– I’m afraid I’m not familiar with that word, sir.’
‘Fool’s diamonds. Worthless. Do you follow me?’
‘I – Yes, sir. I think so. But what’s the answer, sir?’
‘The Griquas.’
Jamie looked at him blankly.
‘They’re an African tribe up north. They find diamonds – big ones – and sometimes they bring them to me and I trade them for goods.’ The Dutchman lowered his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. ‘I know where they find them.’
‘But could you nae go after them yourself, Mr van der Merwe?’
Van der Merwe sighed. ‘No. I can’t leave the store. People would steal me blind. I need someone I can trust to go up there and bring the stones back. When I find the right man, I’ll supply him with all the equipment he needs.’ He paused to take a long drag on his pipe. ‘And I’ll tell him where the diamonds are.’
Jamie leaped to his feet, his heart pounding. ‘Mr van der Merwe, I’m the person you’re looking for. Believe me, sir, I’ll work night and day.’ His voice was charged with excitement. ‘I’ll bring you back more diamonds than you can count.’
Van der Merwe silently studied him for what seemed to Jamie to be an eternity. When Van der Merwe finally spoke, he said only one word. ‘Ja’
Jamie signed the contract the following morning. It was written in Afrikaans.
‘I’ll have to explain it to you,’ Van der Merwe said. ‘It says we’re full partners. I put up the capital – you put up the labour. We share everything equally.’
Jamie looked at the contract in Van der Merwe’s hand. In the middle of all the incomprehensible foreign words he recognized only a sum: two pounds.
Jamie pointed to it. ‘What is that for, Mr van der Merwe?’
‘It means that in addition to your owning half the diamonds you find, you’ll get an extra two pounds for every week you work. Even though I know the diamonds are out there, it’s possible you might not find anything, lad. This way you’ll at least get something for your labour.’
The man was being more than fair. ‘Thank you. Thank you very much, sir.’ Jamie could have hugged him.
Van der Merwe said, ‘Now let’s get you outfitted.’
It took two hours to select the equipment that Jamie would take into the bush with him: a small tent, bedding, cooking utensils, two sieves and a washing cradle, a pick, two shovels, three buckets and one change of socks and underwear. There was an axe and a lantern and paraffin oil, matches and arsenical soap. There were tins of food, biltong, fruit, sugar, coffee and salt. At last everything was in readiness. The black servant, Banda, silently helped Jamie stow everything into backpacks. The huge man never glanced at Jamie and never spoke one word. He doesn’t speak English, Jamie decided. Margaret was in the store waiting on customers, but if she knew Jamie was there, she gave no indication.
Van der Merwe came over to Jamie. ‘Your mule’s in front,’ he said. ‘Banda will help you load up.’
‘Thank you, Mr van der Merwe,’ Jamie said. ‘I –’
Van der Merwe consulted a piece of paper covered with figures ‘That will be one hundred and twenty pounds.’
Jamie looked at him blankly. ‘W – what? This is part of our deal. We –’
‘Wat bedui’di?’ Van der Merwe’s thin face darkened with anger. ‘You expect me to give you all this, and a fine mule, and make you a partner, and give you two pounds a week on top of that? If you’re looking for something for nothing, you’ve come to the wrong place.’ He began to unload one of the backpacks.
Jamie said quickly, ‘No! Please, Mr van der Merwe. I – I just didn’t understand. It’s perfectly all right. I have the money right here.’ He reached in his pouch and put the last of his savings on the counter.
Van der Merwe hesitated. ‘All right,’ he said grudgingly. ‘Perhaps it was a misunderstanding, neh? This town is full of cheaters. I have to be careful who I do business with.’
‘Yes, sir. Of course you do,’ Jamie agreed. In his excitement, he had misunderstood the deal. I’m lucky he’s giving me another chance, Jamie thought.
Van der Merwe reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, wrinkled, hand-drawn map. ‘Here is where you’ll find the mooi klippe. North of here at Magerdam on the northern bank of the Vaal.’
Jamie studied the map, and his heart began to beat faster. ‘How many miles is it?’
‘Here we measure distance by time. With the mule, you should make the journey in four or five days. Coming back will be slower because of the weight of the diamonds.’
Jamie grinned. ‘Ja.’
When Jamie McGregor stepped back out onto the streets of Klipdrift, he was no longer a tourist. He was a prospector, a digger, on his way to his fortune. Banda had finished loading the supplies onto the back of a frail-looking mule tethered to the hitching post in front of the store.
‘Thanks.’ Jamie smiled.
Banda turned and looked him in the eye, then silently walked away. Jamie unhitched the reins and said to the mule, ‘Let’s go, partner. It’s mooi klippe time.’
They headed north.
Jamie pitched camp near a stream at nightfall, unloaded and watered and fed the mule, and fixed himself some beef jerky, dried apricots and coffee. The night was filled with strange noises. He heard the grunts and howls and padding of wild animals moving down to the water. He was unprotected, surrounded by the most dangerous beasts in the world, in a strange, primitive country. He jumped at every sound. At any moment he expected to be attacked by fangs and claws leaping at him from out of the darkness. His mind began to drift. He thought of his snug bed at home and the comfort and safety he had always taken for granted. He slept fitfully, his dreams filled with charging lions and elephants, and large, bearded men trying to take an enormous diamond away from him.
At dawn when Jamie awakened, the mule was dead.
He could not believe it. He looked for a wound of some kind, thinking it must have been attacked by a wild animal during the night, but there was nothing. The beast had died in its sleep. Mr van der Merwe will hold me responsible for this, Jamie thought. But when I bring him diamonds, it won’t matter.
There was no turning back. He would go on to Magerdam without the mule. He heard a sound in the air and looked up. Giant black vultures were beginning to circle high above. Jamie shuddered. Working as quickly as possible, he rearranged his gear, deciding what he had to leave behind, then stowed everything he could carry into a backpack and started off. When he looked back five minutes later, the enormous vultures had covered the body of the dead animal. All that was visible was one long ear. Jamie quickened his step.
It was December, summer in South Africa, and the trek across the veld under the huge orange sun was a horror. Jamie had started out from Klipdrift with a brisk step and a light heart, but as the minutes turned into hours and the hours into days, his steps got slower and his heart became heavier. As far as the eye could see, the monotonous veld shimmered flat and forbidding under the blazing sun and there seemed no end to the grey, stony, desolate plains.
Jamie made camp whenever he came to a watering hole, and he slept with the eerie, nocturnal sounds of the animals all around him. The sounds no longer bothered him. They were proof that there was life in this barren hell, and they made him feel less lonely. One