* * *

When he was gone, they mounted the _kopje_ together, still hand in
hand.

The way was steep, but they never rested till they reached the top.
The evening light was passing, but the sky was full of stars. The
_spruit_ was a swift-flowing river below them. They heard the rush
of its waters--a solemn music that seemed to fill the world.

Sylvia turned her face to the north, and the long, dim range of
hills beyond the _veldt_.

"We will go beyond some day," Burke said.

She held his hand very fast. "I don't mind where we go, partner,
so long as we go together," she said.

He drew something out of his pocket and held it out to her. "I've
got to give you this," he said.

She looked at him in surprise. "Burke! What is it?"

"It's something Guy left to you," he said, "with his love. I
promised to give it you to-night. Take it, won't you?"

She took it, a small object wrapped in paper, strangely heavy for
its size. "What is it?" she said again.

"Open it!" he said.

She complied, trembling a little. "Oh--Burke!" she said.

It lay in her hand, a rough stone like a small crystal, oddly
shaped. The last of the evening light caught it, and it gleamed as
if with living fire.

"The diamond!" she whispered.

"Yes--the diamond." Burke spoke very quietly. "He gave it to me
just before he died. 'Tell her she is not to keep it!' he said.
'She is to sell it. I won it for her, and she is to make use of
it.'"

"But--it is yours really," Sylvia said.

"No. It is yours." Burke spoke with insistence. "But I think he
is right. You had better sell it. Vreiboom and some of
Hoffstein's gang are after it. They don't know yet who won it.
Donovan covered Guy's tracks pretty cleverly. But they'll find
out. It isn't a thing to keep."

She turned to him impulsively. "You take it, partner!" she said.
"It was won with your money, and no one has a greater right to it."

"It is yours," he insisted.

She smiled. "Very well. If it's mine, I give it to you; and if
it's yours you share it with me. We are partners, aren't we?
Isn't that what Guy intended?"

He smiled also. "Well--perhaps."

She put it into his hand and closed his fingers over it. "There's
no perhaps about it. We'll take it back to Donovan, and make him
sell it. And when we've done that--" She paused.

"Yes?" he said.

She pushed her hand through his arm. "Would it bore you very much,
partner, to take me back to