because it entailed the
carrying of extra weight; but he remembered in time that gold is
always useful, and nowhere more so than among Portuguese and Arab
slave-drivers.

By evening everything was ready, and when the edge of the moon showed
above the horizon, Leonard rose, and lifting his load, fastened it upon
his shoulders with the loops of hide which had been prepared, Otter and
Soa following his example. It was their plan to travel by night so long
as the state of the moon served them, for thus they would escape the
terrible heat and lessen the danger of being observed.

"Follow me in a few minutes," said Leonard to Otter; "you will find me
by the donga."

The dwarf nodded. A quarter of an hour later he started also with Soa
and found his master standing bareheaded by his brother's grave, taking
a mute farewell of that which lay beneath before he left it for ever to
its long sleep in the untrodden wilderness. It was a melancholy parting,
but there have been many such in the African fever belt.

With one last look Leonard turned and joined his companions. Then,
having taken counsel with them and with the compass, he set his face to
the mountain and his heart to the new adventures, hopes, and fears that
were beyond it. The past was done with, it lay buried in yonder grave,
but by the mercy of God he was still a man, living beneath the sunlight,
and the future stretched away before him. What would it bring? He cared
little; experience had taught him the futility of anxieties as to
the future. Perchance a grave like those which he had left, perchance
wealth, love, and honour. Whatever the event he would strive to meet
it with patience, dignity, and resignation. It was not his part to ask
questions or to reason why; it was his part to struggle on and take such
guerdon as it pleased Providence to send him.

Thus thought Leonard, and this is the right spirit for an adventurer to
cultivate. It is the right spirit in which to meet the good and ill of
life--that greatest of adventures which every one of us must dare. He
who meets them thus and holds his heart pure and his hands clean will
lay himself down to sleep without a sigh or a regret when mountain,
swamp, river, and forest all are travelled, and the unknown innumerable
treasure, buried from the olden time far out of reach of man's sight and
knowledge, at last is opened to his gaze.

So Leonard started, and his hopes were high notwithstanding the
desperate nature