Master of the Game

Behind them was the raging ocean. Ahead was unbroken desert from the sea to the foothills of the distant, rugged, purple mountains of the Richterveld escarpment, a world of kloofs and canyons and twisted peaks, lit by the pale moon. At the foot of the mountains was the Hexenkessel Valley—“the witch’s cauldron”—a bleak wind trap. It was a primeval, desolate landscape that went back to the beginning of time itself. The only clue that man had ever set foot in this place was a crudely printed sign pounded into the sand. By the light of the moon, they read:

VERBODE GEBIED

SPERRGEBIET

Forbidden.

There was no escape toward the sea. The only direction left open to them was the Namib Desert.

“We’ll have to try to cross it and take our chances,” Jamie said.

Banda shook his head. “The guards will shoot us on sight or hang us. Even if we were lucky enough to slip by the guards and dogs, there’s no way to get by the land mines. We’re dead men.” There was no fear in him, only a resigned acceptance of his fate.

Jamie looked at Banda and felt a sense of deep regret. He had brought the black man into this, and not once had Banda complained. Even now, knowing there was no escape for them, he did not utter one word of reproach.

Jamie turned to look at the wall of angry waves smashing at the shore, and he thought it was a miracle that they had gotten as far as they had. It was two A.M., four hours before dawn and discovery, and they were both still in one piece. I’ll be damned if I’m ready to give up, Jamie thought.

“Let’s go to work, Banda.”

Banda blinked. “Doing what?”

“We came here to get diamonds, didn’t we? Let’s get them.”

Banda stared at the wild-eyed man with his white hair plastered to his skull and his sopping trousers hanging in shreds around his legs. “What are you talking about?”

“You said they’re going to kill us on sight, right? Well, they might as well kill us rich as poor. A miracle got us in here. Maybe a miracle will get us out. And if we do get out, I damned well don’t plan to leave empty-handed.”

“You’re crazy,” Banda said softly.

“Or we wouldn’t be here,” Jamie reminded him.

Banda shrugged. “What the hell. I have nothing else to do until they find us.”

Jamie stripped off his tattered shirt, and Banda understood and did the same.

“Now. Where are all these big diamonds that you’ve been talking about?”

“They’re everywhere,” Banda promised. And he added, “Like the guards and the dogs.”

“We’ll worry about them later. When do they come down to the beach?”

“When it gets light.”

Jamie thought for a moment. “Is there a part of the beach where they don’t come? Someplace we could hide?”

“There’s no part of this beach they don’t come to, and there’s no place you could hide a fly.”

Jamie slapped Banda on the shoulder. “Right, then. Let’s go.”

Jamie watched as Banda got down on his hands and knees and began slowly crawling along the beach, his fingers sifting sand as he moved. In less than two minutes, he stopped and held up a stone. “I found one!”

Jamie lowered himself to the sand and began moving. The first two stones he found were small. The third must have weighed over fifteen carats. He sat there looking at it for a long moment. It was incredible to him that such a fortune could be picked up so easily. And it all belonged to Salomon van der Merwe and his partners. Jamie kept moving.

In the next three hours, the two men collected more than forty diamonds ranging from two carats to thirty carats. The sky in the east was beginning to lighten. It was the time Jamie had planned to leave, to jump back on the raft, sail over the reefs and make their escape. It was useless to think about that now.

“It will be dawn soon,” Jamie said. “Let’s see how many more diamonds we can find.”

“We’re not going to live to spend any of this. You want to die very rich, don’t you?”

“I don’t want to die at all.”

They resumed their search, mindlessly scooping up diamond after diamond, and it was as though a madness had taken possession of them. Their piles of diamonds increased, until sixty diamonds worth a king’s ransom lay in their torn shirts.

“Do you want me to carry these?” Banda asked.

“No. We can both—” And then Jamie realized what was on Banda’s mind. The one caught in actual possession of the diamonds would die more slowly and painfully.

“I’ll take them,” Jamie said. He dumped the diamonds into the rag that was left of his shirt, and carefully tied it in a knot. The horizon was light gray now, and the east was becoming stained with the colors of the rising sun.

