In three hours the Baas shall know it."

Five minutes later they trekked away and so swiftly did they drive
and so good were the oxen, that in less than the three hours we were
awakened by the barking of the dogs and one knocking on our door, and
ran out to learn all the dreadful tidings and to find Ralph bleeding
and still senseless, stretched upon that cartel where we thought him
sleeping happily with his bride.

Oh! the terror and the agony of that hour, never may I forget them!
Never may I forget the look that sprang into Ralph's eyes when at last
he awoke and, turning them to seek Suzanne, remembered all.

"Why am I here and not dead?" he asked hoarsely.

"Sihamba saved you and you have been brought back in the waggon," I
answered.

"Where then is Suzanne?" he asked again.

"Sihamba has ridden to save her also, and Jan starts presently to follow
her, and with him others."

"Sihamba!" he groaned. "What can one woman do against Piet Van Vooren
and his murderers, and for the rest they will be too late. Oh! my God,
my God, what have we done that such a thing should fall upon us? Think
of it, think of her in the hands of Piet Van Vooren. Oh! my God, my God,
I shall go mad!"

Indeed I, who watched him, believe that this would have been so, or else