7. HOOFBEATS AT MIDNIGHT

CHAPTER 1

The dassies lay lazily in front of the rock crevices on the slopes of the Toto’s mountains.

It is still early. Not an hour ago, the sun had bulged out from behind the Lebombo’s. The rays already tremble down on the granite blocks.

Along a dull game path, a horse rider descends the mountain. Whimsically, the bronze-colored horse weaves between the mopane bushes and rocks. The man sits upright in the saddle and he looks around him, alert. The fresh morning air blows against him and the scent of spring lies heavy in the air.

He brings the horse to a standstill and stares at the plains below him. Along a mountain stream between thorn trees, he can see a pale little house. It looks like it is hiding behind a large cluster of granite blocks. A moody whirlwind plays with the pale sand on the banks of the stream.

Hein Brandis had not been here for a long time, several months in fact. At first, he regularly traveled this path over the mighty Toto’s mountains twice or at least once a week. But then Roelien suddenly started feeling differently towards him. One Nic Beetge was the cause of it. Roelien did not want to hurt him, but she did say directly that she liked Beetge. However, Hein realized that she had loved him, which is why Hein Brandis stayed away. Three long months, no longer, since she had left and for three long months he was alone on his farm, Groenkloof, among his animals, with only his workforce as company. The evenings! It was especially in the evenings that he thought of her. How long was it that he had cherished the vain hope that he would still marry Roelien...

Barberton had such a strange attraction for her.

“There is adventure in the world, Hein, and we are young. We waste our time here in the mountains and forests, we become slovenly, dull and in a rut,” she had said many times.

There were distant places that called her. And Beetge? When he came to visit, he became the personification of the world out there that attracted her with its mystery.

And the moon has become full three times since she left.

Nic Beetge came to pick up Roelien Langeman here at the farm, Karee. He stopped early in the morning with his shiny carriage and four flashy horses in front of the door.

Yes-indeed, and since then he has not seen Roelien again and has never heard from her again. But he had always thought of her... and longed for her, sometimes passionately, with contempt. However, he comforted himself with the thought that he had to forget her.

Roelien knew that he loved her and there were days when he really believed that she loved him too. Uncle Izak also thought so.

Uncle Izak’s figure rises before Hein’s mind’s eye. He suddenly feels guilty. Since Roelien left the farm, he has never again tried to visit the lonely old man. Maybe it was because he feared that old memories would only make him suffer again. Yet, now he knows that Uncle Izak was lonelier than he was in these long months that have passed. Roelien was the apple of his eye.

And now Uncle Izak has summoned him. Is it because he finds the loneliness on Karee unbearable?

Hein stares thoughtfully at the little house between the bushes and rocks.

Late last night, a tired and hungry boy arrived at Groenkloof. He brought a note from Uncle Izak with him. Hein could barely read the handwriting, Uncle Izak’s shaky fingers probably could no longer hold the pen steady. There were only a few lines scribbled down.

“Hein, old boy, why so scarce? My old body doesn’t want to work anymore. I’ve been in bed since yesterday and I’m wondering if you can’t come here a little tomorrow?”

Three months have passed and Uncle Izak never wrote. Uncle Izak would not have written