THE HIDDEN KRANTZ Before the waggon left her, Sihamba took from it Ralph's gun, a very good _roer_, together with powder and bullets.

Also she took tinder, a bottle of peach-brandy, a blanket, mealies in a small bag, wherewith to bait the horses in case of need, and some other things which she thought might be necessary.

These she laded among her own goods upon the mule that with her horse had been fetched by Zinti and hastily fed with corn.
Now, at her bidding, Zinti set Suzanne's saddle upon the back of the _schimmel_, and Ralph's on that of Suzanne's grey mare, which he mounted that the mule might travel lighter.

Then Sihamba got upon her own horse, a good and quiet beast which she rode with a sheepskin for a saddle, and they started, Sihamba leading the _schimmel_ and Zinti the mule that, as it chanced, although bad tempered, would follow well on a riem.
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.