"Can you swim?" said Rachel to Noie.

Again she nodded, and the two of them slipped into the water and swam
across the pool till they reached the pocket-like place, on the edge of
which they sat down, covering themselves with the seaweed.

They had not been there five minutes when they heard the sound of voices
drawing near down the kloof, and at once slid into the water, covering
themselves in it in such fashion that only their heads remained above the
surface, mixed with the black and yellow seaweed, so that without close
search none could have said which was hair and which was weed.

"The Zulus," said Noie, shivering so that the water shook about her, "they
seek me."

"Lie still, then," answered Rachel. "I can't shoot now, the gun is wet."

The voices died away, and the two girls thought that the speakers had
gone, but rendered cautious, still remained hidden in the water. It was
well for them that they did so for presently they heard the voices again
and much nearer. The Zulus were walking round the pool. Two of them came
quite close to their little hiding-place, and sat down on some rocks to
rest, and talk. Peeping through her covering of seaweed Rachel could see
them, great men who held red spears in their hands.

"You are a fool," said one of them to the other, "and have given us this
walk for nothing, as though our feet were not sore enough already. The
crocodiles have that Noie, her witchcraft could not save her from them; it
was a baboon's spoor you saw in the mud, not a woman's."