year after you are dead, your rival shall fold her close, and
when men name your name they shall spit upon the ground. Nothing,
nothing shall be yours, but shame and empty longing and black death, and
after it the woe of the wicked. Get you back to your secret krantz and
your Kaffir wives, Half-breed, and tell them the tale of your ride, and
of how you did not dare to face the foam of the Red Water."

Now Van Vooren went mad indeed; so mad that, forgetting he was not on
the lonely veldt, he lifted his gun and fired straight at Sihamba. But
her eye was quick, and seeing the muzzle rise, she threw herself upon
the ground, so that the ball passed over her.

"Why, Half-breed, have you even forgotten how to shoot?" she called,
springing to her feet again and mocking him. Then the voice of Sigwe
broke in, for his anger was deep.

"One thing you have certainly forgotten, Bull-Head," he said, "that
these two are my guests and wrapped in my kaross, and therefore from
this hour we are enemies. Ho! men," he cried to his guard, "I spare
Bull-Head's life because once we were friends, therefore do not take his
life, but beat him and those with him out of my town with the shafts of
your assegais, and if ever he sets foot within it again then use their
blades upon him."

At their chief's bidding the soldiers of the guard sprang forward,
and, falling upon Van Vooren and those with him, they flogged them with
sticks and the shafts of their spears until from head to foot they were
nothing but blood and bruises, and thus they drove them out of the town
of Sigwe back to the ford of the Red River.

When they were gone, Suzanne, who through it all had sat upon the horse
watching in silence, now urged him forward to where Sigwe stood, and
said:

"Chief, I thank you for that deed, and now, I pray you, give us food
and a hut to rest in, for we are wet and hungry and worn out with long
travel."

So the guest masters led them into the fence of the town and gave them
the guest hut, the largest in the kraal, and the best food that they
had--milk and meal and beef and eggs, as much as they would of it. The
_schimmel_ also was fastened to a post in the little courtyard of the
hut, and a Kaffir who once had served as groom to a white man, washed
him all over with warm water. Afterwards he was given a mash of meal to
eat, and, later, when he was a little rested, his fill of good forage,
which he ate gladly, for, though he was very tired and his