e.

"Won't the sea bring me a brother?" went on the child, for she had been
told that little children came out of the sea.

"Perhaps, if you look for one very hard," I answered with a sigh, little
knowing what fruit would spring from this seed of a child's talk.

On the morrow there was a great to do about the place, for the black
girl whose business it was to look after Suzanne came in at breakfast
time and said that she had lost the child. It seemed that they had gone
down to the shore in the early morning to gather big shells such as are
washed up there after a heavy storm, and that Suzanne had taken with her
a bag made of spring-buck hide in which to carry them. Well, the black
girl sat down under the shadow of a rock, leaving Suzanne to wander to
and fro looking for the shells, and not for an hour or more did she get
up to find her. Then she searched in vain, for the spoor of the child's
feet led from the sand between the rocks to the pebbly shore above,
which was covered with tough sea grasses, and there was lost. Now at the
girl's story I was frightened, and Jan was both frightened and so angry
that he would have tied her up and flogged her if he had found time. But
of this there was none to lose, so taking with him such Kaffirs as he
could find he set off for the seashore to hunt for Suzanne. It was near
sunset when he returned, and I, who was watching from the _stoep_, saw
with a shiver of fear that he was alone.

"Wife," he said in a hollow voice, "the child is lost. We have searched
far and wide and can find no trace of her. Make food ready to put in my
saddle-bags, for should we discover her to-night or to-morrow, she will
be starving."

"Be comforted," I said, "at least she will not starve, for the cook girl
tells me that before Suzanne set out this morning she begged of her a
bottle of milk and with it some biltong and meal cakes and put them in
her bag."

"It is strange," he answered. "What could the little maid want with
these unless she was minded to make a journey?"

"At times it comes into the thoughts of children to play truant,
husband."

"Yes, yes, that is so, but pray God that we may find her before the moon
sets."

Then while I filled the saddle-bags Jan swallowed some meat, and a fresh
horse having been brought he kissed me and rode away in the twilight.

Oh! what hours were those that followed! All night long I sat there
on the _stoep_, though the wind chilled me and the dew wet my