alous-tongued Vrouw
Prinsloo, both he and his uncle had come to the conclusion that it would
be wise for him to remove himself as soon as possible. Therefore he
proposed to trek away alone.

I answered that I should have thought he had done enough solitary
travelling in this veld, seeing how his last expedition had ended. He
replied that he had, indeed, but everyone here was so bitter against him
that no choice was left. Then he added with an outburst of truth:

"Allemachte! Mynheer Quatermain, do you suppose that it is pleasant for
me to see you making love all day to the maid who was my betrothed, and
to see her paying back the love with her eyes? Yes, and doubtless with
her lips, too, from all I hear."

"You could leave her whom you called your betrothed, but who never was
betrothed to anyone but me with her own will, to starve in the veld,
mynheer. Why, then, should you be angry because I picked up that which
you threw away, that, too, which was always my own and not yours? Had it
not been for me, there would now be no maid left for us to quarrel over,
as, had it not been for me, there would be no man left for me to quarrel
with about the maid."

"Are you God, then, Englishman, that you dispose of the lives of men and
women at your will? It was He Who saved us, not you."

"He may have saved you, but it was through me. I carried out the rescue
of these poor people whom you deserted, and I nursed you back to life."

"I did not desert them; I went to get help for them."

"Taking all the powder and the only horse with you! Well, that is done
with, and now you want to borrow goods to pay for cattle--from me, whom
you hate. You are not proud, Mynheer Pereira, when you have an end
to serve, whatever that end may be," and I looked at him. My instinct
warned me against this false and treacherous man, who, I felt, was even
then plotting in his heart to bring some evil upon me.

"No, I am not proud. Why should I be, seeing that I mean to repay you
twice over for anything which you may lend me now?"

I reflected a while. Certainly our journey to Natal would be pleasanter
if Pereira were not of the company. Also, if he went with us, I was sure
that before we came to the end of that trek, one or other of us would
leave his bones on the road. In short, not to put too fine a point on
it, I feared lest in this way or in that he would bring me to my death
in order that he might possess himself of Marie. We were in a wild
co