very weak. "Anyone else would have done as much, even if they did not
love you as I do. Let us thank God that it was not in vain. But what
is all that noise? Have the Quabies come back?"

She shook her head.

"No; the Boers have come back from hunting them."

"And did they catch them and recover the cattle?"

"Not so. They only found some wounded men, whom they shot, and the body
of Monsieur Leblanc with his head cut off, taken away with other bits of
him for medicine, they say to make the warriors brave. Quabie has burnt
his kraal and fled with all his people to join the other Kaffirs in the
Big Mountains. Not a cow or a sheep did they find, except a few that
had fallen exhausted, and those had their throats cut. My father wanted
to follow them and attack the Red Kaffirs in the mountains, but the
others would not go. They said there are thousands of them, and that it
would be a mad war, from which not one of them would return alive. He
is wild with grief and rage, for, Allan dear, we are almost ruined,
especially as the British Government are freeing the slaves and only
going to give us a very small price, not a third of their value. But,
hark! he is calling me, and you must not talk much or excite yourself,
lest you should be ill again. Now you have to sleep and eat and get
strong. Afterwards, dear, you may talk"; and, bending down once more,
she blessed and kissed me, then rose and glided away.



CHAPTER IV