Sand and Diamonds By Victor Rousseau Read online

remained, and dismounted at the entrance to

  ranch-house that night, with a view to saving

  the stoep, throwing the reins.

  his horse for the long desert marches that were

  He strode up and hammered on the

  to come. When the sun dipped under the door. No sound came from the house, which horizon, and darkness was a matter of minutes

  was already in the long shadows cast by the

  he off-saddled, knee-haltered the animal, built

  kopjes. There was no sign of life anywhere.

  a little fire of dead branches of thorn, and

  Luke tried the door and found that it

  cooked his supper. He rolled up in his blanket,

  was open. He stamped inside, calling. No

  and was asleep almost immediately.

  sound came but the echo of his own voice.

  He was astir at sunrise, shivering in the

  The big living-room, which Emmy had

  icy wind that would change to a burning furnished tastefully from Cape Town was in sirocco inside of two hours. He upsaddled

  disorder. The rugs were disarranged, the table

  after a breakfast of coffee, biltong, and a pushed into a corner, three chairs overturned, couple of cakes made hastily on the ashes of

  Indication were that a struggle had taken

  his fire, and rode on at a leisurely gait. Time

  place.

  had lost much of its meaning for him in those

  What had happened? A marauding

  wastes. He calculated on striking the raid, from some wandering tribes? The natives Duplessis ranch about mid-afternoon.

  had been at peace for years, and, if such a

  All that morning he rode steadily. A

  thing had happened, old Duplessis would not

  bite of lunch, and on again through the heat of

  have been caught napping.

  the afternoon. The line of kopjes marking the Sergeant Luke strode through the

  fringe of the desert loomed nearer. Now he

  house, shouting. He stopped. He thought that

  was among them, low, single hills emerging

  he heard a moaning sound in answer.

  from the plain, their tops heaped fantastically

  He stepped into the kitchen and called

  with boulders, and crowned with solitary again. This time he heard the answering moan cacti. Baboons barked at him and scampered

  distinctly. It came from a small cellar that

  away as he threaded the narrow cart track that

  Duplessis had hollowed out for a larder.

  at last emerged into the Duplessis ranch, the

  Luke made his way down the rickety

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  6

  wooden stairs. Hams and dried peaches hung

  strap on bandolier, take his rifle, and jump on

  from the roof of the little place, barrels of

  his horse. In five minutes they both gone

  flour and crates of groceries were ranged together toward the Ngami.”

  along the sides.

  “Go

  on!”

  The moaning came from a far corner.

  “Last night late Van Reenen come

  Fighting down his terror, the sergeant made

  back, with him that man Brouwer Miss Emmy

  his way there.

  always scared of and two more. Van Reenen

  He was conscious of intense relief. say Baas Jan fell off his horse and hurt Among a heap of old rags and rubbish he saw

  himself. Miss Emmy to go back with him

  the wizened body and monkey-like face of old

  while Brouwer ride for the doctor. Miss

  Jantje, Miss Emmy’s Hottentot body-servant.

  Emmy is getting ready when I tell her Van

  The Hottentot, being of a higher or more Reenen is lying. Then she says she won’t go.

  adaptable mentality than the negro, is usually

  “She asks questions and sees that Van

  attached to the house in a personal capacity,

  Reenen is lying. He catches hold of her, and

  generally as groom. Jantje had always she fights him. I ran to get gun to shoot them, accompanied Miss Emmy when she went but Van Reenen shot me in the head twice and abroad. He had been with her since she was a

  I fell down. They thought I was dead because

  baby.

  I lay still. They carried me downstairs and

  The sergeant saw that the yellow man

  threw me into a corner. When they were gone

  was unconscious, though he was moaning. He

  I tried to get up, but I remembered nothing

  had been shot or stabbed. His rags were more till you came, Baas Luke.”

  streaked and stained with blood. Stooping, he

  “Where have they taken her?”

  raised the man in his arms and carried him up

  “Into the Ngami. They doing

  to the living-room. A quick examination something there, I don’t know what.”

  showed that Jantje had been shot twice in the

  “Jantje, I’m going to leave for there at

  head. Both bullets had glanced off his once. As soon as you are able, hurry to the forehead without shattering the bone, but had

  police camp and tell Lieutenant Connell.

  traveled around the scalp, causing

  “No use, baas. Too long. Jantje go

  considerable” loss of blood.

  with you. White man cannot follow their

  Administering water and binding up

  spoor through the desert without Tottie man.

  his wounds, Luke soon had the Tottie restored

  We go together. See, Jantje strong now.”

  to consciousness. Jantje recognized him and

  Making a great effort, the little yellow

  sat up, jabbering incoherently in Dutch.

  man got on his feet and stood looking up into

  “Where’s Miss Emmy?” demanded the sergeant’s face with a twisted grin.

