all; even
for a woman, it debases, it unmakes, it breaks.

"I worked hard at it, husbanding my strength, and within an
hour I was weak and foolish with the effort. Twice I had
left it to go in and see if all was well with Kornel, and
this rested me; but I was now resolved that I must rest no
more, if ever our debt was to be paid and bread earned for
the grim days to come. So I stayed in the bitter water and
worked on, till even the sense of pain was dulled and it
seemed that I was past the capacity of feeling.

"I was toiling thus (never mind my old troubles, Katje,
dear; this is years ago) when a sound came to my ears that
caused me to look up. It had been going on for some time,
persisting till it gained my notice, and suddenly I became
aware that there were men on our ground among the bricks. I
climbed half-way up the bank to look at them, where they
could not see me; and I saw several dark figures bent to
some business or moving here and there. I caught the sound
of hushed voices, too, though no words; and then the hot
wrath set my blood racing as I realized what was going on.
The Kafirs, who knew my man was wounded and helpless--the
very beast who had felled him--were stealing the bricks he
had labored so stoutly to make. My head swam with a
delirium of vivid anger at the meanness of the crime, and
without calculation, with no thought of fear, I scrambled
up and ran at them, shouting.

"I suppose they were surprised at my coming out of the
spruit, and some of them ran as soon as they heard me.
Others stood and waited ominously--you know what a Kafir is
with a woman,--and doubtless I should have met my last
earthly troubles then and there, but that from the road
beyond us there were other shouts, and men came running.

"I saw the forms of the rescuers as they raced up, and
marked one tall young man who ran past me with his arm
lifted before him. There was a flash and a bang, and I sat
down heavily as the white men shot at the Kafirs who were
now all running to cover. It took but an instant, and I
remember it as one remembers a thing seen at night by a
lightning flash, sharp and feverish.

"'Ye've no need to be feared,' someone said to me. 'They're
only my clerks, but they're a handy lot.'

"A short stout man was standing over me, and as I looked up
I saw it was old Pagan. Away in the darkness there were yet
cries and the sound of blows, where the white men pursued
the Kafirs.

"'Ye see,' continued the