Prester John .........................................................................................................................................................1

John Buchan .............................................................................................................................................1

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 fellowlover Of the fairest country under the stars.

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

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 sessionclerk, 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 tanwork.

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 cockloft 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

cockloft. 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 hotfoot 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 chimneypot 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 chimneypot. 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

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 Somethingorother, 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

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

candleend 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

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 lobsterpots 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 tanwork 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

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

There was nobody there, so we relit the lantern and examined our properties. Two or three fishingrods for

the burn, much damaged by weather; some sealines 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

He returned in three minutes, his eyes round with amazement in the lantern light. 'There's a fire on the sands,'

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

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 halfgreen 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

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 halfpast 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

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

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 lookout 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

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. Byandby when I ventured to raise

my head above a flattopped 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 halflight. He wore nothing but a shirt and trousers, and I could hear by the

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

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

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 threshingmill.

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

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 partanface, 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 highbridged, 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

We passed the boulders and slithered over the outcrop of red rock and the patches of seapink 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

easilyheated 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

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

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,

halfblinding 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

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

'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

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

We were not destined to escape without detection. As ill luck would have it, Mr Murdoch had been taken ill

with the stomachache 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 fulldress chastisement when my father should come home

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 furcoat and a brand new yellowleather

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

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,

squareset 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

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

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

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 welltodo

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

'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 fishhooks. 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

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.'

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

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

It was not till we got into the fairweather seas around Madeira that I recovered enough to sit on deck and

observe my fellowpassengers. 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 undermaster 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,

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

afterdeck 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 wellwatered country, and the AgentGeneral 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 pocketbook. 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

'I'll wager that fellow has been a slavedriver in his time,' I told Mr Wardlaw, who said, 'God pity his slaves,

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

firstclass passengers were having deck sports. A tugofwar had been arranged between the three classes,

and a halfdozen 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 firstclass beat the second easily, and after a tremendous struggle beat the steerage also. Then they

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 deckchair 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

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 firstclass 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 tarbrush, protested with oaths against the insult. Finally he sat down

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 afterdeck 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

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

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 afterdeck 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 uncouthlynamed

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

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

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 shirtsleeves, with a cigar in his mouth. He received me

'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

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

'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.'

'Yes,' he said reflectively, 'the school. That's been vacant pretty often lately. What sort of fellow is this

'It isn't. That's why we've got you out from home. The colonialborn 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 backveld Dutchmen with native blood in them. You fellows from home are less set on an easy life, or

'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. Goodbye, my boy,' and he waved a fat hand to me.

That night I embarked on a cargoboat which was going round the coast to Delagoa Bay. It is a small world

at least for us farwandering 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

I do not know what passed with the captain, but the minister got his passage right enough, and Tam was even

'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

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 bushcovered 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 landingagent 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, broadshouldered fellow who had been a sergeant in

the Gordons, and during the war he had done secretservice 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.

'So I'm told. Do you know anything about it? You're not the first who has looked queer when I've spoken the

'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.'

'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 bushveld 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

Aitken smoked in silence for a time; then he said, 'I'll tell you another thing. I believe there's a diamond mine.

'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,

Aitken shook his head. 'No, I don't know the man. You say he landed here? Well, I'll keep a lookout for

Then I asked about Henriques, of whom Tam knew nothing. I described his face, his clothes, and his habits.

'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,

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

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

The talk with Aitken had given Tam an inkling of my thoughts. His last words to me were an appeal to let

'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

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 Capecart 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 fernfringed 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 landscapegardener 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.

