surely in such a pledge as theirs true
joy can be found. Yes, and they did more than this, for, kneeling there
upon that rock where once the starving child had knelt in bygone years,
they prayed to Him who had brought them together, to Him who had given
them hearts to love with and bodies to be loved, and the immortality
of Heaven wherein to garner this seed of love thus sown upon the earth,
that He would guide them, bless them, and protect them through all
trials, terrors, sorrows, and separations. As shall be seen, this indeed
He did.

Then they rose, and having, not without difficulty, lifted the riet-buck
ram upon Ralph's horse and made it fast there, as our hunters know how
to do, they started homewards, walking the most part of the way, for the
load was heavy and they were in no haste, so that they only reached the
farm about noon.

Now I, watching them as we sat at our mid-day meal, grew sure that
something out of the common had passed between them. Suzanne was very
silent, and from time to time glanced at Ralph shyly, whereon, feeling
her eyes, he would grow red as the sunset, and seeing his trouble, she
would colour also, as though with the knowledge of some secret that made
her both happy and ashamed.

"You were long this morning in finding a buck, Ralph," I said.

"Yes, mother," he answered; "there were none on the flats, for the grass
is burnt off; and had not Suzanne beaten out a dry pan for me where the
reeds were still green, I think that we should have found nothing. As it
was I shot badly, hitting the ram in the flank, so that we were obliged
to follow it a long way before I came up with it."

"And where did you find it at last?" I asked.

"In a strange place, mother; yes, in that very spot where many years ago
Suzanne came upon me starving after the shipwreck. There in the glade
and by the flat stone on which I had lain down to die was the buck,
quite dead. We knew the dell again, though neither of us had visited it
from that hour to this, and rested there awhile before we turned home."

I made no answer but sat thinking, and a silence fell on all of us.
By this time the Kaffir girls had cleared away the meat and brought in
coffee, which we drank while the men filled their pipes and lit them. I
looked at Jan and saw that he was making up his mind to say something,
for his honest face was troubled, and now he took up his pipe, and now
he put it down, moving his hands restlessly till at length he