"Oh, are you, indeed? but I don't mind. I gave Umtomie--that's her pretty name--two lovely beads, and she sat there and sang to me, so sweetly! Then she brought me a calabash full of water, and, smiling over teeth quite as white and even as a pointer puppy's, she waved her hand, her lily hand--no, her raven hand--"
"That's more truthful, Con."
"And off she trotted once again."
"Then, I suppose," said Frank, "the sunshine went all out of your life, eh?"
"Well, there did seem to be a partial eclipse or something. But down you sit to chow-chow."
Down they did sit, and a right hearty meal they made.
It was Conal's turn to go sporting the next day. But he and Duncan gave the forest a wide berth, and so nothing very wild in the shape of adventure fell to their lot.
————
Much time was spent every day now in prospecting.
Duncan couldn't and wouldn't believe that the hands that built that strong fort had not dug for and found both gold and diamonds.