Gonya's kloof seemed no longer the same place. The period of suspense
following upon George's committal told upon all of us, seeming to cast a
gloom over everything, damping our spirits. Of myself especially did
this hold good, for Beryl was no longer there. She and Iris had
remained in Fort Lamport after the preliminary examination staying with
friends, and we three men were alone.
What a difference it made! During the months I had already spent on the
place, Beryl had never been absent for a single day, and now that
presence which had rendered the hardest of toil sweet, and irradiated
the norm of the daily round with a glow that seemed hardly of earth--to
myself, that is--was now removed. Yet the sun shone just as brightly
and the generous riches of Nature expanded around with the same fairness
to eye and sense; but--to myself--all lay as beneath the shadow of a
cloud.
Many times a day would I recall the keenness of the pang when she had
told us of her intention to remain in the town for the present. The
announcement was made in the presence of several persons, or there was
no telling how I might have taken it. As it was, I have a confused
recollection of turning on a vacuous grin, and hoping she would enjoy
her stay; which was about as idiotic a rejoinder as even I could have
been guilty of, considering that a state of anxious suspense would be
the family portion for perhaps weeks to come. Well, she had removed her
presence from among us, and to me it seemed that all the savour had gone
out of life. And if this was so during a matter of days or weeks, what
would it mean if extended throughout life?
This consideration had rather a maddening effect. Why had I not boldly
tried my chances before, instead of shilly-shallying around until the
opportunity had passed? Our acquaintance was no longer a thing of a
day, and as for circumstances, others had started in life--or in a new
line, which amounts to the same thing--under far fewer advantages,
material, physical or prospective, than I enjoyed, and had made a good
thing of it. That hideous and constitutional reticence of mine had
stood in the way, I now saw; yet even then I had been on the point of
putting matters to the test on the very day before the tragical event
which seemed to have changed the whole course of our daily life, when
that infernal Trask had blundered his obtrusive presence in upon us,
according to his wont. Now it was too late. Obviously under present
circumstances the time would be in the highest degree unfavourable.
I have a recollection, too, at that period, of going through sundry
phases of insanity. For instance, I would sit for quite a long time,
when in the company of others, and say nothing; the fact being that I
was simply giving the rein to thought, of course only in the one
direction. Of this phase I was cured, mainly through the agency of the
abominable Trask, whose horse banter and innuendo at such times rendered
it difficult to keep my hands off him. However, it had a tonic effect,
in that it caused me to pull myself together. But I was much addicted
to straying in the direction of various spots where Beryl and I had been
alone together, and, letting imagination have free rein, would conjure
up her sweet bright presence, so alluringly framed by the wild beauty of
the surroundings, illumined by the sunlit glow of the cloudless heaven;
would go over our conversations together, utterly trivial and
unmomentous as such might have been. To half a hundred other and minor
idiocies do I likewise plead guilty; but as I have reason to believe
that my lot was by no means singular, and that most of us are fated to
undergo a similar stage of imbecility at any rate once in our lives,
such belief is fraught with some comfort.
Further, the parlous state into which I had mentally fallen affected my
ordinary duties, and what had hitherto been performed with a
wholehearted zest now became tedious and wearisome. That is the worst
of physical labour, in that you can _think_ throughout it all. Here my
natural reticence, or caution perhaps, came to the rescue. I began to
wonder whether Brian or his father saw through my state of mind. If so
they gave no sign. But I must pull myself together; and did so.
I have not unfrequently had occasion to notice how rarely anybody is
allowed in this life to suffer from a repletion of contentment
over-long. Here was this household, including myself, leading a life
which, in a modest way, left absolutely nothing to wish for: a life of
healthful, congenial usefulness, yet, thanks to the characteristics of
its individuals, not one of stagnation by any means. Then this blow had
fallen--suddenly, as serious blows generally do. Even if matters ended
at the best we could hope for, the occurrence would leave its mark, and
things could not, at any rate for a long time, be just as before. We
three men, left alone, realised a good deal of this. There was a gloom
upon us, checking our usual free flow of conversation, as though we were
each and all trying to avoid the topic uppermost in our minds, or at any
rate in the minds of two of us.
One day we rode over to Kuliso's "Great Place," to arrange about the
compensation to be delivered to the chief for the death of the children,
according to native custom. It was a strange expedition, and one by no
means free from danger; for apart from the bad reputation of Kuliso and
his clan, there was again unrest on the border--unrest which was
deepening day by day, so, although ostensibly unarmed, each of us had a
loaded revolver in his right hand pocket. A strange expedition indeed,
its object a barter over the price of human life; and if such failed,
what about we three in the midst of hundreds, if not thousands, of
brooding savages, in ugly and vindictive mood? But Septimus Matterson
declared he had never been afraid of Kafirs, and did not intend to make
a start in that line now. Yet I, for my part, as we took our way
through the Ndhlambe location--with miles of kraals on either hand,
studding the veldt far and wide, whose dusky denizens turned out at
sight of us, following on our steps near and far to see what went on
over at the Great Place--why, I found myself devoutly hoping we might be
suffered to return as we had come.
