Produced by John Bickers; Dagny
JESS
By H. Rider Haggard
First Published 1887.
TO MY WIFE
JESS
CHAPTER I
JOHN HAS AN ADVENTURE
The day had been very hot even for the Transvaal, where the days stillknow how to be hot in the autumn, although the neck of the summer isbroken--especially when the thunderstorms hold off for a week or two, asthey do occasionally. Even the succulent blue lilies--a variety of theagapanthus which is so familiar to us in English greenhouses--hung theirlong trumpet-shaped flowers and looked oppressed and miserable, beneaththe burning breath of the hot wind which had been blowing for hours likethe draught from a volcano. The grass, too, near the wide roadwaythat stretched in a feeble and indeterminate fashion across the veldt,forking, branching, and reuniting like the veins on a lady's arm, wascompletely coated over with a thick layer of red dust. But the hot windwas going down now, as it always does towards sunset. Indeed, all thatremained of it were a few strictly local and miniature whirlwinds,which would suddenly spring up on the road itself, and twist and twirlfiercely round, raising a mighty column of dust fifty feet or more intothe air, where it hung long after the wind had passed, and then slowlydissolved as its particles floated to the earth.
Advancing along the road, in the immediate track of one of thesedesultory and inexplicable whirlwinds, was a man on horseback. The manlooked limp and dirty, and the horse limper and dirtier. The hot windhad "taken all the bones out of them," as the Kafirs say, which wasnot very much to be wondered at, seeing that they had been journeyingthrough it for the last four hours without off-saddling. Suddenly thewhirlwind, which had been travelling along smartly, halted, and thedust, after revolving a few times in the air like a dying top, slowlybegan to disperse in the accustomed fashion. The man on the horse haltedalso, and contemplated it in an absent kind of way.
"It's just like a man's life," he said aloud to his horse, "coming fromnobody knows where, nobody knows why, and making a little column of duston the world's highway, then passing away, leaving the dust to fall tothe ground again, to be trodden under foot and forgotten."
The speaker, a stout, well set-up, rather ugly man, apparently on thewrong side of thirty, with pleasant blue eyes and a reddish peakedbeard, laughed a little at his own sententious reflection, and then gavehis jaded horse a tap with the _sjambock_ in his hand.
"Come on, Blesbok," he said, "or we shall never get to old Croft's placeto-night. By Jove! I believe that must be the turn," and he pointed withhis whip to a little rutty track that branched from the Wakkerstroommain road and stretched away towards a curious isolated hill with alarge flat top, which rose out of the rolling plain some four miles tothe right. "The old Boer said the second turn," he went on still talkingto himself, "but perhaps he lied. I am told that some of them think itis a good joke to send an Englishman a few miles wrong. Let's see, theytold me the place was under the lee of a table-topped hill, about halfan hour's ride from the main road, and that is a table-topped hill, so Ithink I will try it. Come on, Blesbok," and he put the tired nag intoa sort of "tripple," or ambling canter much affected by South Africanhorses.
"Life is a queer thing," reflected Captain John Niel to himself as hecantered along slowly. "Now here am I, at the age of thirty-four, aboutto begin the world again as assistant to an old Transvaal farmer. It isa pretty end to all one's ambitions, and to fourteen years' work in thearmy; but it is what it has come to, my boy, so you had better make thebest of it."
Just then his cogitations were interrupted, for on the farther side ofa gentle slope suddenly there appeared an extraordinary sight. Over thecrest of the rise of land, now some four or five hundred yards away, apony with a lady on its back galloped wildly, and after it, with wingsspread and outstretched neck, a huge cock ostrich was speeding inpursuit, covering twelve or fifteen feet at every stride of its longlegs. The pony was still twenty yards ahead of the bird, and travellingtowards John rapidly, but strive as it would it could not distance theswiftest thing on all the earth. Five seconds passed--the great bird wasclose alongside now--Ah! and John Niel turned sick and shut his eyes ashe rode, for he saw the ostrich's thick leg fly high into the air andthen sweep down like a leaded bludgeon!
_Thud!_ It had missed the lady and struck her horse upon the spine, justbehind the saddle, for the moment completely paralysing it so that itfell all of a heap on to the veldt. In a moment the girl on its back wasup and running towards him, and after her came the ostrich. Up went thegreat leg again, but before it could come crashing across her shouldersshe had flung herself face downwards on the grass. In an instant thehuge bird was on the top of her, kicking at her, rolling over her, andcrushing the very life out of her. It was at this juncture that JohnNiel arrived upon the scene. The moment the ostrich saw him it gave upits attacks upon the lady on the ground and began to waltz towards himwith the pompous sort of step that these birds sometimes assume beforethey give battle. Now Captain Niel was unaccustomed to the pleasant waysof ostriches, and so was his horse, which showed a strong inclination tobolt; as, indeed, under other circumstances, his rider would have beenglad to do himself. But he could not abandon beauty in distress, so,finding it impossible to control his horse, he slipped off it, and withthe _sjambock_ or hide-whip in his hand valiantly faced the enemy. Fora moment or two the great bird stood still, blinking its lustrous roundeyes at him and gently swaying its graceful neck to and fro.
