A Frontier Mystery Part 2

"I'd have hammered him to pulp if he had."

"Just so. You may as well give up all idea of farming here at this rate, Sewin, if you intend to keep on on that tack. The fellow didn't do it, because in all probability he hadn't the ghost of a notion what you were telling him to do. Here. I'll put it to him."

I did so. It was even as I had expected. The boy didn't understand a word of English, and young Sewin couldn't speak a word of Zulu--or at any rate a sentence. I talked to him, but it was not much use. He would leave, he declared. He was not going to stand being punched. If he had had an a.s.segai or a stick perhaps the other would not have had things all his own way, he added meaningly.

In secret I sympathised with him, but did not choose to say so. What I did say was:

"And you would spend some years--in chains--mending the roads and quarrying stones for the Government? That would be a poor sort of satisfaction, would it not?"

"_Au_! I am not a dog," he answered sullenly. "Tyingoza is my chief.

But if the Government says I am to stand being beaten I shall cross Umzinyati this very night, and go and _konza_ to Cetywayo. Now, this very night."

I advised him to do nothing in a hurry, because anything done in a hurry was sure to be badly done. I even talked him over to the extent of making him promise that he would not leave at all, at any rate until he had some fresh grievance--which I hoped to be able to ensure against.

"Come on in, Glanton," sung out young Sewin, impatiently. "Or are you going to spend the whole evening jawing with that infernal young sweep.

I suppose you're taking his part."

This was pretty rough considering the pains I had been at to smooth the way for these people in the teeth of their own pig-headed obstinacy.

But I was not going to quarrel with this cub.

"On the contrary," I said, "I was taking yours, in that I persuaded the boy not to clear out, as he was on the point of doing."

"Did you? Well then, Glanton, you won't mind my saying that it's a pity you did. D'you think we're going to keep any blasted n.i.g.g.e.r here as a favour on his part?"

"Answer me this," I said. "Are you prepared to herd your own sheep--_slaag_ them, too--milk your own cows, and, in short, do every darn thing there is to be done on the farm yourselves?"

"Of course not. But I don't see your point. The country is just swarming with n.i.g.g.e.rs. If we kick one off the place, we can easily get another. Just as good fish in the sea, eh?"

"Are there? This colony contains about four hundred thousand natives-- rather more than less--and if you go on as you're doing, Sewin, you'll mighty soon find that not one of those four hundred thousand will stay on your place for love or money. Not only that, but those around here'll start in to make things most unpleasantly lively for you.

They'll _slaag_ your sheep and steal your cattle--and you'll find it too hot altogether to stay. Now you take my advice and go on a new tack altogether."

"Mr Glanton's quite right, Falkner," said a clear voice from the verandah above us--for we had reached the house now, only in the earnestness of our discussion we had not noticed the presence of anybody. "He has told us the same thing before, and I hope he will go on doing so until it makes some impression."

"Oh, as to that, Miss Sewin," I said, idiotically deprecatory, as the Major's eldest daughter came forward to welcome me, "I am only trying to make my experience of service to you."

"I don't know what we should have done without it," she answered, in that sweet and gracious way of hers that always made me feel more or less a fool. In outward aspect she was rather tall, with an exceeding gracefulness of carriage. Her face, if it lacked colour perhaps, was very regular and refined; and would light up in the sweetest possible of smiles. She had grey eyes, large and well-lashed, and her abundant hair was arranged in some wonderful manner, which, while free from plaits and coils, always looked far more becoming than any amount of dressing by a fas.h.i.+onable hairdresser could have rendered it. But there you are.

What do I, a prosaic trader in the Zulu, for all my experience of border and up-country matters, know about such things? So you must take my plain impressions as I give them.

It seemed to me that Falkner Sewin's face had taken on an unpleasant, not to say scowling expression, at his cousin's remarks, and he had turned away to hide it. He was a personable young fellow enough, tall and well set-up, and muscular; handsome too, with a square, determined chin. He had been a few years in the Army, where he had much better have remained, for he seemed to have qualified for civil life by a superlative arrogance, and an overweening sense of his own importance; both doubtless valuable to the accompaniment of jingling spurs and the clank of scabbards, but worse than useless for farming purposes on the Natal border. Towards myself he had begun by adopting a patronising att.i.tude, which, however, he had soon dropped.

The house was a single storied one, surrounded on three sides by a verandah. A large and newly made garden reached round two sides of it, and away, at the further end of this, I could see the residue of the family, occupied with watering-pots, and other implements of the kind.

It was a bright and pleasant spot was this garden, and its colour and sweet odours always conveyed a soothing effect, to my mind, at any rate; for little time or inclination had I for the cultivation of mere flowers. A patch or two of mealies or _amabele_, in a roughly schoffeled-up "land" was about the extent of any "gardening" I allowed myself; wherefore this amazing blend of colour and scent appealed to me all the more.

