"Now that's not fair, Miss Halse. Remember I've only been in the
country a few days."
"Why? What? Oh, I see. No, really, I wasn't making fun of the way you
said it; on the contrary, you pronounced it so well I wanted to hear it
again to make sure. Aren't I right, father?"
"Right--as usual. But joking apart, I noticed the same thing. You'll
have to learn the lingo, Mr Denham, as I said."
"I'll try. By the way, what's the meaning of the name of this place--
Ezulwini?"
"In the heavens," answered Verna. "Pretty name, isn't it? It was named
after the kraal of an old-time chief which stood on its site."
"Why, yes. It's rather good," said Denham. "It's much better to stick
to the old native names instead of inventing British and new ones."
"I agree with you. But the worst of it is there are so few that the
British tongue can get round," said Verna. "That makes rather a
difficulty at a railway booking-office, for instance, when you have a
newly-imported Britisher issuing tickets."
"Such as myself," laughed Denham.
"I didn't know you issued tickets," rejoined the girl mischievously.
"But the newly-imported Britisher!"
"Well, yes. I suppose you are that. But it isn't incurable."
There was a laugh at this. Denham was delighted. There was something
about the girl at his side that was infinitely taking. She, for her
part, talked on and talked well. How had she acquired the art, he
marvelled, spending life in a place which her father had described as
"precious wild." But perhaps she had been home to England for
educational purposes. But to a question to that effect Verna promptly
replied in the negative. She had once been to Johannesburg, and that
not for long; beyond that she had never been outside Zululand and Natal.
"I am utterly uneducated, you know," she added frankly, but with the
most taking smile.
"You don't expect me to take that seriously, Miss Halse?" said Denham.
"Well, it's true."
He shook his head, of course unconvinced. In rough and out-of-the-way
parts a girl might suffer from want of educational opportunities, but
this one had not. Her speaking voice was refined and her grammar
flawless. Perhaps she had a clever and refined mother, he thought. And
then it occurred to him for the first time that he was in entire
ignorance as to what Ben Halse's household consisted of. He had made no
inquiries on the subject, and now he was going to be a temporary member
of it.
"You won't believe what I say?" she went on mischievously.
"No."
"All right, you'll see. Just get me on to Shakespeare and Byron, or is
it Bacon? and all that lot that you learned people like talking about,
and then you'll see where I don't come in."
Denham was more and more delighted. There was such a charming frankness
about this daughter of the wilderness that was clean outside all his
experience. There was no affectation about it either. At the same time
he could see that this was no ordinary type of womanhood. She had
character, and plenty of it. Here was an object of interest--of vivid
interest--he had by no means bargained for.
"But I'm not a `learned' person, Miss Halse," he answered, with a laugh.
"Anything but. I like collecting things. That's all."
"Mr Denham's coming up to stay with us a bit, Verna," said Ben Halse.
"He'll be able to `collect things' there to the top of his bent."
"Are you, really? Oh, that'll be delightful," she said, turning upon
Denham a sparkling, pleased face. "We can take you where you can find
everything that creeps, or flies, or runs, down in the Lumisana forest."
"That'll be more than good. I shall enjoy it above all things," he
rejoined. "I suppose you are a good bit of a sportsman yourself, Miss
Halse? Shoot and all that?"
"Oh, I haven't always time," she answered. "What with running the house
and looking after things, and helping father in the store--that takes
some time and patience, I can tell you. The people in these days have
got so civilised and thoroughly understand the value of money, why,
they'll haggle for half-an-hour over anything, from a striped skirt to a
packet of snuff."
"Will they?" said Denham, more interested than ever. This girl--this
splendid-looking girl with the fine presence and striking personality--
sold striped skirts and packets of snuff to natives, and, moreover, had
not the slightest hesitation in volunteering the fact. More and more
did she rise in his estimation.
"Miss Halse nearly shot a Kafir once in that same store, Mr Denham,"
struck in the hostess, who, while talking to the trader, had taken in
the other conversation.
"Not really?"
"Oh, it was nothing," explained Verna. "A man came in once to trade--
not one of our people, but a stranger. I was alone and he got impudent,
not merely impudent, but violent, began to throw things about, and all
that. So I just gave him a scare shot, you know, a shot that shaved him
near enough to scare him badly. I let him know that the next one would
be nearer still and that I had five more. Then he subsided and became
civil. But--it was nothing."
"Well done! Well done!" cried Denham. "I suppose in those wild parts
you have to know how to take care of yourself." He had noticed, too,
that there was no trace of brag in her narrative: it was utterly
matter-of-fact.
"I've never known any trouble with our people, and I've been among them
the best part of my life," she answered. "This one was a stranger."
"How d'you do, Miss Halse," said Inspector James, who entered at that
moment, "I thought your father wouldn't have left you behind. Well,
Halse, I knew I'd be late, and I am. It's precious hot, though. What's
the latest?"
"Latest? I came here to hear the latest," answered Ben Halse, with a
twinkle in his eyes.
