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Swart Piet had Kaffir blood in his veins, as I have said, and from boyhood it had been his custom to live two lives, one as a white man with white men, and one as a Kaffir with Kaffirs.
The Kaffir probably supposed that they might interfere with his plans, by bringing suspicion upon himself. This, however, did not prevent Willem from going to see him once more. Congo had broken his promise; and that was a proof that something must be wrong. On their new visit to Mynheer Van Ormon, this gentleman did not take the slightest trouble to show them civility.
"Oh! only a Kaffir." "I am so sorry, I hope you will get well soon. Forgive me now, I must go to look for my father." "She is uncommonly pretty," remarked Anscombe, "and a lady into the bargain. In reflecting on old Marnham's sins we must put it to his credit that he has produced a charming daughter." "Too pretty and charming by half," I grunted. "Perhaps Dr. Rodd is of the same way of thinking.
But I could see nothing of him, and at length, being thoroughly chilled with the wet, started back to my waggon to change my clothes. On reaching it, I was rather surprised to see a strange Kaffir seated on the driving-box wrapped up in a blanket. "Hullo! come out of that," I said. The figure on the box slowly unrolled the blanket, and with great deliberation took a pinch of snuff.
There were aloe and cactus hedges, patches of unfamiliar cultivation upon the hills; bunchy, frondy growths that I learnt were bananas and plantains, and there were barbaric insanitary-looking Kaffir kraals which I supposed had vanished before our civilization. There seemed an enormous quantity of Kaffirs all along the line and all of them, men, women, and children, were staring at the train.
One glance was enough. The camelopards were gone! The Bushman and Kaffir had promised to watch over them in turns, and had both neglected their duty by getting drunk. Willem uttered not one word of reproach. Hope, fear, and chagrin kept him for a moment silent.
"He has no friends here," said the wicked Sadi; "if he were cast from his camel and left here to die, there would be none to inquire after his fate; for who cares what becomes of a dog of a kaffir?" I will not further repeat the cruel counsels of this bad man, but I will give the reason for the deadly hatred which he bore toward the poor hakeem.
A few minutes later, three perhaps, or five, just as the four of us with our Kaffir servants were riding quietly up to the mouth of the Nek, we saw a great horse thundering towards us, black with sweat and flecked with foam, its shoulder bloody, its eyes staring, its red nostrils agape, and perched upon its bare back a little woman who swayed from side to side as though with weariness, holding in her hand a shattered wand.
This, like all the other moves, was taken after consultation with the officers, several of whom were experienced Kaffir campaigners. It was rough going; we were unable to see our way, now splashing through the little dongas that ran down into the belly of the vlei, now working round them, through bush and soft bottoms.
Every Sunday he had five services at different places, one of them eighteen miles from the nearest, a space that had to be ridden at speed in the mid-day sun. There was no house, but a couple of rooms with perpendicular sides and a verandah, one for chapel, the other for sitting-room, while Kaffir beehive huts were the bedrooms of all.
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