into her wagon to rest. And later on I took her some soup and bread,
and made her eat it. She was exhausted now, and told me in a low voice
that she had lived on meal and water for weeks past. Presently we
turned in, and all was quiet.

"It was, I suppose, some little time after midnight that Angus and I
were roused by a loud voice beyond the camp-fire, which lay between the
other wagon and our own. We listened; it was the vrouw herself.
Hastily we got down from the kartel and went towards her. She was
beyond the fire, and her figure was well-nigh lost in the gloom of
night. We could just see her white _kopje_, and an arm waving
frantically. It was a terrible and uncanny scene. There stood the
woman, screaming in wild and excited tones at something beyond--what we
could not see, and shivered even to imagine. `Yes,' she cried, `you
come here to frighten me, Dirk Starreberg. I feared you not in life; I
fear you not in death. I slew you, and I would slay you again. But I
know why you walk thus through the veldt, and come seeking to drive me
mad, night after night. To-morrow--now that I can trek--I will come and
bury your bones, and you may rest quiet if you can. Trouble me no more,
I say--begone!'

"Angus and I could stand it no longer, sick with horror though we were.

"`Come back to your wagon, Vrouw Starreberg,' I called out `You are
dreaming. Go to rest again!'

"Still glaring in front of her, the woman stepped back till she had met
our advance. I am bound to say that I looked, and Angus looked, with
terrified eyes, but saw nothing of what she saw or thought she saw. We
took the poor mad creature's arms. She was trembling and wet--literally
bathed in perspiration. What the tension must have been if this sort of
thing had been going on sight after night, I shuddered even to think of.
We took her to her wagon and gave her a strong dose of brandy and
water, and presently she fell into heavy sleep. Then Angus and I got
down our karosses, rekindled a roaring fire, and sat smoking by the
blaze for the rest of that sight. Scared as I was, I believe I dozed
once or twice, and Angus always swears, to this day, that he once saw
the figure of Dirk Starreberg pass within the firelight fifty yards
away. He woke me, but it had gone. The cattle were uneasy and
disturbed again, and our Kaffirs, who had heard the vrouw talking, as
they said, at a spook, lay huddled together under our wagon. It was
uncanny,