people, and this chump kept
swearing he heard footsteps, and they must be stealing up to murder us
in our sleep. I wonder if Peters had been filling him up with any
yarns. But, anyhow, Ancram's a nice sort of chap to talk about other
people funking, isn't he?"

"Why, yes," said Clare. "But his behaviour with regard to Mr Lamont is
too contemptible, spreading stories about him behind his back. Why
should he do it, Mr Driffield? What on earth motive can he have?"

"Cussedness, I suppose--sheer cussedness. A good deal more mischief is
made under that head than is due to mere motive, I imagine."

"I believe so. By the way, did you persuade Mr Ames to come over for
the race meeting?"

"Persuade! I tried to, Miss Vidal. But there's no getting Ames that
far out of his district unless on leave or on duty. Ames spells
conscientiousness exaggerated."

"That's a pity," said Clare. "He's one of the nicest men I know."

"Except Mr Lamont, Clare," appended her sister mischievously.

"They're so different. You can't compare them," pronounced the girl,
her serenity unruffled. And then they talked of other things, and had
lunch; and after a digestive smoke the two men went back to their
offices--Fullerton being by profession a mining engineer.

The township of Gandela consisted of a number of zinc-roofed houses, all
staringly new, straggling down what would be the main street when the
town was properly laid out, but at present was only the coach road.
There was a market square, with--at present--only three sides to it; an
ugly red-brick building representing the magistrate's court; ditto
another, representing the Church of South Africa; a farther block
somewhat more substantially built, which was the gaol, and from which
not more than a dozen or so of prisoners had escaped since the place was
first laid out two years previously. At a corner of the market square
aforesaid stood the only hotel the place boasted, run by one Foster, to
whom reference has been made; while away across the veldt, about half a
mile distant, were the barracks of the Matabeleland Mounted Police, a
troop of which useful force watched over the town and patrolled the
neighbourhood. Scenically Gandela was prettily situated, strategically
badly. It stood on a pleasant undulating plain, dotted with mimosa, but
on one side dominated by a long, thickly-wooded hill called Ehlatini,
the first of a range, likewise thickly-wooded, extending farther b