postal delivery at haakdoornfontein was, as an institution, non-existent; and when old hesketh desired communication with or from the outside world he obtained it by dispatching a boy to the nearest field-cornet’s, some sixteen or seventeen miles away. this, for obvious reasons, he did not do very often.
harley greenoak was seated on a stone, on the shaded side of the shearing-house, thinking. the shade was almost too cool, for there was a forecasting touch of crisp winter in the clear atmosphere and vivid blue of the cloudless sky. he could see the long, gaunt figure of his host, pottering about down at the lands, and every now and then from the kitchen at the back of the house, there came to his ears the clear tones of hazel’s voice endeavouring to convey instruction into the opaque mind of the yellow-skinned cook. the sounds in no wise interrupted his train of thought; rather they fitted in with it, for in it the utterer of them bore her share.
from his pocket he drew forth a letter. this he spread out open before him, and began to study, not for the first time. it had arrived the previous evening, and was several days overdue, owing to hesketh’s erratic postal provisions as set forward above. the writing was not easily decipherable, and the contents, well—they were commonplace on the surface, but beneath, to one well acquainted with the writer, meaning enough could be read. now harley greenoak and the commandant of the frontier armed and mounted police were very old friends indeed.
there was restlessness on and beyond the border. the transkeian tribes needed watching, and some careful handling, and the police might have work cut out for them. and, by-the-by, where was greenoak now, and what was he doing; because if nothing in particular, added the writer, why shouldn’t he come up to the border and stay with him a bit, and have some talks over old times?
such was the gist of the letter, but its recipient read deeper than that. few men understood natives and their ways more thoroughly than himself, few men were as well known to and as thoroughly trusted by them, and none better. he foresaw a possibility of usefulness, of great usefulness; and when such was the case, it must be a very grave impediment indeed that harley greenoak would allow to stand in his way.
hazel brandon had not exaggerated in her estimate of his character; and time after time his natural gifts had found for him the opportunity of being of service to his friends—often to the saving of life—and that without hope or thought of reward. and here stood forth another such opportunity; but—how would it fit in with the charge he had undertaken? as it happened it would so fit in.
every day of late he had been growing more anxious; every day he had seen reason for desiring to get dick selmes away from haakdoornfontein. every day seemed to draw the two young people together more and more. this, under other circumstances would have been nothing but satisfactory, but—what of his own responsibility towards the father of his charge? if the affair was more than skin deep, if it had reached a serious stage on both sides, why they could both very well afford to wait; dick until he had consulted his father, and so until his—greenoak’s—charge was at an end. then he could return, on his own responsibility, and if he succeeded in winning this girl, why in the thinker’s estimation he would be very lucky, as we have said. that would be the only straight and satisfactory solution of the difficulty, decided greenoak.
and towards such solution the commandant’s letter seemed now to open a way. if he read dick’s character aright, the prospect of a certain amount of adventure would irresistibly appeal. they would respond to the invitation and join his old friend; and he would show his charge some of the phases of border life, as in any case he had intended eventually to do.
“well, mr greenoak, and have you decided the knotty point yet? it must be a very knotty one.” and the speaker’s winsome face, framed within an ample and snowy kapje, sparkled with sheer light-heartedness.
“that’s just what i believe i have done,” he answered, looking up at her. he had of course been aware of her approach, but he was one of those who can concentrate their powers of thought independently of external distractions.
“it must have been an extremely knotty one,” she went on, her glance resting on the sheet still grasped in the brown muscular hand, “because for nearly an hour you might as well have been a statue.”
“does a statue fill and light a pipe two or three times an hour, miss brandon?” he asked drily.
“you’ve got me there,” she laughed. “but you were so absorbed that you don’t seem to have noticed that the shade has gone off this side of the shed long ago. why, the sun’s coming down full upon you.”
“is it? why, so it is,” he said, rising. “i suppose i didn’t notice it because i’m so used to it. lovely morning though.”
“isn’t it? well, i want you to do me a favour, mr greenoak. will you?”
“certainly. i shall be delighted.”
“but you don’t know what it is yet.”
“i know that you would not ask me, or anybody, to do what is absurd or impossible.”
“thanks, that’s quite pretty, really it is. i thought you up-country men never went in for making compliments.”
“mayn’t we tell the truth? that is only straightforwardness, you know.”
“there is another compliment,” laughed the girl. “why, mr selmes himself could hardly go on piling them up like that.”
“ah, he’s young. they come more naturally from him, like the difference between the roll of a well-greased waggon wheel and that of a creaking one,” rejoined greenoak, with a good-natured smile.
“now that’s a delightfully quaint and characteristic simile,” laughed the girl. “i must really store it in mind for future use.”
“is it worth it? but aren’t we getting a bit off the road? what is this ‘favour’?”
“i want you to take me for a walk, if you have nothing better to do—or think about,” she added mischievously.
“if i were to say ‘how could i have?’ you would tax me with making compliments again, i suppose. but wouldn’t you rather ride?”
“no. sandy’s a bit lame, and bles is away down the kloof, and by the time he was got up i should have lost all inclination to do either. and there’s no other horse on the place that’ll stand a skirt. we’ll take the path by goba’s vee-kraal to bromvogel nek. there’s a lovely view from there, and this is just the day to sit and enjoy it.”
