gged cliff, whose brow was crowned with a grove of
fantastically plumed euphorbia; and then as his eye caught a stealthy
movement amid the gloom of the straight stems, Roden gave a slight
start, and immediately was as ready for action as ever he had been in
his life.

Yes, something was stirring up there. The moment was rather a tense
one, as standing amid those weird ruins he bent his gaze long and
eagerly upon the darkness of the straight euphorbia stems, round,
regular as organ pipes. Shadowy figures were flitting in and out. Were
others creeping up to assail him in the rear, signalled by these? Was
he in a trap, surrounded? Then he laughed--laughed aloud; for there
went up from the euphorbia clump a strong, harsh, resounding bark:--

"Baugh-m! Baugh-m!"

"Only baboons after all!" he cried, feeling more relieved than he cared
to own. And seeing nothing to be gained by further lingering, by
extended investigation, he once more mounted his horse and took his way
out of this valley of desolation and of death.

And as he gained the opposite ridge, he found that the storm was
clearing away, or rather travelling onward. Before him lay a series of
grassy flats, fairly open, but dotted with _clompjes_ of bush here and
there. The sun had broken forth again, and, the cloud curtain now
removed, was flooding the land with dazzling light. The change was a
welcome one, and had the effect of restoring the traveller's spirits,
somewhat depressed by the grim and gruesome scene he had just left. And
now, as the sun wanted but an hour to his setting, Roden decided to
off-saddle for that space of time. Then his steed, rested and
refreshed, would carry him on bravely in the cool night air, and but a
very few hours should see him safely over the hostile ground, if not
among inhabited dwellings once more. So, choosing a sequestered hollow,
Roden off-saddled and knee-haltered his steed, and then betook himself
to a little clump of bush which grew around a stony _kopje_, and which
afforded him a secure hiding-place and a most serviceable watch-tower,
for it commanded a considerable view of the surrounding veldt.

CHAPTER TWENTY.

MONA'S DREAM.

Notwithstanding the splendid courage and quickness of resource she had
shown upon a certain critical and, but for those qualities on her part,
assuredly a fatal occasion, Mona Ridsdale was by no means free from that
timidity under given circumstances, which seems second nature