Prester John by John Buchan
The thing went on, and I am not sure that he did not give the Kaffirsdrink on the sly. At any rate, I have seen some very drunk natives onthe road between the locations and Blaauwildebeestefontein, and some ofthem I recognized as Japp's friends. I discussed the matter with MrWardlaw, who said, 'I believe the old villain has got some sort ofblack secret, and the natives know it, and have got a pull on him.'And I was inclined to think he was right.
By-and-by I began to feel the lack of company, for Wardlaw was so fullof his books that he was of little use as a companion. So I resolved toacquire a dog, and bought one from a prospector, who was stony-brokeand would have sold his soul for a drink. It was an enormous Boerhunting-dog, a mongrel in whose blood ran mastiff and bulldog andfoxhound, and Heaven knows what beside. In colour it was a kind ofbrindled red, and the hair on its back grew against the lie of the restof its coat. Some one had told me, or I may have read it, that a backlike this meant that a dog would face anything mortal, even to acharging lion, and it was this feature which first caught my fancy.The price I paid was ten shillings and a pair of boots, which I got atcost price from stock, and the owner departed with injunctions to me tobeware of the brute's temper. Colin--for so I named him--began hiscareer with me by taking the seat out of my breeches and frightening MrWardlaw into a tree. It took me a stubborn battle of a fortnight tobreak his vice, and my left arm to-day bears witness to the struggle.After that he became a second shadow, and woe betide the man who haddared to raise his hand to Colin's master. Japp declared that the dogwas a devil, and Colin repaid the compliment with a hearty dislike.
With Colin, I now took to spending some of my ample leisure inexploring the fastnesses of the Berg. I had brought out a shot-gun ofmy own, and I borrowed a cheap Mauser sporting rifle from the store. Ihad been born with a good eye and a steady hand, and very soon I becamea fair shot with a gun and, I believe, a really fine shot with therifle. The sides of the Berg were full of quail and partridge and bushpheasant, and on the grassy plateau there was abundance of a bird notunlike our own blackcock, which the Dutch called _korhaan_. But the greatsport was to stalk bush-buck in the thickets, which is a game in whichthe hunter is at small advantage. I have been knocked down by awounded bush-buck ram, and but for Colin might have been badly damaged.Once, in a kloof not far from the Letaba, I killed a fine leopard,bringing him down with a single shot from a rocky shelf almost on thetop of Colin. His skin lies by my fireside as I write this tale. Butit was during the days I could spare for an expedition into the plainsthat I proved the great qualities of my dog. There we had nobler gameto follow--wildebeest and hartebeest, impala, and now and then akoodoo. At first I was a complete duffer, and shamed myself in Colin'seyes. But by-and-by I learned something of veld-craft: I learned howto follow spoor, how to allow for the wind, and stalk under cover.Then, when a shot had crippled the beast, Colin was on its track like aflash to pull it down. The dog had the nose of a retriever, the speedof a greyhound, and the strength of a bull-terrier. I blessed the daywhen the wandering prospector had passed the store.
Colin slept at night at the foot of my bed, and it was he who led me tomake an important discovery. For I now became aware that I was beingsubjected to constant espionage. It may have been going on from thestart, but it was not till my third month at Blaauwildebeestefonteinthat I found it out. One night I was going to bed, when suddenly thebristles rose on the dog's back and he barked uneasily at the window.I had been standing in the shadow, and as I stepped to the window tolook out I saw a black face disappear below the palisade of thebackyard. The incident was trifling, but it put me on my guard. Thenext night I looked, but saw nothing. The third night I looked, andcaught a glimpse of a face almost pressed to the pane. Thereafter Iput up the shutters after dark, and shifted my bed to a part of theroom out of line with the window.
