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diff --git a/36420.txt b/36420.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..14eb9d7 --- /dev/null +++ b/36420.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6390 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Between Sun and Sand, by William Charles Scully + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Between Sun and Sand + A Tale of an African Desert + +Author: William Charles Scully + +Release Date: June 13, 2011 [EBook #36420] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETWEEN SUN AND SAND *** + + + + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + + + + +Between Sun and Sand +A Tale of an African Desert +By William Charles Scully +Published by Methuen and Co, London. +This edition dated 1898. + +Between Sun and Sand, by William Charles Scully. + +________________________________________________________________________ + +________________________________________________________________________ +BETWEEN SUN AND SAND, BY WILLIAM CHARLES SCULLY. + + + +PREFACE. + +Lest the account given in this book of the "trekking" springbucks should +be considered an exaggeration, it may be mentioned that in 1892, when +the author held the appointments of Civil Commissioner for Namaqualand +and Special Magistrate for the Northern Border of the Cape Colony, he +was obliged to issue a hundred stand of Government arms to the Boers for +the purpose of driving back the game which threatened to overrun those +parts of Namaqualand where ground is cultivated. As it was, there was +some difficulty in repelling the invasion. + +The term "Bushman," strictly speaking, only applies to the diminutive +former inhabitants of the Desert, who are now practically extinct to the +south of the Orange River. The Trek-Boer, however, usually calls every +Hottentot of low stature a Bushman. + + + +CHAPTER ONE. + +THE LAND OF THE TREK-BOER. + +Immediately to the south of the great Orange River for three hundred +arid miles of its course before it sinks through the thirsty sands, or +spooms in resistless torrent into the Atlantic Ocean, lies a region of +which little is known, in which dwell people unlike any others in South +Africa, or possibly in the world. + +This region is known as Bushmanland--the name having reference to its +former inhabitants who, proving themselves "unfit," were abolished from +the face of the earth. Bushmanland is at present intermittently +inhabited by a nomadic population of Europeans of Dutch descent, who are +known as "Trek-Boers." To "trek" means, literally, to "pull," but its +colloquial significance is--to move about from place to place. + +The Trek-Boers are, so to say, poor relations of the sturdy Dutchmen who +have done so much towards reclaiming South Africa from savagery. The +conditions under which they live are not favourable to moral or physical +improvement. + +These people are dwellers in tents and beehive-shaped structures known +as "mat-houses," a form of architecture adopted from the Hottentots. +The latter are constructed of large mats made of rushes strung upon +strands of bark or other vegetable fibre, and are stretched over wattles +stuck by the larger end into the ground in a circle, the diameter of +which may vary from fifteen to twenty-five feet, and which have the thin +ends drawn down over each other until a dome is formed. Such structures +are lighter and more portable than the lodges of the North American +Indians--in fact one may easily be erected and pulled down within five +minutes. Strange to say they are almost completely water-tight. + +A wagon and a couple of tents or mat-houses constitutes the camp and +castle of the Trek-Boer. He has never known anything else in the shape +of a dwelling; it satisfies all his architectural aspirations, it +fulfils his ideal of comfort in a tenement, and he harbours contempt for +any structure which cannot be moved about to suit the convenience or +caprice of its owner. + +The Trek-Boer owns no land. He wanders with his flocks and herds over +the vast, unsurveyed tract which is all the world to him, following the +uncertain courses of thunderstorms which happen to have been deflected +from their ordinary beat and strayed across the desert. The rain from +these intermittently fills the shallow, cup-like depressions in the +underlying rock with water. Such depressions are invariably choked with +sand, but by digging at certain known spots a scanty supply of water may +sometimes be obtained. + +The Trek-Boer occasionally becomes rich in flocks and herds, but every +eight or ten years the inevitable drought occurs. Then his stock dies +off from thirst and starvation, and he has to begin the world again, a +poor man. + +The Trek-Boer is a being _sui generis_. He is usually ignorant to a +degree unknown among men called civilised. He is untruthful, +prejudiced, superstitious, cunning, lazy, and dirty. On the other hand +he is extremely hospitable. Simple as a child in many things, and as +trusting where his confidence has once been given, he cannot be known +without being loved, for all his peculiarities. The desert life, which +has filled the Arab with poetry and a sense of the higher mysteries, has +sapped the last remnant of idealism from the Trek-Boer's nature, and +left him without an aspiration or a dream. The usual lack of fresh meat +and the absence of green vegetables as an item in his diet, has reacted +upon his physique and made him listless and slouching in gait and +deportment, as well as anaemic and prone to disease. This is especially +true of his womankind, who, besides being extremely short-lived have, as +a rule, lost nearly all pretensions to beauty of face or form. + +Bushmanland might be described as a desert, the aridity of which is +tempered by occasional thunderstorms. Its bounds begin immediately to +the eastward of the rugged mountain chain which runs parallel with the +coast-line, about eighty miles inland, and it stretches on for hundreds +of miles until merged with the central Karoo plains. These also form +its indefinite boundary to the southward. It is, for the most part, +almost absolutely level. To the northward, however, a chain of +mountains, occasionally very lofty, arises. For stern, uncompromising +aridity, for stark, grotesque, naked horror, these mountains stand +probably unsurpassed on the face of the globe. Composed of deep brown +granite, with here and there immense veins, or patches many miles in +extent, of jet-black, shining ironstone, they absorb the torrid sunshine +all day, becoming almost red-hot in the process. At night this heat is +radiated rapidly at high sunlight power, until the furnace of midnight +becomes like an ice-house at dawn. + +The only vegetation to be found among these mountains is a species of +deadly Euphorbia--formerly much used by the Bushmen in poisoning their +arrows--and a few stunted shrubs which are rooted deep down in the +crannies, and which put forth a little timid foliage in the cooler +season. The only animals are "klipspringers"--antelopes very like the +chamois in form and habit; leopards which prey upon these; badgers, wild +cats, jackals of several kinds, an occasional hyaena, desert mice, +snakes, gorgeously hued lizards and fierce tarantulas. A few large +brown hawks hover above the gloomy gorges and wake weird and depressing +echoes with their shrill screams. + +To the north of this almost impenetrable region the great "Gariep"--the +"Yellow River" of the Hottentots--now called the "Orange" in honour of a +former Stadtholder of the Netherlands, has carved out a gorge for its +devious course, thousands of feet in depth. Allowing for its many and +abrupt windings, this gorge, from the point at which the river hurtles +into it over an obstinate stratum of rock at what is known as the +Augrabies Falls, must be over four hundred miles in length. The greater +part of this gorge is unexplored, being totally inaccessible. + +Like the Nile, the Orange River drains an immense area of fertile +country which is subject to heavy summer rains. It flows down in a +raging, brimming flood, which is charged with rich alluvium, during +several months of the year. Unlike the Nile, it has carved for itself a +deep and narrow channel, through which it hurls its fertilising load +with resistless momentum into the ocean which needs it not. Under +different circumstances its valley might have been the cradle of another +civilisation, and another Sphinx, of Hottentot or Bantu physiognomy, +might have stood, gazing through forgotten centuries, across the waste +of Bushmanland. + +No more dreary prospect can be imagined than that afforded by +Bushmanland in its normal condition of drought. After rain, however, it +turns for a few short weeks into a smiling garden. This is especially +the case around the northern and western margins where, among the rocky +kopjes forming the fringe of the plain, gorgeous flowers cover the +ground with vivid patches of colour, and climb and trail over the grey +stones. This combination always suggests to the traveller a skull +crowned with flowers. The stark rocks, blasted by aeons of burning +sunshine, are always in evidence, and the wanton luxuriance of the +garlands seem to mock at and accentuate their death-like rigour. + +The grass with which the greater part of the plain is covered grows in +thick shocks some thirty inches in height, from raised tussocks about +six feet apart. In dry weather the fibre of the grass crumbles away in +dust and the tussock turns black. After rain, however, the new blades +shoot out with marvellous rapidity, and the Desert becomes a sea of +waving plumes, which are tinted a beautifully delicate green. Between +the tussocks spring up flowers of marvellous colour, scent, and form. +It has been libellously affirmed that the flowers of the Desert have no +scent. It is true that in the hot, midday glare all are more or less +scentless, but in the early morning or when the afternoon cools the +heliophilas, the pelargoniums, the many species of lily, and others too +numerous to particularise, often make the Desert a veritable "scented +garden." + +The great plain is almost absolutely treeless. Only in one or two +localities are a few acacias found. These are of very large size. They +are called "Camel-thorns," for the reason that the camelopard was fond +of browsing upon their foliage. Amongst the branches are often found +the enormous nests of the sociable grosbeaks, sometimes ten feet in +diameter. These nests are veritable cities--inhabited by countless +numbers of birds. Woe betide the exhausted hunter who seeks the +deceitful shade of these trees, for the ground beneath is full of the +dreaded "sampans," which bury themselves in the flesh and cause serious +injury. + +In the fringe of kopjes grow immense aloes (_Aloe dichotoma_--probably +closely allied botanically to the almost extinct "Dragon Tree" of +Teneriffe). These sometimes reach a height of sixty feet, and may +measure twenty feet around their ridged and gnarled trunks. This tree +is locally known as the "koekerboom," or "quiver-tree," a reminiscence +of the fact that the Bushmen used to remove the fibrous wood from a +section of a bough and utilise the cylinder of tough bark as a quiver +for their poisoned arrows. The koekerbooms are believed to be of +immense age; the oldest Trek-Boers will point to small trees growing +close to their favourite camping-places, and tell you that they have not +sensibly increased in size in upwards of half a century. Their +appearance is extremely belated and archaic. + +Running through Bushmanland from north-east to south-west is a curved +ridge which is known as the "Jacht Bult," or "hunt-ridge," from the +plentifulness of game upon it. This ridge rises so gradually from each +side that its very existence is not apparent except for a few minutes at +morning and evening--and then only if one happens to be on the top of +it. Here occurs a curious phenomenon; for, just as the sun is touching +the western horizon, if one looks eastward he will be startled at seeing +half of the immense plain shrouded in almost complete darkness. The +illusion is due to the western plain being flooded with sunlight whilst +from the other the sunlight is suddenly and completely cut off. When +the sun sinks the illusion vanishes and the eastern plain appears to be +no darker than the western. At sunrise these conditions are, of course, +reversed. + +This region is the home of the "springbuck," which still survives in +countless myriads. After a large "trek," as the annual migration of +these animals across the Desert is called, has taken place, the wake of +the host looks like an irregularly-ploughed field. Every vestige of +vegetation is beaten out by the small, sharp, strong hoofs. It seems at +such times as if all the springbucks in the Desert were suddenly smitten +by a mad desire to collect and dash towards a certain point. + +The springbucks as a rule live without drinking. Sometimes, however-- +perhaps once in ten years--they develop a raging thirst, and rush madly +forward until they find water. It is not many years ago since millions +of them crossed the mountain range and made for the sea. They dashed +into the waves, drank the salt water, and died. Their bodies lay in one +continuous pile along the shore for over thirty miles, and the stench +drove the Trek-Boers who were camped near the coast far inland. + +The oryx, or, as it is called in South Africa, the "gemsbok," is still +to be found in considerable numbers in the vicinity of the great and +almost inaccessible sand-dunes which encroach into the desert at several +points along its northwestern margin. The gemsbok manages to live +without drinking water, finding a substitute in a large, succulent root +which grows in the driest parts of the dunes, and which the animal digs +up from deep in the sand with its hoofs. A few hartebeests are also to +be found. Immense wild bustards, or, as they are called, "paauws," come +over from the Kalihari Desert in large flocks. From the same place the +desert grouse, which strongly resembles the sand-grouse of Central Asia, +throng over in countless myriads. These collect around the open +water-places every morning when the sun begins to sting. One dip of +water they must have. If the sportsman is hard-hearted enough to remain +close to the water-hole, they circle round and round uttering their +plaintive cry in a myriad-voiced chorus of strange twitterings. Should +the day be hot and no other water obtainable in the neighbourhood--as is +often the case--they will drink at one's very feet. From their cry the +colloquial name of "kalkivain" is derived. + +In hot weather one may trace the zigzag spoor of many a yellow cobra +across the sands. By day these creatures remain underground among the +mouse-burrows--for they could not live upon the scorching sand--but at +night they wander far and near. The horned adder--identical in species +with the "worm of old Nile" with which Cleopatra eased herself of her +burthen of life--abounds at the roots of the small shrubs and +grass-tussocks, where it burrows into the sand to escape the heat, or +when hibernating. + +Above all, however, Bushmanland is the home of the wild ostrich. Here, +in spite of the number of their enemies, human or other, these noble +birds are still to be found in considerable numbers. Their booming note +heard at night across the waste strongly suggests the distant roar of a +hungry lion. When one thinks of the number and ingenuity of the +ostrich's enemies one wonders that any still exist. Around every nest +that one finds are sure to be several jackals and white crows. The +jackal rolls the eggs about by butting them with his nose, and thus +dashes, them against each other until they break; the white crow carries +stones up into the air and drops them from a height among the eggs, +smashing them and befouling the nest with what it is unable to gorge of +the contents of the shell; the prowling Hottentot, or half-breed, will +follow for days on the spoor until he finds the nest and rifles it. + +This region was once the favourite haunt of the Bushman, and long after +that unhappy race had disappeared from other parts it here maintained +itself. At every water-place may still be seen the polished grooves in +the rocks wherein they sharpened their arrows and bone skinning-knives; +fragments of their rude pottery lie thickly strewn around. Mixed with +the latter may be found, sometimes in considerable quantities, the +broken weapons of stone which belonged to a still older race, and which, +perhaps, was driven from the face of the land by the Bushmen, as we have +driven the latter, and as we ourselves may be driven by some race +developing a "fitness" superior to our own. + +These water-places would thus seem to be of immense antiquity, and the +inference suggests that the climatic conditions of this end of the +African continent have not changed appreciably for ages. + +The names of a few of these places in the Bushman tongue still survive. +Some are very suggestive, and indicate that the Bushman was not totally +devoid of sentiment. The following are specimens of local Bushman +topography: "Place of Bleeding," "Withered Flower," "Eggshell Cheeks," +"Reed-Possessor," "Take-away-from-me-what-I-have-gained," +"Place-where-you-may-dig-out-a-little-pot-of-water." + +The Bushman used poisoned arrows. He obtained the poison usually from +three distinct sources, namely, the poison gland of the puffadder, the +black tarantula, and the deadly euphorbia which grows in the river +gorge. These he mixed in a paste and smeared upon the sides of his +arrow blade. This poison is extremely deadly in its effects, but it +works far more rapidly in the system of a ruminating animal than in that +of a man. The Bushman could also, however, run game down by sheer +fleetness of foot--running until blown and then handing the chase over +to another hunter who had posted himself upon the course which, by +instinct, he had known the animal would most likely take. + +The ostrich was the Bushman's favourite and most profitable quarry. +Dressed in the plumes of a former victim he would stalk into the midst +of a troop and lay its members low one by one. When he found a nest he +would pierce the ends of each egg and blow out the contents. Then, +after carefully washing out the shell, he would fill it with water and +close up each aperture with a wooden peg. The shell would be buried +deep in the sand against contingencies of drought. By some secret sign +the members of each clan would know the exact spots where water had thus +been buried by their friends, and thus often avoid death by thirst when +travelling or hunting. + +The Bushman was the true Ishmaelite; he was bound to be eliminated. As +a matter of fact there is no room for a Bushman and any one else in any +given area, no matter how large. + +In the region described the Bushmen have left no record in the shape of +paintings on the rocks, which are so common in other parts. This may +perhaps be accounted for by the porous nature of many of the low +krantzes in which the caves they occupied are situated. It may be, +however, that the plants from which their pigments were obtained do not +grow in this arid region. + +When rain has fallen freely, as it occasionally does, the Trek-Boers +flock into Bushmanland from its fringe, upon which they are always +hanging. A few weeks of dry weather, however, suffices to dry up the +moisture from the shallow, sand-clogged basins, and the country once +more becomes a solitude. + +For some natures this region possesses a deep and abiding charm. The +fresh, crisp air of early morning; the peace which sinks like a +benediction upon the wearied earth when the scorching sun has fallen +from the sky, and the sand gives off its heat in rapid radiation; the +sense of immensity made manifest in the wide, wide plains by day, and in +the almost supernaturally bright skies at night; the booming of the +ostriches, the bellowing of the rutting springbucks; the queer, snarling +yelp of the jackals and the "tshok-tshok" of the paauw as it shakes out +its plumes to the rising sun--and who can define the vivid delight which +these have brought? Who that has ever been fortunate enough to +experience it can recall without a quickening pulse the mad gallop for +miles across the plains after a herd of gemsbok, or the fierce rapture +of meeting the noble brute at bay, and slaying the only animal of the +antelope tribe that has heart enough to face a lion? + +It is among the dwellers of this region that the scene of the following +tale is laid. These people have but few ideas, and a vocabulary of +little more than three hundred words to express these ideas in. The +Bible is the only book they ever read, and of that they do not +understand more than half the sense. In all essentials, however, they +are of the same mould as other men. They live and love, hate and die, +in very much the same manner as do other human creatures. It is in the +incidentals that the reader may find some difference between these +people and the dwellers in more fortunate climes. + + + +CHAPTER TWO. + +THE PATRIARCH OF NAMIES. + +There was only one camp at Namies [pronounced "Namees"], for all the +wells but one had run dry. It was somewhat early in summer, and as yet +no thunderstorms had visited the immediate neighbourhood. The camp +consisted of a wagon with a fore-and-aft canvas hood, or, as it is +called in South Africa, a "tent." On either side of it stood, +respectively, a mat-house and a square tent. The particular Trek-Boer +who was the owner of this establishment was a somewhat distinguished +specimen of his class. Old Schalk Hattingh had, like his father before +him, lived his life upon the fringes of the Bushmanland Desert. Tall +and corpulent, with a long, silvery-white beard, he spent his days +sitting in a big, cushionless, wooden chair. This chair would, +according to the weather, be placed either just inside or just outside +the mat-house. His legs had become too weak to sustain his large body, +so he was only able to walk with the assistance of a long, strong Stick, +which never was out of the reach of his hand. In the coldest weather he +wore no warmer clothing than a shirt of unbleached calico--always open +at the throat, and thus revealing a large area of red skin--a cheap and +very thin corduroy coat, a pair of breeches, much too short for him, of +tanned sheepskin, and a jackal-skin cap. These clothes he invariably +slept in; in fact, the tradition as to when he had last taken them off +had been long since lost. On his extremely large feet he wore +"veldschoens" of his own make. Socks he would have looked upon as a +criminal luxury; pocket-handkerchiefs he had never used in the whole +course of his life. Winter and summer he sat, drinking weak coffee all +day long, smoking strong tobacco at intervals, and continually +expectorating in all directions. + +Namies was his headquarters, and had been so for nearly forty years. +His well was the best there. Even that, however, ran dry during the +early part of summer about once in three years, and he would then shift +his camp to some more fortunate spot. But he was always the last to +leave and the first to return. No one ever dreamt of camping upon Old +Schalk's favourite spot or taking possession of his well, yet to these +he had no special right which could be legally enforced. + +Old Schalk was a well-known character, and was looked upon as a +patriarch and an oracle by the Trek-Boers for hundreds of miles around. +He had been a famous man in his day, and could tell interesting, +semi-veracious anecdotes of adventures with Bushmen, lions, and other +things--predatory or preyed upon. He had never seen a village in his +life, excepting the adventitious assemblages of the Trek-Boers. He was +known to be a hard man at a bargain, and extremely avaricious; +nevertheless he was poor. A few years previous to the period at which +this tale opens he had been rich in flocks and herds. Then came the +inevitably recurring drought, this time one of exceptional severity. +The sheep and goats became thinner and thinner, until they were too weak +to go abroad and seek for pasturage. They lay on the sand all day long, +eyeing piteously the troughs to which their diminishing dole of water +was lifted from the well by the creaking derrick. At last the maddened +cattle flung themselves down the well, and their ruined owners were +hardly able to drag themselves to the arid banks of the Orange River +down the sand-choked gorge at Pella. Here was at least water to drink. + +Old Schalk, like most of his neighbours, found himself a poor man. +Since the famine he had managed to get a little stock together again, +but he was in debt to several Jew hawkers, and had some difficulty in +keeping his head above water. + +He held the appointment under Government of Assistant Field Cornet. It +was his duty in this capacity to report all crimes to the Special +Magistrate, to arrest criminals, and to hold inquests in cases of deaths +by violence in regard to which there was no suspicion of foul play. +This office gave him a certain position among the Trek-Boers and added +considerably to his influence. + +Old Schalk's wife was only a few years younger than himself, but, as is +especially the case with Boer women, she looked much older. His special +grievance against Providence was that Mrs Hattingh had lived so long, +and thus kept him out of the enjoyment of the charms of younger women. + +"There is my brother Gert," he would say in moments of confidence, and +without considering whether his wife were present or not, "he has now +married his third wife; Willem only the other day lost his second; Jan, +who is fifteen years younger than I, buried his first wife only five +months ago and is going to marry a fine young girl at the next +Nachtmaal--and here I am still sitting with my old `Bogh',"--a word +which may be freely translated as "frump." + +From Old Schalk's point of view he undoubtedly had a grievance, for one +rarely meets an old Boer--and more especially a Trek-Boer--who has not +been married several times. + +Mrs Hattingh never appeared to be hurt by such outbursts against +unpropitious Fate. She had no intention of dying just yet; sentiment +was to her unknown, and she had always taken life philosophically. + +"Ja," she would sometimes rejoin, "it is true that I am an old `Bogh,' +but there's not a woman in Bushmanland who can sew karosses as well as +I; and if it had not been for the money you got from the Jews for those +I made from the skins of the sheep that died in the drought, you would +not have any stock to-day." + +"Ja; that is true," Old Schalk would grudgingly admit. + +"And you would be a fine one to follow a young wife about and keep her +in order; with those legs you could not walk the length of the +trek-chain." + +Old Schalk always resented any reference to his unserviceable legs, so +his wife usually had the last word at these discussions. + +The junior members of the Hattingh family consisted of two +granddaughters and a grand-niece. The sons and daughters of the camp +had married and were scattered over the fringe of the Desert. The three +girls were orphans. The two granddaughters were tall, listless-looking +girls, with dark hair and eyes, and that transparent and unhealthy +complexion which sometimes gives a fugacious beauty and is often found +in young women whose diet does not embrace a sufficiency of green +vegetable food. Their chests were hollow, their shoulders drooped, and +they looked incapable of taking much interest in anything. Their ages +were respectively, eighteen and nineteen; their names--Maria and +Petronella. + +Their cousin, Susannah, was a girl of a different type. She was small +of stature, well built, and had a keen and alert look. Her features +were strongly marked, her eyes and hair were black, and the redness of +her lips was rendered more striking by the pallor of the rest of her +face. Her movements were distinguished by an energy which was in +striking contrast to the listlessness of the other girls. She suggested +a well-favoured squirrel among a family of moles. Her features had a +strongly Jewish cast. Although not much admired by the young Boers with +whom she came in contact--probably because she did not reach their +standard of stoutness--she would have been in other surroundings +considered a very pretty girl. There was some mystery in connection +with her parentage which gave rise to whisperings among the women. It +was, however, certain that she was the daughter of one of Old Schalk's +nieces. + +The spot known as Namies is marked by a few stony, irregular kopjes +which lie like a small archipelago in the ocean-like waste of the +Bushmanland Desert, not far from its northern margin. The highest of +these kopjes is less than four hundred feet above the general level of +the plains; a circle two miles in circumference would enclose them all. +They are formed of piles of granite boulders, between which grow a few +hardy shrubs and koekerbooms. + + + +CHAPTER THREE. + +MAX. + +Max Steinmetz stood in the doorway of the little iron shanty at Namies, +which was built near the foot of a kopje about three hundred yards from +the Hattingh camp. Above his head was a signboard bearing the legend: +"Nathan Steinmetz, Allegemene Handelaar." [General dealer.] He looked +out over the wide, wide Desert and watched the smoke-like courses of the +violent gusts against which a thunderstorm was labouring from the +north-east. The unsavoury odour of half-dried hides assailed his +nostrils; the ramshackle iron roof rattled to the blasts over his head. +The season was February, and the tortured plains glowed with absorbed +heat like Milton's burning marl. + +Over the intermittent moaning and howling of the wind could be heard, at +intervals, the mutterings of thunder. The Desert now became a roaring +blast-furnace, fanned by the sand-laden gusts which raged fiercer and +ever fiercer. Max closed the door and barred it from the inside. A few +gouts of rain began to thud on the roof. Then a jagged shaft of +lightning shot from the zenith, shattered itself into coruscating +splinters against some tempest-packed sheaf of air, and seemed to fill +the universe with a blinding blaze. At the same instant the winds were +stunned by a crash so awful that the solid earth reeled from the shock. +Then came the rain in dense, white, lashing waves, and in a few moments +the wide plain became a hissing sea. + +The storm-cloud rolled away as quickly as it had come, leaving only a +few torn wisps of fleecy cloud to mark its wake. Through these the +purified sky seemed to open in vaults of azure that pierced the +infinite. For a short time the sun flooded the plain with gold and +rubies; then it sank, and the cool, quickening evening died in peaceful +splendour in the transfigured west. + +The storm over, Max opened the door and stepped outside. His first +glance was towards the Hattingh camp. Then he brought a chair and a +book out of the shop and sat down where, pretending to read, he could +look over the top of the page in the same direction. Soon afterwards +Susannah came out of the mat-house and superintended the lighting of a +fire by the Hottentot maid in the kitchen-scherm, the bushes of which, +scattered by the storm, had been rearranged. She had discarded her +cappie, and her luxuriant black hair was blown about by the moist +breeze. She gave one hurried glance towards the shop and then stood +with her back towards it. Max saw this and, in his inexperience, felt +saddened. + +Max had a face which, had Raphael seen it through the bars of the Ghetto +gate at Rome, would have made him take pains to secure the young Jew as +a model. It was one of those faces which one only--and that but very +rarely--sees in the youth of Israel. Its shape was a pure oval. The +skin was a clear olive, and the eyes were large, dark, and melting. His +jet-black hair clustered over a broad, low forehead, and his full, red +lips were arched like the bow of the Sun-God. As yet the stress of +trade had not awakened the ancestral greed which would one day dominate +his blood and modify his physiognomy. Small in stature and of perfect +symmetry, he did not give one the idea of possessing either strength or +activity; in feet he looked like a languorous human exotic who had +strayed from the canvas of some "Old Master" whose brush was dedicated +to physical beauty. His age was twenty-one, but he looked several years +younger. + +Max was a clerk at a very small salary in the employ of his brother +Nathan. The business was a paying one, but the carrying of it on +involved extremely hard work. Nathan spent most of his time in moving +about from camp to camp among the Trek-Boers and the half-breeds who +dwelt among the saltpans in the central and southern portions of the +Desert. He travelled with a small, strong cart, which was drawn by six +hardy but debilitated-looking donkeys. His practice was to leave Namies +with a load of hucksters' merchandise and to return, generally about two +months afterwards, with a quantity of ostrich feathers. The Desert +abounded in wild ostriches which, although protected by law, were +ruthlessly hunted down for the sake of their feathers. There was, of +course, a certain risk of discovery involved, and this would have been +followed by heavy penalties, but Nathan was prepared to take this risk +for the sake of the large profits which he made. The feathers of the +wild ostrich fetch a much higher price than those of the domesticated +bird. In many of the waste places of South Africa the protecting law is +often but a name. Nathan knew that the risk of his being convicted was +very small. Just now he was absent upon a trip, but his return was +daily expected. In the meantime Max had charge of the store. + +Nathan and Max were orphans, and had been brought up by an uncle--a +pawnbroker of the East End of London. Their parents were German Jews +who had settled in England. They had no brothers or sisters. Eight +years previously the uncle had given Nathan a hundred pounds and sent +him to the Cape to seek his fortune. Four years afterwards Max +followed. In the meantime Nathan had made a little money as a "smouse," +or hawker. With Max's assistance he was able to extend his operations +considerably. For the first two years the younger brother had worked +without any salary; then, at the instance of the uncle, who made +particular inquiries upon the point, Max was given a small stipend. