Then they looked at each other and went back
to their own chamber to spend the rest of the night as may be imagined.
Next morning when they emerged, very shaken and upset, the first person
they met was Ivana, who was waiting for them with their coffee.
"I have a message for you, Teacher and Lady. Never mind who sends it, I
have a message for you to which you will do well to give heed. Sleep no
more in this house on the night of full moon, though all other nights
will be good for you. Only the little Chieftainess Imba ought to sleep
in this house on the night of full moon."
So indeed it proved to be. No suburban villa could have been more
commonplace and less disturbed than was their dwelling for twenty-seven
nights of every month, but on the twenty-eighth they found a change of
air desirable. Once it is true the stalwart Thomas, like Ajax, defied
the lightning, or rather other things that come from above--or from
below. But before morning he appeared at the hut beneath the koppie
announcing that he had come to see how they were getting on, and shaking
as though he had a bout of fever.
Dorcas asked him no questions (afterwards she gathered that he had
been favoured with quite a new and very varied midnight programme); but
Tabitha smiled in her slow way.
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