he
would sometimes urge the fatigue and occasionally even the risk of these
long and toilsome rides. "While that law business still hangs fire the
partnership can't be dissolved, I suppose. Therefore I claim my right
to do my share of the work."

It was winter now. The clear mountain air was keen and crisp, and
although the nights were bitterly cold, the days were lovely. The sky
was a deep, cloudless blue, and the sun poured his rays down into the
valleys with a clear, genial warmth which just rendered perceptible the
bracing exhilaration of the air. Thanks to the predominating _spekboem_
and other evergreen bushes, the winter dress of Nature suffered but
little diminution in verdure; and in grand contrast many a stately
summit soared proudly aloft, capped with a white powdering of snow.

Those were days of elysium indeed, to those two, as they rode abroad
among the fairest scenes of wild Nature; or, returning at eve, threaded
the grassy bush-paths, while the crimson winged louris flashed from tree
to tree, and the francolins and wild guinea-fowl, startled by the
horses' hoofs, would scuttle across the path, echoing their grating note
of alarm. And then the sun, sinking behind a lofty ridge, would fling
his parting rays upon the smooth burnished faces of the great red cliffs
until they glowed like molten fire.

Yes, those were indeed days to look back upon.

CHAPTER THIRTY NINE.

FROM THE DEAD!

Eustace and the overseer were sitting on the _stoep_ smoking a final
pipe together before going to bed. It was getting on for midnight and,
save these two, the household had long since retired.

Tempted by the beauty of the night they sat, well wrapped up, for it was
winter. But the whole firmament was ablaze with stars, and the broad
nebulous path of the Milky Way shone forth like the phosphoric trail in
the wake of a steamer. The conversation between the two had turned upon
the fate of Tom Carhayes.

"I suppose we shall soon know now what his end really was," the overseer
was saying. "Kafirs are as close as death over matters of that kind
while the war is actually going on. But they are sure to talk
afterwards, and some of them are bound to know."

"Yes. And but for this administration business it might be just as well
for us not to know," answered Eustace. "Depend upon it, whatever it is,
it will be something more than ghastly, poor fellow. Tom made a great
mistake in going to settle in Kafirlan