"Good God! Lalante. And you can hear the river from here, a mile and a
half away, bellowing as if it was at the very door. Why, it hasn't been
down like this since the big flood of '74. And you went in it, Warren,
and--got out of it! Well, well. They give Victoria Crosses and so on,
but--oh damn it! you deserve a couple of dozen of 'em."

His voice had a tremble in it as he gripped the other's hand. The whole
thing was more eloquent than a mere speech would have been. He was
deeply moved--moved to the core, but Le Sage was not a man of words.

"Oh, that's all right, Le Sage," said Warren. "Only as I was telling
Charlie, it's lucky he had the discretion to go in above stream instead
of down, or the devil himself would hardly have managed to get him out.
Come now, let's have something warming and then I'll go and change,
though I'll have to borrow some of your togs for that same purpose."

"Right. Here you are, and mix it stiff," said Le Sage, diving into a
sideboard and extracting a decanter. "Good Lord! And you got into the
Kunaga in a flood like this, and got out again! Why, it's a record."

This was Le Sage's recognition of the fact that this man had saved his
child's life at enormous risk to his own. But Warren thoroughly
understood and appreciated it; and was more elate than ever, inwardly.

"Go along, you children, and change at once," pronounced Lalante with
decision. "And be quick about it, and give yourselves a glowing rub
down with a rough towel I don't know that we two who haven't been in the
river are much drier than the other two who have," she added with a
laugh, as she disappeared.

Half an hour afterwards they all foregathered at table, and it seemed,
in the snug, warm, lighted room, as though the ghastly peril of the
afternoon were but a passing adventure, calculated to give an additional
feeling of snugness and security to the wind-up of the day. But the
dull roaring of the flood was borne in to them through it all upon the
dripping stillness of the rainy night.

And Warren, listening to it, and knowing that others heard it, felt more
elate than ever. He began to see the goal of his hopes more than near.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

"TAKE CARE OF HIM."

Wyvern found some difficulty in concealing the growing disgust that was
upon him as he entered Rawson's kraal. He had by this time been in
several native kraals and felt quite at home there: but this--well,
somehow it was out of