CHAPTER XXII
A GREAT PERIL AND A GREAT SALVATION
I must now take up some of the ragged ends which I have left behind me.It is not my task, as I have said, to write the history of the greatRising. That has been done by abler men, who were at the centre of thebusiness, and had some knowledge of strategy and tactics; whereas I wasonly a raw lad who was privileged by fate to see the start. If Icould, I would fain make an epic of it, and show how the Plains foundat all points the Plateau guarded, how wits overcame numbers, and atevery pass which the natives tried the great guns spoke and the tiderolled back. Yet I fear it would be an epic without a hero. There wasno leader left when Laputa had gone. There were months of guerrillafighting, and then months of reprisals, when chief after chief washunted down and brought to trial. Then the amnesty came and a cleansheet, and white Africa drew breath again with certain gravereflections left in her head. On the whole I am not sorry that thehistory is no business of mine. Romance died with 'the heir of John,'and the crusade became a sorry mutiny. I can fancy how differentlyLaputa would have managed it all had he lived; how swift and sudden hisplans would have been; how under him the fighting would not have beenin the mountain glens, but far in the high-veld among the dorps andtownships. With the Inkulu alive we warred against odds; with theInkulu dead the balance sank heavily in our favour. I leave to othersthe marches and strategy of the thing, and hasten to clear up theobscure parts in my own fortunes.
Arcoll received my message from Umvelos' by Colin, or rather Wardlawreceived it and sent it on to the post on the Berg where the leader hadgone. Close on its heels came the message from Henriques by a Shangaanin his pay. It must have been sent off before the Portugoose got tothe Rooirand, from which it would appear that he had his own men in thebush near the store, and that I was lucky to get off as I did. Arcollmight have disregarded Henriques' news as a trap if it had come alone,but my corroboration impressed and perplexed him. He began to creditthe Portugoose with treachery, but he had no inclination to act on hismessage, since it conflicted with his plans. He knew that Laputa mustcome into the Berg sooner or later, and he had resolved that hisstrategy must be to await him there. But there was the question of mylife. He had every reason to believe that I was in the greatestdanger, and he felt a certain responsibility for my fate. With the fewmen at his disposal he could not hope to hold up the great Kaffir army,but there was a chance that he might by a bold stand effect my rescue.Henriques had told him of the vow, and had told him that Laputa wouldride in the centre of the force. A body of men well posted at Dupree'sDrift might split the army at the crossing, and under cover of the fireI might swim the river and join my friends. Still relying on the vow,it might be possible for well-mounted men to evade capture.Accordingly he called for volunteers, and sent off one of his Kaffirsto warn me of his design. He led his men in person, and of his doingsthe reader already knows the tale. But though the crossing was flunginto confusion, and the rear of the army was compelled to follow thenortherly bank of the Letaba, there was no sign of me anywhere. Arcollsearched the river-banks, and crossed the drift to where the old Keeperwas lying dead. He then concluded that I had been murdered early inthe march, and his Kaffir, who might have given him news of me, wascarried up the stream in the tide of the disorderly army. Therefore,he and his men rode back with all haste to the Berg by way of MainDrift, and reached Bruderstroom before Laputa had crossed the highway.
My information about Inanda's Kraal decided Arcoll's next move. Likeme he remembered Beyers's performance, and resolved to repeat it. Hehad no hope of catching Laputa, but he thought that he might hold upthe bulk of his force if he got guns on the ridge above the kraal. Amessage had already been sent for guns, and the first to arrive got toBruderstroom about the hour when I was being taken by Machudi's men inthe kloof. The ceremony of the purification prevented Laputa fromkeeping a good look-out, and the result was that a way was made for theguns on the north-western corner of the rampart of rock. It was theway which Beyers had taken, and indeed the enterprise was directed byone of Beyers's old commandants. All that day the work continued,while Laputa and I were travelling to Machudi's. Then came the eveningwhen I staggered into camp and told my news. Arcoll, who alone knewhow vital Laputa was to the success of the insurrection, immediatelydecided to suspend all other operations and devote himself toshepherding the leader away from his army. How the scheme succeededand what befell Laputa the reader has already been told.
