Produced by Charles Klingman
A RIP VAN WINKLE OF THE KALAHARI AND OTHER TALES OF SOUTH-WEST AFRICA
A RIP VAN WINKLE OF THE KALAHARI AND OTHER TALES OF SOUTH-WEST AFRICA
SEVEN STORIES
BY
FREDERICK CARRUTHERS CORNELL
CAPETOWN: T. MASKEW MILLER LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN, LTD.
CONTENTS
PREFACE
A RIP VAN WINKLE OF THE KALAHARI INTRODUCTORY I - THE BLUE DIAMOND II - DEAD MEN IN THE DUNES III - THE SAND-STORM IV - THE PANS AND THE POISON FLOWERS V - I LOSE INYATI VI - THE CRATER THE PLEASANT BERRIES SLEEP AND THE AWAKENING VII - THE COUNTRY OF CRATERS, THE PATH OF SKULLS, AND THE SNAKE VIII - THE CATACLYSM THE PRIESTESS "LOOK AND FORGET" IX - FORTY YEARS! THE AWAKENING
THE SALTING OF THE GREAT NORTH-EASTERN FIELDS, BEING AN EPISODE IN THE LIFE OF DICK SYDNEY, PROSPECTOR CHAPTER I II III IV V
THE FOLLOWER
THE PROOF
"BUSHMAN'S PARADISE"
"THE DRINK OF THE DEAD"
THE WATERS OF ERONGO
PREFACE
MOST of these stories were written on the veldt; at odd times, in out- of-the-way prospecting camps, in the wilds of the Kalahari Desert, or of that equally little-known borderland between Klein Namaqualand, and Gordonia, Cape Colony, and what was at that time known as German South- West Africa.
Four of them appeared a few years back in The State an illustrated magazine now unhappily defunct; the others, though written about the same time, have never been published.
And now, time and circumstances have combined to bring the scene in which they are laid most prominently before the public.
Through the dangerous and difficult barrier of the desert sandbelt that extends all along the coast, General Botha and his formidable columns forced their way to Windhuk; from the remote lower reaches of the Orange River other troops steadily and relentlessly pushed north; and even to the east the well-nigh unexplored dunes of the southern Kalahari proved no safeguard to the Germans, for Union forces invaded them even there: and all eyes in South Africa are to-day turned towards this new addition to the Union and the Empire.
Table of contents (by pages)
- 1: A Rip Van Winkle Of The Kalahari by Cornell
- 2: But one night in Luderitzbucht full three years ago
- 3: Its outlying dunes began but a few miles east of my camp
- 4: Goring and trampling upon him in an awful manner
- 5: And a few months afterwards I landed at Walfisch Bay
- 6: But still the diamonds evaded me
- 7: Who had followed me from Walfisch Bay
- 8: The Bushmen again returned empty handed
- 9: Whilst the Bushmen sat round their camp fire
- 10: And accompanied only by Inyati
- 11: And some of them notably the gemsbok
- 12: Then Inyati showed me a Bushman trick
- 13: Who would follow the same path
- 14: And on all sides it was hemmed in by gigantic dunes
- 15: If Inyati gave any hope at all
- 16: That had been the time Inyati had hoped to return by
- 17: There was no sign of Inyati either
- 18: Inyati shook his head as he examined them
- 19: Though the spot was now as dry as the surrounding dunes
- 20: For the vlei had at one time been of large extent
- 21: For from an absolutely barren dune
- 22: And with Inyati shaking me violently and shouting in my ear
- 23: Inyati was full of confidence for the future
- 24: Then I came back to the scherm
- 25: A kopje of rugged rocks rising from the dunes
- 26: Again I trekked through the better part of the night
- 27: The sandstorm was a legion of pursuing fiends
- 28: Each yard I crawled was agony to me
- 29: Intoxicating berries that had saved my life in the desert
- 30: Inyati had told me there were plenty in his land
- 31: And I recalled how poor Inyati had called them magic stones
- 32: But what I did fear was vertigo
- 33: To spring from my precarious foothold was impossible
- 34: But I had already stumbled upon another crater
- 35: And if they were in the crater there must be a way down
- 36: For among them lay huge tusks in quantities
- 37: And which I now wore on my own wrist
- 38: Again and again chant and response broke forth
- 39: But now came peal after peal of terrific thunder
- 40: It stretched in an unbroken sheet unbroken
- 41: Or that other by which thou shalt return
- 42: The priestess took something from it
- 43: And never was a man more astounded than the Consul
- 44: Suggested the Consul tentatively
- 45: What then had the priestess bidden me forget
- 46: And stammered her protests and thanks for she was poor
- 47: As Bushmen often like to style themselves
- 48: He leaves no spoor and we fear
- 49: Whilst imbibing vast quantities of their national beverage
- 50: Shut yer fat head abaht Englishmen or I'll make yer
- 51: Sydney heard what it was that was required of him
- 52: Guided by the discovering syndicate's prospector Grosman
- 53: Dick could see the figure of Grosman the prospector
- 54: On arriving near the high dune
- 55: The scorpion really settled the question for him
- 56: And the sound of snoring came from them in chorus
- 57: Schaendlich und verraetherisch schwein hunden
- 58: Its place being taken by a deposit of fine loose grit
- 59: And the Herr Prospector Junes he must ride before us always
- 60: And still Grosman knelt upon his slighter opponent
- 61: He hauled the furious Grosman off his prey
- 62: Gilderman uttered a furious exclamation
- 63: He was now suspicious of Jelder
- 64: Said Gilderman and Jelder together
- 65: Ignoring the industrious Brietmann
- 66: He succeeded in twisting Brietmann under him
- 67: And it was for this you attacked an unarmed and innocent man
- 68: The big wachtmeister rubbed his throttled throat feelingly
- 69: The wachtmeister sang out a brief order
- 70: Said the wachtmeister significantly
- 71: Gilderman and the others all arrested
- 72: Pay Sydney his cheque and double it
- 73: Gilderman's or those other scoundrels in gaol
- 74: Said Solly with the greatest scorn
- 75: Carfax did not turn up in camp
- 76: He pointed back across the dunes
- 77: With a scream of horror he wrenched away his wrist
- 78: And the overwrought state of Carfax
- 79: I walked over to the fallen baboon
- 80: It's some yarn these infernal Bushmen have told him
- 81: ' The Bushmen were cowering in fear too
- 82: Old Klaas came to Cape Town with us
- 83: And moreover had found old Klaas alive and hearty
- 84: The baboons might return at any time
- 85: Jim Halloran was bored to death
- 86: So Kramer was laughed at by everybody
- 87: By which time Halloran had reached the fallen white man
- 88: Haussmann the German lieutenant
- 89: Halloran had enjoined silence for some reason
- 90: Gert has taken the chief's message
- 91: And it was a great relief when Karelse
- 92: Alvaro Nunes had still five charges for his arquebus
- 93: The shipmen shrank back in dismay
- 94: And I my hand petronel and dagger too
- 95: Of water thou shalt soon drink plenty
- 96: Karelse stared from one to the other
- 97: We outspanned under the cliffs of Erongo
- 98: But he didn't know heverythink
- 99: That there waterfall takes a lot of reaching
- 100: ' I asks agin knowin' he 'ated it
