er, and didn't overtake her all of a
sudden either. When I did she had got among the rocks and crevices--
never mind what part of the farm or even if on it at all. I tell you
then, she was just like one possessed. I thought the devil must be
standing there before me, but I tried to warn her that she was ramping
dangerously near an ugly crevice that might be any depth. She answered
she didn't care. She was going to jump into it if only to get me hanged
for her murder. Well hardly were the words uttered than she tripped on
something and hurtled bang into the crack. I could do nothing, you
know. I was fully twenty yards off. Horrible, isn't it?"

The listener bent her head gravely.

"You were not to blame," she said. "The thing was sheer accident."

"So it was. I have had a great many years wherein to look back, and I
have never been able to blame myself in the affair in any single
particular. Well at the time my first feeling was one of intense
relief--shocking again, wasn't it? Then a horrid thought struck me.
Our relations with each other were well known, were matter of common
scandal. I began to feel the tightening of a noose, for who the devil
was likely to believe my version? Just then I saw someone watching me.

"I must have been mad. I don't know how it happened, but instead of
treating any witness as a friendly and invaluable one, I at once assumed
this one's hostility. I decided that one of us must not leave the spot
alive. I flung myself upon him and--didn't we have a tussle! Well, he
did exactly the same thing--stepped back into a crevice, and--stayed
there. That man was Manamandhla."

"Then he got out?"

"Well, of course. But I didn't know he was alive from that night until
a few weeks before you came. And he saved all four of our lives--but
that part of the story you know. Well that's all--and, thank God it
is."

The narrator closed his eyes wearily and lay still. The listener sat
there, still holding his hand. Her glance rested upon the firm, fine
features, and a great yearning was round her heart. What a tragedy had
this man's life been. Her thoughts went round to Edala. Had she been
in Edala's place would she have taken everything on trust? She thought
she would: she was sure she would.

"Why didn't you tell Edala all this, Inqoto?" she asked. "When she was
old enough I mean."

"She wouldn't have believed me. Do you?"

He had opened his eyes and was fixing them fu