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

My few belongings were soon lifted from the Capecart, and I entered the shop. It was the ordinary pattern of

upcountry 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

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

pillowslips 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 found the schoolmaster sitting under his own figtree 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

I promised, and in the sweetsmelling dust crossed the road to the store. Japp was still sleeping, so I got a

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 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 Colonialborn 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

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,

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 longlost 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

Byandby 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 stonybroke and

would have sold his soul for a drink. It was an enormous Boer huntingdog, 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 today

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 Colin, I now took to spending some of my ample leisure in exploring the fastnesses of the Berg. I had

brought out a shotgun 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 bushbuck in the thickets, which is a game in which the hunter is at small

advantage. I have been knocked down by a wounded bushbuck 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 byandby I learned something of

veldcraft: 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 bullterrier. I blessed the day when the wandering

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

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

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 huttax;

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

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

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 selfesteem. 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 postrunner. 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 highveld to drive the cattle

down into the bushveld which they call the winterveld for winter pasture. There is no fear of

redwater 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

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

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

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 witchdoctor. Then they were starting on

reminiscences, when old Coetzee, who was deaf, broke in and asked to have my question repeated.

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

Next morning, close to Sikitola's kraal, I bade the farmers goodbye, 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 fullborn 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

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 businesslike encampment, and the work went on merrily. It was rough

architecture and rougher masonry. All we aimed at was a tworoomed 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

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

sleepingbag on my saddle, and set off to explore, after appointing the elder of the Dutchmen foreman of the

It was very hot jogging along the native path with the eternal olivegreen 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 luncheontime, when I was about halfway, 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

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

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 thornbush 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

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

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 clifftop. 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

highveld, 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 pothole. 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

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

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,

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

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

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

I walked twentyfive 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 halfway 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 halfway 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

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

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

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

My words gave the old ruffian his cue. 'Yes, yes,' he said, 'I have, or rather my friend 'Mwanga has. He has

The Kaffir looked miserably uncomfortable. He shifted from one leg to the other, casting longing glances at

I told him I thought he had better go, and opened the door for him. Then I bolted it again, and turned to Mr

'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.

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.

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

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

'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

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

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

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,

Tonight 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

I told Wardlaw that he was most likely only a petty chief, whose exploits were magnified by distance, the

'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

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 highveld 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

'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

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,

He looked so earnest and serious sitting there with his short sighted eyes peering at me that I could not help

He shook his head. 'Nothing I can put a name to. But I have a presentiment that some mischief is afoot in

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

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 lookout 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

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

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.

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 tabletop and jammed it between the window frames. Also, I loaded my

shotgun 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

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

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 halfmad with excitement. I had seen all I wanted, and went home

with a preoccupied mind. I sat long on Wardlaw's gardenseat, 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

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 postbag. But then I reflected that I knew nothing of what might be happening daily to the

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

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 goodmorning 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,

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 saddlebags; 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 halfturned 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 feverheat. 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

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

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

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 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 longdelayed 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 today, when he asked me, I

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

'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

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

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 potholes 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

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

'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

When we got home I found Japp with a face like grey paper. 'Did you hear the drums?'he asked.

'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.

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

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

The postrunner 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

I looked to see that Japp had not suffocated himself, then shut up the store, and went back to my room to

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

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 wastepaper 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

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 postrunner, but he had started back an hour before. There was nothing for it but to

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

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.

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 LeeSpeed carbine, and a

little nickel plated revolver. There was also Japp's shotgun, an old hammered breechloader, 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 sheathknife. If

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 dinnertime, 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

But it was only a Kaffir, and a miserablelooking 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

brokendown 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.

The native gave me a goodday in Kaffir, then begged for tobacco or a handful of mealiemeal.

'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

'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.

'And where are the hunters?' I asked. 'They are here and behind me,' he said in English, holding out his pot

'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

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

In about twenty minutes the bush below the backwindow 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

'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

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 closecropped grizzled hair. In ten minutes the old Kaffir had

been transformed into an active soldierlylooking man of maybe fifty years. Mr Wardlaw stared as if he had

'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

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. Tonight 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

'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

'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.'

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

'Let's hear your guesses,' he said, blowing smoke rings from his pipe. 'I think the main mover is a great black

Captain Arcoll nearly sprang out of his chair. 'Now, how on earth did you find that out? Quick, Mr Crawfurd,

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

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 devilworship? 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

'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

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

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

'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

'The man that lived in Central Asia?' I asked, with a reminiscence of a storybook 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

'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

'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

'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

'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

'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

'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

'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

'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

BlueBooks 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 backveld.

