e was
afraid and hesitated. But when she saw it, Sihamba turned upon him so
fiercely that he feared her more than the watchman, and went at once,
so that this man who was half asleep suddenly saw the muzzle of a _roer_
within three paces of his head and heard a voice command him to stand
still and silent or die. Thus he stood indeed until he perceived that
the new wife of his chief was escaping. Then remembering what would be
his fate at the hands of Bull-Head he determined to take his chance of
being shot, and, turning suddenly, sped towards the kraal shouting as he
ran, whereon Zinti fired at him, but the ball went wide. A cannon could
scarcely have made more noise than did the great _roer_ in the silence
of the night as the report of it echoed to and fro among the hills.

"Oh! fool to fire, and yet greater fool to miss," said Sihamba. "To the
horses! Swift! swift!"

They ran as the wind runs, and now they were in the wood, and now they
had found the beasts.

"Praise to the Snake of my house!" said Sihamba, "they are safe, all
four of them," and very quickly they untied the riems by which they had
fastened the horses to the trees.

"Mount, Swallow," said Sihamba, seizing the head of the great
_schimmel_.

Suzanne set her foot upon the shoulder of Zinti, who knelt to receive
it, and sprang into the saddle. Then having lifted Sihamba on the
grey mare Zinti mounted the other horse himself, holding the mule by a
leading riem.

"Which way, mistress?" he asked.

"Homewards," she answered, and they cantered forward through the wood.

On the further side of this wood was a little sloping plain not more
than three hundred paces wide, and beyond it lay the seaward Nek through
which they must pass on their journey to the stead. Already they were
out of the wood and upon the plain, when from their right a body of
horsemen swooped towards them, seven in all, of whom one, the leader,
was Swart Piet himself, cutting them off from the Nek. They halted their
horses as though to a word of command, and speaking rapidly, Sihamba
asked of Zinti: "Is there any other pass through yonder range, for this
one is barred to us?"

"None that I know of," he answered; "but I have seen that the ground
behind us is flat and open as far as the great peak which you saw rising
on the plain away beyond the sky-line."

"Good," said Sihamba. "Let us head for the peak, since we have nowhere
else to go, and if we are separated, let us agree to m