girl. "Why, Mr Selmes
himself could hardly go on piling them up like that."

"Ah, he's young. They come more naturally from him, like the difference
between the roll of a well-greased waggon wheel and that of a creaking
one," rejoined Greenoak, with a good-natured smile.

"Now that's a delightfully quaint and characteristic simile," laughed
the girl. "I must really store it in mind for future use."

"Is it worth it? But aren't we getting a bit off the road? What is
this `favour'?"

"I want you to take me for a walk, if you have nothing better to do--or
think about," she added mischievously.

"If I were to say `How could I have?' you would tax me with making
compliments again, I suppose. But wouldn't you rather ride?"

"No. Sandy's a bit lame, and Bles is away down the kloof, and by the
time he was got up I should have lost all inclination to do either. And
there's no other horse on the place that'll stand a skirt. We'll take
the path by Goba's vee-kraal to Bromvogel Nek. There's a lovely view
from there, and this is just the day to sit and enjoy it."

"When will you be ready?"

"I'm ready now if you are. Are you? Well then, come along."

Hazel chatted briskly as they took their way along the winding and
somewhat stony bush-path, but her companion said little. He preferred
to hear her talk. There was that in the light-hearted gaiety of this
bright, sweet-natured child that appealed powerfully to the strong,
lonely, self-contained man, that almost made him sigh for his past
youth. He liked to hear her talk, and simply talk. That in itself was
a pleasure to him. At the same time he was wondering with what object
she had persuaded him to accompany her; the last thing in the world that
would have occurred to Harley Greenoak being that it was simply for the
pleasure of his own company. He supposed she wanted to talk about Dick
Selmes, to "draw" him perhaps, as to his charge's general character.
Well, if that were so, Dick should have a good one. And, as though to
fit in with the idea, at that moment, from the further side of the great
crater-like hollow that constituted the bulk of Hesketh's farm, there
rolled forth a distant and double report. Both stopped to gaze in the
direction of the sound.

"Wonder if Dick's getting any luck," said Greenoak. "It's astonishing
how his keenness in that direction has thawed off of late," he added
slily.

"Yes, it has," came the ready answer. "He's getting