Robert L. Fish

Rough Diamond

This book is dedicated with deep affection to:

Diana Barnato Walker

and

Hugh Fraser

Book I: Diamonds!

Kimberley

Prologue

March 1867

The two boys were ten and twelve years old, their names were Piet and Erasmus Jacobs, and they were bored. They sat on the steps leading to the rear stoep of the main house on their father’s farm in Griqualand in southern Africa, and considered various means by which they might relieve that boredom. There was always the balance of their chores, of course, tasks that never seemed to end, but the majority of their assigned work had been attended to and the others, they felt, could wait, at least until a little entertainment had been indulged in.

“I’ll race you to the barn!”

“I’m too tired. Besides, you always win. Anyways, it’s too nice a day.”

It was a nice day, indeed; a warm pleasant autumn day with the cackle of hens from the yard, the grunt of the varks wallowing in the mud of their sty, the smell of fresh hay in the air and the mealies drying in the crib, the sight of cattle grazing peacefully in the distance, and, far off the kopjes, the rounded hills, bordering the river.

“What’s a nice day got to do with it?” Younger brothers! “All right; I’ll wrestle you.”

“You’re too big.”

A deep sigh. “All right. What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know… How about a game of five stones?”

A solution, at least. “Good enough. Let’s find some decent stones for a change.”

They looked, finding many, discarding most. A stone for the game of vyf klip had to be just right. “Hoy!” It was Erasmus. “Here’s a beauty! It almost looks like glass, doesn’t it?”

“Yes,” Piet said, doubtful as always, “but it could break and one of us’d get cut—”

“It won’t break! It’s hard as rock! It’ll do fine. D’you have enough? Who goes first?”

But there was to be no first, or second, either. Their mother, coming out onto the stoep, raised her voice in a tone they both recognized. “Erasmus! Piet! Are your chores done?”

“Mostly, Ma.”

“There is no such thing as mostly! Mostly! Things are either done or they’re not done! Now, come into the house, both of you. I need one of you at the churn, and the other one—”

“Aw, Ma—”

“And no arguing! Come along, now.”

An apologetic shrug, one to the other, as if to explain what never had to be explained on a Boer farm, that work came before all else, that work never ended. And that night after the boys had gone to bed, their mother, fishing in the bulging pocket of Erasmus’ trousers before putting them in the wash, pulled out the glasslike stone.

“That boy! He’d put an ox in his pocket, horns and all, if he thought it would fit!” And with a sigh the stone went up on the mantelpiece. Until later that evening when a friendly commercial traveler dropped by to exchange news and share a schnapps or two and a pipe of tobacco, and he happened to notice the stone on the mantelpiece. He picked it up and studied it.

“Rather a pretty thing, this. Where did you get it?”

“I’ve no idea,” Jacobs said, puffing away, not knowing what the man was talking about.

“Oh, it’s just a stone Erasmus found,” said Mevrou Jacobs, not pausing in her mending as she spoke. “He had it in his pocket.” She shook her head. “That boy! You’d think trousers grew on trees, the little care he gives his!”

“Still, it’s rather a pretty thing…”

“If you care for it, take it.”

“I don’t mind if I do,” said the traveler, pocketing the stone; and the conversation turned to more practical matters: the ridiculous rising of prices for almost everything, wherein the traveler was in complete sympathy with the Jacobses and others of his customers; the dearth of rain and the consequent lack of forage; the recent raids of some Mashona tribesmen on the border farms north of Pretoria in the neighboring Transvaal; an outbreak of rinderpest on some farms not far from Bloemfontein in the Orange Free State — all bits of gossip carried by the handelaars as they made their rounds from farm to farm, and often as valuable as the goods they carried in their ox wagons to the news-starved farmers.

And the traveler, the next time he was in Grahamstown to replenish his wares, out of curiosity happened to show the glasslike stone to an expert, and the expert checked the stone for hardness, and then with a frown went further and checked it for specific gravity. When he was done he looked up.

“My friend,” he said quietly, “what you have here, without a question, is a diamond…”

But of course the stone might have come from anywhere. It might well have been dropped by an ostrich, since they were birds that were attracted to anything that glittered, and since they ranged far and wide in Africa. Or the stone might even have been planted by some owner of huge properties, not knowing its true value, in the vain hope that somehow word of the discovery might enhance land values in Griqualand, and bring customers to whom he might unload his worthless land at a proper profit.

Until the day, almost a year later, when a Hottentot shepherd, tending his flocks not far from where Erasmus Jacobs had found his pretty glasslike klip, found another shining stone and was amazed to eventually be offered five hundred sheep, ten oxen, and a horse for his discovery, a price he was quick to accept. And when the stone finally found its way to London and eventually was cut to become the famous Star of Africa, the word was soon out.

There were diamonds lying about on the ground just waiting to be picked up in southern Africa!

1

September 1872

From the railing of the combination steam and sailing ship Anglian, anchored in the roadstead of Table Bay in Cape Town after its record run from its dock in the Thames in London, the sight was truly incredible. Young Barney Isaacs, hanging over the rail and trying to realize that he was indeed here in South Africa, had never seen or even imagined anything like it. Short months before he would have sworn he never would see anything like it in his life. The early summer sun was already heating the morning air and under its growing strength the wide harbor shimmered. Ships from all nations dotted the large bay, come to discharge sheets of corregated iron from Birmingham, machinery from Liverpool, cloth from Leeds, tin plate from Spain, casks and bales, cases and crates, all the welter of wares that make up the lifeblood of commerce — and also to offload adventurers intent upon reaching the diamond fields along the Orange and the Vaal Rivers, come, like Barney Isaacs, to make their fortunes.

The lighters that streamed back and forth across the bay, moving goods and men from the anchored ships to the crowded docks, made the normally placid waters choppy; the bright sun winked back at the young boy on the Anglian, reflected from the ruffled waters. To Barney Isaacs the scene looked and sounded like a court regatta he had once seen on the lower Thames staged for the amusement of the Queen, only here the activity was on a truly grand and confused scale. And when he raised his eyes from the bustle and stir in the bay — the shouting of the lightermen as they narrowly avoided one another, the creak of sail, the scream of steam whistles, the grating rattle of anchors being raised or dropped on one ship or another, the rasp of steam-driven winches — when he looked up from these, there was the calm spectacle of Table Mountain rising abruptly from the land, aloof from the tumult beneath it, satisfied to protect the city with its walled strength.

And the city itself, white and gleaming in the sunlight, running from the busy docks to flood the shallow plain between the sea and the mountain with houses and buildings, and even beginning to scatter itself on the little rivulets of land that ran up the slopes leading to the sheer cliffs, giving their inhabitants, Barney was sure, a superb view. It was a far cry from Cobb’s Court and Petticoat Lane where he had been raised in London’s East End slums; a far cry, indeed, from any part of sprawling, crowded London. It was tiny by any comparison with the British metropolis, of course, but distinct in every way. Everything seemed so clean. Especially the air, Barney thought, remembering the pea-soup fogs along the Thames, the coal-fired dank air that made his father choke and cough over his tailor’s bench. Here a man could breathe! And the buildings were so white, not the sooty dark gray that seemed to be the only color to be found in the East End—

“Hoy, Barney!”

He looked around. It was Tommy Thomas, a stoker on the ship. The two had held a boxing bout for the entertainment of the first-class passengers about a week before landing; the hat passed around for the winner after the bout had gone to Barney. It had brought his total capital up to nearly twenty pounds, still no great amount as he well knew, and one that had to last him to Kimberley and probably awhile afterward.

“Hi,” Barney said. “What’s up?”

“Ain’t you goin’ ashore?”

“Sure, in a while. Why?”

“Last lighter’s gettin’ ready to shove off. Want a ’and with your gear?”

Barney grinned derisively. “What? Me sixty-four trunks full of me extensive wardrobe? Me fifty-five cases of jools and me eighteen crates of quid notes I carry just to tip the lower classes?” He shook his head. “I guess I can manage a couple of bags.”

The stocky young stoker wet his lips. A more direct approach, it appeared, would be required. “Say, Barney, what I was tryin’ to say—’ow about th’ loan o’ a quid?”

“Loan?” Young Barney looked at Tommy with amusement, the amusement of a person who had heard and seen everything in his young life, but nothing quite as comically outrageous as this. It was as good as anything anyone ever tried to pull back home in the King of Prussia. “And when d’you suppose we’d ever see each other so’s you could pay me back me loan? We both know the answer to that ’un. Never.”

Tommy Thomas grinned, the brash grin of a person with nothing to lose. “All th’ better, then. Come on, Barney, be a sport! Y’picked up over eight quid when y’dumped me on me arse. An’ y’got a brother struck it rich in th’ diamonds up Kimberley way, y’said!”

“That’s right on,” Barney said. His voice had become quiet, intent. “Me brother struck it rich in the diamonds. Only what’s his is his, it ain’t mine. I ain’t struck it rich yet. When I do, look me up. You’ll get yer loan of a quid.” He winked broadly and started toward his cabin to pick up his suitcases.

“ ’Ow about arf a quid, then? Ten stinkin’ shillin’?”

“When I strike it rich in the fields, I’ll make that a quid, ten shillin’,” Barney promised expansively, and walked away.

Behind him, Tommy Thomas shrugged. He hadn’t really had any great hopes of getting the money. The fault, he knew, was his own. He should have knocked the cheeky little Jew on his arse in the ring, instead of being knocked on his own. And the thing was he still couldn’t figure out why he hadn’t…

There were seamen’s quarters at the waterfront, rooming bins over the chandler’s shops and the fish-and-chips shops, and bins they were and no more. Little cubicles with doors that did not lock, slivers of glass for windows in those cubbyholes lucky enough to be placed on an outer wall and then only giving a view of a similar wall a few inches away, with inner walls that were warped partitions that did not reach the ceiling of the long lofts, a small candle for illumination and the proprietor to put the candle out after nine at night. And the constant smell of rancid oil from the chips shops below, or worse, from the slops buckets put out in the narrow passageways for collection and which often waited there a day before being picked up. But the bin was a shilling a night, better than the three to five shillings it would have cost at a fancier rooming place. Barney started to push his two cardboard suitcases under the sagging cot and then with a frown drew them back. It didn’t look the sort of place where his few possessions would be safe the minute they left his sight. He considered a moment and then picked them up, carrying them down the steps. The proprietor eyed him with a frown, and spoke around his cigar.

“No refunds, son.”

“I’ll be back to sleep. Just goin’ out to see the town.”

The proprietor removed his cigar from his mouth as if it helped him to stare. “Carrying two heavy suitcases? Leave them here. They’ll be safe.”

“They’ll be safer in me hands,” Barney said flatly, and turned, about to walk out into the street. Then he turned back. “Where d’they take off from, headin’ for the fields? The diamond fields?”

The proprietor tucked his cigar back into his mouth and jerked his thumb toward the ceiling.

“Son,” he said almost sadly, “half the rooms upstairs are filled with men come back from the fields. Ain’t none of them come back rich or they wouldn’t be staying here, and that’s the fact. They’re waiting for ships to get out, ships they can work their passage, but the crews are all full. A year or so ago a ship come into Cape Town and the crew was gone as soon as the anchor went down, off to the fields, all going to get rich! But now it’s a different story. Men who’ve found diamonds in India and Brazil; if they’re giving up it’s because they know more than you and me. No, sir, son. The diamonds are all run out, and that’s the fact.”

“And I’m goin’ up there anyways,” Barney said, “so if you’ll be so kind as to tell me where they take off from—?”

The proprietor heaved another sigh, shaking his head. “Son, how old are you?”

“Eighteen. Why?”

“You’re short but you look fairly husky. There’s work to be had, here in Cape Town. Not a bad place to live, either. Damn sight better than Kimberley. I could use a kid in here to help, myself—”

“I’ll find the bloody place meself,” Barney said flatly, and started to walk out into the street again.

“Hey! It’s the Grand Parade, son. Up Dock Road to Adderley — that’s the main street — then up a block on the left to Darling. It’s just before the castle. You can’t miss it.”

“Thanks,” Barney said dryly, and walked out.

The proprietor removed his cigar and studied it, as if it could help him make sense of the world about him. That’s a tough little monkey, he thought, but a lot tougher than him got taught their lesson up in Colesberg Kopje and the other mines. I’ll give him six months and he’ll be back, tough as he is. And with a lot less lip. Still, if anyone ought to get by I suppose it would be someone like him. Looks like a bloody Boer with that light hair and them blue eyes, and thinks like an Englishman, with the streetwise brains of an East End kid. But even so, I give him six months. If he was any less tough, the proprietor told the unresponsive cigar, I’d give him three…

The city, seen at close range, was far from as clean as it had appeared from the deck of the Anglian. Heavy traffic choked the Dock Road, wide as it was: carts, coaches, drays, men on horseback, ox wagons, each jostling to pass, raising clouds of dust that settled on everything; and always the danger of a load being dropped from one of the swinging davits that jutted from the decks of ships lucky enough to have found space along the crowded docks. And the wagons awaiting the crate or bale from the ships, blocking the road, their drovers exchanging insults with those forced to try and find passage around them. Still, Barney thought, it was different from the mud of the roads along the Thames, and at least there were not the piles of filth one had to step high to clear in almost every lane or narrow alley that led from the river in London into the city itself.

And the chandlers’ shops along the Dock Road! Some of them even had samples of their wares stacked before their doors, something no Petticoat Lane merchant would have considered for an instant; he would have been stolen blind in five minutes if not in two. Barney marched along, his bowler far back on his head in the growing heat, his suitcases banging against his legs, his wide eyes trying to take in everything at once and still avoid being ridden down by a rider or a coach forcing its way through the crowd. Up the Dock Road to Adderley Street, no chance of mistaking that main road with its neat buildings on either side; and beyond the head of the road ending in gardens the majesty of Table Mountain giving a feeling of security and beauty to the scene. Then across Adderley, watching out again for the wagons, and up to Darling Street — and there it was, hard to mistake, the Grand Parade, off to the left, a vast space in a city where spaces apparently were ample and far different from crowded London. How fine this is! Barney thought, pleased to be there, pleased with the warmth of the day at a time when he knew London would be starting to get chilly and nasty and damp now that late fall had come, and wondered that he had passed his entire life in conditions he never would have questioned had he not, by pure accident, started out to join his successful brother. Well, the fact was that here he was in Cape Town, in southern Africa, mind you, thousands of miles from home, and to his surprise he was very happy about it.

The Grand Parade had once been exactly that, a parade ground adjoining the castle; now it was the center for the coaches and the mule trains to gather their custom and take off for Durban or Port Elizabeth, or the Colesberg Kopje — now, together with Dutoitspan and Bultfontein, renamed Kimberley in honor of the new Colonial Secretary — or Pretoria in the distant Transvaal, or to the Orange Free State, or places with exciting names waved before each coach or mule train on placards, places with names like Pietermaritzburg, or Bloemfontein; Roodepoort or Potchefstroom.

Barney set his suitcases down and stared about him. The scene was one of utter confusion. Hostlers attended to their charges, leading them to and from the area to stables across Darling Street and down Parliament and Plein streets, while drivers waved their placards and bawled their destinations and their hoped-for prices. Potential passengers moved from coach to coach, or from mule train to mule train, bargaining, attempting to select the least uncomfortable vehicle, studying the seats of the mule wagons or the springs of the coaches upon which they would be painfully jostled for the following weeks, asking after the food they would eat, or the places they would sleep. Arriving coaches discharged bone-weary passengers and immediately took up their place for new custom, the driver being exchanged for a brother or a cousin or an uncle while the exhausted man staggered off for a drink and a pallet. The sweating horses were backed from their traces and replaced with fresh ones while young lads swarmed over the newly arrived coaches with heavy feather dusters, attempting with small success to sweep away some of the grime of the trip coming through the Great Karroo or the Kalahari, depending upon the source of the trip, and older boys packed the wheel hubs with ox grease and made sure in a rapid inspection that the coach was sufficiently intact for the next trip.

Mules stood and stared in their sleepy uninterested way, while their drivers bargained not just for passengers but mainly for freight, freight that had a certain urgency for its delivery to justify its cost but was too heavy for the more fragile horse-drawn coaches, while still being light enough not to require the slower transport by ox wagon. The sight was something Barney could never have imagined, and he was still staring about almost in disbelief when he felt a hand on his shoulder and looked up into a familiar, friendly face. It was a middle-aged man who had been on the Anglian, a first-class passenger; the one, actually, who had started to pass the hat for contributions after his boxing bout, insisting that an exhibition such as Barney had put on deserved a decent reward.

“Ah! Young Barney Isaacs! Ready to go off and make your fortune in the diamond fields, I see.”

“Yes, sir. You, too?”

The man smiled and shook his head. “No, no. I’m a Capetonian and prefer it that way. I’m merely here to see that some equipment of mine gets to Bloemfontein within a reasonable period of time. When are you leaving?”

“I… I dunno, sir.” Barney hesitated and then cleared his throat. “Sir — I can’t get what they’re all sayin’, there’s so much yellin’ and such. How much d’they want to get to Kimberley?”

“Oh, they bargain, but in general the cheapest is around sixty pounds to go by coach, and about twenty to go by mule train. Mule train takes almost twice as long, of course. Almost a month, I’m afraid.”

“Sixty quid!” Barney swallowed. “Sir, how d’you get there if you ain’t got nowhere near money like that? I mean, if you can’t spare even the twenty quid for the mules?”

“Well, now.” The man looked at Barney a bit speculatively and then smiled. “You won a bit better than eight pounds on your boxing skills aboard ship, as I recall. And I will be honest and say I did a bit better than that by wagering on you. I liked the way you looked. So suppose I lend you another twelve pounds to add to your eight, and off you go by mule train? You’ll repay me when you can.”

Barney shook his head decisively. “No, sir. ‘Nei’der a borrower ner a lender be.’” He suddenly grinned. “Me, I just said no to Tommy Thomas on board ship to be the one, and I ain’t about to start bein’ the other right after.”

The man’s eyebrows went up. Shakespeare? From this youngster from the London slums? Incredible! Almost unbelievable. “Tell me, Barney,” he said. “Are you familiar with Hamlet? Or was that just something you once heard someplace?” His eyes were steady on the lad, prepared for almost any answer.

“I know ’Amlet — I mean Hamlet,” Barney said quietly, almost bitterly. He was accustomed to disbelief whenever he mentioned either his knowledge or his passion for the theater, but it didn’t make him like it any better. He also knew that once he was taken with the dramatics of a scene and was carried away he unconsciously dropped into the worst of his Cockney. He didn’t like that any better either, but it seemed to be a habit he hadn’t been able to break. “Yes, sir. I seen Sir Henry Irving do it a dozen times.” He unconsciously took a stance. “Nei’der a borrower ner a lender be, fer loan oft loses both itself an’ friend, an’ borrowin’ dulls th’ edge o’ ’usbandry. This above all, to thine own self be true.’” He suddenly grinned, a gamin grin that made him look even younger than his eighteen years. “I know that ’un by heart. Most of the others I only know the last part.”

The man frowned. “How’s that?”

Barney laughed. “Me, I’d stand outside the theater, see? Half the blokes just went because it was expected of them, y’know? They hated the show, but they had wives, y’know, made ’em go. But they couldn’t make ’em stay. They’d sneak off to the nearest pub between acts and ferget to come back. So after the first act or the second act — and sometimes in between — they’d sneak out and I’d cadge the rest o’ their ticket from ’em, see? So I’d see lots o’ second and third acts.”

“And remember them?”

“Yes, sir. Mostly.”

“Remarkable!”

“Yeah,” Barney said. He really didn’t think it was so remarkable. He didn’t see how anyone could fail to learn the beauty of words that took one away from his everyday life. “I know The Bells by heart. I seen that one at least ten times. Even paid to see it a couple o’ times.”

The man shook his head in amazement. “You are a most remarkable young man, Barney Isaacs.” He fished into the pocket of his waistcoat, bringing forth a card case and extracting one. “Here’s my card. If you ever get back to Cape Town — and I’m afraid there is a strong possibility of that in the very near future, from what I’ve heard of the diamond trade since our arrival this morning — please look me up.”

Barney took the card, read it, and looked up. “Sure, Mr. Breedon. Only—”

“Yes?”

“Like I said before,” Barney said, a touch of desperation in his voice, “how d’you get to Kimberley if you ain’t got no twenty quid to spare?”

“And also have pride? Then you walk.” Mr. Breedon held up his hand hurriedly at the angry flash in Barney’s eyes. “I’m not making fun of you,” he said quietly, and pointed. “You go back along Darling Street, back across Adderley, past Greenmarket Square — you can’t miss it, it’s the main market square — and a bit west of that, a few blocks at the most, you’ll find Riebeeck Square. It’s an outspan—”

“A what?”

“An outspan,” Breedon said patiently. “A place where ox wagons come to discharge their goods and rest their oxen and pick up new cargo for the interior. ‘Outspan’ means to unhitch the oxen from the span, to take them out, so to speak. I understand one can arrange with the driver of one of the wagons to walk alongside the cart for the sum of five pounds. It takes a few months to make the trip that way, of course.”

“I got time,” Barney said. In his mind he had more time than money, but he really didn’t have any excess of either. Still, he was relieved to know there was a way to get to Kimberley within his budget, within, in fact, the sum he had won in the fight. He had a feeling his total capital wouldn’t be too much before he managed to start making his fortune. Although, of course, his brother Harry had made it and he hadn’t even won a boxing match on board the ship he’d arrived on.

“And you’re sure you won’t accept any help from me?”

“I’m sure, but thanks, Mr. Breedon.” Barney tucked the card into a pocket, reached down and raised his two suitcases. He grinned at Mr. Breedon. “Thanks again.”

“That’s quite all right,” Breedon said, and watched Barney march off back toward Adderley Street, his suitcases banging against his legs. Maybe this one won’t be back, he thought. Maybe this one will actually make it up in — what did they call it now? Kimberley? — but unfortunately, he added to himself a bit sadly, I am forced to doubt it. A most unusual boy, though. Shakespeare! And in that atrocious East End Cockney accent! With a faint smile at the recollection and a contemplative shake of his head, Mr. Breedon turned back to dickering with the muletrain driver for the transport he required for printing plates for his new presses in Bloemfontein.

The outspan was like a smaller Grand Parade, but far quieter, more subdued, as if the greater time it required to travel by ox wagon made for a slower pace in all activities connected with the slower-moving beasts, a lesser urgency, a more relaxed atmosphere. There were drays drawn up beside many of the sturdy wooden wagons, some loading, others unloading. The unhitched oxen grazed quietly along the edge of the square, or lay passively watching the activity about them with their doelike eyes, patient and uncomplaining, their huge jaws moving rhythmically as they chewed their cuds. Barney walked up to the first wagon he came to. The driver, sitting on an upturned empty nail keg and watching men load his wagon, removed his pipe from his mouth and considered Barney dourly. Barney looked back, wondering how to begin.

“Sir—”

“What, boy?”

“You goin’ to Kimberley?”

“No.” A simple question answered simply. The pipe was replaced between the thin lips; the driver’s attention returned to the wagon and the men loading it.

“D’you know anyone who is? Goin’ to Kimberley, I mean.”

The driver sighed at this insistence that he speak once again. “Andries.”

“What?”

“Andries Pirow. That wagon.” The pipe was momentarily pointed and then was clamped once more between the thin lips.

“Thanks.” Barney walked over to the indicated wagon and set his suitcases down again. The driver was lying under the wagon, sleeping, his broad-brimmed leather hat spread over his face, his booted legs sprawled out, extending from beneath the wagon. The wagon itself appeared loaded; the usual Conestoga-type curved cover had been forsaken in this instance in favor of the canvas being held taut against the bulky load, and was tightly lashed at the corners. Only at the rear end of the wagon had a separate piece of canvas been raised, allowing access to the wagon’s contents there without the necessity of disturbing the carefully stowed load in the front. From the curved steel bar holding this separate cover swung bags and small casks; a battered teapot hung there as well. Barney squatted to peer beneath the wagon at the sleeping man.

“Sir?” A faint snore, muffled by the hat, was his only response. Barney hesitated a moment and then put out his hand, tentatively touching the rough-spun shirt. “Sir?” Again there was no response. Barney looked back over his shoulder at the first driver helplessly. The man returned the look with no expression at all. Barney turned back to the sleeping Andries, shaking him gently once again. “Sir?”

“Like this.”

Barney looked up in surprise. The first driver had abandoned his nail keg and was standing beside him. The man drew back his foot and kicked the boot sole of the sleeping man with all his force. “On’y way,” he said succinctly, removing his pipe to speak. “Ol’ Andries, he sleep like a dead.” He replaced the pipe in his mouth, walked back to his inverted nail keg, and sat down.

The blow, however, had the desired effect. Andries Pirow pushed the hat from across his face and looked around to see who or what had brought him from his slumber. Then he crawled from beneath the wagon and stood up, yawning prodigiously. He was a huge man in his mid-forties with a face that had been deeply lined by wind and sun; he wore a graying beard that had been cut square a few inches from his chin. His hands were the largest hands Barney had ever seen on a human being. Andries stretched and yawned again, and then stared at Barney. Barney backed up a step.

“I didn’t kick you, mister—”

“I know.” Andries stared at the other driver a moment; the man returned his stare without the slightest change of expression. Andries bit back a smile and turned to Barney. “Well? You want to talk to me, boy?”

Barney fought down his first flush of anger. He was getting tired of being called “boy.” And he was, after all, a paying customer, or anyway, at least a potential one. “You goin’ to Kimberley?”

“I am.”

“I want to go with you. They said — five quid’d do it.”

Andries shook his head. “I’m not a wagon for passasier. No people. Got a load of machinery for Dutoitspan. No room.”

“I’ll walk. They said I’d have to, anyways.”

“Your bags won’t walk.”

“I’ll—” Barney fell silent. Obviously he wasn’t going to carry his two heavy suitcases all the way to Kimberley.

Andries studied him a moment. “What you want to go to Kimberley for, boy?” The man spoke with a decided Boer accent, but his English was quite respectable.

“Got a brother there. Made it big in the diamonds.”

“And you want to walk beside an ox wagon?”

“He made it big. I ain’t, yet.” Barney looked around. “Any other wagons goin’ to Kimberley?”

Andries shrugged. “Maybe next week. Maybe the week after.”

“Next week!”

Andries studied Barney some more. “Look, boy. Your folks know you want to go to Kimberley?”

“Me folks are in England, but they know.”

Andries shrugged, making up his mind. After all, the boy looked to be over sixteen and in that country that made him a man and able to make his own decisions. And he might even be of some use on the long trek, someone to talk to if nothing else, although Andries was quite used to talking to his oxen if need be to pass the time. “All right, boy. You can come.”

“Five quid, ain’t it?” Barney started to reach for his purse.

“No hurry for that.” Andries continued to study the boy. The five pounds normally charged by an ox wagon to allow a person to walk beside it while it carried his luggage on the two-month trek did not include food. Andries was sure the boy had no notion of this. Ah, well! in for a shilling in for a pound. It would be his charitable contribution to the lad. “We leave at seven in the morning. Be on time.” He turned and dug a pipe from his pocket, stared at it a moment and then realized he would be going back to sleep in a few moments, and put it back. “You got a place to sleep tonight, boy?”

“Yes, sir. A room down by the docks.”

“Good. Tomorrow at seven, then.” Andries squatted, prepared to return beneath the wagon for his rest, and then looked over his shoulder. “You can leave your bags here. They’ll be safe.”

Barney hesitated, but only for a moment. He had the feeling the big man was testing him, somehow. Anyway, he was going to be with the man a long time, and mutual trust was going to be necessary; might as well start right now. “Sure,” he said easily, as if he left his bags with strangers all the time. “Where d’you want them?”

“In the wagon. In front with the crates; there’s no room in the back. And tie up properly when you’re done.” Andries thought a moment and then came to his feet. “Better let me.” He untied a corner of the canvas, lifted the bags, and placed them where he wanted them, retying the rawhide thongs carefully when he was done. He looked at Barney with a faint frown. “What you got in them suitcases, boy? Rocks?”

“Books, mostly,” Barney said. “Plays.”

“You an actor, boy?”

“I wanted to be,” Barney said quietly, and changed the subject. “Tomorrow at seven, then.”

“Right,” Andries said. He got down and crawled under the wagon. He started to lie down and then raised his head. “You got a name, boy?”

“Barney. Barney Isaacs.”

“Right. You call me Andries. See you tomorrow, boy.” His head went down; the hat was pulled over his face.

Am I an actor! Barney thought as he walked away. A bloody good ’un, if they’d have ever given me a bloody chance! He grinned to himself, happy that he’d gotten transportation to Kimberley. Anyway, on the second and third acts. The thought made him laugh.

2

September 1872

The twelve oxen, six on either side of the long disselboom, strained up the tilted slopes leading from the town, around the western base of Table Mountain toward the Drakenstein Valley leading to Parow where the road would split, one branch leading westward to Milnerton and Caledon and eventually all the way to the Kalahari and Windhoek and the strange unknown lands beyond. Another branch led to Stellenbosch to the east and in time to Mossel Bay and to Durban on the Indian Ocean. The main trail — for it was little more than a trail — led north across the Karroo desert to Beaufort West and Bloemfontein, Kimberley, Pretoria, and beyond. Except that very few people other than hunters or adventurers ever went very far beyond Pretoria.

They left Riebeeck Square in tandem with three other ox wagons, all with different destinations, the four gradually spreading apart to give the dust between them a chance to settle. It was a vain maneuver; the dust was regenerated almost at once as faster mule trains and coaches passed them on the trail, their passengers looking down from their perches in superior fashion at the less fortunate ones trudging along beside the ox wagons. Behind them the city spread below in panorama with the wide bay beyond, gradually disappearing as they advanced around the spur of the mountain and up toward the valley with its orchards and farms. Barney took one last look at the lovely view and then turned to face the front, gritting his teeth at their slow pace. I must have picked the slowest bloody wagon in the entire bloody country, he thought almost savagely. Turtles could pass us, the rate we’re going! I should have taken the money Mr. Breedon offered; after all, he said he won it on me. But he shouldn’t have taken the money from Breedon and he knew it. It wasn’t his style and style was important to Barney Isaacs.

Andries, walking steadily along on the other side of the swaying wagon and glancing across the tightly drawn canvas at the scowling boy every now and then, could almost read Barney’s mind. He wants to run now, Andries thought; he can’t wait to get to the diamond fields. Well, it’s always that way at the start of a long trek; wait until we’re crossing the Karroo and he has more important things to worry about, like sore feet and keeping the wagon going. Then we’ll see how much of a rush the boy will be in. That will tell us quite a bit about this lad!

“We’ll get there, boy,” he said, almost as if he were speaking to himself. “Maybe faster than some.” And he cracked his sjambok over the ears of the oxen, who neither hurried their pace nor reduced it, as if they were well aware that Andries would never actually touch them with the thin, deadly whip.

Barney said nothing, but marched steadily along. Six hundred bloody miles to go, at what he guessed would only be ten or twelve miles a day, and that was if they were lucky. Two bloody months! There were mountains to cross, and rivers, and perhaps — although the proprietor of the rooming house had smiled faintly when he said it — angry tribes of natives. That last was probably nonsense, but the mountains weren’t, nor the rivers. Still, there was nothing for it but to accept it and hope he could make up the time in getting rich once he eventually reached Kimberley. If the bloody diamonds weren’t really all gone by then! But there was no purpose in thinking of that. Better to use the time on the long trek to some constructive and—

“ ‘I know not ’ow to tell thee ’oo I am; me name, dear saint, is ’ateful to meself—’ ” He caught Andries’ curious eyes upon him across the wagon. “Romeo and Juliet,” he said defensively. “It’s a play. Wrote by a bloke named Shakespeare.”

“Oh,” Andries said, and cracked his whip.

They paused at eleven in the morning, the sun high in the almost white sky. Andries brought the team from the trail and began to unhitch them. Barney stared. He thought he had noticed a commiserating look from Andries every now and then over the past hour.

“Look,” he said half angrily, “if yer stoppin’ because you think I’m beat, well, I ain’t. I can walk all day and then some!” Good God! Stopping at eleven in the morning after less than four hours on the way? The old man don’t look that tired and neither do the animals. At this rate we’ll never bloody get to Kimberley!

“Barney, boy,” Andries said calmly without stopping his out-spanning of the team, “let me tell you something about the Cape ox. You take him when he’s a bull calf and you castrate him—” He glanced at Barney. “You know what castrate means, boy?”

“Sure. You cut off his knockers.”

“More or less. Anyway, then he becomes a steer. Wait a few years and he becomes an ox. You castrate him to make him quieter and easier to work, but you owe him something for that. You owe yourself something, too, if you want a healthy animal.” He finished unhitching the final animal and watched it wander off to graze. He squatted down, tracing his finger in the soil a moment, watching the animals at their grazing, and then looked up at Barney. “Now,” he went on, “if you want the best from your oxen — if you don’t want them to lie down and die on you and leave you a long way to go and no way to carry your water or your mealies or your biltong — then you treat your animals right. You don’t work them more than eight hours a day, and six or seven is better, with a break at midday. An ox needs eight hours to graze and eight hours to sleep and chew his cud.” He suddenly smiled. “Probably work as well for a man if a man cared as much about himself or his Kaffirs as he does about his ox and his wagon.” He tilted his head, coming to his feet. “Come over here.”

Barney moved closer.

“Now, we’re going to be a fair spell on this trek,” Andries said, “and you might as well earn a bit of your keep. You saw me unspan the animals. Watch again in an hour when I span them again. Watch tomorrow. After that it will be your chore.” He smiled at Barney in an almost fatherly manner. “Now, go find some branches or some dried ox dung for a fire and we’ll have some tea.”

So he was going to learn to span and outspan oxen, and how to make a fire with dried cowshit, was he? You’re really startin’ at the bottom, Barney, me boy, he said to himself, and went out to find the branches or the dung.

They had been on the trail a week when one noon, over their tea and while the unspanned oxen grazed, Andries suddenly pointed. “Os,” he said.

Barney frowned. “Eh?”

“Ox,” Andries said, and pointed upward. “Hemel. Sky, or heaven. In Afrikaans. It’s a dialect, sort of, of Dutch.” He shrugged. “You seem to be so set on spending time in this country, you ought to learn the language.”

“Everybody talked English in Cape Town, an’ you talk English,” Barney pointed out logically.

“Not everybody speaks English, not even in the Cape. The farmers you’ll meet speak only Afrikaans. After all, less than a hundred years ago in southern Africa, nobody spoke English, and there were a lot of people here, even then. I think an hour every night before sleep, if we’re not too tired, would be good for a lesson. It wouldn’t hurt you a bit. Take your mind off all those diamonds you’re going to pick up in the street in Kimberley.” He made a chewing motion and pointed to the remains of some mealies. “Voedsel. Food. You’d better learn that word if you don’t want to go hungry someday, diamonds or no diamonds,” he added dryly, and pointed. “Let’s go. Os.”

“You said before sleep,” Barney said.

“This is extra,” Andries said, biting back a smile, and dug in his pocket for his after-meal pipe. “No extra charge. All right, let’s have it. Os.”

“Os” Barney repeated obediently. “Ox.”

The sky at night was clearer than Barney could ever remember; the millions of stars seemed almost within reach, pinpricks in a velvet dome seemingly hand-high. There was no moon to dissipate the sharpness of the starlight; in the far distance the shadows of mountains blocked out the edge of the sky. Barney lay beside the wagon, wondering that the oxen did not step on him as they moved about in the dark. Beside the dying fire a few feet away Andries was working on some tanned leather he had dug from the rear depths of the wagon; it seemed to Barney that the large wagon contained almost every necessity of life, in addition to the heavy crates of pumping machinery being taken to Dutoitspan, which Andries had told him was now a part of the new Kimberley. The older man finished whatever he had been doing with the leather and came to stand beside Barney.

“Got a decent hat for you, boy,” he said, and placed it on Barney’s chest. Barney no longer resented Andries calling him “boy.” “That derby of yours looks a bit out of place in the Karroo.”

They had been on the trail for three weeks and had become fast friends. Barney had become accustomed to his daily chores, to the endless walking, to his Afrikaans lesson each night, and had even come to understand that the small additional weight that he and Andries might have added to the wagon, were they to ride, would have been that much extra for the ox team, and would have cost them up to a mile a day, or as much as four or five extra days for the trip. He had also become accustomed to the tea and mealies and biltong, the dried maize and dried beef that served almost exclusively as their diet, supplemented by whatever bird or small animal Andries could bring down with his long gun, or by the rare decent meal served them as they came by some even rarer farm in that desolate country, the farther they came from the Cape and civilization. The land here was largely uninhabited, offering the barest minimum of forage for the animals; ahead of them during their day’s march the distant mountains seemed to maintain their position in the clear desert air, sometimes reflected from the flat pans, the shallow water holes that would be filled after a sudden desert downpour, and seemingly as quickly emptied either by the thirsty oxen or by evaporation under the hot sun.

On occasion they would be passed in the opposite direction by a mule train or coach filled with weary and discouraged passengers returning to Cape Town after failure in the diamond fields, or by an ox wagon with as many as twenty men inside and as many taking their turn walking silently beside it, making it back to the Cape and to decent amenities for those who still had a shilling in their purse. A rare horseman would also occasionally pass, although a single man with a single animal that far from civilization was taking a chance on being found together with his horse as mere bones bleached by the relentless sun, should they wander far from the trail and possible help. There were limits to the supplies one could carry in saddlebags, and a horse could not do on the slim forage that barely served for the oxen. And distances were great in that region, and the land inhospitable.

Barney sat up and tried on the hat. It fit loosely but he knew it would provide far better protection against the sun than the narrow-brimmed derby he had brought from home, a final concession to style from a mother worried that her youngest should not appear as gauche to the savages.

“Thanks,” he said gratefully, and grinned. “Harry won’t recognize me when I get there, I’ll look such a trekker.”

“Harry… Your brother, you said.”

“Right, me older brother by three years.” Barney smiled in remembrance. The memories seemed awfully far away here in the South African desert, almost as if he were recalling a distant place that did not really exist except in his mind, experiences he might have read of instead of having lived. “Him and me, we used to do lots of things together. Acrobats, we was, in the music halls. Songs and dance. You name it, if there was a shillin’ in it, we done it. Here, I’ll show you.”

He came to his feet, did a quick comio shuffle, a fast twist, and ended with a flip that tossed his new loose-fitting hat to one side. He picked it up, grinning, brushed it off and pushed it back onto his head. “We was called the Barnato Brothers, fast songs and patter, tumblers and clowns, and we was known all over the East End. That’s in London,” he added in case Andries did not know.

“Barnato Brothers?”

“Yeah. We got the name one night when Harry was takin’ his bow and the crowd started callin’ ‘Barney, too; Barney, too.’ We’d been lookin’ for a good name for the act, so after that night we called ourselves the Barnato Brothers.”

“It sounds as if you had a rather interesting childhood.”

“Yeah. Oh, we was always flat, y’know; we never had no brass, but we had fun. And I fought a lot, too.” He fell silent, recalling the many fights he had had, sometimes in the King of Prussia for a few bob, sometimes in an alley to keep from getting his head torn off, or to avenge some insult to his religion, or his clothes, or anything else an opponent chose to rile him with. But there was no point in trying to explain all that to Andries. “Boxin’, y’know.”

“And the acting?”

Barney felt his face get red. “That was just fer fun,” he said defensively. “I like the theater. I like the make-believe. I—” He tried to put it in a way the other man might understand, and not make fun of him. “I… I like the way the words sound, not like people was just talkin’, but, well — easier, like. Like they’d put some thought into the words, and not just sayin’ the first thing that come to mind. You know?”

“No.” Andries shrugged and took his pipe from his mouth. “I don’t know. I’ve never been in a theater in my life. When I was a child such things were forbidden; they still are in Boer country. Mockery, my mother said; it was mockery of God to pretend to be what you weren’t.”

Barney stared at him. “But didn’t you ever pretend when you was a young ’un? Like you was a hunter and the stick you was carryin’ was a gun, and you was goin’ to kill the biggest lion in the country? We even done that in London, and the only lions we got was in the Kensington zoo.”

“I didn’t have to,” Andries said dryly. “I got my first gun when I was nine and I killed my first lion when I was thirteen.” He changed the subject. “And now you’re off to get rich in the diamond fields, is that it?”

Barney wondered at the abrupt change of subject. He also wondered at the man’s tone. “Right,” he said, a bit mystified. “You know that.”

“Mind all made up?”

“Sure,” Barney said, and frowned at the very serious Andries. Then he thought he understood the other’s reason for questioning him. “Oh, I heard all them stories about how the diamonds was all run out, but I don’t believe that fer a minute. Me brother, he made it big up there and so’ll I. You wait and see.”

Andries sighed. He packed his pipe and lit it, drawing on it carefully as he chose his words.

“Barney, boy,” he said at last, puffing steadily, and paused to stare about him as if he could see what he was talking about in the moonless darkness. “I came out from Stellenbosch with my folks when I was eight years old. My mother, my father, two uncles, and the family of one of them; the other wasn’t married. We had over four thousand sheep with us, and five hundred cattle and horses. My folks wanted to get away from the English in the Cape, get away from their pagan ways. My father was a very religious man. He believed in every word of the Bible. Me—?” Andries shrugged. “Me, I don’t know what I believe in. I’ve been away from my people too long, maybe. I go back and forth from one place to another; I see mostly English towns. I’m used to the English. I know the English. Too well I know them! And I never wanted to be a farmer, anyway. Had a farm, hated it. Sold my farm to a cousin when I was twenty. Just took the wagon and the oxen. Oh, not these. That was many teams ago…”

He paused and stared into the surrounding darkness, puffing steadily, as if picturing the land as it had been thirty years before. Barney waited, curiously. He could not see where any of this had anything to do with diamonds or his going to look for them, but in the three weeks he had been trekking with Andries he had learned that the older man was almost always oblique in approaching any subject or problem.

“In those days,” Andries went on at last, “the land we passed over — the land we’re on now — had herds and herds of animals. You wouldn’t think so looking at it now, but there were. Wild sheep, wild horses, wildebeests, rhinoceros, giraffes. And natives — Hottentots, Bushmen. We had to fight to protect ourselves more than once, and to protect the farms and the animals once we had established ourselves.” His voice warmed with memory. “I fought side by side with Paul Kruger, when he was a full field cornet and second in command only to Scholtz, when we chased the Bechuana chief Secheli back into the bush. Kruger was wounded, wounded bad, but it didn’t stop him fighting. The natives thought he had to be some sort of a god because they couldn’t seem to kill him. And I fought with Paul Kruger the very next year when he went after the Kaffir chiefs Mapela and Makapaan in the Waterberg district near Makapaanspoort. That was a battle, believe me!” He paused and sighed. “It was all so different then…”

He fell silent. In the darkness there was only the sound of the oxen moving about as they grazed. Barney hesitated a moment and then cleared his throat. “About the diamonds—”

“Ah, the diamonds.” Andries looked at him, brought from his reverie. “I was about to tell you. This was a great land, this land we fought for. But now it’s all being thrown away. Diamonds are a curse, boy, don’t you know that? Can’t you see that? But of course you can’t…”

“A curse?”

“The worst curse there is, boy! They brought in the Uitlanders — the outsiders — yes, like you, boy. You’re a good boy, I like you, Barney, but wait until you’ve been here awhile. You’ll be like the rest.”

“And what’s wrong with the rest?”

“You’ll see. Wait until you see Kimberley. It was farmland, boy, decent farmland. The Vooruitzigt farm, and Bultfontein and Dutoitspan — good farms until the English came in and bought them up. Bought them up? Stole them, better said! Now what do you have in your so-called Kimberley? What the Uitlanders have brought in — brothels and whores and drunkenness and gambling. They brought in greed. They’ve made the price of everything so high the average Boer farmer can’t buy what he needs. I know; I often carry food, cases of it, not just machinery or iron. And crime? We didn’t know what crime was. Oh, an occasional Kaffir would get his hands on some whiskey someplace and maybe knife another, but now? Nobody is safe anymore. The diamonds are running out and the diggers are hungry and dangerous. Those young Boer lads have been tempted from the land by greed and have fallen into the ways of the wicked. This much of the Bible I still believe in. The average Boer farmer who lived peacefully with his Kaffir help before the diamonds, now suffers a hundred ways because of the cursed stones. His help has run off to work for the white outsiders in the diamond mines; his land has been sold for far less than it’s worth, because if he didn’t sell it the diggers would have dug it up anyway, with or without permission. His daughters are marrying the English, those that get married at all and don’t live in sin in the bars and hotels—”

“Aw, the English ain’t all that bad—” Barney began. He felt uncomfortable. In all the time he had known Andries, in all their many conversations around either the noon or the evening fire, he had never heard the other man speak with such passion, such vehemence. He wondered what had brought it on.

“You know nothing of the English, boy. You know nothing of any race where diamonds are concerned,” Andries said flatly. “Where the mines are now — the Colesberg Kopje, Dutoitspan, Bultfontein, De Beers — the place they call Kimberley now, even gave it an English name after they stole it — that was rightfully part of the Free State, Boer territory, and everybody knew it. Went right up to the banks of the Vaal River, twenty miles farther west. Always had been part of the Free State, ever since the treaty. Now what is it? A part of the Cape Colony, English, by as dirty a bit of politicking as you ever saw. And why? Because they found diamonds! If they’d have found ox shit in barrels they would have forced the Free State to take it if they had to bring guns to make them!”

He spat. Barney sat silent. At last Andries sighed. He tapped out his pipe and tucked it into a pocket.

“I hate to see happen to you what I know is going to happen,” he said quietly. There were several moments of silence. “Let’s get some sleep, boy,” Andries said, and bent to bank the fire, almost as if ashamed of his unexpected outburst.

It was three nights later. A sliver of a new moon curved low near the horizon; overhead dark clouds obscured the stars, threatening or promising rain before morning, depending upon one’s need for water or for comfort. Andries was stretched out under the wagon snoring lightly; the wagon’s rear canvas had been partially eased to form a pocket to catch whatever rain it might capture. Barney had decided to chance the possibility of a downpour in order to sleep near the dying fire and catch the final warmth of the fading coals. No longer a stranger to sleeping on the hard ground, he had come to welcome its comfort after a long day’s march.

There was the faint sound of a whinny edging itself through his sleep into his subconscious; it made him think of old man Feldman’s horse and wagon going the rounds of Petticoat Lane buying rags and glass, a comfortable memory momentarily bringing warm thoughts of London and home. But then he came awake, alert, a cold feeling settling upon him. They had no horse! He lay with his eyes barely slitted, feigning sleep, while he listened carefully. There was a repeat of the whinny, a slight, muffled admonition from someone, and then the sound of a horse being led away, out of earshot.

Barney opened his eyes slowly. By the light of the few remaining embers of the fire he could see someone silently climbing onto the rear portion of the wagon, reaching up to untie one of the hanging bags, one of the mealie or biltong carriers. Another man was fumbling with the cover over the crates of machinery, as if to determine what other booty might be taken. Barney felt a fury such as he could scarcely remember. Food and water were life in that desert, and the fact that the thieves probably needed both for their own survival meant little to him. Nor did the fact that there were at least three of them, probably walking, with the one horse to carry whatever they were able to steal. He sat up and then silently came to his feet, his leather hat in one hand, moving quietly toward the wagon. When he was within a few feet he paused, clearing his throat loudly, his fists clenched tightly.

“And just what in the bloody hell do y’think yer doin’?”

The man lifting the cover over the pumping machinery swung around, startled. A muttered curse and a knife suddenly glittered in his hand. The man at the rear of the wagon jumped down, coming around the tailpiece of the wagon to join his partner. Barney crouched slightly, trying to face both men at the same time, but concentrating principally on the man with the knife. It was not the first time a knife had been pulled on him in a fight, nor was it the first time he had been forced to take on more than one opponent at a time, although in the London slums it was usually possible to have a protecting wall at one’s back. Here there was just open space. Still, for some reason the thought of calling to Andries, fast asleep in the deep shadows beneath the wagon, did not even occur to him. This was his fight.

The man with the knife had crouched. His partner, grinning, stood away, interested in seeing his large partner take care of this undersized pipsqueak, wondering a bit where the others of the ox wagon might be, but assuming they had to be off somewhere visiting a farm, leaving this youngster to watch the wagon. Barney could almost read the mind of the second man, sneering at him from the shadows. All the better, he thought with satisfaction, this way I take ’em one at a time.

Now the man with the knife stepped in swiftly. Barney stepped back, easily avoiding the slashing movement. The man with the knife had expected this and he followed up Barney’s retreat with a sudden advance, bending forward at the same time, swinging the blade in a sweeping, curving motion. It was what Barney had hoped for; the force of the blade at that extension was minimal, as was the man’s grip on the haft. With a quick step toward the man, Barney swung the leather hat at the blade, catching the shining steel in the leather, twisting the hat savagely. The knife went flying, torn from the weakened grip, and the man was before him, now unarmed except for his fists. Now Barney stepped in, to the other man’s extreme surprise, unimpressed by the thief’s greater size, no longer furious but now cold, controlled. He slashed at the man with hard fists, stepping away from the wild lunges, coming in again and again to hammer at the man’s stomach and then, when the hands dropped automatically to protect the midsection, battering the confused bearded face, deaf to all sounds except his own breathing and the desperate labored panting of the other. He wondered why the others involved in the attempted robbery had not come to the help of the man he was beating so unmercifully, but there was no time to think of that if he wished to keep from being battered himself. And then the man’s hands dropped slightly, weary from all the missed blows, the wasted energy, and Barney stepped close and ended it with a swift blow to the jaw that sent the man’s head back and brought him to the ground unconscious.

Barney stepped back, prepared to take on the next one, only to find Andries with one thick arm tightly around the neck of each of two men, holding them painfully and securely, watching him with a faint smile on his face. A thin horse, its ribs showing, stood in the shadows, staring forlornly at the scene. Barney shook his head, trying to catch his breath. In the excitement of the fight he had given no thought to Andries. The big Boer suddenly brought together the two heads he had been holding; they banged together with a hollow thud. When he released the men they staggered a moment and then caught their balance, holding their aching heads. Andries pointed to the man on the ground.

“Out,” he said evenly. “Take him and go. Rob somebody else, but stay away from my wagon.” He watched the two men lift the unconscious man and drape him over the saddle of the horse; the horse winced under the load and stumbled slightly as he was led away. Andries watched them go with no pity at all in his hard eyes. “Bloody English,” he said, and spat. It had been the first time Barney had heard him swear. “A Boer would at least have asked for food before he tried to steal it!”

Barney was too tired to argue the point. He suddenly sat down on the ground, still catching his breath, and watched as Andries reached into the wagon where the intruder had untied the rawhide. He brought out his gun, checked it, and then retied the rawhide.

“From now on we keep watch,” he said. “Too many hungry diggers going back to Cape Town. We take turns. You go to sleep, now. I’ll stay awake.” He climbed up into the seat of the wagon and propped the gun against his knee. “Also, boy,” he added, “you fight good.”

“I told you I could fight,” Barney said.

“So you did,” Andries said with an enigmatic smile. “So you did…”

Each night after that they took turns staying awake and keeping watch, two hours awake and two hours asleep, alternating, but they had no more trouble on the trip. This pleased Barney very much as he had no idea if he would have used the gun even under provocation. He had never fired a gun and hoped he would never have to. Fortunately for the rest of the trip he was never put to the test. And as the mountains grew closer and larger, Barney suddenly wondered at the ability of the ox team, strong and willing as they were, to take the heavy wagon with its weighty load of machinery over them. He voiced his doubts to Andries. The big Boer smiled.

“If you can’t go through them, you’ve got to go over them. Right?” He laughed at Barney’s expression. He actually seemed to be looking forward to the mountains, to the challenge of them. “Don’t worry, boy,” he said reassuringly. “I’ve done it many times before, and so have many others.”

“With a load this heavy?”

Andries shrugged. “No, but we’ll get there. We may have to help by pushing in places. In places we may have to take a crate at a time, or maybe two or three, and unload again and go back for the others. But we’ll get you to Colesberg Kopje and your diamonds, don’t worry.”

“They call it Kimberley now,” Barney said.

“I know what they call it now, Englishman,” Andries said dryly, and cracked his whip over the ears of the oxen. And Barney wondered why he resented being called Englishman, especially by Andries, and particularly in that tone…

The mountains were crossed, and Barney would never forget the eight long and arduous days it took to cross them. The trail had been well marked by all the previous coaches and wagons that had made the trek, but few if any wagons had ever been as heavily loaded, and most of the other ox wagons that had made the crossing had many more men along to push and tug and help the oxen. But it was the oxen that Barney had to admire the most. They never allowed the load to drag them backward as mules or horses would have done; they simply set their great weight against the traces and held the wagon steady while Barney and Andries wrestled the lighter crates off before taking what load they could forward and upward.

And the nights, sleeping exhausted under the wagon, its wheels blocked by heavy stones or by the smaller crates of machinery, the oxen outspanned and stretched along the narrow trail searching the crevices of the rocks for forage, or stretching their necks as high as they could reach for the brambles that grew above them, and then lying quietly, chewing their cuds, as if they well remembered previous passages over steep mountain passes and knew that in time the mountains, with their scarce forage, would be behind them and eventually they would be on the higher plateau where Kimberley lay, with better grazing and pans with ample water as a reward for their labor struggling up and over the mountains.

And the briefer descent, no less dangerous, the oxen using their combined weight to brake the wagon, holding it from forcing them ahead of it, driven by the disselboom to which they were attached, until the wagon might twist on a curve and might spill its contents over the side of one of the deep ravines, possibly taking the wagon and them with it; with Andries alert on one side of the wagon and Barney equally alert on the other, watching the wheels and axles, judging the sway and the balance of the wagon, pulling stones from beneath the wheel rims before the wagon could tilt on them, possibly capsize. Kimberley and diamonds were temporarily forgotten; the only thing on Barney’s mind as he watched his side was the safe descent of the wagon to the broad plain they could now see below. The only thing to concentrate upon now was each foot, each yard, each wagon length, the inching wagon traversed.

And the day that it rained without pause, and the oxen lay without moving, and Andries and Barney sat beneath the wagon trying to avoid the sheets of water that swept in one side and then, when they moved, perversely shifted to the other side, so that they were soon drenched and made do with biltong, damp and tasteless, no possibility of tea in that downpour, hungry and uncomfortable — until Barney suddenly burst into song. “Oh, they’re shiftin’ Father’s grave to build a sewer—” and Andries smiled at him, and the day wasn’t half as bad as they both knew it was.

And then at last, at long last, they were on the plain, the mountains behind them, looming over them, and Barney, looking back, wondered how on earth they had ever managed to cross them. Ahead of them the plateau stretched as far as eye could see, puffy clouds like pillows drifting by above. And Barney was outspanning the oxen, the first time he had done so in over a week, since Andries had assumed that task on the narrow defiles of the mountain trails. There was no conversation between the two; they savored in silence the triumph of having completed the dangerous crossing with possibly the heaviest load ever to have made the trek, and with only a man and a boy to handle the job, and they were rightly proud and did not need to brag to each other of the accomplishment. Even the oxen seemed to know; they munched the increased forage happily, contentedly, seemingly aware of a job well done, a job no span of horse or mule could even have attempted.

And then the oxen were being inspanned and the long march continued. And Barney would not have traded the last eight days on the mountain for any experience he had ever had. Someday, he thought, I’ll be sittin’ with me grandkids before a fireplace and tellin’ them about how their old granddad crossed the Drakensberg Mountains with the heaviest load ever tried, a load no other man in his right mind would even have attempted, but it never frighted me, no, sir!

The thought made him laugh. Grandkids! Him! “Hoy!” he cried, and cracked the sjambok Andries had given him, being careful not to touch the oxen.

It was when they had been on the trail for the seventh week, the mountains now only the faintest outlines behind them and the flatlands of the northern Cape stretched before them, that they came upon the Beeses’ wagon. Gustave Bees had been a tailor in Simonstown, not far from Cape Point, and he was traveling with his wife and daughter. A well-meaning but rather indecisive man, Bees had been a failure as a tailor and had decided he had little to lose in making the attempt at the diamond fields. After all, an acquaintance from Muizenberg not far from Simonstown — and only a greengrocer at that, with hardly any trade at all — had come back from De Beers Old Rush with enough money from the diamonds he had dug to build himself a small hotel on the beach at St. James, and now he was set for life just renting rooms and selling food and drink to those who came to enjoy the False Bay surf. There was no reason, Bees had thought, why he should not do as well.

Unfortunately, even as Gustave Bees had been a failure as a tailor, he was equally great a failure in the trekking of an ox wagon over the almost seven hundred miles from Simonstown to Kimberley and the diamond fields. At the time Andries and Barney came upon the wagon, the Beeses’ oxen were merely standing in their traces, and there was no sign of the drover or any of his party. This was most unusual. Rather than merely bypassing the wagon and continuing, Andries did what he hoped others would do for him in like circumstances: he brought his team to a halt. He nodded to Barney to stay where he was, and approached the apparently deserted wagon, his eyes taking in the poor condition of the oxen waiting, still spanned to the disselboom, when the head of a very pretty girl poked itself from behind the canvas cover at the rear of the wagon. She saw Andries and called out.

“Sir!”

Andries walked closer, frowning. Barney stayed where he had been told to stay, his eyes admiring the girl. Their oxen stood in their traces, waiting. Andries came to the back of the wagon and looked up at the girl. “Yes, girl?”

“Sir, are you… do you… do you know anything about doctoring?”

Andries’ frown deepened. He knew as much as most on the trail about simple doctoring; a broken bone could be set and he carried with him some herbs to be put on suspicious insect bites. He could also purge both humans and oxen if need be. “What’s the trouble?”

The girl glanced inside of the canvas and then back at Andries. “It’s my ma—”

“And where’s your pa?”

The tail flaps of the canvas cover of the wagon had been pulled closed; a heavily bearded worried-looking face now parted them a bit farther to peer over the girl’s shoulder. It viewed Andries with suspicion for a moment; then the man seemed to realize he was in no position to refuse whatever help this stranger might be able to offer. “It’s my missus,” he said helplessly, his voice wavering slightly. “I don’t know what—”

Andries wasted no time. He hoisted himself inside the wagon, the man and the girl moving back to permit his entrance. The air inside the closed canvas was stifling, the smell of whatever medicine they had been using was overwhelming, sickening. Andries grimaced and threw open the tail flaps, tying them back, letting both fresh air and greater light enter. Bees made a tentative motion as if to prevent this intrusion of air with all its germs and dangers, but his daughter’s hand restrained him. Andries knelt at the pallet that had been stretched along the rear of the wagon. The woman there, he could see, had once been very beautiful, but now her face was lined with the years of toil, weary with the stress and pain of her illness, and with the seeming knowledge that the suffering of the years and the discomfort and distress of the long trip had been wasted. He touched her forehead; she was burning with fever. Suddenly she coughed, a deep raling cough, and turned her head to spit rust-colored sputum into a rag in her thin hand.

Andries looked up at the girl inquiringly, as if realizing she was the strong one in the family.

“She took sick a little over a week ago,” she said helplessly. “It started out what we thought was just a cold, you know, from the rain. We were all soaking, inspanning the oxen, but we had to get moving. We’ve been more than three months, so far… We gave her all the medicine we had. If you have any—?”

Andries sighed and looked down at the sick woman again. He was looking at pneumonia and he knew it. He had seen it before, several times on the trail and once in Bloemfontein Hospital, and unfortunately, each time a friend. One man had recovered, two had died. The doctor in Bloemfontein had said that maybe rest and good food might help, although he hadn’t sounded too sure of himself. God alone knew where this poor woman was going to get either rest or good food on this forlorn wagon! Some got better from the disease and nobody knew why. Others didn’t, and nobody knew why. It was the toss of a coin.

Andries came to his feet, considering options. They could, of course, outspan the oxen and give the poor woman some surcease from the jouncing of the wagon. On the other hand… He looked at Bees.

“The river’s only a few days ahead. There’s shade there and water for the oxen. And there are diggers near there, in the wet diggings. Some of them are bound to have horses. One of them could ride ahead to the dry mines for a doctor.”

“The river?”

Good God! Didn’t the poor fool even know where he was? Still, after three months on the trail it was quite possible he had no idea. “The Orange River. We’ll go with you if you need help.” Unspoken was the thought that little help could be offered a victim of the dread disease, other than a prayer and a sharp shovel to dig a deep grave.

“It’s just a simple cold,” Bees said, trying to draw comfort from a statement he didn’t believe himself. “A cold, you know? It’ll be better in a few days—” He stared at Andries hopefully, willing him to give him the answer he wanted, had to have. “A simple cold—”

Andries didn’t bother to contradict the man. “Better get started,” he said, and climbed down, walking to his own wagon. Barney looked at him questioningly.

“Sick woman,” Andries said succinctly. “Probably dying. We’ll stay with them, at least to the river.” He waited until he had seen Bees climb to the wagon seat and crack his whip inexpertly over his team, striking an ox and causing the wagon to jerk as the beast twisted in its traces from the sting of the whip; then the team brought itself together and started off, ragged at first but eventually pulling more evenly. Barney cracked his sjambok and started their team after the other, proud of how evenly the team worked. In the open space of the tied-back tail flaps of the wagon ahead he could see the girl bent over her mother’s pallet, tending the patient. God, she’s beautiful! Barney thought. Sixteen or seventeen at the most, with a lovely figure. And that face! Silky hair framing a complexion tanned by the days on the trek; pert nose, eyes set wide apart. He could not see the color of her eyes but he was sure they were as lovely as the rest of her. He walked along, beside the oxen, daydreaming.

They outspanned the oxen at dusk, Andries keeping his team on the trail for an extra several hours, thinking of the woman in the wagon ahead and the need to reach the river as soon as possible. With the two wagons angled for the night, Barney built a campfire in the space between, setting water on to boil for tea. They all ate in silence, and then the girl disappeared into her wagon to care for her mother. The men sat to one side, their pipes going, speaking in Afrikaans, although both the man and the girl had spoken English before. Barney felt out of things; he was about to doss down under the wagon when the girl climbed down and came to sit beside him. Her eyes, he could now see, were deep hazel, her mouth wide. Lovely! he thought.

“How’s your ma?” he asked.

“I don’t know. She’s burning with fever; she seems worse. She won’t eat a thing.” The girl swept her skirts beneath her unselfconsciously, changing her position, looking at Barney. “You’re very kind to come along with us.”

“The wagon belongs to Andries. It’s his decision.” Barney grinned. “I’m just along for the walk.”

Her eyes widened. “You walked? All the way?”

“Every foot. All the way from Cape Town.” He tried not to sound as if he were bragging; this girl didn’t look as if bragging would impress her. “We got a heavy load there, probably the heaviest load ever come over the mountains—” There went the bragging again. “We both been walkin’; we didn’t have no choice.” He looked at her, trying to sound as if he were merely making conversation. “You goin’ to Kimberley?”

“Bultfontein,” she said, “but that’s a part of Kimberley, isn’t it?”

“I guess it must be pretty close, anyways. Maybe we can see each other there—”

“Maybe.” She frowned and changed the subject. “They say the diamonds are all gone, run out. Some wagons we met going back told us.”

“Naw!” Barney tried to sound convincing. “Me brother’s hit it big in Kimberley and I’m goin’ to hit it big, too.” There he was, bragging again! He looked away and then back at her, trying to hide the open admiration in his eyes. “What — what’s yer name?”

“Fay. Fay Bees. What’s yours?”

“Barney Isaacs.”

Fay stared at him. “You’re a Jew?”

Despite himself a little belligerence crept into his voice. “That’s right. Why?”

“Nothing. I never met a Jew before. But I know they have names like Isaac, after the Bible. We use the biblical names for first names, not last.” Her answer was given so ingenuously, so innocently, that all belligerence disappeared; Barney was back to pure admiration. Fay was staring into the fire; then she looked up from it to study Barney. “What did you do before you came on the trek?”

Barney hesitated. Bragging was one thing, but telling the God’s honest truth was something else. “Me brother and me, we was entertainers, like. In the music halls, in the East End. That’s in London,” he added, and suddenly hoped that Fay Bees had no idea of what the East End of London was like. He went on hurriedly. “Songs and dances, see? Clownin’, acrobat stuff, tumblin’…” She was looking at him with the faintest frown, not as though she doubted him, but rather as if she didn’t understand what he was talking about. “Acrobats, don’t y’know?” he asked. “Tumblin’ and such?”

She shook her head.

“Like this,” Barney said confidently, and came to his feet. He laid his hat to one side not to step upon it, flexed his knees, and did a back flip in place without touching his hands to the ground. Then, taking a forward step or two, he did a front flip, landing gracefully at Fay’s feet. She was looking at him with admiration; he felt his face getting red. The two men had also stopped their conversation and had been watching. “That’s what a acrobat does,” Barney said brusquely. “Things like this, too.” He made a comic face and went into a bit of his clown routine, staggering about as if he were drunk, dropping into a split and then sliding his feet together to come erect once again. Fay clapped her hands in appreciation. “Stuff like that, too,” Barney said in a tone that deprecated his performance. “Stuff to make people laugh.” He was about to sit down next to Fay when a thought came. It was a golden opportunity to impress the girl, one far too good to pass up. He not only had an audience, but one that was obviously an admiring one. “I also do recitations.”

“Recitations?”

“Yeah. From plays, y’know.” He looked at her, frowning, remembering Andries’ confession of never having seen a play. “You know what plays are? You ever seen one?”

“Oh, yes, of course. We aren’t strict like that. There was an amateur group in Simonstown. My mother belonged.”

“Good. Listen.” He began to strike a pose and then paused. “This is Mathias, in The Bells. You ever seen it?”

Fay shook her head. The men were still watching, but Barney only had eyes for the girl.

“This Mathias, he’s killed a bloke, see, a long time ago. Now he’s the mayor of the town and important, y’know? One day he goes to the theater and sees a mesmerist — he’s a bloke what puts people to sleep, only they’re really not asleep, see, like folks that walk in their sleep. Only they got to tell the truth when they’re like that, see? So this Mathias he goes home and he has this bad dream, see, where he dreams he’s in court for the killin’ and this mesmerist has put him to sleep and makin’ him tell the truth, and he’s tellin’ everybody about killin’ this bloke for his money, and everybody’s listenin’. Got that?”

Fay nodded her understanding. Barney struck his pose again, bent over like an old man.

“ ‘Yers, yers, I ’ave crossed th’ fields!’ ” Barney pointed off dramatically into the distance. “ ‘ ’Ere is th’ ol’ bridge an’ there below th’ frozen rivulet! ’Ow th’ dogs ’owl at Daniel’s Farm — ’ow they ’owl! An’ ol’ Finck’s Forge — ’ow brightly it glows upon th’ ’illock!’ ” He dropped his voice in preparation for the part where he actually does the killing, and then became aware that at least a portion of his audience was somewhat less than appreciative. Fay was laughing uncontrollably, tears rolling down her cheeks. Barney frowned. “What’s the matter?”

“That’s the funniest thing I ever heard in my life! I’m sure you and your brother must have been most successful in making people laugh! Is he as funny as you are? But — please go on.”

Barney clenched his jaw. “That wasn’t supposed to be funny!”

Fay’s laughter stopped abruptly. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings.” She was an honest girl and didn’t believe in lying needlessly. “But... well, it really was funny.”

“What was so funny about it?” Barney glowered. “I seen Sir Henry Irving do it a dozen times and nobody laughed or even felt like laughin’! And I was doin’ it just the same as him!”

Fay looked at him coolly. “Did this Sir Henry Whoever say, ‘Yers, yers, I ’ave crossed th’ fields’? Did he say, ‘’Ow the dogs ’owl’? Or did he say, ‘Yes, yes, I have crossed the fields.’ And did he say, ‘How the dogs howl’?”

“What’s the bloo— What’s the difference?”

“Apparently none to you, but a great deal to me. You make mistakes when you speak but nothing like when you’re doing your — well, your recitations.” She suddenly took pity on the boy standing so angrily before her. After all, he had been nice in trying to take her mind from her mother’s illness, and had even succeeded. She had never thought she would have been laughing that evening. “Why don’t you try saying, ‘How the dogs howl’?”

“Forget it,” Barney said abruptly, and turned away, looking over at the two men who had been silently watching the scene. Gustave Bees came to his feet, knocking out his pipe.

“Fay, bedtime. And look in on your ma.”

“Yes, Pa.” The girl came to her feet gracefully, brushing off her skirt. She looked toward Andries. “Good night, Mr. Pirow.”

“Good night, girl.”

She turned. “Good night, Barney.” She hesitated a moment as if to say something further, and then turned toward their wagon.

“Good night,” Barney said expressionlessly, and watched her go to the rear of the wagon and climb in. The tail flaps were loosened and swung shut, blocking his view of her.

Ah, well, Barney thought as he lay down near the fire and prepared to go to sleep; the poor girl is simply ignorant as to what constitutes good acting. It hasn’t anything to do with accents; even the words aren’t as important as how you say them. And the gestures, and the tone of voice. What could she possibly have learned in some small town called Simonstown in comparison with a great metropolis like London? Or from stumbling amateurs as compared with great men such as Sir Henry Irving? Anyway, how could she possibly have thought he was trying to be funny? Still, he thought as he drew his hat over his face to keep out the disturbing flicker of the campfire, she is really so lovely…! And we’ll be together at least until we get to the river, and hopefully beyond that all the way to Kimberley, or Bultfontein, or whatever. He cradled his head on his arms.

Yes, yes, I have crossed the fields. Here is the bloody old bridge and there below the bloody frozen rivulet. How the bloody dogs howl at Daniel’s Farm — how they bloody howl! And bloody old Finck’s Forge — how brightly it glows upon the bloody hillock!”

Bloody ridiculous, he thought, and found himself drifting off, a bit resentful but not knowing exactly why, with Fay’s unearthly beauty the final thought that came before he was asleep.

The oxen picked up their speed without being induced to by the crack of the sjambok; they were approaching the river although it was still beyond sight. Fay had spent the day inside the Beeses’ wagon, placing damp rags on her mother’s burning forehead, cleaning up the unsightly sputum, trying to get her mother to eat. Barney kept his eyes on the tail flaps of the wagon ahead, occasionally getting a glimpse of Fay, his mind confused. Girls, as such, had never meant very much to him. Oh, there had been the usual fumbling with the barmaids at the King of Prussia; there were the girls that did and the ones that didn’t — and the ones that didn’t were usually ones one didn’t want to do it with, anyway — friends of the family, the ones wanting to get married and raise a bunch of kids right away. Look at his two sisters, both married, both with kids in their early teens, running loose in the East End, probably aiming for trouble if someone didn’t take a hand to them. That’s what marriage meant — kids and responsibilities and trouble.

The tail flaps of the wagon ahead parted; Fay dropped from the slow-moving wagon, waited until Barney had come up, and then fell in step beside him. It was as if her being beside him was the most natural thing in the world. Barney tried not to look at her.

“How’s your ma?”

Fay shrugged. “She won’t eat a thing. I tried soaking some mealies in water and getting her to drink it, but she won’t even do that.”

“We’ll be at the river soon,” Barney said encouragingly. “Andries says when the oxen pull like this the river’s getting close. Maybe when we get there—”

“Maybe. I hope,” Fay said, and walked alongside him, almost, he thought, as if they were man and wife. It was a warming thought, a disturbing thought. It was a stupid thought! Here he was — just what the proprietor of that doss house in Cape Town had called him — a boy! It was what Andries still called him most of the time — a boy! And without enough pounds in his purse to keep himself alive more than a few weeks in Kimberley if what they said about the place was true. What was he doing thinking about a girl?

And anyway, what would a girl like that want with someone like him? A short, far from good-looking Jew from the East End, and her the most beautiful thing he had ever seen? And assuredly Dutch Reformed, even if not the strictest, in the bargain. Keep yer head on straight, Barney me boy, he thought, before somethin’ comes along and knocks it orf! Keep your head on straight, Barney my boy, before something comes along and knocks it off! You’re getting silly, he thought, and then became aware that the oxen were pulling with greater force. In the distance the faint outline of a fringe of trees could now be seen, marking the edge of the river. Fay left his side to hurry to her own wagon to advise her mother they were nearing the river and a place where possible help might be available. She disappeared into the wagon for a moment and then Barney could hear her call out, the edge of terror in her voice.

“Pa!” Her head appeared through the tail flaps, tears starting to her eyes. “Barney! Mr. Pirow!”

Bees had brought his oxen to a halt, tying back the reins so the smell of water would not drive them on without permission. He hurriedly climbed through the wagon, stepping over the household furnishings they had brought, dropping down beside his wife’s pallet. Barney brought his team to a halt and ran forward. Andries was already there, up on the wagon, dragging back the flaps, tying them for better light. Fay stood staring, a look of horror on her face. Mrs. Bees lay there, her eyes open, a grimace upon her ravaged face, a trail of drying sputum running from the corner of her mouth, her hands clasped tightly, her breathing stopped.

