When the meat was cleared away I bade Suzanne go to bed, which she did most unwillingly, for knowing the errand of these men she wished to hear our talk. As soon as she was gone I took a seat so that the light of the candles left my face in shadow and fell full on those of the three men--a wise thing to do if one is wicked enough to intend to tell lies about any matter--and said: "Now, here I am at your service; be pleased to set out the business that you have in hand."
Then they began, the lawyer, speaking through the interpreter, asking, "Are you the Vrouw Botmar?"
"That is my name."
"Where is your husband, Jan Botmar?"
"Somewhere on the veldt; I do not know where."
"Will he be back to-morrow?"
"No."
"When will he be back?"
"Perhaps in two months, perhaps in three, I cannot tell."
At this they consulted together, and then went on: "Have you living with you a young Englishman named Ralph Mackenzie?"
"One named Ralph Kenzie lives with us."
"Where is he?"
"With my husband on the veldt. I do not know where."
"Can you find him?"
"No, the veldt is very wide. If you wish to see him you must wait till he comes back."
"When will that be?"
"I am not his nurse and cannot tell; perhaps in three months, perhaps six."
Now again they consulted, and once more went on: "Was the boy, Ralph Mackenzie, or Kenzie, shipwrecked in the India in the year 1824?"
"Dear Lord!" I cried, affecting to lose my patience, "am I an old Kaffir wife up before the Landdrost for stealing hens that I should be cross-questioned in this fashion? Set out all your tale at once, man, and I will answer it."
Thereon, shrugging his shoulders, the lawyer produced a paper which the interpreter translated to me. In it were written down the names of the passengers who were upon the vessel India when she sailed from a place called Bombay, and among the names those of Lord and Lady Glenthirsk and of their son, the Honourable Ralph Mackenzie, aged nine. Then followed the evidence of one or two survivors of the shipwreck, which stated that Lady Glenthirsk and her son were seen to reach the shore in safety in the boat that was launched from the sinking ship. After this came a paragraph from an English newspaper published in Capetown, dated not two years before, and headed "Strange Tale of the Sea," which paragraph, with some few errors, told the story of the finding of Ralph--though how the writing man knew it I know not, unless it was through the tutor with the blue spectacles of whom I have spoken--and said that he was still living on the farm of Jan Botmar in the Transkei. This was all that was in the paper. I asked to look at it and kept it, saying in the morning that the Kaffir girl seeing it lying about the kitchen had used it to light the fire; but to this day it is with the other things in the waggon chest under my bed.