ne effect, namely, that if the tribe would
deliver over to him the lady Swallow who dwelt among them he would cease
from troubling it, but if this were not done, then he would wage war
on it day and night until in this way or in that he compassed its
destruction.

To these messages Sihamba would reply as occasion offered, that if he
wanted anything from the Umpondwana he had better come and take it.

So things went on for a long while. Swart Piet's men did them no great
harm indeed, but they harassed them continually, until the people of
the Umpondwana began to murmur, for they could scarcely stir beyond the
slopes of the mountain without being set upon. Happily for them these
slopes were wide, for otherwise they could not have found pasturage for
their cattle or land upon which to grow their corn. So close a watch was
kept upon them, indeed, that they could neither travel to visit other
tribes, nor could these come to them, and thus it came about that
Suzanne was as utterly cut off from the rest of the world as though she
had been dead. She had but one hope to keep her heart alive, and it was
that Ralph and Jan would learn of her fate through native rumours and be
able to find her out. Still, as she knew that this could not be counted
on, she tried to let us have tidings of her, for when she had been only
a week on the mountain Umpondwana she despatched Zinti and two men to
bear him company, with orders to travel back over all the hundreds of
miles of veldt to the far-off stead in the Transkei.

As she had neither pen nor ink, nor anything with which she could write,
Suzanne was obliged to trust a long message to Zinti's memory, making
him repeat it to her until she was sure that he had it by heart. In this
message she told all that had befallen her, and prayed us to take Zinti
for a guide and to come to her rescue, since she did not dare to set
foot outside the walls of rock, for fear that she should be captured by
Van Vooren, who watched for her continually.

Zinti, being brave and faithful, started upon his errand, though it was
one from which many would have shrunk. But as ill-luck would have it,
one night when they were camped near the kraal of a small Basuto tribe,
his companions becoming hungry, stole a goat and killed it. Zinti ate of
the goat, for they told him that they had bought it for some beads, and
while they were still eating the Basutos came upon them and caught them
red-handed. Next day they were t