And because of that which the lamplight had revealed to her, Sylvia bent after a moment and kissed him on the forehead.  She knew as she did it that the devil, that had menaced her had been driven forth.

So for a space they remained in a union of the spirit that was curiously unlike anything that had ever before existed between them.  Then Guy’s arm began to slip away from her.  There came from him a deep sigh.

She bent low over him, looking into his face.  His eyes were closed, but his lips moved, murmuring words which she guessed rather than heard.

“Let me rest—­just for a little!  I shall be all right—­afterwards.”

She laid him back very gently upon the pillow, and lifted his feet on to the bed.  He thanked her almost inaudibly, and relaxed every muscle like a tired child.  She turned the lamp from him and moved away.

She dressed in the dimness.  Guy did not stir again.  He lay shrouded in the peace of utter repose.  She had watched those deep slumbers too often to fear any sudden awakening.

A few minutes later she went to the door, and softly opened it.

The sullen clouds were lifting; the night had gone.  Very far away a faint orange light spread like the reflected glow from a mighty furnace somewhere behind those hills of mystery.  The veldt lay wide and dumb like a vast and soundless sea.

She stood awed, as one who had risen out of the depths and scarcely yet believed in any deliverance.  But the horror had passed from her like an evil dream.  She stood in the first light of the dawning and waited in a great stillness for the coming of the day.

CHAPTER IX

THE MEETING

Joe, the Kaffir boy, bestirred himself to the sound of Mary Ann’s shrill rating.  The hour was still early, but the big baas was in a hurry and wanted his boots.  Joe hastened to polish them to the tune of Mary Ann’s repeated assurance that he would be wanting his whip next, while Fair Rosamond laid the table with a nervous speed that caused her to trip against every chair she passed.  When Burke made his appearance, the whole bungalow was as seething with excitement as if it had been peopled by a horde of Kaffirs instead of only three.

He was scarcely aware of them in his desire to be gone, merely throwing an order here and there as he partook of a hasty breakfast, and then striding forth to their vast relief to mount into the Cape cart with its two skittish horses that awaited him beyond the stoep.

He departed in a cloud of dust, for still the rain did not fall, and immediately, like the casting of a spell, the peace of a great somnolence descended upon the bungalow.  The Kaffirs strolled back to their huts to resume their interrupted slumbers.

The dust slowly settled upon all things, and all was quiet.

Down the rough track Burke jolted.  The horses were fresh, and he did not seek to check them.  All night long he had been picturing that swift journey and the goal that awaited him, and he was in a fever to accomplish it.  Their highest speed was not swift enough for him.