'They are going to hang that black thunder, at last,' somebody said, and everybody agreed immediately.
'Ja, about time.' 'We have to teach them a lesson - you show mercy to a kaffir and he takes it as weakness.' 'Only one thing they understand --' 'I think it will be a mistake to hang him,' Jakobus said clearly, and there was a stunned silence.
'Kobie! Kobie!' Sarah tugged at her son's arm. 'Not now, darling.
People don't like that sort of talk,' 'That is because they never hear it - and they don't understand it,' Jakobus explained reasonably, but some of them turned away deliberately while a middle-aged cousin of Manfred's said truculently, 'Come on, Sarie, can't you stop your brat talking like a commie.' 'Please, Kobie,' she used the diminutive as a special appeal, 'for my sake.' Manfred De La Rey had become aware of the disturbance and the flare of hostility amongst his guests, and now he looked across the fires on which the steaks were sizzling and he frowned.
'Don't you see, Mama, we have to talk about it. If we don't, people will never hear any other point of view. None of them even read the English newspapers--' 'Kobie, you will anger your uncle Manie,' Sarah pleaded. 'Please stop it now.' 'We Afrikaners are cut off in this little make-believe world of ours.
We think that if we make enough laws the black people will cease to exist, except as our servants --' Manfred had come across from the fires now, and his face was dark with anger.
'Jakobus Stander,' he rumbled softly. 'Your father and your mother are my oldest and dearest friends, but do not trespass on the hospitality of this house. I will not have wild and treasonable ideas bandied about in front of my family and friends. Behave yourself, or leave immediately.' For a moment it seemed the boy might defy him. Then he dropped his gaze and mumbled, 'I'm sorry, Oom Manie.' But when Manfred turned and strode back to the barbecue fire, he said just loud enough for Sarah to hear, 'You see, they won't listen. They don't want to hear. They are afraid of the truth. How can you make a blind man see?' Manfred De La Rey was still inwardly seething with anger at the youth's ill-manners, but outwardly he was his usual bluff self as he resumed his self-imposed duties over the cooking fires, and led the jovial banter of his male guests. Gradually his irritation subsided, and he had almost put aside Moses Gama and the long shadow that he had thrown over them all, when his youngest daughter came running down from the long low ranch-type house. 'Papa, Papa, there is a telephone call for you.' 'I can't come now, skatjie,' Manfred called. 'We don't want our guests to starve. Take a message.' 'It's Oom Dame,' his daughter insisted, 'and he says he must talk to you now. It's very important.' Manfred sighed and grumbled good- naturedly as he untied his apron, and handed his fork to RoeIf Stander. 'Don't let them burn!' and he strode up to the house.
'Ja.t' he barked into the telephone.
'I don't like to disturb you, Manie.' 'Then why do you do it9.' Manfred demanded. Dame Leroux was a senior police general, and one of his most able officers. 'It's this man Gama.' Let the black bastard hang. That is what he wants.' 'No! He wants to do a deal.' 'Send someone else to speak to him, I do not want to waste my time.' 'He will only talk to you, and we believe he has something important he will be able to tell you.' Manfred thought for a moment. His instinct was to dismiss the request out of hand, but he let reason dictate to him.
'All right,' he agreed heavily. 'I will meet him.' There would also be a perverse pleasure in confronting a vanquished foe. 'But he is going to hang - nothing will stop that,' he warned quietly.
The prison authority had confiscated the leopard-skin robes of chieftainship, and Moses Gama wore the prison- issue suiting of coarse unbleached calico.
The long unremitting strain of awaiting the outcome of his appeal had told heavily. For the first time Vicky noticed the frosting of white in his cap of dark crinkling hair, and his features were gaunt, his eyes sunken in dark bruised-looking hollows. Her compassion for him threatened to overwhelm her, and she wished that she could reach out and touch him, but the steel mesh screen separated them.
'This is the last time I am allowed to visit you,' she whispered, 'and they will only let me stay for fifteen minutes.' 'That will be long enough, for there is not much to say, now that the sentence has been confirmed.' 'Oh, Moses, we were wrong to believe that the British and the Americans would save you.' 'They tried,' he said quietly.
'But they did not try very hard, and now what will I do withou you. What will the child I am carrying do without a father?' 'You are a daughter of Zulu, you will be strong.' 'I will try, Moses my husband,' she whispered. 'But what of you: people? They are also children without a father. What will becom of them?' She saw the old fierce fire burn in his eyes. She had feared it hoc been for ever extinguished, and she felt a brief and bitter joy tr know it was still alight.
'The others will seek to take your place now. Those of the Congres who hate and envy you. When you die they will use your sacrifice t( serve their own ambitions.' She saw that she had reached him again, and that he was angry She sought to inflame his anger to give him reason and strength tr go on living.
'If you die, your enemies will use your dead body as a stepping.
stone to climb to the place you have left empty.' 'Why do you torment me, woman?' he asked.
'Because I do not want you to die, because I want you to live - lo me, for our child, and for your people.' 'That cannot be,' he said.
'The hard Boers will not yield, not even to the demands of the great powers. Unless you can find wings fol me to fly over these walls, then I must go to my fate. There is nc other way.' 'There is a way,' Vicky told him. 'There is a way for you to survive - and for you to put down the enemy who seek to usurp your place as the leader of the black nations.' He stared at her as she went on.
'When the day comes that we sweep the Boers into the sea, and open the doors of the prisons, you will emerge to take your rightful place at the head of the revolution.' 'What is this way, woman? What is this hope that you hold out to me?' He listened without expression as she propounded it to him, and when she had finished, he said gravely, 'It is true that the lioness is fiercer and crueller than the lion.' 'Will you do it, my lord - not for your own sake, but for all us weak ones who need you so?' 'I will think on it,' he conceded.
There is so little time,' she warned The black ministerial Cadillac was delayed only briefly at the gates to the prison for they were expecting Manfred De La Rey. As the steel gates swung open, the driver accelerated through into the main courtyard and turned into the parking slot that had been kept free.
The prison commissioner and two of his senior staff were waiting, and they hurried forward as soon as Manfred climbed out of the rear door.
Briefly Manfred shook hands with the commissioner and said, 'I wish to see the prisoner immediately.' Of course, Minister, it has been arranged. He is waiting for you.' 'Lead the way.' Manfred's heavy footfalls echoed along the dreary green-painted corridors, while the senior warders scurried ahead to unlock the interleading doors of each
