Renshaw Fanning's Quest Part 17

Renshaw was a sensitive man and a proud one, and Selwood knew it--hence the latter's embarra.s.sment.

"Chris, you are indeed a friend!" he answered. "I don't know what to say--"

"Say? Say? Say--'Done with you,' and consider the matter settled,"

fumed Selwood, cutting him short.

"I can't say that, Chris. Just think what a run of ill-luck I have had.

It would be robbing you to borrow on absolutely no security--"

"Ill-luck! Of course you have. So would any fellow who tried to farm Angoras in Great Bushman-land; and I was nearly saying--he'd deserve it," cried Selwood, testily. "It would be different down here, with decent land and decent seasons. And there isn't a better farmer in this colony than yourself!"

"Don't think me ungracious," said Renshaw, deprecatorily. "As you were saying, Chris, we have known each other all our lives, and ought to be able to speak out to each other. What I was going to say is this: Your offer is that of a true and generous friend; but were I to accept it, I should be robbing you, for I can't give you a hundred pounds' worth of security."

"But I do think you ungracious," fumed the other. "Robbing me!

Security! Tut-tut-tut! Why, old fellow, you needn't be so punctilious.

Remember, you would probably have effected the sale of your place to that speculator chap in Fort Lamport the other day, but for starting off home on the spur of the moment, to protect Hilda and the rest of them against those cut-throats. And one doesn't like to think what might have happened to them but for you," he added, very gravely.

Now, this was a most unfortunate allusion, for, needless to say wholly unwittingly, Selwood had thereby imported a "compensation" element into his generous offer--at least, so it seemed to the other's sensitive pride. And while acquitting his friend entirely of any such idea, Renshaw's mind was there and then made up that by no possibility, under the circ.u.mstances, could he entertain it, and he said as much.

Selwood was deeply disappointed.

A silence fell between the two men.

"By Jove!" said Christopher, suddenly, as they came in sight of the homestead, "your chum there is making the most of his last day."

Two figures came in sight, strolling by the dam in the sunset glow-- Violet Avory and Sellon. Renshaw, recognising them, made no reply. But the dagger within his heart gave one more turn.

"I suppose they'll make a match of it directly," went on Selwood. "It won't be the first that's been made up at old Sunningdale by any means-- ha! ha!"

It was the last day at Sunningdale. Early on the morrow Renshaw and Sellon would start upon their expedition. And what strange, wild experiences would be theirs before they should again rejoin this pleasant home circle. Would they return, rewarded with success, or only to bear record of another failure? Or would they, perchance, not return at all?

This was the reflection that would recur with more or less haunting reiteration to every member of the household that evening. There were serious and saddened faces in that circle; eyes, too, that would turn away to conceal a sudden br.i.m.m.i.n.g that it was not wholly possible to suppress.

For what if, perchance, they should never return at all?

CHAPTER TWENTY.

OLD DIRK IN DEFAULT.

"Well, Sellon, here we are--or, rather, here am I--at home again."

The buggy, running lightly over the hard level ground, looked as dusty and travel-worn as the three horses that drew it, or as its two inmates.

The red ball of the sun was already half behind the treeless sky line, and away over the plain the brown and weather-beaten walls of Renshaw's uninviting homestead had just come into view.

Very different now, however, was the aspect of affairs to when we first saw this out-of-the-world desert farm. With the marvellous recuperativeness of the Karroo plains the veldt was now carpeted with the richest gra.s.s, spangled with a hundred varying species of delicate wild flowers. Yet, as the two men alighted at the door, there was something in the desolate roughness of the empty house that struck them both, after the comforts and cheery a.s.sociations of Sunningdale.

"Home, sweet home; eh, Sellon?" continued Renshaw, grimly. "Well, it won't be for long. One day's rest for ourselves and horses, and the day after to-morrow we'll start. Hallo, Kaatje, where's old Dirk, by the way?"

The Koranna woman's voluble and effusive greeting seemed damped by the question. She answered, guiltily--

"Old Dirk, Baas? He went away to visit his brother at Bruintjes Kraal-- and bring back half a dozen goats which he sent over there before the drought. I expect him back this evening--any evening."

