Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1888-04-11


none. What we had got had lain together
in little pocket filled with soil that felt
quite different from the stiff stuff round
and outside the pocket. There was not
another trace of gold. Of course, it is posi-
bic that there were more pockets somewhere
about, but all I have to say is I made up my
mind that, whoever found them, should not;
and, as matter Of fact, have since heard
that that claim has been the ruin Of two or
three people, as it very nearly was the ruin
of me- .
".Harry,' I said presently, Il am going
away this week toward DelaSoa to shoot buf-
falo. Shall take you with me or send you
down to Durbanr
"sOh, take mo with you, father begged
Harry, Il want to kill buffalo
"tAnd supposing that the buffalo kills you
insteadP asked. -... ..-a.. ~ .'r
'''Oh, & never mind he said, gayly, there
are lots NOR .ere came from "a
II rebuked hin for his fiippancy, but in
the end consented to take him"
CHAPTER H.
"Something over fortnight had passed
since the night when lost half sovereign
and found e1 $50 in looking for it, and in
stead of that horrid hole, for which, after all,
Ell Dorado was scarcely missioner, a very
different scene stretched away before us clad
in the silver robe of the moonlight. We were
camped-Hary and I, two Kafirs, q Scotch
cart and SIX oxen-on the swelling side Of q
great wave Of bush clad land. Just where
we made our camp, however, the bush was
very sparse and only grew about in clumps,
while here and there were single fat topped
mimosa trees. To our right little stream,
which had cut deep channel for itself in the
bosom Of the slope, flowed musically on be-
tween banks green with laaidenhair, wild
asparagus and many beautiful grasses. The
bed rock here was red granite, and in tho
course of centuries of patient washing the
water had followed out some of the huge
slabs in its path into great troughs and cups,
and these we used for bathing places. No
Roman lady, with her baths Of porphyry or
alabaster, could have had more delicious
spot to lave herself than we had within fifty
yards of our skerm or rough inclosure Of
mimosa thorn that we had dragged together
round our cart to protect us from the attacks
of lions There were several of these about,
as knew from their sroor, though we had
neither heard nor seen them.
''It was little nook where the eddy of the
stream had washed away mass of soil, and
on the edge of it there grew q most beautiful
old mimosa thorn. Beneath the thorn was o
large smooth slab of granite fringed all
round with maidenhair and other ferns, that
sloped gently down to a pool Of the clearest
sparkling water, which lay in bowl Of
granite about ten feet wide by five feet deep
in the center. Here to this slab we went
every morning to bathe, and that delightful
bath is among the most pleasant Of my hunt
ing "reminiscences, as it is also for reasons
that will presently appear among the most
painful.
''It was lovely night and Harry and I
sat there to the windward Of the fire, at
which the two Kafirs were busily employed
in cooking some impala steaks of buck
which Harry, to his great joy, had shot that
morning, and were as perfectly contented
with ourselves and the world at large as two
people could possibly be. The night was beau
tiful; it would require somebody with more
words on the tip OF their tongue than have
to properly describe the chastened majesty Of
those moonlit wilds. Away forever and for
ever, away to the mysterious north, rolled the
great bush ocean over which the silence
brooded. There beneath us, a mile or more
to the right, ran the wide Oliphant and
mirror like flashed back the moon, whose
silver spears were shivered on its breast and
then tossed in twisted lines of light far
and wide about the mountains and the plain.
Down upon the river banks grew great TIM
ber trees that, through the stiffness, pointed
solemnly to heaven, and the beauty Of the
night lay upon them like cloud. Every
where was silence-silence in the starred
depths, silence on the fair bosom of the sleep
ing earth. Now, if ever, great thoughts
m .,ht rise in mans mind, and for space
he might loose his littleness in the sense that
he partook of the pure immensely about him.
Almost might he seem to see the spirit of tho
heavens, girdled round with stars, passing
down in the dead quiet to look, now that tho
night had covered up her sins, upon the sleep
ing face of his lost Lridc, the Garth. Almost
might he hear the echoes of angelic voices, as
the spirits poised on bent and rushing pinions
swept onward from universe to universe;
and distinguish the white fingers of the wind
playing in the tresses of the trees
"Hark what was that!"
"From far away down by the river there
GENES mighty rolling sound, then another
and another 1t is the lion seeking his meat.
II saw Harry shiver and turn little pale.
~. was plucky boy enough, but the roar Of
lion for the first time in the solemn bush
veldt at night is apt to shake the nerves OF
any lad.
"'Lions, my boy said; they are hunt
ing down by the river there; but I don't
think that you need make yourself uneasy.
We have been here three nights now and if
they were going to pay us a visit should
think that they would have done so before
this. However, we will make up the fire.
"Here, Pharaoh, do you and Jim-Jim get
some more wood before we 60 to sleep, else
the cats will be purring round before morn
ing
pharaoh, q great brawny Swazi, who
had been working for me ut Pilgrims Rest,
laughed, rose and stretched himself, and
then calling to Jim-Jim to bring the ak
and REIN, started off in the moonlight
toward q clump of sugar bush, where we cut
our fuel from some dead trees. He was
fine fellow in his way, was Pharaoh, and l
think that he had been named Pharaoh be-
cause he had an Egyptian cast of counten-
ance and royal sort of swagger about him.
But his way was somewhat peculiar way,
on account of the uncertainty of his temper,
and very few people could get Oh with him;
also, if he could get it, he would drink like
fish, and when he drank he became shock
ingly bloodthirsty. These were his bad
points; his good ones were that, like most
people Of the Zulu blood, he became exceed
ingly attached to one if he took to you at all;
he was hard working and intelligent man,
and about US dare devil and plucky fellow
at pinch US l have ever had to do with
He was about five and thirty years of age or
so, but not a 'kcshla' or ringed man. l be-
lieve that he got into trouble i'll some way in
Swaziland, and tho authorities of his tribe
would not allow him to assume the ring, and
that is why he came to work at the gold
fields. The other man, orrather lad, Jim-Jim,
was Mapoch kafir, or knobnose, and even
in the light of subsequent events l fear that
I cannot speak very we'll of him. He was an
idle and careless young rascal, and only that
very morning had to tell Pharaoh to give
him beating for letting the oxen stray,
which he did with the greatest gusto, al
though lie was, by the way, very fond Of
Jim-Jim Indeed, saw him consoling JIM
Jim afterwards with pinch of snuff from
his own ear box whilst he explained to him
that the next time it came in the way of duty
to fog him he meant to thrash him with the
other hand, SO as to cross the old cuts and