Strange Tales, January, 1932

  The story of Spook Kopje—sarcophagus of a tragedy most pitiful.

  AWOKE with a start. There was head from my sleeping bag and saw the vague, blackness all around except for the dull shadowy forms of my companions stretched in I red glow of the camp fire, now almost a deathlike stupor in a circle about the smothered in white ash. The awful stillness of smoldering fire. Above was an empty

  the veld and that impenetrable darkness told blackness that had extinguished the stars. And, me that it was the hour before dawn. A about me, that awful stillness that emphasized dreadful hour, and one that always finds me the miles of wilderness.

  unprepared.

  Then, tearing the stillness, came that

  What had awakened me? I lifted my

  rumbling laugh, a laugh that began in the

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  depths and cackled to hysterical heights. A of Maxwell.

  black laugh. It was that which had awakened

  “Well, if you’re going to be upset by a

  me.

  laughing Kaffir,” I began jocularly, “the Again that laugh rose in its crescendo.

  sooner you get out of Africa the better. These I twisted my head in the direction of the camp Kaffirs are always laughing. They’re happy, fire round which were grouped our native even though they are carrying the white man’s

  “boys.” A shadow moved. One of the natives burden.”

  was cackling horribly.

  But Maxwell refused to come out of

  “For

  God’s

  sake,

  stop that laughing!”

  his serious mood. He stared into the fitful Maxwell, his fair hair all tousled, had

  blaze.

  leaped from his sleeping bag and was

  “Ever trekked in the Drakensberg

  shrieking his command into the night.

  district?” he asked suddenly.

  “Stop it, I say! Stop it!”

  I shook my head.

  Dead silence followed. The laugh was

  “I know it only vaguely,” I replied.

  lost in the stillness. One of the sleeping forms

  “Somewhere on the borders of Natal, eh?”

  grunted uneasily. That was all.

  “That’s it,” said Maxwell eagerly. He

  But I was astounded at the appearance

  obviously wanted to talk. Men do become

  of Maxwell. Standing there in shirt and shorts, communicative round a camp fire, and this he was trembling like a man with a bad attack hour before the dawn invited confidences.

  of malaria. He shook his fist into that empty

  “I used to know the country round

  blackness, and cursed. I half rose from my there very well five years ago. Five years ago!

  sleeping bag.

  I’ve never been back there since.”

  “What’s

  the

  matter?”

  There was such intensity in the tone of

  His eyes glinted at me, savagely. He

  his voice that I looked up quickly from the did not speak, but walked to the camp fire, filling of my pipe.

  kicked some of the ash away, flung some logs

  “Why?” I asked. “A girl?”

  into the embers, and then returned to his He shook his head, slowly.

  sleeping bag to sit upon it. He was still

  “No. It was a laugh, a black laugh, that shaking as he sat there, all hunched up, as drove me out of the Drakensberg.”

  though expecting some terror would launch I think I must have chuckled.

  itself out of the darkness like a leaping

  “Really, Maxwell,” I said, “are you

  leopard.

  serious?”

  “That laugh!” he muttered. “You heard

  “Deadly

  serious.”

  it?”

  I shrugged my shoulders.

  “Yes. One of the Kaffirs, damn him.

  “I can’t imagine—” I began.

  Something funny came into his queer black

  “Have you ever seen that peculiar kind

  mind, I suppose. I wish it hadn’t. There’ll be of kopje that slopes up like a gentle hill for no more sleep for me.”

  about five hundred feet and then shoots up a

  “Nor for me,” groaned Maxwell.

  straight wall of rock for another five hundred

  “Man, you’re shivering.”

  feet?”

  “I know. That laugh comes to me like

  “Of course,” I nodded. “It’s not really

  a curse. A black laugh. Ugh!”

  peculiar, that kind of kopje. You will find it in different parts of the veld. But I know the kind AS one of the logs in the fire began to crackle you mean—rather like a giant sarcophagus on and blaze I could see the tense look in the face a huge mound, eh?”

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  3

  “A sarcophagus!” muttered Maxwell.

  checked suit, a red beret, and a monocle stuck

  “Yes, at sunset this looked like an enormous in his eye. He lived in Cape Town where he coffin. Horrible!”

  owned three hansom cabs that did a

  “Had it a name?”

  flourishing business after midnight. And he He turned his eyes towards me. They

  knew how to talk about himself and his

  were lit up by the flicker of a flame.

  hansom cabs, too. He had drifted to these parts

  “It was called—Spook Kopje.”

  for a holiday, apparently.

