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+***The Project Gutenberg Etext of Prester John, by John Buchan***
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+Prester John
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+by John Buchan
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+August, 1996  [Etext #611]
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+
+
+
+
+
+PRESTER JOHN
+
+JOHN BUCHAN
+
+
+
+
+TO
+
+LIONEL PHILLIPS
+
+Time, they say, must the best of us capture,
+And travel and battle and gems and gold
+No more can kindle the ancient rapture,
+For even the youngest of hearts grows old.
+But in you, I think, the boy is not over;
+So take this medley of ways and wars
+As the gift of a friend and a fellow-lover
+Of the fairest country under the stars.
+
+     J. B.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+i.  The Man on the Kirkcaple Shore
+ii.  Furth! Fortune!
+iii.  Blaauwildebeestefontein
+iv.  My Journey to the Winter-Veld
+v.  Mr Wardlaw Has a Premonition
+vi.  The Drums Beat at Sunset
+vii.  Captain Arcoll Tells a Tale
+viii.  I Fall in Again with the Reverend John Laputa
+ix.  The Store at Umvelos'
+x.  I Go Treasure-Hunting
+xi.  The Cave of the Rooirand
+xii.  Captain Arcoll Sends a Message
+xiii.  The Drift of the Letaba
+xiv.  I Carry the Collar of Prester John
+xv.  Morning in the Berg
+xvi.  Inanda's Kraal
+xvii.  A Deal and Its Consequences
+xviii.  How a Man May Sometimes Put His Trust in a Horse
+xix.  Arcoll's Shepherding
+xx.  My Last Sight of the Reverend John Laputa
+xxi.  I Climb the Crags a Second Time
+xxii.  A Great Peril and a Great Salvation
+xxiii.  My Uncle's Gift Is Many Times Multiplied
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+THE MAN ON THE KIRKCAPLE SHORE
+
+
+I mind as if it were yesterday my first sight of the man.  Little
+I knew at the time how big the moment was with destiny, or
+how often that face seen in the fitful moonlight would haunt
+my sleep and disturb my waking hours.  But I mind yet the
+cold grue of terror I got from it, a terror which was surely
+more than the due of a few truant lads breaking the Sabbath
+with their play.
+
+The town of Kirkcaple, of which and its adjacent parish of
+Portincross my father was the minister, lies on a hillside above
+the little bay of Caple, and looks squarely out on the North
+Sea.  Round the horns of land which enclose the bay the coast
+shows on either side a battlement of stark red cliffs through
+which a burn or two makes a pass to the water's edge.  The bay
+itself is ringed with fine clean sands, where we lads of the
+burgh school loved to bathe in the warm weather.  But on
+long holidays the sport was to go farther afield among the
+cliffs; for there there were many deep caves and pools, where
+podleys might be caught with the line, and hid treasures
+sought for at the expense of the skin of the knees and the
+buttons of the trousers.  Many a long Saturday I have passed
+in a crinkle of the cliffs, having lit a fire of driftwood, and
+made believe that I was a smuggler or a Jacobite new landed
+from France.  There was a band of us in Kirkcaple, lads of my
+own age, including Archie Leslie, the son of my father's
+session-clerk, and Tam Dyke, the provost's nephew.  We
+were sealed to silence by the blood oath, and we bore each the
+name of some historic pirate or sailorman.  I was Paul Jones,
+Tam was Captain Kidd, and Archie, need I say it, was Morgan
+himself.  Our tryst was a cave where a little water called the
+Dyve Burn had cut its way through the cliffs to the sea.  There
+we forgathered in the summer evenings and of a Saturday
+afternoon in winter, and told mighty tales of our prowess and
+flattered our silly hearts.  But the sober truth is that our deeds
+were of the humblest, and a dozen of fish or a handful of
+apples was all our booty, and our greatest exploit a fight with
+the roughs at the Dyve tan-work.
+
+My father's spring Communion fell on the last Sabbath of
+April, and on the particular Sabbath of which I speak the
+weather was mild and bright for the time of year.  I had been
+surfeited with the Thursday's and Saturday's services, and the
+two long diets of worship on the Sabbath were hard for a lad
+of twelve to bear with the spring in his bones and the sun
+slanting through the gallery window.  There still remained the
+service on the Sabbath evening - a doleful prospect, for the
+Rev.  Mr Murdoch of Kilchristie, noted for the length of his
+discourses, had exchanged pulpits with my father.  So my mind
+was ripe for the proposal of Archie Leslie, on our way home to
+tea, that by a little skill we might give the kirk the slip.  At our
+Communion the pews were emptied of their regular occupants
+and the congregation seated itself as it pleased.  The manse seat
+was full of the Kirkcaple relations of Mr Murdoch, who had
+been invited there by my mother to hear him, and it was not
+hard to obtain permission to sit with Archie and Tam Dyke in
+the cock-loft in the gallery.  Word was sent to Tam, and so it
+happened that three abandoned lads duly passed the plate
+and took their seats in the cock-loft.  But when the bell had
+done jowing, and we heard by the sounds of their feet that
+the elders had gone in to the kirk, we slipped down the stairs
+and out of the side door.  We were through the churchyard in a
+twinkling, and hot-foot on the road to the Dyve Burn.
+It was the fashion of the genteel in Kirkcaple to put their
+boys into what were known as Eton suits - long trousers, cut-
+away jackets, and chimney-pot hats.  I had been one of the
+earliest victims, and well I remember how I fled home from
+the Sabbath school with the snowballs of the town roughs
+rattling off my chimney-pot.  Archie had followed, his family
+being in all things imitators of mine.  We were now clothed in
+this wearisome garb, so our first care was to secrete safely our
+hats in a marked spot under some whin bushes on the links.
+Tam was free from the bondage of fashion, and wore his
+ordinary best knickerbockers.  From inside his jacket he
+unfolded his special treasure, which was to light us on our
+expedition - an evil-smelling old tin lantern with a shutter.
+
+Tam was of the Free Kirk persuasion, and as his Communion
+fell on a different day from ours, he was spared the
+bondage of church attendance from which Archie and I had
+revolted.  But notable events had happened that day in his
+church.  A black man, the Rev.  John Something-or-other, had
+been preaching.  Tam was full of the portent.  'A nagger,' he
+said, 'a great black chap as big as your father, Archie.'  He
+seemed to have banged the bookboard with some effect, and
+had kept Tam, for once in his life, awake.  He had preached
+about the heathen in Africa, and how a black man was as good
+as a white man in the sight of God, and he had forecast a day
+when the negroes would have something to teach the British in
+the way of civilization.  So at any rate ran the account of Tam
+Dyke, who did not share the preacher's views.  'It's all
+nonsense, Davie.  The Bible says that the children of Ham were
+to be our servants.  If I were the minister I wouldn't let a
+nigger into the pulpit.  I wouldn't let him farther than the
+Sabbath school.'
+
+Night fell as we came to the broomy spaces of the links, and
+ere we had breasted the slope of the neck which separates
+Kirkcaple Bay from the cliffs it was as dark as an April evening
+with a full moon can be.  Tam would have had it darker.  He
+got out his lantern, and after a prodigious waste of matches
+kindled the candle-end inside, turned the dark shutter, and
+trotted happily on.  We had no need of his lighting till the Dyve
+Burn was reached and the path began to descend steeply
+through the rift in the crags.
+
+It was here we found that some one had gone before us.
+Archie was great in those days at tracking, his ambition
+running in Indian paths.  He would walk always with his head
+bent and his eyes on the ground, whereby he several times
+found lost coins and once a trinket dropped by the provost's
+wife.  At the edge of the burn, where the path turns downward,
+there is a patch of shingle washed up by some spate.  Archie
+was on his knees in a second.  'Lads,' he cried, 'there's spoor
+here;' and then after some nosing, 'it's a man's track, going
+downward, a big man with flat feet.  It's fresh, too, for it
+crosses the damp bit of gravel, and the water has scarcely filled
+the holes yet.'
+
+We did not dare to question Archie's woodcraft, but it
+puzzled us who the stranger could be.  In summer weather you
+might find a party of picnickers here, attracted by the fine hard
+sands at the burn mouth.  But at this time of night and season
+of the year there was no call for any one to be trespassing on
+our preserves.  No fishermen came this way, the lobster-pots
+being all to the east, and the stark headland of the Red Neb
+made the road to them by the water's edge difficult.  The tan-
+work lads used to come now and then for a swim, but you
+would not find a tan-work lad bathing on a chill April night.
+Yet there was no question where our precursor had gone.  He
+was making for the shore.  Tam unshuttered his lantern, and
+the steps went clearly down the corkscrew path.  'Maybe he is
+after our cave.  We'd better go cannily.'
+
+The glim was dowsed - the words were Archie's - and in
+the best contraband manner we stole down the gully.  The
+business had suddenly taken an eerie turn, and I think in our
+hearts we were all a little afraid.  But Tam had a lantern, and it
+would never do to turn back from an adventure which had all
+the appearance of being the true sort.  Half way down there is
+a scrog of wood, dwarf alders and hawthorn, which makes an
+arch over the path.  I, for one, was glad when we got through
+this with no worse mishap than a stumble from Tam which
+caused the lantern door to fly open and the candle to go out.
+We did not stop to relight it, but scrambled down the screes
+till we came to the long slabs of reddish rock which abutted on
+the beach.  We could not see the track, so we gave up the
+business of scouts, and dropped quietly over the big boulder
+and into the crinkle of cliff which we called our cave.
+
+There was nobody there, so we relit the lantern and examined
+our properties.  Two or three fishing-rods for the burn,
+much damaged by weather; some sea-lines on a dry shelf of
+rock; a couple of wooden boxes; a pile of driftwood for fires,
+and a heap of quartz in which we thought we had found veins
+of gold - such was the modest furnishing of our den.  To this I
+must add some broken clay pipes, with which we made believe
+to imitate our elders, smoking a foul mixture of coltsfoot leaves
+and brown paper.  The band was in session, so following our
+ritual we sent out a picket.  Tam was deputed to go round the
+edge of the cliff from which the shore was visible, and report
+if the coast was clear.
+
+He returned in three minutes, his eyes round with amazement
+in the lantern light.  'There's a fire on the sands,' he
+repeated, 'and a man beside it.'
+
+Here was news indeed.  Without a word we made for the
+open, Archie first, and Tam, who had seized and shuttered his
+lantern, coming last.  We crawled to the edge of the cliff and
+peered round, and there sure enough, on the hard bit of sand
+which the tide had left by the burn mouth, was a twinkle of
+light and a dark figure.
+
+The moon was rising, and besides there was that curious
+sheen from the sea which you will often notice in spring.  The
+glow was maybe a hundred yards distant, a little spark of fire I
+could have put in my cap, and, from its crackling and smoke,
+composed of dry seaweed and half-green branches from the
+burnside thickets.  A man's figure stood near it, and as we
+looked it moved round and round the fire in circles which first
+of all widened and then contracted.
+
+The sight was so unexpected, so beyond the beat of our
+experience, that we were all a little scared.  What could this
+strange being want with a fire at half-past eight of an April
+Sabbath night on the Dyve Burn sands?  We discussed the
+thing in whispers behind a boulder, but none of us had any
+solution.  'Belike he's come ashore in a boat,' said Archie.  'He's
+maybe a foreigner.'  But I pointed out that, from the tracks
+which Archie himself had found, the man must have come
+overland down the cliffs.  Tam was clear he was a madman,
+and was for withdrawing promptly from the whole business.
+
+But some spell kept our feet tied there in that silent world of
+sand and moon and sea.  I remember looking back and seeing
+the solemn, frowning faces of the cliffs, and feeling somehow
+shut in with this unknown being in a strange union.  What kind
+of errand had brought this interloper into our territory?  For a
+wonder I was less afraid than curious.  I wanted to get to the
+heart of the matter, and to discover what the man was up to
+with his fire and his circles.
+
+The same thought must have been in Archie's head, for he
+dropped on his belly and began to crawl softly seawards.  I
+followed, and Tam, with sundry complaints, crept after my
+heels.  Between the cliffs and the fire lay some sixty yards of
+debris and boulders above the level of all but the high spring
+tides.  Beyond lay a string of seaweedy pools and then the hard
+sands of the burnfoot.  There was excellent cover among the
+big stones, and apart from the distance and the dim light, the
+man by the fire was too preoccupied in his task to keep much
+look-out towards the land.  I remember thinking he had chosen
+his place well, for save from the sea he could not be seen.  The
+cliffs are so undercut that unless a watcher on the coast were
+on their extreme edge he would not see the burnfoot sands.
+
+Archie, the skilled tracker, was the one who all but betrayed
+us.  His knee slipped on the seaweed, and he rolled off a
+boulder, bringing down with him a clatter of small stones.  We
+lay as still as mice, in terror lest the man should have heard the
+noise and have come to look for the cause.  By-and-by when I
+ventured to raise my head above a flat-topped stone I saw that
+he was undisturbed.  The fire still burned, and he was pacing
+round it.
+On the edge of the pools was an outcrop of red sandstone
+much fissured by the sea.  Here was an excellent vantage-
+ground, and all three of us curled behind it, with our eyes just
+over the edge.  The man was not twenty yards off, and I could
+see clearly what manner of fellow he was.  For one thing he was
+huge of size, or so he seemed to me in the half-light.  He wore
+nothing but a shirt and trousers, and I could hear by the flap
+of his feet on the sand that he was barefoot.
+
+Suddenly Tam Dyke gave a gasp of astonishment.  'Gosh,
+it's the black minister!' he said.
+
+It was indeed a black man, as we saw when the moon came
+out of a cloud.  His head was on his breast, and he walked
+round the fire with measured, regular steps.  At intervals he
+would stop and raise both hands to the sky, and bend his
+body in the direction of the moon.  But he never uttered a word.
+
+'It's magic,' said Archie.  'He's going to raise Satan.  We must
+bide here and see what happens, for he'll grip us if we try to
+go back.  The moon's ower high.'
+
+The procession continued as if to some slow music.  I had
+been in no fear of the adventure back there by our cave; but
+now that I saw the thing from close at hand, my courage began
+to ebb.  There was something desperately uncanny about this
+great negro, who had shed his clerical garments, and was now
+practising some strange magic alone by the sea.  I had no doubt
+it was the black art, for there was that in the air and the scene
+which spelled the unlawful.  As we watched, the circles
+stopped, and the man threw something on the fire.  A thick
+smoke rose of which we could feel the aromatic scent, and
+when it was gone the flame burned with a silvery blueness like
+moonlight.  Still no sound came from the minister, but he took
+something from his belt, and began to make odd markings in
+the sand between the inner circle and the fire.  As he turned, the
+moon gleamed on the implement, and we saw it was a great knife.
+
+We were now scared in real earnest.  Here were we, three boys,
+at night in a lonely place a few yards from a savage with a knife.
+The adventure was far past my liking, and even the intrepid
+Archie was having qualms, if I could judge from his set face.
+As for Tam, his teeth were chattering like a threshing-mill.
+
+Suddenly I felt something soft and warm on the rock at my
+right hand.  I felt again, and, lo! it was the man's clothes.
+There were his boots and socks, his minister's coat and his
+minister's hat.
+
+This made the predicament worse, for if we waited till he
+finished his rites we should for certain be found by him.  At
+the same time, to return over the boulders in the bright
+moonlight seemed an equally sure way to discovery.  I whispered
+to Archie, who was for waiting a little longer.  'Something
+may turn up,' he said.  It was always his way.
+
+I do not know what would have turned up, for we had no
+chance of testing it.  The situation had proved too much for
+the nerves of Tam Dyke.  As the man turned towards us in his
+bowings and bendings, Tam suddenly sprang to his feet and
+shouted at him a piece of schoolboy rudeness then fashionable
+in Kirkcaple.
+
+'Wha called ye partan-face, my bonny man?'  Then, clutching
+his lantern, he ran for dear life, while Archie and I raced
+at his heels.  As I turned I had a glimpse of a huge figure, knife
+in hand, bounding towards us.
+
+Though I only saw it in the turn of a head, the face stamped
+itself indelibly upon my mind.  It was black, black as ebony,
+but it was different from the ordinary negro.  There were no
+thick lips and flat nostrils; rather, if I could trust my eyes, the
+nose was high-bridged, and the lines of the mouth sharp and
+firm.  But it was distorted into an expression of such a devilish
+fury and amazement that my heart became like water.
+
+We had a start, as I have said, of some twenty or thirty
+yards.  Among the boulders we were not at a great disadvantage,
+for a boy can flit quickly over them, while a grown man
+must pick his way.  Archie, as ever, kept his wits the best of us.
+'Make straight for the burn,' he shouted in a hoarse whisper;
+we'll beat him on the slope.'
+
+We passed the boulders and slithered over the outcrop of
+red rock and the patches of sea-pink till we reached the
+channel of the Dyve water, which flows gently among pebbles
+after leaving the gully.  Here for the first time I looked back
+and saw nothing.  I stopped involuntarily, and that halt was
+nearly my undoing.  For our pursuer had reached the burn
+before us, but lower down, and was coming up its bank to cut
+us off.
+
+At most times I am a notable coward, and in these days I
+was still more of one, owing to a quick and easily-heated
+imagination.  But now I think I did a brave thing, though more
+by instinct than resolution.  Archie was running first, and had
+already splashed through the burn; Tam came next, just about
+to cross, and the black man was almost at his elbow.  Another
+second and Tam would have been in his clutches had I not
+yelled out a warning and made straight up the bank of the
+burn.  Tam fell into the pool - I could hear his spluttering
+cry - but he got across; for I heard Archie call to him, and the
+two vanished into the thicket which clothes all the left bank of
+the gully.  The pursuer, seeing me on his own side of the water,
+followed straight on; and before I knew it had become a race
+between the two of us.
+
+I was hideously frightened, but not without hope, for the
+screes and shelves of this right side of the gully were known to
+me from many a day's exploring.  I was light on my feet and
+uncommonly sound in wind, being by far the best long-
+distance runner in Kirkcaple.  If I could only keep my lead till
+I reached a certain corner I knew of, I could outwit my enemy;
+for it was possible from that place to make a detour behind a
+waterfall and get into a secret path of ours among the bushes.
+I flew up the steep screes, not daring to look round; but at the
+top, where the rocks begin, I had a glimpse of my pursuer.
+The man could run.  Heavy in build though he was he was not
+six yards behind me, and I could see the white of his eyes and
+the red of his gums.  I saw something else - a glint of white
+metal in his hand.  He still had his knife.
+
+Fear sent me up the rocks like a seagull, and I scrambled
+and leaped, making for the corner I knew of.  Something told
+me that the pursuit was slackening, and for a moment I halted
+to look round.  A second time a halt was nearly the end of me.
+A great stone flew through the air, and took the cliff an inch
+from my head, half-blinding me with splinters.  And now I
+began to get angry.  I pulled myself into cover, skirted a rock
+till I came to my corner, and looked back for the enemy.  There
+he was scrambling by the way I had come, and making a
+prodigious clatter among the stones.  I picked up a loose bit of
+rock and hurled it with all my force in his direction.  It broke
+before it reached him, but a considerable lump, to my joy,
+took him full in the face.  Then my terrors revived.  I slipped
+behind the waterfall and was soon in the thicket, and toiling
+towards the top.
+
+I think this last bit was the worst in the race, for my strength
+was failing, and I seemed to hear those horrid steps at my
+heels.  My heart was in my mouth as, careless of my best
+clothes, I tore through the hawthorn bushes.  Then I struck
+the path and, to my relief, came on Archie and Tam, who
+were running slowly in desperate anxiety about my fate.  We
+then took hands and soon reached the top of the gully.
+
+For a second we looked back.  The pursuit had ceased, and
+far down the burn we could hear the sounds as of some one
+going back to the sands.
+
+'Your face is bleeding, Davie.  Did he get near enough to hit
+you?' Archie asked.
+
+'He hit me with a stone.  But I gave him better.  He's got a
+bleeding nose to remember this night by.'
+
+We did not dare take the road by the links, but made for
+the nearest human habitation.  This was a farm about half a
+mile inland, and when we reached it we lay down by the stack-
+yard gate and panted.
+
+'I've lost my lantern,' said Tam.  'The big black brute!  See if
+I don't tell my father.'
+
+'Ye'll do nothing of the kind,' said Archie fiercely.  'He knows
+nothing about us and can't do us any harm.  But if the story
+got out and he found out who we were, he'd murder the lot of US.'
+
+He made us swear secrecy, which we were willing enough to
+do, seeing very clearly the sense in his argument.  Then we
+struck the highroad and trotted back at our best pace to
+Kirkcaple, fear of our families gradually ousting fear of pursuit.
+In our excitement Archie and I forgot about our Sabbath
+hats, reposing quietly below a whin bush on the links.
+
+We were not destined to escape without detection.  As ill
+luck would have it, Mr Murdoch had been taken ill with the
+stomach-ache after the second psalm, and the congregation
+had been abruptly dispersed.  My mother had waited for me at
+the church door, and, seeing no signs of her son, had searched
+the gallery.  Then the truth came out, and, had I been only for
+a mild walk on the links, retribution would have overtaken my
+truantry.  But to add to this I arrived home with a scratched
+face, no hat, and several rents in my best trousers.  I was well
+cuffed and sent to bed, with the promise of full-dress chastisement
+when my father should come home in the morning.
+
+My father arrived before breakfast next day, and I was duly
+and soundly whipped.  I set out for school with aching bones
+to add to the usual depression of Monday morning.  At the
+corner of the Nethergate I fell in with Archie, who was staring
+at a trap carrying two men which was coming down the street.
+It was the Free Church minister - he had married a rich wife
+and kept a horse - driving the preacher of yesterday to the
+railway station.  Archie and I were in behind a doorpost in a
+twinkling, so that we could see in safety the last of our enemy.
+He was dressed in minister's clothes, with a heavy fur-coat and
+a brand new yellow-leather Gladstone bag.  He was talking
+loudly as he passed, and the Free Church minister seemed to
+be listening attentively.  I heard his deep voice saying something
+about the 'work of God in this place.'  But what I noticed
+specially - and the sight made me forget my aching hinder
+parts - was that he had a swollen eye, and two strips of
+sticking-plaster on his cheek.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+FURTH! FORTUNE!
+
+
+In this plain story of mine there will be so many wild doings
+ere the end is reached, that I beg my reader's assent to a
+prosaic digression.  I will tell briefly the things which happened
+between my sight of the man on the Kirkcaple sands and my
+voyage to Africa.
+I continued for three years at the burgh school, where my
+progress was less notable in my studies than in my sports.  One
+by one I saw my companions pass out of idle boyhood and be
+set to professions.  Tam Dyke on two occasions ran off to sea
+in the Dutch schooners which used to load with coal in our
+port; and finally his father gave him his will, and he was
+apprenticed to the merchant service.  Archie Leslie, who was a
+year my elder, was destined for the law, so he left Kirkcaple
+for an Edinburgh office, where he was also to take out classes
+at the college.  I remained on at school till I sat alone by myself
+in the highest class - a position of little dignity and deep
+loneliness.  I had grown a tall, square-set lad, and my prowess
+at Rugby football was renowned beyond the parishes of
+Kirkcaple and Portincross.  To my father I fear I was a
+disappointment.  He had hoped for something in his son more
+bookish and sedentary, more like his gentle, studious self.
+
+On one thing I was determined: I should follow a learned
+profession.  The fear of being sent to an office, like so many of
+my schoolfellows, inspired me to the little progress I ever
+made in my studies.  I chose the ministry, not, I fear, out of
+any reverence for the sacred calling, but because my father had
+followed it before me.  Accordingly I was sent at the age of
+sixteen for a year's finishing at the High School of Edinburgh,
+and the following winter began my Arts course at the
+university.
+
+If Fate had been kinder to me, I think I might have become
+a scholar.  At any rate I was just acquiring a taste for
+philosophy and the dead languages when my father died suddenly
+of a paralytic shock, and I had to set about earning a living.
+
+My mother was left badly off, for my poor father had never
+been able to save much from his modest stipend.  When all
+things were settled, it turned out that she might reckon on an
+income of about fifty pounds a year.  This was not enough to
+live on, however modest the household, and certainly not
+enough to pay for the colleging of a son.  At this point an uncle
+of hers stepped forward with a proposal.  He was a well-to-do
+bachelor, alone in the world, and he invited my mother to live
+with him and take care of his house.  For myself he proposed a
+post in some mercantile concern, for he had much influence in
+the circles of commerce.  There was nothing for it but to accept
+gratefully.  We sold our few household goods, and moved to his
+gloomy house in Dundas Street.  A few days later he announced
+at dinner that he had found for me a chance which might lead
+to better things.
+
+'You see, Davie,' he explained, 'you don't know the rudiments
+of business life.  There's no house in the country that
+would take you in except as a common clerk, and you would
+never earn much more than a hundred pounds a year all your
+days.  If you want to better your future you must go abroad,
+where white men are at a premium.  By the mercy of Providence
+I met yesterday an old friend, Thomas Mackenzie, who
+was seeing his lawyer about an estate he is bidding for.  He is
+the head of one of the biggest trading and shipping concerns
+in the world - Mackenzie, Mure, and Oldmeadows - you may
+have heard the name.  Among other things he has half the
+stores in South Africa, where they sell everything from Bibles
+to fish-hooks.  Apparently they like men from home to manage
+the stores, and to make a long story short, when I put your
+case to him, he promised you a place.  I had a wire from him
+this morning confirming the offer.  You are to be assistant
+storekeeper at -' (my uncle fumbled in his pocket, and then
+read from the yellow slip) 'at Blaauwildebeestefontein.  There's
+a mouthful for you.'
+
+In this homely way I first heard of a place which was to be
+the theatre of so many strange doings.
+
+'It's a fine chance for you,' my uncle continued.  'You'll only
+be assistant at first, but when you have learned your job you'll
+have a store of your own.  Mackenzie's people will pay you
+three hundred pounds a year, and when you get a store you'll
+get a percentage on sales.  It lies with you to open up new trade
+among the natives.  I hear that Blaauw - something or other, is
+in the far north of the Transvaal, and I see from the map that
+it is in a wild, hilly country.  You may find gold or diamonds
+up there, and come back and buy Portincross House.'  My
+uncle rubbed his hands and smiled cheerily.
+
+Truth to tell I was both pleased and sad.  If a learned
+profession was denied me I vastly preferred a veld store to an
+Edinburgh office stool.  Had I not been still under the shadow
+of my father's death I might have welcomed the chance of new
+lands and new folk.  As it was, I felt the loneliness of an exile.
+That afternoon I walked on the Braid Hills, and when I saw in
+the clear spring sunlight the coast of Fife, and remembered
+Kirkcaple and my boyish days, I could have found it in me to
+sit down and cry.
+
+A fortnight later I sailed.  My mother bade me a tearful
+farewell, and my uncle, besides buying me an outfit and paying
+my passage money, gave me a present of twenty sovereigns.
+'You'll not be your mother's son, Davie,' were his last words,
+'if you don't come home with it multiplied by a thousand.'  I
+thought at the time that I would give more than twenty
+thousand pounds to be allowed to bide on the windy shores of Forth.
+
+
+I sailed from Southampton by an intermediate steamer, and
+went steerage to save expense.  Happily my acute homesickness
+was soon forgotten in another kind of malady.  It blew half a
+gale before we were out of the Channel, and by the time we
+had rounded Ushant it was as dirty weather as ever I hope to
+see.  I lay mortal sick in my bunk, unable to bear the thought
+of food, and too feeble to lift my head.  I wished I had never
+left home, but so acute was my sickness that if some one had
+there and then offered me a passage back or an immediate
+landing on shore I should have chosen the latter.
+
+It was not till we got into the fair-weather seas around
+Madeira that I recovered enough to sit on deck and observe
+my fellow-passengers.  There were some fifty of us in the
+steerage, mostly wives and children going to join relations,
+with a few emigrant artisans and farmers.  I early found a
+friend in a little man with a yellow beard and spectacles, who
+sat down beside me and remarked on the weather in a strong
+Scotch accent.  He turned out to be a Mr Wardlaw from
+Aberdeen, who was going out to be a schoolmaster.  He was a
+man of good education, who had taken a university degree,
+and had taught for some years as an under-master in a school
+in his native town.  But the east winds had damaged his lungs,
+and he had been glad to take the chance of a poorly paid
+country school in the veld.  When I asked him where he was
+going I was amazed to be told, 'Blaauwildebeestefontein.'
+
+Mr Wardlaw was a pleasant little man, with a sharp tongue
+but a cheerful temper.  He laboured all day at primers of the
+Dutch and Kaffir languages, but in the evening after supper
+he would walk with me on the after-deck and discuss the
+future.  Like me, he knew nothing of the land he was going to,
+but he was insatiably curious, and he affected me with his
+interest.  'This place, Blaauwildebeestefontein,' he used to say,
+'is among the Zoutpansberg mountains, and as far as I can
+see, not above ninety miles from the railroad.  It looks from the
+map a well-watered country, and the Agent-General in London
+told me it was healthy or I wouldn't have taken the job.  It
+seems we'll be in the heart of native reserves up there, for
+here's a list of chiefs - 'Mpefu, Sikitola, Majinje, Magata; and
+there are no white men living to the east of us because of the
+fever.  The name means the "spring of the blue wildebeeste,"
+whatever fearsome animal that may be.  It sounds like a place
+for adventure, Mr Crawfurd.  You'll exploit the pockets of the
+black men and I'll see what I can do with their minds.'
+There was another steerage passenger whom I could not
+help observing because of my dislike of his appearance.  He,
+too, was a little man, by name Henriques, and in looks the
+most atrocious villain I have ever clapped eyes on.  He had a
+face the colour of French mustard - a sort of dirty green - and
+bloodshot, beady eyes with the whites all yellowed with fever.
+He had waxed moustaches, and a curious, furtive way of
+walking and looking about him.  We of the steerage were
+careless in our dress, but he was always clad in immaculate
+white linen, with pointed, yellow shoes to match his
+complexion.  He spoke to no one, but smoked long cheroots all day
+in the stern of the ship, and studied a greasy pocket-book.
+Once I tripped over him in the dark, and he turned on me
+with a snarl and an oath.  I was short enough with him in
+return, and he looked as if he could knife me.
+
+'I'll wager that fellow has been a slave-driver in his time,' I
+told Mr Wardlaw, who said, 'God pity his slaves, then.'
+
+And now I come to the incident which made the rest of the
+voyage pass all too soon for me, and foreshadowed the strange
+events which were to come.  It was the day after we crossed the
+Line, and the first-class passengers were having deck sports.  A
+tug-of-war had been arranged between the three classes, and a
+half-dozen of the heaviest fellows in the steerage, myself
+included, were invited to join.  It was a blazing hot afternoon,
+but on the saloon deck there were awnings and a cool wind
+blowing from the bows.  The first-class beat the second easily, and
+after a tremendous struggle beat the steerage also.  Then they
+regaled us with iced-drinks and cigars to celebrate the victory.
+
+I was standing at the edge of the crowd of spectators, when
+my eye caught a figure which seemed to have little interest in
+our games.  A large man in clerical clothes was sitting on a
+deck-chair reading a book.  There was nothing novel about the
+stranger, and I cannot explain the impulse which made me
+wish to see his face.  I moved a few steps up the deck, and then
+I saw that his skin was black.  I went a little farther, and
+suddenly he raised his eyes from his book and looked round.
+It was the face of the man who had terrified me years ago on
+the Kirkcaple shore.
+
+I spent the rest of the day in a brown study.  It was clear to
+me that some destiny had prearranged this meeting.  Here was
+this man travelling prosperously as a first-class passenger with
+all the appurtenances of respectability.  I alone had seen him
+invoking strange gods in the moonlight, I alone knew of the
+devilry in his heart, and I could not but believe that some day
+or other there might be virtue in that knowledge.
+
+The second engineer and I had made friends, so I got him
+to consult the purser's list for the name of my acquaintance.
+He was down as the Rev.  John Laputa, and his destination
+was Durban.
+The next day being Sunday, who should appear to address
+us steerage passengers but the black minister.  He was introduced
+by the captain himself, a notably pious man, who spoke
+of the labours of his brother in the dark places of heathendom.
+Some of us were hurt in our pride in being made the target of
+a black man's oratory.  Especially Mr Henriques, whose skin
+spoke of the tar-brush, protested with oaths against the insult.
+Finally he sat down on a coil of rope, and spat scornfully in
+the vicinity of the preacher.
+
+For myself I was intensely curious, and not a little
+impressed.  The man's face was as commanding as his figure,
+and his voice was the most wonderful thing that ever came out
+of human mouth.  It was full and rich, and gentle, with the
+tones of a great organ.  He had none of the squat and
+preposterous negro lineaments, but a hawk nose like an Arab,
+dark flashing eyes, and a cruel and resolute mouth.  He was
+black as my hat, but for the rest he might have sat for a figure
+of a Crusader.  I do not know what the sermon was about,
+though others told me that it was excellent.  All the time I
+watched him, and kept saying to myself, 'You hunted me up
+the Dyve Burn, but I bashed your face for you.'  Indeed, I
+thought I could see faint scars on his cheek.
+
+The following night I had toothache, and could not sleep.  It
+was too hot to breathe under cover, so I got up, lit a pipe, and
+walked on the after-deck to ease the pain.  The air was very
+still, save for the whish of water from the screws and the steady
+beat of the engines.  Above, a great yellow moon looked down
+on me, and a host of pale stars.
+
+The moonlight set me remembering the old affair of the
+Dyve Burn, and my mind began to run on the Rev.  John
+Laputa.  It pleased me to think that I was on the track of some
+mystery of which I alone had the clue.  I promised myself to
+search out the antecedents of the minister when I got to
+Durban, for I had a married cousin there, who might know
+something of his doings.  Then, as I passed by the companion-
+way to the lower deck, I heard voices, and peeping over the
+rail, I saw two men sitting in the shadow just beyond the hatch
+of the hold.
+
+I thought they might be two of the sailors seeking coolness
+on the open deck, when something in the figure of one of them
+made me look again.  The next second I had slipped back and stolen
+across the after-deck to a point just above them.  For the two were
+the black minister and that ugly yellow villain, Henriques.
+
+I had no scruples about eavesdropping, but I could make
+nothing of their talk.  They spoke low, and in some tongue
+which may have been Kaffir or Portuguese, but was in any
+case unknown to me.  I lay, cramped and eager, for many
+minutes, and was just getting sick of it when a familiar name
+caught my ear.  Henriques said something in which I caught
+the word 'Blaauwildebeestefontein.'  I listened intently, and
+there could be no mistake.  The minister repeated the name,
+and for the next few minutes it recurred often in their talk.  I
+went back stealthily to bed, having something to make me
+forget my aching tooth.  First of all, Laputa and Henriques
+were allies.  Second, the place I was bound for had something
+to do with their schemes.
+
+I said nothing to Mr Wardlaw, but spent the next week in
+the assiduous toil of the amateur detective.  I procured some
+maps and books from my friend, the second engineer, and read
+all I could about Blaauwildebeestefontein.  Not that there was
+much to learn; but I remember I had quite a thrill when I
+discovered from the chart of the ship's run one day that we
+were in the same latitude as that uncouthly-named spot.  I
+found out nothing, however, about Henriques or the Rev.
+John Laputa.  The Portuguese still smoked in the stern, and
+thumbed his greasy notebook; the minister sat in his deck-
+chair, and read heavy volumes from the ship's library.  Though
+I watched every night, I never found them again together.
+
+At Cape Town Henriques went ashore and did not return.
+The minister did not budge from the ship the three days we
+lay in port, and, indeed, it seemed to me that he kept his
+cabin.  At any rate I did not see his great figure on deck till we
+were tossing in the choppy seas round Cape Agulhas.  Sea-
+sickness again attacked me, and with short lulls during our
+stoppages at Port Elizabeth and East London, I lay wretchedly
+in my bunk till we sighted the bluffs of Durban harbour.
+
+Here it was necessary for me to change my ship, for in the
+interests of economy I was going by sea to Delagoa Bay, and
+thence by the cheap railway journey into the Transvaal.  I
+sought out my cousin, who lived in a fine house on the Berea,
+and found a comfortable lodging for the three days of my stay
+there.  I made inquiries about Mr Laputa, but could hear
+nothing.  There was no native minister of that name, said my
+cousin, who was a great authority on all native questions.  I
+described the man, but got no further light.  No one had seen
+or heard of such a being, 'unless,' said my cousin, 'he is one of
+those American Ethiopian rascals.'
+
+My second task was to see the Durban manager of the firm
+which I had undertaken to serve.  He was a certain Mr Colles,
+a big fat man, who welcomed me in his shirt-sleeves, with a
+cigar in his mouth.  He received me pleasantly, and took me
+home to dinner with him.
+
+'Mr Mackenzie has written about you,' he said.  'I'll be quite frank
+with you, Mr Crawfurd.  The firm is not exactly satisfied about the
+way business has been going lately at Blaauwildebeestefontein.
+There's a grand country up there, and a grand opportunity for
+the man who can take it.  Japp, who is in charge, is an old man
+now and past his best, but he has been long with the firm, and
+we don't want to hurt his feelings.  When he goes, which must be
+pretty soon, you'll have a good chance of the place, if you show
+yourself an active young fellow.'
+
+He told me a great deal more about Blaauwildebeestefontein,
+principally trading details.  Incidentally he let drop that Mr
+Japp had had several assistants in the last few years.  I asked
+him why they had left, and he hesitated.
+
+'It's a lonely place, and they didn't like the life.  You see,
+there are few white men near, and young fellows want society.
+They complained, and were moved on.  But the firm didn't
+think the more of them.'
+
+I told him I had come out with the new schoolmaster.
+
+'Yes,' he said reflectively, 'the school.  That's been vacant
+pretty often lately.  What sort of fellow is this Wardlaw?  Will
+he stay, I wonder?'
+
+'From all accounts,' I said, 'Blaauwildebeestefontein does
+not seem popular.'
+
+'It isn't.  That's why we've got you out from home.  The
+colonial-born doesn't find it fit in with his idea of comfort.  He
+wants society, and he doesn't like too many natives.  There's
+nothing up there but natives and a few back-veld Dutchmen
+with native blood in them.  You fellows from home are less set
+on an easy life, or you wouldn't be here.'
+
+There was something in Mr Colles's tone which made me
+risk another question.
+
+'What's the matter with the place?  There must be more
+wrong with it than loneliness to make everybody clear out.  I
+have taken on this job, and I mean to stick to it, so you needn't
+be afraid to tell me.'
+
+The manager looked at me sharply.  'That's the way to talk,
+my lad.  You look as if you had a stiff back, so I'll be frank with
+you.  There is something about the place.  It gives the ordinary
+man the jumps.  What it is, I don't know, and the men who
+come back don't know themselves.  I want you to find out for
+me.  You'll be doing the firm an enormous service if you can
+get on the track of it.  It may be the natives, or it may be the
+takhaars, or it may be something else.  Only old Japp can
+stick it out, and he's too old and doddering to care about
+moving.  I want you to keep your eyes skinned, and write
+privately to me if you want any help.  You're not out here for
+your health, I can see, and here's a chance for you to get your
+foot on the ladder.
+
+'Remember, I'm your friend,' he said to me again at the
+garden gate.  'Take my advice and lie very low.  Don't talk,
+don't meddle with drink, learn all you can of the native jabber,
+but don't let on you understand a word.  You're sure to get on
+the track of something.  Good-bye, my boy,' and he waved a
+fat hand to me.
+
+That night I embarked on a cargo-boat which was going
+round the coast to Delagoa Bay.  It is a small world - at least
+for us far-wandering Scots.  For who should I find when I got
+on board but my old friend Tam Dyke, who was second mate
+on the vessel?  We wrung each other's hands, and I answered,
+as best I could, his questions about Kirkcaple.  I had supper
+with him in the cabin, and went on deck to see the moorings cast.
+
+Suddenly there was a bustle on the quay, and a big man
+with a handbag forced his way up the gangway.  The men who
+were getting ready to cast off tried to stop him, but he elbowed
+his way forward, declaring he must see the captain.  Tam went
+up to him and asked civilly if he had a passage taken.  He
+admitted he had not, but said he would make it right in two
+minutes with the captain himself.  The Rev.  John Laputa, for
+some reason of his own, was leaving Durban with more haste
+than he had entered it.
+
+I do not know what passed with the captain, but the minister
+got his passage right enough, and Tam was even turned out of his
+cabin to make room for him.  This annoyed my friend intensely.
+
+'That black brute must be made of money, for he paid
+through the nose for this, or I'm a Dutchman.  My old man
+doesn't take to his black brethren any more than I do.  Hang it
+all, what are we coming to, when we're turning into a blooming
+cargo boat for niggers?'
+
+I had all too little of Tam's good company, for on the
+afternoon of the second day we reached the little town of
+Lourenco Marques.  This was my final landing in Africa, and I
+mind how eagerly I looked at the low, green shores and the
+bush-covered slopes of the mainland.  We were landed from
+boats while the ship lay out in the bay, and Tam came ashore
+with me to spend the evening.  By this time I had lost every
+remnant of homesickness.  I had got a job before me which
+promised better things than colleging at Edinburgh, and I was
+as keen to get up country now as I had been loth to leave
+England.  My mind being full of mysteries, I scanned every
+Portuguese loafer on the quay as if he had been a spy, and
+when Tam and I had had a bottle of Collates in a cafe I felt
+that at last I had got to foreign parts and a new world.
+
+Tam took me to supper with a friend of his, a Scot by the
+name of Aitken, who was landing-agent for some big mining
+house on the Rand.  He hailed from Fife and gave me a hearty
+welcome, for he had heard my father preach in his young days.
+Aitken was a strong, broad-shouldered fellow who had been a
+sergeant in the Gordons, and during the war he had done
+secret-service work in Delagoa.  He had hunted, too, and traded
+up and down Mozambique, and knew every dialect of the
+Kaffirs.  He asked me where I was bound for, and when I told
+him there was the same look in his eyes as I had seen with the
+Durban manager.
+
+'You're going to a rum place, Mr Crawfurd,' he said.
+
+'So I'm told.  Do you know anything about it?  You're not
+the first who has looked queer when I've spoken the name.'
+
+'I've never been there,' he said, 'though I've been pretty
+near it from the Portuguese side.  That's the funny thing about
+Blaauwildebeestefontein.  Everybody has heard of it, and
+nobody knows it.'
+
+'I wish you would tell me what you have heard.'
+
+'Well, the natives are queer up thereaways.  There's some
+kind of a holy place which every Kaffir from Algoa Bay to the
+Zambesi and away beyond knows about.  When I've been
+hunting in the bush-veld I've often met strings of Kaffirs from
+hundreds of miles distant, and they've all been going or coming
+from Blaauwildebeestefontein.  It's like Mecca to the Mohammedans,
+a place they go to on pilgrimage.  I've heard of an old
+man up there who is believed to be two hundred years old.
+Anyway, there's some sort of great witch or wizard living in
+the mountains.'
+
+Aitken smoked in silence for a time; then he said, 'I'll tell
+you another thing.  I believe there's a diamond mine.  I've often
+meant to go up and look for it.'
+
+Tam and I pressed him to explain, which he did slowly after
+his fashion.
+
+'Did you ever hear of I.D.B. - illicit diamond broking?' he
+asked me.  'Well, it's notorious that the Kaffirs on the diamond
+fields get away with a fair number of stones, and they are
+bought by Jew and Portuguese traders.  It's against the law to
+deal in them, and when I was in the intelligence here we used
+to have a lot of trouble with the vermin.  But I discovered that
+most of the stones came from natives in one part of the
+country - more or less round Blaauwildebeestefontein - and I
+see no reason to think that they had all been stolen from
+Kimberley or the Premier.  Indeed some of the stones I got
+hold of were quite different from any I had seen in South
+Africa before.  I shouldn't wonder if the Kaffirs in the
+Zoutpansberg had struck some rich pipe, and had the sense to keep
+quiet about it.  Maybe some day I'll take a run up to see you
+and look into the matter.'
+
+After this the talk turned on other topics till Tam, still
+nursing his grievance, asked a question on his own account.
+'Did you ever come across a great big native parson called
+Laputa?  He came on board as we were leaving Durban, and I
+had to turn out of my cabin for him.'  Tam described him
+accurately but vindictively, and added that 'he was sure he was
+up to no good.'
+
+Aitken shook his head.  'No, I don't know the man.  You say
+he landed here?  Well, I'll keep a look-out for him.  Big native
+parsons are not so common.'
+
+Then I asked about Henriques, of whom Tam knew nothing.
+I described his face, his clothes, and his habits.  Aitken
+laughed uproariously.
+
+'Tut, my man, most of the subjects of his Majesty the King
+of Portugal would answer to that description.  If he's a rascal,
+as you think, you may be certain he's in the I.D.B. business,
+and if I'm right about Blaauwildebeestefontein you'll likely
+have news of him there some time or other.  Drop me a line if
+he comes, and I'll get on to his record.'
+
+I saw Tam off in the boat with a fairly satisfied mind.  I was
+going to a place with a secret, and I meant to find it out.  The
+natives round Blaauwildebeestefontein were queer, and
+diamonds were suspected somewhere in the neighbourhood.
+
+Henriques had something to do with the place, and so had the
+Rev.  John Laputa, about whom I knew one strange thing.  So
+did Tam by the way, but he had not identified his former
+pursuer, and I had told him nothing.  I was leaving two men
+behind me, Colles at Durban and Aitken at Lourenco Marques,
+who would help me if trouble came.  Things were shaping
+well for some kind of adventure.