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR. + +SPRING'S IDYLL. + +The next day was a dream of delight. The evaporation from the sand +counteracted the heat of the sun, and the pungent air was full of +germinating energy. Cool, gentle breezes awoke now and then, wandered +vaguely to and fro, and then laid themselves down to rest, rising anon +to play in a circle of mimic whirlwinds. Old Schalk sat in the doorway +of the mat-house with his feet in the sun and the large Bible open upon +his knees. The combination of Old Schalk and an open Bible meant either +that he was in extremely good humour and felt at peace with all mankind +and in general harmony with his environment--or else the direct reverse. +In the former case he would usually have the volume open at the Song of +Solomon; in the latter, at the 109th Psalm. To-day he prayed, although +he knew it not, for his heart was lifted up in involuntary thankfulness +and appreciation of the feast which was so lavishly spread around him. +His happiness was even beyond the terms of his favourite Psalms, which +he knew off by heart--even the numbers of the great lyric poets of +Israel seemed to fall short of the music which Nature was making upon +his worn heart-strings. + +Mrs Hattingh was sitting boiling soap inside the kitchen-scherm, her +failing eyes rendered more than usually red and rheumy by the steam +arising from the acrid lye. She, too, felt the benign influences with +which the Desert was rich; the labour she was engaged in was not as +irksome as usual. As she broke the bushes into the soap-pot she might +have been a rapt sorceress brewing a love-philtre, or a priestess +sacrificing at the shrine of the God of Cleanliness. + +Maria and Petronella were sitting on the wagon-box crooning a weird song +in a minor key. They felt sleepy and happy, for Mother Nature had a +word for them too. It was a word very softly spoken, and in a language +which they did not yet fully understand, but it made them dream vague, +sweet dreams. Susannah heard the voice, and, low as it was spoken, it +awoke her and she hearkened to it. She, too, failed to understand the +words, but the cadences were sweet and seemed to be full of an infinite +promise. + +Nature, in her spring guise, has to do her work in the Desert, when she +does it at all, in a hurry. There the seasons do not follow the regular +course. At the end of her summer revel in other southern lands she +sometimes suddenly bethinks her that away to the northward she has been +for long neglectful of her duties, so she flies to the arid plains, +where perhaps the very traces of her footprints have been long since +forgotten. Then with a sudden dower of riches she tries to make amends +for her forgetfulness; she tarries for a few sweet, pregnant hours, and +the ardours and burgeonings of a season are consummated in one delicious +day. + +Susannah felt the rapid sap of sudden springtime rise in a sweet storm +to her heart and to her brain. It seemed to her as though she had +wings, and she longed to fly out over the infinite waste and beyond the +blue, mysterious haze in which it merged with the horizon in a sapphire +ring. The highest of the little group of kopjes stood just at the back +of the camp, and her senses bounded at the thought of climbing quickly +to the summit and thus getting so much nearer the sky. A tall +koekerboom which stood on the very top quivered in the wind, and every +cluster of leaves at the ends of its dichotomous branches seemed to +beckon to her to come. + +She climbed into the wagon, opened the camphor-wood box in which she +kept her limited wardrobe, and selected her best dress. This was a +cheap print, delicately flowered, and of soft hues. It thus afforded a +pleasing contrast to the gaudy and crudely coloured habiliments of her +cousins. After she had put it on one might have seen that the dress +fitted her neat figure like a new glove. Her ample hair she rolled into +a knot, but, after a moment's consideration, she uncoiled it again and +shook it back over her shoulders. Then she put on a "cappie" made of +print of the same pattern as her frock. A cheap necklet of coral +completed her toilet. She clasped this hurriedly about her throat as +she sprang to the ground from the back of the wagon. She panted with +desire to get away to the high peak where the solitary koekerboom, which +had defied the sun for centuries, stood beckoning to her, and any delay +was a pain. She sped away among the aromatic shrubs that clustered +among the impassive granite rocks on the side of the kopje, and the +brown stones she trod on seemed to be as buoyant as the air that filled +her veins with ecstasy. In a few minutes she had gained the top of the +kopje, when she sank down in pleasant exhaustion at the foot of the +hoar-ancient koekerboom. + +As she ascended the kopje the breeze freshened, and the stiff, awkward +branches of the archaic tree seemed to be seized with excitement +unfitting its age and experience; it beckoned violently, and until Max, +who was standing at the door of the shop, saw not alone its signal, but +the flutter of the delicately flowered print dress which at that moment +was rippling against its gnarled knees. + +Max hurriedly locked the shop and sped up the side of the kopje towards +the antiquated tree, which now seemed to have fallen asleep, so still it +was. Schalk Hattingh's was the only camp then at Namies, and as Nathan +had given strict injunctions that the Hattinghs were to have no more +credit, nothing was to be lost in respect of their custom. Max would, +he told himself, be able to descry any approaching customers from the +top of the kopje. + +Susannah heard the nearing footstep. She had now taken off her cappie, +and was lying back between two of the shapeless roots which were +continuations of flanking buttresses thrown out by the tree towards the +north-east, from whence the storms had been trying to uproot it-- +probably ever since the days when the galleys of Pharaoh passed down the +Red Sea and returned to Egypt through the Pillars of Hercules. The girl +arose into a sitting posture and turned towards the boy a face flushed +with exercise and eyes liquid with delight. Max put out his hand in +mute greeting, and she clasped it silently. Then he threw himself on +the ground at her feet. + +These two had for some time attracted each other. On Max's side the +attraction had lately begun to ripen into something very like love. But +of this as yet he was unaware. To-day the universe seemed to breathe of +music, the boughs of the old tree and the granite rocks were as the +strings of a sounding harp, touched by the wind as a plectrum. + +Spring, in a graciously capricious moment, resolved to crown her holiday +with an idyll. Max arose and held out his hand to the girl. She took +it, and he drew her gently to her feet. They wandered on together with +scanty, broken speech and averted eyes, through lately arid nooks and +hollows made sweet and full of the promise of verdure by yesterday's +rain. The faint-green spear-points of strange vegetation were already +piercing the brown earth; quaint beetles crawled out from under the +stones and beat their soft "tok-tok-tok" on the ground, signalling to +prospective mates; lizards of a deeper and more vivid blue than anything +else in Nature's storehouse, sunned themselves on the rocks, panting +with enjoyment. + +They came to a flowering mass of gethyllis--that strange plant the +curled leaves of which wind out their spirals in winter to catch the +dewdrops and conduct them down their tube-like channels to the +deep-underground bulb, which waits until the fiercest sun of summer +shines before it sends up its lovely, tulip-like cup of snowy white or +vivid crimson. The luscious scent filled the air and caused a faint, +delicious intoxication. They bent over the blossoms and began gathering +them. In doing this their hands met by accident and they started apart +suddenly, thrilling with unknown confusion. + +Their faltering speech died away altogether, and they more than ever +avoided each other's gaze. After retracing their steps for a short +distance they again paused. The vague horizon seemed to become of +absorbing interest. Each felt to blame for the abashment of the other, +and both seemed to drink of a cup of humiliation. The old tree waved +sympathetically over them its topmost branches, in which the wind seemed +to waken a sigh. + +Careless Nature, to bring them together, sacrificed a life. She sent a +message down through a cleft in the rock against which Susannah was +dejectedly leaning, and called from the depths where it had long been +sleeping a poisonous red centipede. The creature crawled down over the +girl's shoulder and endeavoured to enter her sleeve at the wrist. Then +Max saw it. He sprang forward in a spasm of terror, brushed the +centipede aside with his hand; not, however, before it had given him a +venomous nip. In an instant he had crushed the life out of the creature +with his foot; then, with an exclamation of pain, he turned towards the +girl. His hand was already beginning to swell. Susannah tore a piece +off the curtain of her cappie and began to bind up the injury. As she +did so she came so close that she leant slightly against Max. Then the +opportunity triumphed over the pain--he passed his arm around her, drew +her to him, and kissed her on the quivering lips. + +The centipede and its sting were soon forgotten. Nature held them, +embraced and embracing, for a blissful eternity; they saw the face of +happiness smiling in the rosy gloom under Love's wing. + +The koekerboom became wrapped in a whirlwind of excitement, its gaunt +boughs swayed until they clashed, and the sap rose in its slowly beating +heart until the yellow buds which a few of its less mature twigs had put +forth tentatively, as though half ashamed of such frivolity, burst open +and sent forth a faint shower of pollen, which fell like a spangling of +gold-dust upon Susannah's hair. + +As they paced away, hand in hand, a small army of fierce desert ants +were dragging away the still writhing body of the centipede to their +underground storehouse. Nature, so very lavish in large matters, is +extremely economical in trifles. + + + +CHAPTER FIVE. + +GERT GEMSBOK. + +Gert Gemsbok prowled along the bank of the Orange River and bent an +attentive eye upon the brimming flood. The great stream, swollen by the +summer rains in far-off Basutoland, sped roaring down the rapids just +above the Augrabies Falls, over which it would plunge into that +mysterious, unexplored gorge through which its secret way lay for some +four hundred miles to the Atlantic Ocean. Brown with the gleanings of +tens of thousands of square miles of loamy hill and dale swept by +furious thunderstorms, clogged with the detritus gathered from flooded +flat and spate-ravaged kloof, foul with the rubbish from many a distant +mining camp on the banks of its tributary, the Vaal, the torrent swept +irresistibly on with a growling roar, the might of which could not be +realised without receding for some distance from the bank. Then it +would be felt that the air was filled with continuous thunder and that +the very earth shuddered with the throbbings of this mighty artery, as +the body of a man quivers after unwonted effort. + +Flotsam and jetsam abounded in every cranny of the bank and on the +down-stream side of every point and headland. Strange objects might be +here and there seen--broken packing-cases, dead cattle, sheep, and +goats, pumpkins, skins, and old rags. In every bay of still water lay +an unsavoury jumble. Gert examined the swollen carcases one by one in +the almost vain hope of finding one not too decomposed to eat. + +Walking upstream he crossed a promontory covered with scrub. Behind +this lay an inlet in the bank which was filled by a slow swirl generated +by a rapid immediately above. He paused and cast his eye over the +different objects which were slowly circling round and round. One of +these soon riveted his attention: it was a rough wooden framework +superimposed upon a strong raft, on which was stretched the body of a +man dressed in European clothing. Gert walked round the bend of the +inlet until he reached a convenient spot on its opposite face. His +practised eye recognised this as the place where the object of his +scrutiny would most probably ground or come close enough to the bank to +be caught hold of, if necessary. Having reached the spot in question, +he sat down on a willow stump and waited. The wooden raft with its +gruesome burden kept for some time circling slowly round and round the +pool, but Gert noticed that at each revolution it seemed to sweep in a +little nearer the bank. He began to note the details. The body was +that of a very tall man with a full, red beard. He was dressed in a +grey flannel shirt, which being slightly open at the throat, revealed a +brawny chest covered with russet hair. The nether limbs were clad in +moleskin trousers and strong, thick-soled boots such as miners often +wear. The feet and arms were securely bound to the sides of the +framework. + +At length the raft caught against a submerged stump. To this it hung +for a moment; then it heeled over and swayed itself loose, and the +current washed it slowly against the bank, where it grounded at the +watcher's feet. + +The body was horrible to look upon; the eyes were sunken out of sight or +had decomposed away--the flesh was livid. The wrists were cut by the +cords that bound them, showing that the man had been bound living upon +the raft. Into the flesh of his forehead the letter "V," about an inch +in length, had been cut. Gert waded into the water up to his waist and +paused close to the horrible object. His feet were sore from constant +wanderings over the stony mountains, and he coveted the dead man's +boots. Conquering his repugnance, he drew his knife and severed the +laces. Then he pulled the boots off and flung them high on the bank +behind him. After pausing for a few seconds he searched the trouser +pockets, but found that they contained nothing. As he did this he +averted his eyes from the dead face. His search over, he waded along +the shore towards the outside limit of the inlet, where the current was +strong, drawing the raft after him. Launched forward with his full +strength, the raft was caught by the current and swirled out into the +mid-stream, where it passed from view into the confused mass of +wave-tossed rubbish. + +Gert then climbed up the bank and returned to where he had flung the +boots. Upon examining these he found that the layers of leather forming +the sole of one were gaping widely at the side. He tried to press the +layers together, but found that he could not do so owing to the presence +of some object which had evidently been inserted between them. He +pulled this out and found it to be a piece of rag in which was wrapped a +diamond as large as a hazel-nut. Searching farther, he found that in +each boot holes had been scooped out in the thick mass of leather above +the outer layer, and diamonds inserted. He found six altogether--three +in each boot. The stones were pure white, and of that peculiar +crystallisation which characterises the gems found on the banks of the +Vaal River, as distinguished from those found in what are known as the +"dry diggings." + +Gert looked at the shining gems as they lay upon his hand and marvelled +exceedingly. He knew right well that the stones were diamonds, for he +had worked for a year in the Kimberley mine. He also knew that the law +forbade him to have such things in his possession, and that if caught +with them he would be liable to severe punishment. Yet here, he +thought, was the means of attaining riches; surely there must be some +way of turning to account the prize which he had honestly obtained? +With a spasm of exultant dread he slipped the stones into his skin +wallet. Then he placed a heavy pebble into each of the boots and flung +them as far as he could into the stream. He sat in thought for a few +moments; then he retraced his steps, down-stream, to a spot where had +been deposited the only half-decomposed carcase of a goat which he had +raked out of the flood. This he shouldered and carried up the rocky +gorge in which the cave was situated, in which he dwelt with his mother +and his wife. + +By this time the wooden raft with its dread enigma had been whirled down +the rapids and dashed to pieces over the Augrabies Falls. What dread +tragedy had resulted in the voyage of this ark with its single gruesome +passenger upon the bosom of the brown flood through the scorched +Desert--what terrible act of crime or retribution had sent this sign to +be revealed for an instant to the startled ken of a prowling savage, +will probably never be explained until all mysteries are unlocked! + +Gert Gemsbok, the Koranna Hottentot, was a remarkable man. In the +rebellion of the Griqua and Koranna Clans, which broke out upon the +northern border of the Cape Colony in 1879, he had taken a prominent +part. Captured with arms in his hands and identified as having led a +certain band of rebels which was concerned in some serious depredations, +he was sentenced by the Special Court to a severe flogging and a long +term of imprisonment. He served the first part of his sentence at the +Breakwater Convict Station, Cape Town, but was afterwards transferred to +one of the Diamond Mining Compounds at Kimberley. Upon his discharge he +took service as a labourer at the mines, with the view of making +sufficient money to enable him to return half-way across the continent +to the Desert which he loved, and somewhere within the indefinite bounds +of which he hoped to find traces of his family. He attained his object; +he found his old mother and his wife living close to Namies in +Bushmanland, in great misery from want, and suffering from incurable +disease. His two children were dead. The two women were unwholesome +and in every way unpleasant to look upon, besides being almost helpless, +but Gert, no less than they, was happy in the reunion. + +Having still a few pounds left from his earnings at the diamond fields, +he bought a few articles of clothing for the two women from a wandering +hawker. Then the problem as to how they were to exist loomed up. Gert +could easily get work among the Trek-Boers, as a shepherd, but how was +he to support the two helpless women out of his earnings, which only +amounted to eight fat-tailed sheep per annum? The thing was almost +impossible, but he succeeded in doing it. + +Soon, however, he again fell upon evil days. This time he suffered for +righteousness' sake. The Hottentots are, probably, the most untruthful +race under the sun, but this Hottentot invariably made a point of +telling the truth, and misfortune fell upon him in consequence. A +certain Trek-Boer named Willem Bester was charged with a serious crime +before the Special Magistrate for the Northern Border. Gert, +unfortunately for himself, had been a witness to the act, and was, +accordingly, called upon to give evidence. Instead of sensibly lying, +and thus exonerating the accused, who was related to his master, poor +Gert injudiciously told the truth. As a result Bester was convicted and +sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. The consequences were +disastrous to the veracious exception to the rule of his race. He was +dismissed from his employment and turned adrift. He tried to obtain +service everywhere, but found that he was boycotted--driven away with +contumely from every Trek-Boer's camp at which he applied. + +So the three miserable beings wandered about the Desert from water-place +to water-place, digging for "veld-kost"--the generic name by which the +many species of edible bulbs, leaves, and tubers with which the fringe +of the Desert abounds, are known. In the short and adventitious spring, +when the leaves appearing through the sand indicated the proper spots to +dig at, life was comparatively easy, but after the northern winds had +scorched away the herbage it was only by a bitter struggle that body and +soul could be kept together. Each year, when the Orange River came down +in flood, the three wretched creatures would occupy a cave close to its +southern bank just above the Augrabies Falls. Here, especially when the +rains had been very heavy in the Orange Free State or the upper reaches +of the Vaal River, they used to reap a rich harvest of garbage. + +Six years of this life had passed prior to the finding of the mysterious +corpse and the diamonds. + +The cave was an oval chamber in the sheer granite wall in which the +flank of a mighty mountain ended. The floor was of dry sand, and there +was no drip from the smoke-stained roof to cause inconvenience. Here it +was cool in the hottest weather, and when the cold eastern winds +shrieked in arid wrath down the black gorges, the three waifs lay snug +and warm. The furniture of the cave consisted of a few miserable skins, +two or three earthern pots of native make, a bow and a quiverful of +poisoned arrows, and a few blunted iron spikes, the latter being used in +the root-digging operations. A musical instrument, which will hereafter +be described, completes the inventory. + +Gert was an old man. His limbs were half-crippled by rheumatism, and +his sight had begun to weaken. The Hottentots are a thin-skinned race, +and flogging is to them a very terrible punishment. Gert had never +fully recovered from his experience of the lash. Had his physical +vigour been greater he might have been able to kill game from time to +time, especially when the trek-bucks crossed the Desert. As things +were, his hunting never yielded him more than a few snakes and lizards +and an occasional jackal. On very rare occasions he managed to get a +shot at a klipspringer antelope; only, however, after lying in wait for +hours at a time in a red-hot rock-cleft, on the faint chance of the +bucks being startled in one of the hollows and running past him on their +way to the next. But these waitings were usually unsuccessful and he +could not afford to lose the time which they took up. + +Gert Gemsbok reached the cave with his unsavoury burthen. This he flung +down on the ground outside, for its stench would have made the air of +the cave unbearable. It was bad enough to have to eat such stuff +without breathing it as well. Having skinned the leg of the carcase he +cut up some of the meat and put it into one of the pots. From a crevice +in the wall he took out a handful of strong-smelling herbs; these he +broke up and added to the stew with the object of deadening the +effluvium. + +After supper he related his adventure to the two women. The mother was +half in her dotage, and had almost reverted to the animal in the course +of the years of misery which she had lived through. The wife became +wild with excitement at the idea of once more having money and being +able to purchase longed-for luxuries. She tried to persuade Gert to +start at once on a journey across the Desert to Kenhardt for the purpose +of realising his property and obtaining coffee, sugar, and tobacco. The +memory of these things, none of which had been tasted for years, +continually tantalised her. Gert, however, mindful of former +experiences, had no intention of placing himself within the power of the +law again. + +The old woman had originally come from Great Namaqualand; she belonged +to the Bondleswartz Clan. She was continually urging her son to remove +to the land of her birth; but this he could never be persuaded to do. +He always clung to the hope of being able to remove to some civilised +locality where coffee and tobacco would be obtainable. + +One mitigation of all this misery existed. This Hottentot was an +artist, carrying in his heart a spark of that quality which we call +genius, and which might be called the flower that bears the pollen which +fertilises the human mind, and without which the soul of man would not +exist, nor would his understanding have sought for aught beyond the +satisfaction of his material senses. Gert Gemsbok was a musician. His +instrument was of a kind which is in more or less common use among the +Hottentots, and which is known as a "ramkee." The ramkee is very like a +banjo rudely constructed. In the hands of a skilful player its tones +may be pleasing to the ear. One peculiarity of the performance is that +a great deal of the fingering--if one may use the term--is done with the +chin. There are usually four strings, but some instruments contain as +many as seven. + +In Gert Gemsbok's ramkee the drum was made from a cross section of an +ebony log, which had been hollowed out with infinite labour until only a +thin cylinder of hard, sonorous wood was left. Across this was +stretched the skin of an antelope, and inside were several layers of +gum--this for the sake of enriching the tone. The bridge was the +breast-bone of a wild goose; the strings were made of the sinews of a +number of wild animals, selected after a long series of experiments as +to their respective suitability to the different parts of the gamut. + +The elder woman was almost totally deaf, and the younger too much +preoccupied by her physical ailments to pay much heed to the music. The +musician, however, required no audience to enable him to reap the +fullest enjoyment from the exercise of his art. He loved music for its +proper sake, and under its influence could soar away above his sordid +surroundings into a heaven of his own creation. + +His favourite air was one which ran somewhat as follows. Upon it he +would improvise and invent fantastic arabesques and ingenious +variations:-- + +The old woman became more and more feeble, until at length she seemed to +lose every faculty except an appetite for certain kinds of food. She +lay for weeks without speaking. One night she surprised the others by +complaining, in a very distinct voice, of feeling cold. Gert stirred up +the embers and threw a few twigs upon them. Soon after this she said-- + +"Now I am going over the river." + +Next morning they found she was dead. + +Gert walled up the mouth of the cave with the heaviest stones he could +move, leaving the body inside. Then he and his wife departed. He made +up his mind to attempt once more to obtain employment. Perhaps after +six years his crime of truth-telling might have been forgotten or +condoned. He now had an object in life--the realisation of the property +which Fate had thrown in his way. He would first return to Namies, +which was a place of congregating for Trek-Boers. Possibly he might be +able to get employment there. Even if unsuccessful, however, there was +still veld-kost to be had, and there were only two mouths to feed now. +Alone, he might easily have made his way to other parts and disposed of +the diamonds--even a tithe of their value would have made him a rich +man--but his wife could only hobble a couple of miles a day at the very +most. He could, of course, have left her to starve, but the thought of +doing this never so much as crossed his mind. + +So Gert Gemsbok, as stout-hearted as any paladian who ever carried a +lance to the Holy Land, packed up his bundle of worn, dirty skins, and +tied the pots on the top of it with some withes of twisted bark. He hid +his bow and arrows in a dry crevice against the possibility of future +needs--they would have been regarded, and rightly so, as the Mark of the +Beast among the Trek-Boers. Then, with his ramkee slung under his arm +and his miserable old wife hobbling upon cranky legs behind him-- +blinking in the sunlight to which she had been long unaccustomed--he +struck boldly back to renew the battle of life among the men who had +driven him forth to herd with the wild beasts. + +His six diamonds, wrapped in a dirty rag, were sewn in a row along the +bottom of his skin wallet. + + + +CHAPTER SIX. + +TOO GENERAL TO BE SPECIFIED. + +When Susannah reached the camp with the afterglow of her lover's kisses +still upon her lips, she found that dinner was over. There was a new +look upon her face and a light in her eye, which were not lost on any +member of the family. She took a rusk from the cupboard and then went +to the scherm for a cup of coffee which Katryn, the Hottentot +servant-girl, had saved for her. Katryn had seen Max follow Susannah to +the kopje, and, as she noticed the new look upon the girl's face, had +drawn her own conclusions. After pouring out the coffee she shot an +extremely sly glance at Susannah's face and then turned away, her +shoulders shaking with laughter. + +Old Schalk turned to his wife, who was sitting beside him in the +mat-house, hemming an apron-- + +"Wife, did you see how strange she looked? I wonder what she and the +Jew have been doing on the kopje?" + +"Let us call her and ask. Susannah!" + +"Yes, aunt." + +"Where have you been that you did not come to dinner?" + +"At the koekerboom on the top of the kopje, aunt." + +"Who was with you?" + +"Max, aunt." + +"What happened to make you look so strange?" + +In the most self-possessed manner possible Susannah replied-- + +"He told me he loved me, and I promised to marry him." + +Old Schalk and his wife both gasped; then the old man broke out-- + +"You promised to marry _him_--a Jew--one of those who denied the Lord +Jesus and crucified Him?" + +"I am sure Max did not do that; for one thing, he was not born at the +time." + +"Don't tell me! If he did not do it himself his forefathers did, and +the Lord laid a curse on the Jews." + +"Who ever heard of such a thing as marrying a Jew?" broke in Mrs +Hattingh. "I am sure the minister would refuse you the sacrament if you +were to do it." + +"I love him, and I will marry no one else," replied Susannah composedly. + +"It is not even as if he were rich," continued Mrs Hattingh; "but he +has nothing--he is only a servant. The shop belongs to his brother." + +Maria and Petronella, were just on the other side of the mat-house wall, +listening to all that was said, and giggling and making signs to each +other. Old Schalk bethought him of his overdue account at the shop, and +wondered how this unexpected development would affect his relations with +Nathan, with whom he could not afford to quarrel. But Max was often, as +at present, in charge of the business; he also had to be considered. +The old Boer came to the conclusion that his safest course was to ignore +the whole affair, at all events for the present, until after Nathan's +return. + +"The idea of her wanting to marry a little boy like that! A nice joke, +indeed! When Nathan comes back he will soon put him right." + +"And to think of her looking at a fellow of his size when a fine man +like Jan Roster, who has plenty of stock and a farm of his own, just +wants but a little encouragement to make him have the banns put up for +the next Nachtmaal." + +Susannah turned away indignantly and left the mat-house. Jan Roster was +a young farmer who owned land on the opposite fringe on the Desert, many +arid miles from Namies. His business, the peculiar methods of which +will be explained later on, sometimes brought him to northern +Bushmanland. Recently he had cast looks of tenderness at Susannah. +This, however, was not much of a distinction; he was known to be very +anxious indeed to get married--in fact, he had proposed to nearly every +good-looking girl within two hundred miles of his farm. In spite of his +flourishing circumstances, his bulky build, and his not specially +ill-favoured appearance, no girl could ever be got to take him +seriously. He had spent a few months at a college at Stellenbosch, and +thus received what, by courtesy, was termed an education. Theology was +his speciality, and could he have conveniently combined the ministry +with farming as carried on upon his peculiar lines, he would undoubtedly +have attempted to enter the Church. As things were, he was in the +habit, when on his rounds, of preaching to the Trek-Boers and +half-breeds. It was understood that he was ambitious of entering +Parliament eventually, and that he looked upon sermons as a preparation +for debating in the senate of his country. + +"Is it true that you are going to marry the little Jew?" asked Maria, as +Susannah left the mat-house. + +Susannah passed on indignantly without deigning an answer. She was not +going to stand having her lover referred to in such slighting terms. + +It was past eight o'clock when the waning moon looked over the eastern +rim of the Desert. Max was sitting on a packing-case outside the shop, +trying to make up his mind as to whether he ought to walk over to the +camp and see Susannah or not. His heart said "Go," but his reason said +"Stay." He instinctively divined that there would be opposition to any +connection between himself and Susannah on the part of the Hattinghs. +He wondered whether Susannah had told about what had happened. It +seemed to him impossible that such a thing could be kept concealed--the +clucking lizards which came out of their sand-burrows after the sun had +gone down, and the green pneumoras squeaking on the bushes, seemed to be +discussing nothing else--to be proclaiming their opinion of the +occurrence far and wide. When the moon arose Susannah happened to be +watching it as well. Perhaps he saw her face reflected on the gleaming, +pearly surface. Max arose from his seat and walked over to the Hattingh +camp. + +He went straight to Susannah and took her shyly outstretched hand. She +returned his ardent pressure slightly, and a spasm of bliss went through +him. Then he turned and greeted the others with nervous effusiveness, +but his advances were very coolly received. No one volunteered a remark +for some little time. The silence became oppressive; it was broken by +Old Schalk, in evident pursuance of a conversation which Max's visit had +interrupted. He addressed the visitor-- + +"What is the real belief of the Jews and the Roman Catholics about +Christ?" + +"I--I don't exactly know," replied Max hesitatingly; "I was very young +when I left home." + +"But you know well enough," said Mrs Hattingh. "Jan Roster told us all +about it in his last sermon: Pontius Pilate and the soldiers were Roman +Catholics, and--and--" + +"Well, wife, we are waiting." + +"Ach, Schalk, you heard the sermon as well as I. At all events the Jews +and the Roman Catholics between them crucified the Lord." + +"I know that as well as you do, woman; but what I asked about was their +belief. Oom Dantje van Rooyen says that he heard from the minister that +the Jews and the Roman Catholics do not believe quite the same thing." + +"Oh! what should I know about that? But surely" (turning to Max) "you +can tell us about your faith?" + +Poor Max did not know what to say. Nathan had, over and over again, +impressed upon him that, although there was certainly no truth in any +religion whatever, he must be sure to keep all the Jewish feasts and +observances--with the exception of fasts, which he was to pretend to +keep--all the days of his life. He had heard other Jews discussing +ritual and religion in the same strain. He wished heartily that he knew +the details of Susannah's faith, so that he might believe what she +believed. He replied, lamely enough-- + +"You must ask my brother about these things." + +"Another thing I should like to know," said Old Schalk; "that is, why +they eat children in the synagogues?" + +It was strange to hear this echo of one of the lying cries of the +Judenhetze in this remote corner of an African Desert. + +"You must wait and ask my brother," repeated Max. + +"Yes; they are a wicked lot in their religion," continued Old Schalk. +"Fancy a religion that forbids one to eat pork and teaches you to eat +children--not their own children, oh no, but Christian children that +they steal in the streets of the big towns, and then fatten up for the +Passover!" + +"But, uncle, I don't think they do so any more," said Susannah, moved by +the pain in Max's face. "It was long ago that they used to do that." + +"What does a girl like you know about such things? Did we not read +about it in the book which Uncle Sarel lent us, and didn't Jan Roster +say it was quite true, and that they caught the Jews doing it in Russia +the other day? Why, even Max cannot say it isn't true." + +"I--I never heard of it," faltered Max. + +"Never heard of it?" said Mrs Hattingh in low but indignant tones. +"What a dreadful thing to be so ignorant of one's own religion!" + +Max went home slightly consoled in his humiliation by another gentle +pressure from the hand of Susannah at parting. But some of the bloom +had already been rubbed off the blossom which had unfolded in such +radiant fairness only a few hours before. He could see that Susannah's +secret had been surprised from her, and that opposition and danger +loomed ahead. He anticipated that Nathan would make his life a burthen, +would torture him with coarse allusions and unpleasant jokes. This he +was prepared for, and the prospect was a sickening one. The future was +heavily clouded, and behind the clouds visible he foreboded others. But +"the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts." His love was sure, and +he knew it to be returned. Sleep knit up the ravelled fabric of his +happiness, and memories of the new bliss he had tasted haunted his +dreams. + +The next morning brought trouble. Shortly after breakfast Max saw, to +his dismay, three members of the Hattingh family labouring heavily +across the sand towards the shop. Mrs Hattingh was in the centre--she +leant heavily on the arms of her granddaughters. As the three entered +the shop, the two girls looked at Max with an expression of +indescribable slyness. Max groaned in spirit; Nathan had given him +strict injunctions that on no account whatever were any members of the +Hattingh family to get any more credit. He knew instinctively that this +was what they had now come to ask for. + +Mrs Hattingh sat down heavily upon a packing-case, panting from the +exertions of her walk. Maria and Petronella lifted the flap of the +counter quite unceremoniously and walked in. Then they began to pull +down the goods from the shelves and examine them. Mrs Hattingh +beckoned to Max to come to her. In a low tone and with meaning looks +she told him that she wanted to buy some material for a dress for +Susannah. Max knew this to be a lie, but he did not dare to show his +knowledge. She eventually selected enough material for two dresses; +but, from the number of yards ordered, Max could see that his attachment +was being used for the purpose of providing the two large specimens of +young womanhood present with frocks which they badly needed. Other +articles were selected by the girls, who kept darting meaning looks at +him and uttering whispered hints about their cousin. When they left, +carrying several large parcels, the Hattingh account had been increased +on the _debit_ side by upwards of two pounds sterling, and the fact +pressed like an indigestion upon the already laden breast of poor Max. + +Within a few days the Trek-Boers began to flock into Namies. Pasturage +was now plentiful, and the gregarious instinct, which is present to a +certain extent even in a Trek-Boer, prompted them to draw together. A +week after the rain there were fully a dozen camps grouped around that +of Old Schalk. + +A good deal of flirting of a sort went on among the young men and +maidens. Music nightly startled the coneys until they scuttled away +among the rocks of the kopje, for "Oom Schulpad" turned up from no one +knew where with his old fiddle, and played reels and polkas which made +the feet of the young people itch to be dancing. + +Oom Schulpad was an elderly and deformed man who owned a +disreputable-looking cart and three small donkeys, by means of which he +used to make extremely long journeys through the Desert, which he knew +as well as he knew his instrument. In many places where another would +have died of thirst, Oom Schulpad could find water. Music and hunting +were his two passions, and he loved his rifle as much as his fiddle. +Sometimes he would penetrate deep into the dunes, and return with a load +of gemsbok bultong. He was a thorough vagrant by disposition, and +hardly ever settled down at one spot for more than a fortnight at a +time. His music made him a _persona grata_ at all the camps, so he +simply passed from one to another--always a welcome guest. + +Being very clever and versatile as a mechanic, he could mend harness, +repair a gun, make veldschoens, or replace a broken spoke in the wheel +of a wagon. His name, which means "Uncle Tortoise," was given him on +account of the shape of his back. He had a real talent as well as a +passionate love for music. His tongue was an extremely bitter one, and +he was accordingly feared by those whom he disliked. He had never +married. He said that he hated women; nevertheless he was usually to be +found, when not away hunting, in the company of young girls. These, as +a rule, liked and trusted him. + +It was with the advent of the Trek-Boers that the real troubles of poor +Max began. The relations between himself and Susannah formed the +standing joke at Namies for weeks. Every day the shop would be filled +with idle young men and women whose only purpose was to joke at the +expense of the unhappy lover. Many of these jokes were coarse, and made +Max burn with shame. He often longed for muscle so that he might +revenge his wrongs. Sometimes the supposed prospective domestic +arrangements of the young couple with reference to the extremely limited +accommodation at the back of the shop would be discussed in realistic +and distressing detail. Attached to the shop was a little room about +twelve feet square, which formed a lean-to. This, with the shop and a +small room at the back which was used as a store for hides, formed the +whole extent of the premises. The back room was occupied by the +brothers jointly as a sleeping chamber. Their meals were cooked by a +Hottentot boy behind a bush, and were eaten upon the counter. + +Susannah also had her troubles, but she did not suffer nearly as much as +Max, for she had an extremely bitter tongue, and in the game of chaff +was more than a match for any one who attacked her. + +These two thus underwent a discipline which stood them in good stead +afterwards. In the course of a couple of weeks they became more or less +callous, and were it not for the dread of Nathan's return, which +oppressed him like a nightmare, Max would have been happy enough. But +Nathan was now a fortnight overdue, and was daily expected to arrive. + +On the afternoon of the second Sunday after the meeting at the foot of +the koekerboom on the top of the kopje, Max suddenly made up his mind +and did what was for him a very heroic deed. He put on his best +clothes, went boldly over to the Hattingh camp, at which there was a +large miscellaneous gathering. He walked around the circle and shook +hands with every one present. Then he took his seat next to Susannah, +who blushed with pleasure at her lover's daring. She had been rather +hurt at the way in which he had kept aloof from her, and his +vulnerability to the banter which she despised had annoyed her. + +After a few minutes the company was electrified mildly by seeing these +two walk off together. This time they did not make for the kopje, but +strolled across the flats, where a few springbucks were playing about +unconcernedly as though they knew it was Sunday. + +Old Schalk snorted violently, and began to mutter questions at his wife. +She--her conscience gripping her over the credit which, by virtue of +her tacit approval of his addresses towards her niece she had induced +Max to give--whispered audibly-- + +"Ach! what does it matter? Let the children alone." + +The conversation soon glided back to the channel in which it had been +flowing when the interruption came. A certain stranger--a man who was +travelling through Bushmanland for the purpose of buying cattle for the +Cape Town market--was discussing astronomy with Old Schalk, who was a +strong supporter of the geocentric theory. The cattle-dealer was not by +any means well up in his subject; as a matter of fact, he was simply +retailing certain notions which he had picked up in a crude state from a +young relative of his who had been to a college, and which he had not +been able properly to digest. Nevertheless he stoutly maintained his +thesis. + +"Ach! what?" said Old Schalk. "These star-peerers, what do they know? +Are their eyes better than mine? Can they shoot springbucks better than +I can? Don't I see that the sun gets up every morning _there_" (he +pointed to the east), "and don't I see every evening that it goes down +_there_?" + +He shook the long stick towards the west, as though threatening an +astronomer with the consequences of his folly. + +"Ja, Oom; but you see it's this way--" + +"Ach! don't tell me about your this way and that way. You find me a +star-peerer who knows his Bible or has better eyes than I have, and I'll +listen to him. Doesn't the Bible say that Joshua told the sun to stand +still? Doesn't the Prophet Isaiah say that the Lord stretched the sky +over the earth like a tent? These star-peerers are all rogues and +Romanist heathens." + +"But, Oom," said the cattle-dealer, who was, as it were, blowing the +fuse of a torpedo which he had in reserve, "how is it that these +star-peerers are able to tell long before the times when the sun and the +moon will be darkened?" + +"How are they able to tell? Why, they find it out from the almanack, of +course." The only almanack with which the Trek-Boer is acquainted is +one issued by the Dutch Reformed Church. This document is adorned with +the Signs of the Zodiac, and is heavily garnished with Scripture texts. +It is believed by certain classes of the Boers that the almanack is +annually deduced from the Bible by a committee of Church ministers. + +The cattle-dealer, blown up--to change the old metaphor--by his own +torpedo, had to own himself vanquished. Old Schalk's reputation for +wisdom rose higher than ever, and a deadly blow was dealt to the +heliocentric theory