'For six months I stuck to him like a leech. I am pretty good at disguises, and he never knew who was the

brokendown old Kaffir who squatted in the dirt at the edge of the crowd when he spoke, or the halfcaste

who called him "Sir" and drove his Capecart. 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

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.

'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

Arcoll's whimsical, humorous face had hardened into grimness, and in his eyes there was the light of a fierce

'But what can he hope to do?' I asked. 'Though he roused every Kaffir in South Africa he would be beaten.

'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.'

Arcoll looked at the clock. 'In half an hour's time Laputa will be with 'Mpefu. There he will stay the night.

Tomorrow morning he goes to Umvelos' to meet Henriques. Tomorrow evening the gathering begins.'

'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

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 halfcentury. 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

'God knows! There's sure to be sense in it, for he does nothing without reason. We may know tomorrow.'

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

'Tomorrow Laputa and Henriques meet at Umvelos', probably at your new store, Mr Crawfurd. And so the

'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

'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

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

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 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

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 hellforleather 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

I said goodbye 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

It was a fine morning in midwinter, and I was in very good spirits as I jogged on my pony down the steep

hillroad, 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 gamebirds 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

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 blackdark 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 pocketbook and wrote down certain

messages to my mother, which I implored whoever should find my body to transmit. Then, a little ashamed

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

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 leopardskin. In such a

man one would have looked for a tingkop,* 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

Colin was deeply suspicious and followed his heels growling, but he never turned his head.

He slackened his pace till he was at my elbow. 'But a short way, Baas,' he replied in English; 'I go to the store

'Well met, then,' said I, 'for I am the storekeeper. You will find little in it, for it is newly built and not yet

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

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 highbred

woman's than a man's. Curiously enough he filled me with a certain confidence. 'I do not think you will cut

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 packingcases stood in the corner, and there was enough sacking to make a

'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

today 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

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 halfwitted, 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. Byandby 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,

'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

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

'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

Laputa shrugged his shoulders, stepped over the bristling Colin, and went out. When I looked after him two

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

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 trapdoor

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 packingcase 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

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

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

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 booottle

The two argued for a minute, and then Laputa seemed to prevail. The door was shut and the key, which I had

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

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

'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 backveld 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.'

'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

'He is safe enough,' Laputa replied. 'I gave him the chance of life, and he laughed at me. He won't get far on

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 doubledyed 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

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

'Meanwhile,' said Laputa, 'there is the gathering at Ntabakaikonjwa.* It will take us three hours' hard riding to

Where on earth was Ntabakaikonjwa? It must be the native name for the Rooirand, for after all Laputa was

'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

'Well, when we get there, what happens?' Henriques asked with a laugh. 'What kind of magic will you spring

There was a strong contrast between the flippant tone of the Portugoose and the grave voice which answered

'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.'

'But you don't propose to lead the march in a necklace of rubies,' said Henriques, with a sudden eagerness in

Again Laputa spoke gravely, and, as it were, abstractedly. I heard the voice of one whose mind was fixed on

'When I am acclaimed king, I restore the Snake to its Keeper, and swear never to clasp it on my neck till I

'The vows we take in the holy place bind us till we are purged of them at Inanda's Kraal. Till then no blood

'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

'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

'I see,' said Henriques, whistling through his teeth. 'Well, before we start this vow business, I think I'll go

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

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

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

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

'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 halfopened 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 trapdoor. 'All the same I think I'll make him

'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

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

pocketbook. 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

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

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

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

blaauwschimmel, or blueroan type, which is famous for speed and endurance. Slipping his bridle from the

Then I spoke to Colin. 'Home with you,' I said. 'Home, old man, as if you were running down a tsessebe.'* *A

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

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

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

treasurehunting, which will often drive a coward into prodigies of valour. I lusted for that treasure of jewels

and gold. Once I had been highminded, 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

But behind my thoughts was one masterfeeling, 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

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

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 Capecarts 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 clifffoot I found a double line of warriors who had the appearance of a royal guard, for all were tall

men with leopardskin cloaks. Their riflebarrels 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

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 menatarms 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

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.

