y quietly to him, but with no wheeze of
weakness in his voice.

"'Good-evening, Walters,' he said.

"The newcomer but cast a glance over his shoulder. 'Ah!' he
said, and his eye lighted on the gold, and his pleasant lip
curled further.

"'Has your mother died?' he asked. 'I suppose that's why
you're so gay. What a funny little beast you are, Van der
Westhuizen!'

"'These are my cousins,' said Emmanuel.

"'They ought to suit you. They are as stupid as honest men,
and as honest as stupid ones, This is Barend--that is
Peter!'

"Walters looked up at them, and Peter held out a hand to
him. He took it, and smiled, and when Barend saw the grace
and friendship of that smile, he too gave his hand.

"'You have come to take Emmanuel home?' said Walters.
'Well, use him tenderly. If he is worth handling at all he
is to be tenderly handled. But I am sure you will be
gentle. You are too big to be rough.'

"He turned from them to a woman that was prattling near by,
and at once entered her life, it seemed. She turned to him
as one who worships.

"'Come, drink!' Emmanuel called to them. 'This is my
farewell, you people. I've come to the jump-off place.
Reach me a glass, somebody, and put something in it. What
will you have, Walters? Help yourselves, all of you.'

"With chattering and laughter the bottles passed about, and
a woman at the foot of the bed raised her glass with a
flourish and drank to the sick man. 'You're game, boy,' she
cried; 'you finish like a ferret!'

"Barend stood for three hours watching them, Peter by his
side. 'It was like reading in Chronicles and Kings,' he
said, when he related it later. 'There was a boil of
business all about, and drinking and gabbling, and I saw
faces, flushed and working, that I am sick to remember. The
wine they drank came soon to possess them as Legion
possessed the swine; in an hour they were lost to all
reason and decency, and women were cursing in the voices of
men and men weeping loosely like women. They cast off their
outer garments when the room grew hot, and lounged half-
naked; and of all of them, only two seemed to live aloof,
like men among beasts--Emmanuel and the young man Walters.

"'This young man passed in and out like an eel in water.
Nothing clung to him of all the filth in which he trod. He
drank, but was not less the master of himself; he jested,
but his laughter was the mirth of the pure in heart,
without harshness in it, and they made him way and l