The covenant - James A. Michener [332]
'It's the law,' the would-be agent said with a bland smile, and Tjaart, realizing how impotent he was to press his legal rights, would probably have accepted the offer and received less than one-sixth of what he had originally been promised had not a deputation ridden in from Grahamstown to prevent this injustice.
It was composed of three Englishmen at whose side Tjaart had fought in the Xhosa war, and two of them were his special friends: Saltwood and Carleton. 'Have you signed any papers?' Saltwood cried as he rode in.
'No.'
'Thank God. Now you, sir, leave this district or be horsewhipped.' 'I have my rights,' the man whined.
With a snap of his short hippopotamus whip, Saltwood flicked the intruder's saddle and called to Carleton, 'Show him what you can do.' And with a somewhat longer whip the wagon builder also struck the saddle.
'You'd better ride on,' Saltwood said, and when the man started to protest that he had legal rights, Saltwood snapped his whip and caught him on the leg. 'Thief, ride out of here,' he said, and the man, now thoroughly frightened, hurried away. Throwing threats, but only after he was at a safe distance from the whips, he started across country to other farms whose rights he would try to buy at nine shillings to the pound.
'Disgraceful,' Saltwood said as he explained what he and Carleton were proposing to their Boer friends: 'You've been our good allies. Without you we'd have no town back there, and we can't stand by and see you robbed. So you give us your claims and I'll send them to my brother in Parliament. I promise you nothing, Tjaart, except an honest deal. We may win, we may not, but at least you have a chance.'
As they were discussing the matter, Carleton happened to see Van Doorn's scorched wagon and identified it as one of his: 'How did you get it?'
'Traded for it at Graaff-Reinet.'
'You should have come to me. I'd have given you a proper price.'
'My sheep were in Graaff-Reinet.'
Carleton picked up one of the charred timbers and pointed to a small rubric carved into the wood: TC-36 (Thomas Carleton-Wagon 36). Had he been satisfied to work rapidly and without careful attention, this wagon might have been numbered in the 80s.
'You'll need a new wagon,' he said. 'When you trek north.'
Tjaart looked at him strangely. First it had been Jakoba, years ago; then Saltwood, when they were returning from the Xhosa war; and now Carleton all saying that the Van Doorns must emigrate north, as though there were no alternative.
'Who's trekking north?' he asked.
'Haven't you heard? Hendrick Potgieter departed last week.'
'For where?'
'The north. That's all he said.'
'Alone?'
'No, he had forty or fifty people with him. Sarel Cilliers left with him, you know. And Louis Trichardt left with Van Rensburg. Months ago. Maybe ninety people and seventy or eighty servants.'
Tjaart felt weak. Things were happening at a speed and magnitude he could not comprehend, and reluctantly he conceded that perhaps his neighbors were right.
Saltwood said, 'We thought that if men like you and Piet Retief do finally decide to leave us, you must not depart with ill feelings toward us. Hell, Tjaart, you fought with usside by side.'
So an agreement was made, whereby Saltwood took the warrants of several Boersamong them, Van Doorn and De Grootpromising to send them to Sir Peter in London to collect whatever the government might allow, but in order for the transaction to be legal, it was necessary for the Boers to sign away their rights for one shilling each, relying upon the good faith of their English friends. This the men did with absolute assurance that an honest reporting would be made, for the participants in this arrangement had fought as brothers in defense of their homes. That the Boers were now thinking of quitting those homes was as distressing to the Englishmen as it was to the Boers themselves.
Tjaart was deeply moved by the sympathy shown by Saltwood and Carleton during their visit to his still-ruined farm. In the war he had volunteered to protect the English establishments, yet the government