Tales of South Africa Part 14

It was his second expedition; he had been to the Lake two years before; and he spoke Cape Dutch. That was well for all parties; they could converse freely; and as all were interested in the life of the hunting veldt, there was plenty to talk about Meredith, too, had fought in the Crimean war four years before; and although these homely Boer folk had the vaguest ideas as to Russia and its whereabouts, they were interested in hearing of fighting, especially of warfare and siege amid the deep snows of the frozen North. And so, after pipes and coffee, the gathering separated, and Jacoba went to her _kartel_ bed and dreamt of the alert, brisk _Engelschmann_ and his handsome face and grey eyes.

It was settled next day that the two parties should trek up the river and hunt together for a time. Meredith was not sorry to make this arrangement. He had left Natal with an English hunting friend. A severe attack of fever on the Crocodile River had, however, driven his comrade south; and, after a lonely hunt in the country about the Great Salt Pan, north of the Lake River, he was not disinclined to have the companionship of white folk again, rough Boers though they were. The wagons stood for another two days at this outspan, while the Steyns'

oxen rested and refreshed themselves after their desperate trek across the "thirst". On the last evening, Meredith was down at the river with his fishing-rod, catching "cat-fish," of which there were quant.i.ties.

The Steyns were busied about their wagons, preparing for the evening meal; the men-folk were sitting here and there, some on the _dissel-boom_, some on wagon-chairs, smoking contentedly. Little Hans, the youngest of the family, a st.u.r.dy imp of eight years, who had already formed a strong attachment for the English captain, had run down towards the water after his new acquaintance. Suddenly Jacoba glanced in that direction and uttered a choking cry. The rest of the family, hearing her exclamation, looked up, and were instantly horror-struck like herself. A hundred and fifty yards away, little Hans was standing close to the edge of a dense ma.s.s of reed-bed. Fifteen yards away from him crouched a big yellow-maned lion, its tail twitching very softly from side to side, its gaze fixed intently on the youngster's face. Hans had seen the brute, and stood spellbound. Fifty paces away behind the boy was Captain Meredith, who too had that instant caught sight of the lion, and comprehended the whole terrible situation. He was armed only with his fishing-rod. For one brief instant all the gazers at that terrible picture were rivetted where they stood, frozen with apprehension.

Jan Steyn was the first to move. He rose from his chair and plunged silently into his wagon for a rifle. But even he was not quick enough.

Meredith, defenceless though he was, had already made up his mind.

Flourishing his rod, and shouting objurgations on the lion at the top of his voice, he ran swiftly straight in the brute's direction. To the utter surprise of all the watchers and the intense astonishment of Meredith himself, the lion, after baring his teeth in a savage defiance, suddenly changed his mind, turned tail, and disappeared like a yellow flash into the tall reeds. Meredith now picked up Hans, who, released from the strain of apprehension, burst into tears upon his shoulder, and carried him up to the camp. Vrouw Steyn first took the lad from his arms, pressed him to her breast, kissed him, and then, putting her arms round the captain's neck, gave him two or three hearty kisses. That was the bravest thing, she said, she had ever heard of, much more seen, and she and her family would never forget it as long as they lived. Then the stout old _vrouw_ resigned herself to a quiet flood of tears and went about her work. Jacoba came next. The tears were already streaming down her cheeks. Hans was her favourite brother, and very dear to her. She came softly to Meredith, took his hand, modestly kissed him on the right cheek, and thanked him again and again. Jan Steyn and his three big sons, ranging from fifteen to two-and-twenty, one after another followed, thrust their big hands into the captain's, and in their gruff Boer manner did their best to convey their hearty if, somewhat uncouth, thanks.

After that episode the friendship between Boers and Englishman grew apace. The men hunted together as they moved slowly up the river, and brought in many a head of game. Once or twice they came up with elephants on the south bank of the river and secured some good teeth, and the _Kaptein_, or Hendrik, as they all now familiarly called him (his name was Henry), proved that, besides being a brave man, he was a first-rate hunter and shot--as good a man, the Steyn lads said, as their own father, which was their highest form of praise.

It was amusing to notice the domestic reforms that the Englishman and his ways introduced into the Boer family. Instead of for ever stewing lumps of game flesh in the big pot, or cooking dry _karbonadjes_ over the embers, the captain persuaded the _vrouw_ to follow his own example, and roast wild-duck or a joint of springbok in a Kaffir pot, with hot embers below and on the lid. Sometimes he persuaded her to cook springbok chops and "fry" in an open frying-pan, as had he taught his own native cook. He presented her with one of his two frying-pans for this purpose. He even inducted the good-wife and Jacoba into the mysteries of curry, and gave them a supply of powder which lasted them for a year or two later. In proof that these innovations were acceptable, you may find them to this day, thanks to Jacoba's and Hans's remembrance of the English captain, steadily practised in Hans's household in Waterberg. Even Hans's wife, obstinate Boer woman though she is, has long since admitted their merits. On the other hand, Meredith had to acknowledge that he could not improve upon the Steyns'

coffee-making, which, performed though it was in an ordinary iron kettle, was as good as could be. Many an Englishman, however, has discovered that fact.

