holding water to my lips and snatching it
away.

"All day long, lying in the burning sun, have I suffered thus, waiting
for death to heal my pain. But in vain did he torture and question, for
not one word could he wring from my lips as to where he should seek
for the lady Swallow. He thought that she was hidden somewhere on the
mountain, and sent men to search for her till they grew tired and ran
away to steal the cattle; he never guessed that disguised as a black
woman she had passed beneath his very eyes.

"Yet this was so, for I, Sihamba, know it from the talk I overheard
between Bull-Head and one of his servants, who had held her awhile
wishing to take her for a wife.[*] Yes, she passed beneath his eyes and
escaped him, and I--I have won the game."

[*] In after days, when there was talk far and wide of the
wonderful escape of my daughter Suzanne, disguised as a
Kaffir woman, the man who had sought to take her captive
told the story of the white mark which his grip left upon
her arm. He said, indeed, that both he and Bull-Head saw the
mark when she was at a little distance from them, but
believing it to be an ivory ring they took no heed.

Now the effects of the water, which for a little while had given new
life to Sihamba, began to pass off, and she grew weak and silent.
Presently I saw Ralph returning down the steep cleft, and with him Jan,
and went to meet them.

"It is finished," Ralph said, looking at me with quiet eyes.

"I know it," I answered, "but, son, there is still work to do if you
want to save your wife----" and I told him what I had learned.

"The _schimmel_," he exclaimed, growing pale to the lips, "where is the
_schimmel_?" and he turned to seek him.

"No, no," I said, "let Jan fetch the horse. Come you to Sihamba, that
she may show you the path before she dies."

Now Jan went to the glade that I pointed out to find the _schimmel_,
while I led Ralph to Sihamba. She heard him coming and opened her eyes.

"Welcome, husband of Swallow," she said, "you have done well and
bravely, yet it was the hand of fate and not yours that smote yonder
on the rock point. Now hearken----" and she told the road which he must
follow across the Quathlamba, if he would hope to reach the white koppie
camp by dawn.

Before she had done, for the dying Sihamba spoke slowly and with pain,
Jan came leading the _schimmel_ saddled and bridled, for Swart Piet's
saddle had been put u