CHAPTER FOUR.
THE TRADING STORE.
Ben Halse's store was full of native women, some with babies and somewithout; and all were chattering. Two or three had come there to do adeal, and the rest had come to see them do it.
"_Au_! but this is not the right kind," muttered one, with adissatisfied shake of the head, holding up a blue skirt; the othersjoining critically in its examination. "I want one red and striped, notspotted like this."
"Here it is, then," cheerfully returned Verna, producing another. Shewas presiding goddess on this occasion, as indeed she often was.
But the other, although red and striped, did not seem to please. It wasexamined critically by the whole committee, except one or two, who,squatted on the floor, were giving undivided attention and,incidentally, nutriment to their infants. The stripes were whiteinstead of yellow, and they ought to be yellow. No white things wereworn now.
Verna laughed good-humouredly. She knew her customers. No deal wasever effected with such without seemingly endless discussion--andobjections.
"No white things!" she echoed. "Why, _I_ wear white things."
"_Inkosikazi_!"
"Well, why not you?"
"_Au_!" and the intending buyer brought a hand to her mouth with asmothered laugh. "Inkosikazi does not belong to the chief."
"The chief. What chief?"
"U' Sapazani."
"Sapazani?" rejoined Verna. "But he does not like the clothing of whitepeople at all. Yet you are buying it."
This was a fact. Though on terms of friendship with Ben Halse Sapazaniwas anything but fond of the trader's compatriots, and discouraged asfar as he could the introduction of European customs and clothing. Withthe latter, in consequence, the store was but scantily supplied.
"It is for wear in the towns, _Nkosikazi_," was the answer, and thenafter some haggling the deal was completed. Then others came forward.Some wanted one thing, some another, but all haggled. Verna, of course,was used to this. It was all in the day's work, and took up some time.The deal completed, the buyers went outside to talk it over. Two youngmen came in next. One wanted a sheath-knife and one a green blanket.These were paid for without haggling, Verna throwing in a length of rolltobacco by way of a _bonsela_, or gift to seal the bargain.
The interior of the up-to-date trading store in Zululand presents a verydifferent appearance to the old-time one. There are the knives, andstrings of beads, and three-legged cooking-pots, and tobacco of the olddays; but there is also a large and varied assortment of Europeanclothing--male and female--the latter preponderating in quantity anddegrees of gorgeousness. Umbrellas, too, and looking-glasses, evenboots, form no unimportant items in the general "notions" displayed.This particular store, however, did less trade in such things than most;and the reason may be found in the dialogue set forward above.Sapazani, the powerful chief of that section, was the most conservativeof Zulus, and discouraged any sort of aping of European ways. But ifBen Halse's trade suffered in this respect it more than gained inothers.
Now Verna, for all her attractiveness, was a shrewd and practical youngwoman, and assisted her father materially in the management of histrade. He did more than a little cattle raising and cattle jobbing, andthus had his hands more free than would otherwise have been the case.In fact, it was a prevalent idea among the people that they could alwaysget more favourable terms in the inevitable haggle when "U' Ben"happened to be presiding at the receipt of custom than when the sameheld good of his daughter.
By the way, there was a curious jagged hole in the thin plank lining ofthe corrugated iron wall of the room, about a yard to the right of thedoor and less than twice that measure from the ground, and its historywas this: One day a Zulu had come in to buy things. He was a big manand unringed, and hailed from the other end of the country. Moreover,he had been away working at Johannesburg and so had lost much of hisinherent awe of the white man, and still more of the white woman. Thisfellow's demeanour, at first bold and off-hand, became insolent, eventhreatening. Verna was alone, and he knew it.
He flung down a pair of boots that he was haggling over, flung itviolently onto the counter, so that one of the pair almost hit her,using the while loud and violent language. But he was out of hisreckoning.
There crashed forth a loud report, and with a whizz and a scatter ofsplinters the bullet pierced the wall planking, but so near that theaggressive ruffian felt the breath of it on his arm.
"That for a warning, _ishinga_," [rascal], said the girl. "The nextcarries death."
