A Veldt Official Part 15

The weeks that followed this pa.s.sing through of the first band of defenders of their "'arths, 'omes, and haltars," as their spokesman graphically put it, while returning thanks for attentions received during their sojourn, const.i.tuted to Doppersdorp a period of the most delicious excitement. Some startling and sensational report was of daily occurrence, borne mainly on the wings of rumour and impracticable of verification; for that centre of light and leading, notwithstanding its huge importance in the eyes of its citizens, was yet without such an appliance of modern civilisation as telegraphic communication. What mattered it, as long as things were kept alive, and everybody was happy!

And things were kept alive, with felicitous results.

To begin with, there arose a large demand for firearms of all sorts.

This was good for the store-keepers, who booked orders briskly; for the farmers in the district, Dutch or English, were particular as to the quality of their weapons, but at such a juncture were less so as to price, as long as they were quickly supplied. So great consignments of rifles, and revolvers, and ammunition, were slowly and painfully hauled up to Doppersdorp from the coast ports, and the store-keepers were delighted. So too were the Government contractors; for the Barabastadt contingent, if the first, was not the only mounted corps to pa.s.s through the towns.h.i.+p; and did not each and all require forage and rations?

Again, the martial ardour gave a great impetus to volunteering, distinctly to the advantage of the community at large, in that this afforded an outlet to the energy of the local youth in the shape of nightly drill. Such energy was thus better utilised than in taking to pieces the vehicle of some unoffending and unsuspecting Boer, which might be standing unguarded in an accessible spot, or in balancing a beam of wood with murderous intent against the door of some unpopular citizen. Further, it had the effect of drafting off a selection of volunteers upon active service to the front; and, whereas these consisted, for the most part, of rowdy and undisciplined spirits, their absence could not fail to be advantageous to Doppersdorp. What their respective commanders at the seat of hostilities might be found to say on the matter was another thing. Even the Resident Magistrate was bitten with the prevailing death-or-glory fever; but alas! his proposal to turn out the whole district under arms at a day's notice, and to lead it in the field at the service of the Government, provided the requisite leave and Field-commandant's commission were granted him, was met on the part of that unappreciative ent.i.ty with signal ingrat.i.tude--curt refusal, to wit, bordering on snub. So having sworn for about five minutes upon the perusal of this reply, cheery little Peter Van Stolz lounged into the clerk's office, and having once more delivered himself of his views on the subject of Governments in general, and that of the Cape Colony in particular, lighted his pipe, declared that he didn't care a d.a.m.n, and that, after all, he'd be the same sort of fool to fling away his acc.u.mulation of leave, roughing it in the veldt and feeding on unvaried trek-ox, instead of running down to Cape Town to put in the same period among his relatives and old friends, and having a particularly good time. So he stayed at home perforce, to direct the labours of the Civil establishment of Doppersdorp, which, in common with most of those in the border districts, were very much swelled by the outbreak of hostilities.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

A LIMED TWIG.

Roden Musgrave was seated in his quarters, alone.

It was a dark, rainy night, and rather a cold one. A snug wood fire burned in the grate, and this he was loath to leave, although it was midnight. Yet the one more pipe which he had humbugged conscience into allowing would prove the necessary sedative, was smoked out; nor was there any further excuse for delaying bed. But just as he had risen to carry out that intent, there came a knock at the back door.

The house, we have said, was a very small one--two rooms in front, which its occupant used as bedroom and sitting-room, and two at the back, a storeroom and kitchen, which latter he did not use, save for stowing away lumber. There was no hall, the front and back doors opening into the sitting-room and kitchen respectively. Towards the latter Roden now made his way, wondering the while; for the knock had been a stealthy one--unmistakably so--and of as faint a nature as was compatible with audibility at all. As he paused to listen, Roden laughed grimly to himself, deeming he could guess at its meaning, and was just turning away to leave it unanswered when it was renewed, and with it, his ear caught the ba.s.s whisper of a Kaffir voice. This put another light on the case. A matter of duty might be involved.

"What do you want?" he said, suddenly throwing open the door. The light he carried fell upon the form of a single Kaffir, who grinned.

"Why, it's Tom," went on Roden, holding the lantern to the man's face, and recognising a particularly civil and good-humoured store-boy, in the employ of the abominable Sonnenberg. "Well, Tom, what the deuce do you want with me at this time of night? If it's another complaint against your _baas_, you'll have to wait till to-morrow, my boy."

This, in allusion to a past case of disputed wages, wherein Tom had summoned his Hebraic employer before Mr Van Stolz, and had won. Yet Sonnenberg had still kept him in his service. Now the Kaffir grinned and shook his head. It was no case of the kind, he declared, and his manner was mysterious. Would the _baas_ let him come in for a little while and talk, and above all things shut the door? He had something very important to discuss. Roden, impressed by the mysteriousness of his manner, complied without hesitation. Yet, in all probability, it was some commonplace trifle. Natives were p.r.o.ne to blow out a frog into an ox.

