Power Of The Sword Part 21

So this is De La Rey. Well, he's dead, I'm afraid, Blaine told her.

Where are the others? Centaine looked up at him anxiously. She had been both dreading and antic.i.p.ating finding Lothar's b.a.s.t.a.r.d; she still tried to avoid using the boy's name, even to herself.

Not here. Blaine shook his head. Given us the slip. De La Rey fooled us and put up a good rear guard delay. They have got clear away.

They'll be across the river by now. Manfred. Centaine capitulated and thought of him by name. Manfred, my son. And her disappointment and sense of loss was so strong that it shocked her. She had wanted him to be there. To see him at last. She looked down at his father, and other emotions, long buried and suppressed, rose in her.

Lothar lay with his face cradled in the crook of his elbow.

The other arm, bound up in strips of stained blanket, was outflung. She touched his neck below the ear, feeling for the carotid artery, and exclaimed immediately she felt the fever heat of his skin.

He's still alive. Are you sure? Blaine squatted beside her. Between them they rolled Lothar onto his back, and they saw the grenade lying under him.

You were right, Blaine said softly. He did have another grenade. He could have killed you last night., Centaine shivered as she stared down at Lothar's face. He was no longer beautiful and golden and brave. The fever had ruined him, his features had collapsed like those of a corpse and he was shrunken and grey.

He is badly dehydrated, she said. Is there water left in that bottle? While Blaine dribbled water into his mouth, Centaine unwrapped the festering rags from his arm.

Blood poisoning. She recognized the livid lines beneath the skin and the stench of his rotting flesh. That arm will have to come off. Though her voice was steady and businesslike, she was appalled at the damage she had wrought. It seemed impossible that a single bite could have caused that.

Her teeth were one of her good features and she was proud of them, always kept them clean and white and cared for.

That arm looked as though it had been savaged by one of the carrion eaters, by a hyena or a leopard.

There is a Portuguese Roman Catholic mission at Cuangar on the river, Blaine said. But he'll be lucky if we can get him there alive.

With all but one of the horses dead, we'll all be lucky to make it as far as the river ourselves., He stood up. Sergeant, send one of your men to fetch the first-aid kit and then have the rest of them search every inch of this hilltop. A million pounds worth of diamonds are missing. Hansmeyer saluted and hurried away, rapping out orders at his troopers.

Blaine sank down beside Centaine. While we are waiting for the medical kit, I suppose we had better search his clothing and equipment in the off-chance that he kept any of the stolen diamonds with him. 'It's an off-chance all right, Centaine agreed with bitter resignation.

The diamonds are almost certainly with his son and that big black Ovambo ruffian of his. And without our Bushmen trackers, She shrugged.

Blaine spread Lothar's dusty stained tunic on the rock and began examining the seams, while Centaine bathed Lothar's injured arm and then bound it up with clean white bandages from the medical kit.

Nothing, sir. Hansmeyer reported back. We've gone over every inch of this rock, every nook and cranny. Very well, Sergeant. Now we have to get this beggar off the kopje without letting him fall and break his neck. Not that he doesn't deserve it. Blaine grinned. He does deserve it. But we don't want to do the hangman out of his five guineas, do we now, Sergeant? They were ready to move out within the hour. Lothar De La Rey was strapped into a drag litter of mopani saplings behind their single remaining horse, and the wounded trooper, the grenade shrapnel still in his back and shoulder, rode up in Centaine's saddle.

Centaine lingered on at the foot of the kopje after the column had started northwards towards the river once more, and Blaine came back to stand beside her.

He took her hand and she sighed and leaned lightly against his shoulder. Oh, Blaine, for me so much has ended here in this G.o.d-forsaken wilderness, on this sun-blasted lump of rock. I think I can understand how much the loss of the diamonds means. Do you, Blaine? I don't think so. I don't think even I can take it in yet. Everything has changed, even my hatred for Lothar There is still a chance we will recover the stones. No, Blaine. You and I both know there is no chance. The diamonds are gone. He did not attempt to deny it, did not offer false comfort.

