ota nor I could drink much of it. Fright and weariness had
taken away our appetites.

"After the meal was done--and I prolonged it as much as possible--I saw
Hendrika was beginning to get jealous of Tota again. She glared at her
and then at the big knife which was tied round her own body. I knew
the knife again, it was the one with which she had tried to murder you,
dear. At last she went so far as to draw the knife. I was paralyzed with
fear, then suddenly I remembered that when she was our servant, and used
to get out of temper and sulk, I could always calm her by singing to
her. So I began to sing hymns. Instantly she forgot her jealousy and put
the knife back into its sheath. She knew the sound of the singing, and
sat listening to it with a rapt face; the baboons, too, crowded in at
the entrance of the cave to listen. I must have sung for an hour or
more, all the hymns that I could remember. It was so very strange
and dreadful sitting there singing to mad Hendrika and those hideous
man-like apes that shut their eyes and nodded their great heads as I
sang. It was a horrible nightmare; but I believe that the baboons are
almost as human as the Bushmen.

"Well, this went on for a long time till my voice was getting exhausted.
Then suddenly I heard the baboons outside raise a loud noise, as they do
when they are angry. Then, dear, I heard the boom of your elephant
gun, and I think it was the sweetest sound that ever came to my ears.
Hendrika heard it too. She sprang up, stood for a moment, then, to my
horror, swept Tota into her arms and rushed down the cave. Of course
I could not stir to follow her, for my feet were tied. Next instant I
heard the sound of a rock being moved, and presently the lessening of
the light in the cave told me that I was shut in. Now the sound even
of the elephant gun only reached me very faintly, and presently I could
hear nothing more, straining my ears as I would.

"At last I heard a faint shouting that reached me through the wall of
rock. I answered as loud as I could. You know the rest; and oh, my dear
husband, thank God! thank God!" and she fell weeping into my arms.

CHAPTER XIV

FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER

Both Stella and Tota were too weary to be moved, so we camped that night
in the baboons' home, but were troubled by no baboons. Stella would not
sleep in the cave; she said the place terrified her, so I made her up a
kind of bed under a thorn-tree. As this rock-bound valley was one