Ridgeley is pretty good at fighting Kafirs, I should say," put in
May, slyly, before he had time to reply.

"Oh, I'm afraid I shan't hear the end of that little difference in a
hurry," said Gerard, laughing ruefully. "I rather wish I had left
Sobuza to fight his own battles."

"How can you say that?" said May. "Are you so utterly devoid of
imagination? Why, you rescued the man twice on the same day! That
means that he is to have some influence on your fortunes. You are going
up into the Zulu country now. You are sure to see him again."

"Maybe only to get an assegai put into him if he does," cut in Tom.
"Isn't there a proverb, that if you save a fellow's life he's bound to
play you a shady trick?"

"Be quiet, you wet blanket," retorted the girl. "I foresee different
things. I foresee that the Zulu will in some way or other turn up
again, and that he will have an influence in Mr Ridgeley's destinies."

How true this was fated to prove it was little that either of them
thought at the time.

The afternoon was spent very much as had been the morning, strolling
around looking about the farm, for it was a slack time just then and
there was not much doing. Towards sundown Tom Kingsland suggested they
should go down to a water-hole and try for a shot at a duck, an idea
which Gerard cordially endorsed, and in the sequel greatly distinguished
himself, considering his want of practice with the gun, for the pair of
ducks which they brought home represented one apiece. And then, in the
evening, while Mr Kingsland and Dawes smoked their pipes on the
_stoep_, the young people gathered round the piano, and Gerard thought
he had never heard anything so entrancingly delicious in his life as
May's fresh clear voice lifted up in song. Then--all too soon for him--
had come bedtime, and in the morning an early start to rejoin the
waggons.

Before Gerard turned in Mr Kingsland followed him to his room for a few
words.

"Well, Ridgeley, so you're going to make another start, this time as an
up-country trader. You've had a few ups and downs already, it appears;
and maybe there'll come a time when you'll thank your stars you have."

"I do that already, Mr Kingsland, for otherwise I should never have
found myself launched on this undertaking. What a good fellow Dawes
is!"

"He is--he is. But what I was going to say is this. It'll do you no
harm to get an insight into waggon travel and _veldt_ life, and the
native trade