wo can play at that game, and I for one never saw you look so
dashed fetching as you're doing now--and that's saying a great deal.
Gee-yupp!" pretending to dodge the bottle which his sister pretended to
throw at him. "Elvesdon, keep your wife in order, can't you. It's a
bad example for us two old bachelors--eh. Prior? Two poor old
bachelors!"

"The remedy for that pitiable state lies in your own hands, Hyland,"
said Evelyn serenely. "Why don't you apply it?"

"That's what I might have been going to do, if the dad there hadn't been
so beastly _slim_ in cutting me out," retorted the incorrigible rascal.
"I don't know what to say about Prior. Pity you haven't got any
sisters, Evelyn."

"Plenty of other people have, Hyland," said Elvesdon. "A man crowned
with your laurels, you know, isn't likely to go begging."

"Oh here, I say, shut up," was the reply, made half seriously, the point
being that the speaker had served all through the campaign and that with
some distinction.

"No fear," cried Edala. "You started the campaign of chaff, Hyland, and
you can't yell out if you get the worst of it."

"Ah. I like to see--er--pals, shall we call it? stand by each other.
Now then Elvesdon--back her up."

Of course all this was precious poor repartee or wit, especially in cold
print. But given the circumstances--a jovial reunion coming close upon
vivid recollections of peril and storm--now a setting of peace and
serenity and happiness--and Christmas Day--and it is obvious to anyone
not possessed of a churlish soul that very little makes towards fun and
jollity and mirth. And this held good here.

The rising, a far more formidable affair than the home public ever seems
to have realised, and of which this narrative only deals with in its
earlier stages, had been very effectually quelled, through the bravery
and devotion of Colonial troops and the high efficiency and _personnel_
of Colonial officers; and that without the aid of a single Imperial
soldier. As such the campaign stands unique in the annals of South
African warfare. The pluck displayed in several fierce battles, the
splendid grit and endurance, never failing, under every difficulty, in
hard and almost unnegotiable country, has been in evidence before in
such warfare, but never more so than during this last campaign in Natal.

Well it was over now, but in it Hyland Thornhill as we have said, had
borne his full share, and that with distinction. Elvesdon,