ed by
Verna, were standing waiting for them. To these she distributed various
things she had brought, chatting and joking familiarly with them. They
were fine, merry-faced girls, and here again Denham found a keen bit of
character study. Sapazani accompanied his visitors to the gate of the
kraal--he was a stickler for old-time Zulu etiquette, as Ben Halse and
Verna, of course, knew, wherefore they had hitched up their horses
outside and bade them farewell.

"Well, and what do you think of our `show' chief now, Alaric?" said
Verna, as they started on their homeward ride.

"He's a splendid-looking fellow, and his manners are perfect," he
answered. But to himself he was thinking that had Sapazani been a white
man he would have resented the way in which the chief had looked at
Verna more than once. Being a native, of course, any such idea was
absurd, preposterous, out of the question. But he wondered whether Ben
Halse had noticed it.

And Sapazani, looking after them, was saying to himself--

"The trap is set, and yonder is the bait--_au_! yonder is the
bait--_impela_."

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

BLUFF--AND COUNTERBLUFF.

When they reached home they found a visitor awaiting them, in the shape
of Harry Stride. Ben Halse, for all his hospitable instincts, secretly
and within himself wished him at the devil. Verna would rather he had
not come--just then; but Denham, of the trio, was the least concerned.
So secure was he in his own happiness that he could not but be sorry for
the man who had failed to draw his at the same source. But as far as
any outward manifestation of lack of welcome was concerned the new
arrival had no cause of complaint.

During the evening they talked generalities, the state of the country,
the day's visit to Sapazani, and so forth. But Stride, while not
manifesting the former instinctive hostility towards Denham, did not
fail to notice, with jealous eyes, the perfect understanding which
seemed to prevail between him and Verna. Were they engaged? he
wondered. They must be, judging from a look which, more than once, he
saw pass between them. Well, he had a card up his sleeve, but he would
not throw it until the morning. So he went on chatting about things in
general, and Verna was especially kind to him. Denham too, with ready
tact, refrained from anything that might be construed into bordering on
an air of proprietorship! out of consideration for the poor fellow's
feelings; and w