The man at Kambala (6 page)

His lips twitched, and were hastily controlled. `About what?'

`The poachers.' She saw his jaw tense again, added quickly, 'No, really. I'm not trying to be funny or anything.'

He studied her for a long moment before he inclined his head. 'All right, I'll buy it. But make it snappy.'

Sara did. In as few words as possible she told him what she had suggested to Ted, and was rewarded by
the keen look which appeared in his eyes.

`You say this cave is on the far side of the ridge,' he said. 'How far along? What landmarks can we look for?'

She had thought about that. 'There's a dead tree almost directly in line with the entrance, about a quarter of a mile south of where we stopped this morning. If they hear you coming and make a break for it you'll still spot them. The nearest donga is several hundred yards away.'

`If they're there.' It was obvious from his tone that he still didn't wholly trust her to be telling the truth. He gave instructions to two of the rangers, who went off to fetch guns, then turned back to her. 'And you . .

`I know,' she said evenly, 'I'm to stay put. Don't worry, I'm suitably impressed.'

Steve grinned suddenly. 'So am I. Give Ted a break too, will you?' He put out a hand and maddeningly ruffled her hair in passing.

They were gone an hour. Sara was out front with Ted, who was still working on the first of the out-of commission vehicles, when she heard the car returning. She waited eagerly for it to appear out of the trees, and counted only the same three passengers with a sense of deflation. She had been so sure that she was right about the cave. Now Steve would never believe her.

He stopped to say a few words to the men after he had got out of the car, before coming across to where she waited on the veranda, pushing his hat to the back of his head as he looked up at her. 'Seems you were right about the cave,' he said. 'They'd definitely been there, but they must have lit out again as soon as we left
this morning.' His smile had a wry tilt. 'A pity you didn't remember about the cave then.'

`yes.' She could think of nothing to add to that.

Ted said, 'I gather they didn't leave much of a trail.'

`None at all that w
e could spot. They'd be good and scared, and careful. They could be holed up anywhere by now.'

`Think they'll risk another kill in the area?'

`I'd say it was likely. By nightfall they'll have recovered their nerve enough to try it at least.' Steve slapped automatically at a fly crawling over his neck. 'I'll take some of the boys out after dinner and cruise round for a bit. If we don't actually catch them in the act we'll probably scare them off again for the time being.' His glance went to the car which had limped in some fifteen minutes previously. 'How long before you get around to fixing that?'

Ted shrugged. 'Morning. Too late to start tonight.'

`Right. If nothing else crops up I'll lend you a hand. How about a drink?'

`Wouldn't say no. I'm just about finished here.'

`I'll fetch them out to the veranda.' Steve came on up the steps and past where Sara stood to disappear indoors. She could hear the clinking of glasses, then the splash of a soda-syphon. When he came out again he was minus his hat and carrying a tray holding three glasses. He put it down on the table, picked up one of the glasses and held it out to Sara with a slight upward tilt of his lips. 'Orange juice with a splash of gin. Okay?'

She took it from him with an odd feeling of breathlessness, and had to make an effort to keep her voice light. 'Am I to be allowed to join the grown-ups, then?'

Whilever you can keep the performance up.' He sat 'down, took a long swallow from his own glass and eyed her thoughtfully. 'I wouldn't mind knowing what's going on behind that doe-eyed innocence at the moment.'

Sara swirled the liquid in her glass. 'I thought you already had me all weighed up, Mr. York.'

`Ouch,' he said softly. 'Okay, so I got a bit rough on you. You've got to admit I had some reason.'

`I never said you didn't.' She thought of what Ted had said, and her eyes lit with sudden devilment. 'Only you have to realize that there's more than one bite in an apple.'

He laughed, his regard taking on a new slant. 'Unpredictable, aren't you, young Sara!'

`Just misunderstood,' she retorted. 'And don't patronize. I'm not that young.'

`Just enough to make me feel distinctly jaded.' His mouth curved again at her swift appraising glance, this time with a hint of irony. 'It isn't just a matter of years. Some day you might know what I'm talking about.'

`You mean when I've done all those things I'm missing out on now? Perhaps I'm not missing so much after all.' She turned her head to give Ted an innocent smile. `Mr. York feels jaded, Ted. How do you feel?'

`Good enough for the next ten minutes or so,' was the grinning reply. He lifted his glass to them both. `Cheers.'

Steve said lazily, 'One more of those Misters, and I'll cut your gin ration. What time does Kimani usually get back?'

`Just before dark.' She waited a brief moment before tagging on, 'Are you planning to ask him to go with you tonight?'

`No.'

`Oh,' she said.

`Neither,' he added in the same tone, 'am I planning on asking anyone else.'

Sara grimaced at her orange juice. 'Don't you ever let up?'

`Not when it might be taken for a sign of weakening. Habit dies hard. I'm suspicious by nature.'

`You're telling me !' She drained her glass and set it down. 'I'll do my best to conform to regulations. Permission to leave?'

His eyes were twinkling. 'Don't get too cocky with it. I'm going to be around some time yet.'

And that statement, thought Sara strolling into the house, was suddenly far less dismaying than it might have been a few short hours ago. There were ways of handling even a man like Steve York if one went about it with care.

The evening seemed unusually long after Steve had left to continue his search. Sara spent most of it out on the veranda thinking about the men out here on the plains, and wishing she were involved in the chase. It wouldn't have occurred to her father to even suggest her staying behind, she realized. But then he knew her a great deal better than Steve.

She wondered how he was making out in England. If Uncle Geoffrey had only left a will the whole matter could probably have been compressed into a few days. But he hadn't, and although her father was his only known living relative it appeared that the estate must go to probate, which meant that her father had to be there to sign legal documents at various stages. What he was going to find to do with himself for a whole six weeks, she couldn't begin to imagine, although he had mentioned something about looking up some old acquaintances.

