Ignasius: the Boer Gold

By Roux Horsmanship, Malcolm Colley and Model Marco Roux

Ignasius (Naas) is the story of an emerging adult with the aftermath of the Second Boer War as a factual backdrop.


Naas (Ignasius) is returning home after fighting with his brothers and father against the British in the Second Boer War in South Africa when he is attacked for knowledge of diamonds which he doesnt have.
His adventure takes him on a quest for Paul Krugers Millions which were supposedly lost on the way to pay for arms and ammunition for the Boers. His knowledge of the bush gained while growing up on his fathers farm stands him in good stead. He needs to deal with killers roaming the war ravaged country but more challenging is the presence of women entering his emerging adult life.
From the North-West to the bush of the Lowveld, events move quickly to a climatic showdown.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Nov 12, 2013
• ISBN: 9781491884096

Roux Horsmanship

The author was born in South Africa in 1942 and spent his teens of the 1950's on a small farm just outside Naboomspruit in the Northern Province of South Africa, during which time he came to love the sounds, smells and sights of the bush. He did his basic training with 1st Special Service Battalion in Bloemfontein and has happy memories of army life in the bush. He also spent twenty five years training in the martial arts. During his work in a steel mill and underground in a diamond mine, he yearned to be back in the bush and although his profession was Project Manager, his love of the bush remained. It was during this time that the in-depth research into his first novel - Zachariah: The Boer Diamond - began. After a successful publishing, the research for his second work began. The book carries on with this period after the Boer War, with a new character, Naas, searching for the treasure of Kruger's Gold. Malcolm now lives with his wife, Lorraine, in Horsham, England when not travelling back to South Africa as an excuse for research on his next book. If you meet a red-haired woman, you will meet a crowd. - Old Irish Proverb

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© 2013 Malcolm Colley. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse   11/06/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8408-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4918-8409-6 (e)

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and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Acknowledgements

A special thanks must go to my daughter Lesley without whose badgering, ruthless editing and support, my first book would never have been published and my daughter Sharon and son Thomas for their continued motivation.

Also thanks to Roux Horsemanship and Morco Roux for the work on the cover.

Ignasius: The Boer Gold

Ignasius (Naas) is the story of an emerging adult with the aftermath of the Second Boer War as a factual backdrop.

Naas (Ignasius) is returning home after fighting with his brothers and father against the British in the Second Boer War in South Africa when he is attacked for knowledge of diamonds which he doesn’t have.

His adventure takes him on a quest for Paul Kruger’s Millions which were supposedly lost on the way to pay for arms and ammunition for the Boers. His knowledge of the bush gained while growing up on his father’s farm stands him in good stead. He needs to deal with killers roaming the war ravaged country but more challenging is the presence of women entering his emerging adult life.

From the North-West to the bush of the Lowveld, events move quickly to a climatic showdown.

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Chapter 1

Naas? Naas Baron?

Well he knew my name but obviously didn’t know me. I wasn’t about to go rushing into the donga not knowing what was ahead of me. I slowly slid off my horse and dropped the reins over his head so he wouldn’t walk away. The grass was long so I could stay well hid as I moved forward. I had my knife out. He was fast, I can tell you that, but the grass gave him away a hair before he came into my line of sight. Long enough for me to twist sideways and put my elbow into his temple. He went onto his hands and knees. I didn’t want to use my knife before I saw who my attacker was so I brought my knee into his short-rib to roll him over. Trouble was that gave him a chance to roll clear of me although he was slightly dazed from my elbow.

I didn’t recognize him so I moved in to use my knife but, as I said, he was fast. Luckily he was dazed and hurting from my knee which put him a bit off balance. His back-hand knife slash caught my collar as I slid my knife up under his arm. It was well placed and I could see the spurt of blood from the artery as he staggered back. All I had to do now was stay out of reach while he weakened. He had a surprised look on his face as he dropped to his knees.

Why? I asked.

The diamond, he was sitting back on his heels, they said you got a diamond.

Man you died for nothing. I said. I got no diamond.

He looked a bit older than my seventeen years. His arms were hanging at his sides and he had dropped the knife. I kicked it out of the way and then stepped forward to catch him and lay him on his back.

What’s your name? I asked. Who told you about the diamond?

He tried to speak but he was fading fast. He said something softly but I couldn’t make it out. His eyes were starting to glaze as he said clearly, Tell Annie I’m sorry.

I sat there a while, next to him. I had just come from a war so I had seen men die but it’s not easy. The sun was going down when I finally stood up.

