signs that
I wanted water, and this she gave me in a wooden bowl. As you saw, the
cave was evidently Hendrika's dwelling-place. There are stores of fruit
in it and some strips of dried flesh. She gave me some of the fruit and
Tota a little, and I made Tota eat some. You can never know what I went
through, Allan. I saw now that Hendrika was quite mad, and but little
removed from the brutes to which she is akin, and over which she has
such unholy power. The only trace of humanity left about her was her
affection for me. Evidently her idea was to keep me here with her, to
keep me away from you, and to carry out this idea she was capable of the
exercise of every artifice and cunning. In this way she was sane enough,
but in every other way she was mad. Moreover, she had not forgotten her
horrible jealousy. Already I saw her glaring at Tota, and knew that the
child's murder was only a matter of time. Probably within a few hours
she would be killed before my eyes. Of escape, even if I had the
strength, there was absolutely no chance, and little enough of our ever
being found. No, we should be kept here guarded by a mad thing, half
ape, half woman, till we perished miserably. Then I thought of you,
dear, and of all that you must be suffering, and my heart nearly broke.
I could only pray to God that I might either be rescued or die swiftly.

"As I prayed I dropped into a kind of doze from utter weariness, and
then I had the strangest dream. I dreamed that Indaba-zimbi stood over
me nodding his white lock, and spoke to me in Kaffir, telling me not to
be frightened, for you would soon be with me, and that meanwhile I must
humour Hendrika, pretending to be pleased to have her near me. The dream
was so vivid that I actually seemed to see and hear him, as I see and
hear him now."

Here I looked up and glanced at old Indaba-zimbi, who was sitting near.
But it was not till afterwards that I told Stella of how her vision was
brought about.

"At any rate," she went on, "when I awoke I determined to act on my
dream. I took Hendrika's hand, and pressed it. She actually laughed in a
wild kind of way with happiness, and laid her head upon my knee. Then I
made signs that I wanted food, and she threw wood on the fire, which I
forgot to tell you was burning in the cave, and began to make some of
the broth that she used to cook very well, and she did not seem to
have forgotten all about it. At any rate the broth was not bad, though
neither T