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