What next? That was the question! What was the answer? They could stand there and die, or they could move inland toward the desert and die.

“Let’s move.”

Jamie and Banda slowly began walking away from the sea, side by side.

“Where do the land mines start?”

“About a hundred yards up ahead.” In the far distance, they heard a dog bark. “I don’t think we’re going to have to worry about the land mines. The dogs are heading this way. The morning shift is coming to work.”

“How soon before they reach us?”

“Fifteen minutes. Maybe ten.”

It was almost full dawn now. What had been vague, shimmering patterns turned into small sand dunes and distant mountains. There was no place to hide.

“How many guards are on a shift?”

Banda thought for a moment. “About ten.”

“Ten guards aren’t many for a beach this big.”

“One guard is plenty. They’ve got guns and dogs. The guards aren’t blind, and we’re not invisible.”

The sound of the barking was closer now. Jamie said, “Banda, I’m sorry. I should never have gotten you into this.”

“You didn’t.”

And Jamie understood what he meant.

They could hear voices calling in the distance.

Jamie and Banda reached a small dune. “What if we buried ourselves in the sand?”

“That has been tried. The dogs would find us and rip our throats out. I want my death to be quick. I’m going to let them see me, then start running. That way they’ll shoot me. I—I don’t want the dogs to get me.”

Jamie gripped Banda’s arm. “We may die, but I’ll be damned if we’re going to run to our deaths. Let’s make them work for it.”

They could begin to distinguish words in the distance. “Keep moving, you lazy bastards,” a voice was yelling. “Follow me…stay in line…You’ve all had a good night’s sleep…Now let’s get some work done…”

In spite of his brave words, Jamie found he was retreating from the voice. He turned to look at the sea again. Was drowning an easier way to die? He watched the reefs tearing viciously at the demon waves breaking over them and he suddenly saw something else, something beyond the waves. He could not understand what it was. “Banda, look…”

Far out at sea an impenetrable gray wall was moving toward them, blown by the powerful westerly winds.

“It’s the sea mis!” Banda exclaimed. “It comes in two or three times a week.”

While they were talking, the mis moved closer, like a gigantic gray curtain sweeping across the horizon, blotting out the sky.

The voices had moved closer, too. “Den dousant! Damn this mis! Another slowdown. The bosses ain’t gonna like this…”

“We’ve got a chance!” Jamie said. He was whispering now.

“What chance?”

“The mis! They won’t be able to see us.”

“That’s no help. It’s going to lift sometime, and when it does we’re still going to be right here. If the guards can’t move through the land mines, neither can we. You try to cross this desert in the mis and you won’t go ten yards before you’re blown to pieces. You’re looking for one of your miracles.”

“You’re damned right I am,” Jamie said.

The sky was darkening overhead. The mis was closer, covering the sea, ready to swallow up the shore. It had an eerie, menacing look about it as it rolled toward them, but Jamie thought exultantly, It’s going to save us!

A voice suddenly called out, “Hey! You two! What the hell are you doin’ there?”

Jamie and Banda turned. At the top of a dune about a hundred yards away was a uniformed guard carrying a rifle. Jamie looked back at the shore. The mis was closing in fast.

“You! You two! Come here,” the guard yelled. He lifted his rifle.

Jamie raised his hands. “I twisted my foot,” he called out. “I can’t walk.”

“Stay where you are,” the guard ordered. “I’m comin’ to get you.” He lowered his rifle and started moving toward them. A quick look back showed that the mis had reached the edge of the shore, and was coming in swiftly.

“Run!” Jamie whispered. He turned and raced toward the beach, Banda running close behind him.

“Stop!”

A second later they heard the sharp crack of a rifle, and the sand ahead of them exploded. They kept running, racing to meet the great dark wall of the fog. There was another rifle shot, closer this time, and another, and the next moment the two men were in total darkness. The sea mis licked at them, chilling them, smothering them. It was like being buried in cotton. It was impossible to see anything.

The voices were muffled now and distant, bouncing off the mis and coming from all directions. They could hear other voices calling to one another.

“Kruger!…It’s Brent…Can you hear me?”

