"Never!" I said, "he is a son to us and more than a son, and I will not
give him up."

"Then they will take him, wife. Yes, even if he does not wish it, for he
is a minor and they are armed with authority."

"Oh!" I cried, "it would break my heart, and, Jan, there is another
heart that would break also," and I pointed towards the chamber where
Suzanne slept.

He nodded, for none could live with them and not know that this youth
and maiden loved each other dearly.

"It would break your heart," he answered, "and her heart; yes, and my
own would be none the better for the wrench; yet how can we turn this
evil from our door?"

"Jan," I said, "the winter is at hand; it is time that you and Ralph
should take the cattle to the bush-veldt yonder, where they will lie
warm and grow fat, for so large a herd cannot be trusted to the Kaffirs.
Had you not better start to-morrow? If these English meddlers should
come here I will talk with them. Did Suzanne save the boy for them? Did
we rear him for them, although he was English? Think how you will feel
when he has crossed the ridge yonder for the last time, you who are
sonless, and you must go about your tasks alone, must ride alone and
hunt alone, and, if need be, fight alone, except for his memory. Think,
Jan, think."

"Do not tempt me, woman," he whispered back in a hoarse voice, for