da Merston's pale eyes gave her a shrewd
glance. "He was keen enough to run after you to Brennerstadt," she
remarked. "How did you get on there?"

Sylvia hesitated. "We were only there a couple of nights," she
said vaguely.

"So I gathered. Did you find Guy?"

"No. I didn't see him. But Mr. Kelly has promised to look after
him."

"Ah, Donovan is a good sort," said Mrs. Merston. "He'd nursemaid
anyone. So Kieff is dead!"

She said it abruptly, too intent upon the mixing of her cake to
look up.

There came the sound of wheel and hoofs outside, and Sylvia paused
to listen before she replied.

"Yes. Kieff is dead."

The sound died away in the distance, and there fell a silence.

Then, "Killed himself, did he?" asked Mrs. Merston.

"I was told so," said Sylvia.

"Don't you believe it?" Mrs. Merston looked across at her suddenly.
"Did someone else have a try first? Did he have a row with Burke?"

There was no evading the questions though she would fain have
avoided the whole subject. In a very low voice Sylvia spoke of the
violent scene she had witnessed.

Mrs. Merston listened with interest, but with no great surprise.
"Burke always was a savage," she commented. "But after all, Kieff
had tried to kill him a day or two before. Guy prevented that, so
Donovan told me. What made Guy go off in such a hurry?"

"I--can't tell you," Sylvia said.

Something in her reply struck Mrs. Merston. She became suddenly
silent, and finished her task without another word.

Later, when she took Sylvia to the guest-room, which was no more
than a corrugated iron lean-to lined with boarding, she
unexpectedly drew the girl to her and kissed her. But still she
did not say a word.

CHAPTER VII

PIET VREIBOOM

It was a strange friendship that developed between Sylvia and
Matilda Merston during the days that followed; for they had little
in common. The elder woman leaned upon the younger, and, perhaps
in consequence of this, Sylvia's energy seemed inexhaustible. She
amazed Bill Merston by her capacity for work. She lifted the
burden that had pressed so heavily upon her friend, and manfully
mastered every difficulty that arose. She insisted that her
hostess should rest for a set time every day, and the effect of
this unusual relaxation upon Matilda was surprising. Her husband
marvelled at it, and frankly told her she was like another woman.
For, partly from the lessening of the physical strain and pa