Marie replied that this was good if it could be done, and the vrouw went out to find her husband and the other men.  Presently, however, she returned with a long face, saying that the commandant had them all under guard.  It seemed that it had occurred to him, or more probably to Pereira, that the Prinsloos and the Meyers, who looked on me as a brother, might attempt some rescue, or make themselves formidable in other ways.  Therefore, as a matter of precaution, they had been put under arrest and their arms taken from them as mine had been.  What the commandant said, however, was that he took these somewhat high-handed measures in order to be sure that they, the Prinsloos and the Meyers, should be ready on the following morning to ride with him and the prisoner to the main camp, where the great council might wish to interrogate them.

One concession, however, the vrouw had won from the commandant, who, knowing what was about to happen to me, had not, I suppose, the heart to refuse.  It was that my wife and she might visit me and give me food on the stipulation that they both left the house where I was confined by ten o’clock that night.

So it came to this, that if anything was to be done, these two women and a Hottentot must do it, since they could hope for no help in their plans.  Here I should add that the vrouw told Marie in Hans’s presence that she had thought of attacking the commandant as to this matter of my proposed shooting by Pereira.  On reflection, however, she refrained for two reasons, first because she feared lest she might only make matters worse and rob me of my sole helpers, and secondly for fear lest she should bring about the death of Hans, to whom the story would certainly be traced.

As he was the solitary witness to the plot, it seemed to her that he would scarcely be allowed to escape to repeat it far and wide.  Especially was this so, as the unexplained death of a Hottentot, suspected of treachery like his master, was not a matter that would have been thought worth notice in those rough and bloody times.  She may have been right, or she may have been wrong, but in weighing her decision it must always be borne in mind that she was, and until the end remained, in utter ignorance of Marie’s heroic design to go to her death in place of me.

So the two women and the Hottentot proceeded to mature the plans which I have outlined.  One other alternative, however, Hans did suggest.  It was that they should try to drug the guards with some of the medicated drink that was meant for me, and that then Marie, I and he should slip away and get down to the river, there to hide in the weeds.  Thence, perhaps, we might escape to Port Natal where lived Englishmen who would protect us.

Of course this idea was hopeless from the first.  The moonlight was almost as bright as day, and the veld quite open for a long way round, so that we should certainly have been seen and re-captured, which of course would have meant instant death.  Further, as it happened, the guards had been warned against touching liquor of any sort since it was thought probable that an attempt would be made to intoxicate them.  Still the women determined to try this scheme if they could find a chance.  At least it was a second string to their bow.