  THERE was silence for a moment. The “HE had not been in the district three hours breathing of our companions in their sleeping before he discovered Olivia. And he began to bags sounded regular and sonorous.

  court her. Needless to say, Olivia fell blindly

  “I was staying in a Boer homestead,

  for the red beret, the monocle, and the three not half a mile from that kopje,” went on hansom cabs. At the end of the second day she Maxwell, hesitantly. “I was doing nothing in possessed the red beret. It seemed certain that particular—not even prospecting. I rather before another week had passed she would enjoyed the quietness, the humdrum life of the possess the three hansom cabs as well. The farm, the unbounded hospitality of the Boer black farm boys of the district hated this family with whom I stayed. A real rest.”

  successful interloper.”

  I

  nodded.

  I smiled at Maxwell, but his face still

  “A colored girl from the Cape, Olivia,

  had that serious, intent expression.

  looked after me. Brought the morning tea,

  “But although Olivia was practically

  prepared my meals, mended my socks, and so conquered from the beginning, she still had a on. A good girl, and quite attractive as far as lurking feminine desire to see her cavalier of colored girls go. Something of a beauty for the the red beret perform some doughty deed.

  neighborhood, and courted by all the black Three hansom cabs were worth having, but farm boys in the vicinity. But she looked Olivia also wanted a man. In her days at the down upon them. ‘Dis black trash not good Cape she had regularly visited the cinema, and enough for me,’ she said decisively. And her hero of the screen was Douglas having said this she would go back to her pots Fairbanks.”

  and pans, humming an old missionary tune.

  “I should think it would be Valentino,”

  “She certainly seemed in no hurry to

  I murmured.

  get herself a sweetheart. And a good thing,

  “Not with Olivia. She adored the

  too, for the Boer, Oom Jannie, and his family.

  leaping antics of her hero, she thrilled when he They depended more and more on Olivia. She flung himself to the top of a wall and crashed was undoubtedly a household treasure. But down again upon his pursuers. This was a when Johannes came into the district, she man, and the sort of man that Olivia had changed. Johannes was not the sort of man to decided to marry. Johannes was hardly that.

  let himself go unnoticed.”

  Probably he had never climbed higher than the

  “And who was Johannes?” I asked,

  driver’s seat of one of his own hansom cabs.

  puffing away at my pipe, determined, now that But his talk was dizzying enough, and Olivia’s Maxwell had launched upon his story, that I mention of her hero encouraged his

  would hear all the details.

  boastfulness. ‘I can jump, I can swim, I can

  “Johannes was a young buck, a colored

  climb,’ he announced to her. ‘Why, each

  man, also from the Cape,” explained Maxwell.

  Sunday on Table Mountain I have climbed

  “He arrived in the Drakensberg district in a where even der Europeans will not go.

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  Allemagtig. I—’

  “Again Johannes regarded the kopje.

  “‘Could you climb that?’ asked Olivia

  He was beginning to feel uncomfortable about carelessly. They were out on the veld, walking the affair. But somewhere deep down in him, within a hundred yards of that sinister-looking beneath that boastfulness, there was a strain in kopje, Spook Kopje.

  his mixed blood that urged him to live up to

  “Johannes gave it one gla nce, and the hero-worship of his sweetheart.

  laughed. ‘Why, dat is nothing,’ he said. ‘I

  “‘All right, I do it,” he said.

  could climb dat in half an hour. Now, on

  “‘When?’ persisted Olivia.

  Table Mountain, I once climbed and—’

  “‘When you like.’

  “‘You certain dat you could climb dat

  “‘To-morrow morning, at ten?’

  kopje?’ persisted Olivia.

  “‘Yes.’

  “AGAIN Johannes laughed. He was so certain

  “AND so it was settled. Olivia told me the gist that he did not even turn his head to look at of this conversation, excitedly, as she served the kopje again. Instead, he gazed boldly into me my supper. Here was a hero worthy of the the soft brown eyes of Olivia.

  films—and of Olivia. ‘My man is some man,’

  “‘In half an hour,’ he repeated.

  she told me definitely. Oom Jannie shook his

  “Olivia looked at him. ‘No one has

  head over this folly. ‘Aach! Vhy do you want ever climbed dat kopje,’ she said quietly. ‘No him to climb a kopje?” he asked testily. Olivia one.’

  did not reply, but brought him his huge Bible

  “‘No?’ Johannes was not disturbed. that he read regularly each evening by candle-

  ‘When I take you back to Cape Town, I—’

  light.”

  “‘Will you climb dat kopje for me?’

  Maxwell stopped talking. The night

  asked Olivia, excitedly.

  was still dark and soundless. He walked over

  “Johannes looked at her, and then to the fire and kicked another log into the decided he had better look at this kopje again.

  blaze. Then he came back and sat on his

  He turned his head and regarded it. In the sleeping bag again.

  stark sunlight it looked forbidding enough—

  “Did Johannes climb the kopje?” I

  the gentle slope, and then the granite cliffs asked at last.

  climbing straight for the blue silk of the sky.

