章节正文
than from dread of actual danger. I was in a fog of uncertainty.
Things were happening around me which I could only dimly
guess at, and I had no power to take one step in defence. That
Wardlaw should have felt the same without any hint from me
was the final proof that the mystery was no figment of my
nerves. I had written to Colles and got no answer. Now the
letter with Japp's resignation in it had gone to Durban. Surely
some notice would be taken of that. If I was given the post,
Colles was bound to consider what I had said in my earlier
letter and give me some directions. Meanwhile it was my
business to stick to my job till I was relieved.
A change had come over the place during my absence. The
natives had almost disappeared from sight. Except the few
families living round Blaauwildebeestefontein one never saw a
native on the roads, and none came into the store. They were
sticking close to their locations, or else they had gone after
some distant business. Except a batch of three Shangaans
returning from the Rand, I had nobody in the store for the
whole of one day. So about four o'clock I shut it up, whistled
on Colin, and went for a walk along the Berg.
If there were no natives on the road, there were plenty in
the bush. I had the impression, of which Wardlaw had spoken,
that the native population of the countryside had suddenly
been hugely increased. The woods were simply hotching with
them. I was being spied on as before, but now there were so
many at the business that they could not all conceal their
tracks. Every now and then I had a glimpse of a black shoulder
or leg, and Colin, whom I kept on the leash, was half-mad
with excitement. I had seen all I wanted, and went home with
a preoccupied mind. I sat long on Wardlaw's garden-seat,
trying to puzzle out the truth of this spying.
What perplexed me was that I had been left unmolested
when I had gone to Umvelos'. Now, as I conjectured, the
secret of the neighbourhood, whatever it was, was probably
connected with the Rooirand. But when I had ridden in that
direction and had spent two days in exploring, no one had
troubled to watch me. I was quite certain about this, for my
eye had grown quick to note espionage, and it is harder for a
spy to hide in the spare bush of the flats than in the dense
thickets on these uplands.
The watchers, then, did not mind my fossicking round
their sacred place. Why, then, was I so closely watched in the
harmless neighbourhood of the store? I thought for a long time
before an answer occurred to me. The reason must be that
going to the plains I was going into native country and away
from civilization. But Blaauwildebeestefontein was near the
frontier. There must be some dark business brewing of which
they may have feared that I had an inkling. They wanted to
see if I proposed to go to Pietersdorp or Wesselsburg and tell
what I knew, and they clearly were resolved that I should not.
I laughed, I remember, thinking that they had forgotten the
post-bag. But then I reflected that I knew nothing of what
might be happening daily to the post-bag.
When I had reached this conclusion, my first impulse was to
test it by riding straight west on the main road. If I was right,
I should certainly be stopped. On second thoughts, however,
this seemed to me to be flinging up the game prematurely, and
I resolved to wait a day or two before acting.
Next day nothing happened, save that my sense of loneliness
increased. I felt that I was being hemmed in by barbarism,
and cut off in a ghoulish land from the succour of my own
kind. I only kept my courage up by the necessity of presenting
a brave face to Mr Wardlaw, who was by this time in a very
broken condition of nerves. I had often thought that it was my
duty to advise him to leave, and to see him safely off, but I
shrank from severing myself from my only friend. I thought,
too, of the few Dutch farmers within riding distance, and had
half a mind to visit them, but they were far off over the plateau
and could know little of my anxieties.
The third day events moved faster. Japp was sober and
wonderfully quiet. He gave me good-morning quite in a
friendly tone, and set to posting up the books as if he had
never misbehaved in his days. I was so busy with my thoughts
that I, too, must have been gentler than usual, and the morning
passed like a honeymoon, till I went across to dinner.
I was just sitting down when I remembered that I had left
my watch in my waistcoat behind the counter, and started to
go back for it. But at the door I stopped short. For two
horsemen had drawn up before the store.
One was a native with what I took to be saddle-bags; the
other was a small slim man with a sun helmet, who was slowly
dismounting. Something in the cut of his jib struck me as
familiar. I slipped into the empty schoolroom and stared hard.
Then, as he half-turned in handing his bridle to the Kaffir, I
got a sight of his face. It was my former shipmate, Henriques.