+
+The talk with Aitken had given Tam an inkling of my
+thoughts.  His last words to me were an appeal to let him know
+if there was any fun going.
+
+'I can see you're in for a queer job.  Promise to let me hear
+from you if there's going to be a row, and I'll come up country,
+though I should have to desert the service.  Send us a letter to
+the agents at Durban in case we should be in port.  You haven't
+forgotten the Dyve Burn, Davie?'
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+BLAAUWILDEBEESTEFONTEIN
+
+
+The Pilgrim's Progress had been the Sabbath reading of my
+boyhood, and as I came in sight of Blaauwildebeestefontein a
+passage ran in my head.  It was that which tells how Christian
+and Hopeful, after many perils of the way, came to the
+Delectable Mountains, from which they had a prospect of
+Canaan.  After many dusty miles by rail, and a weariful
+journey in a Cape-cart through arid plains and dry and stony
+gorges, I had come suddenly into a haven of green.  The Spring
+of the Blue Wildebeeste was a clear rushing mountain torrent,
+which swirled over blue rocks into deep fern-fringed pools.  All
+around was a tableland of lush grass with marigolds and arum
+lilies instead of daisies and buttercups.  Thickets of tall trees
+dotted the hill slopes and patched the meadows as if some
+landscape-gardener had been at work on them.  Beyond, the glen
+fell steeply to the plains, which ran out in a faint haze to the
+horizon.  To north and south I marked the sweep of the Berg, now
+rising high to a rocky peak and now stretching in a level rampart
+of blue.  On the very edge of the plateau where the road dipped
+for the descent stood the shanties of Blaauwildebeestefontein.
+The fresh hill air had exhilarated my mind,
+and the aromatic scent of the evening gave the last touch of
+intoxication.  Whatever serpent might lurk in it, it was a
+veritable Eden I had come to.
+
+Blaauwildebeestefontein had no more than two buildings of
+civilized shape; the store, which stood on the left side of the
+river, and the schoolhouse opposite.  For the rest, there were
+some twenty native huts, higher up the slope, of the type
+which the Dutch call rondavels.  The schoolhouse had a pretty
+garden, but the store stood bare in a patch of dust with a few
+outhouses and sheds beside it.  Round the door lay a few old
+ploughs and empty barrels, and beneath a solitary blue gum
+was a wooden bench with a rough table.  Native children played
+in the dust, and an old Kaffir squatted by the wall.
+
+My few belongings were soon lifted from the Cape-cart, and
+I entered the shop.  It was the ordinary pattern of up-country
+store - a bar in one corner with an array of bottles, and all
+round the walls tins of canned food and the odds and ends of
+trade.  The place was empty, and a cloud of flies buzzed over
+the sugar cask.
+
+Two doors opened at the back, and I chose the one to the
+right.  I found myself in a kind of kitchen with a bed in one
+corner, and a litter of dirty plates on the table.  On the bed lay
+a man, snoring heavily.  I went close to him, and found an old
+fellow with a bald head, clothed only in a shirt and trousers.
+His face was red and swollen, and his breath came in heavy
+grunts.  A smell of bad whisky hung over everything.  I had no
+doubt that this was Mr Peter Japp, my senior in the store.  One
+reason for the indifferent trade at Blaauwildebeestefontein was
+very clear to me: the storekeeper was a sot.
+
+I went back to the shop and tried the other door.  It was a
+bedroom too, but clean and pleasant.  A little native girl -
+Zeeta, I found they called her - was busy tidying it up, and
+when I entered she dropped me a curtsy.  'This is your room,
+Baas,' she said in very good English in reply to my question.
+The child had been well trained somewhere, for there was a
+cracked dish full of oleander blossom on the drawers'-head,
+and the pillow-slips on the bed were as clean as I could wish.
+She brought me water to wash, and a cup of strong tea, while
+I carried my baggage indoors and paid the driver of the cart.
+Then, having cleaned myself and lit a pipe, I walked across
+the road to see Mr Wardlaw.
+
+I found the schoolmaster sitting under his own fig-tree
+reading one of his Kaffir primers.  Having come direct by rail
+from Cape Town, he had been a week in the place, and ranked
+as the second oldest white resident.
+
+'Yon's a bonny chief you've got, Davie,' were his first words.
+'For three days he's been as fou as the Baltic.'
+
+I cannot pretend that the misdeeds of Mr Japp greatly
+annoyed me.  I had the reversion of his job, and if he chose to
+play the fool it was all in my interest.  But the schoolmaster
+was depressed at the prospect of such company.  'Besides you
+and me, he's the only white man in the place.  It's a poor look-
+out on the social side.'
+
+The school, it appeared, was the merest farce.  There were
+only five white children, belonging to Dutch farmers in the
+mountains.  The native side was more flourishing, but the
+mission schools at the locations got most of the native children
+in the neighbourhood.  Mr Wardlaw's educational zeal ran
+high.  He talked of establishing a workshop and teaching
+carpentry and blacksmith's work, of which he knew nothing.
+He rhapsodized over the intelligence of his pupils and
+bemoaned his inadequate gift of tongues.  'You and I, Davie,'
+he said, 'must sit down and grind at the business.  It is to the
+interest of both of us.  The Dutch is easy enough.  It's a sort of
+kitchen dialect you can learn in a fortnight.  But these native
+languages are a stiff job.  Sesuto is the chief hereabouts, and
+I'm told once you've got that it's easy to get the Zulu.  Then
+there's the thing the Shangaans speak - Baronga, I think they
+call it.  I've got a Christian Kaffir living up in one of the huts
+who comes every morning to talk to me for an hour.  You'd
+better join me.'
+
+I promised, and in the sweet-smelling dust crossed the road
+to the store.  Japp was still sleeping, so I got a bowl of mealie
+porridge from Zeeta and went to bed.
+
+
+Japp was sober next morning and made me some kind of
+apology.  He had chronic lumbago, he said, and 'to go on the bust'
+now and then was the best cure for it.  Then he proceeded to
+initiate me into my duties in a tone of exaggerated friendliness.
+'I took a fancy to you the first time I clapped eyes on
+you,' he said.  'You and me will be good friends, Crawfurd, I
+can see that.  You're a spirited young fellow, and you'll stand
+no nonsense.  The Dutch about here are a slim lot, and the
+Kaffirs are slimmer.  Trust no man, that's my motto.  The firm
+know that, and I've had their confidence for forty years.'
+
+The first day or two things went well enough.  There was no
+doubt that, properly handled, a fine trade could be done in
+Blaauwildebeestefontein.  The countryside was crawling with
+natives, and great strings used to come through from Shangaan
+territory on the way to the Rand mines.  Besides, there was
+business to be done with the Dutch farmers, especially with
+the tobacco, which I foresaw could be worked up into a
+profitable export.  There was no lack of money either, and we
+had to give very little credit, though it was often asked for.  I
+flung myself into the work, and in a few weeks had been all
+round the farms and locations.  At first Japp praised my energy,
+for it left him plenty of leisure to sit indoors and drink.  But
+soon he grew suspicious, for he must have seen that I was in a
+fair way to oust him altogether.  He was very anxious to know
+if I had seen Colles in Durban, and what the manager had
+said.  'I have letters,' he told me a hundred times, 'from Mr
+Mackenzie himself praising me up to the skies.  The firm
+couldn't get along without old Peter Japp, I can tell you.'  I
+had no wish to quarrel with the old man, so I listened politely
+to all he said.  But this did not propitiate him, and I soon found
+him so jealous as to be a nuisance.  He was Colonial-born and
+was always airing the fact.  He rejoiced in my rawness, and
+when I made a blunder would crow over it for hours.  'It's no
+good, Mr Crawfurd; you new chums from England may think
+yourselves mighty clever, but we men from the Old Colony
+can get ahead of you every time.  In fifty years you'll maybe
+learn a little about the country, but we know all about it before
+we start.'  He roared with laughter at my way of tying a
+voorslag, and he made merry (no doubt with reason) on my
+management of a horse.  I kept my temper pretty well, but I
+own there were moments when I came near to kicking Mr Japp.
+
+The truth is he was a disgusting old ruffian.  His character
+was shown by his treatment of Zeeta.  The poor child slaved all
+day and did two men's work in keeping the household going.
+She was an orphan from a mission station, and in Japp's
+opinion a creature without rights.  Hence he never spoke to her
+except with a curse, and used to cuff her thin shoulders till my
+blood boiled.  One day things became too much for my temper.
+Zeeta had spilled half a glass of Japp's whisky while tidying up
+the room.  He picked up a sjambok, and proceeded to beat her
+unmercifully till her cries brought me on the scene.  I tore the
+whip from his hands, seized him by the scruff and flung him
+
+on a heap of potato sacks, where he lay pouring out abuse and
+shaking with rage.  Then I spoke my mind.  I told him that if
+anything of the sort happened again I would report it at once
+to Mr Colles at Durban.  I added that before making my report
+I would beat him within an inch of his degraded life.  After a
+time he apologized, but I could see that thenceforth he
+regarded me with deadly hatred.
+There was another thing I noticed about Mr Japp.  He might
+brag about his knowledge of how to deal with natives, but to
+my mind his methods were a disgrace to a white man.  Zeeta
+came in for oaths and blows, but there were other Kaffirs
+whom he treated with a sort of cringing friendliness.  A big
+black fellow would swagger into the shop, and be received by
+Japp as if he were his long-lost brother.  The two would
+collogue for hours; and though at first I did not understand
+the tongue, I could see that it was the white man who fawned
+and the black man who bullied.  Once when japp was away one
+of these fellows came into the store as if it belonged to him,
+but he went out quicker than he entered.  Japp complained
+afterwards of my behaviour.  ''Mwanga is a good friend of
+mine,' he said, 'and brings us a lot of business.  I'll thank you
+to be civil to him the next time.'  I replied very shortly that
+'Mwanga or anybody else who did not mend his manners
+would feel the weight of my boot.
+
+The thing went on, and I am not sure that he did not give
+the Kaffirs drink on the sly.  At any rate, I have seen some very
+drunk natives on the road between the locations and
+Blaauwildebeestefontein, and some of them I recognized as Japp's
+friends.  I discussed the matter with Mr Wardlaw, who said, 'I
+believe the old villain has got some sort of black secret, and the
+natives know it, and have got a pull on him.'  And I was
+inclined to think he was right.
+
+
+By-and-by I began to feel the lack of company, for Wardlaw
+was so full of his books that he was of little use as a companion.
+So I resolved to acquire a dog, and bought one from a
+prospector, who was stony-broke and would have sold his soul
+for a drink.  It was an enormous Boer hunting-dog, a mongrel
+in whose blood ran mastiff and bulldog and foxhound, and
+Heaven knows what beside.  In colour it was a kind of brindled
+red, and the hair on its back grew against the lie of the rest of
+its coat.  Some one had told me, or I may have read it, that a
+back like this meant that a dog would face anything mortal,
+even to a charging lion, and it was this feature which first
+caught my fancy.  The price I paid was ten shillings and a pair
+of boots, which I got at cost price from stock, and the owner
+departed with injunctions to me to beware of the brute's
+temper.  Colin - for so I named him - began his career with
+me by taking the seat out of my breeches and frightening Mr
+Wardlaw into a tree.  It took me a stubborn battle of a fortnight
+to break his vice, and my left arm to-day bears witness to the
+struggle.  After that he became a second shadow, and woe
+betide the man who had dared to raise his hand to Colin's
+master.  Japp declared that the dog was a devil, and Colin
+repaid the compliment with a hearty dislike.
+
+With Colin, I now took to spending some of my ample
+leisure in exploring the fastnesses of the Berg.  I had brought
+out a shot-gun of my own, and I borrowed a cheap Mauser
+sporting rifle from the store.  I had been born with a good eye
+and a steady hand, and very soon I became a fair shot with a
+gun and, I believe, a really fine shot with the rifle.  The sides
+of the Berg were full of quail and partridge and bush pheasant,
+and on the grassy plateau there was abundance of a bird not
+unlike our own blackcock, which the Dutch called korhaan.
+But the great sport was to stalk bush-buck in the thickets,
+which is a game in which the hunter is at small advantage.  I
+have been knocked down by a wounded bush-buck ram, and
+but for Colin might have been badly damaged.  Once, in a kloof
+not far from the Letaba, I killed a fine leopard, bringing him
+down with a single shot from a rocky shelf almost on the top
+of Colin.  His skin lies by my fireside as I write this tale.  But it
+was during the days I could spare for an expedition into the
+plains that I proved the great qualities of my dog.  There we
+had nobler game to follow - wildebeest and hartebeest, impala,
+and now and then a koodoo.  At first I was a complete duffer,
+and shamed myself in Colin's eyes.  But by-and-by I learned
+something of veld-craft: I learned how to follow spoor, how to
+allow for the wind, and stalk under cover.  Then, when a shot
+had crippled the beast, Colin was on its track like a flash to
+pull it down.  The dog had the nose of a retriever, the speed of
+a greyhound, and the strength of a bull-terrier.  I blessed the
+day when the wandering prospector had passed the store.
+
+Colin slept at night at the foot of my bed, and it was he who
+led me to make an important discovery.  For I now became
+aware that I was being subjected to constant espionage.  It may
+have been going on from the start, but it was not till my third
+month at Blaauwildebeestefontein that I found it out.  One
+night I was going to bed, when suddenly the bristles rose on
+the dog's back and he barked uneasily at the window.  I had
+been standing in the shadow, and as I stepped to the window
+to look out I saw a black face disappear below the palisade of
+the backyard.  The incident was trifling, but it put me on my
+guard.  The next night I looked, but saw nothing.  The third
+night I looked, and caught a glimpse of a face almost pressed
+to the pane.  Thereafter I put up the shutters after dark, and
+shifted my bed to a part of the room out of line with the window.
+
+It was the same out of doors.  I would suddenly be conscious,
+as I walked on the road, that I was being watched.  If I made
+as if to walk into the roadside bush there would be a faint
+rustling, which told that the watcher had retired.  The stalking
+was brilliantly done, for I never caught a glimpse of one of the
+stalkers.  Wherever I went - on the road, on the meadows of
+the plateau, or on the rugged sides of the Berg - it was the
+same.  I had silent followers, who betrayed themselves now and
+then by the crackling of a branch, and eyes were always looking
+at me which I could not see.  Only when I went down to the
+plains did the espionage cease.  This thing annoyed Colin
+desperately, and his walks abroad were one continuous growl.
+Once, in spite of my efforts, he dashed into the thicket, and a
+squeal of pain followed.  He had got somebody by the leg, and
+there was blood on the grass.
+
+Since I came to Blaauwildebeestefontein I had forgotten the
+mystery I had set out to track in the excitement of a new life
+and my sordid contest with Japp.  But now this espionage
+brought back my old preoccupation.  I was being watched
+because some person or persons thought that I was dangerous.
+My suspicions fastened on Japp, but I soon gave up that clue.
+It was my presence in the store that was a danger to him, not
+my wanderings about the countryside.  It might be that he had
+engineered the espionage so as to drive me out of the place in
+sheer annoyance; but I flattered myself that Mr Japp knew me
+too well to imagine that such a game was likely to succeed.
+
+The mischief was that I could not make out who the trackers
+were.  I had visited all the surrounding locations, and was on
+good enough terms with all the chiefs.  There was 'Mpefu, a
+dingy old fellow who had spent a good deal of his life in a Boer
+gaol before the war.  There was a mission station at his place,
+and his people seemed to me to be well behaved and prosperous.
+Majinje was a chieftainess, a little girl whom nobody was
+allowed to see.  Her location was a miserable affair, and her
+tribe was yearly shrinking in numbers.  Then there was Magata
+farther north among the mountains.  He had no quarrel with
+me, for he used to give me a meal when I went out hunting in
+that direction; and once he turned out a hundred of his young
+men, and I had a great battue of wild dogs.  Sikitola, the
+biggest of all, lived some distance out in the flats.  I knew less
+about him; but if his men were the trackers, they must have
+spent most of their days a weary way from their kraal.  The
+Kaffirs in the huts at Blaauwildebeestefontein were mostly
+Christians, and quiet, decent fellows, who farmed their little
+gardens, and certainly preferred me to Japp.  I thought at one
+time of riding into Pietersdorp to consult the Native
+Commissioner.  But I discovered that the old man, who knew the
+country, was gone, and that his successor was a young fellow
+from Rhodesia, who knew nothing about anything.  Besides,
+the natives round Blaauwildebeestefontein were well conducted,
+and received few official visitations.  Now and then a
+couple of Zulu policemen passed in pursuit of some minor
+malefactor, and the collector came for the hut-tax; but we gave
+the Government little work, and they did not trouble their
+heads about us.
+
+As I have said, the clues I had brought out with me to
+Blaauwildebeestefontein began to occupy my mind again; and
+the more I thought of the business the keener I grew.  I used
+to amuse myself with setting out my various bits of knowledge.
+There was first of all the Rev.  John Laputa, his doings on the
+Kirkcaple shore, his talk with Henriques about
+Blaauwildebeestefontein, and his strange behaviour at Durban.
+Then there was what Colles had told me about the place being
+queer, how nobody would stay long either in the store or the
+schoolhouse.  Then there was my talk with Aitken at Lourenco
+Marques, and his story of a great wizard in the neighbourhood
+to whom all Kaffirs made pilgrimages, and the suspicion of a
+diamond pipe.  Last and most important, there was this
+perpetual spying on myself.  It was as clear as daylight that the
+place held some secret, and I wondered if old Japp knew.  I
+was fool enough one day to ask him about diamonds.  He met
+me with contemptuous laughter.  'There's your ignorant Britisher,'
+he cried.  'If you had ever been to Kimberley you would
+know the look of a diamond country.  You're as likely to find
+diamonds here as ocean pearls.  But go out and scrape in the
+spruit if you like; you'll maybe find some garnets.'
+
+I made cautious inquiries, too, chiefly through Mr Wardlaw,
+who was becoming a great expert at Kaffir, about the existence
+of Aitken's wizard, but he could get no news.  The most he
+found out was that there was a good cure for fever among
+Sikitola's men, and that Majinje, if she pleased, could
+bring rain.
+
+The upshot of it all was that, after much brooding, I wrote
+a letter to Mr Colles, and, to make sure of its going, gave it to
+a missionary to post in Pietersdorp.  I told him frankly what
+Aitken had said, and I also told him about the espionage.  I
+said nothing about old Japp, for, beast as he was, I did not
+want him at his age to be without a livelihood.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+MY JOURNEY TO THE WINTER-VELD
+
+
+A reply came from Colles, addressed not to me but to Japp.
+It seemed that the old fellow had once suggested the establishment
+of a branch store at a place out in the plains called
+Umvelos', and the firm was now prepared to take up the
+scheme.  Japp was in high good humour, and showed me the
+letter.  Not a word was said of what I had written about, only
+the bare details about starting the branch.  I was to get a couple
+of masons, load up two wagons with bricks and timber, and go
+down to Umvelos' and see the store built.  The stocking of it
+and the appointment of a storekeeper would be matter for
+further correspondence.  Japp was delighted, for, besides getting
+rid of me for several weeks, it showed that his advice was
+respected by his superiors.  He went about bragging that the
+firm could not get on without him, and was inclined to be
+more insolent to me than usual in his new self-esteem.  He also
+got royally drunk over the head of it.
+
+I confess I was hurt by the manager's silence on what
+seemed to me more vital matters.  But I soon reflected that if
+he wrote at all he would write direct to me, and I eagerly
+watched for the post-runner.  No letter came, however, and I
+was soon too busy with preparations to look for one.  I got the
+bricks and timber from Pietersdorp, and hired two Dutch
+masons to run the job.  The place was not very far from
+Sikitola's kraal, so there would be no difficulty about native
+helpers.  Having my eyes open for trade, I resolved to kill two
+birds with one stone.  It was the fashion among the old-
+fashioned farmers on the high-veld to drive the cattle down
+into the bush-veld - which they call the winter-veld - for
+winter pasture.  There is no fear of red-water about that
+season, and the grass of the plains is rich and thick compared
+with the uplands.  I discovered that some big droves were
+passing on a certain day, and that the owners and their families
+were travelling with them in wagons.  Accordingly I had a light
+naachtmaal fitted up as a sort of travelling store, and with
+my two wagons full of building material joined the caravan.  I
+hoped to do good trade in selling little luxuries to the farmers
+on the road and at Umvelos'.
+
+It was a clear cold morning when we started down the Berg.
+At first my hands were full with the job of getting my heavy
+wagons down the awesome precipice which did duty as a
+highway.  We locked the wheels with chains, and tied great logs
+of wood behind to act as brakes.  Happily my drivers knew
+their business, but one of the Boer wagons got a wheel over
+the edge, and it was all that ten men could do to get it
+back again.
+
+After that the road was easier, winding down the side of a
+slowly opening glen.  I rode beside the wagons, and so heavenly
+was the weather that I was content with my own thoughts.
+The sky was clear blue, the air warm, yet with a wintry tonic
+in it, and a thousand aromatic scents came out of the thickets.
+The pied birds called 'Kaffir queens' fluttered across the path.
+Below, the Klein Labongo churned and foamed in a hundred
+cascades.  Its waters were no more the clear grey of the 'Blue
+Wildebeeste's Spring,' but growing muddy with its approach
+to the richer soil of the plains.
+
+Oxen travel slow, and we outspanned that night half a day's
+march short of Umvelos'.  I spent the hour before sunset
+lounging and smoking with the Dutch farmers.  At first they
+had been silent and suspicious of a newcomer, but by this time
+I talked their taal fluently, and we were soon on good terms.
+I recall a discussion arising about a black thing in a tree about
+five hundred yards away.  I thought it was an aasvogel, but
+another thought it was a baboon.  Whereupon the oldest of the
+party, a farmer called Coetzee, whipped up his rifle and,
+apparently without sighting, fired.  A dark object fell out of the
+branch, and when we reached it we found it a baviaan* sure
+enough, shot through the head.  'Which side are you on in the
+next war?' the old man asked me, and, laughing, I told
+him 'Yours.'
+          *Baboon.
+After supper, the ingredients of which came largely from my
+naachtmaal, we sat smoking and talking round the fire, the
+women and children being snug in the covered wagons.  The
+Boers were honest companionable fellows, and when I had
+made a bowl of toddy in the Scotch fashion to keep out the
+evening chill, we all became excellent friends.  They asked me
+how I got on with Japp.  Old Coetzee saved me the trouble of
+answering, for he broke in with Skellum!  Skellum!*  I asked
+him his objection to the storekeeper, but he would say nothing
+beyond that he was too thick with the natives.  I fancy at some
+time Mr Japp had sold him a bad plough.
+          *Schelm: Rascal.
+
+We spoke of hunting, and I heard long tales of exploits -
+away on the Limpopo, in Mashonaland, on the Sabi and in the
+Lebombo.  Then we verged on politics, and I listened to
+violent denunciations of the new land tax.  These were old
+residenters, I reflected, and I might learn perhaps something
+of value.  So very carefully I repeated a tale I said I had heard
+at Durban of a great wizard somewhere in the Berg, and asked
+if any one knew of it.  They shook their heads.  The natives had
+given up witchcraft and big medicine, they said, and were
+more afraid of a parson or a policeman than any witch-doctor.
+Then they were starting on reminiscences, when old Coetzee,
+who was deaf, broke in and asked to have my question repeated.
+
+'Yes,' he said, 'I know.  It is in the Rooirand.  There is a
+devil dwells there.'
+
+I could get no more out of him beyond the fact that there
+was certainly a great devil there.  His grandfather and father
+had seen it, and he himself had heard it roaring when he had
+gone there as a boy to hunt.  He would explain no further, and
+went to bed.
+
+Next morning, close to Sikitola's kraal, I bade the farmers
+good-bye, after telling them that there would be a store in my
+wagon for three weeks at Umvelos' if they wanted supplies.
+We then struck more to the north towards our destination.  As
+soon as they had gone I had out my map and searched it for
+the name old Coetzee had mentioned.  It was a very bad map,
+for there had been no surveying east of the Berg, and most of
+the names were mere guesses.  But I found the word 'Rooirand'
+marking an eastern continuation of the northern wall, and
+probably set down from some hunter's report.  I had better
+explain here the chief features of the country, for they bulk
+largely in my story.  The Berg runs north and south, and from
+it run the chief streams which water the plain.  They are,
+beginning from the south, the Olifants, the Groot Letaba, the
+Letsitela, the Klein Letaba, and the Klein Labongo, on which
+stands Blaauwildebeestefontein.  But the greatest river of the
+plain, into which the others ultimately flow, is the Groot
+Labongo, which appears full-born from some subterranean
+source close to the place called Umvelos'.  North from
+Blaauwildebeestefontein the Berg runs for some twenty miles, and
+then makes a sharp turn eastward, becoming, according to my
+map, the Rooirand.
+
+I pored over these details, and was particularly curious about
+the Great Labongo.  It seemed to me unlikely that a spring in
+the bush could produce so great a river, and I decided that its
+source must lie in the mountains to the north.  As well as I
+could guess, the Rooirand, the nearest part of the Berg, was
+about thirty miles distant.  Old Coetzee had said that there was
+a devil in the place, but I thought that if it were explored the
+first thing found would be a fine stream of water.
+
+We got to Umvelos' after midday, and outspanned for our
+three weeks' work.  I set the Dutchmen to unload and clear the
+ground for foundations, while I went off to Sikitola to ask for
+labourers.  I got a dozen lusty blacks, and soon we had a
+business-like encampment, and the work went on merrily.  It
+was rough architecture and rougher masonry.  All we aimed at
+was a two-roomed shop with a kind of outhouse for stores.  I
+was architect, and watched the marking out of the foundations
+and the first few feet of the walls.  Sikitola's people proved
+themselves good helpers, and most of the building was left to
+them, while the Dutchmen worked at the carpentry.  Bricks
+ran short before we got very far, and we had to set to brick-
+making on the bank of the Labongo, and finish off the walls
+with green bricks, which gave the place a queer piebald look.
+
+I was not much of a carpenter, and there were plenty of
+builders without me, so I found a considerable amount of time
+on my hands.  At first I acted as shopkeeper in the naachtmaal,
+but I soon cleared out my stores to the Dutch farmers and the
+natives.  I had thought of going back for more, and then it
+occurred to me that I might profitably give some of my leisure
+to the Rooirand.  I could see the wall of the mountains quite
+clear to the north, within an easy day's ride.  So one morning I
+packed enough food for a day or two, tied my sleeping-bag on
+my saddle, and set off to explore, after appointing the elder of
+the Dutchmen foreman of the job in my absence.
+
+It was very hot jogging along the native path with the eternal
+olive-green bush around me.  Happily there was no fear of
+losing the way, for the Rooirand stood very clear in front, and
+slowly, as I advanced, I began to make out the details of the
+cliffs.  At luncheon-time, when I was about half-way, I sat
+down with my Zeiss glass - my mother's farewell gift - to look
+for the valley.  But valley I saw none.  The wall - reddish
+purple it looked, and, I thought, of porphyry - was continuous
+and unbroken.  There were chimneys and fissures, but none
+great enough to hold a river.  The top was sheer cliff; then
+came loose kranzes in tiers, like the seats in a gallery, and,
+below, a dense thicket of trees.  I raked the whole line for a
+break, but there seemed none.  'It's a bad job for me,' I
+thought, 'if there is no water, for I must pass the night there.'
+The night was spent in a sheltered nook at the foot of the
+rocks, but my horse and I went to bed without a drink.  My
+supper was some raisins and biscuits, for I did not dare to run
+the risk of increasing my thirst.  I had found a great bank of
+debris sloping up to the kranzes, and thick wood clothing all
+the slope.  The grass seemed wonderfully fresh, but of water
+there was no sign.  There was not even the sandy channel of a
+stream to dig in.
+
+In the morning I had a difficult problem to face.  Water I
+must find at all costs, or I must go home.  There was time
+enough for me to get back without suffering much, but if so I
+must give up my explorations.  This I was determined not to
+do.  The more I looked at these red cliffs the more eager I was
+to find out their secret.  There must be water somewhere;
+otherwise how account for the lushness of the vegetation?
+
+My horse was a veld pony, so I set him loose to see what he
+would do.  He strayed back on the path to Umvelos'.  This
+looked bad, for it meant that he did not smell water along the
+cliff front.  If I was to find a stream it must be on the top, and
+I must try a little mountaineering.
+
+Then, taking my courage in both my hands, I decided.  I
+gave my pony a cut, and set him off on the homeward road.  I
+knew he was safe to get back in four or five hours, and in broad
+day there was little fear of wild beasts attacking him.  I had tied
+my sleeping bag on to the saddle, and had with me but two
+pocketfuls of food.  I had also fastened on the saddle a letter to
+my Dutch foreman, bidding him send a native with a spare
+horse to fetch me by the evening.  Then I started off to look
+for a chimney.
+
+A boyhood spent on the cliffs at Kirkcaple had made me a
+bold cragsman, and the porphyry of the Rooirand clearly gave
+excellent holds.  But I walked many weary miles along the cliff-
+foot before I found a feasible road.  To begin with, it was no
+light task to fight one's way through the dense undergrowth of
+the lower slopes.  Every kind of thorn-bush lay in wait for my
+skin, creepers tripped me up, high trees shut out the light, and
+I was in constant fear lest a black mamba might appear out of
+the tangle.  It grew very hot, and the screes above the thicket
+were blistering to the touch.  My tongue, too, stuck to the roof
+of my mouth with thirst.
+
+The first chimney I tried ran out on the face into
+nothingness, and I had to make a dangerous descent.  The second
+was a deep gully, but so choked with rubble that after nearly
+braining myself I desisted.  Still going eastwards, I found a
+sloping ledge which took me to a platform from which ran a
+crack with a little tree growing in it.  My glass showed me that
+beyond this tree the crack broadened into a clearly defined
+chimney which led to the top.  If I can once reach that tree, I
+thought, the battle is won.
+The crack was only a few inches wide, large enough to let in
+an arm and a foot, and it ran slantwise up a perpendicular
+rock.  I do not think I realized how bad it was till I had gone
+too far to return.  Then my foot jammed, and I paused for
+breath with my legs and arms cramping rapidly.  I remember
+that I looked to the west, and saw through the sweat which
+kept dropping into my eyes that about half a mile off a piece of
+cliff which looked unbroken from the foot had a fold in it to
+the right.  The darkness of the fold showed me that it was a
+deep, narrow gully.  However, I had no time to think of this,
+for I was fast in the middle of my confounded crack.  With
+immense labour I found a chockstone above my head, and
+managed to force my foot free.  The next few yards were not so
+difficult, and then I stuck once more.
+
+For the crack suddenly grew shallow as the cliff bulged out
+above me.  I had almost given up hope, when I saw that about
+three feet above my head grew the tree.  If I could reach it and
+swing out I might hope to pull myself up to the ledge on which
+it grew.  I confess it needed all my courage, for I did not know
+but that the tree might be loose, and that it and I might go
+rattling down four hundred feet.  It was my only hope,
+however, so I set my teeth, and wriggling up a few inches,
+made a grab at it.  Thank God it held, and with a great effort I
+pulled my shoulder over the ledge, and breathed freely.
+
+My difficulties were not ended, but the worst was past.  The
+rest of the gully gave me good and safe climbing, and presently
+a very limp and weary figure lay on the cliff-top.  It took me
+many minutes to get back my breath and to conquer the
+faintness which seized me as soon as the need for exertion
+was over.
+
+When I scrambled to my feet and looked round, I saw a
+wonderful prospect.  It was a plateau like the high-veld, only
+covered with bracken and little bushes like hazels.  Three or
+four miles off the ground rose, and a shallow vale opened.  But
+in the foreground, half a mile or so distant, a lake lay gleaming
+in the sun.
+
+I could scarcely believe my eyes as I ran towards it, and
+doubts of a mirage haunted me.  But it was no mirage, but a
+real lake, perhaps three miles in circumference, with bracken-
+fringed banks, a shore of white pebbles, and clear deep blue
+water.  I drank my fill, and then stripped and swam in the
+blessed coolness.  After that I ate some luncheon, and sunned
+myself on a flat rock.  'I have discovered the source of the
+Labongo,' I said to myself.  'I will write to the Royal
+Geographical Society, and they will give me a medal.'
+
+I walked round the lake to look for an outlet.  A fine
+mountain stream came in at the north end, and at the south
+end, sure enough, a considerable river debauched.  My exploring
+zeal redoubled, and I followed its course in a delirium of
+expectation.  It was a noble stream, clear as crystal, and very
+unlike the muddy tropical Labongo at Umvelos'.  Suddenly,
+about a quarter of a mile from the lake, the land seemed to
+grow over it, and with a swirl and a hollow roar, it disappeared
+into a mighty pot-hole.  I walked a few steps on, and from
+below my feet came the most uncanny rumbling and groaning.
+Then I knew what old Coetzee's devil was that howled in
+the Rooirand.
+
+Had I continued my walk to the edge of the cliff, I might
+have learned a secret which would have stood me in good stead
+later.  But the descent began to make me anxious, and I
+retraced my steps to the top of the chimney whence I had
+come.  I was resolved that nothing would make me descend by
+that awesome crack, so I kept on eastward along the top to
+look for a better way.  I found one about a mile farther on,
+which, though far from easy, had no special risks save from
+the appalling looseness of the debris.  When I got down at
+length, I found that it was near sunset.  I went to the place I
+had bidden my native look for me at, but, as I had feared,
+there was no sign of him.  So, making the best of a bad job, I
+had supper and a pipe, and spent a very chilly night in a hole
+among the boulders.
+
+I got up at dawn stiff and cold, and ate a few raisins for
+breakfast.  There was no sign of horses, so I resolved to fill up
+the time in looking for the fold of the cliff which, as I had seen
+from the horrible crack of yesterday, contained a gully.  It was
+a difficult job, for to get the sidelong view of the cliff I had to
+scramble through the undergrowth of the slopes again, and
+even a certain way up the kranzes.  At length I got my bearings,
+and fixed the place by some tall trees in the bush.  Then I
+descended and walked westwards.
+
+Suddenly, as I neared the place, I heard the strangest sound
+coming from the rocks.  It was a deep muffled groaning, so
+eerie and unearthly that for the moment I stood and shivered.
+Then I remembered my river of yesterday.  It must be above
+this place that it descended into the earth, and in the hush of
+dawn the sound was naturally louder.  No wonder old Coetzee had
+been afraid of devils.  It reminded me of the lines in Marmion -
+
+     'Diving as if condemned to lave
+     Some demon's subterranean cave,
+     Who, prisoned by enchanter's spell,
+     Shakes the dark rock with groan and yell.'
+
+While I was standing awestruck at the sound, I observed a
+figure moving towards the cliffs.  I was well in cover, so I could
+not have been noticed.  It was a very old man, very tall, but
+bowed in the shoulders, who was walking slowly with bent
+head.  He could not have been thirty yards from me, so I had a
+clear view of his face.  He was a native, but of a type I had
+never seen before.  A long white beard fell on his breast, and a
+magnificent kaross of leopard skin covered his shoulders.  His
+face was seamed and lined and shrunken, so that he seemed as
+old as Time itself.
+
+Very carefully I crept after him, and found myself opposite
+the fold where the gully was.  There was a clear path through
+the jungle, a path worn smooth by many feet.  I followed it
+through the undergrowth and over the screes till it turned
+inside the fold of the gully.  And then it stopped short.  I was
+in a deep cleft, but in front was a slab of sheer rock.  Above,
+the gully looked darker and deeper, but there was this great
+slab to pass.  I examined the sides, but they were sheer rock
+with no openings.
+
+Had I had my wits about me, I would have gone back and
+followed the spoor, noting where it stopped.  But the whole
+thing looked black magic to me; my stomach was empty and
+my enterprise small.  Besides, there was the terrible moaning
+of the imprisoned river in my ears.  I am ashamed to confess it,
+but I ran from that gully as if the devil and all his angels had
+been following me.  Indeed, I did not slacken till I had put a
+good mile between me and those uncanny cliffs.  After that I
+set out to foot it back.  If the horses would not come to me I
+must go to them.
+
+I walked twenty-five miles in a vile temper, enraged at my
+Dutchmen, my natives, and everybody.  The truth is, I had
+been frightened, and my pride was sore about it.  It grew very
+hot, the sand rose and choked me, the mopani trees with their
+dull green wearied me, the 'Kaffir queens' and jays and rollers
+which flew about the path seemed to be there to mock me.
+About half-way home I found a boy and two horses, and
+roundly I cursed him.  It seemed that my pony had returned
+right enough, and the boy had been sent to fetch me.  He had
+got half-way before sunset the night before, and there he had
+stayed.  I discovered from him that he was scared to death, and
+did not dare go any nearer the Rooirand.  It was accursed, he
+said, for it was an abode of devils, and only wizards went near
+it.  I was bound to admit to myself that I could not blame him.
+At last I had got on the track of something certain about this
+mysterious country, and all the way back I wondered if I
+should have the courage to follow it up.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+MR WARDLAW HAS A PREMONITION
+
+
+
+A week later the building job was finished, I locked the door
+of the new store, pocketed the key, and we set out for home.
+Sikitola was entrusted with the general care of it, and I knew
+him well enough to be sure that he would keep his people from
+doing mischief.  I left my empty wagons to follow at their
+leisure and rode on, with the result that I arrived at
+Blaauwildebeestefontein two days before I was looked for.
+
+I stabled my horse, and went round to the back to see Colin.
+(I had left him at home in case of fights with native dogs, for
+he was an ill beast in a crowd.) I found him well and hearty,
+for Zeeta had been looking after him.  Then some whim seized
+me to enter the store through my bedroom window.  It was
+open, and I crawled softly in to find the room fresh and clean
+from Zeeta's care.  The door was ajar, and, hearing voices, I
+peeped into the shop.
+
+Japp was sitting on the counter talking in a low voice to a big
+native - the same 'Mwanga whom I had bundled out
+unceremoniously.  I noticed that the outer door giving on the
+road was shut, a most unusual thing in the afternoon.  Japp had
+some small objects in his hand, and the two were evidently arguing
+about a price.  I had no intention at first of eavesdropping,
+and was just about to push the door open, when
+something in Japp's face arrested me.  He was up to no good,
+and I thought it my business to wait.
+
+The low tones went on for a little, both men talking in
+Kaffir, and then Japp lifted up one of the little objects between
+finger and thumb.  It was a small roundish stone about the size of
+a bean, but even in that half light there was a dull lustre in it.
+
+At that I shoved the door open and went in.  Both men
+started as if they had been shot.  Japp went as white as his
+mottled face permitted.  'What the -' he gasped, and he
+dropped the thing he was holding.
+
+I picked it up, and laid it on the counter.  'So,' I said,
+'diamonds, Mr Japp.  You have found the pipe I was looking
+for.  I congratulate you.'
+
+My words gave the old ruffian his cue.  'Yes, yes,' he said, 'I
+have, or rather my friend 'Mwanga has.  He has just been
+telling me about it.'
+
+The Kaffir looked miserably uncomfortable.  He shifted from
+one leg to the other, casting longing glances at the closed door.
+
+'I tink I go,' he said.  'Afterwards we will speak more.'
+
+I told him I thought he had better go, and opened the door
+for him.  Then I bolted it again, and turned to Mr Japp.
+
+'So that's your game,' I said.  'I thought there was something
+funny about you, but I didn't know it was I.D.B. you were up to.'
+
+He looked as if he could kill me.  For five minutes he cursed
+me with a perfection of phrase which I had thought beyond
+him.  It was no I.D.B., he declared, but a pipe which 'Mwanga
+had discovered.
+'In this kind of country?' I said, quoting his own words.
+'Why, you might as well expect to find ocean pearls as
+diamonds.  But scrape in the spruit if you like; you'll maybe
+find some garnets.'
+
+He choked down his wrath, and tried a new tack.  'What will
+you take to hold your tongue?  I'll make you a rich man if you'll
+come in with me.'  And then he started with offers which
+showed that he had been making a good thing out of the traffic.
+
+I stalked over to him, and took him by the shoulder.  'You
+old reprobate,' I roared, 'if you breathe such a proposal to me
+again, I'll tie you up like a sack and carry you to Pietersdorp.'
+
+At this he broke down and wept maudlin tears, disgusting
+to witness.  He said he was an old man who had always lived
+honestly, and it would break his heart if his grey hairs were to
+be disgraced.  As he sat rocking himself with his hands over his
+face, I saw his wicked little eyes peering through the slits of
+his fingers to see what my next move would be.
+
+'See here, Mr Japp,' I said, 'I'm not a police spy, and it's no
+business of mine to inform against you.  I'm willing to keep
+you out of gaol, but it must be on my own conditions.  The
+first is that you resign this job and clear out.  You will write to
+Mr Colles a letter at my dictation, saying that you find the
+work too much for you.  The second is that for the time you
+remain here the diamond business must utterly cease.  If
+'Mwanga or anybody like him comes inside the store, and if I
+get the slightest hint that you're back at the trade, in you go to
+Pietersdorp.  I'm not going to have my name disgraced by
+being associated with you.  The third condition is that when
+you leave this place you go clear away.  If you come within
+twenty miles of Blaauwildebeestefontein and I find you, I will
+give you up.'
+
+He groaned and writhed at my terms, but in the end
+accepted them.  He wrote the letter, and I posted it.  I had no
+pity for the old scamp, who had feathered his nest well.  Small
+wonder that the firm's business was not as good as it might be,
+when Japp was giving most of his time to buying diamonds
+from native thieves.  The secret put him in the power of any
+Kaffir who traded him a stone.  No wonder he cringed to
+ruffians like 'Mwanga.
+
+The second thing I did was to shift my quarters.  Mr
+Wardlaw had a spare room which he had offered me before,
+and now I accepted it.  I wanted to be no more mixed up with
+Japp than I could help, for I did not know what villainy he
+might let me in for.  Moreover, I carried Zeeta with me, being
+ashamed to leave her at the mercy of the old bully.  Japp went
+up to the huts and hired a slattern to mind his house, and then
+drank heavily for three days to console himself.
+
+That night I sat smoking with Mr Wardlaw in his sitting-
+room, where a welcome fire burned, for the nights on the Berg
+were chilly.  I remember the occasion well for the queer turn
+the conversation took.  Wardlaw, as I have said, had been
+working like a slave at the Kaffir tongues.  I talked a kind of
+Zulu well enough to make myself understood, and I could
+follow it when spoken; but he had real scholarship in the thing,
+and knew all about the grammar and the different dialects.
+Further, he had read a lot about native history, and was full of
+the doings of Tchaka and Mosilikatse and Moshesh, and the
+kings of old.  Having little to do in the way of teaching, he had
+made up for it by reading omnivorously.  He used to borrow
+books from the missionaries, and he must have spent half his
+salary in buying new ones.
+
+To-night as he sat and puffed in his armchair, he was full of
+stories about a fellow called Monomotapa.  It seems he was a
+great black emperor whom the Portuguese discovered about
+the sixteenth century.  He lived to the north in Mashonaland,
+and had a mountain full of gold.  The Portuguese did not make
+much of him, but they got his son and turned him into a priest.
+
+I told Wardlaw that he was most likely only a petty chief,
+whose exploits were magnified by distance, the same as the
+caciques in Mexico.  But the schoolmaster would not accept this.
+
+'He must have been a big man, Davie.  You know that the
+old ruins in Rhodesia, called Zimbabwe, were long believed
+to be Phoenician in origin.  I have a book here which tells all
+about them.  But now it is believed that they were built by
+natives.  I maintain that the men who could erect piles like
+that' - and he showed me a picture - 'were something more
+than petty chiefs.'
+
+Presently the object of this conversation appeared.  Mr
+Wardlaw thought that we were underrating the capacity of the
+native.  This opinion was natural enough in a schoolmaster,
+but not in the precise form Wardlaw put it.  It was not
+his intelligence which he thought we underrated, but his
+dangerousness.  His reasons, shortly, were these: There were five
+or six of them to every white man; they were all, roughly
+speaking, of the same stock, with the same tribal beliefs; they
+had only just ceased being a warrior race, with a powerful
+military discipline; and, most important, they lived round the
+rim of the high-veld plateau, and if they combined could cut
+off the white man from the sea.  I pointed out to him that it
+would only be a matter of time before we opened the road
+again.  'Ay,' he said, 'but think of what would happen before
+then.  Think of the lonely farms and the little dorps wiped out
+of the map.  It would be a second and bloodier Indian mutiny.
+'I'm not saying it's likely,' he went on, 'but I maintain it's
+possible.  Supposing a second Tchaka turned up, who could
+get the different tribes to work together.  It wouldn't be so very
+hard to smuggle in arms.  Think of the long, unwatched coast
+in Gazaland and Tongaland.  If they got a leader with prestige
+enough to organize a crusade against the white man, I don't
+see what could prevent a rising.'
+
+'We should get wind of it in time to crush it at the start,'
+I said.
+
+'I'm not so sure.  They are cunning fellows, and have arts
+that we know nothing about.  You have heard of native
+telepathy.  They can send news over a thousand miles as quick
+as the telegraph, and we have no means of tapping the wires.
+If they ever combined they could keep it as secret as the grave.
+My houseboy might be in the rising, and I would never suspect
+it till one fine morning he cut my throat.'
+
+'But they would never find a leader.  If there was some exiled
+prince of Tchaka's blood, who came back like Prince Charlie
+to free his people, there might be danger; but their royalties
+are fat men with top hats and old frock-coats, who live in
+dirty locations.'
