CHAPTER XV

RALPH RETURNS INTO THE SEA

Ralph and Suzanne reached their outspan place in safety a little before
sunset. I used to know the spot well; it is where one of the numerous
wooden kloofs that scar the mountain slopes ends on a grassy plain
of turf, short but very sweet. This plain is not much more than five
hundred paces wide, for it is bordered by the cliff, that just here is
not very high, against which the sea beats at full tide.

When the oxen had been turned loose to graze, and the voorlooper set to
watch them, the driver of the waggon undid the cooking vessels and built
a fire with dry wood collected from the kloof. Then Suzanne cooked their
simple evening meal, of which they partook thankfully. After it was
done the pair left the waggon and followed the banks of the little
kloof stream, which wandered across the plain till it reached the cliff,
whence it fell in a trickling waterfall into the sea. Here they sat down
upon the edge of the cliff, and locked in each other's arms, watched the
moon rise over the silver ocean, their young hearts filled with a joy
that cannot be told.

"The sea is beautiful, is it not, husband?" whispered Suzanne into his
ear.

"To-night it is beautiful," he answered, "as our lives seem to be; yet I
have seen it otherwise," and he shuddered a little.

She nodded, for she knew of what he was thinking, and did not wish to