"When are you going to shoot another back for us, Mr Selmes?" Hazel
Brandon was saying. "As officer in charge of the Commissariat
Department, it's my duty to tell you that if you don't we shall have to
begin on mutton, and it's your especial mission to keep us in game.
So--when are you?"
"When you come and help me do it."
"Help you? Yes--like the other evening when we went to _voor-ly_ for a
bush-buck over Slaang Draai, and you talked so much that although we sat
there till it was dark none came out. Now what sort of `help' is that?"
He looked down into the bright, teasing face, and thought he had
seldom--or was it ever?--looked upon any sight which delighted him more.
"Well, you helped me to talk anyhow," he said. "Now didn't you?"
One form of sport was to gain a point overlooking this or that bushy
kloof about an hour before sundown and sit still, waiting till the
bush-bucks began to move. Thus a shot was to be obtained when one
showed upon an open space. Dick Selmes, who had become a very fair
rifle shot, had bagged several this way. The occasion to which the girl
had referred was one on which he had persuaded her to accompany him--
with the remit described.
"Never mind," he went on, without waiting for her answer. "It was no
end jolly all the same. Wasn't it?"
"I don't know. I seem to remember it became no end cold," she laughed.
"But you're trying to get away from the point. You must go and shoot a
buck for me this afternoon. Why, you hardly ever hunt now. You're
getting quite lazy."
It was a coincidence that her uncle should be making substantially the
same remark about a quarter of a mile away.
"Lazy! I like that. How about all those jolly rides we've been having?
Lazy!"
"Well, I didn't mean it in its strictly literal sense," she answered.
"Yes, I have enjoyed those rides."
Hazel had been about a fortnight at Haakdoornfontein, and during that
time she and Dick Selmes had become very friendly indeed. It was the
old story--youth, mutual attraction and propinquity, and but for the
fact that she was the stronger minded of the two, and adhered to a rigid
resolution not to neglect her self-imposed household duties, it is
probable that their elders would have seen very little of her or of
either of them.
"You know, it was quite a surprise to me to find you and Mr Greenoak
here," she went on. "You know Uncle Eph by this time. Well, he never
writes a word that he isn't obliged to; so when mother sent a boy with a
note to say I was coming, he just returned for answer `Glad to see her.'
That and no more."
"By Jove!" cried Dick. "And you didn't know we were here."
"Not an atom. I expected to find him alone, as usual. He never has
people here."
"We ought to be flattered then. Greenoak thinks your uncle got him here
on purpose to try and clear up that Slaang Kloof mystery. But that's
ancient history now, and he doesn't seem to want us to go. He objected,
quite strongly for him, when I suggested moving on."
"Did he? He has taken quite a fancy to you. I never knew him so
gracious to any _man_ under about fifty before. He's usually grim."
"I think him a dear old chap," said Dick, decisively. "Such a character
too. Well, I'm jolly glad he didn't take me at my word," with a meaning
look at the sweet sparkling face beside him; which look the owner of the
said face chose utterly to ignore. But from the foregoing dialogue it
is obvious that Harley Greenoak's suspicions as to his host's complicity
in any possible complications with regard to his charge were without
foundation in fact.
"I shouldn't be surprised if Mr Greenoak was right, and that Uncle Eph
did get him up here to clear up the mystery," said Hazel. "Though none
of you--not even you--will ever tell me what that mystery is," she added
reproachfully. "Well, never mind. I'm not going to press you to. I
believe I'll ask Kleinbooi though."
Whereby it will be seen that Harley Greenoak's advice to the other two
concerned, to keep silence as to the nature of the Slaang Kloof mystery,
had been rigidly adhered to.