one moment alone together. Likewise was she rather oftener than
necessary very emphatic in referring to "Miss Commerell;" and when,
later on, some of "those stupid men" did drop in, her joy was unbounded,
equally so that they stayed late enough to leave John Ames no pretext
for sitting them out.

Resisting a pressing invite to finish up the evening at the Silver
Grill, the latter went back to his quarters in by no means an elated
frame of mind. Yet he had to some extent foreseen what had happened.
Nidia had been kind and cordial to him, but there it was--as one of a
crowd. There was no longer that sweet day-to-day companionship, they
two isolated from the world. We repeat that he had foreseen this
eventuality, yet now that it had arrived he liked it not one whit the
more; nor was there consolation in the thought that here was another
confirmation of the general accuracy of his forecasting faculty.
Already he began to realise the Umlimo's forecast: "There will come a
time when you will look back upon these rough wanderings of yours--the
two of you--as a dream of paradise." Of a truth that strange being
possessed the gift of prophecy to an extraordinary degree.

Now, too, and in the days that followed, he found subject-matter for
some very serious thinking, and one of the main subjects of his thoughts
was that of the Umlimo. No abstraction, then, was this cult, such as he
and others had supposed. Probably it had been originally, but he who
now used the title had seized the opportunity of turning it into a most
formidable weapon against his enemies, in furtherance of one of the most
ruthless, daring, and far-reaching schemes of vengeance which the mind
of man could ever conceive and foster; and the object of this terrible
monomania, the man's own nationality. John Ames was in a quandary.
Here he stood, possessed of most important knowledge, yet powerless to
divulge it; cognisant of a fact of most vital moment to those who
employed him, and whose pay he was receiving, yet tied and bound by his
pledged word.

There was one way out of this difficulty, and that way, not being an
unscrupulous man, he decided to take. He resigned his position in the
service of the Chartered Company. Even then his mind was by no means at
ease. There seemed still to be a duty to perform to humanity in
general. Were he to keep this knowledge to himself, how many lives
would be sacrificed which otherwise might have been saved? The c