“Of course not!” said Sylvia.

He smiled at her prompt rejoinder.  “Not afraid of anything?” he suggested.

She smiled back.  “Not often anyway.  And I hope I don’t behave like a muff even when I am.”

“I shouldn’t think that very likely,” he observed.

They put in the horses, and started again across the veldt.  The burning air that blew over the hot earth was like a blast from a furnace.  Over the far hills the clouds hung low and menacing, A mighty storm seemed to be brewing somewhere on the further side of those distant heights.

“It is as if someone had lighted a great fire just out of sight,” said Sylvia.  “Is it often like this?”

“Very often,” said Burke.

“How wonderful!” she said.

They drove on rapidly, and as they went, the brooding cloud-curtain seemed to advance to meet them, spreading ominously across the sky as if it were indeed the smoke from some immense conflagration.

Sylvia became silent, awed by the spectacle.

All about them the veldt took on a leaden hue.  The sun still shone; but vaguely, as if through smoked glass.  The heat seemed to increase.

Sylvia sat rapt.  She did not for some time wake to the fact that Burke was urging the horses, and only when they stretched themselves out to gallop in response to his curt command did she rouse from her contemplation to throw him a startled glance.  He was leaning slightly forward, and the look On his face sent a curious thrill through her.  It was the look of a man braced to utmost effort.  His eyes were fixed steadily straight ahead, marking the road they travelled.  His driving was a marvel of skill and confidence.  The girl by his side forgot to watch the storm in front of them in her admiration of his ability.  It was to her the most amazing exhibition of strength and adroitness combined that she had ever witnessed.  The wild enjoyment of that drive was fixed in her memory for all time.

At the end of half-an-hour’s rapid travelling a great darkness had begun to envelope them, and obscurity so pall-like that even near objects were seen as it were through a dark veil.

Burke broke his long silence.  “Only two miles more!”

She answered him exultantly.  “I could go on for ever!”

They seemed to fly on the wings of the wind those last two miles.  She fancied that they had turned off the track and were racing over the grass, but the darkness was such that she could discern nothing with any certainty.  At last there came a heavy jolting that flung her against Burke’s shoulder, and on the top of it a frightful flash and explosion that made her think the earth had rent asunder under their feet.

Half-stunned and wholly blinded, she covered her face, crouching down almost against the foot-board of the cart, while the dreadful echoes rolled away.

Then again came Burke’s voice, brief yet amazingly reassuring.  “Get down and run in!  It’s all right.”