remained, and dismounted at the entrance to
ranch-house that night, with a view to saving
the stoep, throwing the reins.
his horse for the long desert marches that were
He strode up and hammered on the
to come. When the sun dipped under the door. No sound came from the house, which horizon, and darkness was a matter of minutes
was already in the long shadows cast by the
he off-saddled, knee-haltered the animal, built
kopjes. There was no sign of life anywhere.
a little fire of dead branches of thorn, and
Luke tried the door and found that it
cooked his supper. He rolled up in his blanket,
was open. He stamped inside, calling. No
and was asleep almost immediately.
sound came but the echo of his own voice.
He was astir at sunrise, shivering in the
The big living-room, which Emmy had
icy wind that would change to a burning furnished tastefully from Cape Town was in sirocco inside of two hours. He upsaddled
disorder. The rugs were disarranged, the table
after a breakfast of coffee, biltong, and a pushed into a corner, three chairs overturned, couple of cakes made hastily on the ashes of
Indication were that a struggle had taken
his fire, and rode on at a leisurely gait. Time
place.
had lost much of its meaning for him in those
What had happened? A marauding
wastes. He calculated on striking the raid, from some wandering tribes? The natives Duplessis ranch about mid-afternoon.
had been at peace for years, and, if such a
All that morning he rode steadily. A
thing had happened, old Duplessis would not
bite of lunch, and on again through the heat of
have been caught napping.
the afternoon. The line of kopjes marking the Sergeant Luke strode through the
fringe of the desert loomed nearer. Now he
house, shouting. He stopped. He thought that
was among them, low, single hills emerging
he heard a moaning sound in answer.
from the plain, their tops heaped fantastically
He stepped into the kitchen and called
with boulders, and crowned with solitary again. This time he heard the answering moan cacti. Baboons barked at him and scampered
distinctly. It came from a small cellar that
away as he threaded the narrow cart track that
Duplessis had hollowed out for a larder.
at last emerged into the Duplessis ranch, the
Luke made his way down the rickety
Action Stories
6
wooden stairs. Hams and dried peaches hung
strap on bandolier, take his rifle, and jump on
from the roof of the little place, barrels of
his horse. In five minutes they both gone
flour and crates of groceries were ranged together toward the Ngami.”
along the sides.
“Go
on!”
The moaning came from a far corner.
“Last night late Van Reenen come
Fighting down his terror, the sergeant made
back, with him that man Brouwer Miss Emmy
his way there.
always scared of and two more. Van Reenen
He was conscious of intense relief. say Baas Jan fell off his horse and hurt Among a heap of old rags and rubbish he saw
himself. Miss Emmy to go back with him
the wizened body and monkey-like face of old
while Brouwer ride for the doctor. Miss
Jantje, Miss Emmy’s Hottentot body-servant.
Emmy is getting ready when I tell her Van
The Hottentot, being of a higher or more Reenen is lying. Then she says she won’t go.
adaptable mentality than the negro, is usually
“She asks questions and sees that Van
attached to the house in a personal capacity,
Reenen is lying. He catches hold of her, and
generally as groom. Jantje had always she fights him. I ran to get gun to shoot them, accompanied Miss Emmy when she went but Van Reenen shot me in the head twice and abroad. He had been with her since she was a
I fell down. They thought I was dead because
baby.
I lay still. They carried me downstairs and
The sergeant saw that the yellow man
threw me into a corner. When they were gone
was unconscious, though he was moaning. He
I tried to get up, but I remembered nothing
had been shot or stabbed. His rags were more till you came, Baas Luke.”
streaked and stained with blood. Stooping, he
“Where have they taken her?”
raised the man in his arms and carried him up
“Into the Ngami. They doing
to the living-room. A quick examination something there, I don’t know what.”
showed that Jantje had been shot twice in the
“Jantje, I’m going to leave for there at
head. Both bullets had glanced off his once. As soon as you are able, hurry to the forehead without shattering the bone, but had
police camp and tell Lieutenant Connell.
traveled around the scalp, causing
“No use, baas. Too long. Jantje go
considerable” loss of blood.
with you. White man cannot follow their
Administering water and binding up
spoor through the desert without Tottie man.
his wounds, Luke soon had the Tottie restored
We go together. See, Jantje strong now.”
to consciousness. Jantje recognized him and
Making a great effort, the little yellow
sat up, jabbering incoherently in Dutch.
man got on his feet and stood looking up into
“Where’s Miss Emmy?” demanded the sergeant’s face with a twisted grin.