She stirred restlessly, glancing across to where Kimani Ngogi sat writing a letter at the rickety wicker table. His parents lived down in Mombasa and he didn't see them very often, but he never missed a weekly letter.

`Do you have a girl-friend, Kim?' she asked suddenly, apropos of nothing. 'A special one, I mean.'

He looked up smilingly. 'No,' he admitted. 'I never seem to have had the time.'

`But you're twenty-eight now,' she persisted. 'Surely you don't want to go on as you are all your life? You must have thought about it.'

`From time to time. Not with any great urgency. I was under the impression that I still had plenty of time.' His regard was quizzical. 'Why this sudden desire to see me tied down?'

Sara wasn't at all sure what had prompted the questioning herself. She grimaced at him. 'Why do men always talk about marriage like that?'

Kimani grinned. 'It's a habit I picked up in England. Perhaps it all stems from being limited to one
wife. Take Mgari, for instance. He has three to fetch -and carry for him. Maybe I missed out, being a third generation city-dweller. There's a lot to be said for the old ways.'

`You've said that before. Do you really regret not having had the chance to choose for yourself?'

`I did have the choice. There was nothing to stop me from reverting to the way of life of my forebears if I'd wanted it.' He shrugged. 'Let's face it, I could no more live in a mud but than you could, no matter how strong the t
ie.
I've been educated to a different cultural background, taught to need more than any boma could offer. There's a hundred years between Mgari and me, and no way of bridging the gap. You can stay as you are or you can move forward, but you can't go back.'

There was something in that latter statement which made her feel vaguely disturbed. She said slowly, 'I went out to the boma today.'

`Yes, I heard.' There was a slight pause before Kimani added evenly, 'I have to agree with Steve that you shouldn't have gone there alone at any time.'

`Why?' she demanded in some annoyance.

`Because they're simply not used to seeing white women wandering about on their own. The parties which drop in on them from time to time always have men in charge, which in their eyes is as it should be. Mgari grants you privileges he would extend to none of the women of his own race because he recognizes the essential differences between you, but he also realizes that this very indulgence disturbs the pattern of centuries in a way which can only be bad for the tribe in the long run.'

Sara was quiet for a long moment. 'I never thought of it like that before,' she admitted at last on a rueful note. 'In fact, I'm beginning to think that I never thought about anything much before.' She hoisted herself to her feet. 'I'm for bed to mull it all over. See you at breakfast.'

Perhaps she had been subconsciously listening, or maybe it was some prior noise which had brought her to the edge of sleep, but whatever the reason she came instantly and completely awake when the car came rumbling along the track from the river. The fingers of her watch stood at three-fifteen, and the night outside was as black as pitch. Rain hammered on the roof, washing down over the window in a constant stream to gurgle its way down through the cracks in the veranda planking and sink into the parched earth below. There was no wind, just the rushing water, and the creak of the front steps as feet mounted them.

Sara got swiftly out of bed and went to the door, standing there waiting. The clink of bottle and glass drew her forward and into the living-mom doorway, where she paused a little uncertainly. Steve had obviously sloughed his coat and boots outside on the porch, but his trousers were soaked to the knee. In the light from the single lamp he looked tired and drawn, and he needed a shave. He half turned as he took the glass from his lips, saw her standing there in the doorway and leaned his weight against the cabinet at his back to survey her with faintly lifted brows.

`You should have something on your feet,' he said.

- Sara glanced down at her cotton pyjamas and bare

toes and felt the warmth touch her cheeks. It hadn't
occurred to her to put anything else on. She had simply given way to impulse. 'How did it go?' she asked.

`Better than I hoped. We got two of them. The other got away, but I doubt that he'll present much of a problem on his own. Had to lose a rhino to do it, though.'

`Congratulations,' Sara said insincerely. 'Where are they now?'

`Being held at the Lodge until morning, when arrangements can be made to get them both down to Nairobi to stand charges.'

`So it's all over.'

`This time. They weren't the first, they-certainly won't be the last.' He took another pull at the whisky, added grimly, 'It's the men behind them that I'd really like to get a line on. When this lot fail to turn up with the goods they'll simply recruit some other labour force.

`Mightn't the two you've captured give them away?'

`It's doubtful that they know anything beyond the fact that if they turn up at an agreed place with an agreed bag they'll get paid so much pesa. The only real hope is the dart guns they were supplied with, although I'd say that tracing them is going to prove difficult.' He lifted broad shoulders. 'That's up to the authorities. Isn't it time you were getting back to bed?'

`I'll go when you go', she said without thinking, and saw the quick grin lift the corners of his mouth.

`A couple more years and that kind of statement could get you into trouble. If you feel like keeping me company come on in and take a pew. I wanted to talk to you anyway, and it might as well be now as in th
e
morning.'

Sara sank into the nearest chair and eyed him somewhat warily. 'Talk to me about what?'

`If you can keep your hackles down for five minutes I'll tell you.' He studied her. 'I've been thinking about that suggestion I made for you to go and stay with Jill in Nairobi.'

`I'm not . . .' She caught herself up, amended her reply. 'I don't want to go to Nairobi.'

`I know you don't.' He was smiling a little. 'Are you going to let me finish?' He took her silence for agreement, and went on smoothly, The point is that I was planning to spend a few weeks with Jill for the first time in a couple of years when this job turned up, and there won't be another chance for some time to come. How do you feel about having her up here for a spell? She's never been to the highlands before, so it would be quite an experience for her to take back home to Mombasa at the end of the season.'