“I hear you, Kruger…”

“There’re two of them,” the first voice yelled. “A white man and a black. They’re on the beach. Spread your men out. Skiet hom! Shoot to kill.”

“Hang on to me,” Jamie whispered.

Banda gripped his arm. “Where are you going?”

“We’re getting out of here.”

Jamie brought his compass up to his face. He could barely see it. He turned until the compass was pointing east. “This way…”

“Wait! We can’t walk. Even if we don’t bump into a guard or a dog, we’re going to set off a land mine.”

“You said there are a hundred yards before the mines start. Let’s get away from the beach.”

They started moving toward the desert, slowly and unsteadily, blind men in an unknown land. Jamie paced off the yards. Whenever they stumbled in the soft sand, they picked themselves up and kept moving. Jamie stopped to check the compass every few feet. When he estimated they had traveled almost a hundred yards, he stopped.

“This should be about where the land mines start. Is there any pattern to the way they’re placed? Anything you can think of that could help us?”

“Prayer,” Banda answered. “Nobody’s ever gotten past those land mines, Jamie. They’re scattered all over the field, buried about six inches down. We’re going to have to stay here until the mis lifts and give ourselves up.”

Jamie listened to the cotton-wrapped voices ricocheting around them.

“Kruger! Keep in voice contact…”

“Right, Brent…”

“Kruger…”

“Brent…”

Disembodied voices calling to each other in the blinding fog. Jamie’s mind was racing, desperately exploring every possible avenue of escape. If they stayed where they were, they would be killed the instant the mis lifted. If they tried moving through the field of mines, they would be blown to bits.

“Have you ever seen the land mines?” Jamie whispered.

“I helped bury some of them.”

“What sets them off?”

“A man’s weight. Anything over eighty pounds will explode them. That way they don’t kill the dogs.”

Jamie took a deep breath. “Banda, I may have a way for us to get out of here. It might not work. Do you want to gamble with me?”

“What have you got in mind?”

“We’re going to cross the mine fields on our bellies. That way we’ll distribute our weight across the sand.”

“Oh, Jesus!”

“What do you think?”

“I think I was crazy for ever leaving Cape Town.”

“Are you with me?” He could barely make out Banda’s face next to him.

“You don’t leave a man a lot of choice, do you?”

“Come on then.”

Jamie carefully stretched himself out flat on the sand. Banda looked at him a moment, took a deep breath and joined him. Slowly the two men began crawling across the sand, toward the mine field.

“When you move,” Jamie whispered, “don’t press down with your hands or your legs. Use your whole body.”

There was no reply. Banda was busy concentrating on staying alive.

They were in a smothering, gray vacuum that made it impossible to see anything. At any instant they could bump into a guard, a dog or one of the land mines. Jamie forced all this out of his mind. Their progress was painfully slow. Both men were shirtless, and the sand scraped against their stomachs as they inched forward. Jamie was aware of how overwhelming the odds were against them. Even if by some chance they did succeed in crossing the desert without getting shot or blown up, they would be confronted by the barbed-wire fence and the armed guards at the watchtower at the entrance. And there was no telling how long the mis would last. It could lift at any second, exposing them.

They kept crawling, mindlessly sliding forward until they lost all track of time. The inches became feet, and the feet became yards, and the yards became miles. They had no idea how long they had been traveling. They were forced to keep their heads close to the ground, and their eyes and ears and noses became filled with sand. Breathing was an effort.

In the distance was the constant echo of the guards’ voices. “Kruger…Brent…Kruger…Brent…”

The two men stopped to rest and check the compass every few minutes, then moved on, beginning their endless crawl again. There was an almost overwhelming temptation to move faster, but that would mean pressing down harder, and Jamie could visualize the metal fragments exploding under him and ripping into his belly. He kept the pace slow. From time to time they could hear other voices around them, but the words were muffled by the fog and it was impossible to tell where they were coming from. It’s a big desert, Jamie thought hopefully. We’re not going to stumble into anyone.

