But in vain did he torture and question, for not one word could he wring from my lips as to where he should seek for the lady Swallow.

He thought that she was hidden somewhere on the mountain, and sent men to search for her till they grew tired and ran away to steal the cattle; he never guessed that disguised as a black woman she had passed beneath his very eyes.
"Yet this was so, for I, Sihamba, know it from the talk I overheard between Bull-Head and one of his servants, who had held her awhile wishing to take her for a wife.[*] Yes, she passed beneath his eyes and escaped him, and I--I have won the game." [*] In after days, when there was talk far and wide of the wonderful escape of my daughter Suzanne, disguised as a Kaffir woman, the man who had sought to take her captive told the story of the white mark which his grip left upon her arm.

He said, indeed, that both he and Bull-Head saw the mark when she was at a little distance from them, but believing it to be an ivory ring they took no heed.
Now the effects of the water, which for a little while had given new life to Sihamba, began to pass off, and she grew weak and silent.
Presently I saw Ralph returning down the steep cleft, and with him Jan, and went to meet them.
"It is finished," Ralph said, looking at me with quiet eyes.
"I know it," I answered, "but, son, there is still work to do if you want to save your wife----" and I told him what I had learned.
"The _schimmel_," he exclaimed, growing pale to the lips, "where is the _schimmel_ ?" and he turned to seek him.
"No, no," I said, "let Jan fetch the horse.

Come you to Sihamba, that she may show you the path before she dies." Now Jan went to the glade that I pointed out to find the _schimmel_, while I led Ralph to Sihamba.

She heard him coming and opened her eyes.
"Welcome, husband of Swallow," she said, "you have done well and bravely, yet it was the hand of fate and not yours that smote yonder on the rock point.