  Luke in the same language.

  “Jantje strong now. No time to go back

  “That devil-man Van Reenen take her.

  to police camp for help when that devil-man

  She fight. No good. Plenty mans along with

  and his other devil-mans have got Miss

  Van Reenen,” Jantje muttered with an effort.

  Emmy.”

  “When? Tell me all that happened as

  quick as you can!” Luke cried.

  Jantje seemed to pull himself together.

  CHAPTER III

  “Yesterday afternoon Van Reenen come and

  THE VALLEY OF GHOSTS

  tell Baas Jan there’s a big herd of springbok

  out in the Ngami country. Baas Jan go mad.

  He stuff a roll of biltong into his saddlebag, SERGEANT LUKE reflected quickly. He

  Sand and Diamonds

  7

  decided that the Hottentot’s advice was sound.

  beside it like a dog, picking up the spoor of It would be hopeless for any white man to

  the horses as rapidly as was necessary. An

  attempt to follow the tracks of horses through

  hour or two passed, during which Jantje

  the scrub and over the sun-baked ground. changed the course two or three times, before Only a Hottentot or a Bushman could do that.

  Luke reined in.

  He realized that Hart and the rest of his

  “Jantje, you say Van Reenen and his

  crew had been in the conspiracy. Hart had told

  gang are doing something out in the Ngami

  him that Van Reenen had invited Jan country?” he asked. “What is it?”

  Duplessis to accompany him on the hunting

  Jantje only clicked gutturally in

  trip several hours before the invitatio
n had

  answer.

  actually been extended. Hart must, therefore,

  “Are they on Baas Duplessis’s land?”

  have known of Van Reenen’s intention.

  “All his land everywhere.”

  “But can you travel?” Luke asked the

  Luke knew that the old Boer’s

  Tottie.

  holdings covered an immense extent of

  “You feed horse; when you finished,

  territory. Like the old-fashioned men of his

  Jantje strong again.”

  nation he lived in dread of being crowded by

  Luke knew enough of the recuperative

  his neighbors, and being crowded, in the Boer

  powers of the natives to believe that Jantje

  idea, is being able to see the smoke of your

  would prove as good as his word. In spite of

  neighbor’s chimney anywhere from your

  the urgent need of haste, he must feed his

  property. The land in question had been

  horse, also pack some oats on his saddle; he

  purchased from a native chief years before at

  had intended to procure a small sack at the

  about a penny for ten acres.

  Duplessis ranch in any event. He offsaddled

  They went on steadily, while the

  the animal, watered him, and fed him in the

  terrain grew rougher, threading deep denies

  stable, where he filled a small sack with oats,

  among the kopjes. Luke did not know whether which he strapped to the saddle. A handful or

  Jantje was following the tracks all the way, or

  two a day would sufficiently supplement what

  whether he had only divined the direction that

  the hardy little beast could pick up in the

  the kidnapers had taken. It was well on toward

  desert.

  morning when he told Luke that they were

  Jantje, meanwhile, had proceeded to

  ready to camp for the remainder of the night.

  dig a small tunnel, about nine inches long, in

  Luke knew that there was water here

  the hard ground outside the house. Kindling a

  and there in the Ngami, and his patrol route

  handful of a native herb in one end, he ran a

  was mapped out to enable him to halt at

  quill through the opening and inhaled the various pools that never ran quite dry, being smoke until the last embers had burned away.

  fed by subterranean streams. Here, however,

  Then, blear-eyed and choking but apparently

  being off his course, he was trusting entirely

  quite restored to strength by the drug, a to Jantje. He was about to drink from his species of hemp, he sauntered up to the water-bottle when the Tottie signed to him to sergeant, who was ready for the journey.

  put it away, and disappeared with a guttural

  “You get a horse, Jantje?”

  warning.

  “Me go on foot.”

  Ten minutes later he was back with an

  It had grown dark, but there was a

  armful of wild melons, bitter gourds with

  brilliant moon which shed a bright light over

  roots that extended twenty or thirty feet below

  the face of the country. Luke let his horse

  the ground and tapped the subterranean water

  proceed at its comfortable triple. Jantje ran

  supply. The horse devoured them greedily,

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  8

  and Luke, scooping out the pulp, as he had

  Toward sunset a line of kopjes sprang

  learned to do on patrol, quenched his thirst.

  up suddenly before them. They were

  He dozed at intervals during the approaching them as the sun dipped under the remainder of the night, feverishly impatient to

  edge of the sky.

  get on, yet knowing that in the desert it is

  “They go through there,” said Jantje,

  literally a case of the more haste the less

  indicating a narrow defile in front of them.

  speed. His mind was tortured with fears for

  “No go farther.”

