a failure? If so, it should be the
last. Come what might, nothing in the world should induce him further
to inhabit this woefully depressing and thoroughly unprofitable place.
Rather would he gather together his little all, and resume the wild
wandering hunter life away in the far interior, and hand in hand with
this resolve Christopher Selwood's offer stood forth alluringly. Dear
old Sunningdale! Life near there might be worth living after all--
Violet Avory apart. But then arose the absurd scruples of a sensitive
nature. Quick, to the verge of folly, in benefiting others, when it
became a question of himself the recipient of a good turn Renshaw's
pride rose up in an effective barrier. And although the tie of
friendship between them was closer than might have been that of
brotherhood, he could recognise, or thought he could, in Selwood's
offer--a disguised method of conferring a favour upon himself. Not that
he failed to appreciate it, but he could not bring himself to lie under
an obligation even to his dearest friend. A strange character that of
this man, so self-sacrificing and so single-hearted; so sensitive, so
scrupulous in the most delicate fibres of the mind and conscience, yet
adamant in the face of peril; strong, resourceful when confronted with
privation. A character formed of a life of solitude and hardship, a
character that would be an anachronism--an anomaly--in the whirring
clatter of old world and money-grubbing life.

"Hallo, Fanning! What has become of you?"

The loud, jovial hail of his mercurial friend recalled him to himself
and the duties of hospitality. Sell on, tired of his own company, had
lounged to the door.

"I thought you had concluded to go on the hunt for your runaway nigger,
old chap," he said, as the other came up.

"Only been looking round the kraals, and, I'm afraid, `mooning' a
little," answered Renshaw, with a laugh. But there were times when his
friend's inexhaustible easiness of spirits jarred upon him.

The next day was spent in making preparations for the trip. Crowbars
and long coils of raw-hide rope for climbing purposes--provisions and
other necessaries to be loaded up were carefully sorted and packed--nor
were firearms and a plentiful supply of cartridges overlooked. By
nightfall everything was in thorough readiness for an early start.

Only, the missing Dirk did not appear, a fact which had the effect of
strangely annoying, not to say angering, Dirk's