Part 11 (2/2)
I never knew that white people could have so much to say about a sihter; the baas wants her tous it would soon have been settled, for the father would have taken a stick and beaten you out of the hut with the thick end Then he would have beaten the girl with the thin end until she promised to take the other man, and all would have been settled nicely But you Whites, you talk and talk, and nothing is settled You still hter still means not to ained nothing except a sick heart and much bad luck to come”
”Why much bad luck to co up of the case interested ue way
”Oh! Baas Allan, for two reasons First, your reverend father, who ood as he, is one doho runs down a tree Well, the Heer Marais was sitting under that tree, and we all knohat happens to hi strikes it
That my first Christian reason My second black-man reason, about which there can be no mistake, for it has always been true since there was a black irl is yours by blood You saved her life with your blood,” and he pointed to ht her for ever, for blood is more than cattle Therefore, too, he ould divide her fros blood on her and on the other man who tries to steal her, blood, blood! and on hi up at me with his little black eyes in a way that was most uncanny
”Nonsense!” I said ”Why do you talk such bad words?”
”Because they are true words, Baas Allan Oh, you laugh at the poor Totty; but I had it froeneration, amen, and you will see You will see, as I have seen before now, and as the Heer Marais will see, who, if the great God had not made him ht have lived in his hoood son-in-law to bury hih of this eerie conversation Of course it is easy to laugh at natives and their superstitions, but, after a long life of experience, I am bound to admit that they are not always devoid of truth The native has some kind of sixth sense which the civilisedof blankets,” I said in order to change the subject, ”froet these karosses?”
”From whom? Why, from the Missie, of course, baas When I heard that you were to sleep in the cart I went to her and borrowed the for you,” and he felt about, first in his dirty shi+rt, then under his ar place he produced a little bit of paper folded into a pellet I undid it and read these words, written with a pencil and in French:--
”I shall be in the peach orchard half an hour before sunrise Be there if you would bid me farewell--M”
”Is there any answer, baas?” asked Hans when I had thrust the note intofound out” Then an inspiration seemed to strike him, and he added: ”Why do you not take it yourself? The Missie'sis easy to open, also I am sure she would be pleased to see you”
”Be silent,” I said ”I a to sleep Wake me an hour before the cock-crow--and, stay--see that the horses have got out of the kraal so that you cannot find them too easily in case the Reverend wishes to start very early But do not let theuests”
”Yes, baas By the way, baas, the Heer Pereira, who tried to cheat you over those geese, is sleeping in an empty house not more than two , and his servant, who ood friend Noould you likeinto it? Not to kill hiainst the law in the Book, but just toabout that If so, I have a very good medicine, one that you white people do not knohich iht saveabout the place without any clothes on, like a coh _he_ is really ht not wish for hio to the devil if you are not there already,” I replied, and turned over as though to sleep
There was no need for me to have instructed that faithful creature, the astute but immoral Hans, to call me early, as the lady did her mother in the poeht I spare ined in the case of an earnest-natured lad as about to be bereft of his first love
Long before the dawn I stood in the peach orchard, that orchard where we had firstbetween the tree trunks like a grey ghost, for she rapped in soether Alone in the utter solitude and silence which precede the African dahen all creatures that love the night have withdrawn to their lairs and hiding places, and those that love the day still sleep their soundest
She saw me and stood still, then opened her ar no word A while later she spoke al, for I think that if ether, he would shoot you in his ht, not of herself
”And you, my sweet?” I asked
”Oh!” she answered, ”thatExcept for the sin of it I wish he would shoot me, for then I should have done with all this pain
I told you, Allan, when the Kaffirs were on us yonder, that it ht be better to die; and see, asped ”Will he really separate us and take you away into the wilderness?”
”Certainly, nothing can turn him Yet, Allan, there is this hope In two years, if I live, I shall be of full age, and can marry whom I will; and this I swear, that I will marry none but you, no, not even if you were to die to-morrow”
”I bless you for those words,” I said
”Why?” she asked sie to h life faithless and ashamed?”