Aitken and Wardlaw, when I descended from the cliffs, took me straightto Blaauwildebeestefontein. I was like a man who is recovering frombad fever, cured, but weak and foolish, and it was a slow journey whichI made to Umvelos', riding on Aitken's pony. At Umvelos' we found apicket who had captured the _schimmel_ by the roadside. That wise beast,when I turned him loose at the entrance to the cave, had trottedquietly back the way he had come. At Umvelos' Aitken left me, and nextday, with Wardlaw as companion, I rode up the glen of the KleinLabongo, and came in the afternoon to my old home. The store wasempty, for Japp some days before had gone off post-haste toPietersdorp; but there was Zeeta cleaning up the place as if war hadnever been heard of. I slept the night there, and in the morning foundmyself so much recovered that I was eager to get away. I wanted to seeArcoll about many things, but mainly about the treasure in the cave.
It was an easy journey to Bruderstroom through the meadows of theplateau. The farmers' commandoes had been recalled, but the ashes oftheir camp fires were still grey among the bracken. I fell in with apolice patrol and was taken by them to a spot on the Upper Letaba, somemiles west of the camp, where we found Arcoll at late breakfast. I hadresolved to take him into my confidence, so I told him the full tale ofmy night's adventure. He was very severe with me, I remember, for mydaft-like ride, but his severity relaxed before I had done with mystory.
The telling brought back the scene to me, and I shivered at the pictureof the cave with the morning breaking through the veil of water andLaputa in his death throes. Arcoll did not speak for some time.
'So he is dead,' he said at last, half-whispering to himself. 'Well, hewas a king, and died like a king. Our job now is simple, for there isnone of his breed left in Africa.'
Then I told him of the treasure.
'It belongs to you, Davie,' he said, 'and we must see that you get it.This is going to be a long war, but if we survive to the end you willbe a rich man.'
'But in the meantime?' I asked. 'Supposing other Kaffirs hear of it,and come back and make a bridge over the gorge? They may be doing itnow.'
'I'll put a guard on it,' he said, jumping up briskly. 'It's maybe nota soldier's job, but you've saved this country, Davie, and I'm going tomake sure that you have your reward.'
After that I went with Arcoll to Inanda's Kraal. I am not going totell the story of that performance, for it occupies no less than twochapters in Mr Upton's book. He makes one or two blunders, for hespells my name with an 'o,' and he says we walked out of the camp onour perilous mission 'with faces white and set as a Crusader's.' Thatis certainly not true, for in the first place nobody saw us go whocould judge how we looked, and in the second place we were both smokingand feeling quite cheerful. At home they made a great fuss about it,and started a newspaper cry about the Victoria Cross, but the dangerwas not so terrible after all, and in any case it was nothing to what Ihad been through in the past week.
I take credit to myself for suggesting the idea. By this time we hadthe army in the kraal at our mercy. Laputa not having returned, theyhad no plans. It had been the original intention to start for theOlifants on the following day, so there was a scanty supply of food.Besides, there were the makings of a pretty quarrel between Umbooni andsome of the north-country chiefs, and I verily believe that if we hadheld them tight there for a week they would have destroyed each otherin faction fights. In any case, in a little they would have growndesperate and tried to rush the approaches on the north and south.Then we must either have used the guns on them, which
would have meanta great slaughter, or let them go to do mischief elsewhere. Arcoll wasa merciful man who had no love for butchery; besides, he was astatesman with an eye to the future of the country after the war. Butit was his duty to isolate Laputa's army, and at all costs, it must beprevented from joining any of the concentrations in the south.
Then I proposed to him to do as Rhodes did in the Matoppos, and go andtalk to them. By this time, I argued, the influence of Laputa musthave sunk, and the fervour of the purification be half-forgotten. Thearmy had little food and no leader. The rank and file had never beenfanatical, and the chiefs and indunas must now be inclined to soberreflections. But once blood was shed the lust of blood would possessthem. Our only chance was to strike when their minds were perplexed andundecided.
Arcoll did all the arranging. He had a message sent to the chiefsinviting them to an indaba, and presently word was brought back that anindaba was called for the next day at noon. That same night we heardthat Umbooni and about twenty of his men had managed to evade our ringof scouts and got clear away to the south. This was all to ouradvantage, as it removed from the coming indaba the most irreconcilableof the chiefs.
That indaba was a queer business. Arcoll and I left our escort at thefoot of a ravine, and entered the kraal by the same road as I had leftit. It was a very bright, hot winter's day, and try as I might, Icould not bring myself to think of any danger. I believed that in thisway most temerarious deeds are done; the doer has become insensible todanger, and his imagination is clouded with some engrossing purpose.The first sentries received us gloomily enough, and closed behind us asthey had done when Machudi's men haled me thither. Then the job becameeerie, for we had to walk across a green flat with thousands of eyeswatching us. By-and-by we came to the merula tree opposite the kyas,and there we found a ring of chiefs, sitting with cocked rifles ontheir knees.