in Bushmanland. + +The lovers strolled away over the sandy plain, which was now covered +with a rich carpet of variously hued flowers. Gorgeous gazanias of the +tint of the richest mahogany, and with the base of each petal eyed like +a peacock's tail; blue, sweet-scented heliophilas, purple and crimson +mesembryanthemums, and lovely variegated pelargoniums brushed their feet +at every step. They said little to one another, and that little could +interest none but themselves. Both were ignorant and illiterate to a +degree; their range of ideas was more limited than it is easy to +describe, or even to realise; but their hearts were young and full of +vague, sweet, unutterable thoughts. The springbucks--the advance +detachment of a large "trek"--were scattered, singly or in small groups, +over the illimitable plain. They sheered off, feeding tamely, to either +side. The meerkats scuttled back to their low, burrow-pierced mounds, +where they sat erect on a tripod, formed by hind legs and tail, ready to +dart underground. The striped-faced gemsbuck-mice dashed wildly into +their burrows in terror, and then out again in uncontrollable curiosity. + +As they walked homeward in the short gloaming Max asked Susannah if she +would always be true, even if her people were against him and his +brother drove him away. The girl looked straight into his eyes and +answered "Yes," in a clear, low tone. Max, believing her, saw Hope +shining through the clouds of uncertainty that filled the future, and +was happy. + +When they reached the camp the short Desert twilight had nearly faded +and the eastern stars were burning brightly. The gathering had +dispersed, and Old Schalk, sitting smoking in his chair before the +mat-house, was the only person visible. + +"Well," he said, "what is this they tell me about you and my niece?" + +"I want to marry her, Uncle; I am very fond of her." + +"Marry her? You will have to become a Christian before you marry _my_ +niece?" + +This was meant sarcastically. No Boer believes in the possibility of a +Jew becoming a Christian. + +"Yes, Uncle, I'll do that at once." + +"Hear him, now. He thinks a Jew can become a Christian as easily as a +man can change his shirt. Did you ever hear of a jackal turning into a +tame dog in a day?" Max flushed hotly but made no reply. "I never +heard of such a thing in all my life," continued the old Boer. "It is +not even as if you were rich and had a shop of your own; but you are +only a poor little boy without anything. Look here, I do not want your +brother Nathan to think that I have had anything to do with this +foolishness." + +Just then a diminutive Hottentot approached from behind the camp, +saluted Old Schalk, and squatted down on the ground close by upon his +hams. The man was clad in a few ragged skins and looked weak and +emaciated. + +"Well, schepsel, where do you come from?" + +"Out of the veld, Baas." + +"And where are you going to?" + +"I have come to the Baas." + +"For what?" + +"I have come to the Baas to look for work." + +"Ja, and what is your name?" + +"I am old Gert Gemsbok, Baas." + +"What! Are you the vagabond Bushman who got Willem Bester into the +tronk?" + +"I am he, Baas." + +"And you come to ask me to give you work?" + +"I only told the truth, Baas." + +"Ach, what does a Bushman know about truth?" + +"If I did a sin when I spoke the truth, Baas, I have had my punishment: +for six long years I have lived like a badger in a hole. I am a human +being, Baas; let me come back and live among other human beings." + +"No, no, schepsel; not a Boer in Bushmanland will give you work. Willem +Bester died in the tronk. No, no!" + +"I have a sickly old wife, Baas, and she cannot live any longer on the +veld-kost. Give me work, Baas, and I will serve you faithfully." + +"No, no, schepsel; go back and live with the badgers." + +Max heard and wondered. His awakening soul was shocked at the +unreasoning cruelty of the old Boer's conduct. The Hottentot had arisen +slowly and feebly from the ground and was walking away; the young Jew +followed and soon overtook him. Max had been bartering fat-tailed sheep +for goods with some of his customers and he wanted a herd. He told Gert +Gemsbok to follow him to the shop. + +That night the old Hottentot told his tale, or most of it, to Max. They +sat up in the shop until late, Gemsbok happy in the enjoyment of a +pipeful of good tobacco. He had lacked the means of smoking ever since +he had been driven into banishment. The suffering which this +deprivation must have entailed can only be realised by those who know +the Hottentot's dependence upon his pipe. + +Max burned with wrath at what he heard; his ingenuous soul revolted at +the tale of injustice and stupid cruelty. By instinct he could tell +that the old man's story was ingenuous and, so far as it went, +unreserved. He called to mind that Old Schalk had not attempted to deny +Gemsbok's plea that the evidence given by him against Willem Bester was +true. + +Max engaged Gemsbok at a salary of eight shillings per month, with +rations for himself. This was a fair rate of remuneration for +Bushmanland. The work which the old Hottentot had to do was to look +after the flock of three hundred fat-tailed sheep which Max had recently +acquired, to herd them all day in the Desert, and to haul water for them +with a derrick out of the well when he drove them home every night. +Gemsbok knew that he could every day gather enough veld-kost to +supplement his ration and make it suffice for his wife as well as for +himself. He had left her under a bush a few miles away. Before +daylight next morning he was well on his course to fetch her, with hope +and gladness filling his heart. + +The Gemsbok _menage_ was established in a cleft of the kopje-side about +fifty yards behind the store. The habitation consisted of a movable +screen of loose bushes about two feet high and shaped like a crescent. +This was shifted from one side to another of the fireplace as the wind +changed. A vagrant dog which Gert had found far out in the Desert, +half-famished for want of water, was added to the strength of the +establishment, and became the devoted slave of its rescuer. + +The old couple now tasted happiness probably far greater than any they +had previously experienced. Max was kind to them. Presents of old +sacks and a few articles of cast-off clothing, fragments of food from +his scanty table, an occasional pinch of tobacco,--such things filled +the hearts of these belated creatures with deep joy and thankfulness. A +pot of salve for the old woman's legs was provided, and the result was +satisfactory. + +Max found Gert a most intelligent and entertaining companion, and +mentally far in advance of any of the inhabitants of the Desert whom he +had met. The old man's experiences had been varied and his life full of +the tragic, and he seemed not to have forgotten anything he had ever +seen or heard in the course of his long struggles against adverse Fate. + +The ramkee was much in evidence. Oom Schulpad, with a true artist's +generous appreciation of the art of a fellow craftsman, often brought +his violin to the shop at night. There the two musicians would contend, +like two troubadours, in a kind of tournament of song. Sometimes they +would play duets, and it was then that Gemsbok proved his skill, for he +accompanied without difficulty any air played upon the violin after he +had heard it once. He would sit and listen attentively whilst Oom +Schulpad played it slowly over. Then the notes of the ramkee would +second the more civilised instrument as truly as if the music lay +printed before the player and he could read it. + +On the night when this occurred for the first time, after Gemsbok had +returned to his scherm, Oom Schulpad sat silently on the counter for a +few minutes. Then, as he took his departure he said, in a musing tone-- + +"Ja, he knows more music than I, that old Bushman." + +As Gemsbok's poor old wife was entirely helpless, it was he who fetched, +wood and water and attended to all the domestic duties. The old woman +slept most of the day, but at night the cheerful firelight from the +scherm lit up the kopjes long after the last of the Boers lay snoring. +Then the old couple would sit, toasting themselves at the cheerful +blaze, and chatting happily together, except when some lively tune from +the ramkee startled the ancient silence of the Desert. + +One of the Boers camped nearest the shop was a man named Koos Bester, +cousin of the Willem Bester who had died in prison after being sentenced +upon old Gemsbok's evidence. Koos was a very big, sallow, dark-haired +man with a scraggy fringe of coarse, black beard around his chin, and +eyes of a very peculiar shade of light grey. His usual mien was +melancholy, his strength was prodigious, his hands and feet were of +enormous size and looked as if they belonged to some one else. + +Koos Bester was a man who seldom either spoke or smiled; nevertheless he +could hardly be called morose. He was by no means a bad fellow in his +way, and was devotedly attached to his comely wife and his three small +children. His father-in-law, a very old man, lived with him. The +Besters usually camped at a water-place on the other side of the dunes. +As, however, no rain had fallen in that vicinity for some time, they +moved over to Namies, meaning to return to the spot they had come to +regard as their home as soon as circumstances permitted. + +Koos had been much attached to his cousin Willem and had felt the +latter's imprisonment and death very keenly. He hated the sight of Gert +Gemsbok, who continually reminded him of Willem's fate; the very fact of +knowing that the old Hottentot was in the neighbourhood was sufficient +to make him miserable. One day he asked Max to dismiss Gemsbok, but Max +indignantly refused. + +The scherm was in full view of the Besters' camp, and the sight of the +cheerful camp-fire with the old couple sitting next to it was a nightly +affront. Then the ramkee got upon Koos' nerves to such an extent that +he became very unhappy indeed. Gert's tune, with its endless +variations, became absolutely hateful to the melancholy Boer. One day, +in the course of a discussion on the subject, Koos had the bad taste to +insult Oom Schulpad by a reference to his physical defects. The old +fiddler had spoken in terms of admiration of the Hottentot's skill as a +musician, and Koos lost his temper. Oom Schulpad said nothing at the +time, but he scored up a grudge against Koos. Whenever Oom Schulpad +felt that he owed another anything in this way, he took a pride in +devising means to pay the debt. + +At length Koos found that he could stand the ramkee no longer, so he +shifted his camp to the other side of the kopjes, where the tune could +not reach his disgusted ears. A few days afterwards a thunderstorm +passed over the eastern fringe of the dunes, and he returned to his +favourite camping-place. But Gert Gemsbok's air haunted him for weeks +with deadly persistency. + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN. + +HOW JAN ROSTER WAS TWICE INTERRUPTED. + +One day four sleek mules drawing a light buggy came trotting along the +sandy road from the southward to Namies. In the vehicle were sitting +Jan Roster and his half-breed servant, Piet Noona. They came from that +part of Bushmanland in which no European can dwell, on account of the +extreme brackishness of the water--from an area the only inhabitants of +which are a few dozen families of half-breeds, who live by poaching wild +ostriches in defiance of the law. These people are very like human +red-herrings in appearance--probably from the amount of salt which they +constantly imbibe. + +The right of occupation of the district had been leased by Roster from +Government, and he, in turn, sublet his rights to the half-breeds. The +rent was paid in ostrich feathers; these the landlord collected himself, +and took over at his own price. + +The unique method practised by these people in hunting the ostrich may +be worth describing shortly. The ostrich runs probably swifter than any +other description of game. It has, however, one peculiarity--if kept +moving, even with comparative slowness, for more than a couple of hours +on a hot day, it gets heat-apoplexy, and suddenly dies. The manner of +its dying under these circumstances is peculiar. It drops in its +tracks, rolls over three times upon the sand, turns on its back and +expires, with legs extended vertically. + +The half-breeds sent out boys mounted on ponies, sometimes for a +distance of seventy or eighty miles, into the Desert. These start in +two parties, each taking a different direction. After reaching ground +where, from the spoor, it can be seen that ostriches abound, the two +parties converge towards each other, leaving, at intervals, individuals +stationary at certain points. A chain, the links of which are several +miles long, is thus formed around a large space, into the centre of +which all the ostriches which it contains are gradually coaxed. As soon +as the cordon is complete, the birds are started at a run towards the +saltpans, where the camps of the half-breeds are. As the horses of the +hunters actually engaged in chasing become exhausted, their places are +taken by others waiting along the wide-apart lines, between which the +hapless birds are being driven. After a time the birds begin to drop, +one by one. The hunters who made the running at the beginning, and who +now come slowly along on the spoor of the chase, pick the carcases up, +one by one. Then the feathers are carefully plucked out and tied in +bundles, whilst the meat is cut from the bones and hung across the +saddles of the weary horses. + +Jan Roster's buggy was of unusual make. It had a skeleton frame, and, +where the well ought to have been under the seat, was fitted an ample +tin case, which could be easily unshipped. The reason of this was well +known to every Trek-Boer in Bushmanland. The box was the receptacle of +the feathers collected as rent from the half-breeds, and, in the rare +event of Jan's meeting a policeman or the Special Magistrate upon his +rounds, it could be slipped off and buried in the sand. Once he had +reached home with his collections Jan felt himself quite safe. He +farmed tame ostriches himself, and the possession of the feathers could +always be accounted for as being the result of legitimate pluckings. + +Jan's tin box was full of feathers as he drove up to Namies, but this +fact did not cause him the least embarrassment. He pulled up within a +few yards of Old Schalk's camp, and, while Piet Noona was outspanning +the mules, he untied the tin box and carried it at once into the +mat-house. From the way in which he did this, it could be seen that he +had evidently done the same kind of thing before. He knew that he ran +no risk of being betrayed--"Hawks dinna pyke out hawks' een." + +It was Saturday afternoon when Jan arrived; he was soon sitting in the +mat-house drinking coffee, munching Boer biscuit, and glancing tenderly +at Susannah from time to time. Maria and Petronella sat on the big bed +giggling, whispering together, and nudging one another. Mrs Hattingh, +exhausted by the heat, was sitting near the door fanning her perspiring +face with her cappie. + +Susannah's countenance shone with a new light which made it very good to +look upon. Ever since her engagement she had become much neater and +more tasteful in her dress. In this respect she had always been in +strong contrast to her cousins, who, in spite of their taste for +pronounced colours, were utter slatterns. To-day they were dressed out +in finery of a distressing type. Maria wore a new light-pink cashmere +dress, a purple-flowered cappie, and around her neck a dark-blue +handkerchief. Petronella's frock was light blue, her kerchief was +scarlet, and her cappie was of the same kind as her sister's. Both +sisters wore white cotton stockings and new veldschoens--the latter just +finished for the occasion by Oom Schulpad. The dresses were made of the +material which had been obtained upon Mrs Hattingh's fraudulent +representations to the effect that it was required for Susannah. + +There was a reason for all this splendour of attire. Maria and +Petronella had just made a double conquest, and the double-conquered +were immediately expected to call. These were two young men who had +recently come to Namies on a courting expedition, from eastern +Bushmanland. They came, saw, and succumbed, all within the space of a +week. They had not yet declared themselves, but were expected to do so +that afternoon. These two hunted in a couple; one never came without +the other, and they did not feel the slightest embarrassment in making +love ardently in each other's immediate neighbourhood. + +It was about the middle of the afternoon when the expected swains +arrived. Both were tall, loose-jointed young men. They had been to the +shop and there purchased suits of "reach-me-downs" of distressing +texture, pattern, and cut, as well as flabby-rimmed "smasher" hats. +They had rather vacant faces, with good-natured expressions. +Christoffel (commonly called "Stoffel") van Lell, Maria's admirer, wore +a tweed coat, which was much too small for him, and the sleeves of which +severally revealed half a foot of red, bony wrist. His trousers were of +brown corduroy of the most fragrant quality. Willem Henrico, the +willing slave of Petronella's charms, wore a suit of Bedford cord, the +jacket of which was double-breasted and adorned with white delft buttons +as large as cheese-plates. New veldschoens and cheap, glittering spurs +adorned their extensive feet. Spurs serve as a sort of trade-flag in +courting on the high plains; a young man with a new pair is known to be +in search of a wife. + +A walk was proposed. This Mrs Hattingh agreed to with the proviso that +the road over the plains was taken and strictly adhered to, and that the +couples kept close together. The young men wanted to wander among the +kopjes, and the girls seemed to approve of that route. Mrs Hattingh, +however, was inexorable. When she emphatically repeated her injunction +about keeping close together, Maria said, deprecatingly: "Ach, Ou' Ma," +[Ou' Ma, grandmother] and pouted. Susannah flatly refused to go, +although Jan's request that she should do so was ostentatiously seconded +by Mrs Hattingh. Jan, accordingly, decided to remain at the camp, so +the other couples started by themselves. + +Mrs Hattingh soon afterwards stood up and waddled to the scherm, +leaving Jan and Susannah alone together. Old Schalk was sitting in his +chair on the other side of the wagon, in the shade. + +Jan became very nervous. After a few minutes he got up hesitatingly, +and moved his chair close to the little cross-legged stool on which +Susannah was sitting. He cleared his throat several times before he +could force himself to speak. Susannah was pale, but quite +unembarrassed. She regarded her unwelcome admirer with eyes that had a +wicked snap in them, and he became demoralised under her disdain. + +In vain did he speak of his house, his flocks, his horses, and the +places he had seen--not to mention the important people with whom he was +on terms of intimacy. None of these things moved Susannah. Her hands +were closed into two shapely little fists--so tightly that there was not +a vestige of blood to be seen in the knuckles. Jan ought to have +noticed her hands, and taken warning accordingly, but he rushed blindly +upon his fate. + +"Susannah," he said, beseechingly, "I have come a long way to see you." + +"So? Was that why you brought the tin box?" + +He floundered; in spite of the practice he had had, proposing was +difficult. Besides, Susannah's last remark was not calculated to set +him at his ease. + +"Are you not glad to see me, Susannah?" + +"Why should I be?" + +"Well, I--you see--I wanted to tell you about my new house." + +"What have I to do with houses? I live in a mat-house." + +"But wouldn't you like to live in a big house with rooms, and a stoep, +and a harmonium inside, and furniture brought all the way from +Clanwilliam?" + +Susannah's thoughts wandered. In a dreamy tone she replied-- + +"I don't know; perhaps I might." + +Jan took this for a sign of yielding. He bent over and passed his arm +around the girl's waist. + +Susannah's dreaming was over. She sprang up and, in the act of doing +so, swung round and dealt Jan a swinging blow on the ear with her small, +but firm and nervous fist. Jan felt as if the thunders of the +Apocalypse had discharged themselves over his left shoulder. He put his +hand up to the side of his head to ascertain whether his ear was still +there or had been burnt off. Susannah had hurt her hand so much that +the tears started in her eyes. However, she managed to escape from the +mat-house without showing her distress. + +Jan, very much crestfallen and with a bad singing in the left side of +his head, strolled away among the other camps. He could see, far out on +the plains, the two double dots which indicated the respective pairs of +lovers, and the spectacle made him sigh with envy. As the violent pain +in his ear calmed down to a sensation more like that of being gently +roasted, he began to make excuses for Susannah. Perhaps, he thought, he +had been too precipitate. At all events he would go back to tea, Mrs +Hattingh having invited him to do so. + +When Jan returned at dusk he found van Lell and Henrico sitting on the +big cartel bed in the mat-house--the nuptial couch of Old Schalk--with +their arms around the waists of their respective charmers. On each of +the four faces was an expression of fatuous bliss. The lovers took not +the least notice of Old Schalk or Mrs Hattingh, or, for the matter of +that, of Jan himself. + +At table the lovers did not allow their affections to prevent their all +making excellent suppers. The expected proposals had been duly made +that afternoon. During the meal each of the affianced maidens passed +little tit-bits into her lover's mouth with her own fair fingers from +time to time. These were munched with expressions of rapture by the +recipients. Susannah was still indignant, and glanced at Jan from time +to time in a manner that made him lose his appetite. The pain in her +hand had lasted longer than that in Jan's ear; of course she blamed him +exclusively for the hurt. + +After supper another walk was proposed, but this was uncompromisingly +vetoed by Mrs Hattingh. Max came in later, and, as usual, sat down as +far from every one as possible. Jan wondered at the black looks which +the visitor got from the old couple. By and by, however, Susannah +brought her little stool close to where Max was sitting, and then a +glimmering of the true state of affairs came to Jan. The pain seemed to +come back to his ear with renewed intensity. Ere long he found he could +stand the strain no longer, so he said, "Goodnight," and rose to depart. +In response to a question from Old Schalk, he said that he would hold a +religious service on the following day. + +Next morning at about ten o'clock there was a considerable gathering of +Boers at the Hattingh camp. Stout, frowsy "tantas" and portly "ooms" +strolled up with dignity or waddled laboriously through the sand. +Gaudily arrayed maidens followed with their attendant swains. A general +requisition for stools and benches, had been made, and these were +arranged in a semicircle in front of the wagon. The children of the +congregation sat on the ground where sheepskins had been stretched at +the feet of the elders. Old Schalk's chair was placed apart, +immediately below the wagon-box, in a position from which he could note +the effect of the exhortations on the faces of the others. The service +began with a psalm sung after the fashion followed in the Scotch kirks +of a century ago--very slowly, and much through the nose. Old Schalk +followed with a prayer, which might be described as so much denunciation +of people in general, clothed in the phraseology of the Prophet +Jeremiah, when the utterer of the Lamentations was most exercised over +the sins of Israel. There was a rumour afloat to the effect that the +Government was about to tax the Trek-Boers to some slight extent, in +proportion to the number of stock they depastured in Bushmanland, so Old +Schalk was the mouthpiece of the general indignation. + +The prayer over, Jan Roster mounted the wagon-box and began his sermon. +His text was a wide one--it embraced the whole of the Ten Commandments. +In an unctuous and impassioned manner he fulminated against all sorts +and conditions of transgressors. Some of the Commandments he slurred +over--others he expounded at great length. When he reached the fourth +he glanced menacingly at Max, who stood outside the circle, opposite +where Susannah was sitting. The breaking of the Sabbath was, according +to Jan, the root of all evil. He called upon the legislators of the +land to impose the heaviest penalties for all contraventions of the +Divine ordinance on the subject. He spoke in the most opprobrious terms +of the Jews, who, out of the wickedness of their unregenerate hearts, +desecrated this most holy day, and kept Saturday as a day of devotion in +its stead. He, Jan, was a sinner, but among all the faults which his +conscience laid to his charge, Sabbath-breaking was not to be found. +No, he had always kept holy the Lord's day--never travelled on it--never +attended to worldly concerns between midnight on Saturday and the +morning of Monday. + +Just then an interruption came. Piet Noona, Jan's driver and +confidential servant, forced his way along the side of the wagon until +he reached the front wheel, just over which Jan was holding forth from +the wagon-box. + +"Baas, Baas!" said he, in an agitated whisper. Jan glanced down with +displeasure in his eye, frowned, shook his head, and proceeded to the +discussion of the fifth commandment Piet, however, was not to be put +off. He caught hold of the leg of Jan's trousers between his finger and +thumb, and began to tug at it. + +"Baas, Baas!" said he again, in a tone almost of agony. + +"Go away--wait until I have finished," said Jan, in an irritated +whisper. + +"Baas, Baas!" reiterated Piet, in a whisper which could be heard by all +the congregation, "die Magistrate zijn wa' kom aan." ["The Magistrate's +wagon is approaching."] + +Jan reeled and staggered as if he had received a blow. Then he bent +down towards the agitated Piet and whispered hysterically the word +"Inspan!" + +Piet darted off. From the curt and summary way in which Jan dealt with +the remaining Commandments one might have thought that they were of +comparatively little importance. He brought the service to a close in +almost indecent haste, and then dived from the wagon-box behind the +canvas curtain, in front of which he had been holding forth. From there +he rushed to the mat-house, whence he emerged in an incredibly short +space of time, carrying the box of feathers. This he ran with to the +buggy. He shoved it under the seat, and over it he draped a sheepskin +kaross with ostentatious carelessness. In a few minutes the astonished +congregation, which had scattered into interested groups, was +scandalised at seeing Jan Roster, the strict Sabbatarian, disappear in a +dusty cloud on the road which led southward through the Desert. + +However, Jan had got safely away with his tin box and its incriminating +contents, and there was not the slightest fear of any of the Boers +giving information to the authorities on the subject. + +The Spedai Magistrate's wagon brought the Namies mail from Kenhardt. +The mail consisted of three letters--two of which were for Max--and a +few circular advertisements from enterprising promoters of patent +medicines. + +Max's letters filled him with joy. One was from his brother Nathan, +saying he had made so successful a trip--having secured a large quantity +of feathers of the very best quality--that he had decided to visit Cape +Town for the purpose of disposing of his spoils and buying a fresh stock +of "negotie," or trading truck. Consequently he did not intend +returning for about another six weeks. + +Nathan gave minute directions upon many points connected with the +management of the business--more especially with reference to the giving +of credit to the Boers, who, as he knew, would soon be collecting at +Namies in considerable numbers. The Hattingh account was, if possible, +to be closed at once; in no case was any more credit to be given in that +direction. Max sighed with deep relief. After the daily dread of +Nathan's arrival which had overshadowed him for so many weary weeks, +this long respite seemed like a prospective eternity. + +The other letter bore a foreign post-mark. It was from a notary in +Hamburg, informing him that an uncle, of whose very name he had but a +faint recollection, had recently died and left him a legacy of about 150 +pounds. It seemed a fortune. Why, with that sum he could open a store +for himself, as large as the one he was managing on a pittance for +another. What a relief it was to find himself independent of Nathan--to +realise that there was now some prospect of his being able to make a +home for Susannah. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT. + +THE TREK-BOKKEN. + +The great annual "trek" of springbucks began, and Namies fell into a +state of ferment. For about a week small droves of bucks had been seen +passing to the westward. One morning clouds of dust were noticed +arising into a windless sky about ten miles away to the south. By this +it was known that the "trek" had really begun, and that the drove of +game was passing unusually far to the northward. Within an hour after +sunrise the Wagons were emptied of their contents, whilst every male of +European descent above the age of ten was furbishing up a gun. + +All sorts and conditions of firearms were to be seen, from the +flint-lock of three-quarters of a century ago to the modern Martini and +Express. + +Breakfast over, the wagons, drawn by teams of oxen which had been +standing in the yoke since early morning, moved off towards different +points on the trek-line. No horses were taken; a waterless country was +now to be entered, and a horse becomes useless in hot weather after a +day and a half without water. On the other hand, an ox can endure +thirst for a week without becoming incapable of work. + +Each wagon carried a couple of small kegs of water, a pillow-case full +of Boer biscuits, a small bag of ground coffee, and a kettle. The more +luxuriously inclined among the hunters took with them karosses, made of +the skins of fat-tailed sheep, to lie under at night. The majority, +however, took nothing whatever in the way of bedding. + +As the wagons cleared the circle of low kopjes it could be seen that the +trek was an unusually large one. As far as the eye could range from +north-east to south-west the horizon was obscured by rising clouds of +dust. Here and there in the immense vista, a particularly dense cloud +could be seen ascending slowly. This indicated a locality where a mob +of more than average compactness was pressing westward, impelled by the +strange trek instinct. + +Old Schalk was a keen sportsman--as that term is understood among the +Trek-Boers. In fact the "trek-bokken" were the only things he ever got +very excited about. Sitting in his chair--which had been tied in the +wagon--and accompanied by a youth whom he had provided with an old gun +and some ammunition, and who had agreed to give up half of what he shot +in payment, he was drawn towards the trek as fast as a fresh span of +oxen could go with the almost empty wagon. Besides his gun Old Schalk +took two large "slacht eizers," or iron traps--cruel things with toothed +iron jaws that would smash the leg of a horse. + +As the wagons approached the immense drove the dust began to die down, +for the tired bucks had paused for their regular rest during the heat of +the day. Far away could be seen dense white masses, between which +light-coloured dots were thickly sprinkled. + +The springbuck is pure white on the belly and flanks, and has a mane of +long, white, hair extending from the root of the tail to the shoulders. +This mane is usually concealed to a great extent by the fawn-coloured +ridges of hair between which it lies. It can, however, be erected at +will to about five inches in height, and extended to about six inches in +breadth. The sides of the animal are a light fawn colour, upon which +lies a horizontal stripe of dark brown about two and a half inches in +width and extending from the shoulder to the flank. The horns, shaped +like the classic lyre, are about eight inches in length, and are ringed +to within a couples of inches of the tip. The animal stands about two +feet nine inches in height at the shoulder, and weighs about ninety +pounds when fully grown. + +Seen at a distance, or when the sun is shining against them, the +springbucks appear to be white all over. It is in the early morning, or +when running away from or in circles around a bewildered dog--deceived +into the idea that it is about to succeed in catching the lissom +quarry--that the springbucks are seen at their best, and in their most +characteristic attitudes and movements. Then the spine becomes arched +until the nose almost touches the ground, the mane of long, stiff, white +hair expands laterally, whilst every fibre stands erect and apart. As +the animal careers along with the appearance of a bounding disc, its +feet are drawn together and it sways, like a skater, first to one side +and then to the other--some times to an angle of thirty degrees from the +vertical. + +There is something inexpressibly sad about the fate of these hapless +creatures. Beautiful as anything that breathes, destructive as locusts, +they are preyed upon by man and brute in the illimitable wilderness-- +even as the great shoals of fish are preyed upon by their enemies in the +illimitable ocean. The unbounded Desert spaces, apparently meant for +their inheritance, hold for them no sanctuary; the hyaena and the jackal +hang and batten on the skirts of their helpless host; the vultures wheel +above its rear and tear the eyes out of the less vigorous which lag +behind. Sportsman and pot-hunter, Boer, half-breed and Bushman, beast +of the burrow and bird of the air, slaughter their myriads; but still +the mighty mass assembles every year and surges across the Desert like a +tempest in its travail of torture. Why should all this loveliness and +symmetry have been created in such lavish prodigality only to be +extinguished by a slow process of agony and violent death? + +For if there be any design anywhere in Nature's so-called "Plan," the +Desert was meant to be the inheritance of these animals. They were +developed under its conditions, its sparse and tardy products are for +them all-sufficing; they were in harmony with their ungracious +environment until man came to disturb the balance. The semi-civilised +human beings who are superseding the springbucks are, physically, and, +_pari passu_ mentally, deteriorating under the conditions subject to +which the latter flourished. + +Within a measurable time the lyre-shaped horns strewn thickly over the +veld will be the sole remaining sign of a vanished race, for the +springbuck will inevitably become extinct in Bushmanland, as the bison +has become extinct in the North American prairies. + +The "trek" is due to the instinct which impels the does to drop their +young somewhere upon the eastern fringe of the Desert, which extends, +north and south, for several hundred miles. This fringe is the limit of +the western rains. These fall between April and September, when the +Desert is at its driest, and bring out the green herbage necessary for +the new-born fawns. + +As the area over which the bucks range becomes more and more +circumscribed, the trek, although the number of bucks is rapidly +diminishing, becomes more and more destructive, owing to its greater +concentration. The fawning season over, the herd melts slowly and flows +gradually westward, until some night distant flashes of lightning on the +cloudless horizon indicate where--perhaps hundreds of miles away--the +first thunderstorm of the season is labouring down from where its bolts +were forged in the far, tropical north. Next morning not a single buck +will be visible--all will have vanished like ghosts, making for the +distant track of the rain. + +The wagons were drawn for some little distance into the course of the +drove, and halted a few miles apart. Then the oxen were unyoked and +driven back towards Namies. + +Immediately there began a great and ruthless slaughter. Whilst trekking +the bucks are very easy to shoot; in fact, if the trek be a large one +there is no sport involved in killing them, for they press blindly on, +only sheering off slightly to avoid an enemy. They become bewildered in +strange surroundings; their only impulse is to surge forward in a +flood-tide of destruction and beauty. + +From right and left could be heard the dropping shots--some far away and +some near--each the death-knell of one of the loveliest of created +things. The Boers had crept out for some distance from the wagons, and +each had taken up what he considered a favourable position. Here he +cleared a circular space about ten feet in diameter by pulling the +karoo-bushes, roots and all, out of the sand. The bushes were then +piled around the space cleared until a low, inconspicuous fence, about +nine inches in height, was formed, the root-ends of the bushes lying +inwards. + +Behind this fence the hunter lay prone, peering over it now and then to +mark the approach of the game, which wandered aimlessly about, singly or +in small groups. Whenever a buck approached to within a few yards of +the scherm, the occupant, with unerring aim, would send a bullet through +some vital part, and the animal would fall, its companions scattering, +often only to get within range of another scherm. The karoo-bushes grow +to a height of about a foot; consequently the dead bucks were usually +concealed from view. If one lay unduly revealed, the hunter would creep +out and strew a few bushes over it, thus hiding it effectually. + +At evening the Hottentot servants drove in the oxen, inspanned them to +the wagons, and drove out to the various scherms for the purpose of +bringing back the game to the different camping-places. The carcases +were then split down in front and laid open in the cool night air. + +Old Schalk, on account of his weak legs, was conveyed by wagon right to +the spot where he decided to establish his scherm; then the wagon moved +back for a couple of miles and the oxen were outspanned. He laid +himself down comfortably in his scherm, where he kept a Hottentot boy to +attend him. Under his large body was a sheepskin kaross, for he +believed in doing his shooting, like everything else, comfortably. The +two terrible traps were brought into requisition. By means of the +united exertions of Old Schalk and the Hottentot the springs were forced +back and the frightful jaws laid open. Then the traps were carried out +and carefully set, one on each side, and half buried in the loose sand. +They were placed each about a hundred yards away from the scherm, and a +troop of bucks would sometimes pass over one or other of the intervening +spaces. Under ordinary circumstances no buck would tread upon so +unusual looking an object. At a shot, however, the frightened creatures +would spring into the air in different directions, and in the confusion +one would perhaps alight on the engine. Then the horrible jaws would +snap, and the poor animal, held by the sinews of a shattered limb, would +roll over and over on the sand, bellowing in agony. + +At nightfall the herd suddenly began to move on once more, in obedience +to some mysteriously communicated impulse. All night long the muffled +thunder of their hoofs could be heard, whilst clouds of dust hung +motionless in the dew-damp air. Now and then the faint shock of a +distant gun discharge could be distinguished above the sound of the +trampling. In their mad career some of the larger and more consolidated +troops would rush to within a few yards of a wagon before they became +aware of its presence. Then the mass would open out slightly and flow +onwards in a divided stream, which, however, would reunite