and you will tell it to the Baas Botmar, who
must gather together such men as he is able, and start to-morrow to
follow it and rescue us, remembering what sort of peril it is in which
his daughter stands. If by any means I can free the Swallow, we will
come to meet him; if not, who knows? Then he must act according to his
judgment and to what he learns. But let him be sure of this, and let her
husband be sure also, that while I have life in me I will not cease from
my efforts to save her, and that if she dies--for I know her spirit and
no worse harm than death will overtake her--then if may be, I will die
with her or to avenge her, and I have many ways of vengeance. Lastly,
let them not believe that we are dead until they have certain knowledge
of it, for it may chance that we cannot return to the stead, but must
lie hid in the mountains or among the Kaffirs. Now hear what Zinti has
to say as to the path of Bull-Head's den and begone, forgetting no one
of my words, for if you linger or forget, when I come again I, Sihamba,
will blind your eyes and shrivel your livers with a spell."

"We hear you," they answered, "and remember every word of your message.
In three hours the Baas shall know it."

Five minutes later they trekked away and so swiftly did they drive
and so good were the oxen, that in less than the three hours we were
awakened by the barking of the dogs and one knocking on our door, and
ran out to learn all the dreadful tidings and to find Ralph bleeding
and still senseless, stretched upon that cartel where we thought him
sleeping happily with his bride.

Oh! the terror and the agony of that hour, never may I forget them!
Never may I forget the look that sprang into Ralph's eyes when at last
he awoke and, turning them to seek Suzanne, remembered all.

"Why am I here and not dead?" he asked hoarsely.

"Sihamba saved you and you have been brought back in the waggon," I
answered.

"Where then is Suzanne?" he asked again.

"Sihamba has ridden to save her also, and Jan starts presently to follow
her, and with him others."

"Sihamba!" he groaned. "What can one woman do against Piet Van Vooren
and his murderers, and for the rest they will be too late. Oh! my God,
my God, what have we done that such a thing should fall upon us? Think
of it, think of her in the hands of Piet Van Vooren. Oh! my God, my God,
I shall go mad!"

Indeed I, who watched him, believe that this would have been so, or else
his brain mus