+
+Wardlaw admitted this, but said that there might be other
+kinds of leaders.  He had been reading a lot about Ethiopianism,
+which educated American negroes had been trying to
+preach in South Africa.  He did not see why a kind of bastard
+Christianity should not be the motive of a rising.  'The Kaffir
+finds it an easy job to mix up Christian emotion and pagan
+practice.  Look at Hayti and some of the performances in the
+Southern States.'
+
+Then he shook the ashes out of his pipe and leaned forward
+with a solemn face.  'I'll admit the truth to you, Davie.  I'm
+black afraid.'
+
+He looked so earnest and serious sitting there with his short-
+sighted eyes peering at me that I could not help being impressed.
+
+'Whatever is the matter?' I asked.  'Has anything happened?'
+
+He shook his head.  'Nothing I can put a name to.  But I have
+a presentiment that some mischief is afoot in these hills.  I feel
+it in my bones.'
+
+I confess I was startled by these words.  You must remember
+that I had never given a hint of my suspicions to Mr Wardlaw
+beyond asking him if a wizard lived in the neighbourhood - a
+question anybody might have put.  But here was the schoolmaster
+discovering for himself some mystery in Blaauwildebeestefontein.
+
+I tried to get at his evidence, but it was very little.  He
+thought there were an awful lot of blacks about.  'The woods
+are full of them,' he said.  I gathered he did not imagine he was
+being spied on, but merely felt that there were more natives
+about than could be explained.
+'There's another thing,' he said.  'The native bairns have all
+left the school.  I've only three scholars left, and they are from
+Dutch farms.  I went to Majinje to find out what was up, and
+an old crone told me the place was full of bad men.  I tell you,
+Davie, there's something brewing, and that something is not
+good for us.'
+
+There was nothing new to me in what Wardlaw had to tell,
+and yet that talk late at night by a dying fire made me feel
+afraid for the second time since I had come to
+Blaauwildebeestefontein.  I had a clue and had been on the look-out
+for mysteries, but that another should feel the strangeness for
+himself made it seem desperately real to me.  Of course I
+scoffed at Mr Wardlaw's fears.  I could not have him spoiling
+all my plans by crying up a native rising for which he had not
+a scrap of evidence.
+
+'Have you been writing to anybody?' I asked him.
+
+He said that he had told no one, but he meant to, unless
+things got better.  'I haven't the nerve for this job, Davie,' he
+said; 'I'll have to resign.  And it's a pity, for the place suits my
+health fine.  You see I know too much, and I haven't your
+whinstone nerve and total lack of imagination.'
+
+I told him that it was simply fancy, and came from reading
+too many books and taking too little exercise.  But I made him
+promise to say nothing to anybody either by word of mouth or
+letter, without telling me first.  Then I made him a rummer
+of toddy and sent him to bed a trifle comforted.
+
+The first thing I did in my new room was to shift the bed
+into the corner out of line with the window.  There were no
+shutters, so I put up an old table-top and jammed it between
+the window frames.  Also, I loaded my shot-gun and kept it by
+my bedside.  Had Wardlaw seen these preparations he might
+have thought more of my imagination and less of my nerve.  It
+was a real comfort to me to put out a hand in the darkness and
+feel Colin's shaggy coat.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+THE DRUMS BEAT AT SUNSET
+
+
+japp was drunk for the next day or two, and I had the business
+of the store to myself.  I was glad of this, for it gave me leisure
+to reflect upon the various perplexities of my situation.  As I
+have said, I was really scared, more out of a sense of impotence
+than from dread of actual danger.  I was in a fog of uncertainty.
+Things were happening around me which I could only dimly
+guess at, and I had no power to take one step in defence.  That
+Wardlaw should have felt the same without any hint from me
+was the final proof that the mystery was no figment of my
+nerves.  I had written to Colles and got no answer.  Now the
+letter with Japp's resignation in it had gone to Durban.  Surely
+some notice would be taken of that.  If I was given the post,
+Colles was bound to consider what I had said in my earlier
+letter and give me some directions.  Meanwhile it was my
+business to stick to my job till I was relieved.
+
+A change had come over the place during my absence.  The
+natives had almost disappeared from sight.  Except the few
+families living round Blaauwildebeestefontein one never saw a
+native on the roads, and none came into the store.  They were
+sticking close to their locations, or else they had gone after
+some distant business.  Except a batch of three Shangaans
+returning from the Rand, I had nobody in the store for the
+whole of one day.  So about four o'clock I shut it up, whistled
+on Colin, and went for a walk along the Berg.
+
+If there were no natives on the road, there were plenty in
+the bush.  I had the impression, of which Wardlaw had spoken,
+that the native population of the countryside had suddenly
+been hugely increased.  The woods were simply hotching with
+them.  I was being spied on as before, but now there were so
+many at the business that they could not all conceal their
+tracks.  Every now and then I had a glimpse of a black shoulder
+or leg, and Colin, whom I kept on the leash, was half-mad
+with excitement.  I had seen all I wanted, and went home with
+a preoccupied mind.  I sat long on Wardlaw's garden-seat,
+trying to puzzle out the truth of this spying.
+
+What perplexed me was that I had been left unmolested
+when I had gone to Umvelos'.  Now, as I conjectured, the
+secret of the neighbourhood, whatever it was, was probably
+connected with the Rooirand.  But when I had ridden in that
+direction and had spent two days in exploring, no one had
+troubled to watch me.  I was quite certain about this, for my
+eye had grown quick to note espionage, and it is harder for a
+spy to hide in the spare bush of the flats than in the dense
+thickets on these uplands.
+
+The watchers, then, did not mind my fossicking round
+their sacred place.  Why, then, was I so closely watched in the
+harmless neighbourhood of the store?  I thought for a long time
+before an answer occurred to me.  The reason must be that
+going to the plains I was going into native country and away
+from civilization.  But Blaauwildebeestefontein was near the
+frontier.  There must be some dark business brewing of which
+they may have feared that I had an inkling.  They wanted to
+see if I proposed to go to Pietersdorp or Wesselsburg and tell
+what I knew, and they clearly were resolved that I should not.
+I laughed, I remember, thinking that they had forgotten the
+post-bag.  But then I reflected that I knew nothing of what
+might be happening daily to the post-bag.
+
+When I had reached this conclusion, my first impulse was to
+test it by riding straight west on the main road.  If I was right,
+I should certainly be stopped.  On second thoughts, however,
+this seemed to me to be flinging up the game prematurely, and
+I resolved to wait a day or two before acting.
+
+Next day nothing happened, save that my sense of loneliness
+increased.  I felt that I was being hemmed in by barbarism,
+and cut off in a ghoulish land from the succour of my own
+kind.  I only kept my courage up by the necessity of presenting
+a brave face to Mr Wardlaw, who was by this time in a very
+broken condition of nerves.  I had often thought that it was my
+duty to advise him to leave, and to see him safely off, but I
+shrank from severing myself from my only friend.  I thought,
+too, of the few Dutch farmers within riding distance, and had
+half a mind to visit them, but they were far off over the plateau
+and could know little of my anxieties.
+
+The third day events moved faster.  Japp was sober and
+wonderfully quiet.  He gave me good-morning quite in a
+friendly tone, and set to posting up the books as if he had
+never misbehaved in his days.  I was so busy with my thoughts
+that I, too, must have been gentler than usual, and the morning
+passed like a honeymoon, till I went across to dinner.
+
+I was just sitting down when I remembered that I had left
+my watch in my waistcoat behind the counter, and started to
+go back for it.  But at the door I stopped short.  For two
+horsemen had drawn up before the store.
+
+One was a native with what I took to be saddle-bags; the
+other was a small slim man with a sun helmet, who was slowly
+dismounting.  Something in the cut of his jib struck me as
+familiar.  I slipped into the empty schoolroom and stared hard.
+Then, as he half-turned in handing his bridle to the Kaffir, I
+got a sight of his face.  It was my former shipmate, Henriques.
+He said something to his companion, and entered the store.
+
+You may imagine that my curiosity ran to fever-heat.  My
+first impulse was to march over for my waistcoat, and make a
+third with Japp at the interview.  Happily I reflected in time
+that Henriques knew my face, for I had grown no beard,
+having a great dislike to needless hair.  If he was one of the
+villains in the drama, he would mark me down for his
+vengeance once he knew I was here, whereas at present he had
+probably forgotten all about me.  Besides, if I walked in boldly
+I would get no news.  If japp and he had a secret, they would
+not blab it in my presence.
+
+My next idea was to slip in by the back to the room I had
+once lived in.  But how was I to cross the road?  It ran white
+and dry some distance each way in full view of the Kaffir with
+the horses.  Further, the store stood on a bare patch, and it
+would be a hard job to get in by the back, assuming, as I
+believed, that the neighbourhood was thick with spies.
+
+The upshot was that I got my glasses and turned them on
+the store.  The door was open, and so was the window.  In the
+gloom of the interior I made out Henriques' legs.  He was
+standing by the counter, and apparently talking to Japp.  He
+moved to shut the door, and came back inside my focus
+opposite the window.  There he stayed for maybe ten minutes,
+while I hugged my impatience.  I would have given a hundred
+pounds to be snug in my old room with japp thinking me out
+of the store.
+
+Suddenly the legs twitched up, and his boots appeared
+above the counter.  Japp had invited him to his bedroom, and
+the game was now to be played beyond my ken.  This was more
+than I could stand, so I stole out at the back door and took to
+the thickest bush on the hillside.  My notion was to cross the
+road half a mile down, when it had dropped into the defile of
+the stream, and then to come swiftly up the edge of the water
+so as to effect a back entrance into the store.
+
+As fast as I dared I tore through the bush, and in about a
+quarter of an hour had reached the point I was making for.
+Then I bore down to the road, and was in the scrub about ten
+yards off it, when the clatter of horses pulled me up again.
+Peeping out I saw that it was my friend and his Kaffir follower,
+who were riding at a very good pace for the plains.  Toilfully
+and crossly I returned on my tracks to my long-delayed dinner.
+Whatever the purport of their talk, Japp and the Portuguese
+had not taken long over it.
+
+In the store that afternoon I said casually to Japp that I had
+noticed visitors at the door during my dinner hour.  The old
+man looked me frankly enough in the face.  'Yes, it was Mr
+Hendricks,' he said, and explained that the man was a Portuguese
+trader from Delagoa way, who had a lot of Kaffir stores
+east of the Lebombo Hills.  I asked his business, and was told
+that he always gave Japp a call in when he was passing.
+
+'Do you take every man that calls into your bedroom, and
+shut the door?' I asked.
+
+Japp lost colour and his lip trembled.  'I swear to God, Mr
+Crawfurd, I've been doing nothing wrong.  I've kept the
+promise I gave you like an oath to my mother.  I see you
+suspect me, and maybe you've cause, but I'll be quite honest
+with you.  I have dealt in diamonds before this with Hendricks.
+But to-day, when he asked me, I told him that that business
+
+was off.  I only took him to my room to give him a drink.  He
+likes brandy, and there's no supply in the shop.'
+
+I distrusted Japp wholeheartedly enough, but I was convinced
+that in this case he spoke the truth.
+'Had the man any news?' I asked.
+
+'He had and he hadn't,' said Japp.  'He was always a sullen
+beggar, and never spoke much.  But he said one queer thing.
+He asked me if I was going to retire, and when I told him
+"yes," he said I had put it off rather long.  I told him I was as
+healthy as I ever was, and he laughed in his dirty Portugoose
+way.  "Yes, Mr Japp," he says, "but the country is not so
+healthy." I wonder what the chap meant.  He'll be dead of
+blackwater before many months, to judge by his eyes.'
+
+This talk satisfied me about Japp, who was clearly in
+desperate fear of offending me, and disinclined to return for
+the present to his old ways.  But I think the rest of the afternoon
+was the most wretched time in my existence.  It was as plain as
+daylight that we were in for some grave trouble, trouble to
+which I believed that I alone held any kind of clue.  I had a
+pile of evidence - the visit of Henriques was the last bit -
+which pointed to some great secret approaching its disclosure.
+I thought that that disclosure meant blood and ruin.  But I
+knew nothing definite.  If the commander of a British army had
+come to me then and there and offered help, I could have done
+nothing, only asked him to wait like me.  The peril, whatever
+it was, did not threaten me only, though I and Wardlaw and
+Japp might be the first to suffer; but I had a terrible feeling
+that I alone could do something to ward it off, and just what
+that something was I could not tell.  I was horribly afraid, not
+only of unknown death, but of my impotence to play any
+manly part.  I was alone, knowing too much and yet too little,
+and there was no chance of help under the broad sky.  I cursed
+myself for not writing to Aitken at Lourenco Marques weeks
+before.  He had promised to come up, and he was the kind of
+man who kept his word.
+
+In the late afternoon I dragged Wardlaw out for a walk.  In
+his presence I had to keep up a forced cheerfulness, and I
+believe the pretence did me good.  We took a path up the Berg
+among groves of stinkwood and essenwood, where a failing
+stream made an easy route.  It may have been fancy, but it
+seemed to me that the wood was emptier and that we were
+followed less closely.  I remember it was a lovely evening, and
+in the clear fragrant gloaming every foreland of the Berg stood
+out like a great ship above the dark green sea of the bush.
+When we reached the edge of the plateau we saw the sun
+sinking between two far blue peaks in Makapan's country, and
+away to the south the great roll of the high veld.  I longed
+miserably for the places where white men were thronged
+together in dorps and cities.
+As we gazed a curious sound struck our ears.  It seemed to
+begin far up in the north - a low roll like the combing of
+breakers on the sand.  Then it grew louder and travelled
+nearer - a roll, with sudden spasms of harsher sound in it;
+reminding me of the churning in one of the pot-holes of
+Kirkcaple cliffs.  Presently it grew softer again as the sound
+passed south, but new notes were always emerging.  The echo
+came sometimes, as it were, from stark rock, and sometimes
+from the deep gloom of the forests.  I have never heard an
+eerier sound.  Neither natural nor human it seemed, but the
+voice of that world between which is hid from man's sight
+and hearing.
+
+Mr Wardlaw clutched my arm, and in that moment I
+guessed the explanation.  The native drums were beating,
+passing some message from the far north down the line of the
+Berg, where the locations were thickest, to the great black
+population of the south.
+
+'But that means war,' Mr Wardlaw cried.
+
+'It means nothing of the kind,' I said shortly.  'It's their way
+of sending news.  It's as likely to be some change in the weather
+or an outbreak of cattle disease.'
+
+When we got home I found Japp with a face like grey paper.
+'Did you hear the drums?'he asked.
+
+'Yes,' I said shortly.  'What about them?'
+
+'God forgive you for an ignorant Britisher,' he almost
+shouted.  'You may hear drums any night, but a drumming like
+that I only once heard before.  It was in '79 in the 'Zeti valley.
+Do you know what happened next day?  Cetewayo's impis
+came over the hills, and in an hour there wasn't a living white
+soul in the glen.  Two men escaped, and one of them was called
+Peter Japp.'
+
+'We are in God's hands then, and must wait on His will,' I
+said solemnly.
+
+There was no more sleep for Wardlaw and myself that night.
+We made the best barricade we could of the windows, loaded
+all our weapons, and trusted to Colin to give us early news.
+Before supper I went over to get Japp to join us, but found
+that that worthy had sought help from his old protector, the
+bottle, and was already sound asleep with both door and
+window open.
+
+I had made up my mind that death was certain, and yet my
+heart belied my conviction, and I could not feel the appropriate
+mood.  If anything I was more cheerful since I had heard the
+drums.  It was clearly now beyond the power of me or any man
+to stop the march of events.  My thoughts ran on a native
+rising, and I kept telling myself how little that was probable.
+Where were the arms, the leader, the discipline?  At any rate
+such arguments put me to sleep before dawn, and I wakened
+at eight to find that nothing had happened.  The clear morning
+sunlight, as of old, made Blaauwildebeestefontein the place of
+a dream.  Zeeta brought in my cup of coffee as if this day were
+just like all others, my pipe tasted as sweet, the fresh air from
+the Berg blew as fragrantly on my brow.  I went over to the
+store in reasonably good spirits, leaving Wardlaw busy on the
+penitential Psalms.
+
+The post-runner had brought the mail as usual, and there
+was one private letter for me.  I opened it with great excitement,
+for the envelope bore the stamp of the firm.  At last
+Colles had deigned to answer.
+
+Inside was a sheet of the firm's notepaper, with the signature
+of Colles across the top.  Below some one had pencilled these
+five words:
+
+
+'The Blesbok* are changing ground.'
+          *A species of buck.
+
+I looked to see that Japp had not suffocated himself, then
+shut up the store, and went back to my room to think out this
+new mystification.
+
+The thing had come from Colles, for it was the private
+notepaper of the Durban office, and there was Colles' signature.
+But the pencilling was in a different hand.  My deduction
+from this was that some one wished to send me a message, and
+that Colles had given that some one a sheet of signed paper to
+serve as a kind of introduction.  I might take it, therefore, that
+the scribble was Colles' reply to my letter.
+
+Now, my argument continued, if the unknown person saw
+fit to send me a message, it could not be merely one of warning.
+Colles must have told him that I was awake to some danger,
+and as I was in Blaauwildebeestefontein, I must be nearer the
+heart of things than any one else.  The message must therefore
+be in the nature of some password, which I was to remember
+when I heard it again.
+
+I reasoned the whole thing out very clearly, and I saw no
+gap in my logic.  I cannot describe how that scribble had
+heartened me.  I felt no more the crushing isolation of yesterday.
+There were others beside me in the secret.  Help must be
+on the way, and the letter was the first tidings.
+
+But how near?  - that was the question; and it occurred to
+me for the first time to look at the postmark.  I went back to
+the store and got the envelope out of the waste-paper basket.
+The postmark was certainly not Durban.  The stamp was a
+Cape Colony one, and of the mark I could only read three
+letters, T. R. S.  This was no sort of clue, and I turned the thing
+over, completely baffled.  Then I noticed that there was no
+mark of the post town of delivery.  Our letters to
+Blaauwildebeestefontein came through Pietersdorp and bore that
+mark.  I compared the envelope with others.  They all had a circle,
+and 'Pietersdorp' in broad black letters.  But this envelope had
+nothing except the stamp.
+
+I was still slow at detective work, and it was some minutes
+before the explanation flashed on me.  The letter had never
+been posted at all.  The stamp was a fake, and had been
+borrowed from an old envelope.  There was only one way in
+which it could have come.  It must have been put in the letter-
+bag while the postman was on his way from Pietersdorp.  My
+unknown friend must therefore be somewhere within eighty
+miles of me.  I hurried off to look for the post-runner, but he
+had started back an hour before.  There was nothing for it but
+to wait on the coming of the unknown.
+
+That afternoon I again took Mr Wardlaw for a walk.  It is an
+ingrained habit of mine that I never tell anyone more of a
+business than is practically necessary.  For months I had kept
+all my knowledge to myself, and breathed not a word to a soul.
+But I thought it my duty to tell Wardlaw about the letter, to
+let him see that we were not forgotten.  I am afraid it did not
+encourage his mind.  Occult messages seemed to him only the
+last proof of a deadly danger encompassing us, and I could not
+shake his opinion.
+
+We took the same road to the crown of the Berg, and I was
+confirmed in my suspicion that the woods were empty and the
+watchers gone.  The place was as deserted as the bush at
+Umvelos'.  When we reached the summit about sunset we
+waited anxiously for the sound of drums.  It came, as we
+expected, louder and more menacing than before.  Wardlaw
+stood pinching my arm as the great tattoo swept down the
+escarpment, and died away in the far mountains beyond the
+Olifants, Yet it no longer seemed to be a wall of sound,
+shutting us out from our kindred in the West.  A message had
+pierced the wall.  If the blesbok were changing ground, I
+believed that the hunters were calling out their hounds and
+getting ready for the chase.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+CAPTAIN ARCOLL TELLS A TALE
+
+
+It froze in the night, harder than was common on the Berg
+even in winter, and as I crossed the road next morning it was
+covered with rime.  All my fears had gone, and my mind was
+strung high with expectation.  Five pencilled words may seem
+a small thing to build hope on, but it was enough for me, and
+I went about my work in the store with a reasonably light
+heart.  One of the first things I did was to take stock of our
+armoury.  There were five sporting Mausers of a cheap make,
+one Mauser pistol, a Lee-Speed carbine, and a little nickel-
+plated revolver.  There was also Japp's shot-gun, an old hammered
+breech-loader, as well as the gun I had brought out with
+me.  There was a good supply of cartridges, including a stock
+for a .400 express which could not be found.  I pocketed the
+revolver, and searched till I discovered a good sheath-knife.  If
+fighting was in prospect I might as well look to my arms.
+
+All the morning I sat among flour and sugar possessing my
+soul in as much patience as I could command.  Nothing came
+down the white road from the west.  The sun melted the rime;
+the flies came out and buzzed in the window; Japp got himself
+out of bed, brewed strong coffee, and went back to his
+slumbers.  Presently it was dinner-time, and I went over to a
+silent meal with Wardlaw.  When I returned I must have fallen
+asleep over a pipe, for the next thing I knew I was blinking
+drowsily at the patch of sun in the door, and listening for
+footsteps.  In the dead stillness of the afternoon I thought I
+could discern a shuffling in the dust.  I got up and looked out,
+and there, sure enough, was some one coming down the road.
+
+But it was only a Kaffir, and a miserable-looking object at
+that.  I had never seen such an anatomy.  It was a very old man,
+bent almost double, and clad in a ragged shirt and a pair of
+foul khaki trousers.  He carried an iron pot, and a few belongings
+were tied up in a dirty handkerchief.  He must have been
+a dacha* smoker, for he coughed hideously, twisting his body
+with the paroxysms.  I had seen the type before - the old
+broken-down native who had no kin to support him, and no
+tribe to shelter him.  They wander about the roads, cooking
+their wretched meals by their little fires, till one morning they
+are found stiff under a bush.
+          *Hemp.
+
+The native gave me a good-day in Kaffir, then begged for
+tobacco or a handful of mealie-meal.
+
+I asked him where he came from.
+
+'From the west, Inkoos,' he said, 'and before that from the
+south.  It is a sore road for old bones.'
+
+I went into the store to fetch some meal, and when I came
+out he had shuffled close to the door.  He had kept his eyes on
+the ground, but now he looked up at me, and I thought he had
+very bright eyes for such an old wreck.
+
+'The nights are cold, Inkoos,' he wailed, 'and my folk are
+scattered, and I have no kraal.  The aasvogels follow me, and
+I can hear the blesbok.'
+'What about the blesbok?' I asked with a start.
+
+'The blesbok are changing ground,' he said, and looked me
+straight in the face.
+
+'And where are the hunters?' I asked.
+'They are here and behind me,' he said in English, holding
+out his pot for my meal, while he began to edge into the middle
+of the road.
+
+I followed, and, speaking English, asked him if he knew of
+a man named Colles.
+
+'I come from him, young Baas.  Where is your house?  Ah,
+the school.  There will be a way in by the back window?  See
+that it is open, for I'll be there shortly.'  Then lifting up his
+voice he called down in Sesuto all manner of blessings on me
+for my kindness, and went shuffling down the sunlit road,
+coughing like a volcano.
+
+In high excitement I locked up the store and went over to
+Mr Wardlaw.  No children had come to school that day, and he
+was sitting idle, playing patience.  'Lock the door,' I said, 'and
+come into my room.  We're on the brink of explanations.'
+
+In about twenty minutes the bush below the back-window
+parted and the Kaffir slipped out.  He grinned at me, and after
+a glance round, hopped very nimbly over the sill.  Then he
+examined the window and pulled the curtains.
+
+'Is the outer door shut?' he asked in excellent English.  'Well,
+get me some hot water, and any spare clothes you may possess,
+Mr Crawfurd.  I must get comfortable before we begin our
+indaba.* We've the night before us, so there's plenty of time.
+But get the house clear, and see that nobody disturbs me at
+my toilet.  I am a modest man, and sensitive about my looks.'
+          *Council.
+
+I brought him what he wanted, and looked on at an amazing
+transformation.  Taking a phial from his bundle, he rubbed
+some liquid on his face and neck and hands, and got rid of the
+black colouring.  His body and legs he left untouched, save that
+he covered them with shirt and trousers from my wardrobe.
+Then he pulled off a scaly wig, and showed beneath it a head
+of close-cropped grizzled hair.  In ten minutes the old Kaffir
+had been transformed into an active soldierly-looking man of
+maybe fifty years.  Mr Wardlaw stared as if he had seen a
+resurrection.
+
+'I had better introduce myself,' he said, when he had taken
+the edge off his thirst and hunger.  'My name is Arcoll, Captain
+James Arcoll.  I am speaking to Mr Crawfurd, the storekeeper,
+and Mr Wardlaw, the schoolmaster, of Blaauwildebeestefontein.
+Where, by the way, is Mr Peter Japp?  Drunk?  Ah, yes, it
+was always his failing.  The quorum, however, is complete
+without him.'
+
+By this time it was about sunset, and I remember I cocked
+my ear to hear the drums beat.  Captain Arcoll noticed the
+movement as he noticed all else.
+'You're listening for the drums, but you won't hear them.
+That business is over here.  To-night they beat in Swaziland
+and down into the Tonga border.  Three days more, unless you
+and I, Mr Crawfurd, are extra smart, and they'll be hearing
+them in Durban.'
+
+It was not till the lamp was lit, the fire burning well, and the
+house locked and shuttered, that Captain Arcoll began his tale.
+
+'First,' he said, 'let me hear what you know.  Colles told me
+that you were a keen fellow, and had wind of some mystery
+here.  You wrote him about the way you were spied on, but I
+told him to take no notice.  Your affair, Mr Crawfurd, had to
+wait on more urgent matters.  Now, what do you think is
+happening?'
+I spoke very shortly, weighing my words, for I felt I was on
+trial before these bright eyes.  'I think that some kind of native
+rising is about to commence.'
+
+'Ay,' he said dryly, 'you would, and your evidence would be
+the spying and drumming.  Anything more?'
+
+'I have come on the tracks of a lot of I.D.B. work in the
+neighbourhood.  The natives have some supply of diamonds,
+which they sell bit by bit, and I don't doubt but they have
+been getting guns with the proceeds.'
+
+He nodded, 'Have you any notion who has been engaged in
+the job?'
+
+I had it on my tongue to mention Japp, but forbore,
+remembering my promise.  'I can name one,' I said, 'a little
+yellow Portugoose, who calls himself Henriques or Hendricks.
+He passed by here the day before yesterday.'
+
+Captain Arcoll suddenly was consumed with quiet laughter.
+'Did you notice the Kaffir who rode with him and carried his
+saddlebags?  Well, he's one of my men.  Henriques would have
+a fit if he knew what was in those saddlebags.  They contain
+my change of clothes, and other odds and ends.  Henriques'
+own stuff is in a hole in the spruit.  A handy way of getting
+one's luggage sent on, eh?  The bags are waiting for me at a
+place I appointed.'  And again Captain Arcoll indulged his
+sense of humour.  Then he became grave, and returned to
+his examination.
+'A rising, with diamonds as the sinews of war, and Henriques
+as the chief agent.  Well and good!  But who is to lead,
+and what are the natives going to rise about?'
+
+'I know nothing further, but I have made some guesses.'
+
+'Let's hear your guesses,' he said, blowing smoke rings from
+his pipe.
+'I think the main mover is a great black minister who calls
+himself John Laputa.'
+
+Captain Arcoll nearly sprang out of his chair.  'Now, how on
+earth did you find that out?  Quick, Mr Crawfurd, tell me all
+you know, for this is desperately important.'
+
+I began at the beginning, and told him the story of what
+happened on the Kirkcaple shore.  Then I spoke of my sight of
+him on board ship, his talk with Henriques about
+Blaauwildebeestefontein, and his hurried departure from Durban.
+
+Captain Arcoll listened intently, and at the mention of
+Durban he laughed.  'You and I seem to have been running on
+lines which nearly touched.  I thought I had grabbed my friend
+Laputa that night in Durban, but I was too cocksure and he
+slipped off.  Do you know, Mr Crawfurd, you have been on
+the right trail long before me?  When did you say you saw him
+at his devil-worship?  Seven years ago?  Then you were the first
+man alive to know the Reverend John in his true colours.  You
+knew seven years ago what I only found out last year.'
+
+'Well, that's my story,' I said.  'I don't know what the rising
+is about, but there's one other thing I can tell you.  There's
+some kind of sacred place for the Kaffirs, and I've found out
+where it is.'  I gave him a short account of my adventures in
+the Rooirand.
+
+He smoked silently for a bit after I had finished.  'You've got
+the skeleton of the whole thing right, and you only want the
+filling up.  And you found out everything for yourself?  Colles
+was right; you're not wanting in intelligence, Mr Crawfurd.'
+
+It was not much of a compliment, but I have never been
+more pleased in my life.  This slim, grizzled man, with his
+wrinkled face and bright eyes, was clearly not lavish in his
+praise.  I felt it was no small thing to have earned a word
+of commendation.
+
+'And now I will tell you my story,' said Captain Arcoll.  'It is
+a long story, and I must begin far back.  It has taken me years
+to decipher it, and, remember, I've been all my life at this
+native business.  I can talk every dialect, and I have the customs
+of every tribe by heart.  I've travelled over every mile of South
+Africa, and Central and East Africa too.  I was in both the
+Matabele wars, and I've seen a heap of other fighting which
+never got into the papers.  So what I tell you you can take as
+gospel, for it is knowledge that was not learned in a day.'
+
+He puffed away, and then asked suddenly, 'Did you ever
+hear of Prester John?'
+
+'The man that lived in Central Asia?' I asked, with a
+reminiscence of a story-book I had as a boy.
+'No, no,' said Mr Wardlaw, 'he means the King of Abyssinia
+in the fifteenth century.  I've been reading all about him.  He
+was a Christian, and the Portuguese sent expedition after
+expedition to find him, but they never got there.  Albuquerque
+wanted to make an alliance with him and capture the Holy
+Sepulchre.'
+
+Arcoll nodded.  'That's the one I mean.  There's not very
+much known about him, except Portuguese legends.  He was a
+sort of Christian, but I expect that his practices were as pagan
+as his neighbours'.  There is no doubt that he was a great
+conqueror.  Under him and his successors, the empire of
+Ethiopia extended far south of Abyssinia away down to the
+Great Lakes.'
+
+'How long did this power last?' I asked wondering to what
+tale this was prologue.
+
+'That's a mystery no scholar has ever been able to fathom.
+Anyhow, the centre of authority began to shift southward, and
+the warrior tribes moved in that direction.  At the end of the
+sixteenth century the chief native power was round about the
+Zambesi.  The Mazimba and the Makaranga had come down
+from the Lake Nyassa quarter, and there was a strong kingdom
+in Manicaland.  That was the Monomotapa that the Portuguese
+thought so much of.'
+
+Wardlaw nodded eagerly.  The story was getting into ground
+that he knew about.
+
+'The thing to remember is that all these little empires
+thought themselves the successors of Prester John.  It took me
+a long time to find this out, and I have spent days in the best
+libraries in Europe over it.  They all looked back to a great king
+in the north, whom they called by about twenty different
+names.  They had forgotten about his Christianity, but they
+remembered that he was a conqueror.
+
+'Well, to make a long story short, Monomotapa disappeared
+in time, and fresh tribes came down from the north, and
+pushed right down to Natal and the Cape.  That is how the
+Zulus first appeared.  They brought with them the story of
+Prester John, but by this time it had ceased to be a historical
+memory, and had become a religious cult.  They worshipped a
+great Power who had been their ancestor, and the favourite
+Zulu word for him was Umkulunkulu.  The belief was perverted
+into fifty different forms, but this was the central
+creed - that Umkulunkulu had been the father of the tribe,
+and was alive as a spirit to watch over them.
+
+'They brought more than a creed with them.  Somehow or
+other, some fetich had descended from Prester John by way of
+the Mazimba and Angoni and Makaranga.  What it is I do not
+know, but it was always in the hands of the tribe which for the
+moment held the leadership.  The great native wars of the
+sixteenth century, which you can read about in the Portuguese
+historians, were not for territory but for leadership, and mainly
+for the possession of this fetich.  Anyhow, we know that the
+Zulus brought it down with them.  They called it Ndhlondhlo,
+which means the Great Snake, but I don't suppose that it was
+any kind of snake.  The snake was their totem, and they would
+naturally call their most sacred possession after it.
+
+'Now I will tell you a thing that few know.  You have heard
+of Tchaka.  He was a sort of black Napoleon early in the last
+century, and he made the Zulus the paramount power in South
+Africa, slaughtering about two million souls to accomplish it.
+Well, he had the fetich, whatever it was, and it was believed
+that he owed his conquests to it.  Mosilikatse tried to steal it,
+and that was why he had to fly to Matabeleland.  But with
+Tchaka it disappeared.  Dingaan did not have it, nor Panda,
+and Cetewayo never got it, though he searched the length and
+breadth of the country for it.  It had gone out of existence, and
+with it the chance of a Kaffir empire.'
+
+Captain Arcoll got up to light his pipe, and I noticed that
+his face was grave.  He was not telling us this yarn for
+our amusement.
+
+'So much for Prester John and his charm,' he said.  'Now I
+have to take up the history at a different point.  In spite of
+risings here and there, and occasional rows, the Kaffirs have
+been quiet for the better part of half a century.  It is no credit
+to us.  They have had plenty of grievances, and we are no
+nearer understanding them than our fathers were.  But they are
+scattered and divided.  We have driven great wedges of white
+settlement into their territory, and we have taken away their
+arms.  Still, they are six times as many as we are, and they have
+long memories, and a thoughtful man may wonder how long
+the peace will last.  I have often asked myself that question,
+and till lately I used to reply, "For ever because they cannot
+find a leader with the proper authority, and they have no
+common cause to fight for." But a year or two ago I began to
+change my mind.
+
+'It is my business to act as chief Intelligence officer among
+the natives.  Well, one day, I came on the tracks of a curious
+person.  He was a Christian minister called Laputa, and he was
+going among the tribes from Durban to the Zambesi as a
+roving evangelist.  I found that he made an enormous impression,
+and yet the people I spoke to were chary of saying much
+about him.  Presently I found that he preached more than the
+gospel.  His word was "Africa for the Africans," and his chief
+point was that the natives had had a great empire in the past,
+and might have a great empire again.  He used to tell the story
+of Prester John, with all kinds of embroidery of his own.  You
+see, Prester John was a good argument for him, for he had
+been a Christian as well as a great potentate.
+'For years there has been plenty of this talk in South Africa,
+chiefly among Christian Kaffirs.  It is what they call
+"Ethiopianism," and American negroes are the chief apostles.  For
+myself, I always thought the thing perfectly harmless.  I don't
+care a fig whether the native missions break away from the
+parent churches in England and call themselves by fancy
+names.  The more freedom they have in their religious life, the
+less they are likely to think about politics.  But I soon found
+out that Laputa was none of your flabby educated negroes
+from America, and I began to watch him.
+
+'I first came across him at a revival meeting in London,
+where he was a great success.  He came and spoke to me about
+my soul, but he gave up when I dropped into Zulu.  The next
+time I met him was on the lower Limpopo, when I had the
+pleasure of trying to shoot him from a boat.'
+Captain Arcoll took his pipe from his mouth and laughed at
+the recollection.
+
+'I had got on to an I.D.B. gang, and to my amazement
+found the evangelist among them.  But the Reverend John was
+too much for me.  He went overboard in spite of the crocodiles,
+and managed to swim below water to the reed bed at the side.
+However, that was a valuable experience for me, for it gave me
+a clue.
+
+'I next saw him at a Missionary Conference in Cape Town,
+and after that at a meeting of the Geographical Society in
+London, where I had a long talk with him.  My reputation does
+not follow me home, and he thought I was an English publisher
+with an interest in missions.  You see I had no evidence to
+connect him with I.D.B., and besides I fancied that his real
+game was something bigger than that; so I just bided my time
+and watched.
+
+'I did my best to get on to his dossier, but it was no easy
+job.  However, I found out a few things.  He had been educated
+in the States, and well educated too, for the man is a good
+scholar and a great reader, besides the finest natural orator I
+have ever heard.  There was no doubt that he was of Zulu
+blood, but I could get no traces of his family.  He must come
+of high stock, for he is a fine figure of a man.
+'Very soon I found it was no good following him in his
+excursions into civilization.  There he was merely the educated
+Kaffir; a great pet of missionary societies, and a favourite
+speaker at Church meetings.  You will find evidence given by
+him in Blue-Books on native affairs, and he counted many
+members of Parliament at home among his correspondents.  I
+let that side go, and resolved to dog him when on his
+evangelizing tours in the back-veld.
+
+'For six months I stuck to him like a leech.  I am pretty good
+at disguises, and he never knew who was the broken-down old
+Kaffir who squatted in the dirt at the edge of the crowd when
+he spoke, or the half-caste who called him "Sir" and drove his
+Cape-cart.  I had some queer adventures, but these can wait.
+The gist of the thing is, that after six months which turned my
+hair grey I got a glimmering of what he was after.  He talked
+Christianity to the mobs in the kraals, but to the indunas* he
+told a different story.'
+          *Lesser chiefs.
+
+Captain Arcoll helped himself to a drink.  'You can guess
+what that story was, Mr Crawfurd.  At full moon when the
+black cock was blooded, the Reverend John forgot his Christianity.
+He was back four centuries among the Mazimba sweeping
+down on the Zambesi.  He told them, and they believed
+him, that he was the Umkulunkulu, the incarnated spirit of
+Prester John.  He told them that he was there to lead the
+African race to conquest and empire.  Ay, and he told them
+more: for he has, or says he has, the Great Snake itself, the
+necklet of Prester John.'
+
+Neither of us spoke; we were too occupied with fitting this
+news into our chain of knowledge.
+
+Captain Arcoll went on.  'Now that I knew his purpose, I set
+myself to find out his preparations.  It was not long before I
+found a mighty organization at work from the Zambesi to the
+Cape.  The great tribes were up to their necks in the conspiracy,
+and all manner of little sects had been taken in.  I have sat at
+tribal councils and been sworn a blood brother, and I have
+used the secret password to get knowledge in odd places.  It
+was a dangerous game, and, as I have said, I had my
+adventures, but I came safe out of it - with my knowledge.
+
+'The first thing I found out was that there was a great deal
+of wealth somewhere among the tribes.  Much of it was in
+diamonds, which the labourers stole from the mines and the
+chiefs impounded.  Nearly every tribe had its secret chest, and
+our friend Laputa had the use of them all.  Of course the
+difficulty was changing the diamonds into coin, and he had to
+start I.D.B. on a big scale.  Your pal, Henriques, was the chief
+agent for this, but he had others at Mozambique and Johannesburg,
+ay, and in London, whom I have on my list.  With the
+money, guns and ammunition were bought, and it seems that
+a pretty flourishing trade has been going on for some time.
+They came in mostly overland through Portuguese territory,
+though there have been cases of consignments to Johannesburg
+houses, the contents of which did not correspond with the
+invoice.  You ask what the Governments were doing to let this
+go on.  Yes, and you may well ask.  They were all asleep.  They
+never dreamed of danger from the natives, and in any case it
+was difficult to police the Portuguese side.  Laputa knew our
+weakness, and he staked everything on it.
+
+'my first scheme was to lay Laputa by the heels; but no
+Government would act on my information.  The man was
+strongly buttressed by public support at home, and South
+Africa has burned her fingers before this with arbitrary arrests.
+Then I tried to fasten I.D.B. on him, but I could not get my
+proofs till too late.  I nearly had him in Durban, but he got
+away; and he never gave me a second chance.  For five months
+he and Henriques have been lying low, because their scheme
+was getting very ripe.  I have been following them through
+Zululand and Gazaland, and I have discovered that the train is
+ready, and only wants the match.  For a month I have never
+been more than five hours behind him on the trail; and if he
+has laid his train, I have laid mine also.'
+
+Arcoll's whimsical, humorous face had hardened into grimness,
+and in his eyes there was the light of a fierce purpose.
+The sight of him comforted me, in spite of his tale.
+
+'But what can he hope to do?' I asked.  'Though he roused
+every Kaffir in South Africa he would be beaten.  You say he is
+an educated man.  He must know he has no chance in the long run.'
+
+'I said he was an educated man, but he is also a Kaffir.  He
+can see the first stage of a thing, and maybe the second, but no
+more.  That is the native mind.  If it was not like that our
+chance would be the worse.'
+
+'You say the scheme is ripe,' I said; 'how ripe?'
+
+Arcoll looked at the clock.  'In half an hour's time Laputa
+will be with 'Mpefu.  There he will stay the night.  To-morrow
+morning he goes to Umvelos' to meet Henriques.  To-morrow
+evening the gathering begins.'
+
+'One question,' I said.  'How big a man is Laputa?'
+
+'The biggest thing that the Kaffirs have ever produced.  I
+tell you, in my opinion he is a great genius.  If he had been
+white he might have been a second Napoleon.  He is a born
+leader of men, and as brave as a lion.  There is no villainy he
+would not do if necessary, and yet I should hesitate to call him
+a blackguard.  Ay, you may look surprised at me, you two
+pragmatical Scotsmen; but I have, so to speak, lived with the
+man for months, and there's fineness and nobility in him.  He
+would be a terrible enemy, but a just one.  He has the heart of
+a poet and a king, and it is God's curse that he has been born
+among the children of Ham.  I hope to shoot him like a dog in
+a day or two, but I am glad to bear testimony to his greatness.'
+
+'If the rising starts to-morrow,' I asked, 'have you any of
+his plans?'
+
+He picked up a map from the table and opened it.  'The first
+rendezvous is somewhere near Sikitola's.  Then they move
+south, picking up contingents; and the final concentration is to
+be on the high veld near Amsterdam, which is convenient for
+the Swazis and the Zulus.  After that I know nothing, but of
+course there are local concentrations along the whole line of
+the Berg from Mashonaland to Basutoland.  Now, look here.
+To get to Amsterdam they must cross the Delagoa Bay
+Railway.  Well, they won't be allowed to.  If they get as far,
+they will be scattered there.  As I told you, I too have laid my
+train.  We have the police ready all along the scarp of the Berg.
+Every exit from native territory is watched, and the frontier
+farmers are out on commando.  We have regulars on the
+Delagoa Bay and Natal lines, and a system of field telegraphs
+laid which can summon further troops to any point.  It has all
+been kept secret, because we are still in the dark ourselves.
+The newspaper public knows nothing about any rising, but in
+two days every white household in South Africa will be in a
+panic.  Make no mistake, Mr Crawfurd; this is a grim business.
+We shall smash Laputa and his men, but it will be a fierce
+fight, and there will be much good blood shed.  Besides, it will
+throw the country back another half-century.  Would to God I
+had been man enough to put a bullet through his head in cold
+blood.  But I could not do it - it was too like murder; and
+maybe I shall never have the chance now.'
+
+'There's one thing puzzles me,' I said.  'What makes Laputa
+come up here to start with?  Why doesn't he begin with
+Zululand?'
+
+'God knows!  There's sure to be sense in it, for he does
+nothing without reason.  We may know to-morrow.'
+
+But as Captain Arcoll spoke, the real reason suddenly flashed
+into my mind: Laputa had to get the Great Snake, the necklet
+of Prester John, to give his leadership prestige.  Apparently he
+had not yet got it, or Arcoll would have known.  He started
+from this neighbourhood because the fetich was somewhere
+hereabouts.  I was convinced that my guess was right, but I
+kept my own counsel.
+
+'To-morrow Laputa and Henriques meet at Umvelos', probably
+at your new store, Mr Crawfurd.  And so the ball commences.'
+
+My resolution was suddenly taken.
+
+'I think,' I said, 'I had better be present at the meeting, as
+representing the firm.'
+
+Captain Arcoll stared at me and laughed.  'I had thought of
+going myself,' he said.
+
+'Then you go to certain death, disguise yourself as you
+please.  You cannot meet them in the store as I can.  I'm there
+on my ordinary business, and they will never suspect.  If you're
+to get any news, I'm the man to go.'
+
+He looked at me steadily for a minute or so.  'I'm not sure
+that's such a bad idea of yours.  I would be better employed
+myself on the Berg, and, as you say, I would have little chance
+of hearing anything.  You're a plucky fellow, Mr Crawfurd.  I
+suppose you understand that the risk is pretty considerable.'
+
+'I suppose I do; but since I'm in this thing, I may as well
+see it out.  Besides, I've an old quarrel with our friend Laputa.'
+
+'Good and well,' said Captain Arcoll.  'Draw in your chair to
+the table, then, and I'll explain to you the disposition of my
+men.  I should tell you that I have loyal natives in my pay in
+most tribes, and can count on early intelligence.  We can't
+match their telepathy; but the new type of field telegraph is
+not so bad, and may be a trifle more reliable.'
+
+Till midnight we pored over maps, and certain details were
+burned in on my memory.  Then we went to bed and slept
+soundly, even Mr Wardlaw.  It was strange how fear had gone
+from the establishment, now that we knew the worst and had
+a fighting man by our side.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+I FALL IN AGAIN WITH THE REVEREND JOHN LAPUTA
+
+
+Once, as a boy, I had earnestly desired to go into the army,
+and had hopes of rising to be a great general.  Now that I know
+myself better, I do not think I would have been much good at
+a general's work.  I would have shirked the loneliness of it, the
+isolation of responsibility.  But I think I would have done well
+in a subaltern command, for I had a great notion of carrying
+out orders, and a certain zest in the mere act of obedience.