"Oh, of course. If you didn't know what was going on before we did I'd
be--well, astonished."
"No, there's no _indaba_--none fresh, that is, and what there is you
know as well as I do, James."
"Oh, those brutes are hatching no more mischief than usual," grumbled
the latter, who was hot and tired. "How's your friend Sapazani, Halse?"
"Same as before. I'm going to have another drink, James. You cut in--
you, Mr Denham?"
"Don't mind. That sweep's not trustworthy," answered James, meaning not
Denham but Sapazani.
"Is any one on this earth?" returned Ben Halse, while Verna remarked
sweetly--
"Sapazani is a great friend of ours, Mr James."
Denham, the while, listened amused, but said nothing.
"Oh, that's all right, Miss Halse," answered the Inspector. "Meanwhile,
it's a great thing to know who one's friends are."
"Who is Sapazani?" asked Denham, after a little more discussion.
"He's our chief--I mean the big chief near us," explained Verna. "We'll
introduce him to you when you come."
The police officer was a trifle surprised. Denham was going to stay
with the Halses, then! Now who the deuce could this Denham be? he began
to wonder. There had been dark suspicions of gun-running in the part
inhabited by Sapazani's tribe, and now here was a stranger, about whom
nobody knew anything at all, going on a visit to Ben Halse. Then it
occurred to him that the said stranger had arrived unexpectedly at
Ezulwini, not by the usual road and in the usual way, but alone, on
horseback, from a different direction and through some of the most
disaffected and out-of-the-way parts of the country. It also occurred
to him that the said stranger's previous movements might bear some
looking into.
"Well, I shall leave you to take away poor Sapazani's character
together," said Verna presently, rising from the table--the hostess had
already retired.
"Going to have forty winks, Miss Halse?" laughed James.
"Perhaps."
The men sat on for a little while longer, then the Inspector left them
to return to his work. Ben Halse and Denham adjourned to the verandah
to smoke another pipe or so.
"I'm glad you've found your way out here," said the former. "We've done
business together for quite a time, and it seems as if we ought to know
each other."
"And very satisfactory business it has been to me, Mr Halse--"
"Glad to hear you say so. Yes, go on. I interrupted you. I'm sorry."
"Oh, not at all. Well, what I was going to say is this: I trust we
shall continue it on the same satisfactory terms--er--I mean--of course
it is most kind of you to offer me hospitality, and I assure you I look
forward to my visit with keen pleasure. But you will understand that
anything rare you may obtain for me in the way of specimens while I am
with you, is obtained on exactly the same terms as before. You don't
mind?"
We have somewhat emphasised the fact that Ben Halse was fond of money,
but also that there was no sort of meanness about him. He had a code of
his own. Moreover, he had taken a very great liking, at first sight, to
the man beside him.
"I don't mind, Mr Denham," he answered. "But I don't think I'll agree.
While you are my guest we won't go on the business tack over any
thing."
"Now you don't want to cut my visit short, do you?" said the other, with
a pleasant laugh.
"Certainly not. But this time you must let me have my own way. We
haven't known each other long, Mr Denham, but I don't mind telling you
there are people in these parts who say things about me; but whatever
they say, there is one thing they are bound to say--unless they are
liars--and that is that I have my ideas of what's what, and I stick to
them."
"Very well, then, Mr Halse. You shall have your way, and I assure you
I am looking forward to an altogether new and delightful experience."
Then they talked on about veldt-craft and forest-craft, eventually
coming round to the record koodoo head, which Denham was dying to see.
"Verna shot it," said Ben Halse, somewhat lowering his voice. "As neat
and clean a shot as ever was delivered."
"No!" in delighted surprise.
"Fact. Verna shot it."
"What did Verna shoot?"
Both started at the voice behind them, and turned their heads. The girl
stood erect, smiling, in every way winsome and attractive.
"You shouldn't talk so loud, father dear. You're giving away our
secrets to any passer-by. It doesn't matter about Mr Denham, of
course, because he's in them: an accomplice, an accessary, both before
and after the fact--isn't that the correct expression?"
Denham was set wondering. "An accessary, both before and after the
fact," he repeated to himself. And this was the girl who had described
herself as "utterly uneducated."
"I'm going for a stroll," she went on. "Will you come, father?"
"I think not, dear. I promised to meet one or two of them at the club
about now."
"All right."
Denham started up, with an abruptness somewhat unusual in him.
"Might I accompany you, Miss Halse?" he said, as she was turning away.
"I shall be delighted," she answered, flashing a smile at him, "We'll go
down through the bush--they've cut out some paths through it, and it's
lovely down there. We can come out again just below the Nongqai
barracks. That'll make just a nice round. So long, father."
Ben Halse sat back in his chair, watching them down the garden path.
"They look well together. A fine pair, by Jove!" Then a sudden thought
seemed to strike him, and again he ejaculated to himself with emphasis,
"A fine pair, by Jove!"