He began by asking how I came to find them.
I replied, through Marie's letter, which, it appeared, he knew nothing of, for he had forbidden her to write to me.
"It seems fortunate that you were disobeyed, mynheer," I said, to which he answered nothing.
Then I told the tale of the arrival of that letter at the Mission Station in the Cape Colony by the hand of a wandering smous, and of my desperate ride upon the swift mare to Port Elizabeth, where I just succeeded in catching the brig Seven Stars before she sailed.

Also I told them of the lucky chances that enabled me to buy the wagons and find a guide to their camp, reaching it but a few hours before it was too late.
"It was a great deed," said Henri Marais, taking the pipe from his mouth, for I had brought tobacco among my stores.

"But tell me, Allan, why did you do it for the sake of one who has not treated you kindly ?" "I did it," I answered, "for the sake of one who has always treated me kindly," and I nodded towards Marie, who was engaged in washing up the cooking pots at a distance.
"I suppose so, Allan; but you know she is affianced to another." "I know that she is affianced to me, and to no other," I answered warmly, adding, "And pray where is this other?
If he lives I do not see him here." "No," replied Marais in a curious voice.

"The truth is, Allan, that Hernan Pereira left us about a fortnight before you came.

One horse remained, which was his, and with two Hottentots, who were also his servants, he rode back upon the track by which we came, to try to find help.