+Three days before I had been as nervous as a kitten because I
+was alone and it was 'up to me,' as Americans say, to decide on
+the next step.  But now that I was only one wheel in a great
+machine of defence my nervousness seemed to have fled.  I was
+well aware that the mission I was bound on was full of risk;
+but, to my surprise, I felt no fear.  Indeed, I had much the
+same feeling as a boy on a Saturday's holiday who has planned
+a big expedition.  One thing only I regretted - that Tam Dyke
+was not with me to see the fun.  The thought of that faithful
+soul, now beating somewhere on the seas, made me long for
+his comradeship.  As I shaved, I remember wondering if I
+would ever shave again, and the thought gave me no tremors.
+For once in my sober life I was strung up to the gambler's
+pitch of adventure.
+
+My job was to go to Umvelos' as if on my ordinary business,
+and if possible find out something of the evening's plan of
+march.  The question was how to send back a message to
+Arcoll, assuming I had any difficulty in getting away.  At first
+this puzzled us both, and then I thought of Colin.  I had
+trained the dog to go home at my bidding, for often when I
+used to go hunting I would have occasion to visit a kraal where
+he would have been a nuisance.  Accordingly, I resolved to take
+Colin with me, and, if I got into trouble, to send word by him.
+
+I asked about Laputa's knowledge of our preparations.
+Arcoll was inclined to think that he suspected little.  The police
+and the commandos had been kept very secret, and, besides,
+they were moving on the high veld and out of the ken of the
+tribes.  Natives, he told me, were not good scouts so far as
+white man's work was concerned, for they did not understand
+the meaning of what we did.  On the other hand, his own
+native scouts brought him pretty accurate tidings of any Kaffir
+movements.  He thought that all the bush country of the plain
+would be closely watched, and that no one would get through
+without some kind of pass.  But he thought also that the
+storekeeper might be an exception, for his presence would give
+rise to no suspicions.  Almost his last words to me were to come
+back hell-for-leather if I saw the game was hopeless, and in
+any case to leave as soon as I got any news.  'If you're there
+when the march begins,' he said, 'they'll cut your throat for a
+certainty.'  I had all the various police posts on the Berg clear
+in my mind, so that I would know where to make for if the
+road to Blaauwildebeestefontein should be closed.
+
+I said good-bye to Arcoll and Wardlaw with a light heart,
+though the schoolmaster broke down and implored me to think
+better of it.  As I turned down into the gorge I heard the sound
+of horses' feet far behind, and, turning back, saw white riders
+dismounting at the dorp.  At any rate I was leaving the country
+well guarded in my rear.
+
+It was a fine morning in mid-winter, and I was in very good
+spirits as I jogged on my pony down the steep hill-road, with
+Colin running beside me.  A month before I had taken the
+same journey, with no suspicion in my head of what the future
+was to bring.  I thought about my Dutch companions, now
+with their cattle far out on the plains.  Did they know of the
+great danger, I wondered.  All the way down the glen I saw no
+sign of human presence.  The game-birds mocked me from the
+thicket; a brace of white berghaan circled far up in the blue;
+and I had for pleasant comrade the brawling river.  I dismounted
+once to drink, and in that green haven of flowers and ferns I was
+struck sharply with a sense of folly.  Here were we wretched
+creatures of men making for each other's throats, and outraging
+the good earth which God had made so fair a habitation.
+
+I had resolved on a short cut to Umvelos', avoiding the
+neighbourhood of Sikitola's kraal, so when the river emerged
+from the glen I crossed it and struck into the bush.  I had not
+gone far before I realized that something strange was going on.
+It was like the woods on the Berg a week before.  I had the
+impression of many people moving in the bush, and now and
+then I caught a glimpse of them.  My first thought was that I
+should be stopped, but soon it appeared that these folk had
+business of their own which did not concern me.  I was
+conscious of being watched, yet it was clear that the bush folk
+were not there for the purpose of watching me.
+
+For a little I kept my spirits, but as the hours passed with
+the same uncanny hurrying to and fro all about me my nerves
+began to suffer.  Weeks of espionage at Blaauwildebeestefontein
+had made me jumpy.  These people apparently meant me no
+ill, and had no time to spare on me, But the sensation of
+moving through them was like walking on a black-dark night
+with precipices all around.  I felt odd quiverings between my
+shoulder blades where a spear might be expected to lodge.
+Overhead was a great blue sky and a blazing sun, and I could
+see the path running clear before me between the walls of
+scrub.  But it was like midnight to me, a midnight of suspicion
+and unknown perils.  I began to wish heartily I had never come.
+
+I stopped for my midday meal at a place called Taqui, a
+grassy glade in the bush where a tiny spring of water crept out
+from below a big stone, only to disappear in the sand.  Here I
+sat and smoked for half an hour, wondering what was going to
+become of me.  The air was very still, but I could hear the
+rustle of movement somewhere within a hundred yards.  The
+hidden folk were busy about their own ends, and I regretted
+that I had not taken the road by Sikitola's and seen how the
+kraals looked.  They must be empty now, for the young men
+were already out on some mission.  So nervous I got that I took
+my pocket-book and wrote down certain messages to my
+mother, which I implored whoever should find my body to
+transmit.  Then, a little ashamed of my childishness, I pulled
+myself together, and remounted.
+
+About three in the afternoon I came over a low ridge of bush
+and saw the corrugated iron roof of the store and the gleam of
+water from the Labongo.  The sight encouraged me, for at any
+rate it meant the end of this disquieting ride.  Here the bush
+changed to trees of some size, and after leaving the ridge the
+road plunged for a little into a thick shade.  I had forgotten for
+a moment the folk in the bush, and when a man stepped out of
+the thicket I pulled up my horse with a start.
+
+It was a tall native, who carried himself proudly, and after a
+glance at me, stalked along at my side.  He wore curious
+clothes, for he had a kind of linen tunic, and around his waist
+hung a kilt of leopard-skin.  In such a man one would have
+looked for a ting-kop,* but instead he had a mass of hair, not
+like a Kaffir's wool, but long and curled like some popular
+musician's.  I should have been prepared for the face, but the
+sight of it sent a sudden chill of fright through my veins.  For
+there was the curved nose, the deep flashing eyes, and the
+cruel lips of my enemy of the Kirkcaple shore.
+          *The circlet into which, with the aid of gum, Zulu warriors weave their
+               hair.
+
+Colin was deeply suspicious and followed his heels growling,
+but he never turned his head.
+
+'The day is warm, father,' I said in Kaffir.  'Do you go far?'
+
+He slackened his pace till he was at my elbow.  'But a short
+way, Baas,' he replied in English; 'I go to the store yonder.'
+
+'Well met, then,' said I, 'for I am the storekeeper.  You will
+find little in it, for it is newly built and not yet stocked.  I have
+ridden over to see to it.'
+
+He turned his face to me.  'That is bad news.  I had hoped
+for food and drink yonder.  I have travelled far, and in the chill
+nights I desire a cover for my head.  Will the Baas allow me to
+sleep the night in an outhouse?'
+
+By this time I had recovered my nerve, and was ready to
+play the part I had determined on.  'Willingly,' I said.  'You
+may sleep in the storeroom if you care.  You will find sacks for
+bedding, and the place is snug enough on a cold night.'
+
+He thanked me with a grave dignity which I had never seen
+in any Kaffir.  As my eye fell on his splendid proportions I
+forgot all else in my admiration of the man.  In his minister's
+clothes he had looked only a heavily built native, but now in
+his savage dress I saw how noble a figure he made.  He must
+have been at least six feet and a half, but his chest was so deep
+and his shoulders so massive that one did not remark his
+height.  He put a hand on my saddle, and I remember noting
+how slim and fine it was, more like a high-bred woman's than
+a man's.  Curiously enough he filled me with a certain confidence.
+'I do not think you will cut my throat,' I said to myself.
+'Your game is too big for common murder.'
+
+The store at Umvelos' stood as I had left it.  There was the
+sjambok I had forgotten still lying on the window sill.  I
+unlocked the door, and a stifling smell of new paint came out
+to meet me.  Inside there was nothing but the chairs and
+benches, and in a corner the pots and pans I had left against
+my next visit.  I unlocked the cupboard and got out a few
+stores, opened the windows of the bedroom next door, and
+flung my kaross on the cartel which did duty as bed.  Then I
+went out to find Laputa standing patiently in the sunshine.
+
+I showed him the outhouse where I had said he might sleep.
+It was the largest room in the store, but wholly unfurnished.
+A pile of barrels and packing-cases stood in the corner, and
+there was enough sacking to make a sort of bed.
+
+'I am going to make tea,' I said.  'If you have come far you
+would maybe like a cup?'
+He thanked me, and I made a fire in the grate and put on
+the kettle to boil.  Then I set on the table biscuits, and sardines,
+and a pot of jam.  It was my business now to play the fool, and
+I believe I succeeded to admiration in the part.  I blush to-day
+to think of the stuff I talked.  First I made him sit on a chair
+opposite me, a thing no white man in the country would have
+done.  Then I told him affectionately that I liked natives, that
+they were fine fellows and better men than the dirty whites
+round about.  I explained that I was fresh from England, and
+believed in equal rights for all men, white or coloured.  God
+forgive me, but I think I said I hoped to see the day when
+Africa would belong once more to its rightful masters.
+
+He heard me with an impassive face, his grave eyes studying
+every line of me.  I am bound to add that he made a hearty
+meal, and drank three cups of strong tea of my brewing.  I gave
+him a cigar, one of a lot I had got from a Dutch farmer who
+was experimenting with their manufacture - and all the while
+I babbled of myself and my opinions.  He must have thought
+me half-witted, and indeed before long I began to be of the
+same opinion myself.  I told him that I meant to sleep the night
+here, and go back in the morning to Blaauwildebeestefontein,
+and then to Pietersdorp for stores.  By-and-by I could see that
+he had ceased to pay any attention to what I said.  I was clearly
+set down in his mind as a fool.  Instead he kept looking at
+Colin, who was lying blinking in the doorway, one wary eye
+cocked on the stranger.
+
+'You have a fine dog,' he observed.
+
+'Yes,' I agreed, with one final effort of mendacity, 'he's fine
+to look at, but he has no grit in him.  Any mongrel from a kraal
+can make him turn tail.  Besides, he is a born fool and can't
+find his way home.  I'm thinking of getting rid of him.'
+
+Laputa rose and his eye fell on the dog's back.  I could see
+that he saw the lie of his coat, and that he did not agree
+with me.
+
+'The food was welcome, Baas,' he said.  'If you will listen to
+me I can repay hospitality with advice.  You are a stranger
+here.  Trouble comes, and if you are wise you will go back to
+the Berg.'
+
+'I don't know what you mean,' I said, with an air of cheerful
+idiocy.  'But back to the Berg I go the first thing in the
+morning.  I hate these stinking plains.'
+
+'It were wise to go to-night,' he said, with a touch of menace
+in his tone.
+
+'I can't,' I said, and began to sing the chorus of a ridiculous
+music-hall song-
+
+     'There's no place like home - but
+     I'm afraid to go home in the dark.'
+
+Laputa shrugged his shoulders, stepped over the bristling
+Colin, and went out.  When I looked after him two minutes
+later he had disappeared.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+THE STORE AT UMVELOS'
+
+
+I sat down on a chair and laboured to collect my thoughts.
+Laputa had gone, and would return sooner or later with
+Henriques.  If I was to remain alive till morning, both of them
+must be convinced that I was harmless.  Laputa was probably
+of that opinion, but Henriques would recognize me, and I had
+no wish to have that yellow miscreant investigating my character.
+There was only one way out of it - I must be incapably
+drunk.  There was not a drop of liquor in the store, but I found
+an old whisky bottle half full of methylated spirits.  With this I
+thought I might raise an atmosphere of bad whisky, and for
+the rest I must trust to my meagre gifts as an actor.
+
+Supposing I escaped suspicion, Laputa and Henriques
+would meet in the outhouse, and I must find some means of
+overhearing them.  Here I was fairly baffled.  There was no
+window in the outhouse save in the roof, and they were sure to
+shut and bolt the door.  I might conceal myself among the
+barrels inside; but apart from the fact that they were likely to
+search them before beginning their conference, it was quite
+certain that they would satisfy themselves that I was safe in
+the other end of the building before going to the outhouse.
+
+Suddenly I thought of the cellar which we had built below
+the store.  There was an entrance by a trap-door behind the
+counter, and another in the outhouse.  I had forgotten the
+details, but my hope was that the second was among the
+barrels.  I shut the outer door, prised up the trap, and dropped
+into the vault, which had been floored roughly with green
+bricks.  Lighting match after match, I crawled to the other end
+and tried to lift the door.  It would not stir, so I guessed that
+the barrels were on the top of it.  Back to the outhouse I went,
+and found that sure enough a heavy packing-case was standing
+on a corner.  I fixed it slightly open, so as to let me hear, and
+so arranged the odds and ends round about it that no one
+looking from the floor of the outhouse would guess at its
+existence.  It occurred to me that the conspirators would want
+seats, so I placed two cases at the edge of the heap, that they
+might not be tempted to forage in the interior.
+
+This done, I went back to the store and proceeded to rig
+myself out for my part.  The cellar had made me pretty dirty,
+and I added some new daubs to my face.  My hair had grown
+longish, and I ran my hands through it till it stood up like a
+cockatoo's crest.  Then I cunningly disposed the methylated
+spirits in the places most likely to smell.  I burned a little on
+the floor, I spilt some on the counter and on my hands, and I
+let it dribble over my coat.  In five minutes I had made the
+room stink like a shebeen.  I loosened the collar of my shirt,
+and when I looked at myself in the cover of my watch I saw a
+specimen of debauchery which would have done credit to a
+Saturday night's police cell.
+
+By this time the sun had gone down, but I thought it better
+to kindle no light.  It was the night of the full moon - for which
+reason, I supposed, Laputa had selected it - and in an hour or
+two the world would be lit with that ghostly radiance.  I sat on
+the counter while the minutes passed, and I confess I found
+the time of waiting very trying for my courage.  I had got over
+my worst nervousness by having something to do, but whenever
+I was idle my fears returned.  Laputa had a big night's
+work before him, and must begin soon.  My vigil, I told myself,
+could not be long.
+
+My pony was stalled in a rough shed we had built opposite
+the store.  I could hear him shaking his head and stamping the
+ground above the croaking of the frogs by the Labongo.
+Presently it seemed to me that another sound came from
+behind the store - the sound of horses' feet and the rattle of
+bridles.  It was hushed for a moment, and then I heard human
+voices.  The riders had tied up their horses to a tree and were
+coming nearer.
+
+I sprawled gracefully on the counter, the empty bottle in my
+hand, and my eyes fixed anxiously on the square of the door,
+which was filled with the blue glimmer of the late twilight.
+The square darkened, and two men peered in.  Colin growled
+from below the counter, but with one hand I held the scruff of
+his neck.
+
+'Hullo,' I said, 'ish that my black friend?  Awfly shorry, old
+man, but I've f'nish'd th' whisky.  The bo-o-ottle shempty,'
+and I waved it upside down with an imbecile giggle.
+
+Laputa said something which I did not catch.  Henriques
+laughed an ugly laugh.
+
+'We had better make certain of him,' he said.
+
+The two argued for a minute, and then Laputa seemed to
+prevail.  The door was shut and the key, which I had left in the
+lock, turned on me.
+
+I gave them five minutes to get to the outhouse and settle to
+business.  Then I opened the trap, got into the cellar, and
+crawled to the other end.  A ray of light was coming through
+the partially raised door.  By a blessed chance some old bricks
+had been left behind, and of these I made a footstool, which
+enabled me to get my back level with the door and look out.
+My laager of barrels was intact, but through a gap I had left
+I could see the two men sitting on the two cases I had provided
+for them.  A lantern was set between them, and Henriques was
+drinking out of a metal flask.
+
+He took something - I could not see what - out of his
+pocket, and held it before his companion.
+
+'Spoils of war,' he said.  'I let Sikitola's men draw first blood.
+They needed it to screw up their courage.  Now they are as
+wild as Umbooni's.
+
+Laputa asked a question.
+
+'It was the Dutchmen, who were out on the Koodoo Flats
+with their cattle.  Man, it's no good being squeamish.  Do you
+think you can talk over these surly back-veld fools?  If we had
+not done it, the best of their horses would now be over the
+Berg to give warning.  Besides, I tell you, Sikitola's men wanted
+blooding.  I did for the old swine, Coetzee, with my own
+hands.  Once he set his dogs on me, and I don't forget an injury.'
+
+Laputa must have disapproved, for Henriques' voice grew high.
+
+'Run the show the way you please,' he cried; 'but don't
+blame me if you make a hash of it.  God, man, do you think
+you are going to work a revolution on skim milk?  If I had my
+will, I would go in and stick a knife in the drunken hog
+next door.'
+
+'He is safe enough,' Laputa replied.  'I gave him the chance
+of life, and he laughed at me.  He won't get far on his road home.'
+
+This was pleasant hearing for me, but I scarcely thought of
+myself.  I was consumed with a passion of fury against the
+murdering yellow devil.  With Laputa I was not angry; he was
+an open enemy, playing a fair game.  But my fingers itched to
+get at the Portugoose - that double-dyed traitor to his race.  As
+I thought of my kindly old friends, lying butchered with their
+kinsfolk out in the bush, hot tears of rage came to my eyes.
+Perfect love casteth out fear, the Bible says; but, to speak it
+reverently, so does perfect hate.  Not for safety and a king's
+ransom would I have drawn back from the game.  I prayed for
+one thing only, that God in His mercy would give me the
+chance of settling with Henriques.
+
+I fancy I missed some of the conversation, being occupied
+with my own passion.  At any rate, when I next listened the
+two were deep in plans.  Maps were spread beside them, and
+Laputa's delicate forefinger was tracing a route.  I strained my
+ears, but could catch only a few names.  Apparently they were
+to keep in the plains till they had crossed the Klein Labongo
+and the Letaba.  I thought I caught the name of the ford of the
+latter; it sounded like Dupree's Drift.  After that the talk
+became plainer, for Laputa was explaining in his clear voice.
+The force would leave the bush, ascend the Berg by the glen
+of the Groot Letaba, and the first halt would be called at a
+place called Inanda's Kraal, where a promontory of the high-
+veld juts out behind the peaks called the Wolkberg or Cloud
+Mountains.  All this was very much to the point, and the names
+sunk into my memory like a die into wax.
+
+'Meanwhile,' said Laputa, 'there is the gathering at
+Ntabakaikonjwa.* It will take us three hours' hard riding to
+get there.'
+          **Literally, 'The Hill which is not to be pointed at'.
+
+Where on earth was Ntabakaikonjwa?  It must be the native
+name for the Rooirand, for after all Laputa was not likely to
+use the Dutch word for his own sacred place.
+
+'Nothing has been forgotten.  The men are massed below the
+cliffs, and the chiefs and the great indunas will enter the Place
+of the Snake.  The door will be guarded, and only the password
+will get a man through.  That word is "Immanuel," which
+means, "God with us."'
+
+'Well, when we get there, what happens?' Henriques asked
+with a laugh.  'What kind of magic will you spring on us?'
+
+There was a strong contrast between the flippant tone of the
+Portugoose and the grave voice which answered him.
+
+'The Keeper of the Snake will open the holy place, and
+bring forth the Isetembiso sami.* As the leader of my people,
+I will assume the collar of Umkulunkulu in the name of our
+God and the spirits of the great dead.'
+          *Literally, 'Very sacred thing'.
+
+'But you don't propose to lead the march in a necklace of
+rubies,' said Henriques, with a sudden eagerness in his voice.
+
+Again Laputa spoke gravely, and, as it were, abstractedly.  I
+heard the voice of one whose mind was fixed on a far horizon.
+
+'When I am acclaimed king, I restore the Snake to its
+Keeper, and swear never to clasp it on my neck till I have led
+my people to victory.'
+
+'I see,' said Henriques.  'What about the purification you
+mentioned?'
+
+I had missed this before and listened earnestly.
+
+'The vows we take in the holy place bind us till we are
+purged of them at Inanda's Kraal.  Till then no blood must be
+shed and no flesh eaten.  It was the fashion of our forefathers.'
+
+'Well, I think you've taken on a pretty risky job,' Henriques
+said.  'You propose to travel a hundred miles, binding yourself
+not to strike a blow.  It is simply putting yourself at the mercy
+of any police patrol.'
+
+'There will be no patrol,' Laputa replied.  'Our march will
+be as secret and as swift as death.  I have made my
+preparations.'
+
+'But suppose you met with opposition,' the Portugoose
+persisted, 'would the rule hold?'
+
+'If any try to stop us, we shall tie them hand and foot, and
+carry them with us.  Their fate will be worse than if they had
+been slain in battle.'
+
+'I see,' said Henriques, whistling through his teeth.  'Well,
+before we start this vow business, I think I'll go back and settle
+that storekeeper.'
+
+Laputa shook his head.  'Will you be serious and hear me?
+We have no time to knife harmless fools.  Before we start for
+Ntabakaikonjwa I must have from you the figures of the
+arming in the south.  That is the one thing which remains to
+be settled.'
+
+I am certain these figures would have been most interesting,
+but I never heard them.  My feet were getting cramped with
+standing on the bricks, and I inadvertently moved them.  The
+bricks came down with a rattle, and unfortunately in slipping
+I clutched at the trap.  This was too much for my frail prop,
+and the door slammed down with a great noise.
+
+Here was a nice business for the eavesdropper!  I scurried
+along the passage as stealthily as I could and clambered back
+into the store, while I heard the sound of Laputa and Henriques
+ferreting among the barrels.  I managed to throttle Colin
+and prevent him barking, but I could not get the confounded
+trap to close behind me.  Something had jammed in it, and it
+remained half a foot open.
+
+I heard the two approaching the door, and I did the best
+thing that occurred to me.  I pulled Colin over the trap, rolled
+on the top of him, and began to snore heavily as if in a
+drunken slumber.
+
+The key was turned, and the gleam of a lantern was thrown
+on the wall.  It flew up and down as its bearer cast the light
+into the corners.
+
+'By God, he's gone,' I heard Henriques say.  'The swine was
+listening, and he has bolted now.'
+
+'He won't bolt far,' Laputa said.  'He is here.  He is snoring
+behind the counter.'
+
+These were anxious moments for me.  I had a firm grip on
+Colin's throat, but now and then a growl escaped, which was
+fortunately blended with my snores.  I felt that a lantern was
+flashed on me, and that the two men were peering down at the
+heap on the half-opened trap.  I think that was the worst
+minute I ever spent, for, as I have said, my courage was not so
+bad in action, but in a passive game it oozed out of my fingers.
+
+'He is safe enough,' Laputa said, after what seemed to me
+an eternity.  'The noise was only the rats among the barrels.'
+I thanked my Maker that they had not noticed the other
+trap-door.
+'All the same I think I'll make him safer,' said Henriques.
+
+Laputa seemed to have caught him by the arm.
+
+'Come back and get to business,' he said.  'I've told you I'll
+have no more murder.  You will do as I tell you, Mr Henriques.'
+
+I did not catch the answer, but the two went out and locked
+the door.  I patted the outraged Colin, and got to my feet with
+an aching side where the confounded lid of the trap had been
+pressing.  There was no time to lose for the two in the outhouse
+would soon be setting out, and I must be before them.
+
+With no better light than a ray of the moon through the
+window, I wrote a message on a leaf from my pocket-book.  I
+told of the plans I had overheard, and especially I mentioned
+Dupree's Drift on the Letaba.  I added that I was going to the
+Rooirand to find the secret of the cave, and in one final
+sentence implored Arcoll to do justice on the Portugoose.  That
+was all, for I had no time for more.  I carefully tied the paper
+with a string below the collar of the dog.
+
+Then very quietly I went into the bedroom next door - the
+side of the store farthest from the outhouse.  The place was
+flooded with moonlight, and the window stood open, as I had
+left it in the afternoon.  As softly as I could I swung Colin over
+the sill and clambered after him.  In my haste I left my coat
+behind me with my pistol in the pocket.
+
+Now came a check.  My horse was stabled in the shed, and
+that was close to the outhouse.  The sound of leading him out
+would most certainly bring Laputa and Henriques to the door.
+In that moment I all but changed my plans.  I thought of
+slipping back to the outhouse and trying to shoot the two men
+as they came forth.  But I reflected that, before I could get
+them both, one or other would probably shoot me.  Besides, I
+had a queer sort of compunction about killing Laputa.  I
+understood now why Arcoll had stayed his hand from murder,
+and I was beginning to be of his opinion on our arch-enemy.
+
+Then I remembered the horses tied up in the bush.  One of
+them I could get with perfect safety.  I ran round the end of
+the store and into the thicket, keeping on soft grass to dull my
+tread.  There, tied up to a merula tree, were two of the finest
+beasts I had seen in Africa.  I selected the better, an Africander
+stallion of the blaauw-schimmel, or blue-roan type, which is
+famous for speed and endurance.  Slipping his bridle from the
+branch, I led him a little way into the bush in the direction of
+the Rooirand.
+
+Then I spoke to Colin.  'Home with you,' I said.  'Home, old
+man, as if you were running down a tsessebe.'*
+          *A species of buck, famous for its speed.
+
+The dog seemed puzzled.  'Home,' I said again, pointing
+west in the direction of the Berg.  'Home, you brute.'
+
+And then he understood.  He gave one low whine, and cast a
+reproachful eye on me and the blue roan.  Then he turned, and
+with his head down set off with great lopes on the track of the
+road I had ridden in the morning.
+
+A second later and I was in the saddle, riding hell-for-leather
+for the north.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+I GO TREASURE-HUNTING
+
+
+For a mile or so I kept the bush, which was open and easy to
+ride through, and then turned into the path.  The moon was
+high, and the world was all a dim dark green, with the track a
+golden ivory band before me.  I had looked at my watch before
+I started, and seen that it was just after eight o'clock.  I had a
+great horse under me, and less than thirty miles to cover.
+Midnight should see me at the cave.  With the password I
+would gain admittance, and there would wait for Laputa and
+Henriques.  Then, if my luck held, I should see the inner
+workings of the mystery which had puzzled me ever since the
+Kirkcaple shore.  No doubt I should be roughly treated, tied
+up prisoner, and carried with the army when the march began.
+But till Inanda's Kraal my life was safe, and before that came
+the ford of the Letaba.  Colin would carry my message to
+Arcoll, and at the Drift the tables would be turned on
+Laputa's men.
+
+Looking back in cold blood, it seems the craziest chain of
+accidents to count on for preservation.  A dozen possibilities
+might have shattered any link of it.  The password might be
+wrong, or I might never get the length of those who knew it.
+The men in the cave might butcher me out of hand, or Laputa
+might think my behaviour a sufficient warrant for the breach
+of the solemnest vow.  Colin might never get to
+Blaauwildebeestefontein, Laputa might change his route of march,
+or Arcoll's men might fail to hold the Drift.  Indeed, the other
+day at Portincross I was so overcome by the recollection of the
+perils I had dared and God's goodness towards me that I built
+a new hall for the parish kirk as a token of gratitude.
+
+Fortunately for mankind the brain in a life of action turns
+more to the matter in hand than to conjuring up the chances
+of the future.  Certainly it was in no discomfort of mind that I
+swung along the moonlit path to the north.  Truth to tell, I was
+almost happy.  The first honours in the game had fallen to me.
+I knew more about Laputa than any man living save Henriques;
+I had my finger on the central pulse of the rebellion.
+There was hid treasure ahead of me - a great necklace of
+rubies, Henriques had said.  Nay, there must be more, I
+argued.  This cave of the Rooirand was the headquarters of the
+rising, and there must be stored their funds - diamonds, and
+the gold they had been bartered for.  I believe that every man
+has deep in his soul a passion for treasure-hunting, which will
+often drive a coward into prodigies of valour.  I lusted for that
+treasure of jewels and gold.  Once I had been high-minded,
+and thought of my duty to my country, but in that night ride
+I fear that what I thought of was my duty to enrich David
+Crawfurd.  One other purpose simmered in my head.  I was
+devoured with wrath against Henriques.  Indeed, I think that
+was the strongest motive for my escapade, for even before I
+heard Laputa tell of the vows and the purification, I had it in
+my mind to go at all costs to the cave.  I am a peaceable man at
+most times, but I think I would rather have had the Portugoose's
+throat in my hands than the collar of Prester John.
+
+But behind my thoughts was one master-feeling, that Providence
+had given me my chance and I must make the most of it.
+Perhaps the Calvinism of my father's preaching had unconsciously
+taken grip of my soul.  At any rate I was a fatalist in
+creed, believing that what was willed would happen, and that
+man was but a puppet in the hands of his Maker.  I looked on
+the last months as a clear course which had been mapped out
+for me.  Not for nothing had I been given a clue to the strange
+events which were coming.  It was foreordained that I should
+go alone to Umvelos', and in the promptings of my own fallible
+heart I believed I saw the workings of Omnipotence.  Such is
+our moral arrogance, and yet without such a belief I think that
+mankind would have ever been content to bide sluggishly at home.
+
+I passed the spot where on my former journey I had met the
+horses, and knew that I had covered more than half the road.
+My ear had been alert for the sound of pursuit, but the bush
+was quiet as the grave.  The man who rode my pony would
+find him a slow traveller, and I pitied the poor beast bucketed
+along by an angry rider.  Gradually a hazy wall of purple began
+to shimmer before me, apparently very far off.  I knew the
+ramparts of the Rooirand, and let my Schimmel feel my knees
+in his ribs.  Within an hour I should be at the cliff's foot.
+
+I had trusted for safety to the password, but as it turned out
+I owed my life mainly to my horse.  For, a mile or so from the
+cliffs, I came to the fringes of a great army.  The bush was
+teeming with men, and I saw horses picketed in bunches, and
+a multitude of Cape-carts and light wagons.  It was like a
+colossal gathering for naachtmaal*1 at a Dutch dorp, but every
+man was black.  I saw through a corner of my eye that they
+were armed with guns, though many carried in addition their
+spears and shields.  Their first impulse was to stop me.  I saw
+guns fly to shoulders, and a rush towards the path.  The boldest
+game was the safest, so I dug my heels into the schimmel and
+shouted for a passage.  'Make way!' I cried in Kaffir.  'I bear a
+message from the Inkulu.*2  Clear out, you dogs!'
+          *1 The Communion Sabbath.
+          *2 A title applied only to the greatest chiefs.
+
+They recognized the horse, and fell back with a salute.  Had
+I but known it, the beast was famed from the Zambesi to the
+Cape.  It was their king's own charger I rode, and who dared
+question such a warrant?  I heard the word pass through the
+bush, and all down the road I got the salute.  In that moment I
+fervently thanked my stars that I had got away first, for there
+would have been no coming second for me.
+
+At the cliff-foot I found a double line of warriors who had
+the appearance of a royal guard, for all were tall men with
+leopard-skin cloaks.  Their rifle-barrels glinted in the moon-
+light, and the sight sent a cold shiver down my back.  Above
+them, among the scrub and along the lower slopes of the
+kranzes, I could see further lines with the same gleaming
+weapons.  The Place of the Snake was in strong hands that night.
+
+I dismounted and called for a man to take my horse.  Two of
+the guards stepped forward in silence and took the bridle.  This
+left the track to the cave open, and with as stiff a back as I
+could command, but a sadly fluttering heart, I marched
+through the ranks.
+
+The path was lined with guards, all silent and rigid as graven
+images.  As I stumbled over the stones I felt that my appearance
+scarcely fitted the dignity of a royal messenger.  Among those
+splendid men-at-arms I shambled along in old breeches and
+leggings, hatless, with a dirty face, dishevelled hair, and a torn
+flannel shirt.  My mind was no better than my body, for now
+that I had arrived I found my courage gone.  Had it been
+possible I would have turned tail and fled, but the boats were
+burned behind me, and I had no choice.  I cursed my rash
+folly, and wondered at my exhilaration of an hour ago.  I was
+going into the black mysterious darkness, peopled by ten
+thousand cruel foes.  My knees rubbed against each other, and
+I thought that no man had ever been in more deadly danger.
+
+At the entrance to the gorge the guards ceased and I went
+on alone.  Here there was no moonlight, and I had to feel my
+way by the sides.  I moved very slowly, wondering how soon I
+should find the end my folly demanded.  The heat of the ride
+had gone, and I remember feeling my shirt hang clammily on
+my shoulders.
+
+Suddenly a hand was laid on my breast, and a voice
+demanded, 'The word?'
+
+'Immanuel,' I said hoarsely.
+
+Then unseen hands took both my arms, and I was led
+farther into the darkness.  My hopes revived for a second.  The
+password had proved true, and at any rate I should enter the cave.
+
+In the darkness I could see nothing, but I judged that we
+stopped before the stone slab which, as I remembered, filled
+the extreme end of the gorge.  My guide did something with
+the right-hand wall, and I felt myself being drawn into a kind
+of passage.  It was so narrow that two could not go abreast, and
+so low that the creepers above scraped my hair.  Something
+clicked behind me like the turnstile at the gate of a show.
+
+Then we began to ascend steps, still in utter darkness, and a
+great booming fell on my ear.  It was the falling river which
+had scared me on my former visit, and I marvelled that I had
+not heard it sooner.  Presently we came out into a gleam of
+moonlight, and I saw that we were inside the gorge and far
+above the slab.  We followed a narrow shelf on its left side (or
+'true right', as mountaineers would call it) until we could go
+no farther.  Then we did a terrible thing.  Across the gorge,
+which here was at its narrowest, stretched a slab of stone.  Far,
+far below I caught the moonlight on a mass of hurrying waters.
+This was our bridge, and though I have a good head for crags,
+I confess I grew dizzy as we turned to cross it.  Perhaps it was
+broader than it looked; at any rate my guides seemed to have
+no fear, and strode across it as if it was a highway, while I
+followed in a sweat of fright.  Once on the other side, I was
+handed over to a second pair of guides, who led me down a
+high passage running into the heart of the mountain.
+
+The boom of the river sank and rose as the passage twined.
+Soon I saw a gleam of light ahead which was not the moon.  It
+grew larger, until suddenly the roof rose and I found myself in
+a gigantic chamber.  So high it was that I could not make out
+anything of the roof, though the place was brightly lit with
+torches stuck round the wall, and a great fire which burned at
+the farther end.  But the wonder was on the left side, where the
+floor ceased in a chasm.  The left wall was one sheet of water,
+where the river fell from the heights into the infinite depth,
+below.  The torches and the fire made the sheer stream glow
+and sparkle like the battlements of the Heavenly City.  I have
+never seen any sight so beautiful or so strange, and for a
+second my breath stopped in admiration.
+
+There were two hundred men or more in the chamber, but
+so huge was the place that they seemed only a little company.
+They sat on the ground in a circle, with their eyes fixed on the
+fire and on a figure which stood before it.  The glow revealed
+the old man I had seen on that morning a month before moving
+towards the cave.  He stood as if in a trance, straight as a tree,
+with his arms crossed on his breast.  A robe of some shining
+white stuff fell from his shoulders, and was clasped round his
+middle by a broad circle of gold.  His head was shaven, and on
+his forehead was bound a disc of carved gold.  I saw from his
+gaze that his old eyes were blind.
+
+'Who comes?'he asked as I entered.
+
+'A messenger from the Inkulu,' I spoke up boldly.  'He
+follows soon with the white man, Henriques.'
+
+Then I sat down in the back row of the circle to await
+events.  I noticed that my neighbour was the fellow 'Mwanga
+whom I had kicked out of the store.  Happily I was so dusty
+that he could scarcely recognize me, but I kept my face turned
+away from him.  What with the light and the warmth, the drone
+of the water, the silence of the folk, and my mental and
+physical stress, I grew drowsy and all but slept.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+THE CAVE OF THE ROOIRAND
+
+
+I was roused by a sudden movement.  The whole assembly
+stood up, and each man clapped his right hand to his brow and
+then raised it high.  A low murmur of 'Inkulu' rose above the
+din of the water.  Laputa strode down the hall, with Henriques
+limping behind him.  They certainly did not suspect my
+presence in the cave, nor did Laputa show any ruffling of his
+calm.  Only Henriques looked weary and cross.  I guessed he
+had had to ride my pony.
+
+The old man whom I took to be the priest advanced towards
+Laputa with his hands raised over his head.  A pace before they
+met he halted, and Laputa went on his knees before him.  He
+placed his hands on his head, and spoke some words which I
+could not understand.  It reminded me, so queer are the tricks of
+memory, of an old Sabbath-school book I used to have which
+had a picture of Samuel ordaining Saul as king of Israel.  I think
+I had forgotten my own peril and was enthralled by the majesty
+of the place - the wavering torches, the dropping wall of green
+water, above all, the figures of Laputa and the Keeper of the
+Snake, who seemed to have stepped out of an antique world.
+
+Laputa stripped off his leopard skin till he stood stark, a
+noble form of a man.  Then the priest sprinkled some herbs on
+the fire, and a thin smoke rose to the roof.  The smell was that
+I had smelled on the Kirkcaple shore, sweet, sharp, and
+strange enough to chill the marrow.  And round the fire went
+the priest in widening and contracting circles, just as on that
+Sabbath evening in spring.
+
+Once more we were sitting on the ground, all except Laputa
+and the Keeper.  Henriques was squatting in the front row, a
+tiny creature among so many burly savages.  Laputa stood with
+bent head in the centre.
+
+Then a song began, a wild incantation in which all joined.
+The old priest would speak some words, and the reply came in
+barbaric music.  The words meant nothing to me; they must
+have been in some tongue long since dead.  But the music told
+its own tale.  It spoke of old kings and great battles, of splendid
+palaces and strong battlements, of queens white as ivory, of
+death and life, love and hate, joy and sorrow.  It spoke, too, of
+desperate things, mysteries of horror long shut to the world.
+No Kaffir ever forged that ritual.  It must have come straight
+from Prester John or Sheba's queen, or whoever ruled in
+Africa when time was young.
+
+I was horribly impressed.  Devouring curiosity and a lurking
+nameless fear filled my mind.  My old dread had gone.  I was
+not afraid now of Kaffir guns, but of the black magic of which
+Laputa had the key.
+
+The incantation died away, but still herbs were flung on the
+fire, till the smoke rose in a great cloud, through which the
+priest loomed misty and huge.  Out of the smoke-wreaths his
+voice came high and strange.  It was as if some treble stop had
+been opened in a great organ, as against the bass drone of
+the cataract.
+
+He was asking Laputa questions, to which came answers in
+that rich voice which on board the liner had preached the
+gospel of Christ.  The tongue I did not know, and I doubt if
+my neighbours were in better case.  It must have been some
+old sacred language - Phoenician, Sabaean, I know not what -
+which had survived in the rite of the Snake.
+
+Then came silence while the fire died down and the smoke
+eddied away in wreaths towards the river.  The priest's lips
+moved as if in prayer: of Laputa I saw only the back, and his
+head was bowed.
+
+Suddenly a rapt cry broke from the Keeper.  'God has
+spoken,' he cried.  'The path is clear.  The Snake returns to the
+House of its Birth.'
+
+An attendant led forward a black goat, which bleated feebly.
+With a huge antique knife the old man slit its throat, catching
+the blood in a stone ewer.  Some was flung on the fire, which
+had burned small and low.
+
+'Even so,' cried the priest, 'will the king quench in blood the
+hearth-fires of his foes.'
+
+Then on Laputa's forehead and bare breast he drew a bloody cross.
+'I seal thee,' said the voice, 'priest and king of God's people.'
+The ewer was carried round the assembly, and each dipped
+his finger in it and marked his forehead.  I got a dab to add to
+the other marks on my face.
+
+'Priest and king of God's people,' said the voice again, 'I call
+thee to the inheritance of John.  Priest and king was he, king of
+kings, lord of hosts, master of the earth.  When he ascended on
+high he left to his son the sacred Snake, the ark of his valour,
+to be God's dower and pledge to the people whom He has chosen.'
+
+I could not make out what followed.  It seemed to be a long
+roll of the kings who had borne the Snake.  None of them I
+knew, but at the end I thought I caught the name of Tchaka
+the Terrible, and I remembered Arcoll's tale.
+
+The Keeper held in his arms a box of curiously wrought ivory,
+about two feet long and one broad.  He was standing beyond
+the ashes, from which, in spite of the blood, thin streams of
+smoke still ascended.  He opened it, and drew out something
+which swung from his hand like a cascade of red fire.
+
+'Behold the Snake,' cried the Keeper, and every man in the
+assembly, excepting Laputa and including me, bowed his head
+to the ground and cried 'Ow.'
+
+'Ye who have seen the Snake,' came the voice, on you is the
+vow of silence and peace.  No blood shall ye shed of man or
+beast, no flesh shall ye eat till the vow is taken from you.  From
+the hour of midnight till sunrise on the second day ye are
+bound to God.  Whoever shall break the vow, on him shall the
+curse fall.  His blood shall dry in his veins, and his flesh shrink
+on his bones.  He shall be an outlaw and accursed, and there
+shall follow him through life and death the Avengers of the
+Snake.  Choose ye, my people; upon you is the vow.'
+
+By this time we were all flat on our faces, and a great cry of
+assent went up.  I lifted my head as much as I dared to see
+what would happen next.
+
+The priest raised the necklace till it shone above his head
+like a halo of blood.  I have never seen such a jewel, and I think
+there has never been another such on earth.  Later I was to
+have the handling of it, and could examine it closely, though
+now I had only a glimpse.  There were fifty-five rubies in it,
+the largest as big as a pigeon's egg, and the least not smaller
+than my thumbnail.  In shape they were oval, cut on both sides
+en cabochon, and on each certain characters were engraved.
+No doubt this detracted from their value as gems, yet the
+characters might have been removed and the stones cut in
+facets, and these rubies would still have been the noblest in
+the world.  I was no jewel merchant to guess their value, but I
+knew enough to see that here was wealth beyond human
+computation.  At each end of the string was a great pearl and a
+golden clasp.  The sight absorbed me to the exclusion of all
+fear.  I, David Crawfurd, nineteen years of age, an assistant-
+storekeeper in a back-veld dorp, was privileged to see a sight
+to which no Portuguese adventurer had ever attained.  There,
+floating on the smoke-wreaths, was the jewel which may once
+have burned in Sheba's hair.
+As the priest held the collar aloft, the assembly rocked with
+a strange passion.  Foreheads were rubbed in the dust, and
+then adoring eyes would be raised, while a kind of sobbing
+shook the worshippers.  In that moment I learned something
+of the secret of Africa, of Prester John's empire and Tchaka's
+victories.
+
+, In the name of God,' came the voice, 'I deliver to the heir
+of John the Snake of John.'
+
+Laputa took the necklet and twined it in two loops round his
+neck till the clasp hung down over his breast.  The position
+changed.  The priest knelt before him, and received his hands
+on his head.  Then I knew that, to the confusion of all talk
+about equality, God has ordained some men to be kings and
+others to serve.  Laputa stood naked as when he was born, The
+rubies were dulled against the background of his skin, but they
+still shone with a dusky fire.  Above the blood-red collar his
+face had the passive pride of a Roman emperor.  Only his great
+eyes gloomed and burned as he looked on his followers.
+
+'Heir of John,' he said, 'I stand before you as priest and
+king.  My kingship is for the morrow.  Now I am the priest to
+make intercession for my people.'
+
+He prayed - prayed as I never heard man pray before -
+and to the God of Israel!  It was no heathen fetich he was
+invoking, but the God of whom he had often preached in
+Christian kirks.  I recognized texts from Isaiah and the Psalms
+and the Gospels, and very especially from the two last chapters
+of Revelation.  He pled with God to forget the sins of his people,
+to recall the bondage of Zion.  It was amazing to hear these
+bloodthirsty savages consecrated by their leader to the meek
+service of Christ.  An enthusiast may deceive himself, and I did
+not question his sincerity.  I knew his heart, black with all the
+lusts of paganism.  I knew that his purpose was to deluge the
+land with blood.  But I knew also that in his eyes his mission
+was divine, and that he felt behind him all the armies of Heaven.
+
+__'Thou hast been a strength to the poor,' said the voice, 'a
+refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast
+of the Terrible Ones is as a storm against a wall.
+
+__'Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in
+a dry place; the branch of the Terrible Ones shall be
+brought low.
+
+__'And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all
+people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat
+things full of marrow.
+
+__'And He will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering
+cast over all people, and the vail that is brought over all
+nations.
+__'And the rebuke of His people shall He take away from off all
+the earth; for the Lord hath spoken it.'_
+
+I listened spellbound as he prayed.  I heard the phrases
+familiar to me in my schooldays at Kirkcaple.  He had some of
+the tones of my father's voice, and when I shut my eyes I
+could have believed myself a child again.  So much he had got
+from his apprenticeship to the ministry.  I wondered vaguely
+what the good folks who had listened to him in churches and
+halls at home would think of him now.  But there was in the
+prayer more than the supplications of the quondam preacher.
+There was a tone of arrogant pride, the pride of the man to
+whom the Almighty is only another and greater Lord of Hosts.
+He prayed less as a suppliant than as an ally.  A strange emotion
+tingled in my blood, half awe, half sympathy.  As I have said,
+I understood that there are men born to kingship.
+
+He ceased with a benediction.  Then he put on his leopard-
+skin cloak and kilt, and received from the kneeling chief a
+spear and shield.  Now he was more king than priest, more
+barbarian than Christian.  It was as a king that he now spoke.
+
+I had heard him on board the liner, and had thought his
+voice the most wonderful I had ever met with.  But now in that
+great resonant hall the magic of it was doubled.  He played
+upon the souls of his hearers as on a musical instrument.  At
+will he struck the chords of pride, fury, hate, and mad joy.