  Maxwell

  nodded.

  “‘Of course I will,’ he said, carelessly.

  “Yes, he did. Incredible. But it took

  But he didn’t mean it. Olivia did, however.

  him more than half an hour. Five hours, in She saw Johannes in a blaze of glory. She was fact. One has to admire the achievement. The quite right in her assertion that no one had Lord knows how he did it. But there, in the ever climbed that kopje. In the memory of all late afternoon, we could see him on the top of in the district there had been only three that granite wall waving the red beret which attempts to climb Spook Kopje, and all had Olivia had given him as a talisman. We

  failed. One man had killed himself. Sheep had grouped ourselves to watch him—Oom Jannie strayed up the slopes and failed to find their and his family, two neighboring farmers, three way back again. They had perished miserably black farm hands, and myself. And among us from hunger. Since the last fatal attempt, strutted Olivia, proud of her hero, proud of his Spook Kopje had been left severely alone.

  achievement, and not a little proud of herself.

  “‘Climb dat kopje, and when you come

  We waved back to the hero with the red

  down I marry you,’ said Olivia. And she beret.”

  meant it.

  Again

  silence.

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  5

  “Well? Did they live happily ever as the sun climbed higher he saw us. He after?” I asked.

  waved in reply; waved the red beret. But it Maxwell turned his brooding gaze was a tired gesture; the last panache. He was upon me.

  dispirited and anxious. For the rest of the time

  “Johannes never came back,” he said

  he held the red beret limply in his hand.

  briefly.

  “Olivia completely abandoned her pots

  “But if he climbed to the top,” I said,

  and pans. She stood in the doorway of the

  “surely he could—”

  farmhouse, staring into the sunshine at that

  “He never came back,” repeated restless red blob on the kopje. We tried to Maxwell, monotonously. “Olivia waited for comfort her with assurances. ‘He’ll be down him, we all waited for him to give him the for dinner, the young fool,’ grunted Oom welcome he deserved. But he did not come.”

  Jannie in her hearing. It helped her a little, that

  “But you could see him,” I persisted.

  remark. But she refused to leave her post in Maxwell

  nodded.

  the doorway.

  “We watched that red blob of a beret

  “All through the afternoon, with my

  trying to find a way down those granite cliffs field glasses, I watched Johannes trailing for the rest of the afternoon. We watched until desperately about the kopje. Yes, I could see a saffron glow in the sky silhouetted Spook he had become desperate. The owner of the Kopje and made it once again a long black three hansom cabs at the Cape had to get coffin. The glow changed swiftly into night, down or he would die of hunger and exposure.

  and still Johannes had not returned. Obviously At first, I let Olivia watch him through the he had not found it as easy to descend as to field glasses, but as the man became more and climb. He may have missed his way or, what more desperate in his efforts to find a way is more likely, lost his nerve. But he did not down to earth I kept them to myself. Olivia return that night although Olivia sat began to weep. But she was not weeping, she whimpering with a lighted candle, waiting for was crooning those missionary hymns to

  him until the dawn.

  herself. ‘Lord, bring him back to me,’ I heard

  “IN the early morning we watched the

  her saying, over and over again. There was no mist smoking away from the kopje. Again the use trying to comfort her, and, disheartened, I granite cliffs were lit up by the stark sunlight.

  went inside.

  We searched anxiously. It was Oom Jannie, old as he was, who saw him first. He pointed a

  “LATE that afternoon, I went myself up the gnarled forefinger at the kopje.

  slopes of that cursed kopje in the hope that I

  “‘ Daar is hij! ’ he muttered.

  might help Johannes in some way. I toiled

  “We followed his pointed finger. At

  with two farm boys to the foot of those granite last I saw him. The red blob of a beret. cliffs that went sheer into the sky. I marveled Johannes had clung to that throughout the that the colored youth from the Cape had night. He was still on the heights, still on the found a foothold of any kind. I traversed those sinister summit of that kopje. But he had cliffs from end to end, on each side of the traversed the top from one end to the other. He kopje, but retired baffled again and again to was still seeking a route to descend.

  the slopes. I tried three crevices, but each led

  “At this glimpse of him we shouted

  to more sheer rock. I nearly broke my neck and waved. Olivia shrilled and screamed. ‘My twice on that expedition. I returned in the man, my hero!’ she yelled. But the figure with darkness to the farmhouse and the weeping the red beret took no notice. Not at first. But, Olivia.”

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  6

  A log fell noisily into the fire. Sparks dancing throughout. We all hoped that,

  shot upwards to the black sky.

  mercifully, in this mad state Johannes would

  “How long did this last?” I asked.

  pitch down the cliffs and kill himself. But the Maxwell shivered again.

 

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