As for Jacoba, she foregathered with Meredith as often as she had opportunity. It was a delightful thing for this simple, untaught Boer maiden to hear news of that vast, dim outer world, and to gather some little idea of modern civilisation. For the Transvaal Boers, you must understand, to this day, linger in their isolation at least a hundred years behind the average European. Sometimes, when the captain came home early from hunting, Jacoba would walk with him to the river-side, or to the spreading lagoons which were now everywhere forming upon the flats, and watch him shoot wild-duck and geese, or some rare specimen or curious bird. Those were delightful times for the girl, as she and her hero strolled home in the soft African twilight, with all the glamour of evening about them. For within the secret recesses of her maiden heart she had long since set up the handsome Englishman as her hero. Jacoba at seventeen was a very comely girl; her complexion was fresh and clear--a rare thing among Dutch Afrikanders. She looked, as indeed she was, always pleasant and good-tempered; her blue eyes were as clear and honest as an African winter morning; from beneath her big sun-bonnet (_kapje_) her plentiful fair hair fell in a single thick plait down her back. Her figure, it is true, was nothing to boast of; but then, in the faraway veldt, who troubles about an inch or two at the waist? Meredith liked this frank, comely, modest South African maiden; even he, man of the world though he was, could scarce help but feel a little flattered at the manifest preference she showed for his society. Then the child-- for, measured by the European standard, she was but a child--had so many questions to ask him upon all sorts of subjects; and it really was a pleasure to answer some of these naive, unsophisticated inquiries, and to try and teach her something of the life and thoughts of Europe. And so it befell that Jacoba's heart insensibly slipped from her, and she grew in her secret soul to love and almost to worship this fascinating Englishman, who knew everything, and did everything--from shooting an elephant to inspanning an ox--better even than her father and brothers, and could teach her own mother how to cook. She loved to watch him as he saddled up in the early dawning and rode off across the plains, or into the bush veldt, with her father and brothers in search of game.

How nimble was this Englishman, and how graceful! With what an air he sprang into his saddle, and sat his horse, and even carried his rifle!

And how fresh and trim and clean the man always looked! I am afraid Jacoba began secretly to contrast the captain with her own heavy, untrimmed and not over-clean kindred--much to the detriment of the latter.

In a little while the girl had come to look forward to Meredith's return from hunting as the one great pleasure in the long day. Sometimes, when the men were in pursuit of elephants, and slept out on the spoor, it seemed as if the slothful hours would never pa.s.s. Her mother noticed the change in Jacoba's demeanour, and would sometimes rate her for her forgetfulness and absent ways. "Jacoba," she would say, from her low chair under the shady lee of the wagon, "your mind is always running on that English 'Kaptein.' Wake up, child, and think what you are doing, or I shall send him packing."

Yet it must be confessed that the big ponderous _vrouw_ was, in truth, almost as taken with the stranger as her own child. She liked, as every one else in the camp liked, his pleasant, hearty ways, and the air of novelty and briskness that his presence brought into the dull lives of herself and her folk. She liked his friendship for her child most of all, stout anti-Briton though she was in the abstract. It would be a fine thing indeed, she whispered to herself, if the captain should ask the girl in marriage, and set her up as a great lady. Vrouw Steyn had very faint ideas of what great ladies did, and how they comported themselves; yet as a child she remembered seeing the wife of the Governor of the Cape, and other official dames, at Graaff Reinet. And besides, she had once or twice seen old copies of the _Ill.u.s.trated London News_, from which she a.s.sisted her own misty and fantastic glimmerings upon the subject.

It was curious to note in these days how particular Jacoba had grown about her clothes and person. It would be hard to say how she managed it. She had but two print gowns, and yet now she always appeared in a spotless frock in the afternoons. After all, even hunting Boers carry soap, and in the hot sunshine and parching winds of South Africa you can dry a print dress on a bush in a very little while. The captain had presented her, among other feminine treasures, with a brand-new pair of nail-scissors, and her hands were now kept as daintily as a Cape Town _meisje's_. Even her brothers could scarcely help noticing the smart ribbons that, especially on Sundays, decked her gown and hair.

