another will serve her turn."

"What do you mean, myn Heer van Vooren?" asked Suzanne, afraid.

"Mean? Nothing, but I shall win that kiss yet, yes, and before very
long."



CHAPTER IX

HOW SUZANNE SAVED SIHAMBA

Now in a valley of the hills, something over an hour's ride from the
farm, and not far from the road that ran to Swart Piet's place, lived
the little Kaffir witch-doctoress, Sihamba Ngenyanga. This woman did not
belong to any of the Transkei or neighbouring tribes, but had drifted
down from the North; indeed, she was of Swazi or some such blood, though
why she left her own people we did not know at that time. In appearance
Sihamba was very strange, for, although healthy, perfectly shaped and
copper-coloured rather than black, she was no taller than a child of
twelve years old--a thing that made many people believe that she was a
bush woman, which she most certainly was not. For a Kaffir also she was
pretty, having fine small features, beautiful white teeth, and a fringe
of wavy black hair that stood out stiffly round her head something after
the fashion of the gold plates which the saints wear in the pictures in
our old Bible.

This woman Sihamba, who might have been a little over thirty years of
age, had been living in our neighbourhood for some three or four years