"He had good taste, that Englishman," went on Swart Piet. "Well, now
our account is squared; he has sown and I shall harvest. Follow me, you
black fellows, for we had best be off," and, stooping down he lifted
Suzanne in his arms and walked away with her as though she were a child.
For a while they followed the windings of the stream, keeping under
cover of the reeds and bushes that grew upon its banks. Then they struck
out to the right, taking advantage of a cloud which dimmed the face of
the moon for a time, for they wished to reach the kloof without being
seen from the waggon. Nor, indeed, were they seen, for the driver and
voorlooper were seated by the cooking-fire on its further side, smoking,
and dozing as they smoked. Only the great thoroughbred horse winded
them and snorted, pulling at the riem with which he was tied to the hind
wheel of the waggon.

"Something has frightened the _schimmel_," said the driver waking up.

"It is nothing," answered the other boy drowsily; "he is not used to
the veldt, he who always sleeps in a house like a man; or, perhaps, he
smells a hyena in the kloof."

"I thought I heard a sound like that of a gun a while ago down yonder by
the sea," said the driver again. "Say, brother, shall we go and find out
what made it?"

"By no means," answered the voorlooper, who did not like walking about
at night, fearing lest he should meet spooks. "I have been wide awake
and listening all this time, and I heard no gun; nor, indeed, do people
go out shooting at night. Also it is our business to watch here by the
waggon till our master and mistress return."