l the plain beneath was a sea of mist through which in the
distance loomed something like a mountain, till presently the rays
of the rising sun struck upon it and the veils of vapour parted
like curtains that are drawn back, and there before them was the
mountain-fortress of Umpondwana separated from the pass by a great space
of mist-clad plain. Suzanne looked and knew it.

"Sihamba," she said, "it is the place of my vision and none other. See,
the straight sides of red rock, the five ridges upon the eastern slope
fashioned like the thumb and fingers of the hand of a man. Yes, and
there between the thumb and first finger a river runs."

"I told you that it was so from the beginning, Swallow, for in all the
country there is no other such hill as this, and because of the aspect
of those ridges when seen from a distance it is named the Mountain of
the Great Hand."

Before the words had left her lips another voice spoke, at the sound of
which Suzanne nearly fell to the earth.

"Good day to you, Suzanne," it said in Dutch and was silent.

"Sihamba, did you hear, Sihamba?" she gasped. "Do I dream, or did Piet
Van Vooren speak to me?"

"You did not dream," answered Sihamba, "for that voice was the voice of
Swart Piet and no other, and he is hidden somewhere among the rocks
of yonder cliff wall. Quick, Swallow, kneel behind this stone lest he
should shoot."

She obeyed, and at that moment the voice spoke again out of the shadows
of the cliff that bordered the pass twenty or thirty paces from them.

"What, Suzanne," it said, "is that little witch-doctoress telling you
that I shall fire on you? Had I wished I could have shot you three times
over while you were standing upon that rock. But why should I desire to
kill one who will be my lover? Sihamba I wished to shoot indeed, but her
familiar set her so that the bullet must pass through you to reach her
heart. Suzanne, you are going to hide yourself among the people of the
Umpondwana. Oh! yes, I know your plan. Well, when once you are behind
the walls of that mountain it may be difficult to speak to you for a
while, so listen to me. You thought that you had left me far away, did
you not? but I have followed you step by step and twice I have been
very near to you, although I could never find a chance to carry you off
safely. Well, I wish to tell you that sooner or later I shall find that
chance; sooner or later you will come out of the mountain or I shall get
into it, and