Luke in the same language.
“Jantje strong now. No time to go back
“That devil-man Van Reenen take her.
to police camp for help when that devil-man
She fight. No good. Plenty mans along with
and his other devil-mans have got Miss
Van Reenen,” Jantje muttered with an effort.
Emmy.”
“When? Tell me all that happened as
quick as you can!” Luke cried.
Jantje seemed to pull himself together.
CHAPTER III
“Yesterday afternoon Van Reenen come and
THE VALLEY OF GHOSTS
tell Baas Jan there’s a big herd of springbok
out in the Ngami country. Baas Jan go mad.
He stuff a roll of biltong into his saddlebag, SERGEANT LUKE reflected quickly. He
Sand and Diamonds
7
decided that the Hottentot’s advice was sound.
beside it like a dog, picking up the spoor of It would be hopeless for any white man to
the horses as rapidly as was necessary. An
attempt to follow the tracks of horses through
hour or two passed, during which Jantje
the scrub and over the sun-baked ground. changed the course two or three times, before Only a Hottentot or a Bushman could do that.
Luke reined in.
He realized that Hart and the rest of his
“Jantje, you say Van Reenen and his
crew had been in the conspiracy. Hart had told
gang are doing something out in the Ngami
him that Van Reenen had invited Jan country?” he asked. “What is it?”
Duplessis to accompany him on the hunting
Jantje only clicked gutturally in
trip several hours before the invitatio
n had
answer.
actually been extended. Hart must, therefore,
“Are they on Baas Duplessis’s land?”
have known of Van Reenen’s intention.
“All his land everywhere.”
“But can you travel?” Luke asked the
Luke knew that the old Boer’s
Tottie.
holdings covered an immense extent of
“You feed horse; when you finished,
territory. Like the old-fashioned men of his
Jantje strong again.”
nation he lived in dread of being crowded by
Luke knew enough of the recuperative
his neighbors, and being crowded, in the Boer
powers of the natives to believe that Jantje
idea, is being able to see the smoke of your
would prove as good as his word. In spite of
neighbor’s chimney anywhere from your
the urgent need of haste, he must feed his
property. The land in question had been
horse, also pack some oats on his saddle; he
purchased from a native chief years before at
had intended to procure a small sack at the
about a penny for ten acres.
Duplessis ranch in any event. He offsaddled
They went on steadily, while the
the animal, watered him, and fed him in the
terrain grew rougher, threading deep denies
stable, where he filled a small sack with oats,
among the kopjes. Luke did not know whether which he strapped to the saddle. A handful or
Jantje was following the tracks all the way, or
two a day would sufficiently supplement what
whether he had only divined the direction that
the hardy little beast could pick up in the
the kidnapers had taken. It was well on toward
desert.
morning when he told Luke that they were
Jantje, meanwhile, had proceeded to
ready to camp for the remainder of the night.
dig a small tunnel, about nine inches long, in
Luke knew that there was water here
the hard ground outside the house. Kindling a
and there in the Ngami, and his patrol route
handful of a native herb in one end, he ran a
was mapped out to enable him to halt at
quill through the opening and inhaled the various pools that never ran quite dry, being smoke until the last embers had burned away.
fed by subterranean streams. Here, however,
Then, blear-eyed and choking but apparently
being off his course, he was trusting entirely
quite restored to strength by the drug, a to Jantje. He was about to drink from his species of hemp, he sauntered up to the water-bottle when the Tottie signed to him to sergeant, who was ready for the journey.
put it away, and disappeared with a guttural
“You get a horse, Jantje?”
warning.
“Me go on foot.”
Ten minutes later he was back with an
It had grown dark, but there was a
armful of wild melons, bitter gourds with
brilliant moon which shed a bright light over
roots that extended twenty or thirty feet below
the face of the country. Luke let his horse
the ground and tapped the subterranean water
proceed at its comfortable triple. Jantje ran
supply. The horse devoured them greedily,
Action Stories
8
and Luke, scooping out the pulp, as he had
Toward sunset a line of kopjes sprang
learned to do on patrol, quenched his thirst.
up suddenly before them. They were
He dozed at intervals during the approaching them as the sun dipped under the remainder of the night, feverishly impatient to
edge of the sky.
get on, yet knowing that in the desert it is
“They go through there,” said Jantje,
literally a case of the more haste the less
indicating a narrow defile in front of them.
speed. His mind was tortured with fears for
“No go farther.”
