"I hope you are not very much hurt by the bird."

"I don't know," she said doubtfully. "But I am glad that you killed the
_skellum_ (vicious beast). He got out of the ostrich camp three days
ago, and has been lost ever since. He killed a boy last year, and I told
uncle he ought to shoot him then, but he would not, because he was such
a beauty."

"Might I ask," said John Niel, "are you Miss Croft?"

"Yes, I am--one of them. There are two of us, you know; and I can guess
who you are--you are Captain Niel, whom uncle is expecting to help him
with the farm and the ostriches."

"If all of them are like that," he said, pointing to the dead bird, "I
don't think that I shall take kindly to ostrich farming."

She laughed, showing a charming line of teeth. "Oh no," she said,
"he was the only bad one--but, Captain Niel, I think you will find it
fearfully dull. There are nothing but Boers about here, you know. No
English people live nearer than Wakkerstroom."

"You overlook yourself," he said, bowing; for really this daughter of
the wilderness had a very charming air about her.

"Oh," she answered, "I am only a girl, you know, and besides, I am
not clever. Jess, now--that's my sister--Jess has been at school at
Capetown, and she _is_ clever. I was at Cape Town, too, though I didn't
learn much there. But, Captain Niel, both the horses have bolted; mine
has gone home, and I expect yours has followed, and I should like to