“What you do, Swallow, that I shall do, for am I not your slave bought at a great price? I will go home with you and serve you, yes, to my life’s end.”
“That would please me well enough, Sihamba, but I do not know how it would please my father.”
“What pleases you pleases him, Swallow; moreover, I can save my food twice over by curing his cattle and horses in sickness, for in such needs I have skill.”
“Well,” she said, “come, and when my father returns we will settle how it shall be.”
CHAPTER X.
THE OATH OF SIHAMBA
Suzanne came home and told me her story, and when I heard it I was like a mad woman; indeed, it would have gone ill with Swart Piet’s eyes and hair if I could have fallen in with him that night.
“Wait till your father returns, girl,” I said.
“Yes, mother,” she answered, “I wait for him—and Ralph.”
“What is to be done with the little doctoress, Sihamba?” I asked, adding, “I do not like such people about the place.”
“Let her bide also till the men come back, mother,” she answered, “and then they will see to it. Meanwhile there is an empty hut down by the cattle kraal where she can live.”