The Governor returned; his eyes softened somewhat when he saw them, and he took the pistol in his hand. ‘Mademoiselle is awake; _this_ is your chance. Follow me upstairs and into her room. If, when her eyes fall upon you, there pass but a shadow over her beloved face, there is no mercy for you.’ So saying, he went out. Jean Jacques turned to Pierre and gripped his hand. ‘_Courage_,’ he said, ‘_jouons bon jeu_,’ and the indomitable spirit shone out of his black eyes into his comrade’s. The Governor mounted the stairs. Jean Jacques whistled under his breath, Pierre wiped the cold sweat from his brow, and they followed. The Governor passed into the room through the open door; as they paused for one second, they could see Cecile’s eyes turned lovingly on him and her hands stretched out; her old nurse was sitting at the head of the bed on one side, and a doctor was on the other. A lamp, turned low, gave a fitful light; the Governor reached forward and turned it up. ‘_Dieu merci, nous avons de la chance_,’ thought Jacques, ‘at all events she will not take us for ghosts or bogies;’ then, with head up, and a smile on his lips and in his eyes, he marched boldly into the room, Pierre following like a dog. The Governor, standing back in the shadow, his head bowed, stood watching his little daughter with eyes that burned like coals of fire in the hollows of his wasted cheeks. No one spoke. As Jacques moved forward, the child turned her eyes from her father towards him; when they lighted upon him, a look of curiosity, but not of fear, dwelt in them for a moment, then a smile dimpled up in the brave little face, her hand moved, and her lips parted as if to blow a kiss to her guests. Jacques advanced to the bed and stroked the little head--Pierre stood at the foot and grinned with sympathy. ‘It is enough,’ said the Governor, ‘you are _men_; go, and God save you.’ THE SPIRIT OF THE KARROO. ‘Oh! the trail is hot, and the heart is black, Sleuth, and stealth, and a hard-gripped blade! Over the shimmering sage-green brush, Under the lea of the kopje’s rise, Winding the skein of the narrow track, Sleuth, and stealth, till the debt is paid!’ Greed, Hate, Jealousy, these three, and the greatest of these is Jealousy. Now this is true according to Euclid, who says that the greater contains the less: it is also true that in 1891--was it? Pietris Vanhiever-- * * * * *