Johannesburg, March 6th.
There is something about the state of things here that is not at all healthy. Touse the well-known phrase that I have so often read, we are all living on theedge of a volcano. Bands of strikers, or so-called strikers, patrol the streetsand scowl1 at one in a murderous fashion. They are picking out the bloatedcapitalists ready for when the massacres2 begin, I suppose. You can’t ride in ataxi—If you do, strikers pull you out again. And the hotels hint pleasantlythat when the food gives out they will fling you out on the mat!
I met Reeves, my labour friend of the Kilmorden, last night. He has cold feetworse than any man I ever saw. He’s like all the rest of these people; they makeinflammatory speeches of enormous length, solely3 for political purposes, andthen wish they hadn’t. He’s busy now going about and saying he didn’t reallydo it. When I met him, he was just off to Cape4 Town, where he meditates5 mak-ing a three days’ speech in Dutch, vindicating6 himself, and pointing out thatthe things he said really meant something entirely7 different. I am thankfulthat I do not have to sit in the Legislative8 Assembly of South Africa. The Houseof Commons is bad enough, but at least we have only one language, and someslight restriction9 as to length of speeches. When I went to the Assembly beforeleaving Cape Town, I listened to a grey-haired gentleman with a droopingmoustache who looked exactly like the Mock Turtle in Alice in Wonderland.
He dropped out his words one by one in a particularly melancholy10 fashion.
Every now and then he galvanized himself to further efforts by ejaculatingsomething that sounded like “Platt Skeet,” uttered fortissimo and in markedcontrast to the rest of his delivery. When he did this, half his audience yelled“whoof, whoof!” which is possibly Dutch for “Hear, hear,” and the other halfwoke up with a start from the pleasant nap they had been having. I was givento understand that the gentleman had been speaking for at least three days.
They must have a lot of patience in South Africa.
I have invented endless jobs to keep Pagett in Cape Town, but at last the fer-tility of my imagination has given out, and he joins me tomorrow in the spiritof the faithful dog who comes to die by his master’s side. And I was getting onso well with my Reminiscences too! I had invented some extraordinarily11 wittythings that the strike leaders said to me and I said to the strike leaders.
This morning I was interviewed by a Government official. He was urbane,persuasive and mysterious in turn. To begin with, he alluded12 to my exaltedposition and importance, and suggested that I should remove myself, or be re-moved by him, to Pretoria.
“You expect trouble, then?” I asked.
His reply was so worded as to have no meaning whatsoever13, so I gatheredthat they were expecting serious trouble. I suggested to him that his Govern-ment were letting things go rather too far.
“There is such a thing as giving a man enough rope, and letting him hanghimself, Sir Eustace.”
“Oh, quite so, quite so.”
“It is not the strikers themselves who are causing the trouble. There is someorganization at work behind them. Arms and explosives have been pouringin, and we have made a haul of certain documents which throw a good deal oflight on the methods adopted to import them. There is a regular code. Pota-toes mean ‘detonators,’ cauliflower, ‘rifles,’ other vegetables stand for variousexplosives.”
“That’s very interesting,” I commented.
“More than that, Sir Eustace, we have every reason to believe that the manwho runs the whole show, the directing genius of the affair, is at this minute inJohannesburg.”
He stared at me so hard that I began to fear that he suspected me of beingthe man. I broke out into a cold perspiration14 at the thought, and began to re-gret that I had ever conceived the idea of inspecting a miniature revolution atfirst hand.
“No trains are running from Jo’burg to Pretoria,” he continued. “But I canarrange to send you over by private car. In case you should be stopped on theway, I can provide you with two separate passes, one issued by the union Gov-ernment, and the other stating that you are an English visitor who has noth-ing whatsoever to do with the union.”
“One for your people, and one for the strikers, eh?”
“Exactly.”
The project did not appeal to me—I know what happens in a case of thatkind. You get flustered15 and mix the things up. I should hand the wrong pass tothe wrong person, and it would end in my being summarily shot by abloodthirsty rebel, or one of the supporters of law and order whom I noticeguarding the streets wearing bowler16 hats and smoking pipes, with riflestucked carelessly under their arms. Besides, what should I do with myself inPretoria? Admire the architecture of the union buildings, and listen to theechoes of the shooting round Johannesburg? I should be penned up there Godknows how long. They’ve blown up the railway line already, I hear. It isn’teven as if one could get a drink there. They put the place under martial17 lawtwo days ago.
