About midday
For hours she walked thus , showing no sign of weariness , but now and again bursting out into shrill laughter , as though she saw things that moved her to merriment . Only the regiment that listened was not merry , for it had heard the words that the Inkosazana spoke in the town of Mafooti , foretelling evil to the Zulus because of the blood that was between them and her . They thought that she laughed over the misfortunes that were to come , and over those that had already befallen them in the fire and in the rain . About midday they halted to eat , and as before Rachel took food in plenty , for now that her mind was wandering her body seemed to call for sustenance . When their meal was finished they moved down to the banks of the Buffalo River , which ran near by , to find that it was in great flood after the heavy rain and that it was not safe to try the ford . So they determined to camp there on the banks , murmuring among themselves that all went ill with them upon this journey , as was to be expected , and that they would have done better if they had spent the time in hunting down the people of Mafooti , instead of sitting idle like tired storks upon the banks of a river . Yet bad as things might seem , they were destined to be worse , for while some of them were cutting boughs and grass to make a hut for the Inkosazana , Rachel , who stood watching them with empty eyes , of a sudden laughed in her mad fashion , and sped like a swallow to the lip of the foaming ford .