They buried Emily Bees beside the river, far enough from the banks, as Andries explained it, so that the grave would not flood and be under water when the spring freshets brought the wide river to its high mark. They placed stones over it as a protection from animals, and Andries fashioned a rough cross from the straightest branches they could find on the trees bordering the river, binding the two halves with rawhide from his wagon. It was dark when everything had been done, and each pair retired without speaking, the evening campfire and meal jointly rejected without discussion.

And in the morning, when Andries to be helpful went to round up the Beeses’ oxen for inspanning, the man from Simonstown stopped him, shaking his head. His eyes were red from weeping and from lack of sleep; he seemed to have aged years in the night.

“I shall stay here a bit,” he said. “There’s no rush now to get to Bultfontein. There’s no rush now for anything. Besides,” he added, staring at the grave, “I want to make a better cross. With words on it.”

Andries nodded in understanding. “As you wish,” he said, and thought to himself that the Bees oxen could stand the extra forage near the river, as well as the extra rest and ample fresh water. It was a miracle that Bees had come this far; Emily Bees and Fay must have worked hard for this poor man. He waited until Barney had their own team inspanned and then shook hands with Bees. “Good luck.”

“Thank you for everything,” Bees said. “May God bless you.” He bit his lip to keep the tears from coming, but he could not keep the unevenness from his voice. “She was so beautiful,” he said, and bit his lip even harder.

“You still have Fay,” Andries said.

Bees stared at him without speaking, as if wondering at the other’s lack of understanding, and then climbed into his wagon, his shoulders shaking. The tail flaps dropped. Andries sighed and moved beside his own wagon, waiting until Barney could finish saying his good-byes to the girl. Andries waited patiently. Emily Bees must indeed have once been beautiful, he thought to himself, and wondered if his choice of never having married had been a wise one, of never having a wife like Emily Bees, or a son like Barney or a daughter like Fay. On the other hand, he had never known the pain that Gustave Bees was suffering at the moment. It was hard to know what was worth what. Everything was a trade-off.

He looked up from his thoughts, with the intent of hurrying Barney, and then stared as a wild scream came from the other side of the river. A terrified black had burst from the trees on the far bank and was floundering through the shallow river trying desperately to reach the other side. A moment later two horsemen, rifles in hand and accompanied by a pack of baying dogs, burst through the same fringe of trees and rode into the river after the struggling black. The dogs, momentarily held back by the water, ran excitedly back and forth along the bank, barking frantically and pausing every now and then to give great bays that echoed over the river. One of the horsemen bent low, easily lifting the small black figure under one arm, his other arm cradling his rifle. He wheeled his horse, joined the other horseman, and the two splashed from the river. On the bank, joined by the yelping pack of dogs, the two rode back into the trees, the black dangling helplessly, and disappeared.

The entire action had taken only a matter of seconds. Fay was frozen in horror while Barney automatically took a step forward as if to help the poor victim of the violence, and stopped at the edge of the water, staring across the river at the trees. The leafy branches there waved gently, the only remaining sign of the brutal passage of the men and dogs. There was a sudden salvo of rifle shots, a high-pitched terrified scream of desperation and pain, trailing into sudden silence.

Fay echoed the scream; the violence, after her mother’s death, was too much for her. She threw her arms around Barney’s neck and hid her face against his shoulder, holding him tightly. Barney’s arms tightened about the girl automatically, but his eyes sought Andries in startled nonunderstanding.

“A diamond thief,” Andries said, and tried to sound noncommittal about it, although inwardly he was seething. Like almost all Boers raised on the Bible, Andries had little feelings for the blacks; hadn’t the Bible sentenced them to be servants forever as the descendants of Ham? But Andries hated the violence that had come to his land with the advent of diamonds. Before diamonds the Kaffirs had been content to work the land for their Boer masters; now they were flocking to the mines and becoming thieves to boot. “They’ll cut him open, looking,” he said somberly, “and then leave what’s left as biltong for the vultures.”

Barney was staring at him over Fay’s bent head. “What!”

“You wanted Kimberley; you wanted the diamonds,” Andries said quietly, dryly. He looked up at the sun. “And we’d best be going. Your Kimberley is less than two days away.”

Barney looked at the head on his shoulder, reveling in the warm smell of Fay’s hair. The head was bent, making him realize again how short he was, that Fay was as tall as he was, actually a little taller. He suddenly wanted to turn the head around, to kiss those full lips, to somehow stop her trembling. He tightened his hold on her, but instead of responding Fay suddenly pulled away. She walked a bit unsteadily to her wagon and climbed in without looking back. The flaps fluttered at her passage and then closed. Barney turned. Andries was watching him.

“Let’s go,” Barney said expressionlessly, and cracked the sjambok.

They forded the shallow river without Barney looking back once. He hoped Fay was watching them, thinking of him, but he was fairly sure she was not. Why should she? Her reaching for him had been an automatic gesture, caused by the horrible and unexplainable cruelty they had witnessed, and by the sudden death of her mother. She would have turned to whoever had been standing beside her at the moment.

But despite that all-too-true fact, Barney knew he was in love. Oh, he knew he had no money and even if he had all the money in the world he could never hope to ever have anyone as lovely as Fay for his own. But he could be her friend, protect her from harm, and when she finally fell in love with a handsome man, he, Barney Isaacs would see that she got the man she had fallen in love with, no matter what sacrifices he had to make to see it done.

The thought almost brought tears to his eyes. But as dramatically romantic as he knew it to be, he also knew that now he had someone to work for, to be successful for, even though he himself would never be the one to benefit from his great love.

And Barney also was sure that despite the hardship of the desolate land, despite the violence he had just seen and which he was sure would not be the last violence he would see in that violent land, he had no fear of the future. Barney Isaacs had found his permanent home, he knew — Africa. He cracked the sjambok over the ears of the oxen, proud that he could come as close as Andries without touching a hair of their hides. And make as good a fire as the next one from ox dung… He smiled at the thought.

3

November 1872

Cecil John Rhodes was having a nightmare. It was a recurrent bad dream and had the disadvantage of having been based on a true and horrible experience, and therefore it was most difficult to exorcise. The dream came every month or so, and left him disturbed for several days afterward. He had often tried to determine what particular activity or thought triggered the dream, but he had never been able to do so. Something he ate? He didn’t think so; food had little importance for young Cecil Rhodes, and he often ate the same thing day after day, except that some days the dream came and some days it did not.

He could not recall exactly when he had begun having this dream; it had simply occurred as he tossed and turned on his lumpy cot in the heat of a Kimberley night, heat stored during the day by the corrugated iron that made up the walls and roof of the small one-room shack he shared with a friend, Charles Rudd. In his dream he was not in Kimberley; he was still in his brother Frank’s farmhouse outside of Durban, where he had been sent several years before to recover his health from the deterioration it had suffered from the damp English winters.

At the time of the events that kept occurring in Cecil Rhodes’ nightmare, Frank Rhodes had been gone for several months. Tired of cotton farming, he had gone off to the diamond fields on the De Beer brothers’ Vooruitzigt farm, leaving the problem of cotton picking in the hands of his younger brother. He also left behind to handle the in-house chores the housekeeper, a young Matabele woman named Matili Lobolo. Cecil Rhodes knew, or strongly suspected, that Matili was — or at least had been during his brother’s presence — Frank’s mistress. It was a most disturbing thought. Matili, young, earthy, her full lips always wet, her large breasts never bound, exuding sexuality, had moved from being one of the numerous field hands to becoming housekeeper in a remarkably short time, and as housekeeper had been given the room adjoining Frank’s. The thought of his handsome older brother rutting with a woman, any woman, black or white, was disgusting, but there was nothing he could do about it. It was something he preferred not to even think about.

But Matili Lobolo thought about it constantly. In the warm nights, lying alone in her bed with the knowledge that the master’s bed in the next room was empty and had been for some time, she would pass her hands over her full breasts and pinch the nipples lightly, and then slide her hand along her thick thighs and, making a fist, press it tightly between her legs, rubbing, squirming with desire. To go to one of the Kaffirs in the field houses was unthinkable; after having bedded down the master, to return to the hot wrestling that took place in the dirty, smelly shacks beyond the outhouses would have been demeaning, as well as unsatisfactory. Besides, word would have been about the farm in no time, and Matili preferred not to even think about the consequences of such rumors reaching the master when he returned.

If he returned. The master was a restless person by nature, and he had been gone a long time, a very long time. The cotton was in and he still hadn’t come back. Maybe he was selling the farm; he had never been happy growing cotton. If so, there would be a new owner, a new master, maybe another Englishman come to South Africa without his woman, as the master had done. But in the meantime—

There was, of course, the master’s younger brother, but he did not look the type. Odd, that one. Never looked at her twice; never looked at any of the other girls who worked in the main house during the day. Never tried to accidentally rub against her body in the narrow passages of the house, or let his hand touch her as if by chance on those places she liked so much to be touched. But that, of course, could just be shyness. Probably never had a girl in his life and was afraid he’d die of fright the first time, or, more likely, make a fool of himself. Nobody died of fright the first time, Matili thought, or the thousandth time, either. The idea made Matili giggle. Oh, he’d undoubtedly be nervous the first time, but they all got over that in a hurry! The thought of the tall, gangling, inexperienced boy under her expert tutelage made her more excited than ever. What was the worst that could happen? He’d spill his seed before she was ready, but that would only be the first time. Then he’d settle down; they always did. And they had the house to themselves. One thing was fairly certain: he’d never tell the master. The first time one had a chance to enjoy kunne he didn’t go around jeopardizing the possibility of getting more of it.

Her mind made up and excited by the thought, Matili threw aside the thin sheet and came to her feet. A simple motion and her shift was on the floor, and then she was walking softly, silently, from the room, naked and tingling slightly from the touch of the night wind on her damp body, and from the anticipation of the lovemaking to come.

The younger master’s room was on the top floor, and she crept up the stairs, one hand brushing the wall, surprised at her own temerity but driven by a force that would not be denied. She tiptoed along the darkened hall and then smiled slightly to find the boy’s door a bit ajar, almost as if he had had the same thought in mind and had practically invited her to join him. She slipped into the room. The moonlight from the high dormer showed the boy sprawled in sleep, the sheet tucked between his naked legs. Matili grinned. She softly tugged the folded sheet loose; the motion brought a response from the sleeping boy. He rolled slightly, ending on his back, his legs apart, his head turned into the pillow, breathing a bit heavily through his mouth. Matili studied the naked body, mentally castigating herself for having waited so many weeks since the master had left. This one was as well endowed as the master, if not better.

She touched herself again in anticipation of the pleasure to come, and slid onto the bed, bending over the sleeping boy, allowing her turgid nipples to brush lightly against his body, starting at his chest and lowering herself slowly until her full breasts cushioned themselves between his legs. She raised herself, stretching out, replacing her breasts with her fingers, cuddling the boy, kneading him sensually, slowly, her breasts now pressed against his side, her lips nuzzling the boy’s neck, pleased with the unconscious response her active fingers were invoking.

The sleeping boy rolled to his side, slowly wakening, becoming aware of the unexpected presence in his bed. Matili grinned, and now that the boy was awake, wasted no more time. Her hand clutched him tightly; she rolled closer to him, one leg thrown over him, bringing him to her, her breasts now pressed tightly against him.

Cecil John Rhodes came fully awake, aware of what was happening. A woman was in his bed, touching him, holding him, trying to couple with him! With a terrified shriek he flung himself backward, pushing the woman away with all his force, and then the girl found herself being struck at, pummeled, the boy’s fists pounding at her in sheer panic, even as he tried to push himself farther away. The shriek had been replaced by a constant hysterical whimper, like an animal in pain, and then the boy had pushed himself over the far side of the bed, forcing it from the wall, and was pounding down the steps, fleeing the horror of the experience.

In the morning at first light, Cecil John Rhodes had packed his bags and had left; gone to join his brother, he told the field hand he had wakened to take him in the Scotch cart to Durban and the coach station. He wondered how long it would be before word of the terrible night would be common knowledge among the field hands and the house servants, spread by Matili. He should have sent her packing even before he left himself, but he knew he could never have faced the girl. However, it made no difference. He knew he would never return to Durban or the farm again.

But the dream returned every now and then, in all its terror, all its horror, the nauseating feel of the woman’s hands on him, defiling him, her body touching his, trying to force him inside her, her sickening lips on his neck, kissing, sucking…

“Cecil, for God’s sake!”

Rhodes sat up with a start, his eyes wild. He was sweating profusely, the covers of the narrow cot flung about it in total disarray, the battered Gladstone bag he used for a bolster for his thin pillow was on the floor behind the bed, thrown there in his frenzy. His brother frowned at him.

“That dream again? What is it, for God’s sake? What on earth happened in Durban?”

“Nothing.”

“Get it off your mind and the dream will probably go away. What was it?”

“Nothing, I said!”

Rhodes swung his long legs to the floor and sat with his head in his hands, waiting until the first strong edge of panic had subsided. At least the time between the dreams was increasing; perhaps eventually the dream would disappear altogether. At last he took a deep breath and looked up, changing the subject.

“When are you leaving?”

Frank Rhodes consulted a heavy pocket watch. “There’s plenty of time. I’m taking the Durban coach at noon.”

“When will you be back?”

Frank shrugged. He was a tall, handsome man dressed quite nattily, with a thin mustache he was sure the ladies all admired. His hair was neatly trimmed and was just the slightest bit longer than the mode. “I don’t know how long it will take to sell the farm; it’s been a year since you left in such a hurry, and at least ten months since I had to go back and try to organize things. God knows what it’s like now, or if any of the field hands are still there. I left sufficient funds with the overseer, but he’s probably skipped as well. If you had only waited at least until the new crop had been planted—”

“When will you be back?”

Frank shrugged again. “I said, I don’t know how long it will take to sell what’s left of the farm. And after that” — he smiled faintly — “I may not be back at all. This mucking about in the ground for a few pretty stones — it really isn’t my style, you know.”

“It pays the bills, and very nicely,” Cecil Rhodes said dryly. The dream was fading fast. “If you don’t come back, where will you go?”

“Ah, that’s a question! Up-country, probably. Bechuanaland, possibly, maybe further.” He smiled a bit maliciously at his younger brother. “Aren’t you the one who’s always lecturing about how England must control all of central Africa? All of Africa, as a matter of fact. Really, all of the world, if I recall some of your more fervent preachings. Why did you have to study with Ruskin?”

Cecil disregarded the rhetorical question. “So in that case, why would you be going to Bechuanaland? Or possibly even further?”

“Well,” Frank said airily, “people have to get up there to see what’s worth controlling and what is not particularly worth controlling, don’t you agree?”

“I agree, except you don’t control a country by going there in dilettante fashion and twirling a cane. Or a mustache, either,” Cecil said quietly. “You control a country with money, and diamonds are money.”

“My! How very adult we’ve become since we discovered a few diamonds. On claims I happened to establish, I might mention in passing. So you keep digging up the pretty stones, brother,” Frank said evenly, “remembering, of course, to save a little of the profits for me.” He thought of something. “You’re taking your roommate, Charley Rudd, in as a partner, are you?”

Cecil Rhodes looked at his brother calmly, coldly. “I was thinking of offering him your share,” he said. “With you gone — and maybe not coming back — I’ll be paying the claim rent, and at least Charley and I will be doing some work for our money.”

Frank Rhodes studied his younger brother through eyes that were no longer amused. “You’re quite serious, aren’t you?” he said quietly. “I do believe our father may well have sired a monster. And to think I helped nurture it!” He sighed and returned to his lighthearted manner again. “Well, there’s nothing in writing, of course, and I suppose these things happen in the best of families. Particularly in the best of families, in fact. So in that case I might as well donate the claims to you; I’d prefer that to having you steal them from me.” He bent down, picking up his bag. “Goodbye. Shall I give anyone back at the farm in Durban your particular regards?”

Cecil Rhodes felt a chill go through him, a trembling he fought to control. His face paled and involuntarily his jaw tightened. Frank pretended not to notice. He touched the brim of his derby with his finger.

“No? In that case I’ll simply say good-bye.”

He winked and walked from the shack, his bag swinging easily at his side. His place was taken a few moments later by Charles Rudd. Rudd was a sandy-haired, stocky man in his mid-twenties, with a bushy blond mustache, dressed in typical digger’s garb, with corduroy trousers, mud-stained and wrinkled, a shirt topped by a bandanna around his neck to keep out the ever-present dust, and high boots for the thick mud of the claims. He glanced over his shoulder as he entered.

“So Frank’s on his way, eh?”

“Yes,” Rhodes said shortly. He was drawing on his trousers, the same kind of digger’s trousers Charley Rudd was wearing, a sharp contrast to his brother’s stylishness.

“You ready to go to work?” There was a twinkle in Rudd’s blue eyes.

Rhodes frowned at the man. He reached for his hat. “Of course. Why?”

“I don’t mean at the claims,” Rudd said, grinning. “I took a ride out south to pick up some food from a farmer out there — half the price of the provisioners in town — and Andries and his wagon are only a mile or so out of town. He’ll be at Dutoitspan by the time we get there, probably. Our pump has finally arrived!”

To Barney, tramping alongside the wagon and thinking of Fay, the first impression he received of the town of Kimberley was far worse than anything he had imagined from the worst of Andries’ diatribes against the place. The town appeared to be nothing except a scattering of tin shacks, rusty and dilapidated, sweltering in the heat of late October. With the exception of the street down which their wagon was slowly making its way, the shacks seemed to have been placed with no particular sense of order, no attempt to locate them in such fashion as to define streets or to face them in any consistent direction so that future streets might be considered. Beyond the central cluster of metal buildings was a sea of tents equally disorganized as far as location was concerned. There was not a tree, a bush, or a blade of grass to be seen.

And the flies! They rose in swarms at the passage of the ox wagon, startled from their feasting on the remains of dead carcasses that lay between the shacks and the tents, entrails of animals slaughtered for food, or of dogs dead of disease or hunger. And the smell! Between the entrails and the open trenches built behind canvas for the human wastes of the town, and then abandoned when full, or improperly filled, the stench could stop a man in his tracks! Andries had been watching Barney. The large Boer pulled his team to a halt before one of the larger buildings along the street. He reached into the wagon, bringing out Barney’s bags, setting them down.

“Here you are, boy. Colesberg Kopje — New Rush — Kimberley. Call it anything you like.”

Barney forced a grin he was far from feeling. “Oh, it ain’t so bad,” he said, trying to sound cheerful. “No worse than Petticoat Lane.” But he knew in truth that his mother would have been out with a mop and broom if ever Petticoat Lane had been anything like this.

“Then your Petticoat Lane must be pretty bad,” Andries said wryly. He reached out a hand; Barney took it, shaking it. “It was good having you along, boy,” he said. “I wish you luck.”

“Thanks,” Barney said. He stared at the wagon and the oxen; it had been his home for almost two months. He knew each animal by name, and he knew he would miss them, and miss Andries, too. The ox wagon and Andries had come to be like a second family on the long trek; the thought of not having the security of their presence, Andries and the oxen for their strength, the wagon itself for the sense of protection it gave with all the wonders it seemed to hold within it, even beyond the evident security of food and water, was a bit disturbing. Still, his brother Harry undoubtedly had far better things he could have the use of until he could establish himself and repay Harry. And speaking of repayment—

Barney reached for his purse. “I never paid you the five quid—”

Andries smiled, holding up his hand. “Keep your money. You earned it many times over. I’d never have made it over the mountains without you, boy.”

Barney’s smile widened. “Honest?”

“Honest.”

The smile faded. Barney hated to see the wagon move on. “Then maybe I ought to go with you and help you unload.”

“The men who own this load will be more than happy to unload it. No, you go find your brother.”

“I don’t even know where to start looking for him—”

“Try the bar in that hotel,” Andries said, and pointed.

“Harry don’t drink that much…”

“Other people do. They’ll help you find him.”

“Yeah,” Barney said. There wasn’t much he could do to keep the wagon from moving on. On a sudden impulse he said, “You’ve been a good friend, Andries.”

“No,” Andries said quietly. “If I’d have been a good friend I would have talked you out of Kimberley. If I’d have been a good friend, you would have been going back with me.” He raised his hand in a kind of salute. “Good luck,” he said again, and cracked the sjambok. The team lumbered away, with Barney watching. He stood and watched until the wagon had turned a corner and was out of sight among the tents there. Then, with a sigh, he picked up his bags and marched into the shack marked HOTEL.

To his surprise, despite the fact that the building was constructed totally of corrugated iron, the high ceiling made the place relatively cool. He looked about. The room boasted several tables; at one of them, a man was seated, eating. A door to the rear apparently led to the kitchen and to whatever rooms or outside hovels the “hotel” had available for guests. The bar itself lay along one wall and was simply a wide wooden shelf with empty liquor boxes stacked at intervals to serve as legs; five or six men stood along its length, drinking. It was a far cry from the King of Prussia, with its stained-glass windows, its ancient polished mahogany bar, and the warm, yeasty, friendly smell of beer. Barney set his bags down and walked to the bar. The bartender came over.

“What’ll you have?”

“I’m lookin’ for a fellow,” Barney said. “Name of Harry Isaacs.”

The bartender shook his head. “Don’t know him.”

There was a voice from further along the bar. “Sure you know him, Tim. The juggler bloke. The one does them comic songs, y’know, while he’s standin’ on his head. Hell, he’s in here almost every night.”

“Oh, him? Never did know his name.” He looked at Barney. “Come around about seven tonight. He’ll probably be here.”

“I’d like to find him now. He’s me” — Fay came to mind — “he’s my brother. Where does he live?”

The bartender shrugged. “No idea.” Barney looked down the bar. The men there looked at one another and shook their heads. “I think in one of them tents near the edge of town,” one of the men finally volunteered. He pointed. “Keep wandering down this road that way. Ask somebody when you get down there.”

“Tell them you’re looking for the juggler, the comic that sings at the Paris Hotel,” another said. “That way they’ll know who you mean.”

“Thanks,” Barney said. He picked up his bags and walked out into the street. He would have liked to leave his bags with the bartender, because he was sure his trip to the edge of town, down into that maze of tents, was going to be a wasted one. Harry, with all his money, had to be living in one of the better houses in town. But he wasn’t going to take a chance of having his bags stolen now, not after that two-month trek. The juggler? The comic that sang songs at the Paris Hotel? Probably having a little fun in the evening, once he’d made a pile during the day. Harry was like that.

He came out of the bar and started down the street, his bags banging against his legs. On either side of the street there were shops: provisioners, there a bank, and seemingly about every second shack bearing a sign declaring the occupant to be a diamond trader, offering the finest prices. Except that Barney noted that a lot of them were boarded over. Well, he had known there was a depression in the diamond business, but if Harry could make it big, so could he. He also noted that the streets seemed largely deserted, other than occasional women in long dresses and large sunbonnets doing their shopping. It was eerie, seeing all those shacks and all those tents and very few people, as if they’d all gotten disgusted and left. Like those kids what followed that bloke with the pipes, right into the sea.

The shacks ran out; the little organization that had been attempted in the central cluster of buildings gave way to the total disorganization of the tents. The road also seemingly ran out, and a trail led haphazardly between the canvas shelters. The smell here was even worse than it had been in the town itself; between two of the tents a pair of skinny, mangy dogs, their ribs showing, were snarling over what seemed to be the intestines of some animal. Barney wrinkled his nose in disgust and was about to turn back, sure that Harry could never exist in such filth; then he thought he had come this far and it would do no harm to ask.

He paused at a tent, putting down his bags and wiping the sweat from his forehead. Inside the open flaps a man was sitting disconsolately on the ground, putting his belongings into a small steamer trunk. His bedroll was already strapped shut and was leaning against the main tent pole. Barney cleared his throat; the man looked up.

“I already sold everything I’m goin’ to sell,” the man said. “All except the tent.” He saw Barney’s bags and brightened. “You want to buy a tent?”

“I don’t want to buy nothin’. I’m lookin’ for me brother, Harry Isaacs.” He remembered the suggestion at the bar. “The juggler, y’know. The comic that sings down at the Paris Hotel.”

“Oh, him? Three tents down. Almost the last one. Got a tear in one side, he almost lost it in the last sandstorm. Never got around to fixin’ it.” The man started to pack the trunk again, and then paused. “Say, like I said, I ain’t sold the tent, yet. Maybe he’d be interested; his ain’t no good. You could ask him.”

“I’ll do that,” Barney said, and backed away. It had to be somebody else, some other bloke who sang comic songs. But it sure sounded like Harry! He refused to even consider the thought that had come to him, but hurried down the line, almost dragging his bags. The third tent down had a tear in it; the flap was closed but Barney pushed his way inside. A man was sleeping on the animal skin that served both as rug and bed; a dirty pillow had been pulled over his head to keep out the light. Barney put his bags down, squatted down, and pulled the pillow away. The sleeping man grunted a few times and merely snored a bit louder. Barney shook the man.

“Harry!” He shook harder, looking around the filthy tent as he did so. What a mess! Their mother would have had a fit if she could have seen how her son Harry was living! They lived in poverty back in Petticoat Lane, but the house was always clean, and so were their clothes, even if they were bought as rags and fixed over. “Harry! Wake up!”

His brother rolled over, wondering at the unexpected disturbance, yawning, and then reluctantly opened his eyes. The face beneath the wide-brimmed leather hat was in shadow; Harry frowned and then suddenly smiled, a happy grin, as he came awake and recognized his brother. “Barney! When did you get here? Pa wrote you’d raised the fare to Cape Town, but I figured you’d changed your mind or you would have been here weeks ago!”

“Walked alongside an ox wagon,” Barney said succinctly, and studied his brother. Harry looked as if he hadn’t shaved in days if not in weeks; he looked a mess and smelled it. Barney shook his head. “You look a proper disaster, you do! Ma would die to see you. I thought you’d hit it big up here. That’s what your letter said.”

“My letter. That was—” Harry calculated. “That must have been four months ago I wrote.”

“And you went stony in four months?”

Harry rubbed his chin, looking sheepish. “Well, I was almost positive I was about to hit it big, but — well, the diamonds are an awful business right now.” He reached out and pushed Barney’s hat away, ruffling his brother’s hair as he had done when they were younger. “Here! Let me have a look at you! You look a proper trekker, you do!”

“At least I kept clean on the trail. You look a shame.” A thought came. “When did you eat last?”

“I eat every day,” Harry said, and shrugged. “No banquets; some mealies — that’s what they call maize here, people eat it same as cattle — and down at the Paris they give me a sandwich every night—” He smiled, always the optimist. “I’ve been doing part of our old act down there. The diggers love it!”

Barney looked at him skeptically. “What’s it pay?”

Harry looked a little shamefaced. “Well, you know, Barney, times are very difficult right now. The diggers don’t hardly have enough to feed themselves. Or their families, those poor devils that are unlucky enough to have their families with them. And they have to pay their labor, their Kaffirs. Doesn’t leave much for jugglers or comics in bars.” He looked at his brother, changing the subject. “How’d you find me?”

“Asked at the bar where you do your act.”

“They told you, eh? I tell you, everybody in town knows Harry Isaacs! Say, have you seen the mine yet?”

“Which one?”

“Kimberley, of course. The New Rush. It’s the richest, no matter what anybody says.” He sounds as if he owned a piece of the bloody thing, Barney thought; that’s me brother Harry! Harry came to his feet. “Let me show you the town.”

“What about me bags?”

“What about them?”

“Will they be safe here?”

Harry laughed. “Safer than they would be behind locked doors back in Cobb’s Court, I’ll wager you that! Nobody touches anything in anyone’s tent or shack; if that was to start there’s no telling where it would end. But it would end with somebody hanging, and we’ve done without that ever since this camp was started. No, you needn’t worry on that score. So let me put on a clean shirt and off we’ll go.”

“Only if you give yourself a good wash first,” Barney said, and wrinkled his nose. “You smell, you know.”

“I do?” Harry sounded honestly surprised. “Everything smells so bad here,” he said apologetically, “it gets to a point where you can’t smell anything anymore. Even yourself.”

They walked back toward the town through the tents in the early-afternoon heat, with Harry talking without pause. Barney had a feeling that his brother had had a lonely time of it. He felt no resentment at all that Harry hadn’t made it as big as he had written home; Harry had always been the complete optimist, and Barney had no doubt at all that Harry had honestly felt he was about to strike it rich when he had written. Whatever else the Isaacs boys were, they were not liars; if Harry had a tendency at times to exaggerate, that was something else.

Actually, Barney felt a bit better about everything. Now there would be no need to compete, although in truth there had never been a great deal of competition between the two brothers. Each had his own talents and was aware of it. Harry was the better juggler, the better acrobat, the better tumbler. Harry was also taller, more handsome, and happier. The girls that came into the King of Prussia from the sewing lofts for an ale with their lunch would rumple Barney’s hair and pat his cheek, but they were far bolder where Harry was concerned. Barney sometimes wished he were more like Harry, at least as far as the happiness or the optimism was concerned. But Harry was also willing to concede defeat more readily, possibly because defeat didn’t mean all that much to him. Lose today, gain tomorrow; or if not tomorrow, then the next day or the next week, or maybe never. What difference did it really make? But this was not Barney. Lose today and the loss lived with him a long time, and gaining tomorrow would not make up for it. He hated to be defeated and was smart enough to recognize this as a fault, but it was a fault he did not mind acknowledging.

Harry was explaining the state of the industry.

“The diamonds run out?” he said, and laughed. They were in the town proper and passing the bar where Barney had first stopped, but Harry made no move to turn in. He had a goal in mind, and besides, he was discussing a subject he felt he knew well. “No!” he said firmly. “There are diamonds on top of diamonds in Kimberley, and the same — though less, of course — at Bultfontein, Dutoitspan, and the Old De Beers. Four diamond mines within a few miles of each other, and together they probably contain most of the gemstones in the world! Think of it!”

Barney was thinking of it, thinking of it very hard. “So, if the diamonds are there—” he said slowly.

“Oh, they’re there, all right, in that good old, dear old, sweet old yellow soil,” Harry said with a grin, and did a soft-shoe shuffle in the dust of the roadway. Then his smile faded a bit ruefully and he kicked at the dust. “The only trouble,” he said more softly, “is that it costs more to dig out a carat of diamonds than the kopje wallopers or even the so-called honest traders will pay for it. So some of the miners are giving up and going home. And so are the traders.”

“What’s a kopje walloper?”

“He’s a— Wait a second. There’s the mine.”

They had come through the shacks on the edge of a reef and were staring down at an incredible sight. The mine that had begun as a small hillock rising a few feet above the flat surface of the northern Cape had changed considerably. The hillock had long since disappeared, trees and all; now the hole that had replaced it had been dug to a depth of over a hundred feet in places; and from each tiny square that represented a single claim, several steep cables ran up to the rim of the huge excavation. Tiny carts, foreshortened by distance, could be seen traveling up these cables, carrying the yellowish earth to the rim and beyond to the crushing and the sorting piles. Barney, staring in awe, could see a network of at least a thousand of the cables glinting in the late-afternoon sun; the creak and groan of the small cradles climbing and descending the steel ropes; the cries of men directing, warning, shouting; the whinnying of horses working to turn some of the large wheels on top of the monstrous crater to winch the larger buckets of earth up the steel ropes, all combined to give him an unearthly feeling. It looked like a picture Barney had once seen of a bloke named Gulliver tethered to earth with stringlike ropes, only what was locked to the earth here was the earth itself. And the uneven layers of the mine! And the men swarming below like ants; they could have been the tiny people sweating to tighten the cables on Gulliver! It looked unreal; it looked almost like the etchings he had once seen of the Egyptian slaves — Jews, they was, now he remembered — building the pyramids. The mine was huge beyond anything Barney had ever seen or even dreamed about; it was almost beyond his imagination to think of himself down in that abyss, that inverted anthill, himself, working in that confused disorder.

“Good God!” he said in awestruck tones. “How many bloody men are down there?” He had to raise his voice to be heard over the noise rising from the depths of the mine itself and from the whims and the other lifting wheels and mechanisms arranged around the rim.

Harry smiled broadly, pleased that his Kimberley mine had received the startled adulation he had expected and which it obviously deserved. He raised his voice as well.

“Well,” he said, “figure it out. Each claim is thirty-one feet by thirty-one feet, African measure — which is almost the same as English measure — and the mine is roughly round in shape and about a quarter of a mile across. So figure it out. And each claim may be being worked by as many as six men, maybe one white man to direct and keep an eye open for thieves and maybe five natives to do the real work of digging and shoveling the dirt into the buckets to be hoisted to the surface. Thirty-one feet square,” he said, almost with satisfaction, “hardly enough room to swing a pick or a shovel without hitting somebody in the head!”

Barney still could scarcely comprehend the confusion of the scene below. Who could do any decent work — digging, whatever — in that maelstrom? “But there has to be some sort of bloody organization, or you’d think there would be bloody anarchy—!”

“There is. Or as close to it as you might want,” Harry said quietly, and pointed. “There used to be roads running across the mine to carry the dirt out in wagons pulled by horses — those are the parts of the big hole you see that aren’t as deep as the rest of the mine. But they simply fell in when the diggers started to dig deeper on either side of them. Men, horses, they’ve all been killed falling in. They still get killed. Say one claim is fifty feet lower than the claim next to it. A man goes down his ladder to his claim and starts to dig, all aboveboard, all on his own claim.” He made a chopping motion with a hand. “Bam! First thing he knows his neighbor’s claim falls in on top of him. And then they get into a great argument — if either one of them is still alive — as to who has the right to the earth that fell in.” Harry grinned at his brother. “Still want to be a digger?”

“How do you go about getting a claim?”

“I’ll tell you later. Seen enough for a day?”

“Why? Where do you want to go?”

“Why,” Harry said lightly, almost as if he hadn’t been thinking about it for the past hour, “I imagine after two months on the trail, eating biltong and mealies, you could stand some rib-sticking food. One thing we have in Kimberley is good food. When and if you can afford it,” he added under his breath, and spoke up again. “What would you say to a broth to put the hair on your chest, a big juicy joint to add muscle to your elbows, two or three vegs — not mealies — to remind you of what we used to ramp off the wagons in Covent Garden when we were kids, and a bottle of real African beer?”

“I’d say it was what I could stand,” Barney said with a grin, and was about to turn away from the edge of the huge hole when a disturbance in the mine caught his attention. He looked down. A fight of some sort seemed to have broken out on a claim almost directly below them and no more than fifty or sixty feet from the surface. Two white men were pummeling a black unmercifully. The black had no place to go even had he been able to break loose; the sheer cliff of the reef prevented escape on one side, and below him the claims on that side contained men staring upward and he apparently felt he could look to small sympathy or help from them. With a sudden twist he broke free and dashed for the ladder on one side of the claim that led upward and eventually to the surface, but he had no more than started to climb when one of the men had him by the ankle and dragged him back. The black seemed to lose spirit at this defeat; he merely sat on the ground while the two men kicked and beat at him. At last he turned and spat. One of the white men ran his boot sole over the spittle and then bent to pick something from the ground. The black merely sat until the men dragged him to his feet and shoved him hard against the ladder. He stood there for a moment until one of the white men kicked him; then he dispiritedly began to climb. He came to the rim, pulled himself over within feet of Barney and Harry, and limped away, bleeding.

Barney had been staring in surprise. “What was that?”

“Someone trying to steal a diamond. Sometimes they stick right out of the soil, almost asking to be picked up.” Harry shrugged. “That one was lucky they didn’t beat him more. He’s lucky to walk away.”

Barney took a deep breath, remembering. It also brought back memories of Fay with her arms around him. He put that thought away. “We saw some men on horses kill a black near the river. They shot him. Andries — he was the driver of the ox wagon — said it was for stealing diamonds.”

“That’s the worst crime there is around here, stealing anything, but especially diamonds. Even trading in stolen diamonds is asking for a few years on the Cape Town breakwater,” Harry said. “But they rarely kill anyone for it. Those men you saw were probably from Klipdrift or Pniel or one of the other river diggings. Here they just beat them up — pretty bad — but they seldom kill them. If they’re white they get beat up and kicked out of town; word gets around and a man might as well go home. They won’t let him near the other mines, either. But very few get shot or killed. The Miner’s Committee doesn’t like guns; you don’t see anyone carrying them. This isn’t like America.”

They had been walking through the town; Barney now began to understand the deserted nature of the place when he had arrived. Everyone who didn’t have business in town was at the mine, working. Well, at least that meant somebody was making a living out of the diamonds, even if it wasn’t a very fancy one. It was an encouraging thought. Harry turned into the Queen’s Hotel, leading the way past the desk into a separate dining room. The Queen’s Hotel, Barney could see, was far better than the so-called hotel where Harry entertained and where he had gotten directions. Maybe Kimberley wasn’t as bad as his first impression of it had been. Well, whether it was or not, here he was and here he intended to stay.

The two men seated themselves at a table and waited until a matronly looking woman came to serve them. Harry did the ordering, quite as if he ate there every day, and once the beer had been brought and the woman had gone back into the kitchen, Harry leaned back and looked at his younger brother rather indulgently.

“Well, what do you want to know about diamonds?”

“Everything,” Barney said simply.

“You’ve come to the right man,” Harry said, and smiled. “I can tell you everything except how to make money in them.”

Barney smiled back. “And that’s the only part I’m interested in.”

Harry held up a hand. “Don’t misunderstand me,” he said. “I can tell you how others make money in them. I just can’t tell you how you can make money in them. Or me,” he added a bit more quietly.

“Tell me how the others do it,” Barney said, and then held up his hand. “Wait. First, explain something to me. How many diamond mines are there around here?”

“Outside of the river diggings, which really aren’t mines, there are four,” Harry said promptly. “Kimberley, De Beers, Bultfontein, and Dutoitspan.”

“How about the Colesberg Kopje, the New Rush, the Old Rush, and all of those?”

Harry laughed. “You’ll need a bit of history,” he said. “Diamonds have been found on three farms around here, besides the river diggings at places like Pniel and Klipdrift. The three farms are Bultfontein, Dutoitspan, and Vooruitzigt. We’re on what was the Vooruitzigt farm right now; both the Kimberley mine and the De Beers mine are on it. Now, they call the original De Beers mine the Old Rush, because that’s where people first went to try their luck at finding diamonds, the original rush for them, so to speak. Then one night, a Cape colored named Damon, who was servant to a man named Rawstorne, got drunk and became a nuisance, so Rawstorne sent him out of the camp to keep him from disturbing the others — Rawstorne and his pals were playing cards — and Damon settled himself down on the hillock to sober up. And woke up in the morning to find he’d had a restless night because the pebbles he thought he’d been sleeping on turned out to be diamonds. He went back and like a good and faithful servant told Rawstorne. And the New Rush was on. At first Rawstorne called the place Colesberg Kopje — a kopje is simply a hill and nothing else, and a hill in this part of the country is anything higher than a small boy — simply because Rawstorne and his friends had originally come from a place called Colesberg in the Cape. But after the town was renamed Kimberley after the new Colonial Secretary, and since the mine is the biggest of all four, they now call it the Kimberley mine. So Kimberley, Colesberg Kopje, and New Rush are one and the same mine. The mine you were looking down into a while ago. Any questions?”

“And how far is Bultfontein?” And Fay? he thought.

“A few miles, no more. Why?”

“Nothing,” Barney said shortly. “Go on about diamonds. You were going to tell me how other people make money in them.”

Harry was studying his younger brother with an odd look on his face. “You talk differently,” he said. “You don’t sound so Cockney — so East End. Who is she?”

Barney reddened. “Who is who?”

“The one who apparently had more influence on you than your family.”

“Go on about the diamonds,” Barney said.

“I only hope I’m invited to the wedding,” Harry said sententiously. “At least that way I’ll meet the miracle worker.”

“The diamonds!”

Harry took a deep draft of his beer, touched his lips with the sleeve of his shirt, quite as if it were a lace handkerchief, and then leaned back again; Harry had class, Barney had to admit that. “Right-o,” Harry said. “Well, there are three ways to make money in the diamond business. First, of course, is by digging them. You can rent a claim for a few shillings a month, so it’s the one way you can start if you don’t have much money. Of course, you have to hire Kaffirs unless you’re willing to do all the digging yourself, but even then the earth has to be crushed and sorted, and that’s the sort of work a man likes to do himself if he doesn’t want to be robbed blind. So you either need partners or enough money to hire labor. Labor’s cheap, but it isn’t exactly free. Still, it’s Cheap Street to get started, digging is, and while it’s hard work, sometimes you hit it big, find a real stone, and end up with some money. But usually you’re working for enough to put food on the table. And that’s when you can trust your partners, which is far from always being the case.”

He paused and looked around the dining room. Even though by now it was dark outside and work at the mines had stopped, there were very few people in the place taking advantage of the Queen’s Hotel’s excellent cuisine.

“Look around. The place is empty,” Harry said. “A few more in the bar but not many, I’d wager. Any you see are probably traders or commercial travelers in to sell to the shops. Although most of the traders are probably at the Kimberley Club, where the really important people in town get together. But the diggers?” He shrugged. “Having a plate of beans outside their tents, that is, if they’re lucky.”

Barney frowned. “But the diggers — the ones I saw down there in the mine today — don’t tell me they was workin’ for fun!”

“Just about,” Harry said. “Sure, there’s always the hope that the next shovel you turn over will bring up another Star of Africa; and sure, the ones with enough of a stake can hold on to their stones and hope for better prices before having to sell, but those diggers are few and far between. Most of them have to sell at almost any price just to pay their help and eat.” He shook his head decisively. “No, renting a claim and digging and crushing and sorting is the hard way to make money here in Kimberley. Besides, all the decent claims are taken, and to buy a claim from the man who has the license for it — a claim that is producing well — costs money. And with the price of diamonds where it is today, at least here at the mine, it isn’t worth it. Even if you had the money. And to buy or rent a claim that isn’t producing, of course, is simply stupid.”

“Which claims are producing?”

“The ones where they get diamonds,” Harry replied. In the interest of accuracy, however, he added, “Usually the claims nearer the center of the mine. I don’t know why, but the ones near the edge, near the reef, don’t seem to produce as well.”

Harry paused as the waitress placed a bowl of thick, rich soup before each of them. He sampled it, waited for Barney’s equal approval, almost as if he had had something to do with its creation, and then began to eat wolfishly. It was obvious to Barney that his brother had been on short rations for some time. It was not until Harry had finished, wiped his plate with a bit of bread for the last drops, that he went back to his exposition.

“The second way to make money in this business,” he said, “is to become what is called a ‘kopje walloper.’ That’s a man who goes from claim to claim — actually, from sorting pile to sorting pile, where ninety per cent of the diamonds are found — buying the day’s find from the miners, offering as little as he can for their stones, and then selling them for as much as he can to the diamond traders on Main Street, or High Street. The profit margin is small, of course; enough to make it worth while for the traders not to waste their time going from sorting pile to sorting pile, or for the miners to spend their time going to the traders, often with stones the big traders aren’t interested in. The kopje walloper is sort of an itinerant middle man; the poor man’s trader. Sort of an old man Feldman with his horse and wagon buying rags and glass and then reselling them to the bigger yards. But to become a kopje walloper takes capital. Not a great deal, but enough to pay for what you buy and to be able to buy what you want, because it’s a cash business, of course.”

Their empty plates were removed and a large steaming succulent joint was brought before them. Harry dug in at once, slabbing off chunks and stuffing them into his mouth. He raised his hand, pointing to their empty beer mugs, and drank deeply when they were refilled. Barney waited until his brother’s hunger had been at least partially satisfied before pressing for the third way to make money in diamonds.

“Ah! The third way, and by far the best way,” Harry said between his chewing and swallowing, “is to become a diamond merchant — a trader. He buys, almost at his own price today, and ships the stones off to London at a huge profit, even at today’s depressed market. But that, of course, requires a great deal of capital, because the bigger and better stones are expensive, and because he deals in quantity. Just the rent alone on an office on the Main Street is more than most diggers earn in a month.” He leaned back, finally sated, and reached into a pocket for a toothpick, applying it as he talked. “Which one d’you think you’d like for a start?”

“I don’t know. I don’t have enough money for any of them. And you don’t look particularly rich.”

“Of course, there are other ways to make money in Kimberley,” Harry said. “Open a bar. Or a greengrocer’s. Or dig a well and sell water. Actually, water isn’t a bad idea. A smart man would bring in a pump and pump out the claims when they get flooded, which they do whenever it rains hard, or whenever they dig into a spring. The man who brings in the first pump is going to get rich. Only nobody’s thought of it yet.”

“Somebody has,” Barney said.

Harry’s eyebrows went up. Barney nodded.

“The wagon I came on was bringing the parts for a steam pump for some bloke named Rhodes.”

“Ah!” Harry nodded. “Over at De Beers at the Old Rush. Only he’ll probably put it up at Dutoitspan; they get flooded more often.” He suddenly grinned. “And you know what? He’ll charge for pumping the claims dry, and then sell the water back to the diggers for their crushing and sorting operations. Brilliant! I thought of it a long time ago, but” — Harry sighed — “no money. No capital.”

And if Harry had had the money, Barney thought dispassionately, my brother would have been thinking of another idea, another scheme, and end up doing nothing about either. As he managed to find fifteen excuses not to rent a claim and dirty his hands digging for the stones. It was a pity Harry was like that, but Barney had no intention of allowing his brother’s indolence to affect him. He became aware that their waitress was standing at their side and that Harry was looking at him in a slightly embarrassed manner.

“Barney — I’m afraid I forgot my purse…”

“How much is it?” Barney asked, reaching for his pocket and really not at all surprised.

“Two pounds…”

“Two—!” Barney swallowed. Almost half as much as it would have cost him for his entire trip across the Karroo had Andries charged him! It was lucky he had managed to make himself useful on the trail. Two quid for one meal! He had heard that Kimberley was expensive, but two bloody quid? Still, he thought as he reluctantly took two worn one-pound notes from his purse and laid them on the waitress’s palm, it was worth it in a way for the information Harry had given him. Or it had better be worth it in a very short time, because it was certain that unless he got cracking and made money in a hurry, his small reserve wouldn’t last very long!

The pack on Barney’s back had a familiar feel to it; in Petticoat Lane he had often gone out with a pack, peddling anything he had been able to buy at a cheap enough price and sell at a profit no matter how small: the best he could select from the remains when the fruits or vegetables had already been picked over in Covent Garden; the best of the rags from the various pickers for his mother to wash and repair to be later peddled to those even poorer than the poor devil who had sold the rag in the first place. Anything that could be bought and sold — anything not new, that is — Barney was sure he had handled in his few years.

This time his pack — a hastily contrived affair made from one of his worn shirts and carried slung over his shoulder and held by the tied sleeves — contained the books he had brought with him. It was a sacrifice Barney was sure he would regret in time, but he had learned early in life that one sells whatever one feels has value at the moment, and he was sure there had to be a good market for reading material in the culturally starved camp. Certainly he knew if he had money he wouldn’t be selling his books, but would be in the market for more. That day would come, he was sure, but in the meantime there was the problem of building up his capital. Twenty quid, he had discovered, wouldn’t get a person far in Kimberley.

The first place he stopped was at one of the sorting sheds; the mine itself was obviously out of bounds for anyone attempting to sell anything, unless one wanted to inadvertently get a pickax in his back, or be cut by a swinging shovel. Before the shed, Kaffirs were breaking up the large lumps of yellowish soil that had been carted up from the claim, spreading it about so that the sun and rain, if and when it came, could complete the job of disintegrating the soil into finer lumps that could be searched for diamonds. Soil already broken down was being broken into even smaller bits; a black was shoveling this finer broken earth onto a table in the shade under the shed, where several white men were seated, going over the dirt with small spatulas, breaking it even finer, searching for the elusive sparkle that would denote a diamond. One of them, a large bearded chap, looked up at Barney’s approach, took in the small body carrying the large sacklike pack, and then returned his attention to the sorting table and his work.

“Whatever you’re peddling, son, we don’t want none,” he said.

Barney grinned down at the back of the man’s head, his friendliest grin, even though it was being wasted. He put as much charm as he could into his voice. “Come, now, man! Now, if I was peddlin’ pound notes for fifteen bob, d’you mean you wouldn’t be interested?”

“Interested in seeing you in quod for a Jeremy Diddler,” the second man said cheerfully without looking up from his task.

“What about if I was peddlin’ a even greater bargain, and no cheat at all about it? Food for your brain, man, better than the poor stuff you put into your belly three times a day?”

The first man looked up. “What are you talking about, son?”

“Books!” Barney set the pack down and reached in, taking the first one that came to hand, bringing it out. He looked at the title on the worn spine; it was The Bells. He hastily returned it to the sack and brought out another. “Ah! The immortal Shakespeare! One of the best things ’e ever done — a bit called Macbet’! You gentlemen got to know it an’ appreciate it like all the coves o’ London. ‘Macbet’ shall never be vanquished’ — that’s vanquished be — ’until Great Birnam Wood to ’igh Dunsinane shall come against ’im!’ What d’you say, gents?” Barney had unconsciously dropped into broad Cockney; his voice had taken on the tones of a pitch artist. The man looked at him a moment, turned to his partner and winked, and then came back to Barney, sighing.

“Son,” he said. “If I was buying a book, it wouldn’t be to read. It would be for the paper. I’m weary to death of using mealie cobs.” Barney stared at him almost in horror. The man laughed. “Just joking, son. How much do you want for your book?”

Barney swallowed. When he had started out that morning he hadn’t given the necessary thought to the question of price. He knew what a used, worn, dog-eared book like the one he was offering would be worth back in the East End of London — a few pennies at the very most — but in a mining camp most likely hungry for any reading material at all, it could be worth anything. The man was staring at him.

“Well?”

Barney made up his mind. When you didn’t know the true current value of something, then you didn’t sell it. At the worst you traded it for something of equally unknown value.

“I’ll fell you,” he said. “You can have the book for lettin’ me go through the dirt you already culled.” He pointed to the pile behind the table, a pile formed by the men scraping it from the table when they were through searching it.

The man stared at him a moment and shrugged. “You don’t seem to put much value on your book. Me and my friend here, we don’t miss very much. But if you want to waste your time and hand over a book at the same time, I’m not the one to teach anyone his business.” He pointed to the dirt pile. “Go ahead. Have fun.”

“Right!” Barney said happily. At least he was involved in diamond mining if only at the worst possible end of it. He dragged his pack over to the pile and sat down on the ground, starting to riffle through the culled dirt with his fingers. The man tossed him one of the spatulas they were using on the sorting table.

“My contribution,” he said dryly, and went back to work.

The day dragged on. Several times Barney saw a faint sparkle in the dirt; each time he scraped it off and studied it. The bits he was uncovering were each the size of a pinhead, but he still carefully separated them from the yellowish soil, rubbed each one as clean as he could considering its tiny size, and tucked it into his shirt pocket. He had four of them, each infinitesimal in size, when a small man came into the yard, carrying a small wooden box in one hand. He was a thin, gray-haired, ferret-faced man with a seamed face, tiny suspicious eyes, and dressed in typical digger’s clothes, wearing one of the wide leather belts with pouches the sorters and the diggers used to keep their stones in. The man set his small box on the edge of the sorting table, opened it, and brought out a small balance scale. He smiled, a smile that started at his lips and ended there, not touching his tiny eyes, a smile that exhibited stained, broken teeth. He looked around.

“Well? Anything for me today?”

The bearded man at the sorting table dug into his belt, bringing out the day’s find. Barney, watching with fascination, estimated there were at least ten to twelve fairly decent-sized stones in the palm of his hand. He dumped them into the pan of the scale and watched as the other man drew a loupe from a pocket of his jacket and examined each stone carefully. At last he separated the stones into three groups and began weighing them. When at last he was finished he drew out a pad and pencil and began making calculations on the paper. At last he looked up.

“Eight pounds for the lot,” he said.

The sorter didn’t even bother to comment; he merely tilted the contents of the pan back into his palm, added to it the other stones, and returned them all to his belt. He buttoned the pouch holding the stones and shook his head. “That’s insane,” he said. “That don’t pay labor, either ours nor the boys’. Not to mention Mac and the others down in the hole digging the stuff.”

The kopje walloper shrugged; his voice took on a whine. “If I pay more then I don’t get paid for my time. These are tough times, Jerry. You know that.”

“I also know I’m not selling stones at four shilling a carat when they bring eighteen in London, tough times or not,” Jerry said flatly, and turned back to the table, paying no further attention to the small gray-haired man. The man shrugged, put his scales back into their box, and was about to leave when Barney came up to him.

“Hey — are you a… a kopje walloper?”

The man merely looked at him, resentful of his time being taken by a young boy. “No,” he said sarcastically. “I’m a trader who goes around with his shop in his pocket. What d’you want?”

Barney dipped into his shirt pocket, bringing out the results of his day’s endeavor. “How about these?”

The man stared into Barney’s palm and then looked up with an ugly expression on his thin face. His tiny eyes had narrowed even further. “Are you funning with me, boy?”

“No, sir! D’they… d’they have any value?”

The man studied Barney’s face a few moments and then came to the conclusion that the boy was serious. “I’ll give you sixpence for them,” he said. He reached into his pocket, brought out a coin, and placed it on the edge of the sorting table. Then he reached over and knocked Barney’s hand in the air. The tiny stones went flying. “That’s what they’re really worth,” he said, and chuckled at his joke. Then he picked up his box and stumped from the yard.

“Not a very friendly chap,” Jerry said as he watched for Barney’s reaction. The boy looked as if he might have a temper. But the boy’s reaction was not at all what he had expected.

“It’s a tanner, ain’t it?” Barney said, and grinned. “He was offerin’ four shilling a carat. On that basis, was them tiny bitsy things I had worth any sixpence?”

“They were not,” Jerry admitted.

“Then he cheated himself, and he’s a bloody fool,” Barney said, and picked up his pack. “Well, thanks, fellow.” And he walked from the yard, whistling.

When he got back to the tent he saw that Harry had shaved and put on clean clothes. There was a pot of steaming tea set to one side of the fire and Harry had put some mealies on to boil. It appeared that the area around the tent had also been picked up and swept, and the rip in the side of the tent had been repaired, albeit not too neatly. Still, it was something. And even the smell seemed to have dissipated. Or else I’m gettin’ used to it, Barney thought. Harry waved a hello to him.

“How did it go today? Sell any books?”

Barney shrugged. “I practically gave ’un away, and on top of that I worked all day for a sixpence I didn’t even earn. But it was worth it. I learned somethin’. I was cullin’ already culled dirt; that was in trade for the book. I got the sixpence on the side because some nasty bloke thought he was bein’ funny.” He told Harry about it, grinning. Then his grin faded. “But y’know,” he said slowly, “sittin’ there siftin’ dirt gives a bloke plenty of time to think. And I got ideas.”

“Oh? Such as?”

“Well,” Barney said, sitting down beside the fire, “first, about the books. I was bein’ stupid. Why sell them when they could be let out, say, at a penny a day?”

“You mean, rent, like? Books?”

“Why not?” Barney asked, almost curiously. “A bloke buys a book, say he pays a tanner for it, maybe a bob. It lays around once he’s read it, or maybe even before he’s read it. That’s a bloody waste of readin’, especially in a place where they ain’t got too many books. But if he pays a penny a day, then he’s goin’ to read it quick as he can, and get it back. That way lots more people get a chance to read it. See?”

“Very philanthropic,” Harry said dryly, and laughed.

“Whatever, it’s a good idea,” Barney said stubbornly. “Comin’ back here tonight I stopped at all the hotels and bars and put the word out I got books to rent. And we can push ’em when we’re at the bar, tonight, give a pitch to the blokes lined up gettin’ beered.”

“I wasn’t going to the bar tonight,” Harry said slowly.

Barney frowned. “Why not?”

Harry looked down at his brother. It almost seemed that Barney was the older, and he the younger. There was almost something defensive in his answer, although he knew there was certainly no need for there to be.

“I went out and got a job today,” Harry said slowly. “A regular job. Starting tomorrow. At a trader’s.”

“Doin’ what?”

“Anything he tells me to do.”

Barney thought a moment and then suddenly grinned. “Good-o! You can learn all there is to know about diamonds, the good ’uns, the bad ’uns, the ones in between, what they’re worth, how the trader picks ’em and pays for ’em. Then, at night, you come back here and teach me.” He tugged at Harry’s leg; Harry sat down beside him. Barney slapped his brother on the shoulder. “We’re goin’ to be rich, Harry! We’re goin’ to be rich yet! Because I got lots of ideas! I told you about comin’ up with the idea of lettin’ the books while I was cullin’ dirt today, didn’t I?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “Well, I thought of somethin’ else, too.”

“What was that?”

Barney seemed to simmer down. “I want to try it before I tell you, just to see if it works.” He brightened. “Now, let’s eat them mealies, because afterward we’re goin’ down to that Paris Hotel and put on the best act the Barnato Brothers ever have!”

Harry frowned. “It doesn’t seem right for someone working at a trader’s to be — well, putting on a show—”

“What? We ain’t goin’ to rob the place! There’s nothin’ wrong with it! And we need every penny we can get our meat-grabbers on! We ain’t spendin’ a bloody penny we don’t need to! We need capital and we’re goin’ to get it! And also,” he added more quietly, more under control, “we’re goin’ to put on a show there because you said they give you a sandwich for the act, besides what you pick up on the side from the blokes around the bar.” He suddenly grinned. “Maybe for the famous Barnato Brothers, both of them in person, they’ll hand out a full bloody meal!”

Harry glanced at his brother in silence. He almost didn’t recognize the dynamo his younger brother seemed to have become. Oh, sure, Barney had always been the most ambitious and hardworking in the family, but nothing like this. A suspicion came to Harry. The more he thought about it the less of a suspicion and the more of a certainty it became. And if he were right, maybe something could be done about Barney’s horrible English. It was amazing that a boy who worshiped the theater and the words of Shakespeare could mangle the language whenever he became excited or started to quote his favorite actors or playwrights.

“Who is she?” Harry asked innocently.

“Who is who?”

“The girl you suddenly want to get rich for.”

Barney felt his face getting red. “You’re goin’ off your chump, Harry!”

“I hope not,” Harry said, “because I have a feeling it’s the same girl who almost had you speaking English there for a while. And if it is, and you know where she is and how to get in touch with her, I think it’s time she gave you some more lessons.”

“And I think it wouldn’t hurt you none to mind your own business!”

“And I think it wouldn’t hurt you any to look her up,” Harry said, and reached into the pot to bring out the already overcooked mealies.

And maybe Harry’s right, Barney thought. Only I can’t go see her until I’ve got somethin’ to show her. And Harry is also right; it wouldn’t do no harm to let Fay help me with me English — I mean, any harm to let Fay help me with my English. Of course, Harry could help just as well, but, well—

The first thing in the morning, Barney Isaacs put into practice the idea he had developed the day before, sitting culling the dirt in Jerry Weston’s sorting shed. He hung around the sorting yard until a kopje walloper appeared with his little box and leather belt, a different one from the small ferret-faced man of the day before. This one sported a horse and cart: a horse that had obviously seen better days and ambled down the road as if his mind was on distant prairies and better years and a youth far enough back to precede diamonds and anything else on the high plateau; and a cart whose life-span had already been spent. Barney watched the man manage to buy a few stones from Jerry, after which he followed the ambling horse and his kopje walloper owner on his rounds the entire morning, making sure he remained inconspicuous. At noon he abandoned the man and his sad, spavined horse, and tried to benefit from what he had learned. That evening, as he sat down to his evening meal around the fire, he explained his ploy to Harry.

“The blokes what deal with them kopje wallopers,” he said, “are blokes what usually need the money pretty bad. So they’re blokes what cull their dirt with a fine-tooth comb. They don’t let nothin’ by, see — they can’t afford to.” He raised a finger for emphasis. “But the blokes what send the kopje wallopers packin’ without wastin’ time on them, the ones what deal with the big traders like your boss — they’re lookin’ for bigger stones. They don’t work the earth so fine. I stood and watched a few of them. There was a Canadian I talked to, seemed like a decent bloke. Said I could work his fines for five shillin’.”

“What kind of a business was that?” Harry said, and sneered. “You’d have to come up with over a carat to break even!”

Barney reached into his pocket and brought out some silver. He tossed it on the ground before his brother. “Twenty shillin’,” he said quietly. “One quid even. For five shillin’ in front and four hours’ work. And I got the same deal tomorrow, but all day.”

“Tomorrow your Canadian will cull a lot closer, I can promise you that,” Harry said.

Barney grinned. “And so will I.” He looked up at a strange face that had come to stand before him, staring down at him. “Yes?”

“They say you have books to let.”

“A penny a day.” Barney brought out a ruled sheet of paper from his pocket. He unfolded it and handed it up to the man with the stub of a pencil. “The books are inside on a box. Take your pick. One book at a time. Then put down your name and the name of the book.” He looked up warningly. “And be careful! They’re a quid each you lose one of them, or ruin it, or don’t bring it back.”

“Right.” The man went into the tent and came out in a few minutes with a book. He wrote on the sheet, “Thos. Williams, Faerie Queene, Spenser.”

“That’s a hard ’un,” Barney said. “Wrote funny. Don’t understand it meself. But I picked it up on the cheap, thought it was somethin’ else.” He watched the man walk off and winked at his brother. “We’re in business, like I said. Now, teach me everythin’ you learned at the trader’s shop today…”

Bless the girl, whoever she is! Harry thought, and began to explain to Barney what a Very Slight Imperfection was.

4

January 1873

Charles Rudd stepped back, wiping his oily hands on a bit of cotton waste, viewing with a bit of skepticism the monster he had just finished creating. He just hoped the damned thing would work. It had taken three weeks of hard labor, trying to follow blueprints that were wrinkled and oil-stained — not to mention several being missing — and even with the help of the Kaffirs to clean and lay out the various pieces, and to lift the heavier sections into place, it had been a job. And now it would be nothing less than a shame if, after that much time and trouble, the ogre failed to pump. Or if the boiler didn’t develop the necessary steam because of some organic fault or, of course, if he had assembled it incorrectly. Rudd was aware of his limitations as a mechanic, but he also knew that in comparison with his partner, Cecil Rhodes, he was a bleeding genius. Still, one had to recognize that the machine was secondhand, and while that meant that the price had been right and the machine had been available in Cape Town instead of waiting a year for manufacture and delivery from England, there were still a lot of things that could go wrong with a used machine. Especially with a machine that hadn’t been designed as a pump in the first place, but as a compressor. Oh, of course the principle was the same, pistons working against pressure, and of course he was fairly sure the changes he had made and the necessary parts he had fabricated for the changeover would do their job, still, one never knew until one tried. Rudd mentally crossed his fingers, checked to make sure the native hadn’t forgotten his instructions to fill the brute’s belly with sufficient water, and swung open the door to the boiler’s firebox. He pointed to the stack of firewood, pointed to a Kaffir, and then said in his best Afrikaans, “Hout! Brand!”

The Kaffir dutifully piled wood into the box. When the box was filled to his satisfaction, Rudd gave it a brief bath of kerosene, stepped back, and tossed in a lighted taper. There was a whoosh and the wood caught fire. “Meer hout,” he commanded, and moved back to sit on one of the packing crates beside Cecil Rhodes. Rhodes looked at him.

“Will it work?”

“We’ll know when we get up steam. But it should, I think,” Rudd said with more optimism in his tone than he was feeling. He sat back and lit a cheroot, watching the black toss in the hard-to-come-by logs. He took the cigar from his mouth and turned to Rhodes. “We’re going to have to bring in coal if we’re not going to go bankrupt in this venture. Wood costs a bloody fortune—”

“We’ll bring in coal, and we won’t go bankrupt in any event,” Rhodes said, and smiled. “This little machine is going to make us a lot of money. And with the money—” He shrugged.

“We’re not running yet, but you’re already spending the money,” Rudd said cheerfully. “With the money, what?”

“With the money, more claims,” Rhodes said evenly. “In De Beers. And with more claims, more diamonds. And then, of course — more money.”

Rudd considered him with a grin. “And then?”

“More claims, more diamonds, still more money. Endlessly. Until we have control of all the diamonds in all the mines—”

“—in all the world,” Rudd finished for him cheerfully. “And then?”

Rhodes frowned at his partner. “I’m quite serious.”

Rudd considered him for several seconds, his smile fading. “I’m quite sure you are,” he said quietly.

“If your machine works…”

Now it’s my machine, Rudd thought, a trifle resentfully. Then his good nature prevailed as it usually did. “If it works,”he agreed, still sounding cheerful. There was no point in sounding anything but cheerful; there was little to do about it at this stage in any case, except try the machine out and hope for the best. And there was obviously no purpose in discussing Cecil Rhodes’ dream of controlling all the diamonds in all the mines, because when Cecil John Rhodes was in one of his moods it was better to simply agree with him. Besides, it would be nice to be half partner in all the diamonds of Kimberley, insane as the idea was. If it had to be a choice between rich and poor, Rudd was willing to opt for rich. It was what had brought him to the fields in the first place. His eye kept moving between the roaring flame in the firebox and the steam gauge above the boiler. “We’re getting there. Another half hour and we should have enough pressure to try the pump.”

Rhodes said nothing. The two sat in silence watching the machine voraciously devour the expensive wood, Rhodes with no expression at all on his thin, serious face, Rudd nervously gnawing a corner of his bushy blond mustache. At last Rudd grunted; the gauge above the boiler finally showed sufficient pressure to activate the pump. He came to his feet, pleased and slightly surprised that the ancient boiler hadn’t exploded. He closed the firebox, motioning the black laborer away, and then closed his eyes a moment, muttering a little prayer more to himself than to anyone else, since Charley Rudd was in the nature of a nonbeliever. This done, he crossed his fingers in propitiation of any pagan gods possibly about, and pulled the lever directing the steam from the pressure chamber to the pump.

For a moment he thought he must have left a valve closed, or piped the monster incorrectly, since nothing happened; then at last the pistons accepted the sad fact that they were going to have to go to work again after all the years of inactivity, and slowly, reluctantly, began to move. Rudd felt a stirring of excitement, a pride of workmanship. The ridiculous abortion was actually going to work! He put his fingers lightly on the piston packing he had had to fabricate, searching for leaks, but there didn’t seem to be any. To his amazement, everything seemed to be operating normally and properly. The pistons slowly increased in speed until they were moving at their preordained velocity. The long rubber hose that had been run into a barrel of water on the vacuum side of the pump began to heave and twist; the corresponding hose on the pressure side began to jet water in uncontrolled spurts. It lifted itself from the empty barrel where it had been placed, and sprayed the entire assembly area.

Rudd laughed happily as a jet caught him squarely in the face; he ran forward, pushing the lever to cut off the steam. The two hoses obediently slowed their heaving, the pistons slowed down and then stopped. The entire machine stood silent, awaiting further instructions. Rudd wiped his dripping face and grinned at Rhodes.

“There you are, Johnny—” Rudd hated the name Cecil and made no bones about it; he was the only one who ever called Rhodes by his middle name. Everyone else, with few exceptions, referred to the humorless young man as Rhodes, or as Mr. Rhodes, despite the fact that he was only twenty years of age. “Let’s go out and celebrate.”

“Good enough.” Rhodes came off his packing crate. “When will we be able to rig it to the mine?”

“Tomorrow. I want to see to it personally.” Rudd tossed aside the waste he had used to dry his face, picked his hat from a nail on the wall. “Where do you want to go?”

Rhodes frowned. “The club, of course. Where else?”

“I don’t know.” Rudd looked a trifle embarrassed. “I feel like something a little more exciting than a few drinks and supper with the same people we see every night.”

“Such as what?”

“Oh, I don’t know. One of the bars where they have girls—” He was surprised at the look of distaste that suddenly appeared on Rhodes’ face. “What’s the matter?”

“Nothing. Only I do not frequent such places!”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Johnny! Don’t be such a puritan!” Rudd sighed. “Oh, all right, then. How about the Paris bar, then? No girls there, but there are a couple of fellows there who put on a pretty good show. Clowns, acrobats…”

Rhodes considered a moment and then shrugged, making, for him, a concession. “All right. For a while, anyway.”

“Thanks,” Rudd said, half under his breath. He dismissed the laborers and led the way to the street, looking the shed door after them. In many ways, Rudd thought, Cecil John Rhodes was an excellent partner: he recognized opportunities quickly, did not hesitate in making decisions, the huge majority of which were correct, and Rudd had no doubt that eventually both of them would be wealthy men. Their claims were producing very well and even with the depressed London market for the stones, they were making quite a bit of money. And their contracts for pumping the claims of the Dutoitspan mine would bring them a lot more money. But there was also no doubt in Charles Rudd’s mind that in many ways Cecil John Rhodes was as odd as a three-shilling coin, and at times could also be quite a pain in the arse.

They had marched well along the darkened road that led from Dutoitspan to the central portion of Kimberley several miles distant, when Rudd grinned again in memory of the success of his machine. “Not a bad job, if I say so myself,” he could not help but comment.

“Quite creditable,” Rhodes agreed. It was as close to a compliment as he could ever bring himself to utter.

“Particularly considering the bloody machine was never meant to be a pump in the first place.”

Rhodes looked at his companion in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“It was a compressor before,” Rudd said, explaining. “I had to fabricate a few parts to get the thing running as a pump.”

“A compressor?”

“That’s right.” Rudd laughed. “When I first saw it in that used-machinery yard in Cape Town, I almost passed it up. The bloody machine had been used for making ice before. Can you imagine?”

Rhodes stopped dead in his tracks. They were before the Paris Hotel but he made no move to lead the way in. Rudd had turned in the direction of the hotel entrance but he stopped and walked back. “What’s the matter?”

“Can you make that machine produce ice?”

“I’d have to dismantle it and put back the original pieces—”

“Which you still have?”

“Sure, someplace in one of the crates.”

Rhodes sighed. “Charles, Charles, you have no imagination!”

“What d’you mean?”

“Ice, Charles — ice! We’ll pump out Dutoitspan in no time, and then until the next rainy season, during the nine months when it’s dry as a bone here in Kimberley, and hotter than hell itself — we’ll make and sell ice!”

Rudd stared at him. “I never thought of that!”

“Thinking is my job; doing is yours.” Rhodes smiled at the thought of having the only ice machine in Kimberley during the hellish hot months. Cold drinks for the sweating diggers at a small price per bit of ice; blocks of ice to be sold to the hotels and bars; ice for the provisioners to keep their fruits and vegetables that much longer; meats that could be held for far greater periods of time without having to be dried for preservation. Possibly even a cold house… Ice!

“Come on,” Rhodes said genially. “Now let’s really celebrate. I’ll pay for the drinks.”

They walked into the hotel and stepped up to the bar. Rhodes ordered double whiskeys for the two of them and turned to look the place over. The bar was well filled with diggers drinking and waiting for the show; to one side the dining area had been transformed, with the tables pulled back in preparation for the evening’s entertainment. One person was sitting at a table at the edge of the improvised stage, his head in his arms on the table, apparently sound asleep. Rhodes turned to the bartender who was pouring their drinks.

“When does the show go on?”

“Any minute now,” the barman said. Even as he said it, Harry came staggering out of the door that led from the kitchen. He was acting the drunken clown; his pants were far too big for him and were held to gaudy suspenders with huge bows of ribbon; his shirt collar hung away from his neck by a good twelve inches and his cravat was stringlike and had one end a few inches long while the other end almost reached the ground. He was wearing a tiny derby that perched atop his head and looked ridiculous on him. As he passed the person sitting with his head on the table, a foot was suddenly thrust out and Harry took a comic fall, holding tightly to his derby so it would not leave his head. Barney, the one at the table, now apologized profusely in pantomime for having tripped his brother and tried to make restitution by helping him up. Barney’s clothes were even more ill fitting than his brother’s; on helping each other up they continued to fall, their heads and feet becoming entangled in each other’s outsized clothing, and with Harry never relinquishing his hold on his derby which he kept clamped to his head. Eventually they ended up with Barney’s head down Harry’s pants and Harry staring at the roaring audience through Barney’s legs, his derby still pressed tightly to his head, a look of wondering curiosity on his face that all this should be happening to him. And when they finally managed to untangle themselves and each tried to escape the other by crawling under tables, every time each tried to rise he kept banging his head on the table. Until at last Barney managed to get free of the table, and taking his brother by the leg he dragged him through the kitchen door and offstage.

It was a good act and well rehearsed. Rudd found himself laughing uproariously with everyone else in the bar. Rhodes was merely smiling indulgently at the antics he had just witnessed. He looked at the barman, who was wiping his eyes. “Who are they?”

“Seen it every night for three weeks straight,” said the barman, “and they still kill me!”

“Who are they?”

“Call themselves the Barnato Brothers.”

“Italian?” Rhodes frowned. “They don’t look it.”

“Naw!” The barman grinned. “Their real name is Isaacs.”

“Jews,” Rhodes said with a look of distaste.

“I guess so,” the barman said without interest, and went off to serve another customer.

“Well, how did you like it?” Rudd said.

“They’re Jews,” Rhodes said, and dismissed the act and the actors from his mind. Rudd merely stared at him, shrugged, and returned to his drink.

