with one eye open, for I thought she had made a plan.
To-night I kept wide awake, though I pretended to be asleep. An hour
after you got into the blankets the moon rose, and I saw a beam of light
come into the hut through the hole in the roof. Presently I saw the beam
of light vanish. At first I thought that a cloud was passing over the
moon, but I listened and heard a noise as though some one was squeezing
himself through a narrow space. Presently he was through, and hanging by
his hands. Then the light came in again, and in the middle of it I saw
the Babyan-frau swinging from the roof, and about to drop into the
hut. She clung by both hands, and in her mouth was a great knife. She
dropped, and I ran forward to seize her as she dropped, and gripped her
round the middle. But she heard me come, and, seizing the knife, struck
at me in the dark and missed me. Then we struggled, and you know the
rest. You were very nearly dead to-night, Macumazahn."

"Very nearly indeed," I answered, still panting, and arranging the rags
of my night-dress round me as best I might. Then the memory of my horrid
dream flashed into my mind. Doubtless it had been conjured up by the
sound of Hendrika dropping to the floor--in my dream it had been a grave
that she dropped into. All of it, then, had been experienced in that
second of time. Well, dreams are swift; perhaps Time itself is nothing
but a dream, and events that seem far apart really occur simultaneously.

We passed the rest of the night watching Hendrika. Presently she came
to herself and struggled furiously to break the reim. But the untanned
buffalo hide was too strong even for her, and, moreover, Indaba-zimbi
unceremoniously sat upon her to keep her quiet. At last she gave it up.

In due course the day broke--my marriage day. Leaving Indaba-zimbi to
watch my would-be murderess, I went and fetched some natives from the
stables, and with their aid bore Hendrika to the prison hut--that
same hut in which she had been confined when she had been brought
a baboon-child from the rocks. Here we shut her up, and, leaving
Indaba-zimbi to watch outside, I returned to my sleeping-place and
dressed in the best garments that the Babyan Kraals could furnish. But
when I looked at the reflection of my face, I was horrified. It was
covered with scratches inflicted by the nails of Hendrika. I doctored
them up as best I could, then went out for a walk to calm my nerves,
which, what between the events of