They rode three abreast in the darkness, Dirk between them and Mbejane
trailing behind with the packhorses. The land rose and fell beneath
them like the swells of an endless sea and the way in which the grass
moved with the night wind heightened the illusion of waves.
Islands in the sea were the dark bulks of the kopJes they passed, and
the yelp of a jackal was the voice of a seabird.
'Aren't we holding too far east?' The girl broke the silence and her
voice blended with the soft sound of the wind.
'Intentionally,' Sean answered. 'I want to cross the tail of the
Drakensberg well clear of the Boer concentrations around Ladysmith and
the line of rail, ' and he looked over Dirk's head at her. She rode
with her face lifted to the sky.
-You know the stars?' he asked.
'A little.'
'So do I. I know them all.' Dirk accepted the challenge and swivelled
towards the south. 'That's the Cross with the pointers, and that's
Orion with his sword on his belt, and that's the Milky Way.'
'Tell me some others,' the girl invited.
'The others are just ordinary ones-they don't count. They haven't even
got names.
'Oh, but they have and most of them have got a story.
'There was a pause. Dirk was now in an invidious position.
either he had to admit ignorance, and Dirk's pride was too large to
swallow with ease, or else he would forgo what promised to be a choice
series of stories. Large as was his pride, his appetite for stories
was even larger.
'Tell me some,' he conceded.
'You see that little clump there underneath the big bright one?
They are called the Seven Sisters. Well, once upon a time-' Within
minutes Dirk was completely absorbed. These were even better than
MbeJane's stories-probably because they were new, while Dirk could
recite from memory MbeJane's entire repertoire. He fell upon any
weakness in the plot like a prosecuting attorney.
'But why didn't they just shoot the old witch?'
'They didn't have guns in those days.
'They coulda used a bow and arrow. ' 'You can't kill a witch with a
bow and arrow. The arrow just goes-psst-straight through her without
hurting her. ' 'Hangs teeth! ' That was really impressive, but before
accepting it Dirk found it necessary to corroborate with expert
opinion. He checked with Mbejane, translating the problem to the
Zulu.
When Mbejane supported the girl Dirk was convinced for Mbejane was a
celebrated authority on the supernatural.
That night Dirk did not fall asleep in the saddle and when they camped
before dawn the girl's voice was hoarse with overwork, but her conquest
of Dirk was complete and that of Sean was well advanced.
All night while he listened to her voice and the husky bursts of
laughter that punctuated it Sean had felt the seed that was planted at
their first meeting sinking its roots down into his lower belly and
