"If I take my horses again through the dunes this weather, they will be
quite knocked up. You had better bring your own trap and mules, and we
will go round the other way."
Nathan stood still, and his companion faced him. Then he repeated the
pantomime in which his tongue, the whites of his eyes, and the butt of
his ear were so suggestively in evidence. The face of Koos turned to
the colour of ashes, and he trembled as though he had a fit of ague.
Nathan again dug him playfully in the ribs.
"It's all right, old man, you need not get yourself into a state. I'm
fond of you, Koos; I really am--in fact I wouldn't hurt you for the
world. Besides, I'm very fond of your wife. Ain't she a pretty woman,
eh? I say, Koos, did you ever see a man hanged?"
The Boer shook like an aspen through every fibre of his immense frame.
His breath came in husky gasps.
"It's all right, old man," continued Nathan, "it's only my fun. We'll
start to-morrow morning before it gets too hot, eh? Your horses will do
it right enough. If the weather is very hot I'll get you to drive me
back the other way. I'm not going to ask you to take me to Clanwilliam
this time. I'm always willing to oblige a friend--ain't I, now?"
Just as night was falling Oom Schulpad went for a walk to the other side
of the group of kopjes. It was dark when he returned, carrying a large
armful of candle-bushes, which he had collected during the day and
hidden in a safe place. He took these--not to the scherm belonging to
the camp at which he was a guest, but to the deserted scherm formerly
occupied by Gert Gemsbok. The scattered bushes of the scherm fence he
rearranged, not against the wind but on the side facing the shop. He
piled the candle-bushes upon the cold hearth and then stole quietly
away.
Later, when the lights began to go out in the camps, he stepped quietly
out of the mat-house, in which he was in the habit of sleeping, with his
fiddle under his arm, and went softly up the hillside. When he reached
the deserted scherm he laid himself down behind the rearranged fence,
lit his pipe, and waited.
Koos Bester had no supper. After he had parted from Nathan he went and
sat upon a rock a short distance from where his cart was standing. His
horses were hobbled close by on the side of the kopje. He wanted their
companionship during the interminable hours of the coming darkness.
His terrors of the supernatural had, for the moment, burnt themselves
out. It was the sense of being subject to the ruthless bondage of
Nathan which, just now, maddened him. He did not expect to sleep, but
he thought he might be able to rest, wrapped in the regal quiet of the
night.
When all was still, when the very last glimmer of light had disappeared
from the camps, Koos arose and returned to his cart. He wrapped himself
in his blanket and lay down between the wheels. His brain seemed to
become a little cooler; the dulness of utter fatigue benumbed his
faculties and mitigated his tribulation. He felt the gracious touch of
the wing of Sleep across his eyelids. Surely God was taking pity on
him--
A strange flicker of light rose and fell. What could it possibly mean?
It came from the hillside above the shop. He must get up and see what
it meant. Horror! a bright blaze was rising and falling in the scherm
of the man he had slain. Yet, he tried to reason to himself, what
nonsense to think that there was anything ghostly about the
circumstance. No doubt some wandering--
His hair stood upon end and he shrieked aloud. From the scherm arose
the notes of the air he knew so well. Struck from the strings, the
pizzicato tones of the deadly tune seemed to run through his body until
every nerve vibrated with the hateful sound. He rushed across the
intervening space and beat with his fists against the iron door of
Nathan's bedroom, until the whole building thundered.
Nathan sprang out of bed in deadly fear.
"Who is that, and what is the matter?" he called.
"Open, quick! It is I, Koos. Open, open!"
Nathan drew back the bolt and Koos sprang into the room, panting.
"I have seen his ghost--it is there in the scherm."
"Rot, Koos. Go to bed."
"It is there; go and see for yourself."
Nathan had no fear whatever of the supernatural. He slipped on a pair
of shoes and came outside, followed by the trembling Boer. All was in
darkness; not the faintest glimmer of light could be seen in the
neighbourhood of the scherm, not a sound broke the stillness of the
night.
"Why, you must have the `rats,' Koos. Go to bed."
Koos begged humbly to be allowed to lie down on the floor in Nathan's
room until morning. Nathan grumbled a bit, but at last consented to
grant his request.