I have little doubt that he was addressing his lost wife, some vision of whom had flashed across his dying sense.  Stella, of course, was overwhelmed with grief at her loss.  Till I came her father had been her sole companion, and therefore, as may be imagined, the tie between them was much closer than is usual even in the case of father and daughter.  So deeply did she mourn that I began to fear for the effect upon her health.  Nor were we the only ones to grieve; all the natives on the settlement called Mr. Carson “father,” and as a father they lamented him.  The air resounded with the wailing of women, and the men went about with bowed heads, saying that “the sun had set in the heavens, now only the Star (Stella) remained.”  Indaba-zimbi alone did not mourn.  He said that it was best that the Inkoos should die, for what was life worth when one lay like a log?—­moreover, that it would have been well for all if he had died sooner.

On the following day we buried him in the little graveyard near the waterfall.  It was a sad business, and Stella cried very much, in spite of all I could do to comfort her.

That night as I sat outside the hut smoking—­for the weather was hot, and Stella was lying down inside—­old Indaba-zimbi came up, saluted, and squatted at my feet.

“What is it, Indaba-zimbi?” I said.

“This, Macumazahn.  When are you going to trek towards the coast?”

“I don’t know,” I answered.  “The Star is not fit to travel now, we must wait awhile.”

“No, Macumazahn, you must not wait, you must go, and the Star must take her chance.  She is strong.  It is nothing.  All will be well.”

“Why do you say so? why must we go?”

“For this reason, Macumazahn,” and he looked cautiously round and spoke low.  “The baboons have come back in thousands.  All the mountain is full of them.”

“I did not know that they had gone,” I said.

“Yes,” he answered, “they went after the marriage, all but one or two; now they are back, all the baboons in the world, I think.  I saw a whole cliff back with them.”

“Is that all?” I said, for I saw that he had something behind.  “I am not afraid of a pack of baboons.”

“No, Macumazahn, it is not all.  The Babyan-frau, Hendrika, is with them.”

Now nothing had been heard or seen of Hendrika since her expulsion, and though at first she and her threats had haunted me somewhat, by degrees she to a great extent had passed out of my mind, which was fully preoccupied with Stella and my father-in-law’s illness.  I started violently.  “How do you know this?” I asked.

“I know it because I saw her, Macumazahn.  She is disguised, she is dressed up in baboon skins, and her face is stained dark.  But though she was a long way off, I knew her by her size, and I saw the white flesh of her arm when the skins slipped aside.  She has come back, Macumazahn, with all the baboons in the world, and she has come back to do evil.  Now do you understand why you should trek?”