Then all of a sudden it spread out its wings and came for him likea thunderbolt. John sprang to one side, and was aware of a rustle ofrushing feathers, and of a vision of a thick leg striking downwardspast his head. Fortunately it missed him, and the ostrich sped on likea flash. Before he could turn, however, it was back and had landedthe full weight of one of its awful forward kicks on the broad of hisshoulders, and away he went head-over-heels like a shot rabbit. In asecond he was on his legs again, shaken indeed, but not much the worse,and perfectly mad with fury and pain. At him came the ostrich, and atthe ostrich went he, catching it a blow across the slim neck with his_sjambock_ that staggered it for a moment. Profiting by the check, heseized the bird by the wing and held on like grim death with both hands.Now they began to gyrate, slowly at first, then quicker, and yet morequick, till at last it seemed to Captain John Niel that time and spaceand the solid earth were nothing but a revolving vision fixed somewherein the watches of the night. Above him, like a stationary pivot, toweredthe tall graceful neck, beneath him spun the top-like legs, and in frontof him was a soft black and white mass of feathers.
Thud, and a cloud of stars! He was on his back, and the ostrich, whichdid not seem to be affected by giddiness, was on _him_, punishing himdreadfully. Luckily an ostrich cannot kick a man very hard when he isflat on the ground. If he could, there would have been an end of JohnNiel, and his story need never have been written.
Half a minute or so passed, during which the bird worked his sweet willupon his prostrate enemy, and at the end of it the man began to feelvery much as though his earthly career was closed. Just as things weregrowing faint and dim to him, however, he suddenly saw a pair of whitearms clasp themselves round the ostrich's legs from behind, and heard avoice cry:
"Break his neck while I hold his legs, or he will kill you."
This roused him from his torpor, and he staggered to his feet. Meanwhilethe ostrich and the young lady had come to the ground, and were rollingabout together in a confused heap, over which the elegant neck and openhissing mouth wavered to and fro like a cobra about to strike. With arush John seized the neck in both his hands, and, putting out all hisstrength (for he was a strong man), he twisted it till it broke with asnap, and after a few wild and convulsive bounds and struggles the greatbird lay dead.
Then he sank down dazed and exhaust
ed, and surveyed the scene. Theostrich was perfectly quiet, and would never kick again, and the ladytoo was quiet. He wondered vaguely if the brute had killed her--he wasas yet too weak to go and see--and then fell to gazing at her face. Herhead was pillowed on the body of the dead bird, and its feathery plumesmade it a fitting resting-place. Slowly it dawned on him that the facewas very beautiful, although it looked so pale just now. Low broad brow,crowned with soft yellow hair, the chin very round and white, the mouthsweet though rather large. The eyes he could not see, because theywere closed, for the lady had fainted. For the rest, she was quiteyoung--about twenty, tall and finely formed. Presently he felt a littlebetter, and, creeping towards her (for he was sadly knocked about), tookher hand and began to chafe it between his own. It was a well-formedhand, but brown, and showed signs of doing plenty of hard work. Soon sheopened her eyes, and he noted with satisfaction that they were very goodeyes, blue in colour. Then she sat up and laughed a little.
"Well, I am silly," she said; "I believe I fainted."
"It is not much to be wondered at," said John Niel politely, and liftinghis hand to take off his hat, only to find that it had gone in the fray."I hope you are not very much hurt by the bird."
"I don't know," she said doubtfully. "But I am glad that you killed the_skellum_ (vicious beast). He got out of the ostrich camp three daysago, and has been lost ever since. He killed a boy last year, and I tolduncle he ought to shoot him then, but he would not, because he was sucha beauty."
"Might I ask," said John Niel, "are you Miss Croft?"
"Yes, I am--one of them. There are two of us, you know; and I can guesswho you are--you are Captain Niel, whom uncle is expecting to help himwith the farm and the ostriches."
"If all of them are like that," he said, pointing to the dead bird, "Idon't think that I shall take kindly to ostrich farming."
She laughed, showing a charming line of teeth. "Oh no," she said,"he was the only bad one--but, Captain Niel, I think you will find itfearfully dull. There are nothing but Boers about here, you know. NoEnglish people live nearer than Wakkerstroom."
"You overlook yourself," he said, bowing; for really this daughter ofthe wilderness had a very charming air about her.
"Oh," she answered, "I am only a girl, you know, and besides, I amnot clever. Jess, now--that's my sister--Jess has been at school atCapetown, and she _is_ clever. I was at Cape Town, too, though I didn'tlearn much there. But, Captain Niel, both the horses have bolted; minehas gone home, and I expect yours has followed, and I should like toknow how we are going to get up to Mooifontein--beautiful fountain,that's what we call our place, you know. Can you walk?"
"I don't know," he answered doubtfully; "I'll try. That bird has knockedme about a good deal," and accordingly he staggered on to his legs, onlyto collapse with an exclamation of pain. His ankle was sprained, andhe was so stiff and bruised that he could hardly stir. "How far is thehouse?" he asked.
"Only about a mile--just there; we shall see it from the crest of therise. Look, I'm all right. It was silly to faint, but he kicked all thebreath out of me," and she got up and danced a little on the grass toshow him. "My word, though, I am sore! You must take my arm, that's all;that is if you don't mind?"
"Oh dear no, indeed, I don't mind," he said laughing; and so theystarted, arm affectionately linked in arm.