At length they reached the cleft in the rock that led to the plain below.  “Stay here,” said Sihamba, “while I look,” and she crept to the entrance.  Presently she returned and said: 

“A man watches there, and it is not possible to slip past him because of the moonlight.  Now, I know of only one thing that we can do; and you, Zinti, must do it.  Slip down the rock and cover the man with your gun, saying to him that if he stirs a hand or speaks a word you will shoot him dead.  Hold him thus till we are past you on our way to the wood, then follow us as best you can, but do not fire except to save your life or ours.”

Now the gifts of Zinti lay rather in tracking and remembering paths and directions than in fighting men, so that when he heard this order he was afraid and hesitated.  But when she saw it, Sihamba turned upon him so fiercely that he feared her more than the watchman, and went at once, so that this man who was half asleep suddenly saw the muzzle of a roer within three paces of his head and heard a voice command him to stand still and silent or die.  Thus he stood indeed until he perceived that the new wife of his chief was escaping.  Then remembering what would be his fate at the hands of Bull-Head he determined to take his chance of being shot, and, turning suddenly, sped towards the kraal shouting as he ran, whereon Zinti fired at him, but the ball went wide.  A cannon could scarcely have made more noise than did the great roer in the silence of the night as the report of it echoed to and fro among the hills.

“Oh! fool to fire, and yet greater fool to miss,” said Sihamba.  “To the horses!  Swift! swift!”

They ran as the wind runs, and now they were in the wood, and now they had found the beasts.

“Praise to the Snake of my house!” said Sihamba, “they are safe, all four of them,” and very quickly they untied the riems by which they had fastened the horses to the trees.

“Mount, Swallow,” said Sihamba, seizing the head of the great schimmel.

Suzanne set her foot upon the shoulder of Zinti, who knelt to receive it, and sprang into the saddle.  Then having lifted Sihamba on the grey mare Zinti mounted the other horse himself, holding the mule by a leading riem.

“Which way, mistress?” he asked.

“Homewards,” she answered, and they cantered forward through the wood.

On the further side of this wood was a little sloping plain not more than three hundred paces wide, and beyond it lay the seaward Nek through which they must pass on their journey to the stead.  Already they were out of the wood and upon the plain, when from their right a body of horsemen swooped towards them, seven in all, of whom one, the leader, was Swart Piet himself, cutting them off from the Nek.  They halted their horses as though to a word of command, and speaking rapidly, Sihamba asked of Zinti:  “Is there any other pass through yonder range, for this one is barred to us?”