I have lost it all, everything I ever worked for, for me and my son. It's all gone. I didn't realize, he broke off and looked down at her with pity and deep concern. I understood it would be a hard blow, but everything? Is it that bad? Yes, Blaine, she said simply. Everything. Not all at once, of course, but now the whole edifice will start to crumble and I will struggle to sh.o.r.e it up. I will borrow and beg and plead for time, but the foundation is gone from under me.

A million pounds, Blaine, it's an enormous sum of money. I will stave off the inevitable for a few months, a year perhaps, but it will go faster and faster, like a house of cards, and at the end it will come crashing down around me. Centaine, I am not a poor man, he began. I could help you, I She reached up and laid her forefinger on his lips.

There is one thing I would ask from you, she whispered.

Not money, but in the days ahead, I will need some comfort. Not often, just when it gets very bad. I will be there whenever you need me, Centaine. I promise you that. You have only to call. Oh, Blaine. She turned to him. if only! Yes, Centaine, if only. And he took her in his arms.

There was no guilt nor fear, even the terrible threat of ruin and dest.i.tution that hung over her seemed to recede when she was in his arms.

I wouldn't even mind being poor again, if only I had you beside me always, she whispered, and he could not reply.

In desperation he bowed his head over her and stopped her lips with his mouth.

The Portuguese priest doctor at Cuangar Mission took off Lothar De La Rey's arm two inches below the elbow. He operated by the bright flat white light of the Petromax lantern, and Centaine stood at his side, sweating behind the surgical mask, responding to the doctor's requests in French, trying to prevent herself freezing in horror at the rasping of the bone saw and the suffocating stench of chloroform and gangrene that filled the daub and thatch hut that served as an operating theatre. When it was over, she slipped away to the earthpit lavatory and vomited up her revulsion and pity.

Alone in the mission hut that had been allocated to her, under the billowing ghostly mosquito net, she could still taste it in the back of her throat. The gangrene smell seemed to have impregnated her skin and lingered in her hair. She prayed that she might never smell it again, nor ever be forced to live through another hour as harrowing as watching the man she had once loved shorn of a limb, turned into a cripple before her eyes.

The prayer was in vain, for at noon the following day the priest doctor murmured regretfully, Desole, mais j'ai manque I'infection. Il faut couper encore une fois, I am sorry, but I have missed the infection. It is necessary to cut again. The second time, because she now knew what to expect, seemed even worse than the first. She had to press her fingernails into the palms of her hands to prevent herself fainting as the priest took up the gleaming silver saw and cut through the exposed bone of Lothar's humerus only inches below the great joint of the shoulder. For three days afterwards Lothar lay in a pale coma, seeming already to have pa.s.sed the division between life and death.

I cannot say. The priest shrugged away her anxious plea for rea.s.surance. It is up to the good Lord now. Then on the evening of the third day when she entered his hut, the sapphire-yellow eyes swivelled towards her in their deep coloured sockets, and she saw recognition flare for an instant before Lothar's eyelids dropped down over them.

However, it was two days more before the priest allowed Blaine Malcomess to enter the hut. Blaine cautioned Lothar and placed him under formal arrest.

My sergeant will have complete charge of you until you are pa.s.sed fit to travel by Father Paulus. At that time you will be brought by boat down river to the border post at Runtu under strict guard, and from there by road to Windhoek where you will stand your trial. Lothar lay against the bolster, pale and skeletal thin. His stump, wrapped in a turban of gauze bandage, the end stained yellow with iodine, looked like a penguin's wing. He stared at Blaine expressionlessly.

Now, De La Rey, you don't need me to tell you that you will be a lucky man to escape the gallows. But you will give yourself a fighting chance of leniency if you tell us where you have hidden the diamonds, or what you have done with them. He waited for almost a minute, and it was difficult not to be ruffled by that flat yellow stare with which Lothar regarded him.

Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you, De La Rey? he broke the silence, and Lothar rolled his head away, stared out of the paneless window of the hut down towards the riverbank.

I think you know that I am administrator of the territory.

I have power to review your sentence; my recommendation for clemency would almost certainly be acceded to by the minister of justice. Don't be a fool, man. Give up the diamonds. They are no use to you where you are going, and I will guarantee you your life in return. Lothar closed his eyes.

