Chapter 1 | Three White Ones | A Dash From Diamond City

Tick, tap, tap—tap, ticker—ticker—tapper—tapper; tick—teck, tacker—tap went a typewriting machine, and scratch—scratch went two pens, in one of the minor offices connected with that vast wealth-producing industry known as the De Beers Diamond-Mines, where, seated at desk and table, three young men were hard at work, one manipulating the typewriter, one writing a letter, and the third making entries in a fat leather-covered book with broad bands and a big letter distinguishing it upon the back.

The words: “minor office in a diamond-mine,” naturally suggest wealth, Turkey carpets, french-polished furniture, and plate-glass; but the office in question was an example of simplicity, for its walls were mud and its roof corrugated-iron, while the roughness of the interior was only slightly softened down by a lining of what a carpenter calls matchboarding. In spite of its vast wealth, Kimberley is still little better than a moving camp, and holds out few prospects of ever becoming a magnificent town.

The interior of that newly-created office, allowing for the tapping of the typewriter and the scratching of the pens, was very quiet; but outside there was the strange sound produced by the mingling of voices with trampling feet and the distant whirr and rattle of machinery, till a clock began striking, followed by the clangour of a bell, and then all was changed.

“Time!” shouted the manipulator of the typewriter, springing from his stool to stretch his wiry six feet of length, at the same time spoiling a keen, manly face by distorting it with a yawn. The clerk who had been bending over the thick account-book ceased making entries, applied the blotting-paper, and closed the book with a bang, to turn round and display a pink-and-white, fat, smooth face, disfigured by nearly white eyebrows and lashes and curly whitey-brown hair. As he stood up he yawned and wrinkled his fat face a good deal; but the wrinkles died down into a smile which gave him a meek and mild appearance, the said smile being doubled directly after by his taking a little round shaving-glass out of his desk, propping it up by means of a contrivance behind, and then, by the help of a pocket-comb, proceeding to rearrange his hair, which, from the resistance offered, appeared to be full of knots and kinks.

The last to leave his desk was a manly-looking young fellow who appeared to be twenty, but who possessed documentary evidence that he was only eighteen. He neither stretched nor yawned, but drew himself up with a sigh of relief, and, after carefully locking up the letters he had written, he turned to the typist.

“Going out, Ingleborough?” he said.

“Yes; I shan’t be long. I must go on to the compound. Back in—”

“Five minutes?” dashed in his questioner.

“No; that I shan’t,” said the young man smartly; “but I will not exceed fifteen. Get out my rifle and belts, West.”

“All right,” was the reply, and as the door closed the young clerk crossed to a plain deal cupboard in the corner of the office, threw open the broad door, and revealed an arms-rack with some twenty of the newest-pattern rifles standing ready for use, and bayonets and bandoliers to match each breech-loading piece.

A peculiarly innocent baby-like look came over his companion’s face as he opened his desk and took out a little flat oblong mahogany case and said softly:

“Going to play at soldiers again? Only to think of Oliver West, Esquire, learning to shoulder arms and right-about face when a drill-sergeant barks at him.”

“Look here, Anson,” cried the young fellow warmly; “is that meant for a sneer?”

“Me sneer?” protested the plump-looking cherubic clerk. “Oh dear, no! I never indulge in sneers, and I never quarrel, and I never fight.”

“Humph!” ejaculated the rifle-bearer.

“I only think it’s all braggadocio nonsense for a lot of fellows to go wasting time drilling and volunteering when they might acquire such an accomplishment as this.”

As the speaker addressed his warlike companion he tapped the lid of his case, opened it, and revealed three joints of a flute lying snugly in purple-velvet fittings, and, taking them out, he proceeded to lick the ends all round in a tomcat sort of way, and screwed them together, evidently with a great deal of satisfaction to himself, for he smiled softly.

“Bah! It’s a deal more creditable to be prepared to defend the place against the Boers. Better join us, Anson.”

“Me? No, thank you, unless you start a band and make me bandmaster.”

“We shall want no music,” said West, laughing. “The Boers will give us plenty of that with their guns.”

“Nonsense! It’s all fudge,” said the flautist, smiling. “There’ll be no fighting, and even if there were I’m not going to shoulder a rifle. I should be afraid to let it off.”

“You?” cried West, staring into the smooth, plump face. “Why, you once told me you were a first-rate shot.”

“Did I? Well, it was only my fun,” said the clerk, placing his flute to his lips and beginning to run dumb scales up and down, skilfully enough as to the fingering, but he did not produce a sound.

“I say, don’t you begin to blow!” cried West, looking rather contemptuously at the musician and forcing himself to restrain a laugh at the grotesque round face with the eyes screwed-up into narrow slits.

“Oh, no one will come here now,” was the reply. “I get so little practice. I shall blow gently.” Directly afterwards he began to run up and down, playing through some exercise with which he was familiar extremely softly; and then by way of a change he began what is technically known as “double-tonguing.”

