Soon trade became brisk. I had the waggons partly off-loaded, and by
dint of stretching a large sail across both of them formed an impromptu
store in which the goods were piled. All day long the people crowded
up, those who were not dealing enjoying the fun of witnessing the arts
and dodges of those who were; just as an outdoor sale on the market
square of a town will always attract a number of folks who have nothing
else to do, and also, an equal number perhaps of those who have.
Cattle would be driven up; good ones, for I had given out distinctly
that it was waste of trouble to bring anything but good ones,--and then
the owners, squatting around, would spend an hour or so haggling, to go
away firmly resolved not to deal, but they nearly always came back, and,
meanwhile, others would take their places, and go through in all
probability exactly the same process; for your Zulu at a deal is a born
Jew, and will spend an astonishing amount of time haggling out of sheer
love of haggling. He would go on for ever but for one consideration--
the amount of goods is limited in quantity, and if one neglects to
secure his share another does not. So for the first few days I sat
tight, making up "lots" with green blankets and cooking pots, butcher
knives--always in great request--and brass buttons, beads and Salampore
cloth, which by the way, is not cloth at all, but a light gauzy fabric
of dark blue, greatly in favour with the unmarried girls. All sorts of
"notions" were in request, the veriest trifles as to market value, but
highly prized up there; and as a thing is worth what it will fetch, why
there comes in much of the trader's legitimate profit. I always held
that no trade was too small to be refused, and I would accept curios,
which were always in demand by down-country dealers in such things.
Assegais however were extremely difficult to obtain, so much so indeed
as to be practically outside articles of barter, and this was
significant. Another thing not less so was the universal request, open
or covert, for firearms and ammunition. It was not much use my
explaining to them that they were better off without either, that a man
can do much better with a weapon he understands than with one he does
not. For some reason or other they were bent on having them.
However, in a short while I found myself in possession of quite a nice
lot of cattle, the sale of which would leave me a very considerable
profit over when expenses were cleared, so I was not dissatisfied.
Then, all of a sudden, trade fell off, then ceased altogether. There
was no apparent reason for it. I stood well with Majendwa, indeed I
always erred in the right direction with regard to the principal chiefs
when on trading ventures in their districts, holding that it is far
better policy to be too liberal than too mean. But there was no
blinking the fact that for some reason or other further trade was "off."
No more were my waggons thronged from morning till night. Those from
outlying kraals who had been the most eager, stopped away altogether,
but now and then someone from close at hand would drop in for something,
and even then the deal would be so insignificant as to remind me of my
store at Isipanga.
I put the matter squarely to Majendwa, but it didn't seem to help. He
admitted that for some reason or other my trade had stopped. What could
he do? He could not order his people to deal. I agreed with him there,
still I was puzzled. I had calculated to have easily cleared out all I
had at his place. Yet I had done well enough so far, but when I
proposed to move further northward, and get into Uhamu's country,
Majendwa seemed for some reason or other unwilling that I should.
"You will do no better there, Iqalaqala," he said, "and, for the rest,
it is not advisable. See, we are alone, and are talking beneath the
bullock's skin. Again I say--do not go there. Return rather to your
own country, even if you have to carry back some of the goods you have
brought. Or, there may be those on your way who will relieve you of
them."
I looked at him fixedly and a thought struck me. The phrase he had used
might well bear two meanings. Had he intended it as a warning? Such
might well have been the case.
Falkner the while had been amusing himself as best he could. He soon
got tired of watching the barter, though at first it had afforded him
some amusement, but I had laid a stern and uncompromising embargo upon
any approach even to practical joking. So he would roam off with a
rifle or shot gun, and although I was anxious lest he should get into
some mischief or other yet he seemed not to. Now he welcomed the idea
of clearing out, when we talked things over. To my surprise he
propounded an idea when I was telling him how our trade had come to a
standstill.
"What if that sweep whose head I punched should be at the bottom of it?"
he said. "Dolf Norbury, I mean?"
I thought there might be something in it. However if it were true, he
was bound to have gone to work in some such way that it would be
impossible to prove anything, and even if we did, it was hard to see
what we could do.
"Do? Why call round and punch his head again, of course," he answered
briskly.
"That wouldn't help us to recover our trade. Besides Dolf Norbury isn't
the sort to let himself be caught that way twice running. This time it
would be a case of shooting on sight."
"That's a game two can play at," said Falkner.
"Yes," I answered, "but in this case it's a game in which he holds all
the hand. It's clear that he has some following, and we have a lot of
cattle to drive. Well, while we were settling accounts with him his, or
rather Mawendhlela's, rips would have no trouble in clearing these off
to some part of the country where we should never see a hoof of them
again."
"But would they have the cheek to do that?"
"Wouldn't they? And this is a time when neither the King nor any of the
chiefs would be over-keen to interfere in a quarrel between two white
men. Let them settle it themselves is what would be said and meanwhile
we should have lost all we came up for."
"Damn!"
"I echo that sentiment most fervently, but it can't be helped," I said.
"As it is I've a notion we shall have to round up our belongings extra
tight till we are clear of the country."
"Oh well. Let's make the best of it and sit tight here a week or so
longer, Glanton. I'm beginning to enjoy this shooting among rocks.
These klip-springers are such cute little devils. It's more fun
shooting them than it used to be markhor, and nothing like the fag."
