ree to drink to the full of
this new found cup of happiness. And full it was, and running over.

Of course I didn't intend to remain on at Isipanga. The trading and
knockabout days were over now. I would buy a good farm and settle down,
and this resolve met with Aida's entire approval. She had no more taste
for a town life than I had myself. The only thing she hoped was that I
should find such a place not too far from her people.

"The fact is I don't know how they'll ever get on without you," she said
one day when we were talking things over. "They are getting old, you
see, and Falkner isn't of much use, between ourselves. I doubt if he
ever will be."

This made me laugh, remembering Falkner's aspirations and the cocksure
way in which he had "warned me off" that night in Majendwa's country.
But I was as willing to consider her wishes in this matter, as I was in
every other.

Falkner had accepted the situation, well--much as I should have expected
him to, in that he had sulked, and made himself intensely disagreeable
for quite a long time. I was sorry for him, but not so much as I might
have been, for I felt sure that it was his conceit which had received
the wound rather than his feelings. Which sounds ill natured.

Tyingoza was not particularly elated when I broke the news of my
intended departure.

"So you are going to build a new hut at last, Iqalaqala," he said, with
a chuckle.

"I am, but not here."

"Not here?"

"No. I am going to leave trading, and raise cattle instead."

"The people will be sorry, Iqalaqala, for we have been friends. _Au_!
is it not ever so in life? You hold a man by the hand, and lo, a woman
takes hold of his other hand, and--he holds yours no more."

"But in this case we still hold each other by the hand, Tyingoza," I
said. "For I am not going into another country nor does the whole world
lie between Isipanga and where I shall be."

"The people will be sorry," he repeated.

It was not long before Kendrew found his way over.

"Heard you were back, Glanton," he said. "Well and how did you get on
with Sewin up-country?"

"Middling. He has his uses, and--he hasn't."

"Well, I shouldn't find any use for him for long. It's all I can do to
stand that dashed commandeering way of his, and `haw-haw' swagger, as it
is. Been down there since you got back? But of course you have," he
added with a knowing laugh. "I say though, but doesn't it seem a sin to
bury two sp