t have burst beneath its shock of sorrow, had not nature
been kind to him and plunged him back into stupor. In this he lay long,
until well on into the morrow indeed, or rather the day, for by now it
was three o'clock, when the doctor came to take out the pistol ball and
set his shattered bone. For, as it chanced, a doctor, and a clever one,
had been sent for from the dorp to visit the wife of a neighbour who lay
sick not more than twenty miles away, and we were able to summon him.
Indeed but for this man's skill, the sleeping medicines he gave him to
quiet his mind, and, above all, a certain special mercy which shall be
told of in its place, I think that Ralph would have died. As it was,
seven long weeks went by before he could sit upon a horse.

CHAPTER XVII

THE HIDDEN KRANTZ

Before the waggon left her, Sihamba took from it Ralph's gun, a very
good _roer_, together with powder and bullets. Also she took tinder, a
bottle of peach-brandy, a blanket, mealies in a small bag, wherewith to
bait the horses in case of need, and some other things which she thought
might be necessary. These she laded among her own goods upon the mule
that with her horse had been fetched by Zinti and hastily fed with corn.
Now, at her bidding, Zinti set Suzanne's saddle upon the back of the
_schimmel_, and Ralph's on that of Suzanne's grey mare, which he mounted
that the mule might travel lighter. Then Sihamba got upon her own horse,
a good and quiet beast which she rode with a sheepskin for a saddle, and
they started, Sihamba leading the _schimmel_ and Zinti the mule that, as
it chanced, although bad tempered, would follow well on a riem.

Riding up the kloof they soon reached the spot where Van Vooren's band
had tethered their horses and tracked the spoor of them with ease for
so long as the ground was soft. Afterwards when they reached the open
country, where the grass had been burnt off and had only just begun to
spring again, this became more difficult, and at length, in that light,
impossible. Here they wasted a long time, searching for the hoof-marks
by the rays of the waning moon, only to lose them again so soon as they
were found.

"At this pace we shall take as long to reach Bull-Head's kraal as did
the cow you followed," said Sihamba presently. "Say, now, can you find
the way to it?"

"Without a doubt, lady; Zinti never forgets a road or a landmark."

"Then lead me there as fast as may be."

"Yes, lady, but Bull-Head ma