In the kitchen, where Harry and Barney had gone to change their clothes and receive their sandwich and a beer, Harry tilted his head in the general direction of the other room. “See the tall fellow standing at the end of the bar?”

Barney put his head around the corner of the door, taking in the scene at the bar without being noticed himself; it was a skill learned early in life in the East End and often saved a lot of trouble. “You mean the cove what looks like a horse ain’t eaten for a month? Next to the stocky bloke with the sandy mustache?”

“That’s the one,” Harry said. He folded his oversized trousers with care, from habit. Since Barney’s arrival Harry had gone back to being the toff he had been when tending bar and acting as bouncer at the King of Prussia. “That’s Cecil Rhodes, the one who brought in that steam pump your wagon carried up from Cape Town. He and the fellow with him have three or four good claims in the De Beers. Getting rich, they say.”

“Ten to one the stocky bloke does all the work,” Barney said, and went back to changing his clothes. “Old horseface don’t look like no bloody genius to me.” He suddenly grinned. “Good news. Just proves it don’t take no brains to get rich around here.”

And when they had changed clothes and had eaten and came up front to the bar, Rhodes and Rudd had gone. The barman had a small box with donations that had been collected for the two for their artistry; there were several one-pound notes as well as the usual fair amount of silver. Barney and Harry’s eyebrows went up. It was an inordinately high amount for the two to collect.

“Some digger must have found a two-hundred-carat today,” Harry said in awe.

“Or else he had too much beer for supper,” Barney said with a smile as they each accepted a whiskey from an admiring barman.

“Rhodes, probably. He can afford it,” Harry said.

Barney looked at him.

“A bob will earn you a quid that he didn’t leave so much as a tanner,” he said quietly, and asked the barman out of simple curiosity, although he was fairly sure. But the barman hadn’t noticed; he had been busy at the other end of the bar and had been as surprised as anyone to find the unusual donation in the box.

Still, Barney would have won his bet. It was Charles Rudd who had dropped the two one-pound notes in the box when Rhodes wasn’t looking. One pound had been for him and the other for his partner, and both had been in appreciation to the gods for having made the pumping machine work; as well as for keeping it working smoothly in the future. It was cheap at the price, Rudd thought, and the fact that Rhodes was unaware of the gift would probably make the gods that much more cooperative. Charles Rudd was quite perceptive, especially after two double whiskeys.

And the pennies became shillings, and the shillings became pounds, and the pounds began to multiply, until after several months in Kimberley, Barney Isaacs came back to their tent one night, and as he and Harry sat down to some supper, Barney broke the news.

“I bought a horse and cart today,” he said conversationally, quite as if he bought horses and carts almost daily.

Harry almost choked on his mealies. “You what?”

“I said, I bought a horse and cart today.”

“Why, for God’s sake?”

Barney sighed. “D’you remember when I first came to Kimberley I told you about followin’ this kopje walloper in his cart all mornin’?”

“I remember something but I don’t remember what,” Harry said shortly. He still could not imagine the faintest reason for Barney spending good money on a horse and cart. Horses ate food the same as humans, only a lot more. “So?”

“So,” Barney said equably, not at all disturbed by Harry’s attitude, “I noticed somethin’ that mornin’ that I never forgot. So when I heard the old walloper wanted to sell his horse and cart and go home, I remembered what it was I hadn’t forgot.”

“And just what did you remember you hadn’t forgot?” Harry asked sardonically.

“I remembered when I was followin’ him that mornin’, that old walloper never directed that horse. He just sat back, half asleep, and the horse made the stops. He’d pass up the yards they never stopped at, and just stop at the ones he knew the old man always went to.” Barney raised a finger for emphasis. “And just about everywhere that old horse stopped, the old man made himself a buy.”

“So what’s that got to do with you?”

“It’s got this,” Barney said intently. “I always figured when we got three hundred quid together, I was goin’ to have a try at bein’ a walloper. Now we got it and a bit more, even after buyin’ the horse, the cart, the old man’s loupe, and his scale. I even bought his belt,” Barney added. “You taught me enough about stones to get started; the rest I can learn as I go.”

Harry considered his brother in silence for several moments before he spoke. “No more culling?”

“Not for a while,” Barney said confidently. “The next cullin’ I do is goin’ to be on our own dirt. Or I’ll do the diggin’ and you can cull; it makes no difference.”

“With the three hundred pounds we have, we could hire Kaffirs and rent claims right now,” Harry pointed out. He was intrigued by Barney’s planning. He had thought they were doing fine, but it was obvious that his younger brother had far greater ambitions. He wondered for a moment where those ambitions would eventually end. “If you want the pleasure of breaking your back down in that hole, you can have it. I can work at my job mornings and sort afternoons.”

Barney shook his head. “No. Two things: first, it’s good you’re workin’ at a trader’s. I can get a reasonable price for any good stones I buy. And second, three hundred quid ain’t nowhere near enough to get us the claims I want.”

“And which claims do you want?”

Barney grinned. “I want the ones that are producin’ diamonds, and I mean diamonds!” He winked. “And I’ll know which ones those are after I been buyin’ and sellin’ for a few weeks…”

After paying for the equipment he had purchased, as well as for the horse and cart, and after arranging at the same stable for the horse’s keep, Barney’s first stop the following morning was at the sorting yard where he had first started going through already culled dirt. The bearded man, Jerry Weston, was still at the sorting table with the same red-haired partner. The two looked up as the horse came into the yard. Weston stared with surprise to see Barney at the reins.

“Hello, Barney.” Through his turn with Harry at the Paris Hotel, both brothers had become well-known by this time in the mining camp. “The old man hire you to drive for him today? Isn’t he feeling well?”

“Hello, Jerry. No, the rig is mine. I bought it off the old man yesterday. He’s off back home.” Barney grinned. “He got rich off you guys. Now it’s my turn.”

“You going to become a kopje walloper?”

“Goin’ to try, anyways,” Barney said. “You got anythin’ for me?”

Weston laughed. “Don’t waste any time, do you?”

“Don’t have time to waste. You got anythin’ to sell?”

“Well,” Weston said, quite as if he had given the matter much thought, “I’ve got a book to sell, if you’re in the market. It’s called Macbeth; wrote by a bloke named Shakespeare, to quote the seller. We’ve all read it — several times, as a matter of fact — but I understand you’ve gotten smart and rent out the books, now. Certainly you could use another volume in your library.”

“What d’you want for it?”

Weston pretended to think. His redheaded partner bit back a smile and bent back to his work, listening.

“Well,” Weston said, “let’s see. You gave the book in trade for the right to cull some dirt of ours. What you found in the dirt earned you the princely sum of sixpence, as I recall. With the way prices keep going up in this town, I’d say a pound for the book would be about right.”

“I’ll give you thruppence,” Barney said without hesitation.

Weston looked shocked. “Even less than your sixpence? Barney, Barney! If that’s the way you’re going to try and buy diamonds, nobody will sell to you.”

“Never mind how I buy diamonds,” Barney said flatly. “We’re talkin’ about somethin’ I know about — books. I’ll make that four-pence, but that’s it.” He thought a moment, frowning. “Look! How many of you guys read that book?”

“Three,” Weston said, going along with whatever Barney had in mind, just for the fun of it. “Me, Mac, and Red here.”

“And you each read it a couple of times, you said.”

“It’s the truth. I wouldn’t lie about something like that.” Red coughed and bent farther over the table. Weston bent a hurt look at his partner. Barney was going on with his analysis, paying no attention to them.

“Now, say it took you each three days to read it in your spare time. It stays light until eight, say, and nobody’s goin’ to waste kerosene readin’ after that. Besides, everybody’s too tired. So say three days. That’s eighteen days between you. If you was rentin’ the book, you’d have paid eighteen pence, only I didn’t think o’ that in time. So take off the tanner you figure I sold the book for in the first place, and by rights you should be givin’ me back the book plus a shilling.” He looked at Weston steadily. “Fourpence is generous.”

“Barney,” Weston said fervently, “you are far too much for me! Come around tomorrow and you can have your book back without payment of any kind — on either side, that is.”

“I said fourpence and fourpence it’ll be,” Barney said. “I’ll pay you when I get the book. Now, about diamonds…”

Weston looked at him seriously, his smile gone.

“Barney,” he said, “we joke about many things, or else we’d go crazy in this town. But we don’t joke about diamonds.”

“Neither do I,” Barney said evenly. “What d’you have?”

Weston looked at him a long moment, and then opened a pouch of his belt. He brought out two stones and placed them on Barney’s palm. Barney pulled his loupe from his pocket and began to examine the stones one by one. He had spent many hours with Harry over the trays in Harris’s shop, examining stones that belonged to the trader, and he had learned a great deal. The stones he was looking at were of excellent quality, each about two carats in weight, he judged, and each of a shape that would cut to at least a carat if not more. He took his scale from its box and weighed them; the total weight came to four point three one carats. He put the loupe aside and looked at Weston.

“They’re beautiful stones, Jerry,” he said sincerely. “You could sell them stones directly to any trader in town.”

Weston took a deep breath. He wrinkled his forehead and looked a bit embarrassed. He glanced over at Red, but his partner merely shrugged and went back to his work, leaving Weston to handle the situation. Weston scratched his head.

“Barney, I don’t quite know what to say.” He looked as if he were truly at a loss for words, a rare thing for Jerry Weston. “I’m used to wallopers coming in here and telling me my stones have sixteen flaws each way from center, or that they’re yellow as daisies, as if I were color-blind or just started sorting this morning. I’m used to them telling me no trader in his right mind would touch my stones with a honey-dipper stick, and only the inherent goodness of the kopje walloper’s heart permits him to take food from his children’s mouths in order to see that I don’t starve.” He sighed deeply, and shook his head. “It’s enough to bring tears to the eyes of a Piccadilly tart.”

He leaned forward earnestly.

“Now, I’m going to tell you something, Barney! I know the stones are perfect, just as I know the sun rises in the east! And I know I can sell them to any diamond dealer in town. That’s exactly what I had planned to do. That’s why they’re separated from the others.” He studied Barney’s face carefully. “Now, I have a question for you. You tell me this: what do you think you could get from a trader on the street — say a trader like Harris or Beit — for these stones?”

Harris was the dealer where Harry worked; Beit was the largest diamond buyer in Kimberley; according to rumor he was Rhodes’ partner in the dealing as Rhodes was with Rudd in the mining. Barney thought carefully, then shrugged. “I would say, at least a pound a carat; maybe more. Those stones would go for thirty, thirty-five shilling a carat in London.”

“To the penny what I figured,” Weston said quietly. “Do you want to buy them for a pound a carat?”

Barney’s eyes lit up; then his face fell. “You said you don’t joke about diamonds!”

“I don’t,” Weston said flatly. “Well?”

“Then, sure, I want to buy ’em! What else you got?”

Weston pulled out the balance of the stones culled that day, stones that would cut quite nicely to half or three quarters of a carat, or stones with tiny flaws, some with a slightly yellowish tinge, stones that would make a fine border to a necklace, or act as baguettes to an opal or tourmaline ring. Barney examined them all carefully and fully, and made as good an offer as he felt he could make. In several instances he recognized that he may have offered more than he could get for the stones when he went to sell them, but he knew that in order to get started, to take business from the established kopje wallopers, he had to make concessions; and the only concessions he could make were in price. When he was done, he put his scale back in its box, tucked the diamonds he had purchased carefully into the various pouches of his newly acquired belt, handed over the fourteen pounds and change to Jerry Weston, and climbed back into the cart. Jerry Weston reached up and shook his hand, smiling at him genially.

“You’re apt to turn this town on its ear,” he said, “paying honest prices for diamonds.”

“If I don’t go stony,” Barney said with a grin.

“Son, you won’t go stony,” Weston said with conviction. He put on his serious air. “Mister, if you’d like to wager on that, I’d be willing to give you some very interesting odds.”

Barney laughed and let the horse lead him from the yard. It occurred to him he had never even learned the horse’s name, but it didn’t seem to make any difference; there never seemed to be a need to give the horse directions. In fact, Barney was sure that at dusk, no matter where they were, the horse would automatically head for the stable.

He thought back on his dealing with Jerry Weston. He was sure the larger of the two stones alone would bring him a reasonable profit, not to mention the smaller; and the others, on balance, he was sure, would not cost him a penny if they didn’t actually bring him additional profit. And he had made a start, a purchase at his very first stop; and a purchase he was sure very few, if any, other wallopers would have been able to consummate. He leaned back, the reins loose, enjoying being carried, albeit at a snail’s pace. Now that he was a property owner of a sort — for surely a horse and cart were property — and now that he was in an established business — for surely the buying and selling of diamonds was an established business — there was no longer any good reason not to go and visit Fay Bees. He had purposely attempted not to think of her during the long months when he had been working day and night, saving his pennies, but his attempt had never really worked; Fay was seldom far from his thoughts. He realized there was still no chance at all for him with anyone that beautiful, but it would be good to see her again, just to look at her, possibly to touch her, but definitely to dream. He could recall, as if it were just that day, walking beside her on the trek, the feeling of absolute normality in having her next to him. He could picture her blond beauty, her budding but lovely figure, her neat movements. He could feel her arms about him on the bank of the river; he could still smell the freshness of her hair.

Of course, there was also the good chance that she was in love with some tall, handsome fellow in Bultfontein — if she wasn’t married by this time. He was in the midst of picturing Fay Bees — her name wouldn’t still be Bees, of course — married and bent over a scrubbing board while her handsome husband sat around doing nothing but drinking and smoking — when he became aware that the horse had stopped. A sorter was looking at him curiously; they were in another yard. The sorter was a man he didn’t recognize, but the man apparently knew him.

“Hi, Barney.” A habitué of the Paris Hotel, no doubt. “The old man hire you to drive his rig today?”

“No,” Barney said, climbing down. He was aware that he’d probably say the same bloody thing that day and many other days until he was fully established. “It’s me own rig now. Bought it off the old man just yesterday…”

Barney finished his calculations and looked across the evening fire at Harry. His expression was anything but happy. “Eight quid four and tuppence,” he said, and sighed.

Harry stared at him in surprise. “Why the God-’elp-us face? Over eight pounds clear the first day? You ought to be jumping for joy!”

Barney shook his head stubbornly. “Well, I ain’t! Oh, sure, it’s a decent day’s pull; fifty quid a week if it keeps up. Maybe even work up to a hundred a week in time. That’s no money.”

“No money! One hundred pounds a week? That’s as much as Pa makes in six months! More!”

“Pa ain’t in Kimberley,” Barney said flatly. “One hundred pounds a week and we’ll be here a year or more before we can even think of buyin’ a decent claim.” He thought a minute and then came to a conclusion. “We’ll just have to start with a cheaper claim, or maybe rent one or two, and buy better ones as time goes on.”

Harry could hardly believe what he was hearing. “You’re quitting the walloping after just one day to go into the big hole? And what are you going to do about the horse?” he added sarcastically. “Supper for the two of us for the next six weeks?”

“I’m not quittin’,” Barney said almost in disgust for having to explain. “I’m goin’ on wallopin’, but we need claims, too. That’s where the diamonds all come from, and let’s not forget that! We need some help. How old are Kate and Sarah’s boys?” He was referring to the eldest sons of his two sisters.

“Jack and Solly?” Harry had to think. “Jack has to be seventeen now, and Solly almost that old.”

“They’re old enough,” Barney said flatly. “Write them a letter; tell them to come out here. Let them borrow the fare, or let Kate’s husband take a loan on the King of Prussia. We’ll pay it back.” He looked around the tent. “And when they come we’ll have to find a better place to live; a place in town. With some room.”

“Why don’t we buy the Paris Hotel?” Harry asked sarcastically.

Barney looked at him. “Maybe we will, someday. You just write the letter.” He thought a moment. “And tell them to come up from Cape Town by coach. I want to get started as soon as they get here. We’ve been wastin’ time.”

Harry sighed. He stared into the fire a few moments and then looked up. “Barney, you’re nineteen, aren’t you?”

“Turned it last month. You know that.”

“Well,” Harry said, “you act like you just turned forty. Why don’t you slow down?”

Barney slowly reddened. “I got my reasons,” he said half defiantly. “And, by the way, you’ll have to do your old act tonight at the Paris. I’m goin’ to be busy.”

“Why? Where are you going?” A sudden wise look came to Harry’s eyes. “Ah! I begin to see a light! So the girl is in Kimberley!” He became serious, frowning across the fire at his brother. “And you haven’t seen her in all the months you’ve been here? Why?”

Barney took a deep breath. He couldn’t keep Fay a secret forever, and after all, Harry was his brother and closer to him than anyone else in the world. And he suddenly wanted to talk of Fay.

“Because,” he said quietly, staring into the fire, “I wasn’t goin’ to see her until I was properly started on somethin’. I met her on the trail; her ma was sick and died up by the Orange and we buried her there. Her name’s Fay. She had enough trouble without me botherin’ her. Also, I’d told her you’d hit it big up here and she probably knows by now that that’s a potful. People talk around here. She probably knows we’re doin’ an act at the Paris and figures we’d be starvin’ otherwise. Maybe she even knows I was cullin’ already culled dirt for a shillin’ or two.” He shook his head. “I couldn’t see her like that.”

He kept staring into the fire as he spoke, avoiding Harry’s eyes.

“Well, I’m started, now. I got a horse and a cart and they’re beginnin’ to know me at the sortin’ sheds. Now I can go see her. It won’t be like I was goin’ with me hat in me hand.” He held up a hand abruptly, almost as if to forestall Harry from speaking. “But don’t get no wrong ideas. That don’t mean nothin’. She ain’t goin’ to look twice at a short, ugly mug like me, and havin’ to wear spectacles at me age.” He tapped the pocket where he kept his newly acquired eyeglasses, needed for reading or for examining stones except when he was using his loupe. He glanced over at Harry speculatively, as if considering him in a new light. “She’d look at you twice, though—”

Harry smiled. He moved around the fire and put an arm around his brother’s shoulder.

“I don’t want your girl,” he said gently. “I’m sure she’s beautiful and wonderful and all that, but I’ve got someone waiting for me back in London, and the day I can go back with some decent money in my pocket, that’s where I’m going. And that’s the girl I’m going back to.” He squeezed Barney’s shoulder. “And don’t run yourself down. You’ve got a lot to offer to any girl.”

Barney looked at his brother and smiled ruefully. “It’s a bloody pity you ain’t Fay. Or Fay ain’t you,” he said, and climbed to his feet. “Well, I got to get goin’ down to the stable and get Rhodes.”

“Rhodes?”

“That’s what I decided to call me horse, they look so much alike,” Barney said with a grin, and with a wave of his hand started down the road.

Bultfontein had not treated Gustave Bees very well; the first claim he had rented had produced a total of exactly six carats of diamonds in the month he had held the license, and he realized he had simply rented an unproductive claim. The thing was to be more ambitious, he decided. If one wished to be successful, one had to take risks. To this end, therefore, he let it be known in the area that he was in the market for a rich, diamond-producing claim, and was willing to pay a decent price for it. He was not without offers, but drawing at last upon a canniness that normally was missing from his nature, he insisted upon examining the claims before making the deal. Most of the ones offered looked unproductive, and Gustave Bees had no intention of buying anything that even looked as if it contained no diamonds.

One day, however, he was examining a claim with the owner at his side when he saw a glint of something in the yellowish soil at his feet, and was suddenly sure he had been correct in waiting for the right claim. He bent to pick the stone from the ground and found he was holding a diamond of at least four carats! He handed it over to the claim’s owner, being an honest man, but the owner, obviously equally honest, insisted that if he bought the claim the diamond should rightfully belong to him. Impressed by this evidence of probity on the part of the other, Gustave Bees could not wait until he had convinced the other to take his oxen and wagon for the claim, and immediately began digging, sure that in a very short time he would be back in Simonstown, the owner of an inn as posh as that of the greengrocer.

When he had dug the claim for another month — with Fay helping to haul the dirt to the surface and then doing the sorting during the day, and cooking and washing clothes at night — and when the result of all this effort was another eighteen carats of stones that had been sold for a total of four pounds ten shillings, Gustave Bees began to suspect that he had been taken advantage of with a salted claim, but of course by this time his oxen and wagon were halfway to Durban. At this point, Gustave Bees decided that mining was not for him. With no other means of livelihood available to him, he had built himself a table in their tent and advertised the fact that Gustave Bees, Expert Tailoring, was available to the population of Bultfontein and surrounding areas for any of their garment needs. The table had the dual advantage of allowing him to work on pants or jackets without having the legs or sleeves drag on the dirt floor; while at night it served as his bed as Fay slept on a mat beneath it.

Actually, business was not too bad for the tailor. Cloth was available at a drapers’ shop in Kimberley House, the diggers were nowhere near as particular as the Simonstown dandies had been, nor were they averse to advancing the money for the cloth needed. Bees had brought with him his set of scissors and shears, as well as his stock of thread and sharp needles; the miners wore through their clothes at an astonishing rate, and money was free with those who had it. All in all, it made for a good enterprise, although it did require long hours, for the diggers tended to be impatient in the matter of delivery. And so Gustave Bees often worked well into the night, straining his eyes under the light of a pair of bright kerosene lanterns. And it was in this fashion that Barney Isaacs, easily directed to the Beeses’ tent, discovered the two, with Bees sewing away at one end of the table, and Fay cutting cloth at the other end of the same table.

Barney put his head through the tent flaps, wondering what his reception would be. Fay looked up from her work. To Barney’s total and devastating disappointment, there was complete nonrecognition on the girl’s face. He stepped farther into the tent, his neatly brushed derby in his hand. Bees looked up as at the entrance of a customer, but at that moment Fay gave a little cry.

“Barney!”

She started toward him, her hands out for his, and then stopped abruptly, putting her hands behind her. Between the two months of sorting dirt, and the doing of the washing, the cooking, and all the other necessary chores, her hands were reddened and chapped, and to her own astonishment she was suddenly ashamed of them. She had never thought of her hands before as anything except useful tools needed in her daily life; now they were ugly appendages that humiliated her. Barney hadn’t appeared to notice the gesture. All he noticed was that Fay at least remembered him, even if she didn’t feel like touching him, and that was enough for the moment. And at least she was still living with her father, which seemed to indicate she hadn’t gotten married as yet, and that also was enough for the moment. He advanced to face her, holding his hat tightly in both hands to give Fay an excuse not to put her own hands out again. Bees was watching curiously from his table. Barney assayed a grin; it was a sickly effort.

“Hoy, Fay. Remember me?”

“Of course I remember you.” She slipped her hands quickly beneath her apron and smiled dubiously. “How have you been keeping?”

“Oh, fine. And you?”

“Oh, we’re keeping well, thank you.”

Barney seemed to realize they weren’t alone in the tent. He looked over at Bees. “Hello, Mr. Bees.”

Bees merely stared at him a moment and then went back to his sewing. Barney turned back to Fay. They looked at each other in total silence for several long minutes. Barney wanted to say a million things: that he had never seen her more beautiful, to ask if she had any particular boy she was seeing regularly, if she had been feeling well, if he could see her again as soon as possible — but the words wouldn’t come out. He knew he looked an utter fool standing there like a clod, hanging on to his hat, tongue-tied, while she waited, with the patience of the angel she was, for him to say something, anything. But the words just wouldn’t come. Idiot! He never should have come! She must think him the biggest simpleton on earth! Suddenly, to his own astonishment and completely without thought or volition, he found he had put his hat down to one side and with an acrobatic jump had landed on the low sewing table in a cross-legged position. He grinned, a ghastly attempt, and reached for a needle and thread. He placed them to one side and picked up a roll of cloth, cut and waiting to be sewn, opened it, saw it was intended to be a pair of trousers with basting threads in place to indicate the seams and size, and nodded. He put on his new spectacles, neatly threaded the needle, and began sewing.

“Learned from the best in London,” he said as if he were talking to himself. “Me pa.”

Bees was staring at him as if he were out of his mind. He made a motion as if to take the cloth from Barney, but then he noticed that Barney was doing better than a creditable job. He obviously knew what he was doing. With a shrug as if it made little difference anyway, as if nothing made much difference anymore, Bees went back to his sewing and his constant daydreaming of his dead Emily.

Barney finished the inseam and paused to rethread the needle, proud of the job he had done, looking up. Fay had disappeared. In his concentration on the job he was doing, he hadn’t noticed her leaving the tent. Barney could have kicked himself. Probably ashamed of me for the spectacle I made of meself, Barney thought bitterly, his face getting red. I’m truly a fool, a bloody fool! What on earth made me jump on that table, showing off? I’d better get out of here while she’s gone, and leave the poor girl alone in the future. Can’t imagine what I was thinkin’ of comin’ here in the first place! Lettin’ her see me with them glims on me eyes like some old bookkeeper, and me legs crossed on the table showin’ off I can sew. Oh, I ain’t ashamed of bein’ able to sew; only thing is, chances are Fay can sew better than her old man and fifty times better than me. But I always got to show off, to brag how good I am. Tryin’ to make meself taller that way, as if I didn’t have enough brains to know that don’t work. When am I ever goin’ to grow up? No wonder she walked out. Enough to make a person give up his supper, seein’ a exhibit like that!

He put the needle back where it belonged, rolled the partially sewn trousers up again, and climbed from the table. He retrieved his hat and looked at Bees, prepared to say good night, but the man was paying no attention to anything, sewing away steadily, his lips moving as he talked to himself. Poor Fay, Barney suddenly thought with a rush of pity, tied down to a crock like that, his mind half gone with his wife’s death. Well, at least I won’t bother her no more…

He sighed at the failure of the evening, an evening he had looked forward to for so long, and stepped outside. Fay was standing there, looking at the horse and cart. Barney’s jaw tightened. She probably thinks I rented ’em for the evening, just to impress her, Barney thought, suddenly bitter. “They’re mine,” he said brusquely. “Bought ’em for me job. I’m doin’ kopje wallopin’ over at Kimberley.”

“Barney,” she softly. “Are you angry with me?”

“Angry with you?” Barney was startled. “Why should I be angry with you?”

“I don’t know. But you didn’t talk to me—”

Barney shook his head in confusion. Suddenly the truth spilled from him with the same lack of volition that had led him to jump on the sewing table without thinking.

“No,” he said half angrily, and now it was as if he were speaking to himself and for himself. He stared at the ground, avoiding looking at the girl. “I’m angry at meself. I’m angry with me fer bein’ short, shorter even than you, and fer not bein’ good-lookin’ and fer havin’ to wear eyeglasses when I’m only nineteen years old. I’m angry with me fer not takin’ the trouble to talk proper when I really can if I want to. I’m angry with me fer bein’ a fool where you’re concerned. But mainly I’m angry fer wastin’ my time and yours by bein’ in love with you.” He looked up defiantly. “But I won’t bother you none no more.”

He started to climb into the cart; her hand on his arm stopped him, turned him to face her.

“Only one thing you said there is true,” she said, sounding angry herself. “That was when you said you’re a fool! You’re a fool to think any of the things you said.” She shook her head in irritation. “As if your height makes the slightest difference! And I don’t know what you think is good-looking in a man, but I suspect our opinions on that are quite different. As for the eyeglasses, my heavens! I think they make you look — well, older and even a bit distinguished. As for your speech, that’s pure laziness and we both know it. I could have you speaking properly in no time, if you’d only let me.” She hesitated a moment. “I’ll forget what you said about being in love because I don’t think either one of us really knows what being in love is. But what I would like to know is why you think you’d be wasting your time seeing me.”

Barney’s confusion had deepened. “You put your hands behind you when I come — came in. You didn’t even want to touch me.”

Fay looked at him steadily. “Take my hands.”

She held them out. Barney frowned and took them, holding them tightly. He stared down at their clasped hands, unable to see them clearly in the darkness, not knowing the reason for the gesture, but pleased to be touching Fay. “What about them?”

“You talk about being ugly; they are ugly. I was ashamed of them. I was afraid you’d be ashamed of them, too, and I didn’t want that. I culled dirt at the mine the first two months we were here; I broke up the lumps with a pick and shovel while Pa dug; we couldn’t afford help. I make the soap I use to wash clothes and the lye burns holes in the skin. My hands are awful. I never thought about them until I saw you walk into the tent tonight. Then I didn’t want you to see them.”

“Fay—”

“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again,” she said quietly. “We’ve been two miles away from each other for over six months, and you never made any attempt to look me up, to see how I was, what I was doing…” Her voice was on the verge of breaking.

“Fay, you don’t understand—”

“What don’t I understand? I thought we were friends—”

Barney took a deep breath. “My brother… Remember I told you he’d hit it rich in Kimberley? I wasn’t bragging or lying; I thought he had. Well, he hadn’t hit it big at all. In fact, he’d gone stony. And I had twenty quid to me name in me kicks — twenty pounds in my pocket, I mean, when I got here, and thin prospects. I couldn’t come to see you like that—”

“Why not?” Fay’s voice was bitter. “You couldn’t come to see a friend? I didn’t know a soul. I didn’t have a friend in the world. I still don’t. And who are we to be proud? You couldn’t come to see me because you didn’t have any money?” She looked at him steadily a moment and then looked down at the road. “My pa traded our oxen and wagon for a claim that gave less than twenty carats in a month, after digging a month on a claim he’d rented that gave even less. If the diggers didn’t advance the money for the cloth, we wouldn’t even be in tailoring.” She kicked at the dirt in the road, shook her head, and then looked up again. “Ah, what’s the use? You’re the one who doesn’t understand, Barney Isaacs.”

Barney continued to hold her hands tightly. Suddenly he bent and kissed the back of one hand and then quickly straightened up, feeling his face get red. Fay made no motion to indicate approval or rejection.

“I’m sorry,” he said, and meant it. “You’re right. I didn’t understand.” There was the briefest of pauses while Barney tried to find the right words. “Can I come around Sunday? The mines are shut down. We can have a picnic. I’ll bring everything,” he added hastily.

“I go to church.”

“Can I come around after church?”

Fay suddenly made up her mind. “Come around before church,” she said. “Come early, very early. We’ll go for a ride in the country. Away from here.” She looked around as if she could see the squalor about them in the darkness. “As far away from here as possible!”

She tugged her hands free; Barney released them reluctantly. She walked to the tent and then turned, looking back at him. “Good night, Barney Isaacs,” she said without expression, and disappeared inside.

Barney slowly climbed into his cart, his mind whirling. Fay Bees didn’t dislike him; from the way she had talked she even liked him. Oh, it wasn’t anything like love, he knew that; she had certainly made that clear enough. But it was friendship, and that was something. That was a great deal, and he’d been a fool for not having come to see her months before. Fay had had a rough time of it, and he might have been able to help in some way — but the reason he hadn’t, of course, was because he had been working for her, although naturally she would never know that, nor should she. The man Fay eventually fell in love with and married, Barney knew, would be good-looking and tall and not wear spectacles, but that didn’t necessarily mean that he’d be successful; and if Fay ever needed anything, Barney intended to see that she got it, no matter how he arranged it. He considered himself very lucky that somebody hadn’t offered her help during the six months he had allowed to pass without trying to see her. He could scarcely have blamed her had she been forced to accept.

It was a thought Barney preferred not to dwell upon. It hadn’t happened so there was no need to think of it, even though the thought kept trying to interject itself in his mind. Instead, he let old Rhodes carry him back to the center of Kimberley, through the tent village of Bultfontein, along the deserted Dutoitspan Road, aware of the fragrance of the night once the odors of the tent village were behind him and the open country between Bultfontein and Kimberley proper was being traversed. He felt totally alive, aware of everything about him, as if he had wakened from a long sleep. He remembered the thrill of holding Fay’s hands — strong hands they were, and fine hands, much put upon by the demands of a father who didn’t deserve a daughter like that — and he hadn’t noticed any roughness since his own were so calloused he couldn’t have noticed if he’d wanted to. He thought of her putting her hands behind her so he couldn’t see or feel what she thought was ugliness, and he felt proud in being considered a friend to that extent. It was a warm feeling, a good feeling, but also a sad feeling, in knowing he would never possess those hands, that girl, her love…

They had their Sunday picnic on the banks of the River Vaal to the west; not the Orange River to the south with the grave of Emily Bees to cast a shadow over the carefree spirit of the day. Fay Bees never wanted to forget her mother as she remembered her in Simonstown, a beautiful, wonderful, active, spirited person. The sickly, coughing, fevered, spitting woman who finally succumbed to the pressures of the trek and died to leave her daughter all alone was certainly not her mother, nor did Fay ever want to see again the stone cairn that hid from sight that stranger.

They spoke of many things that day; their pasts, so different: a girl raised in a small town like Simonstown on the tip of South Africa; a boy brought up in the slums of London. A girl who was an only child and now an orphan; a boy from a large family, a father, a mother, a brother, and two sisters, with aunts, uncles, nephews, and cousins all over the place. They spoke of their schooling, hers a church school with rigid discipline, his the Jews’ Free School in Bell Lane in the East End, and the further education picked up in the streets. They spoke of the troubles each had gotten into as children, and Barney learned that despite the differences they had many things in common. They were, after all, still two teenagers, brought through the oddity of events to play the role of adults. And Barney did the entire final speech of Mathias from The Bells without the slightest trace of Cockney accent, while old Rhodes looked up from his grazing with eyebrows cocked to see his master posturing so oddly — and Barney, of course, did not admit that he had been practicing the speech ever since he had last seen her, and Fay clapped her hands and congratulated him, nor did she admit she still thought it very funny, even without the accent. And as they rode back to Kimberley in the afternoon, with the sun warm on their backs and their silence as intimate as their conversation had been, Barney suddenly broke that silence. “You’ll like my brother, Harry. We’ll stop by and you can meet him when we get back. He’s taller than me, and real good-looking.” It had occurred to Barney that Harry was a long way from that girl of his he had spoken of — if she really existed and Harry hadn’t invented her to make Barney feel better — and that Harry and Fay would make a great couple. If he couldn’t have her, and it was evident he never could, at least his brother was someone he knew, liked, and trusted. It was true that Harry had no great drive, no great ambitions to get ahead, but he, Barney, would be in the family and he had drive enough for both of them. And for a girl like Fay, maybe even Harry would begin to get ambitious.

Fay merely looked at him a bit oddly, but said nothing, and Barney thought he had said enough on the matter for the time being. Nature, he was sure, would take its course. It was a bittersweet feeling, but there was actually no sacrifice involved, and he was honest enough with himself to admit it. He had no chance with Fay; he had never had any chance with Fay. So it wouldn’t be as if he were giving her up; he had never had her. They continued back in the silence he had broken, each with his own thoughts, with old Rhodes plodding along undoubtedly with his own thoughts, too.

And Fay did like Harry when she met him. He was handsome, he was clever, he was funny. Barney watched the two of them in silence as they exchanged mots and Fay laughed, and he remembered how she had laughed when he had done Mathias on the trek, but it was an entirely different kind of laughter. Now she was enjoying herself, not the way she had been when he had seen her outside her tent a few nights back. And when he got back from taking a quiet Fay home and dropping a tired and hungry old Rhodes at his stable, Harry was waiting up for him.

“You were right. She’s a beautiful girl,” Harry said.

“I never told you she was beautiful.”

“She is, anyway,” Harry said, and laughed.

“Did you like her?”

“Very much,” Harry said, and looked at Barney with that wise look of his. “Why?”

“Nothing,” Barney said shortly, and went to bed, wishing somehow that he hadn’t introduced the two, although he knew this was simply stupid. A girl like Fay was not going to be without a steady beau forever, and why not Harry? But why Harry, as far as that went? It was all very confusing. Best not to think about it. Concentrate on the kopje walloping, make money, get rich, and forget about Fay. Except as a friend, because as a friend he had asked her if he could come visiting the following Wednesday, and when he saw her then he intended to ask her to go on another picnic the next Sunday. And the Sunday afterward, and the Sunday after that. He fell asleep, dreaming of all the Sundays to come, and the wonderful pain of being with Fay and knowing he could never have her…

5

June 1877

When Armando Mattos Silveira de Costa was a mere child in his native country of Angola, he was by far the largest child his age in the district, if not in the entire country. His mother, as proud of him as she could be even though his birth had been such that she could have no other children, used to pinch his fat cheeks, leaving large red blotches, and say to the neighbors, “Have you ever seen such a child? And you should see how he eats! He’ll grow up to be a giant!”

And as Armando grew up he did, indeed, appear to be headed for gianthood. His appetite also seemed to increase. His father, a poor planter with a poor farm in the Benguela district on the Cubango River, was hard put to furnish the food his son consumed. It was true that as Armando grew he was also becoming more useful on the farm, since at the age of fourteen he could easily replace an ox in pulling a plow, but on the balance, as far as his father was concerned, it appeared that Armando was going to eat more than the extra output the farm would gain from his strength. It was a problem! his father thought with his usual bitterness, and one seemingly without solution, since the boy was the apple of his mother’s eye — which was one more reason his father had grown to hate his son. What boy of fourteen still slept with his mother, thus depriving his father of his marital rights? And the woman apparently could not understand the simple fact that, in addition to robbing his father of the normal love any man should expect from a wife, her monstrous son was going to eat them out of house and home, especially as he grew bigger and — supposedly — even hungrier.

Until one day when Armando’s father took the boy — then eighteen years old and huge — into Nova Lisboa with him to help him unload the ox wagon containing what little of the farm’s produce was left for sale in the market square. It was not that Armando’s father was not strong enough to unload the wagon himself — he was also a large man, although not Armando’s size — but his growing hatred for his son was equaled only by his own laziness. Besides, he saw no reason why the overgrown lout should not earn at least a small portion of his board.

Their small stock was soon disposed of, and the two started off to pick up the necessities they had been instructed to return with by the planter’s wife — a fifty-kilo bag of flour for baking, fifty kilos of sugar to last the coming season, and some salt and thread. Armando had easily lifted each fifty-kilo sack, one in each hand, placing them in the wagon with their other purchases, when his father jerked a thumb at him.

“You wait here, and I mean here!” he said brusquely, pointing his thumb downward, and headed across the square to a bar, walking inside. Armando waited where he was, and then he noticed something he had never seen before. Across the square from him, almost next to the bar his father had gone into, a man was nailing some colorful posters onto a wall. Armando walked over to see what they were all about. They were apparently advertising a circo, whatever that was, that was being held in a large tent in a different square. Armando didn’t know what the posters were all about, but he did like the colors of them, and there was a girl’s picture on one of them which portrayed her in a costume that left her as close to being nude as Armando had ever seen a girl other, of course, than the natives his mother kept sending to his bed to keep him — she said — from touching himself and going crazy. Armando was still admiring the colorful sheets when his father came out of the bar, smelling of whiskey. He frowned direly to see his son had not remained at the wagon where he had been told to stay.

“What are you doing here? I thought I told you—”

“Papa, what is a circo?”

“Foolishness is what it is,” his father said sourly. “Some acrobats, maybe a clown — a silly man with paint on his face — a woman with a beard, possibly a girl that rides a horse standing up, and some worn-out animals. As if we don’t see enough animals — may they rot in hell! — without going to a circus to see more! Come on!” He took Armando painfully by the ear and pulled; it had been his method of controlling the boy since childhood. This time, however, Armando resisted.

“I would like to see this circus,” he said.

“What you would really like is a touch of the whip!” his father said viciously, and started to unwind the sjambok from his belt; a little liquor had a tendency to make Armando’s father recall all the injustices to which his life had been subjected, not the least of which had been this monstrous son. But he had barely drawn the sjambok back, prepared to let it whistle across his son’s back as an outlet for all his frustrations, when Armando reached out and plucked the whip from his father’s hand. As people stopped to stare, Armando wound one end of the whip about one large hand, and holding the other end tightly, he gave one jerk and broke the sjambok in two. There were gasps from the people watching. The whip had been made from a thin strip of rhinoceros skin and no one had ever seen a sjambok broken before; supposedly they could not be broken. Armando tossed the broken whip aside and then picked his father up. He lifted him over his head and threw him a good fifteen feet, to land heavily against the wheel of a nearby ox wagon. Armando then walked over, dragged his father back from the wheel, and raised him by his ankles, upending him and shaking him until some loose change fell free from his pockets. Armando then dropped his unconscious father, picked up the loose silver coins, and started to walk away. He had finally done what he had wanted to do since he was ten years old, when his father had taken him by the ear and pushed him temporarily from his mother’s side to take his place in that warm, comfortable refuge. It was obvious to Armando that returning home was now impossible, but before he made any definite plans for the future, he intended to see this circo and find out what it was all about. And to determine if, indeed, the girl in the poster was that close to being nude, or if, indeed, she worked for the circo at all.

But he had only taken a step or two when he was confronted. It was the man who had been nailing up the posters; he was still holding the hammer. Armando frowned. He was in no mood to be further threatened that day, but before he could take the hammer from the man’s hand and either break it in two or thrust it down the man’s throat, the man had stepped back and dropped the hammer, evidently realizing the possible misinterpretation that could be put upon the tool.

“Wait!” the man said hastily, holding up an apologetic hand. “How would you like a job?”

Armando let his huge arms fall, relaxing his fists. Here he was leaving home for the first time in his life, and two minutes after the decision had been made, he was being offered a job! Well, with his size and strength, it was not surprising. There were undoubtedly many jobs to be had — loading wagons, unloading wagons. This man probably wanted him to finish nailing up the posters. Well, he could do that, too. It took little brains that he could see.

“What’s the job?” he asked.

“Working in the circus. As the strong man,” the man said.

He could get into the circus without paying! Then Armando stopped to think. “What’s a strong man in the circus supposed to do?” he asked suspiciously, and then shook his head at himself for being so stupid. Undoubtedly to put up the tent. Well, he could do that, too.

“Just lift things,” the man said, and eyed Armando’s size and the muscles in the big arms. He didn’t know how the next statement might be taken, so he made his voice conversational, making it all seem quite innocuous. “Maybe sometimes fight people, too.”

“Fight people?” Normally Armando did not like to fight people; his mother was opposed to his fighting. Still, he had fought all the boys in his school, many of them older — although not bigger — and he had never lost. And he had been taught that when one took a job one did what one was told. “All right,” he said. “How much would the job pay?”

The man wet his lips. He would have liked to say just room and board, but there was always the possibility that the boy was not as stupid as he looked. He didn’t look particularly bright, but why take a chance with a boy that size? With those monstrous muscles? “You come along with me,” the man said confidently. “We’ll come to some arrangement, I’m sure.”

And that was how Armando Mattos Silveira de Costa became known as the Man Mountain of Angola, the Angolan Ape, the Benguela Beast; as well as being billed as the Strongest Man in the World! That was also how the posters that advised the world thereafter of Armando’s talents all stated that he would fight any man in the audience for a period of six rounds by any rules the challenger might prefer, the challenger, should he defeat Armando, to receive Five Pounds! On the other hand, should the challenger lose — which had never failed to occur — the challenger was guaranteed the best medical aid the town where the bout took place could offer. To Armando it meant a few minutes of minimum effort, for the local champions that fell before his lethal fists it meant momentary glory and often the soothing hand of some fair maiden afterward, and to the owner of the circus, of course, it meant a performance for which all tickets never failed to be sold. Everyone was happy.

Except Armando’s mother, even though her pride in her son now came close to bursting the heart in her more than ample breast as she heard of triumph after triumph for the fruit of her loins. She would lean over and cuff her husband’s ears.

“The money could have been ours, idiota!” she would say viciously, and swing the heavy arms that were Armando’s legacy. “Burro! Bêsta! Estúpido!” And Armando’s father would sadly know that he would sleep alone one more night…

The money that had been earned in the almost three years since Barney and Harry Isaacs’ two nephews had arrived in Kimberley had not been bad money; in the East End of London it would have been untold wealth. But the East End was not Kimberley, and the ambitions Barney Isaacs had had in the East End were not the ambitions Barney Isaacs had in Kimberley in southern Africa. For one thing, there had been no Fay Bees — beautiful, desirable Fay Bees — in the East End. Although Barney would have been the first to admit that any attempt at matchmaking on his part had been a total failure.

“Barney,” Harry had said one day with narrowed eyes to indicate he was running short of patience, a thing quite unlike Barney’s normally calm brother, “are you trying to push your girl friend off onto me?”

Barney had instantly flared. “What d’you mean?”

“What I say. Now, look,” Harry had said in a more normal tone, “I like Fay. She’s a great girl, and a beautiful girl. But she’s simply not for me. Or me for her, as far as that goes. I told you before that I have a girl waiting for me back in London that I’m going back to as soon as we build up our stake a little more.”

“You’re crazy,” Barney said but without conviction, and somehow felt happy about it.

“I’m crazy,” Harry had agreed evenly, and had looked at his brother a long moment. “Anyway,” he added quietly, “one of us is crazy.” And he had gone about his business.

True, Barney Isaacs was now the top kopje walloper in the Kimberley area. The best stones — those that were offered to wallopers and not dealers in the first place — were offered to him. And for the stones he bought, he received the best prices when he resold them. He had established a reputation for honesty and integrity, as well as one for his detailed knowledge of diamonds, and it all helped. But he was still only a kopje walloper and no more, and he knew it. And it galled him. He wasn’t a diamond trader, a dealer, and that was the bitter fact. He worked out of his hat, so to speak — or, rather, out of old Rhodes’ oat bag, which was more like it. He had no stock, nor any office in which to display large quantities of stones to the buyers from London or Paris; that was the way to make money! Not buying and selling one or two decent stones a day, together with a dozen or so inferior ones. They had made some money, he didn’t deny that; but they hadn’t made what he called money! What he meant was, he didn’t have capital. He had his daily profits, plus what Jack Joel and Solly Loeb took from the two claims he had bought as part of their general partnership, but they weren’t great claims. They lay near the reef, rather than in the center of the mine; but unfortunately, those in the center of the mine cost real money.

Oh, yes, things had changed in the four years since Barney had become a kopje walloper; but he didn’t know if they had changed for the better or not, or at least had changed as he would have wished. His two nephews were there, it was true, and they had both turned out to be hardworking, intelligent boys, who didn’t seem to mind the long hours down in the mine, or the boring but vital work at the sorting table. It was also true that the diamond market had improved and decent stones that could be cut to a carat or more could now easily bring as much as four pounds a carat. More diggers had formed partnerships to work the mines more efficiently; fewer were leaving. Kimberley was beginning to take on the appearance of an organized town. Barney’s few books, the ones he had rented out until they had fallen to pieces, would have been a joke now. Someone had raised subscriptions and had started a free library, which had its own building and everything, even a full-time librarian. Tents were now by far in the minority, and the Miner’s Committee had strict rules as to the killing of animals and the disposal of wastes.

Yes, Kimberley and the diamond business had changed, but not Fay. She still seemed to remain the same. She still seemed unable to find someone to settle down with, and she had to be approaching twenty now, and certainly more than old enough to get married. And she still remained with her father, who in addition to getting older seemed to be getting more and more odd with each passing day. And, Barney thought, Fay seemed to get more and more beautiful as time passed. And still as distant and unattainable for him as the moon.

It was a sad thought but one that remained with him constantly, and as he led old Rhodes to the stable and then walked over to the Paris Hotel, where he and Harry now shared a room, he wondered at the rut into which he seemed to have fallen. As far as Harry was concerned, Barney knew, it was a comfortable rut and one that gave a very decent profit to add to their relatively large and growing account in the Kimberley Bank; but then Harry was planning on taking his share of the money and going to London very soon, intending to settle down and get married. But that was not at all what Barney wanted. He didn’t know exactly what he did want, but he knew it was different from what he had.

He paused to scrape the mud from his boots before entering the hotel, and noticed a poster nailed to one side of the door. It was advertising a circus. Barney smiled faintly. At one time, as a boy in Petticoat Lane, he had hoped to join a circus, use his acrobatic talents there; he wondered where he would have been now had he done so instead of taking off to join Harry in Africa. It was a pointless thought, he knew. For one thing he would never have met Fay, although in all honesty that probably would have been better. Had he not met her he might have been happily married to someone else, although he could not picture any other girl he would have wanted. He put the thought away almost forcibly and was about to abandon the poster when he noticed an additional statement at the bottom of the printed sheet. It stated that the Man Mountain of Angola, the Strongest Man in the World, would take on any challenger in the world for six rounds of boxing, the challenger to receive the sum of Five Pounds should he best the champion. Barney grinned broadly at the ridiculous thought that anyone in Kimberley would chance getting his head beat off for the paltry sum of five pounds, the price of a few meals in that highly inflationary area. And then he suddenly stopped short as an idea struck him. It was so simple, as all truly great ideas always are, that he wondered it had taken him all of several seconds to have thought of it! Five pounds, of course, was absurd. It was even completely inconsequential. There was real money to be gained, enough money, in fact, to allow him to realize his ambitions! And the more he examined his idea, standing staring at the poster, the better he liked it. He checked the data on the colorful poster once again, and saw the circus would remain in Kimberley a full week. More than ample time to put his scheme in operation!

With his idea bubbling in his head like champagne, Barney walked into the hotel and went to the bar, looking for Harry. His brother was at the far end of the bar, surrounded by a group as he told them a story. There was a burst of laughter as Harry ended. He noticed Barney and waved him over, but Barney motioned to his brother to come to him instead. The two made their way into the dining area and sat at a table that allowed privacy for their conversation. Barney waved away a waitress as Harry studied his brother’s face, noting the inner excitement. He frowned slightly. He hadn’t seen Barney in this mood for a very long time.

“All right, Barney,” he said. “What’s on your mind?”

Barney was barely able to hold back a grin. “Harry, how much money do we have in the Kimberley Bank?”

Harry held up a hand. “Hold it! Whatever brainstorm you have, remember that half of that money is mine. And the boys also each have a share; they’ve contributed.”

Barney waved that aside as being totally unimportant. “How much do we have there?”

Harry considered him for several seconds before answering. “A little more than four thousand pounds.”

“Fine!” Barney said with evident satisfaction. “We’re going to multiply that by ten to twenty times. Inside of a week!”

“Oh? And just how do we perform this miracle? Rob the bank? Or buy a printing press and print our own?”

“No. We’re going to let people give it to us. Force it on us, practically.” Barney leaned forward, unconsciously dropping his voice although there was nobody near them. “Harry, when you came in, did you see that poster outside advertisin’ a circus?”

“I know all about it. They’re staying at the Queen’s Hotel and I saw them there when I went to lunch. So what does the circus have to do with us? What do we do to get rich — open a fish-and-chips stand next to them? Or cotton candy?”

Barney paid no attention to the sarcasm, waving it away impatiently. “Did you see where they have someone they call the Man Mountain of Angola, or somethin’ like that? Who will fight anyone six rounds any rules, and if the challenger wins, he gets five quid?”

“So? Who in his right mind is going to fight some giant for a mere five pounds?”

“Me,” Barney said quietly, and leaned back in triumph.

“You?” Harry stared across the table. “You’ve been out in the sun too much! Among other things, I saw the man they call the Man Mountain at the Queen’s this noon, and that’s just what he is. He’s roughly — not roughly, more than — twice as big as you are. And he has to weigh a good ten stone more than you. His fist is bigger than your head, and that’s even when your head is swelled, like now.”

“All the better, his size. I figured on him being twice me size.”

Harry shook his head. “What do you mean, all the better? And did you figure on a trip to the hospital when you figured he was twice your size? Anyway,” Harry added, frowning, “how will your being battered to death by this monster make us rich?”

“I ain’t goin’ to be battered,” Barney said half angrily. “And we’re goin’ to get rich real simple.” He leaned forward again. “Harry, when they see the size o’ this bloke, and then they think o’ me — with me specs and me toff clothes — which I’ll wear this week” — Barney had automatically gone back to his East End accent in his excitement — “what odds you think any bloke in the street’ll give I don’t even walk out o’ the ring, but they gotta carry me?”

“Same odds I’d give,” Harry said coldly. “A hundred to one.”

“You see?” Barney shrugged happily. “There you are. I was thinkin’ you could get ten or twenty to one as easy as falling down the reef. If you can get more, all the better.”

Harry was staring at him almost in shock. “Are you serious?”

“O’ course I’m serious!”

“You honestly expect me to put our money on a dumb wager like that? Against a man who could break you in two with one finger?”

“He’s gotta get that one finger on me first,” Barney said confidently. “Look, Harry, you and me’s been sparrin’ almost every mornin’ just to keep in shape, ain’t we? And yer bigger and stronger than me, ain’t you? Well, how many times you been able to floor me?”

“Enough times,” Harry said evenly. “And I’m not this Angolan monster. He floors you once, you’ll probably never get up. And I haven’t the slightest intention of chancing — not even chancing, losing — our money on a proposition like that!”

He started to rise to indicate the conversation was over as far as he was concerned. Barney reached over and pushed him back into his chair. His blue eyes were icy.

“Harry,” he said quietly, “I don’t want to say nothin’, and you and me’s been partners share and share alike since I got here, and that’s the way I always wanted it to be; but yer forcin’ me to remind you who put in ninety per cent o’ the money in that bank account. Yer screw at yer job’d just about feed you, and we both know it. Now, I say ninety per cent of the money in that bank is mine, and we both know it; but if you want to split the brass fifty-fifty right down the middle and go yer way, writin’ an end to Barnato Brothers, all you gotta do is say so, and we’ll go down to the bank tomorrow mornin’ and settle it. And I’ll have one o’ the boys set up the bets with me share o’ the money, or I’ll do it meself.” He leaned over the table. “But I’ll tell you this: I can take that cove! I ain’t never seen him, but I seen big guys before, and I don’t care how big he is. The bigger the better. Them big guys can’t hardly lift their arms, and they’re so slow I could have a cuppa while they’re standin’ up.”

Harry was listening, white-faced. Barney wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and went on.

“And I’ll tell you somethin’ else, too. I ain’t goin’ to be no kopje walloper all me bloody life! I’m goin’ to be a dealer, a trader, and I need more money to do that proper than I can get bummin’ me way from sortin’ shed to sortin’ shed every bloody day o’ me life, practically beggin’ to be given a bone, like some pariah dog! And I want some decent claims, in the center o’ the bloody mine, not under the bloody reef where you gotta keep lookin’ up every five minutes to see if half the edge is goin’ to fall in on you! And where yer lucky to pick up wages for all the work that goes into the bloody business!”

He almost sneered at his silent brother across the table.

“Yer worried about yer bloody money! So’s you can go home and get married, with just enough brass to set yerself up in some shack in the East End and raise kids and end up like Pa or old man Feldman, wonderin’ how yer goin’ to feed them! Yer so bloody thick you can’t see this is a real chance to go home in style and open a office there to sell the stones direct that I can buy here in Kimberley as a dealer. It would be a branch office of Barnato Brothers, because that’s what we’d call it.” There was a missionary’s zeal in his voice; then it disappeared as he stared at his brother. “But you can’t see it. That’s how bloody thick you are.” He came to his feet. “Well, make up yer mind. In or out. Me half o’ the four thousand quid goes, anyway. But it’s in or out for you, and for keeps.”

He waited while Harry took a deep breath. He had never seen Barney like that; it was as if he had taken a dressing-down from his father. He swallowed and, mentally asking forgiveness of his girl in London, he said, quietly, “In.”

“Good,” Barney said expressionlessly, and looked at the clock over the bar. “Well, you can start figuring out the best way to push the odds up as high as you can. I’m on my way to the Queen’s Hotel to give that big man of yours a challenge.”

His accent had disappeared as quickly as it had come.

The word of the fight swept the town, from word of mouth, mostly with delighted grins on faces — since it had to be assumed that little Barney Isaacs would simply try to clown his way through the fight and thus gain admirers for his nerve or future customers for his walloping, since he had no chance of winning — to articles in both J. B. Robinson’s Independent and the more established Diamond News. The Independent, in line with its owner’s racial prejudices, treated the matter as a joke, and exhibited a cartoon showing a big-nosed David opposing a handsome Goliath, with the exception that Goliath, calmly picking his teeth, was pictured with one large foot on the neck of a sprawling, squalling David. The Diamond News, in its more staid fashion, reported the coming fistic bout as a straight news item. It mentioned the fight as bringing together a well-known personality of Kimberley, known in the past for his performances at the Paris Hotel; and a visiting circus performer. It mentioned that interest in the fight was running exceptionally high, stated that since the Miner’s Committee frowned on fighting for money in the town, the fight would not take place at the circus but at the Eagle’s Nest, six miles out of town. (It did not mention that the circus owner had pleaded with the committee for hours, and in the end had wanted to drop the fight altogether, except for the inordinate interest the town had seemed to take in it.) The article continued by stating that the wagering on the outcome of the fight seemed to overwhelmingly favor the circus performer. The circus performer, the article further mentioned, was also the strong man in the circus, and had had over thirty bouts in the previous six months, winning them all quite easily. The article then concluded the man’s success was undoubtedly due to his size and weight, which they gave.

Fay, reading the article, was angry. She reached for her shawl, said, “Pa, I’ll be right back,” and hurried from the tent, leaving her father, as always, talking softly to himself. She walked as quickly as she could the two miles from Bultfontein to the Harris shop in the central portion of Kimberley, glanced in and saw that Harry Isaacs was busy, and waited impatiently until he was free. Then she hurried inside.

“What’s this about Barney fighting a man over twice his size?” she demanded.

Harry shrugged apologetically. It was difficult for him to give a proper explanation when he agreed with the girl completely. “It’s his decision,” he said weakly. “If you know Barney…” He left the balance of the statement unfinished as being understood.

“But he’ll be hurt!”

“Maybe not. Barney’s pretty good.” Since wagering their entire bank account of over four thousand pounds at exceedingly high odds, Harry had forced himself to try to believe that Barney might have a chance of winning. Any other consideration was simply too terrible to contemplate.

“Well,” Fay said suddenly. “I’m going to the fight.”

“You can’t!” Harry was scandalized and tried to explain. “Fay, women don’t go to fights. A lot of the men there — most of the men, most probably — will be drunk, and there are usually more fights in the audience than there are in the ring. It could be dangerous for you to go, and Barney would be dead set against it.”

“Barney doesn’t need to know,” Fay said stubbornly.

Harry tried to get the girl to be realistic. “How would he not know? The only woman at a fight! Men would be around you like flies, and Barney would be out in the crowd pounding someone!” Another thought came, a horrible thought. “Or else it would take Barney’s mind from the fight, and that’s the last thing we need!”

“Barney won’t know. Nobody will know. I’ll go dressed as a man.”

Harry looked at the girl as if she were mad. “You wouldn’t fool anyone for an instant! After all…” He let the words trail to silence. Fay had developed into quite a full-busted woman. Harry changed the subject. “Anyway, how would you get there?”

“With you.”

“But I’m going with Barney!”

“Let Barney go with someone else. I’m going with you.”

Fay turned to go, marching from the shop, her mind made up. Behind her she left Harry almost tearing his hair. Of course he could plead some last-minute excuse to Barney, some sudden business that would hold him at the shop that would not allow him to get to the fight early; but he had to get there in time to be in Barney’s corner. Barney could go with Solly and Jack, but they couldn’t second him. They had no experience. And just how would he be able to get Fay home afterward without Barney’s knowing? Damn! Well, he still had until Sunday to discover a means of doing everything. He just wished the bloody circus had never come to town.

As she walked home, Fay pictured the steps she would have to take to handle her disguise. A pair of her father’s old corduroys would do for trousers; although she would have liked to cut them to fit, she knew they could not afford the wasting of a pair of pants that could be used. Still, by tucking them into a pair of his boots, she could get away with it. The boots would be large and uncomfortable, but that was better than having to wear a pair that were too small. A slouch hat, her father’s, the one he had worn on the trek, would be fine to hide her hair, done up in a tight bun. She could band her full breasts tightly, and a decent-sized shirt and jacket would properly complete the disguise. She could get away with it, she was sure. Of course there was always the chance she might be recognized as a woman, but it was a chance she was more than willing to take. If Barney might be hurt, she wanted to be there.

As she trudged back to Bultfontein she tried to analyze just why, suddenly, she was having this extraordinary concern as to Barney’s safety. He had always been self-reliant, self-confident, the most self-confident person she had ever known. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t be hurt, and it was being afraid for him on that score that surprised her. They had known each other, now, for more than four years, and in all the many times they had seen each other — times she realized a bit sadly that had been growing more and more infrequent — in all the times they had gone on picnics, walked and talked, Barney had never said or done anything to indicate he might want her to commit herself to anything. True, once he had bent to kiss one of her hands, but that had been after staying away from her for six months, and she had practically forced him to that action as a compensation for his previous neglect. No, in all the time she had known him he had never made the slightest move to indicate she could mean any more to him than as a friend. Of course, to be perfectly honest with herself, she had to admit that Barney had once said something about love, and she had been the one to turn the subject to friendship, but that had been a long time ago when they were both very young. Why hadn’t he ever said anything about it since? Obviously because friendship was what he wanted, all he had ever really wanted. There were men who, she suspected, while fearing little else had a deadly fear of love. Barney must have been relieved the subject had never been raised again.

Well, Fay thought defiantly as she marched steadily along, maybe we’ll have to do something about that. If the fool doesn’t get himself killed in that stupid fight of his!

Dr. Josiah Mathews, one of the more respected members of the Kimberley community, had agreed to act as ringmaster for the boxing match for several reasons. One, he was a man whose probity would never be doubted by the crowd, no matter how partisan; and secondly, the doctor had a strong feeling his medical accomplishments might well be required by young Mr. Isaacs. Dr. Mathews had requested Charles Rudd, as a man with some prior boxing experience, to act as referee. Mr. Rudd’s partner had declined to even attend the match for several reasons: while Cecil John Rhodes would have enjoyed witnessing the almost assured defeat of the Jew, Barney Isaacs — for he had heard some time before that Isaacs had had the temerity to name his horse Rhodes — there was the possibility, almost the assurance, that blood would be spilled, and even though it would be the blood of the Jew, Cecil John Rhodes had no desire to get sick before a crowd that included many of his friends.

The area at the foot of Eagle’s Nest — the “nest” itself was a kopje a mere fifteen feet higher than the surrounding territory, but it served as a sort of stadium allowing the spectators to look down at the ring — had been pounded flat and the ring posts well set in the hard soil. The circus worker assigned to string the ropes finished putting the final one in place; he crawled beneath the bottom rope, came to his feet, and launched himself against the triple strands, bouncing back satisfactorily. He nodded to the waiting Dr. Mathews and climbed from the ring. Dr. Mathews, in turn, nodded to the waiting contestants, who stepped through the ropes and took the corners assigned to them by the good doctor, who had been standing in the middle of the ring watching the ropes being put in place. The doctor, satisfied his charges were in place, turned to face the growing crowd.

“Gentlemen!” he cried, raising his voice to be heard. He waited patiently as the noise slowly abated. In their corners Barney and the Angolan Giant eyed each other with no expression at all. Each was stripped to the waist and was wearing rubber-soled running shoes and boxing trunks. He’s really a big ’un! Barney was thinking, and no mistake! Hits me once, good-bye, Charlie! But he’s probably slower than treacle in January. And that belly of his looks like he likes his grub more than anythin’ else! A couple there ought to make him know he didn’t come here for no maypole dance! Across from him the huge Angolan stared at him, wondering at the nerve of a little man like that climbing into the ring against him. Ah, well, he thought, it’s all in a day’s work — or a few minutes’ work, rather, and it’s a living.

Dr. Mathews had waited long enough. “Gentlemen! Please!”

At last a partial silence fell, broken only by the sound of bottles being rattled and the slurping of drinking sounds. Somewhere someone was getting sick. The doctor accepted this as normal and raised his voice.

“Gentlemen, this boxing match shall be held under the rules of Mr. John Chambers and the London Amateur Athletic Club as promulgated in the year eighteen sixty-five. As you can see, the contestants are wearing padded gloves. Each round shall consist of three minutes of fighting followed by a minute of rest. A fighter who is downed must get up unaided within ten seconds, or forfeit the match. There shall be six rounds to this match.” The doctor looked first at the giant and then at Barney, mentally wondering what on earth young Isaacs could have been thinking to get himself involved in anything like this. Ah, well, the doctor had plenty of collodion and bandage should they be needed, and he had a feeling a good part of the items in his bag might be needed before the afternoon was over. He continued his speech. “I shall blow a whistle to signal the start and end of each round. Mr. Charles Rudd has consented to referee this match. Mr. Rudd?”

The doctor climbed through the ropes and took his place at the side of the ring where he could have an unobstructed view of the action without interfering with the view of the spectators crowded on the Nest. His place in the ring was taken by the stocky Charles Rudd, who wasted no more time in calling the two fighters to the middle of the ring.

“No wrestling,” he said sternly. “When I slap you on the back, step away and then resume fighting. No blows beneath the belt. No kicking or slapping. Stop instantly when you hear Dr. Mathews whistle. That’s it.” He suddenly glanced at the large Armando. “Did you understand what I just said?”

Armando shrugged. He hadn’t understood a word, but he had heard the same thing in the same tone so often he was fairly sure he knew what the instructions had been. “Okay,” he said, exhausting his English.

“Fine,” Rudd said. “That’s it, then. Now go back to your corners and be ready to start.”

Rudd watched the two return to their respective corners and nodded to Mathews. The doctor consulted his pocket watch, waited until the second hand had come around to twelve. The crowd waited in drunken expectation, holding their breath. The doctor’s whistle shrilled. The bout was on.

Barney advanced cautiously, his gloved hands out, aware of the other’s far greater reach, watching his opponent’s eyes as well as his gloves. Armando held one arm straight before him like a battering ram on a ship; his other fist was cocked at his side, ready for a roundhouse swing that would end the fight and allow him to return to the Queen’s Hotel for supper. Armando had to admire the courage of the little man, but in view of his having to fight that afternoon he had forgone dessert at lunch, and was in a hurry to get back to some food. Had the fight been held in the circus tent, and admissions charged, Armando might have considered drawing the fight out for three or even four rounds, to give the customers something for their money, but this crowd was seeing the fight free, and Armando felt no responsibility toward them. So better to get it over with and go home.

The big Angolan made a pawing motion with his outstretched glove, inviting some response, an attempt to entice the smaller man to counter and thus come within reach of his other, cocked fist. He pawed the air invitingly again, and then was surprised to receive a sharp blow to his unprotected stomach. For a moment he did not resent having missed the dessert and even wondered if all that much lunch had been necessary, but he put the thought away at once. Food was the thing that made his job interesting; besides, the blow hadn’t bothered him at all, and how had the little man gotten close enough to him to strike the blow without having been seen? He lowered his outstretched arm a bit to protect the huge and bulging expanse of his stomach and in response received a sharp and painful rap on his nose. And there, in front of him, dancing about lightly and looking as if he hadn’t moved from that spot, was his opponent.

Well, Armando thought, his feelings hurt as much as, if not more than, his nose, we can’t have much of that, can we? One good solid punch should teach the little man some respect. He moved in more determinedly, resolved to get the final blow in before the round ended; he pulled back his arm and let go with all his might at the face that was just before him, but suddenly the face wasn’t there and the big man almost lost his balance with the force of the blow. And then there was a painful blow to the side of his face followed at once by a punch in his kidneys while he was straightening up.

Armando stepped back, a bit puzzled by this unexpected style of fighting. Usually everyone he fought was of a decent size and tried to knock his head off, but only the head; and with his greater reach and greater strength he always got to the other’s head first, and that was that. But here was a little man who kept pecking away at his belly and his kidneys. We’ll have to watch that, Armando said to himself, and then heard the doctor’s whistle. He walked to his corner and sat down on the stool his second had hastily thrust into the ring. His second was the owner of the circus and he didn’t like the way the first round had gone. He didn’t like the fact that there were no admission prices going into the circus till, as well.

“I know he’s small,” he said to Armando in Portuguese, “and I know you’re soft-hearted. But enough of this nonsense! Take him this round!” The circus owner had made his own wager, after seeing Barney, that the fight would not go two rounds. He figured he had at least one round’s security in that bet; now that security was gone. It was bad enough the fight was not earning him a penny in admissions; he had no intention of losing the bet, especially since he had given extremely high odds, and to the brother of the other fighter, yet! “This round!” he repeated direly, and took the stool from beneath Armando as his fighter stood up.

“Sim,” Armando said equably, and nodded. Whatever the boss said was all right with him. It seemed a pity, though, to hurt the game little man, but without hurting him in some way how could he end the fight in that round? Still, Armando thought philosophically, that was what happened to challengers. It was the way of life. He glanced across the ring, waiting for the whistle. In the opposite corner Barney was leaning back against the ropes, completely relaxed, staring out over the crowd, apparently either unaware or unafraid of the beating he was about to take. A pity! Armando thought, and glanced about. The crowd was buzzing loudly; money was being exchanged. Apparently some had bet that the little man wouldn’t even last the single round. Armando was not sorry for them; the little man deserved to last at least one round, even with him. He bit back a slight yawn, remembering that he had not had his usual nap after his large lunch, and then straightened up as the whistle blew for the start of the second round.

Barney moved from his corner, his face still expressionless, his narrowed blue eyes steady on Armando’s big, round, peasant face. Armando wondered just how he could put the little man out of action the least painful way and still earn his boss’s approval. But he was concentrating on the matter too much. There was a quick movement on Barney’s part and Armando felt his nose sting again, this time even more painfully than the last, followed almost instantly by a hard blow to the soft, unprotected belly. And then — amazing! — the little man was away and moving again, gloves up, ready, waiting for the next opportunity.

Armando was puzzled. He was also a bit irked by this constant attention to his lower body, which was beginning to hurt. If this kept up, he might not even enjoy his supper! How did the little man move so quickly? He was like a gato, a cat! Still, other than the blows to the stomach, none of the others had bothered him overly, and if that was the hardest the little man could hit, then it was merely a matter of time. The thing to do was to crowd the little man into a corner where he couldn’t escape so quickly from one of his attacks, and then simply end the match with one blow.

Armando brought his gloved fists up into a closer approximation of his opponent’s stance and shuffled forward, bending his elbows as Barney had his bent, to partially protect that huge stomach while his large hands covered his face. So intent was the large Armando on placing his arms and fists in the best position for maximum defense that Barney had ample opportunity to catch him a stiff jab to the kidneys, followed at once by a swift cross to the stomach, before stepping smartly away. Armando could not help but grimace, but he continued to keep pressing forward, his original plan of herding Barney into a corner in no way changed. Over Barney’s shoulder the big Armando could see Dr. Mathews, the whistle in one hand, alternately consulting the action in the ring and the watch in his other hand. Then, completely to Armando’s surprise, he thought he heard the whistle sound, although from experience he felt the round could not be over as yet. Besides, the whistle remained in the doctor’s fingers, far from his lips. An echo inside his head, Armando decided; the little man had hit him harder the last time than he had supposed. He went back to his job and then saw, to his surprise, that the little man had somehow dropped his guard and was actually turning away. A mistake, Armando thought, sorry for his opponent, and his huge fist, automatically taking advantage of the unexpected opening, crashed into the side of Barney’s head. Barney dropped.

Around the ring the spectators were screaming in furious anger. Dr. Mathews was staring at the culprit, his face red with anger. “Mr. Cohen, sir! You are drunk! You blew that whistle! You will hand it over at once, sir, do you hear me?”

Some of the crowd were trying to reach the culprit, eager to avenge the unsportsmanlike conduct they had witnessed; the rest were trying in their drunken stupor to discover what had happened, what the fuss was all about. Lou Cohen, now suddenly sober, had managed to get to the doctor’s side for protection. He turned to the doctor, relieved but furious, the normal reaction of one who has managed to reach safety after a dire threat.

“It was a joke is all, damm it!”

The doctor glared at him. “Louis Cohen, sir, you are unconscionable!” The crowd was getting ugly, having come this far on their one day off work all week, and having done without the other diversions Kimberley was capable of furnishing. And not to see their fight? Dr. Mathews pulled the whistle from Cohen’s hand and dropped it into his pocket. He then blew his own whistle repeatedly until he had attention. “Gentlemen!”

“Bastard ought to be horse-whipped, if you ask me,” someone said in a loud voice into the quieting noise.

“Well, nobody asked you!” Cohen snapped. He was regaining his courage since it was apparent the crowd was too drunk to really get out of hand. “It was a bloody joke, I tell you! I thought both of them would stop fighting and I thought that would be funny!” He looked up at the Nest and the angry faces there. “Look, if you want to call off any bets I made…”

“What!” someone cried. The voice was scandalized. “Did you pull a dirty stunt like that because your fighter was losing?”

“Who was losing! Oh, for God’s sake! No, I didn’t do it because of anything except it was a bloody joke! Anyone I have bets with can call them off or leave them stand, whatever they want! Good God! Nobody has a sense of humor anymore!”

Someone in a slouch hat pulled low over his face and with ill-fitting clothes was trying to fight his way closer to the ring. Harry, his face white with shock, was starting to step through the ropes to help Barney back to his stool, but Rudd shoved him away. There was enough confusion going on at the moment without having people, even seconds, crowding into the ring. Rudd bent over Barney. Barney had come to one knee, dazed, and was shaking his head to clear it. Rudd frowned. “Are you all right, Isaacs?”