Very well, De La Rey. We understand each other then.

Don't expect any mercy from me. He called Sergeant Hansmeyer into the hut. Sergeant, the prisoner has no privileges, none at all. He will be under guard day and night, twenty-four hours a day, until you hand him over to the appropriate authority in Windhoek. You will be directly responsible to me. You understand? Yes, sir. Hansmeyer drew himself to attention.

Look after him, Hansmeyer. I want this one. I want him badly. Blaine strode out of the hut, down to where Centaine sat alone under the open-sided thatched setengi on the riverbank. He dropped into the camp chair beside hers and fit a cheroot. He inhaled the smoke, held it a moment and then blew it out forcefully and angrily.

The man is intransigent, he said. I offered him my personal guarantee of leniency in exchange for your diamonds.

He didn't even deign to reply. I don't have the authority to offer him a free pardon but, believe me, if I did I wouldn't hesitate. As it is there is nothing more I can do. He drew on the cheroot again and glared out across the wide green river. I swear he will pay for what he has done to you, pay in full measure. Blaine. She laid her hand lightly on his muscular brown forearm. Spite is too petty an emotion for a man of your stature. He glanced sideways and, despite his rancour, he smiled.

Don't credit me with too much n.o.bility, madam. I am many things, but not a saint. He looked boyish when he grinned like that, except that his green eyes took on a wicked slant and his ears stuck out at the most endearing angle.

Oh la, sir, it might be amusing to test the limits of your n.o.bility and sanct.i.ty, one day. He chuckled with delight. What a shameless but interesting proposal. And then he became serious again. 'Centaine, you know that I should never have come on this expedition.

At this moment my duties are being sadly neglected, and I will certainly have incurred the justified wrath of my superiors in Pretoria. I must get back to my office just as soon as I can. I have arranged with Father Paulus for canoes and paddlers to take us down river to the border post at Runtu. I hope we will be able to requisition a police truck from there. Hansmeyer and his troopers will stay on to guard De La Rey and bring him in as soon as he is fit enough to travel. Centaine nodded. Yes, I also have to get back and start picking up the pieces, papering over the cracks., We can leave first light tomorrow. Blaine, I would like to speak to Lothar, to De La Rey, before we leave. When he hesitated, she went on persuasively: A few minutes alone with him, please Blaine. It's important to me. Centaine paused in the doorway of the hut while her eyes adjusted to the gloom.

Lothar was sitting up, bare to the waist, a cheap trade blanket spread over his legs. His body was thin and pale; the infection had burned the flesh off his bones and his ribs were a gaunt rack.

Sergeant Hansmeyer, will you leave us alone for a minute? Centaine asked, and she stood aside.

As he pa.s.sed her, Hansmeyer said quietly, I'll be within call, Mrs Courtney. In the silence that followed, Centaine and Lothar stared at each other, and it was she who gave in and spoke first.

If you set out to ruin me, then you have succeeded, she said, and he wriggled the stub of his missing arm, a gesture which was at once both pathetic and obscene.

Who has ruined whom, Centaine? he asked, and she dropped her eyes.

Won't you give me back at least a part of what you have stolen from me? she asked. For the sake of what we shared once long ago? He did not reply, but instead lifted his hand and touched the ancient puckered scar on his chest. She winced, for it was she who had fired that shot from the Luger pistol at the time of her disillusion and revulsion.

The boy has the diamonds, hasn't he? she asked. Your she was about to say, Your b.a.s.t.a.r.d? but she changed it: Your son? Lothar remained silent and she went on impulsively: Manfred, our son. I never thought I'd hear you say that. He could not disguise the pleasure in his tone. Will you remember he is our son, conceived in love, when you are tempted to destroy him also? Why should you think I would do that? I know you, Centaine, he said.

No. She shook her head vehemently. You do not know me. If he stands in your way, you will destroy him, he said, flatly.

