If you do not mind my rough accommodation there is a room for you, and your man can pitch a tent in the garden." After some demur he accepted with gratitude, and a little later Savage and the native were sent off with a note to a man who hired out a mule-cart.
"Now," I said when the gate had shut behind them, "will you tell me why you have come to Africa ?" "Disaster," he replied.

"Disaster of the worst sort." "Is your wife dead, Lord Ragnall ?" "I do not know.

I almost hope that she is.

At any rate she is lost to me." An idea leapt to my mind to the effect that she might have run away with somebody else, a thing which often happens in the world.

But fortunately I kept it to myself and only said, "She was nearly lost once before, was she not ?" "Yes, when you saved her.