Seen in the light of the room, this mysterious midnight visitor was a st.u.r.dy, thick-set Kaffir, of medium height, with a peculiarly open and honest countenance. He was dressed in the ordinary slop clothes of a store or stable-boy, more or less tattered, and more or less ingeniously repaired with twine or bits of _reimpje_. He was a Tembu from Umfanta's location, and knowing this, Roden was prepared for some revelation of a possibly startling character--if true, that is--for there were extensive Tembu locations in the district, which, though peaceful on the whole, were not impervious to the wave of restlessness contingent upon hostilities in the Transkei, and radiating among the tribes within the Colonial borders.

No revelation of a dark and b.l.o.o.d.y plot, however, no intelligence of a secret midnight rising, was destined to fall upon Roden's official ears; for speaking in Boer Dutch with a little indifferent English, his knowledge of both tongues being too limited to admit of the vast amount of parable and circ.u.mlocution wherewith he would have approached the subject in the fluency of his native language, the Kaffir readily came to the point.

The _Baas_ had a gun, not the beautiful new one which he took out to shoot bucks with, explained Tom, with avidity, but an old one which loaded in the old-fas.h.i.+oned way. The _Baas_ wanted to sell that gun, yet no one would buy it. He, Tom, had seen it more than once on _Baas_ Tasker's auction sale, but n.o.body would bid so much as a pound for it.

Now, all this was perfectly true. Roden did own such a piece, a heavy, old-fas.h.i.+oned muzzle-loader, double-barrelled, an excellent gun of its day, and shooting true as true could be with rifled or shot-barrel. But its day had gone by. While there was a brisk demand in Doppersdorp at that time for firearms, such must be breech-loading weapons; at muzzle-loaders n.o.body would so much as look.

Even as the other had said, he had made more than one attempt to sell that gun, but in vain. A Boer now and again would pick it up as it lay in Tasker's auction room, and after eyeing it critically for a moment would replace it with a melancholy shake of the head. "A good _roer_"

would be his verdict, his experienced eye taking in that much. "An excellent _roer_ in its day, but its day is pa.s.sed; we want breech-loaders now." While some Briton of the baser sort, being a shop-boy or waggon-wright's apprentice, with no experience whatever of firearms, would superciliously bid "five bob for the old gas-pipe."

Remembering all this, Roden stared; for now he began to see through this fellow's drift.

"The _Baas_ wanted to sell this gun," continued the Kaffir, but n.o.body would offer anything for it. Now, why not sell it to him? No one would be any the wiser. It was night; no one had seen him come in. That was because he had come so late, and on a dark and rainy night.

"And what do you want to do with it, Tom, when you've got it?"

_Au_! It was not for himself. He was not in want of it. It was for his brother. He would give ten pounds for it, ten pounds down in hard cash.

"That settles the matter, then," said Roden, decisively, intent on drawing him on. "If it's for your brother, I won't have any more to say. Two in an affair of this sort is one too many. But three; oh no!

That deal won't come off, Tom."

The Kaffir looked profoundly disappointed, then muttered a little. Then he said, with a shamefaced laugh--

"It isn't for my brother, _Baas_. That was not true. I want the gun myself. I will give twelve pounds for it. See, I have the money."

He produced a tied-up rag, an exceedingly dirty and greasy rag, and shook it. The result was a clinking sound, the solid, metallic, comfortable clink of hard gold.

"I can't sell it to you, Tom," said Roden again, thinking the while how he only wished to the Lord he could.

"Look, _Baas_," went on the Kaffir eagerly, his fingers quivering nervously in their hurry, as they struggled with the knots of the greasy rag. "Here is the money; I will give it all. I will give fifteen pounds for the gun; but I can offer no more, for I have no more. Here it is--all."

He had untied the knots of the rag, and was eagerly counting forth its contents upon an old packing case. There they lay, fifteen bright sovereigns, glittering in the light of the lantern.

Roden Musgrave wanted money just as much as the average junior Civil Servant habitually does, or for the matter of that the average senior either. He had repeatedly tried to realise the old muzzle-loader, and had at length given it up in disgust. As the other had said, n.o.body would bid so much as a pound for it. And here was an offer of fifteen sovereigns for it--fifteen sovereigns in hard cash, lying there to be picked up. Of course he knew perfectly well what it was wanted for, but equally did he know that the average Kaffir is so wretched a shot as to be unable to hit a house, unless he were first dropped down the chimney thereof. If this fool, bursting with martial ardour, chose to steal away and join the hostile tribes, he was pretty certain to get bowled over himself, but it was a hundred to one against him being marksman enough to inflict any damage upon the Colonial ranks. Indeed, were it otherwise, what was it to him, Roden? No unit of the extremely limited number in whose well-being he had the faintest interest was at that moment at the front, or was in the least likely to go. "Why should he refuse a good offer, a very good offer?"