"Take that chair, Mr Glanton," Miss Sewin went on, pointing to a large cane chair on the verandah. "You must have had a hot ride. Falkner, you might see that Mr Glanton's horse is looked after. Call one of the boys and have him taken round and fed. The others are somewhere down in the garden, Mr Glanton. You know, my father is just wild on getting up a garden here. It occupies his time nearly the whole day long."

"And very well he has done with it hitherto, Miss Sewin," I answered heartily. "It is a pleasure to see it. You know, we rough knockabouts haven't much time for that sort of thing. But we appreciate it, or its results, all the more when we see them."

"But don't you ever feel inclined to make things bright and pretty about your place?" she went on. "I should have thought you could have managed to find an hour or two a day. Or are you always so very busy up there?"

I felt guilty, as I remembered how I was prevented, not by lack of time but inclination: my spare time being occupied mainly by taking it easy, and smoking pipes and chatting with any chance natives who happened along; or it might be, sneaking about in the thick bushy kloofs to get a shot at a buck. But I answered, somewhat lamely:

"Oh, as to that, it isn't exactly a matter of time. The fact is, Miss Sewin, we get into certain habits of life, and can't get out of them in a hurry. I suppose a knockabout like myself gets all the taste for the fine arts knocked out of him. And the art of laying out gardens is one of the fine arts."

She looked at me, I thought, with something of interest in her wide eyes. Then she said:

"Ah, but, you knockabouts--your own word remember, Mr Glanton--" she interjected, with a smile, "are, or ought to be, among the most useful men a country like this can produce. You are constantly in touch with the savages by whom we are surrounded. You know their ways and their thoughts and all about them, and your knowledge cannot but be invaluable to your fellow-countrymen."

I felt pleased. She had a way of what I will call for want of a better expression--smoothing you down the right way. I said:

"But these savages, Miss Sewin. Believe me, they are not half bad fellows at bottom if you take them the right way. You haven't got to go very far down to find them so, either."

"And we take them the wrong way, isn't that what you mean?" she answered, with another of her somewhat disturbing smiles. "I believe you are quite right--in fact I know you are--and I am always saying so.

But, here are the others. I hope you will keep on telling them the same thing, over and over again until they see it themselves, if it isn't too late."

"I will. But you? You yourself. Don't you find this rough country and rough life a sadly different thing to what you had expected?" I said.

"Not 'sadly' different. On the contrary, it is full of interest. To begin with, these same savages interest me immensely. I should like to learn their language. Is it easy?"

"To tell the truth I don't know whether it is or not. I didn't _learn_ it, myself. I sort of absorbed it. But I can tell you it makes all the difference in the world if you can talk with them and understand them or not. If you can I can't imagine any people more easy to get on with."

"Then I will begin to learn it at once. You will help me, won't you, Mr Glanton?"

Great Heavens! What was this? I began to see all over the world, as if my head was screwed on all ways at once. Would I help her? Oh, wouldn't I! Here was a bond of union set up between us--one that would afford me ample pretext for riding over here very often: that would bring us together often and constantly. It seemed as if a new and very bright world had opened in front of me--and yet and yet--what an utter fool I was--I, G.o.dfrey Glanton, prosaic knockabout trader in the Zulu, and not a particularly young one at that!

CHAPTER FOUR.

MY NEIGHBOUR'S HOUSEHOLD.

"Ha, Glanton! Glad to see you!" cried the Major, shaking me heartily by the hand. "Why, I was beginning to wonder when we should see you again.

Was afraid you had started again on some up-country trip, and by Jove, there are one or two things I want your opinion about. We'll talk of them bye and bye."

"All right, Major. Only too glad to be of use."

He was a fine specimen of the best type of old soldier--tall, straight, handsome, hearty and straightforward in manner--in short a gentleman every inch of him. I had a great liking for him, and for his own sake alone would have gone far towards smoothing his difficulties and straightening things out for him no matter how crooked they might be, thanks to his own wrongheadedness. His wife was a good counterpart of him--without his wrongheadedness--and quite free from the fads and fussiness apparently inseparable from most elderly ladies, which render their presence and company a matter for resigned toleration rather than any sort of pleasure or advantage. To such Mrs Sewin was a rare and remarkable exception. The youngest daughter, Edith, was outwardly a complete contrast to her stately sister, being shorter, and plump and fair-haired, but very pretty--and sunny-natured to a degree. In fact I believe that to most men she would have proved the more attractive of the two.

"Have a gla.s.s of grog, Glanton, after your ride," said the Major.

"Well, and how's trade?"

"So so. Much as usual. I'm thinking of a couple of months' trip to the north of Zululand soon. I might pick up some good cattle in Hamu's and Majendwa's part, and Zulu oxen always find a good sale."

"Into Zululand?" repeated Falkner, who had just entered. "By Jove, Glanton, I'd like to go with you. Wouldn't I just."

I hope I didn't show that I wouldn't like anything of the sort. I may have, for I was never a good actor, except in dealing with savages.

"That wouldn't be impossible," I answered. "But what about the farm?"

I read "Hang the farm!" as plain as possible in his face, though he hadn't said it. What he did say was: