Riding up the kloof they soon reached the spot where Van Vooren’s band had tethered their horses and tracked the spoor of them with ease for so long as the ground was soft. Afterwards when they reached the open country, where the grass had been burnt off and had only just begun to spring again, this became more difficult, and at length, in that light, impossible. Here they wasted a long time, searching for the hoof-marks by the rays of the waning moon, only to lose them again so soon as they were found.
“At this pace we shall take as long to reach Bull-Head’s kraal as did the cow you followed,” said Sihamba presently. “Say, now, can you find the way to it?”
“Without a doubt, lady; Zinti never forgets a road or a landmark.”
“Yes, lady, but Bull-Head may have taken the Swallow somewhere else, and if we do not follow his spoor how shall we know where he has hidden her?”
“Fool, I have thought of that,” she answered angrily, “else should I have spent all this time looking for hoof-marks in the dark? We must risk it, I say. To his house he has not taken her, for other white folk are living in it, and it is not likely he would have a second, or a better hiding-place than that you saw. I say that we must be bold and risk it since we have no time to lose.”
“As you will, mistress,” answered Zinti. “Who am I that I should question your wisdom?” and, turning his horse’s head, he rode forward across the gloomy veldt as certainly as a homing rock-dove wings its flight.
So they travelled till the sun rose behind a range of distant hills. Then Zinti halted and pointed to them.
“Look, lady,” he said. “Do you see that peak among the mountains which has a point like a spear, the one that seems as though it were on fire? Well, behind it lies Bull-Head’s kraal.”
“It is far, Zinti, but we must be there by night.”
“That may be done, lady, but if so we must spare our horses.”
“Good,” she answered. “Here is a spring; let us off-saddle a while.”
So they off-saddled and ate of the food which they had brought, while the horses filled themselves with the sweet green grass, the _schimmel_ being tied to the grey mare, for he would not bear a knee-halter.
All that day they rode, not so very fast but steadily, till towards sunset they off-saddled again beneath the shadow of the spear-pointed peak. There was no water at this spot, but seeing a green place upon the slope of a hill close by, Zinti walked to it, leading the thirsty beasts. Presently he threw up his hand and whistled, whereon Sihamba set out to join him, knowing that he had found a spring. So it proved to be, and now they learned that Sihamba had been wise in heading straight for Swart Piet’s hiding-place, since round about this spring was the spoor of many horses and of men. Among these was the print of a foot that she knew well, the little foot of Suzanne.