e additional weight."

Eustace said nothing. If Eanswyth's mood had undergone something of a
change since last night, that was only natural, he allowed. The
arrangement was not to his liking. But then, of most arrangements in
this tiresome world the same held good. With which reflection, being a
philosopher, he consoled himself.

There was not much sign of the disturbed state of the country during the
first part of the drive. But later, as they drew nearer the settlement,
an abandoned homestead--standing silent and deserted, its kraals empty
and the place devoid of life, or a trek of sheep and cattle raising a
cloud of dust in the distance, together with a waggon or two loaded with
the families and household goods of those, like themselves, hastening
from their more or less isolated positions to seek safety in numbers,
spoke eloquently and with meaning. Now and again a small group of
Kafirs would pass them on the road, and although unarmed, save for their
ordinary kerries, there seemed a world of grim meaning in each dark
face, a menace in the bold stare which did duty for the ordinarily
civil, good-humoured greeting, as if the savages knew that their time
was coming now.

It was a splendid day, sunny and radiant. But there was an
oppressiveness in the atmosphere which portended a change, and ever and
anon came a low boom of thunder. An inky cloud was rising behind the
Kabousie Heights, spreading wider and wider over the plains of
Kafirland. A lurid haze subdued the sunshine, as the rumble of the
approaching storm drew nearer and nearer, and the blue electric flashes
played around the misty hilltops where the ill-omened war-fires had
gleamed two nights before. Even so, in like fashion, the brooding cloud
of war swept down upon the land, darker and darker.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

A CURTAIN SECRET.

The settlement of Komgha--called after an infinitesimal stream of that
name--was, like most frontier townships, an utterly insignificant place.
It consisted of a few straggling blocks of houses plumped down
apparently without rhyme or reason in the middle of the _veldt_, which
here was open and undulating. It boasted a few stores and canteens, a
couple of institutions termed by courtesy "hotels," an exceedingly ugly
church, and a well-kept cricket ground. To the eastward rose the Kei
Hills, the only picturesque element about the place, prominent among
these the flat, table-topped summit of Moordenaar's Kop,