“My dear fellow,” I said, “you don’t seem to realize that I’m studying condi-tions on the Rand. How the devil am I going to study them from Pretoria? I ap-preciate your care for my safety, but don’t worry about me, I shall be allright.”
“I warn you, Sir Eustace, that the food question is already serious.”
“A little fasting will improve my figure,” I said, with a sigh.
We were interrupted by a telegram being handed to me. I read it withamazement.
“Anne is safe. Here with me at Kimberley. Suzanne Blair.”
I don’t think I ever really believed in the annihilation of Anne. There issomething peculiarly indestructible about that young woman—she is like thepatent balls that one gives to terriers. She has an extraordinary knack18 ofturning up smiling. I still don’t see why it was necessary for her to walk out ofthe hotel in the middle of the night in order to get to Kimberley. There was notrain, anyway. She must have put on a pair of angel’s wings and flown there.
And I don’t suppose she will ever explain. Nobody does—to me. I always haveto guess. It becomes monotonous19 after a while. The exigencies20 of journalismare at the bottom of it, I suppose. “How I shot the rapids,” by our Special Cor-respondent.
I refolded the telegram and got rid of my Governmental friend. I don’t likethe prospect21 of being hungry, but I’m not alarmed for my personal safety.
Smuts is perfectly22 capable of dealing23 with the revolution. But I would give aconsiderable sum of money for a drink! I wonder if Pagett will have the senseto bring a bottle of whisky with him when he arrives tomorrow?
I put on my hat and went out, intending to buy a few souvenirs. The curioshops in Jo’burg are rather pleasant. I was just studying a window full of im-posing karosses, when a man coming out of the shop cannoned24 into me. To mysurprise it turned out to be Race.
I can’t flatter myself that he looked pleased to see me. As a matter of fact, helooked distinctly annoyed, but I insisted on his accompanying me back to thehotel. I get tired of having no one but Miss Pettigrew to talk to.
“I had no idea you were in Jo’burg,” I said chattily. “When did you arrive?”
“Last night.”
“Where are you staying?”
“With friends.”
He was disposed to be extraordinarily taciturn, and seemed to be embar-rassed by my questions.
“I hope they keep poultry,” I remarked. “A diet of new-laid eggs, and the oc-casional slaughtering25 of an old cock, will be decidedly agreeable soon, from allI hear.”
“By the way,” I said, when we were back in the hotel, “have you heard thatMiss Beddingfeld is alive and kicking?”
He nodded.
“She gave us quite a fright,” I said airily. “Where the devil did she go to thatnight, that’s what I’d like to know.”
“She was on the island all the time.”
“Which island? Not the one with the young man on it?”
“Yes.”
“How very improper,” I said. “Pagett will be quite shocked. He always diddisapprove of Anne Beddingfeld. I suppose that was the young man she origin-ally intended to meet in Durban?”
“I don’t think so.”
“Don’t tell me anything if you don’t want to,” I said, by way of encouraginghim.
“I fancy that this is a young man we should all be very glad to lay our handson.”
“Not—?” I cried, in rising excitement.
He nodded.
“Harry26 Rayburn, alias27 Harry Lucas—that’s his real name, you know. He’sgiven us all the slip once more, but we’re bound to rope him in soon.”
“Dear me, dear me,” I murmured.
“We don’t suspect the girl of complicity in any case. On her side it’s—just alove affair.”
I always did think Race was in love with Anne. The way he said those lastwords made me feel sure of it.
“She’s gone to Beira,” he continued rather hastily.
“Indeed,” I said, staring. “How do you know?”
“She wrote to me from Bulawayo, telling me she was going home that way.
The best thing she can do, poor child.”
“Somehow, I don’t fancy she is in Beira,” I said meditatively28.
“She was just starting when she wrote.”
I was puzzled. Somebody was clearly lying. Without stopping to reflect thatAnne might have excellent reasons for her misleading statements, I gave my-self up to the pleasure of scoring off Race. He is always so cocksure. I took thetelegram from my pocket and handed it to him.