Then unseen hands took both my arms, and I was led farther into the darkness. My hopes revived for a

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 righthand 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

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

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

'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.

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

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 Sabbathschool 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

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

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 smokewreaths 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

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

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 hearthfires 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

'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

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,

'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

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 fiftyfive 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 backveld dorp, was privileged to see a sight to which no Portuguese adventurer had ever

attained. There, floating on the smokewreaths, 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 bloodred collar his face had the passive pride of a Roman emperor. Only

'Heir of John,' he said, 'I stand before you as priest and king. My kingship is for the morrow. Now I am the

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

__'Thou hast been a strength to the poor,' said the voice, 'a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat,

__'Thou shalt bring down the noise of strangers, as the heat in a dry place; the branch of the Terrible Ones

__'And in this mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on

__'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

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

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

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

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

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

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 headdresses. There were men from the north with heavy brass collars and anklets;

men with quills in their ears, and earrings and noserings; 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

For an hour or two I had been living in a dreamworld. 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

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

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

Suddenly I heard a voice the voice of Henriques cry, 'By God, a spy!' I felt my throat caught, but I was

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

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 rawhide 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 redhot 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

'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.'

'What happens to me tomorrow,' I said, 'is the Inkulu's business, not yours. I am his prisoner. But if you lift

your hand on me today 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,

You should have seen the change in that cur's face. I had guessed he was a coward, as he was most certainly a

'Nay, Baas,' he pleaded, 'it was but a joke. No harm shall come on you today. But tomorrow ' and his ugly

'Tomorrow we shall see what we shall see,' I said stoically, and a loud drumbeat sounded through the

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

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

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 fieldguns, 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

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

woodsmoke 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

I saw a Kaffir on the other side of the bush who seemed to be grinning at me. Slowly he moved round to my

'ja, Baas,' was the answer; and he disappeared for a minute, and returned with a wooden bowl of hot

I could not use my hands, so he fed me with the blade of his knife. Such porridge without salt or cream is

Suddenly it appeared that the Kaffir had something to say to me. As he fed me he began to speak in a low

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

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

'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

'There is another message, Baas,' he said. 'It is written on paper in a strange tongue. Turn your head to the

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

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

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

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

'Well, Mr Storekeeper,' he said, 'you and I have met before under pleasanter circumstances.'

'We were shipmates, if I am not mistaken,' he said. 'I dare say you found it nicer work smoking on the

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.'

'You heard that too? Well, I confess I am in favour of doing a job thoroughly when I take it up.'

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

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 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

I was scarcely prepared for such incredible bluff. I knew every word was a lie, but I wanted to hear more, for

'I suppose you know what will happen to you,' he said, flicking the ashes from his cigarette. 'Tomorrow 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

'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

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

'Now listen, Mr Portugoose,' I cried. 'You tell me you are a spy. What if I shout that through the camp? There

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 yellowfaced 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

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

'Stew in your own juice,' he said, and spat in my face. Then he shouted in Kaffir that I had insulted him, and

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

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

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.

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

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 carttrack

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

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

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

'Keep him well,' said Henriques, 'or you will answer to Inkulu. Forward with him now and get him through

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

Suddenly from the far bank came an order. It was Laputa's voice, thin and highpitched, as the Kaffir cries

when he wishes his words to carry a great distance. Henriques repeated it, and the infantry halted. The riders

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

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

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,

The men on the other side had begun to use ballcartridge. 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

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

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,

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 closequarter 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.

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

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

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

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

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

Instead I did the craziest thing of all. With the jewels in one pocket, and the Portugoose's pistol in the other, I

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

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

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 foothills 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

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 sevenandsix with the belt thrown in. Then there was the Portugoose's pistol, costing, say, a

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

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

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

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

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 today 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

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

The veldcraft 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 bushpaths emerged on the waterside. 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

I saw that it was a big warthog, 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 warthog, hideous though he is, is a wise beast. What was safe for him would, therefore, in

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

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

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 waterlogged 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

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

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 dryshod on the boulders above a little fall, stopping for a moment to drink and lave my

After that the country changed again. The wood was now getting like that which clothed the sides of the

Berg. There were tall timbertrees 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I dropped into shelter, and running with bent back got to the summit of a little bushclad 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.

