CHAPTER III
THE STORY OF THE SHIPWRECK
"What shall we do with this boy whom Suzanne has brought to us, wife?"asked Jan of me that day while both the children lay asleep.
"Do with him, husband!" I answered; "we shall keep him; he is the Lord'sgift."
"He is English, and I hate the English," said Jan, looking down.
"English or Dutch, husband, he is of noble blood, and the Lord's gift,and to turn him away would be to turn away our luck."
"But how if his people come to seek him?"
"When they come we will talk of it, but I do not think that they willcome; I think that the sea has swallowed them all."
After that Jan said no more of this matter for many years; indeed Ibelieve that from the first he desired to keep the child, he who wassonless.
Now while the boy lay asleep Jan mounted his horse and rode for twohours to the stead of our neighbour, the Heer van Vooren. This VanVooren was a very rich man, by far the richest of us outlying Boers, andhe had come to live in these wilds because of some bad act that he haddone; I think that it was the shooting of a coloured person when he wasangry. He was a strange man and much feared, sullen in countenance, andsilent by nature. It was said that his grandmother was a chieftainessamong the red Kaffirs, but if so, the blood showed more in his son andonly child than in himself. Of this son, who in after years was namedSwart Piet, and his evil doings I shall have to tell later in my story,but even then his dark face and savage temper had earned for him thename of "the little Kaffir."
Now the wife of the Heer van Vooren was dead, and he had a tutor for hisboy Piet, a poor Hollander body who could speak English. That man knewfigures also, for once when, thinking that I should be too clever forhim, I asked him how often the wheel of our big waggon would turn roundtravelling between our farm and Capetown Castle, he took a rule andmeasured the wheel, then having set down some figures on a bit of paper,and worked at them for a while, he told me the answer. Whether it wasright or wrong I did not know, and said so, whereon the poor creaturegrew angry, and lied in his anger, for he swore that he could tell howoften the wheel would turn in travelling from the earth to the sun ormoon, and also how far we were from those great lamps, a thing that isknown to God only, Who made them for our comfort. It is little wonder,therefore, that with such unholy teaching Swart Piet grew up so bad.
Well, Jan went to beg the loan of this tutor, thinking that he wouldbe able to understand what the English boy said, and in due course thecreature came in a pair of blue spectacles and riding on a mule, for hedared not trust himself to a horse. Afterwards, when the child woke upfrom his long sleep, and had been fed and dressed, the tutor spoke withhim in that ugly English tongue of which I could never even bear thesound, and this was the story that he drew from him.
It seems that the boy, who gave his name as Ralph Kenzie, though Ibelieve that really it was Ralph Mackenzie, was travelling with hisfather and mother and many others from a country called India, which isone of those places that the English have stolen in different partsof the world, as they stole the Cape and Natal and all the rest. Theytravelled for a long while in a big ship, for India is a long way off,till, when they were near this coast, a storm sprang up, and after thewind had blown for two days they were driven on rocks a hundred miles ormore away from our stead. So fierce was the sea and so quickly did theship break to pieces that only one boat was got out, which, except fora crew of six men, was filled with women and children. In this boatthe boy Ralph and his mother were given a place, but his father didnot come, although the captain begged him, for he was a man of someimportance, whose life was of more value than those of common people.But he refused, for he said that he would stop and share the fate ofthe other men, which shows that this English lord, for I think he wasa lord, had a high spirit. So he kissed his wife and child and blessedthem, and the boat was lowered to the sea, but before another could begot ready the great ship slipped back from the rock upon which she hungand sank (for this we heard afterwards from some Kaffirs who saw it),and all aboard of her were drowned. May God have mercy upon them!
When it was near to the shore the boat was overturned, and some of thosein it were drowned, but Ralph and his mother were cast safely on thebeach, and with them others. Then one of the men looked at a compass andthey began to walk southwards, hoping doubtless to reach country wherewhite people lived. All that befell afterwards I cannot tell, for thepoor child was too frightened and bewildered to remember, but it seemsthat the men were killed in a fight with natives, who, however, did nottouch the women and children. After that the women and the little onesdied one by one of hunger and weariness, or were taken by wild beasts,till at last none were left save Ralph and his mother. When they werealone they met a Kaffir woman, who gave them as much food as they couldcarry, and by the help of this food they struggled on southward foranother five or six days, till at length one morning, after their foodwas gone, Ralph woke to find his mother cold and dead beside him.
When he was sure that she was dead he was much frightened, and ran awayas fast as he could. All that day he staggered forward, till in theevening he came to the kloof, and being quite exhausted, knelt upon theflat stone to pray, as he had been taught to do, and there Suzanne foundhim. Such was the story, and so piteous it seemed to us that we wept aswe listened, yes, even Jan wept, and the tutor snivelled and wiped hisweak eyes.
That it was true in the main we learned afterwards from the Kaffirs, abit here and a bit there. Indeed, one of our own people, while searchingfor Suzanne, found the body of Ralph's mother and buried it. He saidthat she was a tall and noble-looking lady, not much more than thirtyyears of age. We did not dig her up again to look at her, as perhaps weshould have done, for the Kaffir declared that she had nothing onher except some rags and two rings, a plain gold one and another ofemeralds, with a device carved upon it, and in the pocket of her gown alittle book bound in red, that proved to be a Testament, on the fly leafof which was written in English, "Flora Gordon, the gift of her mother,Agnes Janey Gordon, on her confirmation," and with it a date.