Do you truly believe that? She stared at him. Do you really believe that I am so ruthless, so vindictive, that I would take my revenge on my own son? You have never acknowledged him as that. I have now. You have heard me do it more than once in the last few minutes. Are you promising me that you will not harm him? I do not have to promise you, Lothar De La Rey. I am merely saying it. I will not harm Manfred. And naturally you expect something from me in return, he demanded, leaning forward. He was breathing with difficulty, sweating with the effort of fighting off his physical weakness. His sweat had a rank and sour smell in the gloomy confines of the hut.

would you offer me anything in return? she asked quietly.

No, he said. Nothing! And he sank back against the bolster, exhausted but defiant. Now let me hear you withdraw your promise. I made no promise, she said quietly. But, I repeat, Manfred, our son, is safe from me. I will never deliberately do anything to harm him. I do not give you the same a.s.surance, however. She turned and called. 'Thank you, Sergeant, we have finished our business. And she stooped to leave.

Centaine, he cried weakly, and he wanted to tell her, Your diamonds are in the cleft on the summit of the hill. But when she turned back he bit down on the words and said only, Goodbye, Centaine.

It is finished at last. The Okavango is one of Africa's most beautiful rivers. It rises in the highlands of the Angolan plateau above 4,000 feet and flows south and east, a wide deep torrent of green water that it seems must reach the ocean, so swift and determined is its flow. However, it is a landlocked river, debauching first into the mis-named Okavango Swamps, a vast area of lucid lagoons and papyrus banks, studded with islets on which graceful ivory nut palms and great wild figs stand tall. Beyond that the river emerges again but shrivelled and weakened as it enters the desolation of the Kalahari Desert and disappears for ever beneath those eternal sands.

This section of the river that Centaine and Blaine set out upon was that above the swamps where the river was at its grandest. Their craft was a native mukoro, a dugout canoe fashioned from a single tree-trunk over twenty feet long, rounded but not perfectly straight.

The owl and the p.u.s.s.y cat put to sea in a beautiful banana-shaped boat, quoth Blaine, and Centaine laughed a little apprehensively until she saw how masterfully their paddlers handled the mis-shapen craft.

They were two amiable coal-black giants of the river tribe.

They had the balance of gymnasts and their bodies were forged and hardened to Grecian perfection by a lifetime of wielding their paddles and their long punting poles. They stood at the stern and bows, singing their melodious work chant and tr.i.m.m.i.n.g their narrow unstable craft with a relaxed, almost instinctive ease.

Amidships Blaine and Centaine lolled on cushions of raw-hide stuffed with the fluffy heads of the papyrus reeds. The narrow beam forced them to sit in tandem, with Blaine in the lead, his Lee Enfield rifle across his lap ready to discourage the close approach of any of the numerous hippopotami which infested the river. The most dangerous animal in Africa by far, he told Centaine.

What about lions and elephants and poisonous snakes? she challenged.

The old hippo gets two humans for every one killed by all the other species put together. This was Centaine's first venture into these parts. She was a creature of the desert, unacquainted with the river or the swamps, unfamiliar with the boundless life they supported.

Blaine, on the other hand, knew the river well. He had first been ordered here when serving with General s.m.u.ts' expeditionary force in 1915 and had since returned often to hunt and study the wildlife of the region. He seemed to recognize every animal and bird and plant, and he had a hundred stories, both true and apocryphal, with which to amuse her.

The mood of the river changed constantly; at places it narrowed and raced through rock-lined gaps and the long canoe flew like a lance upon it. The paddlers directed it past outcrops of fanged rock upon which the current humped up and split, and with delicate touches of the paddles took them through the creaming whirlpools beyond and into the next flying stretch where the surface was moulded like green Venetian gla.s.s into standing waves by its own speed and momentum. Centaine whooped breathlessly, half in terror and half in exhilaration, like a child on a roller coaster. Then they emerged onto broad shallow stretches, the flow broken by islands and sandbanks and bordered by wide flood plains on which grazed herds of wild buffalo, ma.s.sive indolent seeming beasts, black as h.e.l.l and crusted with dried mud, great bossed horns drooping mournfully over their trumpet-shaped ears, standing belly-deep in the flood plains, lifting their black drooling muzzles in comical curiosity to watch them pa.s.s.

