Vrouw Grobelaar and Her Leading Cases | Page 8

near knee, crushed the
little Kafirs chest in. The little black legs and arms fought for a moment,
and then the horse struggled up, and he was dead.
"Fanie seemed sorry. He couldn't help killing the picaninny, of course,
and perhaps we had grown rather foolish about him, having watched
him and laughed at him so long. So Fanie got off his horse and came in
to tell us the news.
"When we went out the horse was standing at the door where Fanie had
left it. But the old Kafir was kneeling by the steps fingering its hoofs,
which were all bloody, and as Fanie came forward he put out his hands
and left a little spot of blood on Fanie's shoes.
"Fanie stood for a moment, and his face went white as paper over his
black beard. He knew, you see. But in a flash he went red as fire, and
lashed the old man across the face with his whip. The old man did not
move at all; but my brothers held Fanie and called to the Kafirs to come
and fetch the old man away. Oh, but I promise you Fanie was angry, as
men will be when they are obliged to be good by force.
"Well, that was all that happened that day. Fanie went away, and we all
saw that he galloped the horse as fast as it could go. But down by the
kraals the Kafirs who were carrying the old man stopped and watched
him as he went.
"Well, in a few days most of us forgot the ugly business, though the
little picaninny used to walk through my dreams for a time. Still,
blood-kin are blood-kin, and Kafirs are Kafirs, and one day Fanie came
over to see us again and we gave him coffee. He told us a story about a
rooinek that bought a sheep, and the man gave him a dog in a sack, and
he paid for it and went away, and we all laughed at it. He was very
funny that day, and said that when he married he would choose an old

woman who would die quickly and leave him all her farms. So it was
late and dark before he up- saddled to go away.
"Well, he was gone a quarter of an hour when we heard hoofs,
galloping, galloping, hard and furious, coming up the road. And as we
opened the door a horse came over the wall and Fanie tumbled off it
and came rushing in.
"We all screamed. He was white like ashes, and wet with sweat, and
trembling so that he could not stand.
"'Fanie,' cried my sister, 'what is it?' and he groaned and put his face in
his hands.
"By and by he spoke, and kept glancing about him and turning to look
behind him, and would not let one of us move away.
"'There was something behind me,' he said.
"'Something?' we all asked.
"'Yes,' he said. 'Something . . . dead I It followed me up here, and I
could not get away from it, spur as hard as I would. I think it is a
death-call.'
"Then we were all frightened, but we could not help wanting to hear
more.
"'No,' said Fanie, 'I did not see it, nor hear it even, but I knew it was
there.'
"'It was a sign,' said my mother, a very wise old woman. 'Let us all
thank God.'
"So we thanked God on our knees, but I'm sure I don't know what for.
"Then Fanie told us all he knew, and that was just nothing. As he came
to the kloof he was afraid of something in front of him. He said he felt
like a man in grave-clothes. So he turned, and then the ... whatever it

was . . . seemed to come after him; so he galloped and galloped as hard
as the horse could lay hoof to the earth, and prayed till his heart nearly
burst. And then, not knowing where he was going, he jumped the wall
and came among us. We were all silent when he had told us.
"Then Oom Jan spoke. He was very old, and seldom said anything.
"'You have done murder!' he said.
"'If I talk till my mouth is stopped with dust I shall never be able to tell
how cold I felt about the heart when I heard that. For the little
picaninny came plain before my eyes, and oh! I was all full of pity for
Fanie. I liked him well enough in those days.
"He stopped with us that night. He would not go away nor be alone, so
he slept with my brothers, and held their hands and prayed half the
night. In the morning