He had now contracted his ventures to the one enterprise of the Polyeuka mine, from which he was receiving large monthly dividends.

If that went on prosperously, perhaps he need not return to the colony at all.

'Poor Dick Shand!' he said.

'He is a shepherd far away in the west, hardly earning better wages than an English ploughman, and I am coming home with a pocket full of money! A few glasses of whisky have made all the difference!' The squire when he received this felt more of exultation than he had ever known in his life.

It seemed as though something of those throbbings of delight which are common to most of us when we are young, had come to him for the first time in his old age.