Part 37 (2/2)
”Well, I sat in that nest all day, though the sun cooked ot down and ran, for I kneas no good to stop to look for you, and 'every man for himself when a black devil is behind you,' as your reverend father says All night I ran, and in the ain I went on running Oh! they nearly caught me once or twice, but never quite, for I kno to hide, and I kept where ry; yes, I lived on snails and worrass like an ox, till ot across the river and near to the ca, 'Now, Hans, although your heart is sad, your sto,' what did I see but those Zulu devils, thousands of them, rush down on the camp and kill all the poor Boers Men and women and the little children, they killed them by the hundred, till at last other Boers cah they took all the cattle with them Well, as I was sure that they would come back, I did not stop there I ran down to the side of the river, and have been crawling about in the reeds for days, living on the eggs of water-birds and a few s, when I heard the Zulus again and slipped up here into this hole Then you caht you were a ghost
”But noe are together once ht, just as what your reverend father always said it would be with those who go to church on Sunday, like ain he fell to kissing my foot
”Hans,” I said, ”you saw the camp Was the Missie Marie there?”
”Baas, how can I tell, who never went into it? But the wagon she slept in was not there; no, nor that of the Vrouw Prinsloo or of the Heer Meyer”
”Thank God!” I gasped, then added: ”Where were you trying to get to, Hans, when you ran away froht perhaps that the Missie and the Prinsloos and the Meyers had gone to that fine faro and see if they were there Because if so, I was sure that they would be glad to know that you were really dead, and give me some food in payment for my news But I was afraid to walk across the open veld for fear lest the Zulus should see h the thick bush along the river, where one can only travel slowly, especially if hollow,” and he patted his wasted stomach
”But, Hans,” I asked, ”are we near my farm where I set the men to build the houses on the hill above the river?”
”Of course, baas Has your brain gone soft that you cannot find your way about the veld? Four, or atslow, and you are there”
”Come on, Hans,” I said, ”and be quick, for I think that the Zulus are not far behind”
So we started, Hans hanging to h he had never travelled this road, his instinct for locality would not betray a coloured man, who can find his way across the pathless veld as surely as a buck or a bird of the air
On ent over the rolling plain, and as we travelled I told hih, for my mind was too torn with fears to allow me to talk much He, too, told me more of his escape and adventures Now I understood as that nehich had so excited Kambula and his soldiers It was evident that the Zulu ireat number of the Boers whom they found unprepared for attack, and then had been driven off by reinforcements that arrived from other camps
That hy I had been kept prisoner for all those days Dingaan feared lest I should reach Natal in time to warn his victims!
CHAPTER XX THE COURT-MARTIAL
One hour, two hours, three hours, and then suddenly froht of the beautiful Mooi River winding through the plain like a vast snake of silver, and there, in a loop of it, the flat-crested koppie on which I had hoped to ht I knew everything hter as I had done, and if so, after all our troubles perchance many years of life and happiness awaited us Only it seeed my horse, but the poor beast was tired out and could only break into short canters, that soon lapsed to a walk again But whether it cantered or whether it walked, its hoofs seeood to be true!” Sometimes they beat them fast, and soe seemed the same
Hans, too, was outworn and weak from starvation Also he had a cut upon his foot which hao on alone; he would follow more slowly Then I dis by it eous sunset was finished and the sky had grown grey with night before we reached the foot of the koppie Yet the last rays of the sinking orb had shownas they died There on the slope of the hill stood some mud and wattle houses, such as I had ordered to be built, and near to theons Only I did not see any s from those houses as there should have been at this hour of the day, whenfood The moon would be up presently, I knew, but meanwhile it was dark and the tired horse stu the stones which lay about at the foot of the hill
I could bear it no longer
”Hans,” I said, ”do you stay here with the horse I will creep to the houses and see if any dwell there”
”Be careful, baas,” he answered, ”lest you should find Zulus, for those black devils are all about”
I nodded, for I could not speak, and then began the ascent For several hundred yards I crept fro my way, for the Kaffir path that led to the little plateau where the spring was, above which the shanties stood, ran at the other end of the hill I struck the spruit or rivulet that was fed by this spring, being guided to it by the murmur of the water, and followed up its bank till I heard a sound which caused me to crouch and listen
I could not be sure because of the ceaseless babble of the brook, but the sound seereatthe place with light, and oh! by that light, looking more ethereal than woman I saw--I saw Marie!
She stood not five paces from me, by the side of the stream, whither she had come to draater, for she held a vessel in her hand She was clothed in soarh stuff, and above it her face shohite in the white rays of theat her fro down her cheeks, for it was she ept in this lonely place, wept for one ould return no more