Falkner was a capital shot with rifle and bird gun alike, and one of his
good points was that he was a keen and thorough sportsman. That being
the case he had been able to find game up here where one less keen would
have given up in disgust, and it was a good thing, if only that it kept
him out of mischief.
Jan Boom, the Xosa, was the only one who would hint at any reason for
the falling off of our trade, but, as it happened, I was rather
prejudiced against him by reason of his affectation of a certain air of
superiority over those of his own colour, on the strength of his
knowledge of English. In fact I rather disliked him, and therefore of
course distrusted him. Subsequently I had reason to alter my opinion
with regard to him: but that will keep. Out of Mfutela I could get
nothing on the subject. Either he knew nothing or was too "close" to
say: and when a native is "close" why it is rather less difficult to
make an oyster open by whispering soft nothings to it than to get him to
unfold.
One day Falkner and I started off to have a hunt among the krantzes
beyond those which walled in the hollow. We took Jan Boom with us, and
a couple of young Zulus to show us the short cut. It was a grey and
lowering day, gloomy in the extreme, and every now and then a spot of
rain showed what we were likely to expect, but Falkner was keen on
sport, and I was getting hipped, besides, in those days I cared little
enough for weather. We scrambled about all the morning among the rocks,
with absolutely no luck whatever, and then I got sick of it, wherefore
after we had lunched upon what we had brought with us I proposed to find
my way back to the waggons. Falkner of course wanted to keep on, but I
pointed out that my defection need cause no drawback to him, for I would
leave him the boys and make my way back alone. So we separated and
before we had long done so a distant report, some way above, showed that
at any rate he was beginning to find sport.
I struck downward, rapidly making use of half obliterated cattle tracks,
for the Abaqulusi were largely a mountain tribe, and there were outlying
kraals among the heights as well as in the hollows. Following one of
these paths I came suddenly upon a steep gorge, falling abruptly to the
next slope some distance below.
This gully was in places almost chasm-like in its formation, and was
indescribably wild and gloomy in the utter solitude of the grey
afternoon. I had just crossed it where the path dipped, when, looking
up, there stood a klipspringer gazing at me.
He was an easy hundred yard shot. Slipping from the saddle on the
further side from him, I thought to myself that Falkner would not
altogether have the crow over me when we got back. But--when I looked
again, expecting to take a quick aim, by Jingo! the little beast had
disappeared.
This was annoying, for now a disinclination to return empty handed had
seized me. Quickly and noiselessly I made my way up to where he had
been. It was as I had thought. He had been standing on a sort of
pinnacle; and now, as I peered cautiously over, there stood the little
buck, less than the first distance below.
He was outlined against the black and shadowed bottom of the gorge, and
was gazing away from me. Now I would have him, I decided. In a second
my sights were on him full--I didn't take long over aiming in those
days--when I lowered the rifle with some precipitation. Right bang in a
line with where the klipspringer had been standing--had been, observe,
for the slight additional movement on my part had caused him to
disappear again--was the form of a man.
It gave me a turn, for with lightning rapidity it flashed through my
mind that nothing could have saved him. Then consternation gave way to
curiosity. The form though that of a man was not that of a living one.
Down in the shadow of a dark hole, overhung by gloomy rocks, it sprawled
in a constrained half upright posture against one of these. It was too
far off and the light not good enough to be able to distinguish how it
was secured in this position, but it seemed to be facing upward in a
dreadful attitude of scared supplication. I would go down and
investigate. But before I had taken many steps in pursuance of this
resolve I stopped short.
For an idea had occurred to me. The body was that of a native, and it
was obvious that life had been extinct for some time. What good purpose
could I serve by investigating it further? I was in a savage country in
which life was held cheap. The man whoever he might be, had quite
likely been executed for some offence; the method of his death being in
all probability designed to fit the offence. Clearly therefore it was
no concern of mine, and accordingly I decided to forego further
investigation. And then, as though to confirm me in the good policy of
such decision something happened--something that was sufficiently
startling.
A bullet pinged against a stone beside me, sending up a hard splash of
splinters and dust, and, confound it, the thing had hit barely a yard
from where I was standing.
"Hallo, Falkner!" I hailed, deeming the puff of smoke from among the
rocks above and opposite must be his work. "Look out I'm here. D'you
hear, man?"
But no answer came, not immediately that is. In a minute however, one
did come, and that in the shape of another bullet, which banged up the
dust just about the same distance on the other side of me. My first
impulse was that Falkner was playing one of his idiotic practical jokes
at my expense, but with the idea I seemed to feel sure that it was not
Falkner--and that, in short, I had better withdraw from this very
uncanny spot.
As I hastened to carry this judicious resolve into practical effect I
won't pretend that I felt otherwise than uncomfortable and very much so.
Whoever it was up there could shoot--confound him! an accomplishment
rare indeed among the natives of Zululand in those days. Clearly too
the exact nicety with which both distances had been judged seemed to
point to the fact that both shots had been fired by way of warning.
That I had at any rate accepted such I trusted I had made clear to the
giver of it, as I walked--I hoped without undue haste but rapidly--to
where I had left my horse.
Nothing further occurred, although until clear of the heights I kept an
uncommonly sharp look out. Once clear of them however, the incident
left no great impression on my mind. I had unwittingly stumbled across
something unusual and had been about to pry into what didn't concern me,
and it had been resented. The Abaqulusi were an independent and warlike
clan who would be sure to resent such. I had received a hint, and a
pretty forcible one, to mind my own business, and I concluded that in
future I would mind it, at any rate while in these parts. That was all.