had missed him greatly after his departure, even as she had said she
would, but only as she would have missed anybody in whose society she
had found pleasure and entertainment; yet now she found herself looking
forward to meeting him again with such a curious mingling of feelings as
she had never known before. She had seen him amid conventional, and, to
him strange, surroundings, now she wanted to see him at home as it were,
and in his own everyday sphere.

How would they meet? She supposed he would ride over directly he
received her note. Would he look surprised and pleased? Would that
grave, firm face relax as he greeted her, the straight glance of the
grey eyes soften ever so little as it met hers? Thus she pondered. Yet
she was not in the least in love with John Ames.

For long she sat, pondering thus. Then, upon the distant stillness,
rolled forth a shot, followed by another. It broke the current of her
thoughts.

"Jimmie is getting some sport," she said to herself, standing up to look
in the direction of the double report. "But he must be finding it very
near home. That shot sounded almost as if it were at the house."

She glanced at the sun. Its distance above the horizon reminded her
that she must be getting back herself. Rising, she descended the
granite kopje, and took her way along the bush-path she had come by.
This was a matter of no difficulty, even if she were now following it
for the first time, for those among whom she had lately moved had taught
her something of the mysteries of "spoor."

How peaceful it looked in the golden light of the afternoon stillness!
The homestead, truly, was of the roughest description, with its thatched
roof and "dagga" walls, yet it, and the pointed conical huts behind it,
were all in keeping. A settler's dwelling in a new land! A halo of
romance overspread it in Nidia's mind as she emerged from the bush-path
into the clearing.

Stay. What was that? Blood! She had just time to switch her skirt
aside. Blood? Yes; a great patch of it--then another and another, and
a long trail in the dust as though something heavy had been dragged
along the ground. Ah, Jimmie had been in luck again and had brought
down another buck. That was the meaning of the double shot she had
heard. The animal had been too heavy for the little chap to carry. He
had been obliged to drag it, hence the trail along the ground. And in
her rejoicing over the small boy's venatorial t