He said something to his companion, and entered the store.
You may imagine that my curiosity ran to fever-heat. My
first impulse was to march over for my waistcoat, and make a
third with Japp at the interview. Happily I reflected in time
that Henriques knew my face, for I had grown no beard,
having a great dislike to needless hair. If he was one of the
villains in the drama, he would mark me down for his
vengeance once he knew I was here, whereas at present he had
probably forgotten all about me. Besides, if I walked in boldly
I would get no news. If japp and he had a secret, they would
not blab it in my presence.
My next idea was to slip in by the back to the room I had
once lived in. But how was I to cross the road? It ran white
and dry some distance each way in full view of the Kaffir with
the horses. Further, the store stood on a bare patch, and it
would be a hard job to get in by the back, assuming, as I
believed, that the neighbourhood was thick with spies.
The upshot was that I got my glasses and turned them on
the store. The door was open, and so was the window. In the
gloom of the interior I made out Henriques' legs. He was
standing by the counter, and apparently talking to Japp. He
moved to shut the door, and came back inside my focus
opposite the window. There he stayed for maybe ten minutes,
while I hugged my impatience. I would have given a hundred
pounds to be snug in my old room with japp thinking me out
of the store.
Suddenly the legs twitched up, and his boots appeared
above the counter. Japp had invited him to his bedroom, and
the game was now to be played beyond my ken. This was more
than I could stand, so I stole out at the back door and took to
the thickest bush on the hillside. My notion was to cross the
road half a mile down, when it had dropped into the defile of
the stream, and then to come swiftly up the edge of the water
so as to effect a back entrance into the store.
As fast as I dared I tore through the bush, and in about a
quarter of an hour had reached the point I was making for.
Then I bore down to the road, and was in the scrub about ten
yards off it, when the clatter of horses pulled me up again.
Peeping out I saw that it was my friend and his Kaffir follower,
who were riding at a very good pace for the plains. Toilfully
and crossly I returned on my tracks to my long-delayed dinner.
Whatever the purport of their talk, Japp and the Portuguese
had not taken long over it.
In the store that afternoon I said casually to Japp that I had
noticed visitors at the door during my dinner hour. The old
man looked me frankly enough in the face. 'Yes, it was Mr
Hendricks,' he said, and explained that the man was a Portuguese
trader from Delagoa way, who had a lot of Kaffir stores
east of the Lebombo Hills. I asked his business, and was told
that he always gave Japp a call in when he was passing.
'Do you take every man that calls into your bedroom, and
shut the door?' I asked.
Japp lost colour and his lip trembled. 'I swear to God, Mr
Crawfurd, I've been doing nothing wrong. I've kept the
promise I gave you like an oath to my mother. I see you
suspect me, and maybe you've cause, but I'll be quite honest
with you. I have dealt in diamonds before this with Hendricks.
But to-day, when he asked me, I told him that that business
was off. I only took him to my room to give him a drink. He
likes brandy, and there's no supply in the shop.'
I distrusted Japp wholeheartedly enough, but I was convinced
that in this case he spoke the truth.
'Had the man any news?' I asked.
'He had and he hadn't,' said Japp. 'He was always a sullen
beggar, and never spoke much. But he said one queer thing.
He asked me if I was going to retire, and when I told him
"yes," he said I had put it off rather long. I told him I was as
healthy as I ever was, and he laughed in his dirty Portugoose
way. "Yes, Mr Japp," he says, "but the country is not so
healthy." I wonder what the chap meant. He'll be dead of
blackwater before many months, to judge by his eyes.'
This talk satisfied me about Japp, who was clearly in
desperate fear of offending me, and disinclined to return for
the present to his old ways. But I think the rest of the afternoon
was the most wretched time in my existence. It was as plain as
daylight that we were in for some grave trouble, trouble to
which I believed that I alone held any kind of clue. I had a
pile of evidence - the visit of Henriques was the last bit -
which pointed to some great secret approaching its disclosure.
