King Solomon’s Mines - H. Rider Haggard (best life changing books .TXT) 📗

Jim standing by my wagon and cutting up tobacco on the disselboom.

“ ‘Jim,’ said I, ‘where are you off to this trip? It is elephants?’

“ ‘No, Baas,’ he answered, ‘we are after something worth much more than ivory.’

“ ‘And what might that be?’ I said, for I was curious. ‘Is it gold?’

“ ‘No, Baas, something worth more than gold,’ and he grinned.

“I asked no more questions, for I did not like to lower my dignity by seeming inquisitive, but I was puzzled. Presently Jim finished cutting his tobacco.

“ ‘Baas,’ said he.

“I took no notice.

“ ‘Baas,’ said he again.

“ ‘Eh, boy, what is it?’ I asked.

“ ‘Baas, we are going after diamonds.’

“ ‘Diamonds! why, then, you are steering in the wrong direction; you should head for the Fields.’

“ ‘Baas, have you ever heard of Suliman’s Berg?’⁠—that is, Solomon’s Mountains, Sir Henry.

“ ‘Ay!’

“ ‘Have you ever heard of the diamonds there?’

“ ‘I have heard a foolish story, Jim.’

“ ‘It is no story, Baas. Once I knew a woman who came from there, and reached Natal with her child, she told me:⁠—she is dead now.’

“ ‘Your master will feed the aasvögels’⁠—that is, vultures⁠—‘Jim, if he tries to reach Suliman’s country, and so will you if they can get any pickings off your worthless old carcass,’ said I.

“He grinned. ‘Mayhap, Baas. Man must die; I’d rather like to try a new country myself; the elephants are getting worked out about here.’

“ ‘Ah! my boy,’ I said, ‘you wait till the “pale old man” gets a grip of your yellow throat, and then we shall hear what sort of a tune you sing.’

“Half an hour after that I saw Neville’s wagon move off. Presently Jim came back running. ‘Goodbye, Baas,’ he said. ‘I didn’t like to start without bidding you goodbye, for I daresay you are right, and that we shall never trek south again.’

“ ‘Is your master really going to Suliman’s Berg, Jim, or are you lying?’

“ ‘No,’ he answered, ‘he is going. He told me he was bound to make his fortune somehow, or try to; so he might as well have a fling for the diamonds.’

“ ‘Oh!’ I said; ‘wait a bit, Jim; will you take a note to your master, Jim, and promise not to give it to him till you reach Inyati?’ which was some hundred miles off.

“ ‘Yes, Baas.’

“So I took a scrap of paper, and wrote on it, ‘Let him who comes⁠ ⁠… climb the snow of Sheba’s left breast, till he reaches the nipple, on the north side of which is Solomon’s great road.’

“ ‘Now, Jim,’ I said, ‘when you give this to your master, tell him he had better follow the advice on it implicitly. You are not to give it to him now, because I don’t want him back asking me questions which I won’t answer. Now be off, you idle fellow, the wagon is nearly out of sight.’

“Jim took the note and went, and that is all I know about your brother, Sir Henry; but I am much afraid⁠—”

“Mr. Quatermain,” said Sir Henry, “I am going to look for my brother; I am going to trace him to Suliman’s Mountains, and over them if necessary, till I find him, or until I know that he is dead. Will you come with me?”

I am, as I think I have said, a cautious man, indeed a timid one, and this suggestion frightened me. It seemed to me that to undertake such a journey would be to go to certain death, and putting other considerations aside, as I had a son to support, I could not afford to die just then.

“No, thank you, Sir Henry, I think I had rather not,” I answered. “I am too old for wild-goose chases of that sort, and we should only end up like my poor friend Silvestre. I have a son dependent on me, so I cannot afford to risk my life foolishly.”

Both Sir Henry and Captain Good looked very disappointed.

“Mr. Quatermain,” said the former, “I am well off, and I am bent upon this business. You may put the remuneration for your services at whatever figure you like in reason, and it shall be paid over to you before we start. Moreover, I will arrange in the event of anything untoward happening to us or to you, that your son shall be suitably provided for. You will see from this offer how necessary I think your presence. Also if by chance we should reach this place, and find diamonds, they shall belong to you and Good equally. I do not want them. But of course that promise is worth nothing at all, though the same thing would apply to any ivory we might get. You may pretty well make your own terms with me, Mr. Quatermain; and of course I shall pay all expenses.”

“Sir Henry,” said I, “this is the most liberal proposal I ever had, and one not to be sneezed at by a poor hunter and trader. But the job is the biggest I have come across, and I must take time to think it over. I will give you my answer before we get to Durban.”

“Very good,” answered Sir Henry.

Then I said good night and turned in, and dreamt about poor long-dead Silvestre and the diamonds.

III Umbona Enters Our Service

It takes from four to five days, according to the speed of the vessel and the state of the weather, to run up from the Cape to Durban. Sometimes, if the landing is bad at East London, where they have not yet made that wonderful harbour they talk so much of, and sink such a mint of money in, a ship is delayed for twenty-four hours before the cargo boats can get out to take off the goods. But on this occasion we had not to wait at all, for there were no breakers on the bar to speak of, and the tugs came out at once with the long strings of ugly flat-bottomed boats behind them, into which the packages were bundled with a crash. It did not matter what they might be,