We were armed with pistols, and the first thing Arcoll did was to handthem to one of the chiefs. 'We come in peace,' he said. 'We give youour lives.'
Then the indaba began, Arcoll leading off. It was a fine speech hemade, one of the finest I have ever listened to. He asked them whattheir grievances were; he told them how mighty was the power of thewhite man; he promised that what was unjust should be remedied, if onlythey would speak honestly and peacefully; he harped on their oldlegends and songs, claiming for the king of England the right of theirold monarchs. It was a fine speech, and yet I saw that it did notconvince them. They listened moodily, if attentively, and at the endthere was a blank silence.
Arcoll turned to me. 'For God's sake, Davie,' he said, 'talk to themabout Laputa. It's our only chance.'
I had never tried speaking before, and though I talked their tongue Ihad not Arcoll's gift of it. But I felt that a great cause was atstake, and I spoke up as best I could.
I began by saying that Inkulu had been my friend, and that at Umvelos'before the rising he had tried to save my life. At the mention of thename I saw eyes brighten. At last the audience was hanging on mywords. I told them of Henriques and his treachery. I told them franklyand fairly of the doings at Dupree's Drift. I made no secret of thepart I played. 'I was fighting for my life,' I said. 'Any man of youwho is a man would have done the like.'
Then I told them of my last ride, and the sight I saw at the foot ofthe Rooirand. I drew a picture of Henriques lying dead with a brokenneck, and the Inkulu, wounded to death, creeping into the cave.
In moments of extremity I suppose every man becomes an orator. In thathour and place I discovered gifts I had never dreamed of. Arcoll toldme afterwards that I had spoken like a man inspired, and by a fortunatechance had hit upon the only way to move my hearers. I told of thatlast scene in the cave, when Laputa had broken down the bridge, and hadspoken his dying words--that he was the last king in Africa, and thatwithout him the rising was at an end. Then I told of his leap into theriver, and a great sigh went up from the ranks about Me.
'You see me here,' I said, 'by the grace of God. I found a way up thefall and the cliffs which no man has ever travelled before or willtravel again. Your king is dead. He was a great king, as I who standhere bear witness, and you will never more see his like. His lastwords were that the Rising was over. Respect that word, my brothers.We come to you not in war but in peace, to offer a free pardon, and theredress of your wrongs. If you fight you fight with the certainty offailure, and against the wish of the heir of John. I have come here atthe risk of my life to tell you his commands. His spirit approves mymission. Think well before you defy the mandate of the Snake, and riskthe vengeance of the Terrible Ones.'
After that I knew that we had won. The chiefs talked among themselvesin low whispers, casting strange looks at me. Then the greatest ofthem advanced and laid his rifle at my feet.
'We believe the word of a brave man,' he said. 'We accept the mandateof the Snake.'
Arcoll now took command. He arranged for the disarmament bit by bit,companies of men being marched off from Inanda's Kraal to stations onthe plateau where their arms were collected by our troops, and foodprovided for them. For the full history I refer the reader to MrUpton's work. It took many days, and taxed all our resources, but bythe end of a week we had the whole of Laputa's army in separatestations, under guard, disarmed, and awaiting repatriation.
Then Arcoll went south to the war which was to rage around theSwaziland and Zululand borders for many months, while to Aitken andmyself was entrusted the work of settlement. We had inadequate troopsat our command, and but for our prestige and the weight of Laputa'sdead hand there might any moment have been a tragedy. The task tookmonths, for many of the levies came from the far north, and the job offeeding troops on a long journey was difficult enough in the winterseason when the energies of the country were occupied with the fightingin the south. Yet it was an experience for which I shall ever begrateful, for it turned me from a rash boy into a serious man. I knewthen the meaning of the white man's duty. He has to take all risks,recking nothing of his life or his fortunes, and well content to findhis reward in the fulfilment of his task. That is the differencebetween white and black, the gift of responsibility, the power of beingin a little way a king; and so long as we know this and practise it, wewill rule not in Africa alone but wherever there are dark men who liveonly for the day and their own bellies. Moreover, the work made mepitiful and kindly. I learned much of the untold grievances of thenatives, and saw something of their strange, twisted reasoning. Beforewe had got Laputa's army back to their kraals, with food enough to tidethem over the spring sowing, Aitken and I had got sounder policy in ourheads than you will find in the towns, where men sit in offices and seethe world through a mist of papers.