+Now they would be hushed in breathless quiet, and now the
+place would echo with savage assent.  I remember noticing that
+the face of my neighbour, 'Mwanga, was running with tears.
+
+He spoke of the great days of Prester John, and a hundred
+names I had never heard of.  He pictured the heroic age of his
+nation, when every man was a warrior and hunter, and rich
+kraals stood in the spots now desecrated by the white man, and
+cattle wandered on a thousand hills.  Then he told tales of
+white infamy, lands snatched from their rightful possessors,
+unjust laws which forced the Ethiopian to the bondage of a
+despised caste, the finger of scorn everywhere, and the mocking
+word.  If it be the part of an orator to rouse the passion of
+his hearers, Laputa was the greatest on earth.  'What have ye
+gained from the white man?' he cried.  'A bastard civilization
+which has sapped your manhood; a false religion which would
+rivet on you the chains of the slave.  Ye, the old masters of the
+land, are now the servants of the oppressor.  And yet the
+oppressors are few, and the fear of you is in their hearts.  They
+feast in their great cities, but they see the writing on the wall,
+and their eyes are anxiously turning lest the enemy be at their
+gates.'  I cannot hope in my prosaic words to reproduce that
+amazing discourse.  Phrases which the hearers had heard at
+mission schools now suddenly appeared, not as the white man's
+learning, but as God's message to His own.  Laputa fitted the
+key to the cipher, and the meaning was clear.  He concluded, I
+remember, with a picture of the overthrow of the alien, and
+the golden age which would dawn for the oppressed.  Another
+Ethiopian empire would arise, so majestic that the white man
+everywhere would dread its name, so righteous that all men
+under it would live in ease and peace.
+
+By rights, I suppose, my blood should have been boiling at
+this treason.  I am ashamed to confess that it did nothing of the
+sort.  My mind was mesmerized by this amazing man.  I could
+not refrain from shouting with the rest.  Indeed I was a convert,
+if there can be conversion when the emotions are dominant
+and there is no assent from the brain.  I had a mad desire to be
+of Laputa's party.  Or rather, I longed for a leader who should
+master me and make my soul his own, as this man mastered
+his followers.  I have already said that I might have made a
+good subaltern soldier, and the proof is that I longed for such
+a general.
+
+As the voice ceased there was a deep silence.  The hearers
+were in a sort of trance, their eyes fixed glassily on Laputa's
+face.  It was the quiet of tense nerves and imagination at white-
+heat.  I had to struggle with a spell which gripped me equally
+with the wildest savage.  I forced myself to look round at the
+strained faces, the wall of the cascade, the line of torches.  It
+was the sight of Henriques that broke the charm.  Here was
+one who had no part in the emotion.  I caught his eye fixed on
+the rubies, and in it I read only a devouring greed.  It flashed
+through my mind that Laputa had a foe in his own camp, and the
+Prester's collar a votary whose passion was not that of worship.
+
+The next thing I remember was a movement among the first
+ranks.  The chiefs were swearing fealty.  Laputa took off the
+collar and called God to witness that it should never again
+encircle his neck till he had led his people to victory.  Then one
+by one the great chiefs and indunas advanced, and swore
+allegiance with their foreheads on the ivory box.  Such a
+collection of races has never been seen.  There were tall Zulus
+and Swazis with ringkops and feather head-dresses.  There
+were men from the north with heavy brass collars and anklets;
+men with quills in their ears, and earrings and nose-rings;
+shaven heads, and heads with wonderfully twisted hair; bodies
+naked or all but naked, and bodies adorned with skins and
+necklets.  Some were light in colour, and some were black as
+coal; some had squat negro features, and some thin, high-
+boned Arab faces.  But in all there was the air of mad
+enthusiasm.  For a day they were forsworn from blood, but
+their wild eyes and twitching hands told their future purpose.
+
+For an hour or two I had been living in a dream-world.
+Suddenly my absorption was shattered, for I saw that my time
+to swear was coming.  I sat in the extreme back row at the end
+nearest the entrance, and therefore I should naturally be the
+last to go forward.  The crisis was near when I should be
+discovered, for there was no question of my shirking the oath.
+
+Then for the first time since I entered the cave I realized the
+frightful danger in which I stood.  My mind had been strung
+so high by the ritual that I had forgotten all else.  Now came
+the rebound, and with shaky nerves I had to face discovery
+and certain punishment.  In that moment I suffered the worst
+terror of my life.  There was much to come later, but by that
+time my senses were dulled.  Now they had been sharpened by
+what I had seen and heard, my nerves were already quivering
+and my fancy on fire.  I felt every limb shaking as 'Mwanga
+went forward.  The cave swam before my eyes, heads were
+multiplied giddily, and I was only dimly conscious when he
+rose to return.
+
+Nothing would have made me advance, had I not feared
+Laputa less than my neighbours.  They might rend me to
+pieces, but to him the oath was inviolable.  I staggered crazily
+to my feet, and shambled forwards.  My eye was fixed on the
+ivory box, and it seemed to dance before me and retreat.
+
+Suddenly I heard a voice - the voice of Henriques - cry, 'By
+God, a spy!' I felt my throat caught, but I was beyond resisting.
+
+It was released, and I was pinned by the arms.  I must have
+stood vacantly, with a foolish smile, while unchained fury
+raged round me.  I seemed to hear Laputa's voice saying, 'It is
+the storekeeper.'  His face was all that I could see, and it was
+unperturbed.  There was a mocking ghost of a smile about his lips.
+
+Myriad hands seemed to grip me and crush my breath, but
+above the clamour I heard a fierce word of command.
+After that I fainted.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+CAPTAIN ARCOLL SENDS A MESSAGE
+
+
+I once read - I think in some Latin writer - the story of a
+man who was crushed to a jelly by the mere repeated touch of
+many thousand hands.  His murderers were not harsh, but an
+infinite repetition of the gentlest handling meant death.  I do
+not suppose that I was very brutally manhandled in the cave.
+I was trussed up tight and carried out to the open, and left in
+the care of the guards.  But when my senses returned I felt as
+if I had been cruelly beaten in every part.  The raw-hide bonds
+chafed my wrists and ankle and shoulders, but they were the
+least part of my aches.  To be handled by a multitude of Kaffirs
+is like being shaken by some wild animal.  Their skins are
+insensible to pain, and I have seen a Zulu stand on a piece of
+red-hot iron without noticing it till he was warned by the smell
+of burning hide.  Anyhow, after I had been bound by Kaffir
+hands and tossed on Kaffir shoulders, I felt as if I had been in
+a scrimmage of mad bulls.
+I found myself lying looking up at the moon.  It was the edge
+of the bush, and all around was the stir of the army getting
+ready for the road.  You know how a native babbles and
+chatters over any work he has to do.  It says much for Laputa's
+iron hand that now everything was done in silence.  I heard the
+nickering of horses and the jolt of carts as they turned from the
+bush into the path.  There was the sound of hurried whispering,
+and now and then a sharp command.  And all the while I
+lay, staring at the moon and wondering if I was going to keep
+my reason.
+
+If he who reads this doubts the discomfort of bonds let him
+try them for himself.  Let him be bound foot and hand and left
+alone, and in half an hour he will be screaming for release.
+The sense of impotence is stifling, and I felt as if I were buried
+in some landslip instead of lying under the open sky, with the
+night wind fanning my face.  I was in the second stage of panic,
+which is next door to collapse.  I tried to cry, but could only
+raise a squeak like a bat.  A wheel started to run round in my
+head, and, when I looked at the moon, I saw that it was
+rotating in time.  Things were very bad with me.
+It was 'Mwanga who saved me from lunacy.  He had been
+appointed my keeper, and the first I knew of it was a violent
+kick in the ribs.  I rolled over on the grass down a short slope.
+The brute squatted beside me, and prodded me with his gun-
+barrel.
+
+'Ha, Baas,' he said in his queer English.  'Once you ordered
+me out of your store and treated me like a dog.  It is 'Mwanga's
+turn now.  You are 'Mwanga's dog, and he will skin you with a
+sjambok soon.'
+
+My wandering wits were coming back to me.  I looked into
+his bloodshot eyes and saw what I had to expect.  The cheerful
+savage went on to discuss just the kind of beating I should get
+from him.  My bones were to be uncovered till the lash curled
+round my heart.  Then the jackals would have the rest of me.
+
+This was ordinary Kaffir brag, and it made me angry.  But I
+thought it best to go cannily.
+
+,if I am to be your slave,' I managed to say, 'it would be a
+pity to beat me so hard.  You would get no more work out of me.'
+
+'Mwanga grinned wickedly.  'You are my slave for a day and
+a night.  After that we kill you - slowly.  You will burn till your
+legs fall off and your knees are on the ground, and then you
+will be chopped small with knives.'
+
+Thank God, my courage and common sense were coming
+back to me.
+
+'What happens to me to-morrow,' I said, 'is the Inkulu's
+business, not yours.  I am his prisoner.  But if you lift your
+hand on me to-day so as to draw one drop of blood the Inkulu
+will make short work of you.  The vow is upon you, and if you
+break it you know what happens.'  And I repeated, in a fair
+imitation of the priest's voice, the terrible curse he had
+pronounced in the cave.
+
+You should have seen the change in that cur's face.  I had
+guessed he was a coward, as he was most certainly a bully, and
+now I knew it.  He shivered, and drew his hand over his eyes.
+
+'Nay, Baas,' he pleaded, 'it was but a joke.  No harm shall
+come on you to-day.  But tomorrow -' and his ugly face grew
+more cheerful.
+
+'To-morrow we shall see what we shall see,' I said stoically,
+and a loud drum-beat sounded through the camp.
+
+It was the signal for moving, for in the east a thin pale line
+of gold was beginning to show over the trees.  The bonds at my
+knees and ankles were cut, and I was bundled on to the back
+of a horse.  Then my feet were strapped firmly below its belly.
+The bridle of my beast was tied to 'Mwanga's, so that there
+was little chance of escape even if I had been unshackled.
+
+My thoughts were very gloomy.  So far all had happened as
+I planned, but I seemed to have lost my nerve, and I could not
+believe in my rescue at the Letaba, while I thought of Inanda's
+Kraal with sheer horror.  Last night I had looked into the heart
+of darkness, and the sight had terrified me.  What part should
+I play in the great purification?  Most likely that of the Biblical
+scapegoat.  But the dolour of my mind was surpassed by the
+discomfort of my body.  I was broken with pains and weariness,
+and I had a desperate headache.  Also, before we had gone a
+mile, I began to think that I should split in two.  The paces of
+my beast were uneven, to say the best of it, and the bump-
+bump was like being on the rack.  I remembered that the saints
+of the Covenant used to journey to prison this way, especially
+the great Mr Peden, and I wondered how they liked it.  When
+I hear of a man doing a brave deed, I always want to discover
+whether at the time he was well and comfortable in body.
+That, I am certain, is the biggest ingredient in courage, and
+those who plan and execute great deeds in bodily weakness
+have my homage as truly heroic.  For myself, I had not the
+spirit of a chicken as I jogged along at 'Mwanga's side.  I
+wished he would begin to insult me, if only to distract my
+mind, but he kept obstinately silent.  He was sulky, and I think
+rather afraid of me.
+
+As the sun got up I could see something of the host around
+me.  I am no hand at guessing numbers, but I should put the
+fighting men I saw at not less than twenty thousand.  Every
+man of them was on this side his prime, and all were armed
+with good rifles and bandoliers.  There were none of your old
+roers* and decrepit Enfields, which I had seen signs of in Kaffir
+kraals.  These guns were new, serviceable Mausers, and the
+men who bore them looked as if they knew how to handle
+them.  There must have been long months of training behind
+this show, and I marvelled at the man who had organized it.  I
+saw no field-guns, and the little transport they had was
+evidently for food only.  We did not travel in ranks like an
+orthodox column.  About a third of the force was mounted,
+and this formed the centre.  On each wing the infantry straggled
+far afield, but there was method in their disorder, for in the
+bush close ranks would have been impossible.  At any rate we
+kept wonderfully well together, and when we mounted a knoll
+the whole army seemed to move in one piece.  I was well in the
+rear of the centre column, but from the crest of a slope I
+sometimes got a view in front.  I could see nothing of Laputa,
+who was probably with the van, but in the very heart of the
+force I saw the old priest of the Snake, with his treasure
+carried in the kind of litter which the Portuguese call a
+machila, between rows of guards.  A white man rode beside
+him, whom I judged to be Henriques.  Laputa trusted this
+fellow, and I wondered why.  I had not forgotten the look on
+his face while he had stared at the rubies in the cave.  I had a
+notion that the Portugoose might be an unsuspected ally of
+mine, though for blackguard reasons.
+          *Boer elephant guns.*
+
+About ten o'clock, as far as I could judge by the sun, we
+passed Umvelos', and took the right bank of the Labongo.
+There was nothing in the store to loot, but it was overrun by
+Kaffirs, who carried off the benches for firewood.  It gave me
+an odd feeling to see the remains of the meal at which I had
+entertained Laputa in the hands of a dozen warriors.  I thought
+of the long sunny days when I had sat by my nachtmaal while
+the Dutch farmers rode in to trade.  Now these men were all
+dead, and I was on my way to the same bourne.
+
+Soon the blue line of the Berg rose in the west, and through
+the corner of my eye, as I rode, I could see the gap of the
+Klein Labongo.  I wondered if Arcoll and his men were up
+there watching us.  About this time I began to be so wretched
+in body that I ceased to think of the future.  I had had no food
+for seventeen hours, and I was dropping from lack of sleep.
+The ache of my bones was so great that I found myself crying
+like a baby.  What between pain and weakness and nervous
+exhaustion, I was almost at the end of my tether, and should
+have fainted dead away if a halt had not been called.  But about
+midday, after we had crossed the track from Blaauwildebeestefontein
+to the Portuguese frontier, we came to the broad,
+shallow drift of the Klein Labongo.  It is the way of the Kaffirs
+to rest at noon, and on the other side of the drift we encamped.
+I remember the smell of hot earth and clean water as my horse
+scrambled up the bank.  Then came the smell of wood-smoke
+as fires were lit.  It seemed an age after we stopped before my
+feet were loosed and I was allowed to fall over on the ground.
+I lay like a log where I fell, and was asleep in ten seconds.
+I awoke two hours later much refreshed, and with a raging
+hunger.  My ankles and knees had been tied again, but the
+sleep had taken the worst stiffness out of my joints.  The
+natives were squatting in groups round their fires, but no one
+came near me.  I satisfied myself by straining at my bonds that
+this solitude gave no chance of escape.  I wanted food, and I
+shouted on 'Mwanga, but he never came.  Then I rolled over
+into the shadow of a wacht-en-beetje bush to get out of the glare.
+
+I saw a Kaffir on the other side of the bush who seemed to
+be grinning at me.  Slowly he moved round to my side, and
+stood regarding me with interest.
+
+'For God's sake get me some food,' I said.
+
+'ja, Baas,' was the answer; and he disappeared for a minute,
+and returned with a wooden bowl of hot mealie-meal porridge,
+and a calabash full of water.
+
+I could not use my hands, so he fed me with the blade of his
+knife.  Such porridge without salt or cream is beastly food, but
+my hunger was so great that I could have eaten a vat of it.
+
+Suddenly it appeared that the Kaffir had something to say
+to me.  As he fed me he began to speak in a low voice in
+English.
+
+'Baas,' he said, 'I come from Ratitswan, and I have a message
+for you.'
+
+I guessed that Ratitswan was the native name for Arcoll.
+There was no one else likely to send a message.
+'Ratitswan says,' he went on, "'Look out for Dupree's Drift."
+I will be near you and cut your bonds; then you must swim
+across when Ratitswan begins to shoot.'
+
+The news took all the weight of care from my mind.  Colin
+had got home, and my friends were out for rescue.  So volatile
+is the mood of 19 that I veered round from black despair to an
+unwarranted optimism.  I saw myself already safe, and Laputa's
+rising scattered.  I saw my hands on the treasure, and
+Henriques' ugly neck below my heel.
+
+'I don't know your name,' I said to the Kaffir, 'but you are a
+good fellow.  When I get out of this business I won't forget you.'
+
+'There is another message, Baas,' he said.  'It is written on
+paper in a strange tongue.  Turn your head to the bush, and
+see, I will hold it inside the bowl, that you may read it.'
+
+I did as I was told, and found myself looking at a dirty half-
+sheet of notepaper, marked by the Kaffir's thumbs.  Some
+words were written on it in Wardlaw's hand; and, 
+characteristically, in Latin, which was not a bad cipher.  I read -
+'Henricus de Letaba transeunda apud Duprei vada jam nos
+certiores fecit.'*
+          *'Henriques has already told us about the crossing at Dupree's Drift.'
+
+I had guessed rightly.  Henriques was a traitor to the cause
+he had espoused.  Arcoll's message had given me new heart,
+but Wardlaw's gave me information of tremendous value.  I
+repented that I had ever underrated the schoolmaster's sense.
+He did not come out of Aberdeen for nothing.
+
+I asked the Kaffir how far it was to Dupree's Drift, and was
+told three hours' march.  We should get there after the darkening.
+It seemed he had permission to ride with me instead of
+'Mwanga, who had no love for the job.  How he managed this
+I do not know; but Arcoll's men had their own ways of doing
+things.  He undertook to set me free when the first shot was fired
+at the ford.  Meantime I bade him leave me, to avert suspicion.
+
+There is a story of one of King Arthur's knights - Sir
+Percival, I think - that once, riding through a forest, he
+found a lion fighting with a serpent.  He drew his sword and
+helped the lion, for he thought it was the more natural beast of
+the two.  To me Laputa was the lion, and Henriques the
+serpent; and though I had no good will to either, I was
+determined to spoil the serpent's game.  He was after the
+rubies, as I had fancied; he had never been after anything else.
+He had found out about Arcoll's preparations, and had sent
+him a warning, hoping, no doubt, that, if Laputa's force was
+scattered on the Letaba, he would have a chance of getting off
+with the necklace in the confusion.  If he succeeded, he would
+go over the Lebombo to Mozambique, and whatever happened
+afterwards in the rising would be no concern of Mr Henriques.
+I determined that he should fail; but how to manage it I could
+not see.  Had I had a pistol, I think I would have shot him; but
+I had no weapon of any kind.  I could not warn Laputa, for
+that would seal my own fate, even if I were believed.  It was
+clear that Laputa must go to Dupree's Drift, for otherwise I
+could not escape; and it was equally clear that I must find the
+means of spoiling the Portugoose's game.
+
+A shadow fell across the sunlight, and I looked up to see the
+man I was thinking of standing before me.  He had a cigarette
+in his mouth, and his hands in the pockets of his riding-
+breeches.  He stood eyeing me with a curious smile on his face.
+
+'Well, Mr Storekeeper,' he said, 'you and I have met before
+under pleasanter circumstances.'
+
+I said nothing, my mind being busy with what to do at the drift.
+
+'We were shipmates, if I am not mistaken,' he said.  'I dare
+say you found it nicer work smoking on the after-deck than
+lying here in the sun.'
+
+Still I said nothing.  If the man had come to mock me, he
+would get no change out of David Crawfurd.
+
+'Tut, tut, don't be sulky.  You have no quarrel with me.
+Between ourselves,' and he dropped his voice, 'I tried to save
+you; but you had seen rather too much to be safe.  What devil
+prompted you to steal a horse and go to the cave?  I don't blame
+you for overhearing us; but if you had had the sense of a louse
+you would have gone off to the Berg with your news.  By the
+way, how did you manage it?  A cellar, I suppose.  Our friend
+Laputa was a fool not to take better precautions; but I must
+say you acted the drunkard pretty well.'
+
+The vanity of 19 is an incalculable thing.  I rose to the fly.
+
+'I know the kind of precaution you wanted to take,'
+I muttered.
+
+'You heard that too?  Well, I confess I am in favour of doing
+a job thoroughly when I take it up.'
+
+'In the Koodoo Flats, for example,' I said.
+
+He sat down beside me, and laughed softly.  'You heard my
+little story?  You are clever, Mr Storekeeper, but not quite
+clever enough.  What if I can act a part as well as yourself?'
+And he thrust his yellow face close to mine.
+
+I saw his meaning, and did not for a second believe him;
+but I had the sense to temporize.
+
+'Do you mean to say that you did not kill the Dutchmen,
+and did not mean to knife me?'
+
+'I mean to say that I am not a fool,' he said, lighting
+another cigarette.
+
+'I am a white man, Mr Storekeeper, and I play the white
+man's game.  Why do you think I am here?  Simply because I
+was the only man in Africa who had the pluck to get to the
+heart of this business.  I am here to dish Laputa, and by God I
+am going to do it.'
+
+I was scarcely prepared for such incredible bluff.  I knew
+every word was a lie, but I wanted to hear more, for the man
+fascinated me.
+
+'I suppose you know what will happen to you,' he said,
+flicking the ashes from his cigarette.  'To-morrow at Inanda's
+Kraal, when the vow is over, they will give you a taste of Kaffir
+habits.  Not death, my friend - that would be simple enough -
+but a slow death with every refinement of horror.  You have
+broken into their sacred places, and you will be sacrificed to
+Laputa's god.  I have seen native torture before, and his own
+mother would run away shrieking from a man who had
+endured it.'
+
+I said nothing, but the thought made my flesh creep.
+
+'Well,' he went on, 'you're in an awkward plight, but I think
+I can help you.  What if I can save your life, Mr Storekeeper?
+You are trussed up like a fowl, and can do nothing.  I am the
+only man alive who can help you.  I am willing to do it, too -
+on my own terms.'
+
+I did not wait to hear those terms, for I had a shrewd guess
+what they would be.  My hatred of Henriques rose and choked
+me.  I saw murder and trickery in his mean eyes and cruel
+mouth.  I could not, to be saved from the uttermost horror,
+have made myself his ally.
+
+'Now listen, Mr Portugoose,' I cried.  'You tell me you are a
+spy.  What if I shout that through the camp?  There will be
+short shrift for you if Laputa hears it.'
+
+He laughed loudly.  'You are a bigger fool than I took you
+for.  Who would believe you, my friend.  Not Laputa.  Not any
+man in this army.  It would only mean tighter bonds for these
+long legs of yours.'
+
+By this time I had given up all thought of diplomacy.  'Very
+well, you yellow-faced devil, you will hear my answer.  I would
+not take my freedom from you, though I were to be boiled
+alive.  I know you for a traitor to the white man's cause, a dirty
+I.D.B. swindler, whose name is a byword among honest men.
+By your own confession you are a traitor to this idiot rising.
+You murdered the Dutchmen and God knows how many more, and you
+would fain have murdered me.  I pray to Heaven that the men whose
+cause you have betrayed and the men whose cause you would betray
+may join to stamp the life out of you and send your soul to hell.
+I know the game you would have me join in, and I fling your offer
+in your face.  But I tell you one thing - you are damned yourself.
+The white men are out, and you will never get over the Lebombo.
+From black or white you will get justice before many hours, and
+your carcass will be left to rot in the bush.  Get out of my
+sight, you swine.'
+
+In that moment I was so borne up in my passion that I
+forgot my bonds and my grave danger.  I was inspired like a
+prophet with a sense of approaching retribution.  Henriques
+heard me out; but his smile changed to a scowl, and a flush
+rose on his sallow cheek.
+
+'Stew in your own juice,' he said, and spat in my face.  Then
+he shouted in Kaffir that I had insulted him, and demanded
+that I should be bound tighter and gagged.
+
+It was Arcoll's messenger who answered his summons.  That
+admirable fellow rushed at me with a great appearance of
+savagery.  He made a pretence of swathing me up in fresh rawhide
+ropes, but his knots were loose and the thing was a farce.
+He gagged me with what looked like a piece of wood, but was
+in reality a chunk of dry banana.  And all the while, till
+Henriques was out of hearing, he cursed me with a noble gift
+of tongues.
+
+The drums beat for the advance, and once more I was
+hoisted on my horse, while Arcoll's Kaffir tied my bridle to his
+own.  A Kaffir cannot wink, but he has a way of slanting his
+eyes which does as well, and as we moved on he would turn
+his head to me with this strange grimace.
+
+Henriques wanted me to help him to get the rubies - that I
+presumed was the offer he had meant to make.  Well, thought
+I, I will perish before the jewel reaches the Portuguese's hands.
+He hoped for a stampede when Arcoll opposed the crossing of
+the river, and in the confusion intended to steal the casket.  My
+plan must be to get as near the old priest as possible before we
+reached the ford.  I spoke to my warder and told him what I
+wanted.  He nodded, and in the first mile we managed to edge
+a good way forward.  Several things came to aid us.  As I have
+said, we of the centre were not marching in close ranks, but in
+a loose column, and often it was possible by taking a short cut
+on rough ground to join the column some distance ahead.
+There was a vlei, too, which many circumvented, but we
+swam, and this helped our lead.  In a couple of hours we were
+so near the priest's litter that I could have easily tossed a
+cricket ball on the head of Henriques who rode beside it.
+
+Very soon the twilight of the winter day began to fall.  The
+far hills grew pink and mulberry in the sunset, and strange
+shadows stole over the bush.  Still creeping forward, we found
+ourselves not twenty yards behind the litter, while far ahead I
+saw a broad, glimmering space of water with a high woody
+bank beyond.
+
+'Dupree's Drift;' whispered my warder.  'Courage, Inkoos;*
+in an hour's time you will be free.'
+          *Great chief.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+THE DRIFT OF THE LETABA
+
+
+The dusk was gathering fast as we neared the stream.  From
+the stagnant reaches above and below a fine white mist was
+rising, but the long shallows of the ford were clear.  My heart
+was beginning to flutter wildly, but I kept a tight grip on
+myself and prayed for patience.  As I stared into the evening
+my hopes sank.  I had expected, foolishly enough, to see on the
+far bank some sign of my friends, but the tall bush was dead
+and silent.
+
+The drift slants across the river at an acute angle, roughly
+S.S.W.  I did not know this at the time, and was amazed to see
+the van of the march turn apparently up stream.  Laputa's great
+voice rang out in some order which was repeated down the
+column, and the wide flanks of the force converged on the
+narrow cart-track which entered the water.  We had come to a
+standstill while the front ranks began the passage.
+
+I sat shaking with excitement, my eyes straining into the
+gloom.  Water holds the evening light for long, and I could
+make out pretty clearly what was happening.  The leading
+horsemen rode into the stream with Laputa in front.  The ford
+is not the best going, so they had to pick their way, but in five
+or ten minutes they were over.  Then came some of the infantry
+of the flanks, who crossed with the water to their waists, and
+their guns held high above their heads.  They made a portentous
+splashing, but not a sound came from their throats.  I shall
+never know how Laputa imposed silence on the most noisy
+race on earth.  Several thousand footmen must have followed
+the riders, and disappeared into the far bush.  But not a shot
+came from the bluffs in front.
+
+I watched with a sinking heart.  Arcoll had failed, and there
+was to be no check at the drift.  There remained for me only
+the horrors at Inanda's Kraal.  I resolved to make a dash for
+freedom, at all costs, and was in the act of telling Arcoll's man
+to cut my bonds, when a thought occurred to me.
+
+Henriques was after the rubies, and it was his interest to get
+Laputa across the river before the attack began.  It was Arcoll's
+business to split the force, and above all to hold up the leader.
+Henriques would tell him, and for that matter he must have
+assumed himself, that Laputa would ride in the centre of the
+force.  Therefore there would be no check till the time came
+for the priest's litter to cross.
+
+It was well that I had not had my bonds cut.  Henriques
+came riding towards me, his face sharp and bright as a ferret's.
+He pulled up and asked if I were safe.  My Kaffir showed my
+strapped elbows and feet, and tugged at the cords to prove
+their tightness.
+
+'Keep him well,' said Henriques, 'or you will answer to
+Inkulu.  Forward with him now and get him through the
+water.'  Then he turned and rode back.
+
+My warder, apparently obeying orders, led me out of the
+column and into the bush on the right hand.  Soon we were
+abreast of the litter and some twenty yards to the west of it.
+The water gleamed through the trees a few paces in front.  I
+could see the masses of infantry converging on the drift, and
+the churning like a cascade which they made in the passage.
+
+Suddenly from the far bank came an order.  It was Laputa's
+voice, thin and high-pitched, as the Kaffir cries when he
+wishes his words to carry a great distance.  Henriques repeated
+it, and the infantry halted.  The riders of the column in front
+of the litter began to move into the stream.
+
+We should have gone with them, but instead we pulled our
+horses back into the darkness of the bush.  It seemed to me
+that odd things were happening around the priest's litter.
+Henriques had left it, and dashed past me so close that I could
+have touched him.  From somewhere among the trees a pistol-
+shot cracked into the air.
+
+As if in answer to a signal the high bluff across the stream
+burst into a sheet of fire.  'A sheet of fire' sounds odd enough
+for scientific warfare.  I saw that my friends were using shot-
+guns and firing with black powder into the mob in the water.
+It was humane and it was good tactics, for the flame in the
+grey dusk had the appearance of a heavy battery of ordnance.
+Once again I heard Henriques' voice.  He was turning the
+column to the right.  He shouted to them to get into cover, and
+take the water higher up.  I thought, too, that from far away I
+heard Laputa.
+
+These were maddening seconds.  We had left the business of
+cutting my bonds almost too late.  In the darkness of the bush
+the strips of hide could only be felt for, and my Kaffir had a
+woefully blunt knife.  Reims are always tough to sever, and
+mine had to be sawn through.  Soon my arms were free, and I
+was plucking at my other bonds.  The worst were those on my
+ankles below the horse's belly.  The Kaffir fumbled away in the
+dark, and pricked my beast so that he reared and struck out.
+And all the while I was choking with impatience, and gabbling
+prayers to myself.
+
+The men on the other side had begun to use ball-cartridge.
+I could see through a gap the centre of the river, and it was
+filled with a mass of struggling men and horses'.  I remember
+that it amazed me that no shot was fired in return.  Then I
+remembered the vow, and was still more amazed at the power
+of a ritual on that savage horde.
+
+The column was moving past me to the right.  It was a
+disorderly rabble which obeyed Henriques' orders.  Bullets
+began to sing through the trees, and one rider was hit in the
+shoulder and came down with a crash.  This increased the
+confusion, for most of them dismounted and tried to lead their
+horses in the cover.  The infantry coming in from the wings
+collided with them, and there was a struggle of excited beasts
+and men in the thickets of thorn and mopani.  And still my
+Kaffir was trying to get my ankles loose as fast as a plunging
+horse would let him.
+At last I was free, and dropped stiffly to the ground.  I fell
+prone on my face with cramp, and when I got up I rolled like
+a drunk man.  Here I made a great blunder.  I should have left
+my horse with my Kaffir, and bidden him follow me.  But I
+was too eager to be cautious, so I let it go, and crying to the
+Kaffir to await me, I ran towards the litter.
+
+Henriques had laid his plans well.  The column had abandoned
+the priest, and by the litter were only the two bearers.
+As I caught sight of them one fell with a bullet in his chest.
+The other, wild with fright, kept turning his head to every
+quarter of the compass.  Another bullet passed close to his
+head.  This was too much for him, and with a yell he ran away.
+
+As I broke through the thicket I looked to the quarter
+whence the bullets had come.  These, I could have taken my
+oath, were not fired by my friends on the farther bank.  It was
+close-quarter shooting, and I knew who had done it.  But I saw
+nobody.  The last few yards of the road were clear, and only
+out in the water was the struggling shouting mass of humanity.
+I saw a tall man on a big horse plunge into the river on his way
+back.  It must be Laputa returning to command the panic.
+
+My business was not with Laputa but with Henriques.  The
+old priest in the litter, who had been sleeping, had roused
+himself, and was looking vacantly round him.  He did not look
+long.  A third bullet, fired from a dozen yards away, drilled a
+hole in his forehead.  He fell back dead, and the ivory box,
+which lay on his lap, tilted forward on the ground.
+
+I had no weapon of any kind, and I did not want the fourth
+bullet for myself.  Henriques was too pretty a shot to trifle
+with.  I waited quietly on the edge of the shade till the
+Portugoose came out of the thicket.  I saw him running forward
+with a rifle in his hand.  A whinny from a horse told me that
+somewhere near his beast was tied up.  It was all but dark, but
+it seemed to me that I could see the lust of greed in his eyes as
+he rushed to the litter.
+
+Very softly I stole behind him.  He tore off the lid of the
+box, and pulled out the great necklace.  For a second it hung in
+his hands, but only for a second.  So absorbed was he that he
+did not notice me standing full before him.  Nay, he lifted his
+head, and gave me the finest chance of my life.  I was something
+of a boxer, and all my accumulated fury went into the blow.  It
+caught him on the point of the chin, and his neck cricked like
+the bolt of a rifle.  He fell limply on the ground and the jewels
+dropped from his hand.
+
+I picked them up and stuffed them into my breeches pocket.
+
+Then I pulled the pistol out of his belt.  It was six-
+chambered, and I knew that only three had been emptied.  I
+remembered feeling extraordinarily cool and composed, and
+yet my wits must have been wandering or I would have never
+taken the course I did.
+
+The right thing to do - on Arcoll's instructions - was to
+make for the river and swim across to my friends.  But Laputa
+was coming back, and I dreaded meeting him.  Laputa seemed
+to my heated fancy omnipresent.  I thought of him as covering
+the whole bank of the river, whereas I might easily have
+crossed a little farther down, and made my way up the other
+bank to my friends.  It was plain that Laputa intended to evade
+the patrol, not to capture it, and there, consequently, I should
+be safe.  The next best thing was to find Arcoll's Kaffir, who
+was not twenty yards away, get some sort of horse, and break
+for the bush.  Long before morning we should have been over
+the Berg and in safety.  Nay, if I wanted a mount, there was
+Henriques' whinnying a few paces off.
+
+Instead I did the craziest thing of all.  With the jewels in one
+pocket, and the Portugoose's pistol in the other, I started
+running back the road we had come.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+I CARRY THE COLLAR OF PRESTER JOHN
+
+
+I ran till my breath grew short, for some kind of swift motion
+I had to have or choke.  The events of the last few minutes had
+inflamed my brain.  For the first time in my life I had seen men
+die by violence - nay, by brutal murder.  I had put my soul
+into the blow which laid out Henriques, and I was still hot
+with the pride of it.  Also I had in my pocket the fetich of the
+whole black world; I had taken their Ark of the Covenant,
+and soon Laputa would be on my trail.  Fear, pride, and a
+blind exultation all throbbed in my veins.  I must have run
+three miles before I came to my sober senses.
+
+I put my ear to the ground, but heard no sound of pursuit.
+Laputa, I argued, would have enough to do for a little,
+shepherding his flock over the water.  He might surround and
+capture the patrol, or he might evade it; the vow prevented
+him from fighting it.  On the whole I was clear that he would
+ignore it and push on for the rendezvous.  All this would take
+time, and the business of the priest would have to wait.  When
+Henriques came to he would no doubt have a story to tell, and
+the scouts would be on my trail.  I wished I had shot the
+Portugoose while I was at the business.  It would have been no
+murder, but a righteous execution.
+
+Meanwhile I must get off the road.  The sand had been
+disturbed by an army, so there was little fear of my steps being
+traced.  Still it was only wise to leave the track which I would
+be assumed to have taken, for Laputa would guess I had fled
+back the way to Blaauwildebeestefontein.  I turned into the
+bush, which here was thin and sparse like whins on a common.
+
+The Berg must be my goal.  Once on the plateau I would be
+inside the white man's lines.  Down here in the plains I was in
+the country of my enemies.  Arcoll meant to fight on the
+uplands when it came to fighting.  The black man might rage
+as he pleased in his own flats, but we stood to defend the gates
+of the hills.  Therefore over the Berg I must be before morning,
+or there would be a dead man with no tales to tell.
+
+I think that even at the start of that night's work I realized
+the exceeding precariousness of my chances.  Some twenty
+miles of bush and swamp separated me from the foot of the
+mountains.  After that there was the climbing of them, for at
+the point opposite where I now stood the Berg does not
+descend sharply on the plain, but is broken into foot-hills
+around the glens of the Klein Letaba and the Letsitela.  From
+the spot where these rivers emerge on the flats to the crown of
+the plateau is ten miles at the shortest.  I had a start of an hour
+or so, but before dawn I had to traverse thirty miles of
+unknown and difficult country.  Behind me would follow the
+best trackers in Africa, who knew every foot of the wilderness.
+It was a wild hazard, but it was my only hope.  At this time I
+was feeling pretty courageous.  For one thing I had Henriques'
+pistol close to my leg, and for another I still thrilled with the
+satisfaction of having smitten his face.
+
+I took the rubies, and stowed them below my shirt and next
+my skin.  I remember taking stock of my equipment and
+laughing at the humour of it.  One of the heels was almost
+twisted off my boots, and my shirt and breeches were old at
+the best and ragged from hard usage.  The whole outfit would
+have been dear at five shillings, or seven-and-six with the belt
+thrown in.  Then there was the Portugoose's pistol, costing,
+say, a guinea; and last, the Prester's collar, worth
+several millions.
+
+What was more important than my clothing was my bodily
+strength.  I was still very sore from the bonds and the jog of
+that accursed horse, but exercise was rapidly suppling my
+joints.  About five hours ago I had eaten a filling, though not
+very sustaining, meal, and I thought I could go on very well
+till morning.  But I was still badly in arrears with my sleep,
+and there was no chance of my snatching a minute till I was
+over the Berg.  It was going to be a race against time, and I
+swore that I would drive my body to the last ounce of strength.
+
+Moonrise was still an hour or two away, and the sky was
+bright with myriad stars.  I knew now what starlight meant, for
+there was ample light to pick my way by.  I steered by the
+Southern Cross, for I was aware that the Berg ran north and
+south, and with that constellation on my left hand I was bound
+to reach it sooner or later.  The bush closed around me with its
+mysterious dull green shades, and trees, which in the daytime
+were thin scrub, now loomed like tall timber.  It was very eerie
+moving, a tiny fragment of mortality, in that great wide silent
+wilderness, with the starry vault, like an impassive celestial
+audience, watching with many eyes.  They cheered me, those
+stars.  In my hurry and fear and passion they spoke of the old
+calm dignities of man.  I felt less alone when I turned my face
+to the lights which were slanting alike on this uncanny bush
+and on the homely streets of Kirkcaple.
+
+The silence did not last long.  First came the howl of a wolf,
+to be answered by others from every quarter of the compass.
+This serenade went on for a bit, till the jackals chimed in with
+their harsh bark.  I had been caught by darkness before this
+when hunting on the Berg, but I was not afraid of wild beasts.
+That is one terror of the bush which travellers' tales have put
+too high.  It was true that I might meet a hungry lion, but the
+chance was remote, and I had my pistol.  Once indeed a huge
+animal bounded across the road a little in front of me.  For a
+moment I took him for a lion, but on reflection I was inclined
+to think him a very large bush-pig.
+
+By this time I was out of the thickest bush and into a piece
+of parkland with long, waving tambuki grass, which the
+Kaffirs would burn later.  The moon was coming up, and her
+faint rays silvered the flat tops of the mimosa trees.  I could
+hear and feel around me the rustling of animals.  Once or twice
+a big buck - an eland or a koodoo - broke cover, and at the
+sight of me went off snorting down the slope.  Also there were
+droves of smaller game - rhebok and springbok and duikers -
+which brushed past at full gallop without even noticing me.
+
+The sight was so novel that it set me thinking.  That shy
+wild things should stampede like this could only mean that
+they had been thoroughly scared.  Now obviously the thing
+that scared them must be on this side of the Letaba.  This must
+mean that Laputa's army, or a large part of it, had not crossed
+at Dupree's Drift, but had gone up the stream to some higher
+ford.  If that was so, I must alter my course; so I bore away to
+the right for a mile or two, making a line due north-west.
+
+In about an hour's time the ground descended steeply, and
+I saw before me the shining reaches of a river.  I had the chief
+features of the countryside clear in my mind, both from old
+porings over maps, and from Arcoll's instructions.  This stream
+must be the Little Letaba, and I must cross it if I would get to
+the mountains.  I remembered that Majinje's kraal stood on its
+left bank, and higher up in its valley in the Berg 'Mpefu lived.
+At all costs the kraals must be avoided.  Once across it I must
+make for the Letsitela, another tributary of the Great Letaba,
+and by keeping the far bank of that stream I should cross the
+mountains to the place on the plateau of the Wood Bush which
+Arcoll had told me would be his headquarters.
+
+It is easy to talk about crossing a river, and looking to-day at
+the slender streak on the map I am amazed that so small a
+thing should have given me such ugly tremors.  Yet I have
+rarely faced a job I liked so little.  The stream ran yellow and
+sluggish under the clear moon.  On the near side a thick growth
+of bush clothed the bank, but on the far side I made out a
+swamp with tall bulrushes.  The distance across was no more
+than fifty yards, but I would have swum a mile more readily in
+deep water.  The place stank of crocodiles.  There was no ripple
+to break the oily flow except where a derelict branch swayed
+with the current.  Something in the stillness, the eerie light on
+the water, and the rotting smell of the swamp made that stream
+seem unhallowed and deadly.
+
+I sat down and considered the matter.  Crocodiles had always
+terrified me more than any created thing, and to be dragged by
+iron jaws to death in that hideous stream seemed to me the
+most awful of endings.  Yet cross it I must if I were to get rid
+of my human enemies.  I remembered a story of an escaped
+prisoner during the war who had only the Komati River
+between him and safety.  But he dared not enter it, and was
+recaptured by a Boer commando.  I was determined that
+such cowardice should not be laid to my charge.  If I was to
+die, I would at least have given myself every chance of life.
+So I braced myself as best I could, and looked for a place
+to enter.
+
+The veld-craft I had mastered had taught me a few things.
+One was that wild animals drink at night, and that they have
+regular drinking places.  I thought that the likeliest place for
+crocodiles was at or around such spots, and, therefore, I
+resolved to take the water away from a drinking place.  I went
+up the bank, noting where the narrow bush-paths emerged on
+the water-side.  I scared away several little buck, and once the
+violent commotion in the bush showed that I had frightened
+some bigger animal, perhaps a hartebeest.  Still following the
+bank I came to a reach where the undergrowth was unbroken
+and the water looked deeper.
+
+Suddenly - I fear I must use this adverb often, for all the
+happenings on that night were sudden - I saw a biggish animal
+break through the reeds on the far side.  It entered the water
+and, whether wading or swimming I could not see, came out a
+little distance.  Then some sense must have told it of my
+presence, for it turned and with a grunt made its way back.
+
+I saw that it was a big wart-hog, and began to think.  Pig,
+unlike other beasts, drink not at night, but in the daytime.
+The hog had, therefore, not come to drink, but to swim across.
+Now, I argued, he would choose a safe place, for the wart-hog,
+hideous though he is, is a wise beast.  What was safe for him
+would, therefore, in all likelihood be safe for me.
+
+With this hope to comfort me I prepared to enter.  My first
+care was the jewels, so, feeling them precarious in my shirt, I
+twined the collar round my neck and clasped it.  The snake-
+clasp was no flimsy device of modern jewellery, and I had no
+fear but that it would hold.  I held the pistol between my teeth,
+and with a prayer to God slipped into the muddy waters.
+
+I swam in the wild way of a beginner who fears cramp.  The
+current was light and the water moderately warm, but I seemed
+to go very slowly, and I was cold with apprehension.  In the
+middle it suddenly shallowed, and my breast came against a
+mudshoal.  I thought it was a crocodile, and in my confusion
+the pistol dropped from my mouth and disappeared.
+
+I waded a few steps and then plunged into deep water again.
+Almost before I knew, I was among the bulrushes, with my
+feet in the slime of the bank.  With feverish haste I scrambled
+through the reeds and up through roots and undergrowth to
+the hard soil.  I was across, but, alas, I had lost my only weapon.
+
+The swim and the anxiety had tired me considerably, and
+though it meant delay, I did not dare to continue with the
+weight of water-logged clothes to impede me.  I found a dry
+sheltered place in the bush and stripped to the skin.  I emptied
+my boots and wrung out my shirt and breeches, while the
+Prester's jewels were blazing on my neck.  Here was a queer
+counterpart to Laputa in the cave!
+
+The change revived me, and I continued my way in better
+form.  So far there had been no sign of pursuit.  Before me the
+Letsitela was the only other stream, and from what I remembered
+of its character near the Berg I thought I should have
+little trouble.  It was smaller than the Klein Letaba, and a
+rushing torrent where shallows must be common.
+
+I kept running till I felt my shirt getting dry on my back.
+Then I restored the jewels to their old home, and found their
+cool touch on my breast very comforting.  The country was
+getting more broken as I advanced.  Little kopjes with thickets
+of wild bananas took the place of the dead levels.  Long before
+I reached the Letsitela, I saw that I was right in my guess.  It
+ran, a brawling mountain stream, in a narrow rift in the bush.
+I crossed it almost dry-shod on the boulders above a little fall,
+stopping for a moment to drink and lave my brow.
+
+After that the country changed again.  The wood was now
+getting like that which clothed the sides of the Berg.  There
+were tall timber-trees - yellowwood, sneezewood, essenwood,
+stinkwood - and the ground was carpeted with thick grass
+and ferns.  The sight gave me my first earnest of safety.  I was
+approaching my own country.  Behind me was heathendom
+and the black fever flats.  In front were the cool mountains and
+bright streams, and the guns of my own folk.
