nne must certainly
be drowned. When they were quite beyond his reach in the middle of the
stream, he stood still and watched until he saw them come to the further
shore in safety. Then he called his men about him and consulted with
them, and the end of it was that they rode off in a body up the bank of
the river.

"They go to seek a ford," said Suzanne.

"Yes, Swallow, but now we shall have the start of them. Come, let us
mount."

So they climbed upon the back of the _schimmel_, and once more he went
on with them, not fast, for now he could not even canter, but ambling
or walking, according to the nature of the ground, at a rate perhaps of
seven miles the hour. Soon they had left the river and were toiling
up the slopes of the peak, until presently they struck a well-worn
footpath.

"I think that this must lead to the town of Sigwe," said Sihamba.

"I pray that it does," answered Suzanne, "and that it is not far, for I
feel as though Death were near to me."

"Keep a great heart," said Sihamba, "for we have met Death face to face
and conquered him."

So still they toiled on till at length the path took a turn, and there,
in a fold of the hill, they beheld the great kraal of Sigwe, a very
large Kaffir town. Before the kraal was a wide open space, and on that
space armed men were assembled, several full regiments of them. In front
of this impi was gathered a company of chiefs.

"Now we have no choice," said Sihamba, and turned the _schimmel_ towards
them, while all that army stared at this strange sight of two women,
one tall and fair, one black and little, riding towards them mounted
together upon a great blood horse which was so weary that he could
scarcely set one foot before the other.

When they reached the captains Sihamba slipped to the ground, but
Suzanne remained seated upon the _schimmel_.

"Who are you?" asked a broad man in a leopard-skin cloak, of Sihamba;
but although she was small and dishevelled, her hair and garments being
wet with water, he did not laugh at her, for he saw that this stranger
had the air of one who is of the blood of chiefs.

"I am Sihamba Ngenyanga, the doctoress, of whom you may have heard," she
answered; and some of the people said, "We have heard of her; she is a
great doctoress."

"To what people do you belong, Sihamba?" asked the captain again.

"I belong to the people of Zwide, whom Chaka drove from Zululand, and
by birth I am a chieftainess of the Umpondwana, who l