John Ames, Native Commissioner Part 15

"Well, she's the last, then. If there's one thing about Nidia Commerell that appeals to me it is that she's so perfectly natural, and therefore, of course, unconventional."

"Oh, she does 'appeal' to you, then? I rather thought she did," said Tarrant, serenely. "But you've no show, old man. It's the other Johnny--what's his name--"

"--Ames."

"--Yes. He seems to have got the floor just now."

"As to the first--skittles; as to the last--why do you think so?"

"Didn't I tell you I was studying her rather closely? When you first mentioned--er--Ames, she just, ever so little, overdid it. You may rely upon it that joker made his hay while the sun shone."

Moseley burst into a great contemptuous laugh. "Oh, bosh, Dibs! You've got the keenest nose for a mare's nest I ever saw. I tell you that's Miss Commerell's way. If she likes any one she doesn't in the least mind saying so. That alone shows there's nothing deeper in it."

"Her way, is it? Oh, well, then, so much the worse for--er--Ames."

The while those they had just left were comparing opinions upon them.

"That friend of Mr Moseley's seems a very quiet man," Mrs Hollingworth was saying. "Who is he, George?"

"Never saw him before in my life. In the same line of business, I take it. His 'quietness,' though, seemed to me to cover a suspicion of 'side.' Sort of 'know everything' manner."

"Yes. Perhaps I am wrong, but there seemed a sort of conscious superiority about him. What did you think, Nidia?"

"Just what you do. But we may be wrong. The other is all rights though, so jolly and good-natured always. We came out on the same ship."

"Moseley. Yes; he's a good chap, but he's got a detestable wife," said Hollingworth.

"It's astonishing what a number of 'good chaps' have," laughed Nidia.

"But where is she?"

"In England now. Moseley drives his trade here, and she has a good time on the lion's share of the proceeds there. She won't stay in this country. Yes? What is it?"

This to his son and heir, _aetat_ ten, who was trying to get in a chance of asking to be allowed to go out and shoot a buck.

"Don't know. You're too much of a kiddie, Jim. Your mother fidgeted herself--and me--to death last time you went."

"I got the buck, though," was the reply, half defiant, half triumphant.

"So you did, sonny. Well, you can go. Be careful with the gun, and don't be late. It's a good thing for them to learn to shoot straight in a country like this," he added, as the boy skipped away without waiting for the possibility of any recall of this edict: and a moment later they saw him disappearing in the bush, away beyond the mealie-lands.

"Fancy you and Ames being old pals, Miss Commerell," said Hollingworth.

"Where did you know each other?"

"Down at the Cape. We were in the same hotel at Wynberg. I saw a good deal of him, and liked him very much. Is he getting on well up here, Mr Hollingworth?"

"Yes, I think so. He's thought a good deal of in his own line.

Shouldn't wonder if he gets into something better before long. And now, if you'll excuse me, Miss Commerell, I'll go and take my usual forty winks, if those 'kinders' will let me."

This was a figure of speech on Hollingworth's part. Had his progeny been ten times more riotous and restive than it was he would have slept tranquilly through all the racket they could make. There are persons who can sleep through anything--from a fox-terrier in a backyard to a big gun practice--and Hollingworth was one of them.

Nidia, left alone, did not feel in the least inclined to follow his example. A strange restlessness was upon her, a desire for solitude; and where could she obtain this better than amid the wild bush by which the homestead was surrounded? Going inside, she threw on a straw hat, then taking a light _umzimbiti_ walking-stick, she struck into one of the forest paths.

She felt not the slightest fear or misgiving. The natives at that time were deferential and submissive, and seldom encountered outside their own locations. Wild beasts avoided the near proximity of human habitations, at any rate in the full blaze of the afternoon sun, and if she came upon a snake she could always run away; for she was not one of those who imagine that the average serpent can leap--say, fifty feet-- through the air, or spends its time lying in wait for human beings for the fun of biting them. So she wandered on beneath the feathery acacias and gnarled wild fig, now stopping to disengage her skirt from the sharp claws of a projecting spray of "haak-doorn," now bending down to examine some strange and brilliant-winged beetle. A pair of "go-away" birds, uttering their cat-like call, darted from tree to tree, keeping ever a short distance before her. When she drew near the spray on which they were perched on they would go again, and she could mark their conical crests as again they plunged forward in arrow-like flight, only to perch again as before.

A small stony kopje rose above the level of the brake. To this she ascended, and, finding a shady spot, sat down upon a granite boulder to rest. Away and around the gaze could range over a great expanse of country, here smoothly undulating in a green sea of verdure, there broken-up into stony hillocks. She could not see the homestead--that was hidden by the gradual depression towards the river-bank, but the river-bed was discernible by the winding slit its course left in the expanse of foliage. And away in the golden haze of the blue horizon a line of hills which she instinctively guessed were those of the Sik.u.mbutana.

So John Ames was so near and she would see him again; a matter of twenty miles or so was no distance in up-country estimation! Yet, why should this consciousness bring with it a feeling of elation? She was not in the least in love with the man. She could mention his name, or hear it mentioned, without a tremor in her voice or a stirring of the pulse.

