This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by John Nicholson. King Solomon's Mines by H. Ryder Haggard. Dedication This faithful but unpretending record of a remarkable adventure is hereby respectfully dedicated by the narrator, Alan Quartermain, to all the big and little boys who read it. Preparers' Note This was typed from a 1907 edition published by Castle & Company Limited. Authors' Note The author ventures to take this opportunity to thank his readers for the kind reception they have accorded to the successive editions of this tale during the last twelve years. He hopes that in its present form it will fall into the hands of an even wider public, and that in years to come it may continue to afford amusement to those who are still young enough at heart to love a story of treasure, war, and wild adventure. Ditchingham, 11 March, 1898. Postscriptum Now, in 1907, on the occasion of the issue of this edition, I can only add how glad I am that my romance should continue to please so many readers. Imagination has been verified by fact. The King Solomon's minds, I dreamed of, have been discovered, and are putting out their gold once more. And, according to the latest reports, their diamonds also. The Cucuanas, or rather the Matebele, have been tamed by the white man's bullets, but still there seem to be many who find pleasure in these simple pages. That they may continue to do so even to the third and fourth generation, or perhaps longer still, would, I am sure, be the hope of our old and departed friend, Alan Quartermain. H. Ryder Haggard. Ditchingham, 1907. Introduction Now that this book is printed and about to be given to the world, a sense of its shortcomings both in style and content weighs very heavily upon me. As regards the latter I can only say that it does not pretend to be a full account of everything we did and saw. There are many things connected with our journey into Cucuanaland that I should have liked to dwell upon at length, which, as it is, have been scarcely alluded to. Amongst these are the curious legends which I collected about the chain armor that saved us from destruction in the Great Battle of Lhue, and also about the silent ones, or Colossi, at the mouth of the stalactite cave. Again, if I had given way to my own impulses, I should have wished to go into the differences, some of which are to my mind very suggestive, between the Zulu and Cucuanah dialects. Also a few pages might have been given up profitably to the consideration of the indigenous flora and fauna of Cucuanaland. Note, I discovered eight varieties of antelope, with which I was previously totally unacquainted, and many new species of plants, for the most part of the Bulbas tribe, A.Q. Then there remains the most interesting subject that, as it is, has only been touched on incidentally, of the magnificent system of military organization enforced in that country, which, in my opinion, is much superior to that inaugurated by Caca in Zululand, and as much as it permits of even more rapid mobilization and does not necessitate the employment of the pernicious system of enforced celibacy. Lastly, I have scarcely spoken of the domestic and family customs of the Cucuanas, many of which are exceedingly quaint, or of their proficiency in the art of smelting and welding metals. This science they carry to considerable perfection, of which a good example is to be seen in their tolas, or heavy throwing knives. The backs of these weapons being made of hammered iron, and the edges of beautiful steel welded with great skill on the iron frame. The fact of the matter is, I thought, with Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good, that the best plan would be to tell my story in a plain straightforward manner, and to leave these matters to be dealt with subsequently in whatever way may ultimately appear to be desirable. In the meanwhile I shall, of course, be delighted to give all the information and my power to anybody interested in such things. And now it only remains for me to offer apologies for my blunt way of writing. I can but say an excuse of it that I am more accustomed to handle a rifle than a pen, and cannot make any pretense to the grand literary flights and flourishes which I see in novels, for sometimes I like to read a novel. I suppose they, the flights and flourishes, are desirable, and I regret not being able to supply them. But at the same time I cannot help thinking that simple things are always the most impressive, and that books are easier to understand when they are written in plain language, though perhaps I have no right to set up an opinion on such a matter. A sharp spear runs the cuckoo on a saying, needs no polish. And on the same principle I venture to hope that a true story, however strange it may be, does not require to be decked out in fine words. King Solomon's Minds. Chapter 1. I Meet Henry Curtis It is a curious thing that at my age, 55, last birthday, I should find myself taking up a pen to try and write a history. I wonder what sort of history it will be when I have finished it, if ever I come to the end of the trip. I have done a good many things in my life, which seems a long one to me, owing to my having begun work so young, perhaps. At an age when other boys were at school I was earning my living as a trader in the old colony. I have been trading, hunting, fighting, or mining ever since. And yet it is only eight months ago that I made my pile. It is a big pile now that I have got it. I don't yet know how big. But I do not think I would go through the last fifteen or sixteen months again for it. No, not if I knew that I should come out safe at the end, pile and all. But then I am a timid man in dislike violence.  I wonder why I am going to write this book. It is not in my line. I am not a literary man, though very devoted to the old testament, and also to the in Goldsby legends. Let me try to set down my reasons just to see if I have any. First reason. Because Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good asked me. Second reason. Because I am laid up here at Durban with the pain in my left leg. Ever since that confounded lion got hold of may I have been liable to this trouble, and rather bad just now. It makes me limp more than ever. There must be some poison in a lion's teeth. Otherwise, how is it that when your wounds are healed they break out again, generally mark you at the same time of year that you got your mauling? It is a hard thing when one has shot sixty-five lions or more, as I have in the course of my life, that the sixty-sixth should chew your leg like a quid of tobacco. Breaks the routine of the thing, and putting other considerations aside, I am an orderly man and don't like that. This is by the way. Third reason. Because I want my boy Harry, who is over there at the hospital in London, studying to become a doctor, to have something to amuse him and keep him out of mischief for a week or so. Hospital work must sometimes pawl and grow rather dull, for even of cutting up dead bodies there may come satiety. And as this little history will not be dull whatever else it may be, it will put a little life into things for a day or two while Harry is reading of our adventures. Fifth reason, and last, because I am going to tell the strangest story that I remember. It may seem a queer thing to say, especially considering there was no woman in it, except for Lata. Stop, though, there is a gogula if she was a woman and not a fiend. But she was a hundred, at least, and therefore not marriageable, so I don't count her. At any rate, I can safely say that there is not a petticoat in the whole history. Well, I had better come to the yoke. It is a stiff place, and I feel as though I were bogged up to the axle. But suces, suces, as the boars say, I am sure I don't know how they spell it. Softly does it. A strong team will come through at last, that is, if they are not too poor. You can never do anything with poor oxen. Now to make a start. I, Alan Quartermaine, of Durban, Natal, gentlemen, make oath and say, that's how I headed my deposition before the magistrate about poor kivas and event-vogels' sad deaths. But somehow it doesn't seem quite the right way to begin a book. And besides, am I a gentleman? What is a gentleman? I don't quite know. And yet I have had to do with niggers. No, I will scratch out that word niggers, for I do not like it. I have no natives who are. And so you will say, Harry, my boy, before you have done with this tale. And I have known mean whites with lots of money and fresh out from home, too, who are not.  Whether I have remained so, I know not. You must judge of that. Have a nose, I've tried. I have killed many men in my time, yet I have never slain wantonly or stained my hand in innocent blood, but only in self-defense. The Almighty gave us our lives, and I suppose He managed to defend them. At least I have always acted on that, and I hope it will not be brought up against me when my clock strikes. There, there, it is a cruel and wicked world, and for a timid man I have been mixed up in a great deal of fighting. I cannot tell the rites of it, but at any rate I have never stolen, for once I cheated a kafir out of a herd of cattle. But then he had done me a dirty turn, and it has troubled me ever since into the bargain. Well, it is eighteen months or so ago since first I met Sir Henry Curtis and Captain Good. It was in this way. I had been up elephant hunting, beyond Bemanguato, and had met with bad luck. Everything went wrong that trip, and to top up with it I got the fever badly. So as soon as I was well enough I trekked down to the diamond fields, sold such ivory as I had, together with my wagon and oxen, discharged my hunters and took the post cart to the Cape. After spending a week in Cape Town, finding that they overcharged me at the hotel, and having seen everything there was to see, including the botanical gardens, which seemed to me likely to confer a great benefit on the country, and the new houses of parliament, which I expect will do nothing of the sort, I determined to go back to Natal by the Dunkeld, then lying at the docks waiting for the Edinburgh Castle due in from England. I took my berth and went aboard, and that afternoon the Natal passengers from the Edinburgh Castle trend-shipped, and we waited and put to see. Among these passengers who came on board there were two who excited my curiosity. One, a gentleman of about thirty, was perhaps the biggest-chested and longest-armed man I ever saw.  I never saw a finer-looking man, and somehow he reminded me of an ancient dain. Not that I know much of ancient dains, though I knew a modern dain who did me out of ten pounds. But I remember once seeing a picture of some of those gentry who they were drinking out of big horns and their long hair hung down their backs. As I looked at my friend standing there by the companion ladder, I thought that if he only let his grow a little, put one of those chain shirts on to his great shoulders, and took hold of a battle-axe and a horned mug, he might have sat as a model for that picture. By the way, it is a curious thing, and just shows how the blood will out. I discovered afterwards that Sir Henry Curtis, for that was the big man's name, is of Danish blood. Note. Mr. Quarterman's ideas about ancient dains seems to be rather confused. We have always understood that they were dark-haired people. Probably he was thinking of Saxons. Editor. He also reminded me strongly of somebody else, but at the time I could not remember who it was. The other man who stood talking to Sir Henry was stout and dark and of quite a different cut. I suspected at once that he was a naval officer. I don't know why, but it is difficult to mistake a navy man. I have gone shooting trips with several of them in the course of my life, and they have always proved themselves the best and bravest and nicest fellows I ever met, though sadly given some of them to the use of profane language. I ask a pager to-back, what is a gentleman? I'll answer the question now. A royal naval officer is, in a general sort of way. Though, of course, there may be a black sheep among them here and there. I fancy it is just the wide seas and the breath of God's winds that wash their hearts and blow the bitterness out of their minds and make them what men ought to be. Well, to return, I proved right again. I ascertained that the dark man was a naval officer, a lieutenant of thirty-one, who after seventeen years' service had been turned out of Her Majesty's employ with the barren honor of a commander's rank, because it was impossible that he should be promoted. This is what people who serve the queen have to expect, to be shot out into the cold world, to find a living, just when they are beginning really to understand their work and to reach the prime of life. I suppose they don't mind it, but for my part I had rather earned my bread as a hunter. One's half-pence are as scarce, perhaps, but you do not get so many kicks. The officer's name, I found out, by referring to the passenger's lists, was Good, Captain John Good. He was broad of medium height, dark, stout, and rather a curious man to look at. He was so very neat and so very clean-shaved, and he always wore an eyeglass in his right eye. Seemed to grow there, for it had no string. And he never took it out except to wipe it. At first I thought he used to sleep in it, but afterwards I found that this was a mistake. He put it in his trouser pocket when he went to bed, together with his false teeth, of which he had two beautiful sets, that my own being none of the best have often caused me to break the tenth commandment, but I am anticipating. Soon after we had got under way, evening closed in, and brought with it very dirty weather. A keen breeze sprung up off the land, and a kind of aggravated scotch mist soon drove everybody from the deck. As for the dunkeld, she is a flat-bottom punt, and going up light as she was she rolled very heavily. It almost seemed as though she would go right over, but she never did. It was quite impossible to walk about, so I stood near the engines where it was warm, and amused myself with watching the pendulum which was fixed opposite to me, swinging slowly backwards and forwards as the vessel rolled, and marking the angle she touched. That pendulum's wrong. It is not properly weighted, suddenly said a somewhat testy voice at my shoulder. Looking round I saw the naval officer whom I had noticed when the passengers came aboard. Indeed, what makes you think so? I asked. Think so. I don't think at all. Why there? As she righted herself after a roll. If the ship had really rolled to the degree that thing pointed to, then she never would have rolled again. That's all. But it is just like these merchant skippers. They are always so confoundedly careless. Just then the dinner bell rang, and I was not sorry for it is a dreadful thing to have to listen to an officer of the Royal Navy when he gets on to that subject. I only know one worse thing, and that is to hear a merchant skipper express his candid opinion of officers of the Royal Navy. Captain Good and I went down to dinner together, and there we found Sir Henry Curtis already seated. He and Captain Good were placed together, and I sat opposite to them. The Captain and I soon fell in to talk about shooting and what not. He asking me many questions, for he is very inquisitive about all sorts of things, and I answering them as well as I could. Presently he got on to elephants. Ah, Sir! called out somebody who was sitting near me. You've reached the right man for that. Hunter-quarter-man should be able to tell you about elephants if anybody can. Sir Henry, who had been sitting quite quiet listening to our talk, startled visibly. Excuse me, Sir, he said, leaning forward across the table and speaking in a low, deep voice. A very suitable voice, it seemed to me, to come out of those great lungs. Excuse me, Sir, but is your name Helen Quartermane? I said that it was. The big man made no further remark, but I heard him mutter fortunate into his beard. Presently dinner came to an end, and as we were leaving the saloon Sir Henry strolled up and asked me if I would come into his cabin to smoke a pipe. I accepted, and he led the way to the Dunkeld Deck Cabin, and a very good cabin it is. It had been two cabins, but when Sir Garnet Woosley, or one of those big swells, went down the coast in the Dunkeld, they knocked away the partition and have never put it up again. There was a sofa in the cabin and a little table in front of it. Sir Henry sent the steward for a bottle of whiskey, and the three of us sat down and lit our pipes. Mr. Quartermane, said Sir Henry Curtis when the man had brought the whiskey and lit the lamp. The year before last, about this time, you were, I believe, at a place called Bemanguato, to the north of the Transvaal. I was, I answered, rather surprised that this gentleman should be so well acquainted with my movements, which were not so far as I was aware, considered of general interest. You were trading up there, were you not? Put in Captain Good in his quick way. I was. I took a wagon load of goods, made a camp outside the settlement, and stopped till I had sold them. Sir Henry was sitting opposite to me in a Madeira chair, his arms leaning on the table.  