Prester John

riefly the things which happened between my sight of the man on the Kirkcaple sands and my voyage to Africa. I continued for three years at the burgh scho

he law, so he left Kirkcaple for an Edinburgh office, where he was also to take out classes at the college. I remained on at school till I sat alone by myself in the highest class-a position of little dignity and deep loneliness. I had grown a tall, squa

progress I ever made in my studies. I chose the ministry, not, I fear, out of any reverence for the sacred calling, but because my father had followed it before me.

e I was just acquiring a taste for philosophy and the dead languages when my fat

not enough to pay for the colleging of a son. At this point an uncle of hers stepped forward with a proposal. He was a well-to-do bachelor, alone in the world, and he invited my mother to live with him and take care of his house. For myself he proposed a post in some mercantile concern, fo

esterday an old friend, Thomas Mackenzie, who was seeing his lawyer about an estate he is bidding for. He is the head of one of the biggest trading and shipping concerns in the world-Mackenzie, Mure, and Oldmeadows-you may have heard the name. Among other things he has half the stores in South Africa, where they sell everything from Bibles to fish-hooks. Appar

of a place which was to be the

d pounds a year, and when you get a store you'll get a percentage on sales. It lies with you to open up new trade among the natives. I hear that Blaauw-something or other, is in the far north of the

the shadow of my father's death I might have welcomed the chance of new lands and new folk. As it was, I felt the loneliness of an exile. That afternoon I walked on the

me a present of twenty sovereigns. 'You'll not be your mother's son, Davie,' were his last words, 'if you don't come home with it multiplied

re out of the Channel, and by the time we had rounded Ushant it was as dirty weather as ever I hope to see. I lay mortal sick in my bunk, unable to bear the thought of food, and too feeble to lift

riend in a little man with a yellow beard and spectacles, who sat down beside me and remarked on the weather in a strong Scotch accent. He turned out to be a Mr Wardlaw from Aberdeen, who was going out to be a schoolmaster. He was a man of good education, who had taken a university degree, an

the job. It seems we'll be in the heart of native reserves up there, for here's a list of chiefs-'Mpefu, Sikitola, Majinje, Magata; and there are no white men living to the east of us because of the fever. The name means the "spring of the blue wildebeeste," whatever fearsome animal that may be. It sounds like a place for adventure, Mr Crawfurd. You'll exploit the pockets of the black men and I'll see what I can do with their minds.' There was another steerage passenger whom I could not help observing because of my dislike of his appearance. He, too, was a little man, by name Henriques, and in looks the most atrocious villain I have ever clap

e-driver in his time,' I told Mr Wardla

ving deck sports. A tug-of-war had been arranged between the three classes, and a half-dozen of the heaviest fellows in the steerage, myself included, were invited to join. It was a blazing hot afternoon, but on the saloon deck

chair reading a book. There was nothing novel about the stranger, and I cannot explain the impulse which made me wish to see his face. I moved a few steps up the deck, and then I saw that

g prosperously as a first-class passenger with all the appurtenances of respectability. I alone had seen him invoking strange gods in the mo

address us steerage passengers but the black minister. He was introduced by the captain himself, a notably pious man, who spoke of the labours of his brother in the dark places of heathendom. Some of us were hurt in our pride in being

organ. He had none of the squat and preposterous negro lineaments, but a hawk nose like an Arab, dark flashing eyes, and a cruel and resolute mouth. He was black as my hat, but for the rest he might have sat for a figure of a Crusader. I do not kno

a pipe, and walked on the after-deck to ease the pain. The air was very still, save for the whish of water from th

f which I alone had the clue. I promised myself to search out the antecedents of the minister when I got to Durban, for I had a married cousin there, who might know something of hi

re of one of them made me look again. The next second I had slipped back and stolen across the after-dec

ust getting sick of it when a familiar name caught my ear. Henriques said something in which I caught the word 'Blaauwildebeestefontein.' I listened intently, and there could be no mistake. The minister repeated the name, and for the next few m

was much to learn; but I remember I had quite a thrill when I discovered from the chart of the ship's run one day that we were in the same latitude as that uncouthly-named spot. I found out nothing, however, about Henriques or the Rev.

hat he kept his cabin. At any rate I did not see his great figure on deck till we were tossing in the choppy seas round Cape Agulhas. Sea-sickness again atta

fine house on the Berea, and found a comfortable lodging for the three days of my stay there. I made inquiries about Mr Laputa, but could hear nothing. There was no native minister of that name, said my cousin, w

e. He was a certain Mr Colles, a big fat man, who welcomed me in his shirt-sleeves, wit

ebeestefontein. There's a grand country up there, and a grand opportunity for the man who can take it. Japp, who is in charge, is an old man now and past his best, but he has been lo

ding details. Incidentally he let drop that Mr Japp had had several assista

are few white men near, and young fellows want society. They complai

come out with the

s been vacant pretty often lately. What sort of

id, 'Blaauwildebeestefont

rt. He wants society, and he doesn't like too many natives. There's nothing up there but natives and a few back-ve

Colles's tone which made

than loneliness to make everybody clear out. I have taken on this

e back don't know themselves. I want you to find out for me. You'll be doing the firm an enormous service if you can get on the track of it. It may be the natives, or it may be the takhaars, or it may be something else. Only old Japp can stick it ou

n't talk, don't meddle with drink, learn all you can of the native jabber, but don't let on you understan

ts. For who should I find when I got on board but my old friend Tam Dyke, who was second mate on the vessel? We wrung each other's hands, a

he elbowed his way forward, declaring he must see the captain. Tam went up to him and asked civilly if he had a passage taken. He admitted he had not, but said he wo

ot his passage right enough, and Tam was even turned out of hi

a Dutchman. My old man doesn't take to his black brethren any more than I do. Hang it

ere landed from boats while the ship lay out in the bay, and Tam came ashore with me to spend the evening. By this time I had lost every remnant of homesickness. I had got a job before me which promised better things than colleging at Edinburgh, and I was as keen to get up

y father preach in his young days. Aitken was a strong, broad-shouldered fellow who had been a sergeant in the Gordons, and during the war he had done secret-service work in Delagoa. He had hunted, too,

a rum place, Mr C

ut it? You're not the first who has lo

t from the Portuguese side. That's the funny thing about Blaauwil

ld tell me what

e bush-veld I've often met strings of Kaffirs from hundreds of miles distant, and they've all been going or coming from Blaauwildebeestefontein. It's like Mecca to the Mohammedans, a p

I'll tell you another thing. I believe there's a dia

explain, which he did s

nce here we used to have a lot of trouble with the vermin. But I discovered that most of the stones came from natives in one part of the country-more or less round Blaauwildebeestefontein-and I see no reason to think that they had all been stolen from Kimberley or the Premier. Indeed som

you ever come across a great big native parson called Laputa? He came on board as we were leaving Durban, and I had to tur

You say he landed here? Well, I'll keep a look-o

w nothing. I described his face, his clothes,

ascal, as you think, you may be certain he's in the I.D.B. business, and if I'm right about Blaauwildebeestefontein

with a secret, and I meant to find it out. The natives round Blaauwildebeeste

by the way, but he had not identified his former pursuer, and I had told him nothing. I was leaving two men behind me, Colles a

f my thoughts. His last words to me were an app

row, and I'll come up country, though I should have to desert the service. Send us a letter to