+
+As I struggled on - for I was getting very footsore and
+weary - I became aware of an odd sound in my rear.  It was as
+if something were following me.  I stopped and listened with a
+sudden dread.  Could Laputa's trackers have got up with me
+already?  But the sound was not of human feet.  It was as if
+some heavy animal were plunging through the undergrowth.
+At intervals came the soft pad of its feet on the grass.
+
+It must be the hungry lion of my nightmare, and Henriques'
+pistol was in the mud of the Klein Letaba!  The only thing was a
+tree, and I had sprung for one and scrambled wearily into the
+first branches when a great yellow animal came into the moonlight.
+
+Providence had done kindly in robbing me of my pistol.  The
+next minute I was on the ground with Colin leaping on me and
+baying with joy.  I hugged that blessed hound and buried my
+head in his shaggy neck, sobbing like a child.  How he had
+traced me I can never tell.  The secret belongs only to the
+Maker of good and faithful dogs.
+
+With him by my side I was a new man.  The awesome
+loneliness had gone.  I felt as if he were a message from my
+own people to take me safely home.  He clearly knew the
+business afoot, for he padded beside me with never a glance to
+right or left.  Another time he would have been snowking in
+every thicket; but now he was on duty, a serious, conscientious
+dog with no eye but for business.
+
+The moon went down, and the starry sky was our only light.
+The thick gloom which brooded over the landscape pointed to
+the night being far gone.  I thought I saw a deeper blackness
+ahead which might be the line of the Berg.  Then came that
+period of utter stillness when every bush sound is hushed and
+the world seems to swoon.  I felt almost impious hurrying
+through that profound silence, when not even the leaves stirred
+or a frog croaked.
+
+Suddenly as we came over a rise a little wind blew on the
+back of my head, and a bitter chill came into the air.  I knew
+from nights spent in the open that it was the precursor of
+dawn.  Sure enough, as I glanced back, far over the plain a pale
+glow was stealing upwards into the sky.  In a few minutes the
+pall melted into an airy haze, and above me I saw the heavens
+shot with tremors of blue light.  Then the foreground began to
+clear, and there before me, with their heads still muffled in
+vapour, were the mountains.
+
+Xenophon's Ten Thousand did not hail the sea more gladly
+than I welcomed those frowning ramparts of the Berg.
+
+Once again my weariness was eased.  I cried to Colin, and
+together we ran down into the wide, shallow trough which lies
+at the foot of the hills.  As the sun rose above the horizon, the
+black masses changed to emerald and rich umber, and the
+fleecy mists of the summits opened and revealed beyond shining
+spaces of green.  Some lines of Shakespeare ran in my head,
+which I have always thought the most beautiful of all poetry:
+
+     'Night's candles are burned out, and jocund day
+     Walks tiptoe on the misty mountain tops.'
+
+Up there among the clouds was my salvation.  Like the
+Psalmist, I lifted my eyes to the hills from whence came my
+aid.
+
+Hope is a wonderful restorative.  To be near the hills, to
+smell their odours, to see at the head of the glens the lines of
+the plateau where were white men and civilization - all gave
+me new life and courage.  Colin saw my mood, and spared a
+moment now and then to inspect a hole or a covert.  Down in
+the shallow trough I saw the links of a burn, the Machudi,
+which flowed down the glen it was my purpose to ascend.
+Away to the north in the direction of Majinje's were patches of
+Kaffir tillage, and I thought I discerned the smoke from fires.
+Majinje's womankind would be cooking their morning meal.
+To the south ran a thick patch of forest, but I saw beyond it
+the spur of the mountain over which runs the highroad to
+Wesselsburg.  The clear air of dawn was like wine in my blood.
+I was not free, but I was on the threshold of freedom.  If I
+could only reach my friends with the Prester's collar in my
+shirt, I would have performed a feat which would never be
+forgotten.  I would have made history by my glorious folly.
+Breakfastless and footsore, I was yet a proud man as I crossed
+the hollow to the mouth of Machudi's glen.
+
+My chickens had been counted too soon, and there was to
+be no hatching.  Colin grew uneasy, and began to sniff up
+wind.  I was maybe a quarter of a mile from the glen foot,
+plodding through the long grass of the hollow, when the
+behaviour of the dog made me stop and listen.  In that still air
+sounds carry far, and I seemed to hear the noise of feet
+brushing through cover.  The noise came both from north and
+south, from the forest and from the lower course of the Machudi.
+
+I dropped into shelter, and running with bent back got to
+the summit of a little bush-clad knoll.  It was Colin who first
+caught sight of my pursuers.  He was staring at a rift in the
+trees, and suddenly gave a short bark.  I looked and saw two
+men, running hard, cross the grass and dip into the bed of the
+stream.  A moment later I had a glimpse of figures on the edge
+of the forest, moving fast to the mouth of the glen.  The pursuit
+had not followed me; it had waited to cut me off.  Fool that I
+was, I had forgotten the wonders of Kaffir telegraphy.  It had
+been easy for Laputa to send word thirty miles ahead to stop
+any white man who tried to cross the Berg.
+
+And then I knew that I was very weary.
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+MORNING IN THE BERG
+
+
+I was perhaps half a mile the nearer to the glen, and was
+likely to get there first.  And after that?  I could see the track
+winding by the waterside and then crossing a hill-shoulder
+which diverted the stream.  It was a road a man could scarcely
+ride, and a tired man would have a hard job to climb.  I do not
+think that I had any hope.  My exhilaration had died as
+suddenly as it had been born.  I saw myself caught and carried
+off to Laputa, who must now be close on the rendezvous at
+Inanda's Kraal.  I had no weapon to make a fight for it.  My
+foemen were many and untired.  It must be only a matter of
+minutes till I was in their hands.
+
+More in a dogged fury of disappointment than with any
+hope of escape I forced my sore legs up the glen.  Ten minutes
+ago I had been exulting in the glories of the morning, and now
+the sun was not less bright or the colours less fair, but the
+heart had gone out of the spectator.  At first I managed to get
+some pace out of myself, partly from fear and partly from
+anger.  But I soon found that my body had been tried too far.
+I could plod along, but to save my life I could not have
+hurried.  Any healthy savage could have caught me in a
+hundred yards.
+
+The track, I remember, was overhung with creepers, and
+often I had to squeeze through thickets of tree-ferns.  Countless
+little brooks ran down from the hillside, threads of silver
+among the green pastures.  Soon I left the stream and climbed
+up on the shoulder, where the road was not much better than
+a precipice.  Every step was a weariness.  I could hardly drag
+one foot after the other, and my heart was beating like the
+fanners of a mill, I had spasms of acute sickness, and it took
+all my resolution to keep me from lying down by the roadside.
+
+At last I was at the top of the shoulder and could look back.
+There was no sign of anybody on the road so far as I could
+see.  Could I have escaped them?  I had been in the shadow of
+the trees for the first part, and they might have lost sight of me
+and concluded that I had avoided the glen or tried one of the
+faces.  Before me, I remember, there stretched the upper glen,
+a green cup-shaped hollow with the sides scarred by ravines.
+There was a high waterfall in one of them which was white as
+snow against the red rocks.  My wits must have been shaky, for
+I took the fall for a snowdrift, and wondered sillily why the
+Berg had grown so Alpine.
+
+A faint spasm of hope took me into that green cup.  The
+bracken was as thick as on the Pentlands, and there was a
+multitude of small lovely flowers in the grass.  It was like a
+water-meadow at home, such a place as I had often in boyhood
+searched for moss-cheepers' and corncrakes' eggs.  Birds were
+crying round me as I broke this solitude, and one small buck -
+a klipspringer - rose from my feet and dashed up one of the
+gullies.  Before me was a steep green wall with the sky blue
+above it.  Beyond it was safety, but as my sweat-dimmed eyes
+looked at it I knew that I could never reach it.
+
+Then I saw my pursuers.  High up on the left side, and
+rounding the rim of the cup, were little black figures.  They
+had not followed my trail, but, certain of my purpose, had
+gone forward to intercept me.  I remember feeling a puny
+weakling compared with those lusty natives who could make
+such good going on steep mountains.  They were certainly no
+men of the plains, but hillmen, probably some remnants of old
+Machudi's tribe who still squatted in the glen.  Machudi was
+a blackguard chief whom the Boers long ago smashed in one of
+their native wars.  He was a fierce old warrior and had put up a
+good fight to the last, till a hired impi of Swazis had
+surrounded his hiding-place in the forest and destroyed him.  A
+Boer farmer on the plateau had his skull, and used to drink
+whisky out of it when he was merry.
+
+The sight of the pursuit was the last straw.  I gave up hope,
+and my intentions were narrowed to one frantic desire - to
+hide the jewels.  Patriotism, which I had almost forgotten,
+flickered up in that crisis.  At any rate Laputa should not have
+the Snake.  If he drove out the white man, he should not clasp
+the Prester's rubies on his great neck.
+
+There was no cover in the green cup, so I turned up the
+ravine on the right side.  The enemy, so far as I could judge,
+were on the left and in front, and in the gully I might find a
+pot-hole to bury the necklet in.  Only a desperate resolution
+took me through the tangle of juniper bushes into the red
+screes of the gully.  At first I could not find what I sought.  The
+stream in the ravine slid down a long slope like a mill-race, and
+the sides were bare and stony.  Still I plodded on, helping
+myself with a hand on Colin's back, for my legs were numb
+with fatigue.  By-and-by the gully narrowed, and I came to a
+flat place with a long pool.  Beyond was a little fall, and up this
+I climbed into a network of tiny cascades.  Over one pool hung
+a dead tree-fern, and a bay from it ran into a hole of the rock.
+I slipped the jewels far into the hole, where they lay on the
+firm sand, showing odd lights through the dim blue water.
+Then I scrambled down again to the flat space and the pool,
+and looked round to see if any one had reached the edge of the
+ravine.  There was no sign as yet of the pursuit, so I dropped
+limply on the shingle and waited.  For I had suddenly
+conceived a plan.
+
+As my breath came back to me my wits came back from
+their wandering.  These men were not there to kill me, but to
+capture me.  They could know nothing of the jewels, for Laputa
+would never have dared to make the loss of the sacred Snake
+public.  Therefore they would not suspect what I had done,
+and would simply lead me to Laputa at Inanda's Kraal.  I
+began to see the glimmerings of a plan for saving my life, and
+by God's grace, for saving my country from the horrors of
+rebellion.  The more I thought the better I liked it.  It
+demanded a bold front, and it might well miscarry, but I had
+taken such desperate hazards during the past days that I was
+less afraid of fortune.  Anyhow, the choice lay between certain
+death and a slender chance of life, and it was easy to decide.
+
+Playing football, I used to notice how towards the end of a
+game I might be sore and weary, without a kick in my body;
+but when I had a straight job of tackling a man my strength
+miraculously returned.  It was even so now.  I lay on my side,
+luxuriating in being still, and slowly a sort of vigour crept back
+into my limbs.  Perhaps a half-hour of rest was given me before,
+on the lip of the gully, I saw figures appear.  Looking down I
+saw several men who had come across from the opposite side
+of the valley, scrambling up the stream.  I got to my feet, with
+Colin bristling beside me, and awaited them with the stiffest
+face I could muster.
+
+As I expected, they were Machudi's men.  I recognized them
+by the red ochre in their hair and their copper-wire necklets.
+Big fellows they were, long-legged and deep in the chest, the
+true breed of mountaineers.  I admired their light tread on the
+slippery rock.  It was hopeless to think of evading such men in
+their own hills.
+
+The men from the side joined the men in front, and they
+stood looking at me from about twelve yards off.  They were
+armed only with knobkerries, and very clearly were no part
+of Laputa's army.  This made their errand plain to me.
+
+'Halt!' I said in Kaffir, as one of them made a hesitating step
+to advance.  'Who are you and what do you seek?'
+
+There was no answer, but they looked at me curiously.
+Then one made a motion with his stick.  Colin gave a growl, and
+would have been on him if I had not kept a hand on his collar.
+The rash man drew back, and all stood stiff and perplexed.
+
+'Keep your hands by your side,' I said, 'or the dog, who has
+a devil, will devour you.  One of you speak for the rest and tell
+me your purpose.'
+
+For a moment I had a wild notion that they might be
+friends, some of Arcoll's scouts, and out to help me.  But the
+first words shattered the fancy.
+
+'We are sent by Inkulu,' the biggest of them said.  'He bade
+us bring you to him.'
+
+'And what if I refuse to go?'
+
+'Then, Baas, we must take you to him.  We are under the
+vow of the Snake.'
+
+'Vow of fiddlestick!' I cried.  'Who do you think is the bigger
+chief, the Inkulu or Ratitswan?  I tell you Ratitswan is now
+driving Inkulu before him as a wind drives rotten leaves.  It
+will be well for you, men of Machudi, to make peace with
+Ratitswan and take me to him on the Berg.  If you bring me to
+him, I and he will reward you; but if you do Inkulu's bidding
+you will soon be hunted like buck out of your hills.'
+
+They grinned at one another, but I could see that my words
+had no effect.  Laputa had done his business too well.
+
+The spokesman shrugged his shoulders in the way the
+Kaffirs have.
+'We wish you no ill, Baas, but we have been bidden to take
+you to Inkulu.  We cannot disobey the command of the Snake.'
+
+My weakness was coming on me again, and I could talk no
+more.  I sat down plump on the ground, almost falling into the
+pool.  'Take me to Inkulu,' I stammered with a dry throat, 'I
+do not fear him;' and I rolled half-fainting on my back.
+
+These clansmen of Machudi were decent fellows.  One of
+them had some Kaffir beer in a calabash, which he gave me to
+drink.  The stuff was thin and sickly, but the fermentation in it
+did me good.  I had the sense to remember my need of sleep.
+'The day is young,' I said, 'and I have come far.  I ask to be
+allowed to sleep for an hour.'
+
+The men made no difficulty, and with my head between
+Colin's paws I slipped into dreamless slumber.
+
+When they wakened me the sun was beginning to climb the
+sky, I judged it to be about eight o'clock.  They had made a
+little fire and roasted mealies.  Some of the food they gave me,
+and I ate it thankfully.  I was feeling better, and I think a pipe
+would have almost completed my cure.
+
+But when I stood up I found that I was worse than I had
+thought.  The truth is, I was leg-weary, which you often see in
+horses, but rarely in men.  What the proper explanation is I do
+not know, but the muscles simply refuse to answer the
+direction of the will.  I found my legs sprawling like a child's
+who is learning to walk.
+
+'If you want me to go to the Inkulu, you must carry me,' I
+said, as I dropped once more on the ground.
+
+The men nodded, and set to work to make a kind of litter
+out of their knobkerries and some old ropes they carried.  As
+they worked and chattered I looked idly at the left bank of the
+ravine - that is, the left as you ascend it.  Some of Machudi's
+men had come down there, and, though the place looked sheer
+and perilous, I saw how they had managed it.  I followed out
+bit by bit the track upwards, not with any thought of escape,
+but merely to keep my mind under control.  The right road
+was from the foot of the pool up a long shelf to a clump of
+juniper.  Then there was an easy chimney; then a piece of good
+hand-and-foot climbing; and last, another ledge which led by
+an easy gradient to the top.  I figured all this out as I have
+heard a condemned man will count the windows of the houses
+on his way to the scaffold.
+
+Presently the litter was ready, and the men made signs to
+me to get into it.  They carried me down the ravine and up the
+Machudi burn to the green walls at its head.  I admired their
+bodily fitness, for they bore me up those steep slopes with
+never a halt, zigzagging in the proper style of mountain
+transport.  In less than an hour we had topped the ridge, and
+the plateau was before me.
+
+It looked very homelike and gracious, rolling in gentle
+undulations to the western horizon, with clumps of wood in its
+hollows.  Far away I saw smoke rising from what should be the
+village of the Iron Kranz.  It was the country of my own
+people, and my captors behoved to go cautiously.  They were
+old hands at veld-craft, and it was wonderful the way in which
+they kept out of sight even on the bare ridges.  Arcoll could
+have taught them nothing in the art of scouting.  At an
+incredible pace they hurried me along, now in a meadow by a
+stream side, now through a patch of forest, and now skirting a
+green shoulder of hill.
+
+Once they clapped down suddenly, and crawled into the lee
+of some thick bracken.  Then very quietly they tied my hands
+and feet, and, not urgently, wound a dirty length of cotton
+over my mouth.  Colin was meantime held tight and muzzled
+with a kind of bag strapped over his head.  To get this over his
+snapping jaws took the whole strength of the party.  I guessed
+that we were nearing the highroad which runs from the plateau
+down the Great Letaba valley to the mining township of
+Wesselsburg, away out on the plain.  The police patrols must
+be on this road, and there was risk in crossing.  Sure enough I
+seemed to catch a jingle of bridles as if from some company of
+men riding in haste.
+
+We lay still for a little till the scouts came back and reported
+the coast clear.  Then we made a dart for the road, crossed it,
+and got into cover on the other side, where the ground sloped
+down to the Letaba glen.  I noticed in crossing that the dust of
+the highway was thick with the marks of shod horses.  I was
+very near and yet very far from my own people.
+
+Once in the rocky gorge of the Letaba we advanced with less
+care.  We scrambled up a steep side gorge and came on to the
+small plateau from which the Cloud Mountains rise.  After that
+I was so tired that I drowsed away, heedless of the bumping of
+the litter.  We went up and up, and when I next opened my
+eyes we had gone through a pass into a hollow of the hills.
+There was a flat space a mile or two square, and all round it
+stern black ramparts of rock.  This must be Inanda's Kraal, a
+strong place if ever one existed, for a few men could defend all
+the approaches.  Considering that I had warned Arcoll of this
+rendezvous, I marvelled that no attempt had been made to
+hold the entrance.  The place was impregnable unless guns
+were brought up to the heights.  I remember thinking of a story
+I had heard - how in the war Beyers took his guns into the
+Wolkberg, and thereby saved them from our troops.  Could
+Arcoll be meditating the same exploit?
+
+Suddenly I heard the sound of loud voices, and my litter
+was dropped roughly on the ground.  I woke to clear consciousness
+in the midst of pandemonium.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+INANDA'S KRAAL
+
+
+The vow was at an end.  In place of the silent army of
+yesterday a mob of maddened savages surged around me.  They
+were chanting a wild song, and brandishing spears and rifles to
+its accompaniment.  From their bloodshot eyes stared the lust
+of blood, the fury of conquest, and all the aboriginal passions
+on which Laputa had laid his spell.  In my mind ran a fragment
+from Laputa's prayer in the cave about the 'Terrible Ones.'
+Machudi's men - stout fellows, they held their ground as long
+as they could - were swept out of the way, and the wave of
+black savagery seemed to close over my head.
+
+I thought my last moment had come.  Certainly it had but
+for Colin.  The bag had been taken from his head, and the
+fellow of Machudi's had dropped the rope round his collar.  In
+a red fury of wrath the dog leaped at my enemies.  Though
+every man of them was fully armed, they fell back, for I have
+noticed always that Kaffirs are mortally afraid of a white man's
+dog.  Colin had the sense to keep beside me.  Growling like a
+thunderstorm he held the ring around my litter.
+
+The breathing space would not have lasted long, but it gave
+me time to get to my feet.  My wrists and feet had been
+unbound long before, and the rest had cured my leg-weariness.
+I stood up in that fierce circle with the clear knowledge that
+my life hung by a hair.
+
+'Take me to Inkulu,' I cried.  'Dogs and fools, would you
+despise his orders?  If one hair of my head is hurt, he will flay
+you alive.  Show me the way to him, and clear out of it.'
+
+I dare say there was a break in my voice, for I was dismally
+frightened, but there must have been sufficient authority to
+get me a hearing.  Machudi's men closed up behind me, and
+repeated my words with flourishes and gestures.  But still the
+circle held.  No man came nearer me, but none moved so as to
+give me passage.
+
+Then I screwed up my courage, and did the only thing
+possible.  I walked straight into the circle, knowing well that I
+was running no light risk.  My courage, as I have already
+explained, is of little use unless I am doing something.  I could
+not endure another minute of sitting still with those fierce eyes
+on me.
+
+The circle gave way.  Sullenly they made a road for me,
+closing up behind on my guards, so that Machudi's men were
+swallowed in the mob, Alone I stalked forward with all that
+huge yelling crowd behind me.
+
+I had not far to go.  Inanda's Kraal was a cluster of kyas
+and rondavels, shaped in a half-moon, with a flat space
+between the houses, where grew a big merula tree.  All around
+was a medley of little fires, with men squatted beside them.
+Here and there a party had finished their meal, and were
+swaggering about with a great shouting.  The mob into which
+I had fallen was of this sort, and I saw others within the
+confines of the camp.  But around the merula tree there was a
+gathering of chiefs, if I could judge by the comparative quiet
+and dignity of the men, who sat in rows on the ground.  A few
+were standing, and among them I caught sight of Laputa's tall
+figure.  I strode towards it, wondering if the chiefs would let
+me pass.
+
+The hubbub of my volunteer attendants brought the eyes of
+the company round to me.  In a second it seemed every man
+was on his feet.  I could only pray that Laputa would get to me
+before his friends had time to spear me.  I remember I fixed
+my eyes on a spur of hill beyond the kraal, and walked on with
+the best resolution I could find.  Already I felt in my breast
+some of the long thin assegais of Umbooni's men.
+
+But Laputa did not intend that I should be butchered.  A
+word from him brought his company into order, and the next
+thing I knew I was facing him, where he stood in front of the
+biggest kya, with Henriques beside him, and some of the
+northern indunas.  Henriques looked ghastly in the clear morning
+light, and he had a linen rag bound round his head and
+jaw, as if he suffered from toothache.  His face was more livid,
+his eyes more bloodshot, and at the sight of me his hand went
+to his belt, and his teeth snapped.  But he held his peace, and
+it was Laputa who spoke.  He looked straight through me, and
+addressed Machudi's men.
+
+'You have brought back the prisoner.  That is well, and your
+service will be remembered.  Go to 'Mpefu's camp on the hill
+there, and you will be given food.'
+
+The men departed, and with them fell away the crowd
+which had followed me.  I was left, very giddy and dazed, to
+confront Laputa and his chiefs.  The whole scene was swimming
+before my eyes.  I remember there was a clucking of hens
+from somewhere behind the kraal, which called up ridiculous
+memories.  I was trying to remember the plan I had made in
+Machudi's glen.  I kept saying to myself like a parrot: 'The
+army cannot know about the jewels.  Laputa must keep his loss
+secret.  I can get my life from him if I offer to give them back.'
+It had sounded a good scheme three hours before, but with
+the man's hard face before me, it seemed a frail peg to hang
+my fate on.
+
+Laputa's eye fell on me, a clear searching eye with a question
+in it.
+
+There was something he was trying to say to me which he
+dared not put into words.  I guessed what the something was,
+for I saw his glance run over my shirt and my empty pockets.
+
+'You have made little of your treachery,' he said.  'Fool, did
+you think to escape me?  I could bring you back from the ends
+of the earth.'
+
+'There was no treachery,' I replied.  'Do you blame a prisoner
+for trying to escape?  When shooting began I found myself free,
+and I took the road for home.  Ask Machudi's men and they
+will tell you that I came quietly with them, when I saw that
+the game was up.'
+
+He shrugged his shoulders.  'It matters very little what you
+did.  You are here now.  - Tie him up and put him in my kya,'
+he said to the bodyguard.  'I have something to say to him
+before he dies.'
+
+As the men laid hands on me, I saw the exultant grin on
+Henriques' face.  It was more than I could endure.
+
+'Stop,' I said.  'You talk of traitors, Mr Laputa.  There is the
+biggest and blackest at your elbow.  That man sent word to
+Arcoll about your crossing at Dupree's Drift.  At our outspan
+at noon yesterday he came to me and offered me my liberty if
+I would help him.  He told me he was a spy, and I flung his
+offer in his face.  It was he who shot the Keeper by the river
+side, and would have stolen the Snake if I had not broken his
+head.  You call me a traitor, and you let that thing live, though
+he has killed your priest and betrayed your plans.  Kill me if
+you like, but by God let him die first.'
+
+I do not know how the others took the revelation, for my
+eyes were only for the Portugoose.  He made a step towards
+me, his hands twitching by his sides.
+
+'You lie,' he screamed in that queer broken voice which
+much fever gives.  'It was this English hound that killed the
+Keeper, and felled me when I tried to save him.  The man who
+insults my honour is dead.'  And he plucked from his belt a pistol.
+
+A good shot does not miss at two yards.  I was never nearer
+my end than in that fraction of time while the weapon came up
+to the aim.  It was scarcely a second, but it was enough for
+Colin.  The dog had kept my side, and had stood docilely by
+me while Laputa spoke.  The truth is, he must have been as
+tired as I was.  As the Kaffirs approached to lay hands on me
+he had growled menacingly, but when I spoke again he had
+stopped.  Henriques' voice had convinced him of a more urgent
+danger, and so soon as the trigger hand of the Portugoose rose,
+the dog sprang.  The bullet went wide, and the next moment
+dog and man were struggling on the ground.
+
+A dozen hands held me from going to Colin's aid, but oddly
+enough no one stepped forward to help Henriques.  The ruffian
+kept his head, and though the dog's teeth were in his shoulder,
+he managed to get his right hand free.  I saw what would
+happen, and yelled madly in my apprehension.  The yellow
+wrist curved, and the pistol barrel was pressed below the dog's
+shoulder.  Thrice he fired, the grip relaxed, and Colin rolled
+over limply, fragments of shirt still hanging from his jaw.  The
+Portugoose rose slowly with his hand to his head, and a thin
+stream of blood dripping from his shoulder.
+As I saw the faithful eyes glazing in death, and knew that I
+had lost the best of all comrades, I went clean berserk mad.
+The cluster of men round me, who had been staring open-eyed
+at the fight, were swept aside like reeds.  I went straight for the
+Portugoose, determined that, pistol or no pistol, I would serve
+him as he had served my dog.
+
+For my years I was a well-set-up lad, long in the arms and
+deep in the chest.  But I had not yet come to my full strength,
+and in any case I could not hope to fight the whole of Laputa's
+army.  I was flung back and forwards like a shuttlecock.  They
+played some kind of game with me, and I could hear the idiotic
+Kaffir laughter.  It was blind man's buff, so far as I was
+concerned, for I was blind with fury.  I struck out wildly left
+and right, beating the air often, but sometimes getting in a
+solid blow on hard black flesh.  I was soundly beaten myself,
+pricked with spears, and made to caper for savage sport.
+Suddenly I saw Laputa before me, and hurled myself madly at
+his chest.  Some one gave me a clout on the head, and my
+senses fled.
+
+
+When I came to myself, I was lying on a heap of mealie-stalks in
+a dark room.  I had a desperate headache, and a horrid nausea,
+which made me fall back as soon as I tried to raise myself.
+A voice came out of the darkness as I stirred - a voice
+speaking English.
+
+'Are you awake, Mr Storekeeper?'
+
+The voice was Laputa's, but I could not see him.  The room
+was pitch dark, except for a long ray of sunlight on the floor.
+
+'I'm awake,' I said.  'What do you want with me?'
+
+Some one stepped out of the gloom and sat down near me.
+A naked black foot broke the belt of light on the floor.
+
+'For God's sake get me a drink,' I murmured.
+The figure rose and fetched a pannikin of water from a pail.
+I could hear the cool trickle of the drops on the metal.  A hand
+put the dish to my mouth, and I drank water with a strong
+dash of spirits.  This brought back my nausea, and I collapsed
+on the mealie-stalks till the fit passed.
+Again the voice spoke, this time from close at hand.
+
+'You are paying the penalty of being a fool, Mr Storekeeper.
+You are young to die, but folly is common in youth.  In an
+hour you will regret that you did not listen to my advice at
+Umvelos'.'
+
+I clawed at my wits and strove to realize what he was saying.
+He spoke of death within an hour.  If it only came sharp and
+sudden, I did not mind greatly.  The plan I had made had
+slipped utterly out of my mind.  My body was so wretched,
+that I asked only for rest.  I was very lighthearted and foolish at
+that moment.
+
+'Kill me if you like,' I whispered.  'Some day you will pay
+dearly for it all.  But for God's sake go away and leave
+me alone.'
+
+Laputa laughed.  It was a horrid sound in the darkness.
+
+'You are brave, Mr Storekeeper, but I have seen a brave
+man's courage ebb very fast when he saw the death which I
+have arranged for you.  Would you like to hear something of it
+by way of preparation?'
+
+In a low gentle voice he began to tell me mysteries of awful
+cruelty.  At first I scarcely heard him, but as he went on my
+brain seemed to wake from its lethargy.  I listened with freezing
+blood.  Not in my wildest nightmares had I imagined such a
+fate.  Then in despite of myself a cry broke from me.
+
+'It interests you?' Laputa asked.  'I could tell you more, but
+something must be left to the fancy.  Yours should be an active
+one,' and his hand gripped my shaking wrist and felt my pulse.
+
+'Henriques will see that the truth does not fall short of my
+forecast,' he went on.  'For I have appointed Henriques
+your executioner.'
+
+The name brought my senses back to me.
+
+'Kill me,' I said, 'but for God's sake kill Henriques too.  If
+you did justice you would let me go and roast the Portugoose
+alive.  But for me the Snake would be over the Lebombo by
+this time in Henriques' pocket.'
+
+'But it is not, my friend.  It was stolen by a storekeeper, who
+will shortly be wishing he had died in his mother's womb.'
+
+My plan was slowly coming back to me.
+
+'If you value Prester John's collar, you will save my life.
+What will your rising be without the Snake?  Would they follow
+you a yard if they suspected you had lost it?'
+
+'So you would threaten me,' Laputa said very gently.  Then
+in a burst of wrath he shouted, 'They will follow me to hell for
+my own sake.  Imbecile, do you think my power is built on a
+trinket?  When you are in your grave, I will be ruling a hundred
+millions from the proudest throne on earth.'
+
+He sprang to his feet, and pulled back a shutter of the
+window, letting a flood of light into the hut.  In that light I saw
+that he had in his hands the ivory box which had contained
+the collar.
+
+'I will carry the casket through the wars,' he cried, 'and if I
+choose never to open it, who will gainsay me?  You besotted
+fool, to think that any theft of yours could hinder my destiny!'
+He was the blustering savage again, and I preferred him in
+the part.  All that he said might be true, but I thought I could
+detect in his voice a keen regret, and in his air a touch of
+disquiet.  The man was a fanatic, and like all fanatics had his
+superstitions.
+
+'Yes,' I said, 'but when you mount the throne you speak of,
+it would be a pity not to have the rubies on your neck after all
+your talk in the cave.'
+
+I thought he would have throttled me.  He glowered down at
+me with murder in his eyes.  Then he dashed the casket on the
+floor with such violence that it broke into fragments.
+
+'Give me back the Ndhlondhlo,' he cried, like a petted child.
+'Give me back the collar of John.'
+
+This was the moment I had been waiting for.
+
+'Now see here, Mr Laputa,' I said.  'I am going to talk
+business.  Before you started this rising, you were a civilized
+man with a good education.  Well, just remember that education
+for a minute, and look at the matter in a sensible light.
+I'm not like the Portugoose.  I don't want to steal your rubies.
+I swear to God that what I have told you is true.  Henriques
+killed the priest, and would have bagged the jewels if I had not
+laid him out.  I ran away because I was going to be killed to-day,
+and I took the collar to keep it out of Henriques' hands.  I
+tell you I would never have shot the old man myself.  Very
+well, what happened?  Your men overtook me, and I had no
+choice but to surrender.  Before they reached me, I hid the
+collar in a place I know of.  Now, I am going to make you a fair
+and square business proposition.  You may be able to get on
+without the Snake, but I can see you want it back.  I am in a
+tight place and want nothing so much as my life.  I offer to
+trade with you.  Give me my life, and I will take you to the
+place and put the jewels in your hand.  Otherwise you may kill
+me, but you will never see the collar of John again.'
+
+I still think that was a pretty bold speech for a man to make
+in a predicament like mine.  But it had its effect.  Laputa ceased
+to be the barbarian king, and talked like a civilized man.
+
+'That is, as you call it, a business proposition.  But supposing
+I refuse it?  Supposing I take measures here - in this kraal - to
+make you speak, and then send for the jewels.'
+
+'There are several objections,' I said, quite cheerfully, for I
+felt that I was gaining ground.  'One is that I could not explain
+to any mortal soul how to find the collar.  I know where it is,
+but I could not impart the knowledge.  Another is that the
+country between here and Machudi's is not very healthy for
+your people.  Arcoll's men are all over it, and you cannot have
+a collection of search parties rummaging about in the glen for
+long.  Last and most important, if you send any one for the
+jewels, you confess their loss.  No, Mr Laputa, if you want
+them back, you must go yourself and take me with you.'
+
+He stood silent for a little, with his brows knit in thought.
+Then he opened the door and went out.  I guessed that he had
+gone to discover from his scouts the state of the country
+between Inanda's Kraal and Machudi's glen.  Hope had come
+back to me, and I sat among the mealie-stalks trying to plan
+the future.  If he made a bargain I believed he would keep it.
+Once set free at the head of Machudi's, I should be within an
+hour or two of Arcoll's posts.  So far, I had done nothing for
+the cause.  My message had been made useless by Henriques'
+treachery, and I had stolen the Snake only to restore it.  But if
+I got off with my life, there would be work for me to do in the
+Armageddon which I saw approaching.  Should I escape, I
+wondered.  What would hinder Laputa from setting his men to
+follow me, and seize me before I could get into safety?  My
+only chance was that Arcoll might have been busy this day,
+and the countryside too full of his men to let Laputa's Kaffirs
+through.  But if this was so, Laputa and I should be stopped,
+and then Laputa would certainly kill me.  I wished - and yet I
+did not wish - that Arcoll should hold all approaches.  As I
+reflected, my first exhilaration died away.  The scales were still
+heavily weighted against me.
+
+Laputa returned, closing the door behind him.
+
+'I will bargain with you on my own terms.  You shall have
+your life, and in return you will take me to the place where you
+hid the collar, and put it into my hands.  I will ride there, and
+you will run beside me, tied to my saddle.  If we are in danger
+from the white men, I will shoot you dead.  Do you accept?'
+
+'Yes,' I said, scrambling to my feet, and ruefully testing my
+shaky legs.  'But if you want me to get to Machudi's you must
+go slowly, for I am nearly foundered.'
+
+Then he brought out a Bible, and made me swear on it that
+I would do as I promised.
+
+'Swear to me in turn,' I said, 'that you will give me my life
+if I restore the jewels.'
+
+He swore, kissing the book like a witness in a police-court.  I
+had forgotten that the man called himself a Christian.
+
+'One thing more I ask,' I said.  'I want my dog decently buried.'
+'That has been already done,' was the reply.  'He was a brave
+animal, and my people honour bravery.'
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+A DEAL AND ITS CONSEQUENCES
+
+
+My eyes were bandaged tight, and a thong was run round my
+right wrist and tied to Laputa's saddle-bow.  I felt the glare of
+the afternoon sun on my head, and my shins were continually
+barked by stones and trees; but these were my only tidings of
+the outer world.  By the sound of his paces Laputa was riding
+the Schimmel, and if any one thinks it easy to go blindfold by a
+horse's side I hope he will soon have the experience.  In the
+darkness I could not tell the speed of the beast.  When I ran I
+overshot it and was tugged back; when I walked my wrist was
+dislocated with the tugs forward.
+
+For an hour or more I suffered this breakneck treatment.
+We were descending.  Often I could hear the noise of falling
+streams, and once we splashed through a mountain ford.
+Laputa was taking no risks, for he clearly had in mind the
+possibility of some accident which would set me free, and he
+had no desire to have me guiding Arcoll to his camp.
+
+But as I stumbled and sprawled down these rocky tracks I
+was not thinking of Laputa's plans.  My whole soul was filled
+with regret for Colin, and rage against his murderer.  After my
+first mad rush I had not thought about my dog.  He was dead,
+but so would I be in an hour or two, and there was no cause to
+lament him.  But at the first revival of hope my grief had
+returned.  As they bandaged my eyes I was wishing that they
+would let me see his grave.  As I followed beside Laputa I told
+myself that if ever I got free, when the war was over I would
+go to Inanda's Kraal, find the grave, and put a tombstone over
+it in memory of the dog that saved my life.  I would also write
+that the man who shot him was killed on such and such a day
+at such and such a place by Colin's master.  I wondered why
+Laputa had not the wits to see the Portugoose's treachery and
+to let me fight him.  I did not care what were the weapons -
+knives or guns, or naked fists - I would certainly kill him, and
+afterwards the Kaffirs could do as they pleased with me.  Hot
+tears of rage and weakness wet the bandage on my eyes, and
+the sobs which came from me were not only those of weariness.
+
+At last we halted.  Laputa got down and took off the bandage,
+and I found myself in one of the hill-meadows which lie among
+the foothills of the Wolkberg.  The glare blinded me, and for a
+little I could only see the marigolds growing at my feet.  Then
+I had a glimpse of the deep gorge of the Great Letaba below
+me, and far to the east the flats running out to the hazy blue
+line of the Lebombo hills.  Laputa let me sit on the ground for
+a minute or two to get my breath and rest my feet.  'That was a
+rough road,' he said.  'You can take it easier now, for I have no
+wish to carry you.'  He patted the Schimmel, and the beautiful
+creature turned his mild eyes on the pair of us.  I wondered if
+he recognized his rider of two nights ago.
+
+I had seen Laputa as the Christian minister, as the priest
+and king in the cave, as the leader of an army at Dupree's
+Drift, and at the kraal we had left as the savage with all self-
+control flung to the winds.  I was to see this amazing man in a
+further part.  For he now became a friendly and rational
+companion.  He kept his horse at an easy walk, and talked to
+me as if we were two friends out for a trip together.  Perhaps
+he had talked thus to Arcoll, the half-caste who drove his
+Cape-cart.
+
+The wooded bluff above Machudi's glen showed far in
+front.  He told me the story of the Machudi war, which I
+knew already, but he told it as a saga.  There had been a
+stratagem by which one of the Boer leaders - a Grobelaar, I
+think - got some of his men into the enemy's camp by hiding
+them in a captured forage wagon.
+
+'Like the Trojan horse,' I said involuntarily.
+
+'Yes,' said my companion, 'the same old device,' and to my
+amazement he quoted some lines of Virgil.
+
+'Do you understand Latin?' he asked.
+
+I told him that I had some slight knowledge of the tongue,
+acquired at the university of Edinburgh.  Laputa nodded.  He
+mentioned the name of a professor there, and commented on
+his scholarship.
+
+'O man!' I cried, 'what in God's name are you doing in this
+business?  You that are educated and have seen the world, what
+makes you try to put the clock back?  You want to wipe out the
+civilization of a thousand years, and turn us all into savages.
+It's the more shame to you when you know better.'
+
+'You misunderstand me,' he said quietly.  'It is because I
+have sucked civilization dry that I know the bitterness of the
+fruit.  I want a simpler and better world, and I want that world
+for my own people.  I am a Christian, and will you tell me that
+your civilization pays much attention to Christ?  You call
+yourself a patriot?  Will you not give me leave to be a patriot
+in turn?'
+
+'If you are a Christian, what sort of Christianity is it to
+deluge the land with blood?'
+
+'The best,' he said.  'The house must be swept and garnished
+before the man of the house can dwell in it.  You have
+read history, Such a purging has descended on the Church at
+many times, and the world has awakened to a new hope.  It is
+the same in all religions.  The temples grow tawdry and foul
+and must be cleansed, and, let me remind you, the cleanser
+has always come out of the desert.'
+
+I had no answer, being too weak and forlorn to think.  But I
+fastened on his patriotic plea.
+
+'Where are the patriots in your following?  They are all red
+Kaffirs crying for blood and plunder.  Supposing you were
+Oliver Cromwell you could make nothing out of such a crew.'
+
+'They are my people,' he said simply.
+
+By this time we had forded the Great Letaba, and were
+making our way through the clumps of forest to the crown of
+the plateau.  I noticed that Laputa kept well in cover, preferring
+the tangle of wooded undergrowth to the open spaces of the
+water-meadows.  As he talked, his wary eyes were keeping a
+sharp look-out over the landscape.  I thrilled with the thought
+that my own folk were near at hand.
+
+Once Laputa checked me with his hand as I was going to
+speak, and in silence we crossed the kloof of a little stream.
+After that we struck a long strip of forest and he slackened
+his watch.
+
+'if you fight for a great cause,' I said, 'why do you let a
+miscreant like Henriques have a hand in it?  You must know
+that the man's only interest in you is the chance of loot.  I am
+for you against Henriques, and I tell you plain that if you don't
+break the snake's back it will sting you.'
+
+Laputa looked at me with an odd, meditative look.
+
+'You misunderstand again, Mr Storekeeper.  The Portuguese
+is what you call a "mean white." His only safety is among us.  I
+am campaigner enough to know that an enemy, who has a
+burning grievance against my other enemies, is a good ally.
+You are too hard on Henriques.  You and your friends have
+treated him as a Kaffir, and a Kaffir he is in everything but
+Kaffir virtues.  What makes you so anxious that Henriques
+should not betray me?'
+
+'I'm not a mean white,' I said, 'and I will speak the truth.  I
+hope, in God's name, to see you smashed; but I want it done
+by honest men, and not by a yellow devil who has murdered
+my dog and my friends.  Sooner or later you will find him out;
+and if he escapes you, and there's any justice in heaven, he
+won't escape me.'
+
+'Brave words,' said Laputa, with a laugh, and then in one
+second he became rigid in the saddle.  We had crossed a patch
+of meadow and entered a wood, beyond which ran the highway.
+I fancy he was out in his reckoning, and did not think the
+road so near.  At any rate, after a moment he caught the sound
+of horses, and I caught it too.  The wood was thin, and there
+was no room for retreat, while to recross the meadow would
+bring us clean into the open.  He jumped from his horse, untied
+with amazing quickness the rope halter from its neck, and
+started to gag me by winding the thing round my jaw.
+
+I had no time to protest that I would keep faith, and my
+right hand was tethered to his pommel.  In the grip of these
+great arms I was helpless, and in a trice was standing dumb as
+a lamp-post; while Laputa, his left arm round both of mine,
+and his right hand over the schimmel's eyes, strained his ears
+like a sable antelope who has scented danger.
+
+There was never a more brutal gagging.  The rope crushed
+my nose and drove my lips down on my teeth, besides gripping
+my throat so that I could scarcely breathe.  The pain was so
+great that I became sick, and would have fallen but for Laputa.
+Happily I managed to get my teeth apart, so that one coil
+slipped between, and eased the pain of the jaws.  But the rest
+was bad enough to make me bite frantically on the tow, and I
+think in a little my sharp front teeth would have severed it.  All
+this discomfort prevented me seeing what happened.  The
+wood, as I have said, was thin, and through the screen of
+leaves I had a confused impression of men and horses passing
+interminably.  There can only have been a score at the most;
+but the moments drag if a cord is gripping your throat.  When
+Laputa at length untied me, I had another fit of nausea, and
+leaned helplessly against a tree.
+
+Laputa listened till the sound of the horses had died away;
+then silently we stole to the edge of the road, across, and into
+the thicker evergreen bush on the far side.  At a pace which
+forced me to run hard, we climbed a steepish slope, till ahead
+of us we saw the bald green crown of the meadowlands.  I
+noticed that his face had grown dark and sullen again.  He was
+in an enemy's country, and had the air of the hunted instead
+of the hunter.  When I stopped he glowered at me, and once, when
+I was all but overcome with fatigue, he lifted his hand in a
+threat.  Had he carried a sjambok, it would have fallen on my back.
+
+If he was nervous, so was I.  The fact that I was out of the
+Kaffir country and in the land of my own folk was a kind of
+qualified liberty.  At any moment, I felt, Providence might
+intervene to set me free.  It was in the bond that Laputa should
+shoot me if we were attacked; but a pistol might miss.  As far
+as my shaken wits would let me, I began to forecast the future.
+Once he got the jewels my side of the bargain was complete.
+He had promised me my life, but there had been nothing said
+about my liberty; and I felt assured that Laputa would never
+allow one who had seen so much to get off to Arcoll with his
+tidings.  But back to that unhallowed kraal I was resolved I
+would not go.  He was armed, and I was helpless; he was
+strong, and I was dizzy with weakness; he was mounted, and
+I was on foot: it seemed a poor hope that I should get away.
+There was little chance from a wandering patrol, for I knew if
+we were followed I should have a bullet in my head, while
+Laputa got off on the Schimmel.  I must wait and bide events.
+At the worst, a clean shot on the hillside in a race for life was
+better than the unknown mysteries of the kraal.  I prayed
+earnestly to God to show me His mercy, for if ever man was
+sore bested by the heathen it was I.
+
+To my surprise, Laputa chose to show himself on the green
+hill-shoulder.  He looked towards the Wolkberg and raised his
+hands.  It must have been some signal.  I cast my eyes back on
+the road we had come, and I thought I saw some figures a mile
+back, on the edge of the Letaba gorge.  He was making sure of
+my return.
+
+By this time it was about four in the afternoon, and as
+heavenly weather as the heart of man could wish.  The
+meadows were full of aromatic herbs, which, as we crushed
+them, sent up a delicate odour.  The little pools and shallows
+of the burns were as clear as a Lothian trout-stream.  We were
+now going at a good pace, and I found that my earlier weariness
+was growing less.  I was being keyed up for some great crisis,
+for in my case the spirit acts direct on the body, and fatigue
+grows and ebbs with hope.  I knew that my strength was not
+far from breaking-point; but I knew also that so long as a
+chance was left me I should have enough for a stroke.