By this time peace was at hand, and I went back to Inanda's Kraal tolook for Colin's grave. It was not a difficult quest, for on the swardin front of the merula tree they had buried him. I found a mason in theIron Kranz village, and from the excellent red stone of theneighbourhood was hewn a square slab with an inscription. It ran thus:'Here lies buried the dog Colin, who was killed in defending D.Crawfurd, his master. To him it was mainly due that the Kaffir Risingfailed.' I leave those who have read my tale to see the justice of thewords.
CHAPTER XXIII
MY UNCLE'S GIFT IS MANY TIMES MULTIPLIED
We got at the treasure by blowing open the turnstile. It was easyenough to trace the spot in the rock where it stood, but the mostpatient search did not reveal its secret. Accordingly we had recourseto dynamite, and soon laid bare the stone steps, and ascended to thegallery. The chasm was bridged with planks, and Arcoll and I crossedalone. The cave was as I had left it. The bloodstains on the floorhad grown dark with time, but the ashes of the sacramental fire werestill there to remind me of the drama I had borne a part in. When Ilooked at the way I had escaped my brain grew dizzy at the thought ofit. I do not think that all the gold on earth would have driven me asecond time to that awful escalade. As for Arcoll, he could not seeits possibility at all.
&n
bsp; 'Only a madman could have done it,' he said, blinking his eyes at thegreen linn. 'Indeed, Davie, I think for about four days you were asmad as they make. It was a fortunate thing, for your madness saved thecountry.'
With some labour we got the treasure down to the path, and took itunder a strong guard to Pietersdorp. The Government were busy with thesettling up after the war, and it took many weeks to have our businessdisposed of. At first things looked badly for me. TheAttorney-General set up a claim to the whole as spoils of war, since,he argued, it was the war-chest of the enemy we had conquered. I donot know how the matter would have gone on legal grounds, though I wasadvised by my lawyers that the claim was a bad one. But the part I hadplayed in the whole business, more especially in the visit to Inanda'sKraal, had made me a kind of popular hero, and the Government thoughtbetter of their first attitude. Besides, Arcoll had great influence,and the whole story of my doings, which was told privately by him tosome of the members of the Government, disposed them to be generous.Accordingly they agreed to treat the contents of the cave as ordinarytreasure trove, of which, by the law, one half went to the discovererand one half to the Crown.
This was well enough so far as the gold was concerned, but anotherdifficulty arose about the diamonds; for a large part of these hadobviously been stolen by labourers from the mines, and the miningpeople laid claim to them as stolen goods. I was advised not todispute this claim, and consequently we had a great sorting-out of thestones in the presence of the experts of the different mines. In theend it turned out that identification was not an easy matter, for theexperts quarrelled furiously among themselves. A compromise was atlast come to, and a division made; and then the diamond companiesbehaved very handsomely, voting me a substantial sum in recognition ofmy services in recovering their property. What with this and with myhalf share of the gold and my share of the unclaimed stones, I foundthat I had a very considerable fortune. The whole of my stones I soldto De Beers, for if I had placed them on the open market I should haveupset the delicate equipoise of diamond values. When I came finally tocast up my accounts, I found that I had secured a fortune of a trifleover a quarter of a million pounds.
The wealth did not dazzle so much as it solemnized me. I had noimpulse to spend any part of it in a riot of folly. It had come to melike fairy gold out of the void; it had been bought with men's blood,almost with my own. I wanted to get away to a quiet place and think,for of late my life had been too crowded with drama, and there comes asatiety of action as well as of idleness. Above all things I wanted toget home. They gave me a great send-off, and sang songs, and goodfellows shook my hand till it ached. The papers were full of me, andthere was a banquet and speeches. But I could not relish this glory asI ought, for I was like a boy thrown violently out of his bearings. Nottill I was in the train nearing Cape Town did I recover my equanimity.The burden of the past seemed to slip from me suddenly as on themorning when I had climbed the linn. I saw my life all lying before me;and already I had won success. I thought of my return to my owncountry, my first sight of the grey shores of Fife, my visit toKirkcaple, my meeting with my mother. I was a rich man now who couldchoose his career, and my mother need never again want for comfort. Mymoney seemed pleasant to me, for if men won theirs by brains orindustry, I had won mine by sterner methods, for I had staked againstit my life. I sat alone in the railway carriage and cried with purethankfulness. These were comforting tears, for they brought me back tomy old common-place self.
My last memory of Africa is my meeting with Tam Dyke. I caught sightof him in the streets of Cape Town, and running after him, clapped himon the shoulder. He stared at me as if he had seen a ghost.
'Is it yourself, Davie?' he cried. 'I never looked to see you again inthis world. I do nothing but read about you in the papers. What fordid ye not send for me? Here have I been knocking about inside a shipand you have been getting famous. They tell me you're a millionaire,too.'
