The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1902-08-22
OOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOOOO
; UNDER THE 3
KOPJE : :
By P. Y. BLACK 9
} Copyright, 1909, by american Press g
, Association
)ooooooooooo ooooooooooc
.HE guard over the convicts
who worked on the village
roads looked up from the

E who worked on the village
III roads looked up from the
work wearily. He removed his
broad felt hat and brushed the sweat
from his redeemed brow and his cheeks
and neck, sunburned almost to black
ness. His Kaffir charges halted in their
task, and their gaze followed his. In
the clearly bright African air the
threatening gray stone walls Of the
strong Jail, built commandingly on a
high, big powdered kopje, looked close
at hand, although a good mile away.
Vryburg, the tiny capital of the Brit
ish territory, lay to the left, hill bound,
silent, street deserted in the furnace
heat, two rows of glaring houses with
roofs and walls of galvanized iron.
Suddenly a quick eyed Kaffir cried
"Ba-asr and pointed to the flagstaff
in front of the Jail. With grunt Of
relief the white man swung his rifle
to his shoulder, and the Kaffirs threw
their tools into the wheelbarrows.
There fluttered up the head of the flag
staff red flag, the sign to all outside
working parties to return. But today
work ceased at o'clock, and the con-
victs were not marched directly to the
Jail, but to a small lake beneath the
| kopje, where twice week they laved
themselves. An instant change took
place in the manner of the prisoners.
They joked as they left their barrows
| in a shed and trotted forward so quick
| ly as to Inconvenience their warden.
A big, glossy black man, his fine figure
concealed by the prison clothes, led the
way, humming as he went, in low,
singsong, pleasant melody, chant Of
| wartimes. The others took it up. One
threw his hands above his head and
| skipped a step of the wardance.
easy, SiXpence!' growled the guard.
easy, you big rascal!'
The big Kaffir in the lead slowed up
and turned with grin to the white
man, pointing a finger down great
| red throat.
| "Ba-as! Tabacp he murmured.
The guard threw him a piece Of to-
bacco. which the Kaffir cleverly caught
and slapped into his mouth. At once
the four or five other Kaffirs of the
gang turned and, reading good nature
in their sentry's face, held out their
hands mutely.
"Like babies for Candies" mused the
| Englishman as he distributed the small
luXuries. They're rum lot Not one
of them in for less than three years,
and that fellow Sixpence lifer, and,
by Jove, to see them laughing now,
without a handcuff in the crowd of
them, you'd think them schoolboys go
ing in swimming"
They reached the little lake, shallow
at the banks, deep in the center, where
rushy, marshy island lay, more wa
ter than mud. The other working par
ties had foregathered, and Sixpence
and his comrades, each armed with a
piece of soap, soon joined the crowd
in the water, swimming, spluttering,
playing in the cool pond like boys.
The white guards, leaning on their
rifles, stood at intervals round the
bank. In the shadows a group OF
blacks danced mock wardance, naked
as monkeys, advancing and retiring
with fantastic arms, grooming the hum
of the impis. Then it was difficult, al
most impossible, for the guards to dis
tinguish each his own men. In their
convict clothes each prisoner had some
distinguishing mark; stripped, bobbing
their black and woolly heads in the
water, there was a tantalizing likeness
among all the swimmers. After q
time they began to come out, one by
one, and dress. Then a guard made
his gang fall in and marched them uI
the kopje to the prison gates. Anothei
followed and another until the village
guard was left last to bring in his men
He was young and recently employed
by the town. He could not talk the ma
tive dialects, and now he was much
perturbed, for he could give to him
self no explanation of the evident fact
that there was none left In the water
and yet he was one man short. The
Kaffirs only chartered and laughed al
him, enjoying the excellent joke. His
eye anxiously searched the surface OF
the lake. There was nothing there
The rushes on the mud bank could
uaNC COANGtllCo ~ tAOOlbs ivy
. ing that Sixpence, the missing man
had, in mischief-for the Kaffiri
. abounded in malicious tricks-slippeG
away with another gang, the guart
hurried the others to the Jail, where hs
reported what had happened.
The warden of the Jail received the
report without comment or rebuke, but
| cai1oH nj ha oh
, left the other prisoners to be shut VI
in the cells by few guards and tool
the rest at q run to the lake. Mean
while the gang had hardly left the
bank of the pond before, in the gather
ing dusk, there was rustic among the
) scapt rushes of the mud bank. The
mud stirred, and from the soft bee
} where it had been entirely immersed
leaving only the face to the air, arose
the black form of SiXpence. Silently
: he slipped into the water and swan
5 ashore, his broad face stretched in {
joyous grin. He stayed for no cover
ing, but crawled up the steep banks
stopped down as low as he could an(
ran away across the stony bluffs which
surrounded the prison. He had no
gone a hundred yards before tn,
guards came running down to the lakl
!. and saw him. The warden shouted t
. him to halt, but Sixpence ran NOR,
a I swiftly. yet not in a direct line. In ;
q lightninglike zigzag course he dartet
' from right to left obliquely, always on
ward, but in such short, swift tack