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Updated: May 26, 2025
In any case he was outside the Kaffir pale, adventuring on his own. I watched the two till they halted near a ruined building. Surely this was the store I had built at Umvelos'. The thought gave me a horrid surprise. Laputa and Henriques were on their way to the Rooirand! I woke with a start to find my forehead damp with sweat. There was some fever on me, I think, for my teeth were chattering.
Old Coetzee had said that there was a devil in the place, but I thought that if it were explored the first thing found would be a fine stream of water. We got to Umvelos' after midday, and outspanned for our three weeks' work. I set the Dutchmen to unload and clear the ground for foundations, while I went off to Sikitola to ask for labourers.
Laputa's tall figure stood swaying above the white ashes, his hand pressed to his side. 'Who is it? he said, looking at me with blind eyes. 'It is the storekeeper from Umvelos', I answered. 'The storekeeper of Umvelos', he repeated. 'God has used the weak things of the world to confound the strong. A king dies because a pedlar is troublesome. What do they call you, man?
'You say the scheme is ripe, I said; 'how ripe? Arcoll looked at the clock. 'In half an hour's time Laputa will be with 'Mpefu. There he will stay the night. To-morrow morning he goes to Umvelos' to meet Henriques. To-morrow evening the gathering begins. 'One question, I said. 'How big a man is Laputa? 'The biggest thing that the Kaffirs have ever produced.
Here were we wretched creatures of men making for each other's throats, and outraging the good earth which God had made so fair a habitation. I had resolved on a short cut to Umvelos', avoiding the neighbourhood of Sikitola's kraal, so when the river emerged from the glen I crossed it and struck into the bush. I had not gone far before I realized that something strange was going on.
Far better to join Laputa in the depths in a manly hazard for liberty. My obstinacy and irritation cheered me. What had become of the lack-lustre young fool who had mooned here a few minutes back. Now I was as tense and strung for effort as the day I had ridden from Blaauwildebeestefontein to Umvelos'. I felt like a runner in the last lap of a race.
With the Inkulu alive we warred against odds; with the Inkulu dead the balance sank heavily in our favour. I leave to others the marches and strategy of the thing, and hasten to clear up the obscure parts in my own fortunes. Arcoll received my message from Umvelos' by Colin, or rather Wardlaw received it and sent it on to the post on the Berg where the leader had gone.
He strayed back on the path to Umvelos'. This looked bad, for it meant that he did not smell water along the cliff front. If I was to find a stream it must be on the top, and I must try a little mountaineering. Then, taking my courage in both my hands, I decided. I gave my pony a cut, and set him off on the homeward road.
'Your game is too big for common murder. The store at Umvelos' stood as I had left it. There was the sjambok I had forgotten still lying on the window sill. I unlocked the door, and a stifling smell of new paint came out to meet me. Inside there was nothing but the chairs and benches, and in a corner the pots and pans I had left against my next visit.
But I felt that a great cause was at stake, and I spoke up as best I could. I began by saying that Inkulu had been my friend, and that at Umvelos' before the rising he had tried to save my life. At the mention of the name I saw eyes brighten. At last the audience was hanging on my words. I told them of Henriques and his treachery. I told them frankly and fairly of the doings at Dupree's Drift.
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