Category: Historical Novels
Immediately to the south of the great Orange River for three hundred arid miles of its course before it sinks through the thirsty sands, or spooms in resistless torrent into the Atlantic Ocean, lies a region of which little is known, in which dwell people unlike any others in...
Immediately to the south of the great Orange River for three hundred arid miles of its course before it sinks through the thirsty sands, or spooms in resistless torrent into the...
2. CHAPTER TWO.There was only one camp at Namies [pronounced "Namees"], for all the wells but one had run dry. It was somewhat early in summer, and as yet no thunderstorms had visited the imme...
3. CHAPTER THREE.Max Steinmetz stood in the doorway of the little iron shanty at Namies, which was built near the foot of a kopje about three hundred yards from the Hattingh camp. Above his head...
4. CHAPTER FOUR.The next day was a dream of delight. The evaporation from the sand counteracted the heat of the sun, and the pungent air was full of germinating energy. Cool, gentle breezes awo...
5. CHAPTER FIVE.Gert Gemsbok prowled along the bank of the Orange River and bent an attentive eye upon the brimming flood. The great stream, swollen by the summer rains in far-off Basutoland, s...
6. CHAPTER SIX.When Susannah reached the camp with the afterglow of her lover's kisses still upon her lips, she found that dinner was over. There was a new look upon her face and a light in he...
7. CHAPTER SEVEN.One day four sleek mules drawing a light buggy came trotting along the sandy road from the southward to Namies. In the vehicle were sitting Jan Roster and his half-breed servant...
8. CHAPTER EIGHT.The great annual "trek" of springbucks began, and Namies fell into a state of ferment. For about a week small droves of bucks had been seen passing to the westward. One morning...
9. CHAPTER NINE.Max had no taste for slaughter. The hunter's instinct, which makes so many otherwise humane men cruel, was not in him. He therefore felt it no privation that he was unable to le...
10. CHAPTER TEN.One evening just after sunset Nathan arrived, driving a team of six smart mules before a brand-new cart. He had bought the turn-out at Clanwilliam on his return journey from Cap...
11. CHAPTER ELEVEN.About half an hour after the departure of Nathan and Koos Bester from Namies Max was surprised to see Gert Gemsbok's dog running back from the veld with every appearance of terr...
12. CHAPTER TWELVE.Max's mourning for his old friend was deep and sincere. The heart of the young man, from its first awakening, recoiled from the sordidness of most of those with whom he had come...
13. CHAPTER THIRTEEN.Next morning, just as day was breaking, Nathan and Koos Bester took their departure from Namies. Koos had not slept at all during the previous night. His face looked pinched and...
14. CHAPTER FOURTEEN.The Reverend Nicholas Joubert, who resided at Garies, two hundred miles as the crow flies, across the Desert, made a tour through Bushmanland every autumn. He travelled in his o...
15. CHAPTER FIFTEEN.The night had just fallen when Koos Bester arrived at his camp after leaving Nathan, his persecutor, to his dreadful fate in the burning dunes. Koos arrived in the wildest state...
16. ill. At his wife's earnest solicitation he had eaten a little food uponAll the other Boers had trekked away to the Nachtmaal at Namies, so, with the exception of her old and feeble father and the Hottentot servants, Mrs Bester had no one to turn to...
17. CHAPTER SIXTEEN.Max, being heir to his brother's estate, was now well off. Old Schalk, mindful of his account as standing in the books at the shop, felt obliged to be civil. Max was, and felt h...
18. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.It was about eleven o'clock of a winter's morning in 1897 when Noquala stood before his hut and watched his cattle being driven in for milking. A noble, dun-coloured bull, in wh...
19. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.It was late in the afternoon when Elijah arrived, somewhat tired from his long walk. He was a spare, loosely built youth with heavy features and a gloomy expression of countenan...
20. CHAPTER NINETEEN.An ominous whisper sounded over the land. Far to the north, it was said, a new and terrible disease had broken out among cattle. The herds of Khama, the Christian chief of the B...
21. CHAPTER TWENTY.Next morning the cattle were let out to graze, and again the enraptured eye of Noquala drank in delight from the contemplation of his wealth. About half an hour after sunrise th...
22. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.The circumstance of 'Ndakana's having been so positive that the cattle would not take the rinderpest might easily puzzle those unacquainted with the methods of the native doctor...
23. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.The agony of Noquala now entered into its acute stage. The guards were posted around the vale of pestilence and mourning in a pitiless ring. Dozens of men were at work inside wi...