The calm courage, too, so
unusual in a woman, which she showed when she shot the warrior, and at the
risk of her own life saved that of the girl, Noie, impressed him as
something almost ultra-human, especially when he remembered his own
conduct on that occasion. All of this story, of course, he did not tell to
the Zulus for he feared lest they should take vengeance for his share in
it. But of Rachel he discoursed to the King and his _indunas_, or great
men, as a white witch-doctoress of super-natural power, whose name showed
that she was mixed up with the fortunes of the race. Therefore, in the
end, Dingaan sent Mopo, "he who knew the Spirit," to make report of her.
When he was not absent upon his hunting or trading expeditions, Ishmael
visited Ramah a great deal and, as Rachel soon discovered, not without an
object. Indeed, almost from the first, her feminine instincts led her to
suspect that this man who, notwithstanding his good looks, repelled her so
intensely, was falling in love with her, which in truth he had done once
and for all at their first meeting. In the beginning he did not, it is
true, say much that could be so interpreted, but his whole attitude
towards her suggested it, as did other things. For instance, when he came
to visit the Doves, he discarded his garments of hide, including the
picturesque zebra-skin trousers, and appeared dressed in smart European
clothes which he had contrived to obtain from Durban, and a large hat with
a white ostrich feather, that struck Rachel as even more ludicrous than
the famous trousers.
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