d he looked cautiously round and spoke
low. "The baboons have come back in thousands. All the mountain is full
of them."

"I did not know that they had gone," I said.

"Yes," he answered, "they went after the marriage, all but one or two;
now they are back, all the baboons in the world, I think. I saw a whole
cliff back with them."

"Is that all?" I said, for I saw that he had something behind. "I am not
afraid of a pack of baboons."

"No, Macumazahn, it is not all. The Babyan-frau, Hendrika, is with
them."

Now nothing had been heard or seen of Hendrika since her expulsion, and
though at first she and her threats had haunted me somewhat, by degrees
she to a great extent had passed out of my mind, which was fully
preoccupied with Stella and my father-in-law's illness. I started
violently. "How do you know this?" I asked.

"I know it because I saw her, Macumazahn. She is disguised, she is
dressed up in baboon skins, and her face is stained dark. But though she
was a long way off, I knew her by her size, and I saw the white flesh
of her arm when the skins slipped aside. She has come back, Macumazahn,
with all the baboons in the world, and she has come back to do evil. Now
do you understand why you should trek?"

"Yes," I said, "though I don't see how she and the baboons can harm
us, I think that it will be better to go. If necessary we can camp the
waggons somewhere for a while on the journey. Hearken, Indaba-zimbi: say
nothing of this to the Star; I will not have her frightened. And hearken
again. Speak to the headmen, and see that watchers are set all round the
huts and gardens, and kept there night and day. To-morrow we will get
the waggons ready, and next day we will trek."

He nodded his white lock and went to do my bidding, leaving me not a
little disturbed--unreasonably so, indeed. It was a strange story. That
this woman had the power of conversing with baboons I knew.[*] That was
not so very wonderful, seeing that the Bushmen claim to be able to do
the same thing, and she had been nurtured by them. But that she had
been able to muster them, and by the strength of her human will and
intelligence muster them in order to forward her ends of revenge, seemed
to me so incredible that after reflection my fears grew light. Still I
determined to trek. After all, a journey in an ox waggon would not be
such a very terrible thing to a strong woman accustomed to roughing it,
whatever her state of health. And when all