ngerly, I turned down the kaross from over the
head of the sleeping woman, much wondering whom I should see, for
what man is there that a veiled woman does not interest? Indeed,
does not half the interest of woman lie in the fact that her
nature is veiled from man, in short a mystery which he is always
seeking to solve at his peril, and I might add, never succeeds in
solving?

Well, I turned down that kaross and next instant stepped back
amazed and, to tell the truth, somewhat disappointed, for there,
with her mouth open, lay no wondrous and spiritual Mameena, but
the stout, earthly and most prosaic--Kaatje!

"Confound the woman!" thought I to myself. "What is she doing
here?"

Then I remembered how wrong it was to give way to a sense of
romantic disappointment at such a time, though as a matter of
fact it is always in a moment of crisis or of strained nerves
that we are most open to the insidious advances of romance. Also
that there was no one on earth, or beyond it, whom I ought more
greatly to have rejoiced to see. I had left Kaatje with Anscombe
and Heda; therefore Kaatje could tell me what had become of them.
And at this thought my heart sank--why was she here in this most
inappropriate meeting-place, alone? Feeling that these were
questions which must be answered at once, I prodded Kaatje in the
ribs with my toe until, after a good deal of prodding, she awoke,
sat up and yawned, revealing an excellent set of teeth in her
cavernous, quarter-cast mouth. Then perceiving a man she opened
that mouth even wider, as I thought with the idea of screaming
for help. But here I was first with her, for before a sound
could issue I had filled it full with the corner of the kaross,
exclaiming in Dutch as I did so--

"Idiot of a woman, do you not know the Heer Quatermain when you
see him?"

"Oh! Baas," she answered, "I thought you were some wicked Zulu
come to do me a mischief." Then she burst into tears and sobs
which I could not stop for at least three minutes.

"Be quiet, you fat fool!" I cried exasperated, "and tell me,
where are your mistress and the Heer Anscombe?"

"I don't know, Baas, but I hope in heaven" (Kaatje was some kind
of a Christian), she replied between her sobs.

"In heaven! What do you mean?" I asked, horrified.

"I mean, Baas, that I hope they are in heaven, because when last
I saw them they were both dead, and dead people must be either in
heaven or hell, and heaven, they say, is bette