a few yards +farther on. On occasions such as this the Boers or their Hottentot +servants would shoot into the dense multitude, sometimes killing or +wounding three or four bucks at one shot. + +Old Schalk now set a trap at each side of the wagon, and the Hottentots +had to get up several times in the night to cut the throats of the +captured animals and reset the engines. + +Early in the morning the wagons were sent back to Namies loaded with the +slaughtered game. Late in the afternoon they returned empty, to go back +again on the following morning with a fresh load. + +For three days and nights the trek was at its height; then no more dense +troops were to be seen. For a week or more, however, plenty of +profitable shooting could be had at the stragglers. + +At Namies the Boer women and children were busy cutting up the carcases +and converting the meat into "bultong." From each haunch the bone was +removed, whilst the meat which lay thick along the back where the ribs +join the spine was cut out in long strips. All the meat was then +slightly sprinkled with salt and left to lie in heaps for twenty-four +hours. After this it was hung for a few days upon lines slung between +the ribs of the mat-houses and the laths of the wagon-tents. Then, if +the sun did not shine too fiercely, it would be hung out in the open. + +After a few weeks of such treatment the "bultong" is fit for use, and if +stored in a dry place may be kept for an indefinite time. This +substance forms the staple animal food of the Trek-Boer for the greater +part of the year. + +The skins were pegged out on the ground to dry; then they were stowed +away in heaps, afterwards to be "brayed" soft, sewn into mats, and +bartered to the Jew hawkers. + + + +CHAPTER NINE. + +THE LAST OF THE "OLD WOMAN." + +Max had no taste for slaughter. The hunter's instinct, which makes so +many otherwise humane men cruel, was not in him. He therefore felt it +no privation that he was unable to leave the shop and join the hunters +as he had done in previous years when the trek had taken place. On the +other hand he felt with satisfaction that he could now see more of +Susannah, her uncle being out of the way, and he made the most of his +opportunities in this respect. + +Max was rapidly developing from a boy into a man, and many of the little +traits specially characteristic of modern Israel began to show +themselves in him. Of Old Schalk he stood in awe; the brutal directness +of the way in which the old Boer uttered all his thoughts frightened +him. Mrs Hattingh, however, had ceased to impress him since the day +she had obtained the dresses for her granddaughters fraudulently and on +the strength of his attachment to Susannah. Max felt that he held her +at a moral disadvantage, and she tacitly acquiesced in this. + +Max spent every evening while Old Schalk was away at his sweetheart's +side. He told her of his legacy, and around this nucleus they began to +weave plans for the future. Max had saved a little money out of the +small salary which his brother allowed him. He thought seriously of +leaving Nathan's service as soon as the latter returned, and setting up +on his own account as a hawker. + +His first notion was to buy some stock and set up as a Trek-Boer, but +Susannah put a decided veto upon this proposal. The prospect of being +married to a man who spent most of his life in wandering about with a +cart and four donkeys was almost equally unattractive. The latter +alternative might, however, lead to something better eventually. +Susannah was in no hurry; she told her lover plainly that although she +was prepared to wait indefinitely for him she would not marry until he +could give her a proper home. + +Late one night, after Max had returned home to the shop, he heard a +knock at the door. He found Gert Gemsbok standing before the threshold. +The old Hottentot stepped in, and, as usual, sat down on the floor. + +"Baas Max, I want to tell you a secret." + +"Yes; what is it?" + +"Baas Max, when I was living down on the bank of the river I one day +picked something up." + +"Yes; what was it?" + +"You have been kind to me and I can trust you. Here is what I picked +up." + +Gemsbok handed over to Max the smallest of the six diamonds. He had, +after careful consideration, determined to trust his master so far, with +the view of realising part at least of his valuables. + +Max took the stone and looked carefully at it. He knew well enough that +it was a rough diamond; as a child in Cape Town he had often seen +illicitly obtained stones of this kind handed round among the Jews who +frequented the lodging-house where he stayed for a short time upon his +arrival in the colony. The gem weighed about eight carats; it was of +good water and perfect shape. + +"I found it," continued Gemsbok, "hidden in a boot which came down in +the flood, just above the Augrabies Falls. I know, for I have worked at +the diamond fields, that I should be sent back to the tronk if that +stone were found on me, so I thought you might sell it and give me half +the money. If you will do this it will satisfy me." + +Max considered for a while, and then decided that this was a matter for +his brother to deal with. He knew well enough that the possession of +diamonds which could not be satisfactorily accounted for was a criminal +offence severely punishable. The law was to Max a thing very dreadful. +He had never seen its manifestations, but he had heard of Willem Bester +and others who had broken the law and suffered grievously in +consequence. Nathan, however, as was proved in his ostrich-feather +dealings, held the law in sovereign contempt. Nathan was the man to +deal with a matter such as this; Max would have none of it. In the +meantime, however, he agreed to keep the stone in the small iron safe +and to advance Gemsbok some coffee, sugar, and tobacco, for the +delectation of himself and his "Old Woman," as the latter always called +her, upon its security. + +But the "Old Woman" had no long enjoyment of the luxuries, for two days +later, when Gemsbok came in from the veld with his flock, he found that +she was dead. She had passed away in her sleep. Gemsbok expressed +himself to Max as being glad that the poor old creature had breathed her +last. She had, he said, suffered so much of late, and now she would +never feel pain or privation any more. He dug a hole in a sandy gully +behind one of the smaller kopjes and there the poor, unlovely corpse was +laid. In spite of her physical sufferings the quaint old creature had +spent a very happy time at Namies. She had enjoyed a sufficiency of +fairly wholesome food, besides the occasional trifles in the way of +coffee, sugar, and tobacco which Max's bounty supplied her with. These +had afforded her the keenest and, perhaps, the only enjoyment she was +capable of feeling. + +Gemsbok, in spite of his repeated declarations that he was glad the "Old +Woman" was gone, did not appear to be happy. No matter how bright the +fire of candle-bushes, the scherm was lonely at night--even an old woman +so broken down by rheumatism and poverty of blood that she could not use +her limbs and was hardly capable of carrying her food to her mouth, was +better than no human companion at all. + +Gemsbok had now no companion but his dog, which was an animal as +friendless as its master. All day long alone in the veld, under the +changeless Desert sky; all night long alone in the scherm, under the +unregarding stars. Man is a gregarious animal, and the burthen of one's +own presence galls as only those burthens do which carry as dead weight +the broken shackles of one of Nature's disregarded laws. + +Sleep was difficult to get. It had been usual for the old couple to +remain awake talking half the night through. Lying awake alone proved +to be a very different thing. He moved his scherm to another spot; that +did not improve matters, so he moved it back again. He no longer +enjoyed his coffee or tobacco. The average man almost invariably gets +to love anything totally dependent on him--no matter how unlovely it may +be. Some loves are not recognised in anything like their fulness until +the removal of the thing loved leaves a void which can never be filled. + +A Hottentot is naturally among the most sociable of beings; Gert Gemsbok +was no exception to the rule of his race in this respect. He had, +however, made no friends among his own race at Namies. He could not +visit the scherms of the other Hottentots; all were in the service of +Trek-Boers, and the boycott against him was strict. As a protest +against Max's unheard-of conduct in keeping such a man in his service, +all the Boers had given strict injunctions to their servants to have +nothing to do with the informer against Willem Bester. Besides, Gemsbok +was; morally and intellectually, far in advance of all with whom he +might, under other circumstances, have associated. Aristotle's aphorism +as to the effect of solitude upon man is very true, and Gert Gemsbok had +not become a beast in his exile. + +Max noticed that now the old man never lost an opportunity of being near +him. In the evenings, whenever Max happened to be in the shop, Gemsbok +would come in, sit on the floor, and tell of his experiences. He thus +told the true story of his life in detached fragments. And what a tale +it was! what a lurid record of long-drawn, strenuous suffering made +bearable, at first by the memory and afterwards by the companionship of +a kindred mate! One night the old man told Max that he did not expect +to live long; he felt his time had nearly come and he had no wish to +prolong an existence which was now more than ever a weariness. + +He did not, he said, care much whether he obtained any of the proceeds +of the sale of the diamond or not; he had no desire now except to get +enough food for himself and an occasional bite for his dog. The "Old +Woman" was gone, and the sooner he too went the better. + +His music now was all in a minor key; no more reels and jigs that made +one long to caper. The old, stock melody ran through all he played, +making it like an endless, barbaric fugue--weird and melancholy. His +nocturnal performances sometimes made the dog leap out of the scherm and +howl despairingly at the stars. In accompanying Oom Schulpad his hand +seemed to have lost his cunning. The old fiddler would, however, sit +for long periods, astonished and uncannily fascinated by the eerie tones +scattered by the saddened strings of the ramkee. + + + +CHAPTER TEN. + +NATHAN THE TEMPTER. + +One evening just after sunset Nathan arrived, driving a team of six +smart mules before a brand-new cart. He had bought the turn-out at +Clanwilliam on his return journey from Cape Town. He was accompanied by +Koos Bester, at whose camp he had called in passing. + +Nathan had entered into a contract to supply a firm of butchers in Cape +Town with slaughter oxen; Bester, who owned a lot of cattle which were +running, half-wild, in Bushmanland, agreed to sell him a certain number +upon terms very advantageous to the purchaser. + +Nathan was as unlike Max as it is possible for one brother to be unlike +another. He was a low-sized, knock-kneed man of a fair complexion which +burnt to a fiery red on the least exposure. His features were of the +lowest Hebrew type--his lips were full and shapeless, his nose large and +prominent, his eyes small and colourless, but exceedingly bright and +glittering. + +Since Max had awakened from boyhood to manhood he had come to hate this +brother of his, to whom money was the only god worth worshipping, and +who sneered at every impulse or aspiration that did not have gain for +its object. + +Next morning poor Max had a bad time of it. The books were examined, +and when the debit entry against the Hattinghs came to light and Max was +unable to give any satisfactory explanation as to why he had disregarded +his instructions in allowing this account to be increased, Nathan +treated him to the grossest abuse. However, things were found to be in +a satisfactory condition on the whole; in fact Nathan could find nothing +but this one item to find fault with. All day long he kept recurring to +this one blot upon a good record, until at length Max became extremely +angry and said that if Nathan would only stop talking about it he would +pay the value of the articles sold out of his own salary. At this +Nathan looked at him with a searching glint in his eye, but said nothing +further on the subject. + +In the afternoon Nathan went for a stroll among the camps, in the course +of which he learned two things, namely, Max's relations with Susannah, +and the fact that old Gert Gemsbok, the Hottentot, who had been placed +under the ban for giving evidence against a Boer, was in his service. +Nathan returned to the shop, filled with sardonic fury. Max at once saw +that the hour he had been dreading for months had come. + +"Well," said Nathan, after he had regarded his brother for a few seconds +with an evil smile, "going to get married, eh?" + +"Yes--what of that?" Max felt his courage rising; he no longer dreaded +the thing before him. + +"You, a Jew, and the child of Jews, to talk of marrying a Christian slut +who was born under a bush and reared by stinking Boers in a mat-house?" + +"If I am a Jew it is more than you are; you often said that you didn't +believe in God." + +"What has God got to do with it? A Jew is a Jew, God or no God, and a +Christian is of no use except to make money out of. Nice idea, a chap +like you thinking of getting married. Going to reside in this +fashionable suburban villa, or do you mean to build a mansion for +yourself?" + +"Well, I sha'n't live here or anywhere else near you!" + +Nathan blinked in astonishment; it was something quite unheard of, Max +taking such a tone. The fear that inevitably strikes at the heart of +the bully whenever even the weakest resists him, bridled his tongue for +a minute; then he resumed-- + +"Well, you can take your Boer slut and breed babies under a koekerboom +whenever you feel inclined, so far as I care; but if you want to stay on +with me you will have to give up this rot." + +"I do not want to stay another day with you," replied Max, in a quiet +voice. "I want to have done with you as soon as I can, and then I shall +not care if I never see you again." + +Nathan, for the first time in his life, began to feel a glimmering of +respect for his brother. However, it would not do to let Max see that +this was the case. He began to expound upon the text of his other +grievance-- + +"That old nigger you have hired; you must clear him out at once." + +"You are master; if you want to get rid of him you had better give him +notice. He is hired by the month." + +"Yes, as soon as I can get another herd I will give your old pal notice +with a sjambok. I'm not going to have my trade with the Boers spoilt by +keeping on a damned old nigger-informer like that." + +"I've got something belonging to him here," said Max, producing the +diamond. "He picked it up on the bank of the river. He wants you to +sell it and give him half the price." + +Nathan took the stone and glanced at it. Then he gave a short whistle +expressive of surprise and walked over to the window, in the light from +which he examined the stone carefully. This done he slipped it into his +trouser pocket and turned again to Max-- + +"No, my boy; that's a little too thin. Stones like this are not picked +up in Bushmanland. This here diamond has been stolen from Kimberley, +and I mean to keep it until I can restore it to its rightful owner. +See?" + +Here he winked. Max looked at him with deep scorn. Nathan left the +shop and walked to a short distance, whistling a lively tune. Then he +stood and critically regarded the sunset, with his hands in his pockets. + +Soon afterwards old Gemsbok drove up the flock of sheep to where they +always lay at night, on the side of the kopje behind the shop. Nathan +called to him, and he came. + +"Well, you're a nice sort of a scarecrow to come here spinning yarns +about picking up diamonds in Bushmanland. I've a good mind to send you +to the magistrate for having a stolen diamond in your possession." + +"The diamond is not a stolen one, Baas." + +"A likely story. I suppose you'll tell me next that you've never been +to Kimberley, eh?" + +"I have been to Kimberley, Baas." + +"I thought so. Perhaps you'll tell me next that you've never been in +the tronk, either, eh?" + +"I have been in the tronk, Baas." + +"Well, well; if that ain't wonderful guessing I'm a Dutchman. Beg your +pardon, I'm sure"--here he grinned ironically at Max, who had just come +out of the shop. "Let's try again. It might also be possible that your +back has been tickled by the `cat,' and that you didn't laugh, neither?" + +"My back has felt the `cat,' Baas." + +"Ex-tra-ordinary! Why, I'm as good at pulling out facts as a corkscrew +at opening bottles"--here he turned and winked at Max, who felt himself +tingling with disgust. "Now look here, Mister Nigger-informer--who has +been to the diamond fields, also in the tronk, to say nothing of other +places, and whose back has been tickled by the `cat' until you didn't +laugh--I'm just going to stick to this here shining gem until I find the +rightful owner. Of course, if you're not satisfied you can go and +complain to the magistrate next time he comes round. See?" + +"I see, Baas." + +As Gert went to his scherm Nathan turned and winked to Max again. The +latter walked away with rage and shame seething in him. Nathan went +into the little back room and threw himself on the bed. He lay there +and chuckled over the prize he had so easily acquired. "Why," he +thought, "it must be worth at least fifty pounds." Well, at last his +luck was properly booming. First, the big haul of feathers safely +disposed of; next the cattle contract and the arrangement he had made +with Koos Bester, under which Koos had to do all the work and he, +Nathan, had only to pocket the profits; now this diamond. He began to +calculate: at this rate he would be a rich man in a few years. Then he +would go away and enjoy himself, would steep himself to the lips in +vice, as he had often longed with the full strength of his weasel's soul +to be able to afford to do. + +A knock on the iron front of the door startled him from his dream. + +"Come round here, whoever you are--especially if you have petticoats +on!" he shouted. + +Then the tread of a heavy man drew near, and Koos Bester entered the +room. + +"Well, Koos, my son, how do you feel this fine evening?" + +"Fresh, thank you." + +"Well, I don't know when I ever felt so happy. I don't know why I +should" (here he thought he had been possibly injudicious in revealing +his blissful condition to Koos) "after all the money I've been losing +lately, and after the price I'm going to pay you for these cattle; but +somehow I do." + +Koos lit his pipe and smoked in silence. The Trek-Boer is seldom +lively; in fact he is usually silent whenever he can possibly avoid +speaking. + +"Koos, have you heard that the old nigger who got Willem into that mess +is here working for me, hired by my brother?" + +"Ja, I heard so." + +"Of course, I will give him the sack as soon as ever I can get another +boy." + +"Ja, I am glad to hear that." + +"Koos, why don't you get him on the quiet and give him a good licking?" + +"Ja, I should like to do that if you will not mind." + +"Mind! No; I'll be only jolly glad if you will do it. But take him on +the quiet, give him his dressing when there's no one about. Whatever +you do, don't trust my brother; he makes quite a pal of him." + +"Good, I'll make a plan. But when are we to start?" + +"Let's see--this is Tuesday; supposing we get away on Friday. Say +Friday morning at daylight." + +"It'll be no use starting so early; we cannot get to my camp, round by +Puffadder, in a day. It will be time enough to start after breakfast." + +"But why do you want to go all that way round? Can't we go through the +dunes?" + +"No! you won't catch me going through the dunes this weather with mules. +I have four horses that could do it; I wouldn't take them there now for +five pounds." + +"All right, Koos; we'll go round by Puffadder and start after breakfast +on Friday." + +The vast group of sand-dunes beyond which Koos Bester lived lies like a +red-hot spider across the north-eastern section of the Desert, with the +legs extending principally towards the south and south-west. + +Rather, perhaps, is it like a menacing hand stretched forth by the giant +Kalihari--that waterless waste of loose sand which extends northward +indefinitely from just across the Orange River--to seize the southern +extremity of the African Continent in a fiery grip. The river gorge cut +the hand off at the wrist, else the eternal dribble might, in course of +time, have overwhelmed all the western districts of the Cape Colony. + +The dunes are, as a rule, only from ten to twenty feet in height, except +in the central area where they are piled high about an abrupt, +strange-looking hill which has a stratum of red stone encircling it like +a belt. This hill is called "Bantom Berg," which means "belted +mountain." The many mile-long fingers straggle over the Desert, +gradually encroaching. + +No one ever enters the dunes twice, except in case of the most urgent +necessity. At every step the traveller sinks to below the ankles in the +fine, light, scorching sand. It is sometimes practicable to cross the +dune-tract in a light vehicle, if the weather happens to be cool and +one's horses are in good condition. But crossing them is, however, +never safe, for there is no water to be had within their repulsive +bounds. The bones of many a lost wanderer lie there, covered by the +sand streaming over the flat dune-top, under the lea of which he may +have crept in the vain hope of getting shelter from the flame-hot wind +from the north. In such a case the body would be buried deep, beyond +the reach even of the jackals, in a very short time. If ever uncovered +it would be found converted into a black, shrunken mummy, for the +intense dryness of the sand is such that a body buried in it never +decomposes; the moisture is rapidly drained out of it until nothing is +left but a parchment bag of bones. + +Max gave Nathan a month's notice of leaving next day. As, however, he +had drawn his salary by the quarter, Nathan insisted on three months' +notice being given. In this Max had to acquiesce, but he did so with a +very bad grace. + +Up to Friday morning Koos Bester had no opportunity of carrying out his +intention of giving Gert Gemsbok a thrashing on the quiet. By Thursday +night he had quite given up the idea. His slow mind had gradually come +to recognise that he had better leave the old Hottentot alone--this in +spite of Nathan's daily promptings on the subject. The old man looked +so frail and bent. Some unrecognised remnant of chivalry in the Boer's +nature made him dimly see that for a man of his strength to attack one +who would be as a child in his hands would be base and cowardly. But +Willem, whom he had loved as more than a brother, had been done to death +by this baboon-like creature. Then for a few minutes the face of Koos +would darken with the desire for revenge. He began to long for the time +of departure, so as to be away from the temptation to do the deed that +he loathed and longed for the doing of at the same time. + +Friday morning came, and after breakfast Nathan and Koos departed from +Namies in the cart drawn by the six smart mules. The road led around +the kopjes to the westward, so the cart was out of sight of the camps a +few minutes after the start. + +The distance to Koos Bester's camp would take two short days to +accomplish, but could not possibly be accomplished in one. The dunes +were avoided on this route by passing over the point where the red-hot +hand had been amputated and the stump frayed away by the winds of +centuries. After travelling a mile or so they passed over some ground +where a lot of shallow gullies, which carried off the occasional +thunderstorm drainage from the kopjes, intersected each other. A flock +of sheep could be seen grazing a few hundred yards to the right of the +road, amongst the gullies. Between them and the road could be seen the +figure of a man sitting on a doubled-down tussock of "twa" grass. + +Koos felt the blood rise to his brain, but he averted his eyes from the +figure and sucked violently at his pipe. Nathan pulled at the reins, +and the mules came to a standstill. Just then the man arose from the +tussock and disappeared over the edge of one of the gullies. + +"Koos, my son, there's your chance." + +"Never mind; I'll let the old vagabond alone to-day. I haven't got a +sjambok with me, and that whip of yours wouldn't hurt him enough. Drive +on." + +"Rot! man alive; let's have some sport. Give him a taste of those +pretty little feet of yours. Go on, I'll see fair play." + +Koos alighted from the cart and began adjusting a part of the harness +which had got out of gear. Then he walked back and put his foot on the +step preparatory to climbing in. + +"What! ain't you going to give it to him? Well, you most likely won't +have another chance; I've told Max to give him the sack as soon as ever +he can get another boy, so he'll likely be gone by the time we return." + +Koos stood with his foot resting on the step, still undecided. + +"Never mind," he said, "I'll let him alone to-day." + +"And poor Willem, who died in the tronk all through that chap. Koos, +I'm ashamed of you; be a man and give him what for." + +Koos no longer hesitated. The reference to Willem turned the scale; his +good angel soared away from his side for ever. The blood arose in his +veins until his face and neck became purple. He uttered a curse and +walked off, at first with hesitation still apparent in his movements. +He was now eager to go, but his legs seemed reluctant to carry him. To +harden his purpose he began to think of Willem's case; of how he had +sworn to be revenged; of how a Boer, a man of his own blood, had been +sent to herd with blacks at a convict station, and had there died +miserably, all through the "thing" before him. At length his very bile +seemed to stir with black rage, and he strode on with his hands and feet +tingling for vengeance. + +Gert Gemsbok watched over the edge of the gully the approach of Koos, +and guessed the purpose of the Boer. Then he dropped back into the +hollow behind him and ran down it as hard as he could in the hope of +reaching some ground which he might tread on without leaving a spoor. +He had caught up the little dog so that it should not betray him by +following. + +He might have escaped from Koos were it not that the cart stood on +higher ground, and thus Nathan caught sight of his crouching form +passing over an exposed spot. The Jew yelled to Koos that he was to +trend to the left, and then indicated a small bush close to which he had +caught sight of the fugitive. Koos, now thoroughly roused and thirsting +madly for vengeance, started off at a run towards the bush Nathan had +pointed out. In a few moments he nearly ran over the old Hottentot, who +was hiding under an overhanging bank. + +The sorry deed did not take long to accomplish. With his powerful hand +Koos seized Gemsbok by the skinny arm and hurled him to the bottom of +the gully. Not a word was spoken on either side. The old Hottentot was +like a paper doll in the hands of the heavy, muscular Boer, and he fell +with a thud upon the soft sand. Then Koos, beside himself with mad +anger, leaped upon him like a tiger, stamped upon the shrunken body with +his heavy feet, and kicked it until his toes, badly protected by the +thin and supple-soled veldschoens, began to hurt him severely. + +The pain brought Koos partly to himself. Casting one look upon the +motionless, huddled body, he climbed out of the gully and began walking +quickly back towards the cart. He found, however, that the great toe of +his right foot caused him excruciating pain, so he could only limp +slowly over the broken ground. + +"Hello, Koos; did the old man show fight and knock you about? What's up +with your little hind paw? Why, you look as white as a blooming sheet." + +Koos climbed into the cart and Nathan drove on. There was something in +the expression of the Boer's face which taught the Jew that it would not +be safe to take any liberties just then. + +After a few minutes Nathan found that he could sustain his curiosity no +longer-- + +"Come along, old man," he said coaxingly; "tell us all about it." + +Koos did not reply. He was in great pain, and was wondering what the +effect of the particular kick which hurt him so had been on the man whom +he kicked. His toe began to press against the upper-leather, and he +felt that it was dislocated. + +The still, huddled figure lying in the sand at the bottom of the gully +was as if photographed on the retina--it was literally so vividly before +his mental vision that physical vision seemed to be suspended. And the +pain in his toe! He longed to take off the veldschoen and ease the +pressure, to examine the injury, regarding which he was consumed with a +deadly curiosity, but he hated to attract Nathan's attention. + +He moved the foot slightly and the agony almost made him shriek aloud. +A spasm of frantic terror gripped him by the heart-strings until he +nearly swooned. Why, the man _must_ be dead. He thought of his own +bulk, of his strength, and of how passionately and recklessly he had +leaped and stamped upon the nearly passive body. The details of what +had happened had seemed lost to him for a time; in all but the merest +and flimsiest general outline he had forgotten what had occurred between +his gripping Gemsbok by the arm and his changing his walk into a hobble +as he returned to the cart. Now, under some strange psychological +sympathetic ink the smallest details appeared in pitiless distinctness, +and stood out before his shuddering soul in lurid relief. + +A wild rage against the man next to him, who had incited him to the +deed--without whose fell, artful suggestion and encouragement his +conscience would now have been clear--surged up in him. He felt, for a +few minutes, as black an anger against Nathan as he had felt when he +gripped the man he thought had wronged him, and dashed him down. + +The day was hot and windless. He glanced up and saw the red-belted cone +of Bantom Berg towering up amid the dunes. The cone was clear, and the +waves of rarefied air quivered along the tops of the sand mounds like +living flames, until they flashed into a lovely mirage away to the +south, where the Desert line was unbroken. + +He looked straight ahead and drew a deep sigh of relief, for red wisps +of sand were tossing into the air, lashed by the fury of the first gusts +of one of those fearful wind-storms from the north which were so common +at that season. Soon the Desert would be tortured by moaning tempests, +and then his footprints would be blotted out in the twinkling of an eye. +A feeling of relief and subsequent elation swept through his mind. He +was all right now; he had only been afraid of his spoor being found. He +felt quite safe. They might, of course, suspect him; that did not +matter, for Nathan, he knew, would never give information against him. +Why, Nathan was almost an accomplice. The thought of his companion's +knowledge of what he had done seemed to bring vague suggestions of +disquiet in its trail; nevertheless his mind was able to poise itself +still for a while on the dizzy pinnacle of elation to which it had swung +out of the depths, impelled by a strange momentum. The Hottentot was +dead--that was certain to him now. He seemed to be able to weigh and +measure the force of every individual one of the kicks he had given, and +the result of this sum in mental arithmetic was--death. + +Nathan stole another glance at his companion's face and saw that it was +now less terrible to look upon. His curiosity had become a positive +pain. He felt he must venture to ask again for details. + +"Come along, Koos," he coaxed; "tell us all about it." + +"There's not much to tell. I just gave him a few thumps and left him." + +"Why on earth didn't you bring him to the top of the bank and operate +there? I didn't see any of the fun." + +Here the Jew touched his companion's foot accidentally. Koos shrieked +with anguish and uttered a horrible curse. Nathan seemed very much +astonished. He riveted his gaze on the foot. + +"Why, Koos, there's blood on your veldschoen. Did you cut your foot?" + +Koos could stand the pain no longer. He lifted his foot upon his left +knee and began to untie the reimpje with which the veldschoen was tied. +Nathan stopped the mules. + +When the veldschoen was removed the great toe was found to be +dislocated. It had turned from its usual direction and was pointing +backward, owing to the strain on the tendon. The whole front part of +the foot was turning purple. + +"My eye!" said Nathan, "you must have given it to him precious hot. +Why, you've unlatched your blooming big toe. That ain't your blood, +neither. My eye! And I didn't see it happening. Just like my luck!" + +Koos felt sick with pain. He wrapped his jacket around the injured foot +and leant back. The sand-storm swept down in fury. Nathan relieved his +feelings by fluent cursings. To Koos the fiery wind with its burthen of +stinging sand was more grateful than the zephyrs of a springtime dawn. + +"Ain't it lucky we didn't take the road through the dunes?" shouted +Nathan during a slight comparative cessation of the wind. + +Koos did not reply. He was wishing with the full strength of his +tortured soul that they had taken the dune route, whatever its dangers +might have been, in preference to the one which had led him to the scene +of his crime. + +They reached the water-place which is known by the name of "Puffadder," +and there saw the mat-houses of several Trek-Boer camps. By agreement +it was stated that Koos had injured his foot by hitting it, when +running, against a stone. An old woman who was skilled in herbal +remedies and rough surgery made him lie down on his back upon the +ground. Then she tied a thin reim around the dislocated toe and got two +of her sons to haul at it. The toe slipped back into its socket, but +Koos fainted from the pain. When he came to himself the evil face of +Nathan was peering into his. He closed his eyes to shut out the sight +of that which he had now come to hate as he had never hated anything +before. + +"Well, old man," said Nathan, "it strikes me you must have smashed that +blooming stone you ran your foot against into splinters." + +After the mules had been watered and had taken a roll in the sand +another start was made. The old woman had boiled down some dried herbs +in a tin pannikin and tied rags soaked in the decoction around the +injured toe. This treatment relieved the pain considerably. When they +inspanned and made another start the wind had completely ceased, the +sunlight had lost its sting, and the stillness of infinite peace seemed +to brood like a bright-plumaged dove over the Desert. There was no +sound but the faint creak-creak of the harness as the mules trotted +along over the soft sand. Nathan made several attempts to elicit +further particulars as to what Koos had done to the old Hottentot, but +his companion remained obstinately silent, and he felt instinctively +that it would not be safe for him to pursue the subject farther just +then. + +The sun was nearly down when they reached Koos Bester's camp on the +following day. In the interval the mind of the unhappy Boer had +perpetually oscillated between two poles--that of remorse, terror, and +despair on the one hand, and that of unreasoning elation on the other. +But he would not speak of the thing which had happened. Sometimes he +persuaded himself that the old Hottentot was surely dead; anon he +reasoned that the proverbial physical toughness of the race to which the +man belonged would enable him to recover. But the limp, passive, +huddled form, prone on the sand at the bottom of the gully, haunted him +with deadly persistence, and his detestation of the Jew who had +persuaded him against his will to do the deed grew in intensity. + +The collecting of the cattle, which ranged over a couple of thousand +square miles of Desert, occupied several days. Nathan made himself as +agreeable as possible to Mrs Bester and the children, who, however, +cordially and instinctively disliked him. Koos turned upon him from +time to time a slow gaze in which smouldering hatred seemed to lurk. +This was especially noticeable when the Jew, as he often did, began +paying Mrs Bester extravagant compliments. + +Koos' foot became much better under the treatment recommended by the old +woman who had assisted him at Puffadder. She had given him a supply of +her medicinal herbs, and of these infusions were made, the application +of which was followed by the best results. + +Koos had repeated to his wife and her father the story as to his having +injured his foot by hitting it against a stone. The father-in-law +caused some embarrassment by questioning him closely as to the details +of the accident. The answers were not very consistently given, and when +the discrepancies were commented on Koos lost his temper. Nathan was +present at this scene and keenly enjoyed it. + +After the cattle had been collected and the number purchased by Nathan +selected and marked, the latter took his departure. In returning to +Namies he followed the course he had come by. When nearly home he +glanced regretfully in the direction of the broken gullies, thinking of +the piece of sport he had missed, on the details of which Koos Bester +had been so strangely reticent. + +Next morning Koos inspanned his cart just after daybreak. He could no +longer endure the suspense of waiting for information as to the result +of his violence. He drove a team of rough ponies, the equals of which +for endurance could hardly have been found in Bushmanland. He travelled +in a light cart which had no hood. As the day seemed to promise +coolness he decided to venture on taking the road through the dunes. