se trades in Natal and the more settled places in Zululand,
where dwellings had to be erected. Moreover, they possessed wagons, and
now that the dry season was approaching were able to fetch stores of
every kind from the borders of Natal. Lastly, thanks to Dorcas's banking
account, money was by comparison no object, an unusual circumstance
where missionaries are concerned.

So all the week Thomas laboured at these matters and at making himself
acquainted with his congregation, and all Sunday he held open-air
services or taught in the ruins of the old church.

Thus in the midst of so many new interests matters went on not
uncomfortably, and Dorcas became more or less reconciled to her life.
Still she could never get over her loathing of the place which she
believed to be ill-omened, perhaps because of its gloomy aspect, coupled
with the name of the river and the uses to which it had been put, after
all not so very long ago. Naturally, also, this distaste was accentuated
by the unlucky circumstances of their arrival.

Tabitha, too, was really happy, since she loved this wild free life, and
having been brought up amongst Kaffirs and talking their language almost
as well as she did her own, soon she made many friends.

Perhaps it was a sense that the information would not be well received
by her father that prevented her from mentioning that the greatest of
those friends was the old witch-doctor, Menzi, whom she often met when
she was rambling about the place. Or it may have been pure accident,
since Thomas was too busy to bother about such trifles, while her
mother, who of course knew, kept her own counsel. The truth is that
though he was a heathen witch-doctor, Dorcas liked old Menzi better than
any other native in the district, because she said, quite truly, that he
was a gentleman, however sinful and hard-hearted he might be. Moreover,
with a woman's perception she felt that if only he were a friend, at a
pinch he might be worth all the others put together, while if he were an
enemy, conversely the same applied.

So it came about that in the end there arose a very strange state of
affairs. Menzi hated Thomas and did all he could to thwart him. He liked
Dorcas and did all he could to help her, while the child Tabitha he came
to worship, for some reason he never revealed, which was hidden in the
depths of his secret soul; indeed ere long had she been his own daughter
he could not have loved her more. It was he who amo