well-nigh invariably are.

And the promise thus deliberately uttered during that sunny morning's
ride in the Long Kloof, will he ever be called upon to take it up?

We shall see.

CHAPTER NINETEEN.

A GOOD OFFER.

Time went by, and weeks slipped into months. Amid congenial
surroundings and magnificent air, Renshaw had completely shaken off all
lingering remnants of his fever attack. He began to think seriously of
starting in quest of "The Valley of the Eye."

Sellon, too, had begun to wax impatient, though with any less tempting
object in view he would have been loth to exchange this delightfully
easygoing life for a toilsome and nebulous quest, involving possible
risks and certain hardship and privations. Moreover, a still lingering
misgiving that the other might cry off the bargain acted like a spur.

"It's all very well for you, Fanning," he said one day, "but, for my
part, I don't much care about wearing out my welcome. Here I've been a
couple of months, if not more, and I shouldn't wonder if Selwood was
beginning to think I intended quartering myself on him for life. I know
what you're going to say. Whenever I mention leaving, he won't hear of
it. Still, there's a limit to everything."

"Well, I don't mind making a start, say, next week," Renshaw had
answered. "I've got to go over to Fort Lamport on Saturday. If it'll
suit you, we'll leave here about the middle of the week. We shall have
roughish times before us once we get across the river, mind."

"Right you are, and hurrah for the diamonds!" was the other's hearty
response; and then he turned away to seek a favourable opportunity of
breaking the news to Violet.

If Renshaw had succeeded in shaking off the effects of his fever attack,
no such complete success had attended his efforts with regard to that
other attack. There was not much healing for his wounds in the sight of
the more than ordinarily good understanding existing between Violet and
Sellon, and being, in common with the remainder of the household,
ignorant of their former acquaintanceship, the thought that he himself
had been instrumental in bringing them together, was indeed a bitter
pill. And then his disciplined nature would seek for an antidote and
find it--find it in the promise Violet had extracted from him to
befriend her to the utmost of his power. Well, he was going to do this.
He was going to be the means of enriching the man who had, though not
unfairly, yet no