and stared, gasping, "it cannot
be."

"Yes, it is, Zinti. There sits the lady Swallow and none other."

Now although there was little mirth left in him, Zinti burst out
laughing till the tears ran from his eyes, and Sihamba struck him with
her hands, calling him "Fool," and commanding him to be silent.

"Wow!" he said, "this is wonderful. This is magic indeed. She who was
white as snow has become black as coal, and yes, she looks best black.
Oh! this is magic indeed."

At his words Suzanne sprang up looking as though she were about to weep,
and Sihamba stopped his lips with fierce words and blows, though he took
small heed of either, but stood staring.

"Zinti," Sihamba said, "you have done me many services, but to-day you
must do me the greatest of all. This morning at the daylight the lady
Swallow will pass with the multitude down the cleft yonder and none will
know her in that disguise. You must go with her, but not too near her,
and cross the plain, meeting her by the saw-edged rock which stands
yonder at the mouth of the gorge in the Quathlamba mountains. Then you
must lead her as fast as you can travel to that camp of the Boers which
is near the Tugela River, where she will be safe. Do you understand?"

"I understand, lady. But what of yourself?"

"It is my plan to hide on the mountain," Sihamba answered quickly, "in
a secret place I know of, seeing that it is impossible that I should
escape because my stature would betray me. I will join you at the Boer
camp later; or, failing that, you can return in a while--say on the
first night of the new moon--to search for me. But talk no more, for we
have still much to do. Yes, we who have made a white woman black, must
make a black woman white. Follow me, both of you," and giving Zinti a
jar of pigment and the long goat-skin cloak, which Suzanne wore for an
outer garment, she left the hut, carrying in her hand strips of ox-hide
tanned white.

Avoiding the groups of thirst-tormented people who sat or wandered about
in the coolness of the night, they passed through the gates of the
kraal unheeded, and walking quickly across the wide stretch of tableland
reached the eastern edge of the cliff. Now upon the very verge of this
cliff rose a sharp pinnacle of rock fifty feet or more into the air, and
upon the top of this pinnacle was that stone shaped like a great chair,
in which Suzanne sat day by day, poised like an eagle over the dizzy
gulf of space, for the slopes o