ialect of the Kaffirs.
He asked me where I was bound for, and when I told him there was the
same look in his eyes as I had seen with the Durban manager.

'You're going to a rum place, Mr Crawfurd,' he said.

'So I'm told. Do you know anything about it? You're not the first who
has looked queer when I've spoken the name.'

'I've never been there,' he said, 'though I've been pretty near it from
the Portuguese side. That's the funny thing about
Blaauwildebeestefontein. Everybody has heard of it, and nobody knows
it.'

'I wish you would tell me what you have heard.'

'Well, the natives are queer up thereaways. There's some kind of a
holy place which every Kaffir from Algoa Bay to the Zambesi and away
beyond knows about. When I've been hunting in the bush-veld I've often
met strings of Kaffirs from hundreds of miles distant, and they've all
been going or coming from Blaauwildebeestefontein. It's like Mecca to
the Mohammedans, a place they go to on pilgrimage. I've heard of an
old man up there who is believed to be two hundred years old. Anyway,
there's some sort of great witch or wizard living in the mountains.'

Aitken smoked in silence for a time; then he said, 'I'll tell you
another thing. I believe there's a diamond mine. I've often meant to
go up and look for it.'

Tam and I pressed him to explain, which he did slowly after his fashion.

'Did you ever hear of I.D.B.--illicit diamond broking?' he asked me.
'Well, it's notorious that the Kaffirs on the diamond fields get away
with a fair number of stones, and they are bought by Jew and Portuguese
traders. It's against the law to deal in them, and when I was in the
intelligence here we used to have a lot of trouble with the vermin.
But I discovered that most of the stones came from natives in one part
of the country--more or less round Blaauwildebeestefontein--and I see
no reason to think that they had all been stolen from Kimberley or the
Premier. Indeed some of the stones I got hold of were quite different
from any I had seen in South Africa before. I shouldn't wonder if the
Kaffirs in the Zoutpansberg had struck some rich pipe, and had the
sense to keep quiet about it. Maybe some day I'll take a run up to see
you and look into the matter.'

After this the talk turned on other topics till Tam, still nursing his
grievance, asked a question on his own account. 'Did you ever come
across a great big native parson called Laputa? He came on board as we