irst
visit, for I remembered the grass growing tall to the edge of the
stone. Had the Kaffirs made a shrine of it, or were there other and
strange votaries?

When I returned to the house I found Travers with a message for me.
Mr. Lawson was still in bed, but he would like me to go to him. I
found my friend sitting up and drinking strong tea,--a bad thing, I
should have thought, for a man in his condition. I remember that I
looked about the room for some sign of the pernicious habit of which I
believed him a victim. But the place was fresh and clean, with the
windows wide open, and, though I could not have given my reasons, I was
convinced that drugs or drink had nothing to do with the sickness.

He received me more civilly, but I was shocked by his looks. There
were great bags below his eyes, and his skin had the wrinkled puffy
appearance of a man in dropsy. His voice, too, was reedy and thin.
Only his great eyes burned with some feverish life.

"I am a shocking bad host," he said, "but I'm going to be still more
inhospitable. I want you to go away. I hate anybody here when I'm off
colour."

"Nonsense," I said; "you want looking after. I want to know about
this sickness. Have you had a doctor?"

He smiled wearily. "Doctors are no earthly use to me. There's nothing
much the matter I tell you. I'll be all right in a day or two, and
then you can come back. I want you to go off with Jobson and hunt in
the plains till the end of the week. It will be better fun for you,
and I'll feel less guilty."

Of course I pooh-poohed the idea, and Lawson got angry. "Damn it,
man," he cried, "why do you force yourself on me when I don't want you?
I tell you your presence here makes me worse. In a week I'll be as
right as the mail and then I'll be thankful for you. But get away now;
get away, I tell you."

I saw that he was fretting himself into a passion. "All right," I said
soothingly; "Jobson and I will go off hunting. But I am horribly
anxious about you, old man."

He lay back on his pillows. "You needn't trouble. I only want a
little rest. Jobson will make all arrangements, and Travers will get
you anything you want. Good-bye."

I saw it was useless to stay longer, so I left the room. Outside I
found the anxious-faced servant "Look here," I said, "Mr. Lawson
thinks I ought to go, but I mean to stay. Tell him I'm gone if he asks
you. And for Heaven's sake keep him in bed."

The man promised, a