Armando was also standing over the shaken Barney, looking both confused and terribly repentant.

“Senhor! Eu sinto muito! Mas eu sabia que no era o silvo, estava olhando o médico!”

The circus owner was leaning over the ropes, translating at the top of his voice to be heard. “He says it was an accident. He knew it wasn’t the whistle because he was watching the doctor!” The owner understood enough of Englishmen to know that in their present mood the blame could just as easily be put upon Armando as upon the bôbo who had blown the whistle, and in that mood the crowd could easily take it into their minds to go back to Kimberley and destroy his circus. Barney waved the translation away as being unimportant. He was sure the big Angolan had not hit him on purpose; had their roles been reversed he might also have automatically struck his opponent if he saw that Mathews was not blowing his whistle. He raised his voice to be heard by the owner.

“Tell him it doesn’t matter. I’m not blaming him.” He shook his aching head and put a hand to it. “Also tell him he’s got a punch like a steamroller.”

The circus owner burst into rapid Portuguese, translating Barney’s message. Armando beamed, proud of the compliment. He would have liked to return it, because the small man deserved it, but he didn’t want to ask his boss to translate. Barney came to his feet, looking at Rudd.

“Let’s get on with it.”

Rudd frowned. “Are you sure you’re able?”

“Never felt better in me life,” Barney said, and walked back to his corner, knowing he was moving more slowly than before. He sat on his stool while the circus owner conferred with his fighter. Armando paused in the discussion every now and then to glance apologetically across the ring at Barney, but in the end he shrugged and nodded to his boss as he sat down on his stool. Barney could almost read the big man’s mind. He doesn’t want to bust me into little pieces, Barney thought, but unfortunately he has to to keep his job and keep on eating. Which merely means I’ll have to make it fast if I hope to make it at all. The blow he had taken had been as powerful a punch as he had ever taken in any fight in his life, and he knew it would take its toll quickly if the fight went on very long.

Harry had heard the discussion in the ring. He looked at Barney as if he were crazy.

“Look, we can call the whole thing off — cancel the bets and be back where we were. Maybe you had a chance before — you were quick — but you’re not steady on your feet! He can kill you! Drop it and cancel the bets! Nobody is going to argue about that!”

“I’ll argue about it.” Barney looked at Harry. “Harry,” he said earnestly, “do you remember what I said a few days ago? I meant it! We leave here with the brass! We walk away rich!”

“If we walk away,” Harry said direly. “Your ears’ll be ringing from that whack you took for the next week.”

“Maybe,” Barney said laconically. “But I’ll have the money!”

Rudd had been conferring with Dr. Mathews at ringside; now Mathews climbed into the ring and blew his whistle with all his strength. This time the crowd quietened quickly, although there were still some loud mutterings and baleful glances in Lou Cohen’s direction.

“Gentlemen!” Mathews said in a loud voice. “The fight will continue. At the sound of the whistle, we shall be coming out for the third round. That is all.” He climbed from the ring, studied his watch a few seconds, and then gave a loud blast on his whistle. The fight was on again.

Barney came out of his corner, hesitated a moment as a brief wave of dizziness caused him to stumble slightly, and then came on. Armando was awaiting him in the middle of the ring, a look of sympathy on his large features. He looked almost Neanderthal, his long arms held before him loosely in a pawing position. Barney decided there was no time to waste. He stepped in quickly while Armando was still raising his fists, and sank his glove almost to the wrist in the soft belly of the giant Angolan. Barney stepped back, but this time Armando was in no positon to counter quickly. That blow hurt the big man, Barney said to himself with the little satisfaction he could feel, and watched the pain cross the other man’s face. Armando’s large gloved hands had dropped to protect that vulnerable spot of his, and Barney now came in to settle the matter with a few swift and powerful blows to the unprotected chin. But Armando automatically brought up one loglike arm to block the blow and at the same time swept the other arm about, catching Barney on the side of the head where he had been struck before. Barney found himself on his knees while he could hear Rudd beginning to count over him. The crowd was screaming wildly; Harry, white-faced, was leaning through the ropes, yelling something, and Barney could only assume his brother was imploring him to either quit or get to his feet. There seemed to be someone in a slouch hat beside Harry with his hands over his face. Bloody fool shouldn’t come to fights if he can’t take them, Barney thought with one small portion of his mind, while the rest of his mind commanded him to come to his feet at the count of eight. Rudd wiped the mud from the gloves and stepped away.

Armando now moved in, anxious to finish this very unpleasant fight, one he knew he would never be proud of. Actually, Armando was proud of no fight he had been in, all of which he had won. Armando had never liked to fight particularly, and it always seemed to him quite unfair to put his great size, weight, and strength against a smaller man and then to claim any form of victory from the obvious results. And that was especially true of this bout with the tough little opponent Armando had come to respect. Until the blow he had struck by accident — almost an unfair one — Armando knew in his heart he had actually been losing the fight. The poor man must need the five pounds desperately! Still, Armando needed his job with the circus if he wanted to continue eating, and while he felt sorry for the little man he was fighting, he also felt the best thing to do would be to end it as quickly as possible.

He watched his opponent come to his feet, wait while his gloves were cleaned, and then bring the fists up to position; then Armando moved in. He slashed at the little man, praying he would go down and stay down; the blow caught Barney on the cheek, staggering him, but he maintained his balance. Armando frowned in surprise to see the little man still erect. What did it take to put him down and keep him down? Unless he was losing his strength, which Armando doubted, that last blow should have ended the fight. He glanced over to his corner for some idea from his second, his boss, as to how to eliminate this tenacious little tsetse fly that seemed intent upon buzzing around his ears forever. His boss was screaming something over the noise of the crowd; Armando tilted his head a bit to hear better. It was a mistake. Barney, putting all his effort, all his strength, and with the full weight of his body behind the blow and not even thinking about it, hit the big man flush on the chin with all the force he had. It was the hardest punch he had ever thrown in his life, and he felt the bones of his hand give way with the crushing power of the blow; but he also saw Armando, a look of total surprise frozen on his face, collapse as if struck by a runaway ox, and lie unconscious on the floor while Charles Rudd counted him out.

The crowd was standing, screaming, cheering, yelling, whistling, even those whose lost bets at that moment reposed in the Paris Hotel safe. Barney stood swaying on his feet while Rudd completed his count over the large Angolan and raised Barney’s arm in victory; then he staggered to his corner and fainted at Harry’s feet.

He came to consciousness slowly, with the swaying of the Scotch cart lulling him gently, his eyes remaining closed as he tried to understand where he was and how he had gotten there. Then the pain in his right hand reminded him of the events of the afternoon and he allowed himself to drift off again under the sedative the doctor had injected into his arm. Dr. Mathews had managed a crude splint to support the hand on the trip to his office in town, where he had the materials for a plaster cast.

Barney was aware he was lying down, his back protected by cloth of some sort, his head resting on something soft. For a frightening moment he forgot his victory, wondering if he had imagined it after having been knocked out, but then he remembered that last blow and looking down, stupefied, to see Armando stretched out, cold. No, he had won. But he would never forget that fight, and he would never tackle anyone that big again. He was lucky Armando hadn’t broken his neck.

He awoke a second time and attempted to sit up, only to have his head pressed down gently. He opened his eyes, looking up. Fay was looking down at him, a worried look on her face, and he became aware that his head was in her lap. Barney turned his head; it ached with the effort. Harry, with Jack Joel and Solly Loeb seated next to him at the front of the cart, was handling the reins of old Rhodes: their jackets, it was obvious, had been used to make him as comfortable as possible on the hard boards of the cart. He turned back to Fay.

“Fay—”

“Shhh,” she said softly, but relieved that he was awake.

“Fay — how did you get here?”

“I’ll tell you about it later, darling.”

Barney tried to sit up again; again she pressed him down. He was staring at her unbelievingly. “Darling? Did you call me darling?”

“Darling,” she said firmly. She smiled at him, but it was a nervous smile. If she were wrong, she would never see him again, and she knew it. But she had to chance it; it was now or never. “Barney,” she said, “tomorrow we’re going to get married.”

Barney’s disbelief grew. “Married?”

“Unless you don’t want to.”

“Fay! I never thought—”

“I think I know what you thought, darling. I thought the same thing. And then I thought how foolish we both were, if we were in love with each other and never said anything…”

Barney closed his eyes. He had to be dreaming; out of his mind. That big Armando had hit him harder than he had thought. His brains were scrambled. What would Fay be doing at a fight? And saying she loved him! It was a dream he had often had, imagining a scene just exactly like that one, with her saying she loved him. But it would never happen. He apparently had gotten a concussion. He only hoped Dr. Mathews knew how to fix him up; with the money he had won he had too much to do without wasting time recovering.

But when he opened his eyes again, there was Fay, still looking down at him with an odd combination of worry and pride. Barney swallowed and pressed his broken hand against the floorboards of the cart; the pain made him realize he wasn’t dreaming. He swallowed. “Did you say you loved me?”

“I think I have since I first met you on the trail,” she said simply.

“Oh, Fay!” He felt tears sting his eyes. “Don’t make fun of me!”

“Oh, Barney,” she said, “you’re such a fool! I love you.”

He reached for her hand with his good hand, squeezing it. “I’ve loved you so long, Fay!” He suddenly realized that Harry and the boys were keeping their eyes rigidly to the front, although they obviously were listening. “Harry!”

Harry turned, a big grin on his face. “What?”

“We’re getting married tomorrow!” Barney couldn’t keep the pride from his voice, or his total surprise and absolute joy.

“I knew you two would one day,” Harry said, still grinning. “As soon as you got some sense.”

Barney turned back. A problem had just occurred to him. “Fay…”

“Yes, darling?”

“Would you mind — becoming Jewish?”

“No, darling. I’ve already spoken to the rabbi about getting instruction.”

Barney stared. “I didn’t even know we had a rabbi in town!”

“There’s even a synagogue. Which you should attend.”

Barney grinned. “You’re not even a convert yet, and already you’re a better Jew than I am.” He thought a moment. “Someday,” he said quietly, squeezing her hand all the more tightly, “we’ll go to London and get married again, just for my folks. Would you mind?”

“I’ll marry you as often as you like, wherever you like,” she said, smiling. “Now try to get some rest.”

He closed his eyes, still holding tightly to Fay’s hand as if to hold on to the good fortune that had come to him, marveling that Fay could possibly love him. He could almost thank Armando, the Angolan Giant, for giving him the beating he had taken, since it seemed to have triggered Fay’s action. Bless the big man! A thought came; he opened his eyes again and turned his head.

“Harry!”

Harry’s head came around. “Yes, Barney?”

“That big man, that Armando—”

“What about him?”

“He’d make quite a diamond miner, don’t you think?”

Harry smiled. “Yes,” he said slowly. “I think he would. I’ll go talk to him after we get you taken care of at the doctor’s.”

“It might keep him from killing somebody someday,” Barney said with a smile, and kept his eyes open, staring up at Fay’s lovely face, still trying to believe that everything he had ever wanted had come to him in that single day…

6

January 1878

“He bought the Kerr brothers’ four claims. Practically right in the center of the Kimberley mine, right next to Kimberley Central’s prime claims,” Rudd said easily. He and Rhodes were drinking whiskey, sitting in the bar of the Kimberley Club. He glanced across the table at his companion, pleased with the bombshell he knew he was about to explode.

Rhodes looked up curiously from his thoughts. “Who?”

“Your friend Isaacs. Only he calls himself Barnato now. Full time, not like when they were doing their act at the Paris Hotel. Both of them call themselves Barnato, Harry and Barney both. The Barnato Brothers. Although the older one has gone back to London to open a diamond-trading office there. A branch, they call it, of the one Barney opened here.”

Rhodes snorted. “Come on! Open a diamond-trading office in London? On what? And where would a little kopje-walloping Jew get the money to buy the Kerr boys out? I offered them three thousand pounds for each claim and they practically laughed in my face.”

“Then he obviously offered them more,” Rudd said logically, “because he bought them.” He sipped his whiskey and moved his glass in little circles on the table, watching the amber liquid slowly swirl around. Rudd was enjoying himself, although none of this showed on his face. “And where did he get the money? From that fight he won, the one he had with that giant Angolan last year. They calculate he had over four thousand quid bet at extremely high odds.”

“And I would wager the fight was fixed,” Rhodes said with a sneer. “You notice he hired that big Angolan right afterward, to handle the Kaffirs in the big hole!”

Rudd laughed. “That fight wasn’t fixed, believe me. You should have heard that circus owner! Armando was out for a full ten minutes, and Barnato’s fist was in a cast for over a month. Believe me, a man doesn’t put any part of himself in a cast the day before he gets married. Not to a beauty like that. Although I’m sure that didn’t stop him any.”

Rhodes had scarcely been paying attention. “And that so-called trading office of his on Commissioner Street! It’s a joke! I don’t know what he’s going to send to any London office. If he trades a thousand pounds a week, I’d be surprised.”

Rudd’s bushy eyebrows rose. He looked at Rhodes curiously. “So you do keep track of Barney Barnato!”

Rhodes was not at all embarrassed. Very little could embarrass Cecil John Rhodes. He shrugged. “I hear things, of course. But the way people talk about the little kike, that upstart little Jew from the London slums, is enough to make a man sick!”

Rudd considered his partner for several moments in silence.

“Maybe I’ve got a stronger constitution than you,” he said quietly at last, and he was no longer in a joking mood. “Barney Barnato has something, and it’s foolish not to recognize it. Since Beit came in with us and we formed the De Beers Company, we’ve got a good piece of the De Beers mine under our belt. And Barnato, in my opinion, is going to do the same thing at the Kimberley mine before he’s through. He’s taking more diamonds out of Kimberley right now than any other company. So looking down your nose at him, underestimating him, is simply shortsighted. We may be doing business with him someday. I think it wouldn’t be a bad idea if you were to meet him and talk to him.”

“Meet him? Talk to him? Someday we may do business with Barnato?” Rhodes stared at Rudd as if the other man had lost his mind, and then gave a short bark of laughter. “Charles, the day I do business with Barney Isaacs — Barnato — whatever — or even talk to him, is the day I fail to blackball him here at the Kimberley Club! And that day will never come.”

“You’re sure?” Rudd said quietly.

“I’m sure,” Rhodes said with a faint smile, and raised a hand for the waiter to bring refills for their glasses. He waited until they were served and turned back to Rudd. “How is the construction of the compounds going at the sorting yard?”

“It’s going all right. The double fence is up and the buildings are well started. But I don’t think the Kaffirs are going to like the idea of being separated from their families for six months or a year. Or the idea of being penned up like cattle.”

Rhodes considered him evenly. “Nobody forced them to sign their contracts in the first place. If they don’t want the jobs, there are plenty of others from the bush to take their places, and more coming in every day. You notice they’re happy enough when they’re done with their six months or their year to go back home with some money in their pockets, some clothes on their backs, and guns in their hands.” He looked across the table at Rudd, his face deadly serious. “There’s only one way to stop the thieving in the mine and in the sorting yards and sheds, Charles, and that’s to see that nobody leaves the area for the entire period of their contract, and then only after a damned thorough search.”

“And those searches,” Rudd went on a bit stubbornly, not at all put down by his partner’s words. “That’s another sore point. Using trained police dogs to keep the Kaffirs inside the compound. Going over a man’s scalp, like one monkey picking lice from another. Feeling around a man’s balls to see if he’s hidden a stone in the hair there. Feeding a man castor oil and then having someone search through his shit afterward for a diamond he might have swallowed. Putting a finger up a man’s ass—” He stopped. In the years he had known Rhodes he had long suspected that in the past the latter action would not have been distasteful to his partner, although Charles Rudd had to admit the other man had never made the slightest advance toward him in those years they had roomed together. Now, of course, it was no longer his problem; they each had separate houses, Rhodes living with his new male secretary, Neville Pickering, Rudd living with a new wife. Maybe I wasn’t his type, Rudd thought with an inward sour smile. He dropped the thought and went on. “Searches like that aren’t dignified, Johnny.”

“Dignified?” Rhodes shrugged. “You’re a sentimentalist, Charles. There’s no room for sentiment in this business. Illicit diamond dealing can ruin this industry, and you know it. It’s bad enough prices are dropping again in London and Paris without the problem of illicit diamonds on the market. And the only way to stop illicit diamond buying is to make sure there are no illicit diamonds around for the crooked traders to purchase. And to see that the trader gets a good stiff term on the Cape breakwater when he’s caught. And as far as the compounds are concerned, once they’re completed and in operation, the Kaffirs will only be searched once, at the end of their contract, instead of at random as at present, and possibly every day if one of them has bad luck.”

He drank and put his glass down.

“Besides,” he added, “these Kaffirs are animals. I’m sure the searches and the castor oil and everything else doesn’t bother them anywhere near as much as it seems to bother you. Simply realize you are not dealing with civilized men, you’re not dealing with Englishmen. These Kaffirs are animals, merely animals, and treating an animal like an animal is only natural and proper. So don’t let it upset you, Charles. It’s the only way to stop the illicit trading.”

“Except it will only work if all the other diggers go along,” Rudd pointed out. “The question is, will they? Will Baring-Gould at Kimberley; or Robinson at Kimberley? Or Barnato? Or the diggers at Bultfontein and Dutoitspan? There’ll be trouble with the Kaffirs.”

“There’ll be no trouble with the Kaffirs,” Rhodes said confidently. “Especially if everyone puts up compounds like ours. The bloody Bushmen will have no choice. And I’ve already talked to Baring-Gould and Robinson. They thought it a wonderful idea. They agree with me completely. I’ll talk to the others today.”

“Including Barnato?” There was a faintly sardonic smile on Rudd’s face.

“Not including Barnato,” Rhodes said, and there was an equally sardonic smile on his own lips. “You see, Charles, the day we get all the other diggers searching their Kaffirs properly, all the others except Barnato, let us say, then we’ll know fairly certainly from which claims any illicit diamonds are coming, won’t we?”

“And if he puts in compounds like the rest?”

“Then we’ll end the business of illicit diamonds once and for all,” Rhodes said calmly, “and that’s all I’ve been aiming at from the beginning…”

The compounds were low one-story brick buildings laid out in the form of a huge square with one side missing. Each building was divided with interior brick walls into spaces of a size that a tall man standing in the middle of each small room could touch the walls with his outstretched arms. A slot high in the back wall of each cubicle allowed the entrance of a small amount of light while being too small for the smallest man to pass through, even though there still remained a goodly distance between the building and the first of the two parallel fences. An entrance without a proper door gave access from the little cells to the enclosure of the compound itself. Each tiny room contained wooden shelves to accommodate eight men in sleeping.

A cookhouse was located at each end of the compound, and meals were intended to be taken in fingers while sitting on the ground of the open area. An uncanvased latrine was located to one side, a pole across a shallow ditch. The sorting yards where the earth from the mine was left for the rain and the weather to help break down stood between the compounds and the mine itself.

Rhodes, walking about and critically inspecting his partner’s handiwork, nodded in satisfaction. He stared at the high parallel fences topped by barbed wire that circled the compounds and ended at a large watchtower that would be manned by armed guards also equipped with sjamboks later that day when the first of the compounds went into service. In the runway formed by the space between the double fence large fierce-looking dogs already prowled restlessly. Rhodes gave the inner fence a push, as if to test its strength; instantly a large dog came running, baring its teeth and growling. Rhodes smiled and turned to Rudd at his side.

“A quite commendable job, Charles. Congratulations. Some of the other mineowners will be here later today to see what you’ve accomplished and to ask your help in telling them how to duplicate your work.”

“Barnato included?”

“Barnato not included,” Rhodes said, and his smile widened.

In the bar of the Paris Hotel, Barney Barnato was doing his imitation of Cecil John Rhodes.

“Omnibus,” he said in a high, affected falsetto, holding one hand with a limp wrist a bit higher than his shoulder and parading about the barroom with tiny mincing steps, his other wrist folded delicately at his waist. “Offnibus, animus, deadimus, oneimus, twoimus, threeimus. That’s Latin and Greek, you ignoramimus. I mean, ignoramimuses.” He stopped before a laughing man, looking at him sternly. “What are you laughing at, Charles? Being me is no laughing matter!” He paused to draw back with a little scream as an elderly maid came in the barroom to dump a bit of refuse into a pail. “A woman! Help!”

The laughter rose and then was interrupted. An argument had sprung up at one end of the adjoining dining room and the men turned from Barney to see what the fuss was all about. Two men, seated and facing each other at a table covered with their dishes of food, were leaning across the table, shouting at each other, their faces getting red, their voices rising in volume. Suddenly one of them came to his feet, grasped the edge of the table, and upended it, sending the other man to the floor under a deluge of dishes and food. The fallen man came to his feet roaring with rage, picking a knife from the spilled utensils on the floor as he did so. He shoved the upended table out of the way with one heave to give himself room to maneuver. He was a very large man with a full beard; the knife glittered in his huge hand as he handled it expertly. His opponent was a bit smaller but not much, with a rakish mustache and a scar that ran from the comer of his mouth to disappear at the end of a hard-looking jaw. The man with the knife made a quick forward-thrusting move and suddenly found himself flying through the air to crash painfully against a wall, the breath knocked out of him. The mustached man, cursing steadily aloud, his eyes narrowed cruelly in hate, walked over and kicked the knife from the paralyzed hand. He then began to systematically kick the fallen man in the head and sides. One kick broke the man’s nose; blood spurted. Barney hurried over, grabbing the mustached man by the arm.

“Hold it, chum! That’s enough,” he said firmly.

The man turned to meet this new interference, pulling back an arm to swing, but Barney held up a hand warningly. “I’ve no quarrel with you,” he said quietly, his very calmness causing the man to hesitate. “He pulled a knife on you and maybe deserved what he got. But that’s no reason to kick him to death. Come on,” he added in a lighter tone. “Leave him be. I’ll buy you a drink.”

The man on the floor had managed to come to a sitting position. He was holding a rag to his broken nose; it was soaked with blood. “Buy him a drink, eh?” he said thickly, speaking through the blood in his throat. “You don’t know who yer buyin’ a drink for, mister!”

The mustached man, his jaw clenched, turned with a curse and raised his foot to kick his fallen opponent again, but Barney dragged him back. The mustached man stared at the man on the floor a moment, finally shrugged, and followed Barney to the bar. Barney called over the bartender and turned back to the stranger. “What are you drinking?”

“Whiskey. Double.”

“Make that two.” Barney turned back to the other man. “That was quite a move you made when you tossed that big bloke over your shoulder. How did you do that?”

The mustached man shrugged. “It’s a Jap trick. Learned it in Tokyo, when I was in ships.”

“It’s very clever,” Barney said admiringly. “You’ll have to teach me that sometime.” He held out his hand. “I’m Barney Barnato.”

If the name meant anything to the mustached man there was no indication of it. “Carl Luckner.”

The two men shook hands, each aware of the other’s strong grip. Barney relaxed his hand, withdrew it, and picked up his drink. “I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before. What are you doing in town?”

“Had a little trouble in Cape Town,” Luckner said evenly. “Decided to come up here and see the place. Looking for some kind of work, as a matter of fact.”

“What kind of trouble? I’m not being nosy,” Barney said quickly, “but I could maybe use somebody like you. But the thing is, Kimberley has gotten awfully respectable lately. No more Miner’s Committee. Now we’ve got a mayor — J. B. Robinson himself — and a council and a regular police force, and everything. Including a jail,” he added significantly.

“I had no trouble with the law,” Luckner said grimly. He downed his drink and rapped his glass on the bar sharply for a refill. “Well, I suppose you could say I did, in a way, if you mean trouble with the stupid police chief they got down there. But it was really the other way around. I was a police officer there. The trouble I got into was that the chief said I was too tough on the bastards I picked up. Beat them up first and asked questions afterward. He never denied most of them deserved it, though.” He took his replenished glass and drank, setting the glass down. “Oh, I’ve a miserable temper, I’ll admit that. I lose my head, see red. I can’t help it.”

Barney glanced into the dining room. Someone had set the fallen table on its feet; a woman was cleaning up the mess. A boy from the kitchen was sweeping up the broken crockery. The large bearded man with the broken nose had been helped to his feet and out the door. Barney jerked his thumb toward the arena of the fight.

“And what was that all about?”

Luckner shrugged. “To tell you the truth, I don’t exactly know. Nothing important. I knew him slightly in Cape Town, we figured we’d have supper together. Then he said something I didn’t particularly like, and one thing led to another. I told you I had a temper.” He dropped the subject. “What’s this job you said you could use me for? Mining?”

“No,” Barney said, and looked around. His eyes came back to the tall man at his side. “I’ve been thinking of buying this place, the Paris Hotel. It’s up for grabs; owner’s going home. I’d need somebody to run it, somebody who could keep order. But not lose his head with the customers,” he added evenly. “Toss them out on their arse if they get hard, but not kick them to death first.”

Luckner laughed. It was a harsh sound, as if he weren’t used to laughing much. “I seldom lose my head with strangers. Just with folks I know.” The laugh disappeared as quickly as it had come. His voice hardened. “And most people stay strangers with me for a long, long time.”

“Well,” Barney said, “would you be interested in the job? If I buy the place?”

“I don’t know,” Luckner said. He turned, resting his elbows on the bar behind him, looking around as if summing up the place and its possibilities. He glanced at Barney over his shoulder. “What would it pay?”

Barney made up his mind. Fast, as he had done with Armando, now working out so well in the big hole. Harry would think him crazy, making a decision that fast; Harry would have objected on general principles without further investigation of the man. But Harry was in London and really not involved. If it had been up to Harry he would still be kopje walloping and as far from Fay as ever!

“You show me what you can do the first thirty days after I close the deal,” he said, “and you get room and board and we split any profits the place shows fifty-fifty.”

Luckner looked at him coolly. “You’ve got a deal,” he said at last and raised his glass to confirm it. “But,” he added, “the best room in the place is mine.”

“The second-best,” Barney said evenly. “Me and me wife got the best.”

Solly Loeb, now handling the claims and the sorting yards for the newly formed Barnato Mining Company while his cousin, Jack Joel, improved his knowledge of diamonds in the trading office, found his uncle’s stubbornness most irritating.

“Uncle Barney—”

“You’re getting old enough to call me Barney. What do I have on you in age? Four years?”

“Less than three. All right, Barney. Rhodes is doing it over at De Beers; Robinson is doing it right next door to us, and so is Kimberley Central and the French Company people. And all the combines over at Bultfontein and Dutoitspan! We’re the only ones who aren’t putting in compounds, the only company that doesn’t sign their Kaffirs to contracts, the only company that doesn’t search them properly!”

Barney looked at his nephew with curiosity. “Solly — do you think making a man shit by giving him castor oil is going to stop illicit diamonds from being taken out of the mines or from the sorting yards? Or sticking your finger up his behind? When they start doing it with the foremen, the whites; when they start doing it with those police dogs they got running around like crazy wolves who’ll eat anything and then go crap for their trainers, then maybe. But only maybe. Anything one man can figure out to keep something from being stolen, another man can figure out how to steal.”

“But—”

“Or making a man live without his woman,” Barney went on, quite as if Solly had not tried to interrupt. “Instead of keeping his mind on what he’s doing, all he thinks about is how to get his rocks off. Did you notice, maybe, that since Rhodes put in his compounds the accident rate at De Beers almost doubled? You think that was an accident?”

“Then we ought to do it if only for our own protection! They’re starting to say that when all the other companies have compounds, any illicit diamonds would be our responsibility!”

Barney frowned. “What? Where did you hear that?”

Solly reddened a bit. “At the Kimberley Club. I… I’ve been invited there a few times…”

“Solly, if you want to go to the Kimberley Club, go. It’s a free country; it’s your business. But don’t lose your head. Don’t believe everything you hear. Anyone who says that the illicit stones would be our responsibility is either lying or sick in the head. Outside of the fact that the Kaffirs aren’t the only ones bringing stones out of the mines, if all the illicit diamonds were coming from our claims, whose loss would it be? Theirs or mine?” He shook his head. “Solly, Solly! You treat a man like a thief, don’t be surprised if he steals. And there are good Kaffirs and bad ones. When your friends from the Kimberley Club come to the end of the contracts with their Kaffirs, we’ll get the good ones; the bad ones will sign up again with them.”

“So you won’t put in compounds?”

“Not at this time, and maybe never.”

“I think you’re wrong.”

“So I may be wrong.” Barney shrugged. “It won’t be the first time and it won’t be the last. But at least it’s my mistake, not yours.” He changed the subject. “So outside of that, what’s new?”

“The yellow dirt is running out. We’ll have to close Kerr Number Three and let some of the Kaffirs go.”

Barney frowned. The two men were having lunch at the Paris Hotel, which Barney had bought some six months before; Fay was out shopping for hotel supplies; Carl Luckner was in his office in his room, and Jack Joel was taking care of the trading office in Commissioner Street. Barney put his beer mug to one side and stared at his nephew, puzzled.

“What do you mean the dirt is running out? Dirt keeps going down and down, right to the middle of the world, doesn’t it? How can it run out? What’s under dirt?”

“The yellow dirt,” Solly explained. “What’s under it is some blue stuff that’s hard as rock. They’ve run into it in other places and abandoned the claims, or put back some of the yellow and tried to sell them for practically nothing. Salting a mine with dirt, can you imagine? Anyway, you can break the point of a pick on that blue stuff, and how we’d break it up if we ever managed to dig it and send it up to the sorting yards, God knows! Kimberley Central, the claims next to our Kerr Number Three, are all down to the blue right now. And it’s just too tough to dig and break up.”

“Have you tried?”

“Well, no, not very hard,” Solly admitted, “but Kimberley Central did without any luck. They say it’s a waste of time.”

“Who says?” Barney demanded, and then answered his own question. “I know — your friends at the Kimberley Club. Well, if they’re as wrong on this as they are on everything else, like illicit stones and how to handle their Kaffirs, then the chances are the blue ground has even more diamonds than that yellow dirt.”

Solly shook his head at his uncle’s stubbornness. “I doubt it.”

Barney shrugged good-naturedly. “So that’ll be my second mistake in one day. And we don’t close down Kerr Number Three. We don’t let a single man go. We add men. And we dig.”

“But, how?” Solly was almost wailing. “How do you dig it? How do you break it down? Water doesn’t touch it; it’s been tried.”

“You mine it and you break it down with different equipment if you can’t do it with pick and shovel,” Barney said simply. “Bigger equipment, power equipment. I’ll get you the equipment.”

“It’ll cost a fortune! Money wasted! It’ll break the company!”

“So that’ll be mistake number three.” Barney grinned across the table. Despite their many differences, differences in attitude on almost every subject, differences in education, in appearance — for Solly Loeb was a well-built, handsome young man — Barney liked the boy. At least he had far more spirit than the other nephew, Jack Joel, and besides, he was the son of Barney’s eldest and favorite sister. “Good things are supposed to come in threes, no? So why not mistakes?”

“Disasters are supposed to come in threes,” Solly said sourly.

“So this time it’s simply mistakes. They won’t be disasters until I’m proved wrong. Don’t take it so hard, Solly. You’re doing a good job at the mine. I appreciate it.” Barney finished his beer and came to his feet, wiping his mouth. “I’ll get you the proper equipment as soon as possible.”

“But what kind of equipment?”

Barney smiled. “I haven’t the faintest idea,” he said, “but when I first came here I didn’t know what a pick was, or a whim, or anything else. And all I knew about diamonds you could put in your eye and it wouldn’t make you blink. The right equipment? Get me some samples of that blue ground if you have to dynamite it, and I’ll have somebody on the next coach to Cape Town with it to find out what it takes in machinery to dig it and crush it.” He looked at the clock. “I’ve got to run. I’m meeting Carl Luckner at the boxing academy for a lesson in that tricky Jap stuff. You know what? It’s cute and all that, but I like using these better.”

He raised his two fists in the air, shook them, smiled, and walked out, leaving his nephew shaking his head in frustration. The yellow dirt was running out, and with it the diamonds would be running out, and all his uncle could think of was taking a lesson in some Japanese silliness!

But Japanese silliness was very far from all his uncle was thinking of. As Barney walked quickly down the dirt road toward the boxing academy where he was to meet Luckner, his mind was on the blue ground that apparently was at the base of the yellow dirt, and if it was found on the Kerr claims and on Kimberley Central’s as well, then the chances were it would eventually be found on the French Company’s claims and Robinson’s. There was a man named Atherstone that Barney had once talked to, a man from Grahamstown, who had said that the diamonds came from extinct volcanoes, that the yellow soil was the top of a pipe. If this was true, then the chances were that there were even more stones in the blue ground than in the yellow, and the farther down they went the richer the yield.

If that were the case, he could pick up some of what had been Kimberley Central’s finest claims for a song, claims that only weeks before had been estimated to be worth thousands of pounds. Added to the other claims he already controlled, it would make the Barnato Mining Company as large as De Beers, and probably a lot more productive. He was sure that proper equipment to dig and crush the hard blue ground had to exist, and he intended to buy it no matter what it cost. If he were wrong, of course, the expenditure of buying other claims, no matter how cheap, added to the cost of useless machinery and to the fact that with the yellow soil running out the diamonds would also be running out, and Barnato Brothers would be stony. It was quite a gamble.

It was also a sobering thought…

Gustave Bees was having a hard time of it. Without his daughter Fay to handle the chores and to do the cutting and the basting and the delivery and the collecting of payments and the buying of the cloth and all the many things Fay had done for him since his wife’s death, Bees was in trouble. The Kaffir woman Fay had arranged to do some of the work had been bush-trained and knew nothing about the cutting of cloth, or basting; a simple breechclout for her man working in the mines on contract was the extent of her previous experience with garments. Besides, she was ugly as sin, hugely pregnant, the food she cooked was sickening, and she smelled. In appreciation for the many things Fay had done for him — and also partially out of some touch of fear of the strong woman his daughter had become — Gustave Bees had tried to overlook the fact that, having married an infidel, his daughter was living in sin and would go to hell unless he brought her home and had the minister say the proper prayers over her. But when, added to the discomfort of his life put upon him by Fay’s absence, he also began to hear from his dead wife in his constant conversations with her in his mind, and when Emily Bees told him she wanted Fay eventually to be with her in heaven, which was impossible as long as she lived with the infidel, Bees knew he had to act.

Accordingly, one day he put his shears into their holster at his belt from habit, and set out to walk the several miles from his tent in Bultfontein to the Paris Hotel. The bar was fairly crowded when he walked in and climbed the steps, paying no attention to the men standing there drinking. Bees remembered the room on the second floor where his daughter lived with her lover; Fay had brought him back the day after her wedding to show him the hotel and the room. It had been when she told him she was married and would not be coming home but would arrange a Kaffir woman to do the chores and help him. She had not told him she was taking instructions to become a Jew; she had felt she had to give her father time to recover from the first shock before encumbering him with the second.

Bees rapped on the door and waited. Fay opened the door and then smiled a bit dubiously when she saw it was her father. There was nothing in his expression to indicate that the visit was a fatherly one, or even a friendly one. Fay opened the door a bit wider, inviting entrance.

“Hello, Pa,” she said and stepped back. “Come in.”

“There’s no need to come in,” Bees said. “I’ve come to take you home. Get your things.”

“Pa, be sensible. I’m married now. I live here. This is my home.”

She might not have spoken, or Bees might not have heard her, for he went on with scarcely a pause. “Your ma wants you home, too.”

Fay drew in her breath sharply. “Ma’s dead,” she said quietly. “She’s been dead and buried for years.”

“She still wants you home. She told me. You’re living in sin,” Bees said accusingly. “You’ll go to hell and your ma in heaven will never be able to see you again. Get your things together. I’m taking you home.” He reached over and put one large hand on Fay’s arm, pulling. Fay went white as she pulled back.

“Pa! Let me go! You don’t know what you’re doing!”

Carl Luckner, hearing some kind of a fuss in the hallway, came from his combination room and office to see some elderly man pulling at Fay Barnato’s arm. Touching Fay was something Luckner had contemplated for some time, running his hands all over that lush body, kissing those swollen red lips, but the inviting smiles he had given the girl had evoked no response at all on her part, and his job was too valuable at the moment for him to risk making advances that might be rejected. Although why they should be had been a mystery to Luckner since he had first seen the girl; what a girl that beautiful could see in a plain-faced runt with goggles like Barney Barnato when he, Carl Luckner, was available, was something Luckner could not understand. Still, here was some old coot, probably having gotten drunk at the bar, trying to manhandle the girl. Luckner moved forward quickly.

“Here! Let her go, you drunken fool!”

Bees dropped Fay’s arm, turning to face this new threat. “Who are you?”

“Never mind who I am. You’d better leave while you can, old man.”

“I’m leaving with my daughter!” Bees turned back to Fay, angry now. “Get your things together or I’ll drag you out of here without them!”

Luckner looked at Fay. In his mind was the thought that now she might appreciate him and show that appreciation in some proper manner someday when Barney was busy at the office, or some night when Barney was out with the boys. The thought of having Fay in his arms in bed was inflaming, but first things first. He forced his eyes up from her full bust to her eyes. “You want this old man thrown out?”

Fay didn’t know what to say; it was a dilemma. “No,” she said at last. “He’s my pa. I’ll handle him.”

Bees was outraged. “I’ll handle you!” he said angrily, and grabbed her arm again.

Fay cried out in pain. Luckner’s jaw tightened. He stepped forward and took Bees’ arm, twisting it until the man released the girl; then Luckner grabbed Bees by the collar and the seat of his pants, lifting a bit, and started to walk him police fashion down the hall toward the steps. Bees struggled against the undignified grip, his crotch painful from the pressure of the raised trousers. He reached for the shears in the holster at his side, managed to drag them free, and punched them backward in a desperate attempt to win release from the grip. The points narrowly missed Luckner. Luckner’s jaw tightened further; his eyes became mere slits.

“Why, you dirty bastard! You miserable afskeiding! Pull something on me, will you!” he said viciously, and swung Bees around roughly. He took the arm with the scissors and twisted until they fell to the floor. He kicked them away and kept on twisting. Bees cried out in pain and then screamed as the shoulder snapped, slumping to his knees and then sprawling on the floor. Fay screamed and tried to intervene, but Luckner roughly shoved her away, all else forgotten in his maddened rage. Bees was trying to sit up, whimpering in pain, holding his broken arm as tightly to his side as he could while he supported himself on his other arm. Luckner, cursing steadily in a mad monotone, kicked Bees first on the supporting arm, and when Bees collapsed with a loud cry of pain, Luckner kicked him on the broken shoulder. Bees screamed once and fainted, but Luckner continued to kick the inert body, making it jump grotesquely with each kick. Fay was holding her hands over her ears, her eyes wide with shock, screaming without stop. People were running up the stairs from the bar to see what was happening. The first man to reach the top of the stairs saw Luckner methodically kicking some man on the floor of the hallway, a steady stream of curses coming from him as he did so. The man on the stairs stopped abruptly; in the six months Luckner had been managing the Paris Hotel his reputation as a bad man to cross had been proven more than once. Fay saw the frightened faces of the people on the stairs and called to them, her voice tinged with hysteria.

“Stop him! Stop him!”

Nobody moved. Her hysteria increased.

“Then get Barney! Someone get Barney!”

One of the men turned and forced himself past the others on the stairs, running out into the street and down the road to Barney’s office in Commissioner Street. He burst in as Barney was examining a stone through his loupe, his eyeglasses up on his forehead, a digger sitting before him.

“Barney!”

Barney looked up and came to his feet at once, frightened by the urgency in the man’s voice. “What is it? What happened?”

“Luckner’s killing some man! Your wife is there, screaming!”

Barney called out to his nephew in the rear of the office. “Jack, take over!” He dashed out of the office and down the road, pounding along as fast as he could go with the other man running behind him. He ran into the hotel and forced his way through the crowd on the stairs, tearing at them, pressing through them. The scene that met his eyes when he came to the top was one of horror. Bees’ dead body lay on the hallway floor, his face barely recognizable, a bloody mask with one eye socket empty and staring blindly where Luckner’s heavy boot had torn the eyeball loose, flipping it away to lie somewhere in the shadowed hallway. The nose had been flattened to one side, a bloody smear, and one ear had almost been ripped off. The body itself was twisted obscenely, doll-like, most of the bones broken after death by the unceasing, merciless kicking. Fay, sobbing softly and incessantly, was slumped on the floor against one wall, her hands over her eyes to shut out the memory of that terrible scene. Luckner, the hot edge of his temper spent, was standing as in a daze, panting a bit from his effort.

Barney walked past the dead body, shouldered Luckner aside, and bent to pick Fay up in his arms. He carried her into their room and laid her on the bed. He covered her with the coverlet and bent to kiss her. “Are you all right, sweetheart?”

“Pa… he killed Pa…”

“I know, darling. Are you all right?”

She nodded slowly, still sobbing softly. He kissed her again, gently, tenderly. “I’ll be right back, darling.”

He walked out into the hall, closing the door softly behind him. He looked at the body a moment and then took off his jacket, laying it to cover the battered face of the dead man. Then he straightened up to look at Luckner. When he spoke his tone was almost conversational.

“You’re insane, do you know that?” he said.

Luckner didn’t bother to answer. He walked to the steps and pushed his way through the crowd still standing there stunned by what they had just witnessed. He walked behind the bar, took a bottle of whiskey and a glass and walked to a table, sitting down heavily. Barney picked up the pair of shears lying in the hallway, studied them a moment, and put them in his pocket. Then he followed Luckner down the stairs, people standing back for him, and went to stand before the other man. Luckner didn’t look up. Those in the audience stood away, holding their breath in view of the unexpected drama that had presented itself for their attention. Barney paid them no heed, considering Luckner evenly.

“How did it come to happen?”

Luckner shrugged as if it were unimportant. He poured himself a big drink from the bottle and drained it in one gulp. “He pulled something on me,” he said, still not looking up, and refilled his glass.

“A little old man. With these.” Barney took the shears from his pocket and tossed them on the table contemptuously. “You, the big, strong, hard Jap-trick expert from Tokyo and Cape Town. And you had to kick him to death to protect yourself.”

“He pulled them on me,” Luckner said stubbornly. “I don’t let anyone pull anything on me.”

Barney looked at him coldly. He reached over, took the bottle from the table and handed it to the bartender standing there watching. He turned back to Luckner. “Finish your drink and get out. And don’t come back.”

The liquor was beginning to have its effect on Luckner.

“Now listen, you little runt Jew,” he said, looking up at last, his temper beginning to return. “D’you know why you want me to get out and not come back? So’s you can cheat me out of what’s mine, like you been cheating me all the bloody months I’ve been here!” He sneered. “We split the profits fifty-fifty, do we? With you keeping the books? What a laugh! Sure we split — ninety-ten, and who do you think gets the ninety? Little Barney Barnato, that’s who!” He drained the glass with Barney watching and listening quietly. Luckner looked at the glass a moment and then tossed it into a corner of the room. “You don’t fool me, Isaacs, who wants to call himself Barnato so’s people might think he’s an Eye-tie instead of a kike! You don’t fool me, Isaacs! Fifty-fifty — Jew percentage!”

Barney fought against the flush of temper that rose in him.

“Just get out!” he said, his voice nearly cracking under his growing anger. His Cockney came back automatically. “What brass y’got comin’ ye’ll get, and not a farthing more! Y’killed a man, me wife’s pa, a poor addle-brained old crock what was a bit off his bean but couldn’t help hisself none. If I didn’t know them shears I’d seen them so often, and if I didn’t think he really pulled them on you — and I wonder what y’was doin’ to make him do somethin’ like that — I’d see you hang if it was the last thing I ever did fer the old man! Now get out!”

Luckner sneered, the liquor now fully at work, and his temper as well. All the frustration of having seen and desired Fay Barnato all those months without ever having had her, and with the chances of ever having her now sharply reduced by the unfortunate circumstances of his having killed the girl’s old man by pure chance, were in his voice.

“Your poor cunt’s pa I killed, did I? Well, let me tell you something about your poor cunt. Anytime I wanted her I had her, and she isn’t all that prime if you ask my opinion! Oh, she loves getting it from me, used to beg for it as a matter of fact—”

It was as far as he got. Barney, a growl in his throat, was on top of the man. Luckner’s chair with him in it went over with a crash and Barney was on top of him still, in insane fury, choking him. Luckner rolled, choking, breaking the grip, and then found himself being battered by vicious blows to his head and face. He shoved with all his strength, trying to hold the infuriated smaller man away with his greater reach, but Barney would not be denied, breaking through, his fists sledgehammers that battered Luckner unmercifully. The larger man finally scrambled loose and came to his feet only to be tackled fiercely about the knees and brought down. Once more he managed to get to his feet to face Barney and find that the punishing blows could not be avoided. Luckner tried a Japanese grip but Barney avoided it almost contemptuously. Luckner tried to protect himself from the constant barrage of blows and found himself on the floor. He sat up and wiped a hand across his face, staring in angry shock to see the blood that covered it. Barney picked up a chair, raising it on high, determined to bash the brains out of the liar who had had the nerve to impugn the good name of his beloved Fay, but the chair was suddenly seized by someone behind him, and others swarmed in to hold him, pulling him away.

“Barney, for God’s sake!” It was the bartender who had put down the whiskey bottle hurriedly and had grabbed the chair. “You’ll kill the man!”

“Damn right I’ll kill the bastard! Let me go!”

“Barney, cool down! He didn’t pull a knife on you or anything! He ain’t worth hanging for!”

Barney slowly came to his senses. He allowed the chair to be taken from him while he stood trembling from the force of his fury. Luckner was staring up at him with a look of pure hatred on his face, wondering how this little man whom he could break in two had managed to not only beat him but make him look a fool. It was something Luckner knew he would never forget and never forgive. Barney tugged himself loose of the hands that had been restraining him. “I’m all right. Let go.” He took a deep breath, trying to control his trembling, and looked down at Luckner with no expression at all on his face. “Get out.” It seemed to him he was standing there talking, listening to his own voice as from a stranger somewhere off to one side. “If I ever see you again, I’ll kill you.”

He watched Luckner come to his feet and stagger from the bar into the street. He turned to the bartender, who was watching him anxiously.

“I’m all right. Get the old man down to the undertaker, tell him I’ll be down later to talk to him. Clean up the hallway. See the place is straightened up.”

“Right, Barney.”

He slowly climbed the stairs, skirted the dead body in the hall, and walked into their room. He closed the door behind him and walked to the bed, slowly feeling the trembling in his hands and arms subside. He sat on the edge of the bed. Fay had stopped crying and was staring at the ceiling almost sightlessly. She turned and looked at him inquiringly. Barney leaned over and kissed her cheek; she put her arms around him, holding him tightly, the tears beginning to come again.

“Oh, Barney—”

“It’s all right, darling,” he said softly. “It’s all over. Luckner’s gone and he won’t be back. Your pa will be well taken care of. We’ll give him a good funeral.”

“… the poor man…”

“He wasn’t a happy man since your ma died, honey. After the funeral I’ll go down to the tent and see that everything’s taken care of.”

“No,” Fay said, a bit more of her usual strength in her voice. “I will. You won’t know where everything is, or who has clothes half finished. We’ll have to find someone else to finish them…”

“Someone else?” Barney tried to sound insulted. “Don’t you think I can do it? I ain’t a bad snip meself, if I’m the one’s got to say it.” He dropped the Cockney. “We’ll both go down and do the job right. Your pa would want that.”

“Oh, Barney!” she said with a catch in her voice, and held him even tighter. “I love you so much! I don’t know what I’d do without you!”

“You’ll never have to find out, I promise you that,” Barney said quietly, and knew that despite the horror of that day he had never felt happier or more secure than he did at that moment.

7

August 1883

The directors of the De Beers Mining Company were holding a meeting in a private room of the Kimberley Club. Present were Cecil Rhodes, Charles Rudd, Alfred Beit, Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, and Neville Pickering, Rhodes’ private secretary. The advantages of using the club rather than their own company offices just two blocks down the street were many. The club was less austere, for one thing; for another, there was a small serving door from the private room to the bar which permitted liquid refreshments to be served during the meeting. Then, too, the dining room of the Kimberley Club served the best food in town, should the meeting prove to run into the lunch hour. But while holding this particular meeting at the club made for pleasant surroundings, the subject of the meeting was less pleasant. They had met to discuss what to do about Barney Barnato.

“I am still absolutely amazed,” said Beit, addressing Rhodes who sat at the head of the table, “that you and Barnato have never met in person.” Beit was a short, rotund man with a happy disposition; he had been the leading trader in diamonds in Kimberley until Barney Barnato had overtaken him, but that fact had never dampened his good humor, nor did it in any way interfere with his meeting with Barnato when the need arose. He would even visit Barney at the Paris Hotel on occasion for dinner, mainly because he enjoyed Fay Barnato’s company. “After all,” he went on, “the two of you are the biggest factors in the business today.”

Rhodes shrugged. “There has never been any reason for me to meet the man as far as I could see,” he said, and leaned back in his chair, a large stoop-shouldered man with sharp hooded eyes that constantly went from face to face around the table. “He’s not my type of person,” he added, and fell silent, reaching for his whiskey glass, letting the others voice their opinions before he rendered the final decision.

“Well, I think it’s time to talk to him now,” Rudd said. He was sitting to the left of Rhodes, tilted back in his chair, a large cigar between his teeth. “Since he took over Kimberley Central and merged it with Barnato Mining, he’s taking more diamonds out of the mines than anyone else. Hell, we control the selling output of three mines, De Beers, Bultfontein, and Dutoitspan, and Barnato with half of the Kimberley hole is making us look sick.” He wiped ash from his cigar and returned it to his lips. “If he ever gets his hands on the other half, he could bankrupt us by flooding the market.”

“He got a big jump on us and everyone else in getting decent equipment to mine the blue ground,” Beit pointed out.

“That was a long time ago. Water over the dam,” Rudd said evenly. “You can’t cut your whiskey with it today.”

“He was also the first one to sink shafts and put through galleries to the blue, to get away from flooding,” Beit went on.

Rudd looked at him and nodded. Of all the others on the board of directors, Rudd liked Beit the best. He also thought that Beit had the best mind among them, and would have made a better chairman than Rhodes, although he also knew that Beit would have refused the position had it been offered him. “Everything you say is true, Alfred,” he said evenly, “which only makes the problem more acute. We lost a year to him back in ’seventy-seven and ’seventy-eight and we’ve never caught up. Between what’s in his safe and what he’s already shipped to London, Barnato probably has enough diamonds all together to put the entire market on the skids if he wants to. What he’s been releasing, added to our own releases, has already depressed the market. Try to picture what it would be like if he dumped the whole kit and caboodle.”

“Not to mention the illicit stones they say he handles,” Pickering said. Rhodes’ secretary was a smooth-faced young man in his late twenties, with a fair complexion and hair the color of mealie silk. No sooner had he spoken than he looked at the head of the table as if for confirmation from his boss, but Rhodes remained listening with no expression at all on his face.

“Let’s not get off on that tangent,” Rudd said sharply. “There’s no proof at all that Barnato deals in stolen stones, and if he did it would only make the situation worse.”

“So what’s the answer?” It was Dr. Jameson speaking. He was a handsome swashbuckling type in his early thirties with a swarthy complexion and black curly hair, a relative newcomer to Kimberley. His interest in diamonds was quite superficial; he had never been in a diamond mine and never intended to be in one if he could help it. His directorship was due principally to the fact that he was Rhodes’ personal physician and was a friend of the other directors. The small investment he had made in De Beers shares was merely the excuse the others had needed to invite him on the board. That investment had paid the doctor handsome dividends until the drop in diamond prices; now that investment could even be in jeopardy. He stared across the table. “Well, Rudd?”

“There’s only one answer that I can see,” Rudd said. “If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em, as some great philosopher once said.”

“Dumping diamonds would hurt Barnato as much as us,” Pickering pointed out, and once more instantly looked at Rhodes to get his reaction. Again there was no sign from the expressionless face.

Beit looked at Pickering with a look that had more pity in it than censure. “He’d only dump them until we were bleeding at the pores,” he said. He had understood Rudd’s point perfectly. “When our shares fell to next to nothing on the London Exchange and the Paris Bourse, he’d buy us out for the price of cheap gaspers.”

“And we’d all go back to learning how to use a pick and shovel,” Rudd said glumly.

“I agree with Charles,” Beit went on, looking at the head of the table. “You’ve simply got to talk to the man, Cecil. You’re the major stockholder and the chairman. We all know, and have known for a long time, that the only way to keep the diamond market on an even keel, the only way to prevent the bottom from dropping out, is to have the release of all diamonds in the hands of one group, who would release enough stones to satisfy the market but not so much as to glut it and cause prices to go down. That’s been obvious for years. Things can’t go on the way they’ve been going. It’s foolish to have the equivalent of anarchy in this business when to all intents and purposes there are only two major parties left. Let the two parties come to an understanding, and everyone will benefit.”

There was silence. Rhodes waited, looking around the table, but no one spoke. After all, there was little reason to discuss an established fact. At last he drained his glass and nodded, not necessarily in agreement, but because he was now prepared to speak.

“Suppose,” he said slowly, “that we could get Robinson’s shares in his Standard Company, and Baring-Gould’s shares in the French Company. Think of it! We’d have half the Kimberley hole. Add that to what we already control, and let the little Jew have the rest!”

Beit reddened. He was Jewish, and although he was used to being put in a different category from Barnato in Rhodes’ mind, he still resented the other’s language.

“Just how would we get control?” he asked, trying to sound merely curious instead of negative. “We’re all agreed that Barnato has built up a fortune these last three or four years, enough to enable him to dump diamonds if he feels like it. We haven’t. If we start bidding for the Robinson and the Baring-Gould properties, bidding against Barnato — because obviously he’s not going to stand still and let us buy half of Kimberley — the price will simply go up and up until it could break both of us. And it would undoubtedly break us first. But just suppose” — he dropped his voice a bit so that the attention needed to hear him made the attention needed to understand him that much more acute — “just suppose we came to an agreement with Barnato! Suppose we could get Barnato to agree to ration his output, or to sell his stones through us? Then how could Robinson or Baring-Gould stand against us? Whether we bought them out or not would be immaterial; we could force them to either sell their stones through us or sell them at prices we determined. They’d have no choice, because we could put them out of business whenever we wished. What they would really do,” he added in a conversational tone of voice, “would be to sell out, because they are both intelligent men.” He smiled. “Sell out, that is, at our price, not at the exaggerated price that would be the result of a fight between Barnato and us.”

There was silence again as Rhodes considered what Beit had said. Like Rudd, Rhodes had a lot of respect for Beit’s opinion. He also knew that Jameson listened to Beit’s words, and Rhodes had no intention of losing his leadership of the company by misjudging the temper of the board. There was too much in the future at stake. He sighed.

“All right,” he said at last. “I’ll talk to the little Jew.” He glanced at Rudd a moment. “And don’t tell me, Charles, that I once said I never would. I’m not a stubborn man.” He turned back to the others, choosing to disregard Rudd’s discreet cough, raising a finger for emphasis. “But one thing must be clear! If I get nowhere talking to him — which in my opinion is what is going to happen — then obviously other steps must be taken. I’m sure we all agree with Alfred that things simply cannot go on as they are. Should I fail to convince Barnato to agree to the control of the release of all stones, then I must have your authority to take whatever steps I feel are necessary to resolve the matter.” He looked around. “Is that agreeable?”

“Of course,” Pickering said instantly, and flushed.

“I agree,” Jameson said quietly.

“What steps?” Rudd asked curiously.

“Whatever steps would be required,” Rhodes said enigmatically.

“You’d use discretion, of course?” Beit said a bit dubiously. It was more a statement than a question.

“Obviously,” Rhodes said, looking at Beit a bit coldly, and came to his feet, indicating the meeting was at an end.

Rudd crushed out his cigar and looked up at Rhodes towering above him. “When will you talk to him?”

“Now is as good a time as any,” Rhodes said, and held up his hand. “No need for you boys to get up; stay and enjoy your drinks.”

He nodded to them and walked from the room.

Barney looked up from the tray of diamonds Jack Joel and two of the helpers he had hired had just completed sorting and registering. As Barney had accurately predicted, the illicit diamond trade had continued to flourish despite the native compounds at the sorting yards, and the searches, and the castor oil and all the rest. As a result a new law had been passed, requiring that all diamonds had to be registered in a book that was open for inspection at any time by the Illicit Diamond Detection Squad. The book noted the date of acquisition of each stone, from whom acquired, the weight of the stone, and disposition when sold or sent on to London or Paris for cutting or sale there.

He came to his feet at once, surprised. Cecil Rhodes had just walked into his office, and Cecil Rhodes was the last person he had ever expected to have visit him. He was also, Barney was thinking, the last person he would ever have invited. He moved forward.

“Mr. Rhodes, I believe.”

Rhodes merely nodded. “Barnato.” He looked around. “Where can we talk in privacy?”

“About what?” Barney sounded curious. “Do we have anything to talk about?”

Rhodes felt his face getting red and fought down his temper. Oh, what a pleasure it would be to take this uppity little Jew down a peg or two! “Why don’t we talk and then you’ll find out?”

Barney shrugged. “All right. I don’t mind talking. I talk to lots of people. Come back to my little cubbyhole. I don’t have fancy offices like De Beers.” He led the way to the rear of the long trading office and into a little partitioned section that served as his private office. He closed the door and sat down without offering Rhodes a chair. Rhodes pulled one around and sat down, his anger growing at this open sign of ill manners which he knew was far from accidental. Barnato looked at him evenly.

“Well?”

“Well,” Rhodes began, “the price of diamonds has been falling—”

“You came to tell me that?” Barney’s eyebrows went up. The man across the desk from him was the man who had sworn he would never allow Barnato to join the Kimberley Club or even be invited there, and who had made no bones about the statement; this was the man who openly referred to him contemptuously as “that little upstart kike from the London slums”; this was the man who had gotten Solly Loeb to join the Kimberley Club to point out to Barney his particular ostracism, as well as to try and learn the secrets of Barnato Mining. No, Barney thought, studying the man across from him, you have a few things coming to you, Mr. Rhodes, and this is as good a time as any to let you know it. “I already knew the price of diamonds has been falling, Mr. Rhodes,” he said.

“Let me finish!” Rhodes said, and now his voice was almost savage. “The price of diamonds has been falling and we both know why. There are too many stones being put on the market. It’s simply common sense to control the output of the mines as well as the release of the stones into the market. And we can’t do it as long as we’re competing the way we are now.”

Barney nodded. “I agree. So stop mining stones and stop releasing them. I’ll be very happy to cooperate by taking over the entire market. I’ve meant to for a very long time, anyway. And when I do, I promise to raise prices.”

“I’m trying not to lose my temper,” Rhodes said angrily, stung beyond the limits of his patience. “You’re supposed to be a smart man, Barnato, but you don’t sound like one from the way you talk. We control the output of three of the four mines in Kimberley; you control half of one mine!”

Barney considered the other man mildly. “So what are you worried about? Dump your stones on the market and I’ll dump mine. And we’ll see who’s still eating afterwards.” He looked at Rhodes calmly for a moment and then changed his tone, becoming businesslike. “Now, look, Mr. Rhodes. You didn’t come here to tell me the market for diamonds is falling. And you didn’t come here to try and establish some way we can ration the release of stones between us, because you knew before you walked in that door that I would never go along with such foolishness. You don’t trust me and I don’t trust you, so how could any agreement between us possibly work? And don’t tell me we could keep track through the registry books, because despite your books and your compounds and your IDD Squad, this town is still flooded with illicit stones. So why don’t you tell me the real reason you’re here? I promise I’ll keep it a secret.”

“All right!” Rhodes said. He hadn’t meant to bring it up in that fashion but the little Jew was intolerable! “I want to buy you out. Lock, stock and barrel!”

Barney laughed in pure enjoyment. “And I bet you’d throw in first-class coach fare for me to go to Cape Town and never come back, too, wouldn’t you? That’s an even more ridiculous suggestion than that we cooperate in setting limits on the stones.” He shook his head. “No, Mr. Rhodes. Neither Barnato Mining nor Barnato Brothers, Trading, is for sale.”

“We’re not interested in the trading end of your business. Just the mine.”

“And Barnato Trading would get their diamonds from who, Mr. Rhodes?”

“From the combine, of course.”

“You’re going to make me laugh again, Mr. Rhodes. The answer is still no.”

“But why not?” Now that Rhodes was in this far his very stubbornness made it imperative that he continue. “What’s wrong with one group controlling the entire output of Kimberley, all four mines, and setting prices? It makes sense!”

“Of course it makes sense,” Barney said agreeably. “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the idea. The only thing wrong is, it’s going to be Barnato who controls, not De Beers. Besides, what would you buy me out with? Shares in De Beers?”

Rhodes was stung. “What’s wrong with De Beers shares?” he demanded hotly.

“If you don’t know,” Barney said calmly, “then you haven’t been watching the London ’Change. You’ve got diamonds — which are losing value every day — but you don’t have cash. I’ve got diamonds and cash. You say you control the output of three mines while I only have half of one mine — but to get that control you put up too many of your shares. Your control isn’t all that firm. Then you had to put up a lot of money for the equipment to dig into the blue ground and crush it at a time when machinery prices were sky-high. You waited to dig shafts until mine were in operation, in the meantime continuing to work in wet claims, and when you finally decided that shafts were the way to go, it cost you three times as much to sink every foot than when I did. You were late and you paid for it. And you’re still paying and will for a long time. You see, Mr. Rhodes — and you see I call you Mr. Rhodes, not Rhodes — I know your business a lot better than you know mine. When a little outfit like ours can sell a few diamonds and make the great De Beers hurt, you’re in serious trouble. Now, to get back to business, if you want to sell your controlling interest in De Beers, maybe we really do have something to talk about.”

Rhodes came to his feet, his temper now under icy control since he now knew what he would have to do. It was what he should have done in the first place without demeaning himself, subjecting himself to the insulting behavior of this obnoxious little kike. There was no need for the board to even know about it, but he had recognized the possible need for it when he had gotten their permission to handle things his own way if necessary.

“You’re making a mistake, Barnato,” he said coldly.

“One more mistake won’t kill me,” Barney said calmly. “But I wonder if I could ask you a favor.”

“What?”

“Don’t slam the door on your way out.”

“You should have seen his face!” Barney said with delight to Fay at supper that night. “The great Cecil Rhodes! Somebody wouldn’t give him a candy stick. I thought he’d burst into tears!”

“Barney…” Fay’s tone was doubtful.

Barney seemed to notice Fay’s frown for the first time. “What’s the matter? You certainly didn’t think I’d sell the companies, did you?”

“Of course not. But, darling, I understand he’s a bad man to have for an enemy…”

“Honey,” Barney said philosophically, “there ain’t — I mean aren’t — any bad men it’s good to have for an enemy.” And having delivered himself of this brilliant maxim, he promptly forgot the matter and tackled the food being brought to them from the hotel kitchen.

Cecil John Rhodes was having a drink with his old friend, the mayor of Kimberley, Joseph Benjamin Robinson. Without appearing to do so, Rhodes had managed to sequester Robinson into a corner of the Kimberley Club bar that gave more privacy than any other. Their drinks ordered and served, Rhodes took a sip of his whiskey and looked at the mayor.

“Joe,” he said conversationally, “how’s the Illicit Diamond Detection Squad doing?”

Robinson shrugged. With his ever-present sun helmet still in place despite the heat of the room, his face was in shadow, but his expression could have been calculated from the tone of his voice. “The trouble is we don’t have enough men. Trained or otherwise. It’s a matter of money, of budget.”

It was the answer Rhodes wanted, nor was it at all unexpected. Robinson’s editorials on the matter were common fare in the columns of his newspaper, the Independent.

“A pity,” Rhodes commented idly, and waited.

“Yes. Now, if some of the interested parties, the ones who are suffering the most from the illicit trade,” Robinson went on with a touch of asperity, “would realize it would be in their own best interests to chip in some money to hire more men — preferably properly trained men — then maybe the squad could be more effective, accomplish more. But no!” The fact that Robinson himself was owner of the Standard Company, and as such fell into the category without donating a penny to that program or any other, did not seem to occur to Robinson. The job of mayor, while it paid very little, gave honor and prestige, and after all, Robinson made his money with the Standard mine and his newspaper.

Rhodes managed to look ashamed; it was no easy task for him.

“You’re absolutely right, Joe,” he said at last, staring down at his drink in an abashed manner. “But you know, with the costs of digging today, and the price of diamonds in London falling daily…” He suddenly looked up as an idea struck him. “However, I happen to have a trained man, an ex-policeman from Cape Town, as a matter of fact, that I brought up here to be one of the guards at one of the compounds. With the diamond market what it is, we can spare men. Why don’t I let you have him to put on the Diamond Detection Squad? I’d keep him on my payroll, of course,” he added magnanimously, quickly.

“I’ll take him,” Robinson said equally quickly, and smiled. “I don’t even care if he’s Kaffir or purple in color. I’ll take anyone at this point. You say he’s trained?”

“Yes. He’s an ex-bobby from the Cape and as tough as they come. He’s the perfect man for the job,” Rhodes said quietly, and ostensibly changed the subject. “Joe, speaking of illicits, don’t you find it a bit strange that Barnato seems to be taking more diamonds from his share of Kimberley than either you or Baring-Gould?”

Robinson considered his companion carefully. He knew Rhodes for what he was and he had no illusions as to the fact that Cecil Rhodes had no morals at all where his immediate interests were concerned.

“There’s never been a word against Barnato in that respect,” he said quietly. “I hate the Jew as much as anybody, Cecil, as you well know. But if the illegal diamond dealing is to be stopped, then chasing rainbows just because we’d all like to find a particular pot of gold at its end is no way to go about it.”

“I only said—”

“I heard what you said,” Robinson said, and was surprised a bit at his own temerity in facing Cecil Rhodes in that fashion. Although in a way it was a shame that Barney Barnato was innocent of illicit diamond dealing…

It had taken Cecil Rhodes a bit of money and a little time to locate Carl Luckner and bring him to Kimberley from Cape Town where he had been working as a bouncer in a combination bar and whorehouse, but it had been necessary before his talk with Robinson. Rhodes had no fear of Robinson: the old man was weak when it came down to basic intestinal fortitude and would end up doing what he was told if he knew what was good for him.

The story of Luckner’s fight with Barnato at the Paris Hotel had gone through Kimberley the day after the fight, and although it was now years old, it had never escaped the mind of Cecil Rhodes that the Jew Barnato had undoubtedly made an implacable enemy — another enemy, that was. Now that Luckner stood before him, looking at him with those slitted eyes, his mustache bristling, the scar along his jaw livid, Rhodes studied the man coldly, as he would any other tool he had to use in the digging of diamonds, or the eventual control he intended to exercise over the entire industry. What he saw pleased him. Here was a man obviously without scruples, which was exactly what Rhodes wanted.

Luckner returned the inspection with equal coldness. The man facing him behind the large desk, with his wide shoulders and big head and those icy hooded eyes, was as well known now in Cape Town as he was in Kimberley. As the newly elected representative of the diamond district in the Cape Assembly, he was a universally recognized figure in the capital and was often in the news. Luckner decided enough time had been wasted.

“You wanted to see me, Mr. Rhodes?”

“Yes.” Rhodes reached for a pencil and began to twiddle it as he spoke. “How would you like to get back on the police?”

“In Cape Town?”

“No, here in Kimberley. Not the regular police force, but a special branch. The Illicit Diamond Detection Squad. Under John Fry. Do you know John Fry, Mr. Luckner?”

“I knew him when he was on the force in Cape Town. Why?”

“You know, of course, that Fry is supposedly totally honest. Are you totally honest, Mr. Luckner?”

Luckner smiled, a grim smile with no humor in it. “Mr. Rhodes, if you wanted an honest man, you wouldn’t have sent all the way to Cape Town for me. There has to be at least one honest man in Kimberley. Exactly what is it you want, Mr. Rhodes? And,” he added, “what would it pay?”

Rhodes smiled, comfortable with the answer, as he continued to play idly with the pencil. “I want you to settle an old debt. An old debt of yours, that is. Together with a new debt of mine. And it will pay one thousand pounds. Is that satisfactory?”

Luckner’s eyes narrowed even further. There was only one answer to money like that. “You want somebody killed, obviously. Who? Barnato?”

Rhodes’ smile disappeared as if wiped from his face. The pencil in his fingers suddenly broke under the pressure of his strong spasmodic grip. He dropped the remains of the pencil and stared at Luckner. He was thoroughly and truly shocked.

“I abhor violence!” he said, the very tone of his voice violent in itself. “I do not want anyone killed! Never forget it! What a terrible thought!” He slowly regained his composure. “I simply wish you to examine Barnato’s registry book and compare it with the contents of his safe. Preferably while in the company of John Fry. That’s all.”

Luckner grinned wisely. “And I gather you’re pretty sure they won’t compare?” His grin faded. “But what if they do?”

“They won’t,” Rhodes said confidently. “Not if you can handle the most elementary of legerdemain…” He reached into the drawer of his desk and brought out a diamond, holding it up in the light. “This stone weighs a bit more than twenty-four carats. You will find this, not in the diamond tray in Bamato’s safe, but behind it, where he obviously kept it, hoping to keep it from the attention of the Diamond Squad…”

Luckner’s eyes widened; he whistled. “Twenty-four carats! You must hate the bastard’s guts as much as I do!” He smiled, an evil smile. “This ought to get the runt a packet on the Cape breakwater!”

Rhodes didn’t bother to answer. Luckner reached for the stone; Rhodes held it back the briefest of moments. “I should not lose this, if I were you,” he said significantly, and handed it over. “The man to see is the mayor. His name is J. B. Robinson. It’s all arranged. He’ll put you to work. You won’t be on the payroll, so the sooner you complete your task, the sooner you’ll be paid and can return to Cape Town.”

“Right, Captain—”

But Rhodes had not bothered to answer; he had bent his head to study some papers on his desk, clearly indicating that the interview was over. Luckner looked down at the bent head for several moments and then smiled slightly as he left the room, closing the door behind him. Doing Barney Barnato down was going to be a labor of love, and he was going to be paid a thousand pounds for it, yet! And up Rhodes’ arse, whoever he thought he was!

It was one week later that the two men met in the same office, but now the atmosphere in the closed office was far different from the smiling and friendly and understanding air that had prevailed at their first meeting. Now Rhodes was in an overwhelming rage. Although he managed to keep his voice low and apparently controlled, it trembled when he spoke, and his face was white, as were the knuckles of his hand with which he gripped the back of his chair.

“Well!”

Luckner shrugged. “It was one of those things. I couldn’t help it. John Fry was with me when we opened the safe, the way you wanted. Jack Joel was in the front and I assumed that Barnato was in that little cubbyhole he has in back as a sort of private office—”

“You assumed!”

“Yes, I assumed, damn it! He’s always there! So today he wasn’t — how in hell was I supposed to know?” Luckner was beginning to get angry. Rhodes was a power, he knew that, but Luckner didn’t like to be spoken to in that tone of voice by anyone. “I did what I was being paid to do. I pretended to find the stone under the tray, and we looked to see where the stone was listed in the registry book, and of course it wasn’t, and—”

“And John Fry arrested Jack Joel!” Rhodes was fuming. He glared at Luckner. “That wasn’t the purpose! I don’t give tuppence’ worth of ox droppings what happens or doesn’t happen to Jack Joel!”

“Ah, but Barnato will!” Luckner said shrewdly. “I know the runty little bastard; I worked for him for over six months. They stick together, those Jews, especially where relatives are concerned. You got even with Barnato, whether you know it or not, the same as if you’d had him arrested himself.”

Rhodes considered the other with repugnance. “Luckner, you’re a fool! What control does Jack Joel have in the Barnato Mining Company?” He shook his head in disgust, waved a hand in exasperation. “Get out!”

Luckner became very still, his fists slowly beginning to clench. “I’ll get out when I get my thousand pounds, not before.” His voice softened deceptively. “I have to testify at the trial before I leave, you know; Jack Joel’s trial. I’d hate to have to tell the judge the truth about what really happened…”

Rhodes sneered. “I should think you would! You’d get ten years on the Cape Town breakwater for planting a diamond, for falsely accusing an innocent man!”

“And what would happen to the great Cecil Rhodes? They’d ride you out of town on a rail!”

Rhodes laughed, a humorless laugh. “They wouldn’t do a thing to me. Your word against mine! Don’t make me laugh. Besides, you were known to hold a grudge against the man; not me.”

Luckner wasn’t a bit intimidated. “And I suppose I’m also supposed to be in a position to be carrying twenty-four-carat diamonds around with me like shilling bits, eh? And throwing them away for a lark, eh? Or having someone ask all over Cape Town for Carl Luckner until they found me and then having the mayor of Kimberley put me on the Diamond Squad without pay, as if we were kissing cousins, is that it? Don’t be a fool, Rhodes! The truth would hurt us both, and we both know it. So just pay up and I’ll be on my way like the little gentleman I am.”