I had Tam to dinner at my hotel, and later, sitting smoking on theterrace and watching the flying-ants among the aloes, I told him thebetter part of the story I have here written down.
'Man, Davie,' he said at the end, 'you've had a tremendous time. Hereare you not eighteen months away from home, and you're going back witha fortune. What will you do with it?' I told him that I proposed, tobegin with, to finish my education at Edinburgh College. At this heroared with laughter.
'That's a dull ending, anyway. It's me that should have the money, forI'm full of imagination. You were aye a prosaic body, Davie.'
'Maybe I am,' I said; 'but I am very sure of one thing. If I hadn'tbeen a prosaic body, I wouldn't be sitting here to-night.'
* * *
Two years later Aitken found the diamond pipe, which he had alwaysbelieved lay in the mountains. Some of the stones in the cave, beingunlike any ordinary African diamonds, confirmed his suspicions and sethim on the track. A Kaffir tribe to the north-east of the Rooirand hadknown of it, but they had never worked it, but only collected theoverspill. The closing down of one of the chief existing mines hadcreated a shortage of diamonds in the world's markets, and once againthe position was the same as when Kimberley began. Accordingly he madea great fortune, and to-day the Aitken Proprietary Mine is one of themost famous in the country. But Aitken did more than mine diamonds,for he had not forgotten the lesson we had learned together in the workof resettlement. He laid down a big fund for the education andamelioration of the native races, and the first fruit of it was theestablishment at Blaauwildebeestefontein itself of a great nativetraining college. It was no factory for making missionaries and blackteachers, but an institution for giving the Kaffirs the kind oftraining which fits them to be good citizens of the state. There youwill find every kind of technical workshop, and the finest experimentalfarms, where the blacks are taught modern agriculture. They haveproved themselves apt pupils, and to-day you will see in the glens ofthe Berg and in the plains Kaffir tillage which is as scientific as anyin Africa. They have created a huge export trade in tobacco and fruit;the cotton promises well; and there is talk of a new fibre which willdo wonders. Also along the river bottoms the india-rubber business isprospering.
There are playing-fields and baths and reading-rooms and libraries justas in a school at home. In front of the great hall of the college astatue stands, the figure of a black man shading his eyes with hishands and looking far over the plains to the Rooirand. On the pedestalit is lettered 'Prester John,' but the face is the face of Laputa. Sothe last of the kings of Africa does not lack his monument.
Of this institution Mr Wardlaw is the head. He writes to me weekly,for I am one of the governors, as well as an old friend, and from arecent letter I take this passage:--
'I often cast my mind back to the afternoon when you and I sat on thestoep of the schoolhouse, and talked of the Kaffirs and our future. Ihad about a dozen pupils then, and now I have nearly three thousand;and in place of a tin-roofed shanty and a yard, I have a wholecountryside. You laughed at me for my keenness, Davie, but I've seenit justified. I was never a man of war like you, and so I had to bideat home while you and your like were straightening out the troubles.But when it was all over my job began, for I could do what you couldn'tdo--I was the physician to heal wounds. You mind how nervous I waswhen I heard the drums beat. I hear them every evening now, for wehave made a rule that all the Kaffir farms on the Berg sound a kind ofcurfew. It reminds me of old times, and tells me that though it ispeace nowadays we mean to keep all the manhood in them that they usedto exercise in war. It would do your eyes good to see the garden wehave made out of the Klein Labongo glen. The place is one big orchardwith every kind of tropical fruit in it, and the irrigation dam is asfull of fish as it will hold. Out at Umvelos' there is atobacco-factory, and all round Sikitola's we have square miles ofmealie and cotton fields. The loch on the Rooirand is stocked withLochleven trout, and we have made a bridle-path up to it in a gullyeast of the one you climbed. You ask about Machudi's. The last
time Iwas there the place was white with sheep, for we have got the edge ofthe plateau grazed down, and sheep can get the short bite there. Wehave cleaned up all the kraals, and the chiefs are members of ourcounty council, and are as fond of hearing their own voices as anAberdeen bailie. It's a queer transformation we have wrought, and whenI sit and smoke my pipe in the evening, and look over the plains andthen at the big black statue you and Aitken set up, I thank theProvidence that has guided me so far. I hope and trust that, in theBible words, "the wilderness and the solitary place are glad for us."At any rate it will not be my fault if they don't "blossom as therose". Come out and visit us soon, man, and see the work you had ahand in starting....'
I am thinking seriously of taking Wardlaw's advice.
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