the window-places as best we could, so as to make them difficult to
enter, a single Kaffir appeared, waving above his head a stick to which
was tied a white ox-tail as a sign of truce. I ordered that no one
should fire, and when the man, who was a bold fellow, had reached the
spot where the dead captain lay, called to him, asking his business, for
I could speak his language well.

He answered that he had come with a message from Quabie. This was the
message: that Quabie's eldest son had been cruelly murdered by the fat
white man called "Vulture" who lived with the Heer Marais, and that he,
Quabie, would have blood for blood. Still, he did not wish to kill the
young white chieftainess (that was Marie) or the others in the house,
with whom he had no quarrel. Therefore if we would give up the fat
white man that he might make him "die slowly," Quabie would be content
with his life and with the cattle that he had already taken by way of a
fine, and leave us and the house unmolested.

Now, when Leblanc understood the nature of this offer he went perfectly
mad with mingled fear and rage, and began to shout and swear in French.

"Be silent," I said; "we do not mean to surrender you, although you have
brought all this trouble on us. Your chance of life is as good as ours.
Are you not ashamed to act so before these black people?"

When at last he grew more or less quiet I called to the messenger that
we white folk were not in the habit of abandoning each other, and that
we would live or die together. Still, I bade him tell Quabie that if we
did die, the vengeance taken on him and all his people would be to wipe
them out till not one of them was left, and therefore that he would do
well not to cause any of our blood to flow. Also, I added, that we had