Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland Page 11
And Trooper Peter Halket sat alone upon the kopje.
Chapter II.
It was a hot day. The sun poured down its rays over the scattered trees,and stunted bush, and long grass, and over the dried up river beds. Farin the blue, so high the eye could scarcely mark them, vultures wereflying southward, where forty miles off kraals had been destroyed andtwo hundred black carcasses were lying in the sun.
Under a group of tall straggling trees among the grass and low scrub,on the banks of an almost dried up river bed, a small camp had beenpitched.
The party had lost their mules, and pending their recovery had alreadybeen there seven days. The three cart loads of provisions they wereconveying to the large camp were drawn up under the trees and had a sailthrown across them to form a shelter for some of the men; while on theother side of the cleared and open space that formed the camp, a smallersail was thrown across two poles forming a rough tent; and away to theleft, a little cut off from the rest of the camp by some low bushes,was the bell-shaped tent of the captain, under a tall tree. Beforethe bell-shaped tent stood a short stunted tree; its thick white stemgnarled and knotted; while two stunted misshapen branches, like arms,stretched out on either side.
Before this tree, up and down, with his gun upon his arm, his headbent and his eyes fixed on the ground, while the hot sun blazed on hisshoulders, walked a man.
Three or four fires were burning about the camp in different parts,three cooking the mealies and rice which formed the diet of the men,their stock of tinned meats having been exhausted; while the fourth,which was watched by a native boy, contained the more appetising meal ofthe Captain.
Most of the men were out of camp; the coloured boys having gone to fetchthe mules, which had been discovered in the hills a few miles off, andwere expected to arrive in the evening; and the white men had gone outto see what game they could bring down with their guns to flavourthe mealie pots, or to reconnoitre the country; though all nativehabitations had been destroyed within a radius of thirty miles, and theland was as bare of black men as a child's hand of hair; and even thebeasts seemed to have vanished.
In the shade of the tent, formed of the canvas across two posts, laythree white men, whose work it was to watch the pots and guard the camp.They were all three Colonial Englishmen, and lay on the ground on theirstomachs, passing the time by carrying on a desultory conversation,or taking a few whiffs, slowly, and with care, from their pipes, fortobacco was precious in the camp.
Under some bushes a few yards off lay a huge trooper, whose nationalitywas uncertain, but who was held to hail from some part of the BritishIsles, and who had travelled round the world. He was currently reportedto have done three years' labour for attempted rape in Australia, butnothing certain was known regarding his antecedents. He had been up onguard half the night, and was now taking his rest lying on his back withhis arm thrown over his face; but a slight movement could be noted inhis jaw as he slowly chewed a piece of tobacco; and occasionally whenhe turned it round the mouth opened, and disclosed two rows of brokenyellow stumps set in very red gums.
The three Colonial Englishmen took no notice of him. Two, who wereslowly smoking, were of the large and powerful build, and somewhat looseset about the shoulders, which is common among Colonial Europeans of thethird generation, whether Dutch or English, and had the placidity andgeneral good temper of expression which commonly marks the ColonialEuropean who grows up beyond the range of the cities. The third wassmaller and more wiry and of an unusually nervous type, with aquilinenose, and sallow hatchet face, with a somewhat discontented expression.He was holding forth, while his companions smoked and listened.
"Now what I say is this," he brought his hand down on the red sand;"here we are with about one half teaspoon of Dop given us at night,while he has ten empty champagne bottles lying behind his tent. And wehave to live on the mealies we're convoying for the horses, while hehas pati and beef, and lives like a lord! It's all very well for theregulars; they know what they're in for, and they've got gentlemen overthem anyhow, and one can stomach anything if you know what kind of afellow you've got over you. English officers are gentlemen, anyhow; orif one was under Selous now--"
"Oh, Selous's a MAN!" broke out the other two, taking their pipes fromtheir mouths.
"Yes, well, that's what I say. But these fellows, who couldn't do asfarmers, and couldn't do as shopkeepers, and God knows what else; andtheir friends in England didn't want to have them; they're sent out hereto boss it over us! It's a damned shame! Why, I want to know, amn't I asgood as any of these fellows, who come swelling it about here? Friendsgot money, I suppose!" He cast his sharp glance over towards the belltent. "If they gave us real English officers now--"
"Ah!" said the biggest of his companions, who, in spite of his hugeform, had something of the simplicity and good nature of a child in hishandsome face; "it's because you're not a big enough swell, you know!He'll be a colonel, or a general, before we've done with him. I callthem all generals or colonels up here; it's safest, you know; if they'renot that today they will be tomorrow!"
This was intended as a joke, and in that hot weather, and in that dullworld, anything was good enough to laugh at: the third man smiled, butthe first speaker remained serious.
"I only know this," he said, "I'd teach these fellows a lesson, if anyone belonging to me had been among the people they left to be murderedhere, while they went gallivanting to the Transvaal. If my mother orsister had been killed here, I'd have taken a pistol and blown out thebrains of the great Panjandrum, and the little ones after him. Fineadministration of a country, this, to invite people to come in and livehere, and then take every fighting man out of the country on a goldhunting marauding expedition to the Transvaal, and leave us to facethe bitter end. I look upon every man and woman who was killed here asmurdered by the Chartered Company."
"Well, Jameson only did what he was told. He had to obey orders, likethe rest of us. He didn't make the plan, and he's got the punishment."
"What business had he to listen? What's all this fine administrationthey talk of? It's six years since I came to this country, and I'veworked like a nigger ever since I came, and what have I, or any menwho've worked hard at real, honest farming, got for it? Everything inthe land is given away for the benefit of a few big folks over the wateror swells out here. If England took over the Chartered Company tomorrow,what would she find?--everything of value in the land given over toprivate concessionaires--they'll line their pockets if the whole landgoes to pot! It'll be the jackals eating all the flesh off the horse'sbones, and calling the lion in to lick the bones."
"Oh, you wait a bit and you'll be squared," said the handsome man. "I'vebeen here five years and had lots of promises, though I haven't gotanything else yet; but I expect it to come some day, so I keep my mouthshut! If they asked me to sign a paper, that Mr. Over-the-Way"--henodded towards the bell tent--"never got drunk or didn't know how toswear, I'd sign it, if there was a good dose of squaring to come afterit. I could stand a good lot of that sort of thing--squaring--if itwould only come my way."
The men laughed in a dreary sort of way, and the third man, who hadnot spoken yet, rolled round on to his back, and took the pipe from hismouth.
"I tell you what," said the keen man, "those of us up here who have gota bit of land and are trying honestly and fairly to work, are gettingpretty sick of this humbugging fighting. If we'd had a few men like theCurries and Bowkers of the old days up here from the first, all thiswould never have happened. And there's no knowing when a reason won'tturn up for keeping the bloody thing on or stopping it off for atime, to break out just when one's settled down to work. It's a damnedconvenient thing to have a war like this to turn on and off."
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bsp; Slowly the third man keeled round on to his stomach again: "Letresignation wait. We fight the Matabele again tomorrow," he said,sententiously.
A low titter ran round the group. Even the man under the bushes, thoughhis eyes were still closed and his arm across his face, let his mouthrelax a little, and showed his yellow teeth.
"I'm always expecting," said the big handsome man, "to have a paper comeround, signed by all the nigger chiefs, saying how much they love theB.S.A. Company, and how glad they are the Panjandrum has got them, andhow awfully good he is to them; and they're going to subscribe to thebrazen statue. There's nothing a man can't be squared to