The covenant - James A. Michener [463]
In a way the flames were merciful; they were erasing farm buildings that had long since served their day, and removing them was an act of good husbandry, but as the fire spread, Saltwood became aware of voices behind him, and turning, saw the four Van Doorn children: the girls Anna, Sannah and Johanna, and the handsome little boy Detlev.
'Sir, sir! What are you doing?' one of the girls screamed.
At this moment Major Saltwood chanced to look down from his horse and catch the eye of the oldest girl, Johanna, twenty-one years old, and he saw in her such hatred that he almost shuddered, yet with this fierce animosity she was also studying him, as if she had seen him before. She did not seem to remember, for which he was grateful.
'I suppose you'll burn ours, too,' she said through teeth that were almost clenched. 'My father rides with the general.'
'Be gentle with the old woman,' Saltwood shouted at his men as Sybilla was placed in a wagon. 'Gather the children.' The three youngest were lifted up by soldiers and deposited beside her as the troop wheeled its horses and made its way to the Van Doorn farmwith Johanna walking grimly through the dust.
This was no outmoded collection of shacks. It was one of the stoutest farms in eastern Transvaal, a place of stone buildings and excellent ronda-vels for its blacks. To burn this would be to destroy the heart of a rich agricultural district. 'Burn it!' Saltwood said, but before the torch could be applied to the wooden parts that would ignite, a woman appeared at the kitchen door.
'What are you doing?' she demanded.
'Lord Kitchener's orders, ma'am. You're to get in the wagon.'
'That I will not do,' Sara van Doorn said, and when the Australians guarding the wagon relaxed their attention Johanna ran to join her mother. Together the two women blocked the entrance to the house.
'Remove them!' Saltwood commanded, and a detachment of Irish cavalrymen grabbed at the women, but they broke away and dashed into the house. When soldiers forced them out, the women carried in their arms the chief treasures of the Van Doorn family: Mevrou van Doorn held the brassbound Bible; Johanna, the ceramic pot in which her father made his bread pudding.
A good fire was now burning in the shed, and one of the soldiers tried to snatch the book, intending to throw it in, but Mevrou van Doorn struggled to retain possession, and there was a scuffle until Saltwood saw what was happening. 'Good God, man. That's a Bible. Stand off.' He was too late, however, to protect the pot that Johanna held, for a brutish soldier brought the butt of his gun around in a circle, caught the pot, and smashed it. When the dozen pieces tumbled to the boards of the stoep, it was apparent that a clever person with the right glue could reassemble the precious old thing, and Johanna stooped to gather some of the pieces, but this enraged the soldier, who brushed her aside and ground the remaining fragments under his boot.
'Stand back, you fool!' Saltwood cried, but as he did so he looked into the eyes of this embittered girl, and she remembered who he was: 'Mother! He's the spy.'
From her wagon, Sybilla looked out to inspect the man in charge of this destruction, and she, too, recognized him: 'The spy!' The twin girls, peering from beneath the canvas, saw who he was and they joined the lamentation: 'The spy! He's Saltwood the spy.'
When Frank dismounted to reassure the two Van Doorn women on the stoep, Johanna spat in his face: 'They should have hanged you.'
'They should have hanged you!' the twins shouted, and Detlev, finding sticks in the wagon, started throwing them at their betrayer. Meanwhile, the fires raged.
It was only thirty-eight miles from Vrymeer to the cluster of large lakes which the English called Chrissie Meer. Here the concentration camp had been established, but in that distance Major Saltwood's column had collected five additional wagons filled with women and children from farms en route. Since all buildings had been burned, the women were sooty and weeping as they turned the last corner;