Well, the black girl sat down under the shadow of a rock, leaving Suzanne to wander to and fro looking for the shells, and not for an hour or more did she get up to find her.

Then she searched in vain, for the spoor of the child's feet led from the sand between the rocks to the pebbly shore above, which was covered with tough sea grasses, and there was lost.

Now at the girl's story I was frightened, and Jan was both frightened and so angry that he would have tied her up and flogged her if he had found time.

But of this there was none to lose, so taking with him such Kaffirs as he could find he set off for the seashore to hunt for Suzanne.

It was near sunset when he returned, and I, who was watching from the _stoep_, saw with a shiver of fear that he was alone.
"Wife," he said in a hollow voice, "the child is lost.