Having secured a room at Polley’s Hotel he had a much needed bath then, despite the hour, hastened out again.
At the Jacarandas he was shown into the same room that Patricia had admired five days before. Van Niekerk, tall, slim and tanned, was there, and with him a fair-haired, blueeyed girl whom he introduced as his sister Sarie.
‘We were expecting you,’ Cornelius said at once. ‘I’m so glad you didn’t put off your call until to-morrow. Sarie was certain that you would come in on the Union Limited so we’ve taken it for granted that you’ll dine with us.’
‘How very nice of you both.’ Sandy smiled from one to the other. ‘I was afraid you would think me a lunatic when you got my telegram, but I sent it on the off-chance that it would stop you saying anything to various other people—if I happened to be delayed in Cape Town.’
‘It was just as well you did.’ Van Niekerk smiled back at him. ‘They were here the other day. A sour-faced looking old chap, a girl who was not unlike my sister here in a way only darker, and a most awful blackguard. Will you have sherry or gin and French?’
‘Gin and French, thanks.’ Sandy moved over to the table where his host was pouring drinks and added hastily: ‘I know who the old man and the girl are, I suppose they must have come down by air, but tell me about this other chap.’
‘Ach now! let’s see. He was a good six foot tall and broad with it. Rather a puffy face with dark eyes that I didn’t much like the look of and he had that sort of beastly insincere heartiness that always makes me want to scream.’
‘By Jove! that sounds like Philbeach, the murderous devil who darned nearly did me in three weeks ago.’
‘You don’t seem much the worse for it,’ the girl observed and Sandy turned to look at her again. She was tall and slim like her brother with a healthy colouring which spoke of open air and exercise and, as he caught her smiling eyes, he thought again how good it was to be back, once more, in his own country.
‘Luckily I’ve got a pretty solid skull,’ he assured her. ‘Most Scotsmen have.’
‘You’re not a South African then?’ she asked in surprise. ‘We naturally assumed you were—as you were at Cape University with our cousin Paul.’
‘Oh yes I am,’ he said with a quick laugh. ‘One hundred per cent South African. I was born here and although my mother was British my father’s people have lived in the Cape for three generations—I was only talking of my Scottish ancestry.’
The black house-boy, in his white livery and red sash, appeared in the doorway. ‘Dinner is ready, Missis,’ he announced in almost a whisper.
‘Do you mind if we go in at once?’ said Sarie, looking at her guest. ‘Bring your drink with you.’
Over dinner Sandy laid the whole position before his new friends. It took most of the time that they were occupied with the meal, and except for a few casual references to things which he had heard his father say about old John Thomas Long, Van Niekerk remained practically silent, playing the part together with his sister, of interested listeners.
When they had returned to the lounge, Cornelius looked at Sandy and said gravely: ‘You know the diamond laws. Do you really think that the risk is justified?’
‘I do,’ Sandy nodded. ‘I should certainly not have left my property at the Cape, with the fruit picking in full swing, to chance a term of imprisonment if I didn’t.’
‘And you’re not worried by any moral scruples?’
‘Not in the least. This is our country, isn’t it? And if there is natural wealth in it to be had for the taking, surely we are as much entitled to it as the Diamond Kings who’ve had these laws passed to protect their own interests?’
‘I suppose thai is so.’
‘Well, that’s how I look at it.’ Sandy hurried on. ‘A generation back such a situation could never have occurred. Everybody who had the guts to endure the hardship was entitled to help themselves, and these laws have nothing to do with the preservation of general security and happiness. They have only been pushed through for the benefit of half a dozen wealthy men and a few thousand shareholders in London and the other European Capitals.’
‘That’s true—and you are starting out for this place on your own?’
Sandy nodded vigorously, his unruly lock of hair falling over his dark eyes which were shining with excitement. ‘I am—except for such guides and native servants as are absolutely necessary.’
‘I see,’ said the Dutchman thoughtfully. As he moved over to the window Sandy noticed that he limped slightly.
