er from a good-night embrace.

She did not answer, but her eyes grew luminous, as she lifted her lips
for a final kiss. A word of love from him was sufficient to make her
simply lose herself. A pressure of two hands, and she was gone.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

THE "WORD IN PRIVATE."

"I want to have a word with you in private, Wyvern."

"In private?"

"Yes. I was going to yesterday but left it till now. Business matters
are best talked about in the morning."

Thus Le Sage, as the two met over their early coffee. Lalante had not
yet appeared.

"All right," assented Wyvern, who had a pretty straight inkling of what
was coming. "Where shall we hold our council of war?"

"Out in the open. Nothing like the open veldt if you want to talk over
anything important. If you do it in a room ten to one a word or two
gets overheard, and a word or two is often quite enough to give away the
whole show."

"There I entirely agree. Well--lead on."

Le Sage did so. Hardly a word was exchanged between the two as they
walked for about half a mile, first along a bush path, then over the
veldt. One was turning over in his mind how he should put the case to
the other. The other, anticipating their bearing, had already made up
his as to how he should meet the arguments advanced.

Le Sage came to a halt. They had reached the brink of a _krantz_, of no
great height and railing away now in slabs, now in aloe-grown boulders,
to the Kunaga River, the swirl and babble of whose turgid waters they
could hear, as it coursed between its willow grown banks--could hear but
not see, for a morning mist hung over the land, shutting out everything
beyond a radius of twenty yards.

"We shall be all right here," said Le Sage, seating himself upon a
stone. Then he relapsed into silence, and proceeded to fill his pipe.
Wyvern did the same. Decidedly the situation was awkward. When two men
who have been friends are about to embark on a discussion which the
chances are fifty to one will leave them enemies--in short, is bound to
culminate in a quarrel, and that a bitter one--why the preliminaries are
sure to be awkward. Wyvern was the one to force the situation.

"Look here, Le Sage. We didn't come here to smoke the pipe of silent
meditation, did we? You said something about business matters you
wanted to talk over with me. Now--drive ahead."

"Yes. How are you getting on?"

The words came out jerkily.

"Wish I could answer `Prett