h chance of anything going wrong on the place
while you're about, Kenrick. Why, you're as good as ten policemen."

"Don't know if that's to be taken as a compliment after the way I've
heard some of you talk of that useful force," I answered with a laugh.

"Why, of course it is. But you are really too good about it. You might
take it easy now and then."

"Oh, that's all right," I rejoined in would-be airy tone. "Best thing
in the world for me. I enjoy it."

Beryl's large eyes, deep with one of those strange, unfathomable glances
in which she sometimes indulged, were full on my face. I fancied
Pentridge was making an effort not to fidget uneasily. Well, I was not
going to be a marplot; and flattered myself there was nothing of the
dog-in-the-manger about me, as I replied--

"Well, I shall have to leave you now. By the time I get to the
vee-kraal it will be counting-in time. And the oftener Notuba's sheep
are counted, the better, in my opinion."

I fancied that Pentridge's face cleared, for he knew that the course I
now proposed to pursue would take me away at right angles from their
line of march, viz. the main road. But the same did not hold good of
Beryl.

"I thought you were going to ride home with us," she said; and if the
tone was not one of genuine disappointment, why then she was even a
better actress than I had at first reckoned her.

"I wish I could," I answered. "But now Brian's away, you know! You see
it's a matter I take a pride in."

"Yes, I know you do," she said; and there was that in her way of saying
it that brought back all the old time.

"Well then, `duty calls,'" I rejoined, forcing a laugh. "So long. We
shall meet again in the vast length of an hour or so."

As I turned my horse and struck into the bush path I prided myself on my
own acting powers. In point of fact, I had no intention of going to the
vee-kraal--none whatever. There was no necessity to, seeing I had
counted out there that same morning and had found the count correct.
But `two's company, three's a crowd' if a threadbare, is eke a wholesome
axiom, and I did not choose, under the circumstances, to constitute the
crowd. But it was time I broke off from them if I wanted to keep up my
role; yet I could not help speculating as to what had transpired during
that ride. Had anything? From their looks as I joined them, it might
have. Or from Pentridge's look when I branched off, it might yet be to
come. But then