"Run away!" I said. "Why, that would be to confess myself guilty, for only the guilty run away. What I want is to have all this business thrashed out and that devil Pereira exposed."
"But, Allan," said Marie, "how if you should never live to have it thrashed out? How if you should be shot first?" Then she rose, and having looked to see that the shutter-board was fast in the little window-place and the curtain that she had made of sacking drawn over it, returned and whispered: "Hans here has heard a horrible tale, Allan.
Tell it to the baas, Hans."
So while Vrouw Prinsloo, in order to deceive any prying eyes if such by chance could see us, busied herself with lighting a fire on the hearth in the second room on which to warm the food, Hans told his story much as it has already been set out.
I listened to it with growing incredulity. The thing seemed to me impossible. Either Hans was deceived or lying, the latter probably, for well I knew the Hottentot powers of imagination. Or perhaps he was drunk; indeed, he smelt of liquor, of which I was aware be could carry a great quantity without outward signs of intoxication.
"I cannot believe it," I said when he had finished. "Even if Pereira is such a fiend, as is possible, would Henri Marais, your father--who, at any rate, has always been a good and God-fearing man--consent to work such a crime upon his daughter's husband, though he does dislike him?"
"My father is not what he was, Allan," said Marie. "Sometimes I think that his brain has gone."
"He did not speak like a man whose brain has gone this afternoon," I replied. "But let us suppose that this tale is true, what is it that you wish me to do?"
"Allan, I wish you to dress up in my clothes and get away to a hiding-place which Hans and the vrouw know, leaving me here instead of you."
"Why, Marie?" I said. "Then you might get yoursTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsao TsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsao TsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsao TsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsao TsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsao TsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsao TsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsao TsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaoTsaore was any thought of my being shot to-morrow morning, it will be abandoned. You can refuse to say who told you the tale."
"Yes, please do that," muttered Hans, "else I know one who will be shot."
"Good, I will go," said the vrouw, and she went, the guards letting her pass after a few words which we could not hear.
Half an hour later she returned and called to us to open the door.
"Well?" I asked.
"Well," she said, "I have failed, nephew. Except those sentries outside the door, the commandant and all the Boers have ridden off, I know not where, taking our people with them."
"That's odd," I answered, "but I suppose they thought they had not enough grass for their horses, or Heaven knows what they thought. Stay now, I will do something," and, opening the door, I called to the guards, honest fellows in their way, whom I had known in past times.
"Listen, friends," I said. "A tale has been brought to me that I am not to be taken to the big camp to have my case inquired of by the council, but am to be shot down in cold blood when I come out of this house to-morrow morning. Is that true?"
"Allemachte, Englishman!" answered one of them. "Do you take us for murderers? Our orders are to lead you to the commandant wherever he may appoint, so have no fear that we shall shoot you like a Kaffir. Either you or they who told you such a story are mad."
"So I thought, friends," I answered. "But where is the commandant and where are the others? The Vrouw Prinsloo here has been to see them, and reports that they are all gone."
"That is very likely," said the Boer. "There is a rumour that some of your Zulu brothers have come across the Tugela again to hunt us, which, if you want to know the truth, is why we visited this place. Well, the commandant has taken his men for a ride to see if he can meet them by this bright moonlight. Pity he could not take you, too, since you would have known so well where to find them, if they are there at all. Now please talk no more nonsense to us, which it makes us sick to hear, and don't think that you can slip away because we are only two, for you know our roers are loaded with slugs, and we have orders to use them."
"There," I said when I had shut the door, "now you have heard for yourselves. As I thought, there is nothing in this fine story, so I hope you are convinced."
Neither the vrouw nor Marie made any answer, and Hans also held his tongue. Yet, as I remembered afterwards, I saw a strange glance pass between the two women, who were not at all convinced, and, although I never dreamed of such a thing, had now determined to carry out their own desperate plan. But of this I repeat the vrouw and Hans only knew one half; the rest was locked in Marie's loving heart.
"Perhaps you are right, Allan," said the vrouw in the tone of one who gives way to an unreasonable child. "I hope so, and, at any rate, you can refuse to come out of the house to-morrow morning until you are quite sure. And now let us eat some supper, for we shall not make matters better by going hungry. Hans, bring the food."
So we ate, or made pretence to eat, and I, being thirsty, drank two cups of the black coffee dashed with spirit to serve as milk. After this I grew strangely sleepy. The last thing I remember was Marie looking at me with her beautiful eyes, that were full--ah! so full of tender love, and kissing me again and again upon the lips.
I dreamed all sorts of dreams, rather pleasant dreams on the whole.
Then I woke up by degrees to find myself in an earthen pit shaped like a bottle and having the remains of polished sides to it. It made me think of Joseph who was let down by his brethren into a well in the desert.
