Durnovo looked round as if to make sure that Joseph and the boatmen were out of earshot.
"Can you keep a secret ?" he asked suddenly.
Jack Meredith turned and looked at the questioner with a smile.

His hat had slipped to the back of his head, the light of the great yellow moon fell full upon his clean-cut, sphinx-like face.

The eyes alone seemed living.
"Yes! I can do that." He was only amused, and the words were spoken half-mockingly; but his face said more than his lips.

It said that even in chaff this was no vain boast that he was uttering.

Even before he had set foot on African soil he had been asked to keep so many secrets of a commercial nature.
So many had begun by imparting half a secret, to pass on in due course to the statement that only money was required, say, a thousand pounds.
And, in the meantime, twenty-five would be very useful, and, if not that, well, ten shillings.