“when will you be ready?”
“i’m ready now if you are. are you? well then, come along.”
hazel chatted briskly as they took their way along the winding and somewhat stony bush-path, but her companion said little. he preferred to hear her talk. there was that in the light-hearted gaiety of this bright, sweet-natured child that appealed powerfully to the strong, lonely, self-contained man, that almost made him sigh for his past youth. he liked to hear her talk, and simply talk. that in itself was a pleasure to him. at the same time he was wondering with what object she had persuaded him to accompany her; the last thing in the world that would have occurred to harley greenoak being that it was simply for the pleasure of his own company. he supposed she wanted to talk about dick selmes, to “draw” him perhaps, as to his charge’s general character. well, if that were so, dick should have a good one. and, as though to fit in with the idea, at that moment, from the further side of the great crater-like hollow that constituted the bulk of hesketh’s farm, there rolled forth a distant and double report. both stopped to gaze in the direction of the sound.
“wonder if dick’s getting any luck,” said greenoak. “it’s astonishing how his keenness in that direction has thawed off of late,” he added slily.
“yes, it has,” came the ready answer. “he’s getting quite lazy. in fact, i sent him out to hunt this morning, told him if he didn’t bring back a bush-buck ram i shouldn’t speak to him until he did. he’s much too young to be hanging about the house all day.”
with this sentiment greenoak agreed, but—was that the speaker’s only object? well, it would come out in time.
“for all that he’s a thorough sportsman, and as nice a young fellow as ever lived,” he said.
but hazel did not take this opening. she plunged into other topics as they resumed their way; in none of which did the absent and venatorial dick by any chance come in.
they passed the vee-kraal, where a wheezy and decrepit cur came forth and huskily vociferated at them—hesketh would not allow any of his “hands” to keep an able-bodied canine on the place—and the two wives of the absent herd, profusely anointed with red clay, came out to greet them and requisition tobacco. greenoak gave them some, as they knew he would.
“i suppose you can manage kafirs thoroughly?” said hazel as they walked on.
“well, i’ve had to do it all my life.”
“of course. what an idiotic question! fancy my asking it you. but i don’t know whether i like them or not. i don’t see much of them.”
“no, i suppose there aren’t many round your father’s place. mostly hottentots?”
“yes. but i don’t like them at all. by the way, mr greenoak, do you think we are going to have a kafir war? the newspapers all seem to say we are. what is your opinion?”
“newspapers must say something. i can’t form any opinion—as yet. i may be going up to the transkei soon, and then i’ll be in a better position to do so.”
“soon? then you won’t be here much longer?”
greenoak’s quick ear caught a shade of disappointment in the tone, almost of consternation. then dick’s departure would cause a blank; for of course she knew that the two were moving about together.
“you must remember we’ve been here a good while already,” he answered, “and there’s such a thing as wearing out one’s welcome. besides, i want to show the young one some further sides of the life of the country.”
“no fear of your wearing out anything of the kind here,” rejoined hazel, quickly. “as for the other consideration, well, that counts for something, i suppose. here we are.”
their uphill progress was at an end. they had reached a high, stony neck, or saddle, between two great crags. in front the slope fell abruptly away for over a thousand feet to a spread of rolling plains, sparsely bushed, and extending for miles and miles. here and there, at long intervals, a thread of smoke, rising from homestead or native kraal, ascended, but for an immensity of distance the expanse lay, monotonous in its green-brown roll, intersected, in darker line, by the willow-fringed banks of a nearly dry river-bed. beyond, in the clear atmosphere, seeming about twenty miles distant, though fully fifty, rose mountain piles, flat-topped, in massive walls, or breaking off into turreted cones. northward others, more distant still, floating apparently in mid-air, owing to the mirage-like effect of distance and clearness, but everywhere a sense of grand, open, unbounded space. the far-away bark of a dog, or the disturbed crowing of cock koorhaans, came up out of the stillness. on the side from which they had ascended was the vast, crater-like hollow, the tangle of rugged and bush-grown kloofs, and slopes covered with forest trees rising to lap in wave-bound verdure the grim iron faces of red rock walls and castellated crags. it was a scene that in the balmy yet exhilarating air of the cloudless day one could sit there and revel in for ever.
“you can almost see our place from here,” said hazel. “that kopje just shuts it off, and you wouldn’t think it was forty miles as the crow flies. this is a favourite perch of mine. i often used to climb up here.”
“did you drag your uncle up, too?”
“oh yes. he’d ride though. but he doesn’t care a rap for scenery. he’d light his pipe, and in about ten minutes be fast asleep.”
“i’ll light mine, but i promise you i won’t go to sleep.”
“no, don’t. you must talk to me instead. tell me some of your experiences. you must have had so many, and such wonderful ones.”
harley greenoak laughed deprecatorily. this formula was so frequent wherever he went that it had become stereotyped. as a rule it annoyed him; now, however, it was hard to connect such a word with the owner of that sparkling face, of the wide, lustrous, almost admiring eyes turned upon his own.
“one can’t spin yarns to order,” he said. “if something suggests one, out it comes—or doesn’t.”
