Part 20 (1/2)
”What is it, nephew?”
”I want a pa.s.s for two friends of mine--English people--in Pretoria to go down to their relations in Wakkerstroom district. They sent a message to me by Hans Coetzee.”
”I don't like giving pa.s.ses,” answered the General with some irritation.
”You know what it means, letting out messengers. I wonder you ask me.”
”It is a small favour, _Meinheer_, and I do not think that it will matter. Pretoria will not be besieged much longer; I am under an obligation to the people.”
”Well, well, as you like; but if any harm comes of it, you will be held responsible. Write the pa.s.s; I will sign it.”
Frank Muller sat down and wrote and dated the paper. Its contents were simple: ”Pa.s.s the bearers unharmed.”
”That is big enough to drive a waggon along,” said the General, when it was handed to him to sign. ”It might mean all Pretoria.”
”I am not certain if there are two or three of them,” answered Muller carelessly.
”Well, well, you are responsible. Give me the pen,” and he scrawled his big coa.r.s.e signature on the paper.
”I propose, with your permission, to escort the cart down with two other men. As you are aware, I go to take over the command of the Wakkerstroom district to-morrow.”
”Very good. It is your affair; you are responsible. I shall ask no questions, provided your friends do no harm to the cause;” and he left the room without another word.
When the great man had gone, Frank Muller sat down again on the bench and looked at the pa.s.s, and communed with himself, for he was far too wise to commune with anybody else. ”The Lord hath delivered mine enemy into mine hand,” he said with a smile, and stroked his golden beard.
”Well, well, I will not waste His merciful opportunities as I did that day out buck-shooting. And then for Bessie. I suppose I shall have to kill old Croft too. I am sorry for that, but it can't be helped; besides, if anything should happen to Jess, Bessie will take Mooifontein, and that is worth having. Not that I want more land; I have enough. Yes, I will marry her. It would serve her right if I didn't; but, after all, marriage is more respectable; also one has more hold of a wife. n.o.body will interfere for her. Then, she will be of use to me by-and-by, for a beautiful woman is a power even among these fellow-countrymen of mine, if only a man knows how to bait his lines with her. Yes, I shall marry her. Bah! that is the way to win a woman--by capture; and, what is more, they like it. It makes her worth winning too. It will be a courts.h.i.+p of blood. Well, the kisses will be the sweeter, and in the end she will love me the more for what I have dared for her.
”So, Frank Muller, so! Ten years ago you said to yourself: 'There are three things worth having in the world--first, wealth; secondly, women, if they take your fancy, or, better still, one woman, if you desire her above all others; thirdly, power.' Now, you have got the wealth, for one way or another you are the richest man in the Transvaal. In a week you will have the woman you love, and who is sweeter to you than all the world besides. In five years' time you will have the power--absolute power. That old man is clever; he will be President. But I am cleverer.
I shall soon take his seat, thus”--and he rose and seated himself in the General's chair--”and he will go down a step and take mine. Ay, and then I will reign. My tongue shall be honey and my hand iron. I will pa.s.s over the land like a storm. I will drive these English out with the help of the Kafirs, and then I will kill the Kafirs and take their country.
Ah!”--and his eyes flashed and his nostrils dilated as he said it to himself--”then life will be worth living! What a thing is power! What a thing it is to be able to destroy! Take that Englishman, my rival: to-day he is well and strong; in three days he will be gone utterly, and I--I shall have sent him away. That is power. But when the time comes that I have only to stretch out my hand to send thousands after him!--that will be absolute power; and then with Bessie I shall be happy.”
And so he dreamed on for an hour or more, till at last the fumes of his untutored imagination actually drowned his reason in a spiritual drunkenness. Picture after picture rose and unrolled itself before his mind's eye. He saw himself as President addressing the _Volksraad_, and compelling it to his will. He saw himself, the supreme general of a great host, defeating the forces of England with awful carnage, and driving them before him; ay, he even selected the battle-ground on the slopes of the Biggarsberg in Natal. Then he saw himself again, sweeping the natives out of South Africa with the relentless besom of his might, and ruling unquestioned over a submissive people. And, last of all, he saw something glittering at his feet--it was a crown!
This was the climax of his dream. Then there came an anticlimax. The rich imagination which had been leading him on as a gaudy b.u.t.terfly does a child, suddenly changed colour and dropped to earth; and there rose up in his mind the memory of the General's words: ”G.o.d sets a limit to a man's doings. If he is going too far, _G.o.d kills him_.”
The b.u.t.terfly had settled on a coffin!
CHAPTER XXI
JESS GETS A Pa.s.s
About half-past ten on the morning following her interview with Hans Coetzee, Jess was at ”The Palatial” as usual, and John was just finis.h.i.+ng packing the cart with such few goods as they possessed. There was little chance of his labour proving of material use, for he did not in the slightest degree expect that they would get the pa.s.s; but, as he said cheerfully, it was as good an amus.e.m.e.nt as any other.
”I say, Jess,” he called out presently, ”come here.”
”What for?” asked Jess, who was seated on the doorstep mending something, and looking at her favourite view.
”Because I want to speak to you.”
She rose and went, feeling rather angry with herself for going.