"That's what comes of putting these wretched people into a position of trust," said Renshaw, bitterly. "How long has he been away, Kaatje?"

"Only a week, Baas. Don't be _kwaai_ with Dirk, Baas. My nephew Marthinus has been taking his place right well--right well. Don't be _kwaai_ with Dirk, _myn lieve Baas_!"

But Renshaw was very much disgusted. The old man had been with him for years, and he had always found him honest and trustworthy far beyond his people. Yet no sooner was his back turned than the fellow abandoned his post forthwith.

"This is rather annoying, Sellon," he said. "Here old Dirk has gone spreeing around somewhere, and goodness only knows when he'll be back.

I meant to have taken him with us this time. He might have been useful."

"Ever taken him before?"

"No. I didn't want too many people in the secret. This time it wouldn't matter, because we shall find the place."

"You seem strangely confident, Fanning," said Sellon, thinking of the missing doc.u.ment.

"I am. I've a sort of superst.i.tion I shall hit upon it this time.

However, come in, and we'll make ourselves as comfortable as we can, with the trapful of luxuries from more civilised parts. It'll be canned goods to-night, I'm afraid. It's too late to order the execution of a goat."

Having seen Marthinus, above alluded to, and who was a smartish Hottentot lad, outspan the buggy and stow away the harness, Renshaw strolled round to the kraals. Alas! the remnant of his flocks--now a mere handful--huddled away in a corner, spoke volumes as to the recent devastation. But the animals, though few, were quite in condition again.

The gloaming fell, and still he lingered on there alone. Sellon, who never favoured unnecessary exertion, had established himself indoors with a cigar and some brandy-and-water. The darkling plain in its solemn silence was favourable to meditation, and the return to his solitary home aroused in Renshaw a keen sense of despondency. What if this new expedition should prove a failure? If so, it should be the last. Come what might, nothing in the world should induce him further to inhabit this woefully depressing and thoroughly unprofitable place.

Rather would he gather together his little all, and resume the wild wandering hunter life away in the far interior, and hand in hand with this resolve Christopher Selwood's offer stood forth alluringly. Dear old Sunningdale! Life near there might be worth living after all-- Violet Avory apart. But then arose the absurd scruples of a sensitive nature. Quick, to the verge of folly, in benefiting others, when it became a question of himself the recipient of a good turn Renshaw's pride rose up in an effective barrier. And although the tie of friendship between them was closer than might have been that of brotherhood, he could recognise, or thought he could, in Selwood's offer--a disguised method of conferring a favour upon himself. Not that he failed to appreciate it, but he could not bring himself to lie under an obligation even to his dearest friend. A strange character that of this man, so self-sacrificing and so single-hearted; so sensitive, so scrupulous in the most delicate fibres of the mind and conscience, yet adamant in the face of peril; strong, resourceful when confronted with privation. A character formed of a life of solitude and hardship, a character that would be an anachronism--an anomaly--in the whirring clatter of old world and money-grubbing life.

"Hallo, Fanning! What has become of you?"

The loud, jovial hail of his mercurial friend recalled him to himself and the duties of hospitality. Sell on, tired of his own company, had lounged to the door.

"I thought you had concluded to go on the hunt for your runaway n.i.g.g.e.r, old chap," he said, as the other came up.

"Only been looking round the kraals, and, I'm afraid, 'mooning' a little," answered Renshaw, with a laugh. But there were times when his friend's inexhaustible easiness of spirits jarred upon him.

The next day was spent in making preparations for the trip. Crowbars and long coils of raw-hide rope for climbing purposes--provisions and other necessaries to be loaded up were carefully sorted and packed--nor were firearms and a plentiful supply of cartridges overlooked. By nightfall everything was in thorough readiness for an early start.

Only, the missing Dirk did not appear, a fact which had the effect of strangely annoying, not to say angering, Dirk's normally philosophical and easy-going master.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

THE FIRST CAMP.

"Any alligators in this river, Fanning?"

"Plenty. They won't interfere with us, though."