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spruit if you like; you'll maybe find some garnets.'

I made cautious inquiries, too, chiefly through Mr Wardlaw,
who was becoming a great expert at Kaffir, about the existence

of Aitken's wizard, but he could get no news. The most he
found out was that there was a good cure for fever among

Sikitola's men, and that Majinje, if she pleased, could
bring rain.

The upshot of it all was that, after much brooding, I wrote
a letter to Mr Colles, and, to make sure of its going, gave it to

a missionary to post in Pietersdorp. I told him frankly what
Aitken had said, and I also told him about the espionage. I

said nothing about old Japp, for, beast as he was, I did not
want him at his age to be without a livelihood.

CHAPTER IV
MY JOURNEY TO THE WINTER-VELD

A reply came from Colles, addressed not to me but to Japp.
It seemed that the old fellow had once suggested the establishment

of a branch store at a place out in the plains called
Umvelos', and the firm was now prepared to take up the

scheme. Japp was in high good humour, and showed me the
letter. Not a word was said of what I had written about, only

the bare details about starting the branch. I was to get a couple
of masons, load up two wagons with bricks and timber, and go

down to Umvelos' and see the store built. The stocking of it
and the appointment of a storekeeper would be matter for

further correspondence. Japp was delighted, for, besides getting
rid of me for several weeks, it showed that his advice was

respected by his superiors. He went about bragging that the
firm could not get on without him, and was inclined to be

more insolent to me than usual in his new self-esteem. He also
got royally drunk over the head of it.

I confess I was hurt by the manager's silence on what
seemed to me more vital matters. But I soon reflected that if

he wrote at all he would write direct to me, and I eagerly
watched for the post-runner. No letter came, however, and I

was soon too busy with preparations to look for one. I got the
bricks and timber from Pietersdorp, and hired two Dutch

masons to run the job. The place was not very far from
Sikitola's kraal, so there would be no difficulty about native

helpers. Having my eyes open for trade, I resolved to kill two
birds with one stone. It was the fashion among the old-

fashioned farmers on the high-veld to drive the cattle down
into the bush-veld - which they call the winter-veld - for

winter pasture. There is no fear of red-water about that
season, and the grass of the plains is rich and thick compared

with the uplands. I discovered that some big droves were
passing on a certain day, and that the owners and their families

were travelling with them in wagons. Accordingly I had a light
naachtmaal fitted up as a sort of travelling store, and with

my two wagons full of building material joined the caravan. I
hoped to do good trade in selling little luxuries to the farmers

on the road and at Umvelos'.
It was a clear cold morning when we started down the Berg.

At first my hands were full with the job of getting my heavy
wagons down the awesome precipice which did duty as a

highway. We locked the wheels with chains, and tied great logs
of wood behind to act as brakes. Happily my drivers knew

their business, but one of the Boer wagons got a wheel over
the edge, and it was all that ten men could do to get it

back again.
After that the road was easier, winding down the side of a

slowly opening glen. I rode beside the wagons, and so heavenly
was the weather that I was content with my own thoughts.

The sky was clear blue, the air warm, yet with a wintry tonic
in it, and a thousand aromatic scents came out of the thickets.

The pied birds called 'Kaffir queens' fluttered across the path.
Below, the Klein Labongo churned and foamed in a hundred

cascades. Its waters were no more the clear grey of the 'Blue
Wildebeeste's Spring,' but growing muddy with its approach

to the richer soil of the plains.
Oxen travel slow, and we outspanned that night half a day's

march short of Umvelos'. I spent the hour before sunset
lounging and smoking with the Dutch farmers. At first they

had been silent and suspicious of a newcomer, but by this time
I talked their taal fluently, and we were soon on good terms.

I recall a discussion arising about a black thing in a tree about
five hundred yards away. I thought it was an aasvogel, but

another thought it was a baboon. Whereupon the oldest of the
party, a farmer called Coetzee, whipped up his rifle and,

apparently without sighting, fired. A dark object fell out of the
branch, and when we reached it we found it a baviaan* sure

enough, shot through the head. 'Which side are you on in the
next war?' the old man asked me, and, laughing, I told

him 'Yours.'
*Baboon.

After supper, the ingredients of which came largely from my
naachtmaal, we sat smoking and talking round the fire, the

women and children being snug in the covered wagons. The
Boers were honest companionable fellows, and when I had

made a bowl of toddy in the Scotch fashion to keep out the
evening chill, we all became excellent friends. They asked me

how I got on with Japp. Old Coetzee saved me the trouble of
answering, for he broke in with Skellum! Skellum!* I asked

him his objection to the storekeeper, but he would say nothing
beyond that he was too thick with the natives. I fancy at some

time Mr Japp had sold him a bad plough.
*Schelm: Rascal.

We spoke of hunting, and I heard long tales of exploits -
away on the Limpopo, in Mashonaland, on the Sabi and in the

Lebombo. Then we verged on politics, and I listened to
violent denunciations of the new land tax. These were old

residenters, I reflected, and I might learn perhaps something
of value. So very carefully I repeated a tale I said I had heard

at Durban of a great wizard somewhere in the Berg, and asked
if any one knew of it. They shook their heads. The natives had

given up witchcraft and big medicine, they said, and were
more afraid of a parson or a policeman than any witch-doctor.