‘The Bennetts wanted me to join them but I would rather go on my own than have to play the part of nurse to inexperienced people in a difficult country, still …’ Sandy paused suddenly.
‘What?’
‘Oh, nothing.’
‘Go on.’
‘Well, if you must know, it just occurred to me that you should also have benefited under my uncle’s Will but your father’s death has deprived you of £20,000.’
‘Yes, I’ve been chewing that over ever since I received your telegram.’
‘D’you mean that you might…?’
‘Why not? Luckily Sarie and I are by no means hard up. The family has had property in Pretoria ever since Pretorious put it on the map, and it is growing in value every year, but I must confess that a real adventure of this sort intrigues me enormously and a hundred thousand if one can make it is a hundred thousand after all.’
‘By Jove!’ Sandy’s face was beaming. ‘This is a different proposition altogether from going in with the Bennetts, and if we ever get to this place there’s a fortune in it for us both.’
‘All right, that’s settled then.’ Cornelius smiled as he handed his guest a little glass of Vanderhum. ‘As you say, there’s plenty in it for both of us if we can only pull it off. Personally I don’t think we need worry ourselves unduly about the police who interest themselves in the Diamond Fields. Most of them must be occupied on the mines that are already working.’
Sarie uncrossed her slim legs and sat forward suddenly. ‘You’ll need a horse-holder while you tackle the leopards and one who is not going to give you away,’ she said quickly.
‘Now, that is quite enough,’ her brother shook his finger at her. ‘This is not the sort of game on which one requires supid creatures like you.’
‘Stupid be damned,’ she cried hotly, much to Sandy’s amusement. ‘I matriculated when I was a year younger than you. I can ride a horse that would throw you on your bottom inside two minutes and I’m by no means convinced that I’m not a better shot.’
Cornelius shook his fair, curly head ruefully. ‘Don’t rub it in, darling. One of the most serious problems in the whole of my young life was to convince our late lamented parent that I wasn’t necessarily a complete fool because you happened to be a brilliant child, but all the same I won’t have you mixed up in this.’
‘Now be sensible.’ Her blue eyes smiled at him from beneath lowered lids. ‘It isn’t as though you are used to really roughing it, Cornelius, you know you can’t with a game leg. The sort of thing we do out at the farm over week-ends is only fun and Mr. McDiamid doesn’t look as if he’d be any more capable of looking after himself than you. If you employ native boys each one you take on will add to the risk of betrayal and arrest. We know we can trust old Willem but he can’t look after the oxen and do the cooking and everything. You’d far better let me come, and between the four of us we shall be able to dispense with outside help except for the actual guide—if we can find one.’
‘All that you say about not trusting a soul more than necessary is absolutely sound.’ Sandy agreed. ‘And although I can do my whack in providing for the pot, you are right about my never having really roughed it. If I had gone on my own I’d have had to employ a native cook, or face the additional hardship of almost uneatable food cooked by myself.’
‘Exactly, and on a journey like this, which is going to be difficult enough anyhow, it may make all the difference between failure and success if the strength of th
e party is kept up by well-cooked, nourishing food.’
‘Yes, but all the same I don’t think you ought to be mixed up in this, because there is a risk of our being sent to prison, you know.’
Cornelius nodded, ‘I quite agree. If this thing were all open and above board I’d love to have you with us, Sarie. As it is, it is quite out of the question.’
‘All right!’ she shrugged her shoulders. ‘But if you don’t agree to take me you don’t get my share of information.’ She stuck out her pointed chin stubbornly.
‘What do you know about it anyhow—that I don’t?’ laughed her brother.
