Part 3 (1/2)

I could hardly say anything in return, for I felt parting with these excellent fellows and good co four weeks Then I slid down the rope ladder on to the great surf boat which had been signalled alongside to take me off

There were other vessels in the roadstead, sailing craft and a white-hulled, red-funnelled coasting steamer of the Castle line It was a dull, sunless afternoon, which enhancedconsiderably The surf boat was one of several that had been discharging cargo fro, which was stoay in her hold, leaving room for me in the very small space open at either end

She orked by a hawser and half a dozen black fellows, and a very rough speciled beard, and a stock of profanity both original and extensive

”Now,last farewells to those on board, ”stow that--and yer bloomin' carcase too, unless yer want yer ruddy nut cracked with the blanked rope Get down into the bottoh, was all needed, for hardly had I obeyed it, when bang--whigge! the great hawser flew taut like so, just where ed it expedient literally to lie low, but when I eventually looked up, it was to behold an i aft It curled and hissed--then broke upon us with a thunderous crash, and for half a minute I didn't knohether ere in the boat or in the sea; and had hardly ti on,on,” bellowed the captain, after the first stor on for all you're worth There's liding movement, an upheave and a buhty rollers as before Another and another followed, and at length, half drowned, I realised ere in sain, and ventured cautiously to look up

We were in the h bluffs covered with thick virgin forest On the left bank lay a townshi+p of sorts, and the lighthouse I had seen The darkies arping alongBehind, lay such a very hell of raging surf as to set h it and lived

”Blanked heavy bar on to-day,a pipe fro Five bob please, for landing you”

I handed over the ahtley's--up yonder,” he said ”That's the only hotel on the West bank There's a Gerher up t'other bank, but you'll be better here Going on to 'King,' I take it?”

”Where?”

”'King'--King Williamstown,” he explained

I was about to reply that I was a picked-up castaway, but thought better of it in tiht find initial difficulties as to accommodation So I only answered that that would do me

Now a most weird noise attracted ht hardly less weird Covering a ricketty jetty which ere slowly approaching, a crowd of strange beings were preparing for our reception after their own fashi+on Some were clothed in brick red blankets and so, but all were smeared from head to foot with red ochre--and, as they swayed and contorted, a thunder of deep bass voices acco recitative of hi on the boards, I wondered that the structure did not collapse and strew the river with the lot of theave erated baboons in the last stage of drunken frenzy But they were not drunk at all It was only the raw savage, disporting hihtheadedness

Up to this time ue If I had thought of him at all it had been as a meek, harmless kind of black, rather downtrodden than otherwise, and to whom a kick and a curse would constitute a far more frequent form of reward than a sixpence But now as I stepped upon the jetty at East London, e For these ochre-ses, at once powerful and lithe of fra eyes, which, although their countenances were in the ood-hu to hold their own if called upon to do so More than one of the group towered above me, and I a in their own tongue, and tried to seize the bundle I carried--this, by the way, contained a change of clothing which Morrissey had insisted on ht, when the surf-boat skipper came to my aid with the explanation that they merely wanted to carry it for et rid of the vociferous e and wild experiences awaited e inhabitants of this land, of whom these were fair representatives And here I was, thrown up, as it were, upon this inhospitable coast, without a dry stitch of clothing upon me

Soon I found myself the fortunate possessor of a small ashed roo features were flies and various weird and unknown specireat, which, attracted by the light, would coreasy flare which had attracted them--to their discoth I fell asleep, to the unintermittent thunder of the surf upon the bar But the said sleep was troubled and fitful The door, half glazed, was door andco sultry, this must perforce be left open, and in the result I don't kno s startled ht at my bedside, but I do know that at least three rats were playing hopscotch upon my counterpane at once And these, and other unconsidered trifles, ensured that precious little sleep fell to ht I passed upon the soil of Southern Africa, whither I had been thrown under so strange and unforeseen a combination of circumstances

CHAPTER FIVE

OF AN EARLY ADVENTURE

I awoke in theassimilated an indifferent breakfast, which however was quite passable after four weeks of shi+p fare, set out to interview the er of the local branch of the Standard Bank I was businessthe object of er--a youngish man, and the usual Scotchh--sympathetically too

But when it ca the tian He did not exactly disbelieveforward Captain Morrissey in corroboration went far against that But then how could Captain Morrissey vouch as tohe could by no possibility do so, and indeed to no one, in view of ument more fully appeal than to land in those days was over three weeks distant, otherwise seven or eight before an answer could be had

Didn't I know any one locally who could vouch forthe circumstances under which I had found ly sorry he could not accommodate me--on his own responsibility He would, however, refer the er, and would then be only too happy, etc, etc And so I was very politely bowed out

Well, I couldn't blaht have been just the predatory adventurer he had no proof I was not But for all that I went out feeling very disconsolate My seven pounds nine and a halfpenny wouldn't last long, and I had already begun to bore into it

What was I to do next--yes--what the devil was I to do next?

I thought I would cross the river for one thing, and take a walk along the shore on the other side I believe I had a sort of foolish idea that theclose in at anchor, constituted a kind of link between other tie and far away shore; and so on board her as an able seae round home, even enteredalong the bush road which skirted the east bank, at length careen slope which stretches down to the sandy beach within the bight of the roadstead