slept soundly.

Not knowing this, however, he stood at a distance and called aloud, till
at last a Hottentot crept out with a gun, and, throwing back the blanket
from his head, asked who he was and what he wanted.

"I want to see the Baas of the camp," he answered, "for my mistress, a
white woman, lies exhausted upon the veldt not far away and seeks his
help."

"If you want to see the Baas," yawned the man, "you must wait till
daylight when he wakes up."

"I cannot wait," answered Zinti, and he made as though to pass towards
the camp, whereupon the man raised his gun and covered him, saying:

"If you go on I will shoot you, for stray Kaffir dogs are not allowed to
prowl about the camp at night."

"What then must I do?" asked Zinti.

"You can go away, or if you will you may sit by the waggon here till it
is light, and then when the Boers, my masters, wake up you can tell your
story, of which I believe nothing."

So, having no choice, Zinti sat down by the waggon and waited, while the
man with the gun watched him, pretending to be asleep all the while.

Now Suzanne was left alone upon the great veldt, and fear took hold
of her, for she was broken in body and mind, and the place was very
desolate; also she dreaded lest lions should take her, for she could
hear them roaring in the distance, or Swart Piet, who was worse than any
lion. Still she was so weary that after washing her face and hands in a
spring close by, presently she fell asleep. When she awoke the east was
tinged with the first grey light of the coming dawn, and it seemed to
her as though some cold hand of fear had gripped her heart of a sudden
and aroused her from heavy sleep. A sound caused her to look up, and
there on the crest of the rise before her, some three hundred yards
away, she saw dark forms moving, and caught sight of spears that
glimmered in the moonlight.

"Now there is an end," thought Suzanne to herself, "for without doubt
yonder stands a Zulu impi; the same that attacked the Umpondwana, for
I can see the crane's feathers in their head-dresses," and she crouched
upon the ground in an extremity of dread.

CHAPTER XXXIII

RALPH FINDS THE DREAM MOUNTAIN

Now I must go back to that evening when we learned the great tidings
from the lips of the lad Gaasha, whose life Ralph had saved after the
attack by the Kaffirs upon the laager. There sat Gaasha on the ground
staring, and there, not far away, Ralph was lying in his swoon, w