or we will come and take it
and kill you at the same time.'

"'I have no brandy,' she cried, 'and when my husband comes
back I will tell him to shoot you all.'

"The Kafirs laughed, and one of the house-girls called out,
'There is brandy; we have seen it.'

"Then the Kafirs all began to shout together, and banged
the door with their knobkerries. 'Give us the brandy!' they
shouted, and she heard a stone smash through a window
against the shutters.

"The Vrouw Coetzee was a brave woman, and she hated Kafirs;
but, looking at the baby, she thought it best to give them
the brandy.

"'Stand away from the window,' she cried, 'and I will put
the brandy outside; but if one of you comes near me I will
shoot.'

"So she placed the brandy on the sill outside the window.
The Kafirs were standing about in groups, looking very
fierce, but they saw the elephant-gun and did nothing. But
as she barred the shutter again, she heard them rush up and
snatch the bottles.

"Watching through the keyhole of the door, she saw them
troop off to the huts, shouting and capering and waving the
bottles in the air. They came to the door no more that day,
but she heard them howling in the kraal as the brandy began
to inflame them.

"When it got dark she sat down with her face to the door,
her child in her arms. The howling of the Kafirs was wilder
than ever, and shrieks of women mingled with the uproar.
The Vrouw Coetzee trembled there in the dark as she
remembered stories of the Kafir wars, and how the Kafirs
had treated the white women and children they caught on the
farms.

"Late in the night the Kafirs came back and commenced to
hammer on the door again.

"'Give us more brandy,' they shouted.

"'I have no more,' she said. 'I have given you all.'

"'You lie!' they screamed. 'If you do not give us more we
will come and kill you and tear your baby to pieces.'

"Then the Vrouw Coetzee began to tremble, and, putting down
the child, took the big gun in her hands.

"'That is you, Kleinbooi,' she cried out, recognizing the
voice of one of the Kafirs. 'Why do you behave like this?
What will the baas say when he comes back?'

"'We do not care for the baas,' they replied. 'If you do
not give us the brandy we will break in your door.'

"'I have no more,' she said again, and straightway the
Kafirs commenced to hammer at the door.

"The Vrouw Coetzee raised the gun to her shoulder and
pointed it at the door. Her arms were trembling