ys, aren't they? But it isn't every man who can know a new
country is grateful to him, and who has achieved all he has at a work
he loves."

"Why did he come?" Still Diana strove vainly to hide her interest. "Do
you know?"

"Adventure, probably. A good many men from crack regiments came in the
early days."

"There must have been something more."

"Perhaps."

"Don't you _know_?"

"No." He looked at her with a little smile. "It isn't the game to ask
questions out here."

"That is just what Mr. Stanley said, and it is so dull of you both.
The man's a perfect bear. I christened him 'The Bear' before I had
known him an hour. But why is he? Why should he be? That's what I
want to know."

"I don't fancy you will. I doubt if anyone knows. He has never made
friends, I think, out here, except with the Grenvilles, and they are
some connection."

"That's the missionary and his wife, isn't it? What in the world can a
man like that see in a missionary? Of all the soppy, flabby
individuals give me the usual specimen who goes out to preach
Christianity to the heathen, and generally disgusts them and everyone
else."

"Not this missionary."

"O, is he an original also?"

"He's one of the finest men I've ever known."

"Then what in the world is _he_ buried in the wilderness for? I never
knew anything so absurd. A fine soldier and administrator, just a
policeman; a splendid man, just a missionary. And you and your brother
just grubbing about in a God-forsaken mine, apparently for nothing. It
is enough to make anyone wild." And she faced him with that
smouldering indignation she rarely allowed to come to the surface.

"But they are both in Rhodesia"--ignoring her kindly inclusion of
himself and his brother--"and Rhodesia wants good men."

"And when she gets them just buries them at her outposts. I haven't
much faith in your Rhodesia. She is a capricious jade. She absorbs a
man's finest qualities and best years and gives him nothing in
return."

"Ask Carew if she gives him nothing. Probably she has given him more
than anyone else could give."

She got up impatiently. "All the more reason why he shouldn't be such
a bear. People who have got what they want out of life ought to be
amiable and friendly."

She turned round, and found herself face to face with Carew himself,
looking, if anything grimmer than ever.

"I came to tell you that tea is ready, and the others have already
commenced."

Diana looked straight i