already sought them in the very kloof where they were hidden, without
seeing anything of them behind the thick screen of the mimosas, and
having once sought doubtless they would have returned there no more, for
the hills are wide and the kloofs in them many.



CHAPTER III

THE STORY OF THE SHIPWRECK

"What shall we do with this boy whom Suzanne has brought to us, wife?"
asked Jan of me that day while both the children lay asleep.

"Do with him, husband!" I answered; "we shall keep him; he is the Lord's
gift."

"He is English, and I hate the English," said Jan, looking down.

"English or Dutch, husband, he is of noble blood, and the Lord's gift,
and to turn him away would be to turn away our luck."

"But how if his people come to seek him?"

"When they come we will talk of it, but I do not think that they will
come; I think that the sea has swallowed them all."

After that Jan said no more of this matter for many years; indeed I
believe that from the first he desired to keep the child, he who was
sonless.