hole hour. There was no time
to be lost. The men had certainly finished eating by now; they could
start at once. Jumping up he turned round to retrace his steps the
same way he had come, when, suddenly, a shadow fell between him and the
white road. Looking up, he was startled to see himself reflected as in
a mirror against the green background of the kopjie.

At first he thought he must be ill. The walk, the sun, the exposure
had no doubt overstimulated him and made him excited and feverish. He
was seeing things. His success with the diamond deal had affected his
brain. Of course, it was only an hallucination. The next time he
looked this fantastic creation of his disordered mind would be gone.
Again he glanced up in the direction of the kopjie. The apparition was
still there, a horrible, monstrous, distortion of himself, standing
still, speechless, staring at him. That it was only a mirage there
could be no doubt. He had heard of such mirages at sea and also in the
Sahara where wandering Arabs have beheld long caravans journeying in
the skies. But he had never heard of a mirage lasting as long as this
one. Would it never disappear? It must be a nightmare which still
obsessed him. That was it. He had fallen asleep on the tree and was
not yet awake. With an effort he made a step forward and tried to
articulate, but the words stuck in his throat. Suddenly the spell was
broken by the apparition itself, which moved and spoke. He recognized
who it was now--one of the strangers brought in by Francois--but that
astonishing likeness of himself--

Judging by the astonished expression on his face, Handsome was just as
much surprised as Kenneth at the encounter. After satisfying his
hunger he, too, had strayed away from the camp, unable to control his
impatience while the teamsters were harnessing the mule team. He had
left Hickey to gorge still more while he strutted on by himself,
cogitating on what the valet had told him in regard to the diamonds.
This sudden meeting with the very man who had been uppermost in his
thoughts was surprising enough, and instantly he, also, was struck with
the extraordinary resemblance between them.

"Who the devil are you?" he demanded in surly tones.

Thus rudely aroused to the reality, and seeing that it was really a
creature of flesh and blood he had to deal with and not a creature of
another world, Kenneth answered haughtily:

"I'm not accustomed to being addressed in