  Emmy. He started up from an uneasy doze at

  “What do you mean?”

  dawn, to see Jantje on his hands and knees

  “Ghosts walk in that valley, Baas.

  beside him, puffing at his remedial herb, while

  Tottie man no go on. Ghosts kill Tottie man,

  the billy boiled on the fire.

  no harm white man.”

  A feed for the horse, coffee made of

  Without much hope, knowing the

  the bitter fluid from the interior of the melons, strength of native superstitions, Luke tried to

  and they were off again. Luke asked no more

  persuade his companion. The Hottentot,

  questions; he could see no trace of spoor upon trembling and mute, refused to go farther. Not

  the sun-baked ground, and it seemed even for his beloved Miss Emmy would he impossible that the Tottie could be following

  enter the valley ahead, where he believed the

  one—yet as Jantje ran before him he scanned

  spirits of the dead to dwell.

  the ground ceaselessly, turning now to the

  “All right, make camp,” said Luke.

  right, now to the left.

  “I’ll go on. Wait here for me. You think

  All the morning they traveled through

  they’re in there, do you?”

  the howling desert of sand and stones, with

  “Three hours ago they pass here,” said

  here and there a stunted thorn or mimosa tree.

  the Tottie. “Me wait, Baas.”

  At noon they halted.

  Luke climbed back into his saddle and

  “Van Reenen six hours ahead,” the

  rode on into the defile. The sun was down by

  Tottie volunteered. “Another man join them

  the time he reached it. Dark-rode on into the

  an hour back.”

  defile. The sun was the moon was already

  “Let’s

  push

  on!”

  lighting up the sky. The chill night wind made

  “When the afternoon grows1 cool, the sergeant shiver after the heat of the day.

  Baas.”

  Reaching the crest of the narrow pass,

  Fuming, Luke was forced to acquiesce.

  Luke reined in and looked down into the

  He had only a little water left in one of the

  valley beneath him. He was surprised to see

  bottles, and the last of the melons was gone.

  that here the desert yielded to a long extent of

  In mid-afternoon, when the sun’s heat

  densely set thorn scrub, indicating that there

  had begun almost imperceptibly to decline,

  was water. The entrance was a winding path

  they set off again.

  hardly more than three yards across, between

  This was the worst stage of the two massive walls of rock.

  journey. It was less hot, but nevertheless an

  Luke dismounted to survey the valley

  inferno. Luke had finished the water, of which

  in front of him the better. Leaving his horse he

  the little dried-up Tottie had refused to drink.

  went on afoot for fifty—a hundred yards. It

  Jantje skipped agilely ahead of the panting

  was surprising how long the defile was. At

  horse, which labored over the stones of that

  last, however, it ended abruptly in the large

  desolate route. Not a vestige of vegetation was

 
crater-like bowl of the valley.

  to be seen as they threaded their way from one

  Something glittering in the moonlight

  shallow depression into another.

  at his feet arrested his attention. Luke stooped

  Sand and Diamonds

  9

  and picked it up. It was a metal badge of the

  mouth and nostrils, and got upon his feet.

  Bechuanaland Police. Attached to it were a

  He saw that he was standing in a

  few shreds of khaki tunic.

  circular sandpit, not very much larger than a

  The discovery instantly put him on the

  spacious room, and perhaps twenty to twenty-

  alert. That badge must have been worn by

  five feet deep. All around it rose the rock

  either Simons or Rawlins. The presence of the

  walls of soft, crumbly sandstone, emerging

  shreds of cloth indicated that it had been torn

  out of banks of shelving sand and gravel. The

  by force from the wearer’s shoulder.

  floor was strewn with masses of some

  One of his two men had been there,

  substance gleaming white in the moonlight.

  then. The little piece of metal spoke as clearly

  Assuring himself that he still had his

  of foul play as if Luke had himself witnessed

  revolver, and still under the impression that

  the scene. The trooper must have been what had happened to him was no more than murdered, and the badge thrown away by his

  an accident, Luke made his way toward the

  murderer to prevent identification of the wall. He looked about him for some means of remains.

  ascent. He began to make a detour of the pit.

  Half-involuntarily