“It is true, baas, I would have taken one of the things from the waggon—the thing that plays; but I did not know that the lady had been taken.”
“You lie!”
“Yoh!”
“Why did you steal away when we came? Was it not because your heart was black?”
“Because the things had been disturbed by that Makatese boy. Let me speak. When the baas went to shoot there came a white man, with writing, saying we were to inspan and trek, so that the waggon would be near where the baas was shooting. We inspanned, and one white man came along. He said this was the place to outspan. In the morning another white man came with a cart, which drew up over there beyond the thick bush. They said the lady would go with them until you came back. Then I went off with the oxen to the water, and when I came back the cart was gone, and the lady and the white men, also the leader, and the things in the waggon were disturbed. So my heart was afraid, and I went back to the oxen.”
“Is this story true?”
“Eweh, Inkose, it is true.”
Hume took the lantern and went over to the bush, beyond which he found the tracks of a cart.
Returning, he released the Kaffir, and told him to prepare food for himself. He then related to Webster what he had just heard.
Webster was for tying Klaas to the wheel all night, but Hume opposed this.