Prester John

rusted with the general care of it, and I knew him well enough to be sure that he would keep his people from doing mischief. I left my empt

crowd.) I found him well and hearty, for Zeeta had been looking after him. Then some whim seized me to enter the store through my bedroom window. It

he road was shut, a most unusual thing in the afternoon. Japp had some small objects in his hand, and the two were evidently arguing about a price. I had no intention at

up one of the little objects between finger and thumb. It was a small roundish ston

they had been shot. Japp went as white as his mottled face permit

,' I said, 'diamonds, Mr Japp. You have found t

es,' he said, 'I have, or rather my friend 'Mw

. He shifted from one leg to the other, c

said. 'Afterwards

and opened the door for him. Then I b

there was something funny about you, but I

s no I.D.B., he declared, but a pipe which 'Mwanga had discovered. 'In this kind of country?' I said, quoting his own words. 'Why

tongue? I'll make you a rich man if you'll come in with me.' And then he started

reprobate,' I roared, 'if you breathe such a proposal to me ag

nestly, and it would break his heart if his grey hairs were to be disgraced. As he sat rocking himself with his hands

at my dictation, saying that you find the work too much for you. The second is that for the time you remain here the diamond business must utterly cease. If 'Mwanga or anybody like him comes inside the store, and if I get the slightest hint that you're back at the tra

feathered his nest well. Small wonder that the firm's business was not as good as it might be, when Japp was giving most of his time to buying

mixed up with Japp than I could help, for I did not know what villainy he might let me in for. Moreover, I carried Zeeta with me, being ashamed to leave he

tongues. I talked a kind of Zulu well enough to make myself understood, and I could follow it when spoken; but he had real scholarship in the thing, and knew all about the grammar and the different dialects. Further, he had read a lot about native history, and was full

great black emperor whom the Portuguese discovered about the sixteenth century. He lived to the north in Mashonaland, an

hose exploits were magnified by distance, the same as the ca

enician in origin. I have a book here which tells all about them. But now it is believed that they were built by natives. I

tribal beliefs; they had only just ceased being a warrior race, with a powerful military discipline; and, most important, they lived round the rim of the high-veld plateau, and if they combined could cut off the white man from the sea. I pointed out to him that it would only be a matter of time before we opened the road again. 'Ay,' he said, 'but think of what would happen before then. Think of the lonely farms and the little dorps wiped out of the

it in time to crush i

d news over a thousand miles as quick as the telegraph, and we have no means of tapping the wires. If they ever combined they could ke

who came back like Prince Charlie to free his people, there might be danger; but their

n negroes had been trying to preach in South Africa. He did not see why a kind of bastard Christianity should not be the motive of a rising. 'Th

leaned forward with a solemn face. 'I'll adm

here with his short-sighted eyes peering a

tter?' I asked. 'Ha

. But I have a presentiment that some mischief

ons to Mr Wardlaw beyond asking him if a wizard lived in the neighbourhood-a question anybody might ha

but merely felt that there were more natives about than could be explained. 'There's another thing,' he said. 'The native bairns have all left the school. I've only three scholars left, and they are f

Blaauwildebeestefontein. I had a clue and had been on the look-out for mysteries, but that another should feel the strangeness for himself made it seem desperately r

riting to anybod

or this job, Davie,' he said; 'I'll have to resign. And it's a pity, for the place suits my health

exercise. But I made him promise to say nothing to anybody either by word of mouth or letter, wi

ble-top and jammed it between the window frames. Also, I loaded my shot-gun and kept it by my bedside. Had Wardlaw seen these preparations he might