Jock Of The Bushveld by Sir Percy Fitzpatrick (Chapter 23)( Page 6 ) The Fighting Baboon

I was a day behind the waggons returning, and riding up to the camp towards midday found Jim waiting for me.  He looked ill and shrunken, wrapped in an old coat and squatting against the wall of the little hut. As I passed he rose slowly and gave his "Sakubona!  Inkos!" with that curious controlled air by which the kaffir manages to suggest a kind of fatalist resignation or indifference touched with disgust.  There was something wrong; so I rode past without stopping--one learns from them to find out how the land lies before doing anything. It was a bad story, almost as bad as one would think possible where civilised beings are concerned.  Jim's own story lacked certain details of which he was necessarily ignorant, it also omitted the fact that had been drunk; but in the main it was quite true. This is what happened, as gleaned from several sources: several days after our departure Jim went down to the store again and raised some liquor; he was not fighting, but he was noisy, and was the centre of a small knot of shouting, arguing boys near the store when Seedling returned after a two days' absence.  No doubt it was unfortunate that the very first thing he saw on his return was the boy who had defied him and who was the cause of his humiliation; and that that boy should by his behaviour give the slenderest excuse for interference was in the last degree unlucky.  Seedling's mind was made up from the moment he set eyes on Jim.  Throwing the reins over his horse's head he walked into the excited gabbling knot, all unconscious of his advent, and laid about him with the sjambok, scattering and silencing them instantly; he then took Jim by the wrist saying, "I want you"; he called to one of his own boys to bring a reim, and leading Jim over to the side of the store tied him up  to the horse rail with arms at full stretch.  Taking out his knife he cut the boy's clothing down the back so that it fell away in two halves in front of him; then he took off his own coat and flogged the boy with his sjambok. I would like to tell all that happened for one reason: it would explain the murderous man-hunting feeling that possessed us when we heard it! But it was too cruel: let it be!  Only one thing to show the spirit: twice during the flogging Seedling stopped to go into the store for a drink. Jim crawled home to find his kraal ransacked and deserted, and his wives and children driven off in panic.  In addition to the flogging Seedling had, in accordance with his practice, imposed fines far beyond the boy's means in cash, so as to provide an excuse for seizing what he wanted. The police boys had raided the kraal; and the cattle and goats--his only property--were gone. He told it all in a dull monotone: for the time the life and fire were gone out of him; but he was not cowed, not broken.  There was a curl of contempt on his mouth and in his tone that whipped the white skin on my own back and made it all a disgrace unbearable.  That this should be the reward for his courageous defence of Jock seemed too awful.  We went inside to talk it over and make our plans.  The waggons should go on next day as if nothing had happened, Jim remaining in one of the half tents or elsewhere out of sight of passers-by.  I was to ride into Lydenburg and lodge information--for in such a case the authorities would surely act.  That was the best, or at any rate the first, course to be tried. There was no difficulty about the warrant, for there were many counts in the indictment against Seedling; but even so worthless a brute as that seemed to have one friend, or perhaps an accomplice, to give him warning, and before we reached his quarters with the police he had cleared on horseback for Portuguese territory, taking with him a led horse. We got most of Jim's cattle back for him- which he seemed to consider the main thing--but we were sorely disgusted at the man's escape. That was the year of the `rush.'  Thousands of new-comers poured into the country on the strength of the gold discoveries; materials and provisions of all kinds were almost unprocurable and stood at famine prices; and consequently we--the transport-riders- reaped a golden harvest.  Never had there been such times; waggons and spans were paid for in single trips; and so great was the demand for supplies that some refused transport and bought their own goods, which they re-sold on the goldfields at prices twice as profitable as the highest rates of transport. Thus the days lost in the attempt to catch Seedling were valuable days. The season was limited, and as early rains might cut us off, a few days thrown away might mean the loss of a whole trip.  We hurried down, therefore, for the Bay, doing little hunting that time.