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Now it shrinks quite small, and lies only over your likeness, Sihamba, which shows through it red yes, and all the water round it is red, and now there is nothing left;" and Jan rose pale with fright, and wiped his brow with a coloured pocket-handkerchief, muttering "Allemachter! this is magic indeed."
Follow me, Swallow," and, going to the edge of the stream, she hooted like an owl, whereupon Zinti came out of the reeds, looking very cold and frightened. "Be swift," whispered Sihamba, and they started along the krantz at a run.
So it came about that one afternoon Suzanne put the dog in a basket, and taking with her an old Hottentot to carry it, set out upon her grey mare for the valley where Sihamba lived. Now Sihamba had her hut and the huts of the few people in her service in a recess at the end of the valley, so placed that until you were quite on to them you would never have guessed that they were there.
"Lady Swallow," said Sihamba gravely, "it is an army of the Zulus sent by Dingaan to destroy us, and with them marches Bull-Head." And she told her of the trick of the cattle and of what the messengers had seen. Suzanne heard, and her face grew white as the goatskin cloak she wore.
As for the two cows, they can run with the other cattle till your return." "I thank you, Mother of Swallow," she answered, and turned to go, when I stopped her and asked: "Have you heard anything that makes you afraid, Sihamba?" "I have heard nothing," she replied, "still I am afraid." "Then you are a fool for your pains, to be afraid of nothing," I answered roughly; "but watch well, Sihamba."
A man thrust this woman to one side and she fell; it was that aged councillor who on the yesterday had brought news of the surrender to Sihamba. She tried to struggle to her feet but others trampled upon her. "Sister, sister!" she cried, catching Suzanne by the hide blanket which she wore, "I am dead, but oh! save my child."
But they did not laugh long, for Sihamba, having first bent her head and kissed Suzanne on the hand, leaned forward and began to stroke the schimmel's neck and to whisper into his ear, till indeed it seemed as though the great brute that loved her understood.
That evening her child cried piteously; and the nurse took it to the stream in the middle of the night, singing: "It is crying, it is crying, The child of Sihamba Ngenyanga; It is crying, it will not be pacified." The mother thereupon came out of the water, and wailed this song as she put the child to her breast: "It is crying, it is crying, The child of the walker by moonlight.
When the Zulu captains caught sight of her upon the wall, they jeered aloud and asked whether this was indeed Sihamba Ngenyanga, or if a she-monkey had been sent to talk with them. "I am Sihamba," she answered quietly, "or I am a monkey, as it may please you, though the white man with you can tell you what I am." "I can," said Piet with a laugh.
"Wherefore, Swallow, seeing that for some days you are but a Kaffir woman, and this is their dress, of which none think harm? Nay, you must, for remember that if you show doubt or shame, you will betray yourself." Then with a groan Suzanne yielded, and crouching upon the floor like a native, awaited the return of Sihamba.
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