d in four on foot. So they went
forward up the pass much refreshed, Zinti carrying the child.
All day long they walked thus, resting at intervals, till by sunset
they reached the crest of the pass, and saw the wide plains of Natal
stretched out like a map beneath them, and on them, not so very far
away and near to the banks of the river that wound at their feet, a
white-topped koppie, beneath which, said Zinti, was the Boer camp.
Suzanne sat down and looked, and there, yes, there the caps of the
waggons gleamed in the fading light; and oh! her heart leapt at the
sight of them, for in those waggons were white men and women such as she
had not seen for years, and with whom at length she would be safe. But
even as her breast heaved at the thought of it, an icy, unnatural wind
seemed to stir her hair, and of a sudden she felt, or seemed to feel,
the presence of Sihamba. For a moment, and one only, it was with her,
then it was gone, nor during all her life did it ever come back again.
"Oh! Sihamba is dead!" she cried.
Zinti looked at her in question.
"It may well be so," he said sadly, "but I pray that it is not so, for
she is the best of chieftainesses. At least we have our own lives to
save, so let us go on," and again they pressed forward through the
gathering gloom.
Soon it grew dark, and had her guide been any other man than Zinti
Suzanne must have stopped where she was till the moon rose at midnight.
But Zinti could find any path that his feet had trod even in the dark;
yes, although it ran through piled-up rocks on the mountain side, and
was cut with the course of streams which must be forded.
In wading through one of these rivulets, Suzanne struck her bare ankle
against a stone and lamed herself, so that from this time forward,
shivering and wet with water, for her hurt was so sharp and sudden that
she had fallen in the stream, she was forced to walk leaning on Zinti's
shoulder, and indeed over some rough places he was obliged to carry her.
Now again Zinti wished to abandon that heavy child, for strong though he
was the weight of the two of them proved almost more than he could bear,
but Suzanne would not listen to him.
"Nay," she said, "this child that was sent to me by Heaven has saved me
from shame and death, and shame and death be my portion if I will leave
it while I live. Go on alone if you will, Zinti, and I will stay here
with the child."
"Truly white people are strange," answered Zinti, "t
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