There was a curious anxiety in them, I thought. Did you happen to meet a man called Neville there? Oh, yes, he outspanned alongside of me for a fortnight to rest his oxen before going on to the interior. I had a letter from a lawyer a few months back, asking me if I knew what had become of him, which I answered to the best of my ability at the time. Yes, said Sir Henry, your letter was forwarded to me. You said in it that the gentleman called Neville, left Bemanguato at the beginning of May in a wagon with his driver, avur lupur, and a kafir hunter called Jim, announcing his intention of trekking if possible as far as Iñati, the extreme trading post in the Matebele country, where he would sell his oxen and proceed on foot. You also said that he did sell his wagon for six months afterwards you saw the wagon in the possession of a Portuguese trader, who told you that he had bought it at Iñati from a white man whose name he had forgotten, and that he believed the white man with the native servant had started off for the interior on a shooting trip. Yes. Then came a pause. Mr. Quartermain said, Sir Henry suddenly, I suppose you know or can guess nothing more of the reasons of Mr. Neville's journey to the northward, or as to what point that journey was directed. I heard something, I answered, and stopped. The subject was one which I did not care to discuss. Sir Henry and Captain Good looked at each other and Captain Good nodded. Mr. Quartermain went on to former, I am going to tell you a story and ask your advice, and perhaps your assistance. The agent who forwarded me your letter told me that I might rely on it implicitly, as you were, he said, well known and universally respected in Natal, and especially noted for your discretion. I bowed and drank some whisky and water to hide my confusion, for I am a modest man, and Sir Henry went on. Mr. Neville was my brother. Oh, I said starting, for now I knew of whom Sir Henry had reminded me when first I saw him. His brother was a much smaller man and had a dark beard, but now that I thought of it he possessed eyes of the same shade of gray and with the same keen look in them. The features, too, were not unlike. He was, went on Sir Henry, my only and younger brother, until five years ago I do not suppose that we were ever a month away from each other. But just about five years ago a misfortune befell us, as sometimes does happen in families. We quarreled bitterly, and I behaved unjustly to my brother in my anger. Here Captain Good nodded his head vigorously to himself. The ship gave a big roll just then, so that the looking glass which was fixed opposite us to starboard was for a moment nearly over our heads, and as I was sitting with my hands in my pockets and staring upwards I could see him nodding like anything. As I dare say you know, went on Sir Henry, if a man dies in test state and has no property but land, real property is called in England, it all descends to his eldest son. It so happened that just at the time when we quarreled our father died in test state. He had put off making his will until it was too late. The result was that my brother, who had not been brought up to any profession, was left without a penny. Of course it would have been my duty to provide for him, but at the time the quarrel between us was so bitter that I did not, to my shame, I say it, and he sighed deeply. Offered to do anything. It was not that I grudged him justice, but I waited for him to make advances, and he made none. I am sorry to trouble you with all this, Mr. Quartermain, but I must make things clear. Eh? Good. Quite so, quite so, said the captain. Mr. Quartermain, well, I am sure, keep this history to himself. Of course, said I, for I rather pride myself on my discretion. For which, as Sir Henry had heard, I have some repute. Well went on Sir Henry. My brother had a few hundred pounds to his account at the time. Without saying anything to me he drew out this paltry sum, and having adopted the name of Neville started off for South Africa in the wild hope of making a fortune. This I learned afterwards. Some three years passed, and I heard nothing of my brother, though I wrote several times. Doubtless the letters never reached him. But as time went on I grew more and more troubled about him. I found out, Mr. Quartermain, that blood is thicker than water. That's true, said I, thinking of my boy Harry. I found out, Mr. Quartermain, that I would have given half my fortune to know that my brother George, the only relation I possess, was safe and well, and that I should see him again. But you never did, Curtis, jerked out Captain Good, glancing at the big man's face. Well, Mr. Quartermain, as time went on I became more and more anxious to find out if my brother was alive or dead. And if alive to get him home again, I set inquiries on foot, and your letter was one of the results. So far as it went it was satisfactory, for it showed that till lately George was alive. But it did not go far enough.  Yes, said the Captain, nothing else to do, you see. Turned out by my lords of the Admiralty to starve on half-pay. And now perhaps, sir, you will tell us what you know or have heard of the gentleman called Neville. End of chapter 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. King Solomon's Minds By H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 2 The Legend of Solomon's Minds What was it that you heard about my brother's journey at Bamanguato? asked Sir Henry, as I paused to fill my pipe before replying to Captain Good. I heard this, I answered, and I have never mentioned it to a soul till today. I heard that he was starting for Solomon's Minds. Solomon's Minds ejaculated both my hearers at once. Where are they? I don't know, I said. I know where they are said to be. Once I saw the peaks of the mountains that boarded them, but there were 130 miles of desert between me and them, and I am not aware that any white man ever got across it save one. But perhaps the best thing I can do is tell you the legend of Solomon's Minds as I know it, you passing your word not to reveal anything I tell you without asking my permission. Do you agree to that? I have my reasons for asking. Sir Henry nodded, and Captain Good replied, Certainly. Certainly. Well, I begin. As you may guess, generally speaking, elephant hunters are a rough set of men who do not always trouble themselves with much beyond the facts of life and the ways of kafirs. But here and there you meet a man who takes the trouble to collect traditions from the natives, and tries to make out a little piece of the history of this dark land. It was such a man as this who first told me the legend of Solomon's Minds, now a matter of nearly thirty years ago. That was when I was on my first elephant hunt in the Matalebe country. His name was Evans, and he was killed the following year, poor fellow, by a wounded buffalo, and lies buried near the Zambezi Falls. I was telling Evans one night I remember of some wonderful workings I had found whilst hunting Kuru and Iland in what is now the Leidenberg district of the Transvaal. I see they have come across these workings again lately in prospecting for gold, but I knew of them years ago. There is a great wide wagon road cut out of the solid rock, and leading to the mouth of the working or gallery. Inside the mouth of this gallery are stacks of gold quartz piled up ready for roasting, which shows that the workers, whoever they were, must have left in a hurry. Also, about twenty paces in, the gallery is built across, and a beautiful bit of masonry it is. I, said Evans, but I will spend you a queerer yarn than that. And he went on to tell me how he had found in the far interior a ruined city, which he believed to be the Ophir of the Bible. And by the way, other more learned men have said the same long since poor Evans' time. I was, I remember, listening openly to all these wonders for I was young at the time, and this story of an ancient civilization and of the treasures which those old Jewish or Phoenician adventurers used to extract from a country long since lapsed into the darkest barbarism took a great hold upon my imagination, when suddenly he said to me, Lad, did you ever hear of the Suleiman mountains up to the northwest of the Mashakul Lumboy country? I told him I never had. Ah, well, he said, that is where Solomon really had his mines, his diamond mines, I mean. How do you know that, I ask. Know it, what is Suleiman, but a corruption of Solomon. Suleiman is the Arabic form of Solomon, editor's note. Besides, an old esonosy, or witch doctoris up in the Manika country told me all about it. She said that the people who lived across those mountains were a branch of the Zulus, speaking a dialect of Zulu, but finer and bigger men even, that there lived among them great wizards who had learned their art from white men when all the world was dark, and who had the secret of a wonderful mine of bright stones. Well, I laughed at this story at the time, though it interested me. For the diamond fields were not discovered then. But poor Evans went off and was killed, and for twenty years I never thought any more of the matter. However, just twenty years afterwards, and that is a long time, gentlemen, an elephant hunter does not often live for twenty years at his business. I heard something more definite about Suleiman's mountains, and the country which lies beyond them. I was up beyond the Manika country at a place called Cetandas Carau, and a miserable place it was, for a man could get nothing to eat, and there was but little game about. I had an attack of fever and was in a bad way, generally. When one day a Portugese arrived with a single companion, a half-breed. Now, I know your low class Delago Portugese, well, there is no greater devil unhung in a general way, battening as he does upon human agony and flesh in the shape of slaves. But this was quite a different type of man to the mean fellows whom I had been accustomed to meet. Indeed, in appearance he reminded me more of the polite domes I have read about, for he was tall and thin, with large dark eyes and curling gray moustachios. We talked together for a while, for he could speak broken English, and I understood a little Portugese, and he told me that his name was José Silvestre, and that he had a place near Delagoa Bay. When he went on next day, with his half-breed companion, he said, Good-bye, taking off his hat quite in the old style. Good-bye, senor, he said. If we ever meet again I shall be the richest man in the world and I will remember you. I laughed a little, I was too weak to laugh much, and watched him strike out for the great desert to the west, wondering if he was mad or what he thought he was going to find there. A week passed, and I got the better of my fever. One evening I was sitting on the ground in front of the little tent I had with me, chewing the last leg of a miserable fowl I had bought from a native for a bit of cloth worth twenty fowls, and staring at the hot red sun sinking down over the desert, when suddenly I saw a figure, apparently that of a European, for it were a coat. On the slope of the rising ground opposite to me, about three hundred yards away. The figure crept along on its hands and knees, then it got up and staggered forward a few yards on its legs, only to fall and crawl again. Seeing that it must be somebody in distress I sent one of my hunters to help him. And presently he arrived, and who do you suppose it turned out to be? Jose Silvestre, of course, said Captain Good. Yes, Jose Silvestre, or rather his skeleton and a little skin.  For all the flesh had gone.  Water for the sake of Christ, water, he moaned. And I saw that his lips were cracked, and his tongue, which protruded between them, was swollen and blackish. I gave him water with a little milk in it, and he drank it in great gulps, two quarts or so, without stopping. I would not let him have any more. Then the fever took him again, and he fell down and began to rave about Suleyman's mountains, and the diamonds, and the desert. I carried him into the tent and did what I could for him, which was little enough, but I saw how it must end. About eleven o'clock he grew quieter, and I lay down for a little rest and went to sleep. At dawn I woke again, and in the half-light saw Silvestre sitting up, a strange gaunt form, and gazing out towards the desert. Presently the first ray of the sun shot right across the wide plain before us, till it reached the far away crest of one of the tallest of the Suleyman Mountains more than a hundred miles away. There it is, cried the dying man in Portuguese, and pointing with his long, thin arm. But I shall never reach it, never. No one will ever reach it. Suddenly he paused and seemed to take a resolution. Friendly he said, turning towards me, Are you there? My eyes grow dark. Yes, I said, yes, lie down now and rest. I answered, I shall rest soon. I have time to rest. All eternity. Listen, I am dying. You have been good to me. I will pass you the writing. Perhaps you will get there if you can live to pass the desert, which has killed my poor servant and me. Then he groped in his shirt and brought out what I thought was a bore tobacco pouch made of the skin of the Swartvet pens or sable antelope. It was fastened with a little strip of hide, what we call a rimpi, and thus he tried to loose, but could not. He handed it to me. Untie it, he said. I did so, and extracted a bit of torn yellow linen, on which something was written in rusty letters. Inside this rag was a paper. Then he went on feebly for he was growing weak. The paper has all that is on the linen. It took me years to read. Listen, my ancestor, a political refugee from Lisbon, and one of the first Portuguese who landed on these shores, wrote that when he was dying on those mountains which no white foot ever pressed before or since. His name was José da Silvestre, and he lived 300 years ago. His slave, who waited for him on this side of the mountains, found him dead and brought the writing home to Delagoa. It has been in the family ever since, but none have cared to read it till at last I did. And I have lost my life over it, but another may succeed and become the richest man in the world, the richest man in the world. Only give it to no one, senor.  