I thought that that disclosure meant blood and ruin. But I
knew nothing definite. If the commander of a British army had
come to me then and there and offered help, I could have done
nothing, only asked him to wait like me. The peril, whatever
it was, did not threaten me only, though I and Wardlaw and
Japp might be the first to suffer; but I had a terrible feeling
that I alone could do something to ward it off, and just what
that something was I could not tell. I was horribly afraid, not
only of unknown death, but of my impotence to play any
manly part. I was alone, knowing too much and yet too little,
and there was no chance of help under the broad sky. I cursed
myself for not writing to Aitken at Lourenco Marques weeks
before. He had promised to come up, and he was the kind of
man who kept his word.
In the late afternoon I dragged Wardlaw out for a walk. In
his presence I had to keep up a forced cheerfulness, and I
believe the pretence did me good. We took a path up the Berg
among groves of stinkwood and essenwood, where a failing
stream made an easy route. It may have been fancy, but it
seemed to me that the wood was emptier and that we were
followed less closely. I remember it was a lovely evening, and
in the clear fragrant gloaming every foreland of the Berg stood
out like a great ship above the dark green sea of the bush.
When we reached the edge of the plateau we saw the sun
sinking between two far blue peaks in Makapan's country, and
away to the south the great roll of the high veld. I longed
miserably for the places where white men were thronged
together in dorps and cities.
As we gazed a curious sound struck our ears. It seemed to
begin far up in the north - a low roll like the combing of
breakers on the sand. Then it grew louder and travelled
nearer - a roll, with sudden spasms of harsher sound in it;
reminding me of the churning in one of the pot-holes of
Kirkcaple cliffs. Presently it grew softer again as the sound
passed south, but new notes were always emerging. The echo
came sometimes, as it were, from stark rock, and sometimes
from the deep gloom of the forests. I have never heard an
Things were happening around me which I could only dimly
guess at, and I had no power to take one step in defence. That
Wardlaw should have felt the same without any hint from me
was the final proof that the mystery was no figment of my
nerves. I had written to Colles and got no answer. Now the
letter with Japp's resignation in it had gone to Durban. Surely
some notice would be taken of that. If I was given the post,
Colles was bound to consider what I had said in my earlier
letter and give me some directions. Meanwhile it was my
business to stick to my job till I was relieved.
A change had come over the place during my absence. The
natives had almost disappeared from sight. Except the few
families living round Blaauwildebeestefontein one never saw a
native on the roads, and none came into the store. They were
sticking close to their locations, or else they had gone after
some distant business. Except a batch of three Shangaans
returning from the Rand, I had nobody in the store for the
whole of one day. So about four o'clock I shut it up, whistled
on Colin, and went for a walk along the Berg.
If there were no natives on the road, there were plenty in
the bush. I had the impression, of which Wardlaw had spoken,
that the native population of the countryside had suddenly
been hugely increased. The woods were simply hotching with
them. I was being spied on as before, but now there were so
many at the business that they could not all conceal their
tracks. Every now and then I had a glimpse of a black shoulder
or leg, and Colin, whom I kept on the leash, was half-mad
with excitement. I had seen all I wanted, and went home with
a preoccupied mind. I sat long on Wardlaw's garden-seat,
trying to puzzle out the truth of this spying.
What perplexed me was that I had been left unmolested
when I had gone to Umvelos'. Now, as I conjectured, the
secret of the neighbourhood, whatever it was, was probably
connected with the Rooirand. But when I had ridden in that
direction and had spent two days in exploring, no one had
troubled to watch me. I was quite certain about this, for my
eye had grown quick to note espionage, and it is harder for a
spy to hide in the spare bush of the flats than in the dense
thickets on these uplands.
The watchers, then, did not mind my fossicking round
their sacred place. Why, then, was I so closely watched in the
harmless neighbourhood of the store? I thought for a long time
before an answer occurred to me. The reason must be that
going to the plains I was going into native country and away
from civilization. But Blaauwildebeestefontein was near the
frontier. There must be some dark business brewing of which
they may have feared that I had an inkling. They wanted to
see if I proposed to go to Pietersdorp or Wesselsburg and tell
what I knew, and they clearly were resolved that I should not.
I laughed, I remember, thinking that they had forgotten the
post-bag. But then I reflected that I knew nothing of what
might be happening daily to the post-bag.
