The White Hand and the Black Part 7

From the open, undulating plains his way dived down suddenly, by a rocky path, into the rugged broken country where deep kloofs, dense with thick growth, fell away, their black slopes overhung perchance with craggy rock walls whose ledges gave anchor to the spiky aloe, or scarlet hung Kafferboen. Each labyrinthine defile widened out into another, or to a gra.s.sy bottom shaded by the smooth wall of a red ironstone krantz rising majestic and sheer. The chatter of monkeys skipping among the tree-tops, mingled with the clear whistle of spreeuws in the cool shade, the whole dominated by the deep, hoa.r.s.e bark of the sentinel baboon, aloft among the crags, keeping wary watch upon the unseen troop digging for succulent roots on the hillside below.

On high, beyond the wildering trees cresting the ridge on the further side of the valley, a great red turret stood forth against the blue of the heavens. Elvesdon recognised that he was near the scene of the adventure, and now the deep-mouthed baying of dogs, as though suddenly roused, yet somewhat distant, showed that he was nearing his destination; for the clink of hoof-stroke, and the jingle of bit, carries far in a still, clear atmosphere and hilly country.

A rush of dogs, bellowing, open-mouthed, met him as he paced up the last slope, but their hostility died down to muttered grumblings as they recognised the horse, if not the rider, as they escorted both to the house. Thornhill came forth.

"Glad to see you," he said as they clasped hands. "Going to be hot, I think. Come inside."

Then a hail having extracted a boy, from somewhere behind the house, Ratels was taken away to be off-saddled, and was soon seen, prancing and neighing in an adjoining paddock, as though in sheer delight at finding himself at home again. Then Edala appeared. Her greeting of the visitor was perfectly frank and self possessed, but Elvesdon was surprised to find himself feeling, for the moment, a trifle disappointed that there was not a little more cordiality about it. But the straight glance of her blue eyes was charming, so too was the lift of upper lip shewing the gleam of white teeth, in her welcoming smile.

"I've kept my resolution, Mr Elvesdon," she said. "I haven't been out by myself without a shot-gun since. In fact, I believe I've caught myself almost wishing another _indhlondhlo_ would show up so that I might try conclusions with him, this time not at a disadvantage."

"I wouldn't like to insure the snake, Miss Thornhill," laughed the other.

"Thanks. You know--old Tongwana was round here a day or two afterwards, and he was saying you must be _tagati_ indeed to have escaped. In fact I don't think he and the others who were with him more than half swallowed what had happened--a set of unbelieving Jews."

"Well, do you know, it would make rather a tall story. It was so absolutely a case of poetic justice. I don't believe I should get more than seven people in ten to swallow it myself--and snake stories always are received with prejudice."

"Rather," said Thornhill. "And yet more than one fact I have actually known in my up-country experience would knock out anything I've ever heard, or read in fiction for sheer incredibility of coincidence."

Elvesdon p.r.i.c.ked up his ears.

"I'd like to hear about those," he said.

"Some day perhaps," answered the other carelessly. "Edala dear, get Mr Elvesdon something after his ride. I believe he'd appreciate it, and I know I should--although I haven't had a ride. It's a 'dry' sort of morning. Then I move that we go and sit under the fig-trees, and smoke pipes."

"Carried nem. con.," p.r.o.nounced Edala.

"Pipes and all--all round I mean, Miss Thornhill?" said Elvesdon.

She looked at him with a smile of half lofty merriment.

"I'm surprised at you, Mr Elvesdon. Disappointed too. Really I am.

That's too thin, yet you could not resist it."

"Frankly it is," laughed the culprit. "I'm surprised at myself. Will that do?"

"This time--yes. But--" with a deprecatory shake of the golden head.

"Well, let's make a move."

"This is no end of a jolly spot whereon to laze away a restful morning,"

declared Elvesdon, as snugly disposed in a cane-chair he puffed out contented clouds of smoke.

"Isn't it?" said Thornhill, who was similarly employed. "And it's always cool here, however broiling it may be outside, unless of course there's the hot wind on. That always rakes everything."

Overhead the boughs of the tall fig-trees, with their wealth of broad leaves, made a most effective canopy. Behind was a high pomegranate hedge, in front young willows fringing a small runnel fed by the dam lower down, where bevies of finks fluttered in and out of their pendulous nests, making the air lively with their cheerful twitter.

Glimpsed through an opening here and there the warm sun-rays shot down in golden kiss upon drooping loads of peaches and pears hanging from the fruit trees beyond.

"What's the latest, Mr Elvesdon? Is there any fresh development in this unrest movement?"

It was Edala who spoke. Elvesdon had been contemplating her with a furtive but admiring satisfaction, as she sat there in her low chair, the gold aureole of her head resting back against her clasped hands.