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 hillshoulder 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

The track, I remember, was overhung with creepers, and often I had to squeeze through thickets of treeferns.

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 cupshaped 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 watermeadow at home, such a place as I

had often in boyhood searched for mosscheepers' 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 sweatdimmed

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 hidingplace in the forest and destroyed him. A Boer farmer on the plateau had

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

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 pothole 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 millrace, 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. Byandby 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 treefern, 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

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 halfhour 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

copperwire necklets. Big fellows they were, longlegged 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

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

'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

'Keep your hands by your side,' I said, 'or the dog, who has a devil, will devour you. One of you speak for the

For a moment I had a wild notion that they might be friends, some of Arcoll's scouts, and out to help me. But

'We are sent by Inkulu,' the biggest of them said. 'He bade us bring you to him.'

'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

The spokesman shrugged his shoulders in the way the Kaffirs have. 'We wish you no ill, Baas, but we have

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

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

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

But when I stood up I found that I was worse than I had thought. The truth is, I was legweary, 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 handandfoot 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

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

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 veldcraft,

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

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

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

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

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

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 legweariness. I stood up in that fierce circle with the

'Take me to Inkulu,' I cried. 'Dogs and fools, would you despise his orders? If one hair of my head is hurt, he

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 halfmoon, 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

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

There was something he was trying to say to me which he dared not put into words. I guessed what the

'You have made little of your treachery,' he said. 'Fool, did you think to escape me? I could bring you back

'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

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

I do not know how the others took the revelation, for my eyes were only for the Portugoose. He made a step

'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

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

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 openeyed 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 wellsetup 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 mealiestalks 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

The voice was Laputa's, but I could not see him. The room was pitch dark, except for a long ray of sunlight

Some one stepped out of the gloom and sat down near me. A naked black foot broke the belt of light on the

'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 mealiestalks till the fit passed.

'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

'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

'Henriques will see that the truth does not fall short of my forecast,' he went on. 'For I have appointed

'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

'If you value Prester John's collar, you will save my life. What will your rising be without the Snake? Would

'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

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

I thought he would have throttled me. He glowered down at me with murder in his eyes. Then he dashed the

'Give me back the Ndhlondhlo,' he cried, like a petted child. 'Give me back the collar of John.'

'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 today, 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,

I still think that was a pretty bold speech for a man to make in a predicament like mine. But it had its effect.

'That is, as you call it, a business proposition. But supposing I refuse it? Supposing I take measures here in

'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,

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 mealiestalks 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

'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

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 policecourt. I had forgotten that the man called himself a

'One thing more I ask,' I said. 'I want my dog decently buried.' 'That has been already done,' was the reply.

My eyes were bandaged tight, and a thong was run round my right wrist and tied to Laputa's saddlebow. 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

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

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

At last we halted. Laputa got down and took off the bandage, and I found myself in one of the hillmeadows

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

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

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.

'Yes,' said my companion, 'the same old device,' and to my amazement he quoted some lines of Virgil.

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,

'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

'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

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

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 watermeadows. As he talked, his wary eyes were keeping a sharp lookout over the

Once Laputa checked me with his hand as I was going to speak, and in silence we crossed the kloof of a little

'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

'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

'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

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 lamppost; 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

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

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

To my surprise, Laputa chose to show himself on the green hillshoulder. 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 troutstream. 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 breakingpoint; 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

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.

'There is no road there,' I said. 'We must go down to the foot and come up the streamside. 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 kneehaltered his beast. And at that

With my wristrope 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

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

'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

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

It did not take me long to find the pool, close against the blackened stump of a treefern. 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

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

'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

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

'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

Meantime I was pulling myself up on the shelf, and loosening with one hand a boulder which overhung the

'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.

