horse came over the
wall and Fanie tumbled off it and came rushing in.

"We all screamed. He was white like ashes, and wet with
sweat, and trembling so that he could not stand.

"'Fanie,' cried my sister, 'what is it?' and he groaned and
put his face in his hands.

"By and by he spoke, and kept glancing about him and
turning to look behind him, and would not let one of us
move away.

"'There was something behind me,' he said.

"'Something?' we all asked.

"'Yes,' he said. 'Something . . . dead I It followed me up
here, and I could not get away from it, spur as hard as I
would. I think it is a death-call.'

"Then we were all frightened, but we could not help wanting
to hear more.

"'No,' said Fanie, 'I did not see it, nor hear it even, but
I knew it was there.'

"'It was a sign,' said my mother, a very wise old woman.
'Let us all thank God.'

"So we thanked God on our knees, but I'm sure I don't know
what for.

"Then Fanie told us all he knew, and that was just nothing.
As he came to the kloof he was afraid of something in front
of him. He said he felt like a man in grave-clothes. So he
turned, and then the ... whatever it was . . . seemed to
come after him; so he galloped and galloped as hard as the
horse could lay hoof to the earth, and prayed till his
heart nearly burst. And then, not knowing where he was
going, he jumped the wall and came among us. We were all
silent when he had told us.

"Then Oom Jan spoke. He was very old, and seldom said
anything.

"'You have done murder!' he said.

"'If I talk till my mouth is stopped with dust I shall
never be able to tell how cold I felt about the heart when
I heard that. For the little picaninny came plain before my
eyes, and oh! I was all full of pity for Fanie. I liked him
well enough in those days.

"He stopped with us that night. He would not go away nor be
alone, so he slept with my brothers, and held their hands
and prayed half the night. In the morning they took him
home on one of our horses, for his own was fit to die from
the night's work.

"That was the last I ever saw of Fanie. It was as though he
went from us to God. He kissed me on both cheeks when he
went away; he kissed us all, but me first of all, and held
both my hands. I think he must have liked me too,--don't you
think so, Katje?" "'Yes," said Katje softly.

"He went down the road between my brothers with his head
bent like an old man's, and I watched him out of sight, and
I w