When I had reached this conclusion, my first impulse was to
test it by riding straight west on the main road. If I was right,
I should certainly be stopped. On second thoughts, however,
this seemed to me to be flinging up the game prematurely, and
I resolved to wait a day or two before acting.
Next day nothing happened, save that my sense of loneliness
increased. I felt that I was being hemmed in by barbarism,
and cut off in a ghoulish land from the succour of my own
kind. I only kept my courage up by the necessity of presenting
a brave face to Mr Wardlaw, who was by this time in a very
broken condition of nerves. I had often thought that it was my
duty to advise him to leave, and to see him safely off, but I
shrank from severing myself from my only friend. I thought,
too, of the few Dutch farmers within riding distance, and had
half a mind to visit them, but they were far off over the plateau
and could know little of my anxieties.
The third day events moved faster. Japp was sober and
wonderfully quiet. He gave me good-morning quite in a
friendly tone, and set to posting up the books as if he had
never misbehaved in his days. I was so busy with my thoughts
that I, too, must have been gentler than usual, and the morning
passed like a honeymoon, till I went across to dinner.
I was just sitting down when I remembered that I had left
my watch in my waistcoat behind the counter, and started to
go back for it. But at the door I stopped short. For two
horsemen had drawn up before the store.
One was a native with what I took to be saddle-bags; the
other was a small slim man with a sun helmet, who was slowly
dismounting. Something in the cut of his jib struck me as
familiar. I slipped into the empty schoolroom and stared hard.
Then, as he half-turned in handing his bridle to the Kaffir, I
got a sight of his face. It was my former shipmate, Henriques.
He said something to his companion, and entered the store.
You may imagine that my curiosity ran to fever-heat. My
first impulse was to march over for my waistcoat, and make a
third with Japp at the interview. Happily I reflected in time
that Henriques knew my face, for I had grown no beard,
having a great dislike to needless hair. If he was one of the
villains in the drama, he would mark me down for his
vengeance once he knew I was here, whereas at present he had
probably forgotten all about me. Besides, if I walked in boldly
I would get no news. If japp and he had a secret, they would
not blab it in my presence.
My next idea was to slip in by the back to the room I had
once lived in. But how was I to cross the road? It ran white
and dry some distance each way in full view of the Kaffir with
the horses. Further, the store stood on a bare patch, and it
would be a hard job to get in by the back, assuming, as I
believed, that the neighbourhood was thick with spies.
The upshot was that I got my glasses and turned them on
the store. The door was open, and so was the window. In the
gloom of the interior I made out Henriques' legs. He was
standing by the counter, and apparently talking to Japp. He
moved to shut the door, and came back inside my focus
opposite the window. There he stayed for maybe ten minutes,
while I hugged my impatience. I would have given a hundred
pounds to be snug in my old room with japp thinking me out
of the store.
Suddenly the legs twitched up, and his boots appeared
above the counter. Japp had invited him to his bedroom, and
the game was now to be played beyond my ken. This was more
than I could stand, so I stole out at the back door and took to
the thickest bush on the hillside. My notion was to cross the
road half a mile down, when it had dropped into the defile of
the stream, and then to come swiftly up the edge of the water
so as to effect a back entrance into the store.
As fast as I dared I tore through the bush, and in about a
quarter of an hour had reached the point I was making for.
Then I bore down to the road, and was in the scrub about ten
yards off it, when the clatter of horses pulled me up again.
Peeping out I saw that it was my friend and his Kaffir follower,
who were riding at a very good pace for the plains. Toilfully
and crossly I returned on my tracks to my long-delayed dinner.
Whatever the purport of their talk, Japp and the Portuguese
had not taken long over it.
In the store that afternoon I said casually to Japp that I had
noticed visitors at the door during my dinner hour. The old
man looked me frankly enough in the face. 'Yes, it was Mr
Hendricks,' he said, and explained that the man was a Portuguese
trader from Delagoa way, who had a lot of Kaffir stores
east of the Lebombo Hills. I asked his business, and was told
that he always gave Japp a call in when he was passing.
'Do you take every man that calls into your bedroom, and
shut the door?' I asked.
