"Do you think my aunt would like me to say good-bye to her? I should certainly like to do so. She has been very kind while I have been here." "I will ask her, Yorke, but I don't think she will. However, it is just as well to make the offer." Rather to Yorke's surprise, Mrs. Allnutt came into the room a minute later. "Good-bye, Yorke!" she said gravely. "I cannot say, after what has happened, that I am sorry that you are going, but I am very sorry for the circumstances that have caused you to go. You have been very nice in the house since you came. I had thought, before you arrived, that I should not like it, but it has made things pleasant, and I came to like you. Good-bye! I hope you will do well. Some day, perhaps, I may see you again, if not here, perhaps at Cape Town." "Good-bye, aunt! I am very much obliged to you for the kindness you have shown me since I have been here. I cannot say how sorry I am that things should have turned out as they have. No one can possibly regret it more than I." Five minutes later Yorke and Hans mounted and started on their journey. CHAPTER IV THE ULTIMATUM "Now, Hans," Yorke said as they dismounted in front of the hotel at which he had stopped when he came through Cape Town, "the first thing after you have put the horses in the stable, given them a good rub down, and seen that they have had their feed, will be to go to some little barber's shop and have your hair trimmed. Have it cut short like mine. When you have done that, have a thorough good wash. You are more particular in that respect than you used to be when I first knew you, but there is room for a lot of improvement; and as you have made up your mind to follow my fortune whatever it may be, it is as well, at any rate when you join, to look clean. Here are five pounds, go to an outfitter's and get a decent suit of clothes--clothes that will fit you, you know, and not look as if they were made for a man fifty inches round the waist. Look about you as you go through the streets. You will see plenty of young Dutchmen who have come in from farms, and you will find they wear very different-looking clothes from those you were accustomed to. Get things of the same sort. Or--no; I think that it would be better for you to come to me after you have got yourself tidy, and I will go with you." "That will be better, Master Yorke; I should never be able to choose for myself." "Very well, give me the money, then, less five shillings. Be sure you tell the man to cut your hair quite short; it won't hold the dust so much then, and will give you quite a different appearance. Don't come back again for three or four hours. I want to learn what is doing here, and see what openings there are. Get yourself a good meal somewhere."