he is."

"Who? The `nigger'?"

"Morning, Lamont. Come to have breakfast, of course?" for they had just
sat down. "We were just talking about you."

"I'll change the subject to a more interesting one then," was the
answer. "How are you, Mrs Fullerton, and did you have a restful night,
for I'm sure you deserved one?"

"Not very. I'm a shocking coward, but I'm afraid it's constitutional,"
answered poor Lucy. But he laughingly reassured her, and talked about
the fineness of the day, and the extent of the view around Kezane, and
soon got away from yesterday's battle entirely.

Lamont's morning greeting, as far as Clare was concerned, was a fine
piece of acting, for they had arranged not to make public their
understanding until safe back at Gandela. Yet the swift flash as glance
met glance, and a subtle hand-pressure, were as eloquent as words to
those most concerned.

Watching him, though not appearing to, Clare's heart was aglow with
illimitable pride and love. The emergency had brought out the man
beyond even her estimate of him, and that had been not small. She had
read him from the very first, had seen what was in him, and her instinct
had been justified to the full. She was proud to remember how she had
always believed in him, and that the more detraction reached her ears
the more did it strengthen rather than sap that belief. And now--and
now--he was hers and she was his.

Others dropped in--Peters, and Jim Steele, and Strange the doctor, and
two or three more, and soon the talk became general. At a hint from
Lamont the subject of the fight of yesterday was left out, and they got
on to others, just as if nothing had occurred to disturb the peace in
the midst of which, a short twenty-four hours back, they had imagined
themselves to dwell. But it seemed to Lamont that Grunberger's wife, a
pleasant-looking Englishwoman who was taking care of their wants, was
eyeing him with a mingling of covert amusement and interest. "Shall we
stroll about outside, Miss Vidal?" he said, a little later, when they
were out in the air again. "What do you think, Mrs Fullerton? A
constitutional won't hurt us."

But Lucy protested that no consideration on earth would induce her to
set foot outside the gates--as they knew she would. No, no. These
horrible savages had a knack of springing up out of nowhere. Clare
seemed to know how to take care of herself, but she, assuredly, did not.
It was in vain for Lamont to imp