Emmy. He started up from an uneasy doze at
“What do you mean?”
dawn, to see Jantje on his hands and knees
“Ghosts walk in that valley, Baas.
beside him, puffing at his remedial herb, while
Tottie man no go on. Ghosts kill Tottie man,
the billy boiled on the fire.
no harm white man.”
A feed for the horse, coffee made of
Without much hope, knowing the
the bitter fluid from the interior of the melons, strength of native superstitions, Luke tried to
and they were off again. Luke asked no more
persuade his companion. The Hottentot,
questions; he could see no trace of spoor upon trembling and mute, refused to go farther. Not
the sun-baked ground, and it seemed even for his beloved Miss Emmy would he impossible that the Tottie could be following
enter the valley ahead, where he believed the
one—yet as Jantje ran before him he scanned
spirits of the dead to dwell.
the ground ceaselessly, turning now to the
“All right, make camp,” said Luke.
right, now to the left.
“I’ll go on. Wait here for me. You think
All the morning they traveled through
they’re in there, do you?”
the howling desert of sand and stones, with
“Three hours ago they pass here,” said
here and there a stunted thorn or mimosa tree.
the Tottie. “Me wait, Baas.”
At noon they halted.
Luke climbed back into his saddle and
“Van Reenen six hours ahead,” the
rode on into the defile. The sun was down by
Tottie volunteered. “Another man join them
the time he reached it. Dark-rode on into the
an hour back.”
defile. The sun was the moon was already
“Let’s
push
on!”
lighting up the sky. The chill night wind made
“When the afternoon grows1 cool, the sergeant shiver after the heat of the day.
Baas.”
Reaching the crest of the narrow pass,
Fuming, Luke was forced to acquiesce.
Luke reined in and looked down into the
He had only a little water left in one of the
valley beneath him. He was surprised to see
bottles, and the last of the melons was gone.
that here the desert yielded to a long extent of
In mid-afternoon, when the sun’s heat
densely set thorn scrub, indicating that there
had begun almost imperceptibly to decline,
was water. The entrance was a winding path
they set off again.
hardly more than three yards across, between
This was the worst stage of the two massive walls of rock.
journey. It was less hot, but nevertheless an
Luke dismounted to survey the valley
inferno. Luke had finished the water, of which
in front of him the better. Leaving his horse he
the little dried-up Tottie had refused to drink.
went on afoot for fifty—a hundred yards. It
Jantje skipped agilely ahead of the panting
was surprising how long the defile was. At
horse, which labored over the stones of that
last, however, it ended abruptly in the large
desolate route. Not a vestige of vegetation was
crater-like bowl of the valley.
to be seen as they threaded their way from one
Something glittering in the moonlight
shallow depression into another.
at his feet arrested his attention. Luke stooped
Sand and Diamonds
9
and picked it up. It was a metal badge of the
mouth and nostrils, and got upon his feet.
Bechuanaland Police. Attached to it were a
He saw that he was standing in a
few shreds of khaki tunic.
circular sandpit, not very much larger than a
The discovery instantly put him on the
spacious room, and perhaps twenty to twenty-
alert. That badge must have been worn by
five feet deep. All around it rose the rock
either Simons or Rawlins. The presence of the
walls of soft, crumbly sandstone, emerging
shreds of cloth indicated that it had been torn
out of banks of shelving sand and gravel. The
by force from the wearer’s shoulder.
floor was strewn with masses of some
One of his two men had been there,
substance gleaming white in the moonlight.
then. The little piece of metal spoke as clearly
Assuring himself that he still had his
of foul play as if Luke had himself witnessed
revolver, and still under the impression that
the scene. The trooper must have been what had happened to him was no more than murdered, and the badge thrown away by his
an accident, Luke made his way toward the
murderer to prevent identification of the wall. He looked about him for some means of remains.
ascent. He began to make a detour of the pit.
Half-involuntarily
Sand and Diamonds By Victor Rousseau Page 2