Then he began to wander again, and in an hour it was all over. God rest him. He died very quietly, and I buried him deep with big boulders on his breast, so I do not think that the jackals can have dug him up. And then I came away. I but the document, said Sir Henry, in a tone of deep interest. Yes, the document. What was in it? added the captain. Well, gentlemen, if you like, I will tell you. I have never showed it to anybody yet except to a drunken old Portuguese trader who translated it for me and had ever gotten all about it by the next morning. The original rag is at my home in Durban, together with poor Dom José's translation. But I have the English rendering in my pocketbook and a facsimile of the map, if it can be called a map. Here it is. I, José de Sedlvestra, who are now dying of hunger in the little cave here, no snow is on the north side of the nipple of the southernmost of the two mountains I have named Shiba's breasts.  If my slave should find it when he comes and should bring it to de la Goa, let my friend name illegible. Bring the matters to the knowledge of the king that he may send an army which, if they live through the desert and the mountains, and can overcome the brave Cucuanas and their devilish arts to which end many priests should be brought will make him the richest king since Solomon.  But through the treachery of Gagool the witchfinder I may bring not away scarcely my life. Let him who comes follow the map and climb the snow of Shiba's left breast and reaches the nipple on the north side of which is the great road Solomon made. From whence three days journey to the king's palace?  Pray for my soul. Farewell. José de Silvestre. When I had finished reading the above and shown the copy of the map drawn by the dying hand of the old Dom with his blood for ink, there followed a silence of astonishment. Well, said Captain Good, I have been round the world twice and put in at most ports, but may I be hung for a mutineer if ever I heard a yarn like this out of a story-book or in it either, for the matter of that.  I suppose you're not hoaxing us. It is, I know, sometimes thought allowable to take in a green horn. If you think that, Sir Henry, I said, much put out in pocketing my paper, for I do not like to be thought one of those silly fellows who consider it woody to tell lies and who are forever boasting to newcomers of extraordinary hunting adventures which never happened. If you think that, why, there is an end to the matter, and I rose to go. Sir Henry laid his large hand upon my shoulder. Sit down, Mr. Quartermain, he said, I beg your pardon. I see very well that you do not wish to deceive us, but the story sounded so strange that I could hardly believe it. You shall see the original map in writing when we reach Durban, I answered, somewhat mollified. For real, but I went on. I have not told you about your brother. I knew the man Jim who was with him. He was a Bicoana by birth, a good hunter, and for a native a very clever man. That morning, on which Mr. Neville was starting, I saw Jim standing by my wagon and cutting up tobacco on the distal boom. Jim said I, where are you off to on this trip? Is it elephants? No, boss, he answered, we're after something much more than ivory. And what might that be, I said, for I was curious. Is it gold? No, boss, 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. Boss said he, I took no notice. Boss said he again. Hey, boy, what is it? I asked. Boss, we are going after diamonds. Diamonds? Why, then, you were steering in the wrong direction. You should head for the fields. Boss, have you ever heard of Suleymansberg? That is, Suleymans mountains, Sir Henry. I. Have you ever heard of the diamonds there? I have heard a foolish story, Jim. It is no story, boss. 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 osvorgals, that is vultures. Jim, if he tries to reach Suleymans country, and so will you if they can get any pickings off your worthless ol' carcass, said I. He grinned. May have, boss. Man must die. I'd rather like to try a new country myself. The elephants are getting worked out about. Half an hour after that I saw Neville's wagon move off. Presently Jim came back running. Goodbye, boss, he said. I didn't like to start without bidding you goodbye. For I daresay you were right. And that we shall never trek south again. Is your master really going to Suleymansburg, 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, boss. 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 Suleymans 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.  Jim took the note and went. And that is all I know about your brother, Sir Henry, but I am much afraid Mr. Quartermane said, Sir Henry, I am going to look for my brother. I am going to trace him to Suleymans 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 Sylvestra. 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. Quartermane said to 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. 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 we by chance 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 it may apply to any ivory we might get. You may pretty well make your own terms with me, Mr. Quartermane. And of course I shall pay all expenses. Sir Henry said I, this is the most liberal proposal I have ever had, and not one 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 Durbin. Mr. Quartermane answered Sir Henry. Then I said good night and turned in and dreamt about poor long-dead Sylvestra and the diamonds. End of Chapter 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information and to find out how you can volunteer, please visit Chapter 3 Umbopa 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 Durbin. Sometimes if the landing is bad at East London, or they have not yet made that wonderful harbor they talk so much of and sink such a mint of money in, a ship is delayed for 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, over they went slap bang whether they contained China or woolen goods they met with I saw one case holding four dozen of champagne smashed all to bits and there was the champagne fizzing and boiling about in the bottom of the dirty cargo boat. It was a wicked waste and evidently so the kefirs in the boat thought, for they found a couple of unbroken bottles and knocking off the next drank the contents. But they had not allowed for the expansion caused by the fizz and the wine and feeling themselves swelling rolled about in the bottom of the boat calling out that the good liquor was takati that was bewitched. I spoke to them from the vessel and told them it was the white man's strongest medicine and they were as good as dead men. Those kefirs went to shore in a very great fright and I do not think they will touch champagne again. Well, all the time that we were steaming up to Natal I was thinking over Sir Henry Curtis's offer. We did not speak any more on the subject for a day or two though I told them many hunting yarns all true ones. There is no need to tell lies about hunting for so many curious things happen within the knowledge of a man whose business it is to hunt but this is by the way. At last one beautiful evening in January which is our hottest month we steamed past the coast of Natal expecting to make Durban Point by sunset. It is a lovely coast all along from east London with its red sand hills and wide sweeps of vivid green dotted here and there with kefir crowds and bordered by a ribbon of white surf which sprouts up in pillars of foam where it hits the rocks. But just before you come to Durban there is a peculiar richness about the landscape. There are the sheer cliffs cut in the hill by the rushing rains of centuries down which the rivers sparkle there is the deepest green of the bush growing as God planted it and the other greens of the mealy gardens and the sugar patches while now and again a white house smiling out at the placid sea puts a finish and gives an air of homeliness to the scene. For to my mind however beautiful a view may be it requires the presence of man to make it complete but perhaps that is because I have lived so much in the wilderness and therefore know the value of civilization though to be sure it drives away the game The Garden of Eden no doubt looked fair before man was but I always think it must have been fairer when Eve adorned it. To return we had miscalculated a little and the sun was well down before we dropped anchor off the point and heard the gun the good folks of Durbin that the English mail was in it was too late to think of getting over the bar that night so we went comfortably to dinner after seeing the mails carried off in the lifeboat when we came up again the moon was out and shining so brightly over sea and shore that she almost paled the quick large flashes from the lighthouse from the shore floated sweet spicy odors that always remind me of hymns and missionaries and then the windows of the houses on the Berea sparkled a hundred lights from a large brig lying near also came the music of the sailors as they worked at getting the anchor up in order to be ready for the wind all together it was a perfect night such a night as you sometimes get in southern Africa and it threw a garment of peace over everybody as the moon threw a garment of silver over everything even the great bull dog belonging to a sporting passenger seemed to yield to its gentle influence and forgetting his yearning to come to close quarters with the baboon and a cage on the folksal snored happily at the door of the cabin dreaming no doubt that he had finished him and happy in his dream we three that is Sir Henry Curtis Captain Good and myself went and sat by the wheel and were quiet for a while well Mr. Quartermain said Sir Henry presently have you been thinking about my proposals I echoed Captain Good what do you think of them Mr. Quartermain I hope that you are going to give us the pleasure of your company so far as Solomon's minds or wherever the gentleman you knew is never may have got to yes gentlemen I said sitting down again I will go and by your leave why and on what conditions first for the terms which I ask one you are to pay all expenses and any ivory or other valuables we may get is to divided between Captain Good and myself two that you give me 500 pounds for my services on the trip before we start I undertaking to serve you faithfully till you choose to abandon the enterprise that we succeed or disaster overtakes us three that before we trek you execute a deed agreeing in the event of my death or disablement to pay my boy Harry who was studying medicine over there in London at Guy's Hospital a sum of 200 pounds a year for five years by which time he ought to be able to earn a living for himself if he is worth his salt I dare say you will quite say enough too no answer to Henry I accept him gladly I am bent upon this project and would pay more than that for your help considering the peculiar and exclusive knowledge which you possess pity I did not ask it then but I won't go back on my word and now that I have got my terms I will tell you my reasons for making up my mind to go first of all gentlemen I have been observing you both for the last few days and if you will not think me impertinent I may say that I like you and believe that we shall come up well to the yoke together that is something let me tell you when one has a long journey like this before one and now as to the journey itself I tell you flatly Sir Henry and Captain Good that I do not think it probable we can come out of it alive that is if we attempt to cross the Suleyman Mountains what was the fate of the old Dom de Sylvestre three hundred years ago what was the fate of his descendant twenty years ago what has been your brother's fate I tell you frankly gentlemen that as their fates were so I believe ours will be I pause to watch the effect of my words Captain Good looked a little uncomfortable but Sir Henry's face did not change we must take our chance he said you may perhaps wonder I went on why if I think this I who am as I told you a timid man should undertake such a journey it is for two reasons first I am a fatalist and believe that my time is appointed to come quite without reference to my own movements and will and that if I am to go to Suleyman Mountains to be killed I shall go there and shall be killed God almighty no doubt knows his mind about me so I need not trouble on that point secondly I am a poor man for nearly forty years I have hunted and traded but I have never made more than a living well gentlemen I don't know if you were aware that the average life of an elephant hunter from the time he takes to the trade is between four and five years so you see I have lived through about seven generations of my class and I should think that my time cannot be far off anyway now if anything were to happen to me in the ordinary course of business by the time my debts are paid there would be nothing left to support my son Harry whilst he was getting in the way of earning a living whereas now he will be set up for five years that is the whole affair in a nutshell Mr. Quarterman said Sir Henry who had been giving me his most serious attention your motives for undertaking an enterprise which you believe can only end in disaster reflect a great deal of credit on you whether or not you are right of course time in the event alone can show but whether you are right or wrong I may as well tell you at once that I am going through with it to the end sweet or bitter if we are to be knocked on the head all I have to say is that I hope we get a little shooting first a good yes yes put in the captain we have all three of us been accustomed to face danger and to hold our lives in our hands in various ways so it is no good turning back now and now I vote we go down to the saloon and take an observation just for luck you know and we did through the bottom of a tumbler next day we went ashore and I put up Sir Henry and Captain Good at the little shanty I have built on the Berea and which I call my home there are only three rooms and a kitchen in it and it is constructed of green brick with a galvanized iron roof there is a good garden with the best loquat trees in it that I know and some nice young mangoes of which I hope great things the curator of the botanical gardens gave them to me it is looked after by an old hunter of mine named Jack whose thigh was so badly broken by a buffalo cow in sikuklunas country that he will never hunt again but he can potter about and garden being a greequa by birth you will never persuade a zulu to take much interest in gardening it is a peaceful art and peaceful arts are not in his line Sir Henry and Good slept in a tent pitched in my little grove of orange trees at the end of the garden for there was no room for them in the house and what with the smell of the bloom in the sight of the green and golden fruit in Durban you will see all three on the tree together I dare say it is a pleasant place enough for we have few mosquitoes here on the Berea unless there happens to come an unusually heavy rain well to get on for if I do not Harry will be tired of my story before we ever fetch up at