knew what ancient idols, what Himyarite
inscriptions, what trinkets of gold, might not be found there?

"How can such a matter be important enough to make you risk your life
amid deadly fevers and insects, venomous reptiles, wild beasts and
wilder men?"

In that respect the expedition would be tame. The journey into the
interior would consist of undramatic drudgeries and discomforts, of
association with a primitive folk whom he had never failed to make his
friends, of precautions that would confound the reptiles, the fevers,
and the disease-bearing insects. As for the wild beasts, they asked
nothing better than to be left alone.

"Oh, yes," she assented, trailing her fan along the balustrade, "a hero
must be modest on such points. Yet it seems to me an abnormal vanity
that drives one into those places, just in order that one may say,
'It's I who have found a new pile of ruins, a few scraps of gold, in a
jungle.'"

After a moment's reflection, he confessed:

"I gave you my secondary reason, because I thought you might find it
more interesting than my chief one."

It was true, he said, that he hoped to find a new Zimbabwe there; but
his principal task would be to make a geological survey of some
territory believed to be very rich in certain minerals. He was going
for a group of capitalists who, if he brought back an encouraging
report, would obtain large concessions for exploiting the land. It was
a gamble; the territory in question was virtually unexplored. That
region, moreover, was peopled by a tribe opposed to exploitation, and,
for that matter, even to visits from their white-skinned nominal
rulers. But he had always been successful in dealing with savages; so,
since this was to be as much a diplomatic mission as a geological
survey, he had seemed the one for the task.

From this explanation she derived the idea that he was not a rich man,
that perhaps until recently he had never thought of money as important,
but that now, for some reason, he had determined that his fortune must
be increased.

The waltz had ended. The dancers were appearing on the terrace. Some,
descending the staircases between the pools, wandered away through the
gardens. Here and there a match flared up against unnaturally tinted
foliage. Farther on, a spangled dress shimmered beside a fountain,
then, accompanied by a dark shadow, disappeared into a charmille. A
clock in the valley struck eleven, its last vibrations mingling