Japp lost colour and his lip trembled. 'I swear to God, Mr
Crawfurd, I've been doing nothing wrong. I've kept the
promise I gave you like an oath to my mother. I see you
suspect me, and maybe you've cause, but I'll be quite honest
with you. I have dealt in diamonds before this with Hendricks.
But to-day, when he asked me, I told him that that business
was off. I only took him to my room to give him a drink. He
likes brandy, and there's no supply in the shop.'
I distrusted Japp wholeheartedly enough, but I was convinced
that in this case he spoke the truth.
'Had the man any news?' I asked.
'He had and he hadn't,' said Japp. 'He was always a sullen
beggar, and never spoke much. But he said one queer thing.
He asked me if I was going to retire, and when I told him
"yes," he said I had put it off rather long. I told him I was as
healthy as I ever was, and he laughed in his dirty Portugoose
way. "Yes, Mr Japp," he says, "but the country is not so
healthy." I wonder what the chap meant. He'll be dead of
blackwater before many months, to judge by his eyes.'
This talk satisfied me about Japp, who was clearly in
desperate fear of offending me, and disinclined to return for
the present to his old ways. But I think the rest of the afternoon
was the most wretched time in my existence. It was as plain as
daylight that we were in for some grave trouble, trouble to
which I believed that I alone held any kind of clue. I had a
pile of evidence - the visit of Henriques was the last bit -
which pointed to some great secret approaching its disclosure.
I thought that that disclosure meant blood and ruin. But I
knew nothing definite. If the commander of a British army had
come to me then and there and offered help, I could have done
nothing, only asked him to wait like me. The peril, whatever
it was, did not threaten me only, though I and Wardlaw and
Japp might be the first to suffer; but I had a terrible feeling
that I alone could do something to ward it off, and just what
that something was I could not tell. I was horribly afraid, not
only of unknown death, but of my impotence to play any
manly part. I was alone, knowing too much and yet too little,
and there was no chance of help under the broad sky. I cursed
myself for not writing to Aitken at Lourenco Marques weeks
before. He had promised to come up, and he was the kind of
man who kept his word.
In the late afternoon I dragged Wardlaw out for a walk. In
his presence I had to keep up a forced cheerfulness, and I
believe the pretence did me good. We took a path up the Berg
among groves of stinkwood and essenwood, where a failing
stream made an easy route. It may have been fancy, but it
seemed to me that the wood was emptier and that we were
followed less closely. I remember it was a lovely evening, and
in the clear fragrant gloaming every foreland of the Berg stood
out like a great ship above the dark green sea of the bush.
When we reached the edge of the plateau we saw the sun
sinking between two far blue peaks in Makapan's country, and
away to the south the great roll of the high veld. I longed
miserably for the places where white men were thronged