Suleyman's mountains having once made up my mind to go I said about making the necessary preparations first I secured the deed from Sir Henry providing for you my boy in case of accidents there was some difficulty about its legal execution as Sir Henry was a stranger here and the property to be charged is over the water but it was ultimately got over with the help of a lawyer who charged 20 pounds for the job a price that I thought outrageous then I pocketed my check for 500 pounds having paid this tribute to my bump of caution I purchased a wagon and a span of oxen on Sir Henry's behalf and beauties they were it was a 22 foot wagon with iron axels very strong very light and built throughout of stink wood not quite a new one having been to the diamond fields in back but in my opinion all the better for that for I could see that the wood was well seasoned if anything is going to give in a wagon or if there is green wood in it it will show out on the first trip this particular vehicle was what we call a half tented wagon that is to say only covered in after 12 feet leaving all the front part free for the necessaries we had to carry with us in this after part were a hide cartel or bed on which two people could sleep also racks for rifles and many other little conveniences I gave 125 pounds for it and think that it was cheap at the price then I bought a beautiful team of 20 Zulu oxen which I had kept my eye on for a year or two 16 oxen is the usual number for a team but I took four extra to allow for casualties these Zulu cattle are small and light, not more than half the size of the african der oxen which are generally used for transport purposes but they will live where african der would starve and with a moderate load can make 5 miles a day better going quicker and not so liable to become foot sore what is more this lot were thoroughly salted that is they had worked all over south africa and so had become proof comparatively speaking against red water which so frequently destroys whole teams of oxen when they get on to strange belt or grass country as for lung sick which is a dreadful form of pneumonia very prevalent in this country they had all been inoculated against it this is done by cutting a slit in the tail of an ox and binding in a piece of the diseased lung of an animal which has died of the sickness the result is that the ox sickens takes the disease in a mild form which causes its tail to drop off as a rule about a foot from the root and becomes proof against future attacks it seems cruel to rob the animal of his tail especially in a country where there are so many flies but it is better to sacrifice the tail and keep the ox than to lose both tail and ox for a tail without an ox is not much good except to dust with still it does look odd to trek along behind 20 stumps where there ought to be tails but it seems as though nature made a trifling mistake and stuck the stern ornaments of a lot of prized bulldogs onto the rumps of the oxen next came the question of provisioning and medicines one which required the most careful consideration for what we had to do was avoid lumbering the wagon and yet to take everything absolutely necessary fortunately it turned out having at some point in his previous career managed to pass through a course of medical and surgical instruction which he has more or less kept up he is not of course qualified but he knows more about it than many a man who can write M.D. after his name as we found out afterwards and he had a splendid traveling medicine chest and a set of instruments while we at Durban he cut off a Kaphir's big toe in a way which it was a pleasure to see but he was quite non-plus when the Kaphir who had set stalledly watching the operation asked him to put on another saying that a white one would do in a pinch there remained when these questions were satisfactorily settled two further important points for consideration namely that of arms and that of servants as to the arms I cannot do better than put down a list of those which we finally decided on from among the ample store that Sir Henry had brought with him from England and those which I owned I copy it from my pocketbook where I made the entry at the time three heavy breech loading double-eight elephant guns weighing about 15 pounds each to carry a charge of 11 grams of black powder two of these were by a well-known London firm most excellent makers but I do not know by whom mine which is not so highly finished was made I have used it on several trips and shot a good many elephants with it and it has always proved a most superior weapon thoroughly to be relied on three double-five hundred expresses constructed to stand a charge of six-drams, sweet weapons and admirable for medium-sized games such as E-Land or Sable antelope or for men especially in an open country and with the semi-hollow bullet one double-numbered twelve central fire-keeper shotgun full choke both barrels this gun proved of the greatest service afterwards in shooting game for the pot three Winchester repeating rifles not carbines spare guns three single-action Colts revolvers with the heavier or American pattern of cartridge this was our total armament and doubtless the reader will observe that the weapons of each class were of the same make and caliber so that the cartridges were interchangeable a very important point I make no apology for detailing it at length as every experienced hunter will know how vital a proper supply of guns and ammunition is to the success of an expedition now as to the men who were to go with us after much consultation we decided that their number should be limited to five namely a driver a leader and three servants the driver and leader I found without much difficulty two Zulus named respectively Goza and Tom but to get the servants proved a more difficult matter it was necessary that they should be thoroughly trustworthy and brave men as in a business of this sort our lives might depend upon their conduct at last I secured two one a Hutentot named Ventvogel or Windbird and one a little Zulu named Kiva who had the merit of speaking English perfectly Ventvogel I had known before he was one of the most perfect spores that is game trackers I ever had to do with and tough as whipcord he never seemed to tire but he had one failing so common in his race drink put him within reach of a bottle of gin and you could not trust him however as we were going beyond the region of grog shops this little weakness of his did not so much matter having secured these two men I looked in vain for a third so we determined to start without one trusting to luck to find a suitable man on our way up country but as it happened on the evening before the day we had fixed for our departure the Zulu Kiva informed me that a kefir was waiting to see me accordingly when we had done dinner for we were at the table at the time I told Kiva to bring him in presently a tall handsome looking man somewhere about 30 years of age and very light colored for a Zulu entered and lifting his knobstick by way of salute squatted himself down in the corner on his haunches and set silent I did not take any notice of him for a while for it is a great mistake to do so if you rush into conversation at once a Zulu was apt to think you are a person of little dignity or consequence he deserved however that he was a keshla or ringed man that is he wore on his head the black ring made up of a species of gum polished with fat and worked up in the hair which is usually assumed by Zulus on attaining a certain age or dignity also it struck me that his face was familiar to me well I said it last what is your name opa answered the man in a slow deep voice I have seen your face before yes in kusi the chief my father saw my face at the place of the little hand that is isan duana on the day before the battle then I remembered I was one of lord Chelmsford's guides in that unlucky Zulu war and had the good fortune to leave the camp in charge of some wagons on the day before the battle while I was waiting for the cattle to be in spand I fell into conversation with this man who held some small command among the native auxiliaries and he had expressed to me his doubts as to the safety of the camp at the time I told him to hold his tongue and leave such matters to wiser heads but afterwards I thought of his words I remember I said what is it you want it is this that is my kafir name and means the man who gets up in the middle of the night or in vulgar English he who keeps his eyes open I hear that you go on a great expedition far into the north with the white chiefs from over the water is it a true word it is it is I hear that you go even to the Lukanga river Amun's journey beyond the Manika country is this so also Makumazan why do you ask whether we go what is it to you I answered suspiciously for the objects of our journey had been kept a dead secret it is this so white men that if indeed you travel so far I would travel with you there was a certain assumption of dignity in the man's mode of speech and especially in his use of the words oh white men instead of oh Encosis or chiefs which struck me you forget yourself a little I said your words run out unawares that is not the way to speak what is your name and where is your corral tell us that we may know with whom we have to deal my name is Zumbopa I am of the Zulu people yet not of them the house of my tribe is in the far north it was left behind when the Zulus came down here a thousand years ago long before Chaka reigned in Zulu land I have no corral I have wandered for many years I came from the north as a child to Zulu land I was at the wayos man in the Nkuma Bakosi regiment serving there under the great captain Umslopogasi of the axe who taught my hands to fight editors note for the history of Umslopogasi and his axe the reader is referred to the books called Alan Cordermane and Nada the Lily afterwards I ran away from Zulu land and came to Natal to see the white man's ways next I fought against Sataweo in the war since then I have been working in Natal now I am tired and would go north again here is not my place I want no money but I am a brave man and am worth my place and meet I have spoken I was rather puzzled by this man in his way of speech that in the main he was telling the truth but somehow he seemed different from the ordinary run of Zulus and I rather mistrusted his offer to come without pay being in a difficulty I translated his words to Sir Henry in good and ask then their opinion Sir Henry told me to ask him to stand up Umbopa did so at the same time slipping off the long military greatcoat which he wore and revealing himself naked except for the muka around his center and a necklace of lions claws certainly he was a magnificent looking man I never saw a fine or native standing about six foot three high he was broad in proportion and very shapely in that light too his skin looked scarcely more than dark except here and there were deep black scars marked old asagai wounds Sir Henry walked up to him and looked into his proud handsome face they make a good pair don't they said good one as big as the other I like your looks Mr. Umbopa and I will take you as my servant said Sir Henry in English Umbopa evidently understood him for he answered in Zulu it is well and then he added with a glance at the white guy then he added with a glance at the white man's great stature and breadth we are men, thou and I End of Chapter 3 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information and to find out how you can volunteer please visit LibriVox.org King Solomon's Mines by H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 4 An Elephant Hunt Now I do not propose to narrate at full length all the incidents of our long travel up to Cetanda's Corral near the junction of the Lukanga and Calukwe rivers it was a journey of more than a thousand miles from Durban the last three hundred or so of which we had to make on foot owing to the frequent presence of the dreadful Tizi fly whose bite is fatal to all animals except donkeys and men we left Durban at the end of January and it was in the second week of May that we camped near Cetanda's Corral our adventures on the way were many and various but as they were of the sort which befall every African hunter with one exception to be presently detailed I shall not set them down here lest I should render this history at Iñati the outlying trading station in the Matabele country of which Lobengula a great and cruel scoundrel is king with many regrets we parted from our comfortable wagon only twelve oxen remained to us out of the beautiful span of twenty which I had bought at Durban one we lost from the bite of a cobra three had perished from poverty of water one strayed and the other three died from eating the poisonous herb called tulip five more sickened from this cause but we managed to cure them with doses of an infusion made by boiling down the tulip leaves if administered in time this is a very effective antidote the wagon and the oxen we left in the immediate charge of Goza and Tom our driver and leader requesting a worthy scotch missionary who lived in this distant place to keep an eye on them then accompanied by Umbopa Kiva, Ventvogel and half a dozen bearers whom we hired on the spot we started off on foot upon our wild quest I remember we were all a little silent on the occasion of this departure and I think that each of us was wondering if we should ever see our wagon again for my part I never expected to do so for a while we tramped on in silence till Umbopa who was marching in front broke into a zulu chant about how some brave men tired of life and the tameness of things started off into a vast wilderness to find new things or die and how lo and behold when they had traveled far into the wilderness they found that it was not a wilderness at all but a beautiful place full of young wives and fat cattle of game to hunt and enemies to kill then we all laughed and took it for a good omen Umbopa was a cheerful savage in a dignified sort of way when he was not suffering from one of his fits of brooding and he had a wonderful knack of keeping up our spirits we all grew very fond of him and now for the one adventure I love for I do dearly love a hunting yarn about a fortnight's march from Iñati we came across a peculiarly beautiful bit of well-watered woodland country the cliffs and the hills were covered with dense bush idoro bush as the natives call it and in some places with the little wachin betcha or wait a little thorn and there were great quantities of the lovely machabel tree laden with refreshing yellow fruit having enormous stones this tree is the elephant's favorite food and there were not wanting signs that the great broods had been about for not only was their spore frequent but in many places the trees were broken down and even uprooted the elephant is a destructive feeder one evening after a long day's march we came to a spot of great loveliness at the foot of a bush-clad hill lay a dry riverbed in which, however, were to be found pools of crystal water all trodden round with the hoof prints of game facing this hill was a park-like plain which grew clumps of flat-topped mimosa varied with occasional glossy-leaved machabels and all round stretched the sea of pathless silent bush as we emerged into this riverbed path suddenly we started a troop of tall giraffes who galloped, or rather, sailed off in their strange gait their tails screwed up over their backs and their hoofs rattling like castanets they were about 300 yards from us and therefore