t Henriques' legs. He was standing by the counter, and
apparently talking to Japp. He moved to shut the door, and came back
inside my focus opposite the window. There he stayed for maybe ten
minutes, while I hugged my impatience. I would have given a hundred
pounds to be snug in my old room with japp thinking me out of the store.

Suddenly the legs twitched up, and his boots appeared above the
counter. Japp had invited him to his bedroom, and the game was now to
be played beyond my ken. This was more than I could stand, so I stole
out at the back door and took to the thickest bush on the hillside. My
notion was to cross the road half a mile down, when it had dropped into
the defile of the stream, and then to come swiftly up the edge of the
water so as to effect a back entrance into the store.

As fast as I dared I tore through the bush, and in about a quarter of
an hour had reached the point I was making for. Then I bore down to the
road, and was in the scrub about ten yards off it, when the clatter of
horses pulled me up again. Peeping out I saw that it was my friend and
his Kaffir follower, who were riding at a very good pace for the
plains. Toilfully and crossly I returned on my tracks to my
long-delayed dinner. Whatever the purport of their talk, Japp and the
Portuguese had not taken long over it.

In the store that afternoon I said casually to Japp that I had noticed
visitors at the door during my dinner hour. The old man looked me
frankly enough in the face. 'Yes, it was Mr Hendricks,' he said, and
explained that the man was a Portuguese trader from Delagoa way, who
had a lot of Kaffir stores east of the Lebombo Hills. I asked his
business, and was told that he always gave Japp a call in when he was
passing.

'Do you take every man that calls into your bedroom, and shut the
door?' I asked.

Japp lost colour and his lip trembled. 'I swear to God, Mr Crawfurd,
I've been doing nothing wrong. I've kept the promise I gave you like
an oath to my mother. I see you suspect me, and maybe you've cause,
but I'll be quite honest with you. I have dealt in diamonds before
this with Hendricks. But to-day, when he asked me, I told him that that
business was off. I only took him to my room to give him a drink. He
likes brandy, and there's no supply in the shop.'

I distrusted Japp wholeheartedly enough, but I was convinced that in
this case he spoke the truth. 'Had the man any news?' I asked.

'He had and