It was the same out of doors. I would suddenly be conscious, as Iwalked on the road, that I was being watched. If I made as if to walkinto the roadside bush there would be a faint rustling, which told thatthe watcher had retired. The stalking was brilliantly done, for Inever caught a glimpse of one of the stalkers. Wherever I went--on theroad, on the meadows of the plateau, or on the rugged sides of theBerg--it was the same. I had silent followers, who betrayed themselvesnow and then by the crackling of a branch, and eyes were always lookingat me which I could not see. Only when I went down to the plains didthe espionage cease. This thing annoyed Colin desperately, and hiswalks abroad were one continuous growl. Once, in spite of my efforts,he dashed into the thicket, and a squeal of pain followed. He had gotsomebody by the leg, and there was blood on the grass.
Since I came to Blaauwildebeestefontein I had forgotten the mystery Ihad set out to track in the excitement of a new life and my sordidcontest with Japp. But now this espionage brought back my oldpreoccupation. I was being watched because some person or personsthought that I was dangerous. My suspicions fastened on Japp, but Isoon gave up that clue. It was my presence in the store that was adanger to him, not my wanderings about the countryside. It might bethat he had engineered the espionage so as to drive me out of the placein sheer annoyance; but I flattered myself that Mr Japp knew me toowell to imagine that such a game was likely to succeed.
The mischief was that I could not make out who the trackers were. Ihad visited all the surrounding locations, and was on good enough termswith all the chiefs. There was 'Mpefu, a dingy old fellow who hadspent a good deal of his life in a Boer gaol before the war. There wasa mission station at his place, and his people seemed to me to be wellbehaved and prosperous. Majinje was a chieftainess, a little girl whomnobody was allowed to see. Her location was a miserable affair, andher tribe was yearly shrinking in numbers. Then there was Magatafarther north among the mountains. He had no quarrel with me, for heused to give me a meal when I went out hunting in that direction; andonce he turned out a hundred of his young men, and I had a great battueof wild dogs. Sikitola, the biggest of all, lived some distance out inthe flats. I knew less about him; but if his men were the trackers,they must have spent most of their days a weary way from their kraal.The Kaffirs in the huts at Blaauwildebeestefontein were mostlyChristians, and quiet, decent fellows, who farmed their little gardens,and certainly preferred me to Japp. I thought at one time of ridinginto Pietersdorp to consult the Native Commissioner. But I discoveredthat the old man, who knew the country, was gone, and that hissuccessor was a young fellow from Rhodesia, who knew nothing aboutanything. Besides, the natives round Blaauwildebeestefontein were wellconducted, and received few official visitations. Now and then acouple of Zulu policemen passed in pursuit of some minor malefactor,and the collector came for the hut-tax; but we gave the Governmentlittle work, and they did not trouble their heads about us.
As I have said, the clues I had brought out with me toBlaauwildebeestefontein began to occupy my mind again; and the more Ithought of the business the keener I grew. I used to amuse myself withsetting out my various bits of knowledge. There was first of all theRev. John Laputa, his doings on the Kirkcaple shore, his talk withHenriques about Blaauwildebeestefontein, and his strange behaviour atDurban. Then there was what Colles had told me about the place beingqueer, how nobody would stay long either in the store or theschoolhouse. Then there was my talk with Aitken at Lourenco Marques,and his story of a great wizard in the neighbourhood to whom allKaffirs made pilgrimages, and the suspicion of a diamond pipe. Lastand most important, there was this perpetual spying on myself. It wasas clear as daylight that the place held some secret, and I wondered ifold Japp knew. I was fool enough one day to ask him about diamonds.He met me with contemptuous laughter. 'There's your ignorantBritisher,' he cried. 'If you had ever been to Kimberley you wouldknow the look of a diamond country. You're as likely to find diamondshere as ocean pearls. But go out and scrape in the spruit if you like;you'll maybe find some garnets.'
I made cautious inquiries, too, chiefly through Mr Wardlaw, who wasbecoming a great expert at Kaffir, about the exi
The upshot of it all was that, after much brooding, I wrote a letter toMr Colles, and, to make sure of its going, gave it to a missionary topost in Pietersdorp. I told him frankly what Aitken had said, and Ialso told him about the espionage. I said nothing about old Japp, for,beast as he was, I did not want him at his age to be without alivelihood.