Then she answered: "There is a great risk, tante; but we must take it.

Send your husband to chat with those guards, and give him a bottle of spirits.

I will talk with Hans here and see what can be arranged." So Marie went aside with Hans, as he told me afterwards, and asked him if he knew of any medicine that made people sleep for a long while without waking.

He answered, Yes; all the coloured people had plenty of such medicine.

Without doubt he could get some from the Kaffirs who dwelt upon the place, or if not he could dig the roots of a plant that he had seen growing near by which would serve the purpose.