Simon Fonthill and Jenkins return to southern Africa as diamond wealth, Boer resistance and African power make the Transvaal increasingly unstable. An appeal from an old friend takes them first into the violent world surrounding the diamond fields, but rescue soon becomes entangled with military service. Garnet Wolseley needs experienced scouts as British forces prepare to strike the mountain stronghold of the Pedi ruler Sekhukhune, and Fonthill is once again drawn toward a campaign he had hoped to avoid.
The novel combines the diamond-driven expansion of Kimberley and the Transvaal with the final British campaign against Sekhukhune’s Pedi kingdom. Although Wilcox compresses the chronology into his 1880 setting, the military background derives from the Second Sekhukhune War of 1879 and its close connection with the wider crisis in southern Africa after the Anglo-Zulu War. Wolseley’s presence links the adventure to British attempts to impose control across the region before the outbreak of the First Boer War.