The chief, Kuliso, was a tall, broad, finely built man in the prime of
life, with, for a Kafir, quite a heavily bearded face. It was a strong
face, too, with its lofty forehead and air of command, but it was a
crafty and unreliable one. Around him squatted a dozen or so of much
older men, grey-bearded and wizened--being, in fact, his _amapakati_, or
councillors. All wore no other clothing than an ample blanket, stained
red with ochre, carelessly draped around the body, and for adornment
most of them, including the chief, had a splendid armlet of solid white
ivory just above the left elbow. With an eye to artistic effect it
occurred to me that the group, with their shrewd dark faces and
unconscious grace of attitude, against the background of domed huts, and
the increasing groups of Kafirs clustering up from all sides, their
reddened frames in contrast against the green of the veldt and the
yellow thatch of the huts, would have made no mean subject for the
artist's paint-brush.
But little scope was there for the indulgence of artistic imaginings,
for the day was destined to be long and trying. Septimus Matterson,
speaking fluently and at length, yes, even pathetically--for I had
learned enough of the Xosa tongue by that time to be able to follow him,
roughly, through most of his arguments to recognise that much--
recapitulated all the sad circumstances. If these had brought sorrow to
the House of Kuliso, he said, they had hardly brought less to his own
house; and Brian and I, listening, were inclined to believe they had
brought more. However, after some further roundabout talk, mostly of an
apologetic nature--for savages never appreciate a direct coming to the
point--he made them an offer, and one, even under the circumstances, and
from their point of custom, of exceptional liberality.
But it was not appreciated, let alone jumped at. "The sense of the
meeting"--to use a civilised and newspaper phrase--was nasty. The
chief, who in actual fact cared no more for the lives that had been
taken than had they been those of so many jackals, save that they
represented a substantial addition to his own wealth under the current
negotiations, held forth in unctuous strain upon the value of life, and
the grief of the dead ones' relatives, and so forth, his words being
emphasised by deep-toned exclamations from the _amapakati_, which were
echoed almost in a shout by the surrounding crowd. Thus encouraged, he
concluded by demanding a payment which would have crippled the
Mattersons--well-to-do as they were--seriously for many years.
"This is too much," came the reply, clear and decided, and in the tone
of a man who knew he was being grossly imposed upon. "I have other
children besides this one who is now in the hands of the law. I cannot
rob them, and I will not. Now take this or leave it, for it is all I
will give." And he doubled his original offer.
The jeering hoot that arose among the bystanders died away to silence,
for the chief and the _amapakati_ were consulting. It was a strange
scene, this question of barter over human lives--a strange scene, and a
weird one. Some hours had already been spent in the negotiations, and
now the sky had become partly overcast, and in the background a great
curtain of opaque inky cloud had arisen, against whose blackness jets of
lightning were luridly playing, and ever and anon a heavy booming roll.
Then in the silence a curious deep drumming sound was heard. All eyes
were turned upward, as overhead flapped several large birds, and in the
ungainly black shapes and long sabre-like beaks we recognised the
_brom-vogel_, or large hornbill of South Africa, which, by the way,
plays its part in native superstitions. On flapped the birds, slowly
winging their way right over the kraal, their deep, heavy note mingling
with the approaching thunder roll. Yes. It was a strange picture--the
unearthly, boding stillness, the livid cloud lit up by lightning gleams,
the tall red forms of the clustering barbarians, the upturned eyeballs,
the awed hush as some murmured of witchcraft and omens, the chief and
councillors grouped in earnest debate, and the background of yellow
domes against a dark and angry sky. There was a tension about it that
got upon my nerves, and I said as much to Brian.
He, for answer, got out his pipe, slowly filled and lighted it, then
sent a deliberate look upwards and around, as though the state of the
weather occupied his sole consideration. At that moment my glance fell
upon one face among the bystanders, and I could only just repress a
start, for it was that of the English-speaking rascal whose kind
intentions towards myself in the cattle-stealers' den I had so violently
and effectually frustrated. He, of course, had recognised me from the
first, but now as our glances met, the glare of hate and menace upon his
repulsive countenance deepened, and without taking his gaze from mine he
said something to those who stood next him which caused them to regard
me too with an expression the very reverse of benevolent. There was
something uncomfortable in the way this fellow kept on turning up--the
other day in Fort Lamport, now again here. I felt sure that he would
lay himself out to be even with me for the rough treatment he had met
with, though in the first instance he had brought it upon himself, and
in the second--well, it was to save my own life.
Now at last the negotiations had come to an end; to our intense relief
satisfactorily so. Kuliso had accepted the terms, only stipulating that
a few unconsidered trifles, such as rolls of tobacco, blankets, etc.,
should be thrown in as _basela_, which was readily agreed to. Then
there was great shaking of hands as the chief and some of his
_amapakati_ got up and accompanied us to where our horses were being
held for us.
"_Au_! This is a new white man," said Kuliso, with a grin, enclosing my
hand within his sinewy grip. He was taller than me, and I am not short,
and as he thus confronted me, and I took in the fine proportions and
strong yet sinister countenance of this great muscular savage, it was
with feelings of repulsion and distrust, for all _the_ geniality he was
striving to exhibit. For I had an instinctive idea we should similarly
confront one another again, and that under inauspicious circumstances.
But how strange and terrible those circumstances were destined to be, I
had then little if any idea.