I
thought of the business the keener I grew. I used to amuse myself with
setting out my various bits of knowledge. There was first of all the
Rev. John Laputa, his doings on the Kirkcaple shore, his talk with
Henriques about Blaauwildebeestefontein, and his strange behaviour at
Durban. Then there was what Colles had told me about the place being
queer, how nobody would stay long either in the store or the
schoolhouse. Then there was my talk with Aitken at Lourenco Marques,
and his story of a great wizard in the neighbourhood to whom all
Kaffirs made pilgrimages, and the suspicion of a diamond pipe. Last
and most important, there was this perpetual spying on myself. It was
as clear as daylight that the place held some secret, and I wondered if
old Japp knew. I was fool enough one day to ask him about diamonds.
He met me with contemptuous laughter. 'There's your ignorant
Britisher,' he cried. 'If you had ever been to Kimberley you would
know the look of a diamond country. You're as likely to find diamonds
here as ocean pearls. But go out and scrape in the spruit if you like;
you'll maybe find some garnets.'

I made cautious inquiries, too, chiefly through Mr Wardlaw, who was
becoming a great expert at Kaffir, about the existence of Aitken's
wizard, but he could get no news. The most he found out was that there
was a good cure for fever among Sikitola's men, and that Majinje, if
she pleased, could bring rain.

The upshot of it all was that, after much brooding, I wrote a letter to
Mr Colles, and, to make sure of its going, gave it to a missionary to
post in Pietersdorp. I told him frankly what Aitken had said, and I
also told him about the espionage. I said nothing about old Japp, for,
beast as he was, I did not want him at his age to be without a
livelihood.

CHAPTER IV

MY JOURNEY TO THE WINTER-VELD

A reply came from Colles, addressed not to me but to Japp. It seemed
that the old fellow had once suggested the establishment of a branch
store at a place out in the plains called Umvelos', and the firm was
now prepared to take up the scheme. Japp was in high good humour, and
showed me the letter. Not a word was said of what I had written about,
only the bare details about starting the branch. I was to get a couple
of masons, load up two wagons with bricks and timber, and go down to
Umvelos' and see the store built. The stocking of it and the
appointment of a storekeeper would be matter for furthe