Rage - Smith Wilbur (читать книги онлайн без сокращений .TXT) 📗
'Nkosi Marcus no here, he go away, missus,' the servant told her.
'You Missus Tara?" 'Yes! Yes!" Although she did not remember a servant, he must have recognized her voice, and she was about to go on when Marcus Archer spoke in his normal voice.
'Forgive me, my dear, for the music-hall impression, but the sky has fallen in here. Everybody is in a panic - the pigs have moved much quicker than anybody expected. Joe and I are the only ones to survive, as far as I know. How is our good friend, have they got him?" 'He's safe. Can we come to Puck's Hill?" 'So far it seems as though they have overlooked us here, but do be careful, won't you? There are road-blocks everywhere." Tara slept very little and was up before dawn to begin the last leg of the journey. The hotel chef had made her a packet of corned beef sandwiches and a thermos of hot tea, so they breakfasted as they drove. Any stop would increase their chances of discovery and arrest, and except to refuel, they kept going and crossed the Vaal river before noon.
Tara had been seeking the right moment to tell Moses ever since she had returned to the Transvaal to be near him, but now she knew that there would never be a right moment and that within hours they would be at Puck's Hill. After that nothing was certain except that there would be confusion and great danger for all of them.
'Moses,' she addressed the back of his head in a resolute voice, 'I can't keep it from you any longer. I have to tell you now. I am bearing your child." She saw his head flinch slightly and then those dark mesmeric eyes were glowering at her in the driver's mirror.
'What will you do?" he asked. He had not asked if she were certain nor had he queried his paternity of the child. That was typical of him - and yet he had accepted no responsibility either. 'What will you do?" 'I am not sure yet. I will find a way to have it." 'You must get rid of it." 'No,' she cried vehemently. 'Never. He's mine. I will take care of him." He did not remark on her choice of the masculine pronoun.
'The child will be half-caste,' he told her. 'Are you prepared for that?" 'I will find a way,' she insisted.
'I cannot help you - not at all,' he went on remorselessly. 'You understand that." 'Yes, you can,' she answered. 'You can tell me that you are pleased that I am carrying your son - and that you will love him, as I love his father." 'Love?" he said. 'That is not an African word. There is no word for love in my vocabulary." 'Oh, Moses, that is not true. You love your people." 'I love them as a people entire, not as individuals. I would sacrifice any one of them for the good of the whole." 'But our son, Moses. Something precious that we have made between us - don't you feel anything at all for him?" She watched his eyes in the mirror and saw the pain in them.
'Yes,' he admitted. 'Of course, I do. Yet I dare not acknowledge it. I must lock such feelings away lest they weaken my resolve and destroy us all." 'Then I will love him for both of us,' she said softly.
As Marcus Archer had warned Tara, there were more road-blocks.
As they drew closer to the great industrial and mining complex of the Witwatersrand, they were stopped three times, the last at Halfway House, but each time the chauffeur's uniform and Tara's white face and haughty manner protected him.
Tara had expected Johannesburg to be like a city under siege, but the road-blocks and the news posters on the street corners were the only indications of something unusual afoot. The headgear wheels of the mines they passed were spinning busily, and beyond the perimeter fences they saw the black miners in gumboots and shiny hard hats flocking to the shaft heads.
When they passed through downtown Johannesburg, the city streets were crowded as usual with shoppers of all races and their faces were cheerful and relaxed. Tara was disappointed. She was not sure what she had expected, but at least she had hoped for some visible sign that the people were on the march.
'You cannot expect too much,' Moses told her when she lamented that nothing had changed. 'The forces against us are obdurate as granite, and the resources they command are limitless.
Yet it is a beginning - our first faltering step on the road to liberation." They drove past Puck's Hill slowly. It seemed deserted, and at least there were no signs of police activity. Moses parked the Cadillac in the wattle plantation at the back of the Country Club and left Tara while he went back on foot to make absolutely certain they were not running into a police trap.
He was back within half an hour. 'It's safe. Marcus is there,' he told her as he started the Cadillac and drove back.
Marcus was waiting for them on the verandah. He looked tired and worn, and he had aged dramatically in the short time since Tara had last seen him.
He led them into the long kitchen, and went back to the stove on which he was preparing a meal for them, and while he worked he told them everything that had happened in their absence.
'The police reaction was so massive and immediate that it must have been carefully prepared. We expected a delay while they caught up with the situation and gathered themselves. We expected to be able to exploit that delay, and call upon the masses to join us in the defiance campaign until it gathered its own momentum and became irresistible, but they were ready for us. There are not more than a dozen of the leaders at large now, Moses is one of the lucky ones, and without leaders the campaign is already beginning to grind to a halt." He glanced at Tara with a vindictive sparkle in his eye before he went on.
'However, there are still some pockets of resistance - our little Victoria is doing sterling work. She has organized the nurses at Baragwanath and brought them out as part of the campaign. She won't keep that up much longer - she'll be arrested or banned pretty damn soon, you can bet on that." 'Vicky is a brave woman,' Moses agreed. 'She knows the risks, and she takes them willingly." He looked straight at Tara as he said it, as if daring her to voice her jealousy. She knew of his marriage, of course, but she had never spoken of it. She knew what the consequences would be, and now she dropped her eyes, unable to meet his challenge.
'We have underestimated this man De La Rey,' Moses said. 'He is a formidable opponent. We have achieved very little of what we hoped for." 'Still, the United Nations is debating our plight,' Tara said quietly without looking up again.
'Debating,' Moses agreed scornfully. 'But it requires only a single veto from America or Britain or France, and no action will be taken.
They will talk and talk while my people suffer." 'Our people,' Marcus chided him. 'Our people, Moses." 'My people,' Moses contradicted him harshly. 'The others are all in prison. I am the only leader who remains. They are my people." There was silence in the kitchen, except for the scrape of utensils on the plates as they ate, but Marcus was frowning and it was he who broke the silence.
'So what happens now?" he asked. 'Where will you go? You cannot stay here, the police may swoop at any moment. Where will you go?" 'Drake's Farm?" Moses mused.
'No." Marcus shook his head. 'They know you too well there. The moment you arrive the whole township will know and there are police informers everywhere. It will be the same as turning yourself in at the nearest police station." They were silent again until Moses asked, 'Where is Joe Cicero?"
Have they taken him?" 'No,' Marcus answered. 'He has gone underground." 'Can you contact him?" 'We have an arrangement. He will ring me here - if not tonight, then tomorrow." Moses looked across the table at Tara. 'Can I come with you to the expedition base at Sundi Caves? It's the only safe place I can think of at the moment." And Tara's spirits bounded. She would have him for a little longer still.
