abominable Trask, whose horse banter and innuendo at such times rendered
it difficult to keep my hands off him. However, it had a tonic effect,
in that it caused me to pull myself together. But I was much addicted
to straying in the direction of various spots where Beryl and I had been
alone together, and, letting imagination have free rein, would conjure
up her sweet bright presence, so alluringly framed by the wild beauty of
the surroundings, illumined by the sunlit glow of the cloudless heaven;
would go over our conversations together, utterly trivial and
unmomentous as such might have been. To half a hundred other and minor
idiocies do I likewise plead guilty; but as I have reason to believe
that my lot was by no means singular, and that most of us are fated to
undergo a similar stage of imbecility at any rate once in our lives,
such belief is fraught with some comfort.

Further, the parlous state into which I had mentally fallen affected my
ordinary duties, and what had hitherto been performed with a
wholehearted zest now became tedious and wearisome. That is the worst
of physical labour, in that you can _think_ throughout it all. Here my
natural reticence, or caution perhaps, came to the rescue. I began to
wonder whether Brian or his father saw through my state of mind. If so
they gave no sign. But I must pull myself together; and did so.

I have not unfrequently had occasion to notice how rarely anybody is
allowed in this life to suffer from a repletion of contentment
over-long. Here was this household, including myself, leading a life
which, in a modest way, left absolutely nothing to wish for: a life of
healthful, congenial usefulness, yet, thanks to the characteristics of
its individuals, not one of stagnation by any means. Then this blow had
fallen--suddenly, as serious blows generally do. Even if matters ended
at the best we could hope for, the occurrence would leave its mark, and
things could not, at any rate for a long time, be just as before. We
three men, left alone, realised a good deal of this. There was a gloom
upon us, checking our usual free flow of conversation, as though we were
each and all trying to avoid the topic uppermost in our minds, or at any
rate in the minds of two of us.

One day we rode over to Kuliso's "Great Place," to arrange about the
compensation to be delivered to the chief for the death of the children,
according to native custom. It was a strange expedition, and