+
+Before I realized where we were we had rounded the hill,
+and were looking down on the green cup of the upper
+Machudi's glen.  Far down, I remember, where the trees began,
+there was a cloud of smoke.  Some Kaffir - or maybe Arcoll -
+had fired the forest.  The smoke was drifting away under a
+light west wind over the far plains, so that they were seen
+through a haze of opal.
+
+Laputa bade me take the lead.  I saw quite clear the red kloof
+on the far side, where the collar was hid.  To get there we
+might have ridden straight into the cup, but a providential
+instinct made me circle round the top till we were on the lip of
+the ravine.  This was the road some of Machudi's men had
+taken, and unthinkingly I followed them.  Twenty minutes'
+riding brought us to the place, and all the while I had no kind
+of plan of escape.  I was in the hands of my Maker, watching,
+like the Jews of old, for a sign.
+
+Laputa dismounted and looked down into the gorge.
+
+'There is no road there,' I said.  'We must go down to the
+foot and come up the stream-side.  It would be better to leave
+your horse here.'
+He started down the cliff, which from above looks a sheer
+precipice.  Then he seemed to agree with me, took the rope
+from the schimmel's neck, and knee-haltered his beast.  And at
+that moment I had an inspiration.
+
+With my wrist-rope in his hand, he preceded me down the
+hill till we got to the red screes at the foot of the kloof.  Then,
+under my guidance, we turned up into the darkness of the
+gorge.  As we entered I looked back, and saw figures coming
+over the edge of the green cup - Laputa's men, I guessed.
+What I had to do must be done quickly.
+
+We climbed up the burn, over the succession of little
+cataracts, till we came to the flat space of shingle and the long
+pool where I had been taken that morning.  The ashes of the
+fire which Machudi's men had made were plain on the rock.
+After that I had to climb a waterfall to get to the rocky pool
+where I had bestowed the rubies.
+
+'You must take off this thong,' I said.  'I must climb to get
+the collar.  Cover me with a pistol if you like.  I won't be out
+of sight.'
+
+Laputa undid the thong and set me free.  From his belt he
+took a pistol, cocked it, and held it over his left hand.  I had
+seen this way of shooting adopted by indifferent shots, and it
+gave me a wild hope that he might not be much of a marksman.
+
+It did not take me long to find the pool, close against the
+blackened stump of a tree-fern.  I thrust in my hand and
+gathered up the jewels from the cool sand.  They came out
+glowing like living fires, and for a moment I thrilled with a
+sense of reverence.  Surely these were no common stones which
+held in them the very heart of hell.  Clutching them tightly, I
+climbed down to Laputa.
+
+At the sight of the great Snake he gave a cry of rapture.
+Tearing it from me, he held it at arm's length, his face lit with
+a passionate joy.  He kissed it, he raised it to the sky; nay, he
+was on his knees before it.  Once more he was the savage
+transported in the presence of his fetich.  He turned to me with
+burning eyes.
+
+'Down on your knees,' he cried, 'and reverence the Ndhlondhlo.
+Down, you impious dog, and seek pardon for your sacrilege.'
+
+'I won't,' I said.  'I won't bow to any heathen idol.'
+
+He pointed his pistol at me.
+
+'In a second I shoot where your head is now.  Down, you
+fool, or perish.'
+
+'You promised me my life,' I said stubbornly, though
+Heaven knows why I chose to act thus.
+
+He dropped the pistol and flung himself on me.  I was
+helpless as a baby in his hands.  He forced me to the ground
+and rolled my face in the sand; then he pulled me to my feet
+and tossed me backward, till I almost staggered into the pool.
+I saved myself, and staggered instead into the shallow at the
+foot of it, close under the ledge of the precipice.
+
+That morning, when Machudi's men were cooking breakfast,
+I had figured out a route up the cliff.  This route was
+now my hope of escape.  Laputa had dropped his pistol, and
+the collar had plunged him in an ecstasy of worship.  Now, if
+ever, was my time.  I must get on the shelf which ran sideways
+up the cliff, and then scramble for dear life.
+
+I pretended to be dazed and terrified.
+
+'You promised me my life,' I whimpered.
+
+'Your life,' he cried.  'Yes, you shall have your life; and
+before long you will pray for death.'
+
+'But I saved the Collar,' I pleaded.  'Henriques would have
+stolen it.  I brought it safe here, and now you have got it.'
+
+Meantime I was pulling myself up on the shelf, and loosening
+with one hand a boulder which overhung the pool.
+
+'You have been repaid,' he said savagely.  'You will not die.'
+
+'But my life is no use without liberty,' I said, working at the
+boulder till it lay loose in its niche.
+
+He did not answer, being intent on examining the Collar to
+see if it had suffered any harm.
+
+'I hope it isn't scratched,' I said.  'Henriques trod on it when
+I hit him.'
+
+Laputa peered at the gems like a mother at a child who has
+had a fall.  I saw my chance and took it.  With a great heave I
+pulled the boulder down into the pool.  It made a prodigious
+splash, sending a shower of spray over Laputa and the Collar.
+In cover of it I raced up the shelf, straining for the shelter of
+the juniper tree.
+
+A shot rang out and struck the rock above me.  A second
+later I had reached the tree and was scrambling up the crack
+beyond it.
+
+Laputa did not fire again.  He may have distrusted his
+shooting, or seen a better way of it.  He dashed through the
+stream and ran up the shelf like a klipspringer after me.  I felt
+rather than saw what was happening, and with my heart in my
+mouth I gathered my dregs of energy for the last struggle.
+
+You know the nightmare when you are pursued by some
+awful terror, and, though sick with fear, your legs have a
+strange numbness, and you cannot drag them in obedience to
+the will.  Such was my feeling in the crack above the juniper
+tree.  In truth, I had passed the bounds of my endurance.  Last
+night I had walked fifty miles, and all day I had borne the
+torments of a dreadful suspense.  I had been bound and gagged
+and beaten till the force was out of my limbs.  Also, and above
+all, I had had little food, and I was dizzy with want of sleep.
+My feet seemed leaden, my hands had no more grip than
+putty.  I do not know how I escaped falling into the pool, for
+my head was singing and my heart thumping in my throat.  I
+seemed to feel Laputa's great hand every second clawing at
+my heels.
+
+I had reason for my fears.  He had entered the crack long
+before I had reached the top, and his progress was twice as fast
+as mine.  When I emerged on the topmost shelf he was scarcely
+a yard behind me.  But an overhang checked his bulky figure
+and gave me a few seconds' grace.  I needed it all, for these last
+steps on the shelf were the totterings of an old man.  Only a
+desperate resolution and an extreme terror made me drag one
+foot after the other.  Blindly I staggered on to the top of the
+ravine, and saw before me the Schimmel grazing in the light of
+the westering sun.
+
+I forced myself into a sort of drunken run, and crawled into
+the saddle.  Behind me, as I turned, I could see Laputa's
+shoulders rising over the edge.  I had no knife to cut the knee-
+halter, and the horse could not stir.
+
+Then the miracle happened.  When the rope had gagged me,
+my teeth must have nearly severed it at one place, and this
+Laputa had not noticed when he used it as a knee-halter.  The
+shock of my entering the saddle made the Schimmel fling up
+his head violently, and the rope snapped.  I could not find the
+stirrups, but I dug my heels into his sides, and he leaped forward.
+
+At the same moment Laputa began to shoot.  It was a foolish
+move, for he might have caught me by running, since I had
+neither spurs nor whip, and the horse was hampered by the
+loose end of rope at his knee.  In any case, being an indifferent
+shot, he should have aimed at the Schimmel, not at me; but I
+suppose he wished to save his charger.  One bullet sang past
+my head; a second did my business for me.  It passed over my
+shoulder, as I lay low in the saddle, and grazed the beast's
+right ear.  The pain maddened him, and, rope-end and all, he
+plunged into a wild gallop.  Other shots came, but they fell far
+short.  I saw dimly a native or two - the men who had followed
+us - rush to intercept me, and I think a spear was flung.  But
+in a flash we were past them, and their cries faded behind me.
+I found the bridle, reached for the stirrups, and galloped
+straight for the sunset and for freedom.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+HOW A MAN MAY SOMETIMES PUT HIS TRUST IN A HORSE
+
+
+I had long passed the limit of my strength.  Only constant
+fear and wild alternations of hope had kept me going so long,
+and now that I was safe I became light-headed in earnest.  The
+wonder is that I did not fall off.  Happily the horse was good
+and the ground easy, for I was powerless to do any guiding.  I
+simply sat on his back in a silly glow of comfort, keeping a line
+for the dying sun, which I saw in a nick of the Iron Crown
+Mountain.  A sort of childish happiness possessed me.  After
+three days of imminent peril, to be free was to be in fairyland.
+To be swishing through the long bracken or plunging among
+the breast-high flowers of the meadowlands in a world of
+essential lights and fragrances, seemed scarcely part of mortal
+experience.  Remember that I was little more than a lad, and
+that I had faced death so often of late that my mind was all
+adrift.  To be able to hope once more, nay, to be allowed to
+cease both from hope and fear, was like a deep and happy
+opiate to my senses.  Spent and frail as I was, my soul swam in
+blessed waters of ease.
+
+The mood did not last long.  I came back to earth with a
+shock, as the schimmel stumbled at the crossing of a stream.  I
+saw that the darkness was fast falling, and with the sight panic
+returned to me.  Behind me I seemed to hear the sound of
+pursuit.  The noise was in my ears, but when I turned it
+ceased, and I saw only the dusky shoulders of hills.
+
+I tried to remember what Arcoll had told me about his
+headquarters, but my memory was wiped clean.  I thought they
+were on or near the highway, but I could not remember where
+the highway was.  Besides, he was close to the enemy, and I
+wanted to get back into the towns, far away from the battle-
+line.  If I rode west I must come in time to villages, where I
+could hide myself.  These were unworthy thoughts, but my
+excuse must be my tattered nerves.  When a man comes out
+of great danger, he is apt to be a little deaf to the call of duty.
+
+Suddenly I became ashamed.  God had preserved me from
+deadly perils, but not that I might cower in some shelter.  I
+had a mission as clear as Laputa's.  For the first time I became
+conscious to what a little thing I owed my salvation.  That
+matter of the broken halter was like the finger of Divine
+Providence.  I had been saved for a purpose, and unless I
+fulfilled that purpose I should again be lost.  I was always a
+fatalist, and in that hour of strained body and soul I became
+something of a mystic.  My panic ceased, my lethargy departed,
+and a more manly resolution took their place.  I gripped the
+Schimmel by the head and turned him due left.  Now I
+remembered where the highroad ran, and I remembered
+something else.
+
+For it was borne in on me that Laputa had fallen into my
+hands.  Without any subtle purpose I had played a master
+game.  He was cut off from his people, without a horse, on the
+wrong side of the highroad which Arcoll's men patrolled.
+Without him the rising would crumble.  There might be war,
+even desperate war, but we should fight against a leaderless
+foe.  If he could only be shepherded to the north, his game was
+over, and at our leisure we could mop up the scattered
+concentrations.
+
+I was now as eager to get back into danger as I had been to
+get into safety.  Arcoll must be found and warned, and that
+at once, or Laputa would slip over to Inanda's Kraal under
+cover of dark.  It was a matter of minutes, and on these minutes
+depended the lives of thousands.  It was also a matter of ebbing
+strength, for with my return to common sense I saw very
+clearly how near my capital was spent.  If I could reach the
+highroad, find Arcoll or Arcoll's men, and give them my
+news, I would do my countrymen a service such as no man in
+Africa could render.  But I felt my head swimming, I was
+swaying crazily in the saddle, and my hands had scarcely the
+force of a child's.  I could only lie limply on the horse's back,
+clutching at his mane with trembling fingers.  I remember
+that my head was full of a text from the Psalms about not
+putting one's trust in horses.  I prayed that this one horse might
+be an exception, for he carried more than Caesar and his
+fortunes.
+
+My mind is a blank about those last minutes.  In less than an
+hour after my escape I struck the highway, but it was an hour
+which in the retrospect unrolls itself into unquiet years.  I was
+dimly conscious of scrambling through a ditch and coming to
+a ghostly white road.  The schimmel swung to the right, and
+the next I knew some one had taken my bridle and was
+speaking to me.
+
+At first I thought it was Laputa and screamed.  Then I must
+have tottered in the saddle, for I felt an arm slip round my
+middle.  The rider uncorked a bottle with his teeth and forced
+some brandy down my throat.  I choked and coughed, and then
+looked up to see a white policeman staring at me.  I knew the
+police by the green shoulder-straps.
+
+'Arcoll,' I managed to croak.  'For God's sake take me to Arcoll.'
+
+The man whistled shrilly on his fingers, and a second rider
+came cantering down the road.  As he came up I recognized his
+face, but could not put a name to it.
+'Losh, it's the lad Crawfurd,' I heard a voice say.  'Crawfurd,
+man, d'ye no mind me at Lourenco Marques?  Aitken?'
+
+The Scotch tongue worked a spell with me.  It cleared my
+wits and opened the gates of my past life.  At last I knew I was
+among my own folk.
+
+'I must see Arcoll.  I have news for him - tremendous news.
+O man, take me to Arcoll and ask me no questions.  Where is
+he?  Where is he?'
+
+'As it happens, he's about two hundred yards off,' Aitken
+said.  'That light ye see at the top of the brae is his camp.'
+
+They helped me up the road, a man on each side of me, for
+I could never have kept in the saddle without their support.
+My message to Arcoll kept humming in my head as I tried to
+put it into words, for I had a horrid fear that my wits would
+fail me and I should be dumb when the time came.  Also I was
+in a fever of haste.  Every minute I wasted increased Laputa's
+chance of getting back to the kraal.  He had men with him
+every bit as skilful as Arcoll's trackers.  Unless Arcoll had a big
+force and the best horses there was no hope.  Often in looking
+back at this hour I have marvelled at the strangeness of my
+behaviour.  Here was I just set free from the certainty of a
+hideous death, and yet I had lost all joy in my security.  I was
+more fevered at the thought of Laputa's escape than I had
+been at the prospect of David Crawfurd's end.
+
+The next thing I knew I was being lifted off the Schimmel
+by what seemed to me a thousand hands.  Then came a glow of
+light, a great moon, in the centre of which I stood blinking.  I
+was forced to sit down on a bed, while I was given a cup of hot
+tea, far more reviving than any spirits.  I became conscious that
+some one was holding my hands, and speaking very slowly and gently.
+
+'Davie,' the voice said, 'you're back among friends, my lad.
+Tell me, where have you been?'
+
+'I want Arcoll,' I moaned.  'Where is Ratitswan?'  There were
+tears of weakness running down my cheeks.
+
+'Arcoll is here,' said the voice; 'he is holding your hands,
+Davie.  Quiet, lad, quiet.  Your troubles are all over now.'
+
+I made a great effort, found the eyes to which the voice
+belonged, and spoke to them.
+
+'Listen.  I stole the collar of Prester John at Dupree's Drift.
+I was caught in the Berg and taken to the kraal - I forget its
+name - but I had hid the rubies.'
+
+'Yes,' the voice said, 'you hid the rubies, - and then?'
+
+'Inkulu wanted them back, so I made a deal with him.  I
+took him to Machudi's and gave him the collar, and then he
+fired at me and I climbed and climbed ...  I climbed on a
+horse,' I concluded childishly.
+
+I heard the voice say 'Yes?' again inquiringly, but my mind
+ran off at a tangent.
+
+'Beyers took guns up into the Wolkberg,' I cried shrilly.
+'Why the devil don't you do the same?  You have the whole
+Kaffir army in a trap.'
+
+I saw a smiling face before me.
+
+'Good lad.  Colles told me you weren't wanting in intelligence.
+What if we have done that very thing, Davie?'
+
+But I was not listening.  I was trying to remember the thing
+I most wanted to say, and that was not about Beyers and his
+guns.  Those were nightmare minutes.  A speaker who has lost
+the thread of his discourse, a soldier who with a bayonet at his
+throat has forgotten the password - I felt like them, and worse.
+And to crown all I felt my faintness coming back, and my head
+dropping with heaviness.  I was in a torment of impotence.
+
+Arcoll, still holding my hands, brought his face close to
+mine, so that his clear eyes mastered and constrained me.
+
+'Look at me, Davie,' I heard him say.  'You have something
+to tell me, and it is very important.  It is about Laputa, isn't it?
+Think, man.  You took him to Machudi's and gave him the
+collar.  He has gone back with it to Inanda's Kraal.  Very well,
+my guns will hold him there.'
+
+I shook my head.  'You can't.  You may split the army, but
+you can't hold Laputa.  He will be over the Olifants before you
+fire a shot.'
+'We will hunt him down before he crosses.  And if not, we
+will catch him at the railway.'
+
+'For God's sake, hurry then,' I cried.  'In an hour he will be
+over it and back in the kraal.'
+
+'But the river is a long way.'
+
+'River?' I repeated hazily.  'What river?  The Letaba is not
+the place.  It is the road I mean.'
+
+Arcoll's hands closed firmly on my wrists.
+
+'You left Laputa at Machudi's and rode here without stopping.
+That would take you an hour.  Had Laputa a horse?'
+
+'Yes; but I took it,' I stammered.  'You can see it behind me.'
+Arcoll dropped my hands and stood up straight.
+
+'By God, we've got him!' he said, and he spoke to his
+companions.  A man turned and ran out of the tent.
+
+Then I remembered what I wanted to say.  I struggled from
+the bed and put my hands on his shoulders.
+
+'Laputa is our side of the highroad.  Cut him off from his
+men, and drive him north - north - away up to the Rooirand.
+Never mind the Wolkberg and the guns, for they can wait.  I
+tell you Laputa is the Rising, and he has the collar.  Without
+him you can mop up the Kaffirs at your leisure.  Line the high-
+road with every man you have, for he must cross it or perish.
+Oh, hurry, man, hurry; never mind me.  We're saved if we can
+chivy Laputa till morning.  Quick, or I'll have to go myself.'
+
+The tent emptied, and I lay back on the bed with a dim
+feeling that my duty was done and I could rest.  Henceforth
+the affair was in stronger hands than mine.  I was so weak that
+I could not lift my legs up to the bed, but sprawled half on
+and half off.
+
+Utter exhaustion defeats sleep.  I was in a fever, and my eyes
+would not close.  I lay and drowsed while it seemed to me that
+the outside world was full of men and horses.  I heard voices
+and the sound of hoofs and the jingle of bridles, but above all
+I heard the solid tramp of an army.  The whole earth seemed
+to be full of war.  Before my mind was spread the ribbon of the
+great highway.  I saw it run white through the meadows of the
+plateau, then in a dark corkscrew down the glen of the Letaba,
+then white again through the vast moonlit bush of the plains,
+till the shanties of Wesselsburg rose at the end of it.  It seemed
+to me to be less a road than a rampart, built of shining
+marble, the Great Wall of Africa.  I saw Laputa come out of
+the shadows and try to climb it, and always there was the
+sound of a rifle-breech clicking, a summons, and a flight.  I
+began to take a keen interest in the game.  Down in the bush
+were the dark figures of the hunted, and on the white wall
+were my own people - horse, foot, and artillery, the squadrons
+of our defence.  What a general Arcoll was, and how great a
+matter had David Crawfurd kindled!
+
+A man came in - I suppose a doctor.  He took off my leggings
+and boots, cutting them from my bleeding feet, but I knew no
+pain.  He felt my pulse and listened to my heart.  Then he
+washed my face and gave me a bowl of hot milk.  There must
+have been a drug in the milk, for I had scarcely drunk it before
+a tide of sleep seemed to flow over my brain.  The white
+rampart faded from my eyes and I slept.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+ARCOLL'S SHEPHERDING
+
+
+
+While I lay in a drugged slumber great things were happening.
+What I have to tell is no experience of my own, but the
+story as I pieced it together afterwards from talks with Arcoll
+and Aitken.  The history of the Rising has been compiled.  As I
+write I see before me on the shelves two neat blue volumes in
+which Mr Alexander Upton, sometime correspondent of the
+Times, has told for the edification of posterity the tale of the
+war between the Plains and the Plateau.  To him the Kaffir
+hero is Umbooni, a half-witted ruffian, whom we afterwards
+caught and hanged.  He mentions Laputa only in a footnote as
+a renegade Christian who had something to do with fomenting
+discontent.  He considers that the word 'Inkulu,' which he
+often heard, was a Zulu name for God.  Mr Upton is a
+picturesque historian, but he knew nothing of the most romantic
+incident of all.  This is the tale of the midnight shepherding
+of the 'heir of John' by Arcoll and his irregulars.
+
+At Bruderstroom, where I was lying unconscious, there were
+two hundred men of the police; sixty-three Basuto scouts
+under a man called Stephen, who was half native in blood and
+wholly native in habits; and three commandoes of the farmers,
+each about forty strong.  The commandoes were really companies
+of the North Transvaal Volunteers, but the old name had
+been kept and something of the old loose organization.  There
+were also two four-gun batteries of volunteer artillery, but
+these were out on the western skirts of the Wolkberg following
+Beyers's historic precedent.  Several companies of regulars were
+on their way from Pietersdorp, but they did not arrive till the
+next day.  When they came they went to the Wolkberg to join
+the artillery.  Along the Berg at strategic points were pickets of
+police with native trackers, and at Blaauwildebeestefontein
+there was a strong force with two field guns, for there was
+some fear of a second Kaffir army marching by that place to
+Inanda's Kraal.  At Wesselsburg out on the plain there was a
+biggish police patrol, and a system of small patrols along the
+road, with a fair number of Basuto scouts.  But the road was
+picketed, not held; for Arcoll's patrols were only a branch of
+his Intelligence Department.  It was perfectly easy, as I had
+found myself, to slip across in a gap of the pickets.
+
+Laputa would be in a hurry, and therefore he would try to
+cross at the nearest point.  Hence it was Arcoll's first business
+to hold the line between the defile of the Letaba and the camp
+at Bruderstroom.  A detachment of the police who were well
+mounted galloped at racing speed for the defile, and behind
+them the rest lined out along the road.  The farmers took a line
+at right angles to the road, so as to prevent an escape on the
+western flank.  The Basutos were sent into the woods as a sort
+of advanced post to bring tidings of any movement there.
+Finally a body of police with native runners at their stirrups
+rode on to the drift where the road crosses the Letaba.  The
+place is called Main Drift, and you will find it on the map.
+The natives were first of all to locate Laputa, and prevent him
+getting out on the south side of the triangle of hill and wood
+between Machudi's, the road, and the Letaba.  If he failed
+there, he must try to ford the Letaba below the drift, and cross
+the road between the drift and Wesselsburg.  Now Arcoll had
+not men enough to watch the whole line, and therefore if
+Laputa were once driven below the drift, he must shift his
+men farther down the road.  Consequently it was of the first
+importance to locate Laputa's whereabouts, and for this purpose
+the native trackers were sent forward.  There was just a
+chance of capturing him, but Arcoll knew too well his amazing
+veld-craft and great strength of body to build much hope on that.
+
+We were none too soon.  The advance men of the police rode
+into one of the Kaffirs from Inanda's Kraal, whom Laputa had
+sent forward to see if the way was clear.  In two minutes more
+he would have been across and out of our power, for we had
+no chance of overtaking him in the woody ravines of the
+Letaba.  The Kaffir, when he saw us, dived back into the grass
+on the north side of the road, which made it clear that Laputa
+was still there.
+
+After that nothing happened for a little.  The police reached
+their drift, and all the road west of that point was strongly
+held.  The flanking commandoes joined hands with one of the
+police posts farther north, and moved slowly to the scarp of
+the Berg.  They saw nobody; from which Arcoll could deduce
+that his man had gone down the Berg into the forests.
+
+Had the Basutos been any good at woodcraft we should have
+had better intelligence.  But living in a bare mountain country
+they are apt to find themselves puzzled in a forest.  The best
+men among the trackers were some renegades of 'Mpefu, who
+sent back word by a device known only to Arcoll that five
+Kaffirs were in the woods a mile north of Main Drift.  By this
+time it was after ten o'clock, and the moon was rising.  The five
+men separated soon after, and the reports became confused.
+Then Laputa, as the biggest of the five, was located on the
+banks of the Great Letaba about two miles below Main Drift.
+
+The question was as to his crossing.  Arcoll had assumed
+that he would swim the river and try to get over the road
+between Main Drift and Wesselsburg.  But in this assumption
+he underrated the shrewdness of his opponent.  Laputa knew
+perfectly well that we had not enough men to patrol the whole
+countryside, but that the river enabled us to divide the land
+into two sections and concentrate strongly on one or the other.
+Accordingly he left the Great Letaba unforded and resolved to
+make a long circuit back to the Berg.  One of his Kaffirs swam
+the river, and when word of this was brought Arcoll began to
+withdraw his posts farther down the road.  But as the men were
+changing 'Mpefu's fellows got wind of Laputa's turn to the
+left, and in great haste Arcoll countermanded the move and
+waited in deep perplexity at Main Drift.
+
+The salvation of his scheme was the farmers on the scarp of
+the Berg.  They lit fires and gave Laputa the notion of a great
+army.  Instead of going up the glen of Machudi or the Letsitela
+he bore away to the north for the valley of the Klein Letaba.
+The pace at which he moved must have been amazing.  He had
+a great physique, hard as nails from long travelling, and in his
+own eyes he had an empire at stake.  When I look at the map
+and see the journey which with vast fatigue I completed from
+Dupree's Drift to Machudi's, and then look at the huge spaces
+of country over which Laputa's legs took him on that night, I
+am lost in admiration of the man.
+
+About midnight he must have crossed the Letsitela.  Here he
+made a grave blunder.  If he had tried the Berg by one of the
+faces he might have got on to the plateau and been at Inanda's
+Kraal by the dawning.  But he over-estimated the size of the
+commandoes, and held on to the north, where he thought
+there would be no defence.  About one o'clock Arcoll, tired of
+inaction and conscious that he had misread Laputa's tactics,
+resolved on a bold stroke.  He sent half his police to the Berg
+to reinforce the commandoes, bidding them get into touch
+with the post at Blaauwildebeestefontein.
+
+A little after two o'clock a diversion occurred.  Henriques
+succeeded in crossing the road three miles east of Main Drift.
+He had probably left the kraal early in the night and had tried
+to cross farther west, but had been deterred by the patrols.
+East of Main Drift, where the police were fewer, he succeeded;
+but he had not gone far till he was discovered by the Basuto
+scouts.  The find was reported to Arcoll, who guessed at once
+who this traveller was.  He dared not send out any of his white
+men, but he bade a party of the scouts follow the Portugoose's
+trail.  They shadowed him to Dupree's Drift, where he crossed
+the Letaba.  There he lay down by the roadside to sleep, while
+they kept him company.  A hard fellow Henriques was, for he
+could slumber peacefully on the very scene of his murder.
+
+Dawn found Laputa at the head of the Klein Letaba glen,
+not far from 'Mpefu's kraal.  He got food at a hut, and set off
+at once up the wooded hill above it, which is a promontory of
+the plateau.  By this time he must have been weary, or he
+would not have blundered as he did right into a post of the
+farmers.  He was within an ace of capture, and to save himself
+was forced back from the scarp.  He seems, to judge from
+reports, to have gone a little way south in the thicker timber,
+and then to have turned north again in the direction of
+Blaauwildebeestefontein.  After that his movements are
+obscure.  He was seen on the Klein Labongo, but the sight of
+the post at Blaauwildebeestefontein must have convinced him
+that a korhaan could not escape that way.  The next we heard
+of him was that he had joined Henriques.
+After daybreak Arcoll, having got his reports from the
+plateau, and knowing roughly the direction in which Laputa
+was shaping, decided to advance his lines.  The farmers,
+reinforced by three more commandoes from the Pietersdorp
+district, still held the plateau, but the police were now on the
+line of the Great Letaba.  It was Arcoll's plan to hold that river
+and the long neck of land between it and the Labongo.  His
+force was hourly increasing, and his mounted men would be
+able to prevent any escape on the flank to the east of
+Wesselsburg.
+
+So it happened that while Laputa was being driven east
+from the Berg, Henriques was travelling north, and their lines
+intersected.  I should like to have seen the meeting.  It must
+have told Laputa what had always been in the Portugoose's
+heart.  Henriques, I fancy, was making for the cave in the
+Rooirand.  Laputa, so far as I can guess at his mind, had a plan
+for getting over the Portuguese border, fetching a wide circuit,
+and joining his men at any of the concentrations between there
+and Amsterdam.
+
+The two were seen at midday going down the road which
+leads from Blaauwildebeestefontein to the Lebombo.  Then
+they struck Arcoll's new front, which stretched from the
+Letaba to the Labongo.  This drove them north again, and
+forced them to swim the latter stream.  From there to the
+eastern extremity of the Rooirand, which is the Portuguese
+frontier, the country is open and rolling, with a thin light
+scrub in the hollows.  It was bad cover for the fugitives, as they
+found to their cost.  For Arcoll had purposely turned his police
+into a flying column.  They no longer held a line; they scoured
+a country.  Only Laputa's incomparable veld-craft and great
+bodily strength prevented the two from being caught in half an
+hour.  They doubled back, swam the Labongo again, and got
+into the thick bush on the north side of the Blaauwildebeestefontein
+road.  The Basuto scouts were magnificent in the open,
+but in the cover they were again at fault.  Laputa and Henriques
+fairly baffled them, so that the pursuit turned to the west in
+the belief that the fugitives had made for Majinje's kraal.  In
+reality they had recrossed the Labongo and were making for
+Umvelos'.
+
+
+All this I heard afterwards, but in the meantime I lay in
+Arcoll's tent in deep unconsciousness.  While my enemies were
+being chased like partridges, I was reaping the fruits of four
+days' toil and terror.  The hunters had become the hunted, the
+wheel had come full circle, and the woes of David Crawfurd
+were being abundantly avenged.
+
+I slept till midday of the next day.  When I awoke the hot
+noontide sun had made the tent like an oven.  I felt better, but
+very stiff and sore, and I had a most ungovernable thirst.
+There was a pail of water with a tin pannikin beside the tent
+pole, and out of this I drank repeated draughts.  Then I lay
+down again, for I was still very weary.
+
+But my second sleep was not like my first.  It was haunted
+by wild nightmares.  No sooner had I closed my eyes than I
+began to live and move in a fantastic world.  The whole bush
+of the plains lay before me, and I watched it as if from some
+view-point in the clouds.  It was midday, and the sandy patches
+shimmered under a haze of heat.  I saw odd little movements
+in the bush - a buck's head raised, a paauw stalking solemnly
+in the long grass, a big crocodile rolling off a mudbank in the
+river.  And then I saw quite clearly Laputa's figure going east.
+
+In my sleep I did not think about Arcoll's manoeuvres.  My
+mind was wholly set upon Laputa.  He was walking wearily,
+yet at a good pace, and his head was always turning, like a wild
+creature snuffing the wind.  There was something with him, a
+shapeless shadow, which I could not see clearly.  His neck was
+bare, but I knew well that the collar was in his pouch.
+
+He stopped, turned west, and I lost him.  The bush world
+for a space was quite silent, and I watched it eagerly as an
+aeronaut would watch the ground for a descent.  For a long
+time I could see nothing.  Then in a wood near a river there
+seemed to be a rustling.  Some guinea-fowl flew up as if
+startled, and a stembok scurried out.  I knew that Laputa
+must be there.
+
+Then, as I looked at the river, I saw a head swimming.  Nay,
+I saw two, one some distance behind the other.  The first man
+landed on the far bank, and I recognized Laputa.  The second
+was a slight short figure, and I knew it was Henriques.
+
+I remember feeling very glad that these two had come
+together.  It was certain now that Henriques would not escape.
+Either Laputa would find out the truth and kill him, or I
+would come up with him and have my revenge.  In any case he
+was outside the Kaffir pale, adventuring on his own.
+
+I watched the two till they halted near a ruined building.
+Surely this was the store I had built at Umvelos'.  The thought
+gave me a horrid surprise.  Laputa and Henriques were on
+their way to the Rooirand!
+
+
+I woke with a start to find my forehead damp with sweat.
+There was some fever on me, I think, for my teeth were
+chattering.  Very clear in my mind was the disquieting thought
+that Laputa and Henriques would soon be in the cave.
+
+One of two things must happen - either Henriques would
+kill Laputa, get the collar of rubies, and be in the wilds of
+Mozambique before I could come up with his trail; or Laputa
+would outwit him, and have the handling himself of the
+treasure of gold and diamonds which had been laid up for the
+rising.  If he thought there was a risk of defeat, I knew he
+would send my gems to the bottom of the Labongo, and all my
+weary work would go for nothing.  I had forgotten all about
+patriotism.  In that hour the fate of the country was nothing to
+me, and I got no satisfaction from the thought that Laputa was
+severed from his army.  My one idea was that the treasure
+would be lost, the treasure for which I had risked my life.
+
+There is a kind of courage which springs from bitter anger
+and disappointment.  I had thought that I had bankrupted my
+spirit, but I found that there was a new passion in me to which
+my past sufferings taught no lesson.  My uneasiness would not
+let me rest a moment longer.  I rose to my feet, holding on by
+the bed, and staggered to the tent pole.  I was weak, but not so
+very weak that I could not make one last effort.  It maddened
+me that I should have done so much and yet fail at the end.
+
+From a nail on the tent pole hung a fragment of looking-
+glass which Arcoll used for shaving.  I caught a glimpse of my
+face in it, white and haggard and lined, with blue bags below
+the eyes.  The doctor the night before had sponged it, but he
+had not got rid of all the stains of travel.  In particular there
+was a faint splash of blood on the left temple.  I remembered
+that this was what I had got from the basin of goat's blood that
+night in the cave.
+I think that the sight of that splash determined me.  Whether
+I willed it or not, I was sealed of Laputa's men.  I must play
+the game to the finish, or never again know peace of mind on
+earth.  These last four days had made me very old.
+
+
+I found a pair of Arcoll's boots, roomy with much wearing,
+into which I thrust my bruised feet.  Then I crawled to the
+door, and shouted for a boy to bring my horse.  A Basuto
+appeared, and, awed by my appearance, went off in a hurry to
+see to the schimmel.  It was late afternoon, about the same time
+of day as had yesterday seen me escaping from Machudi's.  The
+Bruderstroom camp was empty, though sentinels were posted
+at the approaches.  I beckoned the only white man I saw, and
+asked where Arcoll was.  He told me that he had no news, but
+added that the patrols were still on the road as far as Wesselsburg.
+From this I gathered that Arcoll must have gone far out
+into the bush in his chase.  I did not want to see him; above
+all, I did not want him to find Laputa.  It was my private
+business that I rode on, and I asked for no allies.
+
+Somebody brought me a cup of thick coffee, which I could
+not drink, and helped me into the saddle.  The Schimmel was
+fresh, and kicked freely as I cantered off the grass into the dust
+of the highroad.  The whole world, I remember, was still and
+golden in the sunset.
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+MY LAST SIGHT OF THE REVEREND JOHN LAPUTA
+
+
+It was dark before I got into the gorge of the Letaba.  I passed
+many patrols, but few spoke to me, and none tried to stop me.
+Some may have known me, but I think it was my face and
+figure which tied their tongues.  I must have been pale as
+death, with tangled hair and fever burning in my eyes.  Also on
+my left temple was the splash of blood.
+
+At Main Drift I found a big body of police holding the ford.
+I splashed through and stumbled into one of their camp-fires.
+A man questioned me, and told me that Arcoll had got his
+quarry.  'He's dead, they say.  They shot him out on the hills
+when he was making for the Limpopo.'  But I knew that this
+was not true.  It was burned on my mind that Laputa was alive,
+nay, was waiting for me, and that it was God's will that we
+should meet in the cave.
+
+A little later I struck the track of the Kaffirs' march.  There
+was a broad, trampled way through the bush, and I followed
+it, for it led to Dupree's Drift.  All this time I was urging the
+Schimmel with all the vigour I had left in me.  I had quite lost
+any remnant of fear.  There were no terrors left for me either
+from Nature or man.  At Dupree's Drift I rode the ford without
+a thought of crocodiles.  I looked placidly at the spot where
+Henriques had slain the Keeper and I had stolen the rubies.
+There was no interest or imagination lingering in my dull
+brain.  My nerves had suddenly become things of stolid,
+untempered iron.  Each landmark I passed was noted down as
+one step nearer to my object.  At Umvelos' I had not the leisure
+to do more than glance at the shell which I had built.  I think I
+had forgotten all about that night when I lay in the cellar and
+heard Laputa's plans.  Indeed, my doings of the past days were
+all hazy and trivial in my mind.  I only saw one sight clearly -
+two men, one tall and black, the other little and sallow, slowly
+creeping nearer to the Rooirand, and myself, a midget on a
+horse, spurring far behind through the bush on their trail.  I
+saw the picture as continuously and clearly as if I had been
+looking at a scene on the stage.  There was only one change in
+the setting; the three figures seemed to be gradually closing
+together.
+
+I had no exhilaration in my quest.  I do not think I had even
+much hope, for something had gone numb and cold in me and
+killed my youth.  I told myself that treasure-hunting was an
+enterprise accursed of God, and that I should most likely die.
+That Laputa and Henriques would die I was fully certain.
+The three of us would leave our bones to bleach among the
+diamonds, and in a little the Prester's collar would glow
+amid a little heap of human dust.  I was quite convinced of all
+this, and quite apathetic.  It really did not matter so long as I
+came up with Laputa and Henriques, and settled scores with
+them.  That mattered everything in the world, for it was my destiny.
+
+I had no means of knowing how long I took, but it was after
+midnight before I passed Umvelos', and ere I got to the
+Rooirand there was a fluttering of dawn in the east.  I must
+have passed east of Arcoll's men, who were driving the bush
+towards Majinje's.  I had ridden the night down and did not
+feel so very tired.  My horse was stumbling, but my own limbs
+scarcely pained me.  To be sure I was stiff and nerveless as if
+hewn out of wood, but I had been as bad when I left
+Bruderstroom.  I felt as if I could go on riding to the end of
+the world.
+
+At the brink of the bush I dismounted and turned the
+Schimmel loose.  I had brought no halter, and I left him to
+graze and roll.  The light was sufficient to let me see the great
+rock face rising in a tower of dim purple.  The sky was still
+picked out with stars, but the moon had long gone down, and
+the east was flushing.  I marched up the path to the cave, very
+different from the timid being who had walked the same road
+three nights before.  Then my terrors were all to come: now I
+had conquered terror and seen the other side of fear.  I was
+centuries older.
+
+But beside the path lay something which made me pause.  It
+was a dead body, and the head was turned away from me.  I
+did not need to see the face to know who it was.  There had
+been only two men in my vision, and one of them was immortal.
+
+I stopped and turned the body over.  There was no joy in
+my heart, none of the lust of satisfied vengeance or slaked hate.
+I had forgotten about the killing of my dog and all the rest of
+Henriques' doings.  It was only with curiosity that I looked
+down on the dead face, swollen and livid in the first light
+of morning.
+
+The man had been strangled.  His neck, as we say in
+Scotland, was 'thrawn', and that was why he had lain on his
+back yet with his face turned away from me.  He had been dead
+probably since before midnight.  I looked closer, and saw that
+there was blood on his shirt and hands, but no wound.  It was
+not his blood, but some other's.  Then a few feet off on the
+path I found a pistol with two chambers empty.
+
+What had happened was very plain.  Henriques had tried to
+shoot Laputa at the entrance of the cave for the sake of the
+collar and the treasure within.  He had wounded him - gravely,
+I thought, to judge from the amount of blood - but the
+quickness and marksmanship of the Portuguese had not availed
+to save his life from those terrible hands.  After two shots
+Laputa had got hold of him and choked his life out as easily as
+a man twists a partridge's neck.  Then he had gone into the cave.
+
+I saw the marks of blood on the road, and hastened on.
+Laputa had been hours in the cave, enough to work havoc with
+the treasure.  He was wounded, too, and desperate.  Probably
+he had come to the Rooirand looking for sanctuary and rest for
+a day or two, but if Henriques had shot straight he might find
+a safer sanctuary and a longer rest.  For the third time in my
+life I pushed up the gully between the straight high walls of
+rock, and heard from the heart of the hills the thunder of the
+imprisoned river.
+
+There was only the faintest gleam of light in the cleft, but it
+sufficed to show me that the way to the cave was open.  The
+hidden turnstile in the right wall stood ajar; I entered, and
+carelessly swung it behind me.  The gates clashed into place
+with a finality which told me that they were firmly shut.  I did
+not know the secret of them, so how should I get out again?
+
+These things troubled me less than the fact that I had no
+light at all now.  I had to go on my knees to ascend the stair,
+and I could feel that the steps were wet.  It must be Laputa's blood.
+
+Next I was out on the gallery which skirted the chasm.  The
+sky above me was growing pale with dawn, and far below the
+tossing waters were fretted with light.  A light fragrant wind
+was blowing on the hills, and a breath of it came down the
+funnel.  I saw that my hands were all bloody with the stains on
+the steps, and I rubbed them on the rock to clean them.
+Without a tremor I crossed the stone slab over the gorge, and
+plunged into the dark alley which led to the inner chamber.
+
+As before, there was a light in front of me, but this time it
+was a pin-point and not the glare of many torches.  I felt my
+way carefully by the walls of the passage, though I did not
+really fear anything.  It was by the stopping of these lateral
+walls that I knew I was in the cave, for the place had only one
+single speck of light.  The falling wall of water stood out grey
+green and ghostly on the left, and I noticed that higher up it
+was lit as if from the open air.  There must be a great funnel in
+the hillside in that direction.  I walked a few paces, and then I
+made out that the spark in front was a lantern.
+
+My eyes were getting used to the half-light, and I saw what
+was beside the lantern.  Laputa knelt on the ashes of the fire
+which the Keeper had kindled three days before.  He knelt
+before, and half leaned on, a rude altar of stone.  The lantern
+stood by him on the floor, and its faint circle lit something
+which I was not unprepared for.  Blood was welling from his
+side, and spreading in a dark pool over the ashes.
+
+I had no fear, only a great pity - pity for lost romance, for
+vain endeavour, for fruitless courage.  'Greeting, Inkulu!' I
+said in Kaffir, as if I had been one of his indunas.
+
+He turned his head and slowly and painfully rose to his feet.
+The place, it was clear, was lit from without, and the daylight
+was growing.  The wall of the river had become a sheet of
+jewels, passing from pellucid diamond above to translucent
+emerald below.  A dusky twilight sought out the extreme
+corners of the cave.  Laputa's tall figure stood swaying above
+the white ashes, his hand pressed to his side.
+
+'Who is it?' he said, looking at me with blind eyes.
+
+'It is the storekeeper from Umvelos',' I answered.
+
+'The storekeeper of Umvelos',' he repeated.  'God has used
+the weak things of the world to confound the strong.  A king
+dies because a pedlar is troublesome.  What do they call you,
+man?  You deserve to be remembered.'
+
+I told him 'David Crawfurd.'
+
+'Crawfurd,' he repeated, 'you have been the little reef on
+which a great vessel has foundered.  You stole the collar and
+cut me off from my people, and then when I was weary the
+Portuguese killed me.'
+
+'No,' I cried, 'it was not me.  You trusted Henriques, and
+you got your fingers on his neck too late.  Don't say I didn't
+warn you.'
+
+'You warned me, and I will repay you.  I will make you rich,
+Crawfurd.  You are a trader, and want money.  I am a king,
+and want a throne.  But I am dying, and there will be no more
+kings in Africa.'
+
+The mention of riches did not thrill me as I had expected,
+but the last words awakened a wild regret.  I was hypnotized
+by the man.  To see him going out was like seeing the fall of a
+great mountain.
+
+He stretched himself, gasping, and in the growing light I
+could see how broken he was.  His cheeks were falling in, and
+his sombre eyes had shrunk back in their sockets.  He seemed
+an old worn man standing there among the ashes, while the
+blood, which he made no effort to staunch, trickled down his
+side till it dripped on the floor.  He had ceased to be the Kaffir
+king, or the Christian minister, or indeed any one of his former
+parts.  Death was stripping him to his elements, and the man
+Laputa stood out beyond and above the characters he had
+played, something strange, and great, and moving, and terrible.
+
+'We met for the first time three days ago,' he said, 'and now
+you will be the last to see the Inkulu.'
+
+'Umvelos' was not our first meeting,' said I.  'Do you mind
+the Sabbath eight years since when you preached in the Free
+Kirk at Kirkcaple?  I was the boy you chased from the shore,
+and I flung the stone that blacked your eye.  Besides, I came
+out from England with you and Henriques, and I was in the
+boat which took you from Durban to Delagoa Bay.  You and I
+have been long acquaint, Mr Laputa.'
+
+'It is the hand of God,' he said solemnly.  'Your fate has been
+twisted with mine, and now you will die with me.'
+
+I did not understand this talk about dying.  I was not
+mortally wounded like him, and I did not think Laputa had
+the strength to kill me even if he wished.  But my mind was so
+impassive that I scarcely regarded his words.
+
+'I will make you rich,' he cried.  'Crawfurd, the storekeeper,
+will be the richest man in Africa.  We are scattered, and our
+wealth is another's.  He shall have the gold and the diamonds -
+all but the Collar, which goes with me.'
+
+He staggered into a dark recess, one of many in the cave,
+and I followed him.  There were boxes there, tea chests,
+cartridge cases, and old brass-ribbed Portuguese coffers.