There was something in her every movement--her every pose--that fascinated him; yet not an atom of self-consciousness or posing was there about her. And her very attire. The well-fitting blouse of light blue, set off the blue of her eyes, the gold of her hair; the cool white skirt, from which peeped one white shoe--all, he decided, was perfect.

At the question he half started.

"The latest?" he echoed. "Well, Miss Thornhill, I don't think there is any 'latest.' Things are much the same as ever, and likely to remain so."

Her eyes were full upon his face, which they seemed to be reading like an open page. She shook her head slightly.

"Ah--you are not going to tell me. You won't say anything before me because I'm a girl. That's what you're thinking. Now--isn't it?"

Elvesdon, whom we believe we have shown was as far from being a fool as the small minority of people, felt a little disconcerted, and only hoped he was not showing it. As a matter of fact that was exactly what he had been thinking. All his official instincts were dead against discussing official matters in the presence of the other s.e.x; and the question she had asked certainly covered very official matters; far more official-- even delicate--at that juncture than his light and ready answer should have led his questioner to believe. Equally, as a matter of fact, she was not deceived by its lightness and readiness for one moment. But before he could frame a second answer Thornhill came to the rescue.

"What should there be of the 'latest,' child?" he said, dropping a sinewy sun-browned hand caressingly upon her long slim, and yet also sun-browned one. "You shouldn't rush Mr Elvesdon in his official capacity you know. It isn't playing the game. Besides, it's a sort of 'day of rest' remember, so we mustn't talk shop."

"Ah-ah-ah! That's all very well," she answered, with a laugh, but not wholly a mirthful one. "If you two were alone together you'd be talking no end of that very kind of shop. I know."

Elvesdon had quite recovered his self-possession. His official susceptibilities were somewhat ruffled by the remark. It was not a question thoughtlessly put by a mere thoughtless girl. This was nothing of the kind, but a woman, with infinite capacity for thought. The question was nothing, but the manner in which the answer had been taken argued something of petulance, even obstinacy. Now the latter is not an attractive quality in the other s.e.x, he decided, even less, if possible, than in his own.

Then he mentally d.a.m.ned himself for a suspicious and most ill-conditioned curmudgeon, an official prig. This girl with the thoughtful eyes, and quick, bright, intelligent mind, had asked him a mere harmless question--only for information, for she was interested in everything; not out of motives of curiosity--and lo, he had shrunk into his official sh.e.l.l, and had more than half snubbed her; snubbed her by implication at any rate. But--how she puzzled him. He had seen her but once before, but he had thought of her a good many more times than that.

She was so totally unlike any other girl he had ever seen in his life.

"Have you been drawing much lately, Miss Thornhill?" he said, interestedly, as though to make up for his former answer. But the remark had just the opposite effect. He was 'talking down to' her now, Edala was thinking. Drawing, painting, singing--those were interests enough for a girl. She must not raise her eyes to weightier and more human matters. But her nature was an intensely self-concentrated one, and self-controlled.

"Oh, yes," she answered easily, and as if the other matter had clean pa.s.sed from her mind. "I'm thinking of going in for native studies.

Would they catch on in Europe should you think, Mr Elvesdon?"

"They'd have the advantage of originality, at any rate," he answered. A merry peal escaped Edala.

"What a good _official_ reply," she cried. "Never mind, Mr Elvesdon.

I like it. If you had declared they could not do otherwise I don't know what I should have thought of you, if only that never having seen a sample you couldn't possibly know that they were any good at all."

"Why, obviously," rejoined Elvesdon, secretly pleased with himself for having refrained from giving utterance to a second ba.n.a.lity. "I'm afraid I'm too old to launch out into paying compliments; and"--he added slyly--"too _official_."

Thornhill chuckled. He, silently emitting puffs of smoke, was watching the battle of wits between the pair and keenly enjoying it. Moreover he rejoiced that Edala should have found a foeman worthy of her steel, one with whom she could sharpen wits. It would relieve the dulness of her life, render her more contented perhaps. Nor did the admiration which would now and then shine out prominently in the eyes of their visitor, when the latter was animated, and therefore off his guard, escape him.

So he listened, and smoked complacently, as they branched off from one topic to another, sometimes indulging in a pa.s.sage of arms, frequently agreeing enthusiastically. Yes, it was a pleasant way of getting through the morning of a "day of rest."

CHAPTER EIGHT.

HER "AERIAL THRONE."

"I know what we must do this afternoon, father," said Edala, when dinner was nearly over. "We'll take Mr Elvesdon to the top of Sipazi."

Elvesdon looked puzzled.

"Do you mean on to the roof, Miss Thornhill?" he said.

The girl went off into another merry peal; the point of the joke being that the farm was so named, after a certain striking mountain which stood opposite, but this their visitor did not know.