en, and they
had heavily dynamited a portion of the river to bring up some fresh
fish for dinner. Druro's dog, thinking it was a game he knew, jumped
in after one of the sticks of dynamite to bring it out to his master,
and Druro, like a flash, was in after him and out again, just in time
to save himself and the dog from being blown to smithereens. "The
bravest action he had ever seen in his life," one of the witnesses
described it--and he had been through several native wars and knew what
he was talking about, just as Druro, who was a mining expert, knew the
risk he was taking when he jumped in among the dynamite.

This was the man who was filled with rage and desolation of heart at
the words of "a little monkey of eighteen or nineteen--old dissipated
Derek Liscannon's daughter, I thank you! Nice school to come to for
temperance lectures! Not that she can help being Derry's daughter, and
not that old Derry is a bad sort--far from it--but as hard a drinker as
you could find in a day's march. And young Derry hits it up a bit,
too, though one of the nicest boys in the world. I've always said that
Gay was the sweetest, prettiest little kid in Rhodesia--in Africa, if
it comes to that--and now she turns on me like this--blow her buttons!"

He strode along the soft, dusty roads that still had a feel of the veld
in them, neither looking nor listing whither he went. It was a soft,
plaintive voice that brought him to a standstill, and the realization
that he was close to the Wankelo railway station.

"Oh, _can_ you tell whether the Falcon Hotel is far from here?"

"The Falcon Hotel, madam?" His hand went instinctively to his head,
but there was no hat upon it. "There is surely a bus here that will
take you to it," he said, looking about him.

She gave a little laugh.

"Yes; but I don't want my poor bones rattled to pieces in a bus if it
is not too far to walk."

Dimly he could see a slight figure swathed in velvety darkness of furs
and veils that gave out a faint perfume of violets, and the suggestion
of a pale, oval face. Her voice was low and sweet.

"It is not very far," said Druro. "I will gladly show you the way, if
you will allow me."

"That is so very kind of you," she answered softly, and fell into step
by his side.

As they walked, she told him, with the simple aplomb of a well-bred
woman of the world, that she had just arrived by the train from
Buluwayo and was going on to a place called Selukine