‘Something that may be very useful indeed. You see you never actually met the old man at all, because you were at school when he was here on his last visit. I was only about thirteen myself at the time but I saw quite a lot of him. He often used to sit out there in the garden and talk to me in the way that grown-ups will sometimes to a child. Really that sort of thing is more ruminating to themselves aloud for the purpose of getting their own affairs straight in their minds, without actually confiding their secrets to anyone, and quite honestly I didn’t understand more than a quarter of what he said. Only that he was going to a place where no fruit trees grew, where there were no chocolates, ices, or anything at all to drink, but that there were leopards and snakes and wild cats and hyenas. There was a cave too and he ussed to make funny little models out of the earth to show me what he thought it looked like. He’d ask me, with a sort of funny seriousness, if I would take a chance on swimming down an underground river that went into the face of a mountain, with no sort of certainty as to if one would ever come out on the other side. Bits of those strange monologues have been coming back to me ever since Mr. McDiamid’s telegram arrived, and there’s one thing that I have been trying to remember for days. It is the name of a place which he mentioned quite a number of times and I am certain that it was the village where he was going to secure his guides and porters before setting off into the unknown. Now it’s only ten years since he made the journey, so some of the natives who went with him must still be alive. If you knew it you could go straight there and start making inquiries at once—couldn’t you?’ Her smile deepened, mocking them: ‘Well, the name of that place came back to me last night.’
For a few moments the two men argued with her, trying to persuade her to give them the name but she was adamant, and at length a compromise was reached. She should come on the journey but, if they succeeded in their quest, she was to come straight back to Pretoria immediately they reached the fringe of civilisation again, in order that she should not be involved with the illegal business of getting diamonds out of the country.
This decision having been made they went into details of their journey and discussed the prospects of the other parties, but it was not until about an hour later that Cornelius Van Niekerk suddenly stood up and cried:
‘Stop everything! We’re tackling this thing from the wrong angle altogether.’ Then, waving his arms as he limped rapidly up and down the room, he outlined a completely new plan.
‘By Jove!’ cried Sandy. ‘You’re right! And that’s the way it’s got to be done.’
10
From the Cape through the Karroo to First-hand Information
The Bennett party’s decision to come north on the Union Limited directly the Castle Boat docked at Cape Town had been governed by a piece of good fortune on the ship. No sooner had the liner left Southampton than Michael secured a passenger list from the second purser. Their arrangements were, at that time, to stay in Cape Town first of all to get in touch with Mrs. Orkney, then proceed to the Van Niekerks at Pretoria, and lastly go down to Joe-Jack Mahout’s at Durban. But Michael pointed out to his half-brothers that it was quite on the cards that one or all of these people had changed their address since the dates mentioned in his uncle’s Will. There were a considerable number of South Africans travelling on the ship and he suggested that, if they made it their business to question every one of these, it was just possible that they might pick up some later information regarding the people with whom they wished to get in touch.
If he had had to do the job of introducing himself to the several hundred passengers he would have found it an unpleasant and almost impossible task, because, although he was not shy with people whom he liked, he was always reluctant to force himself upon strangers. Fortunately, however, George did not suffer from this squeamishness. In his opinion it was the sacred duty of every person on the ship to know everybody else if the trip was to be anything like a success.
How it was done Michael never quite understood. It may have been that George was the first person to offer the ship’s doctor a drink immediately the hatch in the bar went up on their leaving port, or it may have been his arrangement that they should sit at the Chief Purser’s table, but the fact remains that, elected by nobody quite knew who, George became chairman of the Entertainment and Sports Committee for the voyage. After that Michael’s task was easy. From eight o’clock in the morning until the passengers were sent to bed George was to be seen puffing up and down the ladders from one deck to another, a constant stream of jovial badinage floating from his lips and with lists of every description in his hands. With equal enthusiasm he arranged the shuffle board, ping-pong, deck tennis and bridge tournaments. He bullied reluctant people into making an asinine display of themselves on the night of the fancy dress dance in crepe paper, coloured cottons, and horse-hair procured from the barber’s shop. He sucked money from them for sweepstakes, seamen’s charities and for a woman in the third class who had given birth to twins.