She had not even gone to the pains of inquiring after him, or as to his whereabouts, since her arrival at Bulawayo; yet now, suddenly an impulse was upon her to see him again which amounted almost to a longing. She had missed him greatly after his departure, even as she had said she would, but only as she would have missed anybody in whose society she had found pleasure and entertainment; yet now she found herself looking forward to meeting him again with such a curious mingling of feelings as she had never known before. She had seen him amid conventional, and, to him strange, surroundings, now she wanted to see him at home as it were, and in his own everyday sphere.

How would they meet? She supposed he would ride over directly he received her note. Would he look surprised and pleased? Would that grave, firm face relax as he greeted her, the straight glance of the grey eyes soften ever so little as it met hers? Thus she pondered. Yet she was not in the least in love with John Ames.

For long she sat, pondering thus. Then, upon the distant stillness, rolled forth a shot, followed by another. It broke the current of her thoughts.

"Jimmie is getting some sport," she said to herself, standing up to look in the direction of the double report. "But he must be finding it very near home. That shot sounded almost as if it were at the house."

She glanced at the sun. Its distance above the horizon reminded her that she must be getting back herself. Rising, she descended the granite kopje, and took her way along the bush-path she had come by.

This was a matter of no difficulty, even if she were now following it for the first time, for those among whom she had lately moved had taught her something of the mysteries of "spoor."

How peaceful it looked in the golden light of the afternoon stillness!

The homestead, truly, was of the roughest description, with its thatched roof and "dagga" walls, yet it, and the pointed conical huts behind it, were all in keeping. A settler's dwelling in a new land! A halo of romance overspread it in Nidia's mind as she emerged from the bush-path into the clearing.

Stay. What was that? Blood! She had just time to switch her skirt aside. Blood? Yes; a great patch of it--then another and another, and a long trail in the dust as though something heavy had been dragged along the ground. Ah, Jimmie had been in luck again and had brought down another buck. That was the meaning of the double shot she had heard. The animal had been too heavy for the little chap to carry. He had been obliged to drag it, hence the trail along the ground. And in her rejoicing over the small boy's venatorial triumph, Nidia forgot her natural disgust at sight of the blood-gouts which lay thick and hideously red along the trail.

How still it all was! Had their mother taken those earthquakes of children for a walk? she wondered. Even then it was strange to be out of earshot of their voices, if only in the distance. Well, the youthful hunter should be in, anyhow.

"Jimmie!" she called. "Jim-mie!"

No answer.

The front door was closed. She noticed that the trail went round as though to the back of the house, yet in front of the closed door the blood-patches lay thicker than ever. Jimmy would catch it when his mother came back, she thought to herself, for bringing his quarry in at the front door and making that horrid mess. Lifting her skirt to avoid the latter, and making a little grimace of disgust, she turned the handle.

There was a window opposite, but the blind was down. To Nidia, coming in from the full glow of the sunlight, the room was almost dark. Only for a moment though, and then she saw--

She saw that which might have turned many a stronger brain than hers-- she saw that which made her cover her eyes with her hands, and stagger back against the doorpost with a low wailing cry of such unutterable horror as can rarely have proceeded from human throat. Oh Heaven! must she look again and go mad? was the thought which flashed through her mind as with hands pressed to her eyes she leaned against the doorpost as rigid as though turned to stone.

On the couch beneath the window aforesaid lay the form of Hollingworth-- the form, for little else about the wretched man was distinguishable but his clothing. His skull had been battered in, and his features smashed to a pulp. There he lay, and on the floor beside him a periodical which he had been reading before overtaken by the sleep from which he was destined never to awaken. In one corner lay the corpse of his wife-- and, in a row, four children, all with their skulls smashed, and nailed to the ground with a.s.segais--the whole having undergone more or less nameless horrors of mutilation. This is what she saw--this girl--who had never looked upon a scene of violence or of bloodshed in her life.

This is what she saw, returning in serene security to the peaceful home that sheltered her. No wonder she stood against the doorpost, her hands pressed tightly to her eyes, her brain on fire. Was it a dream--an awful nightmare? The very magnitude of the horror saved her.

Out into the air again. Not another glance dare she venture into that scene of hideous butchery. Out into the air again. The same golden sun was shining, the same fair earth, the same feathery foliage peaceful in the afternoon light. But within? The world began to go round with her.

She staggered as though to sink into a swoon, when--

What was that? A cry? A moan? From the back of the house it seemed to come, and it was distinctly that of a human being in pain. Thither Nidia flew. The sound had created a diversion, and had certainly saved her brain from giving way from shock and fright.

A form was lying on the ground covered with blood and dust. Nidia recognised it in a moment for that of Hollingworth's eldest boy--the youthful hunter whose prowess she had been about to congratulate.

"Jimmie!" she cried, bending over him. "Jimmie, my poor child, what has happened? What have they done to you--to--to everybody?"

Her voice broke down, and she could only sob piteously. She tried to raise the boy's head, but he screamed.