The colour came back to her face with a rush.  “That!” she said.  “But of course—­of course!  I always play a straight game.”

“Then it’s a bargain?” he said.

Her clear eyes met his.  “Yes, a bargain.  But how shall we ever find him?”

He was silent for a moment, and she felt as if those steel-grey eyes of his were probing for her soul.  “That,” he said slowly, “will not be a very difficult business.”

“You know where he is?” she questioned eagerly.

“Yes.  Merston told me to-day.”

“Oh, Burke!” The eager kindling of her look made her radiant.  “Where is he?  What is he doing?”

He still looked at her keenly, but all emotion had gone from his face.  “He is tending a bar in a miners’ saloon at Brennerstadt.”

“Ah!"’ She stood up quickly to hide the sudden pain his words had given.  “But we can soon get him out.  You—­you will get him out, partner?”

He got to his feet also.  The sun had passed, and only a violet glow remained.  He seemed to be watching it as he answered her.

“I will do my best.”

“You are good,” she said very earnestly.  “I wonder if you have the least idea how grateful I feel.”

“I can guess,” he said in a tone of constraint.

She was standing slightly above him.  She placed her hand shyly on his shoulder.  “And you won’t hate it so very badly?” she urged softly.  “It is in a good cause, isn’t it?”

“I hope so,” he said.

He seemed unaware of her hand upon him.  She pressed a little.  “Burke!”

“Yes?” He still stood without looking at her.

She spoke nervously.  “I—­I shan’t forget—­ever—­that I am married.  You—­you needn’t be afraid of—­of anything like that.”

He turned with an odd gesture.  “I thought you were going to forget it—­that you had forgotten it—­for good.”

His voice had a strained, repressed sound.  He spoke almost as if he were in pain.

She tried to smile though her heart was beating fast and hard.  “Well, I haven’t.  And—­I never shall now.  So that’s all right, isn’t it?  Say it’s all right!”

There was more of pleading in her voice than she knew.  A great tremor went through Burke.  He clenched his hands to subdue it.

“Yes; all right, little pal, all right,” he said.

His voice sounded strangled; it pierced her oddly.  With a sudden impetuous gesture she slid her arm about his neck, and for one lightning moment her lips touched his cheek.  The next instant she had sprung free and was leaping downwards from rock to rock like a startled gazelle.

At the foot of the kopje only did she stop and wait.  He was close behind her, moving with lithe, elastic strides where she had bounded.

She turned round to him boyishly.  “We’ll climb to the top one of these days, partner; but I’m not in training yet.  Besides,—­we’re late for supper.”