d rested his forehead on them, and
watched lazily the little black ants that ran about in the red sand,
just under his nose.

A great stillness settled down on the camp. Now and again a stick
cracked in the fires, and the cicadas cried aloud in the tree stems;
but except where the solitary paced up and down before the little
flat-topped tree in front of the captain's tent, not a creature stirred
in the whole camp; and the snores of the trooper under the bushes might
be heard half across the camp.

The intense midday heat had settled down.

At last there was the sound of someone breaking through the long grass
and bushes which had only been removed for a few feet round the camp,
and the figure of a man emerged bearing in one hand a gun, and in the
other a bird which he had shot. He was evidently an Englishman, and not
long from Europe, by the bloom of the skin, which was perceptible in
spite of the superficial tan. His face was at the moment flushed with
heat; but the clear blue eyes and delicate features lost none of their
sensitive refinement.

He came up to the Colonial, and dropped the bird before him. "That is
all I've got," he said.

He threw himself also down on the ground, and put his gun under the
loose flap of the tent.

The Colonial raised his head; and without taking his elbows from the
ground took up the bird. "I'll put it into the pot; it'll give it the
flavour of something except weevily mealies"; he said, and fell to
plucking it.

The Englishman took his hat off, and lifted the fine damp hair from his
forehead.

"Knocked up, eh?" said the Colonial, glancing kindly up at him. "I've a
few drops in my flask still."

"Oh, no, I can stand it well enough. It's only a little warm." He gave
a slight cough, and laid his head down sideways on his arm. His eyes
watched mechanically the Colonial's manipulation of the bird. He had
left England to escape phthisis; and he had gone to Mashonaland because
it was a place where he could earn an open-air living, and save his
parents from the burden of his support.

"What's Halket doing over there?" he asked suddenly, raising his head.

"Weren't you here this morning?" asked the Colonial. "Didn't you know
they'd had a devil of a row?"

"Who?" asked the Englishman, half raising himself on his elbows.

"Halket and the Captain." The Colonial paused in the plucking. "My God,
you never saw anything like it!"

The Englishman sat upright now, and looked keenly ove