"Oh yes, a good deal. But it's more for the hard practical purpose of getting from one place to another than just riding about for fun. It strikes one though, if one has any imagination, as a sample of the way in which this aggressive civilisation of ours wedges itself in everywhere. You are right away in the veldt, perhaps only just scared away a clump of sable or roan antelope, or struck the fresh spoor of a brace of business-like lions, when you look up, and there are two fellows whirring by on up-to-date bikes. You give each other a passing shout and they are gone." "Yes. It is a contrast, if one has an imagination," said Nidia. "But not everybody has. Don't you think so?" "Certainly. But when a man lives a good deal alone, and sees comparatively little of his kind, it is apt to stimulate that faculty." Nidia looked interested. The firm, quiet face before her, the straight glance of the grey eyes, represented a character entirely to her liking, she decided. "Is it long since you came out?" she asked. "Well, in the sense you mean I can't be said to have come out at all, for I was born and bred out here--in Natal, at least. But I have been in England." "Really? I thought you were perhaps one of the many who had come out during the last few years." "Am I not colonial enough?" said John Ames, with a quiet laugh. "N-no. At least, I don't mean that--in fact, I don't know what I do mean," broke off Nidia, with a perfectly disarming frankness. "Do you know Bulawayo at all?" The diversion came from the third of the trio. "Oh yes; I have just come from up that way." "Really. I wonder if you ever met my husband. He is a mining engineer. Bateman our name is." John Ames thought. "The name doesn't seem altogether unknown to me," he said. "The fact is I am very seldom in Bulawayo. My district lies away out in the wilds, and very wild indeed it is." "What sort of a place is Bulawayo?" "Oh, a creditable township enough, considering that barely three years ago it was a vast savage kraal, and, barring a few traders, there wasn't a white man in the country." "But isn't it full of savages now?" struck in Nidia. "Yes; there are a good few--not right around Bulawayo, though. Are you likely to be going up there?" "We are, a little later," replied Mrs Bateman. "This is fortunate. You will be able to tell us all about it." "With pleasure. I shall be too happy to give you any information I can." "Is it safe up there?" said Nidia. "Is there no fear of those dreadful savages rising some night and killing us all?" Unconsciously the official reserve came over John Ames. He had more than once predicted to himself and one or two confidential friends such a contingency as by no means outside the bounds of practical politics, almost invariably to be laughed at for his pains. Now he replied: