absolutely and strictly, and to make assurance
doubly sure we must never so much as mention the matter again even among
ourselves.

Incidentally the rest of us thought it just as well that Trask had
accounted for him, because Trask was the weak link in the chain, whereas
now that he was the one most concerned, self-preservation alone would
keep him from giving away the affair under an impulse of senseless brag.

"You see," pronounced Brian, "as long as we keep dark the Kafirs'll keep
dark, too. They'll think nothing of one fellow getting hurt, because
it's quite in accordance with their laws and customs that some one
should get hurt in a little affair of the kind. But if we start
stirring up things--setting the police on to the track, and so forth--
why then it's likely the other business will crop up, and that'll be
more than awkward, for the _schelm_ wasn't even going for us, but
running away. Running away, mind. There's no doubt about it but that
we--or rather, Holt--struck upon a regular nest of cattle-thieves; but
we can do nothing further under the circumstances, nothing whatever. So
mum's the word, absolutely. Is that understood?"

All hands agreed to this, but none more emphatically than Trask, who, by
the way, was a little less proud of his feat now that it was put in this
new and exceedingly awkward light.

"Very well, then, that's settled," declared Brian, characteristically
dismissing the affair from his mind.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

After this things settled down at Gonya's Kloof, ordinarily and without
incident. And yet, to me, so radical was the change compared with all
my former life, that every day seemed replete with incident, even what
to the others was mere ordinary routine. I threw myself with zest into
everything, and both Brian and his father declared after a month or two
that if I went on at this rate I should know as much as they could teach
me before I had been with them a year, and already knew a great deal
more than Trask did after four: a pronouncement which was exceedingly
gratifying to me.

I look back upon those days as among the very happiest of my life. Not
that it was all picnicking by any means. There was plenty of work--
hard, at times distasteful, even unpleasant. There were times when such
meant rising in the dark, saddling up in the grey dawn, and spending the
whole long day ranging the veldt in quest of strayed