ly place here, Lamont, and you don't seem overworked
either, by Jove!" went on Ancram, with more than a dash of envy in his
tone, as he gazed forth over the sunlit landscape, dotted with patches
of bush, stretching away to the dark line of forest beyond, for the two
men were seated in front of the house, beneath the extension of the roof
which formed a rough verandah.

"Yes. You were talking of Courtland--well, I'm nearly as big a
landowner here as the old Squire. Funny, isn't it? As for being
overworked, that comes by fits and starts. Just now there's nothing
much to do but shoot and bury your infected cattle, and watch the
remainder die of drought."

"Phew! I can't think how you fellows can smoke such stuff as that,"
said Ancram disgustedly, as the other started a fresh pipe of
Magaliesburg. "The very whiff of it is enough to make one sick."

"Sorry; you must get used to it though, if you're going to stop in the
country," rejoined Lamont, unconcernedly blowing out great clouds.
"Have another drink? The whiff of that doesn't make you sick, eh?"

"You're right there, old chap," laughed Ancram. "This is a deuced
thirsty country of yours, Lamont, if you don't mind my saying so."

"Oh dear, no! Never mind me. It's all that, even when there isn't a
drought on."

"Now I could understand a fellow like Peters smoking that stuff," said
Ancram, going back to the question of the tobacco. "But you, who've had
an opportunity of knowing better--that's a thing I can hardly take in.
By the way, Lamont, while on the subject of Peters, I think he's too
beastly familiar and patronising altogether."

"Patronising--'m--yes."

If Ancram perceived the crispness of the tone, the snap in his host's
eyes, he, thinking the latter was afraid of him, enjoyed being
provocative all the more.

"Yes. For instance, I think it infernal cheek a fellow of that sort
calling us by our names--without any mister or anything. And the chummy
way in which he's always talking to me. It's a little too thick. A
common chap like that--who murders the Queen's English. No; I'm getting
damn tired of Peters."

"Quite sure Peters isn't getting damn tired of you?"

"Eh? Oh come, I say, Lamont! You're always getting at a fellow, you
know."

Lamont was inwardly raging. He had exaggerated ideas of the obligations
of hospitality, and this fellow was his guest--an uninvited one
certainly, but still his guest. And he--could he control himself