Free The Triangle and The Mountain: A Bermuda Triangle Adventure by Jake von Alpen Page B

decided to give the farm to me.”
    “So it is sort of an inheritance. You don’t get it
immediately, only when they die?”
    “No, I can get started immediately. Nobody is using this
farm, because it is too far up on the mountain and protected by more sets of nature
conservation legislation than my lawyers can cut through. Basically the only
thing you are allowed to do up there is to build a house.”
    “A castle.”
    “Yes, in my case a castle.”
    “And are these two old people going to live there with you?”
    “No, they have their own farm down in the valley. They are
still farming.”
    “Oh, then they are not so old?”
    “Actually they are very old. The gentleman is a hundred and
ten and the old lady will be a hundred and five in a few days’ time.
    “That’s amazing! How can they still be farming?”
    “It’s fantastic, but they do. If you look at them you would
not say that the old guy is older than seventy and his wife older than sixty
five. But the fact is that they have already outlived two of their children who
died of old age.”
    “It’s the most incredible thing I’ve ever heard. But I still
find it strange that you are close to old people like that who are not related
to you.”
    “It’s just the way it happened,” he said. “I am friends with
some of their great grandchildren who live in Johannesburg like me. They took
me to meet them once when we were together on a surfing holiday in Cape Town.
The thing is that I liked that mountain so much. There is just something there
that draws me, which means that every now and then I went back there on my own,
just to walk the trails and do a bit of para-gliding. Of course I always called
in on the old people to say hi. Then one day the old lady told me that I should
start playing the stock market. That is how I discovered that I have a talent
for it.”
    “What a nice story,” said Madeleine. “I guess that is why
you remember her birthday. Are we having another celebration when the day comes?”
    “I reckon we should,” said Grant.
    Several metres above them empty sails slatted audibly. They
were trapped in a pocket of calm. It was as if the sudden, violent storm had
sucked all the energy from the elements.

 
     
     
    CHAPTER FIVE
     
    Hadah and his master broke camp on the second morning after the
visit by the king’s envoy. At a steady jog they could cover the distance in a
day and a half. Hadah, however, was not as fit as the master yet. They were
therefore going to travel at walking pace for much of the journey and sleep
twice. They had no worries regarding provisions. Their own people were to be
found just on the other side of Elands Pass. Also, every farm on the way had
its contingent of KhoiKhoi herders. Most of them did not have a problem
sharing food with a traveller of their own kind. Nobody who knew the Custodians
of the Mountain for what they were ever denied them either a resting place or
food, albeit at times with a shaking hand and a sigh of relief when they
continued on their journey. For those occasions when they did not want to see
anybody, not even their own people, they lived off the veld.
    Their destination was the Butter River. The name, explained the
master, comes from the time when he was still young. The Dutch called it like
that and today everybody stuck to the name. It was the land of the Chainouqua and many of those who were displaced by the Dutch inside the ring of the
Great Mountains moved there as well. They had thousands of cattle that grew fat
on the soft grass along the Butter River valley and on the coastal plains. The
river flowed throughout the year and at the coast there were strong fountains
about a day’s travel away from the river mouth. All of this allowed the herds
to cover a wide area.
    Anyway, said the master, the Dutch started buying butter
from the KhoiKhoi . First it was a wagon full but not long after there
were whole convoys of wagons that crossed the Great Mountains with barrels