You
shall tell me about yourself by-and-by. But, first of all, would you
mind telling me one thing. Have you been staying in Johannesburg some
little while of late?"

"Rather--only just left it. Why? Oh, I suppose people have been
mistaking me for you, is that it? Has its awkward sides sometimes,
hasn't it?"

"It easily may have," replied Colvin, with a meaning in his tone, which
one, at any rate, standing beside him thoroughly grasped.

"The Commandant wants you. Come!"

Kenneth Kershaw turned leisurely. Two armed burghers stood waiting.

"Oh, all right, I was forgetting. So-long, Colvin. We'll have a great
pow-pow by-and-by."

They watched his retreating form.

"I think the mystery is for ever clear now, sweetheart," said Colvin.

But Aletta could not speak. She could only press his arm in silence.
All the agony she had suffered came back to her, as in a wave.

"I know what you are thinking, my darling one," he went on softly. "But
I don't wonder you were taken in by the likeness. It is quite the most
remarkable thing I ever saw."

"Yet, I doubted you. _You_!"

"Love, think no more of that. Have you not really and truly drawn me
out of the very jaws of death this morning? Ah! but our sky is indeed
clear--dazzlingly clear now."

"Tell me about this half-brother of yours, Colvin," said Aletta
presently. "Had you no idea he was in this country?"

"None whatever. For years we had lost sight of each other. The fact
is, Aletta, I may as well tell you--though I wouldn't anybody else--but
the chap was rather a bad bargain--on two occasions, indeed, only
escaped by the skin of his teeth from coming to mortal grief. I would
even bet something he'll come down on me to help him now, and if it'll
do him any good I will. But he may have improved by now. Some of us do
with time, you know."

It turned out even as Colvin had said. When Kenneth rejoined him for a
little talk apart--after his interview with the Commandant--he spoke of
his own affairs. He had been very much of a rolling stone, he
explained, and now he wanted to settle down. He was going to turn over
a new leaf entirely. Would Colvin help him a little?

The latter laughed drily.

"Whom are you going to settle down _with_, Kenneth?" he asked.

"The sweetest, prettiest, dearest little girl in the world." ("That of
course," murmured the listener). "You know her, Colvin. It was thanks
to my likeness to you that I did."

"N