Oh Blaine! What are those? I've never seen them before. Lechwe. This is as far south as you will find them. There were vast herds of these robust water antelope with coa.r.s.e wiry red coats, the rams standing as tall as a man's chest and carrying long gracefully recurved horns. The hornless ewes were fluffy as children's toys. So dense were the herds that when they fled from the human presence they churned the water until it sounded like the thunderous pa.s.sage of a steam locomotive heard at a distance.

On nearly every tall tree along the river's banks were posted pairs of fish eagles, their white heads shining in the Sunlight. They threw back their heads, belting out their throats to chant their weird yelping call as the mukoro glided past.

On the white sandbanks the long saurian shapes of the crocodiles were silhouetted, ugly and evil as they lifted themselves on their stubby deformed legs and waddled swiftly to the water's edge, then slipping away below the surface, only the twin k.n.o.bs of their scaly eyebrows still showing.

In the shallows cl.u.s.ters of smooth rounded boulders, dark grey edged with baby pink, caught Centaine's attention, but she did not recognize them until Blaine warned: Watch them! and the paddlers sheered off as one of the huge boulders moved, raising a head the size of a beer keg, gaping red, the mighty jaws lined with tusks of yellow ivory, and it bellowed at them with the deep sardonical laughter of a demented G.o.d.

Blaine shifted the rifle slightly. Don't be taken in by that jovial haw haw haw, he isn't really amused, he told Centaine as he worked the bolt and pushed a cartridge into the breech.

As he spoke the bull hippo charged at them through the shallows, breaking the water into white foam with his elephantine bounds, blaring his hoa.r.s.e menacing laughter, his jaws gaping, clashing the long curved yellow ivories whose razor edges could scythe the thick fibrous papyrus stems, or crush in the frail sides of a mukoro, or cut a swimming man into two pieces with equal ease.

p The mukoro drove forward under the long powerful thrusts of the two oarsmen, but the hippopotamus gained on them rapidly and Blaine sprang to his feet, balancing in the unstable craft. He lifted the rifle to his shoulder and fired so rapidly that the reports blended together, and Centaine flinched at the whiplash of gunfire over her head and looked back, expecting to see the bullets strike on the great fleshy grey head and blood spurt from between those gla.s.sy pink-shot little eyes. But Blaine had aimed inches over the beast's forehead. The bristly ears twitched and fluttered like sunbirds wings to the shock of pa.s.sing shot, and the bull broke his charge and came up short, just his head showing above the surface, blinking rapidly with comical astonishment.

The mukoro pulled swiftly away, and the bull submerged in a huge swirl of green water as if to cover his embarra.s.sment at his own ineffectual performance.

Are you all right, Centaine? Blaine lowered the rifle.

That was a little frosty. She tried to keep her voice level with only partial success.

Not as bad as it seemed, sound and fury, not too much of the deadly intent. He smiled at her.

I'm glad you didn't kill him. Not much point in turning the old boy into four tons of rotting carrion and making twenty widows of his fat wives. Is that why he chased us, protecting his females? 'Probably, but you can never tell with wild animals. Perhaps one of his cows is calving, or he has unpleasant memories of human hunters, or perhaps he just felt plain bolshy today., His coolness in crisis had impressed her almost as much as his humanity in sparing the threatening beast.

Only school-girls worship their heroes, she reminded herself firmly as the canoe sped onwards, and then found herself studying the breadth of Blaine's shoulders and the way he held his head upon them. His dark hair was cut short down the back of his neck, and his neck was strong but not bulled, pleasingly proportioned and smooth, only his ears were too large, and the tips were pink where the sunlight seemed to shine through them. She felt an almost irresistible urge to lean forward and kiss the soft skin just behind where they jutted out, but she controlled herself with a giggle.

He turned and demanded with a smile, What's so funny? A girl always feels weak and giggly after Prince Charming saves her from a fire-breathing dragon. ,mythical creatures, dragons. Don't scoff, she chided him. Anything is possible here, D even dragons and princes. This is never-never land. Santa Claus and the good fairy are waiting just around the next bend. ,you are just a little bit crazy, do you know that? Yes, I know that, she nodded. And I think I should warn you, it's both contagious and infectious. Your warning comes too late. He shook his head sadly.

