Black Piet made no answer, so for a while the two stood facing each other, and they were a strange pair, as different as the light from the darkness.  Ralph fair-haired, grey-eyed, stern-faced, with thin nostrils, that quivered like those of a well-bred horse, narrow-flanked, broad-chested, though somewhat slight of limb and body, for he was but young, and had scarcely come to a man’s weight, but lithe and wiry as a tiger.  Piet taller and more massive, for he had the age of him by five years, with round Kaffir eyes, black and cruel, coarse black hair that grew low upon his brow, full red lips, the lower drooping so that the large white teeth and a line of gums could be seen within.  Great-limbed he was also, firm-footed and bull-strengthed, showing his face the cruelty and the cunning of a black race, mingled with the mind and mastery of the white; an evil and a terrible man, knowing no lord save his own passions, and no religion but black witchcraft and vile superstition; a foe to be feared indeed, but one who loved better to stab in the dark than to strike in the open day.

“Well, myn Heer van Vooren,” mocked Ralph, “you could fling your arms about a helpless girl and put her to shame before the eyes of men, now do the same by me if you can,” and he took one step towards him.

“What is this monkey’s chatter?” asked Piet, in his slow voice.  “Is it because I gave the girl a kiss that you would fix a quarrel upon me?  Have you not done as much yourself many times, and for a less stake than the life of one who has been doomed to die?”

“If I have kissed her,” answered Ralph, “it is with her consent, and because she will be my wife; but you worked upon her pity to put her to shame and now you shall pay the price of it.  Do you see that whip?” and he nodded toward the sjambock that was lying on the grass.  “Let him who proves the best man use it upon the other.”

“Will be your wife——­” sneered Piet, “the wife of the English castaway!  She might have been, but now she never shall, unless she cares to wed a carcase cut into rimpis.  You want a flogging, and you shall have it, yes, to the death, but Suzanne shall be—­not your wife but——­”

He got no further, for at that moment Ralph sprang at him like a wild cat, stopping his foul mouth with a fearful blow upon the lips.  Then there followed a dreadful struggle between these two.  Black Piet rushed again and again, striving to clasp his antagonist in his great arms and crush him, whereas Ralph, who, like all Englishmen, loved to use his fists, and knew that he was no match for Piet in strength, sought to avoid him and plant blow after blow upon his face and body.  This, indeed, he did with such success that soon the Boer was covered with blood and bruises.  Again and again he charged at him, roaring with pain and rage, and again and again Ralph first struck and then slipped to one side.

At length Piet’s turn came, for Ralph in leaping back caught his foot against a stone and stumbled, and before he could recover himself the iron arms were round his middle, and they were wrestling for the mastery.