every reason to believe that the man who runs
the whole show, the directing genius of the
affair, is at this minute in Johannesburg."
He stared at me so hard that I began to fear
that he suspected me of being the man. I
broke out in a cold perspiration at the
thought, and began to regret that I had ever
conceived the idea of inspecting a miniature
revolution at first hand.
"No trains are running from Jo'burg to
Pretoria," he continued. "But I can arrange
to send you over by private car. In case you
should be stopped on the way, I can provide
you with two separate passes, one issued by
the Union Government, and the other stating
that you are an English visitor who has
nothing whatsoever to do with the Union."
"One for your people, and one for the
strikers, eh?"
330
"Exactly."
The project did not appeal to me—I know
what happens in a case of that kind. You get
flustered and mix the things up. I should
hand the wrong pass to the wrong person,
and it would end in my being summarily shot
by a bloodthirsty rebel, or one of the
supporters of law and order whom I notice
guarding the streets wearing bowler hats and
smoking pipes, with rifles tucked carelessly
under their arms. Besides, what should I do
with myself in Pretoria? Admire the
architecture of the Union buildings, and
listen to the echoes of the shooting round
Johannesburg? I should be penned up there
God knows how long. They've blown up the
railway line already, I hear. It isn't even as if
one could get a drink there. They put the
place under martial law two days ago.
"My dear fellow," I said, "you don't seem
to realize that I'm studying conditions on the
Rand. How the devil am I going to study
them from Pretoria? I appreciate your care
for my safety, but don't you worry about me.
I shall be all right."
"I warn you. Sir Eustace, that the food
question is already serious."
TMITBS22 331
"A little fasting will improve my figure," I
said, with a sigh.
We were interrupted by a telegram being
handed to me. I read it with amazement:
"Anne is safe. Here with me at Kimberley.
Suzanne Blair."
I don't think I ever really believed in the
annihilation of Anne. There is something
peculiarly indestructible about that young
woman—she is like the patent balls that one
gives to terriers. She has an extraordinary
knack of turning up smiling. I still don't see
why it was necessary for her to walk out of
the hotel in the middle of the night in order
to get to Kimberley. There was no train,
anyway. She must have put on a pair of
angel's wings and flown there. And I don't
suppose she will ever explain. Nobody does—
to me. I always have to guess. It becomes
monotonous after a while. The exigencies of
journalism are at the bottom of it, I suppose.
"How I shot the rapids," by our Special
Corrspondent.
I refolded the telegram and got rid of my
Government friend. I don't like the prospect
of being hungry, but I'm not alarmed for my
personal safety. Smuts is perfectly capable of
dealing with the revolution. But I would give
332
a considerable sum of money for a drink! I
wonder ifPagett will have the sense to bring a
bottle of whisky with him when he arrives tomorrow?
I put on my hat and went out, intending to
buy a few souvenirs. The curio-shops in
Jo'burg are rather pleasant. I was just
studying a window full of imposing karosses,
when a man coming out of the shop cannoned
into me. To my surprise it turned out to be
Race. Y K
I can't flatter myself that he looked pleased
to see me. As a matter of fact, he looked
distinctly annoyed, but I insisted on his
accompanying me back to the hotel. I get
tired of having no one but Miss Pettigrew to
talk to.
"I had no idea you were in Jo'burg," I said
chattily. "When did you arrive?"
"Last night."
"Where are you staying?"
"With friends."
He was disposed to be extraordinarily
taciturn, and seemed to be embarrassed by
my questions.
"I hope they keep poultry," I remarked.
A diet of new-laid eggs, and the occasional
333
slaughtering of an old cock, will be decidedly
agreeable soon, from all I hear."
"By the way," I said, when we were back in
the hotel, "have you heard that Miss
Beddingfield is alive and kicking?"
He nodded.
"She gave us quite a fright," I said airily.
"Where the devil did she go to that night,
that's what I'd like to know."
"She was on the island all the time."
"Which island? Not the one with the young
man on it?"
"Yes."
"How very improper," I said. "Pagett will
be quite shocked. He always did disapprove
ofAnne Beddingfield. I suppose that was the
young man she originally intended to meet in
Durban?"
"I don't think so."
"Don't tell me anything you don't want
to," I said, by way of encouraging him.
"I fancy that this is a young man we should
all be very glad to lay our hands on."
