which, of late, had settled upon him.

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

The morning rose bright and beautiful--the morning after the receipt of
the letter. Lalante was up while it was yet dark, and it may have been
twenty or it may have been thirty times an hour that her quick, eager
gaze was turned upon the point where the road came over the ridge. A
light mist which had gathered during the night cleared away early,
leaving a sparkle of myriad dew-drops upon every bush frond as the sun
rose higher in the blue and cloudless sky. But in the open the
cock-koorhaans were crowing and squawking tumultuously, and varying bird
voices piped or twittered in the cooler shade. It was a heavenly
morning, a morning for life and love.

"Two days at the outside," he had said. But what if at the inside it
should be one? That would mean to-day--thought Lalante; hence the eager
scanning of the furthest point of road. Suddenly she started.
Something was moving at that point, approaching, and her strong,
practised sight took not a moment to decide that it was a mounted
figure. Pressing a hand to her heart to curb its tumultuous beatings
she tore down the field-glasses from where they hung. One glance was
enough, and in a second she was hurrying down, by a shorter way, to
where the road dipped into the kloof prior to reascending. Meanwhile
the advancing horseman had disappeared amid the intervening bush.

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

Barring the road the girl was standing, her tall, beautiful figure
framed in the profusion of foliage, her face irradiated with the light
of love, her lips slightly parted into a most tender smile as she
waited. Such was the vision that burst upon Wyvern, as with a hurried
exclamation he flung himself from the saddle rather than dismounted. In
the long, close embrace that followed neither seemed able to find words.

"You knew you would find me here," said the girl at last. "But I--up
till yesterday I never thought to see you again on earth."

Wyvern started.

"Have I been so very remiss, then, sweetheart? I assure you that until
a week ago, I have had no opportunity whatever of communicating with
you, or any one else down here."

"It isn't that. They told me you had been killed."

"What? Who told you?"

Briefly she gave him an outline of Warren's narrative. He listened
intently.

"Well, it came