and
preparation for preserving the great head, which was being effected by a
native under the critical supervision of his master.

"Quite all right," was the answer. "He pays down on the nail, or
rather, by return mail; never haggles or votes the prices too long.
It's all I can do to resist the temptation to put them up."

"Well, then, go on resisting it, dear. I'm sure it'll pay in the long
run," said the girl decisively.

"Yes, I've always had an instinct that way myself. Denham gives
thundering good prices as it is, and, I tell you, we've made a pretty
good thing out of him."

"But I wonder what he's like personally," went on Verna. "I wish you
hadn't lost that photo he sent you when I was away."

"Yes, it's a pity, but for the life of me I can't think what the devil
became of it. He was a good-looking chap, though, and I should think by
the look of the portrait, a fine, well-built chap too. Well, we shall
probably never meet. It's certain I shall never go to England again,
and he's not likely to turn up here."

"I suppose not."

"Well, long live our trade together, anyhow. He'd give anything, by the
way, for a good specimen of the _indhlondhlo_ [Note 1], but they've
become so jolly scarce, which is just as well. Anyhow, that's a beast
that isn't affected by these cursed silly game laws. But it's a sort of
joker you don't get a chance of killing except with a charge of
buckshot, and that spoils the skin."

"Well, then, it's better left alone. I've always heard they are the
most fiendish brutes to tackle. It isn't worth throwing away one's life
for the sake of a few pounds more or less."

"Few pounds more or less!" echoed Ben Halse. "Why where would I--where
would _we_--have been if I had always run on that notion? Little girl,
it's for you that I want to screw out every penny I can, no matter how I
do it. For _you_."

"Then knock off doing it, dear, especially in some directions. That
won't bring