the water into which he fell was deep, so that, striking against no
rock, he rose presently to the surface, and the pool being but narrow,
was able to swim to one side of it where the beach shelved. Up that
beach Ralph could not climb, however, for he was faint with loss of
blood and shock. Indeed, his senses left him while he was in the water,
but it chanced that he fell forward and not backward, so that his head
rested upon the shelving edge of the pool, all the rest of his body
being beneath its surface. Lying thus, had the tide been rising, he
would speedily have drowned, but it had turned, and so, the water being
warm, he took no further harm.

Now Sihamba did not leave the stead till some hours after Ralph and his
bride had trekked away. She knew where they would outspan, and as she
did not wish that they should see her yet, or until they were too far
upon their journey to send her back, it was her plan to reach the spot,
or rather a hiding-place in the kloof within a stone's throw of it,
after they had gone to rest. So it came about that at the time when
Ralph and Suzanne were surprised by Swart Piet, Sihamba was riding along
quietly upon the horse which Jan had given her, accompanied by the lad
Zinti, perched on the strong brown mule in the midst of cooking pots,
bags of meal, biltong, and rolls of blankets. Already, half a mile
off or more, she could see the cap of the waggon gleaming white in the
moonlight, when suddenly away to the left they heard the sound of a
pistol shot.

"Now who shoots in this lonely place at night?" said Sihamba to Zinti.
"Had the sound come from the waggon yonder I should think that someone
had fired to scare a hungry jackal, but all is quiet at the waggon, and
the servants of Swallow are there, for, look, the fire burns."