talk about it like that.'
'Very well, I won't. I won't talk about it again, ever.'
'We can't leave it now. You know we can't. ' And in answer she held
up her left hand so that the gold upon it caught the sun.
'We'll say good-bye here on a mountain in the sunlight, Though we'll
ride together a little further-it's here we'll say good-bye. ' 'Ruth
.
he started, but she placed the hand across his mouth and he felt the
metal of the ring on his lips and it seemed to him that the ring was as
cold as his dread of the loss she was about to inflict upon him.
'No,' she whispered. 'Kiss me once more and then let me go.
Mbejane saw it first and spoke quietly to Sean, perhaps two miles out
on their flank, like a smudge of brown smoke rising beyond the fold of
the nearest ridge, so faint that Sean had to search a moment before he
found it. Then he swivelled away from it and hunted frantically for
cover. The nearest was an outcrop of red stone half a mile away, much
too far.
'What is it, Sean?' Ruth noticed his agitation.
'Dust, he told her. 'Horsemen. Coming this way.
'Boers?'
'Probably. ' 'What are we going to do?'
'Nothing. ' 'Nothing?'
'When they show on the ridge I'll ride to meet them. Try to bluff our
way through. ' He turned to Mbejane and spoke in Zulu. 'I will go to
them. Watch me carefully, but keep moving away. If I lift my arm let
the pack-horses go and ride. I will hold them as long as I can, but
when I lift my arm then it is finished. ' Quickly he unbuckled the
saddle-bag which held the gold and handed it to the Zulu. 'With a good
start you should be able to hold them off until nightfall. Take the
Nkosikazi where she wishes to go and then with Dirk return to my mother
at Ladyburg. ' He looked again at the ridge just in time to see two
horsemen appear upon it. Sean lifted the binoculars from his chest; in
the round field of the glasses the two riders stood broadside, their
faces turned towards him so he could make out the shape of their
helmets. He saw the burnished sparkle of their accoutrements, the size
of their mounts and their distinctive saddlery and he yelled with
relief.
'Soldiers!'
As if in confirmation a squadron of cavalry in two neat ranks broke
over the skyline with the pennants fluttering gaily on the forest of
their lances.
Dirk hooting with excitement, Ruth laughing beside him and Mbejane
dragging the pack-horses after them, Sean galloped standing in the
stirrups and waving his hat above his head to meet them.
Unaffected by the enthusiasm of the welcome the lancers sat stolidly
and watched them come and the subaltern at their head greeted Sean
suspiciously as he arrived.
'Who are you, sir? ' But he seemed less interested in Sean's reply
than in Ruth's breeches and what they contained. During the
explanations that followed Sean conceived for the man a growing