practically out of shot but Good, who was walking ahead and who had an express loaded with solid ball in his hand could not resist temptation lifting his gun he let drive at the last a young cow by some extraordinary chance the ball struck it full on the back of the head shattering the spinal column and that giraffe went rolling head over heels just like a rabbit I never saw a more curious thing Cursit, said Good for I am sorry to say he had a habit of using strong language when excited contracted, no doubt, in the course of his nautical career Cursit, I've killed him Oh, Buguan ejaculated the calf Oh, Buguan ejaculated the calfeers Oh, oh they called Good Buguan or Glass Eye because of his Glass Eye Oh, Buguan re-echoed Sir Henry and I and from that day Good's reputation as a marvel of shot was established at any rate among the calfeers really he was a bad one but whenever he missed we overlooked it for the sake of that giraffe having set the boys to cut off the best of the giraffe's meat we went to work to build a skirm near one of the pools and about 100 yards to its right this is done by cutting a quantity of thorn bushes and piling them in the shape of a circular hedge then the space enclosed is smoothed and dry tambuki grass, if obtainable is made into a bed in the center and a fire or fire is lighted by the time the skirm was finished the moon peeped up and our dinners of giraffe steaks and roasted marrow bones were ready how we enjoyed those marrow bones though it was rather a job to crack them I know of no greater luxury than giraffe marrow unless it is elephants heart and we had that on the morrow we ate our simple meal by the light of the moon pausing at times to thank Good for his wonderful shot then we began to smoke and yarn and a curious picture we must have made squatting there around the fire I, with my short grizzled hair sticking up straight and Sir Henry with his yellow locks which were getting rather long were rather a contrast especially as I am thin and short and dark weighing only nine stone and a half and Sir Henry is tall and broad and fair and weighs fifteen but perhaps the most curious looking of the three taking all the circumstances of the case into consideration was Captain John Good R. N. there he sat upon a leather bag looking just as though he had come in from a comfortable day shooting in a civilized country absolutely clean, tidy and well dressed he wore a shooting suit of brown tweed with a hat to match and neat gators as usual beautifully shaved his eyeglass and his false teeth appeared to be in perfect order and altogether he looked the neatest man I have ever had to do with in the wilderness he even sported a collar of which he had a supply made of white gut a percha you see in a way so little he said to me innocently when I expressed my astonishment at the fact and I always like to turn out like a gentleman ah, if he could have foreseen the future and the raiment prepared for him well there we three sat yarning away in the beautiful moonlight and watching the Kaphirs a few yards off sucking their intoxicating DACA from a pipe of which the mouthpiece was made of the horn of an e-land till one by one they rolled themselves up in their blankets and went to sleep by the fire that is all except Umbopa who was a little apart his chin resting on his hand and thinking deeply I noticed that he never mixed much with the other Kaphirs presently from the depths of the bush behind us came a loud woof woof that's a lion said I and we all started up to listen hardly had we done so when from the pool about a hundred yards off we heard the strident trumpeting of an elephant on cungu glovo and lovo an elephant whispered to Kaphirs and a few minutes afterwards we saw a succession of vast shadowy farms moving slowly from the direction of the water towards the bush up jumped good burning for slaughter and thinking perhaps that it was as easy to kill elephant as he had found it to shoot giraffe but I caught him by the arm and pulled him down it's no good I whispered let them go it seems that we are in a paradise of game I vote we stop here for a day or two and have a go at them said Sir Henry presently I was rather surprised for hither too Sir Henry had always been for pushing forward as fast as possible more especially since we ascertained at Iñati that about two years ago an Englishman of the name of Neville had sold his wagon there and gone on up country but I suppose his under instincts got the better of him for a while good jumped at the idea for he was longing to have a shot at those elephants and so to speak the truth did I for it went against my conscience to let such a hurt as that escape without a pull at them all right my hearties said I I think we want a little recreation and now let's turn in for we ought to be off by dawn and then perhaps we may catch them feeding before they move on the others agreed and we proceeded to make our preparations good took off his clothes shook them put his eyeglass and his false teeth into his trousers pocket and folding each article neatly placed it out of the dew under a corner of his Macintosh sheet Sir Henry and I contented ourselves with rougher arrangements and soon were curled up in our blankets and dropping off into the dreamless sleep that rewards the traveler going going go what was that suddenly from the direction of the water came sounds of violent scuffling and next instant there broke upon our ears a succession of the most awful roars there was no mistaking their origin only a lion could make such a noise as that we all jumped up and looked towards the water in the direction of which we saw a confused mass yellow and black in color staggering and struggling towards us we seized our rifles and slipping on our veiled shoes that his shoes made of untanned hide ran out of the skirm by this time the mass had fallen and was rolling over and over on the ground and when we reached the spot it struggled no longer but lay quite still now we saw what it was on the grass there lay a sable antelope bull the most beautiful of all the African antelopes quite dead and transfixed by its great curved horns was a magnificent black mane lion also dead evidently what had happened was this the sable antelope had come down to drink at the pool where the lion no doubt the same which we had heard was lying in wait while the antelope drank the lion had sprung upon him to be received upon the sharp curved horns and transfixed once before I saw a similar thing happened then the lion unable to free himself had torn and bitten at the back and neck of the bull which maddened with fear and pain had rushed on until it dropped dead as soon as we had examined the beast sufficiently we called the kafirs and between us managed to drag their carcasses up to the skirm after that we went in and lay down to wake no more till dawn with the first light we were up and making ready for the fray we took with us the three eight bore rifles a good supply of ammunition and our large water bottles filled with weak cold tea which I have always found the best stuff to shoot on after swallowing a little breakfast we started umbopa, kiva, and ventvogel accompanying us the other kafirs we left with instructions to skin the lion and the sable antelope and cut up the ladder we had no difficulty in finding the broad elephant trail which ventvogel after examination pronounced to have been made by between twenty and thirty elephants most of them full grown bulls but the herd had moved on some way during the night and it was nine o'clock and already very hot before by the broken trees leaves and bark and smoking droppings we knew that we could not be far from them presently we caught sight of the herd which numbered as ventvogel had said between twenty and thirty standing in a great hollow having finished their morning meal and flapping their great ears it was a splendid sight for they were only about two hundred yards from us taking a handful of dry grass put into the air to see how the wind was for if once they winded us I knew they would be off before we could get a shot finding that if anything it blew from the elephants to us we crept on stealthily and thanks to the cover managed to get within forty yards or so of the great brutes just in front of them and broadside on stood three splendid bulls one of them with enormous tusks I whispered to the other that I would take the middle one Sir Henry covering the elephant to the left and good the bull with the big tusks now I whispered boom, boom, boom went the three heavy rifles and down came Sir Henry's elephant dead as a hammer shot right through the heart mine fell onto its knees and I thought that he was going to die but in another moment he was up and off tearing along straight past me as he went I gave him the second barrel and the ribs and this brought him down in good earnest hastily slipping in two fresh cartridges I ran close to him and the ball through the brain put an end to the poor brute struggles then I turned to see how good had fared with the big bull which I had heard screaming with rage and pain as I gave mine its quietness on reaching the captain I found him in a great state of excitement it appeared that on receiving the bullet the bull had turned and come straight for his assailant who had barely time to get out of his way and then charged on blindly past him in the direction of our encampment meanwhile the herd had crashed off in wild alarm in the other direction for a while we debated whether to go after the wounded bull or to follow the herd and finally deciding for the latter alternative departed thinking that we had seen the last of those big tusks I have often wished since that we had was easy work to follow the elephants for they had left a trail like a carriage road behind them crushing down the thick bush in their furious flight as though it were tambuki grass but to come up with them was another matter and we had struggled on under the broiling sun for over two hours before we found them with the exception of one bull they were standing together and I could see from their unquiet way in the manner in which they kept lifting their trunks to test the air that they were on the lookout for mischief the solitary bull stood fifty yards or so to this side of the herd over which he was evidently keeping sentry and about sixty yards from us thinking that he would see or wind us and it would probably start them off again if we tried to get nearer especially as the ground was rather open we all aimed at this bull and at my whispered word we fired the three shots took effect and down he went dead again the herd started but unfortunately for them about a hundred yards further on was anula or dried out water track with steep banks very much resembling the one where the prince imperial was killed in Zululand into this the elephants plunged and when we reached the edge we found them struggling in wild confusion to get up the other bank filling the air with their screams and trumpeting as they pushed one another aside in their selfish panic just like so many human beings now was their opportunity and firing away as quickly as we could load we killed five of the poor beasts and no doubt should have bagged the whole herd had they not suddenly given up their attempts to climb the bank and rushed headlong down the nula we were too tired to follow them and perhaps also a little sick of slaughter eight elephants being a pretty good bag for one day so after we were rested a little and the kafirs had cut out the hearts of two of the dead elephants for supper we started homewards very well pleased with our day's work having made up our minds to send the bearers on the morrow to chop away the tusks shortly after we re-passed the spot where good had wounded the patriarchal bull we came across a herd of eland but did not shoot at them as we had plenty of meat they trotted past us and then stopped behind a little patch of bush about a hundred yards away wheeling round to look at us as good was anxious to get a near view of them never having seen an eland close he handed his rifle to Umbopa and followed by Kiva strolled up to the patch of bush we sat down and waited for him not sorry of the excuse for a little rest the sun was just going down in its reddest glory and Sir Henry and I were admiring the lovely scene when suddenly we heard an elephant scream and saw its huge and rushing form with uplifted trunk and tail silhouetted against a great fiery globe of the sun next second we saw something else and that was good and Kiva tearing back towards us with the wounded bull for it was he charging after them for a moment we did not dare to fire though at that distance it would have been of little use if we had done so for fear of hitting one of them and the next a dreadful thing happened good fell a victim to his passion for civilized dress had he consented to discard his trousers and gaiters like the rest of us and to hunt in a flannel shirt and pair of veltshoons it would have been all right but as it was his trousers cumbered him in that desperate race and presently when he was about 60 yards from us his boot polished by the dry grass slipped and ran on his face right in front of the elephant we gave a gasp for we knew that he must die and ran as hard as we could towards him in three seconds it had ended but not as we thought Kiva the zulu boy saw his master fall and brave lad as he was turned and flung his essa guy straight into the elephant's face it stuck in his trunk with a scream of pain as the brute seized the poor zulu hurled him to the earth and placing one huge foot onto his body about the middle twined its trunk round his upper part and tore him in two we rushed up mad with horror and fired again and again till presently the elephant fell upon the fragments of the zulu as for good he rose and wrung his hands over the brave man who had given his life to save him and though I am an old hand I felt a lump grow in my throat Umbopa stood contemplating the huge dead elephant and the mangled remains of poor Kiva ah well he said presently he's dead but he died like a man End of Chapter 4 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information and to find out how you can volunteer please visit LibriVox.org King Solomon's Mines by H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 5 Our March into the Desert We had killed nine elephants and it took us two days to cut out the tusks and having brought them into camp to bury them carefully in the sand under a large tree in a very dangerous mark for miles round It was a wonderfully fine lot of ivory I never saw a better averaging as it did between forty and fifty pounds of tusk The tusks of the great bull that killed poor Kiva scaled one hundred and seventy pounds of the pair so nearly as we could judge As for Kiva himself we buried what remained of him in an ant-bear hole On the third day we marched again hoping that we might live to return to dig up our buried ivory and in due course after a long and wear-a-some tramp in many adventures which I have not spaced to detail we reached Sintanda's Crow near the Lukanga River the real starting point of our expedition Very well do I recollect our arrival at that place with a few stone cattle-crow and some cultivated lands down by the water where these savages grew their scanty supply of grain and beyond it stretched great tracks of waving velled covered with tall grass over which herds of the smaller game were wandering To the left lay the vast desert This spot appears to be the outpost of the fertile country and it would be