erilous and
nerve-trying experience--(much of the detail of our expedition had, for
obvious reasons, been kept from the children)--she said--

"Why did you do it? Why did you run such a terrible risk? I would
sooner have lost all the horses in the world. Heavens! and you were so
near being murdered! No, you ought not to have taken such a risk. Why,
I should never have forgiven myself--never. It is too horrible."

She was intensely moved. Her eyes softened strangely, and there was
something of a quaver in her voice. And yet my first impressions had
credited Beryl Matterson with a cold disposition! Had we been alone
together now I don't know what I might have said or done--or rather I
believe I do know. As it was, I answered lightly--

"Oh, I don't suppose it would have come to that. Probably they were
only trying to scare me, and, by Jove! they succeeded, I'll own to that.
When it came to the point they'd likely have turned me adrift. Don't
you think so, Mr Matterson?"

"No, I don't. They'd have killed you as sure as eggs," was the decisive
reply. "They're a mighty _schelm_ lot up Kameel Kloof way, and there
has been more than one disappearance of white men during the last few
years. But you can't bring them to book. They swarm like red ants in
that location, and no Kafir will ever give another away."

In point of fact I was not ill-pleased with this decision, simply and
solely because the peril I had come through would enhance my interest in
the eyes of Beryl, especially as it had been incurred in her particular
service.

Our return had been effected without incident or opposition, and to me
there was a strong smack of the old border raiding kind of business as
we brought back the recovered spoil, recovered by our own promptitude
and dash. As for myself, I had undergone some experience of the noble
savage in his own haunts, and began to feel quite a seasoned
frontiersman. And yet barely three months ago I had been worrying along
in the most approved mill-horse round in a City office. Heavens! what a
change had come into my life.

Immediately on our return, all concerned in it had held a council of
war, confined rigidly to the four of us. The fewer in the know the
better, Brian had declared, wherefore he had not disclosed the whole
facts of the case even to his father. One of the thieves had been shot,
whether killed or disabled of course we had no idea. On that we must
keep our own counsel,