Out of nowhere, a large, furry shape leaped at him. It happened so swiftly that Jamie was caught off guard. He felt the huge Alsatian’s teeth sinking into his arm. He dropped the bundle of diamonds and tried to pry open the dog’s jaw, but he had only one free hand and it was impossible. He felt the warm blood running down his arm. The dog was sinking its teeth in harder now, silent and deadly. Jamie felt himself begin to faint. He heard a dull thud, and then another, and the dog’s jaw loosened and its eyes glazed over. Through the mist of pain, Jamie saw Banda smashing the sack of diamonds against the dog’s skull. The dog whimpered once and lay still.

“You all right?” Banda breathed anxiously.

Jamie could not speak. He lay there, waiting for the waves of pain to recede. Banda ripped off a piece of his trousers and tied a strip tightly around Jamie’s arm to stop the bleeding.

“We’ve got to keep moving,” Banda warned. “If there’s one of them around, there are more.”

Jamie nodded. Slowly he slid his body forward, fighting against the terrible throbbing in his arm.

He remembered nothing of the rest of the trek. He was semiconscious, an automaton. Something outside him directed his movements. Arms forward, pull…Arms forward, pull…Arms forward, pull…It was endless, an odyssey of agony. It was Banda who followed the compass now, and when Jamie started to crawl in the wrong direction Banda gently turned him around. They were surrounded by guards and dogs and land mines and only the mis kept them safe. They kept moving, crawling for their lives, until the time came when neither man had the strength to move another inch.

They slept.

When Jamie opened his eyes, something had changed. He lay there on the sand, his body stiff and aching, trying to remember where he was. He could see Banda asleep six feet away, and it all came flooding in. The raft crashing on the reefs…the sea mis …But something was wrong. Jamie sat up, trying to figure out what it was. And his stomach lurched. He could see Banda! That was what was wrong. The mis was lifting. Jamie heard voices nearby. He peered through the thin mists of the dissipating fog. They had crawled near the entrance to the diamond field. There was the high guard tower and the barbed-wire fence Banda had described. A crowd of about sixty black workers was moving away from the diamond field toward the gate. They had finished their shift and the next shift was coming in. Jamie got on his knees and crawled over to Banda and shook him. Banda sat up, instantly awake. His eyes turned to the watchtower and the gate.

“Damn!” he said incredulously. “We almost made it.”

“We did make it! Give me those diamonds!”

Banda handed him the folded shirt. “What do you—?”

“Follow me.”

“Those guards with the guns at the gate,” Banda said in a low voice, “they’ll know we don’t belong here.”

“That’s what I’m counting on,” Jamie told him.

The two men moved toward the guards, drifting between the line of departing workers and the line of arriving workers who were yelling at one another, exchanging good-natured catcalls.

“You fellas gonna work your asses off, man. We got a nice sleep in the mis…”

“How did you arrange for the mis, you lucky bastards…?”

“God listens to me. He ain’t gonna listen to you. You’re bad…”

Jamie and Banda reached the gate. Two huge armed guards stood inside, herding the departing workers over to a small tin hut where they would be thoroughly searched. They strip them down mother-naked and then they look up and down every hole they’ve got. Jamie clutched the tattered shirt in his hand more tightly. He pushed through the line of workers and walked up to a guard. “Excuse me, sir,” Jamie said. “Who do we see about a job here?”

Banda was staring at him, petrified.

The guard turned to face Jamie. “What the hell are you doin’ inside the fence?”

“We came in to look for work. I heard there was an opening for a guard, and my servant can dig. I thought—”

The guard eyed the two ragged, disreputable-looking figures. “Get the hell back outside!”

“We don’t want to go outside,” Jamie protested. “We need jobs, and I was told—”

“This is a restricted area, mister. Didn’t you see the signs? Now get the hell out. Both of you!” He pointed to a large bullock wagon outside the fence, filling with the workers who had finished their shift. “That wagon’ll take you to Port Nolloth. If you want a job, you have to apply at the company office there.”

“Oh. Thank you, sir,” Jamie said. He beckoned to Banda, and the two men moved out through the gate to freedom.

The guard glared after them. “Stupid idiots.”

Ten minutes later, Jamie and Banda were on their way to Port Nolloth. They were carrying with them diamonds worth half a million pounds.