The startled savage stood as though petrified. He stared at the tall,fine, commanding figure. He took in every detail--the compression ofthe lips, the hard glint in the dilated eyes, the uncommonlydangerous-looking "bull-dog" revolver, held in a firm grip without atremor, and pointing direct at his chest. Then he uttered a singleword--subdued, respectful--
"_Inkosikazi_!"
Verna looked him steadily in the face for a moment. Then she said--
"Now go. Go, do you hear, before I change my mind. People who insultme are not safe. Go."
And he went.
Some time afterwards she mentioned the incident to Sapazani, quite in alight, casual way. The chief was strangely angry, far more so than theoccasion seemed to warrant, she had thought, with a mild, passingastonishment.
"I would I had known of this at the time, Izibu," he had said. "That_ishinga_ might have found some difficulty in returning to his own partof the country. He is not one of our own people, he belongs to Induba.But those coast dwellers--_Hau_! They are only half men. All the _man_is burnt out of them among the sugar canes and the fever." Then, withbitterness, "But what is a chief in these days? _I_ am no chief. Everywhite man is chief now, if he is sent by Government--every white _boy_,rather. There are no chiefs left in the land of Zulu. Even those ofour people who act as dogs to the courts of the white magistrates thinkthey are chiefs over us. _Hau_!"
And Verna had answered consolingly--
"No one, in all the land of Zulu--white or not--could mistake Sapazanifor anything but a chief."
Now, her customers having retired outside, and there being no sign ofothers arriving, Verna betook herself outside too. The rich glow ofsunshine filled the air, seeming to envelop the fine form of thissplendid daughter of the wilderness in its sensuous embrace. She stoodfor a moment gazing forth--her clear eyes dilating upon the glories ofthe far-spreading landscape. Then her glance rested upon her father,who, seated under a tree a little way distant, was engaged in apparentlyearnest converse with a single Zulu.
The latter she recognised as one Undhlawafa, a man she knew well, andthe favourite and trusted induna of Sapazani. What were they talkingabout? she wondered. Well, whatever it was she would not interruptthem, so she passed on into the dwelling-house.
Undhlawafa, who up till then had been talking preliminary commonplace,half turned to make sure she was safely out of earshot. Then he went onto expatiate on a very large koodoo bull that was always to be met withof late in the same haunts down yonder in the Lumisana forest. And nowthe moon was nearly at full. Horns? Such horns, went on Undhlawafa._Whau_! Horns of such a size had never been seen. His listener wasvividly interested.
The matter touched Ben Halse on two points of his character--love ofsport, and love of money-making. For the first, he, an old up-countryman, resented the restrictions as to the killing of game that had comein with the British occupation of Zululand. These were all very well upto a certain point, but when it came to being obliged to obtain amagisterial permit to kill one head of anything in particular, why, thenit became a bit chafing. It was one thing to restrict bigshooting-parties from outside coming in and slaughtering everythingindiscriminately, but to prohibit an old pioneer like himself fromshooting a buck of any sort when he wanted to, was another. Prohibitionor not, however, many a head of game did fall at the full of the moon,when Ben Halse chose to take the war-path; and every such head wouldhave entailed upon him a ruinous
fine did the circumstance come to theears of the authorities, together with sufficient evidence to support aprosecution. Well, as to that, he took chances, as he had done all hislife with regard to everything. One thing was certain--none of thenatives would give him away, and there were no whites in theneighbourhood within a long distance. Now and again a patrol of mountedpolice would pass that way, but he would always be informed of theapproach of such at least half-a-dozen hours before its arrival. Then,when it did arrive, why, Ben Halse's hospitality was a household wordamong the Field Force division of that useful corps, the Natal Police.
So much for the first. But for the second, wherein did the love ofmoney-making come? In this way: The trader was in touch with a wealthyand enthusiastic collector of every kind of natural history specimen.The latter was resident in England, and would pay almost any price for arecord specimen of anything, and in this way Ben Halse had made quite alittle income. Now the horns of this koodoo, as described byUndhlawafa, and even allowing for native exaggeration, sounded like avery "record" pair indeed. It would fetch a long price, apart from thefun of a bit of night-poaching, which last appealed to the adventurousside of the old pioneer. But not out of sheer love of money for its ownsake did the latter never let slip an opportunity of making it. No; itwas on Verna's account, and up till now he had done very well indeed.So Ben Halse and the induna agreed to stalk the big koodoo bull with the"record" horns on the following night.