Then they were starting on reminiscences, when old Coetzee,
who was deaf, broke in and asked to have my question repeated.

'Yes,' he said, 'I know. It is in the Rooirand. There is a
devil dwells there.'

I could get no more out of him beyond the fact that there
was certainly a great devil there. His grandfather and father

had seen it, and he himself had heard it roaring when he had
gone there as a boy to hunt. He would explain no further, and

went to bed.
Next morning, close to Sikitola's kraal, I bade the farmers

good-bye, after telling them that there would be a store in my
wagon for three weeks at Umvelos' if they wanted supplies.

We then struck more to the north towards our destination. As
soon as they had gone I had out my map and searched it for

the name old Coetzee had mentioned. It was a very bad map,
for there had been no surveying east of the Berg, and most of

the names were mere guesses. But I found the word 'Rooirand'
marking an eastern continuation of the northern wall, and

probably set down from some hunter's report. I had better
explain here the chief features of the country, for they bulk

largely in my story. The Berg runs north and south, and from
it run the chief streams which water the plain. They are,

beginning from the south, the Olifants, the Groot Letaba, the
Letsitela, the Klein Letaba, and the Klein Labongo, on which

stands Blaauwildebeestefontein. But the greatest river of the
plain, into which the others ultimately flow, is the Groot

Labongo, which appears full-born from some subterranean
source close to the place called Umvelos'. North from

Blaauwildebeestefontein the Berg runs for some twenty miles, and
then makes a sharp turn eastward, becoming, according to my

map, the Rooirand.
I pored over these details, and was particularly curious about

the Great Labongo. It seemed to me unlikely that a spring in
the bush could produce so great a river, and I decided that its

source must lie in the mountains to the north. As well as I
could guess, the Rooirand, the nearest part of the Berg, was

about thirty miles distant. Old Coetzee had said that there was
a devil in the place, but I thought that if it were explored the

first thing found would be a fine stream of water.
We got to Umvelos' after midday, and outspanned for our

three weeks' work. I set the Dutchmen to unload and clear the
ground for foundations, while I went off to Sikitola to ask for

labourers. I got a dozen lusty blacks, and soon we had a
business-like encampment, and the work went on merrily. It

was rough architecture" target="_blank" title="n.建筑术;建筑学">architecture and rougher masonry. All we aimed at
was a two-roomed shop with a kind of outhouse for stores. I

was architect, and watched the marking out of the foundations
and the first few feet of the walls. Sikitola's people proved

themselves good helpers, and most of the building was left to
them, while the Dutchmen worked at the carpentry. Bricks

ran short before we got very far, and we had to set to brick-
making on the bank of the Labongo, and finish off the walls

with green bricks, which gave the place a queer piebald look.
I was not much of a carpenter, and there were plenty of

builders without me, so I found a considerableamount of time
on my hands. At first I acted as shopkeeper in the naachtmaal,

but I soon cleared out my stores to the Dutch farmers and the
natives. I had thought of going back for more, and then it

occurred to me that I might profitably give some of my leisure
to the Rooirand. I could see the wall of the mountains quite

clear to the north, within an easy day's ride. So one morning I
packed enough food for a day or two, tied my sleeping-bag on

my saddle, and set off to explore, after appointing the elder of
the Dutchmen foreman of the job in my absence.

It was very hot jogging along the native path with the eternal
olive-green bush around me. Happily there was no fear of

losing the way, for the Rooirand stood very clear in front, and
slowly, as I advanced, I began to make out the details of the

cliffs. At luncheon-time, when I was about half-way, I sat
down with my Zeiss glass - my mother's farewell gift - to look

for the valley. But valley I saw none. The wall - reddish
purple it looked, and, I thought, of porphyry - was continuous

and unbroken. There were chimneys and fissures, but none
great enough to hold a river. The top was sheer cliff; then

came loose kranzes in tiers, like the seats in a gallery, and,
below, a dense thicket of trees. I raked the whole line for a

break, but there seemed none. 'It's a bad job for me,' I
thought, 'if there is no water, for I must pass the night there.'

The night was spent in a sheltered nook at the foot of the
rocks, but my horse and I went to bed without a drink. My

supper was some raisins and biscuits, for I did not dare to run
the risk of increasing my thirst. I had found a great bank of

debris sloping up to the kranzes, and thick wood clothing all
the slope. The grass seemed wonderfully fresh, but of water

there was no sign. There was not even the sandy channel of a
stream to dig in.

In the morning I had a difficult problem to face. Water I
must find at all costs, or I must go home. There was time

enough for me to get back without suffering much, but if so I
must give up my explorations. This I was determined not to

do. The more I looked at these red cliffs the more eager I was
to find out their secret. There must be water somewhere;

otherwise how account for the lushness of the vegetation?
My horse was a veld pony, so I set him loose to see what he



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