Between Sun and Sand Part 7

Max considered for a while, and then decided that this was a matter for his brother to deal with. He knew well enough that the possession of diamonds which could not be satisfactorily accounted for was a criminal offence severely punishable. The law was to Max a thing very dreadful.

He had never seen its manifestations, but he had heard of Willem Bester and others who had broken the law and suffered grievously in consequence. Nathan, however, as was proved in his ostrich-feather dealings, held the law in sovereign contempt. Nathan was the man to deal with a matter such as this; Max would have none of it. In the meantime, however, he agreed to keep the stone in the small iron safe and to advance Gemsbok some coffee, sugar, and tobacco, for the delectation of himself and his "Old Woman," as the latter always called her, upon its security.

But the "Old Woman" had no long enjoyment of the luxuries, for two days later, when Gemsbok came in from the veld with his flock, he found that she was dead. She had pa.s.sed away in her sleep. Gemsbok expressed himself to Max as being glad that the poor old creature had breathed her last. She had, he said, suffered so much of late, and now she would never feel pain or privation any more. He dug a hole in a sandy gully behind one of the smaller kopjes and there the poor, unlovely corpse was laid. In spite of her physical sufferings the quaint old creature had spent a very happy time at Namies. She had enjoyed a sufficiency of fairly wholesome food, besides the occasional trifles in the way of coffee, sugar, and tobacco which Max's bounty supplied her with. These had afforded her the keenest and, perhaps, the only enjoyment she was capable of feeling.

Gemsbok, in spite of his repeated declarations that he was glad the "Old Woman" was gone, did not appear to be happy. No matter how bright the fire of candle-bushes, the scherm was lonely at night--even an old woman so broken down by rheumatism and poverty of blood that she could not use her limbs and was hardly capable of carrying her food to her mouth, was better than no human companion at all.

Gemsbok had now no companion but his dog, which was an animal as friendless as its master. All day long alone in the veld, under the changeless Desert sky; all night long alone in the scherm, under the unregarding stars. Man is a gregarious animal, and the burthen of one's own presence galls as only those burthens do which carry as dead weight the broken shackles of one of Nature's disregarded laws.

Sleep was difficult to get. It had been usual for the old couple to remain awake talking half the night through. Lying awake alone proved to be a very different thing. He moved his scherm to another spot; that did not improve matters, so he moved it back again. He no longer enjoyed his coffee or tobacco. The average man almost invariably gets to love anything totally dependent on him--no matter how unlovely it may be. Some loves are not recognised in anything like their fulness until the removal of the thing loved leaves a void which can never be filled.

A Hottentot is naturally among the most sociable of beings; Gert Gemsbok was no exception to the rule of his race in this respect. He had, however, made no friends among his own race at Namies. He could not visit the scherms of the other Hottentots; all were in the service of Trek-Boers, and the boycott against him was strict. As a protest against Max's unheard-of conduct in keeping such a man in his service, all the Boers had given strict injunctions to their servants to have nothing to do with the informer against Willem Bester. Besides, Gemsbok was; morally and intellectually, far in advance of all with whom he might, under other circ.u.mstances, have a.s.sociated. Aristotle's aphorism as to the effect of solitude upon man is very true, and Gert Gemsbok had not become a beast in his exile.

Max noticed that now the old man never lost an opportunity of being near him. In the evenings, whenever Max happened to be in the shop, Gemsbok would come in, sit on the floor, and tell of his experiences. He thus told the true story of his life in detached fragments. And what a tale it was! what a lurid record of long-drawn, strenuous suffering made bearable, at first by the memory and afterwards by the companions.h.i.+p of a kindred mate! One night the old man told Max that he did not expect to live long; he felt his time had nearly come and he had no wish to prolong an existence which was now more than ever a weariness.

He did not, he said, care much whether he obtained any of the proceeds of the sale of the diamond or not; he had no desire now except to get enough food for himself and an occasional bite for his dog. The "Old Woman" was gone, and the sooner he too went the better.

His music now was all in a minor key; no more reels and jigs that made one long to caper. The old, stock melody ran through all he played, making it like an endless, barbaric fugue--weird and melancholy. His nocturnal performances sometimes made the dog leap out of the scherm and howl despairingly at the stars. In accompanying Oom Schulpad his hand seemed to have lost his cunning. The old fiddler would, however, sit for long periods, astonished and uncannily fascinated by the eerie tones scattered by the saddened strings of the ramkee.

CHAPTER TEN.

NATHAN THE TEMPTER.

One evening just after sunset Nathan arrived, driving a team of six smart mules before a brand-new cart. He had bought the turn-out at Clanwilliam on his return journey from Cape Town. He was accompanied by Koos Bester, at whose camp he had called in pa.s.sing.

Nathan had entered into a contract to supply a firm of butchers in Cape Town with slaughter oxen; Bester, who owned a lot of cattle which were running, half-wild, in Bushmanland, agreed to sell him a certain number upon terms very advantageous to the purchaser.

Nathan was as unlike Max as it is possible for one brother to be unlike another. He was a low-sized, knock-kneed man of a fair complexion which burnt to a fiery red on the least exposure. His features were of the lowest Hebrew type--his lips were full and shapeless, his nose large and prominent, his eyes small and colourless, but exceedingly bright and glittering.

Since Max had awakened from boyhood to manhood he had come to hate this brother of his, to whom money was the only G.o.d worth wors.h.i.+pping, and who sneered at every impulse or aspiration that did not have gain for its object.