Rhodes considered the other man and his words for several minutes, as if weighing them, and then went around his chair. He sat down, unlocked a drawer, and brought out a bundle of banknotes. He looked at them a moment and then tossed them on the desk. He leaned back in his chair and looked up at Luckner, his hooded eyes hard.

“But don’t get any fancy ideas of blackmail, Luckner,” he said quietly. “One more demand from you, and…” He allowed his words to trail to silence, but his meaning was clear.

“No fear,” Luckner said easily, and meant it. He was counting the money. “I know you’re too big to fool with, Mr. Rhodes.” He finished his count, tucked the money into a pocket, and touched his forehead with his hand, sailor fashion. “It’s been a pleasure serving under you, Captain. If you should ever want me to sign on under you again…” He smiled wisely and swaggered from the room.

Behind him Rhodes pounded softly on the desk with his fist in total frustration. It would be impossible to attempt the same ploy twice, this time with Barnato definitely present. And he had been quite serious when he said he could not contemplate violence against another man’s person. Getting control of Barnato Mining, a most vital necessity, was going to continue to be a problem…

If Cecil John Rhodes had been furious at the failure of his scheme, Barney Barnato was even more furious at its success. He leaned across John Fry’s desk, almost screaming in his fury, his Cockney accent back in full working order.

“It’s a shitty, bloody, miserable lie, I tell yer! It’s a vicious, bloody frame! Luckner finds an illicit stone in me safe, Luckner of all people, fer God’s sake! He’s only hated me guts since I tossed him out on his arse years ago! I should o’ killed the bastard! Fer the love o’ God, Fry, are y’ bleedin’ blind? My God, yer all as blind as bleedin’ bats! Who hired a sod like Luckner an’ put him on the bleedin’ squad in the first place?”

John Fry’s face was pale, his temper severely strained, but Fry had been a policeman a long time, and he knew that when facing almost hysterical wrath, a good policeman had an obligation to keep his head.

“Robinson hired him, the mayor. I had nothing to do with it,” he said in a tight voice.

“Robinson, eh? And why would old J.B. hire a vicious, insane, brutal animal like Carl Luckner fer the Diamond Squad? Why not fer walkin’ a beat where he could kick some poor old drunk t’ death just fer the bleedin’ fun o’ it? Or some poor old man not even drunk?”

Fry bit down hard on his temper. “You’ll have to ask him.”

“Yer bleedin’ right I’ll ask him! With me fist up his nose if need be!” He glared across the desk. “I always thought you was square, Fry! That’s what I always heard. Yet yer a party to this frame! How much brass passed hooks?”

Fry’s face whitened further. He sat erect, his eyes hot with anger.

“Now you listen to me, Barnato! Watch your mouth! I’ve taken a lot from you, but I happened to be there when Jack Joel opened that safe under my orders, and Luckner lifted out that tray and found that diamond! It isn’t hearsay with me, and it won’t be hearsay when I repeat what I’m saying to you, to the judge at the trial! I was there! And if you think your ranting and raving like a maniac is going to make the slightest difference when Jack Joel goes up before the court, you’ve got another think coming!” He forced himself to cool down a bit, eyeing Barney speculatively. “They tell me you used to be quite a Shakespearean at one time, Barnato. Maybe you recall the line ‘Methinks the Queen protests too much.’ It’s from Hamlet.”

Barney sneered. “You got that wrong, like you got everything wrong. And you ain’t heard protestin’ yet. Maybe you recall the line, ‘Me bloody thought wit’ violent pace shall ne’er look back… till that a capable an’ wide revenge swallow ’em.’ It’s from Othello.” And he stalked, still furious, from the room.

He marched resolutely across the hall of the newly built City Hall and into the mayor’s office. He strode through the secretary’s office without looking at the startled man, and into the adjoining office without bothering to knock. J. B. Robinson, his ever-present topee within reach on his desk, looked up from his paperwork with a frown.

“What are you doing here, Barnato? And coming in without knocking?”

“I want to know why you an’ Fry fixed me nephew!”

“Fixed?”

“That’s what I said, you ain’t deaf! Fixed, framed, take yer choice!”

“You’re insane, coming in here like this! Your nephew was caught with an illicit diamond in his possession! You know the law! So don’t take that tone with me!”

Barney dragged a chair before the desk and sat down, eye-level with the mayor. He glared across the desk. “Listen, Robinson, don’t worry about me tone. You ain’t never heard me when I’m in a real miff! Why did you hire Carl Luckner an’ put him on the diamond squad?”

Robinson caught his breath. To be talked to like this, him, J. B. Robinson and the mayor, besides, and by the Jew Barnato of all people! “I don’t have to explain to you or anyone else why I hire peace officers, or where I assign them!”

“Peace officers? Peace officers? Carl Luckner is a peace officer? Carl Luckner is as crazy as a drunken nit, and a vicious, murderin’, lyin’ shit besides! Now, I want to know why you picked this turd from Cape Town, brought him back here to Kimberley where he already killed a man without reason, and put him on the Diamond Squad, just in time fer him to find a diamond in me safe that wasn’t there until he put his dirty hooks in it! With Fry there so convenient, to see him do it!”

“And I want to tell you, you’ve more than outstayed your welcome here and if you don’t leave this very instant, I’ll have the police in here and have you jailed!” Robinson was white about the mouth; his hands were trembling. “Either your nephew Joel is guilty or you are, and making all those accusations will only get him a longer sentence when he comes up for trial, if I have anything to say about it!” Robinson had had a strong and sickening feeling since the time of the arrest that it really had been a frame and that he had been done in the eye by his old friend Rhodes; but this was certainly neither the time nor the place to admit it. There was the chance he might even reap some benefit through Rhodes if he just kept quiet and kept his nerve. He glared across the desk. “Now get out!”

Barney came to his feet. He forced himself to calmness, and with the change of temper his Cockney seemed to automatically disappear.

“Do you imagine that this is the end of the matter, Robinson?” he said quietly. “Jack goes to the Cape breakwater to sweat for ten or twenty years, and the rest of you get off scot-free for a crime you committed, not him? You know who’s behind this frame, and so do I. It wasn’t aimed at Jack; it was aimed at me.” He shook his head. “You’re a fool, Robinson. You’re nobody. You’re just a man in the middle of something too big for you to understand. But you made a serions mistake. You’re a Bible-beating churchgoer, I understand. Well, next time you’re in church, ask for forgiveness, because you’re going to need it!”

He walked out.

The evening meal at the hotel was melancholic.

“He ain’t — I mean, he doesn’t have a chance,” Barney said glumly. “I’d bet a spoiled jugged hare against a team of healthy Cape oxen they send him over. Between ten and twenty years on the Cape breakwater. Jack’ll never make it. I think Fry’s straight, blind in this case, but straight; but Robinson’s another story. He’d sell his old ma for fat for frying. And he has the judge in his pocket. I think he got hooked into playing cat’s-paw for old horse-faced Rhodes, but he’ll never admit it. He’ll try to milk it for whatever advantage he can get out of it. I can almost understand Rhodes; he’s got big ideas and he doesn’t care how he gets there. But I’ll never understand a man like Robinson. Or forgive him.” He sighed in misery. “What am I going to tell my sister Kate?”

“You may not have to tell her anything, darling,” Fay said quietly.

Barney put down his knife and fork; he hadn’t been eating but had merely used them to push his food listlessly around his plate. He looked at Fay. “What do you mean?”

“What bail did you put up for Jack?”

“Five thousand quid. Why?”

“I heard a poem the other day,” Fay said, quite as if she were changing the subject to a more pleasant one. “It went, ‘Over the Free State line, whatever is yours, is mine. If I’ve got a stone, it’s all my own, and no John Fry to make me groan.’ Free Town isn’t very far away.” She looked at him calmly. “How much is Jack’s freedom worth, Barney?”

Barney shook his head stubbornly. “It isn’t the money, Fay, you know that! It’s the fact that Jack’s innocent, that he was framed, that these bastards are getting away with something!”

“Can you prove it?”

“No,” he said miserably.

“Can you picture the judge freeing Jack?”

“No. But, damn it,” he added angrily, “he’s innocent!”

“And how much satisfaction in knowing he’s innocent do you suppose Jack will be able to garner while he’s putting in his time working on the breakwater?”

He looked at her for several moments, wondering as always how he had ever managed to survive before he had married her, and then came to his feet. “Have one of the boys fix up the Scotch cart and bring it around to the rear of the hotel,” he said. “Have them pile enough rubbish in it for Jack to hide under. Get some money from the safe, enough to get him home, at least. I’ll get Jack…”

Fay was asleep when Barney came into their room. He closed the door softly behind him and undressed as quietly as he could in the dark, slipping into bed beside her. She rolled toward him, pressing against him, her arm automatically reaching around him to hold him, nuzzling her head into his shoulder, murmuring in her half sleep.

“What time is it, darling?”

“Four o’clock.”

“What took you so long? Did everything go all right?”

There was the briefest of pauses before Barney answered. “I had something to do. And everything went fine.”

“And Jack?”

“He’s safe in Free Town. He’ll catch the early coach for Durban and take ship from there.” He leaned over and kissed her gently, and then lay back again. “Get some sleep, sweetheart.”

“You, too,” she said sleepily, and then suddenly sat up with a scream as the building shook. “Barney!”

The BOOM that followed the tremor almost instantly, rattled the windows. There was the sound of other windows being hastily raised, then men were calling and running in the streets. Lanterns bobbed in the darkness as men headed for the big hole to determine the source of the huge explosion. Barney reached up and drew Fay down again.

“Someone was careless with dynamite,” he said evenly. “Go to sleep, sweetheart.”

“But it may be our—”

“It isn’t,” he said.

“But somebody may have been—”

“They weren’t,” he said.

She raised herself on an elbow, trying to make out his features in the little moonlight that filtered into the room, and then lay back again, now wide awake, trying to analyze her feelings. She felt an odd combination of awe and fear, with a touch of pride mixed in. It was all very strange. She wondered if she would ever completely understand the man she had chosen to spend her life with, and then knew it made no difference. She was going to love him, no matter what he did, as long as she lived.

8

October 1887

The directors of the De Beers Mining Company, alerted by telegraph from his previous stop at Bloemfontein in the Free State, were waiting for Cecil Rhodes as his express coach from Cape Town rolled down the Dutoitspan Road and came to a halt before the Kimberley Club, the horses panting in the early-spring heat, the coachman covered with dust, the outriders weary from holding their precarious perch. The trip from Cape Town had been accomplished in six days, a record, and its toll was apparent on all passengers and crew. With instructions to Pickering to proceed with the carriage to Market Square and handle the luggage, Rhodes got down stiffly and marched into the club, followed by those who had been awaiting him. He walked through the half-deserted bar and into their usual meeting room beyond, taking his place at the head of the table, quite as if he had not been gone for the past three months on a most delicate mission for the company to London. The others seated themselves around the table while Rhodes considered each one in turn, his face a stone façade. The others glanced at each other uneasily as they waited. At last Rhodes smiled, a wide smile, almost an elfin grin, a most unusual expression on that normally dour face.

“I got the money,” he said quietly, but with great effect on his companions.

There was a general atmosphere of relief at his words; their faces began to relax. The smiles became general.

“How much?” Dr. Jameson asked.

“Whatever it takes to accomplish our mission, up to five million pounds. That’s for complete control, of course, not just for this stage. I believe that together with our own funds it should be more than ample.” The smile was removed from Rhodes’ face as if holding it that long had begun to become painful. He got down to serious business. “We cannot afford to fail this time! There is too much at stake! The Rothschilds would become most concerned if we did, and we shall need them in the future if my plans mature as I expect them to. Besides, I have worked on these Jew bankers for nearly four years to reach this point, and I have no intention of letting this opportunity slip through my fingers at the last moment! Is that understood?”

There was silence. Rhodes nodded and went on.

“Good. Barnato took over the Central Company when Robinson went bankrupt as a result of that most suspicious explosion which I am sure we are all convinced was due not to an act of God but to an act of Barnato, even though nothing was ever proven. He outbid us for the French Company by a whopping three hundred thousand pounds, all, I am convinced, earned on the illicit diamond market. He combined Barnato-Central with the French Company to form Kimberley Mines, and that covers the entire Big Hole. I’m repeating this although I know you know the facts as well as I do, because I want you all to realize the full importance of the operation we are about to start. It is absolutely essential that we wrest the control of Kimberley Mines, the richest mine in the diamond fields, from this man!” He leaned back in his chair, his hooded eyes searching the faces about the table for some sign of disagreement, of possible rebellion, prepared to instantly put it down.

“D’you have any specific plans?” Rudd asked. He was tilted back in his chair as usual, a huge cigar stuck at a jaunty angle between his teeth, speaking about the clouds of smoke, seemingly unimpressed with the intensity of Rhodes’ tone.

Rhodes frowned as if he did not understand the question. “We discussed all this before my trip. Our agents in London and Paris have been alerted to the situation. They are merely awaiting our telegraphed and coded instructions. In Cape Town I spoke with our man there; he will start the ball rolling when I tell him to. London and Paris will act when word from Cape Town comes through.”

“And here in Kimberley?” Beit asked.

Rhodes managed to make his face inscrutable, although it was an effort. “In Kimberley we hope to do the best we can; possibly even better than elsewhere. The big blocks of stock — the blocks the Barnatos don’t own personally — will have to come from London and Paris, obviously, from the large investors. This does not mean, of course, that we can afford to fail to pick up every last share we can get anywhere. And I mean anywhere!” He leaned forward, dropping his voice for emphasis. “What we cannot afford to do — and I cannot stress this too highly! — is to be cheap. To try to get control and save money at the same time! We must bid the shares to a point where any stockholder who does not sell would have to be considered foolhardy.”

Rudd frowned. He removed his cigar from his mouth as if to be sure no one could claim not to have understood his words. “I know that was the original scheme,” he said, “but what I meant was, do you have any further plans? New plans?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean,” Rudd said, as if merely asking for logic, “that as long as Barnato holds on to fifty-one per cent of the shares, he can even sell whatever number he has over that amount and make a fortune. And still retain control of the company. We will have spent that fortune, and while I’m sure investment in Kimberley Mines will prove to be quite profitable, it won’t have gotten us any further ahead in our principal aim of getting control.”

Rhodes smiled faintly. “Don’t worry about that end of the matter, Charles. Let that problem remain with me.”

Rudd’s frown increased. “D’you think you can get Barnato to sell more than fifty per cent? I mean, I know there are many shares in the market, but certainly Barnato still retains a majority.”

Rhodes’ smile remained fixed, a sly smile. “I said leave it to me.” Rudd did not look satisfied, but fell silent. Rhodes looked around, awaiting any further questions. There were none. “All right, gentlemen,” he said. “I cabled London from Cape Town saying that I had arrived at the Cape and I gave tomorrow as my probable time of arrival here in Kimberley. I asked that the Rothschild credits be issued through their London and Paris branches the day after tomorrow. That will be a Friday. I therefore suggest we start our little adventure as soon as the Exchange opens in Cape Town on Monday morning. This is several hours later than London time, I realize, but I wish the first purchases to appear to just be some local speculation and nothing more; the confusion will be that much greater when London and Paris pick up that speculation and start the real bidding. It should cause some comment on the floors of the exchanges.” He smiled broadly at this vast understatement, and came to his feet. “Gentlemen, I’ve had a long and arduous journey. If you will excuse me…”

It was just after lunch the following Monday, and Barney Barnato was staring at a piece of paper on which he had just finished decoding an urgent telegraph from his brother Harry, in London, forwarded through the Cape Town telegraph office and sent in their company code. In translation the message read:

“What did you do question mark run into a solid reef of diamonds question mark why no notice question mark Kimberley Mines opened at seventy-five comma twenty pounds per share higher than Fridays closing on London Exchange comma fifteen pounds higher on Paris Bourse period still rising period what is happening question mark end of message”

Barney reached over for the whistle blower that was connected with another office. He blew into it and then brought the tube to his ear. From the other office one of his assistants answered.

“Yes, Barney?”

“Code a telegraph to Harry in London and send it at once. Say, ‘Don’t sell a share period I will handle everything this end period end of message.’”

“Right, Barney.”

“And I’m going over to the Exchange. I shouldn’t be too long.”

“Right, Barney.”

Barney put down the tube and stared at the message a moment before coming to his feet and starting from their new offices toward the Kimberley Stock Exchange in the St. James Hall. As he walked along, he did a lot of thinking. Somebody was making a plunge for the Kimberley Mine stocks, and spending a lot of money to do it. It could, of course, be any major investment firm in the world, acting on the behalf of a client with a lot of surplus cash, someone interested in becoming a factor in the diamond business without going through all the years of hard work he had put in, but he didn’t think so. Few investment bankers got to be where they were by advising clients to bid thirty to fifty per cent over the market value of stocks, even stocks as solid as Kimberley Mines. No, he was sure it had to be Rhodes and the De Beers group who were behind the plunge; they had never stopped trying to get control of first Barnato Mining, then Barnato-Central, and now Kimberley Mines, one way or another. Although what they hoped to gain with this particular move was hard to see, since the control of the company was firmly in the hands of the Barnato family. Actually, beyond the shares needed to control fifty-one per cent of the company, there were twenty thousand shares available to sell, and if someone wanted to add three quarters of a million pounds to the Barnato coffers, he saw no reason not to accept it.

There was a sudden pause in the noisy clamor as he walked into the Exchange and was recognized. Someone called out.

“Barney Barnato! Did you hear what’s happening to Kimberley Mines? What’s going on?”

“I heard and I have no idea what’s going on.”

There were looks of general disbelief on almost every face.

“Tell us this: are you buying or selling?”

Barney didn’t hesitate. It wouldn’t take long to find out who or what was behind the plunge. “Selling!”

“How many shares?”

“Twenty thousand!”

Men stared. Most of the men in the room who held any shares at all in Kimberley Mines considered themselves lucky if they held as many as one hundred. Twenty thousand at the price that had been reached represented a fortune!

“Twenty thousand shares at what price? Market?” It was a calm voice, yet one which managed to make itself heard over the tumult of the Exchange. Barney looked around, a bit surprised not to see anyone of the De Beers group present, and then looked at the man who had asked the question. He was a very tall, very thin man with an extraordinarily pale face, topped by a thatch of pitch-black hair and thick black full eyebrows. The man was watching him quietly.

“What is the market?” Barney asked.

“Seventy-eight,” the stranger said.

“I’ll sell at one hundred even,” Barney said, and turned to walk out.

“Sold,” the stranger said.

Barney stopped short, turning around, studying the man. He was sure he had never seen him before in Kimberley or anywhere else. He suddenly wondered if he could have made a mistake by selling, but he didn’t see how he could have. Maybe it wasn’t De Beers; maybe it was some big company interested in getting into diamonds and willing to represent a minority position in Kimberley Mines. Still, he had made a deal and in the diamond business a deal was just as binding whether verbal or signed in blood. Barney shrugged and looked at the man.

“Do you know where my offices are?”

“I’ll find them,” the man said confidently.

“Do that,” Barney said evenly. “And bring a certified check with you.”

“Will a check on the Rothschild bank branch in Paris do?”

“If I continue to hold the shares until the check clears.”

“Of course,” the stranger said, as if any other procedure would have been unthinkable.

Barney looked at him a moment more, then turned in the silence that had fallen, walking out. Behind him he could hear voices immediately raised as people began discussing the enormous transaction they had just witnessed. Barney smiled; he supposed he had added one more story to the legend of Barney Barnato, and he knew Fay would enjoy hearing of it that evening. Still, whoever the stranger was, whoever he represented, he had put almost an additional million pounds sterling into the exchequer of Kimberley Mines over and above the fair market value of the shares, and all without the Barnato family losing control of the company.

He smiled, thinking of the telegraph he would be sending Harry as soon as he got back to the office. This would call for an extra dividend, to be declared at the next board meeting—

And then he suddenly stopped short in the road, his smile disappearing completely. He frowned at a sudden thought and turned, walking rapidly in the direction of the Big Hole.

He came to the Kimberley Mines Company main sorting yard and walked between the piles of blue ground awaiting the heavy mechanical steam-driven crushers, to the house that had been built to serve as Solly Loeb’s office as well as his home. Solly was in discussion with one of the digger foremen when Barney entered; he completed his instructions quickly, waited until the man had left, and turned to Barney.

“Well, hello, stranger,” he said with a smile. “What brings you here? Did you get lost?” He gestured toward a cabinet. “Care for a drink?”

“No,” Barney said shortly, and got right down to business. “Solly, d’you happen to know a bloke, white-faced like he fell in some chalk, and with black hair, black as a Kaffir’s heel, and eyebrows as bushy as a scared cat’s tail? Almost as tall as Armando and skinny as a disselboom?”

Solly looked surprised. “As a matter of fact, I met a man like that just last night.”

“An’ at th’ Kimberley Club, I’ll bet a quid to a penny’orth o’ shit!”

Solly was puzzled by his uncle’s anger. “Yes, I met him at the club. How did you know?”

“Because I’m smart!” Barney said bitterly. “I’m too bleedin’ smart fer me own good! A man as smart as me should be locked away! And what did this chalk-faced cove want? As if I couldn’t answer that ’un with me bleedin’ eyes closed!”

Solly swallowed. When Barney Barnato fell into Cockney, then Barney Barnato was in a bad mood, and when Barney Barnato was in a bad mood it was no time to temporize or to delay in giving him answers to his questions, and quickly.

“He wanted to buy my shares in Kimberley Mines. He offered me seventy-five pounds a share. That’s twenty pounds over the market! I figured he thought he had a fish on the line, that someone had fed him a story about the mine and that the shares would go sky-high. But I knew there wasn’t anything new at the mine to make the stock go anywhere near that high, so — what the devil! — I sold. Why not?” Solly said, wondering why he was being treated as if he’d done something wrong, or something stupid. “Hell, I can buy them back at fifty or fifty-five at the most, as soon as I can get into town and to the Exchange!”

“Can y’?” Barney asked quietly, but his voice was on the verge of trembling. “The last block I heard o’ sold fer one hundred bleedin’ quid a share!”

Solly’s eyes widened. “What! Why would they sell for that? I know what comes out of the mine; I take it out!” He nodded as comprehension came to him. “I see. You mean I sold too cheap—”

“No, I don’t mean y’sold too bleedin’ cheap!” Barney said bitingly. “I mean, why did y’sell at all? Didn’t y’stop to think y’might be sellin’ control o’ the whole bleedin’ company?”

Solly stared. “How could I have anything to do with the control of the company? I know you’ve got twenty thousand shares above and beyond control, so how could my five thousand shares have anything to do with anything?”

Barney sighed. When he spoke his Cockney accent was gone, as was his anger, replaced with profound disgust with himself.

“What you didn’t know was that your Uncle Barney is a horse’s arse. That block that sold for one hundred pounds each was for my twenty thousand.” He shrugged. “Well! So old horse-faced Rhodes finally managed to buy me out!” There was almost a touch of admiration in his voice. “Still, whether he knows it or not, there have been a few new laws passed since he went away to England, and they aren’t going to do him all the good he thinks.”

“What do you mean?” Solly asked, puzzled.

“Rhodes’ll find out,” Barney said enigmatically, and turned to leave. He turned back. “You’d better come over to the hotel this evening. This raid will be over by sundown, and Rhodes’ll have the Kimberley Mines to add to De Beers. He’ll undoubtedly want a meeting and if he doesn’t, I will. I figure it might be good instruction for you to sit in on it.”

“I’ll be there,” Solly promised, and watched his uncle walk back through the piles of blue ground scattered throughout the yard. The man’s pace was slower, more hesitant than Solly could ever remember; normally Barney Barnato seemed to trot rather than merely walk. Solly made a calculation as he watched his uncle. Barney Barnato had been in Africa just twelve years; that made him just thirty years old. And whatever Rhodes’ successful raid on the Kimberley Mines Company had done to the Barnato pride, it would make Barney the richest man in all Africa. To Solly Loeb that was ample compensation for anything; one couldn’t eat pride, or drink it, nor did pride buy women or fine clothes. After all, money was what it was all about, wasn’t it? Money and power? Certainly not pride…

The meeting was held in the home of Dr. Leander Starr Jameson as being the most neutral of places on which both of the major antagonists could agree, especially since Dr. Jameson had absented himself for the night. They sat around a table; Alfred Beit and Rhodes on one side, Barney and Solly on the other. A full bottle of whiskey and a glass was before each man, while a sideboard on one side of the room contained extra full bottles should they be required. For the first time since he had begun the long fight for total control of the diamond industry, Cecil Rhodes felt a small touch of pity for Barney Barnato; he knew how he would have felt had Barnato succeeded in taking control of the De Beers mining properties — which Rhodes was convinced would eventually have happened had he not managed the huge loan from the Rothschilds and acted first. Besides, it was essential to Rhodes’ plans to work with Barnato. Contrary to Barney’s opinion, Rhodes was well aware of the laws that had been passed in his absence, and the power they still gave Barnato despite his having lost control of Kimberley Mines.

Rhodes waited until everyone had opened his whiskey bottle and poured himself a drink, and then opened the meeting.

“I suggest, to begin with,” he said quietly, “that we forget the past. Let us start with the situation that exists today. As I am sure you all know, I did not make every effort to combine all the diamond mining interests for any reason of personal gain. I have more than enough money to allow me to live in any style of comfort I might wish for the rest of my days. Nor did I do it for what many would think of as power. I did it for England.”

There was nothing melodramatic in the manner in which he spoke, and Barney, listening quietly, knew that the man was sincere. Mistaken, Barney believed, but obviously sincere.

“As you know,” Rhodes went on, “I have believed for a long time that only when Great Britain rules Africa will there be total peace and prosperity here for all inhabitants, be they natives, Boers, or English. I have always wished to contribute my share toward this goal, a goal I sincerely and wholeheartedly believe essential for the well-being of all. To do so, however, requires money, huge sums of money, and the best means of obtaining such vast sums, as I have always seen it, is through the exploitation of the wealth this great continent contains; through its diamonds or whatever other mineral wealth may be found beneath its soil. To this end I have tried for years, and have finally succeeded, in getting control of the Kimberley properties to add to the other mining properties, since I have felt it vital there be an end to the — you will pardon me, but I must use the word — the anarchy that previously prevailed in the mining and the sale of diamonds. May I repeat, there is nothing personal in this. I will freely admit that I have had differences in the past with Mr. Barnato” — he smiled briefly — “you will note I said Mr. Barnato, not Barnato — as I am sure he will admit he has had with me — but I truly believe the time for all such animosities has come to an end. There is too much at stake.”

He paused, waiting for Barney to speak. Barney had been staring into his whiskey glass as he listened; now he looked up.

“Exactly what do you want, Mr. Rhodes?”

“I want the articles of association of the new company that is to be formed to allow it to do anything it wishes,” Rhodes said plainly. He held up his hand. “I am fully aware of the new laws that have been passed recently, and I know that I would need to control the votes of three quarters of the shares in order to make those articles as I wish to make them. I am also aware, Mr. Barnato, that you control more than enough shares to prevent me from so doing. It is my intention — and I am exercising it now — to ask you to vote your shares in such manner as to allow me to write the articles as I wish.”

He looked at Barney. Barney took a drink of whiskey and then removed his pince-nez, polished them carefully, and returned them to his nose. He looked at Rhodes with no expression at all on his face.

“Well,” he said at last, “you’re honest, Mr. Rhodes, I have to give you that, regardless. But I’d still like to know what you mean when you say, ‘whatever they wish.’ That’s a bit wide for me. A bit loose. A man could fall a long way through those chairs, it seems to me. Could you please explain?”

“Certainly,” Rhodes said, and was pleased that at least so far it appeared that Barnato intended to maintain the meeting on a gentlemanly level. Rhodes had not been so sure of it when he had first suggested the meeting. “What I mean, Mr. Barnato, is that I want the articles of association to quite clearly permit the company to do what it wants, to go far beyond the search for and the distribution of diamonds. I want the articles to permit the new company to look for minerals anywhere it wishes, in the north or anywhere else. I want it to be able to occupy territory, if need be; to build and maintain a railway from Cape Town to Cairo, if required. In short, I want the company to be able to do anything and everything it wishes to further the ambition of bringing Africa under British rule!”

“And make money, too, I hope,” Barney said quietly.

“Obviously the company would have to make money, Mr. Barnato. I believe my reputation in this regard does not require investigation. And I might point out,” Rhodes added, quite as if Barney might have forgotten, “that you will be the largest individual stockholder in the new company.”

“I’m quite aware of it,” Barney said. He thought a moment and looked up. “And exactly what are you offering me — other than my dividends — to have me vote my shares as you wish, Mr. Rhodes?”

Rhodes appeared to be considering the answer to this question very carefully. Actually, he had known the question would be the first really important one he faced in the meeting, and had given careful consideration to the concessions he knew he would have to make, for if Barnato voted his shares against him, the entire purpose of fighting for Kimberley would have been lost.

“Well,” he said slowly, “you’d become a director of the new company, of course.”

Barney smiled and shook his head.

“I’ll be frank and tell you I don’t have any great objections to the articles as you’ve outlined them,” he said, “as long as they don’t eat up the profits, and I believe they can be written in such a manner as to prevent this. But I’ll be honest with you, Mr. Rhodes. I wasn’t happy to lose control of Kimberley, but I’m in a strong bargaining position now, and you know it and I know it and you know I know it. I’d be a fool not to take advantage of it. Just being a director of a company means nothing. Regardless of the number of shares I hold, your smart friends could — and would — have me out on the street in no time. I’d want to be a life governor with no problem of reelection.”

Rhodes was looking at him, his hooded eyes steady on Barney’s face.

“I’m sure that would be no problem, Mr. Barnato. What else?”

“Bamato Brothers would be given half the trade in the selling of the company’s stones.”

There was a long silence. Rhodes began to confer with Alfred Beit in whispers at the table and then decided this was not private enough. The two men repaired to the far side of the room and conversed with their faces almost next to each other. Barney took advantage of the break to finish his drink and refill his glass. He glanced at his nephew at his side; Solly’s eyes were intent upon Rhodes across the room. Solly had been listening to the discussion with relief that Barney had not made a fool of himself, and a fool — by association — of Solly, before a man as educated, as refined, as — well, as all-around admirable as Cecil Rhodes. Solly just hoped the air of good will maintained itself to the end of the meeting. In fact, now that Solly had a chance to think about it, maybe it was just as well that Barney had lost control of Kimberley Mines. Maybe it was even better for himself, Solly Loeb. Now they — he — would be associated with Cecil John Rhodes, and who would ask for better than that? Barney should really thank him for having sold his miserable five thousand shares — shares that should have been many more had Barney not been so tightfisted, so unrewarding for work faithfully and well done — to the pasty-faced representative of De Beers, rather than having blamed him. But that’s the way the world was — unappreciative! Or at least that’s the way his uncle was; Solly was sure that Cecil Rhodes would never be like that—

His thoughts were interrupted; Rhodes and Beit had finished their conference and had returned to the table, still murmuring between them. Rhodes nodded his head at some last word of Beit’s and then turned to Barney.

“We would be in agreement that one half the trade in the sale of the stones be carried on by Barnato Brothers in London,” he said, “on one condition. Prices will be set by the company, not by Barnato Brothers, and Barnato Brothers must abide by those prices. Is that agreed?”

Barney nodded. “I’ll agree to that.”

“Is there anything else?”

Barney smiled. “Just one thing.” For a moment his old, always latent resentment at Rhodes’ past treatment of him seemed to gleam in his spectacled eyes; now, when people insulted Jews, they insulted his beloved Fay as well. As if he could feel the look trying to escape his eyes, he transferred his glance to his whiskey glass, swirling the glass idly as he searched for and found the words he wanted. Then he looked up innocently. “It isn’t important,” he said. His tone indicated it might very well be extremely important, might even disrupt the entire negotiations. “But I want to become a member of the Kimberley Club.”

Rhodes did not even hesitate. “I was going to suggest it,” he said at once. The two men looked each other in the eye a moment, and then both smiled with a bit of embarrassment. “I wasn’t going to suggest anything of the sort,” Rhodes confessed ruefully, “but I obviously will, now.”

“You mean, you have no choice?”

“I mean, I wasn’t going to, before. But now I think I want to,” Rhodes said, and held his hand across the table.

Barney took the offered hand, feeling the softness of it, feeling almost sorry for a man whose hand was that soft while at the same time being a man as hard, as ruthless, as Cecil John Rhodes. As well as being a man as dedicated to an ideal as Cecil Rhodes.

“We’ll get along,” Barney said, meaning it. “You have your dreams, and I have mine. You want the world, and I suppose if we can we must give it to you. All I want is money and peace.”

“And I suppose, if we can, we must give you those,” Rhodes said. “Is there anything else?”

Barney smiled. “Yes, one very important feature. Let us now begin to discuss the matter of money. Kimberley Mines will have to be liquidated before any new company can be formed. I wish to be assigned twenty-six per cent of the new shares; these I will pay for at the established rate. But the shares held by myself and my family, in Kimberley Mines, as well as any shares you failed to pick up in the raid from other shareholders, will have to be purchased by the new company. Let us now begin to discuss the price you will have to pay for those shares. I realize the prices you offered today are not a realistic expectation, so may I suggest a figure of sixty pounds per share?”

Rhodes smiled. “Before the raid began, the price at the closing of the Exchange on Friday last, was a bit under fifty pounds. May I suggest that even at that price, the stock was higher than the output of the Kimberley Mines warranted. May I therefore suggest a price per share of forty-five pounds?”

“Ah!” Barney said, enjoying himself, “but that was based on prices for diamonds that you yourself said were too low. Considering that you will now be able to raise those prices considerably, the output of the Kimberley Mine will be worth far more than at present. Therefore I believe the price of sixty pounds to be eminently fair…”

Everyone filled his whiskey glass and prepared for the longest and hardest part of the evening’s negotiations.

Fay stared at Barney, appalled. “You lost the company? When?”

The two were in bed after the almost all-night session Barney had spent with Rhodes; Fay had known he was tied up in a business meeting, but had not been told as of that moment what that meeting had involved. Barney, despite the hour, was not in the least sleepy; he was still too exhilarated by the bargaining session and the deal he had finally consummated.

“Today,” he said equably.

“You lost the company in one day? In one day? How?”

Barney smiled. He was slowly becoming accustomed to the fact that he would not have to go into the office at any particular hour anymore; that Solly Loeb had only to transfer the records and the registry books to the De Beers people and he, too, would be free. The agreement the night before had promised continued employment to all of the Kimberley staff of diggers and sorters who wished to stay, with the exception of Barney and Solly. He looked at Fay affectionately.

“You’re beginning to sound like my mother. How Jewish can you get in a few years?” He stopped smiling, reaching out to place a hand on one of Fay’s full breasts, kneading it gently as he spoke. “Rhodes made a raid on our company stock today — or yesterday, I suppose you’d call it. Solly was sure I still retained control without his five thousand shares, so he sold them on Sunday night. I thought Solly wouldn’t even know about the raid, since he would be at the yard, so I sold the shares I had above control for an absurdly high price as soon as I heard of it. The result: Rhodes got control. It’s that simple.”

Fay frowned, her mind divided between the fact that Kimberley Mines was no longer theirs and the languorous feeling that was beginning to suffuse her limbs as Barney kneaded her nipple.

“But what does it mean?”

“It means,” Barney said, feeling the nipple beginning to get hard under his manipulation, “that De Beers will issue a check to cover the shares he didn’t pick up in the raid — ninety-seven thousand five hundred shares. At fifty-five pounds a share.”

Fay gasped. “That’s an awful lot of money!”

Barney nodded. “Yes, it’s a lot of money. It’ll be the largest transaction in history, I think. Over five and a third million pounds. And most of it ours.”

Fay tried to comprehend the size of a sum that great. “But what will you do?”

Barney moved closer to her, moving his hand from her breast to run it down her belly, raising her nightgown, touching her, feeling himself getting more and more excited, as if the excitement of the bargaining session was transferring itself somehow to their conjugal bed. “Be with you,” he murmured, his mind far from what he was saying. “Maybe go to England and meet the family. Take it easy. When we get back, maybe look into this talk of gold in the Transvaal…”

Fay’s mind came back from far away to realize what they were doing. “Barney!” she said, catching her breath. “Wait! I’m not prepared…”

“You’re as prepared as you need be,” he said. “Tonight we’re going to make those children you’ve always wanted.”

“Oh, Barney!” she said, and moved to him, as happy as she was excited.

Book II: Gold!

Johannesburg

Prologue

February 1887

There are other blink klippies, other shining stones, besides diamonds. The reflection of light from a gold nugget caught in a stream, the glint of gold peeping from a band of quartz, the glimmer of a gold strain peering from a stratum of rock…

Men have searched for gold throughout recorded history and before, and they have searched for it in every corner of the earth. The legend of Jason and the Golden Fleece was supposedly based on a true expedition that took place a millennium and more before the birth of Christ, to find gold washed down from the rivers of what is now Armenia, gold particles that were caught from the rushing waters by the fleece of skinned sheep. Gold brought the Conquistadores to Mexico and Central and South America; it brought the covered wagons to California and the dogsleds to Alaska. Gold has been sought and found in almost every country, nor was South Africa an exception.

At a place called Pilgrim’s Rest, in the Boer Republic of the Transvaal, there was a flurry of mining for gold as far back as the early eighteen-seventies, and Pilgrim’s Rest enjoyed a brief moment in the sun, only to disappear as a town when the single seam of gold-bearing rock ran out. A decade later, some distance farther to the east in the De Kaap Valley but still in the Transvaal, gold was discovered in the small town of Barberton. Once again men poured in with their picks and shovels; hotels were quickly constructed, brothels and bars hastily established, claims offices sprang up, homesite speculation was rife — until the gold at Barberton also ran out and the town soon became a deserted monument to the evanescent character of that most elusive but enticing of metals.

Then, early in the year 1886, an itinerant down-at-the-heels miner named George Harrison came wandering up from Kimberley with his ox wagon and supplies, to a part of the Transvaal known as the Witwatersrand, or White Water Ridge, about thirty miles south of Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal Republic. Harrison was admittedly a failure, partly — as he would have put it — because of bad luck, but largely, it seemed, because he was a nomad at heart. He liked to move on, nor could success in any mining venture keep him in one place. He had found diamonds in Kimberley early in the game, not many but enough to have kept a less restless digger at work, but he had forgone his claim in the Dutoitspan hole to visit Pilgrim’s Rest. He had returned to Kimberley to abandon a claim in the Bultfontein mine and try his luck with gold once again at Barberton, only to return for the third time to Kimberley when the bonanza was over. This time his departure from Kimberley was to bring him to the Witwatersrand, or the Rand, as it became more familiarly known. Here, on the farm of the widow Oosthuizen, Harrison found an outcropping that showed gold, and which eventually would have made him a very rich man, but the wanderlust called again and he sold his claim for ten pounds to a couple of brothers named Struben, who had been prospecting in the area without luck. Not only were the Struben brothers content to remain and work the rich claim, but they were not averse to advertising the fact that gold existed on the Rand, and apparently in large quantities. Whatever happened to George Harrison remains a mystery, but he never returned to the goldfield he had accidentally discovered, nor was he ever seen again in Kimberley.

The propaganda of the Strubens bore rapid fruit, for had they mentioned the presence of gold on the Rand for the purpose of gaining companionship they were eminently successful. Within a few months over three thousand miners were digging away at outcroppings they could easily expose with a little pick-and-shovel work on the rolling hillsides, shalelike strata that could easily be crushed with relatively simple equipment and washed in crude rockers to extract the retained gold. And the three thousand diggers became ten, and the ten thousand diggers became thirty, and they spread themselves across the Reef — not the barren reef of the diamond mines, the edge that was nonproductive and that could and often did fall in on the diggers below and kill them — but the Reef! It was the main lode, the center of the seam, the backbone of the goldfields, the spine that ran for thirty miles from east to west and was several miles wide, and nobody even dared to dream how deep it might be. A mountain beneath the surface, and all of it gold! George Harrison had stumbled on the major gold deposit of the world.

And in a short time the place resembled Kimberley as Kimberley had been fifteen or eighteen years before, a city without ever having been a town or even a village, a city mainly of tents or corrugated iron shanties, a scattering of miserable dwellings over miles of barren soil with neither a tree nor a bush to break the monotony; with the same sanitation pits to be covered when full, if time were found from the endless digging, from the constant search for wealth; with the seemingly same dogs fighting over the offal of slaughtered oxen or cattle, with all the sickening odors and miasma of the earlier Kimberley, and with none of the amenities of decent life that Kimberley had managed to carve out for itself from its diamonds. And in December of 1886 they named the place Johannesburg in honor of a man all of the diggers hated profoundly, the President of the Republic of the Transvaal, Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger.

But while the Reef was demonstrably full of gold, the easily worked outcroppings ran out, and the crude equipment of the individual digger no longer served to bring the metal to the surface and drag it from the rock in which it was imbedded so tenaciously. And so slowly the miners were forced to admit failure; they packed their gear and moved on; and then some of the hotels began to close, and a good portion of the brothels were without custom and soon without girls, and the least secure bar owners nailed boards across the door and packed their kegs and their bottles into wagons and left. For not only were the easily worked outcroppings disappearing, but the gold brought up from the depths was in hard rock, and even when this rock was finally crushed, only a small fraction of the gold it contained could be recovered. And it appeared that, like Pilgrim’s Rest and Barberton, the town of Johannesburg was doomed to disappear into the mists of mining history; and everyone agreed that it was a bloomin’ pity, because the gold was actually there. Except nobody knew how to get it out.

And in this situation, with the gold-mining industry of Johannesburg in a profound depression, and with no solution in sight that anyone could see, Barney Barnato arrived back from England. He had been away almost five years and while Fay had enjoyed the refinements of England, and the meeting of Barney’s family, the miscarriage she had suffered there, losing what both Barney and Fay had hoped would be their first child, had put a pall over the trip that the Grand Tour of the continent had failed to remove. Now both were pleased to be back in South Africa and on their way back to Kimberley. Fay was once again pregnant, and Barney was sure that here at home, among friends and in the country they both loved, there would be no further trouble in the childbearing business.

And Barney was also sure that it was time to be getting back to work. They were saying that the gold business was finished up in Johannesburg, that people were selling out, and that the city would soon die as Pilgrim’s Rest and Barberton had died. It was precisely the type of challenge that Barney Barnato enjoyed; this business of gold, apparently, needed looking into…

9

March 1892

The driver of the new and expensive trap that Barney had acquired was at the stable harnessing the four horses that would draw the trap on the first stage of the long and tiresome five-day trip to Johannesburg; the outriders who had been selected to accompany the trip were in the corral behind the stable selecting the horses that would be taken along as replacements. The railway from Cape Town to Kimberley had been finished and in operation for over seven years, but the stubborn Paul Kruger refused permission for the line to be extended into Transvaal territory. It would, he said, bring in more Uitlanders and further despoil what had been a moral and religious land before the hated foreigners had brought in their brothels and their whores and their gaming and their greed and all the rest of their verdoem vices. It was bad enough that some Uitlanders were already there, but he had no intention of encouraging their sins by allowing a railway to be built that would bring in thousands more. Let them travel by carriage or oxcart over the rough roads and trails; it might even make them think twice before coming to Johannesburg in the first place.

Barney stopped by the Paris Hotel to see that the trap was supplied with a wicker basket well filled with whiskey and sandwiches for at least the first part of the journey. He and Fay no longer lived at the hotel; during their absence in Europe a large home had been built to Barney’s specifications as a surprise gift to Fay upon their return, but the Paris Hotel still drew him to it for entertainment, nor had he ever been tempted to sell it. It was a visible sign to him of where he had come from, of the poverty with which he had arrived in Kimberley, and he never wished to forget either those conditions or those days. Besides, it was here he had bedded his beloved Fay for the first time, and he knew he would never forget the early days of their marriage, enjoyed in this very building.

He gave the proper instructions to the barman as to his wants for the wicker basket, and while waiting turned to see who might be around. And then Barney was grinning his broadest grin at sight of a large hulking figure in the dining room having breakfast. Barney walked over.

“Andries!”

The large man looked up, his bronzed, deeply lined face wrinkling in a broad smile of pleasure. “Barney!” The smile faded. “I mean, Mr. Barnato. You remember me?”

Barney drew up a chair and motioned to the waitress. When she came over he ordered a bottle of the house’s best brandy, always the favorite drink of the Boer, even for those who, like Andries, drank sparingly. He sat down and moved the chair to face the other. “I’ll never forget you,” he said simply. “And what’s this Mr. Barnato nonsense?”

Andries looked embarrassed. “You’re known all over the country, Mr. — I mean—”

“Barney!” Barney said firmly.

“Barney, then. They say you’re a friend of the new Premier, Mr. Rhodes. And they say you’re the richest man in the country.”

“I suppose I am,” Barney said with no attempt at false modesty. “I’ve been lucky. Luckier than you know. D’you remember that girl—” He paused as the waitress brought a bottle and two glasses to the table. He poured two large drinks and pushed one across to Andries. “To your health.” They drank and then Barney went on. “D’you remember that girl we met on the trail? Fay Bees? Her mother died and we buried her up on the Orange?”

“I remember. A very pretty girl.”

“A beautiful girl!” Barney said fervently. “We’re married.” He could not keep the pride of possession from his voice. “We’re going to have a baby very soon.” He considered Andries gravely. “D’you know, when I think of Fay and how I met her, I owe you a great deal. More than you can imagine.”

Andries shook his head. “You owe me nothing.” He looked around, purposely changing the subject. “This is the first time I’ve been to Kimberley in many years. It’s certainly improved since I first dropped you off — in front of this very hotel, I believe.”

“That’s right. And the town has improved, thanks to a lot of work by a lot of people. We think it’s a fine town now. But what brings you to Kimberley now?”

“A load for Johannesburg. No railway, you see. I loaded up at the goods shed; the load came up from Cape Town by train.” Andries smiled a bit ruefully. “When they have railways all over the country, it will be a different world…”

Barney made up his mind on the spot, as he usually did. “Andries, can you get another driver, someone down at Market Square, to take the load? In your wagon — or in theirs, if they prefer?”

“Why should I do that?” Andries said, puzzled by the request.

“Because I want you to come with me. I’m going to Johannesburg, leaving today, going by trap. You could take the place of my driver. As a matter of fact,” he added, struck by the neatness of the solution, “my driver could take your wagon up there. He’s completely reliable. And it would give us a chance to talk.”

Andries studied the still-young face looking at him so earnestly.

“And what would we talk about?” he asked gently. “Let us be honest with each other, Mr. — I mean, Barney. We’re miles apart; we have nothing in common. I’m an old drover; you’re a rich man. What would we talk about?”

“We have two of the most important months of my life in common,” Barney said with conviction. “We can talk of many things. You said yourself that eventually the railway will cover this country. What will you do then, when ox wagons are just a curiosity in some museum?”

Andries finished his drink and put his glass down. Barney reached for the bottle, but Andries laid one of his huge hands over the glass.

“No, that is enough. What will I do when ox wagons are just a memory?” He shrugged lightly. “Then I’ll find a small piece of land and grow my own vegetables, raise a few cattle, watch my oxen graze. Watch them grow old. And, in time, watch them die. Or they’ll watch me die, one or the other.”

“How old are you, Andries?”

“Sixty-two, or maybe sixty-three. Old enough.”

“If you want to sit around on a piece of ground,” Barney said, trying to get the other to see reason — as usual, once his own mind was made up he had difficulty understanding why everyone didn’t see things his way — “they say the land around Johannesburg is good for cattle. I’m going up there to see what else the town is good for; I’ve waited too long as it is. Come with me. We’ll find something we can do together.”

Andries raised his bushy eyebrows. “Why together?”

Barney leaned a bit closer. “Andries, I was a stupid boy twenty years ago; I was an innocent. I thought the five quid for the trip-five quid you never even collected — included keep, as well. Grub. I know better today; I know what you did for me. In a way I owe you more than I can ever repay you.”

“You owe me nothing,” Andries said evenly. “You earned your keep on the trek. I was a fool to take on a load that heavy and try to take it over the mountains by myself. Without you I could never have made it. And the time you stopped those men from robbing the wagon. No, you owe me nothing. Actually,” he added dryly, “you owe me less than nothing. If I had had my way, I would have talked you out of staying in Kimberley. I would have talked you into coming back to Cape Town to work with me; I tried, if you remember. And today you’d be driving an ox wagon, like me.”

“And, except for Fay, probably as happy if not happier,” Barney said. “But I’m ready to work with you now,” he added with a grin, “but not as a driver. Maybe as a rancher. Come on! What d’you say?” He came to his feet as if the matter had already been decided. “Where’s your wagon?”

Andries hesitated; then he said, almost reluctantly, “At the goods shed next to the railway station.”

“And my driver is at the stable practically next to it,” Barney said, as if the proximity of the stables and the goods shed made his argument that much more sensible. The waitress brought over a wicker basket, placing it on the table. Barney thanked her and looked at Andries. The big man slowly came to his feet. “Fine!” Barney said. “Let’s go.”

“Wait. I haven’t paid—”

“I own this place,” Barney said firmly. “You don’t pay at my wagon any more than you let me pay at yours.”

And it had to be an omen, Barney thought as he led the way from the hotel, this running into Andries again after all the years, an omen that Johannesburg would prove as good to him as Kimberley had, especially when he rode into it with the big man at his side…

The crowd before the crude Stock Exchange in Simmonds Street in Johannesburg was quiet and glum; the prices constantly being changed on the board outside of the Exchange — a service for those who could not crowd into the small room inside — were being changed in a downward direction, as they had been for many months, and there was every indication this downward trend would not only continue but accelerate. For many of those watching, the changing figures meant little: what shares they had once owned had been lost long since, sold at any price for food. For these, as well as for many others watching, the entire exercise was simply one of entertainment; they were there to be in a crowd, to be with people, which had to be better than bring alone in a tent, or in a small room someplace with four bare walls and nothing to do but sit and stare, wondering how to meet the rent.

Barney and Andries, weary from the long and tiresome trip — far more tiresome, oddly enough, than walking beside a slow-moving ox wagon — at the moment wanted nothing more than to find a decent hotel and rest. But first, Barney said, they should find the office Solly Loeb had rented in Fox Street, wherever that was, and advise him of their arrival. They had stopped in the Market Square to ask directions, leaving the outriders there, and now they turned from Market Street into Simmonds, crossing Commissioner, and then pulled up, frowning at the sight of chains that blocked the road, and the crowd that was gathered behind the chains, wondering what had caused the congregation. But the board outside the building and the prices being chalked on it explained everything, at least to Barney. He was about to indicate to Andries to turn and take another street when somebody in the crowd recognized him.

“Hey! It’s Barney! Barney Barnato!”

The crowd turned their attention to him; he was, after all, the richest man in Africa while at the moment there were, among them, undoubtedly some of the poorest. They moved from the relatively unexciting listing of prices to crowd against the chains behind which, in a very ornate trap albeit covered with the dust of the trip, was the far more glamorous and enviable Barney Barnato. Many had never seen him, but everyone there had certainly heard of him. Barney, never too tired to take a bow before an audience, smiled and stood up, resting one hand on Andries’ shoulder for support. He looked down at the faces surrounding the trap, searching for a familiar face but unable to find one.

“Hey, Barney, when did y’get back from Merry Ol’ England?”

“Just a few weeks ago,” Barney said, and then added, from lack of anything else to say, “How’s the market?”

This was greeted by a bitter laugh from the crowd. “Don’t ask!” someone shouted.

Then someone else called out. “Hey, Barney, want to buy a gold mine?”

This brought an even louder laugh from the crowd.

“Hey, Barney, how about a choice piece of ground? Make a fine site for a block of office buildings. You can have it cheap. It’s right in the heart of Jo’burg. I’m serious.”

“That’s if you can find anyone to rent them afterwards!” someone else shouted.

“Hey, Barney, you used to pick and shovel, didn’t you? Well, I got me a fine pick and shovel, both. Hardly used. Lately, that is—” That brought another laugh.

Barney held up a hand for quiet.

“You want to know what I want to buy?” he called out when relative silence had fallen. “Well, I’ll tell you — everything!” He held up his hand again to settle the buzz that had broken out from the crowd. “Hold it, boys! I’m serious. Anyone who has anything to sell, come and see me tomorrow. Our offices are at Forty-five Fox Street, if anyone can tell us where that is—”

“Just around the corner,” someone said, and pointed.

“Thanks,” Barney said, and sat down. Andries started to turn the team from the chains, but with a shout the men in the crowd loosened the chains and dropped them at both ends of the block that had been set aside before the Exchange, and then shoved back to give Andries room to pass. The trap moved around the corner, leaving a stunned crowd.

“You think he’s serious?”

“Maybe he thinks he is, but he don’t know Jo’burg,” someone else said.

“He may know diamonds, but he don’t know shit from shaving soap about gold.”

“He may be the richest man in Africa right this minute, but if he buys everything in this town somebody’s got for sale, like he says, then he’s going to be the poorest man in Africa before you can say Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger—”

“That’s his worry, the way I see it. It don’t take no skin off’n a man’s behind just to drop in that office of his tomorrow and see if he really meant what he said.”

“Why, you got something to sell, Joe?”

“I’m down to me virtue, is all—”

The crowd slowly drifted back to the chalkboard and the man still scribbling on it.

Solly Loeb looked at the crowd that filled the outer office of their new rooms and wound itself down the stairs to the street below with what he considered justified resentment. If he was supposed to be in charge of the Johannesburg office, if he was supposed to make the decisions, if he was supposed to make the recommendations as to what to buy — which at this moment in time positively should be nothing at all in this depressed town — then what was Barney doing coming up here and, for all intents and purposes, taking over? And in so doing making a fool of himself, and by association, a fool of Solly Loeb as well? Already, in one short month, Solly was almost ashamed to show himself at the Rand Club, sure the other members were laughing at him behind those suave and supposedly sincere smiles. As he saw one more indigent petitioner — for that was how Solly saw them — leave Barney’s inner office and as he resignedly waved another one to enter, Solly tried to calculate how much money Barney Barnato had already thrown down the drain, but the figure he came up with was too staggering even to be contemplated without making him sick. If it kept up like this, the Barnato Investment Company would go stony, and with it the value of the shares Solly held in it.

What had his maniac uncle bought in the short matter of four weeks? Well, he had bought about any land offered in downtown Johannesburg that had clear title, land which had to be worth less than a tenth of what he had paid for it, if Solly was any judge. And who should be a better judge? He, Solly, had been here several months before Barney showed up, and he hadn’t wasted his time, either, in learning the facts of the place, facts that Barney seemed to prefer to disregard. And not satisfied with buying half of the town itself, he had gone ahead and bought land outside of the city, a huge tract, more land than Solly could imagine, an area the idiot intended to stock with cattle — to feed the coming city of Johannesburg, he had said. What coming city of Johannesburg? The way things were going, there wouldn’t be a Johannesburg in five years! And what he had paid for that — that — that pasture could have been purchased for pennies a few years back! Oh, they had seen him coming, all right! His smart uncle, Barney Barnato!

What else? Oh, yes, the waterworks! Water was essential for the mines as well as for the people, Barney had said. What mines? What people? This town would be another Barberton in a year! Oh, yes, and speaking of mines and gold stocks, Barney had, of course, bought gold mines and gold stocks — mines that had gold in them, nobody denied that, but gold that could be taken from those mines at a break-even cost only, and you had to be pretty smart to even do that. The fact was it cost as much to get an ounce of gold from that retentive rock as the cost of just about bringing it to the surface, let alone the cost of crushing the rock in those expensive batteries, and the cost of labor and supervising the damned Kaffirs and the cost of the tools and the machinery and the freight, since because of the damned Kruger there were no railways to the damned place, and God alone knew what else!

Solly had said as much to the reticent Andries the day the large Boer had driven him out in the trap to inspect the land Barney had bought for the ranch, a ranch Andries was to run on a fifty-fifty partnership basis.

“He’s lost his mind!” Solly had said hopelessly. “I don’t believe he has the slightest idea of what he’s doing. Or how much he’s spending.” It wasn’t because Solly particularly wished to confide his thoughts to Andries; to begin with he was a stranger, and a Boer, and besides he was obviously an uneducated peasant, a nobody. But there wasn’t anyone else around; it was almost like talking to oneself. “Over two million pounds. Two million pounds! In less than a month! Can you imagine? Do you have any idea how much money that is, two million pounds?”

Andries properly considered that the question needed no answer from him, and held his silence.

“And if it was only all his own money!” Solly had gone on bitterly. “He seems to forget, or maybe he prefers to forget, that there are other shareholders in the company! He doesn’t even ask their opinion; he just plows on!” He seemed to suddenly realize he was expressing his personal views before a man Barney had just recently introduced into the picture, a new factor in the equation. The people Barney managed to pick up! Like stray dogs! A driver of an ox wagon, for God’s sake, just because they’d once made a trek together! “Of course, that’s just my opinion…” He looked up, the look itself on that haughty patrician face demanding an answer, a commitment.

“Ummm…,” Andries had said diplomatically.

“Yes,” Solly had said shortly with a shake of his head and a sidelong glance at the other man, as if to warn him he had been eavesdropping, for all practical purposes, and not to forget it; and fell silent.

He came back to the present as a man came from Barney’s office and approached his desk, holding out a chit upon which Barney’s scrawled signature was clearly evident. Solly studied it balefully for several moments and then looked up.

“What’s this for?”

“Sold ’im a share o’ a claim.” The man sounded as if the money represented by the chit had been found in the street.

“And where’s this claim?” Solly asked sardonically. “Market Square?”

The man bridled. “Hit’s a good claim, an’ ’e bought hit square! An’ you pay me me money raht now, you ’ear?”

“Don’t take that tone with me! You watch your tongue!”

“Watch me tongue, eh? You watch yer throat, lad! I signed the papers all proper, an’ ’e signed the chit! Now I wants me money!”

Solly gritted his teeth. He wrote the check, signed it, and handed it over, coming to his feet immediately afterward, fuming. This was too much! He marched into Barney’s office, forestalling a rather well dressed elderly man who had moved to the door and had merely been waiting for Solly’s permission to enter. He did not look like the usual run of petitioner waiting to cash in on a worthless claim, or a claim that was, at the very least, profitless; on the contrary he looked rather distinguished, but Solly was well aware that merely looking distinguished did not prevent a man from taking as much advantage of Barney as one who looked disreputable. In any event, Solly pushed past the man brusquely, entering the office and closing the door firmly behind him. Barney looked up curiously.

“Yes, Solly?”

Solly drew up a chair and sat down opposite his uncle. He took a deep breath and began. “Barney,” he said, trying to sound as calm as his uncle looked, “do you know what you are doing?”

“I think so,” Barney said mildly.

“D’you know how much money you’ve put out? In a month?”

“About two million pounds, I believe. Why?”

Solly was speechless, but only for a moment.

“Why? Why? Because most of it if not all of it is money down the drain, that’s why! Sure, there’s gold in the Reef; there’s gold in people’s teeth, too! But what good is the gold in the Reef if nobody can get it out at a profit, eh? The mines that are still working are barely breaking even. Look at the Simmer & Jack mine! They know as much about getting gold out of the rock with mercury amalgam as anyone in the world, and they’re barely making expenses! Look at Robinson! He’s added the new chlorination process to try and squeeze an extra tenth of an ounce per ton of rock, and I doubt if he’s even paid for the new equipment he added! My God, Barney, there’s probably more gold in the slag heaps than there is being extracted and poured, practically. What kind of a business is that to be pouring money in, endlessly? And the mining stocks you insist upon buying, stocks even in mines that have been shut down and will probably never reopen—”

“Solly,” Barney said quietly, interrupting. “There were diamonds in the blue ground, as you may remember, and we had to figure out how to get them out. The answer was in power equipment, steam-driven equipment, and we had to even bring the coal by ox wagon over half of South Africa to fire the boilers. I don’t know what the answer is going to be to get the gold from the rock, but there’s going to be an answer and somebody’s going to find it. And if power is needed and steam to produce that power, at least the coal is within a few miles of here. I know this: there’s gold in the Reef! They calculate there’s more gold here than in any other place in the world. Where there’s that much gold, somebody is going to figure out how to recover it. And at a profit, too. And when they do, I expect to be ready.”

“And if they don’t figure out how to recover it — at that profit you’re talking about — for the next hundred years?” Solly asked sardonically. “What then?”

“Then I guess we wait a hundred years,” Barney said philosophically. He looked at his nephew steadily. “But we wait.”

Solly shook his head in frustrated desperation. “But, damn it, Barney! Even so! The prices you’re paying for everything! The market keeps going down and you keep buying!”

“Solly,” Barney said quietly, “if the basic proposition is good, the time to buy is on a falling market. Let a rising market take care of itself. In the long run you’ll come out far ahead. People lose opportunities waiting for a market to bottom; they lose money because they’re afraid to lose it. I’ve never been afraid to lose money and that’s why I’ve got what I’m spending today.” Solly stared at him hopelessly. “Now,” Barney said briskly, getting back to business, and avoiding Solly’s baleful glance, “who’s next out there?”

“A chap dressed to the nines,” Solly said a bit vengefully. “And I only hope you don’t buy the Cape Town breakwater from him, or either Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace!”

“I didn’t know they were for sale,” Barney said with a smile, “but if they are I promise to bid low.” He watched Solly stamp from the room to be replaced by a gray-haired gentleman dressed in the latest fashion. The door closed behind him. Barney motioned the man to a seat and waited until he had been made comfortable. Barney leaned back in his chair, relaxing. “And exactly what do you have to sell?” he asked politely.

The man smiled broadly. “Position,” he said evenly. “Possibly even fame, although I can’t guarantee it. Possibly notoriety, although I can’t guarantee that, either. Recognition, certainly, although you do not require that, being who you are. And all at a reasonable price. My rates are usually sixpence a line, but as an old friend — and one who should be hurt by your failure to remember me, although I am forced to recognize that time works its havoc whether we wish it or not — I have come to offer my services for what they might be worth. Possibly nothing. Possibly a bit more.”

Barney frowned across the desk. This was far different from the normal approach he had become used to in the past month, although he had to admit he had faced more than one ingenious ploy. “I beg your pardon?”

“For not recognizing me?” The man carefully rucked one trouser leg several inches upward before crossing his legs; he glanced down to satisfy himself there were no creases that might provide future and unsightly wrinkles, and then looked up with a slightly accusatory frown, although his eyes were twinkling. “I suppose you should be forgiven, considering the lapse of time. I can only gather that you are not in the habit of saving calling cards, my young Mr. Isaacs. Actually, I don’t myself. They take up so much room in filing cabinets, and when you run across them years later you say to yourself — with much the frown you have on your face at present — who the devil was that? Why did the dreadful bore give me his card in the first place? And then, quite properly, you tear it in shreds and throw it away.”

Barney stared. “I’m afraid—”

“Cape Town,” the man said, smiling. “A large area next to the Castle. People milling about like mad, and a young boy trying to figure out how to get to Kimberley on a rather restricted budget, I imagine—”

Barney came to his feet, beaming. “Mr. Breedon!”

“Well, at least the name made an impression,” Breedon said, and smiled across the desk. “In all honesty, my young friend, I’m more than gratified that you remember me at all. After all, our conversation lasted only a few moments. And it’s been — what? — twenty years?”

“Mr. Breedon!” Barney hurried around the desk, his hand out to greet the elderly man. “It’s truly good to see you! My first good word in this country came from you. And I’ve never forgotten!”

“Nor have I. Nor your Shakespearean recitations.” His eyebrows rose humorously. “Your accent has improved. Or at least changed.”

Barney grinned broadly and went into his old Cockney. “Eee, I married a ’ard woman, y’can take me word fer it!” He put away the Cockney. “The Bard said, in Hamlet, ‘Frailty, thy name is woman!’ Well, he didn’t know my Fay, and that’s the truth.” He dropped his light tone. “I’m glad you’re here, Mr. Breedon. You offered money to an absolute stranger, a young boy you knew you might never see again.”

“A loan the boy refused.”

Barney shook his head. “That makes no difference.” He returned to his chair and leaned back in it, considering Breedon across the wide desk. “I’ve never forgotten that. And whatever I can do for you, in Johannesburg or Kimberley, will be done. Just say the word.”

Breedon looked a bit embarrassed. “Well, to tell the truth, I do need a favor of sorts to ask—”

“Just name it! Do you need money?”

Breedon laughed. It was a laugh of such enjoyment, such pleasure, that Barney stared at him. Breedon shook his head.

“I suppose I should be more flattered than anything else at your offer, since I try very hard to maintain my privacy. While it is undoubtedly true I am not as rich as Barney Barnato, I’m afraid the wolf comes to my door, sniffs a bit, and then wanders off a trifle discouraged. No, Barney, I came to ask you for something more precious, possibly, than your money. I came to ask you for your time.”

Barney frowned, now thoroughly confused. “My time?”

“Yes. I came to ask you to run for the Cape Assembly.”

Barney’s frown turned to puzzlement.

“There are no Assembly representatives from Johannesburg, I’m sure you know that. We’re part of the Transvaal, not the Cape Colony.” He smiled faintly, but there was little humor in his smile. “I doubt that Oom Paul Kruger would be pleased to have us think otherwise; his Boer commandos would be at the voting booths and they wouldn’t be there to vote, at least not with ballots. Bullets, maybe.”

“I’m quite aware of that, of course,” Breedon said, his eyes sharp on Barney’s face. “But Kimberley is still a part of the Cape Colony, and I understand you still have a home there, as well as many friends, and a great many interests.”

Barney looked at the man thoughtfully. “Mr. Breedon,” he said at last, “your name is not as unknown to me as you may think. I do know something about you. When I offered you money a few moments ago, I thought possibly you might have fallen upon temporary hard times; it happens to the best. They tell me publishing is a risky business at best; it’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed out of it. But still, as I understand it, your principal interests are in Cape Town—”

“And in Bloemfontein and in Pretoria, and although it is not generally known — nor need it be — I also own a good share of the local newspaper here in Johannesburg. No, Mr. Barnato — Barney — I am a newspaper publisher and I have interests in all parts of South Africa, and major ones in the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. I am also of Dutch parentage. And I feel that a strong voice in the Cape Assembly will be needed very shortly, a voice with reputation and influence, to counteract, if you will, the influence of certain parties who seem intent upon fostering trouble between the Boers and the English.”

Barney stared at the man, his face expressionless. “And what makes you think I disagree with — these certain parties?”

Breedon smiled gently. “You insult me, Barney. I am a newspaper publisher and it’s true I spend most of my time behind a desk, but I am also a newspaper reporter, and if I say so myself a rather good one. I did not come to see you without having done a decent amount of investigating. I am as sure you agree with my point of view as I am that I am sitting here. Otherwise, I assure you I would not be sitting here.”

Barney swung his chair to stare from the window. In the distance he could see the long low but rising yellow slag heaps that dotted the landscape of the Reef, and the peaceful rolling hills beyond, touched with light fleecy clouds. It was an idyllic scene and one he knew could change radically in a very short time. He knew exactly what Breedon was talking about; he heard the hotheads of the so-called Reform Committee spouting their talk of possible revolution or even outright war every day in the Rand Club, and had argued often enough with them. But politics was not his game, mining and finance were. And what could or would one voice matter in the Cape Assembly if these rash fools were to insist upon trouble?

On the other hand it undoubtedly would be an honor to run for the Assembly and to be elected; he was sure Fay would enjoy the time spent in a civilized town like Cape Town during the Assembly sessions as a welcome respite from the dirt and filth of the growing Johannesburg; besides, it would be near her hometown of Simonstown and would give her a chance to see old friends. And it would be good to have an excuse to get back to Kimberley again for the campaigning, and to meet old friends and see the old familiar sights. Oh, there would be advantages, there was no doubt of that, not the least being that he would be able to tell these hot-tempered idiots just how foolish they were.

But on the other hand, Fay was close to her time, and was in no condition to be traveling anywhere, not even to Kimberley and not even in the most comfortable means of travel; the roads and carriages of the day were not for women in labor. And it would be unfair for him to be away when the baby was born. Unfair? It would be unthinkable, especially after they had waited so many years for this baby. And, without being crass, he had just spent over two million pounds of his Barnato Investment Company’s money, and while a good part of it was his own money, at the same time the stockholders were entitled to his close attention to sums that great. And he also had a responsibility to his family and the unborn baby to see that the Barnato fortune was not treated cavalierly through what would, at the moment, merely represent a form of vanity on his part. Solly was a capable assistant, Barney knew that, but he strongly suspected that it was precisely people like Solly and Cecil Rhodes that Breedon had been referring to as wishing to foster trouble between the Boers and the English. And, to be truthful, the best place to be to keep an eye on Solly and the other members of the so-called Reform Committee was in Johannesburg and the Rand Club, not in Cape Town.

In some ways it was a hard decision, but basically it was an easy one. Barney swung back to his guest.

“Mr. Breedon,” he said earnestly, “I appreciate your coming to see me, and I’m flattered you wish me to run for a seat in the Assembly. But this isn’t the time, at least not for me. In two or three years, when the next election takes place, possibly. But not now.”

Breedon sighed and came to his feet. He was a pragmatist, a man who recognized the futility of an argument with a man of Barnato’s caliber once his mind had been made up.

“Then it is possible that I shall be back in two or three years, if it is not too late by then,” he said, and smiled. “Newspapermen are notoriously patient; after all, we have no choice. We must wait each day for something to happen to give us our headlines and our columns. Impatience doesn’t help.” He held out his hand; Barney came to his feet and gripped it strongly. “Newspapermen can also be helpful at times,” Breedon added quietly. “If there is ever anything I can do…”

Barney grinned, his old gamin grin. “As a matter of fact, there is,” he said. “That young chap who was in here before you is my nephew. I’d appreciate it if you could tell him, on your way out, to send in the next one…”

In a suburb of Glasgow, in a small laboratory behind the surgery of two brothers who were doctors, three men labored, the third being a self-taught chemist. The three had been intrigued for a long time with the problem of extracting the last grain of gold from the ore-bearing rock. Not only would the solution to the age-old problem make them rich and famous — and permit them, possibly, to mount a decent laboratory instead of the poor one in which they worked — but it would have a profound effect on the economy of many countries, and principally South Africa and the gold Reef of the Rand.

Up until that time the major method of extracting nonalluvial gold — gold that was not found in a free state, washed down some river from a mother lode above — was through the mercury process. Here mercury was used to form an amalgam with the precious metal once the rock containing it had been crushed; the mercury was then boiled off and condensed for reuse. But the amalgam process recovered at most 50 per cent of the precious gold, and since the Johannesburg Reef contained on an average approximately between one half and one ounce of gold per ton of rock, even a 50 per cent recovery rate — as Solly Loeb had pointed out — was barely profitable considering the huge expenses involved in equipment and labor. The addition of the chlorination process, as installed at the Robinson mine, had raised the recovery rate from 50 per cent to between 65 and 70 per cent, but the additional cost involved made the increased recovery little more profitable than the original amalgam process. The challenge of knowing that the largest deposit of gold-bearing rock in the world, practically an underground mountain of gold, would soon be merely an oddity, a curiosity, its riches forever locked away from mankind merely because of the economics of recovery, drove the three men to work hard to find a proper solution to the problem.

“If the rock could be crushed fine enough,” said one of the doctor brothers one day — his name was William Forrest — “then it seems logical that the gold could be combined with another element, a cheap-enough and recoverable-enough element to make the process worthwhile. In that combination we might be able to precipitate the gold in some fashion.”

“The fineness of the crushing should be no great problem,” said his brother, Robert Forrest. Robert, while weaker in chemistry than the others, was by far the most mechanically minded. “Some of the big presses down at the John Brown Shipyards along the Clyde can bend and form a four-inch-thick steel plate; they certainly ought to be able to crush rock. And if we want it any finer, we can use the type of ball mills they use for pigments, and some of them, like the phthalocyanine greens and blues, are pretty hard,” he added with conviction. “We can get the rock to as fine a powder as we wish. The only thing is, combining crushed rock with another element is basically what the mercury amalgam process does. And the recovery is barely half.”

“I don’t mean mercury,” William said, irritated at his brother’s intransigence. “I mean something more effective!”

“Like what?” Robert asked innocently.

The three of them laughed. They were having lunch at a small pub not far from their laboratory in the industrial section of Rutherglen. John Stewart MacArthur, the third of the group and the self-taught chemist, had learned his profession at a company that specialized in the treatment of refractory minerals from all over the world. With a sudden faraway look in his eyes, he bit into his meat pie, chewed, swallowed, and washed the entire bit down with a draft of his beer.

“Speaking of the phthalocyanine blues and greens,” he said, setting down his stein, “Farraday experimented with sodium cyanide in an exhibition at the Albert Hall almost twenty-five years ago, showing it had an extraordinary affinity for gold.”

“But it was never proven as being practical on an industrial scale,” Will said. “I know what you mean. There was a Julio Rae who even got a patent in America on treating either gold or silver ores with potassium or sodium cyanide, but nothing ever came of that, either.”