Then Undhlawafa began to talk about other things. He had produced asovereign and was playing with it. The round gold which the whites hadbrought them was good, he said presently. Every one desired it, whiteor black. There was a spot down in the Lumisana forest where twentytimes ten of such pieces were hidden. They were, in fact, hidden therefor U' Ben to take out when he pleased--upon certain conditions.
Upon certain conditions! Yes. Two hundred sovereigns made up a verycomfortable haul. There were two or three packages, the Zulu went on toexplain, that U' Ben was required to bring from a certain quarter forSapazani and one other. U' Ben had a waggon, and he had ridden loadsfor them before. Had he not always been paid promptly and well? Andthe trader answered unhesitatingly that he had. Yet he seemed in nohurry to close with the offer. The other, as the way of his race is,manifested no impatience.
"The money is there. It can be taken before anything is done," went onUndhlawafa. "U' Ben's word is as certain as that the sun will rise.The conditions will be fulfilled."
We have said that Ben Halse's record was not quite clear; that therewere dark hints whispered against him with regard to liquor-smugglingand gun-running. As for the latter, whatever had been done in that linehad been done during the civil war in the country what time the Usutuparty and Sibepu were striving for the mastery. In common with allothers of his class and tradition, and with many others besides, he heldthat if the natives chose to get up a fight among themselves that wastheir look-out, and, in fact, so much the better, in that it would servethe dual purpose of keeping down their numbers, and giving them theopportunity of letting loose the spirit of Donnybrook upon _each other_;wherefore if they wanted firearms for that purpose he had no scruple insupplying the side that would pay the highest price. Now, however, thecase was different. Undhlawafa's "dark" talking was clear enough tohim. Such a bribe as two hundred pounds could only mean one thing, andthat was not liquor-smuggling.
"The load is there," went on the Zulu. "It is only for bringing it in--the price. Is it not high enough?"
Still Ben Halse did not reply. Yes, the circumstances now weredifferent. The country was now fairly populated with whites, among themhundreds of women and children. All of these he knew were virtuallysitting on the crater of a volcano, and he had often said so, only to bederided as a scaremonger. He, however, knew that sooner or later theeruption would take place.
As Undhlawafa had said, this man's word was as certain as that the sunwould rise; and this held good equally among white and black. But whenit came to a question of making money--though never known to go backupon his word--Ben Halse was not scrupulous as to how he made it. Indealing with natives of authority or position, or both, and, indeed,with many others, he had found them absolutely reliable. He knew nowthat were he to demand double the price of the service asked of him hewould almost certainly receive it; yet he was in no hurry to close withthe offer. The induna, the while, sat placidly taking snuff. ThenVerna's clear voice was heard.
"Father, come along in. The dinner will be spoiled."
"We will go after that big koodoo bull to-night, Undhlawafa," he said,rising to go inside.
"_Nkose_!"
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"Whatever have you and old Undhlawafa been yarning about all this time,dear?" asked Verna, as they sat at table.
"He says there's a thundering big koodoo bull down in the Lumisana, onewith record horns. We are going after him to-night."
Verna half started from her chair and her eyes sparkled.
"What fun! Why, so we will."
"Hallo! _We_! Now my `we' didn't include a girl."
"No? It included this girl, though," was the tranquil reply.
"Did it? I've only got one girl, and I'm not going to have her breakingher neck over stones, or scratching her eyes out in the dark, in thatinfernal tangle, or getting bitten by some beastly black mamba, orsomething of that sort."
Verna's eyes danced.
"Since when have you discovered that I was made of sugar, dear?" shesaid sweetly. "I've never been into the bush with you before, have I?Never helped you to defy the game laws of--I was going to say _our_country, but it's hard to tell exactly whose country it is. Never--haveI?"
"Oh well, I'm getting old now, and the part we are going into isn'tadapted to a skirt. Besides--"
"Besides--what?"
"Nothing."
Perhaps that other consideration had occurred to him. Decidedly shewould be in the way--under certain circumstances.
"Oh well, it doesn't matter," rejoined Verna tranquilly. "I'm going,anyhow."