I think I've caught it already., Good, she said, and giving in to her whim, she leaned forward and kissed that soft spot behind his ear.

He shivered theatrically. Now look what you've done. He turned again and showed her the gooseflesh standing in little pimples on his forearms. You must promise never to do that again. It's too dangerous. Like you, I never make promises. She saw the quick shadow of regret and guilt in his eyes and cursed herself for alluding to his lack of commitment to her and thereby spoiling the mood.

Oh, Blaine, look at those birds. Surely they aren't real are they? It proves me right, this is never-never land. She tried to retrieve the mood.

They were drifting past a high sheer bank of red clay bright as a blood orange that was perforated by thousands of perfectly round apertures, and a living swirling cloud of marvellously coloured birds hung over the bank, darting in and out of the myriad entrances to their nesting burrows.

Carmine bee-eaters, Blaine told her, sharing her wonder at the glory of the flashing darts of flaming pink and turquoise blue, with their long delicately streaming tail feathers and pointed wing-tips sharp as stilettos. They are so unearthly, I am beginning to believe you, he said. Perhaps we pa.s.ssed through the mirror. we have indeed pas They spoke little after that, but somehow their silences seemed to bring them even closer. They only touched once more when Centaine laid her hand, palm open, along the side of his neck, and for a moment he covered her hand with his own, a gentle fleeting exchange.

Then Blaine spoke briefly to the leading oarsman.

What is it, Blaine? she asked.

I told him to find a good place to camp for the night., Isn't it still very early? She glanced at the sun.

Yes. He turned and smiled at her, almost sheepishly. But then I'm trying for the record trip between Cuangar and Runtu. The record? Slowest journey ever. Blaine chose one of the large islands.

The white sandbar folded upon itself to form a secret lagoon, clear and green and screened by tall waving papyrus. While the two paddlers piled driftwood for the fire and cut papyrus fronds to thatch night shelters for them, Blaine picked up his rifle.

Where are you going? Centaine asked.

See if I can get a buck for dinner. Oh, Blaine, please don't kill anything, not today. Not this special day. Aren't you tired of bully beef? Please, she insisted and he set his rifle aside with a smile and a rueful shake of his head and went to make sure than the huts were ready and the mosquito nets rigged over each separate bed. Satisfied, Blaine dismissed the paddlers and they climbed into the mukoro.

Where are they off to? Centaine demanded as they poled out into the current.

I told them to camp on the mainland, Blaine answered, and they each looked away, suddenly awkward and shy and intensely aware of their isolation as they stared after the departing canoe.

Centaine turned and walked back to the camp. She knelt beside her saddle bags, which were her only luggage, and without looking up told him, I haven't bathed since last night. I'm going to swim in the lagoon. She had a bar of yellow soap in her hand.

Do you have a last message for the folks back home? What do you mean? This is the Okavango river, Centaine. The crocodiles here gobble little girls as hors d'oeuvres. You could stand guard with the rifle Delighted to oblige. I, and with your eyes closed! Rather defeats the object, doesn't it? He scouted the edge of the lagoon and found shallow water below an outcropping of black water-polished rock where the bottom was white sand and an approaching crocodile would show clearly, and he sat on the highest pinnacle of rock with the Lee Enfield loaded and the safety-catch off.

You are on your honour not to peek, she warned, standing on the beach below him, and he concentrated on a flock of spur-wing geese flogging their heavy wings as they pa.s.sed across the lowering sun, but acutely aware of the rustle of her falling clothing.

He heard the water ripple, and her little gasp and then, All right, now you can watch for crocodiles., She was sitting on the sandy bottom, just her head above the surface, her back towards him and her hair sc.r.a.ped up and tied on top of her head.

It's heavenly, so cool and refreshing. She smiled over her shoulder, and he could see the gleam of her white flesh through the green water and he thought he might not be able to bear the pain of his wanting. He knew that she was deliberately provoking him, but he could neither resist her nor steel himself against her wiles.