“Maybe they didn’t go far enough,” MacArthur said. He pushed aside his meat-pie dish and was wiping the table dry before applying his pencil to it. A horrified serving maid hurried up, sliding a piece of paper under his pencil before he could mar the polished surface of the wood; apparently the staff of the pub were accustomed to Mr. MacArthur and his habits, and were prepared for them.

“Really, Mr. MacArthur!”

MacArthur grinned sheepishly. “Sorry, Kitty.” He bent over the paper, putting down symbols. “Au + NaCN—” He looked up. “Farraday used water, too, as I recall, to obtain sodium hydroxide as a by-product. To reduce the sodium.” Both Will and Bob Forrest were watching him carefully.

“You’d get a faster reaction if you were to bubble pure oxygen through the solution,” Will Forrest pointed out, wishing to contribute.

“Pure oxygen is expensive,” his brother pointed out, his Scottish heart automatically rejecting the suggestion. “We’re trying to save money, not spend it.”

“Use air then,” Will said. “That isn’t expensive. The oxygen in the air will do the trick, and the nitrogen, I’m sure, won’t do any harm.”

“We hope,” MacArthur said, and crossed out his first attempt, starting a second formula. “Au + NaCN + H_2O + O_2—”

Will Forrest reached over, putting his hand over the paper.

“We’re going about this the wrong way,” he said quietly. “Let’s consider what we want to end up with, and then backtrack to see how to get there. What we want is sodium hydroxide and the gold-cyanide solution—”

MacArthur shook his head stubbornly.

“It isn’t that simple or someone would have done it years ago.” He went back to his scribbling, crossing out, adding, a frown on his face. At last he looked up. “We’re going to have to have enough sodium not only for the sodium hydroxide but for a combination of gold and sodium cyanide. Then we can work on the gold-sodium cyanide and separate out the gold. A number of metals might do the trick, leaving the sodium cyanide.” He pushed over the paper. “I think this is probably where we should start.”

The formula read: “4Au + 8NaCN + O_2 + 2H2O.”

Will frowned. “You mean we start with sodium cyanide and we end with sodium cyanide?”

“That’s how these things sometimes work,” MacArthur said cheerfully.

Bob Forrest was interested in another problem. “Why four gold and eight sodium cyanide?”

“Because I’m the chemist and you’re only doctors,” MacArthur said with a grin, “and because chemistry is a funny thing, as you should know by now. You only get out what you put in, only in a different form.” He bent back to his paper, muttering to himself as he did computations in his head, and then completed his formula. “—= 4NaAu(CN)2+ 4NaOH.”

Will Forrest studied the paper, frowning, and then looked up. “It looks simple enough, but will it work?”

MacArthur shrugged. “It’s easy enough to find out. All we have to do is try it.”

“Cyanides are dangerous to work with,” Bob Forrest objected, always the pessimist.

“The concentration doesn’t need to be very high,” MacArthur said, not at all bothered by the statement. “Farraday worked with a one per cent solution, I believe. We can start even weaker than that. Start with a tenth of one per cent and work our way up, if need be.”

“But would a solution that weak work?”

“We’ll only find out trying. Besides,” MacArthur said with a broad smile, “it seems to work in this pub for the beer. That certainly can’t be any stronger than one tenth of one per cent alcohol, and they don’t seem to have any trouble getting rid of it.” He watched his companions finish their meat pies and empty their steins. “Well, shall we go back to work and see if the great Michael Farraday knew what he was talking about twenty-five years ago? Not to mention the ubiquitous but less famous Julio Rae, whoever he was?”

Bob Forrest frowned as he came to his feet, looking down at MacArthur. “And if the formula works, what then?”

“Then we take our little gold-sodium cyanide and start combining it with every known metal — except gold, of course — working alphabetically, which is the scientific method, until something happens. With our luck,” he added with pretended mournfulness, “the one that finally works will probably turn out to be zinc!”

He stood up and started to lead the way from the pub, anxious to get to his test tubes and his formula.

“Mr. MacArthur! Gentlemen! Your bill!”

MacArthur turned back, smiling, reaching for his wallet.

“Kitty, Kitty, Kitty!” he said reproachfully, handing her a note. “Don’t you know that the first sign of pure genius in a scientist is his forgetfulness?”

Leah Primrose Barnato was born on March 16, 1892, and a prouder father than Barney Barnato would have been hard to find. Leah Primrose was a beautiful, healthy child who Barney was pleased to see was going to resemble his wife’s side of the family, rather than his own, and Barney could hardly wait to take his daughter around Johannesburg and show her off. It took all of Fay’s strong will and persuasion to hold him back for at least the first few months of the child’s life, but after that it was impossible. It was quite commonplace to see Barney Barnato come wheeling Leah’s pram to the Sunday races and point out to the punters, often interrupting their betting, just how lovely his daughter was; or find him pushing the pram into the Stock Exchange and — waving away any who dared bend over the child with a cigar in his mouth — hold up the chalking of prices while he expounded on her virtues. Or see him march proudly into the Rand Club, lift Leah from her pram and set her on the bar, and beam at the other patrons as he bought a round of drinks, heisting his glass in a toast to “the prettiest, cleverest, strongest, most intelligent baby in the world” and practically daring anyone in the place to disagree.

And it was on a day when he was doing exactly that in the Rand Club — Leah had begun to show signs of teething, which Barney seemed to think was something no other child on earth had ever done before, certainly not at her age — when Solly Loeb burst into the club and raced down the bar to Barney’s side. Barney frowned. In the first place, overt exercise on the part of his nephew Solly was quite unusual; in the second place, any sudden motions seemed to upset little Leah, especially at the moment. Solly’s face was red; he was gasping.

“Barney! Barney!” Solly suddenly seemed to realize he was causing a bit of a scene, that his obvious agitation was drawing attention that was precisely the last thing he wished. But his news was so momentous it was difficult to appear calm. Still, he forced himself into an approximation of composure, and dropped his voice. “Barney, let’s get out of here. I’ve got to talk to you. It’s important.”

Barney merely nodded. He finished his drink, carefully placed Leah Primrose in her pram, waved to the others along the bar, and walked out, pushing the pram before him. Solly sidled alongside him, bursting with his news. Once they were in the street and Barney had covered the open portion of the pram with a netting against the dust of Commissioner Street, Solly could hold out no longer.

“Barney, d’you remember those two fellows from Scotland? Forrest and MacArthur? Who said they had a process for the extraction of a hundred per cent of the gold from the rock?”

“I remember. They claimed they had proven their process in Australia and America. We gave them the use of our laboratories for them to prove it here.”

“Well, by God, they proved it! They actually proved it! You know, when they first came down here—”

“—you wanted to throw them out of the office.”

Solly waved this away as being unimportant. “I admit I didn’t believe them. Why would they have come to South Africa last? Well, I was wrong, I admit it.” Barney looked at him; for Solly to admit he was wrong was a major event. “I just came from the laboratory, Barney! It works! The process really works!”

“I was sure it would.”

Solly stopped short, eyeing his uncle disbelievingly. “Oh, come on! How could you be sure it would work?”

“I wasn’t sure their particular process would work,” Barney said calmly, “but I was sure that one or another, theirs or someone else’s, would work. It had to.” He looked out toward the low hills that surrounded the city, and the growing mountains of yellowish slag that covered a good part of the landscape. “There’s just too much gold out there in the Reef for one process or another not to work.”

Solly said, still almost in a state of shock at the unexpected fortune that had befallen them, “They won’t give us an exclusive on the process, but they’ll set up our plant first and won’t begin any other negotiations until we’re in full production. It’ll be on a royalty basis, but it’s dirt-cheap at the price. We’ll have the edge on every other mining company in the Rand! Our stocks will go right through the roof!”

“I was talking to them when they first came,” Barney said, recalling the incident, “and more out of curiosity than anything else. They said they spent most of their time playing with different metals until they found the best one to bring out the gold from their chemical solution. Which one was it that did the trick?”

“Zinc,” Solly said, and chortled to think of their good luck. Solly Loeb had no idea of what zinc was, other than being a metal that people sometimes used in sheet form for rooftops, but if it wasn’t gold at least it made gold possible, and to Solly Loeb, that was all that mattered.

But Solly’s tone was different when he spoke to Andries Pirow over a drink at the Rand Club. Speaking with Andries was perfectly proper now; Andries was a respected and established rancher, as well as being a member of the Rand Club — one of its very few Boer members, and one whose membership had been demanded and won by Barney Barnato. Andries Pirow was also a member of the Volksraad, the Transvaal Parliament, easily elected from the Johannesburg District by his many friends he had made in his years of hauling into the area. It seemed hard, at times, for Andries to realize the profound change in his life that had come about because of his chance meeting with Barney that day in the Paris Hotel in Kimberley; it was something he often thought about and it was what he was thinking about as Solly went on with his speech. Andries was well aware that to Solly it was still the same as if he were speaking to himself to address Andries.

“Luckiest man in the world, Barney Barnato!” Solly said bitterly, almost as if a good portion of his own fortunes were not intimately bound up with Barney’s. He lifted his drink and sipped gloomily before putting his glass down. “Buys when nobody else is buying, pays prices nobody else would dream of paying, buys things nobody in his right mind would touch with a barge pole, does things that would put any other man in the world in the poorhouse; and then has the incredible, unbelievable, inconceivable fortune to get the first go at the cyanide process for the Rand! If he fell into a cesspool, he’d come out dripping with diamonds!”

“Ummm,” said Andries.

“When they first came into the office, Barney was about to throw them out, but luckily — another example of his incredible luck — I talked him out of it. ‘Give them a chance,’ I told him. ‘After all, they say they’ve installed the process in Australia and America and that it works there. Why shouldn’t it work here? And what’s the point of our having laboratories if we don’t use them?’”

“Ummm.”

“But it’s not as if I envy Barney, or that I’m jealous of him, or anything like that, I want you to understand,” Solly said loftily. “Don’t think that for a moment. After all, we’re relations, and I owe everything I’ve got to Barney. Just as he owes a lot of what he’s got to me. And besides, I own a fair bit of Barnato Investment Company stock myself.”

“Ummm.”

“But still, you can’t deny that he’s luckier than a man with the only beer license for the entire Karroo. Lucky, that’s the only word for Barney Barnato,” Solly said glumly, repeating himself.

“Ummm,” said Andries.

10

October 1893

Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, President of the Transvaal Republic and known to both friend and enemy as Oom Paul-Uncle Paul — killed his first game when he was seven years old; he was taken by his parents on the Great Trek from the Cape to the interior, then an uncharted wilderness, when he was ten. He killed his first Kaffir at the age of eleven when their wagon train was ambushed on the trail, and slew his first lion when he was fourteen. Now in his sixties, tough as a rhinoceros, mean as a wounded water buffalo, and with a hatred of the British dating from his earliest childhood memories of being uprooted from land in the Cape Colony which had been settled by his ancestors, and with a deep suspicion and almost equal dislike for the native blacks with whom he had fought innumerable battles in the establishment of the Boer Republic in the midst of what had been Matabele territory, Paul Kruger was not a man to compromise.

Now, presiding over a small group of the Volksraad in the living room of his home in Pretoria, he was propped up in a huge chair to accommodate his large body, swathed in blankets and with a cup of hot tea laced with brandy at his elbow. His wife, hoping to manage a word that might get her stubborn husband to return to his four-poster and combat his cold sensibly — a cause she knew before she started was hopeless — finally sighed at the definite look of dismissal in his eyes, and picking up a full ashtray as if to prove her entrance had been with purpose, retired to the kitchen. Kruger returned his attention to the meeting. It was far from even being a quorum of the membership; it contained only a few of the cabinet, but it was all the important members Paul Kruger had been able to reach by messenger upon hearing news he considered warranted such a meeting.

“You say it’s a new process?” He was addressing a member of the Raad named Kaspar Enslin; as a graduate of the Cape University, Enslin was the most educated and was therefore considered an expert on anything beyond the experience of the others in the room. He also made his home in the city of Johannesburg and was therefore also considered an expert on anything pertaining to that city. It was not a position Enslin enjoyed; basically he was a most modest person, and knew that he was wrong as often as he was right.

“Yes,” Enslin said. “It seems to promise the total recovery of the gold from the rock.” They spoke Afrikaans. Although most of them could manage well enough in English, the use of the hated language was almost forbidden in the Kruger presence.

“What chemical is it?” This was from Frans Scholtz, and was said most eagerly. Scholtz was a major trader and held the concession for the importation of all dynamite into the Transvaal, dynamite essential to the very existence of the mines. It was claimed that if one placed a shilling under a rock in the Simmer & Jack mine, and put Scholtz in the Robinson mine, miles away, he could tell by merely smelling which side of the shilling showed the old Queen. Kruger raised a hand, cutting off this portion of the discussion. He knew he would have to return to it, for Scholtz would never allow the matter to be dropped so easily, but Kruger had more important matters than Scholtz’s convenience or profits on his mind in calling the meeting.

“Later!” Kruger said in a tone that ended, or at least postponed, the matter, and fell silent, thinking. The others in the large room waited. There were eight men present in addition to the President, the only ones Kruger had been able to reach with the little notice he had upon hearing what to him had been dread news. He looked around, his small, beady eyes passing from man to man, from face to face, assessing them from beneath his bushy graying eyebrows. At last he spoke. “You all realize what this will mean?”

Scholtz, for one, knew it could mean a’ fortune for whoever gained the concession for the chemical, whatever it was, that was essential to the new process, but he also knew that Kruger’s question had been rhetorical. Scholtz, therefore, properly kept his silence. Contrary to the thoughts of many, Scholtz was no fool.

“It will mean the influx of thousands upon thousands of diggers, Uitlanders, outsiders, foreigners, strangers!” Kruger said heavily. His big hands gripped the edge of the large chair. “Most of them will be English, with a few Americans. It will mean all the people who left in the last few years will be coming back to the Transvaal, bringing with them all their vices, their filth, their gambling, their whores—” He paused without mentioning their bars and their liquors, and took a sip of his brandy-laced tea, wiping his lips afterward on the back of his large hand, as if to punctuate his statement.

“I don’t think so,” Enslin said slowly.

Kruger’s bushy eyebrows rose dramatically. “You don’t think so? With more gold in sight? You don’t think they’ll come flocking in like vultures over a dead bokram?”

Enslin shook his head. “No, sir. The diggings have changed, Meneer President. The small digger, the individual miner, no longer has the force, the financial strength, to become involved in the mining of gold. It is now in the hands of the big companies, the corporations, the stock companies, a lot of them with Kimberley money, and there is no longer room for the digger the way there was when they dug the outcropped tailings and washed them in a rocker pan. It’s a different business, and will be even more different with the new process. Now they will use mostly Kaffir labor. I do not see any great increase of the Johannesburg population, at least not of English. Of Kaffirs, yes, but I am sure the whites will keep them under the same strict control they use in the diamond fields.”

“But this new process does not require skilled labor? White labor?”

Another man spoke up, Theunis Leyds, a farmer from just outside Johannesburg, a man who provided many of the fresh vegetables the city used, and therefore made frequent trips there.

“I do not believe so,” he said. “I think Kaspar is right.” He spoke slowly, as he did all things slowly, as if after a considerable amount of thought, although this was not always the case, as Kruger well knew. Leyds puffed on his pipe a moment, as if considering his words, and then removed it from his thin lips to continue. “They are building compounds at all the mines for the blacks as they did in Kimberley, for while the gold is more difficult to steal than the diamonds were, apparently with this new process it is not impossible. And they are saying that while the chemical fumes are bad for white men, and the chemicals burn the skin, this is not true for the Kaffirs, that the chemicals have no effect on the skin or lungs of the blacks. So it will be the Kaffirs, in the main, who will handle the chemicals in the new process, I imagine.”

It was a long speech for Leyds, and for once it made sense to Kruger. The President smiled, a humorless smile.

“How like the English! They are the ultimate hypocrites. I remember as a child — they sold us the slaves and then came around saying the slaves were free — after taking our money. Slaves, incidentally, we treated well, considering the admonitions of the Bible against all the sons of Ham, condemning them to be servants for all their lives and the lives of all the generations to follow. And then they lock the blacks in compounds, feed them worse than animals, treat them worse than even the Matabele treated their captives, and now they are going to poison them, as well!”

“We might pass a law forbidding it.” The man who spoke allowed his thoughts to trail to silence. It was the Reverend Karl Hofmeyr, the pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church in Pretoria.

Kruger waved the notion away; he was sure the reverend felt the same on the subject as he did; how could he feel otherwise in view of the strictures of the Good Book?

“I care not what the English do with their Kaffirs. Let them starve them, poison them, do what they will with them. The English are fools; when they finish exploiting the black, they send him home with a gun in his hands. Someday they will face those guns. No, what happens to the Kaffirs is out of our hands; what happens to the English is what interests me.” He turned to look at Andries Pirow, who had been sitting silently during the discussion. “You, my old friend, are much in touch with these English. Do you agree with Kaspar and Leyds? Do you think the English will increase in number because of this new process, whatever it is?”

Andries Pirow paused before replying, thinking. At last he shrugged and spoke. In Afrikaans he was much more articulate than he had ever been in English.

“My President, I think the two who spoke before are wrong. I think the English will increase. Not just because of the gold, but because with the gold, Johannesburg is bound to grow, and they will come for the commerce. Johannesburg is already a growing city; it will grow faster. Men will come to build more buildings, to build houses, others to make bricks for those houses, and to dig the clay for those bricks. Others to build roads to reach the houses. Others to bake the bread these people will need, or weave the cloth for their clothes. I saw it happen in Durban, where there was no gold; I saw it happen in Bloemfontein, where there were only farms. It is the way of the world.”

“And the newcomers will be Uitlanders,” Hendryk Rensburg said sourly.

“I agree with both Hendryk and Andries,” Jan Snijman said. He was a trader who traveled widely in the Republic. “It isn’t even a question of will they come, my President; they are coming. I see them every day. And not just to Johannesburg, which — as Andries quite correctly says — will grow because of the gold. They are coming to Springs and places like it, where the coal is, because they need the coal for the gold mines. One thing leads to another. No,” he added with a shake of his head, “they will come. They are coming. Kaspar and Theunis are wrong; the new process will merely make them come faster.”

“I agree,” said Herman Shoemann, the eighth of the group, a successful farmer from Roodepoort on the far side of Johannesburg and one well familiar with the problem because of his proximity to that city. “In a few years the English will outnumber the Boers in our own republic if they don’t already. And they will start to want the vote, the franchise; they already want it and they do not want to wait fourteen years as residents to get it, as the law is now. I hear talk of the franchise every time I go to Johannesburg! And then where will we be? Back on another Great Trek?”

There was the sudden sound of Kruger’s big hand smashing down on the table beside him. His tea sloshed, almost spilling. The short beard that edged his large angry face was bristling with rage.

“No!” Kruger said in a thundering voice. “There will be no more Great Treks! Not if they depend on the Uitlander getting the vote, except as the law allows. This is still our land, our republic, our country! We fought for it, against the Matabele, against the English, and we won it! Have they so soon forgotten eighteen-eighty and eighteen-eighty-one? Have they forgotten Laing’s Nek? Have they forgotten Majuba Hill? How many English dead do they need to convince them that this is our land and we run it as we wish, not as they wish? Do these vermin think they can just walk in and take it away from us with the franchise, just like that? The Volksraad still controls and rules this state, and the Volksraad will never consent to the Uitlander having the vote except under the conditions that were established at the Treaty of Pretoria, not as long as I am President! Nor, I am sure,” he added in a more subdued tone of voice, “long after I am no longer President.”

Andries Pirow cleared his throat. “My President—”

Kruger turned to him, his temper slowly cooling. “Yes, my old friend?”

“My President, may I speak freely?”

Kruger smiled. “When have you ever failed to, my friend?”

“Seldom, I admit,” Andries said, returning the smile. Then the smile disappeared. “But now I may offend you.”

Kruger’s smile also disappeared. “Then offend me. But not with evasions.”

Andries nodded. When he spoke his voice was cool, expressionless; his eyes were fixed on Kruger’s face as if to be able to judge the President’s reaction to his words.

“My President, the question of the franchise — the vote — for the Uitlanders under more reasonable conditions than those established in the Treaty is not so easily avoided, I am afraid. It is like the rain on the mountains when you are trying to haul a heavy wagon over them and God seems to be against you. You can pray or you can curse, you can demand or you can beseech, but in the long run you outspan your oxen and block your wheels and try to keep dry as best you can. You have no choice.”

“What are you trying to say? So far you have failed to offend me.”

“I am trying to say that it is easier to say we will deny the Uitlander the vote than to actually deny him the vote. When we first came to this land as Voortrekkers, were we given the vote by the Zulus as we crossed the Karroo? Were we given the vote by Moselekatse when we established the Transvaal Republic in what had been his Matabeleland? No; we won by force of arms. Nor were we the majority at all; the Matabele were, as the Zulus were in the Karroo.”

“And we were never given the vote by the British, when they forced their control over us, even though we were the majority, then,” Kruger retorted, his face getting red. “Again we won our rights by force of arms. Are you saying the Uitlanders might try to obtain what they consider their rights by force of arms? That they learned nothing at Majuba Hill? That bunch of effete, whoring, gambling scum?” He smiled grimly. “Well, let them try!”

“What I am really trying to say,” Andries replied patiently, “is that there is such a thing as compromise. The Uitlander is unhappy with the conditions that exist. I think you should talk to them.”

“I have talked to them. I spoke to their Premier, is he a big enough man? Cecil John Rhodes. He tried to get on my good side. ‘What you need,’ he said to me, ’is an outlet to the sea. A place like Delagoa Bay, in Portuguese East Africa.’ I said to him, ‘I agree we need such an outlet to the sea, and we’ve spoken to the Portuguese, but they won’t sell the land.’ And he said to me, ‘Then simply take it; you’re strong enough. You took land from the Matabele, take it from the Portuguese.’ That’s the kind of man he is. He couldn’t see the difference between taking land from black savages and taking land from white men. I told him such land would carry God’s curse on it. I’m sure he thought I was crazy.”

“Rhodes is just one man—”

“Oh, I’ve talked to their delegations, too. They send up these mealymouthed men who have never worked a day in their lives, never held a gun in their lives, never killed either a man nor an animal in their lives. And they talk of wanting to build railways, and of voting, of wanting to be good citizens of the Transvaal, and how the vote can give them this opportunity, and how much we Boers would gain if all the English were allowed to become good citizens. Good citizens! They want to become good citizens!” Kruger leaned over and spat into a spittoon. “That’s what I think of their wanting to become good citizens!”

“Good citizens or bad citizens,” Andries said quietly, “the fact is the bulk of our income, the largest part of our treasury, comes from taxes on their production of gold. And taxes on the dynamite they use. And taxes on almost everything that crosses the border into the Transvaal. Without the Uitlander we would have no treasury. That is the truth. Fighting with them is no answer. What would we win?”

Kruger nodded as if in full agreement.

“I agree that fighting is no answer. As you say, what could we win that we do not already have? We have control of our country, and that is a control we shall continue to hold as long as the Uitlander is not given a chance to take it away from us. With the franchise, for example. The law states — as a result of the Treaty, I might mention, a Treaty that would never have been signed had I been President at the time — that the Uitlander can vote after fourteen years as a resident. And even that isn’t long enough, in my view. He’ll be the same man in fourteen years as he is today-worthless scum aching to take the Transvaal from us!”

“Fourteen years is still a long time,” Andries said mildly.

“Not too long to wait to get what they want!” Kruger said flatly. “Andries, Andries! Think! Why do they want the vote and want it today? They want to control the Volksraad as they control the Cape Assembly, so they can make the laws to suit themselves. And what laws would they make? First they would see to it they could mine their gold without paying a penny of those taxes you spoke of before; they would make laws that would give them control of all imports, tax-free. They would milk the Transvaal of all its riches and not pay a pound for the privilege, all in the name of good and fair democracy, the rule of the majority.” He raised a finger and laid it against his nose. “And who would pay the necessary taxes? The farmers; the Boers. And you expect me to agree to this?” He shook his head. “No. Giving them the vote at all was a mistake, even after fourteen years’ residency. But to reduce it? To change it? That would be suicide for the Boer.”

“There are reasonable men among the Uitlanders,” Andries said, still keeping his tone moderate. “Forget the delegations that have come up here; forget Cecil Rhodes. Speak to the people themselves. The Boer and the Uitlander need each other; that is the first thing to recognize. Go to Johannesburg; I know you have been invited by the Miner’s Committee. Accept their invitation, my President. Stand up before the people and say what you have said here; what you have said here makes sense. This is a Boer state and must remain a Boer state, but there is a place here for the Uitlander. The answer has to lie in compromise of some sort, or I promise you there will be trouble. There will be fighting. And nobody will win.”

Kruger sighed. “Andries, you fought beside me when we were young. I know you have spent much time with the English, but I also know you are a Boer and I trust you. If it makes you happy, I will go to Johannesburg and speak with the people there. But I think I will be wasting my time.” He finished his brandy-laced tea and stood up. “And now, my friends, I am tired. I am going to my bed. I thank you all for coming at such short notice, but I think our discussion has been useful.”

“But about this new chemical—” Scholtz said desperately.

“The Boers shall control its import, I can assure you of that,” Kruger said, eyeing the man coldly.

“But—”

“We will discuss the means of control at the next full meeting of the Volksraad,” Kruger said, dismissing the matter, and walked from the room, dragging his blankets behind him.

Four men sat about a campfire inside a fort called Fort Salisbury in the newly formed state of Rhodesia, named for the Premier of the Cape Colony and firmly under the control of the British South Africa Company, a chartered company under the British flag that Cecil Rhodes had formed for the purpose of both expanding British influence in central Africa, and exploiting the territory’s riches. The land had been two areas under the control of a chieftain named Lobengula, areas named Mashonaland, and the balance of what had been Matabeleland, and although a treaty of friendship had been signed between Lobengula and the representative of the British Government, a small army under the leadership of Dr. Leander Starr Jameson nevertheless had invaded the territory and taken it over, with Lobengula fleeing his kraal to die shortly thereafter in the bush.

Now, the area secure, the four men were talking about the second purpose in acquiring the land. The night was chilly and the campfire welcome, but the news that Cecil Rhodes was hearing from one of the men was not.

“There is no gold here that we have been able to find,” said the man. He was John Hays Hammond, an American mining engineer employed by Rhodes and a man whose word Rhodes respected. “Nor the slightest sign of diamonds, either.”

“Even if there were diamonds here,” Charles Rudd said, “we already have an ample supply from De Beers to control the world market. We were hoping for gold. There’s no limit to the market for gold. Or silver. Or any of the precious minerals.”

“We found no sign of anything valuable,” Hammond said. “And we looked. I’ve had good men searching, in every part of the territory.”

“If we want to keep the Chartered Company going, Cecil,” said the fourth man, Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, “it’s going to have to be financed from the Rand. Or any railway you plan to connect the Cape with Fort Salisbury or go any further. It will have to be done by increasing the production and the income from the gold of the Rand. And there’s only one way to do that, and we all know what it is.”

“Get rid of Kruger, you mean,” Rhodes said slowly, staring into the fire.

“Of course,” Jameson said, surprised at Rhodes’ tone. “We’ve talked about it long enough; it’s time to do something about it. The Reform Committee in Jo’burg has simply been waiting for someone to take the bull by the horns and show them how. All we need is some pretext to start the ball rolling.”

“Finding a pretext is no problem,” Rudd said with a short laugh. “The fact that they paid the taxes but didn’t have any representation was all the cheeky Americans needed to fob off dear old King George. And the taxes they objected to would be lost in your eye compared to what we have to hand over each month — or each shipment of goods — to dear old King Kruger.”

“That’s not exactly a pretext,” Rhodes said slowly. “No, what we need is something far stronger. Suppose the women and children were threatened in some way, and the good citizens of the Reform Committee were to ask for help—”

“Which would be forthcoming from the Cape?” Rudd asked.

Cecil Rhodes shook his head. There was a faint smile on his face.

“No,” he said, “or, rather, not officially. From someplace in Bechuanaland nearest Johannesburg, a rescue party of outraged citizens of Rhodesia, joined by any volunteers from the Cape Colony — without the knowledge of the authorities, of course-would respond to that touching plea for help and ride to Johannesburg to bolster the morale of the citizens there in any way they could. And this band of citizens, led by this almost military force at its head, would rise in revolt, taking their arms from the rafters of their homes, from the springhouses, from their many hiding places, and take control of the city of Johannesburg.”

“And under these conditions, I imagine, the Government of the Cape Colony would be forced, in the name of Peace and Order, to step in.”

“To protect its citizens? Obviously,” Rhodes said.

“And this rescue party, of course, would be under the leadership of Captain Leander Starr Jameson,” Jameson said, a grin on his face. The doctor’s small war against Lobengula had whetted his appetite for battle; his success had made him realize for the first time the excitement, the actual fun of killing as opposed to curing; the pleasures of war. Then his grin disappeared. Despite his profound agreement with the plan being discussed, the good doctor was no fool. “There would have to be a letter — undated — from the Reform Committee asking for this help,” he said. “Signed by at least some of the leaders of the committee.”

“Of course,” Rhodes said smoothly. “And it would be logical for you to lead the rescue party, since you won Rhodesia and the men respect you. And for a second in command? In case you — ah, might be harmed in any way?”

“Not your brother Frank!” Jameson said hastily. “He was visiting Johannesburg not too long ago and I sent a messenger asking him to come to a rather important meeting of the Reform Committee, and he replied by messenger that he couldn’t make it as he had promised to give some lady a bike lesson!”

Rhodes shrugged a bit unhappily. “Yes, Frank likes women. Then who?”

“Oh, I’ll find someone. We had quite a bunch of adventurers come with us when we went up against Lobengula. One of them in particular impressed me. Chap by the name of Carl Luckner. Damned good fighter. Terrible temper, but that’s what you want in battle, of course.”

“Luckner?” Rhodes frowned as if he had never heard the name before. “From the Cape?”

“I don’t know where he came from last, but I recall him when he was in Kimberley. He was the manager of the Paris Hotel there for a while. Had a run-in with Bamato, as I recall, and left the place. I was out of town at the time. But he showed up here, in Salisbury, when we were taking up volunteers and he turned out to be a fine soldier. Why?”

“I remember Luckner from the Paris Hotel,” Rudd said. “I wasn’t out of town at the time. The man’s completely insane. He kicked Mrs. Barnato’s father to death. The old man had pulled a sort of knife on him, or Luckner would have hung. Still,” Rudd added, as if thinking about it, “maybe crazy men are what you need. How many d’you think you can raise for this so-called rescue attempt?”

“I should say fifteen hundred easily,” Starr said confidently. “At least a thousand from Rhodesia, and then there’s the Bechuanaland Police; they’ll all come along for a price.”

“And these guns that the uprising citizens are supposed to find in their rafters or their springhouses?” Rudd went on, ever the pragmatist. “How are they to get there to be found?”

“It will take planning, of course,” Rhodes said. “We’ll get the guns into Jo’burg some way.”

“I can handle that end from Kimberley,” Hammond said. “That’s no problem.”

“There’s only one real problem,” Rhodes said quietly, evenly.

“What’s that?”

“It better not fail,” Rhodes said flatly, and came to his feet, ready for his tent and bed.

The visit of Oom Paul Kruger to Johannesburg for the purpose of addressing the people of the newly formed town was one that would remain an integral part of the legends that grow up around any city’s early days.

“Bloody tyrant!” Solly Loeb said bitterly as he stood in the Market Square with several other members of the Reform Committee awaiting the President’s arrival. The Market Square had been cleared of ox wagons for the occasion and a large platform had been erected to seat the Miner’s Committee and serve as the dais for the President’s speech. To one side a flagpole had been planted, and flying from it was the Vierkleur, the four-colored flag of the Transvaal Republic. Solly eyed the crowd gathering, crowding in toward the still-empty platform. “Ought to be the other way around,” he said sourly. “Instead of riding into Jo’burg, he should be ridden out. On a rail. With a nice coat of tar and feathers to keep him warm.”

“He will be, one of these days,” Lionel Phillips predicted.

“And a lot sooner than he suspects,” Colonel Frank Rhodes said. Colonel Rhodes was the Premier’s brother, visiting Johannesburg from Cape Town. He turned to Solly. “I suppose now that cyanide is an important adjunct for the gold-mining business, it’s all in the hands of the Boers?”

“D’you even need to ask? Of course it is. And the duty to bring it in is ridiculous. By the time bloody old Kruger gets through with us, with all his bloody taxes, we might as well go back to the amalgam process! We get all the gold from the rock, it’s true, but the taxes eat up most of the additional profits. The man is a bloody maniac!”

“Well,” Phillips said philosophically, “I suppose we at least ought to listen to the man. It may be the last time we get to hear him, if your plans go through,” he added with a smile.

“They’ll go through,” Solly said with assurance. “God! To think of Jo’burg without Kruger, and the Volksraad a thing of the past, together with their tax laws and imposts and anything else the damned man can think to hang around our necks!” Solly enjoyed being in the presence of such important men as his two companions, and was happy to agree to their principles, as well as having them listen to his opinions and undoubtedly respect them.

“I say,” Frank Rhodes said, changing the subject, “isn’t that your uncle, Barney Barnato, over there? With a baby in his arms and a striking beauty beside him? Don’t tell me anyone that lovely—” He broke off in some confusion.

“That’s him and his wife,” Solly said contemptuously. “My aunt Fay. She’s my age. And you don’t have to be careful about what you say about Barney to me. God knows what Fay ever saw in Barney Barnato. He certainly isn’t one of nature’s more handsome specimens.”

“He’s rich, though,” Phillips said.

“As I hear it, he wasn’t always rich,” Colonel Rhodes said, eyeing Fay admiringly. “Chap must have something…”

“He has luck,” Solly said shortly. “He also has a contempt for the Reform Committee.”

Rhodes frowned at the statement. “You mean he enjoys paying the excessive taxes?”

“No, he doesn’t like the taxes, but he’s a great believer in not rocking the boat. He says, ‘We’re making money. What the devil do you need the vote for?” he says. He forgets we could and should be making a devil of a lot more money than we are.”

Colonel Rhodes looked at Phillips a moment and then back at Solly. “What does your uncle think of… of… our plan?”

Solly stared at the man as if he were mad.

“He doesn’t know a thing about it, of course! Good God! Barney would be at Kruger’s doorstep with it in five minutes after he heard it. He would be violently against anything that might mean the slightest trouble. I know Barney better than anyone in the world, and I can tell you he’s far from being as smart as people give him credit for. He’s just been lucky. Oh, I’m sure he’ll be happy once it’s over and we have control of the Transvaal, when we’re a part of the Cape, but before then? He’d be the last man in the world to be told anything!”

“Then let’s just hope he doesn’t hear anything,” the colonel said, and turned to view Fay from a better angle.

Not far from the colonel, and completely unaware of his wife’s being scrutinized so carefully, Barney stood and waited for the arrival of President Kruger. He held Leah Primrose in his arms, and with Fay at his side was aware that he was standing with one outstanding beauty nuzzling his cheek, and the other holding his arm, and he was proud to be here with the two of them, to be seen with them, much rather than with the important people Solly chose to associate with. Barney was also anxious to hear what the President had to say. Contrary to Solly’s opinion, Barney was quite aware of the trouble brewing through some scheme or other of the Reform Committee, and while he knew nothing of the exact plans, nor did he particularly care to know, nor did he know of the depth of Solly’s involvement with the plans, he did know of the committee’s resentment against Kruger and the Volksraad. And he also felt that nothing good could possibly come from this sort of active opposition to the old man. Andries had told him of the meeting in Kruger’s living room, and Barney could only hope that Kruger was coming to Johannesburg with some concessions that would cool down the heated heads of the committee.

There was a parting of the crowd at the edge of the square, a wave that communicated itself through the crowd as people pressed back. Barney stood on tiptoe to see who was coming. It was President Paul Kruger, alone, handling the reins of an ancient oxcart, drawn by an aging and swaying span of oxen. He should have come by coach, Barney thought critically; while it was only thirty miles from Pretoria to Johannesburg, the old man probably took at least two days to make it and looked as if he had slept the night before in his clothes. Or if not by coach, he could at the least have come by trap, with outriders along, and a proper driver. It was undignified for the President to appear in that ancient oxcart. He was making a poor impression on the crowd, who were sniggering as the cart slowly made its way toward the platform, with Kruger sitting impassively in the center of the warped seat, holding the worn reins steadily with the middle fingers of his crippled left hand. But possibly he doesn’t care, Barney suddenly thought. Possibly he came by oxcart purposely, to show these people what he thought of them, what he considered proper protocol for them.

The Miner’s Committee had hurriedly gathered themselves together from the gossip they had been exchanging with friends in the square while awaiting Kruger’s arrival; they hurried up the steps to the platform and formed a welcoming line on it, ready to greet the President. Then, just as the President came to the platform and began to descend from the vehicle, one of the oxen spread his legs and decided to relieve himself. The sniggering grew to a roar of laughter as Kruger had to move quickly to avoid getting his trousers splashed. Someone in the crowd called out, “By God, the ox is political!” and the laughter rose even higher. Kruger’s face reddened, his big jaw under his chin-curtain beard tightened, but he held his temper and otherwise showed no reaction as he climbed the steps of the platform slowly and easily. He shook the hands extended to him by the committee one by one, the beady eyes on each side of his large squashed nose examining each face before him as if to memorize it for future use, or to estimate its sincerity. His crippled left hand — crippled when his four-pounder exploded as he shot at a charging rhinoceros when he was young — was held politely behind him, the fingers curled about the space where the thumb had been, hiding the grisly scar. He then stood a moment, looking contemplatively at the Vierkleur waving in the breeze, before taking the seat to which he was shown by the spokesman for the Miner’s Committee. The man, Carter Wellman, held up his hand for silence, waited while the sniggers diminished, and when the silence reached a point to permit speech, spoke.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Wellman said, his powerful voice clearly heard across the wide square, “we are honored today with the presence of the President of the Republic in which we live, a man we all know as Uncle Paul, and the man for whom our proud and great city has been named. It is needless for me to explain who Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger is, nor what his great contribution has been to the development of the Transvaal in the more than fifty years that he has lived here, or the more than eleven years since he was first elected President. So, without wasting any more of your time, may I present the man you all came here to hear, the Honorable Paul Kruger, President of the Republic!”

There was the briefest smattering of applause as Kruger came to his feet; the Miner’s Committee all rose, clapping as hard as they could, but the comparison between the applause on the platform and the applause from the audience only made the embarrassment worse, and the committee sat down abruptly. Kruger walked to the edge of the platform, took a large red kerchief from a bulging pocket and blew into it noisily; the crowd reacted with another shout of laughter. He took a pinch of snuff, sneezed loudly, and then looked down at the faces grinning delightedly at his exhibition of uncouth behavior, his small eyes exuding suspicion and hatred. But he forced himself to calmness; he was, after all, the President of this unruly mob, and the speech he had prepared was the one he would give despite all provocation.

“Burghers, vriende — en ander, waarvan ek seker is dat daar baie hier vandag — hoor my woorde. Ek kom vriendelik om my stand te verduidelik. Julle sê dat julle die reg om te stem wil hê, en maar julle wil nie daarvoor viertien jaar wag nie. Julle sê dis ’n lank tyd; laat ek julle vertel hoe lank ons Boere daarvoer gewag het — en van die moeite intussentyd—”

“Speak English!” The cry came from far back in the crowd, but it was immediately taken up by other members of the Reform Committee scattered throughout the square. “Speak English! Speak English!” The crowd took it up, shouting it with rhythm, as at a football match.

“Stil maak!” Kruger held up both hands, the torn left hand waving in their faces as if to chill them. “Skurke! Skelms! Blikskottels! You wish me to speak English? Very well! Let me address you so: Thieves, murderers, gamblers, whores, rogues, filth!” He spat. “I have had enough!”

He climbed down the steps from the platform, getting into his cart, cracking the sjambok over the oxen’s ears so that the tip almost touched some of the bystanders. People pushed hastily back as the cart swung around, the oxen lumbering at a faster and faster rate as the whip continued to crack in their ears, the crowd moving away from the enraged Kruger and the frightened span of oxen. There was a moment’s stunned silence as the oxcart reached the edge of the square and veered around a corner, disappearing, with old Paul Kruger half standing in the cart, continuing to wield the sjambok. Then a near-riot broke out. Men swarmed over the platform, pushing aside the efforts of Wellman and the other members of the Miner’s Committee to control them. They took the chair where Kruger had been seated and ripped it to pieces as others tore the Vierkleur from its standard and proceeded to put a lit match to it, holding it up triumphantly as it burned. Someone began to sing “God Save the Queen” and the song quickly took hold and swelled to a paean as it rose from the hundreds of throats.

Barney thrust little Leah Primrose into her mother’s arms and began to fight his way through the crowd toward the platform, his jaw hardened, his eyes narrowed. Fay, knowing his probable objective, did not try to stop him; to begin with, there was no stopping Barney in that mood, and besides, Fay was sure she knew what he was going to do and was in full agreement. She held Leah Primrose, now whimpering in excitement, shushing the child quietly, and watched.

Barney had managed to get to the platform steps; he climbed them quickly, pushing aside a few who were trying to tear the very platform to bits, and stood at the front, holding up his arms for silence, whistling loudly between his teeth to gain attention, alternating the whistling with loud and insistent, if incoherent, shouts. The singing slowly eased as the crowd turned to stare. What was their old friend Barney Barnato so excited about? What did he feel necessary to say at this moment of — well, of jubilation, practically? After all, Barney was almost the only one who had shown faith in the Rand just a few short years ago; he had saved many of them from desperation if not from starvation; now that their enemy, Kruger, had got his proper comeuppance, what did Barney seem to be so angry about? Surely he must have been aware that the demonstration had been planned by the Reform Committee? Even those who were not members of the committee — and that was the large majority of those there — had been aware of that. Surely he must have known that the committee had counted on Kruger losing his temper to hear himself laughed at, him being the President and all. The Boers were a proud people, and Paul Kruger was the proudest of the lot. Barney must have known that just the cry of “Speak English!” was enough to start old Kruger off; and the results were the proof that the tactic had been eminently correct. Old Oom Paul had scooted with his tail between his legs! What was the matter with Barnato, anyway? Slowly the crowd calmed down and let the man speak.

“Yer a fine bunch, I must say,” Barney said almost conversationally, although there was a biting, scornful tone to his voice. The silence grew deeper as he went on. His Cockney, seemingly lost these many years, was back in full force, apparently returned automatically. “A fine bunch — but o’ what? Hate t’ say, in front o’ women. Tell th’ truth, th’ lot o’ you — he called y’ rogues an’ rascals, an’ that’s what y’are! Most o’ you couldn’t bully yer way out o’ a paper bag, an’ yet y’ stand there and jeer an’ laugh at a man what’s ten times bigger than y’are or ever will be! Where were any o’ you when Paul Kruger was winnin’ this land yer livin’ in? Suckin’ yer ma’s tit, if y’could find it! Or pullin’ yer pud, if y’could find that! Where were y’ when the Matabeles were killin’ anyone what came inside a mile o’ where yer standin’ right now? Y’were sittin’ in some pub as far from danger as y’could get, suckin’ on a substitute fer yer momma’s tit, a gin bottle, most likely. Yer lucky Paul Kruger didn’t stop and take y’ on one by one; he’d o’ gone through the lot o’ you in ten minutes!”

He took a deep breath, looking over the startled, now completely silenced crowd with disgust.

“Yer enough to make a man give up his supper, that’s what y’are. You an’ yer cryin’ fer the vote! When was the last time y’ ever voted when y’ lived in the Cape? When was the last time y’ voted when y’ lived in England, fer that matter? Y’ really think Paul Kruger’s a fool? Well, I can tell y’ where t’ look if it’s fools yer wantin’. Try lookin’ over yer left or right shoulders. Or in a mirror! I come here to South Africa when I was eighteen year old, an’ I worked me bloody arse off to get where I am, an’ if anyone thinks they can take it from me jus’ like that, they better think twice! Well, Paul Kruger was born in South Africa, an’ he worked his arse off to get where he is, an’ if anyone here thinks y’ can take it away from him jus’ like that, y’ better think twice, too. I come here to Johannesburg to make money, an’ I thought most o’ you come fer the same reason. But I guess not. You and yer bloody vote! Y’ want concessions from the President, that’s what y’ want, or at least that’s what y’ should really want. Y’ think yer goin’ t’ get concessions from the man actin’ like y’ did today? You an’ yer bloody politics! Y’ make me sick! Yer blind, the lot o’ you!”

He stamped off the platform and pushed his way back through the crowd to Fay’s side, taking Leah Primrose from her and putting his face against her soft and slightly fuzzy skin as he led the way through the crowd to their trap in the next street. Men scowled at him with hatred as he marched along, but nobody dared put a finger on him, nor was it due to the fact that he was holding a baby that prevented them from doing so. It was the look in his eye and the hard set of his jaw, and the known fact that even though he was almost forty years old, Barney Barnato would tackle anyone, anytime, anywhere, and probably beat the daylights out of him, if he thought he or any of his family were being threatened in any way. And there was no doubt from the way Barney had just spoken that he felt the crowd’s actions that afternoon, that the objectives of the Reform Committee, had set back any hopes of concessions from Pretoria for a long time to come, and that Barney considered that fact a threat.

Andries stepped from the crowd to walk alongside Barney. He tipped his hat politely to Fay, smiled at Leah Primrose, who smiled back in delight at her uncle Andries, and then turned back to Barney.

“That was quite a speech you made back there,” Andries said mildly.

Barney stopped abruptly, staring at Andries, making up his mind on the spot as he so often did. Then he continued marching along, a frown on his face, but now talking.

“Andries, I want to meet Kruger. Face to face. I want to talk to him. You can arrange it, I know.”

Andries looked doubtful. “I doubt the President would be in any mood to talk to any Englishman at the moment, Barney.”

“Put him in the mood,” Barney said stubbornly. “You can do it. I’m not like most of those idiots here today, but all the blame isn’t on their side, either; Kruger and the Volksraad rate their share. The crowd acted like bloody fools today, there’s no doubt, but this thing is working itself up into what could become a major confrontation, and when it comes to that, we’re all of us going to lose.”

“Exactly my words to the President.”

“Then set up a meeting with him for me. I’ve got to talk to him. I’m sure he knows who I am, but I’m equally sure he doesn’t know how I feel about things. Unless you’ve told him. Have you?” He glanced sideways at Andries.

“Just that there were some Uitlanders who weren’t fools. And that the Boer and the Uitlanders need each other here in the Transvaal.”

“Exactly! That’s why I have to talk to him. I don’t claim that my stand on things is the same as everyone else’s in Johannesburg, but I know there are plenty of people in town who agree with me. The Reform Committee is spoiling for trouble, you know that, and they won’t be happy until they get it. Somebody has got to stop this thing. Trouble is no answer.”

They had come to the trap with the driver waiting patiently on his seat. Andries helped Fay get in and waited as Barney handed the baby up to her and then climbed in to seat himself beside her. Andries nodded.

“I’ll do my best, Barney.”

“That’s all I can ask. And thanks, Andries. It’s important.”

The heavy-set Boer watched the trap move from the curb under the driver’s whip. Then he sighed mightily. It would not be easy to convince Kruger that a meeting with an Englishman — any Englishman, even Barney Barnato — could do anything at this point except possibly make matters worse. Especially an Englishman like Barney Barnato, who had taken as much gold from the ground of the Transvaal as any other man, and a man whom Kruger was sure to consider one of the leading exploiters of the Republic’s riches.

Then Andries suddenly smiled. He had thought of the one way that just might do it, to get Kruger to agree to meet Barney; and once they had met to hope they used the opportunity to also discuss matters that could, in turn, help the situation. It was a long shot, but it was worth the attempt…

Barney Barnato, if truth were to be told, was quite surprised to actually be granted an audience with the President of the Transvaal. Despite his feeling that an audience with the President might somehow help resolve the state of growing tension between the Uitlanders and the Boers, and despite his knowledge that Andries Pirow and Paul Kruger were old comrades-in-arms, he was also as aware as Andries as to how Kruger had to feel about any outsider after the reception he had received at their hands in the Johannesburg Market Square. But the plain fact was that Barney had been granted an audience, and although it was now January of 1894, three months after his request, at least it had been granted, and Barney hoped to make the most of it.

Alone, he drove a small and unpretentious trap, rented for the occasion, well aware of Kruger’s distaste for and distrust of ostentation. As a result he climbed down before the long low white Kruger home on the southern edge of Pretoria fairly well covered with dust. He had worn some of his oldest clothes — unusual for Barney, as he had tended to become something of a dandy once he had been able to afford it — but again his costume had been calculated. He certainly did not want to be better dressed than the President, and both Andries and Fay had advised him well in this matter, for President Paul Kruger was awaiting him on the front stoep, sitting heavily in a large rocking chair, wearing house slippers rather than shoes, and with an old shawl wrapped about his massive shoulders. There was no expression at all on his meaty face as he watched Barney secure the trap and then slap dust from his trousers and jacket before letting himself through the low front gate. Kruger did not deign to rise; instead he merely motioned to the top step of the porch, inviting Barney to seat himself there, and Barney realized that the fact that there was no second chair had been as calculated as his own means of transportation and costume, as he was sure was the absence of any other participants in their conference. It was to be a meeting unofficial in every sense.

Barney nodded cordially and did not offer his hand to be shaken; he was not sure it would be accepted, and to be rejected would be a poor way to start the meeting. Instead, he sat down on the indicated top step and looked up at Kruger. Kruger remained impassive; he appeared to be waiting for Barney to speak first, so Barney obliged.

“Mr. President,” he said in Afrikaans, glad now that Fay had been so insistent upon his learning the language properly, “I wanted very much to see you and talk to you, but in all honesty I didn’t think you’d see me. Do you mind telling me why you are?”

Kruger’s thick eyebrows rose fractionally; it was as close as he came to demonstrating astonishment. “You speak our language, Mr. Barnato? How is that?”

Barney shrugged. “When I first came to South Africa twenty-two years ago, I came with Andries Pirow from Cape Town to Kimberley, Mr. President. We both walked beside the ox wagon for two months. I was a boy of eighteen. At night, after we’d had our supper and done our chores, Andries started to teach me the language. Then I married a Boer, my wife, Fay. She insisted that I learn the language better. She taught me.”

“Your wife is a Boer?”

“Yes, sir. From Simonstown.”

“Tell her for me that she is a good teacher. You speak very well.”

“Thank you, sir. She will be pleased.”

“Yes. Now,” Kruger said, changing the subject and beginning to rock his chair very slowly, “you wish to know why I agreed to see you. It was not to hear the complaints of the Uitlanders once again, I assure you; I have heard enough of those as it is.” He paused in his rocking momentarily, his small eyes fixed upon Barney’s face, and then began rocking again, now starting to stroke his chin whiskers as he did so. “No, Mr. Barnato. The reason I agreed to talk to you is that Andries tells me you once fought the man they called the Angolan Giant, or Angolan Monster, I forget which. And that you beat him. Is this true?”

Barney stared, astonished. What a reason for a man to grant a presidential audience! “Yes, Mr. President, it’s true. But that was many years ago.”

“I know when it was. I saw the Angolan when he fought here in Pretoria before he went to Bloemfontein and then to Kimberley. When he was here he beat one of our strongest and biggest men. I would have hesitated to fight him myself, even had I been twenty years younger at the time. How is it possible that a small man like you…”

Barney sighed, thinking back to the day of the fight, remembering every moment, including waking in the Scotch cart with his head in Fay’s lap. “I had to beat him,” he said simply. “I had bet everything in the world I had that I would—”

“You gambled?”

Barney grinned ruefully. “I didn’t think it was a gamble, not until the first time he hit me. And I needed the money from the bets to get ahead in the world. There was this girl—” He stopped. After all the years he could still scarcely believe or understand his incredible luck in winning Fay. But the President wouldn’t be interested in that. “Anyway,” he went on quietly, “I knew I was faster than he was, and I’d had a lot of experience in boxing, and I was fairly sure he hadn’t. I felt a man that big had to be awkward. But I had no idea he was as strong as he was. I was very lucky. His attention was distracted a moment and that’s when I hit him. Otherwise he probably would have killed me. As it was I broke my hand with that punch and it took a month to heal. Not to mention the fact that I had a headache for a week.”

“Andries tells me you later hired the man.”

“Yes, sir. Armando is now in charge of the production in the Kimberley Mines; they’re the largest of the four De Beers properties in Kimberley. Armando is a very fine person, and a lot more intelligent than people think. We’re very good friends. He’s become quite an expert on deep shafts and has been most valuable to us.”

“And the girl?” So the President had been interested in that. “Was she the Boer?”

“Yes, sir. We were married the day after the fight.”

“Broken hand and all?”

Barney grinned. “You don’t know my Fay, Mr. President. I would have married her with both arms and legs broken.” Barney’s grin disappeared as he remembered something. “If you’ll pardon me, sir, they tell me you once swam the Vaal at high flood when even the ferryman refused to cross, just to reach the girl you later married.”

Kruger nodded as if pleased to have the incident known and remembered by an Uitlander. “Yes, I was young and strong in those days. More important, like you, I was motivated.” He shook his head in sad memory. “Poor Maria! Her name was Maria du Plessis. She died a little over a year after we were married, in childbirth. The child died, too. It was a tragedy. She was so young! But God was good to me and I found another good woman quickly.” He rocked a few moments, staring at the floor of the stoep in silence, and then sighed and brought his head up. “I wanted to meet the man who had beaten the Angolan Giant. I have heard of you through Andries, of course, Mr. Barnato, as well as through your financial interests, and I have seen your picture often in the newspapers. I would have imagined you much larger to have won that fight. I doubt if I could have done so.”

“I know I couldn’t have swum the Vaal at high flood, Mr. President, or at any other time. Not even for my Fay.” Barney grinned. “I can’t swim.”

“Ah, but you see, I can fight.” Kruger stopped his rocking, leaning forward, looking at Barney steadily. “All right, Mr. Barnato. You now know why I wanted to see you. Why did you want to see me?”

Barney took a deep breath before he answered. It was a question he knew he would face and one he intended to answer honestly, but he still wanted to choose his words carefully.

“Mr. President,” he said slowly, “there are differences between the outsiders and the Boers, and those differences are leading toward trouble in which both sides will stand to lose a great deal. I had hoped to talk to you about some means by which this trouble could be abated, reduced, if not eliminated altogether.”

“Do you have any suggestions?” Kruger raised a hand; his tone became gently sardonic. “Other than those I have already heard — that we allow the Uitlander to vote me out of power, and with me the Volksraad, and then take over control of the Transvaal?”

“I am not so much interested in the franchise, Mr. President, as I am in a few of the objectives the people of Johannesburg have in mind when they ask for them. I agree with you that if the Uitlanders were the majority in the Transvaal at present, it would be foolish from your point of view to allow them the vote. It would mean the end of the Boer state. But, in the first place, I do not believe they are the majority—”

Kruger interrupted, his eyes shining, brightly and deceptively mild, as if he were enjoying the intellectual give-and-take of the discussion.

“Would you take that chance, Mr. Barnato, if you were in my shoes?”

“No, Mr. President. But you know as well as I do the length of time an outsider remains in the Transvaal under the conditions that would allow him to eventually become a citizen. Two years is a long time; three years is an eternity. Either he becomes settled and makes money, which a few do; or he fails to make money and he leaves — which is true of the vast majority — and he is replaced by Kaffir labor. Were you to agree, for instance, to reduce the fourteen years necessary for citizenship in the Republic to, say, seven years, you would have put a big hole in the arguments of the Reform Committee, without in any way threatening your control of the state. At least that is my honest belief.”

“And if you were wrong in your honest belief, Mr. Barnato? Who would lose the Transvaal in seven years? You or me?”

“You, of course, Mr. President. But I do not believe I am wrong, nor do I believe you believe I am wrong.”

“I see. Anything else, Mr. Barnato?”

“Yes, Mr. President. There’s the matter of taxes—”

“Ah!” Kruger leaned farther forward in his rocking chair, planting his slippered feet firmly on the floor to keep the chair from moving while he fixed Barney with eyes alight with understanding. He laid one thick finger against the side of his bulbous nose. “Now we come to it! You are a rich man, Mr. Barnato. Naturally you oppose taxes.”

“I oppose unreasonable taxes, Mr. President,” Barney said calmly, not at all intimidated by either Kruger’s mien or tone. “But I have never opposed any reasonable taxes that I know of, nor have I ever failed to pay them, whether I like them or not.” Barney smiled. “Nobody likes taxes, Mr. President, but that was not what I was going to say. I was about to say, Mr. President, that for the taxes that are paid — which I must argue are not slight — the citizens of Johannesburg receive very little to show for their considerable contribution. Take street lighting, for example. Kimberley has had lit streets for many years, yet we in Johannesburg lack this vital necessity. Take the matter of a proper sewage system, or the fact that while many of the Uitlanders are English, and most of the others are Americans, the schools — the few we have — are all taught in Afrikaans—”

Kruger held up a hand. “This is a Boer republic, Mr. Barnato.”

“But certainly if the English and the Americans wish their children to be taught in their own language—”

Kruger moved his upheld hand; Barney obediently stopped.

“Mr. Barnato, we were discussing before if the Uitlander or the Boer were in the majority in the Transvaal, yet the true majority is the Kaffir, as he is in the Cape Colony and in Kimberley. Do you teach your children in Bantu in Kimberley, Mr. Barnato, just because the majority of your population is either Zulu or Matabele? Of course you do not, and to expect you to would be ridiculous! Just as to expect us in the Transvaal to teach our schools in English. No. It is bad enough the Uitlander keeps coming in and keeps wanting to take control of our state. I certainly have no intention of helping him by having English taught in schools where Boers may also learn it!”

Barney sighed, sure that it was a point on which Kruger would not move. “Well, Mr. President, then there’s the matter of a railway—”

“Ah!” Kruger looked up once again; there was the look on his face of a cat about to pounce on a mouse. “Now we come to the railway! How many times have I heard it! A railway from Kimberley to Johannesburg to allow the Uitlander, if he isn’t the majority yet, to become the majority in a very short time! What then, Mr. Barnato? Tell me, will you give me a job in one of your many enterprises to support myself and my family when I am no longer President of the Transvaal? When the majority, all speaking English, votes me out of office, according to the other demands you are making? This majority brought here by your railway?”

“I am not making demands, only suggestions, Mr. President,” Barney said calmly. “I am suggesting that the franchise is not at the heart of the unrest of the Uitlander, and if concessions are made on some of the other points, there will never be a threat to your Presidency. I know the mind of the Johannesburger, Mr. President. Of course there are some hotheads, but the large majority do not want trouble. They want something for their taxes; they want to have their children speak their native tongue, as you do; they want a railway to hurry shipments of supplies from Kimberley and to get them home for visits to their families in the Cape without taking weeks to do so. Their requests are not remarkable in any way. With them, or some of them, I am sure this unrest would disappear in a hurry.”

“Ummm…”

“Besides which,” Barney said, as if it were an afterthought, “I wasn’t thinking of a railway from Kimberley to Johannesburg. I was thinking of a railway from Kimberley to Pretoria…”

Kruger leaned forward, frowning. “To Pretoria? Not to Johannesburg?”

Barney shrugged lightly. “Oh, I suppose a spur track from the main line to Johannesburg might be of use to you, Mr. President, since it would connect the two principal cities in your republic and save your burghers much time and expense in getting from one to the other. And, of course, it would also be a link between the capital of the Transvaal and the capital of the Cape Colony.”

Kruger stared a moment and then for the first time, laughed outright.

“Mr. Barnato,” he said, his small eyes twinkling, “you amuse me!” He considered Barney’s placid face as if judging the man’s sincerity. At last he seemed to come to a conclusion. “But you also interest me. A railway to Pretoria, not to Johannesburg…” He began to rock again, stroking his chin whiskers, speaking almost as if to himself, but including Barney in the conversation. “They are working on a railway from Delagoa Bay in Portuguese East Africa to Pretoria, but they are a long way from completing it; there are difficulties with the terrain—”

“A line from Kimberley to Pretoria could be completed in a year,” Barney said quietly. “The terrain is very favorable.”

Kruger continued as if Barney had not spoken. “And Delagoa Bay is not such a port as Cape Town.” He frowned down at the floor of the stoep. “A railway from Kimberley to Pretoria… It might be possible…”

“With a spur from the railway line to Johannesburg,” Barney said evenly.

Kruger smiled and leaned forward in his rocking chair, for the first time extending his large hand for Barney to shake.

“We shall get along, Mr. Barnato,” he said, and clasped his large hand around Barney’s smaller one, surprised but somehow also pleased by the strength of the smaller man’s response. He released Barney’s hand and came to his feet, tightening the shawl about his shoulders. “You will forgive me, but it is time for my rest. Do not get old, Mr. Barnato. It will prevent you from handling men like the Angolan Giant — or even men like me. But you handled me well. You have given me something to think about. Our Volksraad meets in a week. I shall bring up the matter of your — ah, ideas. Your suggestions. I think maybe some of them can be considered…”

Barney had come to his feet with Kruger. “Thank you very much for listening to me, Mr. President.”

Kruger paused on his way into the house. He stood there, a large, hulking man leaning forward a bit, his feet splayed out in his frayed carpet slippers, his rather worn shawl a bit out of place against the elegance of the stoep of the well-kept house, but an impressive figure for all of that. His small eyes were alert as he studied his visitor.

“It never hurts to listen, Mr. Barnato,” he said slowly, as if he were not the most stubborn of men, and with a brief nod of his head he turned and walked into the house, leaving a thoughtful Barney Barnato to climb into his trap and turn his horse’s head back in the direction of Johannesburg.

11

November 1895

A few miles north of Warrenton, at the border checkpoint on the newly completed railway between Kimberley and the Transvaal, the train was stopped for the usual customs check by the Transvaal authorities. This was always an onerous delay for any shipper or traveler, for the taxes imposed on each load varied greatly and had to be calculated and paid at the moment, but at least this time the calculation had to be easier, as each of the three wagons in question contained exactly the same load, sixty drums of oil. And each of the freight cars was also accompanied by a separate guard, which did not surprise the border officials, since the stealing from the railway wagons was not unknown.

Still, the size of the shipment was unusual: a total of one hundred and eighty drums of oil, all consigned to the Consolidated Gold Fields of Africa Ltd. To the customs officials this seemed rather excessive, since most of the steam produced at the mines to run their donkey engines and their winches was produced by coal, and oil was a luxury used by those who could afford to keep lamps burning late, or small heaters to keep out the chill of the Witwatersrand winter. But this was November, approaching the hottest months of the year here below the equator, and the customs officials were suspicious by nature. Besides, they had been instructed quite recently by Pretoria to be overly cautious in what they permitted to pass their station, especially from the Cape, as guns had been discovered under loads of hay, and beneath piles of potatoes up to the roof of the cars carrying them, and gunrunning, or even the owning of guns by anyone other than Boer burghers was strictly prohibited. The officials’ suspicions were further aroused by the fact that all the guards were, or sounded like, Americans, and these were rarely used in such menial labor as loading and unloading heavy objects, yet there were no Kaffirs along to handle that phase of the transport.

So the customs authorities asked to have a few of the drums unloaded and opened to see if their cargo was indeed oil. The lead guard complained bitterly in his poor Afrikaans that not only were the drums heavy and difficult to lift without proper hoisting equipment, since each drum weighted in excess of three hundred pounds, but their baas would think they had drained a little oil from each drum, a ploy not unknown, since it would reward each guard with a sum of money greater than his pay for the journey. But the customs men were only amused by these excuses and became more adamant than ever, so, with a sigh at the unexpected vicissitudes of the job, the guards wrestled down a few drums from each railway wagon as specified by the customs men and set them heavily on the ground. The customs officials then proceeded to open the bottom bung on each of the selected drums and then stared as oil began to gush from each opening. The guards cried in anguish at this senseless waste of their boss’s oil, and hurriedly shut the taps. The drums were then finally wrestled back in place on the wagons, the total duty calculated and paid by the lead guard — who also demanded and received a proper receipt, as any other procedure would have been suspicious — and the car doors were closed and the train permitted on its way up the newly laid spur track toward Johannesburg.

In the warehouse that had been selected for the purpose since it was the closest to the center of Johannesburg and therefore the most accessible when the time came to gather there and arm themselves and the other citizens of the city for their revolution, the heads of the Reform Committee — less Captain Leander Starr Jameson, who was already in position on the border — considered the opened oil drums. Colonel Frank Rhodes, in charge of the city’s actions in the uprising, shook his head.

“So far we’ve gotten in roughly thirteen hundred rifles and maybe forty thousand rounds of ammunition,” he said mournfully. “That’s less than thirty-one rounds per gun. Our experience in the British Army is that a foot soldier on the average causes one casualty for every eight hundred and fifty rounds that he fires. And those are experienced troops with target training, not inexperienced diggers or draper’s clerks. On that basis we’ll be lucky to stop the greengrocer on the corner, let alone the Johannesburg Police, never mind any Boer commandos old Kruger may throw at us.”

“We still have time to bring in more,” Phillips said consolingly.

“Do we?” Colonel Rhodes looked at Phillips almost pityingly. “More than half of the arms we’ve shipped here from Kimberley have been confiscated at the border. Do you really think that Kruger is a complete idiot? Do you think he doesn’t hear of this? Do you think he figures that somebody has been planning a gigantic hunting expedition that was supposed to leave from the Transvaal? Believe me, anything coming in now will be searched from top to bottom, including oil drums, and a few drops of oil from a bung isn’t going to stop them from being opened. Plus the fact we’ll be lucky if he doesn’t have the police here in Jo’burg do a thorough search of the town itself, and come up with what we’ve got here!”

“He won’t,” Phillips said, although with less assurance than before. “I’m sure the raid of Captain Jameson, as well as the arms we have here, is still a secret—”

“Are you? And if they are,” the colonel said witheringly, “how long do you suppose it will remain a secret when Jameson keeps sending those telegraphs of his in that idiot code of his that wouldn’t fool a ten-year-old child? ‘The veterinarian is getting impatient. His four hundred horses are almost ready to race and are champing at the bit.’ From Pitsani, for God’s sake, where an elephant would be happy to trade his tusks for a week’s vacation from the place! A great place to train horses!”

“If there had been any suspicion,” John Hammond said mildly, “don’t you suppose Kruger would already have done something about it?”

“Old Kruger is no fool,” the colonel said, his voice irritated. “They say that before he ambushed our boys once, during the ’eighty — ’eighty-one affair, when he was being pushed to act faster, he was supposed to have said, ‘When you’re after killing a tortoise, wait until it puts its head out before you cut it off.’ We don’t know how much he knows or how much he doesn’t know; that’s one of our problems. And when I think that Jameson thinks he can obtain his objective with four hundred untrained men, rather than the fifteen hundred he promised he could raise! Gentlemen, we are nowhere near being prepared for any military action against the Boers, certainly not yet! Am I the only one to see this very apparent fact?”

“The people of Johannesburg will fight with their hands, if need be, against Kruger’s tyranny—” George Farrar, another of the leading Reformers, began stoutly, but Frank Rhodes interrupted angrily.

“Save me the flag-waving, please, George! The people of Johannesburg talk a lot, but most of them will be hiding under the carpet when the first shot is fired. Maybe if they had proper arms and sufficient ammunition, enough of them could do a proper job, but the fact is they haven’t, and I doubt many of them are martyrs at heart. And as for Jameson and his — well, victims, I suppose the best word for them is they won’t be facing Lobengula’s spears this time. They’ll be facing Boer farmers with rifles, who can take down a running springbok at two hundred yards!”

“Except that nobody is supposed to be aware of the attack, certainly not the Boers,” John Hammond said gently. He had taken on the responsibility of getting the proper arms and ammunition into Johannesburg from Kimberley, past the border guards, and was aware of his failure to do a better job. “The answer to success in this venture isn’t just in arms. It lies, in my opinion, in surprise, and so far, despite your evident fears, Colonel, we still seem to have that on our side.”

“And how long do you think we’ll have it — if we have it at all — once four hundred armed men on horseback start marching toward the city? I know Jameson is supposed to cut the telegraph lines when he starts, but the Boer got his messages back and forth damned quick in ’eighty and ’eighty-one long before the telegraph was installed! Don’t get me wrong: surprise is fine, and we need it, but we also need more men and far more ammunition and rifles. And until we get them, I, for one, suggest we postpone this entire venture!”

“I don’t know if Jameson will wait,” Farrar said worriedly. “You know how impatient he is—”

Colonel Rhodes stared at him. “This is a military operation, sir! Jameson is a soldier in it, and that’s all he is, like you and me and the others involved! The commander in chief is my brother, Cecil, in Cape Town. Jameson will do what he is told; he will obey orders! For myself, I intend to go to Cape Town and discuss this matter with Cecil. And I suggest that you, sir,” he added, turning to Hammond, “increase your efforts to bring in ammunition in sufficient quantities, as well as more rifles and several larger weapons, if possible. No, sir, not if possible. They must be brought in!”

There were several moments of silence, all eyes on the colonel.

“Then we’ve said all that needs to be said,” the colonel concluded. “Let’s get somebody in here to get these rifles out of these drums and properly serviced so at least something will be ready, though God knows for what! I will return from the Cape as soon as I can. In the meantime, Jameson will simply have to cool his heels in Pitsani. I suggest that you, Farrar, inform him of that fact, trying to be a bit more subtle in your telegraphic codes than Jameson has been in his. ‘Veterinarian getting impatient!’ My God!” He snorted. “You might also add that the veterinarian would do well to use some of that time to recruit the number of men he promised when this matter was first discussed!”

He turned and stumped from the room, consulting his pocket watch. He was late for his date with a young widow to teach her the rules of the new game bezique, but there was still time before the train left for Kimberley, where he could change for Cape Town. It was a long and tiresome journey, but possibly he might convince the young widow to travel with him…

At Groote Schuur, the beautiful home of the Premier of the Cape Colony, set down and back from the road behind Table Mountain, Barney Barnato was waiting for Cecil John Rhodes, the Premier, to appear for the meeting that had been requested and confirmed by telegraph. The rumors that were beginning to become more and more overtly discussed in Johannesburg regarding the possibility of some direct action by the Reform Committee against the Boer authorities had brought Barney to forsake all other duties and hurry to Cape Town to try to do his best to avert what he was sure could only result in disaster for all concerned. As he waited, looking out at the flowering gardens of the sprawling house, with the rear of Table Mountain rising sharply across the distant road, he wondered how much Cecil Rhodes was involved with the Reform Committee and their prospective action, or whether it was merely another rumor that Rhodes was behind the entire scheme. It was certainly in Rhodes’ interest to try to add the Transvaal to the growing British Empire. Still, it could do no harm to talk to the man; they certainly knew each other well enough by this time. Barney wondered if things might have been different had he taken up Mr. Breedon’s suggestion and run for the Kimberley seat in the Assembly, but he was sure it would have made little difference.

His thoughts were interrupted as the door opened and Rhodes came into the room. Rhodes had aged greatly since he had become Premier, it seemed to Barney; his disappointments in the mineral wealth — or, rather, lack of it — in Rhodesia, together with the responsibilities of running the affairs of the large Cape Colony, seemed to have weighed on Rhodes to an unusual degree. His big body, always tending to slouch, was now bent more than ever, his complexion was pasty as if it missed the sun of Kimberley, and he looked unwell, as if the illnesses of his youth had returned multiplied by the intervening years. Yet, as Barney knew, the man was only forty-two years of age, a year younger than Barney himself.

Rhodes merely brushed Barney’s outstretched hand and sank into an upholstered chair, looking at Barney broodingly, as if the meeting were taking his time from things more important.

“Well, Barney, you said your mission was urgent. Has it anything to do with the mines or their output?”

Barney disregarded the question entirely. He sat down in a chair across from Rhodes. “You know there’s trouble in Johannesburg, Cecil,” he said without attempting to beat about the bush. “There has been for years, but it’s coming to a head. The Reformists are looking for a fight, and if they’re not careful they’ll get one. And it may well be one they won’t like. I don’t know how much you’ve kept up to date on the activities of the Reform Committee—”

“Johannesburg is in the Transvaal,” Rhodes said with a faint smile, interrupting. “This is the Cape Colony. This is where I’m Premier.”

“—or what your involvement with it might be,” Barney went on, quite as if Rhodes had not spoken, “but if you have any influence with its members, I think there are a few things you ought to consider. As you know, I met with Kruger almost two years ago—”

“When you got him to agree to the railway,” Rhodes said. “That was well done,” he added almost grudgingly. “But that’s ancient history.”

Barney shook his head. “Look, Cecil, I’m a lot closer to the thing than you are, stuck down here in the Cape and getting your information — or often misinformation — by telegraph. I tell you the Reform Committee is going about this thing the wrong way. The way to work on Kruger is certainly not to antagonize him. He came around on the railway thing; he’ll come around on other things as well.”

“He hasn’t come around on the franchise,” Rhodes said, a stubborn set to his thin lips, “and as I understand it, that’s the main complaint of the Reform Committee.”