"Not——?" I cried, in rising excitement.
He nodded.
"Harry Rayburn, alias Harry Lucas—that's
his real name, you know. He's given us all the
334
slip once more, but we're bound to rope him
.- »>
in soon.
"Dear me, dear me," I murmured.
"We don't suspect the girl of complicity in
any case. On her side it's—just a love-affair."
I always did think Race was in love with
Anne. The way he said those last few words
made me feel sure of it.
"She's gone to Beira," he continued rather
hastily.
"Indeed," I said, staring. "How do you
know?"
"She wrote to me from Bulawayo, telling
me she was going home that way. The best
thing she can do, poor child."
"Somehow, I don't fancy she is in Beira," I
said meditatively.
"She was just starting when she wrote."
I was puzzled. Somebody was clearly lying.
Without stopping to reflect that Anne might
have excellent reasons for her misleading
statements, I gave myself up to the pleasure
of scoring off Race. He is always so cocksure.
I took the telegram from my pocket and
handed it to him.
"Then how do you explain this?" I asked
nonchalantly.
He seemed dumbfounded. "She said she
335
was just starting for B
eira," he said, in a
dazed voice.
I know that Race is supposed to be clever.
He is, in my opinion, a rather stupid man. It
never seemed to occur to him that girls do not
always tell the truth.
"Kimberley too. What are they doing
there?" he muttered.
"Yes, that surprised me. I should have
thought Miss Anne would have been in the
thick of it here, gathering copy for the Daily
Budget"
"Kimberley," he said again. The place
seemed to upset him. "There's nothing to see
there--the pits aren't being worked."
"You know what women are," I said
vaguely.
He shook his head and went off. I have
evidently given him something to think
about.
No sooner had he departed than my
Government official reappeared.
"I hope you will forgive me for troubling
you again. Sir Eustace," he apologized. "But
there are one or two questions I should like to
ask you."
"Certainly, my dear fellow," I said cheerfully.
"Ask away."
336
"It concerns your secretary----
"I know nothing about him," I said hastily. "He foisted himself upon me in London, robbed me of valuable papers--for which I
shall be hauled over the coals--and disappeared
like a conjuring trick at Cape
Town. It's true that I was at the Falls at the
same time as he was, but I was at the hotel, and he was on an island. I can assure you that
I never set eyes upon him the whole time I
was there."
I paused for breath.
"You misunderstand me: It was of your
other secretary that I spoke."
"What? Pagett?" I cried, in lively astonishment.
"He's been with me eight years--a
most trustworthy fellow."
My interlocutor smiled.
"We are still at cross-purposes. I refer to
the lady."
"Miss Pettigrew?" I exclaimed.
"Yes. She has been seen coming out of
Agrasato's Native Curio-shop."
"God bless my soul!" I interrupted. "I was
going into that place myself this afternoon.
You might have caught me coming out!"
There doesn't seem to be any innocent
337
thing that one can do in Jo'burg without
being suspected for it.
"Ah! but she has been there more than
once—and in rather doubtful circumstances. I
may as well tell you—in confidence. Sir
Eustace—that the place is suspected of being
a well-known rendezvous used by the secret
organization behind this revolution. That is
why I should be glad to hear all that you can
tell me about this lady. Where and how did
you come to engage her?"
"She was lent to me," I replied coldly, "by
your own Government."
He collapsed utterly.
338
30
(Anne's Narrative Resumed)
A soon as I got to Kimberley I wired to
Suzanne. She joined me there with
the utmost dispatch, heralding her
arrival with telegrams sent off en route. I was
awfully surprised to find that she really was
fond of me—I thought I had been just a new
sensation, but she positively fell on my neck
and wept when we met.
When we had recovered from our emotion
a little, I sat down on the bed and told her the
whole story from A to Z.
"You always did suspect Colonel Race,"
she said thoughtfully, when I had finished. "I
didn't until the night you disappeared. I liked
him so much all along and thought he would
make such a nice husband for you. Oh, Anne,
dear, don't be cross, but how do you know
that this young man of yours is telling the
truth? You believe every word he says."
"Of course I do," I cried indignantly.
"But what is there in him that attracts you
so? I don't see that there's anything in him at
339
all except his rather reckless good looks and
his modern Sheik-cum-Stone-Age lovemaking."
I poured out the vials of my wrath upon
Suzanne for some minutes.
