ousness altogether, and with a blessed
sense of quiet understanding neither attempted to make conversation;
and neither questioned as yet whence came this unsought bond, this
link forged as by a power outside themselves. The time for probing was
near, but it lingered yet a little.

As they approached the tents and joined the other two waiting to make
their adieux, Diana's voice again broke in upon their quiet,
dispelling its curious sense of unreality.

"It wasn't you I was afraid of, Major Carew," she called lightly.
"Baboons and owls and bears I dare tackle any day; but a ghost three
thousand years old!... ugh!... I give it up!... You will not need to
add to that precious native report another one, concerning the daring
theft of a corpse from the ancient ruins of Zimbabwe by a well-known
young lady from Johannesburg."

He smiled into her laughing eyes in a manner that surprised her, and
made his face extraordinarily attractive in a way she had not yet seen
it.

"And what would have happened to Stanley, do you suppose?... I'm
afraid the police force might have considered it necessary to dispense
with his services."

"O, that wouldn't have mattered in Rhodesia in the least! He'd have
opened a butcher's shop, or come on with us as our butler, or gone and
dug a hole in a kopje and called it gold-mining. No one would have
thought any the worse of him, and I'd have felt indebted to him for
life. We'd both have had a run for our money, anyhow!..." and she
laughed gaily as she turned away.

But in their tent, alone together, she suddenly made the epigrammatic
remark, "Dangerous, very dangerous indeed; like most bears. Mind you
don't get badly clawed, Meryl!..." and then with her usual lightness
ran off into another subject.

XV

CAREW RIDES AWAY

With the coming of the dark, velvety southern night, resplendent with
brilliant southern stars, it would seem the time for probing was at
hand. By the tents on the hill-side Mr. Pym, the engineer, Meryl, and
Diana sat outside in the starlight, rather a silent party, listening
to the intermittent sound of tom-toms coming from some kraal near by.

Then Mr. Pym alluded somewhat suddenly to their departure, and Meryl
made the discovery that it was a topic she had been dreading all the
evening. Diana, on the other hand, seemed relieved.

"I have one more journey to make," he told them, "and then I propose
to start at once for Enkeldorn and Salisbury. Unfortunately,