All these things the Kaffir brought home faithfully, also a lock of thelady's fair hair, which he had cut off with his assegai. That lock ofhair labelled in writing--remember it, Suzanne, when I am gone--is inthe waggon box which stands beneath my bed. The other articles Suzannehere has, as is her right, for her grandfather settled them on herby will, and with them one thing which I forgot to mention. When weundressed the boy Ralph, we found hanging by a gold chain to his neck,where he said his mother placed it the night before she died, a largelocket, also of gold. This locket contained three little picturespainted on ivory, one in each half of it and one with the plain goldback on a hinge between them. That to the right was of a handsome man inuniform, who, Ralph told me, was his father (and indeed he left all thisin writing, together with his will); that to the left, of a lovelylady in a low dress, who, he said, was his mother; that in the middle aportrait of the boy himself, as anyone could see, which must have beenpainted not more than a year before we found him. This locket and thepictures my great-granddaughter Suzanne has also.
Now, as I have said, we let that unhappy lady lie in her rude graveyonder by the sea, but my husband took men and built a cairn of stonesover it and a strong wall about it, and there it stands to this day, fornot long ago I met one of the folk from the Old Colony who had seen it,and who told me that the people that live in those parts now reverencethe spot, knowing its story. Also, when some months afterwards aminister came to visit us, we led him to the place and he read theBurial Service over the lady's bones, so that she did not lack forChristian Burial.
Well, this wreck made a great stir, for many were drowned in it, andthe English Government sent a ship of war to visit the place where ithappened, but none came to ask us what we knew of the matter; indeed, wenever learned that the frigate had been till she was gone again. Soit came about that the story died away, as such stories do in this sadworld, and for many years we heard no more of i
t.
For a while the boy Ralph was like a haunted child. At night, and nowand again even in the daytime, he would be seized with terror, and soband cry in a way that was piteous to behold, though not to be wonderedat by any who knew his history. When these fits took him, strange asit may seem, there was but one who could calm his heart, and that oneSuzanne. I can see them now as I have seen them thrice that I remember,the boy sitting up in his bed, a stare of agony in his eyes, and thesweat running down his face, damping his yellow hair, and talkingrapidly, half in English, half in Dutch, with a voice that at timeswould rise to a scream, and at times would sink to a whisper, of theshipwreck, of his lost parents, of the black Indian woman who nursedhim, of the wilderness, the tigers, and the Kaffirs who fell on them,and many other things. By him sits Suzanne, a soft kaross of jackalskins wrapped over her nightgown, the dew of sleep still showing uponher childish face and in her large dark eyes. By him she sits, talkingin some words which for us have little meaning, and in a voice nowshrill, and now sinking to a croon, while with one hand she clasps hiswrist, and with the other strokes his brow, till the shadow passes fromhis soul and, clinging close to her, he sinks back to sleep.
But as the years went by these fits grew rarer till at last they ceasedaltogether, since, thanks be to God, childhood can forget its grief.What did not cease, however, was the lad's love for Suzanne, or her lovefor him, which, if possible, was yet deeper. Brother may love sister,but that affection, however true, yet lacks something, since natureteaches that it can never be complete. But from the beginning--yes, evenwhile they were children--these twain were brother and sister, friendand friend, lover and lover; and so they remained till life left them,and so they will remain for aye in whatever life they live. Theirthought was one thought, their heart was one heart; in them was neithervariableness nor shadow of turning; they were each of each, to each andfor each, as one soul in their separate spirits, as one flesh in theirseparate bodies. I who write this am a very old woman, and though inmany things I am most ignorant, I have seen much of the world and ofthe men who live in it, yet I say that never have I known any marvel tocompare with the marvel and the beauty of the love between Ralph Kenzie,the castaway, and my sweet daughter, Suzanne. It was of heaven, not ofearth; or, rather, like everything that is perfect, it partook both ofearth and heaven. Yes, yes, it wandered up the mountain paths of earthto the pure heights of heaven, where now it dwells for ever.
The boy Ralph grew up fair and brave and strong, with keen grey eyes anda steady mouth, nor did I know any lad of his years who could equal himin strength and swiftness of foot; for, though in youth he was not overtall, he was broad in the breast and had muscles that never seemed totire. Now, we Boers think little of book learning, holding, as we do,that if a man can read the Holy Word it is enough. Still Jan and Ithought as Ralph was not of our blood, though otherwise in all ways ason to us, that it was our duty to educate him as much in the fashion ofhis own people as our circumstances would allow. Therefore, after he hadbeen with us some two years, when one day the Hollander tutor man, withthe blue spectacles, of whom I have spoken, rode up to our house uponhis mule, telling us that he had fled from the Van Voorens because hecould no longer bear witness to the things that were practised at theirstead, we engaged him to teach Ralph and Suzanne. He remained with ussix years, by which time both the children had got much learning fromhim; though how much it is not for me, who have none, to judge. Theylearnt history and reading and writing, and something of the Englishtongue, but I need scarcely say that I would not suffer him to teachthem to pry into the mystery of God's stars, as he wished to do, for Ihold that such lore is impious and akin to witchcraft of which I haveseen enough from Sihamba and others.
I asked this Hollander more particularly why he had fled from the VanVoorens, but he would tell me little more than that it was because ofthe wizardries practised there. If I might believe him, the HeerVan Vooren made a custom of entertaining Kaffir witch doctors anddoctoresses at his house, and of celebrating with them secret anddevilish rites, to which his son, Swart Piet, was initiated in hispresence. That this last story was true I have no doubt indeed, seeingthat the events of after years prove it to have been so.
Well, at last the Hollander left us to marry a rich old vrouw twentyyears his senior, and that is all I have to say about him, except thatif possible I disliked him more when he walked out of the house thanwhen he walked in; though why I should have done so I do not know, forhe was a harmless body. Perhaps it was because he played the flute,which I have always thought contemptible in a man.