“And with good reason,” commented my father.
“‘When you have received these monies, if ever, I pray you take some safe opportunity of sending them to me, wherever I may be, which doubtless you will hear in due course, although by that time I hope to be rich again and not to need money. Farewell and God be with you, as I hope He will be with me and Marie and the rest of us trek-Boers. The bearer will overtake us with your answer at our first outspan.
“‘HENRI MARAIS.’”
“Well,” said my father with a sigh, “I suppose I must accept his trust, though why he should choose an ‘accursed Englishman’ with whom he has quarrelled violently to collect his debts instead of one of his own beloved Boers, I am sure I do not know. I will go and write to him. Allan, see that the messenger and his horse get something to eat.”
I nodded and went to the man, who was one of those that had defended Maraisfontein with me, a good fellow unless he got near liquor.
“Heer Allan,” he said, looking round to see that we were not overheard, “I have a little writing for you also,” and he produced from his pouch a note that was unaddressed.
I tore it open eagerly. Within was written in French, which no Boer would understand if the letter fell into his hands:
“Be brave and faithful, and remember, as I shall. Oh! love of my heart, adieu, adieu!”
This message was unsigned; but what need was there of signature?
I wrote an answer of a sort that may be imagined, though what the exact words were I cannot remember after the lapse of nearly half a century. Oddly enough, it is the things I said which I recall at such a distance of time rather than the things which I wrote, perhaps because, when once written, my mind being delivered, troubled itself with them no more. So in due course the Hottentot departed with my father’s letter and my own, and that was the last direct communication which we had with Henri or Marie Marais for more than a year.