difficult to say what the natural causes such an abrupt change in the character of the soil is due but so it is Just below our encampment flowed a little stream on the farther side of which is the Stony Slope the same down which, twenty years before I had seen poor Sylvestra creeping back after his attempt to reach Solomon's mines and beyond that slope begins the waterless desert this evening when we pitched our camp and the great ball of the sun was sinking into the desert sending glorious rays of many-colored light flying all over its vast expense Leaving good to superintend the arrangement of our little camp I took Sir Henry with me and walking to the top of the slope opposite we gazed across the desert The air was very clear and far, far away I could distinguish the faint blue outlines here and there, capped with white of the Suleiman Berg There, I said, there is the wall round Solomon's mines but God knows if we shall ever climb it My brother should be there and if he is I shall reach him somehow said Sir Henry in that tone of quiet confidence which marked the man I hoped so, I answered and turned to go back to the camp and I saw that we were not alone Behind us, also gazing earnestly towards the far-off mountain stood the great kafir Umbopa The Zulu spoke when he saw that I had observed him addressing Sir Henry to whom he had attached himself Is it to that land that thou wouldst journey in Kubu? A native word meaning I believe an elephant and the name given to Sir Henry He said, pointing toward the mountain with his broad asegai I asked him sharply what he meant by addressing his master in that familiar way It is very well for natives to have a name for one among themselves but it is not decent that they should call a white man by their heavenish appellations to his face The Zulu laughed a quiet little laugh which angered me How dost thou know that I am not the equal to the inkosi whom I serve? He said He is of a royal house, no doubt One can see it in his size and by his mean So may Hap am I At least I am as great a man Be my mouth, O Makumazan and say my words to the inkus inkubu my master for I would speak to him and to thee I was angry with the man for I am not accustomed to be talked to in that way by kafirs but somehow he impressed me and besides I was curious to know what he had to say So I translated expressing my opinion at the same time that he was an impudent fellow and that his swagger was outrageous Yes, Umbopa answered Sir Henry I would journey there The desert is wide and there is no water in it The mountains are high and covered with snow and man cannot say what lies beyond them nor is there a place for the sunsets How shalt thou come hither inkubu and wherefore dost thou go I translated again Tell him answered Sir Henry that I go because I believe that a man of my blood my brother has gone there before me and I journey to seek him That is so inkubu A hoten-tot I met on the road told me that a white man went out into the desert two years ago towards those mountains with one servant, a hunter They never came back How do you know it was my brother? asked Sir Henry Nay, I know not But the hoten-tot, when I asked what the white man was like said that he had thine eyes and a black beard He said too that the name of the hunter with him was Jim that he was a Bekawana hunter and wore clothes There is no doubt about it said I, I knew Jim well Sir Henry nodded I was sure of it he said If George set his mind upon a thing he generally did it it was always so from his boyhood If he meant to cross the Suleyman bird he has crossed it unless some accident overtook him and we must look for him on the other side Umbopa understood English though he rarely spoke it It is a far journey inkubu he put in and I translated his remark Yes, answered Sir Henry It is far, but there is no journey upon this earth that a man may not make if he sets his heart to it There is nothing, Umbopa that he cannot do there are no mountains he may not climb there are no deserts he cannot cross save a mountain and a desert of which you are spared the knowledge If love leads him and he holds his life in his hands counting it is nothing ready to keep it or lose it as heaven above may order I translated Great words, my father answered the Zulu I always called him a Zulu though he was not really one Great swelling words fit to fill the mouth of a man Thou art right, my father, inkubu Listen, what is life? It is a feather it is the seed of the grass blown hither and thither sometimes multiplying itself and dying in the act sometimes carried away into the heavens but if that seed be good and heavy it may per chance travel a little way on the road it wills it is well to try and journey one's road and to fight with the air man must die at the worst he can but die a little sooner I will go with thee across the desert and over the mountains unless per chance I fall to the ground on the way, my father He paused a while and then went on with one of those strange bursts of rhetorical eloquence that Zulu sometimes indulge in which to my mind, full though they are of vain repetitions show that the race is by no means devoid of poetic instinct and of intellectual power What is life? Tell me, oh white men who are wise who know the secrets of the world and of the world of stars and the world that lies above and around the stars who flash your words from afar without a voice Tell me, white men, the secret of our life whether it goes and whence it comes You cannot answer me, you know not Listen, I will answer Out of the dark we came into the dark we go like a storm driven bird at night we fly out of the nowhere for a moment our wings are seen in the light of the fire and lo, we are going again into the nowhere Life is nothing Life is all It is the hand with which we hold off death It is the glow worm that shines in the night time and is black in the morning It is the white breath of the oxen in winter It is the little shadow that runs across the grass and loses itself at sunset You are a strange man said Sir Henry when he had ceased Umbopa laughed It seems to me that we are much alike in Kubu Perhaps I seek a brother over the mountains I looked at him suspiciously What does thou mean, I ask What does thou know of those mountains A little, a very little There is a strange land yonder a land of witchcraft and beautiful things a land of brave people and of trees and streams and snowy peaks and of a great white road I have heard of it But what is the good of talking It grows dark Those who live to see will see Again I looked at him doubtfully The man knew too much You need not fear me Makumazan, he said interpreting my look I dig no holes for you to fall in I make no plots If we ever cross these mountains behind the sun That is what I know But death sits upon them Be wise and turn back Go and hunt elephants, my masters I have spoken And without another word he lifted his spear in salutation and returned towards the camp where shortly afterwards we found him cleaning a gun like any other kafir That is an odd man said Sir Henry Yes I answered too odd by half I don't like his little ways He knows something and he will not speak out But I suppose it is no use quarreling with him We were in for a curious trip and a mysterious Zulu won't make much difference one way or another Next day we made our arrangements for starting Of course it was impossible to drag our heavy elephant rifles in other kit with us across the desert Placing our bearers we made an arrangement with an old native who had a corral close by to take care of them till we returned It went to my heart to leave such things as these sweet tools to the tender mercies of an old thief of a savage whose greedy eyes I could see gloating over them But I took some precautions First of all I loaded all the rifles placing them at full cock and informed him to go off He tried the experiment instantly with my 8-Bore and it did go off and blew a hole right through one of his oxen which were just then being driven up to the corral to say nothing of knocking him head over heels with the recoil He got up considerably startled and not at all pleased at the loss of the ox which he had the impudence to ask me to pay for and nothing would induce him to touch the guns again Put the live devils out of the way up there in the thatch, he said or they will murder us all Then I told him that when we came back if one of those things was missing I would kill him and his people by witchcraft and if we died and he tried to steal the rifles I would come and haunt him and turn his cattle-mad and his milk sour till life was a weariness and he would make the devils and the guns come out and talk to him in a way and generally gave him a good idea of judgment to come After that he promised to look after them as though they were his father's spirit He was a very superstitious old kefir and a great villain Having thus disposed of our superfluous gear we arranged the kit we five Sir Henry, Good, Myself, Umbopa and the Hottentot ventvogel were to take with us on our journey It was small enough but do what we would we could not get its weight down under about forty pounds a man This is what it consisted of the three express rifles in two hundred rounds of ammunition the two Winchester repeating rifles for Umbopa and ventvogel with two hundred rounds of cartridges five Cochrane's water-bottles each holding four pints five blankets twenty-five pounds weight of Biltong i.e. sundried game flesh ten pounds weight of best mixed beads for gifts a selection of medicine including an ounce of quinine in one or two small surgical instruments our knives a few sundries such as a compass, matches a pocket filter, tobacco a trowel, a bottle of brandy and the clothes we stood in This was our total equipment a small one indeed for such a venture but we dared not attempt to carry more indeed that load was a heavy one per man with which to travel across the burning desert for in such places every additional ounce tells but we could not see our way to reducing the weight there was nothing taken but what was absolutely necessary with great difficulty and by the promise of a present life each I succeeded in persuading three wretched natives from the village to come with us for the first stage twenty miles and to carry a large round gourd holding a gallon of water apiece my object was to enable us to refill our water bottles after the first night's march for we determined to start in the cool of the evening I gave out to these natives that we were going to shoot ostriches with which the desert abounded they jabbered and shrugged their shoulders saying that we were mad and should perish of thirst which I must say seemed probable but being desirous of obtaining the knives which were almost unknown treasures up there they consented to come having probably reflected that after all our subsequent extinction would be no affair of theirs all next day we rested and slept and at sunset ate a hearty meal of fresh beef washed down with tea the last is good remark sadly we were likely to drink for many a long day then having made our final preparations we lay down and waited for the moon to rise at last about nine o'clock up she came in all her glory flooding the wild country with light and throwing a silver sheen on the expanse of rolling desert before us which looked as solemn and quiet and as alien to man as the star-studded firmament above we rose up and in a few minutes we're ready and yet we hesitated a little as human nature is prone to hesitate on the threshold of an irrevocable step we three white men stood by ourselves Umbopa, as a guy in hand and a rifle across his shoulders looked out fixedly across the desert a few paces ahead of us while the hired natives with the gourds of water and ventfogel gathered in a little knot behind gentlemen said Sir Henry presently in his deep voice we are going on about as strange a journey as men can make in this world it is very doubtful if we can succeed in it but we are three men who will stand together for good or for evil to the last now before we start let us for a moment pray to the power who shapes the destinies of men and who ages since marked out our paths that it may please him to direct our steps in accordance with his will taking off his hat for the space of a minute or so he covered his face with his hands and good and I did likewise I do not say that I am a first rate praying man few hunters are and as for Sir Henry I never heard him speak like that before and only once since though deep down in his heart I believe he is very religious good too is pious though apt to swear anyhow I do not remember accepting on one single occasion ever putting up a better prayer in my life than I did during that minute and somehow I felt the happier for it our future was so completely unknown and I think that the unknown and the awful always bring a man nearer to his maker and now said Sir Henry Trek so we started we had nothing to guide ourselves by except the distant mountains and Ol Jose de Silvestre's chart which considering that it was drawn by a dying and half distraught man on a fragment of linen three centuries ago was not a very satisfactory sort of thing to work with still our sole hope of success depended upon it was if we failed in finding that pool of bad water which the old Dom marked as being situated in the middle of the desert about 60 miles from our starting point and as far from the mountains in all probability we must perish miserably of thirst but to my mind the chances of our finding it in that great sea of sand and Karoo scrub seemed almost infinitesimal even supposing that Da Silvestre had marked the pool correctly what was there to prevent its having been dried up by the sun generations ago or trampled in by game or filled in with the drifting sand on we tramped silently as shades through the night and in the heavy sand the Karoo brushes caught our feet and retarded us and the sand worked into our velchuns and good shooting boots so that every few miles we had to stop and empty them but still the night fairly cool though the atmosphere was thick and heavy giving a sort of creamy feel to the air and we made fair progress it was very silent and lonely there in the desert oppressively so indeed good felt this and once began to whistle the girl I left behind me but the notes sounded legubrious in that vast place and he gave it up shortly afterwards a little incident occurred which though it started less at the time there was always to a laugh good was leading as the holder of the compass which being a sailor of course he understood thoroughly and we were toiling along in single file behind him when suddenly we heard the sound of an exclamation and he vanished next second there arose all around us a most extraordinary hubbub snorts, groans and wild sounds of rushing feet in the faint light too we could describe dim galloping forms half hidden by wreaths of sand the natives threw down their loads and prepared to bolt but remembering there was nowhere to run to they cast themselves upon the ground and howled out that it was ghosts as Forrest or Henry and myself we stood amazed nor was our amazement lessened when we perceived the form of good careening off in the direction of the mountains apparently mounted on the back of a horse and hallowing wildly in another second he threw up his arms and we heard him come to the earth with a thud then I saw what had happened we had stumbled upon a herd of sleeping guaga onto the back of one of which good had actually fallen and the brute naturally enough