NOIE
That a girl should set out alone to bathe through
a country inhabited chiefly by wild beasts and a few
wandering savages, sounds a somewhat dangerous form
of amusement. So it was indeed, but Rachel cared
nothing for such dangers, in fact she never even thought
of them. Long ago she had discovered that the
animals would not harm her if she did not harm them,
except perhaps the rhinoceros, which is given to charging
on sight, and that was large and could generally be
discovered at a distance. As for elephants and
lions, or even buffalo, her experience was that they
ran away, except on rare occasions when they stood
still, and stared at her. Nor was she afraid
of the savages, who always treated her with the utmost
respect, even if they had never seen her before.
Still, in case of accidents she took her double-barrelled
gun, loaded in one barrel with ball, and in the other
with loopers or slugs, and awakened Tom, the driver,
to tell him where she was going. The man stared
at her sleepily, and murmured a remonstrance, but
taking no heed of him she pulled out some thorns from
the fence to make a passage, and in another minute
was lost to sight in the morning mist.
Following a game path through the dew-drenched grass
which grew upon the swells and valleys of the veld,
and passing many small buck upon her way, in about
twenty minutes, just as the light was really beginning
to grow, Rachel reached the sea. It was dead
calm, and the tide chancing to be out, soon she found
the very place she sought—a large, rock-bound
pool where there would be no fear of sharks that never
stay in such a spot, fearing lest they should be stranded.
Slipping off her clothes she plunged into the cool
and crystal water and began to swim round and across
the pool, for at this art she was expert, diving and
playing like a sea-nymph. Her bath done she dried
herself with a towel she had brought, all except her
long, fair hair, which she let loose for the wind to
blow on, and having dressed, stood a while waiting
to see the glory of the sun rising from the ocean.
Whilst she remained thus, suddenly she heard the sound
of horses galloping towards her, two of them she could
tell that from the hoof beats, although the low-lying
mist made them invisible. A few more seconds and
they emerged out of the fog. The first thing
that she saw were stripes which caused her to laugh,
thinking that she had mistaken zebras for horses.
Then the laugh died on her lips as she recognised that
the stripes were those of Mr. Ishmael’s trousers.
Yes, there was no doubt about it, Mr. Ishmael, wearing
a rough coat instead of his lion-skin, but with the
rest of his attire unchanged, was galloping down upon
her furiously, leading a riderless horse. Remembering
her wet and dishevelled hair, Rachel threw the towel
over it, whence it hung like an old Egyptian head-dress,
setting her beautiful face in a most becoming frame.
Next she picked up the double-barrelled gun and cocked
it, for she misdoubted her of this man’s intentions.
Not many modern books came her way, but she had read
stories of young women who were carried off by force.