Barney snorted. “If Kruger gave the Uitlanders the vote right now, he’d be crazy, and one thing Paul Kruger is not is crazy! Johannesburg is almost as advanced as Kimberley, now. We’ve got streetlights, they’re working on a sewage system, it’s already bigger than Kimberley. He has given in on things; give him time and he’ll give in on more. What I’m trying to say is that this is no time for the Reform Committee to do anything foolish.”

“I see. Well, let me think it over. As I said before,” Rhodes said, “the Transvaal is out of my province. I have enough on my hands with the Cape. However, I do know some members of the Reform Committee, and I suppose it would do no harm to discuss this matter with them—”

He paused as the door to the room opened and his brother Frank poked his head in. The colonel frowned to see Barney Barnato sitting there. Cecil Rhodes turned back to Barney.

“Is there anything else you wished to discuss, Barney? I don’t wish to be rude, but I have a rather full schedule, and I would like to spend a little time with my brother—”

Barney stood up. “No, I think I’ve said what I came to say, Cecil. I just hope you fully understood what I was trying to say. Nobody really gains from trouble,” he added, as much for Colonel Frank Rhodes’ sake as for the Premier’s. “It can only cost money. Your money and my money.” He nodded and walked through the door that Frank Rhodes had been holding open for him; the door closed behind him. Neville Pickering was sitting at a desk beyond the door; he nodded stiffly. A butler was waiting to escort Barney to his rented carriage in the drive that would take him back to the railway station.

As he climbed in and gave the necessary directions, he wondered why he had taken the trouble to come to Cape Town. It was evident that whatever was being planned was well along its way. Certainly all his arguing in the Rand Club in Johannesburg had only led to losing him friends, as well as cutting him off from any information as to what was being planned. Even Solly, whom he had treated as well as a brother, hedged when asked about the Reform Committee, although it was evident the man was deeply involved. It was also evident that Cecil Rhodes not only had a finger in the pie, but undoubtedly was up to his elbows in it. “The Transvaal, of course, is not in my province, but I do know some members of the Reform Committee… ”What drek!

Well, maybe it was all talk. Most of the members of the Reform Committee, including his nephew Solly, tended more to talk than to action. At least it was something “devoutly to be wish’d for,” he thought with a faint smile, recalling his Hamlet. He had his own problems with the deepening of the mine shafts in Johannesburg; he’d stop and pick up Armando in Kimberley, borrowing his talents for a while.

He leaned back and watched the scenery.

In the room Barney had just left, Colonel Frank Rhodes was staring down at his seated brother, a frown on his face. “What was Barnato doing here?”

Rhodes laughed. “Apparently our Reform Committee is not as circumspect as it, or they, should be. Barnato seems to sense that there is trouble brewing; his Jew nose is twitching. Two years ago he got Kruger to agree to the extension of the railway to Johannesburg and Pretoria, so now he thinks he knows the old man. It’s his idea that Kruger will bend and, if we wait long enough, maybe break, for all I know. At which point the Reform Committee would have nothing to do but pick up the pieces.” He waved away the matter of Barnato and his dreams with a flick of the wrist. “Don’t pay any attention to Barnato and his hallucinations. He has no idea of what’s really going on. What brings you here, Frank?”

Frank Rhodes seated himself in the chair Barney had been occupying.

“I hate to say it, Cecil, but in one respect I agree with Barnato.”

Rhodes frowned. “I beg your pardon? You think Paul Kruger is going to fold? Give us what we want without a fight?”

“No, no! I don’t mean we should wait to pick up any pieces I don’t think are going to fall from any nonexistent table. What I’m trying to say is that I agree with Barnato that this is not the time to act. We’re simply not ready for it. Jameson is up at Pitsani with fewer than five hundred men, not the fifteen hundred he so blithely promised he could raise, and even that number, in my opinion, would be none too many. Plus a few Bechuanaland Police who are supposed to join him when he leaves — eighty of them, to be exact, rather than the three hundred he was sure would go along — and none of them, by the way, very enthusiastic. And Jameson sending those idiot telegraph messages every five minutes in a code that must be making Kruger laugh himself sick, and you know his sense of humor!”

Rhodes smiled, but he was listening closely. “I’m familiar with Jameson’s telegraph messages; I’ve had a few. But I don’t believe Kruger is aware of what’s going on. If he were he would have done something about it before now. I keep a pretty close eye and ear on Pretoria, and I’m sure I would have heard if Kruger was onto the Reform Committee’s plans.”

“I just hope you’re right.” Frank Rhodes sounded far from convinced. “But let me go on. We have exactly thirty-one rounds of ammunition per rifle in Johannesburg at the moment, and this is supposed to be issued to totally inexperienced men for the most part. And the committee, when they are in full session, fight more with each other than I promise you they ever will against the Boer, unless they get a lot more organized than they are at present! The Americans don’t particularly want the Vierkleur replaced with the Union Jack, and believe it or not, neither do a lot of the British. The lot of them feel they’d simply be replacing Kruger’s taxes with Queen Vic’s taxes and they don’t feel this is worth getting shot for. And the fact is that despite the noise the Reform Committee is making, I believe that nine out of ten of the people we’re asking for support in this so-called spontaneous uprising in Jo’burg don’t give a tinker’s dam for the vote! They want to bring in dynamite free, and cyanide free, and everything else they use they want to bring in free. They don’t care if Kruger is President, or you, or me, or Barney Barnato! They want to make more money, that’s all. And I agree with them, but most of them feel that when these concessions are taken from the Boer, they’ll simply be given to some other one who will gouge their pockets as much as the Boer did!”

Cecil Rhodes’ eyebrows rose. When he spoke his voice was cold.

“Frank, are you changing your mind about our objectives?”

“No, dammit! But if you ever want to reach your objectives, listen to what I’m trying to tell you! You asked me to handle the Jo’burg end of this affair, and how do you argue with people who feel that way? How do you convince them to pick up a gun and fight? I’m trying to tell you the truth of the matter, but you don’t seem to want to listen! How do you convince a man to fight when you give him a bloody thirty-one rounds of ammunition and tell him that’s the lot, go out and wipe out the Boers with it, take over their country?” He shook his head decisively. “It would be a massacre, a needless massacre, and I’m not talking about the Boers, either. And what would that gain? Certainly not the overthrow of Kruger, if that’s what you’re aiming for.”

Cecil Rhodes considered his brother for several moments. When he spoke his voice was more sympathetic than anything else.

“Frank, I know that organizing Johannesburg for this uprising has not been an easy job, and I’m sure you’ve done your best. But there’s still time to bring in more arms and ammunition. Possibly if you had paid a bit more attention to it, put a bit more time into it, a bit more effort—”

Frank Rhodes held up a hand quickly, almost commandingly.

“Now, you listen to me, Cecil Rhodes! I know your opinion of me — I like women and you don’t. I drink a lot of whiskey and lately you’ve been drinking almost none. I like a lot of things and do a lot of things you don’t approve of! But don’t blind yourself to one simple fact: I’m the only one in your whole bloody Reform Committee who knows his arse from a cricket bat when it comes to military experience, and that includes your precious Dr. Leander Starr Jameson, who thinks he’s a soldier because he happened to beat a bunch of natives with spears, when his men had guns! And my military experience isn’t slight, either, as you damned well know! I’m no honorary colonel, Cecil; I’m a colonel promoted in grade in the field, dammit! I’ve had thirty years in the army! When we talk gold or diamonds, I’ll listen to you, but when we talk a military operation you’d better listen to me, or you can take your chances with the diggers and shoe clerks you’re planning to use to scare Kruger into handing you the Transvaal on a platter!”

Rhodes had been listening, his face impassive, but his mind was racing. He had never seen his brother Frank in this mood before. One thing was certain: failure was unthinkable. Failure would damage, if not put an end to, his career, and with it his dream of extending South Africa under British rule even farther north — to Cairo, eventually, hopefully. He looked at his brother.

“Are you suggesting we abandon the project?”

“No, dammit, I’m not! I’m merely suggesting we’re not ready for it, not now. It’s your decision, Cecil, but I’m telling you this: Call off this losing operation before it’s too late. Jameson is a fanatic and the ultimate egotist, and this man Luckner he’s picked as second in command is totally unhinged. He’s a bloodthirsty maniac. He kicked a Kaffir to death for spilling some coffee on him, hot coffee. Jameson has fewer than five hundred men under him and while he calls them Rhodesian Police, I’ll wager nine tenths of them are blacksmiths or sailors or ex-breakwater convicts, certainly not trained troops. They’ve each got a horse and a gun; that makes them soldiers! And he was supposed to pick up three hundred Bechuanaland Police, who are trained, but as I said, their number is down to about eighty, and they’d be more enthusiastic if they were being sent out to hunt quail. If you want the truth, they asked if they’d be fighting for the Queen or for Cecil Rhodes’ South African Chartered Company. Now, I’m your brother and I’m trying to help you—”

“Jameson is planning on leaving Pitsani for Johannesburg on the twenty-first of December. That’s just over three weeks away,” Rhodes said, and now his tone was plainly worried. “It may be too late to call it off—”

“Dammit, it’s too late to begin it!” Frank Rhodes retorted. “It has to be postponed, Cecil, for God’s sake! Let Jameson get away from Pitsani before somebody gets the idea of what he’s up there for! Let him get back to Fort Salisbury; let him bring his men up to strength and train them. And let him stop those ridiculous telegraphs before Kruger does know what’s going on, if he doesn’t already know. Let us get proper guns and sufficient ammunition into Johannesburg, and that is going to take time with the border guards as alert as they are these days. With time we can do it, but we can’t do it in any three weeks. And let us have time to convince the people of Johannesburg that it’s to their advantage to be with us one hundred per cent in this thing.” He stared at his brother almost fiercely. “Then, by God, we’d have a chance. We’d have a bloody good chance!”

“How much time are you talking about?”

The colonel shrugged.

“I don’t know. Maybe six months, maybe more. What difference does it make? You want the Transvaal under British rule; it’s been Boer ever since they kicked the shit out of us fifteen years ago, and it was Boer before that. And, I might mention, they did it against the British Army, not against a ragtag bunch of pseudo adventurers playing soldier. So what’s a few more months to ensure success?”

“What do the other members of the Reform Committee think?”

Frank Rhodes waved that away. “I don’t care what they think. If they have any brains, they think the same as I do. Everyone is afraid to admit the truth of what I’ve just told you. Nobody wants to be the messenger bringing bad news, especially to you. But somebody had to do it, and I don’t mind being the one. I’ve given you the truth of the matter: to move now is to invite complete and certain disaster. And if you want my opinion, you won’t get another chance to do it as easily for a long, long time. All you have to do is wait until you’re properly prepared. And you’re not, right now.”

Cecil Rhodes came to his feet and began pacing the floor. At last he paused and looked up.

“It will be hard to hold Jameson back for six months or more. I know the man…”

Frank Rhodes exploded. “Then replace him! What the devil d’you mean, it will be hard to hold him? Is this a military operation, or some bit of anarchy where everyone goes off on his own and does what he wants? If necessary, go up there and tell him yourself, in person, if a telegraph won’t handle the matter. You’re the only one he’ll listen to. He thinks he’s smarter than the rest of us combined. When I pointed out to him on his last visit that four hundred plus men were far from enough, he simply laughed. He said, ‘I can walk into Jo’burg with twenty men and five revolvers anytime I want. You just be ready with your uprising when I get there.’” He snorted contemptuously.

Rhodes sighed. “All right, Frank,” he said, and walked to the end of the room to tug at a pull rope. A moment later his secretary, Pickering, was in the room. Rhodes turned to him. “Send this telegraph to Jameson, at Pitsani. Say, ‘Polo tournament postponed until further notice.’ Get it off at once, and sign it Rhodes.”

“Sign it Cecil Rhodes,” Frank added. “Otherwise he may think I came down to Cape Town just to send it, and he’ll toss it in the campfire.” He waited until Pickering had left the room, and held out his hand for his brother to shake. “That was the wise move, Cecil. Now we’ve got to get busy. Get Jameson back to Fort Salisbury and start doing his job properly. I’ll get to work in Johannesburg.”

“Very well,” Rhodes said, and touched his brother’s hand. Frank Rhodes turned to go. “And thank you, Frank,” Rhodes said sincerely.

Frank Rhodes merely nodded as he left the room, but he had been profoundly surprised. It was the first time since childhood that he could remember ever having heard his brother thank anyone for anything.

12

December 1895

At the single wayside shack that served as a combination telegraph office, restaurant, bar, general store and stable at Pitsani, a place in Bechuanaland near the Transvaal’s western border, where passengers on the Mafeking-Bulawayo coach could take a sorry meal and their drivers change their mules, Jameson and his second in command, Carl Luckner, stood in the shade and read the telegraph message that had just been handed to them. The storekeeper, who, with the help of his wife and daughter, served as hostler, telegraph operator, cook, bartender, and counterman for the tiny outpost, stood and waited for the answer he knew would be forthcoming; every telegraph received by Jameson seemed to require a response, although the storekeeper could not understand why. Most of them made no sense at all to him.

Jameson glowered at the message. “Three weeks ago it was ‘Polo tournament postponed.’ Without a bloody reason! And when I telegraph to tell them we’re ready and any delay would be most injurious, they come back saying that it was absolutely necessary to postpone flotation until we hear from them. And when I complained again, we get this!” He slapped the piece of paper with his gloved hand. “‘I absolutely condemn further developments at present. We cannot have fiasco.’” He looked up, his face flushing with anger. “This is all Frank Rhodes’ work, take my word for it.”

Luckner shrugged. “Whoever’s work it is, we can’t wait much longer. The boys won’t stand for it. They signed up to fight the Boers, not the heat or the damned flies or the plain boredom of this place.” He might have added that the poor grub didn’t help, or the fact that all the decent whiskey was locked up and the men had to do with the cheap stuff in the bar, or the complete dearth of women other than the storekeeper’s wife and daughter, who was practically under lock and key when there were any men around. “We’ve had fifty men desert in the past month.”

“I know that!” Jameson said in irritation. “I know all the arguments against staying here! It’s those idiots who have Cecil Rhodes’ ear, who don’t. Frank Rhodes is afraid of his shadow; how he ever got to be a colonel in the British Army is a mystery to me! I know the people of Jo’burg and how they feel a damn sight better than Frank Rhodes does. Once we enter the city, we’ll have every man, woman, and child on our side, and the Boers will be running for their lives!” He scribbled a message on his pad and handed it to Luckner to read. Luckner read it and handed it to the storekeeper, but his eyebrows raised at the words. “Send that at once,” Jameson said.

The storekeeper read the message for clarity, and shrugged. At least this message made some sense; the other messages about polo, in a country that didn’t have a polo field anywhere in it, let alone at Pitsani; or the flotation of companies when there wasn’t a decent building, let alone a factory or a mine within fifty miles, had been ridiculous. And while this message indicated he would soon be losing custom and therefore revenue, at least it would also mean his daughter wouldn’t have to hide every time a trooper showed up at the bar, but could do her share of the work once again. For the message read: “Unless I hear definitely to the contrary, we shall leave tomorrow night, December 29, signed, Jameson.”

Luckner stared at him. He waited until the storekeeper had nodded and gone back into the shack, then he said, “And just suppose you get a telegraph hearing to the contrary?”

Jameson grinned. “In the first place, this is Saturday and the company offices are closed weekends. By the time anyone receives that telegraph, we’ll be halfway to Jo’burg. And in the second place, we’re going to cut the telegraph wires before we leave, so that handles the matter of return messages in the first place. Don’t worry, Cecil Rhodes will thank me when this is all over.” He became serious. “Issue the men all the whiskey they want today; they won’t be having any drink for a few days, and they’ll want to celebrate leaving this miserable place. They’ll have tomorrow to sober up. We’ll leave at dusk. And assign some men to cut the telegraph wires tomorrow afternoon.”

“Yes, sir!” Luckner said with a happy grin, and got on his horse to ride to camp. The stores of decent liquor that had been held back from the men, forcing them to drink the cheap-grade brandewyn at the bar in the shack, had been another sore subject among the troopers. This complaint, however, would be handled as soon as he got back to camp, and the other squawks, he knew, would be forgotten the minute they were on their way. There might be loot; there even might be women; who knew? But there definitely would be action, and that’s what the men needed more than anything else.

President Kruger was reading his Bible; it was his only reading material and he read it whenever he had time from state business. He looked up at the urgent rapping on his door, marking his place in the Bible with a thick finger. “Yes? Come,” he called.

His aide entered, excited, and gave his report.

“Ummm,” Kruger said thoughtfully. “They’re leaving tomorrow night, you say?”

“Yes, sir,” said his aide. “Our man at Pitsani — the storekeeper — sent us the telegraph exactly as he had sent it to Cape Town. As he has reported all of the exchange so far. He’s not the brightest person in the world,” the aide said condescendingly. “He has no idea of what he’s about, but he’s reliable as far as following orders. Oh, yes,” he added, grinning. “He also said he heard them say something about cutting the telegraph wires before they left. A little late, but sounds like the rest of their planning for this ridiculous affair.”

“Ummm,” Kruger said, and returned to his Bible, motioning his aide to leave the room and leave him alone.

“But, Mr. President,” the aide stammered. “Did you hear me? Jameson and more than four hundred armed troopers are planning to invade the Transvaal, leaving Pitsani tomorrow night. Shouldn’t we—”

“Shouldn’t we — what?” Kruger asked mildly.

“Well, I mean, sir, shouldn’t we do — well, something?”

“We will,” Kruger said, his tone dismissing the puzzled aide, and returned to his Bible.

Trooper Jimmy Parkinson, trying to stand more or less erect while suffering the grandfather of all hangovers and with a headache the equal of which he could not remember having encountered in a lifetime made up largely of headaches, spoke out of the side of his mouth to the man next to him, his friend Trooper Billy Watson.

“Billy,” he said in a mournful undertone, “I should ’ave stuck to the ’orrible muck in the telegraph ’ut. I never did ’ave a ’ead fer decent whiskey. Never ’ad a chance t’ get used to it.”

“You feelin’ rough?” Billy said sympathetically.

“Ain’t you?”

“I ’ad me some cookin’ oil afore I ’it the bottle,” Billy said virtuously. “Never get bashed that way. You really feelin’ bad? We’re ridin’ soon.”

“Me teeth all feel like they got little sweaters on ’em,” Jimmy said, “an’ me ’ead’s got t’be the size of a football. Wit’ a youngster inside beatin’ on a drum. I better tie meself on me ’orse,” Jimmy said, “becos’ I’m goin’ t’fall asleep soon’s we start. Better ride close t’me to make sure I don’t fall orf.” He looked down the wavering line. “Looks like th’ whole company’s in th’ same shape.”

“Ah, well,” Billy said philosophically, “we’ll be in Jo’burg in two, three days and you can do it all over again.”

“Can’t wait,” Jimmy said dryly, and then grimaced painfully as a bugler began blowing assembly, seemingly right into his ear. He tried to straighten up, squinting ahead into the setting sun as Jameson swung himself into his saddle and looked out over the assembled men, the sun at his back casting long shadows over the now-deserted campgrounds. Behind him and a little to one side, Luckner sat easily in his saddle, his face expressionless. A little behind him the company bugler sat, and Lieutenants Willoughby and White sat their mounts, while behind them the mule wagons with the tenting equipment stood waiting to go, their Kaffir drivers paying little attention to the assemblage. Their loads were light. Each trooper had packed one day’s rations, for supplies had been planned to be placed at fifty-mile intervals along the road to Johannesburg.

“Troopers!” Jameson called out in a loud voice. “This is the moment we have all been waiting for! I want to read you a letter I’ve received from the Reform Committee in Johannesburg!”

He reached into the top pocket of his uniform and withdrew the letter he had insisted upon receiving many months before. That afternoon, before packing his gear, he had taken pen and ink and carefully placed the date in the upper right-hand corner, December 29, 1895. The fact that it was December 29 when he penned the date, and Pitsani was a good two days’ hard riding to have been delivered from Johannesburg the same day, meant little to Jameson regarding the fictitious message. He was sure there would never be the slightest reason to ever use the letter beyond the use he was about to put it to. He cleared his throat and began to read.

“To Captain Jameson and his men:

“The situation in Johannesburg has now become intolerable. The cruelty of the Boer burghers, backed by their Government under the direction of the tyrant, Kruger, and the actions of the Johannesburg Police in their intolerant treatment of our men, women, and children, has passed endurance. Each day one hears the cries of innocent women and even babies as they are hounded, beaten, and even killed by the inhuman Boers. We beg of you to come to our assistance; we cannot long endure under these oppressive conditions. We pray you can find it in your hearts to come to our aid immediately, for Queen, for England, and for common human decency.

“Signed,

“The Reform Committee.”

Jameson raised himself in his saddle, his saber now drawn, raised in the the air, flashing in the last rays of the sun.

“We shall ride into Johannesburg and settle this matter once and for all! Men, are you with me?” There were a few rather embarrassed and drunken yells, but the response seemed to satisfy Jameson. He replaced the saber in its scabbard. “Then — troopers — mount!”

The rescuers of the women and children of Johannesburg were on their way.

The sinking of a shaft for a gold mine, Armando quickly decided, was quite a bit different from sinking a shaft in a diamond mine. The blue ground at Kimberley was a pipe, the core of an ancient volcano, and it ran vertically and therefore its location could be easily calculated and determined. The shaft, paralleling the pipe, was also sunk vertically, and horizontal chambers or tunnels were dug through to the blue ground at whatever level was desired. It was all relatively simple. The gold reef, however, was considerably different from a diamond pipe, for it ran at angles of varying steepness, and shafts had to be sunk through the rock to intercept the diagonal reef at various depths, and the reef mined for the gold-bearing rock in the immediate vicinity before sinking the shaft deeper to intersect another angled reef containing gold farther down. How deep one might go before failing to intercept a diagonal layer of gold-bearing rock nobody knew, but there seemed little doubt that the shafts would end up much deeper than any at Kimberley, and the problems, therefore, of sinking these shafts would be that much more complicated.

The shafts had already reached a depth of a half mile or more, and there was every indication that there still might be major gold deposits even farther down; as far as a mile or even two miles deep. And at those depths, nobody knew if they might not run into gold-bearing quartz that might yield an ounce, or even two ounces of gold per ton of rock. Or possibly three or more. There was no way of telling, but it was always the dream, the goad that drove men to probe deeper and deeper beneath the earth’s surface. And the farther down they went, the greater the problem, Armando knew, for the heat increased proportionately the deeper they went, and there would be the problem, not just of physically building shafts that deep, but of getting air down to cool the workers at those depths. Armando had been assured by the white gold miners that the Kaffir had no problem with heat as he had no problem with the cyanide solution, and while he knew nothing about the resistance of the Kaffir to the heat in gold mines, he knew there was a problem at the lesser depths in the diamond shafts, and he was sure it would be a greater problem here.

But for whatever purpose, the shaft of the mine he was inspecting was poorly constructed for such great depths, and the huge Angolan decided that before greater depths were attempted the shaft would have to be aligned to a far more accurate degree, and the cages in which the workers were dropped to the various levels to dynamite the rock loose would have to be reinforced and constructed of far stronger materials. The same was true of the cables that held the cages in the shaft, and raised and lowered them by use of huge steam-driven geared winches that were mounted above each mine shaft.

The large Angolan stepped from the cage he had been using to inspect the shaft, closing the protective gate behind him, and breathed deeply of the clear, high-altitude air. There was a lot of work to be done if he was going to be responsible for the deepening of the shafts, but it was work he loved and he wondered if he could ever adequately thank Barney Barnato for having rescued him — “rescued” was the only word he could think of — from the circus and the dreary task of having to beat some poor soul into submission several times a week just in order to eat. Now Armando ate as well as he wished, and maintained his strength through honest work, which was the best way. He waved to the donkey-engine operator to indicate his use of the cage was finished for the day, and climbed into his trap, touching the horses with the whip, prepared to go to Barney’s office and make his report. And then pulled up short as another trap appeared around a corner of the narrow dirt road, blocking his passage. He smiled to see the occupants, for they were his boss, Barney, and Barney’s lovely wife, Fay, made even more beautiful, Armando thought, by being several months pregnant. She reminded him of his mother, who, while never being pregnant since he could remember, had been big and soft, and he often missed her and wondered why he had never gone back to Angola to visit her before her death. The reason, of course, had been his father, but those were aimless thoughts. Armando put them aside as he climbed down and walked over to the other trap.

“Hello, Miz Barnato. Hello, Barney. I was jus’ now goin’ to you office to tell you.” While Armando still had a fairly heavy Portuguese accent, his command of the English language was quite good. He shook his head sadly. “No so good news, I am afraid.”

“What kind of bad news?”

Armando shrugged. “It mean lots of work, Barney. I t’ink maybe the shaft too deep now for the cable and the winch. Should already bot’ be bigger, I t’ink, an’ cable should be steel, not rope. Also shaft should be much more straight. I dig a shaft like this in Kimberley, nobody go down. Lucky cage don’ hang up goin’ down. You wanna see? I show you.”

He climbed back into his trap, turned his horse, and returned to the mine shaft, climbing down as Barney drew up beside him and got down.

“I’ll wait here,” Fay said, smiling at both men. “Get a little sun.”

“I won’t be long,” Barney promised, and walked over to the cage beside Armando.

Armando swung open the gate and waited until Barney had entered the mesh-sided, open-topped cage before waving to the donkey-engine operator who handled the cable winch. “Slow, all the way to the bottom,” he shouted and got into the cage, ducking his unusual height under the top crossbeam of the cage, reaching back to swing shut the gate that prevented anyone from falling down the open shaft. When he stood erect his head went above the mesh sides of the cage, almost touching the large iron eye bolt that held the rope cable that raised and lowered the cage. Armando grinned down at Barney. “See shaft a lot easier from up here,” he said, and then swayed slightly as the cage began to descend. But it only went five or six feet before it stopped with a jerk. Both men looked upward with a frown at the daylight just above them. There was the voice of the operator, heard in a faint shout from above.

“Something’s caught. I’ll get it fixed right away.”

There was the ringing of a hammer on metal; Armando had to raise his voice a bit to be heard. “You see, Barney? Winch gears worn—”

He paused as the cage suddenly dropped another two or three feet and stopped again with another jerk. At the sudden stop there was a short snapping sound and one of the rope strands of the cable parted with a sharp report just above Armando’s head. Armando opened his mouth to yell for the operator to stop his hammering and drop them some ropes to secure the cage, when a second strand of the cable snapped. The beating of metal on metal continued from above. The two men looked at each other; then Armando reached up, grasping the slippery cable with one hand, used his enormous strength to raise himself enough to brace his feet under the top crossbeam and then to lift the cage a foot or more, leaving a bit of slack in the cable. His other arm was quickly inserted in the slack, taking a bite. He released his first grip and stood, the cable now wrapped about his other arm, his body stretched with the strain, and looked at Barney.

“You climb over me, get out. Tell operator drop rope. I tie her somehow. Go now. Quick.”

“If he stops that damn hammering we can call him and I can tie the ropes a lot easier while you hold her—”

“He never stop that damn hammerin’! Don’ waste time! In shaft, me the boss! Climb! Dammit, climb!”

Barney hesitated a moment and then went up the wire mesh to the top crossbeam. He stepped up on Armando’s shoulders and then to the top of the big Angolan’s head, reaching up to grip the top edge of the shaft. He drew himself up to the surface, pushing aside the swinging gate, and scrambled to his feet. Fay had come down from the trap, her face registering her concern, but Barney paid no attention to her. The donkey-engine operator, his back to Barney, was still beating against the recalcitrant gearing of the winch with his hammer. Barney ran over and tore the hammer from the man’s hands.

“Ropes!” he roared. “The cable’s breaking at the cage! It’s only a few feet down! Armando’s holding it—”

The operator stared at him in confusion. “Ropes?” he asked in a dazed voice.

“Where d’you keep spare cables? Ropes, damm it—”

There was a sudden clatter from the shaft and both men rushed over, staring down. The last strand of the cable had parted and the cage had dropped away, leaving Armando swinging in the shaft at the end of the rope. Even as the operator, finally understanding, started at a sprint for the rope shed, Armando’s arm began to slip from the greasy cable. He tried to use his other hand to reach up and halt the slide; then attempted to swing to the side of the shaft where he might try for a grip on one of the runners that guided the cage, but it was too late and Armando knew it. He looked up and tried to smile; then he slipped from the frayed cable and disappeared without a sound down the shaft. Barney squeezed his eyes shut in shock, as if to blot out the sight, and then opened them as, after what seemed an eternity, there was the muffled sound of the cage striking bottom, echoing up the shaft walls. He turned away before he could hear any sound of Armando’s body striking, tears suddenly scalding his cheeks, and bent over, vomiting uncontrollably, with Fay’s arms about him, holding him tightly.

The miners from the various levels came up in the buckets normally used for hauling the dynamited rock to the surface; Armando’s body was brought up wrapped in a tarpaulin. He was buried the following day, a closed-casket funeral, in a grave dug beside the shaft in which he died. The stone that was to cover the grave had been ordered by Barney himself, and promised to be one of the most impressive in Johannesburg: a life-sized statue of Armando as he had been twenty years before, bare-chested, in his boxing trunks and boxing shoes, a true giant of a man.

Most of the important people of Johannesburg attended the funeral, partly for Armando, but mainly in deference to Barney, for while they had their differences, primarily regarding the position of the Reform Committee, the name Barnato still meant a great deal in Johannesburg. Besides, in the face of a mine disaster, a disaster that might have overtaken any one of them when inspecting a new seam in one of their mines, they all stood together. And as the priest made his eulogy beside the open grave, the huge casket hastily made the night before waiting patiently to be interred, a trap came tearing into the open space where the mourners were gathered. The driver pulled on the reins hurriedly, as if such commotion was somehow indecent in face of the bared heads and long faces, in face of the very presence of death. He got down quietly, as if attempting to efface himself, but walked quickly, nonetheless, to the side of Colonel Frank Rhodes. He whispered something in the colonel’s ear, and then stepped back at the colonel’s startled exclamation.

“You’re sure?”

“Absolutely.”

“The idiot! The damned idiot!”

The colonel looked about; the priest droned on, but now everyone was looking toward Frank Rhodes, and that included Barney. But the colonel knew, to his unhappiness, that it was far too late for secrets at this point. Frank Rhodes shouldered his way to the front of the crowd; the priest, aware that something extraordinary was going on, stopped talking as Rhodes mounted the pile of dirt beside the open grave, looking out over the crowd from his vantage point.

“Ladies, gentlemen,” he said gravely, quietly, for there was no need for speaking loudly in that sudden and complete silence, “Jameson is on his way to Jo’burg. The messenger I sent to be sure he did not move met him twenty miles inside of the Transvaal; he had left Pitsani the night before last, Sunday night. I suggest the Reform Committee meet at once to decide on a course of action.” He looked down at Barney, standing quite close to him. “I’m sorry to disrupt the funeral, Barney, but as soon as you are through here, I suggest you join us. We’ll be meeting at the Rand Club. This matter will affect every man in this town.”

He came down from the dirt pile and walked quickly toward his horse, tethered to one side, followed by a good number of the men present, including Solly Loeb. The priest looked at the large coffin resting on the two wooden horses, then at the four Kaffirs, their shovels stabbed in the dirt beside them, waiting to place the heavy coffin in the ground and cover it, then at Barney Barnato and his wife, each with a handful of dirt to cast on the coffin once it was in the ground, in proper Jewish tradition, and finally at the backs of the retreating men and horses.

“Amen,” he said sadly, and closed his Bible.

“They’re that far into the Transvaal?” Kruger asked, as if he were merely curious about the matter. “Where did you get your information?”

“From Commandant Cronje,” his aide said nervously. “They reached Malmani the day before yesterday at noon and camped there overnight. Then they left for Lichtenburg. From there the commandant expects them to head for Vetersdorp. That will bring them almost a hundred miles into our territory, Mr. President!” The aide was wondering what on earth was the matter with his President. Kruger was acting as if it were an everyday event to have the Republic invaded by an army of Uitlanders. They had been in the Transvaal three days, now, and Commandant Cronje had said nothing about attacking the invaders. As if reading the aide’s mind, Kruger spoke up.

“Did Cronje say anything about what action he has taken?”

“No, sir. Sir,” the aide said almost desperately, “they’ll be on the road to Krugersdorp, and that’s just twenty miles or so from Johannesburg…”

“That’s true. Well,” Kruger said, smiling a bit at his aide’s discomfort, “I suppose you’re right. Send a telegraph to Commandant Cronje at Krugersdorp. Advise him the tortoise has finally put his head out sufficiently. He’ll know what you mean; he won’t be surprised. We’ve been in touch. And don’t worry so much.” He waved a hand at his aide to get on with the job, and went back to reading his Bible.

“What d’yer mean, no grub ner no fresh ’orses?” Trooper Parkinson demanded angrily. “There wasn’t no fresh ’orses ner grub at Malmani, neither, but that weren’t so bad; I still ’ad some o’ me own left over. Now there ain’t nothin’ left. Me poor animal is about ready to lay down an’ give up ’is bloody ghost! ’E wasn’t in too good a shape in Pitsani, an’ two days carryin’ me plus double rifles without bein’ spelled ain’t done ’im no world o’ good. ’E needs some oats, not the muck they call grass in this ’ell-’ole! Not there’s a ’ell o’ a lot of even that in this bleedin’ sand! What’s the bloody reason?”

“I didn’t catch all the captain was tellin’ th’ other orficers,” Billy Watson said apologetically. “I don’t rightly suppose I was supposed t’ be listenin’ at all. But they was all talkin’ with this messenger bloke what jus’ rode in from Jo’burg, Major Thompson, I seed ’im afore. Anyway, it seems the bloke responsible fer seein’ our stores an’ fresh ’orses was set up every fifty mile all the way to Jo’burg, was a bloke name o’ Dr. Wolff.”

“So?” Trooper Parkinson said, a trifle dangerously.

“So the way this Major Thompson was tellin’ it, seems this Dr. Wolff allus takes ’is summer ’olidays in December, goes down t’ th’ seaside. Get away from the bloody ’eat, y’ see. Can’t say as ’ow I blames ’im,” Trooper Watson added enviously.

“Wait a bloody minute!” Parkinson said ominously. “Y’mean t’ stand there an’ tell me, the bloke what was responsible fer grub an’ fresh ’orses, took ’is bloody ’oliday when ’e was supposed t’ be settin’ up stores fer us? Is that what yer tryin’ t’ tell me?”

“That’s what th’ major was sayin’. I guess they didn’t figger Captain Jameson was goin’ t’ move when ’e did. Lack o’ communications, they calls it,” Billy said, proud of his greater knowledge in military affairs.

“A balls-up, I calls it,” Parkinson said bitterly.

“Another balls-up,” Billy Watson corrected gently.

“I’ll have Wolff’s hide for this!” Jameson said tightly. “On holiday, for good Jesus’s sake!” He, Luckner, Willoughby, and White were sitting around the dying campfire with Major Thompson, the messenger from Johannesburg who had galloped into the camp a short time before. The major considered Jameson coldly.

“It’s hardly Wolff who was at fault,” he said quietly. “You were given strict instructions not to move until further notice. It would have been both foolhardy and wasteful to stock our caches before they were needed; they could have been discovered and lost when they were most important. We had no idea you had left Pitsani until Cape Town had time to receive your final telegraph. Then they had to inform us. And then I had to ride up here to see exactly what was going on, and that was another two days.” Jameson snorted. Thompson disregarded it, going on coolly. “I can hardly see how you can possibly blame the Reform Committee because you chose to move, without instructions, before the committee was ready.”

Jameson sneered. “The Reform Committee! The Frank Rhodes Personal Committee, they ought to call it! And just why, after all these months, wasn’t your precious Reform Committee ready?”

“For one thing,” Major Thompson said evenly, “we didn’t have enough rifles or ammunition. Oh, I know you were planning on bringing an extra gun for each trooper you brought, but that wouldn’t handle the ammunition problem, and since you were coming with only a little over four hundred men, rather than the fifteen hundred you promised—” He shrugged, but there was a malicious glint in his eye.

Captain Jameson waved that away as merely being an excuse, and a weak one at that. He leaned forward, his thin body almost quivering, his dark eyes gleaming with equal malice.

“And what about the raid on the Pretoria armory? I was told that a handful of men could take the armory in Pretoria anytime they wanted; it was under repair and one entire wall was down, for God’s sake! And it was being guarded by a minimum contingent, because the others were off duty because of the Christmas holidays. There were supposed to be fifteen thousand modern rifles there, and all the ammunition for them you could dream of, piled up to the roof of the place. It could be taken anytime they wanted, the Reform Committee told me. What happened to that great plan?”

Major Thompson reddened a bit. The plan to capture the armory in Pretoria and arm the Johannesburg residents with its contents of guns and ammunition had largely been his.

“Well,” he said slowly, his embarrassment evident, “again it was just one of those things. We sent our boys up there, but only about a week ago, because we had no idea you were planning on moving when you did. And not all the troops there had been relieved as yet for the holidays. However, somebody” — he coughed slightly and then recovered himself — “had forgotten that the Boers celebrate Nagmaal at the end of December — Communion Week — and the Church Square was loaded with outspanned ox wagons. Half the farmers in the north Transvaal must have been there with their vrous, and as you know, they all carry their rifles with them when they travel, in case they run into any game, or any trouble of any kind. We would have been wiped out in minutes if we had started anything. So—” He shrugged again.

Carl Luckner broke into the conversation.

“So there seems to be enough blame to go around, if that’s the purpose of this exercise,” he said harshly. “Let’s get on with it, I say! So the men do without grub for a day or so — so what? I doubt there’s one among them who hasn’t gone more than a day hungry either on the march at some time, or in some brig or other. We’re less than thirty miles from Krugersdorp and Mrs. Varley’s Hotel and her good meals, that’s where we are! A bit of her food in their bellies — a meal the good lady will be glad to prepare and serve, I warrant — and the boys will be riding into Jo’burg like the Palace Guard, with their backs stiff and their tails in the air! We’re talking too much; we ought to be moving. If it’s somebody needed to tell the troopers they won’t be having their supper tonight, I’ll be pleased to be the one to do it, and I promise to handle any complaints personally as well!”

He paused a moment, as if suddenly realizing he wasn’t in command, and then went on in a quieter tone of voice.

“My suggestion, Captain Jameson, would be to have us on our way. We’ve nothing to gain by wasting time here.” He looked at Major Thompson with no attempt to hide his contempt. “It may take some people two days to ride here from Jo’burg, but we can be at Mrs. Varley’s Hotel by dawn, and in Jo’burg by nightfall, full bellies and all.”

“And what about sleep?” Lieutenant White asked a trifle sarcastically. He disliked Luckner intensely, especially after the incident of the hot coffee and the Kaffir’s death; besides, second in command should have fallen to him and not to some ex-sailor.

“All that sleep will do for the men is make them wake up hungrier,” Luckner said a bit contemptuously. “A good night’s quick march will take their minds from their bellies. And if we can stay awake, they can stay awake!”

There were several moments of silence; then Lieutenant Willoughby spoke up. He sounded worried. “What about the Boers we’ve had riding on both our flanks ever since the border?”

Luckner looked at him evenly. “What about them? Have they attacked? They haven’t even sniped at us, other than one or two overanxious youngsters, and they haven’t come within a mile of hitting anything, the poor blind bastards! They’re simply curious as to what we’re up to, and by the time they find out, it’ll be too late for them, the silly sods.” He turned back to Jameson. “What about it, Captain? Sit here and look at each other all night, or be in Jo’burg tomorrow night with one of Mrs. Varley’s stews beneath our belts, and the citizens cheering their bloody heads off?”

Jameson sighed. He was going over all the alternatives in his mind. What Luckner said made sense. The longer they delayed, the further the men would suffer hunger, and they wouldn’t be getting any closer to their objective. And Jameson was quite convinced that the mere entry of his forces into Johannesburg would stimulate the Reform Committee, make them get off their silly arses and get cracking on their revolution. The people would make them, if nothing else did, once he and his forces entered the city.

The Boers on his flanks bothered him not at all. To begin with they were few, and the few he had seen through his field glasses appeared to be, as Luckner had said, youngsters. As Willoughby had said, they had ridden their horses on either side of his column since they had crossed the border, but as Luckner had pointed out, there had been no attack, and the sniping had been sporadic and so erratic as to almost make the Boers’ claim to marksmanship laughable. It seemed fairly obvious that the Boer forces were too weak to do anything but observe their movements and wonder what they were about. As Luckner had also said, the Boers were merely curious. And should their curiosity get out of hand, the fact was he had over four hundred men at his command, all trained and armed, and besides, he had eight Maxims and three machine guns, weapons the Boers had probably never seen or heard of in their lives, and whose devastating firepower the Boers could not even imagine. Besides, as Major Thompson had said himself, most of them were probably celebrating Nagmaal in one church square or another throughout the region, and it was only their kids who were riding his flanks.

Still, damn Wolff, anyway! Had the caches of food and the fresh horses been available at the places they were supposed to be available, none of these problems would have arisen, minor though they were. Jameson looked up, making up his mind.

“We go on. Now,” he said quietly.

“Good-o!” Luckner said, pleased. “I’ll have one of the men skin up a pole and tap into the wires. We’ll telegraph Mrs. Varley to expect five hundred hungry troopers for food at dawn!” He came to his feet, prepared to have the telegraph sent and to get the men on their feet and then on their horses, and equally prepared to handle any arguments about the orders he gave the men. Willoughby and White came to their feet more slowly, brushing the dirt from the seat of their uniform jodhpurs.

Captain Jameson looked at Major Thompson. “And what about you?”

“I’ll ride with you,” the major said bravely, “if you can furnish me with a fresh mount.”

“You’ll have to ask Dr. Wolff,” Jameson said expressionlessly. “If I could furnish anyone with a fresh mount, it would be me.” And he stood up.

They came upon the swampy ground just outside of Krugersdorp, just as the morning sun was breaking over the low ridge that separated them from the town. In silhouette they could see Boers strung out along the crest of the ridge, most probably those who had trailed them and who had somehow gotten ahead of them in the night through superior knowledge of the area. Their horses were no longer in sight, but the men themselves could be easily seen, standing almost at rest, their rifles in their hands, watching the column approach. Jameson raised his hand to bring his column to a halt. His advance scouts had already reported the Boers apparently finally seemed ready for a stand to prevent them from advancing any farther. Jameson smiled faintly at this presumption on the part of the enemy, and spoke over his shoulder.

“The Maxims and the machine guns,” he called out. “I want them to shell that ridge clear. The Boers have been asking for a battle ever since we crossed the border. Well, let’s give it to them!”

The eight two-man-operated Maxims and the three single-man-operated machine guns were quickly unloaded and set up; the troops assigned to them fell to their knees, their eyes blurred with sleeplessness, and aimed their weapons in the general direction of the ridge crest. Upon orders they commenced their barrage, the rapid stuttering of the guns making the horses shy, the gunners weaving the muzzles of the guns back and forth across the ridge. Bodies there seemed to be flung to the ground; a few minutes of the rapid fire and the defenders had all been scattered, some lying in deathlike attitudes, others tossed like mealsacks back behind the ridge. Jameson attempted to keep track of the effectiveness of the barrage through his field glasses, but the enemy had had the sun at his back, and the reflection of the low rays in Jameson’s glasses made any true assessment of the situation impossible. The captain waved for the deadly barrage to cease and called for his scouts. They rode up sleepily, saluted, and awaited their orders, biting back yawns, while their weary horses trembled under them.

“Let’s get up there and see how many of them are left,” Jameson said curtly.

“Sor!” said the lead scout, an Irishman and a sergeant, saluting, and wheeled his horse, followed by the others.

The scouts splashed through the swampy ground before the ridge and then rode their tired mounts slowly toward the top, taking precautions not to present a broad profile to be fired at, keeping their heads low behind the ears of their mounts. But to their surprise there was no attempt to attack them, and the reason for this soon became clear. Ahead of them, on the crest of the ridge, there appeared to be no sign of life. In the distance they could see a few men fleeing on horseback, but ahead of them the carnage seemed complete. There seemed to be several hundred of the bodies sprawled there, their rifles flung at arm’s length, their twisted corpses in all the grotesque forms and shapes of unexpected death. The sergeant motioned his men to remain where they were while he rode forward a bit, his mount stepping daintily among several of the most advanced bodies; then he turned and led his men somberly down the ridge, walking the horses slowly through the swampy ground.

“The few what escaped, sor,” the sergeant reported, “are runnin’ fer they lives. But the rest,” he said, still amazed at the accuracy of the barrage, which could only be accounted for by the stupidity of the Boers standing there to be cut down like bloody idiots, “all look deader’n hell, if you’ll pardon me, sor.”

“I’ll pardon you anything for a report like that, Sergeant,” Jameson said with satisfaction. “That may teach them to argue with Maxims and machine guns. Poor bloody buggers didn’t know what hit them.” He turned and waved his arms in signals, indicating he wanted the troopers to spread into two parallel lines, prepared to ride over the ridge in a charge. Luckner, at his side, frowned at the unexpected maneuver. Jameson noted the frown. “Those running away will be spread out,” he said, giving Luckner the benefit of his greater military experience and knowledge. “I don’t want any of them to escape. Also, there may be some up there who are merely wounded and they would be scattered. We haven’t lost a man yet, and I don’t expect to lose one in a minor skirmish such as this. Besides,” he added, smiling, “the men could use the experience of the maneuver and the charge.”

He turned in his saddle to watch his men wheel their horses into position and then turn them to form the double line, proud of the easy manner in which both men and animals obeyed his orders. He could see that the men nearest him were drooping in their saddles, and that more than one horse stumbled slightly as it came into formation. Still, the charge would build up the adrenalin in the men, and a good meal for both men and horses was just a few miles away, just beyond the ridge, and they’d be there in half an hour at the most. He looked at his men, stretched out in the long double line, waiting, and felt a touch of pride, a recognition of his contribution to history. He raised his arm, his saber high.

The bugle blew.

The arm came down, the saber flashing in the sun.

“Charge!”

One of the Boers who had been faking death on top of the ridge rolled over, keeping his head down, and pulled his rifle to him slowly, making sure the grass did not ripple. “Damn hoer’s horse near stepped on me, the one come up close,” he said in an undertone, complaining in Afrikaans to a companion, and brought his rifle into position, waiting for the orders to fire. “Could have hurt me!”

“Not if he stepped on your head,” the other replied with a grin, and also snaked his rifle to him, making sure no motion on his part could be seen from below. “Can you imagine! Not a drop of blood among the lot of us and the blind bastard goes off as if we were all dead. And the others just stand there looking lost.” He glanced around. “Did anyone get hit?”

“I doubt,” said the first, and watched the twin lines below splash across the swampy ground and start up the ridge, their horses toiling in almost total weariness, fighting for each step. The troopers could be seen in detail now as they came closer to the top of the ridge; they were urging their horses on with a combination of kind words and cruel rowels, but with little enthusiasm. Five hundred yards, four hundred yards, three hundred, two hundred. The Boers on top of the crest wondered at the delay; each of them could take down a fleeing wildbok at four hundred yards. One hundred and fifty yards, one hundred yards—

“Skiet!”

The shots rang out from the top of the ridge in almost perfect unison. “Some bloody charge, at a bloody walkin’ pace—” Trooper Parkinson had been saying sardonically to Trooper Watson, when a rifle ball took him through the forehead, flinging him from his horse, dead before he struck the ground. The charge faltered under the sudden, unexpected, withering fire. The troopers attempted to return the fire but there seemed to be nothing at which to aim, and the toll of the fire could be seen in the falling bodies and the terror of their inexperienced mounts. Horses and men twisted as the charge broke, the troopers wheeling their horses and trying to escape down the ridge and across the swampy ground to the safety of the other side, but there were Boers on both edges of the swamp, hidden in the tall reeds, having waited there for hours, patiently uncomplaining of the whining mosquitoes or the possibility of water moccasins, no move or sound on their part revealing their presence. Now their deadly fire into the mass of fleeing men and frightened horses turned the retreat into a complete rout. The horses, now come alive from their fatigue by the continuous sound of gunfire from all sides and further terrified by the high, piercing neighing, the shrieking of dying horses about them, bolted in terror back across the swamp with or without riders. Jameson, trying desperately with yells and arm-waving to bring some sort of order out of the chaos, now wished he had had the horses trained to gunfire during his long wait at Pitsani, rather than accepting whatever mounts could be obtained in the barren wastes of Bechuanaland and leaving it at that. The bugler, trying his best to bugle the calls that Jameson at his side kept telling him to bugle, changing his mind every few seconds, merely added to the confusion and the noise.

It was a complete disaster, and Jameson, staring about him, his mind in shocked confusion, knew it, especially when he saw a hand on his bridle and felt himself being led at a fast gallop back across the swamp to be released out of sight of the melee on the slopes and in the swamp. Luckner had pulled him from the calamity and now rode beside him in silence as they led the remains of their forces back along the trail. A mile or so from the scene of the fiasco they pulled up at a large expanse of open land that gave ample view in all directions so they could not be followed and attacked without warning, although there was no evidence of the Boers attempting to take advantage of the rout they had inflicted upon Jameson and his forces. Luckner set guards, put the surgeons and their helpers to work on the wounded who had escaped, put Lieutenant Willoughby to the task of determining their casualties, and then squatted down beside the silent and shaken Captain Jameson, and the equally silent but angry Lieutenant White. Major Thompson had not survived the battle. The troopers in the meantime had nearly fallen from their exhausted mounts and were lying on the ground, panting, their eyes closed in total collapse.

Luckner put away both the intriguing and intruding thought of Mrs. Varley’s Hotel and the meal they had missed, and tried to concentrate on the problems facing them. He looked at Jameson. “Well, Captain?”

Jameson merely stared back at him, still in shock from the unexpected rout of his men.

Lieutenant White broke into the silence, his voice bitter. “Our mistake was in not giving the men and the animals proper rest at our last camp,” he said, looking at Luckner accusingly. “Men can go without food for days, even without water, but they can’t fight without sleep—”

“Our mistake,” Luckner said, staring at White with no expression at all on his face, although he could feel the old fury rising in him and knew in his bones that one day he’d have to teach the lieutenant a lesson with his boots, “was in trusting the report of those lying scouts. Nothing more. They should be court-martialed and shot. Someone paid them to lead us into that ambush, and I guarantee I’ll find out who did!”

“You’re insane! They were trying to do their job without rest. They were at a point of exhaustion where they couldn’t properly report. They were blind for sleep,” White said angrily, “and with the sun in their eyes—”

“I agree with Luckner,” Jameson suddenly said, forcing himself to come out of the fog that seemed to have taken control of his brain, compelling himself to once more assume command. “Fatigue is no excuse for reporting lies. But what will happen to the scouts is a matter to be determined in the future after investigation. We don’t even know if they came out of the battle alive. At the moment our problem is in getting to Johannesburg, because it’s obvious we’re not going to get to Krugersdorp.” The mere act of speaking, of making decisions once again, seemed to help bring him from his hazy state, to bring back partial control of himself. “We’ll stay here until dusk, resting the men and the animals, and then bypass Krugersdorp in the darkness. We’re only about twenty miles from Jo’burg and we’ll just have to make it under forced conditions.” He looked at each man in turn. “Do either of you know the way around Krugersdorp and back on the road to Jo’burg?”

There was silence from the two. Then Luckner cleared his throat.

“Granted the men and horses could use rest at this point,” he said quietly, “but the longer we remain here, the longer the Boers have to bring up fresh horses and fresh men. They know full well the losses they’ve inflicted on us; all they have to do is count the bodies on the ridge and in the swamp. I know the men need rest, but I don’t believe they need all that much rest. It’s barely eight in the morning, Captain; by noon the men should have had ample rest. The fact is, we’ve been badly beaten, but there’s no need for Jo’burg or the Reform Committee to ever know about it, or at least not until after the revolution, and then it really won’t matter. I estimate we still have at least three hundred men, and that’s plenty to put over the revolution, or at least to stiffen the backs of the committee. But only if we get there quickly. Why not let the men rest until noon, and then let’s get on our way? I’ll find the road around Krugersdorp somehow.”

Jameson frowned, thinking. White kept silent. Luckner clinched his argument.

“If we don’t know the road, or if it’s unfamiliar to us, then trying to push through to Jo’burg in darkness, is insane. Besides, the Boer will be expecting us to march at night; we’ve been doing it all along. He’ll probably be sleeping this afternoon.”

“That’s true,” Jameson conceded, and forced himself to make a decision. He looked at White. “Tell the men they have until noon to rest. Then we ride for Jo’burg.” His head swiveled to Luckner. “And you find the road.”

“Right,” both men said, and came to their feet. Jameson stayed where he was, staring at the ground, waiting for Lieutenant Willoughby and his casualty report, although the captain knew it was going to be bad…

The two boys were apparently tending geese, sitting on the ground beside the shallow pan with bits of sedge grass between their teeth, talking idly, watching the goslings waddle down the shallow bank and follow their parents into the water, paddling along behind them bravely, ducking their heads for food as their parents did, trying to raise their necks impressively as their parents did, but failing conspicuously. Luckner drew up his mount, looking down at the boys with no expression on his scarred face, while his horse drank thirstily from the edge of the pan, the geese and goslings hurrying away from the puffling sound. Luckner had come back along their trail the night before for several miles before he had spotted the boys; there had been no other possible road that might lead them out of their position and around Krugersdorp. Luckner studied the frightened faces. Too young to bear arms, he thought, but they’ll grow up to be as vicious as any other Boer, I’ll warrant! Still, they were probably also too young to lie, although he was sure from their nervous expressions that he could frighten them out of any tendency to lie in any event. The two had stopped talking and had scrambled to their feet at his approach, staring at him, influenced, he could see, by his hard, scarred face, and by his trooper’s uniform.

“Boys,” he said, “do either one of you know the way around Krugersdorp to hit the road to Jo’burg to the south?”

The boys remained silent, looking first at each other and then back at the man seated on the horse.

“Now, boys,” Luckner said, smiling a humorless, a dangerous smile, “I asked you a question. It isn’t polite not to answer. Didn’t your pa ever tell you that? Or your ma?”

One of the boys finally found his voice. He pointed off to the left. “There’s a kopje about three miles from here,” he said, trying to keep his voice from trembling. “Actually, two kopjes, maybe fifty yards apart, maybe a hundred yards high. You can’t miss them. They look like a woman’s tits.” The two boys giggled a bit nervously at this apt description, and then straightened their faces to see the waiting man remain with graven face. The one boy swallowed and went on. “They got trees on them, mostly sneeze-wood. You go between them and about a mile on you’ll see another pan like this one, only a little bigger. Skirt it to the left and you’ll run into the road from Krugersdorp to Johannesburg.”

Luckner scowled at the boys, his face as hard as he could make it look.

“You boys wouldn’t lie to me, would you? Because if that was the case, I’d be coming back this way, and I wouldn’t be pleased. And when I’m not pleased, I hurt people.” His voice was threatening. His one hand reached back to touch the whip he had coiled at the pommel of his saddle, and then slid to rest on the hilt of his saber a moment. “I hurt them bad.”

“Oh, no, sir!” the boy said hurriedly. He pointed again, as if to confirm his first information. “My pa took me to Johannesburg once. That’s the way we went. It’s got ox-wagon tracks you can’t miss. It’s the way lots of people from north of Krugersdorp go, to miss the town.”

“Well,” Luckner said, “in that case, thank you.” He sounded anything but thankful. He remained seated on his horse, towering over the boys, thinking. He considered the possibility that the boys might report his questioning to some adults and that, in turn, the Boer commandos might hear of it, but if they did it would be too late for them to do anything about it. And if he killed the boys and Jameson ever heard of it — and word was bound to get around, even to Johannesburg — the captain, in his lily-livered way, would probably raise all sorts of hell over the matter, knowing who had gone back to ask around and locate the road. And if Captain Jameson didn’t, then that bastard White would. The boys were staring at him a bit fearfully, as if they might have read his mind. Luckner leaned over, giving the boys a closer look at his scarred face. “And you two keep quiet about my asking you any questions, hear? Or I’ll come back and cut off your little puds, and then you’ll never enjoy a woman, tits or no tits!”

He turned and wheeled his horse, returning in the direction of their temporary campsite, intent upon getting Jameson to reduce the rest period even further, and get them on the road as soon as possible. The one boy looked at the other, his eyes twinkling.

“Nasty man, isn’t he?”

“They’re all nasty men,” the second said contemptuously. “Not very smart, but nasty. Still,” he added, thinking about it, “we’d better get away from here before they come through.”

“Why? We don’t have to get away before they come,” the first boy pointed out. “Our staying will prove we didn’t lie to the man. It’s the way their heads work.” He grinned. “Besides, I’d like to see what they look like after the swamp and the ridge.”

“A lot better than they’ll look after the twin kopjes,” the other boy predicted, and also grinned. “You’re right. Let’s get a look at them,” and he settled down again, reaching for a new bit of sedge grass. The geese marched steadily across the pond, obediently followed by the goslings.

Jameson compromised on leaving the rest area at eleven in the morning, to the satisfaction of Luckner and the profound disgust of Lieutenant White. Forty-two men had died on the ridge and in the swamp; sixty-seven had been wounded, and of these, thirty-five were too badly injured to ride their mounts at the fast pace necessary to reach Johannesburg as quickly as possible. That left the captain with three hundred and four able-bodied troopers, plus thirty-two who could ride but would be of limited use in case of any running battle with the Boer commandos as they galloped along the road to Johannesburg. Still, Jameson thought, it might have been worse. At least they did have a way around Krugersdorp, thanks to Luckner. Otherwise they would have had to pause in their ride to Jo’burg to raid one or more farms for food for the men and feed for the animals, and that delay might well have proven fatal to the revolution. Now it was just a matter of time, a matter of hours.

He rode at the head of his men with Luckner beside him to point out the trail, and with his bugler and Lieutenant White behind him, and Willoughby halfway down the column of twos, beside the one surgeon they were taking, accompanying the riding wounded. The other surgeons had been left behind, to be rescued when and if possible, together with the many more seriously wounded; a flag with a prominent white cross on it had been placed in a very visible position before the abandoned campsite, and tents, similarly marked, had been set up for a hospital.

The troop was galloping at a pace that Jameson realized could not be maintained for long by the jaded horses, but once they were below Krugersdorp and well on the way to Johannesburg, he felt they could ease their pace, for they would be in territory too close to Johannesburg and the armed men there for the Boers to seriously consider an attack without threat to themselves. They turned from the trail at the shallow pan, galloping into the trail that Luckner pointed out. The two boys, Luckner was pleased to see, were still there and watching them; he felt a touch of pride that his fierce appearance had served to seal their lips where harsher methods might have failed. More than one man in the column stared at the swimming geese with more than a touch of hunger as they swept by them, but then they set their faces resolutely ahead. They had endured too much to be deterred from their goal now. They were on their way to Johannesburg, within hours of their target, and with no bloody Boer standing between them and the town. The scouts — the new scouts — had ridden past the twin kopjes and all the way to the connection with the Jo’burg road and had reported all was quiet.

It was hot, the full heat of a South African summer at high noon, and the heavy uniforms caught the perspiration of the troopers, weighing them down; the dust ate its way through the damp cloth to attack the skin beneath. It coated the dry lips and caked the edges of their eyes; it clogged their noses and abraded their ears; it worked its way into their jodhpurs and chafed the skin of their legs and thighs. The sweat of their horses made their knees slide along the flanks of their mounts, acting almost as spurs to the weary animals; they rode in a swarm of flies. They were an army of last resort, but determined to finish their dash from Pitsani in proper style and complete their mission of saving Johannesburg from the wicked Boer. They were troopers saving the Queen, and if they were saving Cecil Rhodes and his ambitions instead, it was too late to think about that.

They came around a curve in the trail, and there, less than a thousand yards away, as the two boys had promised and as the new scouts had confirmed, they could see the rounded twin kopjes with a scattering of sneezewood trees atop them, rising from the flatness of the plain. Like hairy warts on a woman’s tits, indeed, Luckner thought, grinning, and put his spurs to his mount to keep up with Jameson. The last few hours of the long three days was almost in sight; the clear road to Johannesburg lay just to the left of the pan he knew they would soon sight once they had cleared the narrow valley between the twin hills.

The leaders were well into the small valley, the troopers crowding behind, praying for sight of the final trail, the road they would ride down with pride, their shoulders back despite their hunger and their privation, into Jo’burg to face the cheering of the residents. Each man could taste his meal that evening, piled before him in unlimited quantities and enjoyed as no meal had been enjoyed before; each man disregarded the galling of his gritty uniform against his sweaty legs as he felt the bitter tang of hops in his throat at the thought of the beer he would drink that night; each man could almost feel the soft arms of one of the town’s so-called loose women thrown about him in appreciation of his having protected her virtue. And then, even as they spurred their tired horses to even greater effort, digging spurs into already blood-flecked flanks, each man froze in his saddle as he heard, above the pounding of his horse’s hooves, what he had heard once before on that fateful day.

“Skiet!”

From the rounded, breastlike hills on either side of the narrow trail on which they found themselves, the two kopjes seemed to burst into flame and smoke as the Boer commandos, waiting for them in their ambush, each rose to his knees from behind some rock, or edged his gun from behind some tree, to pour a wave of rifle fire down on the entrapped troopers. Each end of the small valley was suddenly closed as Boers took position there, down in the deep sedge grass, unable to be seen, adding additional firepower into the panicked troopers, their mounts now frenzied beyond endurance or control, churning dust as they wheeled meaninglessly in the confined space, neighing in terror, stumbling over the bodies of fellow animals down with bullet wounds in their bodies, stepping on shot troopers, trying desperately to escape the withering fire. It was chaos. Jameson found himself, almost without volition, turning to his bugler, screaming above the bedlam.

“Give me your undershirt!”

“Sir?”

Jameson pulled his horse next to the puzzled man. He leaned across his pommel, pulling the other man’s outer shirt away, ripping the undershirt from the man’s body, hastily tying it to his saber. He drove his spurs deep into his horse’s flank, forcing the terrified animal up the side of the nearest kopje, waving the saber frantically in the air.

“Staak skiet!”

As quickly as it had come, the firing ceased. The troopers stared about themselves in a daze, unable as yet to comprehend the sudden attack and the equally sudden ending of it, looking down in shock at the bodies of their comrades lying broken beneath the hooves of their mounts, and the unbelievable sight of their captain waving the flag of surrender, unable as yet to understand the totality of the disaster that had struck. The surviving horses jerked their heads against the reins, trembling uncontrollably at the sudden silence, their flanks wet with perspiration, their mouths frothing, their eyes wild.

A figure appeared on a horse atop one of the kopjes; a hand was raised and men appeared on both kopjes, coming from behind the trees and up from the tall grass, waiting silently, looking down with dour expressionless faces at the results of their ambush, their rifles at their sides but ready. Jameson dismounted and slowly climbed the hill, the white flag trailing at his feet as his arm drooped. His mind was a blank, refusing at first to accept the fact that he had actually surrendered; then it tried to take what satisfaction it could from the fact that he had been forced to surrender, had had no choice but to surrender. But it was bitter medicine for the doctor. With each step he took he knew that the revolution had failed because of his failure. He knew that his best friend, Cecil Rhodes, would have been put in an untenable position as Premier of the Cape because of his failure. Bitter medicine indeed…

He came to stand beside the mounted man, looking up in the face of a tall, bearded man dressed in overalls, with farm boots on his feet, and who wore a wide-brimmed, leather trekker’s hat. The man looked as if he had been called from a day’s work on his farm at a moment’s notice, not at all like the neatly uniformed troopers who had left Pitsani in such high spirits. Jameson wet his lips and spoke. It seemed to him as if he were standing to one side, listening to some stranger say the words.

“We are your prisoners, sir. We have left wounded behind. My men have not eaten for over two days…”

The ill-fated Jameson raid was over.

13

January 1896

The cells were airless, filthy, and the vermin had free run of the place. There were no cots; the prisoners slept on the floor when they slept at all. A trickle of water running down a gutter in the yard was their only means of washing themselves; the heat of the South African summer was at its unbearable maximum. Three buckets, emptied only every second day, served as their privy. Most of the line troops involved in the ill-fated expedition had been freed, sent back across the border to Bechuanaland with the admonition never to enter the Transvaal again, but the leaders had been held and the members of the Reform Committee had been rounded up and also jailed, held for trial on the charges of treason and the distribution of arms. Jameson himself had been turned over to the Cape authorities to be sent to England for trial by his own government. It was a decision that Paul Kruger regretted as soon as Jameson had crossed the border into the Cape.

Barney Barnato, entering the prison after the many weeks it had taken him to get permission for the visit, wrinkled his nose at the smell. It was worse than anything he could recall, worse than the rancid, fetid odors in the slums of the East End where he had been raised, worse than the stench of offal and human waste that had greeted him when he had first come to Kimberley. Yet Solly Loeb, as well as most of the other prisoners he saw, seemed to be in a rather cheerful frame of mind. Solly was far from his usual dapper self, but the open-necked shirt and trousers dirty from the weeks in the jail did not seem to perturb him at all.

“You get used to not changing clothes every day,” he said, smiling. “You also — fortunately — even get used to the smell.”

“How about the food?” Barney asked.

Solly’s smile broadened. “Some of the wives have been, given permits to visit. My own wife brought in a box of cigars and a roasted duckling under her bustle; Grey’s wife came with a sausage wrapped around her waist. And money is a wonderful thing. A pound note here and a fiver there and we can get anything we want. The jailers are more like valets than warders. Not all of them, of course,” he added. “Du Plessis, the head warder, is a monster. He has Kaffirs beaten so we can hear them scream. It’s supposed to intimidate us, to make us frightened. He’s a fool.” He said it contemptuously.

Barney studied his nephew. Solly seemed a lot braver than Barney could ever recall. “Well, I must say you’re taking it well.”

Solly shrugged. “It’s just one of those unfortunate occurrences. The lawyers say the trial will take place in a week or so, and once that nonsense is over with and out of the way, we’ll be out of here.”

Barney stared at him in surprise. “And just what makes you think you’ll be out of here once the trial is over? You can’t possibly hope to be let go without any punishment whatsoever.”

Solly’s look was superior. It was, after all, one more example of his uncle’s innocence.

“Our lawyers told us that all old Kruger wants is an admission of guilt. The old man doesn’t want our blood; what would he do with it? If we admit we were naughty boys, he’ll slap us on the wrist, make us pay something into that ever-hungry treasury of his, and tell us to behave in the future. It’s as simple as that.”

“What!” Barney was shocked. “You’re insane! And so are your so-called lawyers! They had you plead guilty? Guilty? To a charge of treason? Whatever made them, or you, think Kruger would free you, especially after an idiot plea like that?”

Solly looked at him almost with condescension. “Look, Barney. I know you’re on speaking terms with old Kruger, but that doesn’t make you an expert on everything he says or does. Our lawyers know the old man, too, and what’s more important, they know the prosecuting attorney as well. Be reasonable! What would it gain old man Kruger to make us sit in this stinking hole for a few extra weeks or even months? We wouldn’t be making money, and that means we wouldn’t be paying his taxes, or bribing his officials, or all the hundreds of other things we do every day that keeps the economy of his precious Transvaal from falling to pieces. Half the mines on the Rand have shut down during all this brouhaha. D’you think old man Kruger hasn’t felt the effect of that when he pats his pants pockets? Of course he has! The old man isn’t totally insane, you know.”

“No, but you and your so-called lawyers are! Let me get you proper counsel—”

“No!” Solly’s face got ugly. “Barney, I suppose you mean well, but we’re quite satisfied with the counsel we have now. They were selected by Lionel Phillips, and he knows his way around the corner as well as you do. This is no time to be rocking the boat. Our lawyers have made a deal.” He dropped his voice although there was nobody near who might have overheard. “We plead guilty and we get off with a fine and a slap on the wrist. That’s the deal. Don’t interfere.”

Barney considered Solly for long seconds. He looked around the barren prison yard, seeing the men there, some playing cards, some laughing over some incident. Fools! he thought, and looked back at his nephew. “If that’s the way you want it. Is there anything I can get you?”

“Not a thing.”

“Well… In that case, I’ll be going. Is there anything you’re involved in at the office that needs handling?”

“No, my boys have everything under control.” Solly smiled. “I get regular reports, even in here.”

“The Pretoria branch of the Rand Club, eh? Well, in that case…” Barney nodded his head rather abruptly and walked from the yard where he and Solly had been talking, his prison pass pressed tightly between his fingers. How like Solly to believe anything a man like Lionel Phillips said, or the lawyers that Phillips had selected! How could a nephew of his, flesh of his flesh, blood of his blood, be that damnably stupid? What a pity Solly had been born a Jew! Solly would probably have given everything he possessed to be able to sew that foreskin back in place and take his rightful position among the elite of Johannesburg and the Rand Club, among the machers, the big people, the respectable Christians! He must get down on his knees every night and thank God he wasn’t born with a big hooked nose, or tight, curly hair! Still, the boy was his sister’s son, and he had to do everything possible to save him from his own foolishness. But what could be done in face of such stubbornness?

Behind him as he left the yard, Solly watched his uncle’s back with a look of disdain on his handsome face. Barney Barnato offering him advice! What a joke! If Barney knew one half of what went on in Jo’burg, even as far as his own businesses were concerned, he’d be a lot wiser man than he was. A lot unhappier, too. But the fact was that Barney Barnato was not half as bright as he thought he was, or Solly Loeb would not have been able to feather his own nest so comfortably. And Barney didn’t even have a suspicion! And now he wanted to interfere in something he understood even less than he did business. With a sneer Solly put Barney and Barney’s worries from his mind and started back toward his cell. There was a bottle of bubbly there, as well as half of the roast duckling his wife had brought — if the rats hadn’t eaten it while he was wasting his time with his uncle Barney…

Judge Gregorowski had been called in from Bloemfontein in the Free State to preside at the trial of the sixty members of the Reform Committee, as well as the four men considered the ringleaders in planning and executing the raid: Colonel Frank Rhodes, John Hays Hammond, Carl Luckner, and Lionel Phillips. The trial was scheduled to be held at the Pretoria Town Hall, since the courthouse was considered too small for the large number of defendants and the crowd that was expected to attend. Barney, sitting in the first row of spectators with Fay at his side, gritted his teeth to see the defendants, on benches before him, with Solly among them, laughing and joking among themselves, chatting away quite as if they were merely passing time waiting for the next race at the racecourse, rather than facing trial on a most serious charge.

“Idiots!” he muttered angrily. “Suicidal idiots!”

Fay reached over and took his hand, squeezing it. “Relax, darling.”

“Relax! How can I relax? Can you imagine pleading guilty on a charge of treason. Treason? They’re insane! No proper court in the world would even permit such a plea!”

There was the bang of a gavel, a momentary hushing of the large crowd, and Judge Gregorowski entered and took his place on the bench. The four ringleaders, standing in the movable dock that had been put in place by the black-uniformed warders, turned to face him; the other defendants lounged to their feet as if bored by the entire proceedings. Gregorowski was a large heavy-set man without a hair on his head, and with a huge hooked nose and small beady eyes that looked at the crowd as if suspecting that they, too, probably should have been in the dock as well as the four. After a brief inspection of his audience, he motioned to the prosecuting attorney to begin the proceedings. The prosecutor came to his feet and began reading from a paper, droning the names of the defendants one by one. When he had finished this portion of the indictment, he came to the charge. The crowd fell silent. He spoke in Afrikaans, which most of the defendants could not understand.

“These men,” he said, his tone almost contemptuous, “combined to plan the overthrow of the Government of the Republic of the Transvaal. They freely admit they planned the deed; I have no doubt they even bragged about it among themselves, or at least before they were arrested. They could scarcely do less than admit their guilt, since we are in possession of a letter signed by the four in the dock, found in the possession of a certain Lieutenant White in his dispatch case when the so-called raid of Captain Jameson and his troopers met its deserved end at the twin kopjes of Doornkop outside of Krugersdorp. We consider these four men, therefore, guilty of high treason and ask that they be sentenced accordingly.”

He swung about, facing the other defendants crowded on the benches between Judge Gregorowski and the spectators. Several of the defendants yawned openly. They did not understand a word of Afrikaans and they only wished the wordy bastard would get on with whatever he was trying to say so they could pay whatever fines were going to be imposed and then go home. Fun was fun, but they had wasted enough time in the stinking Pretoria prison, and it was time to get the affair over and done with and get back to work. The prosecutor’s voice became even more contemptuous.