It must be said on the captain's side that he behaved fairly well in a somewhat difficult position. He was an honourable man, and he had no intention in the world of stealing this simple girl's affections. He was, in truth, much too keenly occupied in the wild pleasures of hunting big game to think about her affections at all. To him she was a mere child, and as such he had grown to treat her. It is true that it was a pleasant thing to find, even in this faraway desert--tolerable in many respects only for the game it held--a pretty fresh-eyed maid such as Jacoba, Dutch and semi-civilised though she was. Perhaps, if he had reflected a little, his friendship for the girl might have been somewhat less intimate. He treated her, indeed, in a careless brotherly, or perhaps, rather, cousinly way. When he came home from the hunt, often towards 3 o'clock, after a cup of coffee and a snack of food, he would exchange his heavy gun for the fowling-piece, whistle for Juno, the pointer, and stroll off arm-in-arm with Jacoba down to the river-side or the nearest lagoon. Sometimes little Hans would accompany them; sometimes he was lazy and stayed behind. It must be said that insensibly the captain and Jacoba grew to prefer their expeditions alone. When Meredith had shot enough wildfowl and red-billed francolin, he and Jacoba would stroll up to the camp-fire as the dusk fell. I am afraid, somehow, that the captain's arm often wandered to the maid's waist; sometimes even he took a kiss quite unresistingly from Jacoba's fresh lips and soft cheek. It was thoughtless of him, which was perhaps the worst that could be said. For Jacoba those evening walks were full of unfading joy; to this hour she cherishes every incident of them, middle-aged woman though she is.

As the wagons moved up the river, elephants became more plentiful. On several occasions the hunters had crossed the water and followed the great tusk-bearers into the jungles beyond. They had had first-rate sport, and secured some magnificent teeth. One morning, at earliest dawn, some Makobas punted their dug-out canoes across the river, and reported that a good troop of elephants had drunk during the night. For a consideration they would take the hunters across. All was now bustle and excitement in the camp. Jan Steyn and his two eldest sons and the captain were soon equipped. They swallowed a hasty breakfast, and then, walking their horses down to the river, got into the boats and swam their nags over behind them. There was some risk from crocodiles, but the feat was safely accomplished. Then they took up the spoor in earnest. Some Masarwa bushmen tracked for them, and they rode at a brisk pace upon the trail, hour after hour, until noon had come and the sun lay midway in the sky between north-east and north-west. At half-past twelve they came suddenly upon the elephants in some troublesome th.o.r.n.y bush. There were eighteen in all, and some good bulls among them. Meredith quickly got to work and slew two magnificent bulls, carrying long, even teeth, after a hot and most exciting chase.

He next tackled a big cow, furnished with a capital pair of tusks.

After a sharp gallop he got alongside and put a four-ounce ball, backed with seven drachms of powder (those were the days of smooth-bores and heavy charges), behind her shoulder. But, stricken though she was, the cow was by no means finished. She turned short in her tracks, and, spouting blood, came with a ferocious scream straight for her tormentor.

Meredith had instantly turned his horse and spurred for flight. But, as it happened, in a hundred yards he was met by an absolutely impa.s.sable _cul-de-sac_ of thorn-bush. Almost before horse and man knew where they were, they were caught up and flung to earth. The great cow drove her left tusk deep into the off flank of the horse, and hurled the poor brute and its rider away from her in one confused and bleeding ma.s.s.

Before she could halt and turn again, the impetus of her ferocious charge took her thirty yards farther, right through that seemingly impenetrable wall of bush. It was her last effort. The heavy bullet had done its work. Thrice she lifted her blood-dripping trunk as if for air. Then she swayed softly to and fro, and suddenly sank down upon all-fours, as if kneeling, and so yielded up her fifty years of life.

Meredith himself was found by his native boy ten minutes afterwards in but sorry plight. He had fallen underneath his horse when the pair of them had been hurled aside by the enraged cow, and the terrible impact had not only rendered him senseless, but had broken his right forearm and several ribs. His horse lay across his body breathing its last, with entrails protruding from a gaping wound in the flank. The boy, with the a.s.sistance of a Bushman, extricated his master and laid him upon the earth. In half an hour the Steyns came up. They had slain between them four elephants--a bull and three cows--and were well content. They now at once ascertained the Englishman's injuries. He lay still insensible. They set his arm and bound it up in a pair of rough splints, and then carried him to the river, across which the Makobas again ferried them. Arrived at last at the camp, Vrouw Steyn and her daughter at once insisted that, for better nursing, the captain should be placed under the tent-sail, between the two Dutch wagons.

There she and Jacoba tenderly laid him, bound up his ribs, washed the blood from his face, and poured brandy and water between his lips.

For more than twenty-four hours Meredith lay in the long stupor produced by concussion of the brain. It was some way past the middle hours of the second night that the first glimmering of reason came back to him.

