Matara had gone suddenly from my side. The grass nodded. Then a bush
rustled. She lifted her head.

"I saw her! The consoler of sleepless nights, of weary days; the
companion of troubled years! I saw her! She looked straight at the place
where I crouched. She was there as I had seen her for years--a faithful
wanderer by my side. She looked with sad eyes and had smiling lips; she
looked at me . . . Smiling lips! Had I not promised that she should not
die!

"She was far off and I felt her near. Her touch caressed me, and
her voice murmured, whispered above me, around me. 'Who shall be thy
companion, who shall console thee if I die?' I saw a flowering thicket
to the left of her stir a little . . . Matara was ready . . . I cried
aloud--'Return!'

"She leaped up; the box fell; the pearls streamed at her feet. The big
Dutchman by her side rolled menacing eyes through the still sunshine.
The gun went up to my shoulder. I was kneeling and I was firm--firmer
than the trees, the rocks, the mountains. But in front of the steady
long barrel the fields, the house, the earth, the sky swayed to and
fro like shadows in a forest on a windy day. Matara burst out of the
thicket; before him the petals of torn flowers whirled high as if driven
by a tempest. I heard her cry; I saw her spring with open arms in front
of the white man. She was a woman of my country and of noble blood. They
are so! I heard her shriek of anguish and fear--and all stood still! The
fields, the house, the earth, the sky stood still--while Matara leaped
at her with uplifted arm. I pulled the trigger, saw a spark, heard
nothing; the smoke drove back into my face, and then I could see Matara
roll over head first and lie with stretched arms at her feet. Ha! A sure