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN. + +THE BROKEN RAMKEE. + +About half an hour after the departure of Nathan and Koos Bester from +Namies Max was surprised to see Gert Gemsbok's dog running back from the +veld with every appearance of terror. It rushed straight to the scherm, +and there stood panting and with air erect along its back. Its ears +were cocked and its tail tucked under, as it gazed back in the direction +whence it came, sniffing the time with wide, dilated nostrils. This +struck Max as extremely strange and eerie. He knew the habits of this +dog; never since Gemsbok had rescued it had the animal left the side of +its master. + +Oom Schulpad happened to come to the shop shortly afterwards, and Max +mentioned the circumstance to him. Together they walked up the side of +the kopje to the scherm. The dog was so preoccupied by whatever was the +cause of its agitation that it appeared unaware of their approach until +they got quite close to it. Then the animal crept in under the fence of +bushes and lay there whining. + +"That dog has had a fright," said Oom Schulpad. "I have sometimes seen +dogs like that, and it was always after they had seen something bad +happen. See, now, if something has not happened to the old Bushman." + +Max returned to the shop. After dinner, as no customers were about, he +started out to search for Gert Gemsbok. He went up to the scherm and +caught the dog. At first the animal snapped and snarled when he +approached it. Max had, however, taken some pieces of meat with him, +and these he held out in propitiation. Thus mollified, the dog allowed +itself to be caught and a reim tied around its neck. + +The Desert was a whirling hell of blinding and scorching sand-clouds. +Max staggered on along the course which he had seen Gemsbok take that +morning with his flock. The dog at first showed the most violent +disinclination to follow, and had to be dragged along struggling and +biting at the reim. + +During a lull in the wind Max saw that the sheep were scattered about in +groups far distant from each other; some were sheltering themselves +among the stones on the side of the kopje and others were far out on the +plain. He took his course towards the farthest group of sheep that he +could distinguish. The dog now became very much excited; every now and +then it would tug at the reim and try to bound forward in a certain +direction. Then it would recoil in terror and endeavour to bolt back. + +Max worked his way onward across the gullies in the direction indicated +by the dog's alarmed gaze. At length he reached the edge of a gully, on +the opposite side of which was an overhanging bank. Huddled under this, +as though to get shelter from the wind, he recognised the motionless +form of Gert Gemsbok. + +Lying about in the sand, and partly covered by its drift, was the +ramkee, shattered into fragments. Gemsbok was lying half on his face, +with his head leaning forward on his arm. Max bent over, and as soon as +he ascertained that his old friend was faintly breathing, spoke his +name. Gemsbok tried to lift his head, but failed in the attempt. Then +Max gently passed his arm around the bruised body, and drew it back +until the head rested on his shoulder. + +The poor old man opened his eyes. They were dull and glazed. Then he +moaned heavily and went off into a faint. Max noticed that the head was +swollen on one side, and that a small trickle of blood came from the +mouth. The wind had almost ceased, so Max drew Gert's limp body +tenderly down the loose sandbank and laid him on his back. After a few +seconds he returned to consciousness, and the eyelids again lifted--very +slowly this time. + +In a broken gasp he uttered the word "Water!" + +Max sprang up, meaning to run back to Namies and fetch a drink, but +Gemsbok motioned to him to come close. Max bent over him again. + +"Baas Max... leave... the water... it is... too late... I die for... +the old sin... In my bag... sewn up... there is something... They are +yours... I came honestly... by them..." + +Then the head fell back, and with a low moan of pain Gert Gemsbok drew +his last breath--an obscure martyr in the cause of Truth, at whose +deserted shrine in the Desert he had worshipped to his own despite. + +Max tried to revive him, but soon found that his attempts were useless. +The dog sat on the bank at the edge of the gully, giving vent to +long-drawn howls. + +Max stood and looked at the body through a mist of blinding tears. Then +he gathered up the fragments of the instrument which had been the only +solace of the man lying dead before him through years of misery, and +laid them reverently at the side of the corpse. He closed the lids of +the dim and tired eyes and tied up the fallen jaw with his +pocket-handkerchief. In doing this his hand came in contact with the +reim by which the skin bag was slung over the dead man's shoulder. This +reminded him of the words with which Gemsbok had gasped out his life. +He drew the bag softly away and began to examine its contents. + +He found a pipe, a tinder box, tobacco, some dried roots, and a few +strings for the ramkee in course of preparation out of sinew; nothing +else. Then he discovered that the bottom of the bag had been sewn up +from corner to corner, and that some hard bodies were secured under the +sewn portion. He ripped open the stitches and the five diamonds rolled +into his hand. + +Max gazed in astonishment at the stones for a few seconds and then +slipped them into his pocket. He felt dazed by all he had experienced. +He sat down to collect his scattered thoughts. He looked once more upon +the dead face. The diamonds were at once forgotten, and he burst into +passionate sobs. The weight of all the wickedness of the world seemed +to press upon him, and a sense of the futility of good darkened his +soul. + +He climbed out of the gully and hastened back to Namies. In a few +moments all the men there were on their way to the spot where Gert +Gemsbok lay as if enjoying a peace in death such as he had never known +when living. + +It was Old Schalk's duty as Assistant Field Cornet to hold an inquest, +and, if there were discovered the slightest sign of foul play, to send +immediately a report on the subject to the magistrate. + +The body was stripped, and was found to be horribly bruised and swollen. +The Assistant Field Cornet at once gave it as his opinion that the +deceased had come to his death through being thrown from a horse. + +"It is well known," said he, "that these Bushmen are in the habit of +catching the Boers' horses in the veld and riding their tails off." + +"But," broke in Max, "this man never interfered with anybody's--" + +"Young man," said Old Schalk with severity, "when you have lived as long +in Bushmanland, and seen as many dead Bushmen as I have seen, you'll +perhaps be entitled to give an opinion." + +"But," said Max excitedly, "the man told me just before he died that--" + +"Young man," interrupted Old Schalk, who had made a shrewd guess as to +the perpetrator of the deed, and felt that his duty to the Trek-Boers of +Bushmanland forbade him to permit indiscreet revelations, "are you the +Field Cornet or am I? What does it matter what he told you--who ever +knew a Bushman tell the truth? It is well known that Oom Dantje van +Rooyen has a very vicious horse, which only last year threw a man to the +ground and then kicked and bit him. That very horse is running in this +veld at present--I saw it myself only yesterday. I am quite sure that +nothing but the horse did this. The case is quite clear." + +A buzz of approval on the part of the Boers followed this verdict. Here +was a dead Bushman whose body showed lesions and appearances such as +might be caused by equestrian misadventure. Grazing somewhere in the +neighbourhood was a horse which had been known to kick and bite a man +after it had thrown him. Of course the case was perfectly clear. + +Max looked around the ring of faces and saw nothing but amusement at his +warmth of expression, mingled with slyness, depicted upon them. There +was no pity for the sufferings which the man must have endured before he +died--no horror that such a deed had been perpetrated by one with whom +they were on terms of intimacy upon a sentient human being, was +suggested. He felt an arm slipped within his. Looking round he saw the +inscrutable visage of Oom Schulpad close beside him. + +"Come, children, let us go and drink some coffee," said Old Schalk as he +led the way, assisted by a stalwart Boer, to the cart which had conveyed +him from his camp to the nearest available point. + +As the others followed in small groups Oom Schulpad heard one young Boer +say to another-- + +"Got, kerel, maar Koos hat die ou' Boschmann lekker geskop." + +[God, old fellow, but Koos kicked the old Bushman nicely.] + +Oom Schulpad gave a sardonic grin which might have been expressive of +anything, from rapture to nausea, and turned back to where Max was +sitting fuming with indignation and grief. He laid a sympathetic hand +upon the boy's shoulder and bent his rough face, which now bore a kindly +expression, over him. + +"Never mind, child," he said, "the poor old schepsel is not going to +suffer any more pain. Who knows but he may be with the old woman now, +and she, perhaps, may have got a new pair of legs." + +"But the man has been murdered," replied Max hotly, "and he wants to +screen the murderer--" + +"Shush, shush. Young tongues gallop into dangerous places. What good +can you do by making a disturbance? You won't bring the old Bushman to +life again, and it would be a bad thing for him if you could. Besides, +a man must never try to set the world right all by himself." + +"But he wouldn't hear what I had to say. I shall let the Government +know what sort of a Field Cornet he is." + +"And get nothing for your pains except the hatred of every one about +here. What does the Government care? It only wants not to be troubled +about things. When you are as old as I am you will not be put out by +anything done by people like Old Schalk." + +"I shall send a letter off at once to the magistrate and ask him to come +here and see for himself." + +"No, I think you had better do nothing of the kind. If you did, the +magistrate and the doctor would perhaps arrive in three weeks from now +and when they came what would they be able to find out from the body? +Besides, in that case it would probably turn out that some one had seen +him riding Oom Dantje's horse, or had even seen him thrown and trampled +on. No, you had better do nothing at all but just bury the old Bushman. +I liked him because he knew more music than I did. Come, I will help +you to bury him. We'll dig his grave next to where the old woman lies-- +among the kopjes. I'll inspan my donkeys and we'll draw him up in the +cart." + +Max and Oom Schulpad wended back to Namies, and, with a couple of spades +which they took out of the shop, soon dug a grave in the sluit at the +back of the little kopje. It was easy ground to work, and, in spite of +his deformity, Oom Schulpad was a first-rate hand at digging. In a +little more than half an hour the grave was ready, and then Oom Schulpad +harnessed his donkeys to the little cart and drove down to fetch the +body. + +Max had brought some clean, white linen from the shop, and in this they +wrapped the earthly remains of Gert Gemsbok, the lonely, martyred votary +at Truth's neglected shrine. The fragments of the ramkee were +reverently tied together by the old fiddler, who was honest artist +enough to acknowledge a superior when he met him. He laid the shattered +instrument where the stiffened hand might press upon the slackened +strings until both turned to dust. + +The full moon lifted her sweet face over the rim of the world, and, +under the spell of her smile, the Desert took on beauty of a weird and +unearthly kind. The plumy heads of the grass became pendant with +dew-diamonds; every tussock was transformed into a fairy-forest lit by +sparkling lamps. The ice-plants glinted so brightly that they seemed to +merge together a few yards from the observer's feet, and from there to +form a shining pathway to the moon. + +The strange funeral _cortege_ wended up between the camps of Namies. +Oom Schulpad walked at the side, holding the reins; Max, with bent head, +followed close behind the body. + +So they laid Gert Gemsbok in the sand, next to his "Old Woman" and with +his broken ramkee at his side. If what some tell us about a future life +be true, that ramkee will surely be recreated in the celestial +equivalents of the rarest earthly instruments of music--if not something +as valuable and more sonorous. + +Old Schalk was sitting in the moonlight at the door of his mat-house +talking to a few cronies when the funeral passed. A silence fell upon +all when they saw what it was that the patient donkeys were hauling up +the hill through the heavy sand. Just after the vehicle had passed out +of sight around the flank of one of the kopjes Old Schalk broke the +silence. He turned to one of his companions and said--"I never yet knew +a man who could play the fiddle well who was not a little mad." + +"Ja," replied the other, "I have often heard that such is the case." + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE. + +THE BONDAGE OF KOOS BESTER. + +Max's mourning for his old friend was deep and sincere. The heart of +the young man, from its first awakening, recoiled from the sordidness of +most of those with whom he had come in daily contact, and clave to the +best within its reach--this by virtue of its natural intuitions. For a +time it seemed as though a blank had been created which could never be +filled. The evenings spent in the shop when Oom Schulpad and Gemsbok +had contended like a couple of troubadours--the weird tales of his +experiences during the six years of his banishment from the tents of +men, which the old waif had related with such tragic and truthful +pathos--his devotion to his miserable old wife, that decayed relic of +womanhood, which was as tender as ever his love could have been for the +companion of his early years--all these dwelt in the mind of Max and +tinged it with what he deemed would be an abiding sadness. + +On the other hand the acquisition of the five diamonds had materially +improved his prospects. He hid them in a safe place and determined not +to mention the fact of their existence to any one but Susannah. They +were stones of very pure water, averaging about ten carats each in +weight. Max knew that they must be very valuable, but he was unable to +guess their worth. He made up his mind that he would have to take them +to Europe and realise them there. + +Even Oom Schulpad seemed to be depressed by the old Hottentot's fate. +When he now came to see Max of an evening he did not bring his violin. +The two would just sit and smoke in silence, each well aware of what was +filling the thoughts of the other. To Max it seemed as if the ghost of +the slain man haunted the room on these occasions, asking why his only +friends had not taken vengeance upon his slayer. + +Oom Schulpad did not believe very much in anything outside the circle of +his experiences--certainly not in ghosts. He had attained to a +philosophy which might be summed up in a phrase--"Never interfere in +anything that does not directly concern you." His stock formula into +which the foregoing principle had crystallised was--"No man should ever +rub resin on any but his own bow." + +"But," he continued one night after reiterating this phrase several +times, "I mean to scratch Koos Bester's nose with a certain piece of +resin which I have in my pocket. He had no business to put his big +hands upon any man who could make music like that, Bushman or no +Bushman." + +Max pricked up his ears and looked at the old fiddler with a question in +his eyes. + +"I know Koos," continued Oom Schulpad, "and if he does not bark his +shins as well as his nose against the lump of resin which I will put in +his path--well, I'm no fiddler and the Bushman knew no music. He said +my back was like a springbuck's when it `pronks,' did he, and that my +mouth was as poisonous as a sand-adder's? Also he broke the ramkee--to +say nothing of killing the old Bushman." + +"What do you intend to do to him?" queried Max. + +"I'll tell you that when he comes back, my child. It will be all right, +don't fear. You shall, perhaps, help me. I know Koos well. When he +was quite a big boy he used to be afraid of being alone in the dark. +I'll make him dance a new step to the old Bushman's music. Ja, he knew +more music than I, that old Bushman." + +Three days elapsed after the tragedy before Max visited the Hattingh +camp. He found Old Schalk looking extremely sulky. Max, however, had +ceased to take much heed of people or their moods. He no longer dreaded +Old Schalk. As in the case of Mrs Hattingh, he now felt he had him at +a moral disadvantage. His recent experiences had tended to give Max +considerable self-confidence. + +He found Susannah alone in the mat-house, and asked her to go with him +for a walk. As they passed out it seemed as though the old man sitting +in the chair meant to stop them. He bent forward with an angry +expression, removed the pipe from his mouth, and opened his lips as if +to speak. Max, however, looked him steadily in the face, so he +remembered his account at the shop--it seemed as though Nathan meant to +stay away indefinitely--and Old Schalk's sack of coffee was running very +low indeed. At the same instant he thought of the inquest--the menace +which he seemed to read in Max's face might perhaps have reference to +that judicial triumph. Whilst these considerations were working through +his mind the lovers passed him and he made no protest. They climbed the +big kopje and again sat at the foot of the large koekerboom. + +Max poured out his sorrow and indignation in a flood. Susannah had been +told simply that Gert Gemsbok had met his death through an accident in +connection with a horse. She had seen the strange funeral and wondered +thereat. Now Max's account of the old Hottentot's life, which she had +never heard before, and of his cruel and mysterious death, moved the +girl to deep sympathy. + +A horrible suspicion had haunted Max from the first--he could not avoid +connecting his brother with the murder, for such he was convinced had +occurred. Nathan had taken his departure with Koos Bester just before +the deed was done; it was inconceivable that he could be ignorant of the +crime. Max believed him to be fully capable of participating in the +commission of any evil. + +When Susannah questioned him as to whom he suspected, Max tried hard to +avoid replying. When he could no longer do this he told the girl all +his thoughts and then bent his head on her knee and wept bitter tears. +It was the shame of being related to a creature such as Nathan which +struck him to the heart. A hatred of his surroundings, and more +especially of his brother, had been born in him. He made up his mind to +leave his brother's service at once, come what might. + +"Susannah, I can stay here no longer; will you come away with me?" + +The girl did not reply. She sat thinking of what the consequences of +such a step would be. Her utter inexperience of life was strongly +qualified by natural caution, as well as by that instinct of +self-preservation which clothes most women like an armour of proof. + +"I feel I can stay here no longer," he continued. "Leaving out Oom +Schulpad and yourself, I hate and despise every one here. Will you come +away with me?" + +"I will go with you when you marry me, Max." + +"How can I marry you when you are only nineteen and your uncle will not +give his consent?" + +"I will wait for you. Go away, and you will find me here when you come +back--if there is any water left in the well." + +"I do not want to go away without you, and I feel I cannot endure to +stay. Why are you afraid to trust me?" + +"I am not afraid to trust you, but--while you were talking at first I +was thinking. I thought to myself that we could not get away and that +there was no place for us to go to." + +"You can leave all that to me--" + +"No, no, it cannot be. If you want to marry me, Max, you must make up +your mind never to live in any place but Bushmanland--" + +"What! live all our lives at Namies?" + +"No, not at Namies. Bushmanland is large; there are many camps and many +water-places in it. You know that I am only a poor Boer girl and that I +could not live among those women whose pictures you showed me in the +fashion books and who never speak anything but English; you would be +ashamed of me and I should want to come back to live among the people I +know." + +Max, after the manner of lovers, assured her that he never could, under +any possible circumstances, be ashamed of her. She continued in the +same strain as formerly-- + +"I once saw some girls who went past our camp in a wagon, when we dwelt +on the other side of the Desert, far away to the eastward, and I felt +like a Bushwoman beside them when I noticed their clothes and heard them +talk. No, Max, I will never go to any place where you would be able to +compare me with women such as those." + +Max assured her that she could easily challenge comparison with any girl +in South Africa for physical advantages. Her colour heightened with +pleasure at his compliments, but she was not to be moved from her +resolution. + +"Max, I shall never live in any place outside Bushmanland, so you had +better make up your mind to that. Besides, you will have to wait for me +until I am old enough to marry without my uncle's consent. Bushmanland +is long and wide, but when a girl is talked about for doing what you +want me to do, the tongues of the women are heard, louder than thunder, +from one side of it to the other. If I were to do this thing the people +of the only land I can live in would look upon me as being no better +than a Hottentot girl at the Copper Mines." + +Max felt, instinctively, that the girl was right. He made no further +attempt to move her, but he reconsidered his decision about leaving +Namies at once. At all events he would wait for Nathan's return. As +the lovers walked back to the camp, they said few words to each other. + +Nathan returned late in the afternoon of the next day. The brothers met +outside the shop. Nathan greeted Max with cheerfulness, as though he +wished to ignore what had last passed between them. Max looked him +straight in the eyes without acknowledging his salute. + +"Hello," said Nathan, "got the hump, eh?" + +Max went into the shop; Nathan followed him after outspanning the +horses. In the meantime the flock of sheep had been driven home by a +strange herd. Nathan burned with curiosity to know what had transpired. +He walked up to Max and addressed him again-- + +"Where's your old chum? I see you've got a new nigger." + +Max gave him a contemptuous glance and then went on with what he had +been doing, without replying to the question. + +"Are you deaf?" + +"I'm not deaf; neither am I blind." + +"Then why the devil don't you answer me? Where's the old nigger?" + +"Mightn't he be lying dead in a sluit where you and Koos Bester left him +last week?" + +"Look here, none of your blasted conundrums. I didn't pull you out of a +Whitechapel gutter and bring you here to get lip from you." + +Max went on with his occupation of tidying the goods upon the shelves, +without making any reply. Nathan, furious, strode round the counter and +gripped him by the arm. Max turned and gazed steadily into his eyes. + +"You bastard Christian dog, if you don't answer my question I'll make +pork sausages of you!" + +Max seized Nathan by the throat and flung him backwards. The latter's +foot caught against the corner of a box and he fell sprawling under the +counter. As he picked himself up Max strode towards him. Nathan +recoiled in alarm; he had not expected such treatment from the shy, +silent, diffident lad whom he had been in the habit of cuffing and +cursing at whenever he felt in a bad temper and wanted to relieve his +feelings. + +"Where is he?" shouted Max in a voice strident with rage. "He is where +you will never be--in an honest man's grave. He lived long enough to +let me know that you and Koos Bester are murderers. I only regret that +he did not let me know enough to hang you both." + +Nathan quailed; he wondered how much Gemsbok had told. Then he cast up +the column of possibilities in his mind. No, he was all right. There +might be suspicion, but there could be no proof that he had been +accessory to the crime. However, it would be just as well not to +provoke Max any further at present. He walked out of the shop and Max +closed the door behind him. + +The Desert twilight was quickly fading. Nathan wished to be alone, so +he strolled past the camps without calling at any of them, and then back +along the road he had just previously travelled. + +After he had passed the last camp by about a hundred yards he sat down +on a stone. He was sunk in the deepest thought. An idea had struck him +just after Max's outburst and had taken root, branched and burgeoned +until it seemed to be a tree full of flowers which promised rich fruit. +The muffled thud of tired horses' feet on the sandy road leading from +the dunes broke in upon his reverie. He lifted his head from where it +had been sunk upon his breast and chuckled with unclean mirth. + +"Well, I think I'm in jam _this_ time," soliloquised he; "whole blooming +coppers of it." + +When he returned home Max was not on the premises. The shop was locked, +but the little room at the back where Nathan slept was open. Of late +Max had taken to sleeping on the counter in the shop. + +Nathan lit a candle and began to undress. The elation of his mind was +evinced upon his face. He went to bed and softly whistled the tune of a +music-hall song as he lay back on the pillow with his hands clasped at +the back of his head. He felt extremely happy. His luck was in--this +last development, over which he had been chuckling so, proved that +conclusively. + +Again the sound which he had heard when sitting on the stone broke in on +his waking dreams, the slow tramp, tramp, tramp of the feet of tired +horses, muffled by the soft sand. This time the sound came from much +nearer than before. Then he heard the creaking of the vehicle and the +wisch-wisch of the ploughing wheels. Then the sound ceased. A few +moments later he heard a stealthy step approaching the door; just +afterwards came a light tap. + +"Who is there?" he called out. + +"Open the door quickly. It is I, Koos." + +Nathan sprang out of bed and drew back the bolt. Koos at once stepped +into the room and glanced furtively around. His face looked drawn and +haggard and his eyes were bloodshot. + +"Are you alone?" he asked, in a husky voice. + +"Yes, I am alone. But be careful, I don't know where Max is." + +Koos bent forward until his dry lips almost touched Nathan's ear, and +whispered-- + +"What has happened? Tell me quickly." + +Nathan drew back slightly and let the ghost of a mocking smile flit over +his features. + +"Oh, I got home all right, thanks. But what brings you here?" + +The Boer leant forward across the table and grasped the Jew's wizened +shoulder in his enormous hand. Nathan shuddered convulsively under the +pressure; he thought his bones were being crushed. The eyes of Koos +seemed to shoot forth dusky flames. + +"Tell me quickly," he said. + +"All right," said Nathan, trying hard to wrench himself free, and +feeling, at the same time, that it might be dangerous to take liberties +with the man before him, "I'll tell you, unless you break my blooming +back first of all. You kicked a little too hard, Koos; the old nigger +is dead." + +The visage of Koos became frightful. He gasped for breath and a low +gurgle came from his throat. He sat silent for a few moments with his +eyes fixed upon Nathan's in a burning stare. Then he said in a +strained, hoarse voice-- + +"Tell me more. Tell me all about it." + +"That's all I know about it myself." + +Koos arose slowly from his seat and stretched his hands out towards +Nathan, who, seeing murder in his eye, retreated into the corner. + +"Stop, Koos!" he almost screamed. "So help me God, I know nothing more +about it than what I've told you. I only came home just before you +did." + +Koos sank back into the chair and covered his face with his hands. +After a few minutes he arose and staggered out of the room. He went to +where his tired horses were still standing in the harness, outspanned +them, and after tying the front legs of each together with a reim, +turned them out to graze. Then he wrapped himself in his kaross, for +the night air was chilly, and laid himself down under the cart. + +He could not sleep. It seemed to him as if he had never slept, as if +the axis upon which the hollow globe of stars turned was laid through +his brain, as if there were no such thing as sleep in the whole wide +world. The sky was clear and limpid, as only the sky which leans over +and seems to love the Desert can be. The sweet, piercing smell of the +dew-wet sand came to him and brought memories of nights spent on the +hunting-field, when the pungent scent, the very breath and essence of +the quick earth, had seemed to renew his spent strength, after the +fatigues of the chase. But then he had not stained his hands with +blood. + +But the awful silence. Would nothing break it? It seemed to press upon +and crush him like something ponderable and tangible. He lifted his +fist and smote lightly the bottom of the cart just over his head. The +sound seemed to split his brain like an axe. Then the returning wave of +silence surged around him, and under its impact he seemed to sink as +into a quicksand. + +At length, a sound. Far away on the waste he heard the long-drawn +nasal, melancholy howl of a jackal. Before the weird cry came to an end +it was taken up by others at a greater distance, and then repeated on +and on like the challenges of crowing cocks in the dawning. + +A gush of gratitude came from his darkened heart; he felt that he almost +loved the prowling brutes that had drawn his soul out of the quagmire of +silence in which it had been sunk. He seemed to feel a kind of +fellowship and sympathy with the jackals. He wondered why this was. +Then he remembered-- + +The waning moon had been making paler the western stars, but he had not +noticed it. The straining of his sound-sense had left no room for that +of sight to come into play. Now the spell of silence was broken, and +the sense of sight began to assert itself. + +His eyes had been closed for some little time. When he opened them the +Desert was flooded with a gentle haze of diaphanous pearl. This made +the Namies kopjes look like a group of enchanted islands floating in an +unearthly sea. The scene was almost too beautiful for mortal eyes. + +As the moon soared higher and higher the stones and bushes, which at a +few paces' distance could not be separated from their shortening +shadows, took on strange and ever-changing shapes. God! What was that +a few yards from him? Surely they cannot have brought the body up from +the gully and left it exposed upon the kopje-side? Yes, there it lay, +huddled and horrible. + +He must go and look at it--examine it--even if the doing of this killed +him or drove him mad. He arose to a crouching position and passed +slowly across the intervening space of a few yards with hesitating +steps. He bent his horror-distorted face over a stone half hid in +tufted pelargonium. + +Day came near. The glamour and mystery receded from the Desert, +gathered into a wave and broke against the splendid gates of dawn. A +short and troubled sleep fell upon the wretched man under the cart, and +perhaps saved him for the time being from insanity. He awoke to find +the flaming sun high in the brazen sky, and the camp at his feet astir +with life. + +In the full light of day Koos Bester could hardly realise that he had +been a prey to the horrors of the damned during the long hours of the +previous night. His terrors had vanished with the distorting moonlight. +What did it matter, after all? It was true that Nathan could put the +rope around his neck with a word, but he easily persuaded himself the +word would never be spoken. His conscience was still sore, but not +agonisingly so, now in the daylight. A Bushman was, after all, only a +Bushman, and the mind of the Boer always draws an important distinction +between a "mens" and a "schepsel." + +He felt hungry, so he strolled down through the camps on the look-out +for a breakfast. He did not want to eat with Nathan again if he could +possibly avoid doing so. He knew that he must expect to have to run the +gauntlet of covert allusion and innuendo. He knew that suspicion of +having done the deed--the memory of which hung around his neck like a +millstone--had already marked him, in the estimation of some, at least, +as a sort of minor Cain. This, however, he was prepared for, and he +could meet the prospect with calmness. He was now high at the dizzy +extreme of hopeful confidence, resting for the instant's pause before +the return swing of the pendulum to which he was bound, like Ixion to +the wheel, should whirl him back towards the ledges of anguish where the +vultures of remorse were perched, waiting to tear anew at his vitals. + +He was consumed by an apprehensive curiosity which burnt him like a +fever. He longed to hear all about the finding of the body, or-- +horrible thought!--had the man been still alive when found? No, that +was impossible; his reason told him from the heights of reassurance, had +such been the case he would have been apprehended long before this. + +As he walked furtively along, still limping slightly from the effects of +the dislocated toe, he glanced hurriedly from side to side from under +his bent brows. He fancied he was being watched from every mat-house. +Yes, he was. In the gloom of every doorway he could see the dim faces +of women and children turned in his direction. Even thus, he imagined, +must the Lord have set a mark upon Cain, that all mankind might know +him. It seemed as though by some subtle means every one throughout the +scattered camps had simultaneously become aware of his presence. Just +before descending the hill from where his cart stood outspanned he had +heard laughter and the shrill voices of children at play. Now all was +mute in an awful, accusing hush. The sudden silence reminded him of +what he had suffered during the night, before the jackals claimed +fellowship with him, and passed the word of his initiation into their +brotherhood across the listening Desert. He felt that the brand of +Cain, which none may describe but which none may fail to recognise, was +upon him. + +Old Schalk was sitting before his tent, smoking. Koos made an effort, +and, turning abruptly in his course, walked up and greeted him. Old +Schalk returned the salutation with more than ordinary friendliness, and +then offered a chair and the inevitable cup of coffee. These were +gratefully accepted. The old Boer called to Susannah to bring the +coffee. She was in the wagon and was thus unaware of the identity of +the visitor. When she came from the scherm with the cup she coloured +angrily and her eye flashed. She passed the visitor the cup, but did +not offer her hand in greeting. Koos winced. Among the Boers such an +omission can only be construed as a deliberate insult. + +Old Schalk was in great form. From the first glance at the face of his +visitor he knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the slayer of Gert +Gemsbok was before him. His previous suspicions were so strong that +little room for any doubt had existed in his mind. Here, however, was +proof, writ large for all to read. Old Schalk was extremely tolerant +where the killing of Bushmen was concerned, and it distressed him +genuinely to see Koos take a comparative trifle so much to heart. Old +Schalk fell into the error of ascribing _all_ of Koos' distress to mere +fright, so he determined to try and put him at his ease. Koos had been +watched carefully since his arrival, and Old Schalk knew it was probable +that he was seeking information as to what had transpired since the +commission of the deed. + +"Did you hear of the accident the other day?" the old man asked, without +looking at the man he addressed. + +"Ja--that is--I heard something--" + +"I have often said that an accident would come from letting that horse +of Oom Dantje's run where he can be caught and ridden by the Bushmen." + +"What did Oom Dantje's horse do?" said Koos, breathlessly. + +Old Schalk shot a glance at him out of the corner of one eye, and looked +puzzled. It was evident that Koos had not even heard of the verdict. + +"Well, no one saw the horse do it, you know; but from the way that old +Bushman was knocked about, I think--myself--that it must have been Oom +Dantje's horse. I reported so to the magistrate." + +Koos set down the empty utensils upon the ground. The cup rattled like +castanets upon the saucer. A sense of blissful peace seemed to descend +upon him like a dove with healing wings. It was the revulsion of +feeling which made him tremble. + +"Yes," continued old Schalk, "that young Jew, Max, wanted to talk some +nonsense about what the old Bushman had told him before he died, but I +wouldn't listen. It's all right, Koos--you needn't look like that." + +The dove had changed, in the twinkling of an eye, into a vulture; its +beak was imbedded in his heart-strings. This was the contingency he had +dismissed as being impossible--the man's having been found alive. He +must find out what the dying Hottentot had said, or else go mad. He +arose, shook hurriedly the moist hand of his host with his own burning +one, and then limped painfully back towards the shop. + +Oom Schulpad had watched Koos carefully ever since he arose from his +feverish sleep under the cart. The old fiddler was staying, just then, +with some people who had camped on the site formerly occupied by Koos; +he was sitting in the mat-house with his fiddle on his knee, when Koos +came limping up the sandy slope. Then the tones of the air which +Gemsbok so often had played upon the ramkee were slowly wailed out from +the strings in a minor key. Koos stiffened as though he had received an +electric shock, and stood stock still for an instant. Then he resumed +his limping towards the shop. + +Both Nathan and Max were in the iron building; the former writing at the +empty packing-case which served as a desk, and the latter engaged in +bartering wild-cat skins from some strange Hottentots from Great +Namaqualand. One of the strangers carried a ramkee slung upon his back. +This was not a very unusual circumstance, but to Koos it was an item +full of horrible significance. + +The barter was soon over. Max leaped across the counter and passed out +through the door, cutting Koos dead. Nathan came forward, greeted him +with hilarity, and then took his stand in the doorway. + +The look of hunted terror in the man's face would have moved his +bitterest foe to pity. He sat down helplessly on an empty packing-case +which was lying where it had been flung, just outside the door, and +looked at Nathan with haggard eyes. Nathan had ceased from his +letter-writing and come to the doorway, because he did not care to be +alone inside with Koos, after his last night's experience of being +gripped. He stood in the doorway, whistling, and with his hands in his +pockets. Then, after a pause-- + +"Well, Koos, old man, you look chippy to-day. What's up, eh?" + +Koos stood up and again laid his hand on Nathan's shoulder. Nathan, +however, had been prepared for this, so he slipped like an eel from +under the huge hand that threatened to crush him, darted away to a +distance of a few yards, and then wheeled round facing Koos, who was +limping heavily after him with murder in his eye. He determined to risk +something. He had planned out moves for the game he had to play. Here, +in the full light of day and within sight of the whole of Namies, was +the place to begin the struggle. + +"Look here, Koos Bester," he said in a low tone, "if you think you are +going to paw me about as you would a blasted Bushman, you are very much +mistaken. Understand me now, once and for all--if ever you lay that +leg-o'-mutton hand of yours on me again, I'll--I'll--Well, I won't say +exactly what I'll do, but you can just look out for yourself--mind +that." + +Koos at once collapsed into abjectness. Nathan pursued his advantage-- + +"One would think it was _I_ that had booted a blooming nigger to death. +Where do you think you'd be if I were to split, eh?" + +Here he attempted a somewhat conventional representation of the legal +tragedy which follows the donning of the black cap by a certain high +judicial functionary. In it his tongue, the whites of his eyes, his +left hand, and the butt of his ear played conspicuous parts. Koos +gasped and murmured unintelligibly. Nathan resumed-- + +"Now, look here, I'm not going to split--this is, if you are a good boy +and do as you're told, and keep your paws to yourself. See?" Koos made +a dismal attempt to smile, as though he regarded this as a pleasantry. +He was now completely cowed, and would have set his neck under the foot +of the man before him had he been told to do so. + +He came close up to Nathan, cleared his throat, and whispered hoarsely-- + +"What did he tell your brother?" + +"That's just what I don't know. My brother and I have had a blooming +diplomatic difference; don't speak, you know. He actually appears to +think that I've had a hand in this business;--as if your feet were not +big enough to do your own kicking." + +Koos gave a gasp of relief. His mind had become almost unnaturally +alert under the strain upon it. If Max thought as Nathan said, it was +clear that he knew nothing definite. + +The unhappy man became conscious of the fact that he had not eaten since +early on the previous day. A sudden hunger seized him; he felt like a +wolf. He begged of Nathan to give him food. Nathan led the way into +the shop, and there produced a loaf of bread, and some bultong which he +took out of a sack under the counter. Koos seized greedily upon the +food and ate with avidity. Nathan watched him narrowly. When he had +finished eating Koos arose and left the shop. Max had just previously +come in, so Nathan went out after Koos. He still felt a stiffness in +his shoulder from the effects of last night's gripping. He shrugged it +purposely until he felt a severe twinge. The pain was