got up and made off with him calling out to the others that it was all right I ran towards good much afraid lest he should be hurt but to my great relief I found him sitting in the sand his eyeglass still fixed firmly in his eye rather shaken and very much frightened but not in any way injured after this we traveled on without any further misadventure till about one o'clock when we called a halt and having drunk a little water not much for water was precious and rested for half an hour we started again on on we went till at last the east began to blush like the cheek of a girl then there came faint rays of primrose light that changed presently to golden bars through which the dawn glided out across the desert the stars grew pale and paler still till at last they vanished the golden moon waxed wan and her mountain ridges stood out against her sickly face like the bones on the cheek of a dying man then came spear upon spear of light flashing far away across the boundless wilderness piercing and firing the veils we missed till the desert was draped in a tremulous golden glow and it was day still we did not halt though by this time we should have been glad enough to do so for we knew that when once the sun was fully up it would be almost impossible for us to travel at length about an hour later we spied a little pile of boulders rising out of the plain and to this we dragged ourselves as luck would have it here we found an overhanging slab of rock carpeted beneath with smooth sand which afforded a most grateful shelter from the heat underneath this we crept and each of us having drunk some water and eaten a bit of Biltong we lay down and were soon sound asleep it was three o'clock in the afternoon before we woke to find our bearers preparing to return they had seen enough of the desert already and no number of knives would have tempted them to come a step farther so we took a hearty drink and having emptied our water bottles filled them up again from the gourds that they had brought with them and then we watched them depart on their 20 miles tramp home at half past four we also started it was lonely and desolate work for with the exception of a few ostriches there was not a single living creature to be seen on all the vast expanse of sandy plain evidently it was too dry for game and with the exception of a deadly looking cobra or two we saw no reptiles one insect however we found abundant and that was the common or house fly there they came not as single spies but in battalions as I think the Old Testament says somewhere editors note readers must beware of accepting Mr. Quartermains references as accurate as it has been found some are prone to do although his reading evidently was limited the impression produced by it upon his mind was mixed thus to him the Old Testament and Shakespeare were interchangeable authorities go where you will you find him and so it must have been always I have seen him enclosed in amber which is I was told quite half a million years old looking exactly like his descendant of today and I have little doubt but that when the last man lies dying on the earth he will be buzzing around if this event happens to occur in summer watching for an opportunity to settle on his nose at sunset we halted waiting for the moon to rise at last she came up beautiful and serene as ever and with one halt about two o'clock in the morning we trudged on wearily through the night till at last the welcome sun put a period to our labors we drank a little ourselves down on the sand thoroughly tired out and soon were all asleep there was no need to set a watch for we had nothing to fear from anybody or anything in that vast untenanted plane our only enemies were heat thirst and flies but far rather would I have faced any danger from man or beast than that awful trinity this time we were not so lucky we were filtering rock to guard us from the glare of the sun with the result that about seven o'clock we woke up experiencing the exact sensations one would attribute to a beef steak on a gridiron we were literally being baked through and through the burning sun seemed to be sucking our very blood out of us we sat up and gasped said I grabbing at the halo of flies which buzzed cheerfully around my head the heat did not affect them my word said Sir Henry it is hot echoed good it was hot indeed and there was not a bit of shelter to be found look where we would there was no rock or tree nothing but an unending glare rendered dazzling by the heated air that danced over the surface of the desert as it dances over a red hot stove what is to be done asked Sir Henry we can't stand this for long we looked at each other blankly I have it said good we must dig a hole get in it and cover ourselves with the Karoo bushes it did not seem a very promising suggestion but at least it was better than nothing so we sat to work and with the trial we had brought with us and the help of our hands in about an hour we had succeeded in delving out a patch of ground 12 wide to the depth of two feet then we cut a quantity of low scrub with our hunting knives and creeping into the hole pulled it over us all with the exception of ventvogel on whom being a hot and taut the heat had no particular effect this gave us some slight shelter from the burning rays of the sun but the atmosphere in that amateur grave can be better imagined than described the whole of Calcutta must have been a fool to it indeed to this moment I do not know how we live through the day there we lay panting and every now and again moistening our lips from our scanty supply of water had we followed our inclinations we should have finished all we possessed in the first two hours but we were forced to exercise the most rigid care for if our water failed us we knew that very soon we must perish miserably but everything has an end if only you live long enough to see it and somehow that miserable day wore on towards evening about three o'clock in the afternoon we determined that we could bear it no longer it would be better to die walking than to be killed slowly by heat and thirst in this dreadful hole so taking each of us a little drink from our fast diminishing supply of water to about the same temperature as a man's blood we staggered forward we had then covered some fifty miles of wilderness if the reader will refer to the rough copy and translation of Old Da Silvestra's map he will see that the desert is marked as measuring forty leagues across and the pan bad water is set down as being about in the middle of it now forty leagues is one hundred and twenty miles consequently we ought at the most to be within twelve or fifteen miles of the water if any should really exist through the afternoon we crept slowly and painfully along scarcely doing more than a mile and a half in an hour at sunset we rested again waiting for the moon and after drinking a little managed to get some sleep before we lay down Umbopa pointed out to us a slight distinct hillock on the flat surface of the plain about eight miles away at the distance it looked like an ant hill and as I was dropping off to sleep I fell to wondering what it could be with the moon we marched again feeling dreadfully exhausted and suffering tortures from thirst and prickly heat nobody who has not felt it can know what we went through we walked no longer we staggered now and again falling from exhaustion and being obliged to call a halt every hour or so we had scarcely energy left in us to speak up to this good had chatted and joked for he was a merry fellow but now he had not a joke in him at last about two o'clock utterly worn out in body and mind we came to the foot of the queer hill or sand copy which at first sight resembled a gigantic ant heap about a hundred feet high and covering at the base nearly two acres of ground here we halted and driven to it by our desperate thirst sucked down our last drops of water we had but half a pint ahead and each of us could have drunk a gallon then we lay down just as I was dropping off to sleep I heard Umbopa remark to himself in Zulu if we cannot find water we shall all be dead before the moon rises tomorrow I shuttered hot as it was the near prospect of such an awful death is not pleasant but even the thought of it could not keep me from sleeping End of Chapter 5 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information and to find out how you can volunteer please visit LibriVox.org King Solomon's Mines by H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 6 Water Two hours later that is about four o'clock I woke up for so soon as the first heavy demand of bodily fatigue had been satisfied the torturing thirst from which I was suffering and my heart had hurted itself I could sleep no more I had been dreaming that I was bathing in a running stream with green banks and trees upon them and I awoke to find myself in this arid wilderness and to remember as Umbopa had said that if we did not find water this day we must perish miserably no human creature could live long without water in that heat I set up and rubbed my grimy face by in horny hands as my lips and eyelids were stuck together and it was only after some friction and with an effort that I was able to open them it was not far from dawn but there was none of the bright feel of dawn in the air which was thick with the hot murkiness that I cannot describe the others were still sleeping presently it began to grow light enough to read so I drew out a little pocket copy of the Ingoldsby legends which I had brought with me and read the Jack-Daw of reams when I got to where a nice little boy held a golden ure embossed and filled with water as pure as any that flows between reams and Namur literally I smacked my cracking lips or rather tried to smack them the mere thought of that pure water made me mad if the Cardinal had been there with his bell, book and candle I would have whipped in and drunk his water up yes even if he had filled it already with the suds of soap worthy of washing the hands of the Pope and I knew that the whole consecrated curse of the Catholic Church should fall upon me for so doing I almost think that I must have been a little lightheaded with thirst, weariness and the want of food for I fell to thinking how astonished the Cardinal and his nice little boy and the Jack-Daw would have looked to see a burn up when I'd grizzly-haired little elephant-hutter suddenly bound between them put his dirty face into the basin and swallow every drop of the precious water the idea abused me so much that I laughed or rather cackled aloud which woke the others and they began to rub their dirty faces and drag their gum-dupped lips and eyelids apart as soon as we were all well awake we began to discuss the situation which was serious enough not a drop of water was left we turned the bottles upside down and licked the tops but it was a failure they were dry as a bone good who had charge of the flask brandy got it out and looked at it longingly but Sir Henry promptly took it away from him for to drink raw spirit would only have been to precipitate the end if we do not find water we shall die he said if we can trust to the old Dom's map there should be some about but nobody seemed to derive much satisfaction from this remark it was so evident that no great faith could be put in the map now it was gradually growing light and as we sat staring blankly at each other I observed the hot and taut ventvogal rise and began to walk about with his eyes on the ground presently he stopped short the guttural exclamation pointed to the earth what is it we exclaimed and rising simultaneously we went to where he was standing staring at the sand well I said it is fresh spring-box spore what of it spring-box do not go far from water he answered in Dutch no I answered I forgot and thank God for it this little discovery put new life into us for it is wonderful and a man is in a desperate position how he catches at the slightest hope and feels almost happy on a dark night a single star is better than nothing meanwhile ventvogal was lifting his snub nose and sniffing the hot air for all the world like an old impala ram who sensed danger presently he spoke again I smell water he said then we fell quite jubilant with all instinct these wildbred men possess just at that moment the sun came up gloriously and revealed so grand a sight to our astonished eyes that for a moment or two we even forgot our thirst there not more than 40 or 50 miles from us glittering like silver in the early rays of the morning sun sword sheba's breasts and stretching away for hundreds of miles on either side of them the great silly man Berg now that sitting here I attempt to describe the extraordinary grandeur and beauty of that sight language seems to fail me I am impotent even before its memory straight before us rose two enormous mountains the likes of which are not I believe to be seen in Africa if indeed there are any other such in the world measuring each of them is indeed in height standing not more than a dozen miles apart linked together by a precipitous cliff of rock and towering an awful white solemnity straight into the sky these mountains place thus like the pillars of a gigantic gateway are shaped after the fashion of a woman's breasts and at times the mists and shadows beneath them take the form of a recumbent woman their bases swell gently from the plane looking at that distance perfectly round and smooth and upon the top of each is a vast hillock covered with snow exactly corresponding to the nipple on the female breast the stretch of cliff that connects them appears to be some thousands of feet in height and perfectly precipitous and on each flank of them so far as the eye can reach similar lines of cliff broken only here and there by flat tabletop mountains something like the world feigned when at Cape Town a formation by the way that is very common in Africa to describe the comprehensive grandeur of that view is beyond my powers there was something so inexpressibly solemn and overpowering about those huge volcanoes for doubtless they are extinct volcanoes that had quite awed us for a while the morning lights played upon the snow and the brown and swelling masses beneath and then as though to veil the majestic sight from our curious eyes strange vapors and clouds gathered and increased around the mountains till presently we could only trace their pure and gigantic outlines showing ghosts like through the fleecy envelope indeed as we afterwards discovered usually they were wrapped in this gauze like mist which doubtless accounted for are not having seen them more clearly before Sheba's breasts had scarcely vanished into cloud-clad privacy before our thirst literally a burning question reasserted itself it was all very well for a vent-vogel to say that he smelt water but we could see no signs of it look which way we would so far as the eye might reach a burning sand and carousel scrub we walked round the hillock and gazed about anxiously on the other side but it was the same story not a drop of water could be found there was no indication of a pan a pool or a spring you are full I said angrily to vent-vogel there is no water but still he lifted his ugly snub-nose sniffed I smell it boss he answered it is somewhere in the air yes I said no doubt it is in the clouds and about two months hence it will fall and wash our bones Sir Henry stroked his yellow beard thoughtfully perhaps it is on the top of the hill he suggested rot said good whoever heard of water being found at the top of a hill let us go and look I put in and hopelessly enough we scrambled