Next morning poor Max had a bad time of it. The books were examined, and when the debit entry against the Hattinghs came to light and Max was unable to give any satisfactory explanation as to why he had disregarded his instructions in allowing this account to be increased, Nathan treated him to the grossest abuse. However, things were found to be in a satisfactory condition on the whole; in fact Nathan could find nothing but this one item to find fault with. All day long he kept recurring to this one blot upon a good record, until at length Max became extremely angry and said that if Nathan would only stop talking about it he would pay the value of the articles sold out of his own salary. At this Nathan looked at him with a searching glint in his eye, but said nothing further on the subject.

In the afternoon Nathan went for a stroll among the camps, in the course of which he learned two things, namely, Max's relations with Susannah, and the fact that old Gert Gemsbok, the Hottentot, who had been placed under the ban for giving evidence against a Boer, was in his service.

Nathan returned to the shop, filled with sardonic fury. Max at once saw that the hour he had been dreading for months had come.

"Well," said Nathan, after he had regarded his brother for a few seconds with an evil smile, "going to get married, eh?"

"Yes--what of that?" Max felt his courage rising; he no longer dreaded the thing before him.

"You, a Jew, and the child of Jews, to talk of marrying a Christian s.l.u.t who was born under a bush and reared by stinking Boers in a mat-house?"

"If I am a Jew it is more than you are; you often said that you didn't believe in G.o.d."

"What has G.o.d got to do with it? A Jew is a Jew, G.o.d or no G.o.d, and a Christian is of no use except to make money out of. Nice idea, a chap like you thinking of getting married. Going to reside in this fas.h.i.+onable suburban villa, or do you mean to build a mansion for yourself?"

"Well, I sha'n't live here or anywhere else near you!"

Nathan blinked in astonishment; it was something quite unheard of, Max taking such a tone. The fear that inevitably strikes at the heart of the bully whenever even the weakest resists him, bridled his tongue for a minute; then he resumed--

"Well, you can take your Boer s.l.u.t and breed babies under a koekerboom whenever you feel inclined, so far as I care; but if you want to stay on with me you will have to give up this rot."

"I do not want to stay another day with you," replied Max, in a quiet voice. "I want to have done with you as soon as I can, and then I shall not care if I never see you again."

Nathan, for the first time in his life, began to feel a glimmering of respect for his brother. However, it would not do to let Max see that this was the case. He began to expound upon the text of his other grievance--

"That old n.i.g.g.e.r you have hired; you must clear him out at once."

"You are master; if you want to get rid of him you had better give him notice. He is hired by the month."

"Yes, as soon as I can get another herd I will give your old pal notice with a sjambok. I'm not going to have my trade with the Boers spoilt by keeping on a d.a.m.ned old n.i.g.g.e.r-informer like that."

"I've got something belonging to him here," said Max, producing the diamond. "He picked it up on the bank of the river. He wants you to sell it and give him half the price."

Nathan took the stone and glanced at it. Then he gave a short whistle expressive of surprise and walked over to the window, in the light from which he examined the stone carefully. This done he slipped it into his trouser pocket and turned again to Max--

"No, my boy; that's a little too thin. Stones like this are not picked up in Bushmanland. This here diamond has been stolen from Kimberley, and I mean to keep it until I can restore it to its rightful owner.

See?"

Here he winked. Max looked at him with deep scorn. Nathan left the shop and walked to a short distance, whistling a lively tune. Then he stood and critically regarded the sunset, with his hands in his pockets.

Soon afterwards old Gemsbok drove up the flock of sheep to where they always lay at night, on the side of the kopje behind the shop. Nathan called to him, and he came.

"Well, you're a nice sort of a scarecrow to come here spinning yarns about picking up diamonds in Bushmanland. I've a good mind to send you to the magistrate for having a stolen diamond in your possession."

"The diamond is not a stolen one, Baas."

"A likely story. I suppose you'll tell me next that you've never been to Kimberley, eh?"

"I have been to Kimberley, Baas."

"I thought so. Perhaps you'll tell me next that you've never been in the tronk, either, eh?"

"I have been in the tronk, Baas."

"Well, well; if that ain't wonderful guessing I'm a Dutchman. Beg your pardon, I'm sure"--here he grinned ironically at Max, who had just come out of the shop. "Let's try again. It might also be possible that your back has been tickled by the 'cat,' and that you didn't laugh, neither?"

"My back has felt the 'cat,' Baas."

"Ex-tra-ordinary! Why, I'm as good at pulling out facts as a corkscrew at opening bottles"--here he turned and winked at Max, who felt himself tingling with disgust. "Now look here, Mister n.i.g.g.e.r-informer--who has been to the diamond fields, also in the tronk, to say nothing of other places, and whose back has been tickled by the 'cat' until you didn't laugh--I'm just going to stick to this here s.h.i.+ning gem until I find the rightful owner. Of course, if you're not satisfied you can go and complain to the magistrate next time he comes round. See?"

"I see, Baas."

As Gert went to his scherm Nathan turned and winked to Max again. The latter walked away with rage and shame seething in him. Nathan went into the little back room and threw himself on the bed. He lay there and chuckled over the prize he had so easily acquired. "Why," he thought, "it must be worth at least fifty pounds." Well, at last his luck was properly booming. First, the big haul of feathers safely disposed of; next the cattle contract and the arrangement he had made with Koos Bester, under which Koos had to do all the work and he, Nathan, had only to pocket the profits; now this diamond. He began to calculate: at this rate he would be a rich man in a few years. Then he would go away and enjoy himself, would steep himself to the lips in vice, as he had often longed with the full strength of his weasel's soul to be able to afford to do.

A knock on the iron front of the door startled him from his dream.

"Come round here, whoever you are--especially if you have petticoats on!" he shouted.