“These other men, these sixty, we simply consider lackeys, fools — dangerous fools who sadly need a lesson, parlous fools had their plan worked, but fools. Dupes. Look at them, Your Honor. They live in our country. Most of them have become prosperous, even wealthy in our country. And yet they planned to overthrow a government that has permitted them the freedom to take the gold from our ground, given them the freedom to build themselves large enterprises, to own huge tracts of land, to exploit our country in every conceivable way, to rob us of our riches, to be more precise. But the State is merciful and does not charge them with high treason. The charge we bring against them, however, is still a serious one. The charge is the distribution of arms, which is proscribed for Uitlanders in our republic. We shall now proceed to prove these charges, Your Honor, although the defendants, both those on the benches before Your Honor and those in the dock, have freely admitted their guilt through their lawyers. They have also agreed not to press any defense but to abide by the decision of this court. We leave to the judgment of Your Honor the punishment for the fools before you, but for the four in the dock, the State requests — nay, demands — the sentence of—”

There was deathly quiet in the large room; people leaned forward on their benches, heat forgotten. Barney’s one fist was clenched tightly; his other hand was squeezing Fay’s hand painfully, but she said nothing. Even the defendants who did not understand the Afrikaans language were suddenly aware that the prosecutor had said something, or was about to say something, of importance. The words came out, flatly, solemnly.

“—hangen by den nek—”

There was a startled gasp from all the defendants as well as from most of the spectators, although there were also some satisfied smiles from others; these words were easily understood whether one spoke the language or not. Angry glares and mutterings broke out among the defendants. It was not possible! A deal had been made, a promise had been broken! Barney stared in bitter anger at the prosecutor, although he knew his fury should have been directed against Lionel Phillips and the idiot lawyers who thought they could make a deal with Paul Kruger after trying to throw him out of his own country. The prosecutor was continuing.

“Your Honor, to begin I should like to present in evidence the letter which these four men in the dock signed, and which was used by Captain Leander Starr Jameson as the excuse for his criminal — and deservedly ill-fated — invasion of the Transvaal territory…”

The following day it was the turn of the defense lawyers, but it was a lost cause and they acted as if they knew it. Barney, listening to them, wondered how anyone that stupid could end up with a university degree and be taken seriously in his profession. The lawyers did their best to undo the damage of their having advised their clients to plead guilty, but their hesitant, stammering words and weak arguments plainly conceded defeat long before they were finished. To state before the court that a deal had supposedly been made with the prosecutor was manifestly impossible; in any case they were sure the only effect of such a statement would have been to make Judge Gregorowski even more intransigent, since he was bound to consider such a deal as being in direct defiance of the law and the authority of his court. And that would undoubtedly result in sentences even more severe. With a final plea for clemency, but with neither fact nor logic to support it, the ashen-faced lawyers sat down, unable to face their clients.

There were several moments of complete silence in the courtroom. Then Judge Gregorowski cleared his throat.

“If the ladies would please absent themselves from the court…”

It was an ominous sign. The wives of the defendants, many of whom did not even speak nor understand Afrikaans, looked about themselves wonderingly, but the movement of the other women in starting to make their way toward the aisles and then toward the rear of the room made the meaning of the judge’s words evident. Some of the women began to cry; other women comforted them as best they could. The warders, dressed all in funereal black, offered aid to the more stricken, while still urging them in the direction of the large doors leading from the room. Fay, with a final squeeze of Barney’s hand and a brave smile for him, made her way from the room with the others. The men remained, silent, waiting.

Judge Gregorowski waited until the warders had closed the doors on the last of the women; then he turned to face the large group of defendants, now standing, who crowded the space before him.

“You men have pleaded guilty to the charge of distributing arms in an attempt to overthrow the Transvaal Republic. It is therefore the sentence of this court that you each be fined the sum of two thousand pounds, that furthermore you each be imprisoned for a period of two years at hard labor, and that following your imprisonment you be banished forever from the Republic of the Transvaal.”

The men stared at him blankly, unable at first to comprehend what to them seemed the enormity of the sentence for such a minor crime. Distributing arms, for heaven’s sake! Who didn’t have arms among the Boers? Children had their own guns when they were seven! Besides, all they had been trying to do had been to assure themselves of their rights as citizens, as any right-thinking Englishman would have done. Besides, what about the deal that had been made? Certainly Gregorowski had to know about it. Why wasn’t he taking that into consideration? The thing had only been a prank, basically, and now they were being sent to serve two years at hard labor, and then banished from their homes afterward, for life? It wasn’t fair! It certainly wasn’t just!

The judge bit back a cruel smile of satisfaction at the perturbation he could see on the faces before him, the sentence by now having been translated in whispers to those who had not understood; then Gregorowski straightened his lips. He reached beneath the bench and brought forth a small square of black silk. He placed it on his bald head and turned to consider the four men facing him white-faced in the makeshift dock; the movement caused the silk to slip on the smooth skin of the judge’s head and only a quick fumbling movement on his part retrieved the cloth and kept it from falling. At any other time the gesture might have appeared comical, but there was no sign of a smile on any face in the room at that moment. The judge spoke, his voice harsh.

“For the crime of high treason against the Transvaal Republic, it is the sentence of this court that you four men be taken to the place of execution and there be hanged by the neck until you are dead.” He drew a deep breath. “May Almighty God have mercy on your souls…”

President Paul Kruger looked up from the papers he was studying as his aide entered the room and cleared his throat hesitantly for attention. Had his aide been anyone except his wife’s nephew he would have been dismissed long since. Kruger sighed.

“Yes? What is it?”

“Mr. Barnato is here. He would like a few minutes of your time.”

“Oh?”

“He… he’s dressed all in black, in mourning, and he has crepe around his hat. I… I imagine it’s in regard to the trial.”

“I imagine it is,” Kruger said briskly, surprised at his aide’s perception. Maybe something could be done with the boy yet. “Where is he?”

The aide appeared a bit puzzled. “He didn’t come in, sir. He went back and sat down on the top step of the stoep—”

Kruger’s face did not change expression a bit. “Tell Mr. Barnato I will see him in here. He will understand. This is not a friendly visit. No, don’t tell him that last part!” he added with irritation as he saw the aide silently repeating his words after him. Maybe nothing could be done with the boy, after all. “Idiot!” he muttered as his aide left the room, and put aside the papers he had been working on.

Barney came into the room and stood, crepe-banded hat in hand, before the seated Kruger as the aide withdrew, closing the door softly behind him. It was evident from the aide’s words and looks that this was going to be quite different from the meetings he had had with Kruger in the past. Kruger considered him for several moments, his fleshy face almost granitelike, and then gestured a trifle formally toward a chair. Barney seated himself, placing his hat on the floor beside him. He recognized that Kruger was being distant to avoid making any concessions to him, but he also recognized that the situation was far too serious to be put off by minor dramatics.

“Mr. President—”

Kruger waved a hand abruptly, interrupting. “Mr. Barnato, I can imagine why you are here. I’m very busy, but in view of our past relationship, I have granted you a few minutes of my time. Let me save you time. The trial is over; the sentences passed. There is nothing I can do.”

“Mr. President, there are many things you can do!” Barney was leaning forward, his eyes fixed on Kruger’s unbending face, his voice urgent in its force. “You can commute the sentences, you can cancel them altogether. You can declare the trial a farce, which it was. Whoever heard of pleading guilty to a charge of treason? It’s the same as taking a gun to your head and pulling the trigger! Whoever heard of putting your defense aside and leaving it up to the court to give you whatever sentence it decides on? Don’t tell me there isn’t anything you can do!”

Kruger’s voice was cold. “Perhaps I mean there is nothing I wish to do. Nothing I intend to do. Tell me, Mr. Barnato,” Kruger went on, his voice remaining expressionless, “suppose this raid had succeeded? Suppose the people of Johannesburg, without reason but incited by these dangerous fools, suppose they had risen in revolt at the successful entrance of Jameson and his troopers into the city? Suppose the attack on the arsenal here in Pretoria had been successful — oh, yes, we were fully aware of the intention long before your Captain Jameson became impetuous and started ahead of his instructions — suppose, in brief, that the revolution had been a success? What would your Colonel Frank Rhodes, or your John Hays Hammond, or your Carl Luckner, or your Lionel Phillips — what would these gentlemen have done with old Oom Paul Kruger?” He made a gesture, one hand drawn across his throat.

“No, sir! They would never have harmed you! They are civilized men—”

Kruger laughed, a harsh laugh.

“Civilized men? Who? Your Captain Jameson, who made a peace pact with the Matabele and then went in with his troopers when Lobengula was unprepared and slaughtered his tribesmen and sent him to die in the bush? Who? Your Carl Luckner, who kicked your own father-in-law to death with his boots for nothing at all? We know of these things, Mr. Barnato; we know our enemies. These are civilized men who rode into our Transvaal Republic, a country at peace with the world, with hundreds of armed troopers with the intention of taking over our country, and of killing anyone in their way? Civilized men! They sent their wives just yesterday to plead with my wife to intercede with me for mercy. My wife, Sanne, said, ‘And if they had had their way, what would they have done to my husband?’ And they said nothing, Mr. Barnato; they had nothing to say. Women know, Mr. Barnato; they know. Ask your own wife, she’ll tell you.” He shook his head. “No, Mr. Barnato. If you let a lion live after he tries to kill you, will he appreciate it? In the Bible it says that Daniel aided a lion and the lion remembered, but Daniel was a prophet, and we are not prophets, Mr. Barnato. Daniel was a holy man, but we are not holy men, Mr. Barnato. No; if you let a lion live after he tries to kill you, he will simply think you are weak or that you are stupid and he will strike you down at the next opportunity. Although,” he added with contempt, “what we are talking about here are not lions, but jackals.”

“Mr. President,” Barney said, fighting down the feeling that he was wasting his time with the arguments he was using, “believe me when I tell you I know these people. It would have been a bloodless — a bloodless—”

Kruger smiled humorlessly at the other man’s hesitation.

“A bloodless what, Mr. Barnato? A bloodless revolution? Other than hanging poor old Oom Paul Kruger, and who would worry about that except old Kruger himself, and maybe his family? A bloodless revolution, Mr. Barnato? Was there ever such a thing?” He leaned forward a bit, his jaw hard. “Let me tell you something! They killed twelve of our people, and for that they should all be hanged, not just those four! True, they lost more than that themselves, many more, but they killed twelve innocent Boers — twelve innocent men and boys! Killed! Men and boys who only wanted to be left alone to tend their farms and their flocks and their herds!” Kruger leaned back, his face rigid. “You know these people, you say? I never met them, but I know them better!”

Barney took a deep breath and changed his tactics. “Mr. President, look what you have gained from this affair—”

“Gained?” The bushy eyebrows went up. “Gained what? Twelve dead men and boys? Boer mothers who look to me to protect their husbands and sons, and now come to me crying?”

Barney looked Kruger in the eye. “Cecil Rhodes has resigned as Premier of the Cape because of this fiasco. I know how you feel about Rhodes as well as I know how he has always felt about you. You and he have been enemies for years. He’s a sick man and now, beyond that, he’s finished politically because of this raid. Surely that’s a gain for you. You can afford to be merciful.”

Kruger considered him almost sadly as he slowly shook his head.

“Mr. Barnato, you are a businessman, not a politician or a soldier. Stay with your businesses and leave politics and soldiering to others. The resignation of Cecil Rhodes will not help the Transvaal a bit. Eventually, probably — almost assuredly — it will mean further tension between the Boers and the British. It may in time, in a very short time, lead to war. Rhodes may have resigned because he had no choice after encouraging, even organizing, an attack on a friendly neighbor, but he will never give up his ambitions as long as he breathes. Nor, unfortunately, will England. We are a small people and Britain is a very large empire. The failure of Jameson’s raid will not end anything; most probably it will only begin something.”

He looked at Barney a moment, his forehead wrinkling as he asked the question.

“Tell me something, Mr. Barnato. What is your interest in this? I know you opposed the Reform Committee. I know you were opposed to any action against my government. What is your interest in saving these lives? In saving men like Carl Luckner, for example?”

“Carl Luckner is just a name, one man; he means nothing,” Barney said evenly, “but lives and living mean a great deal. I originally brought John Hays Hammond to this country. I will not see him hanged. Frank Rhodes has many faults, but he is a soldier and he thought he was doing his duty to his country. I cannot see him hanged. Solly Loeb is my nephew, my sister’s son. I will not see him in prison for two years. You are speaking of hanging four men. You are speaking of taking another sixty men and putting them in one of your prisons for two years at hard labor. Some of these men are not strong enough to stand two years in one of your prisons, Mr. President. For them the sentence is also a death sentence. I cannot stand by and see this happen.”

“They should have considered all that when they planned their revolt,” Kruger said coldly. “Our prisons are not meant to be holiday reports; they are meant to punish. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, says the Bible.” He came to his feet, indicating the interview was over. “I believe in the Bible, Mr. Barnato. I believe in the law. So I can only repeat what I said before. There is nothing I can do.”

Barney came to his feet as well. “I do not accept that statement, Mr. President,” he said, now fighting down his anger. “You have the power to commute those insane sentences, and we both know it. Well, I have power, too. If you do not commute those sentences within the next two weeks — and I mean no hangings, no prison with or without hard labor, no banishment, but any reasonable fine you wish — I will shut down every property I own or control in the entire Transvaal! I will put out of work over twenty thousand white men and over one hundred thousand Kaffirs! Your economy will lose the fifty thousand pounds my companies spend in your republic every week; you will lose the taxes I pay that keep your republic running! D’you want to ruin your precious republic just for the satisfaction of getting revenge on a bunch of fools?”

Kruger’s usually ruddy face whitened. “Mr. Barnato, sir, are you threatening me?”

“Yes, sir, Mr. President. I’m threatening the existence of the entire Transvaal and its economy. I’m threatening what you have worked for all your life. And it’s a threat I can carry out. If you doubt me, read the newspapers tomorrow morning!”

He snatched up his hat and stormed from the room, not taking the time for the usual amenities with the President of the Republic. Kruger stared after him, trying his best not to let the anger that swept him either voice itself or affect his judgment. He was, after all, the President of a country, and he should be above anger. But it was difficult, for he knew Barney Barnato well enough to realize the man’s threat had not been an idle one. And without the revenues from the Barnato properties, the Transvaal would, indeed, suffer. He sighed. It was a decision that would have to be taken to the Executive Committee, although he knew in the long run the decision would have to be his. What would Abraham have done? What would Isaac have done…?

Barney Barnato, followed by all the newspaper reporters in Johannesburg that he had been able to contact, began putting up the notices of the closing of the mines and his other properties himself that very night. One of the reporters, John Ryan of the Rand Daily Mail and an old acquaintance, paused in his scribbling to trot alongside Barney as Barney climbed into his trap and prepared to move on to his next objective. Ryan put his hand on the horse’s bridle, preventing it from moving, and dropped his voice, not wishing to share any information he might be able to garner.

“Come on, Barney! Be a pal. What’s this promotion really all about?”

Barney stared down at the man. “Johnny, didn’t you hear what I said to all the boys before?”

“I heard it, but who gives up a fortune just to stop a few men from going to prison? The chances are that Kruger isn’t going to hang the four. There’d be too much noise around the world if he did. He’s just giving them a skrik, a fright. Then he’ll give them prison sentences like the others. And who’s going to close all his mines and other businesses to save men from doing a few years in quod, especially men he was in open disagreement with? Men who weren’t particularly his friends? Men who, in many countries, would probably have been shot for what they did, instead of getting off with a mere two years on the rock pile? Who would throw away a fortune for them?”

“I would, that’s who. Now, let the horse go.”

“Look, Barney, I know you too well—”

“Let the horse go, or you’ll get the whip!”

The reporter released the horse but stepped up into the trap next to Barney. Barney hesitated a moment and then reluctantly slid to one side, letting Ryan enter the vehicle, rather than waste any more time. There was a chorus of complaining yells from the other reporters, but Ryan waved them away. Barney shook the reins, putting the trap in motion.

“Now, look, Barney,” Ryan said, trying to sound reasonable, “there’s a story in this, and you know me well enough to know I’ve got to get it. Why these notices you’re posting? And give me the real reason, this time. It’s not to save Carl Luckner’s hide, I’m sure.”

Barney spoke without looking at the man. “How about saving my sister’s son, Solly Loeb, from two years at hard labor in one of Kruger’s hell-hole prisons?”

The reporter looked at him in utter disbelief. “To save Solly Loeb? I should have thought you’d have paid to have him put away! I’ve wondered for the past year why you didn’t, but I figured you knew your business. Now I’m beginning to wonder.”

Barney frowned. He turned to stare at the man. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Ryan still could not believe it. “You mean you don’t know?”

“Know what?” Barney was beginning to lose his temper. “Look, Johnny, start talking before I toss you out of the rig! Know what?”

“Know that your precious Solly Loeb has been cheating you for a long, long time!”

“What!” Barney’s hand jerked at the reins; the horse skittered and then recovered. Barney glared at Ryan. “You’re a liar!”

Johnny Ryan sighed. “Barney, reporters don’t lie. They may exaggerate, sometimes, but they don’t lie. And in any event, this isn’t even an exaggeration. You know, Barney, you’re a bright guy and I like you, but sometimes you’re a damn fool. You can’t see what’s under your nose, and most people are afraid to tell you. I know you’re a busy man, what with the new playhouse you’re building, and the improvements in the racecourse, and everything else you’re involved in, but it wouldn’t hurt you to pay some attention to your business every now and then.”

“What are you talking about?”

“For example,” Ryan said, quite as if Barney had not interrupted him, “have you heard of a new company in Jo’burg? The Reef Investment Company? A little over a year old. And going strong.”

“I’ve heard of it, of course. They’re competitors. Tough competitors, Solly tells me.”

Ryan snorted. “Solly tells you, does he? Well, he should know: he owns it.”

“What!”

“That’s right. Lock, stock, and barrel. He’s taken a good number of Barnato investors along with him to Reef — all the while running Barnato. Running it into the ground, that is. I thought at first it was a ploy of yours, but I’ve done some checking around. You’re just the innocent babe in the woods, waiting for the robins to come along and cover you with leaves.”

Barney pulled up the reins; the horse obediently stopped. Barney considered Ryan with dangerous quiet. “I don’t believe you.”

“Then you’re the only one in town who doesn’t. They’ve been laughing at you, Barney. One half the town’s been laughing at you. The other half has been praying you’d be taken down a peg or two. They resent you not taking a part in this revolt thing. They resent your success. They resent your money. They resent your being a Jew. They resent your friendship with Kruger, who they hate like poison. Maybe I’m foolish for telling you all this, but it’s high time somebody did. You’re throwing away a fortune, if what you told the boys is true, for men who don’t deserve it.”

“Then I guess I’m going to throw it away,” Barney said without expression, and whipped the horse up again. “Reach behind you for another poster, Johnny. We’ll be at the Primrose shaft in a few minutes.”

The reporter stared at him a moment. Barney returned the stare imperturbably. Johnny Ryan sighed and then, with a shrug of nonunderstanding, reached behind the seat for another notice of closure. One thing he knew, though: whether Barney Barnato was being a damned fool or not, it was going to be one hell of a story.

Paul Kruger had donned his most formal dress; across his barrel chest ran a new and lustrous blue-green silk sash of office, and although he was seated indoors on his favorite chair in the front sitting room of his home, a new tophat graced his large head, quite as if he were presiding over the Volksraad. Barney, shown into the presidential presence, stood almost at attention before the impressive-looking man.

“You sent for me, Mr. President?”

Kruger waited until his aide had withdrawn, closing the door behind him, and then looked at Barney. His hands, bent arthritically around the curved lions’ heads at the end of the chair’s arms, were clenched about the ornate wood tightly; there was the pain of defeat in his old eyes.

“Mr. Barnato, I have asked you here to give you the decision of the Executive Committee of the Volksraad. It is a decision made with mercy. The sentences of those involved in the attempt to overthrow the Transvaal Republic have been commuted. The four ringleaders, upon payment of a proper fine, will be freed and deported, banished for life from the Transvaal. There can be no discussion on this point. The sixty other men involved in the so-called Reform Committee will be freed upon payment of a proper fine, but not deported nor banished from the Transvaal.”

No muscle moved in Barney’s face at this triumph. “Thank you, Mr. President.”

“In return, I expect the notices of closure on your properties will be removed.”

“By nightfall, Mr. President.” He hesitated as Kruger remained silent. “Is there anything else, Mr. President?”

“Yes. One thing.” There was a moment’s silence before Kruger continued. When he did there was a touch of sadness in his voice, but the rigid hardness of steel as well. “You will not be welcome in this house again, Mr. Barnato.”

“I’m sorry to hear it, Mr. President.” It was an unfortunate thing, Barney knew, but he could understand it. He wondered if, under the same circumstances, he could have voiced the same dictum with the same composure. He bent his head a fraction and this time, in deference to the old man sitting there so majestically, while at the same time so helplessly defeated, Barney Barnato slowly backed from the room, his head remaining bent in recognition of having been in the presence of a great man, a man he had been privileged to know as a friend, a man he had bested for others who were, in effect, far more his enemies than the old man sitting so rigidly in the gloom of the rococo room.

“England,” Barney said to Fay with a broad smile, and patted her growing stomach affectionately. “You’ll have Jason, or Michelle, or whoever, there. Would you like that? A proper doctor, with proper nurses, in a proper hospital if you want — everything proper and the best for our second kind. What d’you say?”

Fay smiled at him a bit mischievously. “Kinder, most likely. What if I have two Jasons, or two Michelles? I’m getting awfully big, you know. Could they handle that in England?”

Barney waved the question away majestically. “Lydy, us’ns can ‘andle anythin’ in ol’ Lunnon Town! Bybies er men folk. Er women folk, fer all o’ that.” He dropped the atrocious and nearly forgotten accent and grinned at Fay. “We’ll be able to see Harry and his family again, and my folks who are still alive, thank God, and I’ll show Leah the King of Prussia where her uncle Harry was a bouncer and her daddy used to do his first juggling act, and I’ll stand her a ginger beer and you a regular beer just for putting up with me all these years — if the King is still there, of course. How would you like that?”

“If that’s what you want, darling—” She saw some of the joy leave his face and added swiftly, softly, “It’s what I want, too, darling. When I say I want what you want, it isn’t just to make a concession to you. It’s because what pleases you pleases me. And going to England again will please both of us. Besides,” she added, as if to put a touch of logic into the discussion, “Leah Primrose should meet her cousins, get to know her family. I love the idea. When do we leave?”

“In a month. I’ve booked us passage on the Scott; it’s an all-steam ship,” Barney said, spirits restored. God, after all the years one word from Fay could still raise him to heaven or devastate him! “We can stop on the way to the Cape and spend a few days in Kimberley, see old friends, look in on the Paris Hotel, drop by Dutoitspan, remember when and where we first met.” He looked at Fay, serious now. “D’you remember those days?”

She reached for him, taking his hand, squeezing it tightly.

“They’re rather hard to forget, darling. I sat in that tent with my pa, cutting cloth for miners’ pants, basting for Pa to sew, wondering what on earth I’d done on the trail to keep you away from me, to make you forget me so soon, or to want to forget me.”

“And I went from sorting shed to sorting shed with old Rhodes, wondering how on earth I could get up the nerve to tell you that a nobody like me was in love with a beautiful girl like you—”

Fay smiled. “You mean, in love with a beautiful, rich, well-dressed” — her smile faltered a bit at the memory — “shy, silly, terribly frightened girl like me, with ugly hands.” She looked down at her hands and then pulled Barney to her, holding him tightly. “Oh, Barney, we’ve been so lucky!”

“We’ll always be lucky,” Barney said, and meant it. He paused as there was a discreet tap on the open door; a servant was there, waiting for their attention. “Yes?”

“Your nephew is here.”

Fay looked at him questioningly. “Solly? For dinner?”

“No, just for a few minutes. I asked him to drop in before dinner. He’ll be coming to England with us.” He turned to the servant. “In the living room.”

“Oh?” Fay said. “That’s nice. I’ll have some tea made.”

“I think he may prefer whiskey tonight,” Barney said enigmatically, and walked into the living room, forming the words in his mind he intended to use, although he had considered them in detail for some time. When Solly appeared, debonair as usual, Barney nodded to him pleasantly and walked over, shutting the door. Solly sat down in an easy chair and brought out a large cigar, lighting it, leaning back comfortably.

“You wanted to see me, Barney?”

“Yes.” Barney sat down opposite him. “I’m going to England, taking Fay and Leah Primrose with me. I thought it would be good for Fay to have the baby there with decent care and everything. And it’s about time for Leah to meet her family, anyway.”

Solly nodded. “It’s a good idea. Everything here will be handled. Not to worry.”

“I’m not worried,” Barney said, and smiled. “I’m sure, in your usual manner, you have everything organized quite well. So well, in fact, that I’m suggesting you come with me.”

“I’m afraid that would be rather difficult at the moment, Barney. There are so many things going on—”

“I’m sure. Still,” Barney said smoothly, “I want you to come with me. I’m positive the stockholders in the Barnato Investment Company would like to have a firsthand report from the man who has practically been running the company for the past few years.”

“I’d like to come,” Solly said with as much sincerity as he could muster. “I honestly would. But with the investment business in the state it’s in, especially after the Jameson affair and the trial and all, I think it would be far better for me to stay here and keep an eye on things. Once things settle down,” he added, making a concession, “I’ll be very happy to join you in London and give as many reports as you wish.”

Barney sighed. He looked at his nephew almost pityingly.

“I don’t believe you understand, Solly,” he said gently. “I’m not asking you. I’m ordering you to come with me.”

Solly looked up, his surprise genuine. “Ordering me?” He laughed. “Barney, slavery has been abolished in South Africa for a long, long time. You should read your history books.” He puffed on his cigar a moment and then set it down in an ashtray, sitting a bit more erect, frowning at his uncle. “Now, just what brought all this on?”

“Many things,” Barney said, and shrugged. “I’ll admit I’ve been derelict in my duty to our clients in that I left many decisions in your hands, allowed you a free hand, as a matter of fact, while I played around with other things that interested me. But lately I’ve been taking a greater interest in the business, checking things out for myself.”

“And?”

“And I ran into a company called the Reef Investment Company.”

“What about the Reef Investment Company?” Solly asked, and now his tone was wary.

“You own it,” Barney said calmly. “Under a dummy, but you own it nevertheless. And you’ve been using it to hurt Barnato Investment. Turning customers from Barnato to Reef. I can only assume you sold your shares in Barnato without informing the company before you started Reef. Very clever.”

Solly sighed and leaned over, crushing out his cigar. He came to his feet, looking down at Barney. When he spoke there was a touch of regret in his voice, but it was not regret for anything he had done to his uncle.

“I suppose it had to come to an end sometime, but I’m just sorry it had to come out before I’d finished the job I was doing on Barnato Investment. I imagine for the sake of your precious stockholders you’ll want my resignation in writing. You’ll have it in the morning.”

Barney looked up at the standing man. Solly was considering him with a glint of humor on his dark, handsome face. Barney returned the look imperturbably. “Sit down, Solly.”

“Why? Is there more?”

“A little more. Sit down.” There was something in Barney’s tone that Solly could not understand. He hesitated a moment and then with a shrug reseated himself. Barney smiled at him, a cold, humorless smile. “Sometimes, Solly, you have a tendency to underestimate people. Now, you know as well as I do that what you did with the Reef Investment Company was immoral, if not actually illegal. I’m sure you’re smart enough to have covered your tracks in that direction. But the fact is that to all intents and purposes you took money from the Barnato Investment Company’s stockholders. In effect, you robbed them. I think it’s only right that you come to London with me and explain to these same stockholders at a board meeting — which I’ve already asked Harry to call — exactly how and when you plan on returning that money to them.”

Solly looked at his uncle with amusement, and then made a motion as if to rise again. “If that’s all you have to say—”

“Not quite. I took you from the London slums and made you. By the same token I can break you and put you right back there again, fancy speech, fancy clothes, fancy bank account, fancy friends, and all. I’m a good friend but a bad enemy; you should have learned that much about me after all these years. You will either come back to London with me or sit here and wonder what I plan to do to ruin you. But believe me, on my mother’s life, I’ll ruin you if it costs me every penny I have.”

Solly had settled back, looking at his uncle with slightly widened eyes.

“That’s right,” Barney said approvingly. “Think about it. It’s something to think about. You know I can do it and you know I will, and the fact that you’re my sister’s boy will make no difference. There are a hundred ways, and I’m sure you know most of them as well as I do. I will make your name stink in the nostrils of every investor in the Transvaal, in the Cape Colony, in the Orange Free State. I will see to it that you’re not allowed within fifty yards of any stock exchange or brokerage house in all South Africa. I will guarantee you that before I’m through with you, your dear friends in the Rand Club will spit at hearing your name. I can and will break you into little, tiny pieces.” He paused and shrugged. “Or, you can come to London with me and face the music. Maybe even retrieve something. I don’t know.”

Solly wet his lips. “Does… does Harry or any of the others in the family know any of this?”

“Nobody in the family knows any of this,” Barney said contemptuously. “Not even Fay. I don’t make a practice of advertising my mistakes. But I imagine everyone in South Africa knows I’ve been made a fool of by you. Still, think of the pleasure you’ll get when you face the board of directors and let them in on the secret most of South Africa has been sharing for quite some time.” He watched Solly come to his feet and walk a bit unsteadily to the sideboard, pour himself a large whiskey, and down it in a single gulp. Barney’s voice remained expressionless. “Well?”

“I’ll… I’ll come to London with you…”

“Fine,” Barney said, and came to his feet. “We sail on the Scott a month from now. Your cabin has already been reserved. And don’t bother to come to the office to clear your desk. It’s being cleared right now.” He glanced at the clock on the mantelpiece. “And now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for my dinner.”

14

June 1896

From the front stoep of his summer cottage at Muizenberg, some ten miles from Groote Schuur in distance over the winding mountain road, but a million miles from it in influence and power, Cecil John Rhodes sat, wrapped in a shawl, and stared bleakly out over the ocean. Beneath him the road that rimmed the sea leading from Cape Town east to Port Elizabeth and Durban was busy with morning traffic, but neither the wagons that passed along the twisting highway, raising dust, nor the many small pleasure craft that beat their way either into or out of Vaalsbai before him, held his attention. His mind was far from the beauty about him. God! Forced to resign the premiership at his young age, and to be in his poor state of health at that same young age? There was no possible chance of ever coming back to power; his dream of a British Africa stretching from Cape Town to Cairo undoubtedly smashed, if not for all time, certainly for the few years he had remaining in his disease-racked body! It would have been better for everyone concerned had he died while still at Groote Schuur, still in power, before his old friend Jameson had stupidly been able — admittedly with the best of intentions — to ruin his career and with it his plans. How could the man have possibly made that ill-considered invasion of the Transvaal against all orders? At least had he died while still at Groote Schuur he would never have known of the fiasco. Had he died it was even possible that Jameson might have delayed while more intelligent men set a new course for the Reform Committee, and for the plan to add the Boer territory to the British Empire. To Rhodes, his own life was unimportant; the life of the empire was all that counted.

His thoughts were suddenly interrupted. A trap had turned into the narrow entranceway leading from the main road below, up the slope to the front of the small cottage, a most unusual event. Tradesmen came to the rear of the house, and visitors were rare since he was no longer in power and practically hidden away in Muizenberg. Neville Pickering had come from the house at the sound of the trap and stood beside him on the stoep, one hand on his shoulder as if for support, also watching the small vehicle make its way to the end of the entranceway and stop. The driver’s identity was not immediately discernible, his face being hidden by a wide-brimmed hat as he came down and started to climb the remaining distance to the elevated cottage. Pickering frowned.

“Who do you suppose that could be?”

Rhodes had recognized the man as he came closer. He made a grimace. “Luckner.” He reached back with one hand to pat the hand on his shoulder. “It’s all right, Neville. I know the man. I can handle him. I’d rather handle him alone, if you don’t mind.”

“Of course.” Pickering went back into the house as Luckner mounted the steps to the stoep. The mustached, scarfaced man pushed his hat to the back of his head and stood, staring down at the seated man, studying the drawn face, noting the obvious signs of ill health. So much for the high and mighty! Luckner thought with an inner sneer, but his voice was properly respectful when he spoke. Disrespect was no way to gain favors.

“Hello, Mr. Rhodes.”

“Mr. Luckner. What brings you here?”

Luckner looked around, saw a chair, pulled it up, and sat down a few feet from Rhodes, facing him. “Why shouldn’t I come here? After all, if you want to look at it fairly, it’s because of you that I’m not allowed in the Transvaal any longer.” Might as well establish the conditions of responsibility at the very start, Luckner thought, and reached into his pocket for a cigar, lighting it and leaning back.

Rhodes’ lips quirked in a humorless smile. “I might say, with far more justice, that because of Jameson and you I’m not allowed at Groote Schuur anymore. At least you’re welcome in the Cape Colony, and I’m barely welcome here. Or, of course, you’re perfectly free to go back to Bechuanaland, or Rhodesia.” He drew his shawl a bit tighter about his shoulders. “With my poor state of health, I probably wouldn’t make it there if I wanted to go.”

“I’ve about had all of bloody Bechuanaland or Rhodesia that I want,” Luckner said harshly. “All that I ever had there, or anywhere else as far as that goes, is hard cheese. Bad luck.”

“I’d say you had rather good luck in Pretoria,” Rhodes said, wondering where the conversation was leading. “Thanks to Barney Barnato. I hate to give the man credit for anything, but he did save a few necks from stretching. Including my brother’s. And yours.”

Luckner cursed. “That miserable bastard Jew! He wanted to save that worthless nephew, so he had no choice but to save the rest of us, your brother included, as far as that goes! If that little sheeny nephew of his, Solly Loeb, hadn’t been involved, your precious Barney Barnato would have left the rest of us hang, and even been happy to drop the trap himself, don’t worry!” He grinned cruelly. “Which is a joke in its own way. Solly Loeb has been robbing him blind for years, is what I hear, and the damned fool just got wise a while ago—”

Rhodes considered the man curiously. “You don’t appear to have a very grateful attitude for a man whose life has been saved, it seems to me—”

Luckner sneered. “Grateful? For what? To who? That lying, cheating little kike? If it hadn’t been for him cheating me out of my rightful share of the Paris Hotel, and then throwing me out when he knew it was throw me out or pay me what I rightfully had coming — and he certainly had no intention of ever paying me — if it wasn’t for Barney Barnato, I’d never been in your bloody army in Rhodesia, or up in Pitsani with Jameson, in the first place!”

Rhodes was staring at him. The paranoid maniac actually believes what he’s saying! Rhodes thought with wonder. Luckner was going on.

“Why would I have been there? I had nothing to do with politics. Never. I don’t give a bucket of piss who runs the damned Transvaal, or the Free State or the bloody Cape, either. I’m off to England.”

He suddenly seemed to remember the purpose of his visit. His voice dropped in volume, became more respectful.

“That’s what I wanted to see you about, Mr. Rhodes. The Scott sails on the tide this evening. I don’t have the money for passage. I—” He suddenly held up his hand. “Wait! I’m not asking for money, Mr. Rhodes. I never begged in my life. There aren’t any cabins left, anyway. I tried to sign on as crew, but they said they were full. I’m a good sailor, Mr. Rhodes. And I’m sure that a note from you to the captain and he’d manage to find room for me on the crew somehow.”

Rhodes considered the man for several moments. Then, with a sigh, he nodded. At least it would remove a very disagreeable person from South Africa, be it the Transvaal, the Orange Free State, the Cape Colony, or anywhere else. And probably save some innocent person in South Africa from being booted to death sometime in the future. A note to his old friend the captain of the Scott was a small price to pay for such a rich dividend. He only hoped his friendship with the captain would not be impaired by some act of idiocy or violence on the part of Luckner during the voyage, but that was a chance he was willing to take. It did seem a shame, though, to inflict a man like Luckner on his beloved England; but one thing was sure: no Barney Barnato would be able to save him from the penalty of his next capital offense. In England he’d probably be swinging from a gibbet in a matter of months. He raised his hand. Pickering, who had been watching from a window as Rhodes had been sure he had, was at his side in seconds.

“Sir?”

“Paper, and a pen and ink.”

“Yes, sir.”

Pickering was back in moments. He pulled up a table for Rhodes to write upon, placed down the articles he had brought, and disappeared into the house. Rhodes scribbled for several seconds, blotted the ink, reread what he had written, and handed it over. Luckner read the note, smiled, folded the paper, and tucked it into his pocket. He came to his feet and started down the steps, and then paused, turning.

“I imagine you wrote this just to get me out of Africa, eh?”

Rhodes looked at him without expression. “Yes,” he said.

Luckner chuckled and went on down to his trap. As he climbed in and started to turn his horse, the chuckle died in his throat. A grim look came to his face. What old Rhodes didn’t know was that Barney Barnato and his family were also sailing on the Scott. If he had, and knowing how Luckner felt about the man, would he still have written that note? Probably, Luckner thought, dwelling on the heady feeling of revenge he would extract from Barnato for having ruined his life with his cheating, and remembering how Rhodes had once hired him in an attempt to put the little Jew on the Cape Breakwater as an illegal diamond trader. Had he known Barnato was sailing on the Scott, would Rhodes still have written that note? Not probably, Luckner thought, giving another the worst of intentions, as always; undoubtedly.

His chuckle returned as he whipped his horse back toward Cape Town.

Fay was belowdecks in their cabin, directing their stewardess and steward in the unpacking of their luggage for the long trip. Leah Primrose, now a grown-up four years of age, had taken her maid by the hand and was dragging her all about the ship, getting in everyone’s way but not worrying about it particularly, exploring the wonderful vessel with its odd corners and narrow, steep steps, its strange odors and queer passageways. Solly Loeb, unpacking his bags himself — for he never trusted servants with his finery — had come upon a bottle of whiskey in one of his suitcases and had paused in his unpacking to sample it. Barney Barnato, on deck, was leaning on the rail of the ship still anchored in Table Bay, remembering the first time he had seen the sight now spread out before him.

There had been changes in Cape Town, undoubtedly, but far from as many changes as there had been in himself, he knew. He tried to picture himself as he had been twenty-five years before, a callow boy of eighteen, dragging his two heavy cardboard suitcases from that doss house down by the docks to the Parade and then to Riebeeck Square, his clothes an outrage, his speech a disaster, his knowledge of anything the little he had picked up in his short years, the street wisdom of survival, and little else. He had been most fortunate in having run into Andries Pirow in Riebeeck Square, and fortunate that Andries not only had been going to Kimberley but had taken him along. And taught him so much. At least Barney had the satisfaction of knowing he had at least partially repaid that debt, for Andries was now a successful and respected member of the Volksraad, held a seat on kruger’s cabinet, and was a successful rancher. But he had been more than fortunate in having met and eventually married Fay. He tried to imagine what life might have been without her, but found it completely impossible.

He stared up at Table Mountain, there as always, and he suddenly knew that regardless of how landscapes changed, or cities changed, or people changed, a part of them remained the same from the beginning, never changing, and these were the things that counted. There must have been something within him, something inherited from his parents as they had inherited it from their parents, that he carried and which he had passed on to Leah Primrose as he would to the future Jason or Michelle; his small contribution to the endless flow of life that was as vital to the formation of a person as the genes that colored one’s eyes or determined the shape of one’s nose, as important to that person as the beating of his heart or the flow of blood along his arteries.

He felt a hand about his waist and turned his head to face Fay. There must have been an introspective look on his face, for Fay frowned slightly, and said, “What are you thinking?”

He smiled. “How lucky I’ve been all my life.”

“We’ve both been lucky.”

“But I’ve been luckier. I’ve got you, and all you have is me.” He squirmed as she dug her fingers into his ribs, laughing. “All right, we’ve both been lucky. We have Leah Primrose and we’ll soon have Jason or Michelle.”

“Or both at the same time,” she added, smiling.

“Or both at the same time,” Barney agreed cheerfully. “We have money, we have our health. That’s luck.” He pointed out across the water of the bay, toward the land. “We have Table Mountain, we have Cape Town, we have Kimberley, we have Johannesburg. We have friends. That’s luck.” We also have enemies, he thought bitterly, considering Solly Loeb in his cabin below, and then forced the disagreeable thought away. Time enough for that unpleasantness when they reached London. The trip was to enjoy.

Fay removed her hand from his waist and leaned on the railing, looking at the tiny white buildings that edged the city, considering them pensively. “It’s a pity we can’t have all those things forever.”

Barney shrugged. “Forever is only so long as you have something. Forever is simply all the time there is, if it’s a day or a thousand years. If a man dies at — say — forty-two, he’s lived forever; the same as if he died at ninety-nine. Or if he died at ten.”

Fay looked at him and smiled, but it was a doubtful smile. “My husband the philosopher.”

“Your husband the luckiest man alive, just because he is your husband,” Barney said, and reached for her hand, squeezing it.

The first glass of whiskey had eased some of the tension from Solly Loeb; the second had furthered that relaxation. He well knew that Barney Barnato could be vindictive; look what Barney had done to J. R. Robinson’s Central Mine properties in Kimberley when his cousin Jack Joel had had to leave town to avoid prosecution as an illegal diamond dealer. Others might doubt that Barney had a hand in that explosion at the Big Hole, and Barney might deny it even within the family until he was blue in the face, but Solly was sure. No, Barney Barnato could be very vindictive when he wanted to be, there was no doubt of that.

But on the other hand, look what else Barney had done in that very same instance: he had smuggled Jack out of the country, not only at the cost of the considerable bail he had deposited with the court, but undoubtedly also at a considerable loss of influence in the community, because the stigma of illicit diamond dealing still stuck faintly, even after all these years. So there was no doubt that Barney Barnato had a very soft spot in his heart where family was concerned; it had been demonstrated a hundred times. No; before the journey to England was over, Solly was sure that Barney would have changed his mind about dragging Solly’s name in the dirt. Solly’s mother was, after all, the eldest of the Isaacs children, while Barney was the youngest, and Barney had always shown that Solly’s mother was his favorite of them all. Would Barney hurt his sister by harming her only child, the apple of her eye? It was difficult to imagine. No; all of Solly’s previous worries were needless. His uncle was simply trying to give him a skrik, a fright, to teach him a lesson. Once this was all over, Barney would probably suggest a combine, an amalgamation between Barnato Investment and Reef…

Of course. Of course! That was what Barney had been after all along! How foolish of Solly not to have seen it before! Barney wasn’t interested in punishing him; his prime reason for all this foolishness wasn’t even to give him a fright. It was to get control of Reef Investment as easily and as cheaply as possible! Foxy old Barney Barnato! Well, old foxy would find it wasn’t all that easy, wresting control of his company from him; he hadn’t exactly been born yesterday. They would dicker, of course; it was the East End Jew in Barney that made dickering a vital part of any negotiation, Solly thought with an inner sneer, whether the dickering was essential to the outcome or not. Well, when the dickering was over, old Foxy Barnato would have discovered he had met not only his equal but his superior where dickering was concerned. Properly handled, he, Solly, could even end up ahead, possibly not only in control of Reef, but of Barnato Investment, as well. Oh, there would have to be concessions made, that was obvious, and possibly even a major concession for him having been smart enough to milk Barnato Investment while establishing Reef Investment. But really, the stockholders ought to give him a medal for that, rather than condemning him. Maybe, when the full story came out, and the profits from the combine were made public in the form of dividends, they would at that. He smiled at the thought.

Should he go to Barney’s cabin at once, invite him up to the saloon bar for a drink, and put the entire matter to the other man? Bring it out in the open? There was no sense in spending the entire voyage under the strain of pretending that Barney was serious in his threat to expose Solly, to ruin him, to make him pay back huge sums of money. They might as well discuss it early on, make their deal consolidating the two companies, and then both of them would be able to relax and enjoy the voyage. He could picture the embarrassed smile on Barney’s face when he learned that his ploy had been properly analyzed and interpreted; it might teach him a bit more respect for his nephew and his ability in matters relating to business.

But it might be better to wait awhile. Solly recognized that he had had a few drinks, and that his thinking, while still excellent — as witness his analysis of Barney’s motives — might not be as clear as it ought to be for serious bargaining. I’ll hit him up in a week or so, Solly thought, once I get my sea legs. I’ll go to him after lunch one day; Barney is always more mellow with a good meal under his belt. I’ll take him into the bar, sit him down in a corner where we can talk privately, get him a proper brandy, tell him I know exactly what he’s thinking as far as Reef Investment is concerned — leading up to the subject carefully, of course, which should prove to him I’m no child in these matters — and see what he says. There’s very little he can say if he wants Reef as badly as I’m sure he does. And after that, it’ll be my terms or there won’t be any deal. I’ll admit he had me frightened there for a few days, but only for a few days, until I had the time to think it over. Now that I think about it, it should have been obvious from the start what his purpose was. No; Barney Barnato seldom met his match, but on the other hand he seldom had an opponent as intelligent as Solly Loeb. And to think the foxy old bastard really had me wondering there for a bit! I won’t say worrying, because I wasn’t really worried at all; but it’s only fair to admit I did wonder…

Solly Loeb smiled at the thought of his coming victory, and poured himself another drink.

Carl Luckner, stripped to the waist and wearing a seaman’s cap pulled low over his brow, was working forward near the anchor-chain capstan, greasing the heavy chain as it took a bight about the capstan and then dropped into the chain well belowdecks as the steam-driven capstan slowly raised the dripping anchor. The single-screw of the steam launch Scott churned the water sluggishly as the captain on the bridge waited for the anchor to be firmed against the ship’s prow and the chain stored before signaling the engine room for more power to send them on their way.

Above the crew working forward, lining the rail, the passengers watched the ship prepare to leave the roadstead, studying the customs men in their small hand-propelled dinghy pull for shore, seeing the beauty of Cape Town as the ship finally turned and steamed for England, the white buildings slowly receding against the evening dusk, leaving majestic Table Mountain, at last, as the lone shadow on the night sky. Luckner finished the final links of the now stationary chain, rubbing the grease through the links still on the capstan, and then glanced up. From under the peak of his concealing cap he could see Barney Barnato standing at the rail just above him, Fay beside him, neither paying the slightest attention to the men working below; the two were taking in the last of Cape Town as it slowly faded into the night, the last of its lights flickering into oblivion. Let the bastard enjoy himself, Luckner said to himself with a cruel twist to his lips. Let him go on thinking he’s king of the hill for a few more days, anyway. Him up there with everything his fortune can buy — some of which money is rightfully mine — and me down here as broke as a sixty-year-old tart with the pox, mucking about in filthy grease! And her, his wife, big as a house with the coming kid, but not a bad piece for all of that. Beautiful face with golden hair a man’d want to run his fingers through, blue eyes to drive a man crazy, a wide mouth made for kissing, and lovely tits for nursing a baby or exciting a man!

He wiped his hands on a bit of waste, unconsciously flexing his muscles as he did so, and climbed down the companionway to the ’neath-decks and further chores connected with the sailing. The mills grind slow, he reminded himself, but they grind exceeding fine. Well, the day was coming, and not too far away, when Barney Barnato was going to learn the bitter truth of that old saying. And maybe, in England after the kid was born and Barney long forgotten, that lovely Fay will realize the difference between a real man and a short, runty, half-blind Jew, and decide to be sensible for the first time in her life…

It was a week into the voyage when Solly Loeb decided it was time to do something to bring matters to a head, to resolve the problem for all time. He had seen Barney occasionally on his strolls about the deck, but Barney had failed to even nod on these occasions. You’d think I hadn’t been instrumental in a large part of his success! Solly thought resentfully the first time it happened; but then he smiled to himself. It’s all part of his scheme, he thought. Well, Reef Investment isn’t going to be all that easy to steal, not with empty threats nor with a cold shoulder when passing on a deck stroll.

Solly occasionally stopped for a brief word with Fay when she was alone or with Leah Primrose on deck, and Barney was elsewhere. It was apparent on those occasions that Fay knew nothing of the reason for the obvious differences between the two men and was completely puzzled by it, but Solly knew Fay to be sufficiently loyal a wife never to question one of Barney’s decisions. Besides, it had to be obvious to Fay that the coolness between the two men was due in some way to business, and Solly knew that Fay left business exclusively to Barney. When they met on deck and Solly ruffled Leah’s hair or picked her up and nuzzled her cheek, Fay made sure the conversation dealt with innocuous subjects, leaving anything connected to business aside. To Solly, this was more than satisfactory; the more Barney thought he had been taken in by Barney’s ploy, the greater the surprise when he advised the foxy little man that he had known his intentions from the start. And the better deal he undoubtedly could make for himself in those circumstances.

It was as the Scott was leaving Walvis Bay after a half day’s pause there for fuel and to replenish a few food supplies, that Solly decided the time was ripe. He had seen that Barney was in a good mood after taking Leah Primrose and Fay for a visit to the town and a shore lunch there; the sea was smooth, the sky was clear, and apparently Leah Primrose had behaved in exemplary fashion ashore. As the anchor was being raised and the ship trembled slightly from the pulsing of the new steam engine, Solly watched Barney kiss the child before her nurse collected her for her nap; then watched Barney step into the saloon bar and seat himself at a corner table. The privacy was perfect; it almost seemed to Solly to be an omen of his success. He sat down beside Barney.

“Barney,” he said.

Barney turned. “Ah. Solly.”

The very friendliness — or at least lack of open enmity — in his tone encouraged Solly to continue, convinced that he had indeed picked the proper time for the meeting.

“Barney,” Solly said in man-to-man fashion, “may I buy you a drink?”

“I’ve already ordered,” Barney said pleasantly, and proceeded to deny his words by turning to the steward waiting patiently beside their table. “A brandy, please.”

Solly held back his temper. He was fully aware in his mind of what Barney was attempting to do. Making a man lose his temper was a sure way of putting him at a disadvantage. It was a smart move when it worked, but Solly determined that it would not work with him. Instead, Solly also ordered a brandy and turned back to Barney once the steward had left, his voice suave.

“Barney,” he said, “I think it’s time we had a talk.”

“Oh?” said Barney, as if rather surprised by the suggestion. “About what?”

“About Reef Investment Company.”

“What about Reef Investment Company?”

To his own complete surprise, Solly heard himself blurt out words he had figured would not be spoken until much further along in the discussion. “You want to buy it, don’t you?”

To Solly’s amazement, Barney laughed in what appeared to be honest and pure enjoyment. “And why would I want to do that?”

Despite his best effort and despite his sworn resolution, Solly could feel himself losing his temper.

“Because it’s a damned good buy!” he said angrily, “and you damned well know it! Have you seen its books?”

“Nobody offered to show them to me,” Barney said a bit sardonically, “but I did take a look at Barnato Investment books — a trifle late, but better late than never — and I must say you did a fair job on the company.” He cocked an eyebrow. “I assume that Barnato’s losses are Reef’s gains, if that’s what you’re trying to say.”

“That’s exactly what I’m trying to say,” Solly said, trying not to sound vicious. “So therefore you know that Reef is a damned strong company! And you can no more avoid trying to get hold of any strong company where you think you have an edge, especially when that company is a competitor, than you can avoid breathing! I know you, Barney!”

Barney waited until the two brandies had been served and the steward had withdrawn. Then he sipped a portion of his brandy and set his glass down. When he looked at Solly there was pity in the glance, but his voice was conversational when he spoke.

“Solly,” he said gently, “you are a fool. So you think my whole plan in confronting you with the Reef situation was simply to try and put myself in a strong position to get control of the company from you? And as cheaply as possible, of course. No doubt you thought that a brilliant negotiator such as you, with a strong company such as Reef behind you, could easily tie poor old Barney Barnato in knots, and end up possibly even controlling both companies, Reef and Barnato Investment.” He shook his head almost sadly. “My dear nephew, I have been trying to put you in a position where you might pay an honest debt — a dishonest debt, really, but never mind — and still escape with some semblance of respect, as well as possibly a small portion of your fortune. When I get finished with your precious Reef Investment Company, I’ll be able to buy their shares for a shilling on the pound, if that. Out of love for your mother and in consideration of our family name, I was not intending to attack the company until after you had made proper restitution to Barnato Investment, and had severed all connections with Reef. However, you tempt me strongly to ask the captain to put in to the first port with telegraphic facilities and to wire Harry explaining matters and leaving it to him to begin to raid Reef Investment at once. One consideration in not doing so is that it probably would not leave you enough money to pay back Barnato Investment by the time we dock; but if that’s what you really want, I’ll be glad to accommodate you and Barnato will simply take the loss. Is this what you really wish?”

Solly had grown increasingly pale as Barney had gone on. Barney, rightly considering his question rhetorical, went on.

“If that’s what you want, just say so, and by the time we dock in London I promise you that Reef shares will have fallen to a point where I can picture some of your stockholders waiting for you at the Thameside pier with tar and feathers.” Solly was staring at him as if he were hypnotized. Barney shook his head sadly. “Solly, you were stupid. You were also greedy, as well as vicious. You bit the hand that fed you, a hand that was of your own flesh and blood yet, of your own family. You cheated the people who made you what you are. What kind of a person are you? Do you think I would forgive a person like you, or forget what you did, for the control of ten companies like Reef? You are going to pay your debt to Barnato Investment, to Barnato Brothers, to the Isaacs family, to me personally, and to everything you have disgraced, to the last penny; and if you think being my sister’s son is going to make the slightest difference, you are living in loony heaven!” He finished his drink, signed the chit on the table, and came to his feet. “And now, if you’ll pardon me, I have better things to do with my time than explaining the facts of business ethics to someone like you.”

Barney nodded pleasantly in the general direction of the bartender and walked calmly from the saloon. Solly sat and stared at his drink for several seconds and then finished it with shaking hands. He rose and left the saloon rather unsteadily, and climbed down the companionway, making his way to his cabin. He closed the door behind him and automatically reached for the whiskey bottle, pouring himself a large drink.

He sat down on his berth, sipping the whiskey, thinking furiously. One thing was certain: Barney had to be made to change his mind before the ship docked, before, in fact, the ship made port anywhere that had a telegraph, in case the miserable little runt changed his mind and cabled Harry the facts, starting a raid on Reef at once. Damn, damn, damn! Why had that damnable uncle of his ever discovered the truth about Reef? Why couldn’t he at least have waited to discover the truth until Barnato Investment was completely finished? Then he might not have been strong enough to raid Reef successfully and would only have gotten his fingers burned in trying. Or — a sudden hopeful thought came to Solly — or maybe Barney wasn’t strong enough to raid Reef successfully right now! But it was an extremely dangerous hope, and Solly knew it. He was certainly in no position to test that wild possibility, certainly not before Barney could act.

No. There was only one solution to the problem. Barney had to be stopped, somehow, before the ship docked anywhere. That was the tragic fact…

“No!” Fay said. She was sitting at her dressing table in her chemise, putting on her makeup. Barney, standing behind her and trying to tie his white tie, could not keep his eyes from straying to her décolletage and then to the beauty of her face in the mirror, with the result that the ends of the tie kept coming out uneven.

“Yes,” Barney said pleasantly, and finally concentrated on the tie, managing at last to make a reasonable bow out of it.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“My darling,” Fay said, turning on the small bench and looking up at him imploringly. “Do you want to embarrass Leah Primrose and myself in front of all those people?” She turned back to the mirror, applying lip rouge. “I still say no.”

“Yes,” Barney said, and bent to kiss the top of her head.

“But does it have to be Mathias in The Bells again?”

“I’m a bit old for Romeo and Juliet,” Barney said logically, smiling at Fay’s image in the mirror, “especially Juliet. And I’m just getting to the proper age for Mathias. Besides, it won’t be ‘again’ for the crowd on the Scott. They never heard it before.” He struck a pose and went into Cockney. “It’ll lay ’em in th’ bloomin’ aisles! Knock ’em orf their bloomin’ chairs! Get ’em singin’ ’God Syve ’Er Bloomin’ Majesty’!”

“Get them singing ‘What’ll We Do with a Drunken Sailor,’” Fay said with a grin. “‘Toss Him in a Longboat Till He’s Sober.’ Just don’t expect me to rescue you.”

“My darling,” Barney said reasonably, “tonight is just the first of the two ship’s concerts. When we have the second, the night before we dock in London, I promised the captain some Shakespeare. I was thinking of doing something from The Tempest.”

Fay stared. “The Tempest? At a ship’s concert?”

“Sure. We’ll be in the channel and it’ll be appropriate. Gets pretty rough there at times.” Barney laughed; he was feeling good. “I was just joking, darling. I’ll probably do somethin’ from ’Amlet. ‘T’ be er not t’ be, that’s th’ stumper what gravels me—’”

“You are mad,” Fay said complacently, and came to her feet to put on her dress.

“I’ll go up on deck and have a cigar while you finish getting ready,” Barney said, and leaned forward to kiss her cheek, respecting the job she had just done on her cosmetics. “You are beautiful.”

“And you are mad,” Fay said, and leaned forward to kiss him again, this time on the lips, disregarding her makeup, holding him tightly. She looked at herself in the mirror. “Now see what you’ve done! I’ll have to do it all over again—”

“All me bloomin’ fault,” Barney acknowledged airily, and let himself from the room, wiping the lip rouge away with a handkerchief, smiling proudly. It was going to be quite an evening, and he knew he was going to enjoy doing Mathias, whether the crowd liked it or not. But he was sure they would like it. Of course, it was some time since he had done it, although he had done it once for Leah Primrose on her fourth birthday, and she seemed to have enjoyed it, crowing and clapping, although admittedly she had been both a prejudiced and a captive audience. He laughed at the memory and went up on deck, taking a cigar from his pocket case and lighting it in the passageway before making his way to the windier deck.

Yes, yes, I have crossed the fields! Here is the old bridge, and there below, the frozen rivulet! How the dogs howl at Daniel’s farm — how they howl! And old Finck’s forge, how brightly it glows upon the hillock!

It all came back to him as he spoke the words softly under his breath. He remembered the first time he had recited those words for Fay on the trail, with Andries and old Gustave Bees sitting and watching him curiously, the oxen grazing quietly, paying no attention, the campfire fading, and Fay laughing at his atrocious accent. Barney paused in the shadow of a lifeboat. The moon was a knife thrust through the curdled clouds; the light it imposed came and went as the heavy clouds scudded before the growing wind. The lifeboat stirred and creaked slightly on its overhead lowering davits as the wind, increasing in strength, took the smoke from Barney’s cigar, sending it swirling into the darkness.

Kill a man — kill a man! You will not do that, Mathias — you will not do that! Heaven forbids it! Barney began to pace the darkened, deserted deck beneath the creaking lifeboats above; his voice had unconsciously risen, dramatic, intense. You are a fool! Listen, you will be rich, your wife and child will want for nothing! The Jew came; so much the worse — so much the worse. He ought not to have come! You will pay all you owe; you will no more be in debt—

There was a movement in the shadow of the deck-mounted davit, the sound of a foot scraping. A hoarse voice, unidentifiable, came in a harsh whisper. “You’ll pay, all right…”

“What—”

A form came out of the darkness. The clouds parted long enough for the glint of moonlight to reflect itself from steel. There was a thrust, a gasp, a harsh screaming cry. Then there was the mixture of shadows in confused array; the final glimmer as light from a stateroom caught the bit of steel as it fell into the water to disappear. Then the hurried labor as something heavy was lifted to the top of the railing…

Fourth Officer W. T. Clifford was tired. The duties of seeing that the provisions obtained in Walvis Bay were brought aboard had fallen to him, and no more had he seen to their storage to the satisfaction of the principal chef than he had been called upon to verify the arrangements for the ship’s concert that night. He lay back in a deck chair on the windy and deserted deck and reviewed the program for the evening, satisfied that the decorations in the large saloon were adequate, at least for such short notice. The fat lady — whatever her name was — would begin the evening with several songs; he only hoped the orchestra had rehearsed them with her. Then there was to be an exhibit of amateur magic by the passenger from Cabin 16; Clifford only hoped no animals would be involved, as the last time animals had appeared in a ship’s concert, one of them had committed a nuisance. It was something he really ought to check — but later. Then Mr. Barnato was scheduled to do a recitation. It was said that Mr. Barnato at one time had been an acrobat, and a juggler; possibly he could be talked into doing a little juggling, afterward, or even some acrobatics—

He sat up suddenly with a frown; had he heard the cry of “Murder”? There seemed to be a scuffling sound in the area and he came to his feet wondering, now, if he had indeed heard the word “Murder” or whether it had been his imagination. There seemed to be some sort of a disturbance over in the shadows beneath the lifeboats; then he heard — and this cry was clear and tinged with the edge of hysteria — “Man overboard!”

Clifford immediately raised his own deep voice in repeating the cry, and ran for the rail. Two men were there, a second seeming to have just joined the first; the newcomer was staring down into the water and Clifford recognized him as one of the crew, a seaman named Luckner. The other man had turned his back to the rail and, hands cupped about his mouth, was screaming “Man overboard!” at the top of his voice in the direction of the bridge. Solly Loeb, Clifford thought automatically, and pushed his way between the two men, staring down. In the lights cast by the stateroom portholes he could see a man being swept away from the ship’s side in the rough sea. Clifford wasted no time; he tore off his uniform jacket, threw aside his cap, and sprang over the rail, landing in the water feet first. He came to the surface and struck out for the body, now barely seen in the darkness as the waves between them crested and then fell away.

The waves whipped at him; above him the ship’s decks were now alight with flares. People were coming from within the ship to line the rails. He could imagine the davits beginning to lower a lifeboat, almost hear the creaking of the cables as he forced himself through the rough sea. Then, almost to his own amazement, he topped a wave and saw the body before him, face downward in the water. He reached out and turned it over, staring in shock at the face of their most famous passenger, Barney Barnato; then he put one arm about the flaccid body and began towing it back to the ship. He paused to tread water once, looking over his shoulder toward the ship, and then shook his head, clearing water from his eyes. One davit had stuck, the lifeboat was tilted sharply, almost unshipping its crew, and there it seemed to remain. Clifford felt himself growing weaker, the weight of his uniform dragging him down; the waves seemed to be drawing him farther from the ship. He paused again, gulping air and drawing in a bit of water at the same time. A paroxysm of coughing overtook him; he loosened his grip on the body momentarily to take a better hold. The sea responded with a higher wave, and Clifford found himself alone, the body he had been towing swept from his sight.

He tried to tread water and get a better view, but a cloud now covered the moon and in the darkness all he could see was the ship ablaze with lights and the bareness of the water between him and it. He swam a few sluggish strokes farther from the ship, trying to spot the body, but then he knew it was hopeless. If he wanted to save himself he would have to forget the search until the lifeboat was in the water. He turned back to the ship and saw the problem with the faulty davit had been corrected; the lifeboat was in the water and pulling in his direction. He was just able to get a hand on the gunwale; then men pulled him in as he lost consciousness.

Clifford was assisted up the ship’s ladder and sent to the hospital. The lifeboat returned to the search and searched the waters in the vicinity of the ship for several hours before the captain of the Scott conceded defeat and gave orders for the ship to proceed, and as the screw began to push the vessel on its way once again, he wrote in his log: June 14, 8 P.M., Lost at sea, a passenger, B. Barnato. And that night, instead of the gala ship’s concert, the saloon was used for an official inquiry into the tragedy.

Fay Barnato sat unhearing, her face pale, her eyes slightly unfocused, for the ship’s surgeon had given her a large dose of laudanum to ease some of the pain and shock of the unexpected blow. The words of the inquiry seemed to come to her as from a distance, through a buzzing as if the room were full of insects.

Fourth Officer Clifford was testifying. He was still pale from the ordeal of the sea. “I was dozing off in a deck chair, and I heard a scream. I thought what I heard was—” He hesitated and wet his lips.

The captain’s eyes were upon him, steady, his voice calming. “You thought you heard what?”

“I heard — at least I thought I heard — someone scream the word” — he glanced at Fay apologetically, as if disliking to use the word in her presence — “I thought I heard the word… ‘Murder’… sir.” He shrugged deprecatingly. “I must have been wrong.”

Fay sat unmoving, her mind blank to the proceedings.

“And then?” the captain prompted.

“Then, when I got to the rail, there were two men there, sir. Luckner, a crew member, and Mr. Loeb.” His eyes went to each man in turn as he mentioned their names. “I looked down and saw a man in the water, and I… I went in after him.”

“You deserve great credit for that, Mr. Clifford, especially in that sea,” the captain said approvingly. “And then?”

“I… I had him, but I… I lost him, sir. But” — again there was the apologetic look in Fay’s direction — “but I’m pretty sure he was already dead when I reached him…”

Fay suddenly spoke. It was if the words were forced from her subconscious without her volition. “Barney couldn’t swim,” she said, and returned to her impassive, stunned state.

The captain glanced at her sympathetically, and then back to the fourth officer. “Thank you, Mr. Clifford. Your actions this evening shall be reported to the proper authorities together with my commendations. I wish to thank you personally for your efforts.” He turned his head. “Mr. Loeb?”

Solly Loeb, pale and with his hands twitching, took the chair abandoned by Officer Clifford. “Sir?”

“What can you tell us of this tragedy, Mr. Loeb?”

“He — my uncle — Barney, that is—” He wet his lips, avoiding looking at Fay. “I don’t know what happened, Captain. It seems to me a plain case of suicide. He’s been, well, depressed, lately. The condition of the market, certain business reversals, the possiblity of war in South Africa between the Boers and the English, the end of his friendship with President Kruger of the Transvaal…” He spread his hands. “It got to be too much for him, as I see it, Captain.”

“But what actually happened? What brought you to the scene, Mr. Loeb?”

“I… I was walking on deck, having a cigar, when I thought I heard some sounds or a sort, a… ah—” He looked about the room helplessly, as if searching for something better to say, something more accurately descriptive. “A sound like a — well, a scraping of some sort over in the shadows under one of the lifeboats. But when I walked over to see what it was I’d heard, Barney was all alone and half over the railing, as if he were trying to climb it and jump into the sea. I called out, ‘Barney!’—” He paused, frowning, thinking. “Possibly that was what Mr. Clifford heard; the wind was gusting and my voice may have been distorted — anyway, I ran over to try and stop him, but he was over too far. I tried to grab his jacket sleeve but I couldn’t hold it, and he dropped into the water. And I started to yell ‘Man overboard!’” He paused to wipe his damp forehead.

“And then?”

“Then a crew member — Mr. Luckner — came up; he must have been standing in the shadows, fairly close by, because he was there so quickly, and I hadn’t seen him on deck, and then Mr. Clifford came, and… and… well, you know the rest.”

“I see. You never heard the word ‘Murder’?”

“No, sir.”

“Thank you, Mr. Loeb. I think that’s all. You may step down.” The captain’s head swiveled again. “Mr. Luckner?”

Luckner took the seat. The captain considered the scarred face without much enthusiasm; it had struck the captain from the first that an able seaman such as Luckner, first of the crew on the scene, should not have waited for the fourth officer to go to the rescue. On the other hand, maybe the man couldn’t swim; many of the crew couldn’t.

“Mr. Luckner, what can you tell us of this tragedy?”

Fay broke in, staring at the floor, her face blank. Her voice sounded drugged. “He wasn’t depressed at all. He was happy. He was looking forward…” Her voice faded into silence.

The captain swung about, surprised. “I beg your pardon?”

But Fay had gone back into her narcosis. The captain sighed and came back to Carl Luckner.

“Mr. Luckner, what can you tell us of this tragedy?”

Luckner spread his hands, all servility. “Very little, sir. I was taking a breather on deck, sir — oh, out of sight of the passengers, I assure you, sir — and I also heard sounds—”

“Sounds?”

“Like Mr. Loeb, the gentleman there, said, a sort of scraping sound—”

“Did you hear any voices?” The captain leaned forward a bit. “Did you hear, for instance, the word, ‘Murder’?”

“No, sir. I did hear something called out, but I couldn’t swear it was any particular word.”

“Could the word have been, ‘Barney’?”

“It… it could have been anything, sir. I couldn’t say. The wind was picking up, you see, sir…”

“I see. Go on.”

“Yes, sir. Well, sir, I heard this sound so I walked aft to see what was going on, and I saw what looked like Mr. Loeb here, trying to assist another man who was partly over the rail, sir. And then, just as I came up, the man seemed to slip out of Mr. Loeb’s hands and fall into the sea, and then Mr. Clifford came up while Mr. Loeb was shouting, ‘Man overboard!’ and—” He paused. “Well, sir, that’s about it. Mr. Clifford jumped into the sea after him. I threw a life preserver after him, sir, but Mr. Clifford apparently didn’t see it—”

“Very commendable,” the captain said dryly.

“Thank you, sir.”

The captain looked about the saloon, from one quiet face to another. “Did anyone else here see anything? From your stateroom porthole, for example?”

There was silence. The captain heaved a great sigh.

“Death by misadventure,” he said, almost as if to himself. He wrote in his log for several minutes while the deadly silence held, and then came to his feet, his eyes on the dazed Fay Barnato, sitting in a slump in her chair. He looked up. “Ladies and gentlemen, the inquiry is over. If any of you have any second thoughts, or recall any further details at a later date, my cabin is open to you at all times.” He looked at Fay with sympathy and then looked up again. “Doctor, if you would be so kind as to see Mrs. Barnato to her cabin…”

The morning sun reflected itself from the now-calm sea; the Scott moved steadily on the glasslike waters, with land a mere faint line on the horizon to the east. Solly Loeb, his after-breakfast cigar in his mouth, leaned on the taffrail and stared thoughtfully down at the ship’s wake without seeing it. With Barney gone, his problems were not necessarily ended; it was essential that he get back to Johannesburg as soon as possible and straighten things out, make sure that rumors didn’t reach London before he could get things in hand once again. Of course he could scarcely be in London without spending time with the family, and there was the matter of Fay; it was essential that she be gotten on his side, but simple commiseration with her loss should do that. It was lucky that Barney had not had a chance to inform Harry or the others of the facts, but the fact was he hadn’t. But getting back to Jo’burg as soon as possible was still essential. A telegraph arranged to call him back for something urgent ought to do the trick—

“Mr. Loeb?”

Solly looked up, annoyed to have his thoughts interrupted. Standing beside him with a smirk on his scarred face, was Carl Luckner. Solly frowned. “Yes? What is it?”

“I thought we might have a few words,” Luckner said smoothly, “in view of the fact that my testimony was so helpful to you last night. In fact, I should think it would be worth quite a bit to you.”

Solly’s frown deepened. “What do you mean?”

Luckner shrugged. “I mean I could just as easily have testified that you were pushing old Barney over the rail rather than trying to save him—”

“What!”

“You heard me!” Luckner said harshly, all smoothness gone, his scarred face hard. “I can go to the captain right now and say that, now that I think about it, it looked more like you were pushing him over rather than trying to pull him back! I can say that now that I think about it, it very well might have been the word ‘Murder’ I heard! And how would you like that?”

Solly had been listening with only half his attention; his mind had been racing.

“I see!” he said softly. “You’ve hated Barney since the Paris Hotel! And last night I thought you got there in a hurry! You killed him and started to push him over the rail, and then got away and hid in the shadows when you heard me coming! And then you suddenly thought how smart it would be to be a witness, and you came back!”

Luckner smiled grimly.

“If you think you can get away with a story that thin,” he said with a sneer, “just try it! And I’ll be pleased to watch you hang. All Jo’burg knows you’ve been putting the screws to Barnato for years, and that he finally got wise. He was taking you back to England to face the music; you think that was a secret? When it was a newspaperman who put Barnato on the wise, you think it was a secret? You’re a fool, Loeb! So I had a disagreement with Barnato years ago, so what? He saved my life, didn’t he, up in Pretoria? Who would believe I’d do anything to the man who saved my life, eh? But you? Your life was saved when he went over the rail. Think of that when you’re standing in the dock and the judge is putting on that black cap!” He shook his head. “No, I think you would be a lot happier with the ‘death by misadventure’ the captain was kind enough to write in his log!”

Solly stared at him, his face white. “What… what d’you want?”

“I’ll think about it and let you know before we reach England,” Luckner said. He started to turn and then turned back. “And don’t think I’ll ever go over the rail as easily,” he added meaningfully, and swaggered away.

And Fay Barnato sat in her cabin, stunned, thinking of life without Barney Barnato for ever and ever, with Leah Primrose to raise, and a Jason or a Michelle — or both — soon to be added to the fatherless family. She took a deep, shuddering breath and came to her feet. She had faced hard times before, and hard decisions; life had not always been easy. What would Barney have done; what would Barney have wanted her to do? There was still Leah Primrose to raise, and the child she was carrying, and only her to do it. A start had to be made, and telling Leah Primrose in some manner the child might understand that her father was gone and would never be back, was one way to make that start. She looked at herself in the mirror, surprised to see she had not changed appreciably, and opening the cabin door stepped into the companionway.

And the Scott sailed on toward England…

Afterword

This novel is loosely based upon the lives of Barney Isaacs Barnato and Fanny Bees Barnato. The author freely acknowledges that he has changed some names, some dates, and some events, and that other events have been changed in time, but in general this is the story of Barney Barnato and his wife.

Content

Robert L. Fish
Rough Diamond

Book I: Diamonds! Kimberley

Prologue March 1867

1 September 1872

2 September 1872

3 November 1872

4 January 1873

5 June 1877

6 January 1878

7 August 1883

8 October 1887

Book II: Gold! Johannesburg

Prologue February 1887

9 March 1892

10 October 1893

11 November 1895

12 December 1895

13 January 1896

14 June 1896

Afterword