t primeval."

But the streets showed plenty of life in all its human varieties, black
or white. The red or yellow dresses of the Indian coolies made quite a
glow of colour in the dusty streets. Here and there a tall head-ringed
native from some inland kraal strode down the street, his head in the
air, and majestic in the proud possession of a rather cloudy check
shirt, his kerries on his shoulder, and a bevy of his obedient womenkind
following in his wake. At these original lords of the soil Gerard could
not but look with considerable interest, as he noted with approval the
massive limbs and stately bearing which seemed to raise the scantily
clad savage a head and shoulders above the groups of slightly built,
effeminate Orientals through which he somewhat disdainfully took his
way. Whites, sallow-complexioned townspeople, there were too, standing
about exchanging conversation--rather listlessly, for the close of a hot
summer day in Durban is apt to find men not a little languid--and here
and there a bronzed planter or farmer cantering down the street, bound
for his country home among the sugar-canes or the bush.

A couple of hours' stroll, and our two young friends began to feel a
little of the enervating influence of the hot moist climate.
Accordingly, having hailed a tramcar, they were soon set down at the
door of their new lodgings.

The evening meal had already begun as they entered. Some seven or eight
men, of the class described by the friendly Customs official, were
seated at a long table, making great play with their knives and forks.
The landlord sat at one end of the table and his wife at the other. The
latter, a wooden-faced, middle-aged person, pointed to two seats which
had been kept for the new boarders, and subsided again into silence.
The other inmates, after a furtive stare, resumed their knife-and-fork
play.

The meal, though plain, was extremely good. It consisted of tea, roast
mutton, and potatoes, followed by some splendid pineapples. There was
also boiled Indian corn served up in the ear, and plenty of bread and
jam.

"Never ate `green mealies' before, eh, mister?" sung out Wayne from the
other end of the table, noticing that Harry half shied at the edible in
question. "You just try one; you'll find them first rate."

Some one at the same time handed him the dish. The tender, smoking ears
of corn looked tempting enough. Harry helped himself to one, and
without much thinking what h