King Solomon's Mines: Level 3

By Henry Rider Haggard

This exciting novel tells the story of the search for a missing personlast known to be looking for King Solomon's treasure. The journeytakes the group through a previously unexplored region in Africa.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Compass Publishing
• Release date: Feb 24, 2009
• ISBN: 9781599662329

Book preview

The Adventure

My name is Allan Quatermain. I am fifty-five years of age. I live in Durban, Natal, South Africa. I am now a rich man. I have not always been rich. It is only for the past nine months that I have had a lot of money. I have to say, the money is not worth the risks I have taken to get it.

I am not a writer. I am, I suppose, an adventurer. But now I am tired of adventures. My last adventure was too violent for me. I do not want to have such an adventure again.

I am writing this book for four reasons. First, Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good asked me to. Second, I cannot leave my bed due to an injury to my leg. Third, I want to give my son, who is studying to be a doctor, something interesting to read. Fourth, it is the strangest tale a man could ever write about.

It has been about eighteen months since I first met Sir Henry Curtis and Captain John Good. I was on board the Dunkeld on my way home to Natal after a month of elephant hunting. I did not know either gentleman, but they interested me. One of them, whom I later learned was Sir Henry, was about thirty years of age. He was tall with yellow hair and a yellow beard. He looked as if he had Danish blood in him, and reminded me of someone I knew. But at the time, I could not remember who. The other man was shorter and fatter. He did not have a beard and wore an eyeglass in his right eye. He looked a few years younger than Sir Henry. I thought, at the time, he was a sea captain, and I was right. I later learned that he was an ex-naval officer. He was Captain John Good.

Soon after we left the harbor, the bell rang for dinner. I went to the dining room. I sat opposite Captain Good and Sir Henry. We started talking, and it was not long before the subject of our conversation turned to elephants.

I’ve heard that the man who knows everything about elephants is a fellow called Quatermain, Sir Henry said. Then he turned to me and asked, Excuse me, but you wouldn’t happen to be Allan Quatermain, would you?

I said that I was.

At the end of dinner, Sir Henry asked me to go to his cabin and have a whisky with him.

As soon as my glass was full, he said, Mr. Quatermain, I believe that at about this time last year you were at a place called Bamangwato.

That is so, I said.

Were you trading there? he asked.

I was, I agreed.

Did you meet a man called Neville? he asked me next. George Neville.

I did, I replied. And later I received a letter from a lawyer who wanted to know where Neville was. I told him what I knew.

Your letter was sent to me, Sir Henry said. In your letter you said that Neville left Bamangwato in May. He planned to go to Inyati, at the far end of the Matabele country.

That is true, I said. He left Bamangwato with a cart and a native hunter; I saw that same cart six months later. A Portuguese trader told me he bought it from Neville.

Do you know why Neville wanted to go to Inyati? Sir Henry wanted to know.

I said nothing, although I had a good idea why.

Sir Henry and Captain Good looked at one another, and then Sir Henry said, "Mr. Quatermain, I am going to tell you a story. Perhaps, you will then be willing to help me. You have a good reputation as an honest man."

Solomon’s Diamond Mines