In the course of these activities he very soon became acquainted with all his fellow passengers and while a certain number regarded him as a perfect pest the majority looked on him as a jolly good fellow, who undertook the extensive labour of arranging all the amusements which they enjoyed. Before they were four days out, he knew their ailments, businesses, addresses in South Africa or England, personal idiosyncrasies and capacity for drink, so it was easy enough for him to introduce Michael to any of those returning to their own country who might possibly be able to give him the information which they sought.
He did not learn anything of interest however, until George, mopping his bald head with a brightly-coloured handkerchief as he arranged the ceremonies for crossing the line, caught sight of an elderly lady in a deck-chair and, seeing Michael standing near her, introduced them.
Mrs. Witney’s name appeared in only one of George Bennett’s many lists, that of the Bridge Tournament; and it was for this reason that he had not thought of introducing Michael to her before. While he dashed off in frantic haste to hunt for Neptune’s crown which had been mislaid by the elderly bachelor who was taking the sea king’s part, Michael settled down beside the slim, grey-haired lady with the kind, humorous eyes. He liked her immediately and saw quite a lot of her during the remainder of the voyage, but on the first afternoon he discovered that, although she was not a South African, she knew Aileen Orkney well. She was even aware of the wonderful legacy which had fallen to her friend only a few weeks before, and told him at once that Mrs. Orkney had left Cape Town at least a couple of years before, had lived for some time in Rhodesia, and was now settled in Johannesburg. Further Mrs. Witney told him that he would find Aileen a charming person and provided him with a letter of introduction which would facilitate his inquiries.
In the days which followed Michael talked with many other people until, when they at last reached Cape Town, he had questioned practically everybody upon the ship. The only other information which he secured was that Van Niekerk had left two children, Cornelius and Sarie, who were still believed to be living at Pretoria; also a statement from a planter who lived near Durban that he vaguely remembered Joe-Jack Mahout as barman at the Royal Hotel some seven years before.
By the time they reached Cape Town the Bennetts and Michael were glad that the voyage was over. At first it had been a pleasant rest, free from anxiety and the petty worries of everyday life;
but as they neared their destination they began to tire of the routine and suffered from the loss of appetite common to travellers who have been living for more than a fortnight upon foods, the original flavours of which have lost their individuality through refrigeration. They felt compensated to some extent by their gradually browning skins acquired with infinite pain by sunbathing.
On February 13th they were roused, quite unnecessarily, by the stewards several hours before there was even a possibility of the emigration authorities coming on board, but their reward was to see Table Bay in the first flush of the dawn as the ship slowly steamed past Robin Island.
Unlike the previous day when Sandy had seen it at its greatest beauty the top of Table Mountain was overhung by billowing white cloud, the fringe of which seemed always about to roll down the precipitous sides, yet evaporated in curling wisps before obscuring the greater portion of the mountain.
By ten o’clock the formalities of landing were over and the three were taking a second breakfast in the restaurant car of the Union Limited. By half past they were clear of the city and running swiftly through the fertile valley with its lovely old Dutch houses and carefully tended vineyards. An hour and a half later they began the great climb from sea level to two thousand feet up in the mountains and while they lunched the glorious panorama of the Hex River, winding its way between giant cliffs a quarter of a mile below, was spread out before them in the brilliant sunshine.
By the early afternoon they had entered the Karroo and were surprised to find that it was not completely flat as they had assumed from what the South Africans on the boat had told them. On the horizon steep kopjes, the tops of which had been sliced off flat as a table by the glaciers of the last ice age, rose from the barren, rocky, uneven ground; the desolation of this great upland plateau had not been exaggerated. Many miles separated each wayside half from its neighbour and apart from these not a solitary house was to be seen in that parched, inhospitable country. No trees or crops broke the monotony of the reddish boulder-strewn ground, only one variety of stunted shrub—the karroo bush, which exists miraculously even after years of drought, and is sufficient for the great flocks of sheep to feed on that constitute the only industry possible in that great trackless area.
The Fabulous Valley Page 8