like salt for the +feast of his revenge against the strong man who had hurt and insulted +him. + +"Well, old man, had a good feed?" + +"Yes, I ate well." + +"Yes, you seemed to enjoy your grub. I say, Koos, I've been thinking +things over a bit, and I find I'll want a few more of those cattle of +yours. What do you say to my taking another fifty head?" + +Koos looked up. His alert senses had detected something unusual in the +tone of Nathan's voice. Nathan had distinctly said that he did not +require any more cattle. + +"I'm thinking of taking another trip to Cape Town, and I thought you +might just drive another lot down as far as Clanwilliam for me. What do +you say?" + +"Yes, you can have the cattle, but I cannot leave home just now; you +will have to take them over at my camp." + +"Well, old man--to oblige a friend, you know. I think you will be able, +at all events, to send them on for me, eh?" + +Nathan looked at Koos with such an amount of sinister meaning that the +miserable Boer was filled with a vague sense of fresh dismay. Nathan +continued-- + +"Look here, old man, I'll tell you what we'll do: we'll just drive down +to your place to-morrow--across the dunes, you know--then we'll pick out +the cattle and arrange about how you will send them down." + +"But how can we cross the dunes? Your mules will never pull the cart +through?" + +"Quite right, old man; and that's why you are to drive me down in your +own trap. You told me that you crossed the dunes as you came up, so you +might as well go back the same way. See?" + +"But how are you to get back here if you do not take your own cart?" + +Nathan dug Koos playfully in the ribs, and then linked his skinny arm +with the Boer's large limb. + +"Well, how stupid of me not to have thought of that. Let's see--how can +I get back, eh? Oh, I've just thought of a splendid plan: you'll drive +me back too." + +Koos gave a sidelong glance of such bitter hatred at the stunted figure +at his side that, had Nathan seen it, he surely would have recognised +the danger of the course he was pursuing. But Nathan supposed that the +giant was quite cowed, that this Samson was completely shorn of his +locks. In his preoccupation he forgot about the Pillars of Gaza. + +His thoughts were far away. He was evolving complicated schemes, +planning vast undertakings, which he meant to effect by means of this +rough instrument, whose strength might be guided by his puny hand. He +had reasoned it out--his theory as to the proper management of this +tamed monster, and had come to the conclusion that curb, whip, and spur +should be used upon him unsparingly, until he was thoroughly broken to +harness. + +Koos did not speak for a while. Then he said in a strained voice-- + +"If I take my horses again through the dunes this weather, they will be +quite knocked up. You had better bring your own trap and mules, and we +will go round the other way." + +Nathan stood still, and his companion faced him. Then he repeated the +pantomime in which his tongue, the whites of his eyes, and the butt of +his ear were so suggestively in evidence. The face of Koos turned to +the colour of ashes, and he trembled as though he had a fit of ague. +Nathan again dug him playfully in the ribs. + +"It's all right, old man, you need not get yourself into a state. I'm +fond of you, Koos; I really am--in fact I wouldn't hurt you for the +world. Besides, I'm very fond of your wife. Ain't she a pretty woman, +eh? I say, Koos, did you ever see a man hanged?" + +The Boer shook like an aspen through every fibre of his immense frame. +His breath came in husky gasps. + +"It's all right, old man," continued Nathan, "it's only my fun. We'll +start to-morrow morning before it gets too hot, eh? Your horses will do +it right enough. If the weather is very hot I'll get you to drive me +back the other way. I'm not going to ask you to take me to Clanwilliam +this time. I'm always willing to oblige a friend--ain't I, now?" + +Just as night was falling Oom Schulpad went for a walk to the other side +of the group of kopjes. It was dark when he returned, carrying a large +armful of candle-bushes, which he had collected during the day and +hidden in a safe place. He took these--not to the scherm belonging to +the camp at which he was a guest, but to the deserted scherm formerly +occupied by Gert Gemsbok. The scattered bushes of the scherm fence he +rearranged, not against the wind but on the side facing the shop. He +piled the candle-bushes upon the cold hearth and then stole quietly +away. + +Later, when the lights began to go out in the camps, he stepped quietly +out of the mat-house, in which he was in the habit of sleeping, with his +fiddle under his arm, and went softly up the hillside. When he reached +the deserted scherm he laid himself down behind the rearranged fence, +lit his pipe, and waited. + +Koos Bester had no supper. After he had parted from Nathan he went and +sat upon a rock a short distance from where his cart was standing. His +horses were hobbled close by on the side of the kopje. He wanted their +companionship during the interminable hours of the coming darkness. + +His terrors of the supernatural had, for the moment, burnt themselves +out. It was the sense of being subject to the ruthless bondage of +Nathan which, just now, maddened him. He did not expect to sleep, but +he thought he might be able to rest, wrapped in the regal quiet of the +night. + +When all was still, when the very last glimmer of light had disappeared +from the camps, Koos arose and returned to his cart. He wrapped himself +in his blanket and lay down between the wheels. His brain seemed to +become a little cooler; the dulness of utter fatigue benumbed his +faculties and mitigated his tribulation. He felt the gracious touch of +the wing of Sleep across his eyelids. Surely God was taking pity on +him-- + +A strange flicker of light rose and fell. What could it possibly mean? +It came from the hillside above the shop. He must get up and see what +it meant. Horror! a bright blaze was rising and falling in the scherm +of the man he had slain. Yet, he tried to reason to himself, what +nonsense to think that there was anything ghostly about the +circumstance. No doubt some wandering-- + +His hair stood upon end and he shrieked aloud. From the scherm arose +the notes of the air he knew so well. Struck from the strings, the +pizzicato tones of the deadly tune seemed to run through his body until +every nerve vibrated with the hateful sound. He rushed across the +intervening space and beat with his fists against the iron door of +Nathan's bedroom, until the whole building thundered. + +Nathan sprang out of bed in deadly fear. + +"Who is that, and what is the matter?" he called. + +"Open, quick! It is I, Koos. Open, open!" + +Nathan drew back the bolt and Koos sprang into the room, panting. + +"I have seen his ghost--it is there in the scherm." + +"Rot, Koos. Go to bed." + +"It is there; go and see for yourself." + +Nathan had no fear whatever of the supernatural. He slipped on a pair +of shoes and came outside, followed by the trembling Boer. All was in +darkness; not the faintest glimmer of light could be seen in the +neighbourhood of the scherm, not a sound broke the stillness of the +night. + +"Why, you must have the `rats,' Koos. Go to bed." + +Koos begged humbly to be allowed to lie down on the floor in Nathan's +room until morning. Nathan grumbled a bit, but at last consented to +grant his request. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN. + +"WHOSO DIGGETH A PIT..." + +Next morning, just as day was breaking, Nathan and Koos Bester took +their departure from Namies. Koos had not slept at all during the +previous night. His face looked pinched and haggard, his hands trembled +so that he was hardly capable of buckling the straps of the harness. + +The morning was as pellucid as a dew-drop and the dunes looked +preternaturally clear and distinct, the hollows being filled with +amber-tinted shadow. The track lay like a narrow, coiling ribbon over +the waste of plumy grass. The weird form of Bantom Berg arose gradually +before the travellers like a warning finger, indicating the vast +death-trap of which it is the centre, when, as the sun appeared above +the horizon, its shafts smote suddenly as though a furnace-door had been +suddenly opened. A short, hushing breath, as it were a gasp of +apprehension of the fiery terrors of the day, seemed to pass westward +over the Desert. + +They reached a place called "Inkruip," and here it was decided to +outspan and rest the team. The name is a literal translation into Dutch +of a word in the Bushman tongue which means "creep in." A small stone +kopje stands here, and in its side is a narrow passage through which an +ordinary-sized man may just manage to force himself. A small chamber is +then reached, and from this another passage leads. Into this one can +only pass upon hands and knees. It rapidly gets narrower, and at length +dips suddenly at an angle of about forty-five degrees for some ten feet. +At the bottom is a little hollow, in which is always to be found a few +pannikinfuls of beautifully clear, fresh water, which is icy cold. It +takes, however, two people to obtain water at Inkruip, for the man who +descends the sloping shaft cannot get out again unless he is assisted by +some one who pulls him back by means of a reim tied round his feet. + +The rocks on the western side of the little kopje still afforded a +slight protection from the blazing sunlight. The two men crept close +against a low, perpendicular ledge of rock, over which the rays of the +terrible sun were slowly encroaching. The sand was so hot that the +horses were unable to stand still, so they moved uneasily about in the +vain hope of easing their scorching feet. + +"My, but ain't it just sultry!" said Nathan. He had managed to squeeze +his small body into a wedge of shade too small to accommodate the bulk +of the Boer, who was largely exposed to the sun-glare. + +Koos murmured an unintelligible reply. Nathan, in spite of the heat, +felt in good form; he was determined to converse. + +"My, but ain't it funny that a big, strong chap like you should have to +do just as I tell you, eh?" + +Nathan could not see his companion's face, so he went on garrulously-- + +"I'll tell you what I mean to do; I'm just going to have a jolly rest +down at your camp for two or three days. You can go down to Gamoep and +collect the stock; I'll stay behind and cheer up the missus, eh?" + +Koos bit his lip till the blood came. His face, still averted from +Nathan, turned almost purple; the veins of his temples appeared as +though they would burst. Nathan went on--"You must excuse me, old man; +I'm not a married man myself, and, what's more, I don't know that I ever +will be, but I've often thought that a married man should keep no +secrets from his wife. Don't you agree with me, eh?" Koos still +maintained silence. "Well, silence gives consent, as the copybooks say, +so I suppose you agree with me. That being so, and without for a moment +wishing to say anything that might lead your thoughts back in an +unpleasant direction--and I'm sure you'll see that it's only out of +friendship that I ask it--which is: Did you tell your wife about that +little spree the other day?" + +"No," replied Koos hoarsely. + +"Well, I think you've made a mistake in not doing so, and you must let +me persuade you to tell your wife all about it as soon as we get to your +camp. If you like you may put off telling her until the morning, but +you'd better get it over, as the man said when he jumped on the back of +the alligator." + +"Why should I tell my wife?" + +"Several reasons. One is that if she were to hear about the thing from +any one else she would think you didn't trust her, don't you know. +Another is that I have reason to suspect your wife doesn't like me quite +as well as I like her, and I want her to know what a friend I've been to +you all through this business. See?" + +In the brain of Koos something seemed to snap. The tension at once +ceased, and he breathed freely. Strange lights flickered before his +eyes, and his ears were filled with extraordinary sounds. He seemed to +live through hours of rather pleasant delirium in the course of a few +seconds. The voice of Nathan recalled him to a sense of his +surroundings. Then the lights and sounds were suddenly swept away, and +the idea which had been born in the turmoil stood forth adult in +terrible and ravishing nakedness. His thirsty soul drank deep at the +cup of an awful hope, and the dunes seemed to blossom into a red-hot, +infernal garden. + +"Look here, old chap," continued the Jew, plucking at his companion's +sleeve to emphasise what he said. "No nonsense, mind; you've got to +tell your wife all about it. See?" + +"I'll tell her." + +"Yes; and tell her, too, that she's got to make me jolly comfortable +while you're away; and, in fact, to do every blessed thing I tell her. +See?" + +"Yes; I'll tell her all that." + +"Now that's the way I like to hear you talk--nice and friendly, you +know. I can see we're going to be good friends right enough. I'll not +be hard on you, Koos; and if you do all I want you to, we'll both be +quite happy. See?" + +Koos replied in an even, cheerful voice that he would do all he possibly +could to meet Nathan's wishes in everything. Nathan said--quite +voluntarily--that if the weather continued hot he would not insist on +being driven back through the dunes; he would submit to the +inconvenience of a two-days' journey round by Puffadder instead. Koos +expressed himself as being appropriately grateful for this evidence of +consideration. + +Cordiality being thus restored, the two chatted in the friendliest +manner. In fact one would have thought that the mutually satisfactory +relations of a week previously had never been interrupted. + +When the time came to make another start, Nathan asked Koos to excuse +him from getting up and helping to inspan, so Koos went around the kopje +to where the cart stood and laid out the harness ready to be placed upon +the horses. + +Koos carried back to the cart from the kopje the little keg of water +which had been placed in the shade. No one ever dreams of entering +Bushmanland without at least one of such kegs. He had taken some pains +to persuade Nathan against drinking more than a mere sip. Nathan, being +accustomed to travelling in the Desert, knew that this was good advice, +however hard to follow; that one should never touch water if one can +avoid it whilst exposed to the rays of a hot sun. Nathan was extremely +proud of the self-command which he evinced in following the advice, for +he was very thirsty indeed and would have given a lot for a deep drink +of something cool. + +But Koos did a very curious thing after he had laid the harness out; he +scraped a hole in the red-hot sand with his foot, and into this he +poured every drop of the contents of the little keg. He need not have +taken the trouble to scrape the hole, for the thirsty sand drank up the +water as quickly as if it had been poured into space over the edge of +the car of a balloon. However, there is nothing like being systematic +when one has important work in hand. He stowed away the empty keg under +the seat of the cart, and then went to fetch the horses. + +These poor animals were standing, only a few hundred yards away, perched +like so many goats upon a low ledge of light-coloured stone. This was +more bearable to their feet than the red, scorching sand. The docile, +well-trained brutes stood still until Koos went up and caught them. He +laughed so heartily that the tears streamed down his cheeks, and he was +hardly able to untie the hobble-knots from the forelegs of the youngest +horse, which, being given to roaming, it was always necessary to secure. +He led the horses back to the cart, and in a few minutes they stood in +the traces uneasily shifting their feet from time to time, and looking +round impatiently for the signal to start. Koos called to Nathan, who +came forward and took his place, with many groanings, upon the hard, +unprotected seat of the vehicle. + +A start was made. Nathan seemed to fry in the heat. There was no +longer a track, for whenever the wind blew the ever-shifting sand would +have obliterated the trail of an army in an hour. Koos, however, knew +every turn and changing fold in the limbs of the dune-monster, and took +advantage of each depression, enabling him to force through one after +another of the interminable series of tentacle-like ridges at its most +vulnerable point. + +The heat was indescribable. The horses broke into a lather of sweat at +every ascent. This at once dried into adhesive flakes of white paste +whenever the course led downhill. Nathan suffered increasing agonies +from thirst, but he still listened to the persuasions of his companion +against drinking whilst in the hot sunlight, and thus relaxing his pores +until every drop of moisture drained out of his body. He accordingly, +with increased admiration for his own powers of endurance, determined to +hold out to the last extremity. From his manner it might have been +supposed that this exercise of obvious discretion for his own advantage +was really a something which Koos ought to have been extremely grateful +for. + +Twenty torrid miles of the dune-ground had to be travelled; on a day +such as this, better fifty in the open Desert. After they had covered +about eight miles, Nathan found his thirst absolutely intolerable, so he +made Koos stop the cart and get the keg out from under the seat. + +"Allemagtig!" exclaimed Koos, "the keg is empty!" + +"Empty!" shrieked Nathan in agony. "Then I'll die of thirst. Look +here, you damned murdering hound; I'll make you swing for this." + +Koos replied to the effect that he was very sorry; he supposed the cork +must have sprung out from the jolting. Nathan's moods alternated +between the whimperingly pathetic and the impotently furious; his words, +between blasphemous revilings and minor-keyed entreaties. Koos did his +best to comfort him, promising water within two hours at the most. + +The course now led up a deep and narrow passage between two branches +which were rooted in the main dune almost at the same point, and which +ran parallel for several miles. One of these had to be crossed close to +its point of origin at a spot where it curved slightly, and where the +winds had blown a shallow gap. This locality was like the innermost +circle of hell. As the horses bravely struggled up to the gap through +the scorching sand, into which they sank above their fetlocks, Koos +leaped out of the cart so as to ease the strain, and asked Nathan to do +the same. Nathan, however, plaintively declined, saying that he could +not walk ten yards in the sand. + +They reached the top of the ascent, and Koos stopped the horses for the +purpose of giving them a blow. Then he climbed into the cart and took +his seat beside his suffering companion. After they had rested for a +couple of minutes, Nathan said, in tones of husky despair-- + +"Go on, Koos, for God's sake! I'm dying of thirst!" + +Koos gathered the reins up preparatory to making a start. Then he asked +Nathan to stand up for a moment so that he might adjust the seat. +Nathan, groaning, leant forward and crouched with his hands on the +splash-board. Koos seized him between his huge hands, lifted him high +with a wrench, and flung him down the side of the dune. + +The reins he had gripped between his knees, the whip stood ready at his +hand. In a moment the team, refreshed by the short pause, were dragging +the cart down the side of the dune at a floundering gallop. + +After going for about two hundred yards Koos hauled the horses back +almost upon their haunches, and the cart suddenly stopped. He looked +round; Nathan was stumbling slowly down the sandy slope, falling every +few yards. Koos allowed him to come to within about fifty yards of the +cart, and then he urged the horses into a walk. Nathan made a desperate +effort and broke into a staggering run, which somewhat decreased the +distance. Koos then whipped the horses into a trot, and he heard behind +him a hoarse and stifled cry as of a wild beast in agony. After a few +minutes he again pulled the team into a walk and looked back. A +motionless figure lay huddled with its face upon the sand. + +Koos uttered a wild laugh, frightful to hear, and urged the horses +forward at a mad gallop. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN. + +THE NACHTMAAL, AND AFTER. + +A few days after the departure of Nathan and Koos Bester the great +annual event, the visit of the pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church to +Namies, took place. + +The Reverend Nicholas Joubert, who resided at Garies, two hundred miles +as the crow flies, across the Desert, made a tour through Bushmanland +every autumn. He travelled in his own comfortably appointed +spring-wagon, teams of horses for which were provided by the more +well-to-do among the Trek-Boers, as relays along a prescribed course. + +The Trek-Boers congregated at the different water-places to meet the +pastor. Services would be held, catechisings instituted, confirmations, +marriages, and christenings solemnised. + +Namies, if the summer rains happen to have been copious, is the great +assembling-place for the Trek-Boers of Northern Bushmanland; in fact, +several dozen camps may be seen grouped around the kopjes on these +occasions, and the pastor has known what it is to preach there to +several hundred souls. + +There is little that is distinctive about these meetings. Enthusiasm is +not an element in them, for the Boer, and more especially the Trek-Boer, +takes his religion, like everything else, quietly and without passion or +excitement. The sermons are mainly theological, the prayers are +extremely long, the Old Testament is more in evidence than the New, the +singing of the psalms and hymns is nasal, and extremely trying to any +one with a musical ear. + +This species of religious gathering is known as the "Nachtmaal," which +is the Dutch equivalent for the Lord's Supper. In the more civilised +districts the Boers gather from far and near around the different +church-buildings four times annually. In Bushmanland, however, no +church-buildings exist, so the pastor gathers his wandering sheep +together once in every year, usually in autumn, but of course the time +must be determined by the rains. They are thus kept in touch with the +formal observances of their professed religion. + +It is a strange and motley gathering which one sees under the awning of +"buck-sails," as the canvas overalls of the wagons are called, stretched +over poles. Probably the assemblage contains a larger proportion of +unattractive female countenances than one would find in any other +collection of Caucasians. Here and there, however, one may notice a +strangely beautiful face shining like a fresh lily between withered +cabbages. Among the faces of the men one notices many diverse types. +Some show a rugged nobility that would ensure their owners a fair +livelihood in any city where art is followed. The most salient +characteristic of both men and women is the listlessness of attitude as +well as of expression. + +All were wondering at Nathan's absence; for obvious reasons he always +made a point of being present at the Nachtmaal. This is the great time +for squaring off accounts, for bartering piles of hides, jackal-skins, +and karosses, the latter made by the deft fingers of the Boer women from +the skins of the fat-tailed sheep, as well as from those of wild +animals. Nathan had left no instructions; he had even taken the keys of +the little iron safe in which the promissory notes, "good-fors," and +acknowledgments of debt which the Boers had signed from time to time to +cover their accounts, were kept. Such transactions involved a ruinous +rate of interest for the accommodation granted, and were generally made +payable at Nachtmaal-time. Max knew that Nathan had an unusually large +number of these on hand. On several grounds Nathan's absence was +absolutely unaccountable. + +As the Trek-Boers assembled from far and near Max had a busy time of it. +It seemed to be a _sine qua non_ among the Boers that each individual +should have at least one new article noticeable in his or her attire at +the Nachtmaal. It was customary for Max to nail down the flap of the +counter at Nachtmaal-time, so as to prevent the women, many of whom are +incorrigible pilferers, from crowding round beneath the shelves and +"snapping up unconsidered trifles." + +Sunday passed with its almost interminable services, and on Monday Maria +and Petronella were united in marriage to their respective swains. The +weddings were only two among some dozen or so. These were, however, the +most notable--one would hardly use the term "fashionable." + +The brides were attired in white muslin frocks and pale green sashes. A +single wreath of orange-blossoms was divided between them. The +bridegrooms levied contributions on several friends for the black +broadcloth attire in which they were wed. Black broadcloth, largely +irrespective of fit, represents the Boer ideal of the perfection of male +garb. + +In the evening something remotely approaching a jollification was held +at the Hattingh camp. Next to Old Schalk's wagon stood another, which +had been borrowed for the occasion, and between the tent-frames of these +vehicles some of the buck-sails, which had formed the roof of the +extemporised church of the previous day, were stretched. In the space +thus covered in the company sat whilst innumerable cups of coffee were +handed round. Mynheer, the minister, came and remained for about half +an hour. After he had taken his departure for his wagon, which was +outspanned on the other side of the kopjes, Oom Schulpad produced his +violin and struck up a lively polka. + +Dancing was, of course, out of the question under the awning on account +of the sand. In the large mat-house and in the tent, however, the +floors had been hardened by use. The contents of these edifices were +soon removed and piled outside, and a few couples forthwith began +dancing. Each respective bride and bridegroom danced exclusively one +with the other, and the couples who stood up at first remained, as a +rule, partners for the whole evening. + +At the conclusion of each dance the couples in possession of the limited +spaces came outside and seated themselves under the awning, thus making +room for another relay. The only lights came from a few dip candles, +and the dust kicked up from loose floors hung about in thick clouds. +Dancing was carried on in a silent, business-like manner, each lady +holding her partner with interlocked fingers behind his neck, whilst he +passed his arms around her substantial body just below the armpits, and +clasped his hands behind her back. + +Susannah refused to dance; she and Max sat together just outside the +awning, listening to the music. Oom Schulpad sat playing between the +mat-house and the tent, so that the polkas could be heard equally well +in both. + +Old Schalk sat in his chair under the awning and talked oracularly to an +attentive circle. His wife, fatigued from the exertions of the day, had +collapsed on a stool in the scherm, from which she continually dispensed +coffee, with the assistance of the Hottentot maids. + +"I wonder where Koos Bester is," said Oom Dantje van Rooyen; "I never +knew him miss a Nachtmaal before." + +"I passed his camp on Thursday," said a Boer from the eastward, "and his +wife told me that he was lying sick in the mat-house." + +"Did she say what was the matter with him?" asked Old Schalk. + +"Yes; she said it was pains in his head, and that he could not sleep and +would not eat or speak. Did you hear that he killed two of his horses +when going through the dunes after he left here? They died just after +he reached home." + +"No, I didn't hear that. Was Nathan at the camp?" + +"No, I heard nothing of Nathan." + +"That is strange; he and Koos left here last Friday week." + +"How can that be, then? My son Diedrik met Koos driving home from the +dunes on Friday evening, and he was alone." + +Old Schalk smoked in silence for a few moments; then he called to Max, +who came in immediately. + +"Max, have you heard when Nathan is coming back?" + +"No, Oom, I have heard nothing of him since he left here with Koos +Bester." + +"That was on Friday week, eh?" + +"Ja, Oom." + +Old Schalk smoked for a long time in silence; Max rejoined Susannah +outside. One by one the male guests arose from their seats and left the +awning. Outside they collected in two or three groups and conversed in +whispers. Diederik, the young Boer who had been referred to in the +conversation with Oom Dantje van Rooyen, was called from the mat-house, +where he was dancing. + +Diederik repeated his story. He had, undoubtedly, seen Koos Bester +driving alone from the direction of the dunes on the evening of the day +upon which Koos and Nathan left Namies. Although not spoken of, it was +well known that Koos Bester had killed Gert Gemsbok, and every one had +noticed the strangeness of Koos' manner ever since. + +A shadow of apprehension seemed to have fallen on the company. Men +glanced up in silence and read in each other's eyes their own ominous +thoughts. Max noticed the change which had come over the others, and +inquired as to the reason. Old Schalk sent again for him, and quietly +told him the facts as they stood, and left him to draw his own +deductions. + +At midnight the newly married couples were escorted to their respective +wagons, which were standing within a short distance of each other, by a +party of young men and maidens. After some uncouth romping and +unrefined jokes the escort returned to the Hattingh camp. Contrary to +usage the party broke up at once, the different families returning to +their respective camps, silent, or whispering to each other the +forebodings which they felt. + +Afterwards a few of the Boers met as a sort of informal council to +discuss the situation and decide as to what was best to be done under +the circumstances. The meeting took place at the Hattingh camp, and Max +was present. It was settled that a party of six men should start at +once for Inkruip. After resting there until daylight they would take on +the spoor of the cart through the dunes. The dune route being the +shortest cut to Koos Bester's camp, there was no necessity for sending a +party round by the road. + +Of course the most urgently necessary thing to do was to interrogate +Koos himself. The wind had not blown with any degree of violence since +the date of the departure of the missing man, so there would be no +difficulty in finding and following the spoor. + +During the discussion several very suspicious circumstances came to +light. These were all more or less trifles, but, under the +circumstances, they became significant. One had noticed Koos walking by +himself, muttering, and with hands convulsively clenched. Another had +seen him look at Nathan with a terrible expression. Then the killing of +the horses. It was well known that Nathan had been in Koos' company +when Gert Gemsbok had been killed. Over and over again the young man +who had passed Koos on his way from the dunes was interrogated and +cross-examined, but his story could not be shaken. Every one felt +satisfied that a tragedy had taken place, and was eager to clear up the +mystery. + +Within an hour the party, under the leadership of Oom Dantje van +Rooyen--who rode the identical horse that was supposed to have killed +Gert Gemsbok--had started. Inkruip was reached shortly before dawn. +Here a halt was made. The most slender man was made to go down the +inclined shaft for the purpose of filling the water-bottles. At the +first glimmer of dawn the saddles were again placed upon the horses. + +The spoor of the cart lay as clearly defined as if it had only been made +on the previous day. It is a peculiarity of the Desert sand that if the +wind has not happened to blow hard it retains a spoor distinctly for +weeks, or even months. + +Shortly after starting it was found that the ordinary course through the +dunes had been departed from; the spoor trended away to the left, +towards Bantom Berg, and led through a tract which, according to the +patriarch of the party, had never been crossed by a vehicle before. + +"Allemachtig!" said Oom Dantje, as he ploughed through sand which nearly +reached his horse's knees, "no wonder he killed two of his team!" + +More and more the spoor trended towards Bantom Berg. The day was cool, +a light breeze blowing from the south, so neither men nor horses were +much distressed. Suddenly the spoor curved towards a gap in the +right-hand dune. In climbing to this the men, with one accord, +dismounted from their horses. When they reached the middle of the gap +they stood still to recover breath. + +"Look there," said Oom Dantje, pointing to a couple of jackals slinking +off into a small patch of scrub about two hundred yards ahead. + +"Yes, and there are the ears of another sticking out over that tuft," +said one of the men. + +They moved slowly on. As they did so they saw several more jackals. +These trotted or slunk away to right and left. Oom Dantje reined in his +horse and raised his hand as a sign to the others to pause. Then he +pointed to what appeared to be fragments of torn clothing scattered +about on the sand at each side of the track. They rode a little nearer, +but again paused--with one accord this time, for under the surrounding +bushes, whither they had been dragged by the jackals, they saw the +scattered bones of a human body. + +There was no doubt as to the identity of the remains. The different +articles of clothing were well known as having belonged to Nathan. +Every fragment was carefully gathered up and placed in a sack which one +of the men had been using as a saddlecloth. A pocket-book containing +papers, a bunch of keys and a silver watch, were also found. These were +carefully placed in a saddle-bag. + +The gruesome bundle was tied across the saddle upon one of the horses, +and the cavalcade started back for Namies, the men dismounting by turns +to give a lift to the man who had lent his horse for the purpose of +carrying the remains. It was nearly midnight when they reached Namies. + +Old Schalk at once woke to sense of his duty as Assistant Field Cornet. +Within half an hour a mounted messenger was on his way to the Special +Magistrate with a quaintly scrawled report of the case. + +Max was sent for. He stood over the sack which contained the mortal +remains of his brother with a very white, scared face. He was filled +with horror, but felt no grief. The dead man had earned his brother's +hatred and contempt. Max did not pretend for a moment that he felt any +sorrow. He could not but feel that the fate which had befallen one whom +he instinctively knew was responsible to a great extent for a foul +murder committed on an innocent fellow-creature was largely deserved. + +Within a quarter of an hour almost every inhabitant of Namies was at the +Hattingh camp. Old Schalk sat on his chair and propounded oracularly +his views upon the occurrence to all and sundry. A fire was lit-- +kettles, pannikins, and other requisites were fetched from the +surrounding camps, and a sort of coffee-parliament held session until +long after sunrise. + +The sack containing the horror had not been opened, pending the arrival +of the Special Magistrate; it was hung in the fork of a high koekerboom +about fifty yards away. Towards this tree which bore such terrible +fruit furtive and frightened glances were shot from time to time. The +children, who had crept out and joined the elders, cowered in terror +against the latter's legs whilst the darkness lasted. After daylight +had come, curiosity got the better of fright, and they crept out and +took up positions in small groups around the koekerboom, but at a +respectful distance. For hours they silently gazed, wide-eyed and +fascinated, at the Thing which hung in its fork, lifted thereto by its +own act when a sentient being, even as Haman of old was hung upon the +high gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai. + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN. + +"WHOSO BREAKETH A FENCE..." + +The night had just fallen when Koos Bester arrived at his camp after +leaving Nathan, his persecutor, to his dreadful fate in the burning +dunes. Koos arrived in the wildest state of excitement and the highest +of spirits. His team was in a miserable condition; the poor horses just +staggered away for a few yards when outspanned and then sank exhausted +on the ground. The Hottentot servants attempted to make them get up and +walk slowly about so as to cool gradually before drinking. With some +difficulty the leaders were got upon their legs. The wheelers, however, +could not be induced by either blows or persuasion to arise; about an +hour afterwards it was found that they were dead. + +Mrs Bester was very uneasy; she felt that something was wrong. Koos +drank quantities of water but could not be induced to eat. After a +while he flung himself upon the bed and fell at once into a deep sleep +which lasted until noon of the following day. Then he became violently +ill. At his wife's earnest solicitation he had eaten a little food upon +awakening, but this he was unable to keep upon his stomach. Then he lay +on the bed for a couple of days, during which he hardly spoke. + +All the other Boers had trekked away to the Nachtmaal at Namies, so, +with the exception of her old and feeble father and the Hottentot +servants, Mrs Bester had no one to turn to for assistance or advice. + +One night Koos began muttering to himself; from this time he seemed to +be quite bereft of his understanding. He sometimes ate food that was +placed before him with avidity. Six days and nights passed in this +manner. He appeared to suffer acute pain in his head and to be +continually thirsty. At length he again slept deeply. Mrs Bester had +taken the children out of the mat-house and was staying with them in the +wagon for the purpose of keeping them quiet. In the middle of the night +she stole quietly out and went on tiptoe to the mat-house door. She +listened carefully, but there was no sound of breathing. Then she +softly struck a match and looked in under the door-flap. The bed was +empty. She called up the servants and a search was made, but no trace +of her husband could be found. + +Koos Bester awoke just before midnight and sat up in bed. He could not +remember where he was or what had happened. He got up and groped about; +then he realised that he was at home, in his own mat-house. Then the +past came back to him, bit by bit, and the wretched man realised that he +had stained his soul with a double murder. He would be hanged, that was +now certain; he would give himself up and get the thing over as soon as +possible. To get it over quickly was all he was very anxious about. + +But where were his wife and children? Some faint flickering memories of +what had occurred during his delirium came back to him, and he arrived +at a true inference regarding their absence. He was glad. It was +terrible to be alone, but the dread of meeting his wife and telling +her--as he felt he inevitably must when next he saw her--of what he had +done, kept him from calling her. He felt quite sure that she and the +children were in the wagon, close at hand. + +The darkness was full of terrible and menacing shapes; huddled figures +crouched all over the floor. The far, faint yowl of a jackal sounded +from the direction of the dunes; it reminded him of Nathan's hoarse, +despairing scream when he realised that he was abandoned to die of +thirst. The mat-house, with its population of mysterious shadows and +huddled shapes, became intolerable. Better the sense of freedom outside +under the accusing stars, where a man can get away from the thing that +seems to crawl to his feet as though to clasp his knees. He lifted the +door-flap and stepped out into the night. + +The Hottentot servants had inhabited a scherm about fifty yards to the +rear of the camp. Hottentots often sit up more than half the night, +chatting, laughing, and dancing. Mrs Bester, for the sake of keeping +the neighbourhood quiet, had told the servants to move their scherm +farther away. They had, accordingly, taken their belongings to the +other side of a little knoll about two hundred yards away, on the +right-hand side of the camp. Here they might hold their nocturnal +jollifications to their hearts' content without disturbing anybody or +anything except the meerkats in the adjacent burrows. + +A wandering stranger from Great Namaqualand had arrived during the +course of the evening. This man had a ramkee upon which he performed +with skill. A few months previously he had visited Namies, and had one +night listened to Gert Gemsbok playing his favourite tune. Being struck +with admiration of the melody, he had picked it up. He was now +popularising it among the dwellers of the Desert, for he played it at +every scherm he visited. + +Coffee had been made of burnt rye, a sheep had died on the previous day; +thus the scherm contained the materials for a feast. The company had +been dancing to a series of inspiriting reels, but were now resting a +space from their laborious leapings and gruntings. The stranger was +playing Gert Gemsbok's tune as an interlude to the reels. A bright fire +of candle-bushes was burning. All but the ramkee player were lying down +resting behind the scherm fence. + +When Koos Bester stepped out of the mat-house he at once experienced a +sense of relief. His head was bare and the cool breeze which wandered +over the Desert refreshed his brain. The stars could, he found, pity as +well as accuse; the night seemed to take compassion on his misery. He +looked round to the back of the camp in the direction of where the +scherm of the servants had been, and was relieved to see no light. He +wanted to be free--even of the suggestion of the presence of another +human being--until he had rearranged his distorted faculties. The sandy +road led past the camp; he turned to the right and paced slowly along +it, with bent head. + +He stopped short, for a sound of horribly familiar music reached his +ear; then he started and gasped, for the glow of a fire smote his eyes, +coming from behind the little knoll. Being to windward of the knoll, he +could not exactly distinguish what tune was being played. He knew that +the instrument was a ramkee--that, in itself, was sufficiently horrible. +A cold hand seemed to steal into his breast and gradually close upon +his stricken heart. He stood rigidly still and tried to catch the tune +exactly. He strained every nerve with this end, but the breeze +freshened slightly, and only an indefinite tinkle reached him. In the +midst of his reeling consciousness only one idea stood firm--he must go +closer and determine who the player was and what the tune that was being +played. He pressed his hands convulsively to his ears and stepped, +crouching, towards the knoll. + +He reached the knoll and cautiously raised his head till he was able to +see over its top. The musician was sitting with his back towards the +watcher, and just inside the scherm. Against the diffused glow of the +embers--for the flame had died down--the outline of his head and +shoulders stood clear and black. To the mind of Koos came the certain +conviction that he was looking at the ghost of the man he had murdered. +With a supreme effort of despairing will he tore his shielding hands +away from his ears, and the unmistakable tones of the dead man's music +crashed like thunder into his brain. + +Then Koos Bester's madness returned upon him, and he fled away +noiselessly across the Desert sands in the direction of the dunes. + +It was long before he paused, for the fever in his brain prevented him +from feeling fatigue. At length, as he was running over the roofs of a +city of Desert mice, the ground gave way beneath his foot and he fell. +The shock rendered him almost senseless. After a few minutes he sat up, +pressed his hands to his temples, and began to grope in the haunted +spaces of his darkened intellect for some clue to guide him. + +He looked around. The dew-washed air of the Desert night was clear as +crystal, the pulsing stars were domed over him sumptuously. He dug his +hot hands into the cooling sand and lifted his faced to meet the soft, +refreshing breeze. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The Hottentots at the scherm had evidently thrown another armful of +candle-bush upon the embers, for a bright flame shot up and momentarily +increased in volume. Koos gazed at it, fascinated. As the fire grew +brighter he thought it was rushing toward him with terrific speed. The +flames had been sent from hell to consume him quick. Like Abiram, God +had doomed him for his crimes to go down alive into the pit. He sprang +to his feet with a terrible cry, and again fled onwards in the direction +of the dunes. + +When he again paused he was wading in the heavy sand on the flank of the +main dune. He had ascended slightly and thus could overlook a large +area of the Desert. The cold breath which circles around the world as +the precursor of the dawn was stealing over the plains. The rain had +fallen recently upon this side of the Desert, and many of the Boers had +sent their stock, in charge of herds, to graze on the track of the +shower. The scantily clad Hottentots awoke to the chill, so they began +to light fires. Here and there, at immense distances apart, he could +see the sudden leapings of the flames from the easily kindled +candle-bushes. To the demented brain of the fugitive it appeared as if +the whole Desert were full of fiends seeking him with torches, far and +near. Where the Milky Way dipped to the horizon the thronging stars +seemed each a torch lit at the nether flame, and borne by a searching +demon. In among the sinuous dunes he might escape. If he could but +reach Inkruip he might creep down the water-shaft and hide. They would +never think of looking for him there. In the icy water he might cool +his scorched brain. + +He stumbled on, crossing dune after dune and ploughing through the sand +as with the strength of a giant. In one of the hollows he came to a +clump of low bush. Into this he crept for hiding. He lay prone, +completely covered, and looking out through a narrow opening. The +morning star tipped the back of the dune he had last crossed and +thrilled through the clear atmosphere with almost super-stellar +brilliance. Koos took this for the torch of a tracking fiend, and again +rushed forward with a scream of agonised dismay. His only possible +refuge now was under the ground at Inkruip. + +The sun arose and scorched his bare head. He was now almost +unconscious; he simply pressed forward in obedience to a blind, animal +instinct--a sort of momentum generated by the terror which had passed +away with the darkness. + +It was an awful day, not a breath of wind could be felt, but the sun +smote down from a pitiless heaven in all the fulness of its torrid +might. Koos pressed blindly up the side of a steep, high dune--his +breath coming in husky, choking gasps. Then something seemed to explode +in his head with the sound like that of a cannon, and he fell upon his +face in the sand. + +He had one blinding flash of consciousness, during the continuance of +which he seemed again to live through all his lifetime and see anew +everything he had ever seen. The minutest trifles of former experience +became distinctly apparent, as the smallest details of a landscape show +up when lightning flashes near and vividly on a dark night. Then came +the darkness which men call death. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +As soon as ever day broke the spoor of the missing man was found and +followed. Mrs Bester, assisted by her old father, inspanned four +horses in the cart and drove on behind the trackers. When she reached +the dunes she found that the horses could take the cart no farther, so +she outspanned the team and tied the legs of each animal together to +prevent it from straying. + +She sat through weary hours in the broiling heat. Early in the +afternoon one of the Hottentots returned with word that her husband's +dead body had been found. The horses were at once inspanned, and the +cart taken by a roundabout course to the vicinity of where it was lying. +It was late at night when she arrived at the camp, with the corpse of +her husband tied, stiff and stark, on the seat beside her. + +Next day two constables came with a warrant for Koos Bester's arrest, +but he had gone before a higher tribunal than that of the Special +Magistrate. + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN. + +A CONVERSION, A WEDDING, AND SEVERAL OTHER THINGS. + +Max, being heir to his brother's estate, was now well off. Old Schalk, +mindful of his account as standing in the books at the shop, felt +obliged to be civil. Max was, and felt himself to be, master of the +situation. + +No longer the shy, diffident dreamer of a few months back, Max developed +a keenness and aptitude for business which came as an unpleasant +revelation to those who tried to get on his blind side. In fact Max had +no blind side--he seemed to have eyes all round his head. + +He soon satisfied himself of one thing, namely, that a business such as +his, unless the legitimate gains were supplemented by the profits of the +illicit trade in wild ostrich feathers, would not pay at Namies. Not +seeing his way towards following Nathan's dangerous methods, he +determined to wind up the business as it stood, and reopen in some spot +in Southern Bushmanland were the farmers were in better circumstances, +and where communication with more civilised parts was neither so +difficult nor so uncertain. However, he kept these conclusions strictly +to himself. + +There was one drawer in the little iron safe of which Nathan had always +kept the key. Upon opening this he found, to his astonishment, +documents which showed that there was a balance to his credit in one of +the Cape Town banks of over a thousand pounds, and that the stock, which +was worth several hundreds more, was fully paid for. He was a rich man. +The diamonds were worth a considerable amount--but these he would have +to keep until he could go to Europe before he could realise them. + +Amid the flux and reformation of his character his love for Susannah +never changed. It was probably owing to this that he did not, under his +recent experiences, lose all faith in human nature. He now felt that he +was in such a position that he could marry whenever he wanted to. As a +measure of policy he allowed, at this juncture, the Hattinghs to have a +little more credit, and the quality of the coffee dispensed so lavishly +by Mrs Hattingh from the scherm--to all comers--improved very much in +consequence. He made up his mind that as soon as Susannah became his +wife he would write off the whole of the Hattingh account as a bad debt, +and afterwards take care that no further credit was given in that +quarter. + +"I will marry you as soon as ever you like," said Susannah to him one +day; "but you must first become a Christian; then I know Uncle will not +refuse." + +Max had not the slightest objection to doing this. He had left his +people when but a child, and had thus never acquired that pride of race +which so distinguishes the average Jew, and which often causes him to +cleave passionately to the observances of that religion which still +keeps Israel a separate people, even after all faith in dogma may have +perished. + +Max had come in contact with no Jews except Nathan and others of his +class. These had earned the young man's unmitigated contempt. As to +Christianity--he looked upon its profession as a mere matter of +convenience. The only Christians whom he knew were very sincere in +their faith, and would have looked upon any one harbouring the slightest +religious doubt as being worse than heathen Bushmen, yet their religion +did not appear to have the slightest effect upon their conduct. The +case of poor old Gert Gemsbok had set Max thinking deeply upon these +matters, and the conclusions he arrived at were only negative ones. + +The mind of Max, from utter want of culture, was probably not well +fitted to deal with the higher problems. Had it been so he might easily +have seen that the so-called Christians who inhabited Bushmanland were +really far more like Jews than the worshippers in any modern synagogue +on Saturday, for they looked upon themselves as the Almighty's chosen +people, and felt that the heathen had been given to them as their +inheritance, even as the Hittites, the Hivites, and other unhappy tribes +had been given for spoiling unto the followers of Moses. In this +essential of all Christianity worth the name the love of one's kind, +irrespective of colour or class, the Boer certainly fails. On the other +hand, his attitude towards the inferior race is almost exactly that of +the Old Testament Jew, with, however, one important reservation--he does +not look upon it as a sacred duty to destroy them, nor does he do so +unless he considers that they have provoked destruction by refusing to +obey his behests. + +Max possessed a useful native faculty for arranging evidence, digesting +it, and deciding impartially thereon. He brought this faculty to bear +upon the question of religion, with the result that he made up his mind +that the two religions he had had some experience of were equally true +and equally false. Certainly he had very little evidence, one way or +another, to go upon. His surroundings, rather than he, were responsible +for this. Probably, moreover, the religious sense was absent from his +organisation. His natural impulses were good, he had no ideals or +aspirations. He looked upon most of the people with whom he came in +contact with a kind of mild contempt. He saw clearly in them weaknesses +of which he himself was free. Thus, without being in any way conceited, +he felt instinctively that he was superior to the generality of those he +met. + +Life with Susannah appeared good to him, and he would not let the faint +and mainly instinctive scruples which he felt about professing a +religion he did not believe in, stand in the way of the realisation of +his happiness. So he borrowed a Catechism of the Dutch Reformed Church +from Old Schalk and began to read up towards his conversion. + +He found that without any further explanations he had come to be looked +upon as Susannah's accepted lover. It was, of course, assumed that he +was to be baptised and received as a Church member as soon as possible. + +By collusion with Mrs Hattingh he managed so that some feminine +habiliments of very superior quality, which came with his last +consignment of goods from Cape Town, were purchased for Susannah. Her +lover had, accordingly, the pleasure of at length seeing Susannah +dressed in a manner which did something like justice to her beauty. + +Max caused two commodious mat-houses to be put up at the back of the +shop, on the site of poor old Gemsbok's scherm. These he furnished +simply but comfortably. + +In the course of a few months the Reverend Nicholas Joubert received a +call at Garies from a young Jew, who stated that he had abjured the +errors of Judaism and wished to embrace the Christian faith. Although +his face seemed familiar, Mr Joubert did not at first recognise the +convert. However, he eventually recalled--or said that he recalled-- +having seen him at Namies. As the convert stated that the services held +by Mr Joubert were the only Christian ones he had ever been present at, +the minister naturally enough attributed this remarkable conversion to +the efficacy of his own personal ministrations, and was favourably +disposed to the neophyte accordingly--especially as the latter answered +all questions put to him most discreetly and knew his Catechism so well. +No obstacles intervening, the preliminary steps towards Church +membership were at once taken, and Max returned without delay to Namies. + +He took back with him some books, with the contents of which he had to +make himself familiar. Before leaving he made an arrangement of terms +in which the minister, for a consideration, agreed to make his next +visit to Bushmanland at a much earlier date than usual, and to solemnise +a certain confirmation and a wedding--the confirmed party being the +bridegroom--on the same day. + +This programme was carried out. Max and Susannah were married. There +were very few Boers in the vicinity of Namies just then, so the wedding +was an extremely quiet affair. The short honeymoon was spent in Old +Schalk's wagon (lent for the occasion) at Agenhuis, a water-place about +forty miles away. In the midst of his raptures Max found time to effect +a favourable deal in fat-tailed sheep, which were just then very much in +demand by the travelling agents of the Cape Town butchers. + +Very soon after his marriage Max began to make arrangements for winding +up his business. He had heard of a spot on the southern margin of the +Desert where rains fell with comparative regularity, and where a +profitable trade might be done in salt from the neighbouring "pans." +Here he determined to establish a business. Old Schalk did not like the +idea of his leaving Namies, but Susannah raised no objection whatever to +his doing so. + +It is not many years since all this happened. To-day, at a certain +place where there is a well which affords a copious supply of very pure +water, in the northern part of the Calvinia Division, there stands a +small but comfortable house built of red brick. Over the front door is +a signboard bearing the legend: "Max Steinmetz, Allegemene Handelaar en +Produkten Kooper." ["General Dealer and Produce Buyer."] Behind the +counter you may see Max, and sometimes Susannah. Playing about outside, +whenever the weather is cool enough, may be noticed several small, +dark-eyed children of remarkable beauty. Max has changed in appearance +more than Susannah. The sedentary life and close application to +business has made his shoulders stoop somewhat and given deepening lines +to his face. He is still handsome, but, somehow, one feels that Raphael +would no longer have cared to paint his portrait. + +Susannah is as pretty as ever, and has acquired a touch of refinement +which was wanting before. On the other hand, her features have a +suspicion of dawning sharpness which they lacked in the old days at +Namies. + +Max has prospered. The moral trade in salt gives smaller profits than +did the immoral trade in wild ostrich feathers, but it is safe, and +there is no heavy legal penalty hanging like a Damocles sword over the +head of the trader. The business now supports a clerk--a young +Englishman of good education but indifferent lungs, and who was ordered +a karoo climate by the doctors. + +It is the rule of the Steinmetz household that nothing but the English +language shall be spoken--unless when there happen to be Dutch guests +present. Susannah is thus rapidly acquiring a knowledge of her +husband's mother-tongue. To this end Max encourages her to read English +books, and he corrects, in private, the faults of her speech. + +Max still has the diamonds in his safe. He means some day to take them +to England. If, however, his business continues to prosper at the same +rate as during the past few years, there is at least a chance of his not +disposing of them. It may be--for Max has a sound instinctive knowledge +of human nature--that he will have them cut and made into a necklace, +and that he may attempt to bribe Susannah with this to reconsider her +decision never to leave her beloved Bushmanland. Max knows that +Susannah has an extremely pretty neck; what is more, she knows it too-- +moreover, he knows that she knows it. + +If Susannah's command of the English language improves, it is quite +possible that the effect of the necklet may be all that Max desires. + +_Bultong_.--Dried meat. + +_Cartel_.--A framework of wood, filled in with laced thongs. It is +usually slung in the tent of a wagon, but is occasionally fixed upon +forked sticks driven into the ground, and used as a bedstead. + +_Kaross_.--A rug made of brayed skins. + +_Kloof_.--A valley with steep sides. + +_Koekerboom_.--A large arboreal aloe (_Aloe dichotoma_). + +_Kopje_.--An abrupt hillock. + +_Mat-house_.--A structure made of mats stretched over laths. + +_Meerkat_.--A weasel-like ichneumon. + +_Mens_.--A person. + +_Nachtmaal_.--The celebration of the Lord's Supper. + +_Oom_.--Uncle. + +_Ou' ma_.--Grandmother. + +_Pronk_.--The springbucks are said to "pronk" when they bound along with +arched back and erected mane. + +_Ramkee_.--A musical instrument resembling a banjo, which is in use +among the Hottentots. + +_Reim_.--A thong. + +_Sampau_.--A creature resembling a tick, which is extremely poisonous. + +_Schepsel_.--Creature, usually meant in a derogatory sense. + +_Scherm_.--A low screen of bushes. + +_Tanta_.--Aunt. + +_Trek_.--(verb) To pull. The term is used to describe anything moving +from place to place. + +_Tronk_.--A prison. + +_Veld_.--The open, uncultivated country. + +_Feld-kost_.--Tubers, bulbs, of wild plants, suitable as food. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. + +NOQUALA'S CATTLE--A TRAGEDY OF THE RINDERPEST. + +A KAFFIR AT HOME. + +It was about eleven o'clock of a winter's morning in 1897 when Noquala +stood before his hut and watched his cattle being driven in for milking. +A noble, dun-coloured bull, in whose lowing the amatory and the defiant +were about equally mingled, led the herd through the narrow gateway of +the kraal, in which ample enclosure he stood, pawing the dusty manure +over his shoulders and flanks. From a smaller enclosure a few yards +away to the right came a chorus of agonised appeals for milk from the +waiting calves. The herd of cattle numbered rather more than a hundred, +and it could be seen by the most unprofessional eye that in quality its +members were far superior to the usual run of cattle that one sees at +the ordinary native kraal. The majority were dun-coloured. + +Noquala was a jovial-looking Hlubi of about fifty years of age, stoutly +built, and with a shrewd, lively eye. His hair and beard were markedly +tinged with grey. His only clothing was a red blanket loosely drooped +around his middle, leaving his trunk and his strong shoulders bare. On +his right arm, above the elbow, he wore a thick ring of ivory; otherwise +he wore no ornament whatever. + +Makalipa, Noquala's wife, was sitting in the sun at the side of the hut, +lazily engaged in making a mat out of rushes. She addressed her husband +by name once or twice, but he, being absorbed in the contemplation of +his herd of cattle, which was the thing he most loved in the world--his +children not excepted--took no notice whatever of her. + +"You, you--I wonder you do not sleep in the kraal; I wonder you do not +eat grass," she said, in an audible soliloquy. "If I loved cattle like +you do I would tie a pair of horns on my head and go on all fours. You +are more of a bull than a man, and ought to be married to a cow." + +The cattle were all in by this time, and the youngest of the calves, a +glossy-black little beast, was conducted to the kraal by a naked lad, +about ten years of age. The little animal strained at the leash like a +hound, and plunged forward with its tail twisting violently, roaring +lustily the while. Others followed, and then the milking began. +Noquala turned to his wife-- + +"What were you saying, old money-buryer?" + +Makalipa was a large, spare, angular woman, whose years were probably +ten less in number than those of her husband. She was dressed in a +clean white skirt and a very short bodice. As the garments did not +meet, a zone of black skin was strongly visible between the respective +upper and nether edges. Over her head was folded, in the characteristic +native fashion, a coiffure of red Turkey twill. She paused in her +occupation of mat-making, letting her hands rest upon her knees, and +regarded her husband with a half-angry expression. + +"Have you forgotten that your son, your eldest son, Elijah, will arrive +this evening, and that you promised to kill a goat so that he might have +a bit of meat to eat after his long walk?" + +"If you did not love your mats more than I love my cattle you would know +that the best goat of my flock is now hanging in the store-hut." + +"Hau! You killed it secretly, so that I might not get the skin to sell +at the shop, eh?" + +"Did you want the money to bury, or the meat for your son--your _eldest_ +son?" + +Noquala walked away without giving his wife time to reply. She at once +arose from her work and strode over to the store-hut, whence she emerged +soon afterwards, carrying a quantity of meat, which she began to prepare +for cooking. + +Noquala, although a heathen, was not a polygamist--a fact, for a man of +his wealth, deserving of note. Makalipa was a Christian. When he +married her, twenty-two years previously, Noquala promised never to take +another wife. To every one's (including, probably, Makalipa's) +surprise, he never even suggested breaking his promise. + +Noquala was certainly the richest man in his district. The herd of +cattle which he kept at his own kraal only represented about half of his +wealth. Far and wide his stock was distributed--let out to be farmed on +shares, under the custom called "ngqoma," in terms of which cattle are +assigned by the owner to some one who looks after them, milks them, and +receives as reward a small share of the increase. Sometimes stock let +out under this system is handed down from generation to generation. +Even at the present day lawsuits are instituted for the recovery of +cattle, the progenitors of which were assigned in the days of Tshaka. +Native law recognises no prescription. + +Some there were who smiled meaningly when the persistent faithfulness of +Noquala to Makalipa was spoken of, and it was hinted that the rigours of +his monogamy were somewhat mitigated by certain relationships which he +had contracted at kraals where the whole wealth was held under his +"ngqoma." Be this as it may, Makalipa seemed quite contented with her +lot. She was her husband's only "wife," and that was enough for her. + +Noquala was really a very liberal man, and was deservedly popular, so it +was not by grasping and overreaching his fellows that he became wealthy. +His success could only be attributed to sheer good fortune. His kraal +was situated in a warm, fertile nook of one of the foot-ranges to the +Drakensberg, and cattle throve there passing well. He inherited a fair +amount of stock from his father, and this herd became a fountain of the +only kind of wealth which the native values. His principle for many +years had been to weed out the inferior animals, and substitute for them +any superior cattle obtainable. If a young man paying "lobola" [The +cattle given in payment for a wife] had a very good cow, he knew that by +taking it to Noquala's kraal he could exchange it for two oxen of fair +quality. As "lobola" cattle are estimated by number and not by +individual value, the gain to the young man is, of course, obvious. + +Goats and sheep he also had, but these he did not much regard. In fact, +if it had not been for his wife he would not have had any small stock at +all, except a few goats for slaughtering. + +Makalipa was intensely frugal, if not miserly, by nature--and was well +known to have a considerable store of money put by. She kept her wealth +wrapped up in rags, and buried in various places. She had thus been +amassing money by little and little for over twenty years. She claimed +as her perquisite the proceeds of every skin of the respective beasts +that were slaughtered or that died; and she earned a great deal by +making and selling mats. The first and only time she ever drew any of +her savings was when she put her son Elijah to school at Blythswood. It +was her dream that Elijah should be a minister, and his own ambitions +seconded hers. He was now a man of twenty-one, and had made good +progress with his studies. At the point where this story opens he was +expected back for his holidays. The school had broken up two days +previously, and he was due to arrive within a few hours. + +Noquala did not oppose actively his son's becoming educated. He would +have preferred him to have followed the calling of a peasant, such as he +himself was. The second son, an astute youth named Zingelagahle, was +more after his father's heart. He did not care about book-learning, and +was quite content to look after the cattle, knowing that the largest +share of them would eventually fall to him. + +The educated young native is almost invariably a prig, and cannot help +showing his uncivilised relations that he feels himself to be far +superior to them. As a rule this superiority is assumed by both +parties; thus not much friction results. + +Elijah, to do him bare justice, was perfectly sincere in his faith and +in what he believed to be his vocation for the ministry. He thus felt +himself to be far superior to all the others at his paternal kraal. His +mother, of course, was a Christian--nominally, at least, but for years +past she had taken little interest in anything but her son's education +and her money-making. She did not even belong to any church. Once, +when it was decided by the local Christians to erect a chapel, Noquala +had been applied to for a subscription, and he had referred the +applicant to his wife, stating that she had money whereas he had none. +This was a literal fact. One of his peculiarities was never to own any +money. Whenever taxes had to be paid or purchases had to be made, +Noquala would sell to the nearest trader just sufficient sheep for the +purpose, and immediately make a point of spending the last penny thus +realised. + +When Makalipa was applied to she had just paid her son's half-yearly +fees at the seminary, and she flatly refused to contribute a sixpence +towards the new building. This caused remonstrance, which was followed +by recrimination. The matter ended by Makalipa withdrawing from +connection with local religious enterprise. Representatives of the +rival churches made advances towards this erring sheep with the heavy +fleece, but without any result. Religion meant spending money, and so +long, at all events, as she was paying her son's fees at the seminary +she felt she was doing enough and to spare for the Kingdom of Heaven. + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. + +ELIJAH. + +It was late in the afternoon when Elijah arrived, somewhat tired from +his long walk. He was a spare, loosely built youth with heavy features +and a gloomy expression of countenance. His mother greeted him with +much tenderness, and his father tried to be genial. But conversation +between this father and son was extremely difficult. The involuntary +mutual foundation of feeling was contempt, and the superstructure of +conventional tolerance which formed their plane of communication was not +conducive to geniality. They had thus got into the habit of having as +little to say to each other as possible, and Noquala usually felt it +necessary to start on one of his rounds of inspection of his "ngqoma" +cattle within a few days of his son's return for the holidays. + +On the present occasion the cordiality which usually was maintained +between the mother and son as soon as the father's back was turned was +somewhat impaired. There was a strong restraint on the son's side, +which the mother found it hard to combat. When, however, Elijah had +been at home for a week the cause was made clear in the following +conversation:--"Mother," said Elijah, after an awkward interval, "when +were you at church last?" + +Makalipa flashed her keen eyes upon her son's gloomy face for an instant +before she answered-- + +"You know quite well how it is that I do not go to church." + +"Yes, mother, but I want you to go. Think what people must say about +me, a man who wants to be a minister, and who has a mother who, although +she is a Christian, does not go to church." + +"Elijah, my son, I do not go to church, it is true, but I can read my +Bible, and I don't remember the chapter in which it teaches that a son +should instruct the mother who bore him. Of course, when you are a +minister it will be different. Then I will go and hear you preach. So +you had better make haste and have a church of your own if you want to +save my soul." + +Elijah walked away without replying. The day was warm, so he went and +threw himself down upon his mat in the big hut in which his father and +mother also slept. His mother, remorseful of having snubbed him, +brought him some food a short time afterwards, but he refused to eat and +said that he only wanted to sleep. Makalipa put this down to the +sulks--a complaint to which Elijah had been subject to from earliest +childhood--so she set the food aside and went down to the fields to +superintend the harvesting of the grain. + +When she returned the sun was down. Elijah was still lying on his mat, +apparently asleep. His mother tried to arouse him, but he at once +relapsed into a doze, after just murmuring that he had a bad headache. +So Makalipa, after placing some food next to him, retired to bed and +slept soundly until dawn. + +When Makalipa arose she noticed that Elijah was still asleep. +Something, however, in his breathing struck her as being strange. +Later, when she attempted to rouse him, she found that his mind was +wandering and that he was in a burning fever. + +It was a severe attack of enteric fever that had struck Elijah down. A +week went by, but he became worse and worse. Noquala was still away and +Makalipa became more and more alarmed. At length she made up her mind +to call in a European doctor, so she dug up some money and sent +Zingelagahle in with it to the Magistracy, with a message asking the +District Surgeon to come and visit her son. + +The District Surgeon was one who had no sympathy with and therefore did +not command the confidence of the natives. Not making due allowance for +the limitations of the native mind, and its consequent inability to +grasp the importance of attention to detail in illness, he honestly +thought that in serious cases his advice, as well as the medicines he +supplied, were of little avail, and he usually said so when occasion +offered. + +It was a long ride from the Magistracy to Noquala's kraal, and when the +District Surgeon arrived the sun had nearly sunk. He meant to obtain a +night's lodging at a mission station a few miles away, but he was not +sure of his road and was very much afraid of being benighted. Thus he +was in a great hurry to get his work over and then proceed on his +journey. + +Elijah had just reached the crisis of his disease when the doctor +arrived. The patient was lying with nothing between him and the cold, +hard floor of the hut but a rush-mat and a thin cotton blanket. He +appeared to be almost at the last gasp. The doctor examined him, took +his temperature, and asked as to what description of nourishment the +patient had been getting. The reply he received filled him with wrath +and disgust. He felt that he could do nothing, and he said so. +Makalipa heard with a sinking heart that her son's hours were numbered, +and that it was extremely unlikely that he would live until another sun +arose. Then the doctor mounted his horse and rode away without +administering any medicine, and Makalipa sat on the ground next to her +son, with her heart filled with darkness, awaiting the end. + +The doctor was hardly out of sight when Noquala, who had been sent for +several days before, returned. He was somewhat shocked at hearing what +the doctor had said, but a native never gives up hope of recovery so +long as there is life in the patient. Touching Makalipa on the shoulder +he beckoned to her to follow him and stepped out of the hut. + +"Your European doctor has said Elijah must die, but I have seen people +get better even after they have looked like that. Let us send for +'Ndakana and see what he can do." + +Makalipa nodded; then she went back to the bedside of her son. + +Deep down in the mind of every human being is an elementary belief in +the supernatural, and when brought face to face with some terrible, +incalculable danger this is apt to rise to the surface. If this be true +of those who have centuries of civilisation behind them, how much more +so is it in the case of those who are only struggling to emerge from +barbarism? The agitated mind of Makalipa grasped greedily at the +possibility which her husband's words suggested. + +'Ndakana was a native "gqira," or doctor, who had made for himself a +considerable reputation locally. His kraal was not more than a couple +of miles distant. Thus, within an hour of being sent for, he was at the +bedside of the sufferer. + +The first step in his treatment was the causing of an ox to be +slaughtered. The blood of this animal was sprinkled over the hut, +inside and outside, the patient coming in for a share. Then with a +sharpened stick he made small incisions at different parts of Elijah's +body and limbs, and into these he rubbed some powder which he took from +the horn of an antelope. After this he danced, violently but silently, +around the hut, coming in every now and then, in a state of copious +perspiration, to inquire as to how the patient was. + +Soon after this Elijah was reported to be a little better. He had asked +for and drunk a little sweet milk. Then 'Ndakana went home, saying that +he had driven away the evil spirits, and that if the patient were kept +on a milk diet for a week he would surely recover. The "gqira's" words +came true. Elijah improved rapidly, and before the week was over began +to complain bitterly at being allowed nothing but milk to stay his +biting hunger. 