Men of Men - Smith Wilbur (книги бесплатно без txt) 📗

"The king has pondered the ancient prophecy, and he says thus: "The white birds are gathering. Eagle and vulture, all of them white, they roost already upon the roof of my kraal."

" rwhat is the meaning of the stone falcons?" one of his listeners asked.

"The stone falcons are the bird gods that the ancient ones left at the burial place of the old kings, Zimbabwe."

"How will stone birds fly?"

"One has flown already,"Bazo answered this time. "One of the stone falcons stands close by us now. It stands under the roof of Bakela, the Fist. It was he who took the falcon, and carried it away."

"When the other birds fly, then war will sweep over Matabeleland," Kamuza -affirmed. "But listen now to the oracle of the Umlimo." And their questions were stilled.

"On the second day the Umlimo prophesied thus: "When the midnight sky turns to noon, and the stars shine on the hills, then the fist will hold the blade to the throat of the black bull."

"This was the prophecy of the second day."

Again they were silent as they pondered the words then, mystified, they looked to Kamuza for the meaning of the prophecy.

"Lobengula, the Black Elephant, alone understands the meaning of the prophecy of the second day. Is he not versed in the mysteries of the wizards? Did he not pass his childhood in the caves and secret places of the wizards? Thus says Lobengula. "This is not yet the time to explain the words of the Umlimo to my children, for they are momentous words indeed, and there will be a time for the nation to understand." Bazo nodded and passed his snuff-horn. Kamuza took it and drew the red powder up into his nostrils with two sharp inhalations of breath and, watching him, Bazo did not dare to voice his own suspicion that perhaps Lobengula, the mighty thunder of the skies, was as mystified by the prophecy of the second day as was the little group around the fire.

"Was this all the oracle?" Bazo asked instead, and Kamuza shook his head.

"On the third day the Umlimo prophesied for the last time: "Sting the mamba with his own venom, pull down the lion with his own claws, deceive the clever chacma baboon with his own trickery."

"This was the prophecy of the third and final day."

"Does the king intend that we, his humble cattle, should know the meaning of the prophecy of the third day?"

"Thus spoke Lobengula: "We the Matabele cannot prevail until we arm ourselves as our adversary is armed, until we gather to ourselves the strength that is found only in the yellow coins and shining stones.

For it is these things which have made the white man strong.,"," Nobody interrupted the silence that followed, for they all sensed that there was more to come.

"Thus the king summoned me to the royal kraal and bid me carry his word to all the Matabele who live beyond the borders of the king's domains. For thus spoke the king: "Bring me guns to answer the smoke of the white man's guns. Bring me diamonds and bring me the yellow coins that I may grow as strong as the white Queen who lives beyond the sea. For then her soldiers will not dare to come against me." Bazo replied for them all. "Let Lobengula know that what he requires of us he shall have. Guns he shall have, for it is part of our contract with the white man. Each of us will carry a gun when we return to Matabeleland, some of us who have worked out two Isitupa will carry two guns when we return. Some of us will bring three guns."

"That is known," Kamusa nodded.

"Lobengula will have gold coins, for we are paid in coin, and what we bring home to Thabas Indunas belongs to the king."

"That is right and proper."

"But diamonds?" Bazo asked. "The diamonds belong to the white man. They are fierce for them as a lioness is fierce for her cubs. How are we to bring diamonds to the king?"

"Listen to me," whispered Kamuza. "There will be no more "pick-ups". When one of you turns up the shine of a diamond in the yellow gravel, then that diamond belongs to Lobengula."

"It is against the law."

"Against the white man's law only, not against the law of Lobengula, who is your king."

"To hear is to obey," Bazo grunted, but he thought of Bakela, the Fist, who was his father, and Henshaw, the Hawk, who was his brother, and he did not relish stealing the stones for which they laboured as hard as Bazo did himself.

"Not only in the pit," Kamuza went on. "Each of you will watch for the chance on the sorting-tables, you, Donsela. -" He picked out a Matabele across the fire from him, a young man with a deep intelligent brow and strong jaw. "You have been chosen to work in the new grease house."

"The tables are guarded," Donsela. replied. "They are covered with a steel screen."

They had all of them heard Donsela. speak of the marvel of the new grease house.

Once again the ingenuity of the white men had put the diamond's unique qualities to his own advantage.

The diamond was unwetable, shedding moisture like the body feathers of a goose. So while wet gravel would roll across a steel table smeared with thick yellow grease, the dry diamond would stick fast.

The pipeline from the Vaal river had at last reached Kimberley, and this water supply was augmented by the subterranean water pumped up from the depths of the vast excavation. There was water enough now to wash the gravel, instead of laboriously dry-sorting it, water enough to wash the sieved gravel over the slanting grease tables. The diamonds stuck like fat little blisters, half embedded in the grease, ready to be scraped off with a steel spatula at the end of each shift.

"There is a steel screen over the tables," Donsela repeated, and Kamuza smiled and passed him a thin reed, cut from the riverbank. On the tip of the reed was a little lump of beeswax.

"The reed will pass through the mesh of the screen," Kamuza told him. "The diamond will stick more firmly to the wax than to the grease."

Donsela examined the reed cautiously. "Last week a Basuto was found with a stone. That same day he fell from the skip as they were bringing him out of the pit.

Men who steal stones have accidents. Those accidents always kill them."

"A warrior's duty is to die for his king," Kamusa told him drily.

"Do not let the overseer catch you, and pick out only the biggest and brightest stones."

In the three years between Kamusa's departure from Kimberley and his abrupt return, Ralph had reached his full growth. Only months short of his twenty-first birthday, he stood as tall as Zouga; but unlike his father, he was cleanshaven except for the thick dark moustache which he allowed to curl down at the corners of his mouth.

At rare intervals he was still able to gather together the ten gold sovereigns necessary to keep his surreptitious friendship with Diamond Lil alive. Then suddenly that was no longer relevant, for Ralph fell in love.

It happened in the street outside that exclusive institution, already the most famous in Africa south of the equator, membership of which conferred enormous prestige and a semi-mystical entre to the elite band of men who wielded the growing wealth and burgeoning power of the diamond fields.

Yet the Kimberley Club was merely a single-storeyed wood-and-iron building as drab as any on the diggings.

True it boasted a billiard room with a full-sized table, a picket fence of ornate cast iron and a stained-glass front door, but it was situated in the noisiest street just off Market Square, and it enjoyed its fair share of the flies and the all-pervading red dust.