The old kafir shrugged, and a silence fell between them all. Jan and Andries had understood less than the half of what was said, but the ill-ease reached them like a contagion and they sat very close together, their eyes wide open and quick.
Piet was about to ask further questions, when Jan suddenly gripped his brother and started.
"Hark!" he cried. "What is that?"
The quick alarm strung them all to tenseness; only the old kafir cocked his eyebrow humorously and spat into the fire. The others rested where they sat, straining their ears.
"There!" cried Jan again.
It was a dull noise of metal on metal that they heard, a muffled ring and clink; it sounded again and again.
"Someone is cutting at the chains," said Piet hoarsely.
"It is they," said Klein Piet.
Susanna's hand stole into Piet's arm; he had almost forgotten that she was sitting a little behind him, so still had she been. But the touch of her hand made him the equal of his terrors; the man with a wife to shield cannot afford fears. He pressed her hand and rose to his feet.