d outside a thatch of dried
grass. And against this in her mind she placed the Johannesburg
bedroom, with its costly appointments, its beautiful windows opening
to a wide, flower-decked verandah, which commanded a lovely view of
distant hills; its lavish display of wealth and luxury. And she smiled
that little wry smile, because for the sake of just one man, a mere
soldier-policeman, this room might have been a paradise, and the other
a grave. In truth she had learnt much from her sojourn in the
wilderness--much beyond the life and aspect of a far country.

Then she crept to bed feeling tired and disheartened, but finding a
little comfort in the thought that she would see him in the morning.

But at sunrise Carew aroused Grenville and said good-bye, and rode
away before breakfast.

XVIII

THE CHARTER FLATS

Later in the day the party arrived back from Susi, and in the cool of
the afternoon a last good-bye was said to the mission station, and
they all returned to the Zimbabwe camp for their last night.

It had been casually mentioned that Carew had paid a flying visit the
previous evening and gone again early that morning, but very little was
said about the circumstance. Stanley was already beginning to look and
feel disconsolate over the approaching exodus, and Diana was very full of
the fact that she had shot a duyker. "I didn't really aim at him, you
know," she told Grenville naively; "I just held up the gun and pulled the
trigger. I couldn't believe my own eyes when I saw the buck lying dead.
All the same I did shoot him, and I've got his horns, and they will
occupy the place of honour when I get back in my own private sanctum. I
shall not tell the Jo'burg folk about not aiming; why should I? If I
describe the buck going at full speed, and how I bowled him over with one
shot, it won't be any more of a lie, if as much, as most of you colonists
tell when you get home to civilisation."

"Certainly not," agreed Grenville gravely; "but why not make it a lion
while you are about it, or even a rhinoceros?"

The Kid began to giggle. "And let it be just charging you," he
suggested joyfully. "And first you must take a snapshot of it
charging, and then you must fire into its mouth and blow its brains
out."

"And you might have its horns polished and mounted and its tail
stuffed," added Grenville.

"Silly idiots," scornfully. "You're both jealous. If you could have
_seen_ the things The Kid _missed_!"

"Th