ologise quite humbly,
assuring my father that he forgot nothing and meant no offence. So they
patched the matter up, and an hour later we started.

All the Boers came to see us off, giving me many kind words and saying
how much they looked forward to meeting me again on the following
Thursday. Pereira, who was among them, was also very genial, begging me
to be sure and get well, since he did not wish to beat one who was still
crippled, even at a game of goose shooting. I answered that I would do
my best; as for my part, I did not like being beaten it any game which
I had set my heart on winning, whether it were little or big. Then
I turned my head, for I was lying on my back all this time, to bid
good-bye to Marie, who had slipped out of the house into the yard where
the cart was.

"Good-bye, Allan," she said, giving me her hand and a look from her
eyes that I trusted was not seen. Then, under pretence of arranging the
kaross which was over me, she bent down and whispered swiftly:

"Win that match if you love me. I shall pray God that you may every
night, for it will be an omen."

I think the whisper was heard, though not the words, for I saw Pereira
bite his lip and make a movement as though to interrupt her. But Pieter
Retief thrust his big form in front of him rather rudely, and said with
one of his hearty laughs:

"Allemachte! friend, let the missje wish a good journey to the young
fellow who saved her life."

Next moment Hans, the Hottentot, screamed at the oxen in the usual
fashion, and we rolled away through the gate.

But oh! if I had liked the Heer Retief before, now I loved him.

CHAPTER V. THE SHOOTING MATCH

My journey back to the Mission Station was a strange contrast to that
which I had made thence a few days before. Then, the darkness, the swift
mare beneath me rushing through it like a bird, the awful terror in my
heart lest I should be too late, as with wild eyes I watched the paling
stars and the first gathering grey of dawn. Now, the creaking of the
ox-cart, the familiar veld, the bright glow of the peaceful sunlight,
and in my heart a great thankfulness, and yet a new terror lest the pure
and holy love which I had won should be stolen away from me by force or
fraud.

Well, as the one matter had been in the hand of God, so was the other,
and with that knowledge I must be content. The first trial had ended in
death and victory. How would the second end? I wondered, and those words
se