eyond the Kunaga river valley being completely hidden by a
grey and lowering murk. The unwonted gloom seemed to add to the terror
of the forces of the bellowing flood. The scene on the whole was dreary
and depressing to the last degree. Yet no depression did it convey to
the hearts of the dwellers on this _veldt_, for after it the land would
smile forth a rich and tender green, and flocks and herds grow fat, and
game be plentiful--and, not least, it meant an ample storage of water in
dams and tanks against months, it might be, wherein not another drop
should fall.

Warren had taken to coming over to Le Sage's of late, and would
generally stay the night there, or even two. From Lalante he would meet
with a frank and cordial welcome. She liked him for his own sake--and
in addition was he not a friend of the absent one; upon whom and upon
whose good qualities he had the tact to lose no opportunity of dwelling.

"I can't, for the life of me, get at the secret of poor old Wyvern's
ill-luck," he would say, for instance. "He's one of the finest fellows
I've ever known, and yet--he can't get on. I own it stumps me."

"But it doesn't stump me," grunted Le Sage. "He's got no head-piece."

"You're wrong there, Le Sage, if you'll excuse my saying so. Head-piece
is just what he has got. Too much of it perhaps."

And the speaker had his reward in Lalante's kindling face and grateful
glance; and the friendship between them ripened apace.

Warren was playing his game boldly and with depth. He could afford to
praise the absent one, being as firmly convinced that that fortunate
individual would never return as that he himself was alive and
prosperous. And he meant it too. There was no pretence in his tone.
He had no personal animus against Wyvern for occupying the place with
regard to Lalante which should have been his. Wyvern stood in his way,
that was all, and--he must be got out of it. That he would be got out
of it Warren, as we have said, had no doubt whatever, and then--after an
interval, a time-healing interval, to whom would Lalante listen and turn
more readily than to Wyvern's best friend? Herein Warren was true to
himself--i.e. Number 1.

Now, on their stroll down to the river the topic of the absent one had
come up; his coolness and courage upon one or two occasions when call
had arisen for the exercise of those valuable attributes--and here on
the bank, after the first comments upon the scene before them