'Ndakana was made happy by a fee which took the form of +two of Noquala's best cattle. + +Elijah was by no means grateful for the means which had been undertaken +towards his recovery. That he, a Christian and a candidate for the +ministry, should have been practised upon by a magician--one of a class +which formed the greatest obstacle to the spread, of Christianity among +the people--was a bitter reflection. Having been more or less +unconscious throughout his illness, he did not know how bad he had been, +and was thus firmly convinced that he would have recovered without +'Ndakana's assistance. + +The mother, however, thought differently. She remembered the sinking of +the heart with which she had heard the European doctor condemn her son +to death, and how the patient had immediately taken a change for the +better when 'Ndakana's treatment once commenced. Thus arose another +cause of estrangement between mother and son. + +Elijah was still weak when he decided to return to the seminary, not +wishing to lose the opening of the session. His father lent him a horse +for the occasion, and sent Zingelagahle on foot after him to bring the +animal back. + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN. + +THE TEMPTER. + +An ominous whisper sounded over the land. Far to the north, it was +said, a new and terrible disease had broken out among cattle. The herds +of Khama, the Christian chief of the Bamangwato, had, so it was said, +been swept utterly away. Like a wayward wind, it was reported, the +disease swept hither and thither, leaving nothing but bleaching +skeletons to mark its track. Even the wild game of the forest and the +plain went down before the might of the plague. When British +Bechuanaland was swept and the pestilence reached the herds of the +Basuto, it was felt that the danger was indeed at the door of every +owner of cattle in South Africa. + +The Cape Government selected natives of reputed skill as cattle doctors, +and sent them up to where the rinderpest was raging, so as to give them +an opportunity of testing their remedies where the appliances of the +profoundest science had failed. Upon the return of these men to their +homes meetings of natives were called, and addresses embodying an +account of the observed ravages of the pest were made to them. Thus the +native mind became familiarised with the danger, and familiarity bred +contempt. Magistrates urged upon their people the extreme danger of +keeping all their wealth locked up in such a dangerously threatened item +as cattle, and tried to induce them to make use of the market which +existed at Johannesburg for the purpose of realising at all events a +portion of their stock; but all in vain. "The `red-water' came," they +said; "we have had war, drought, lung-sickness, and other misfortunes. +We will, no doubt, lose many cattle, but with what remains we will again +get rich. Of what use is money to us?" + +Nearer and nearer came the plague; closer and closer were drawn in the +coils of that deadly chain, the links of which were flung over the +desolated earth in white heaps. The demand for meat became greater and +greater at Johannesburg, and agents were sent down by the different +butchering firms to endeavour to purchase slaughter stock. A few sheep +they managed to obtain, but no cattle. + +Makalipa tried hard to persuade her husband to sell at all events some +of his "ngqoma" cattle, but not a single head would he dispose of. A +local trader persuaded him of what was partly true, namely--that his +flock of sheep, which had increased considerably during the past few +years, and of which Makalipa was joint owner, was damaging the pasturage +which he required for his cattle. It was, therefore, not difficult to +persuade Noquala to dispose of the sheep, which he did, much to +Makalipa's dissatisfaction. + +The money remained in the trader's hands, Noquala fearing to bring it +home lest his wife should get hold of it. He meant to give her her +share of it, but the largest portion he intended to reinvest in cattle +as soon as the rinderpest danger should be at an end. + +A few days later Noquala had occasion to visit the shop of another +trader who lived some miles away. This man had heard of the sheep +transaction and had laid his plans accordingly. + +Soon after Noquala arrived a herd of cattle was driven up and shown to +him. Among this herd were several most beautiful dun-coloured cows--dun +being a colour in cattle which Noquala was particularly partial to. +After hesitating for a few minutes he asked the trader whether the +cattle were for sale or not. The trader, feigning reluctance, consented +to discuss the matter. Eventually a bargain was struck. The trader, +having ascertained how much of a balance lay to Noquala's credit at the +other shop, drew out an order for it in his own favour, to which +document Noquala affixed his mark in the presence of witnesses. Then +Noquala drove home to his kraal the dun-coloured cows which, with +several other cattle slightly inferior, although of fairly good quality, +had now become his property. + +Makalipa fell into a rage when she learnt what her husband had done. +The rinderpest danger was very imminent to her, and she felt, rightly, +that her husband had been guilty of stark madness in investing money in +more cattle. She felt this the more keenly as the sheep had been +disposed of against her strongest wishes. + +"And you have even spent that portion of the money which belonged to me +in buying beasts that will disappear like burning grass when the +sickness comes!" she said, almost in tears. + +"Whatever is the good of money to you?" he replied. "Cows have calves, +but the money you bury in the earth brings nothing forth." + +"The money I bury in the earth will not get the rinderpest. After the +sickness has swept over the land and your kraal has been emptied, my +money will still be there." + +"Sickness--you are always talking about this sickness! Has not the +sickness been here before, and is not my kraal still full? What does a +woman know about things?" + +"A woman knows more than you. Wait; on the day when your kraal stands +empty my kraal will be full, and I will see you making clay oxen like a +little boy, and playing with them. When your cattle all die you will go +mad, if you don't die with them." + +The acquisition of the new lot brought more cattle to the kraal than the +enclosure could conveniently hold, so a number of the less valuable +animals were weeded out and given under "ngqoma" to a man in the Xalanga +district, to whom Noquala had long promised stock. This man took away +five cows and five heifers to his kraal in one of the gloomy gorges of +the Drakensberg. + +The rinderpest came closer and closer. Its fell influence lay around +the territory in which Noquala lived like a crescent, or rather like the +Zulu battle-formation, which has been likened appropriately to the horns +of a charging bull. But beyond a passing feeling of uneasiness when +some traveller related what he had witnessed of the ravages of the pest, +Noquala felt no fear. Other plagues, which had been preceded by +alarming rumours, had come and gone. He, like his fellows, had +suffered, although not to the same degree. He gradually made up his +mind that he would, if the plague came, doubtless suffer again, but he +trusted to his luck and felt sure that all would come out right in the +end. + +However, as the shower of rumours thickened, even Noquala began to feel +uneasy. He had been told that the disease might suddenly appear, +mysteriously and without apparent infection from outside. Once or +twice, when individuals of his herd fell sick of minor ailments, he +became distinctly alarmed. Still the rumours thickened, and his nerves +began to suffer. Nevertheless he scouted every suggestion towards +selling any of his cattle. + +The younger children at the kraal were, as is usual with native +children, in the habit of making miniature cattle out of clay. This is +the sole form of plastic decorative art which the Bantu practise, with +the exception of the moulding of grotesque faces on their pottery, which +the Hlubis and the Basuto sometimes indulge in. The ox-moulding is of a +distinctly conventional type, all the artist's attention being +concentrated upon the head, horns and neck, which are often very well +executed. The legs and body are usually rough and shapeless. This form +of rudimentary art has probably been acquired from the Hottentots; +Hottentot children who have never been in contact with the Bantu mould +images of exactly the same type, and that type does not suggest the +cattle kept by the Bantu at the present day, but rather those which the +now nearly extinct Hottentots once owned in great numbers. + +Noquala's mind often dwelt upon his wife's prophecy, and whenever he +noticed the clay toys he felt a twinge of guilty uneasiness. He now +knew that he had been distinctly foolish in purchasing more cattle with +the proceeds of the sheep. Nevertheless he still flatly refused to +sell. + +Darker and ever darker grew the prospect. What was it, this disease +which came like a ghost from nowhere, and slew like spears in pursuit of +a beaten and exhausted foe? Lung-sickness and red-water men knew. +These thinned the herds out cruelly, sometimes, but a few were always +spared. But this unknown scourge that swept through the land as a fire +sweeps over mountain and valley in the autumn, leaving utter desolation +behind it--what could it be? Surely those who work spells of evil must +be at work, or else the "imishologu" [Spirits] must be wroth on account +of some great and grievous sin committed by the people. + +'Ndakana, the "gqira," came into Noquala's mind. He had shown his power +over evil spirits, and had driven death, vanquished, from the mat upon +which his son lay. 'Ndakana professed--an unusual circumstance--to be +able to heal cattle as well as men. Noquala thought he would consult +with the "gqira" next time the latter came to the kraal. Pride, and a +feeling that he could not bear to confess that the oft-vaunted faith in +his luck had weakened, would not allow of a message being sent. + +Then it was reported that the Government had found out a cure for the +disease--that by injecting some mysterious and magical medicine into the +blood of beasts they were rendered proof against the pest. All the same +the reports of whole herds dying out like drones before the doorway of a +bees' nest came over the Drakensberg from Basutoland. The mind of +Noquala swayed hither and thither between the poles of confidence and +despair. + +One day 'Ndakana appeared at the kraal, where some beer had been brewed. +The beer-drink did not degenerate into an orgie, as beer-drinks +frequently do. The guests were hospitably entertained, three goats +having been slaughtered for their consumption. Towards the end of the +day the "gqira" drew Noquala into conversation. + +"Have you never thought of having your cattle doctored?" he asked. + +Noquala admitted that such an idea had occurred to him. + +"I suppose you have heard of this new medicine that the Government +claims to have found out," continued 'Ndakana, "and of how it has +sometimes cured and sometimes failed?" + +"Yes, I have heard of it." + +"Well, now, I will tell you the truth about the matter. The Government +found out about herds that had been treated by our doctors, and then +they sent their own cattle doctors to administer medicine, so that they +might claim the credit." + +Noquala looked incredulous. He had had some experience of the frauds of +the native doctors; when the red-water had attacked his own herd, years +previously, the "gqira" he had called in promised certain cure, but the +promise had miserably failed. Still, he had seen this man 'Ndakana +drive death away from the bedside of his son, and that after the +European doctor had confessed himself vanquished. + +The sun was going down and 'Ndakana glanced keenly once or twice towards +the glowing west. He strolled a few paces forward, leading his +companion by, as it were, a conversational leash. When he stopped, +still talking, he faced the sunset and his companion had his back to it. +The "gqira's" glances, which had now become more rapid and frequent, +were still directed to the pyre of the dying day. + +Suddenly he lifted his hand, and his voice became vehement. + +"Noquala, man of many cattle, I know the secret and I will save your +herd from destruction if you will let me do so. Do you demand a sign to +prove my power?" + +"Show me a sign," replied Noquala, looking steadfastly into the +"gqira's" eyes. + +"Behold it, then." + +'Ndakana took a pace forward and brushed past his companion's shoulder, +at the same time flinging his hand forward with a sweep, and holding it, +quivering and extended to its full length, in the direction of the +sunset. + +Noquala turned and looked. There, rimmed with fire, floated a cloud in +the semblance of a bull stumbling forward upon one knee, in the attitude +of a buffalo that has received its death wound. As he looked the gold +faded out and the cloud broke up into formless wreaths of mist. + +The portent struck Noquala to the heart; its short duration added to the +illusion, for memory enhanced the value of every detail, and his +startled imagination clothed the picture with an exactness of outline +which it had never possessed. + +"Doctor my cattle," he said huskily, "and you shall have great reward." + +'Ndakana told his dupe that a necessary condition towards successful +doctoring was that every beast possessed by the latter, whether under +"ngqoma" or not, had to be brought down to the kraal by a certain date, +when the state of the moon would be propitious. Noquala was now in a +condition of keen excitement, and was prepared to do whatever the +"gqira" might tell him. These two, the duper and the dupe, sat and +talked over the matter far into the night. Makalipa insisted upon being +admitted to their counsels. She, having been much impressed by the cure +which she fully believed 'Ndakana to have effected in the case of her +son, had no objection to offer, except upon one point. She thought it +ill-advised that the last lot of cattle--those given under "ngqoma" to +the man who dwelt in the Drakensberg gorge--should be brought down from +a spot so near the area in which the rinderpest was raging. + +But 'Ndakana insisted on the assembling of all the cattle, without any +exception whatever, so she had to give in, although she did so with +secret misgivings. He would, of course, give no indication whatever of +the form which his doctoring was to take; that would be quite contrary +to professional etiquette, and was not to be expected for a moment. + +Next morning at day-dawn Noquala mounted a horse and rode around to the +different kraals where his stock was to be found, warning the custodians +that they were to produce every hoof and horn on the fifth day +following, on pain of the "ngqoma" contract being forthwith rescinded. +Zingelagahle was sent on a tough pony to the sun-forsaken gorge where +the recipient of the last "ngqoma" dwelt, and which was rather a long +day's ride distant, with a message to a similar effect. + +In the meantime the "gqira" was busy making his preparations. A few +miles away, in a shallow valley, were some extensive swamps which +harboured myriads of frogs. Of the latter he collected several +hundreds, which he imprisoned in wicker baskets. These he tightly +secured at the openings and then sunk in the swampy water. + +It is customary with the natives to keep their stores of corn in large +circular excavations in the floor of the cattle enclosure. Each +excavation has a narrow neck, just large enough to admit a boy of about +twelve years of age who, when it is necessary to extract corn from the +granary, is lowered down. The narrow mouths of these pits are closed +with flat stones, and are some distance below the surface of the +enclosure. Some such contain as many as half a dozen pits, the openings +to which can only be located by probing through the thick dung-crust +until the flat stones covering them are found. + +The native doctor always keeps himself acquainted with details, no +matter how apparently unimportant, regarding his neighbours--their huts, +kraals, cattle, family matters, and, in fact, everything. In the case +of rich and important men more attention is naturally bestowed. When +called in professionally the "gqira" never likes to have to ask for any +information. Divining is part of his trade, and it is thus very +effective to be able to tell the dwellers of a kraal about things which +they are firmly convinced nobody but themselves is aware of. + +Now, as a matter of fact, 'Ndakana knew as much about Noquala's kraal +and everything in it as did the Germans, when they invaded France, of +the country before them. However, on the present occasion he only had +occasion to use one of the many facts with which he was acquainted. He +knew that one of the corn-pits in Noquala's kraal was empty, and he +decided to use that pit as the base of his magical operations. + +Early on the third day the troop of cattle from the Drakensberg arrived. +They were in splendid condition and seemed to have improved under the +change of pasturage. The enclosure formerly used for the sheep had been +well bushed up, and was now available as a supplementary cattle +enclosure. By the evening of the fourth day the last drove of cattle +had arrived. + +How Noquala feasted his eyes upon the great lowing herd! How the rival +bulls, hearing each other lowing, dashed together with a shock as of +mountain meeting mountain, whilst the mild-eyed cows looked on, +supremely indifferent as to which should prove the victor. The owner's +heart swelled with pride. All these were his--his very own, and to do +what he liked with. Surely none but the great chiefs of the past had +ever owned such a noble assemblage of cattle. + +Many thoughts floated through the elated mind of Noquala on that June +evening as he strolled through the valley with his crowd of dependents +behind him at a respectful distance. He tasted the sweets of amplified +possession, and drained the cup of enjoyment to the very dregs. He +thought of how impossible it would have been for him, a common man, to +have owned so much wealth in the old days, when the chiefs reigned +supreme, and when a man who became too rich and powerful was smelt out +and tortured to death. Then he thought of how lucky it was that, +through the agency of the potent 'Ndakana, he was enabled to ensure +these creatures that he loved and took such pride in, from harm. + +At dusk the cattle were driven into the two ample enclosures, which they +just comfortably filled. Some trouble was experienced in securing the +different bulls, of which there were five altogether. However, these +were eventually caught and tied up with strong thongs, and then Noquala +and his guests retired to the big hut, where a feast of goat's flesh was +laid ready. + +Not so 'Ndakana. The "gqira" had more important work on hand than +feasting. When night fell he hurried to the swamp where lay the baskets +with the imprisoned frogs. These he now carried carefully in the +direction of Noquala's kraal. + +After setting down the baskets in the bottom of a dried-up donga, +'Ndakana went to a spot hard by where, behind a fringe of bushes, he had +hidden away a large calabash full of water. Lifting this carefully to +his shoulder, and carrying the two baskets with one hand, he made his +way to the cattle enclosure. He did not want to be seen, but had he +been it would not have particularly mattered, for it would only have +been supposed that he was performing rites preliminary to the morrow's +doctoring. However, he managed to reach the kraal and to enter it +without being seen by any one and without alarming the cattle. + +The "gqira" knew approximately the situation of the empty pit, so he had +no difficulty in finding the flat covering stone by probing with the +iron spike which he had brought with him for the purpose. Then he +carefully removed the dung and opened the pit. + +After making sure that the pit was really empty, and therefore the right +one, 'Ndakana carefully poured into it the water from the calabash, and +then emptied the frogs from the respective baskets into the narrow +opening. This done, he closed the pit again and replaced the flakes of +dung over the stone. The upper layer was dry and dusty, so he had no +difficulty in obliterating the traces of his work. Besides, he knew +that the cattle would tramp restlessly about the enclosure when it +became cold towards morning, and that their feet would leave no trace of +his presence visible. Then he stole away and hid in a patch of forest +which grew at the head of the kloof in which Noquala's kraal is +situated, and about a mile distant from the huts. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY. + +HOW THE CATTLE WERE DOCTORED. + +Next morning the cattle were let out to graze, and again the enraptured +eye of Noquala drank in delight from the contemplation of his wealth. +About half an hour after sunrise the "gqira" was seen emerging with slow +and stately steps from the patch of bush in which he had spent the +night. Pretending not to be aware of any one else's existence, he +walked straight to the cattle kraal. As soon as he entered the gate he +began to stagger about wildly, and before he reached the middle he sank +to the ground, apparently in a violent fit. + +The people crowded round and gazed at him with awe through the upright +poles forming the palisade. The fit over, he lay as though in a swoon +for some considerable time, after which he sat up with a dazed +expression and began groping about the enclosure on his hands and knees. +When he reached the vicinity of the pit which he had opened during the +previous night, he again fell over and lay quite still. By this time he +was completely naked, having thrown away his blanket in the course of +his progress. In his hand was the iron spike, and with this he began to +dig wildly, scattering the flakes of dung far and wide. + +When the stone was nearly uncovered, 'Ndakana sank back as though +exhausted, and feebly called for assistance. Noquala and a number of +other men at once hurried in, and he signed to them to remove the +covering stone and thus open the pit. This was soon done. + +'Ndakana then said that a boy must be let down into the pit, declaring +that a great wonder would be revealed therein. At this all the boys who +had been looking through the palisade fled away in different directions. +Two or three were soon caught and dragged back, howling, to the edge of +the opening. Selecting the one whose size appeared to be most suitable, +the "gqira" ordered him to descend, but the boy yelled with redoubled +vigour and struggled violently to escape. Then Noquala called out to +one of the women to bring a rod, and with this he thrashed the unhappy +youth unmercifully until the latter consented to do what was required of +him. The boy, silent and wild-eyed with terror, was thereupon lowered +into the dark pit through the narrow mouth. + +"What do you find there?" asked the "gqira." + +"I am standing in water," called the boy, his voice sounding hollow from +the depths. + +"Feel if there be any living thing." + +"Au--there are snakes," yelled the boy, and his hands grasped the edges +of the opening as he tried to draw himself up. + +"They are not snakes! they are frogs," replied 'Ndakana. + +At the same time Noquala cut the boy's fingers sharply with the rod. +The wretched creature dropped back to the bottom of the pit with a +screech of mingled pain and terror. + +A basket was passed down to him, and this he was directed to fill with +frogs. This, when handed up, was emptied into a larger basket, and then +passed back. After several basketfuls had been taken out, the unhappy +boy was assisted to come out of his prison, and the pit was closed up at +once. + +'Ndakana then addressed the assembled crowd. He told them that the +wonder he had revealed to them was a special grace vouchsafed by the +"imishologu" in response to his incantations, and that the frogs were to +be utilised in doctoring Noquala's cattle so as to render them proof +against the ravages of the dreaded disease. + +A deep awe had fallen upon all. They felt that they were in the +presence of a master wonder-worker. Noquala was now sure that his +beloved cattle were safe, and his heart overflowed with gratitude to the +"gqira" and to the "imishologu" who had shown such favour. + +The cattle were now driven up in lots of about fifty each. When in the +enclosure they were caught separately and skilfully thrown. An incision +was then made in the nose of each, as well as in a frog. The reptile +was then held so that its flowing blood mingled with that of the beast. +As soon as this had been effected, the latter was loosened and turned +out of the enclosure. A fresh cut was made in the frog for each beast +treated, but as soon as the reptile died or it was found that no more +blood would flow from it another frog was brought, the worn-out one +being carefully put away into a basket. The frogs were thus believed to +have absorbed the latent disease. + +By sundown all the cattle had been treated in this manner, and then the +dead frogs were thrown into a deep pit. Red-hot coals were then thrown +upon them, and the pit was closed up, the earth being stamped firmly +down. + +But the issues at stake were too great for the caprice of the +"imishologu" to be risked. More ritual must be performed on the third +and fifth day, and in the meantime feasting had to take place. +Otherwise the "imishologu" might, as they had often been known to do, +change their shadowy, if powerful minds. + +Thus, as the "gqira" pronounced it to be unsafe to remove the cattle +before the sixth day, the hearts of the company were lifted up with +great joy, for they knew that the exigencies of the occasion demanded +that unrestricted feasting should take place during the interval. + +It was here that the astute 'Ndakana made his great mistake. He should +have taken his reward, which would have been, under the circumstances, a +most liberal one, and removed with it to a distance. But the greatest +men sometimes make mistakes, and 'Ndakana proved that he was no +exception to this general rule. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY ONE. + +THE DISEASE APPEARS. + +The circumstance of 'Ndakana's having been so positive that the cattle +would not take the rinderpest might easily puzzle those unacquainted +with the methods of the native doctor, nevertheless it was quite +characteristic. Although a colossal humbug, the "gqira," to a certain +extent, believes in his own powers. As is the case in other walks of +life, he gets so into the habit of deceiving others that he ends by +deceiving himself. Probably, however, in this case 'Ndakana may have +believed the reports which just about that time were current as to the +Cape Government having succeeded in staying the destroying course of the +disease by erecting a fence across the continent and keeping all animals +away from its vicinity. Moreover the accidental resemblance to a bull +which the cloud had taken may easily have been regarded by 'Ndakana's +superstitious mind as a sign that the progress of the disease had been +stayed. Superstition and fraud have in all ages gone hand in hand. + +Again, it must be remembered that the reputation of a native doctor can +only be made by taking risks. One lucky guess, one confident prophecy +which happens to be crowned with fulfilment by the capricious Fates, and +a "gqira" may be sent spinning dizzily along the road of success with +such a momentum that many subsequent minor failures are condoned. Of +course, the day comes at length when the luckiest "gqira" makes a +mistake of such importance that he has to flee the neighbourhood and +ever afterwards hide his diminished head. It is a well-known fact that +under the rule of the native chiefs the "gqira" seldom died a natural +death. + +Three days of feasting took place at Noquala's kraal, the neighbours +from far and near being bidden to it. Noquala was so pleased at his +cattle having been rendered safe from the threatened scourge that he did +not mind several of his fattest oxen being slaughtered for the occasion. +Just about sundown on the third day one of the herd-boys mentioned that +a certain heifer did not appear to be quite well. Noquala heard the +news without uneasiness; it was seldom that one got such a large herd of +cattle together without some of them becoming afflicted with one or +other of the major or minor ills that bovine flesh is heir to. + +However, Noquala left the feasters and, directed by the boy, walked down +the hillside to where the sick heifer was standing. It turned out to be +one of the dun-coloured stock he had recently purchased out of the +proceeds of the sheep, and which had been brought down from the +Drakensberg. + +The heifer certainly looked sick--very sick indeed. Its coat was +staring; it was breathing heavily and groaning at intervals. From its +nostrils was running a mass of thick, unclean, mucous discharge; water +copiously ran out of its eyes; its ears hung, not downwards, as is +usually the case with a sick beast, but backwards. + +Noquala felt a shaft of sick dread transfix him. He stood before the +poor animal, which was evidently suffering acute pain. Its muzzle +retracted at each breath as one sees the nostrils of a human being +retract in severe cases of asthma. The creature turned an appealing eye +upon him--a large, beautiful dark eye, to which agony had lent a strange +and pathetic intelligence. Noquala's eyes grew moist, and a spasm +contracted his throat. He suffered with the suffering of the thing that +he loved. + +While he was regarding the sick heifer Noquala heard the sound of +approaching footsteps, so after hastily getting rid of any signs of +emotion, he turned to meet the comer. This turned out to be a native +policeman, who, executing some message from the magistrate of the +district, had sniffed the feast from afar and turned aside to partake in +it. After he had carefully examined the heifer the policeman returned +to where he had left his horse. Then he informed the company that he +had suddenly remembered something which made it impossible for him to +spend the night, as he had already expressed his intention of doing, +with the feasters. After this he rode away in the direction of the +Magistracy. + +Next morning the Magistrate was awakened out of his slumbers by word +that a policeman wanted to see him upon important business. The police +had been carefully warned to examine into and report upon suspicious +cases of bovine disease which might come under their notice. At the +same time the superficial symptoms of rinderpest were explained to the +men so that they might better be able to diagnose cases of illness +coming under their personal notice. + +In the present instance the symptoms reported by the constable suggested +rinderpest so exactly that the Magistrate immediately mounted his horse +and rode to Noquala's kraal so as personally to investigate matters. He +was accompanied by four mounted constables for use in the event of the +worst contingency being realised. + +Noquala, after contemplating the sufferings of the sick heifer, had no +stomach for the feast. However, darkness had fallen, so nothing more +could be done until the following day. At earliest dawn he was among +his cattle. The dun-coloured heifer was evidently dying. It was lying +down where he had left it on the previous night, with its head turned +back against its shoulder--an attitude which Noquala had never +previously noticed in the case of a sick beast. Its extremities were +cold, its nostrils were inflamed. The soft, suffering glance from the +mild brown eye beamed out through a ring of foul, caked mucus, and +struck a chill into the gazer's soul. + +He went with hurried steps to the large cattle-fold. Three other +animals struck him as looking seedy. What he particularly noticed was +the peculiar backward droop of the ears and the copious running from the +eyes and nostrils. He opened the gate and drove out the whole herd. +Then he called the boys and also the man from the Drakensberg, and had +the cattle which had come from there driven back into the enclosure. + +The examination did not diminish his uneasiness. Seven animals appeared +to be sick. Every minute the symptoms appeared to increase with +horrible rapidity. 'Ndakana was sent for, and arrived drowsy with +repletion. He made light of the affair, saying that the animals were +probably seedy from a change of pasturage--a thing which often happened +when cattle were brought down from the mountains to the low country. + +The Drakensberg cattle were herded together during the day, by afternoon +they were all sick. The heifer was still lingering in agony, but +evidently its hours were numbered. Noquala wandered from one suffering +creature to another, his heart rent with their pangs and his soul +quaking with fear. + +Just before sundown the Magistrate arrived and made an examination. +There was, he said, no doubt that the disease was the dreaded +rinderpest. He drew a cordon around the valley in which Noquala's kraal +was situated, and put a chain of guards to see that no animal left the +infected area. + +Noquala and 'Ndakana had a long and serious conversation, the result of +which was that the former's fears were somewhat stilled. What did the +Magistrate know of cattle? asked the "gqira." The beasts were all +right. Those from the Drakensberg had apparently eaten of some +poisonous herb on the way down. A few might die, but the others would +recover. He--'Ndakana--would stake his reputation on the correctness of +his view. In the meantime he would go to the bush and dig out some +roots which were an infallible remedy against the results of eating +poisonous bushes. + +The infallible remedy was administered, but it had small, if any, +effect. Next day the heifer was dead, and every one of the Drakensberg +cattle appeared to be doomed. Then they began to die, one by one at +first; afterwards by twos and threes. Some appeared to take a turn +towards recovery, only suddenly to succumb. The "gqira" was voluble +over the effects of the poison. He remembered just such a similar case +taking place in the Hlangweni country, where he had once lived. None of +the other cattle showed signs of sickness as yet, so Noquala fully +accepted the poison-bush theory. + +But it could be seen that the "gqira" was uneasy. Every morning he +would turn out before any one else, and spend a long time among the +cattle. Then, when the others rose from their slumbers, he would +triumphantly report that there was no sign of disease among any but the +Drakensberg herd. One morning, however, he failed to make his +triumphant report; in fact, when the others arose, there was nothing of +the "gqira" to be seen. One of the boys said that he had been entrusted +with a message from 'Ndakana to the effect that the latter had gone to a +more distant forest to get some roots of greater potency than any +obtainable close at hand. + +Noquala went down to the kraal, and noticed that a number of cattle, +besides those of the Drakensberg herd, were showing signs of sickness. + +From that morning the kraal of Noquala knew the presence of 'Ndakana the +"gqira" no more. + +When the sun went down that day every member of the Drakensberg herd was +dead, and a number of other cattle were sick with symptoms similar to +those they had suffered from. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. + +THE TRAGEDY. + +The agony of Noquala now entered into its acute stage. The guards were +posted around the vale of pestilence and mourning in a pitiless ring. +Dozens of men were at work inside with pick and spade, digging pits for +the interment of the carcases. Soon, however, the deaths became so many +that the diggers could not keep pace with them, so the carcases were +allowed to lie and rot in the sunshine. Later, as the animals fell +sick, they were driven up towards the head of the valley, where the +stench of the dead poisoned their dying breath, and thus added another +pang to those the miserable creatures already suffered from. This +cruelty was rendered necessary by the circumstances of the case. It +was, above all, important to confine the infection within bounds, until +the surrounding herds had been inoculated. + +Day by day, hour by hour, the mournful processions would wend, with the +slowness of a funeral, to this ghastly spot, where the swollen carcases +festered over the ground. Sometimes a doomed brute being goaded along +would suddenly take fright at the stench, and, gathering a flicker of +strength from its dismay, rush frantically backwards, until it tumbled +in a heap to the ground. Foul carrion-birds roosted upon every stump +and stone; others, gorged so that they could not fly, would hop ungainly +away when disturbed, and fall into a sick sleep when they stopped at a +few yards' distance. + +The effluvium became so bad that it was found impossible to approach +this bovine Golgotha except when the wind was favourable. When the +breeze blew down the valley towards the kraal, the dwellers would be +seized with violent sickness. + +Noquala, who had become quite prostrated when he found that the pest had +attacked his main herd and that 'Ndakana had bolted, soon recovered his +self-command, and bore himself with pathetic dignity. His hair and +beard became rapidly greyer; his face grew drawn and haggard; his eyes +took on the look of agony which he read, all day long, in the eyes of +the beasts he loved so well, and the sufferings of which seemed to be +mirrored in his consciousness. Some few--about a tenth of the herd--as +yet showed no sign of infection. The noble, dun-coloured bull still +stalked about majestically, breathing love and defiance in his low. +Well, thought Noquala, surely all his cattle would not die; he would be +left with a few with which to begin again with. Just the dun-coloured +bull and a few cows. It would be a joy once more to build up wealth. +No one ever heard of such a thing as that a multitude of cattle, such as +his, should die out of any disease. Alas! no one with whom Noquala had +foregathered had ever heard an adequate account of the fell effects of +the rinderpest. + +But day by day the agony deepened, until at length the time came when +the splendid herd of a couple of weeks back all had expired except a few +sick and staggering creatures, the superior vitality of which had +prolonged for them the agonies of inevitable death. The dun-coloured +bull was one of the last to succumb, but he too vailed his lordly crest +and sank his deep voice to a pitch as pitiful as that of the +two-year-old heifer, his dying daughter, that lay moaning close to him. +The guards came to drive the last survivors to the dreadful spot at the +head of the valley, but Noquala seized his sticks and rushed at them so +fiercely that they fled from before his face. Then Noquala mounted +guard over the last dying remnants of his matchless herd, and none dared +further to disturb their agonies. + +The sun went down and the pitiless stars gazed impassively on the valley +of the shadow of death. Noquala remained at his post. Every now and +then would he pass from one to the other of the suffering creatures, +endeavouring distractedly to comfort them with words. The night was +bitterly cold; a white frost thickly covered the grass and struck to the +marrow of the tortured limbs. At the sharp pinch which came just before +dawn, tardy Death finished his work. One by one, within a few fatal +minutes, the remainder of Noquala's cattle expired. The dun-coloured +bull was the last to die. He lingered until a pallid flicker filled the +east. Then he started as if about to rise. For an instant it seemed as +though he would succeed, for he lifted his gaunt trunk upon his front +legs, and swept a dazed and startled gaze from one to the other of the +carcases of his dead companions which lay around him. But he could get +no farther; his hind quarters were paralysed. He remained thus for a +few seconds, then, with a roar that seemed to shake the hills, he sank +back and died. + +Noquala was found at daybreak sitting on the ground close to the carcase +of the bull. His head lay forward upon his bent knees; his grey hair +was whitened by the frost. He was so stiff from the cold that he was +unable to move, so had to be carried back to his hut, where they covered +him with blankets and gave him a draught of hot broth, which he drank +mechanically. It was long before he regained normal warmth. + +When next Noquala emerged from the hut into the sunlight he was a +cripple. His lower limbs had become cramped and contracted, and it was +found impossible to straighten them. His memory was asleep, and it is +not likely that it will ever waken. One day, as he sat in the sunshine, +a little boy came up and began to play with some clay oxen, close to +him. A bright smile at once lit up Noquala's face; he stretched forth +his hand, seized a couple of the images, and began to fondle them. + +He is, apparently, quite happy. Makalipa tends him devotedly, and helps +him to hobble back to the hearth when the sun goes down or a cold wind +springs up, first assisting him to gather up the clay oxen and place +them carefully in a fold of his blanket. She has not the least +objection to digging up her hoards, as occasions arise, and spending the +money freely upon her husband's comfort. Elijah is still at the +seminary, and has not yet heard of what has happened at his home. + +The children of the neighbourhood take a pleasure in making clay oxen +for the one-time proud, masterful, and wealthy man who has become their +playmate and companion; they even make expeditions to distant valleys +for the purpose of obtaining various-hued ochres and earths, so as to +manufacture cattle of different colours. Noquala has now quite a large +number of these toys. His only trouble is when one breaks by accident, +but as they are strongly made and afterwards baked in an old ant-heap +which does duty for a kiln, this does not very often occur. He seldom +speaks, except when he sees a stranger approaching. Then he says, in a +high, thin voice, quite different to his former gruff, deep-chested +tones-- + +"Have you seen 'Ndakana?... He is a great doctor... He went to the +bush for roots... I wonder why he does not come." + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + +The End. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Between Sun and Sand, by William Charles Scully + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BETWEEN SUN AND SAND *** + +***** This file should be named 36420.txt or 36420.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/4/2/36420/ + +Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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