“Then how do you explain this?” I asked nonchalantly.
He seemed dumbfounded. “She said she was just starting for Beira,” hesaid, in a dazed voice.
I know that Race is supposed to be clever. He is, in my opinion, rather a stu-pid man. It never seemed to occur to him that girls do not always tell thetruth.
“Kimberley too. What are they doing there?” he muttered.
“Yes, that surprised me. I should have thought Miss Anne would have beenin the thick of it here, gathering29 copy for the Daily Budget.”
“Kimberley,” he said again. The place seemed to upset him. “There’s noth-ing to see there—the pits aren’t being worked.”
“You know what women are,” I said vaguely30.
He shook his head and went off. I have evidently given him something tothink about.
No sooner had he departed than my Government official reappeared.
“I hope you will forgive me for troubling you again, Sir Eustace,” he apolo-gized. “But there are one or two questions I should like to ask you.”
“Certainly, my dear fellow,” I said cheerfully. “Ask away.”
“It concerns your secretary—”
“I know nothing about him,” I said hastily. “He foisted31 himself upon me inLondon, robbed me of valuable papers—for which I shall be hauled over thecoals—and disappeared like a conjuring32 trick at Cape Town. It’s true that Iwas at the Falls at the same time as he was, but I was at the hotel, and he wason an island. I can assure you that I never set eyes upon him the whole timethat I was there.”
I paused for breath.
“You misunderstand me. It was of your other secretary that I spoke33.”
“What? Pagett?” I cried, in lively astonishment34. “He’s been with me eightyears—a most trustworthy fellow.”
My interlocutor smiled.
“We are still at cross-purposes. I refer to the lady.”
“Miss Pettigrew?” I exclaimed.
“Yes. She has been seen coming out of Agrasato’s Native Curio shop.”
“God bless my soul!” I interrupted. “I was going into that place myself thisafternoon. You might have caught me coming out!”
There doesn’t seem to be any innocent thing that one can do in Jo’burgwithout being suspected for it.
“Ah! but she has been seen there more than once—and in rather doubtfulcircumstances. I may as well tell you—in confidence, Sir Eustace—that theplace is suspected of being a well-known rendezvous35 used by the secret organ-ization behind this revolution. That is why I should be glad to hear all thatyou can tell me about this lady. Where and how did you come to engage her?”
“She was lent to me,” I replied coldly, “by your own Government.”
He collapsed36 utterly37.
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1
scowl
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| vi.(at)生气地皱眉，沉下脸，怒视；n.怒容 | |
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massacres
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| 大屠杀( massacre的名词复数 )； 惨败 | |
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solely
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| adv.仅仅，唯一地 | |
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cape
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| n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风 | |
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meditates
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的第三人称单数 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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6
vindicating
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| v.澄清（某人/某事物）受到的责难或嫌疑( vindicate的现在分词 )；表明或证明（所争辩的事物）属实、正当、有效等；维护 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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legislative
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| n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的 | |
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restriction
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| n.限制，约束 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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11
extraordinarily
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| adv.格外地；极端地 | |
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12
alluded
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| 提及，暗指( allude的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13
whatsoever
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| adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么 | |
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14
perspiration
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| n.汗水；出汗 | |
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15
flustered
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| adj.慌张的；激动不安的v.使慌乱，使不安( fluster的过去式和过去分词) | |
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bowler
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| n.打保龄球的人，（板球的）投（球）手 | |
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martial
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| adj.战争的，军事的，尚武的，威武的 | |
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knack
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| n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法 | |
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monotonous
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| adj.单调的，一成不变的，使人厌倦的 | |
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exigencies
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| n.急切需要 | |
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prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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dealing
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| n.经商方法，待人态度 | |
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cannoned
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| vi.与…猛撞（cannon的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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slaughtering
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的现在分词 ) | |
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harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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alias
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| n.化名；别名；adv.又名 | |
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meditatively
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| adv.冥想地 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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vaguely
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| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
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31
foisted
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| 强迫接受，把…强加于( foist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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conjuring
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| n.魔术 | |
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33
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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rendezvous
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| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
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collapsed
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| adj.倒塌的 | |
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utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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