Then you came and stood over the hole, and for a long while I thought you were a ghost.
"But now we are together once more and all is right, just as what your reverend father always said it would be with those who go to church on Sunday, like me when there was nothing else to do." And again he fell to kissing my foot.
"Hans," I said, "you saw the camp.

Was the Missie Marie there ?" "Baas, how can I tell, who never went into it?
But the wagon she slept in was not there; no, nor that of the Vrouw Prinsloo or of the Heer Meyer." "Thank God!" I gasped, then added: "Where were you trying to get to, Hans, when you ran away from the camp ?" "Baas, I thought perhaps that the Missie and the Prinsloos and the Meyers had gone to that fine farm which you pegged out, and that I would go and see if they were there.

Because if so, I was sure that they would be glad to know that you were really dead, and give me some food in payment for my news.

But I was afraid to walk across the open veld for fear lest the Zulus should see me and kill me.

Therefore I came round through the thick bush along the river, where one can only travel slowly, especially if hollow," and he patted his wasted stomach.
"But, Hans," I asked, "are we near my farm where I set the men to build the houses on the hill above the river ?" "Of course, baas.