mpart an impression that was positively uneasy.

"Dashed effective, by Jove!" pronounced the Major, breaking the spell.

"Why, it is beautiful--positively beautiful," declared Miss Sewin. "The
harmony and the rhythmic waves of sound are perfect. Tell me, Mr
Glanton, what was it all about?"

"Oh, it was merely a song of welcome, improvised over yonder while they
were scoffing my cows."

"Really? Do you mean to say it was all impromptu?"

"Of course. That's the way these people do things."

"Won't they go over it again?"

"Oh, there's plenty more to come. Rather too soon for an encore yet."

While I spoke they were forming up again. This time they broke up into
a hunting song. When it seemed to have gained its height, it suddenly
ceased, and all darted away across the veldt till nearly out of sight in
the moonlight.

"What the deuce are they up to now?" said Falkner, filling his pipe.

"You'll see. Listen. Now they are returning with the game."

Again the voices broke forth, now returning as I had said, and swelling
higher and higher, in a long recitative uttered by some dozen, and
replied to in rolling chorus by the whole body.

"They are recounting their exploits now--what game they have got, and
how they got it," I explained, as the singing ceased.

"By Jove, are they?" cried Falkner. "Look here, Glanton, I've got an
idea. How would it be to scare up a hunt to-morrow, and get a lot of
these chaps to help? I'd like to see how they go to work in their own
way. That would be worth seeing."

"Well, it might be managed. What d'you think, Major?"

"A capital idea. But--hang it, we haven't got our guns."

"Oh, as to that," I said, "you could use mine. There's a shot gun and a
rifle, and a rifle and smooth-bore combined. That'll arm all hands."

"Well done, Glanton. You're a jewel of a chap!" cried Falkner,
boisterously. "The very thing. But, I say. How about arranging it
with them now. No time like the present, eh?"

The idea appealed to me exceedingly, not for its own sake, I fear, but
because it would afford an opportunity of detaining my guests--or shall
we say one of them--yet longer, perhaps even another night, for it would
be hard if I could not manage to prolong the hunt until too late for
them to return. Really Falkner Sewin was not without his uses in the
world.

"I think it would be simply delightful!" interjected that "one of them."
"We will be able to see some of it too