capitol of Natal, he would have many sources of information there, libraries, government archives, newspaper offices.
He began making a list of all possible sources in the back of the notebook, and immediately found himself regretting bitterly that Ladyburg itself was closed to him. Records in the Lands Office and Company Registers for the district were not duplicated in the capital.
Suddenly he had a thought. Damn it, what was her name' Mark closed his eyes, and he saw again the bright, friendly and cheerful face of the little girl in the Companies office in Ladyburg. Mark, that's a strong romantic name, He could even hear her voice, but the train was sliding into the platform before her name came to him again.
Marion! and he scribbled it into the notebook.
He climbed down on to the platform, carrying his case, and joined the jostling throng of travellers and welcomers.
Then he set out to find lodgings in the city.
A penny copy of the Natal Mercury led him through its small advertisements to a rooming house in Point Road, down by the docks. The room was small, dark and smelled of those gargantuan cockroaches that infest the city, swarming up from the sewers each evening in shiny black hordes, but the rental was only a guinea a week, and he had the use of the lavatory and shower room across. the small enclosed yard.
That night he wrote a letter: Dear Marion, I don't suppose you remember me, my name is Mark Anders, the same as Mark Antony! I have thought of you often since I was compelled to leave Ladyburg unexpectedly before I had a chance to see you again Tactfully he avoided any mention of the research work he wanted undertaken. That could wait for the next letter.
He had learned much about women recently, and he addressed the letter simply to Miss Marion, Registrar's Office, Ladyburg.
Mark started the following morning at the City Library, walking up Smith Street to the four-storied edifice of the Municipal Buildings. It looked like a palace flanked by the equally imposing buildings of the Royal Hotel and the cathedral, with the garden square neatly laid out in front of it, bright with spring blooms.
He had another inspiration as he approached the librarian's desk. I'm doing research for a book I intend writing Immediately the grey-haired lady who presided over the dim halls and ceiling-high racks of books softened her severe expression. She was a book person, and book people love other book people. Mark had the key to one of the reading rooms given him, and the back copies of all the Natal newspapers, going back to the time of the first British occupation, were put at his disposal.
There was immediately a temptation for Mark, voracious reader that he was, to lose himself in the fascination of history printed as urgent headlines, for history had been one of Mark's favourite subjects both at Ladyburg School and at University College.
He resisted the temptation and went at once to the drawers that contained the copies of the Ladyburg Lantern and Recorder. The first copies were already yellowing with age and tore easily, so he handled them with care.
The first mention of the name Courtney, leapt at him in thick black headlines on one of the earliest copies from
1879.
Ladyburg Mounted Rifles massacred at Isandhlwana.
Colonel Waite Courtney and his men cut down to a man.
Blood-crazed Impis on the rampage.
Mark guessed that this must refer to the founder of the family in Ladyburg; after that the name cropped up in nearly every issue, there were many Courtneys and all of them lived in the Ladyburg district, but the first mention of Dirk Courtney came in 1900.
Ladyburg welcomes one of its Favourite Sons.
Hero of the Anglo-Boer War Returns.
Colonel Sean Courtney purchases Lion Kop Ranch.
Ladyburg welcomes the return of one of her favourite Sons after an absence of many years. There are very few of us who are not acquainted with the exploits of Colonel Sean Courtney, D. S. O D. C. M and all will recall the major role he played in the establishment of the prosperous gold-mining industry on the Witwatersrand. . .
A long recital of the man's deeds and reputation followed, and the report ended, Colonel Courtney has purchased the ranch Lion Kop from the Ladyburg Farmers Bank. He intends making this his home and will plant the land to timber. Major Courtney is a widower and is accompanied by his ten-year-old son, Dirk.
The ancient report shocked Mark. He had not realized that Dirk Courtney was the son of his old General. The big, bearded, hook-nosed man he had met that snowy night in France, the man whom he had immediately respected and liked, no, more than liked. The man whose vital force and presence, together with his reputation, had roused in him an almost religious awe.
His instant reaction was to wonder if the General himself was in any way involved in the murderous attack he had survived on the escarpment; and the thought disturbed him so that he left the library and went down to the palmlined esplanade and found a bench overlooking the quiet sheltered waters of the bay, with the great whale- backed mountain of the bluff beyond.
He watched the shippin& as he pondered the tangled web that was centred in Ladyburg, where the hidden spider sat. He knew that his investigations were going to take time. The reading was a slow business and it would be days before he could expect to have a reply to his letter to Marion.
Later, in his dingy room, he counted the remaining sovereigns in his money belt, and knew that living in the city they would not last him long.
He needed a job.
The floor manager had the beer belly and flash clothing that seem always to go with salesmen in the motor industry; Mark answered his questions with extreme politeness and a false cheerfulness, but with despair below the surface.
