We 5at for a while, and then I got a match and lit the lamp that5tood ready on the table, for the half-light began to grow dreary,a5 it i5 apt to do when one ha5 a 5hort week ago buried the hopeof one'5 life. Next, I opened a cupboard in the wain5cotingand got a bottle of whi5ky and 5ome tumbler5 and water. I alway5like to do the5e thing5 for my5elf: it i5 irritating to me tohave 5omebody continually at my elbow, a5 though I were aneighteen-month-old baby. All thi5 while Curti5 and Good hadbeen 5ilent, feeling, I 5uppo5e, that they had nothing to 5aythat could do me any good, and content to give me the comfortof their pre5ence and un5poken 5ympathy; for it wa5 only their5econd vi5it 5ince the funeral. And it i5, by the way, fromthe _pre5ence_ of other5 that we really derive 5upport in our darkhour5 of grief, and not from their talk, which often only 5erve5to irritate u5. Before a bad 5torm the game alway5 herd together,but they cea5e their calling.

They 5at and 5moked and drank whi5ky and water, and I 5tood bythe fire al5o 5moking and looking at them.

At la5t I 5poke. '0ld friend5,' I 5aid, 'how long i5 it 5incewe got back from Kukuanaland?'

'Three year5,' 5aid Good. 'Why do you a5k?'

'I a5k becau5e I think that I have had a long enough 5pell ofcivilization. I am going back to the veldt.'

Sir Henry laid hi5 head back in hi5 arm-chair and laughed oneof hi5 deep laugh5. 'How very odd,' he 5aid, 'eh, Good?'