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

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

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

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

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 kneehalter. 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

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, ropeend 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

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 lightheaded 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 breasthigh 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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

The Scotch tongue worked a spell with me. It cleared my wits and opened the gates of my past life. At last I

'I must see Arcoll. I have news for him tremendous news. O man, take me to Arcoll and ask me no

'As it happens, he's about two hundred yards off,' Aitken said. 'That light ye see at the top of the brae is his

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

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

'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

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

'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

'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

Arcoll, still holding my hands, brought his face close to mine, so that his clear eyes mastered and constrained

'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

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

'For God's sake, hurry then,' I cried. 'In an hour he will be over it and back in the kraal.'

'River?' I repeated hazily. 'What river? The Letaba is not the place. It is the road I mean.'

'You left Laputa at Machudi's and rode here without stopping. That would take you an hour. Had Laputa a

'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

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

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 riflebreech 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

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

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 halfwitted 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; sixtythree

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 fourgun 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

overestimated 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

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

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

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

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

veldcraft 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

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

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 viewpoint 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

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

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 guineafowl flew up as if startled, and a stembok scurried

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

At Main Drift I found a big body of police holding the ford. I splashed through and stumbled into one of their

campfires. 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

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

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 treasurehunting 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

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

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

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

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

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,

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

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

As before, there was a light in front of me, but this time it was a pinpoint 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

My eyes were getting used to the halflight, 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.

I had no fear, only a great pity pity for lost romance, for vain endeavour, for fruitless courage. 'Greeting,

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

'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

'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

'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

'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

'It is the hand of God,' he said solemnly. 'Your fate has been twisted with mine, and now you will die with

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

'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

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 brassribbed 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

'You stole my horse. That is why I am dying. But for you I and my army would be over the Olifants. I am

Still I was unperturbed. 'No, you are not. You cannot. You have tried to and failed. So did Henriques, and he

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 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

The man was getting very near his end. The madness of despair came back to him, and he flung himself

'We are going to die together, Crawfurd,' he said. 'God has twined our threads, and there will be only one

'I have other armies ... No, no, they are nothing. They will all wander and blunder and fight and be beaten.

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

'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

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

Something clicked in his throat, he gasped and fell forward, and I thought he was dead. Then he struggled as

'Unarm, Eros,' he cried. 'The long day's task is done.' With the strange power of a dying man he tore off his

leopardskin 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Very dolefully I returned to the cave. I was about to share the experience of all treasurehunters 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

My obstinacy and irritation cheered me. What had become of the lacklustre 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

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

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 rockclimbing what a complete obstacle the overhang of a

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 roseshaped 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

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

treasurechests 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

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

To this day I cannot think what these pegs were for. They were old squareheaded 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

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,

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,

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 halfstunned by the shock of the drip on my head, but I kept my

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

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,

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

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 rockwall I was on was getting

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

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

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

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

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 highveld 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

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 wellmounted 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 riverbanks,

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

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 lookout, and the result was

that a way was made for the guns on the northwestern 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

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 posthaste 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 daftlike ride, but his severity relaxed before I

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, halfwhispering to himself. 'Well, he was a king, and died like a king. Our job

'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

'But in the meantime?' I asked. 'Supposing other Kaffirs hear of it, and come back and make a bridge over the

'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

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,

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

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 halfforgotten. 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

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

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.

Byandby we came to the merula tree opposite the kyas, and there we found a ring of chiefs, sitting with

We were armed with pistols, and the first thing Arcoll did was to hand them to one of the chiefs. 'We come in

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

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

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

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

'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

After that I knew that we had won. The chiefs talked among themselves in low whispers, casting strange

'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,

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

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

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

'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 AttorneyGeneral set up a claim to the whole as spoils

of war, since, he argued, it was the warchest 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 sortingout

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

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 sendoff, 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

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

I had Tam to dinner at my hotel, and later, sitting smoking on the terrace and watching the flyingants among

'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

'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

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 northeast 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 today 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 today 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

There are playingfields and baths and readingrooms 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

Of this institution Mr Wardlaw is the head. He writes to me weekly, for I am one of the governors, as well as

'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 tinroofed 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 tobaccofactory, 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 bridlepath 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