He looked at the fifteen sovereigns lying there in a row, and he looked at the Kaffir who was eagerly watching him. The boy had an open, honest face, and might safely be trusted to hold his tongue. Besides, Kaffirs usually keep faith in a fair and straightforward transaction between man and man. A moment more, and he would have concluded the deal, when his instincts of prudence and caution put before him one consideration. He dared not.

Looked at from the lowest grounds, he dared not. Were the transaction brought home to him, it would mean his ruin. He would be ignominiously dismissed his post, and probably proceeded against criminally, into the bargain: result, a ruinous fine, the possibility even of imprisonment without that doleful option. Even the suspicion of such a thing would mean a bar to all his official prospects. Fifteen golden sovereigns were good, but not good enough as a set-off against so tremendous a risk, and the same would apply to six times the sum were it offered.

"I can't do it, Tom," he said, his mind now as thoroughly made up as ever it had been in his life. "The fact is, I dare not."

The other was woefully disappointed. He could not offer more for he had not another farthing in the world. As for any risk he said, he would rather die than break faith by letting out one word on the subject of the transaction to any living soul--white, black, or yellow. Let the _Baas_ cast his eyes backward. Who was there who could say anything against his character, or adduce one single instance of him ever having broken his word? He had been long in Doppersdorp, and had served more than one master; yet no one had anything but good to say about him, except, perhaps, the one he was then serving.

"I tell you, Tom, I can't do it," repeated Roden. "Do you know you are asking me to break the law, which I am here to help administer? Look, now! If you can get the magistrate to give a permit, it's another thing, though even then I should bring a pretty hornet's nest about my ears were the matter known. But you are about as likely to find a magistrate who will consent to sign a permit for the sale of a gun to a Kaffir, while there's war going on between the Colony and that Kaffir's fellow-countrymen as you are to find a Bushman Hottentot who would refuse to get drunk if you made him a present of a bucketful of brandy.

I can't do it, Tom. Wait, though; why don't you get your master, _Baas_ Sonnenberg, to sell you one. He'd sell you a grin of a sort--or his immortal soul, if he's got one--for fifteen sovereigns cash. Try him.

Besides, I should be delighted to have him chocked into the _tronk_ for 'gun-running.' Try him, Tom," he went on, banteringly sneering, as he saw the other start and his face light up eagerly at this reference to Sonnenberg. "Well now, that deal is off, clean off, you understand, so pick up your money again and clear, for it's getting precious late.

Here's a bit of tobacco for you."

The Kaffir picked up the coins in silence, tying them up in the greasy rag as before.

"Fifteen pounds is a lot of money," went on Roden, "and to-morrow you'll be only too glad I didn't take your offer when you find you still have the money, instead of going away to get shot like the rest of your people."

"_Au_!" exclaimed the fellow half to himself, yet looking up briskly as though a new and bright idea had dawned upon him in the words. "When I find I still have the money," he repeated, as he took his leave.

But as he went out, a dark figure, which had been crouching outside against the door throughout the whole of this interview, rose and glided rapidly round the corner, unperceived by Roden Musgrave.

Outside, in the black and rainy street, the Kaffir made his way swiftly towards his master's dwelling, which was odd at that time of night, because he slept at the town location half a mile in the contrary direction, and as he went, closely followed by the stealthy figure, he kept repeating in his own language the words: "When I find I still have the money in the morning... Only too glad. _Yau_!"

With this e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n he stopped short. In the dark and rainy silence the full force of the idea flashed upon him in all its brightness. The result was that he turned, and bent his steps in the direction of his habitual sleeping quarters.

Hardly had he gone ten yards before he was met by the figure which had been following him. Seen in the gloom it was that of a man, a Kaffir, of about the same height and build as Tom himself. The latter, however, showed no surprise or alarm at this sudden meeting, for the two walked together side by side, the low rumble of their ba.s.s voices mingling in converse, together with frequent bursts of half-suppressed but clearly inextinguishable laughter.

Now in the office or den devoted to the shadiest of his transactions-- and he was wont to deal in some very shady transactions--sat Adolphus Sonnenberg, with an expectant, but very evilly exultant expression of countenance, and this increased as the minutes went by. With him also sat Lambert.

Between them was a bottle of grog, gla.s.ses, and a biscuit tin, eke a box of cigars. The expression of Lambert's face was akin to that on the more abominable countenance of the Jew. Both were waiting, for something, for somebody; the most casual spectator might have seen that at a glance.

"Do you think he'll tumble?" the doctor was saying--not for the first time. "Do you think he'll fall into the hole?"

"Tumble? Fall into de hole? I should rather think he would," was the emphatic reply. "These beggarly Civil Servants are all so d.a.m.n hard up, they'd sell their souls for fifteen pounds. And I know Musgrave would."

"Steady, steady! No names," warned the other, glancing furtively around.