This was too much for Oliver West. He had stood rubbing first one rifle and then the other with a slightly-oiled rag to get rid of specks of rust or dust, every now and then stealing a glance at the absurdly screwed-up face, feeling the while that a good hearty laugh would do him good, but determined to maintain his composure so as not to hurt the performer’s feelings. But the double-tonguing was too much.

Tootle-too, tootle-too, tootle, tootle-too went the performer, running up the gamut till he reached the octave and was about to run down again, but he stopped short, lowered his instrument, and turned from a warm pink to a deep purply crimson, for West suddenly burst out into a half-hysterical roar of laughter, one which he vainly strove to check.

“I—I—I—I beg your pardon,” he cried at last.

“Thank you,” snorted out Anson; “but I don’t see anything to laugh at.”

“I couldn’t help it, Anson. You did look so—so comic. Such a face!”

“Did I?” cried the musician angrily. “Such a face, indeed! You should see your own. Your grin looked idiotic: half-way between a bushman and a baboon.”

“Thank you,” said West, calming down at once, and feeling nettled in turn.

“Oh, you’re quite welcome,” said Anson sarcastically. “I have heard about casting pearls before swine; but I never saw the truth of the saying before.”

“Thank you again,” said West, frowning. “But if I were you I would not waste any more of my pearls in such company.”

“I do not mean to,” said Anson, with his eyes glittering.

He got no farther, though he was prepared to say something crushing, for the door was flung open and their fellow-clerk came back quickly.

“Hullo!” he cried, “flute and hautboy. I say, Sim, put that thing away and don’t bring it here, or I shall have an accident with it some day. You ought to have stopped him, Noll. But come out, both of you. There’s some fun in the compound. They’re going to thoroughly search half-a-dozen Kaffirs, and I thought you’d like to see.”

“Been stealing diamonds?” cried Anson excitedly.

“Suspected,” replied Ingleborough.

“I’ll come too,” said Anson, and he began to rapidly unscrew his flute, but so hurriedly that in place of separating the top joint from the next he pulled it open at the tuning-slide, changed colour, and swung himself round so as to turn his back to his companions, keeping in that position till his instrument was properly separated and replaced in its case, whose lid he closed, and then turned the key.

“I’m ready,” he cried, facing round and buttoning his jacket over the little mahogany case.

“Do you take that shepherd’s pipe to bed with you?” said Ingleborough scornfully.

“Generally,” replied the fat-looking clerk innocently. “You see, it’s so nice when one wakes early, and I have learned to blow so softly now that I can often get an hour’s practice before I have my morning’s bath.”

“How delightful for the other boarders! You’re at Dick Tomlin’s house, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” said Anson.

“Have they any room for another boarder, Sim?”

“I—I really don’t know, but I’ll ask, if you like, this evening.”

“No, no; don’t, please,” cried Ingleborough. “Perhaps it might be too strong for me. I ought to go through a course of bagpipes first.”

Anson had fastened two buttons of his jacket so as to hold the flute-case from slipping, and now he fastened another button, smiling pleasantly the while.

“That’s meant for a joke,” he said.

“Quite right,” cried Ingleborough abruptly. “Come along.”

He stepped out, closely followed by West, and Anson called after them: “With you directly,” as the door swung to.

“Don’t do that again,” whispered West.

“What?”

“Say anything to chaff old Anson. Did you see how he behaved?”

“I saw him smile like a Chinese mandarin ornament. That’s all.”

“I saw him smile and look smooth; but he can’t bear a joke. His hands were all of a tremble as he buttoned up his jacket, and there was a peculiar look in his eye. It’s not good policy to make enemies.”

“Nonsense! He’s a poor slack-baked animal. I wonder they ever had him here.”

West glanced back; but Anson had not yet left the office.

“Relative of one of the directors,” said West quickly; “and I’ve noticed several things lately to make me think he does not like us.”

“Oh, if you come to that,” said Ingleborough, “so have I. That’s quite natural, for we don’t like him. One can’t; he’s so smooth and soft. But why doesn’t he come? I’ll just give him a minute after we get up to the compound gate, and if he is not there then he’ll have to stay outside.”

“Here he comes,” cried West, and the next minute their fellow-clerk joined them, just as they got up to a gate in the high fence of the enclosure where the Kaffir workers about the diamond-mines were kept to all intents prisoners till they had served the time for which they had engaged.

“Haven’t kept you two waiting, have I?” said Anson, with a pleasant smile directed at both.

“No, no, all right,” replied West, and directly after they were admitted to the compound, just in time to find that half-a-dozen of the stalwart Kaffir workers were standing perfectly nude awaiting the examination about to be made by some of the officers—an examination which they seemed to look upon as a joke, for they laughed and chatted together.

“Looking as innocent as old Anson, only not so white,” whispered Ingleborough. “But we shall see.”