I had crossed the railway line at Naboomspruit, moving east, just south of the place where we had blown up the British supply train at the crossing of the line with the Tobias river. Oom Beyers had led us in that attack. Our commando had caused a lot of damage but we had been on the run since then right up until the Boers had officially surrendered and the peace accord was signed. Now that Kruger had left the country and De Wet had joined the other commando leaders in peace talks with finally the signing at Melrose House, Dad said that we had to get back to living. There were still some bittereinders out there that wanted to fight to the death but they were few.

Dad said that the British had promised three million pounds to rebuild the farms that had been destroyed, guilt money. I wasn’t a farmer at heart and so had no interest in it. Now my younger brother, Sakkie, had farming in his blood and with that cute girl-friend of his, he was welcome to it. Right now, Sakkie was the one with trouble on his tail. With that girl-friend of his and a history of carrying a diamond in his pocket he was going to have his hands full.

I struggled a bit to make the stranger’s horse stand still while I threw the body over the saddle. I suppose I owed him the decency of getting him back to Naboom. The small sickle wood fire that I kicked sand over, wasn’t smoking so I wasn’t sure how this boetie had found me. There were leeches in the water around this part of the Springbok Flats so I kept the horses out of the pools as I headed back.

Coming into town, I saw that the lights were on in the hotel entrance and in the bar. I was fully grown but didn’t want trouble about my age in the bar so I tied up at the entrance to the hotel. The old lady knitting looked a bit startled when I walked in. I suppose I didn’t look so good but she relaxed again as I took off my hat.

Evening Aunty.

Evening Seun, she said in Dutch.

I got a dead boy outside. He tried to kill me so I had to kill him. I wasn’t good with words.

She stood up and moved to the door. She looked startled again.

I think he may be family of Annie. I hoped she wasn’t Annie.

I’ll call Oom Fanus, she said and turned to walk out.

I got the feeling that I shouldn’t wait around much longer. By the time oom Fanus got to the front door, I was walking my horse behind the rail trucks at the station across the main road. I took a look between the trucks and things didn’t look good for me. I heard Oom Fanus shout but I was already in the saddle walking east toward the Flats. Nobody knew which way I had left town so I guessed that I had a bit of a start. I don’t know why I had this feeling that I shouldn’t try to explain things. Feelings were running high with the women and children coming out of the British concentration camps. Strangers weren’t welcome right now.

Short term, I had to get away from Naboom. Long term, I had to decide what my future prospects were. I had heard that George Heys was starting up his wagon hauling business again to Delagoa Bay. He had a way-station in Nelspruit. Maybe I could go down that way and see about signing up as a wagoneer. People said that the British had compensated him quite handsomely for using his mansion as their headquarters in Pretoria so he had money to spend. Zederburg may still be running coaches but, although I had heard stories, I wasn’t sure if he was still going since the war had started. I also heard of elephant hunting up at Crook’s Corner at the junction of Rhodesia, Mozambique and South Africa, but I wasn’t too keen on hunting elephants for their tusks. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind shooting meat to eat or to defend myself. Also, if I went elephant hunting, I would need a heavier rifle to bring down an elephant and I didn’t have that kind of money.

I had also heard that the gold, sent by Paul Kruger to buy guns from the Hollanders at Delagoa Bay, had never reached their destination. I was very curious to find out where those wagons of gold ended up. People were calling it, Kruger’s Lost Gold. There was supposed to be five hundred thousand pounds worth. One thing I was sure about, I wasn’t going farming. I would leave that to my dad and my brothers.

I had kept to the wagon road going east all night. I didn’t fancy wading through the pools of the Nyl River in the dark. The pools were behind me now and as the sun showed a bit of light ahead of me, I noticed a small puff of dust hanging over the road a few miles back. I needed sleep, if I wasn’t careful I was going to fall asleep on my horse. Not a bad thing but I couldn’t trust myself to stay in the saddle with someone coming up behind me. It could be anyone but I still had a bad feeling in my gut. The bush wasn’t too thick to the left side, so I moved into a trail parallel to the road. I heard the yakkity-yak of a few male cheetahs slightly further in. It was too soon in the season for them to be hunting females but mating season was just around the corner. Usually they mate and then move on. Not family inclined. I tried to keep my mind on the job ahead but I was getting tired. My horse breaking into a trot woke me up. He was spooked. He must’ve heard or sensed the horses coming up behind us. I moved a way further into the bush. No use trying to outrun them so I looked for a thick clump of trees to hide. Usually leopard will move out of your way long before you come across them but I kept an