up the sandy sides of the hillock and Bopah leading presently he stopped as though he was petrified nonzy amonzy that is here is water he cried with a loud voice we rushed up to him and there sure enough in a deep cut or indentation on the very top of the sand copy was an undoubted pool of water how it came to be in such a strange place we did not stop to inquire we did its black and unpleasant appearance it was water or a good imitation of it and that was enough for us we gave a bound and a rush and in another second we were all down on our stomachs sucking up the uninviting fluid as though it were nectar fit for the gods heavens how we did drink then when we had done drinking we tore off our clothes and sat in the pool absorbing the moisture through our parched skins you Harry my boy you have only to turn a couple of taps to summon hot and cold from an unseen vasty cistern can have little idea of the luxury of that muddy wallow in brackish tepid water after a while we rose from it refreshed indeed and fell to on our build tong of which we had scarcely been able to touch a mouthful for 24 hours and ate our fill then we smoked a pipe and lay down by the side of that blessed pool under the overhanging shadow of it's bank and slept till noon all that day we rested there by the water thanking our stars that we had been lucky enough to find it bad as it was and not forgetting to render a due share of gratitude to the shade of the long departed da silvestre who had set it's position down so accurately on the tail of his shirt the wonderful thing to us was that the pan should have lasted so long and the only way in which I can account for this is on the supposition that it is fed by some spring deep down in the sand having filled both ourselves and our water bottles as full as possible in far better spirits we started off again with the moon that night we covered nearly 5 and 20 miles but needless to say found no more water though we were lucky enough the following day to get a little shade behind some ant heaps when the sun rose and for a while cleared away the mysterious mists Suleymansberg with the two majestic breasts now only about 20 miles off seemed to be towering right above us and looked grander than ever at the approach of evening we marched again and to cut a long story short by daylight next morning found ourselves upon the lowest slopes of Sheba's left breast for which we had been steadily steering by this time our water was exhausted once more and we were suffering severely from thirst nor indeed could we see any chance of relieving it till we reached the snow line far far above us after resting an hour or two driven to it by our torturing thirst we went on toiling painfully in the burning heat up the lava slopes for we found that the huge base of the mountain was composed entirely of stones belched from the bowels of the earth in some far past age by eleven o'clock we were utterly exhausted and generally speaking in a very bad state indeed the lava clinker over which we must drag ourselves though smooth compared with some clinker I have heard of such as that on the island of Ascension for instance was yet rough enough to make our feet very sore and this together with our other miseries had pretty well finished us a few hundred yards above us were some large lumps of lava and toward these we steered with the intention of lying down beneath their shade we reached them and to our surprise so far as we had a capacity for surprise left in us on a little plateau or ridge close by we saw that the clinker was covered with a dense green growth evidently soil formed of decomposed lava had rested there and in due course had become the receptacle of seeds deposited by birds but we did not take much further interest in that green growth for one cannot live on grass like Nebuchadnezzar that requires a special dispensation of Providence and peculiar digestive organs so we sat down under the rocks and groaned and for one I wish heartily that we had never started on this fool's errand as we were sitting there I saw Umbopa get up and hobbled towards the patch of green and a few minutes afterwards to my great astonishment I perceived that usually very dignified individual dancing and shouting like a maniac and waving something green off we all scrambled towards him as fast as our wearied limbs would carry us hoping that he had found water what is it Umbopa son of a fool I shouted in Zulu it is food and water Makumazan again he waved the green thing then I saw what he had found it was a melon we had hit upon a patch of wild melons thousands of them and dead ripe melons I yelled to Good who was next to me and in another minute his false teeth were fixed in one of them I think we ate about six each before we had done and poor fruit as they were I doubt if I ever thought anything nicer but melons are not very nutritious and when we had satisfied our thirst with their pulpy substance and put a stalk to cool by the simple process of cutting them in two and setting them and on in the hot sun to grow cold by evaporation we began to feel exceedingly hungry we had still some Biltong left but our stomachs turned from Biltong and besides we were obliged to be very sparing of it for we could not say when we should find more food just at this moment a lucky thing chanced looking across the desert I saw a flock of about ten large birds flying straight towards us skitboss skit shoot master shoot whispered the hot and taut throwing himself on his face an example which we all followed then I saw that the birds were a flock of pow or bustards and that they would pass within fifty yards of my head taking one of the repeating Winchester's waited till they were very nearly over us and then jumped to my feet on seeing me the pow bunched up together as I expected that they would and I fired two shots straight into the thick of them and as luck would have it brought down one a fine fellow that weighed about twenty pounds in half an hour we had a fire made of dry melon stalks and he was toasting over it and we made such a feed as we had not tasted for a week we ate that pow nothing was left of him but his leg bones and his beak and we felt not a little the better afterwards that night we went on again with the moon carrying as many melons as we could with us as we ascended we found the air grew cooler and cooler which was a great relief to us and at dawn so far as we could judge we were not more than about a dozen miles from the snowline here we discovered more melons and so had no longer any anxiety about water for we knew that we should soon get plenty of snow but the ascent had now become very precipitous and we made but slow progress not more than a mile an hour also that night we ate our last morsel of builtong as yet with the exception of the pow we had seen no living thing on the mountain nor had we come across a single spring or stream of water this is very odd considering the expanse of snow above us which must we thought melt sometimes but as we afterwards discovered owing to a cause which is quite beyond my power to explain all the streams flowed down upon the north side of the mountain now we began to grow very anxious about food we had escaped death by thirst but it seemed probable that it was only to die of hunger the events of the next three miserable days are best described by copying the entries made at the time in my notebook 21st May started 11am finding the atmosphere quite cold enough to travel by day in carrying some water melons with us struggled on all day but found no more melons having evidently passed out of their district saw no game of any sort halted for the night at sundown having had no food for many hours suffered much during the night from cold 22nd started at sunrise again feeling very faint and weak only made about 5 miles all day found some patches of snow of which we ate but nothing else camped at night under the edge of a great plateau cold bitter drank a little brandy each and huddled ourselves together each wrapped up in his blanket to keep ourselves alive are now suffering frightfully from starvation and weariness thought that ventvogal would have died during the night 23rd struggled forward once more as soon as the sun was well up and had thawed our limbs a little we are now in a dreadful plight and I fear that unless we get food this will be our last day's journey but little brandy left good Sir Henry and Umbopa bear up wonderfully but ventvogal is in a very bad way like most hotentots he cannot stand cold pangs of hunger not so bad but have a sort of numb feeling about the stomach others say the same we are now on a level with the precipitous chain or wall of lava linking the two breasts and the view is glorious behind us the glowing desert rolls away to the horizon and before us lie mile upon mile of smooth hard snow almost level but swelling gently upwards out of the center of which the nipple of the mountain that appears to be some miles in circumference rises about 4,000 feet into the sky not a living thing is to be seen God help us I fear that our time has come and now I will drop the journal partly because it is not very interesting reading also what follows requires telling rather more fully all that day the 23rd May we struggled slowly up the incline of snow lying down from time to time to rest a strange gaunt crew we must have looked while laden as we were we dragged our weary feet over the dazzling plane glaring round us with hungry eyes not that there was much use in glaring for we could see nothing to eat we could not accomplish more than 7 miles that day just before sunset we found ourselves exactly under the nipple of Shiba's left breast which towered thousands of feet into the air a vast smooth hillock of frozen snow weak as we were we could not but appreciate the wonderful scene made even more splendid by the flying rays of light from the setting sun which here and there stained the snow blood red and crowned the great dome above us with a diadem of glory I say gasped good presently we ought to be somewhere near that cave the old gentleman wrote about yes said I if there is a cave come quarter main grown sir Henry don't talk like that I have every faith in the Dom remember the water we shall find the place soon if we don't find it before dark we are dead men that is all about it was my consolatory reply for the next ten minutes we trudged in silence when suddenly Umbopa who was marching along beside me wrapped in his blanket and with a leather belt strapped so tightly around his stomach to make his hunger small as he said that his waist looked like a girl's caught me by the arm look at the nipple I followed his glance and some two hundred yards from us perceived what appeared to be a hole in the snow it is the cave said Umbopa we made the best of our way to the spot and found sure enough that the hole was the mouth of a cavern no doubt the same as that of which Dasilvestra wrote we were not too soon for just as we reached shelter the sun went down with startling rapidity in the world nearly dark for in these latitudes there is but little twilight so we crept into the cave which did not appear to be very big and huddling ourselves together for warmth swallowed what remained of our brandy barely a mouthful each and tried to forget our miseries in sleep but the cold was too intense to allow us to do so for I am convinced that at this great altitude the thermometer cannot have marked less than fourteen or fifteen degrees below freezing point what such a temperature meant to us innervated as we were by hardship want of food and the great heat of the desert the reader may imagine better than I can describe suffice it to say that it was something as near death from exposure as I have ever felt there we sat hour after hour through the still and bitter night feeling the frost wander round and nip us now in the finger foot now in the face in vain we did huddle up closer and closer there was no warmth in our miserable starved carcasses sometimes one of us would drop into an uneasy slumber for a few minutes but we could not sleep much and perhaps this was fortunate for if we had I doubt if we should have ever woke again indeed I believe that it was only by force of will that we kept ourselves alive at all not very long before dawn I heard the hot and taut ventvogel whose teeth had been chattering all night like castanets give a deep sigh then his teeth stopped chattering I did not think anything of it at the time concluding that he had gone to sleep his back was resting against mine and it seemed to grow colder and colder till at last it felt like ice at length the air began to grow gray with light then golden arrows sped across the snow and at last the glorious sun peaked above the lava wall and looked in upon our half frozen forms also it looked upon ventvogel sitting there amongst us stone dead no wonder his back felt cold poor fellow he had died when I heard him sigh and was now frozen almost stiff shocked beyond measure we dragged ourselves from the corpse how strange is that horror we mortals have of the companionship of the dead body and left it sitting there its arms clasped about its knees by this time the sunlight was pouring its cold rays for here they were cold straight into the mouth of the cave suddenly I heard an exclamation of fear from someone and turned my head and this is what I saw sitting at the end of the cavern it was not more than twenty feet deep was another form of which the head rested on its chest and the long arms hung down I stared at it and saw that this too was a dead man and what was more a white man the others saw also and the sight proved too much for our shattered nerves one and all we scrambled out of the cave as fast as our half frozen limbs would carry us End of Chapter 6 This is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings were in the public domain For more information and to find out how you can volunteer please visit LibriVox.org King Solomon's Minds by H. Ryder Haggard Chapter 7 Solomon's Road Outside the cavern we halted feeling rather foolish I am going back said Sir Henry Why? asked Good because it has struck me that what we saw may be my brother This was a new idea and we re-entered the place to put it to the proof After the bright light outside our eyes weak as they were with staring at the snow could not pierce the gloom of the cave for a while presently however they grew accustomed to the semi-darkness and we advanced towards the dead man Sir Henry knelt down and peered into his face Thank God he said with a sigh of relief it is not my brother Then I drew near and looked The body was that of a tall man in middle life with aquiline features, grizzled hair and a long black moustache The skin was perfectly yellow and stretched tightly over the bones Its clothing, with the exception of what seemed to be the remains of a woollen pair of hose had been removed leaving the skeleton-like frame naked Round the neck of the corpse which was frozen perfectly stiff hung a yellow ivory crucifix Who on earth can it be? said I Can't you guess? asked Good I shook my head Why the old Dom, Jose de Celestra of course, who else? Well I gasped. He died three hundred years ago And what is there to prevent him from lasting for three thousand years in this atmosphere I should like to know? asked Good If only the temperature is sufficiently low flesh and blood will keep fresh as New Zealand mutton forever and heaven knows it is cold enough here The sun never gets in here no animal comes here to tear or destroy No doubt his slave, of whom he