He seemed to awake, as it were, in a fresh world. His body and limbs seemed curiously light; everything was strange. It was not unpleasant to lie thus, with eyes shut, awaiting new impressions. Presently a pair of soft lips kissed his brow and cheek, and he heard a woman's voice, in a strange tongue, which yet he understood. "My darling!" said the voice, "my love! come back to me, come back to me. Ah! Heer G.o.d, bring him back to his senses, and make him well and strong again. Hendrik, my Hendrik, I cannot bear to see you lie like this. Come back to your Jacoba, or I shall break my heart." There was a little sob, and then Meredith felt warm tears falling upon his face, and the lips pressed his brow again, this time more pa.s.sionately. He could not move, much less make answer to the strange appeal which, as if through the mists of a dream, he now heard. But he felt somehow that it was pleasant to rest thus and to hear these things, to feel soft kisses and the tender caress of a hand that now and again stroked his own, or smoothed his brow.

In a fortnight's time Meredith was slowly recovering. His bones were healing, his pulses beat a thought more firmly. He knew now all about that strange night, when his mind first wandered back into the chambers of life again. He knew that Jacoba loved him, and the thought troubled him. Had he been wise? Had he done well to make so great a friend of this simple Dutch child, to have her so much about with him? Ought he to have kissed her? to have wandered in the dusk with her, arm-in-arm, or with his arm round her waist? All these questions returned again and again to his mind and sought answer.

One quiet morning, as he lay on the _kartel_ there under the tent-sail, they two were alone in the camp. The men were out hunting; Vrouw Steyn and Hans were down at the river, washing; the native servants were scattered. Juno, the pointer, lay by her master's bedside, as she always did; and, as Jacoba came in under the tent and sat down in the wagon-chair, something in Juno's affectionate eyes, now turned from Jacoba's face wistfully to her master's, seemed to ask a question.

Meredith returned Juno's look, and then spoke.

"Jacoba," he said, taking the girl's hand, "I want to tell you something. I ought to have told it you before, I am afraid. If I had known what I think I know now, I would have done so. I shall be leaving you very shortly--as soon as I am well enough to start. I have to be back in England before Christmas, because early next year I am going to be married. That is what I ought to have told you before. Forgive me, Jacoba; I never dreamt that our friendship was turning in another direction. I heard you say something the other night, just when my senses were coming back, which makes me think that I have done wrong in not telling you of all this before. I have been selfish and unfair.

You must forgive me, Jacoba, and forget all about the past two months, though, indeed, it will be hard for me to forget the pleasant days we have had together. Don't! don't cry, my dear; I am not worth it, and you will forget it all soon enough."

Jacoba, seated in her low chair by the bedside, had buried her face in Meredith's hand and her own as he neared the end of his speaking, and was now sobbing heavily. Presently she mastered herself, dried her tears a little, and spoke.

"Perhaps, Hendrik," she said, "you ought to have told me. But, indeed, it would not have much mattered. I loved you ever since I set eyes on you the first evening we met. And I should have loved you just the same, even if you had told me that very evening that you were promised to another. Yet all the time we have been together--these weeks that have gone so quickly--I knew, Hendrik, that indeed our ways lay differently; that your world was a different world to mine; that I was to you nothing but a child--a playmate. Yet your friendship even has been so sweet to me that never, never shall I forget these nine weeks with you by the Lake River." Once more the girl dried her tears. Her face was clearer now. "But there," she went on, "that is enough about myself. Presently, when I can bear it, you must tell me all about your wife that is to be, and your future. We have lived together so much in the happy present that I never cared to speak or even to think about your leaving us." There were voices heard approaching the wagons.

Jacoba kissed pa.s.sionately Meredith's hand, which she still held within hers, laid it gently by his side, and went to her _kartel_ at the end of the big tent-wagon.

And so the Boer maiden's dream was ended. Meredith quitted the camp and trekked for the Cape a little later, after a friendly and even affectionate farewell with the Steyn family. A sad heart was Jacoba's as the captain's wagon moved away south-eastward, and the last crack of the great whip sounded through the hot morning air. Sadder yet was it when the captain, after kissing Vrouw Steyn and herself, climbed into his saddle and rode away. There were tears even in Meredith's eyes as he departed.

And so Jacoba, with the tenacity of her race, has cherished that first love of hers, and steadily refused all others in its place. No Dutchman can ever supplant that dear image which, long years ago, she set up within her maiden heart. The bright girl of seventeen has changed to the middle-aged woman of forty-seven, yet that early love and its memories have remained ever constant within her, and will go with her to her grave.

The smart English captain of 1859 is now a grey but still handsome veteran with a grown-up family of his own. You may usually see him sitting comfortably in an easy chair at the Naval and Military Club towards afternoon.

Major-General Meredith has an excellent memory for the details of his old stirring hunter's life. I sometimes wonder if he recalls also that other brief episode on the far-off Lake River. I am inclined to think he does. But he can little imagine that for his sake Jacoba Steyn remains a single woman to her last hour.