ly, Father of Swallow," Sihamba replied, eyeing him oddly, "you
talk of what you have just seen."

"No, no," he said, "I saw it years ago."

"Where?" she asked, staring at him.

He started and uttered some quick words. "I know now," he said. "I saw
it in your eyes the other day."

"Yes," she answered quietly, "I think that, if anywhere, you saw it
in my eyes, since the coming of this messenger is the first of all the
great things that are to happen to the Swallow and to those who live in
her nest. I do not know the things; still, it may happen that another
who has Vision may see them in the glass of my eyes."

CHAPTER XII

WHAT THE COW SHOWED ZINTI

Twelve days passed, and one morning when I went out to feed the
chickens, I saw the red Kaffir with the scar on his face seated beyond
the _stoep_ taking snuff.

"What is it?" I asked.

"A letter," he answered, giving me a paper.

I took it into the house, where the others were gathered for breakfast,
and as before Ralph read it. It was to this effect:

"Well-beloved Heer Botmar,--I have received your honoured letter, and I
think that the unchristian spirit which it shows cannot be pleasing to
our Lord. Still, as I seek peace and not war, I take no offence, nor
shall I come near your place to provoke the shedding of the blood of
men. I love your daughter, but if she rejects me for another, I have
nothing more to say, except that I hope she may be happy in the life she
has chosen. For me, I am leaving this part of the country, and if you,
Heer Botmar, like to buy my farm, I shall be happy to sell it to you at
a fair price; or perhaps the Heer Kenzie will buy it to live on after he
is married; if so, he can write to me by this messenger. Farewell."

Now, when they heard this letter, the others looked more happy; but for
my part I shook my head, seeing guile in it, since the tone of it was
too humble for Swart Piet. There was no answer to it, and the messenger
went away, but not, as I learned, before he had seen Sihamba. It seems
that the medicine which she gave him had cured his child, for which he
was so grateful that he drove her down a cow in payment, a fine beast,
but very wild, for handling was strange to it; moreover, it had been
but just separated from its calf. Still, although she questioned him
closely, the man would tell Sihamba but little of the place where he
lived, and nothing of the road to it.

Here I will stop to show how great was the c