started off at a brisk gait.

The region where they had halted seemed to be the center of Nowhere, a
land where had reigned for all time the abomination of desolation
spoken of by all the prophets. Knocking about the world, as he had
done for a lifetime, Kenneth had seen some queer spots in the world,
but never had he come across so savagely repellent a spot as this. It
was Nature in her harshest mood--not a vestige in any direction of
human or animal life. There was not a farm, not a Boer or Kaffir, not
even a tree to be seen. Nothing in every direction but a monotonous
waste of yellow sand, rough stones and stunted grass. An unnatural
stillness filled the air, making the silence oppressive, and uncanny.
The soil was so poor that cultivation was impossible. The ground,
strewn with broken rocks and sharp stones which cut the shoes and hurt
the feet, suggested that in prehistoric times the plateau had been
swept by a volcanic tempest. The slopes of the few scattered kopjies
were sparsely covered with verdure and as he strode along, he passed
here and there clumps of trees, veritable oases in the desert, or deep
water holes under overhanging rocks where under cover of night, strange
beasts came to drink. Apart from these few oases, it was a dreary
monotonous waste of rock and sand, where neither beast or man could
find food or shelter.

He had walked about three miles and was just passing a kopjie where a
group of stunted trees offered a little shelter from the glare of the
sun on the yellow gravel when he began to feel tired. Sitting down on
a decayed tree stump, he took out his pipe, removed his helmet, and
laying lazily back, closed his eyes, a favorite trick of his when he
wished to concentrate his thoughts.

The trip, tiresome as it was, had certainly been worth while. His
ambitious dreams had been more than realized. He could scarcely wait
for his arrival to tell Helen the good news. He had secured signatures
to a plan of consolidation of practically all the mining companies
operating in South Africa. Until now, these companies had been engaged
in a fierce and disastrous competition, which cut into each other's
profits and cheapened the market price of stones. He had suggested a
scheme of amalgamation which would put all the mines under one
management, and fix arbitrary prices for diamonds which henceforth
could not be sold under a certain figure agreed upon by the Syndicate.
This plan, which had th