together in dorps and cities.
As we gazed a curious sound struck our ears. It seemed to
begin far up in the north - a low roll like the combing of
breakers on the sand. Then it grew louder and travelled
nearer - a roll, with sudden spasms of harsher sound in it;
reminding me of the churning in one of the pot-holes of
Kirkcaple cliffs. Presently it grew softer again as the sound
passed south, but new notes were always emerging. The echo
came sometimes, as it were, from stark rock, and sometimes
from the deep gloom of the forests. I have never heard an
- actual [´æktʃuəl]
a.现实的；实际的 (初中英语单词) - mystery [´mistəri] n.神秘；秘密；故弄玄虚 (初中英语单词)
- meanwhile [´mi:n´wail] n.&ad.其间；同时 (初中英语单词)
- absence [´æbsəns] n.不在，缺席；缺乏 (初中英语单词)
- impression [im´preʃən] n.印刷；印象；效果 (初中英语单词)
- conceal [kən´si:l] vt.藏；隐瞒 (初中英语单词)
- glimpse [glimps] n.&v.瞥见 (初中英语单词)
- excitement [ik´saitmənt] n.兴奋；骚动；煽动 (初中英语单词)
- puzzle [´pʌzl] n.迷(惑) v.(使)迷惑 (初中英语单词)
- whatever [wɔt´evə] pron.&a.无论什么 (初中英语单词)
- sacred [´seikrid] a.神圣的；庄严的 (初中英语单词)
- civilization [,sivilai´zeiʃən] n.文明，文化 (初中英语单词)
- conclusion [kən´klu:ʒən] n.结束；结论；推论 (初中英语单词)
- impulse [´impʌls] n.推动(力)；冲动；刺激 (初中英语单词)
- advise [əd´vaiz] vt.忠告；建议；通知 (初中英语单词)
- safely [´seifli] ad.安全地；平安地 (初中英语单词)
- helmet [´helmit] n.钢盔 (初中英语单词)
- companion [kəm´pæniən] n.同伴；同事；伴侣 (初中英语单词)
- curiosity [,kjuəri´ɔsiti] n.好奇；奇事；珍品 (初中英语单词)
- interview [´intəvju:] n.&vt.接见；会见；交谈 (初中英语单词)
- dislike [dis´laik] vt.&n.不喜爱，厌恶 (初中英语单词)
- whereas [weər´æz] conj.鉴于；因此；而 (初中英语单词)
- interior [in´tiəriə] n.&a.内部地(的) (初中英语单词)
- hillside [´hilsaid] n.山腰 (初中英语单词)
- stream [stri:m] n.河 vi.流出；飘扬 (初中英语单词)
- swiftly [´swiftli] ad.迅速地，敏捷地 (初中英语单词)
- frankly [´fræŋkli] ad.直率地；慷慨地 (初中英语单词)
- retire [ri´taiə] v.撤退；退职；退休 (初中英语单词)
- wretched [´retʃid] a.可怜的；倒霉的 (初中英语单词)
- existence [ig´zistəns] n.存在；生存；生活 (初中英语单词)
- pointed [´pɔintid] a.尖(锐)的；中肯的 (初中英语单词)
- definite [´definit] a.确定的，明确的 (初中英语单词)
- commander [kə´mɑ:ndə] n.指挥员，司令员 (初中英语单词)
- threaten [´θretn] v.恐吓；有....的危险 (初中英语单词)
- knowing [´nəuiŋ] a.会意的，心照不宣的 (初中英语单词)
- writing [´raitiŋ] n.书写；写作；书法 (初中英语单词)
- presently [´prezəntli] ad.不久；目前 (初中英语单词)
- resignation [,rezig´neiʃən] n.辞职(书)；放弃；顺从 (高中英语单词)
- counter [´kauntə] n.计算者；柜台；计算机 (高中英语单词)
- bridle [´braidl] n.(马)笼头；束缚 (高中英语单词)
- needless [´ni:dləs] a.不必要的；无用的 (高中英语单词)
- apparently [ə´pærəntli] ad.显然，表面上地 (高中英语单词)
- clatter [´klætə] n.&v.喧嚷；骚动 (高中英语单词)
- pretence [pri´tens] n.假装；托词；无理要求 (高中英语单词)
- fragrant [´freigrənt] a.芳香的，芬芳的 (高中英语单词)
- plateau [´plætəu] n.高原；平稳；托盘 (高中英语单词)
- happening [´hæpəniŋ] n.事件，偶然发生的事 (英语四级单词)
- countryside [´kʌntrisaid] n.乡下，农村 (英语四级单词)
- ridden [´ridn] ride 的过去分词 (英语四级单词)
- resolved [ri´zɔlvd] a.决心的；坚定的 (英语四级单词)
- honeymoon [´hʌnimu:n] n.蜜月 (英语四级单词)
- schoolroom [´sku:lru:m, -rum] n.教室 (英语四级单词)
- impatience [im´peiʃəns] n.不耐烦，急躁 (英语四级单词)
- brandy [´brændi] n.白兰地酒 (英语四级单词)
- preoccupied [pri´ɔkjupaid] a.被先占的；出神的 (英语六级单词)
- waistcoat [´weskət, ´weiskəut] n.背心，马甲 (英语六级单词)
- defile [di´fail] vt.弄脏，玷污 (英语六级单词)
- purport [´pə:pɔ:t, -pət] n.意义 vt.意味着 (英语六级单词)
- horribly [´hɔrəbli] ad.恐怖地 (英语六级单词)
- cheerfulness [´tʃiəfulnis] n.高兴，愉快 (英语六级单词)
文章标签:名著
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