+Laputa had keys at his belt, and unlocked them, his fingers
+fumbling with weakness.  I peered in and saw gold coin and
+little bags of stones.
+
+'Money and diamonds,' he cried.  'Once it was the war chest
+of a king, and now it will be the hoard of a trader.  No, by the
+Lord!  The trader's place is with the Terrible Ones.'  An arm
+shot out, and my shoulder was fiercely gripped.
+
+'You stole my horse.  That is why I am dying.  But for you I
+and my army would be over the Olifants.  I am going to kill
+you, Crawfurd,' and his fingers closed in to my shoulder blades.
+
+Still I was unperturbed.  'No, you are not.  You cannot.  You
+have tried to and failed.  So did Henriques, and he is lying
+dead outside.  I am in God's keeping, and cannot die before
+my time.'
+
+I do not know if he heard me, but at any rate the murderous
+fit passed.  His hand fell to his side and his great figure tottered
+out into the cave.  He seemed to be making for the river, but
+he turned and went through the door I had entered by.  I heard
+him slipping in the passage, and then there was a minute of
+silence.
+
+Suddenly there came a grinding sound, followed by the kind
+of muffled splash which a stone makes when it falls into a deep
+well.  I thought Laputa had fallen into the chasm, but when I
+reached the door his swaying figure was coming out of the
+corridor.  Then I knew what he had done.  He had used the
+remnant of his giant strength to break down the bridge of stone
+across the gorge, and so cut off my retreat.
+
+I really did not care.  Even if I had got over the bridge I
+should probably have been foiled by the shut turnstile.  I had
+quite forgotten the meaning of fear of death.
+
+I found myself giving my arm to the man who had tried to
+destroy me.
+
+'I have laid up for you treasure in heaven,' he said.  'Your
+earthly treasure is in the boxes, but soon you will be seeking
+incorruptible jewels in the deep deep water.  It is cool and quiet
+down there, and you forget the hunger and pain.'
+
+The man was getting very near his end.  The madness of
+despair came back to him, and he flung himself among the ashes.
+
+'We are going to die together, Crawfurd,' he said.  'God has
+twined our threads, and there will be only one cutting.  Tell
+me what has become of my army.'
+
+'Arcoll has guns on the Wolkberg,' I said.  'They must
+submit or perish.'
+
+'I have other armies ...  No, no, they are nothing.  They
+will all wander and blunder and fight and be beaten.  There is
+no leader anywhere ...  And I am dying.'
+
+There was no gainsaying the signs of death.  I asked him if
+he would like water, but he made no answer.  His eyes were
+fixed on vacancy, and I thought I could realize something of
+the bitterness of that great regret.  For myself I was as cold as
+a stone.  I had no exultation of triumph, still less any fear of
+my own fate.  I stood silent, the half-remorseful spectator of a
+fall like the fall of Lucifer.
+
+'I would have taught the world wisdom.'  Laputa was speaking
+English in a strange, thin, abstracted voice.  'There would
+have been no king like me since Charlemagne,' and he strayed
+into Latin which I have been told since was an adaptation of the
+Epitaph of Charles the Great.  'Sub hoc conditorio,' he crooned,
+'situm est corpus Joannis, magni et orthodoxi Imperatoris, qui
+imperium Africanum nobiliter ampliavit, et multos
+per annos mundum feliciter rexit.'*  He must have chosen this
+epitaph long ago.
+          *'Under this stone is laid the body of John, the
+     great and orthodox Emperor, who nobly enlarged the
+     African realm, and for many years happily ruled
+     the world.'
+
+He lay for a few seconds with his head on his arms, his
+breast heaving with agony.
+
+'No one will come after me.  My race is doomed, and in a
+little they will have forgotten my name.  I alone could have
+saved them.  Now they go the way of the rest, and the warriors
+of John become drudges and slaves.'
+
+Something clicked in his throat, he gasped and fell forward,
+and I thought he was dead.  Then he struggled as if to rise.  I
+ran to him, and with all my strength aided him to his feet.
+
+'Unarm, Eros,' he cried.  'The long day's task is done.'  With
+the strange power of a dying man he tore off his leopard-skin
+and belt till he stood stark as on the night when he had been
+crowned.  From his pouch he took the Prester's Collar.  Then
+he staggered to the brink of the chasm where the wall of green
+water dropped into the dark depth below.
+
+I watched, fascinated, as with the weak hands of a child he
+twined the rubies round his neck and joined the clasp.  Then
+with a last effort he stood straight up on the brink, his eyes
+raised to the belt of daylight from which the water fell.  The
+light caught the great gems and called fires from them, the
+flames of the funeral pyre of a king.
+
+Once more his voice, restored for a moment to its old vigour,
+rang out through the cave above the din of the cascade.  His
+words were those which the Keeper had used three nights
+before.  With his hands held high and the Collar burning on
+his neck he cried, 'The Snake returns to the House of its Birth.'
+
+'Come,' he cried to me.  'The Heir of John is going home.'
+Then he leapt into the gulf.  There was no sound of falling,
+so great was the rush of water.  He must have been whirled
+into the open below where the bridge used to be, and then
+swept into the underground deeps, where the Labongo
+drowses for thirty miles.  Far from human quest he sleeps his
+last sleep, and perhaps on a fragment of bone washed into a
+crevice of rock there may hang the jewels that once gleamed in
+Sheba's hair.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+I CLIMB THE CRAGS A SECOND TIME
+
+
+I remember that I looked over the brink into the yeasty
+abyss with a mind hovering between perplexity and tears.  I
+wanted to sit down and cry - why, I did not know, except that
+some great thing had happened.  My brain was quite clear as to
+my own position.  I was shut in this place, with no chance of
+escape and with no food.  In a little I must die of starvation, or
+go mad and throw myself after Laputa.  And yet I did not care
+a rush.  My nerves had been tried too greatly in the past week.
+Now I was comatose, and beyond hoping or fearing.
+
+I sat for a long time watching the light play on the fretted
+sheet of water and wondering where Laputa's body had gone.
+I shivered and wished he had not left me alone, for the
+darkness would come in time and I had no matches.  After a
+little I got tired of doing nothing, and went groping among the
+treasure chests.  One or two were full of coin - British sovereigns,
+Kruger sovereigns, Napoleons, Spanish and Portuguese
+gold pieces, and many older coins ranging back to the Middle
+Ages and even to the ancients.  In one handful there was a
+splendid gold stater, and in another a piece of Antoninus
+Pius.  The treasure had been collected for many years in many
+places, contributions of chiefs from ancient hoards as well as
+the cash received from I.D.B.  I untied one or two of the little
+bags of stones and poured the contents into my hands.  Most of
+the diamonds were small, such as a labourer might secrete on
+his person.  The larger ones - and some were very large - were
+as a rule discoloured, looking more like big cairngorms.  But
+one or two bags had big stones which even my inexperienced
+eye told me were of the purest water.  There must be some new
+pipe, I thought, for these could not have been stolen from any
+known mine.
+
+After that I sat on the floor again and looked at the water.  It
+exercised a mesmeric influence on me, soothing all care.  I was
+quite happy to wait for death, for death had no meaning to
+me.  My hate and fury were both lulled into a trance, since the
+passive is the next stage to the overwrought.
+
+It must have been full day outside now, for the funnel was
+bright with sunshine, and even the dim cave caught a reflected
+radiance.  As I watched the river I saw a bird flash downward,
+skimming the water.  It turned into the cave and fluttered
+among its dark recesses.  I heard its wings beating the roof as it
+sought wildly for an outlet.  It dashed into the spray of the
+cataract and escaped again into the cave.  For maybe twenty
+minutes it fluttered, till at last it found the way it had entered
+by.  With a dart it sped up the funnel of rock into light and
+freedom.
+
+I had begun to watch the bird in idle lassitude, I ended in
+keen excitement.  The sight of it seemed to take a film from my
+eyes.  I realized the zest of liberty, the passion of life again.  I
+felt that beyond this dim underworld there was the great
+joyous earth, and I longed for it.  I wanted to live now.  My
+memory cleared, and I remembered all that had befallen me
+during the last few days.  I had played the chief part in the
+whole business, and I had won.  Laputa was dead and the
+treasure was mine, while Arcoll was crushing the Rising at his
+ease.  I had only to be free again to be famous and rich.  My
+hopes had returned, but with them came my fears.  What if I
+could not escape?  I must perish miserably by degrees, shut in
+the heart of a hill, though my friends were out for rescue.  In
+place of my former lethargy I was now in a fever of unrest.
+
+My first care was to explore the way I had come.  I ran down
+the passage to the chasm which the slab of stone had spanned.
+I had been right in my guess, for the thing was gone.  Laputa
+was in truth a Titan, who in the article of death could break
+down a bridge which would have taken any three men an hour
+to shift.  The gorge was about seven yards wide, too far to risk
+a jump, and the cliff fell sheer and smooth to the imprisoned
+waters two hundred feet below.  There was no chance of
+circuiting it, for the wall was as smooth as if it had been
+chiselled.  The hand of man had been at work to make the
+sanctuary inviolable.
+
+It occurred to me that sooner or later Arcoll would track
+Laputa to this place.  He would find the bloodstains in the
+gully, but the turnstile would be shut and he would never find
+the trick of it.  Nor could he have any kaffirs with him who
+knew the secret of the Place of the Snake.  Still if Arcoll knew
+I was inside he would find some way to get to me even though
+he had to dynamite the curtain of rock.  I shouted, but my
+voice seemed to be drowned in the roar of the water.  It made
+but a fresh chord in the wild orchestra, and I gave up hopes in
+that direction.
+
+Very dolefully I returned to the cave.  I was about to share
+the experience of all treasure-hunters - to be left with jewels
+galore and not a bite to sustain life.  The thing was too
+commonplace to be endured.  I grew angry, and declined so
+obvious a fate.  'Ek sal 'n plan maak,' I told myself in the old
+Dutchman's words.  I had come through worse dangers, and a
+way I should find.  To starve in the cave was no ending for
+David Crawfurd.  Far better to join Laputa in the depths in a
+manly hazard for liberty.
+
+My obstinacy and irritation cheered me.  What had become
+of the lack-lustre young fool who had mooned here a few
+minutes back.  Now I was as tense and strung for effort as the
+day I had ridden from Blaauwildebeestefontein to Umvelos'.  I
+felt like a runner in the last lap of a race.  For four days I had
+lived in the midst of terror and darkness.  Daylight was only a
+few steps ahead, daylight and youth restored and a new world.
+
+There were only two outlets from that cave - the way I had
+come, and the way the river came.  The first was closed, the
+second a sheer staring impossibility.  I had been into every
+niche and cranny, and there was no sign of a passage.  I sat
+down on the floor and looked at the wall of water.  It fell, as I
+have already explained, in a solid sheet, which made up the
+whole of the wall of the cave.  Higher than the roof of the cave
+I could not see what happened, except that it must be the open
+air, for the sun was shining on it.  The water was about three
+yards distant from the edge of the cave's floor, but it seemed
+to me that high up, level with the roof, this distance decreased
+to little more than a foot.
+
+I could not see what the walls of the cave were like, but they
+looked smooth and difficult.  Supposing I managed to climb up
+to the level of the roof close to the water, how on earth was I
+to get outside on to the wall of the ravine?  I knew from my old
+days of rock-climbing what a complete obstacle the overhang
+of a cave is.
+
+While I looked, however, I saw a thing which I had not
+noticed before.  On the left side of the fall the water sluiced
+down in a sheet to the extreme edge of the cave, almost
+sprinkling the floor with water.  But on the right side the force
+of water was obviously weaker, and a little short of the level of
+the cave roof there was a spike of rock which slightly broke the
+fall.  The spike was covered, but the covering was shallow, for
+the current flowed from it in a rose-shaped spray.  If a man
+could get to that spike and could get a foot on it without being
+swept down, it might be possible - just possible - to do something
+with the wall of the chasm above the cave.  Of course I
+knew nothing about the nature of that wall.  It might be as
+smooth as a polished pillar.
+
+The result of these cogitations was that I decided to prospect
+the right wall of the cave close to the waterfall.  But first I went
+rummaging in the back part to see if I could find anything to
+assist me.  In one corner there was a rude cupboard with some
+stone and metal vessels.  Here, too, were the few domestic
+utensils of the dead Keeper.  In another were several locked
+coffers on which I could make no impression.  There were the
+treasure-chests too, but they held nothing save treasure, and
+gold and diamonds were no manner of use to me.  Other odds
+and ends I found - spears, a few skins, and a broken and
+notched axe.  I took the axe in case there might be cutting to do.
+
+Then at the back of a bin my hand struck something which
+brought the blood to my face.  It was a rope, an old one, but
+still in fair condition and forty or fifty feet long.  I dragged it
+out into the light and straightened its kinks.  With this something
+could be done, assuming I could cut my way to the level
+of the roof.
+
+I began the climb in my bare feet, and at the beginning it
+was very bad.  Except on the very edge of the abyss there was
+scarcely a handhold.  Possibly in floods the waters may have
+swept the wall in a curve, smoothing down the inner part and
+leaving the outer to its natural roughness.  There was one place
+where I had to hang on by a very narrow crack while I scraped
+with the axe a hollow for my right foot.  And then about twelve
+feet from the ground I struck the first of the iron pegs.
+
+To this day I cannot think what these pegs were for.  They
+were old square-headed things which had seen the wear of
+centuries.  They cannot have been meant to assist a climber,
+for the dwellers of the cave had clearly never contemplated this
+means of egress.  Perhaps they had been used for some kind of
+ceremonial curtain in a dim past.  They were rusty and frail,
+and one of them came away in my hand, but for all that they
+marvellously assisted my ascent.
+
+I had been climbing slowly, doggedly and carefully, my
+mind wholly occupied with the task; and almost before I knew
+I found my head close under the roof of the cave.  It was
+necessary now to move towards the river, and the task seemed
+impossible.  I could see no footholds, save two frail pegs, and
+in the corner between the wall and the roof was a rough arch
+too wide for my body to jam itself in.  Just below the level of
+the roof - say two feet - I saw the submerged spike of rock.
+The waters raged around it, and could not have been more
+than an inch deep on the top.  If I could only get my foot on
+that I believed I could avoid being swept down, and stand up
+and reach for the wall above the cave.
+
+But how to get to it?  It was no good delaying, for my frail
+holds might give at any moment.  In any case I would have the
+moral security of the rope, so I passed it through a fairly
+staunch pin close to the roof, which had an upward tilt that
+almost made a ring of it.  One end of the rope was round my
+body, the other was loose in my hand, and I paid it out as I
+moved.  Moral support is something.  Very gingerly I crawled
+like a fly along the wall, my fingers now clutching at a tiny
+knob, now clawing at a crack which did little more than hold
+my nails.  It was all hopeless insanity, and yet somehow I did
+it.  The rope and the nearness of the roof gave me confidence
+and balance.
+Then the holds ceased altogether a couple of yards from the
+water.  I saw my spike of rock a trifle below me.  There was nothing
+for it but to risk all on a jump.  I drew the rope out of the
+hitch, twined the slack round my waist, and leaped for the spike.
+
+It was like throwing oneself on a line of spears.  The solid
+wall of water hurled me back and down, but as I fell my arms
+closed on the spike.  There I hung while my feet were towed
+outwards by the volume of the stream as if they had been dead
+leaves.  I was half-stunned by the shock of the drip on my
+head, but I kept my wits, and presently got my face outside
+the falling sheet and breathed.
+
+To get to my feet and stand on the spike while all the fury
+of water was plucking at me was the hardest physical effort I
+have ever made.  It had to be done very circumspectly, for a
+slip would send me into the abyss.  If I moved an arm or leg an
+inch too near the terrible dropping wall I knew I should be
+plucked from my hold.  I got my knees on the outer face of the
+spike, so that all my body was removed as far as possible from
+the impact of the water.  Then I began to pull myself slowly up.
+
+I could not do it.  If I got my feet on the rock the effort
+would bring me too far into the water, and that meant
+destruction.  I saw this clearly in a second while my wrists were
+cracking with the strain.  But if I had a wall behind me I could
+reach back with one hand and get what we call in Scotland a
+'stelf.'  I knew there was a wall, but how far I could not judge.
+The perpetual hammering of the stream had confused my wits.
+
+It was a horrible moment, but I had to risk it.  I knew that if
+the wall was too far back I should fall, for I had to let my
+weight go till my hand fell on it.  Delay would do no good, so
+with a prayer I flung my right hand back, while my left hand
+clutched the spike.  
+
+I found the wall - it was only a foot or two beyond my
+reach.  With a heave I had my foot on the spike, and turning,
+had both hands on the opposite wall.  There I stood, straddling
+like a Colossus over a waste of white waters, with the cave
+floor far below me in the gloom, and my discarded axe lying
+close to a splash of Laputa's blood.
+
+The spectacle made me giddy, and I had to move on or fall.
+The wall was not quite perpendicular, but as far as I could see
+a slope of about sixty degrees.  It was ribbed and terraced
+pretty fully, but I could see no ledge within reach which
+offered standing room.  Once more I tried the moral support of
+the rope, and as well as I could dropped a noose on the spike
+which might hold me if I fell.  Then I boldly embarked on a
+hand traverse, pulling myself along a little ledge till I was right
+in the angle of the fall.  Here, happily, the water was shallower
+and less violent, and with my legs up to the knees in foam I
+managed to scramble into a kind of corner.  Now at last I was
+on the wall of the gully, and above the cave.  I had achieved by
+amazing luck one of the most difficult of all mountaineering
+operations.  I had got out of a cave to the wall above.
+
+My troubles were by no means over, for I found the cliff
+most difficult to climb.  The great rush of the stream dizzied
+my brain, the spray made the rock damp, and the slope
+steepened as I advanced.  At one overhang my shoulder was
+almost in the water again.  All this time I was climbing
+doggedly, with terror somewhere in my soul, and hope lighting
+but a feeble lamp.  I was very distrustful of my body, for I
+knew that at any moment my weakness might return.  The
+fever of three days of peril and stress is not allayed by one
+night's rest.
+
+By this time I was high enough to see that the river came
+out of the ground about fifty feet short of the lip of the gully,
+and some ten feet beyond where I stood.  Above the hole
+whence the waters issued was a loose slope of slabs and screes.
+It looked an ugly place, but there I must go, for the rock-wall
+I was on was getting unclimbable.
+
+I turned the corner a foot or two above the water, and stood
+on a slope of about fifty degrees, running from the parapet of
+stone to a line beyond which blue sky appeared.  The first step
+I took the place began to move.  A boulder crashed into the
+fall, and tore down into the abyss with a shattering thunder.  I
+lay flat and clutched desperately at every hold, but I had
+loosened an avalanche of earth, and not till my feet were
+sprayed by the water did I get a grip of firm rock and check
+my descent.  All this frightened me horribly, with the kind of
+despairing angry fear which I had suffered at Bruderstroom,
+when I dreamed that the treasure was lost.  I could not bear
+the notion of death when I had won so far.
+
+After that I advanced, not by steps, but by inches.  I felt
+more poised and pinnacled in the void than when I had stood
+on the spike of rock, for I had a substantial hold neither for
+foot nor hand.  It seemed weeks before I made any progress
+away from the lip of the waterhole.  I dared not look down, but
+kept my eyes on the slope before me, searching for any patch
+of ground which promised stability.  Once I found a scrog of
+juniper with firm roots, and this gave me a great lift.  A little
+further, however, I lit on a bank of screes which slipped with
+me to the right, and I lost most of the ground the bush had
+gained me.  My whole being, I remember, was filled with a
+devouring passion to be quit of this gully and all that was in it.
+
+Then, not suddenly as in romances, but after hard striving
+and hope long deferred, I found myself on a firm outcrop of
+weathered stone.  In three strides I was on the edge of the
+plateau.  Then I began to run, and at the same time to lose the
+power of running.  I cast one look behind me, and saw a deep
+cleft of darkness out of which I had climbed.  Down in the cave
+it had seemed light enough, but in the clear sunshine of the
+top the gorge looked a very pit of shade.  For the first and last
+time in my life I had vertigo.  Fear of falling back, and a mad
+craze to do it, made me acutely sick.  I managed to stumble a
+few steps forward on the mountain turf, and then flung myself
+on my face.
+
+When I raised my head I was amazed to find it still early
+morning.  The dew was yet on the grass, and the sun was not
+far up the sky.  I had thought that my entry into the cave, my
+time in it, and my escape had taken many hours, whereas at
+the most they had occupied two.  It was little more than dawn,
+such a dawn as walks only on the hilltops.  Before me was the
+shallow vale with its bracken and sweet grass, and farther on
+the shining links of the stream, and the loch still grey in the
+shadow of the beleaguering hills.  Here was a fresh, clean land,
+a land for homesteads and orchards and children.  All of a
+sudden I realized that at last I had come out of savagery.
+The burden of the past days slipped from my shoulders.  I
+felt young again, and cheerful and brave.  Behind me was the
+black night, and the horrid secrets of darkness.  Before me was
+my own country, for that loch and that bracken might have
+been on a Scotch moor.  The fresh scent of the air and the
+whole morning mystery put song into my blood.  I remembered
+that I was not yet twenty.
+My first care was to kneel there among the bracken and give
+thanks to my Maker, who in very truth had shown me 'His
+goodness in the land of the living.'
+
+After a little I went back to the edge of the cliff.  There
+where the road came out of the bush was the body of
+Henriques, lying sprawled on the sand, with two dismounted
+riders looking hard at it.  I gave a great shout, for in the men I
+recognized Aitken and the schoolmaster Wardlaw.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+A GREAT PERIL AND A GREAT SALVATION
+
+
+I must now take up some of the ragged ends which I have
+left behind me.  It is not my task, as I have said, to write the
+history of the great Rising.  That has been done by abler men,
+who were at the centre of the business, and had some knowledge
+of strategy and tactics; whereas I was only a raw lad who
+was privileged by fate to see the start.  If I could, I would fain
+make an epic of it, and show how the Plains found at all points
+the Plateau guarded, how wits overcame numbers, and at every
+pass which the natives tried the great guns spoke and the tide
+rolled back.  Yet I fear it would be an epic without a hero.
+There was no leader left when Laputa had gone.  There were
+months of guerrilla fighting, and then months of reprisals,
+when chief after chief was hunted down and brought to trial.
+Then the amnesty came and a clean sheet, and white Africa
+drew breath again with certain grave reflections left in her
+head.  On the whole I am not sorry that the history is no
+business of mine.  Romance died with 'the heir of John,' and
+the crusade became a sorry mutiny.  I can fancy how differently
+Laputa would have managed it all had he lived; how swift and
+sudden his plans would have been; how under him the fighting
+would not have been in the mountain glens, but far in the
+high-veld among the dorps and townships.  With the Inkulu
+alive we warred against odds; with the Inkulu dead the balance
+sank heavily in our favour.  I leave to others the marches and
+strategy of the thing, and hasten to clear up the obscure parts
+in my own fortunes.
+
+Arcoll received my message from Umvelos' by Colin, or
+rather Wardlaw received it and sent it on to the post on the
+Berg where the leader had gone.  Close on its heels came the
+message from Henriques by a Shangaan in his pay.  It must
+have been sent off before the Portugoose got to the Rooirand,
+from which it would appear that he had his own men in the
+bush near the store, and that I was lucky to get off as I did.
+Arcoll might have disregarded Henriques' news as a trap if it
+had come alone, but my corroboration impressed and perplexed
+him.  He began to credit the Portugoose with treachery,
+but he had no inclination to act on his message, since it
+conflicted with his plans.  He knew that Laputa must come into
+the Berg sooner or later, and he had resolved that his strategy
+must be to await him there.  But there was the question of my
+life.  He had every reason to believe that I was in the greatest
+danger, and he felt a certain responsibility for my fate.  With
+the few men at his disposal he could not hope to hold up the
+great Kaffir army, but there was a chance that he might by a
+bold stand effect my rescue.  Henriques had told him of the
+vow, and had told him that Laputa would ride in the centre of
+the force.  A body of men well posted at Dupree's Drift might
+split the army at the crossing, and under cover of the fire I
+might swim the river and join my friends.  Still relying on the
+vow, it might be possible for well-mounted men to evade
+capture.  Accordingly he called for volunteers, and sent off one
+of his Kaffirs to warn me of his design.  He led his men in
+person, and of his doings the reader already knows the tale.
+But though the crossing was flung into confusion, and the rear
+of the army was compelled to follow the northerly bank of the
+Letaba, there was no sign of me anywhere.  Arcoll searched the
+river-banks, and crossed the drift to where the old Keeper was
+lying dead.  He then concluded that I had been murdered early
+in the march, and his Kaffir, who might have given him news
+of me, was carried up the stream in the tide of the disorderly
+army.  Therefore, he and his men rode back with all haste to
+the Berg by way of Main Drift, and reached Bruderstroom
+before Laputa had crossed the highway.
+
+My information about Inanda's Kraal decided Arcoll's next
+move.  Like me he remembered Beyers's performance, and
+resolved to repeat it.  He had no hope of catching Laputa, but
+he thought that he might hold up the bulk of his force if he got
+guns on the ridge above the kraal.  A message had already been
+sent for guns, and the first to arrive got to Bruderstroom about
+the hour when I was being taken by Machudi's men in the
+kloof.  The ceremony of the purification prevented Laputa
+from keeping a good look-out, and the result was that a way
+was made for the guns on the north-western corner of the
+rampart of rock.  It was the way which Beyers had taken, and
+indeed the enterprise was directed by one of Beyers's old
+commandants.  All that day the work continued, while Laputa
+and I were travelling to Machudi's.  Then came the evening
+when I staggered into camp and told my news.  Arcoll, who
+alone knew how vital Laputa was to the success of the
+insurrection, immediately decided to suspend all other operations
+and devote himself to shepherding the leader away from
+his army.  How the scheme succeeded and what befell Laputa
+the reader has already been told.
+
+Aitken and Wardlaw, when I descended from the cliffs, took
+me straight to Blaauwildebeestefontein.  I was like a man who
+is recovering from bad fever, cured, but weak and foolish, and
+it was a slow journey which I made to Umvelos', riding on
+Aitken's pony.  At Umvelos' we found a picket who had
+captured the Schimmel by the roadside.  That wise beast, when
+I turned him loose at the entrance to the cave, had trotted
+quietly back the way he had come.  At Umvelos' Aitken left
+me, and next day, with Wardlaw as companion, I rode up the
+glen of the Klein Labongo, and came in the afternoon to my
+old home.  The store was empty, for japp some days before
+had gone off post-haste to Pietersdorp; but there was Zeeta
+cleaning up the place as if war had never been heard of.  I slept
+the night there, and in the morning found myself so much
+recovered that I was eager to get away.  I wanted to see Arcoll
+about many things, but mainly about the treasure in the cave.
+
+It was an easy journey to Bruderstroom through the
+meadows of the plateau.  The farmers' commandoes had been
+recalled, but the ashes of their camp fires were still grey among
+the bracken.  I fell in with a police patrol and was taken by
+them to a spot on the Upper Letaba, some miles west of the
+camp, where we found Arcoll at late breakfast.  I had resolved
+to take him into my confidence, so I told him the full tale of
+my night's adventure.  He was very severe with me, I remember,
+for my daft-like ride, but his severity relaxed before I had
+done with my story.
+
+The telling brought back the scene to me, and I shivered at
+the picture of the cave with the morning breaking through the
+veil of water and Laputa in his death throes.  Arcoll did not
+speak for some time.
+
+'So he is dead,' he said at last, half-whispering to himself.
+'Well, he was a king, and died like a king.  Our job now is
+simple, for there is none of his breed left in Africa.'
+
+Then I told him of the treasure.
+
+'It belongs to you, Davie,' he said, 'and we must see that
+you get it.  This is going to be a long war, but if we survive to
+the end you will be a rich man.'
+
+'But in the meantime?' I asked.  'Supposing other Kaffirs
+hear of it, and come back and make a bridge over the gorge?
+They may be doing it now.'
+
+'I'll put a guard on it,' he said, jumping up briskly.  'It's
+maybe not a soldier's job, but you've saved this country,
+Davie, and I'm going to make sure that you have your reward.'
+
+
+After that I went with Arcoll to Inanda's Kraal.  I am not going
+to tell the story of that performance, for it occupies no less
+than two chapters in Mr Upton's book.  He makes one or two
+blunders, for he spells my name with an 'o,' and he says we
+walked out of the camp on our perilous mission 'with faces
+white and set as a Crusader's.'  That is certainly not true, for in
+the first place nobody saw us go who could judge how we
+looked, and in the second place we were both smoking and
+feeling quite cheerful.  At home they made a great fuss about
+it, and started a newspaper cry about the Victoria Cross, but
+the danger was not so terrible after all, and in any case it was
+nothing to what I had been through in the past week.
+
+I take credit to myself for suggesting the idea.  By this time
+we had the army in the kraal at our mercy.  Laputa not having
+returned, they had no plans.  It had been the original intention
+to start for the Olifants on the following day, so there was a
+scanty supply of food.  Besides, there were the makings of a
+pretty quarrel between Umbooni and some of the north-
+country chiefs, and I verily believe that if we had held them
+tight there for a week they would have destroyed each other in
+faction fights.  In any case, in a little they would have grown
+desperate and tried to rush the approaches on the north and
+south.  Then we must either have used the guns on them,
+which would have meant a great slaughter, or let them go to
+do mischief elsewhere.  Arcoll was a merciful man who had no
+love for butchery; besides, he was a statesman with an eye to
+the future of the country after the war.  But it was his duty to
+isolate Laputa's army, and at all costs, it must be prevented
+from joining any of the concentrations in the south.
+
+Then I proposed to him to do as Rhodes did in the
+Matoppos, and go and talk to them.  By this time, I argued,
+the influence of Laputa must have sunk, and the fervour of the
+purification be half-forgotten.  The army had little food and no
+leader.  The rank and file had never been fanatical, and the
+chiefs and indunas must now be inclined to sober reflections.
+But once blood was shed the lust of blood would possess them.
+Our only chance was to strike when their minds were perplexed
+and undecided.
+
+Arcoll did all the arranging.  He had a message sent to the
+chiefs inviting them to an indaba, and presently word was
+brought back that an indaba was called for the next day at
+noon.  That same night we heard that Umbooni and about
+twenty of his men had managed to evade our ring of scouts
+and got clear away to the south.  This was all to our advantage,
+as it removed from the coming indaba the most irreconcilable
+of the chiefs.
+
+That indaba was a queer business.  Arcoll and I left our
+escort at the foot of a ravine, and entered the kraal by the same
+road as I had left it.  It was a very bright, hot winter's day, and
+try as I might, I could not bring myself to think of any danger.
+I believed that in this way most temerarious deeds are done;
+the doer has become insensible to danger, and his imagination
+is clouded with some engrossing purpose.  The first sentries
+received us gloomily enough, and closed behind us as they had
+done when Machudi's men haled me thither.  Then the job
+became eerie, for we had to walk across a green flat with
+thousands of eyes watching us.  By-and-by we came to the
+merula tree opposite the kyas, and there we found a ring of
+chiefs, sitting with cocked rifles on their knees.
+
+We were armed with pistols, and the first thing Arcoll did
+was to hand them to one of the chiefs.
+'We come in peace,' he said.  'We give you our lives.'
+
+
+Then the indaba began, Arcoll leading off.  It was a fine
+speech he made, one of the finest I have ever listened to.  He
+asked them what their grievances were; he told them how
+mighty was the power of the white man; he promised that
+what was unjust should be remedied, if only they would speak
+honestly and peacefully; he harped on their old legends and
+songs, claiming for the king of England the right of their old
+monarchs.  It was a fine speech, and yet I saw that it did not
+convince them.  They listened moodily, if attentively, and at
+the end there was a blank silence.
+
+Arcoll turned to me.  'For God's sake, Davie,' he said, 'talk
+to them about Laputa.  It's our only chance.'
+
+I had never tried speaking before, and though I talked their
+tongue I had not Arcoll's gift of it.  But I felt that a great cause
+was at stake, and I spoke up as best I could.
+
+I began by saying that Inkulu had been my friend, and that
+at Umvelos' before the rising he had tried to save my life.  At
+the mention of the name I saw eyes brighten.  At last the
+audience was hanging on my words.
+I told them of Henriques and his treachery.  I told them
+frankly and fairly of the doings at Dupree's Drift.  I made no
+secret of the part I played.  'I was fighting for my life,' I said.
+'Any man of you who is a man would have done the like.'
+
+Then I told them of my last ride, and the sight I saw at the
+foot of the Rooirand.  I drew a picture of Henriques lying dead
+with a broken neck, and the Inkulu, wounded to death,
+creeping into the cave.
+
+In moments of extremity I suppose every man becomes an
+orator.  In that hour and place I discovered gifts I had never
+dreamed of.  Arcoll told me afterwards that I had spoken like a
+man inspired, and by a fortunate chance had hit upon the only
+way to move my hearers.  I told of that last scene in the cave,
+when Laputa had broken down the bridge, and had spoken his
+dying words - that he was the last king in Africa, and that
+without him the rising was at an end.  Then I told of his leap
+into the river, and a great sigh went up from the ranks about Me.
+
+'You see me here,' I said, 'by the grace of God.  I found a
+way up the fall and the cliffs which no man has ever travelled
+before or will travel again.  Your king is dead.  He was a great
+king, as I who stand here bear witness, and you will never
+more see his like.  His last words were that the Rising was over.
+Respect that word, my brothers.  We come to you not in war
+but in peace, to offer a free pardon, and the redress of your
+wrongs.  If you fight you fight with the certainty of failure, and
+against the wish of the heir of John.  I have come here at the
+risk of my life to tell you his commands.  His spirit approves
+my mission.  Think well before you defy the mandate of the
+Snake, and risk the vengeance of the Terrible Ones.'
+
+After that I knew that we had won.  The chiefs talked among
+themselves in low whispers, casting strange looks at me.  Then
+the greatest of them advanced and laid his rifle at my feet.
+
+'We believe the word of a brave man,' he said.  'We accept
+the mandate of the Snake.'
+
+Arcoll now took command.  He arranged for the disarmament
+bit by bit, companies of men being marched off from
+Inanda's Kraal to stations on the plateau where their arms
+were collected by our troops, and food provided for them.  For
+the full history I refer the reader to Mr Upton's work.  It took
+many days, and taxed all our resources, but by the end of a
+week we had the whole of Laputa's army in separate stations,
+under guard, disarmed, and awaiting repatriation.
+
+Then Arcoll went south to the war which was to rage around
+the Swaziland and Zululand borders for many months, while
+to Aitken and myself was entrusted the work of settlement.  We
+had inadequate troops at our command, and but for our
+prestige and the weight of Laputa's dead hand there might any
+moment have been a tragedy.  The task took months, for many
+of the levies came from the far north, and the job of feeding
+troops on a long journey was difficult enough in the winter
+season when the energies of the country were occupied with
+the fighting in the south.  Yet it was an experience for which I
+shall ever be grateful, for it turned me from a rash boy into a
+serious man.  I knew then the meaning of the white man's
+duty.  He has to take all risks, recking nothing of his life or
+his fortunes, and well content to find his reward in the
+fulfilment of his task.  That is the difference between white and
+black, the gift of responsibility, the power of being in a little
+way a king; and so long as we know this and practise it, we
+will rule not in Africa alone but wherever there are dark men
+who live only for the day and their own bellies.  Moreover, the
+work made me pitiful and kindly.  I learned much of the untold
+grievances of the natives, and saw something of their strange,
+twisted reasoning.  Before we had got Laputa's army back to
+their kraals, with food enough to tide them over the spring
+sowing, Aitken and I had got sounder policy in our heads than
+you will find in the towns, where men sit in offices and see the
+world through a mist of papers.
+
+By this time peace was at hand, and I went back to Inanda's
+Kraal to look for Colin's grave.  It was not a difficult quest, for
+on the sward in front of the merula tree they had buried him.
+I found a mason in the Iron Kranz village, and from the
+excellent red stone of the neighbourhood was hewn a square
+slab with an inscription.  It ran thus: 'Here lies buried the dog
+Colin, who was killed in defending D.  Crawfurd, his master.
+To him it was mainly due that the Kaffir Rising failed.'  I leave
+those who have read my tale to see the justice of the words.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+MY UNCLE'S GIFT IS MANY TIMES MULTIPLIED
+
+
+We got at the treasure by blowing open the turnstile.  It was
+easy enough to trace the spot in the rock where it stood, but
+the most patient search did not reveal its secret.  Accordingly
+we had recourse to dynamite, and soon laid bare the stone
+steps, and ascended to the gallery.  The chasm was bridged
+with planks, and Arcoll and I crossed alone.  The cave was as I
+had left it.  The bloodstains on the floor had grown dark with
+time, but the ashes of the sacramental fire were still there to
+remind me of the drama I had borne a part in.  When I looked
+at the way I had escaped my brain grew dizzy at the thought
+of it.  I do not think that all the gold on earth would have
+driven me a second time to that awful escalade.  As for Arcoll,
+he could not see its possibility at all.
+
+'Only a madman could have done it,' he said, blinking his
+eyes at the green linn.  'Indeed, Davie, I think for about four
+days you were as mad as they make.  It was a fortunate thing,
+for your madness saved the country.'
+
+With some labour we got the treasure down to the path, and
+took it under a strong guard to Pietersdorp.  The Government
+were busy with the settling up after the war, and it took many
+weeks to have our business disposed of.  At first things looked
+badly for me.  The Attorney-General set up a claim to the
+whole as spoils of war, since, he argued, it was the war-chest
+of the enemy we had conquered.  I do not know how the matter
+would have gone on legal grounds, though I was advised by
+my lawyers that the claim was a bad one.  But the part I had
+played in the whole business, more especially in the visit to
+Inanda's Kraal, had made me a kind of popular hero, and the
+Government thought better of their first attitude.  Besides,
+Arcoll had great influence, and the whole story of my doings,
+which was told privately by him to some of the members of the
+Government, disposed them to be generous.  Accordingly they
+agreed to treat the contents of the cave as ordinary treasure
+trove, of which, by the law, one half went to the discoverer
+and one half to the Crown.
+
+This was well enough so far as the gold was concerned, but
+another difficulty arose about the diamonds; for a large part of
+these had obviously been stolen by labourers from the mines,
+and the mining people laid claim to them as stolen goods.  I
+was advised not to dispute this claim, and consequently we
+had a great sorting-out of the stones in the presence of the
+experts of the different mines.  In the end it turned out that
+identification was not an easy matter, for the experts quarrelled
+furiously among themselves.  A compromise was at last come
+to, and a division made; and then the diamond companies
+behaved very handsomely, voting me a substantial sum in
+recognition of my services in recovering their property.  What
+with this and with my half share of the gold and my share of
+the unclaimed stones, I found that I had a very considerable
+fortune.  The whole of my stones I sold to De Beers, for if I
+had placed them on the open market I should have upset the
+delicate equipoise of diamond values.  When I came finally to
+cast up my accounts, I found that I had secured a fortune of a
+trifle over a quarter of a million pounds.
+
+The wealth did not dazzle so much as it solemnized me.  I
+had no impulse to spend any part of it in a riot of folly.  It had
+come to me like fairy gold out of the void; it had been bought
+with men's blood, almost with my own.  I wanted to get away
+to a quiet place and think, for of late my life had been too
+crowded with drama, and there comes a satiety of action as
+well as of idleness.  Above all things I wanted to get home.
+They gave me a great send-off, and sang songs, and good
+fellows shook my hand till it ached.  The papers were full of
+me, and there was a banquet and speeches.  But I could not
+relish this glory as I ought, for I was like a boy thrown
+violently out of his bearings.
+Not till I was in the train nearing Cape Town did I recover
+my equanimity.  The burden of the past seemed to slip from
+me suddenly as on the morning when I had climbed the linn.
+I saw my life all lying before me; and already I had won
+success.  I thought of my return to my own country, my first
+sight of the grey shores of Fife, my visit to Kirkcaple, my
+meeting with my mother.  I was a rich man now who could
+choose his career, and my mother need never again want for
+comfort.  My money seemed pleasant to me, for if men won
+theirs by brains or industry, I had won mine by sterner
+methods, for I had staked against it my life.  I sat alone in the
+railway carriage and cried with pure thankfulness.  These were
+comforting tears, for they brought me back to my old common-
+place self.
+
+My last memory of Africa is my meeting with Tam Dyke.  I
+caught sight of him in the streets of Cape Town, and running
+after him, clapped him on the shoulder.  He stared at me as if
+he had seen a ghost.
+
+'Is it yourself, Davie?' he cried.  'I never looked to see you
+again in this world.  I do nothing but read about you in the
+papers.  What for did ye not send for me?  Here have I been
+knocking about inside a ship and you have been getting
+famous.  They tell me you're a millionaire, too.'
+
+I had Tam to dinner at my hotel, and later, sitting smoking
+on the terrace and watching the flying-ants among the aloes, I
+told him the better part of the story I have here written down.
+
+'Man, Davie,' he said at the end, 'you've had a tremendous
+time.  Here are you not eighteen months away from home, and
+you're going back with a fortune.  What will you do with it?'
+I told him that I proposed, to begin with, to finish my
+education at Edinburgh College.  At this he roared with
+laughter.
+
+'That's a dull ending, anyway.  It's me that should have the
+money, for I'm full of imagination.  You were aye a prosaic
+body, Davie.'
+
+'Maybe I am,' I said; 'but I am very sure of one thing.  If I
+hadn't been a prosaic body, I wouldn't be sitting here to-night.'
+
+
+Two years later Aitken found the diamond pipe, which he had
+always believed lay in the mountains.  Some of the stones in
+the cave, being unlike any ordinary African diamonds, confirmed
+his suspicions and set him on the track.  A Kaffir tribe
+to the north-east of the Rooirand had known of it, but they
+had never worked it, but only collected the overspill.  The
+closing down of one of the chief existing mines had created a
+shortage of diamonds in the world's markets, and once again
+the position was the same as when Kimberley began.  Accordingly
+he made a great fortune, and to-day the Aitken Proprietary Mine is
+one of the most famous in the country.  But Aitken did more than
+mine diamonds, for he had not forgotten the lesson we had learned
+together in the work of resettlement.  He laid down a big fund for
+the education and amelioration of the native races, and the first
+fruit of it was the establishment at Blaauwildebeestefontein
+itself of a great native training college.  It was no factory for
+making missionaries and black teachers, but an institution for
+giving the Kaffirs the kind of training which fits them to be
+good citizens of the state.  There you will find every kind of
+technical workshop, and the finest experimental farms, where the
+blacks are taught modern agriculture.  They have proved themselves
+apt pupils, and to-day you will see in the glens of the Berg and
+in the plains Kaffir tillage which is as scientific as any in
+Africa.  They have created a huge export trade in tobacco and
+fruit; the cotton promises well; and there is talk of a new fibre
+which will do wonders.  Also along the river bottoms the
+india-rubber business is prospering.
+
+There are playing-fields and baths and reading-rooms and
+libraries just as in a school at home.  In front of the great hall
+of the college a statue stands, the figure of a black man shading
+his eyes with his hands and looking far over the plains to the
+Rooirand.  On the pedestal it is lettered 'Prester John,' but the
+face is the face of Laputa.  So the last of the kings of Africa
+does not lack his monument.
+
+Of this institution Mr Wardlaw is the head.  He writes to me
+weekly, for I am one of the governors, as well as an old friend,
+and from a recent letter I take this passage: -
+
+'I often cast my mind back to the afternoon when you and I
+sat on the stoep of the schoolhouse, and talked of the Kaffirs
+and our future.  I had about a dozen pupils then, and now I
+have nearly three thousand; and in place of a tin-roofed shanty
+and a yard, I have a whole countryside.  You laughed at me for
+my keenness, Davie, but I've seen it justified.  I was never a
+man of war like you, and so I had to bide at home while you
+and your like were straightening out the troubles.  But when it
+was all over my job began, for I could do what you couldn't
+do - I was the physician to heal wounds.  You mind how
+nervous I was when I heard the drums beat.  I hear them every
+evening now, for we have made a rule that all the Kaffir farms
+on the Berg sound a kind of curfew.  It reminds me of old
+times, and tells me that though it is peace nowadays we mean
+to keep all the manhood in them that they used to exercise in
+war.  It would do your eyes good to see the garden we have
+made out of the Klein Labongo glen.  The place is one big
+orchard with every kind of tropical fruit in it, and the irrigation
+dam is as full of fish as it will hold.  Out at Umvelos' there is a
+tobacco-factory, and all round Sikitola's we have square miles
+of mealie and cotton fields.  The loch on the Rooirand is
+stocked with Lochleven trout, and we have made a bridle-path
+up to it in a gully east of the one you climbed.  You ask about
+Machudi's.  The last time I was there the place was white with
+sheep, for we have got the edge of the plateau grazed down,
+and sheep can get the short bite there.  We have cleaned up all
+the kraals, and the chiefs are members of our county council,
+and are as fond of hearing their own voices as an Aberdeen
+bailie.  It's a queer transformation we have wrought, and when
+I sit and smoke my pipe in the evening, and look over the
+plains and then at the big black statue you and Aitken set up,
+I thank the Providence that has guided me so far.  I hope and
+trust that, in the Bible words, "the wilderness and the solitary
+place are glad for us." At any rate it will not be my fault if they
+don't "blossom as the rose".  Come out and visit us soon, man,
+and see the work you had a hand in starting.  ...'
+
+I am thinking seriously of taking Wardlaw's advice.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of Prester John, by John Buchan
+
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