"Just because you're comfortably married
and getting fat, you've forgotten that there's
any such thing as romance," I ended.
"Oh, I'm not getting fat, Anne. All the
worry I've had about you lately must have
worn me to a shred."
"You look particularly well nourished," I
said coldly. "I should say you must have put
on about half a stone."
"And I don't know that I'm so comfortably
married either," continued Suzanne in a
melancholy voice. "I've been having the most
dreadful cables from Clarence ordering me to
come home at once. At last I didn't answer
them, and now I haven't heard for over a fortnight."
I'm afraid I didn't take Suzanne's
matrimonial troubles very seriously. She will
be able to get round Clarence all right when
the time comes. I turned the conversation to
the subject of the diamonds.
Suzanne looked at me with a dropped jaw.
"I must explain, Anne. You see, as soon as
340
I began to suspect Colonel Race, I was
terribly upset about the diamonds. I wanted
to stay on at the Falls in case he might have
kidnapped you somewhere close by, but
didn't know what to do about the diamonds.
I was afraid to keep them in my possession----"
Suzanne looked round her uneasily, as
though she feared the walls might have ears,
and then whispered vehemently in my ear.
"A distinctly good idea," I approved. "At
the time, that is. It's a bit awkward now.
What did Sir Eustace do with the cases?"
"The big ones were sent down to Cape
Town. I heard from Pagett before I left the
Falls, and he enclosed the receipt for their
storage. He's leaving Cape Town to-day, by
the by, to join Sir Eustace in Johannesburg."
"I see," I said thoughtfully. "And the
small ones, where are they?"
"I suppose Sir Eustace has got them with
him."
I turned the matter over in my mind.
"Well," I said at last, "it's awkward--but
it's safe enough. We'd better do nothing for
the present."
Suzanne looked at me with a little smile.
I . 341
"You don't like doing nothing, do you,
Anne?"
"Not very much," I replied honestly.
The one thing I could do was to get hold of
a time-table and see what time Guy Pagett's
train would pass through Kimberley. I found
that it would arrive at 5.40 on the following
afternoon and depart again at 6. I wanted to
see Pagett as soon as possible, and that
seemed to me a good opportunity. The
situation on the Rand was getting very
serious, and it might be a long time before I
got another chance.
The only thing
that livened up the day was
a wire dispatched from Johannesburg. A most
innocent-sounding telegram:
"Arrived safely. All going well. Eric here,
also Eustace, but not Guy. Remain where
you are for the present. Andy."
Eric was our pseudonym for Race. I chose
it because it is a name I dislike exceedingly.
There was clearly nothing to be done until I
could see Pagett. Suzanne employed herself
in sending off a long soothing cable to the faroff
Clarence. She became quite sentimental
over him. In her way—which of course is
342
quite different from me and Harry--she is
really fond of Clarence.
"I do wish he was here, Anne," she gulped.
"It's such a long time since I've seen him."
"Have some face-cream," I said soothingly.
Suzanne rubbed a little on the tip of her
charming nose.
"I shall want some more face-cream soon
too," she remarked, "and you can only get
this kind in Paris." She sighed. "Paris!"
"Suzanne," I said, "very soon you'll have
had enough of South Africa and adventure."
"I should like a really nice hat," admitted
Suzanne wistfully. "Shall I come with you to
meet Guy Pagett tomorrow?"
"I prefer to go alone. He'd be shyer
speaking before two of us."
So it came about that I was standing in the
doorway of the hotel on the following
afternoon, struggling with a recalcitrant
parasol that refused to go up, whilst Suzanne
lay peacefully on her bed with a book and a
basket of fruit.
According to the hotel porter, the train was
on its good behaviour to-day and would be
almost on time, though he was extremely
doubtful whether it would ever get through ^ Johannesburg. The line had been blown
343
up, so he solemnly assured me. It sounded
cheerful!
The train drew in just ten minutes late.
Everybody tumbled out on the platform and
began walking up and down feverishly. I had
no difficulty in espying Pagett. I accosted
him eagerly. He gave his usual nervous start
at seeing me--somewhat accentuated this
time.
"Dear me. Miss Beddingfield, I understood
that you had disappeared."
"I have reappeared again," I told him
solemnly. "And how are you, Mr. Pagett?"
"Very well, thank you--looking forward to
taking up my work again with Sir Eustace."
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