A Lion by the Mane Page 9

  They had finished their late breakfast and Jan lit his second cigarette since his arrival as they took a last cup of coffee on to the veranda to join Craig who was anxious to hear their story. No sooner were they seated when a jeep bounced into view through a cloud of dust. The two black Rangers were gesticulating wildly and shouting. Craig stood up and went to see what all the fuss was about, and a heated exchange took place. The Assistant Warden went down the steps in some consternation, and Margaret and Jan walked to the rails as interested spectators. The men brought something from the back of the jeep and laid it on the ground. It was the body of a man, torn and mutilated, with the flies still gathering on it. Margaret gave a cry and flung herself against Jan.

  ‘Good God!’ he breathed. ‘How did an experienced man like Russell Martin get himself savaged by a lion!’

  Chapter Five

  Against the advice of both men Margaret refused to go to bed. The horror of what she had seen was better kept at bay with other humans around, but she lay silent on the cane chair while Jan discussed the situation with a rather pale-faced Craig Barker. The body had been found in a quiet place up on some rocks when the Rangers had been on a routine visit to a known lion area. At the moment, the Reserve was closed to visitors, due to an outbreak of disease which was in danger of spreading, and the men had been out looking for affected animals when they climbed on the rocks to look through binoculars.

  ‘The whole thing baffles me,’ said Jan. ‘I don’t profess to know much about game, but surely lions only attack a man if taken by surprise and threatened. And, having killed his victim, he would devour the body. It is most unlikely that Russell would blunder into a pride by mistake; he once told me he could scent out a lion almost as well as the animal could scent him.’

  ‘That’s true,’ agreed Craig, ‘but the fact remains that his rifle had not been fired so he’d had no time to defend himself. There must be a man-eater out there. It happens occasionally. Once the beast gets the taste of human flesh the desire to kill man is always there.’

  ‘Then why wasn’t Russell dragged off and consumed?’

  Craig shrugged. ‘Maybe the lion was interrupted.’

  ‘Wouldn’t he return later?’

  ‘Not necessarily. A lion will kill only as much as he needs. If the interruption was long enough he may have tired of waiting and sought a meal elsewhere.’

  ‘That still doesn’t explain how the Warden came to be taken unawares in country he knew like the back of his hand,’ Jan pointed out.

  ‘We shall never know, of course. God, what a way for a man like him to go!’ He put his head in his hands. ‘I suppose I shall have to get on the radio-telephone to the authorities. It’s a sad blow for all concerned.’

  ‘It’s not the only worry you have, man. What I have to tell you will hit you almost as hard as it hit me.’

  ‘You are going to be hit even harder when Chris catches up with you,’ said Craig before Jan could go on. ‘I’d say you’ll go down in round one. My call to enquire what had happened to the supplies touched him on a nerve. Seems you had left in a broken-down aircraft which had seen better days, so the news that you hadn’t arrived didn’t surprise him.’

  Jan’s lips tightened angrily and Margaret could have hit him for saying, ‘Yes, we were brought down south of Alwynsrus, right out in the veld.’ He made no mention of the cause of their forced landing, and she daren’t. He then went on to tell how Margaret had coped with his gashed leg and the appalling heat inside the aircraft, sparing himself not the slightest bit of blame for all she went through, while the girl found herself getting more and more tense with the effort of not breaking into his narrative to defend him. He would hate her for it! When he reached the part about his early morning arrest Craig’s head shot up like a puppet on a jerking string.

  ‘Oh yes,’ affirmed Jan, seeing the incredulity in the other’s eyes. ‘The guns were there . . . and I didn’t know. Let’s get that straight before we go any further.’

  ‘Then who . . .?’

  ‘Exactly! I have a pretty fair idea of who sent them, but it means that someone at Myala is the receiver. Any ideas?’

  ‘No.’ Craig looked utterly dismayed. ‘No . . . the Rangers are all known and trusted men.’

  ‘But one of them is guilty. It may be that he is being forced into it for one reason or another, but it doesn’t make the action any less criminal. I have no way of knowing how many times I have been used as a means of transporting their vile consignments, but it’s pretty certain this is not the first cargo. Whoever that man is, I want him.’

  Margaret was beginning to get an inkling of why Jan had made this headstrong bid to reach Myala, and it set fear fluttering inside her. There was no question of his intending to go back to Cape Town to face the music there; he was determined to heap coals on to his implication in this affair. The real reason behind the savage anger which was building up in him was revealed by his next words.

  ‘I shan’t rest until I have caught up with every member of the organization. I may have walked into this a willing fool, but I am not going to let Chris be accused of something he has played no part in. If I have to choke it out of them with my bare hands, I’ll get them to admit he is innocent.’

  ‘I don’t see how Chris fits into this,’ said Craig, bewildered by the other’s intensity.

  ‘Are you forgetting that he made two deliveries in October? There’s an even chance he brought a consignment of guns on each occasion.’

  ‘I think you are colouring too vivid a picture,’ Craig told him. ‘All this talk of an organization and regular consignments is far too dramatic.’

  Jan stood up and paced the floor restlessly. ‘So you think because this is the first time arms have been discovered that it’s the only occasion they have been sent? There must be an organization. There are at least four people involved; the supplier, the carrier (me), the receiver here at Myala, and the person across the border to whom he hands the consignment. That is the minimum number of people needed for a deal of this nature; there are sure to be many more. You spend so much time up here in the animal kingdom you forget the rest of the world is not as cut and dried.’ He stopped in front of the Assistant Warden and fixed him with a determined look. ‘So who unloads and unpacks the stores when they arrive?’

  ‘Now look . . .’ Craig began rising in aggressive manner.

  ‘Someone has to find out which of your boys is in the pay of these people. Face the facts, man!’

  To counteract Jan’s determination the younger man said, ‘There are some factors in all this which don’t make sense to me. Before we start accusing my staff there’s a lot you haven’t explained about your own behaviour. If you were put in the tronk what are you doing here? How did the guns get into the crates without your knowledge, and if they were put into the police compound for the night simply for protection, why did the sergeant open them? Are you playing quite straight with me?’

  Jan accepted this in his usual manner. Margaret was beginning to know that slight tilt back of his head and squaring of his shoulders prior to plunging into the absolute truth, however unpalatable.

  ‘That last point is the first one I raised when he took me in – and kept on asking. To my mind, he would only have opened the crates because somebody tipped him off about what he could expect to find. If that were so, it would mean I had been deliberately framed . . . which didn’t make sense whichever way I looked at it. At first, he refused to answer my question, and we reached a stalemate. I made it plain I wouldn’t talk until he did, so after a lot of side-stepping and wandering around the point, he passed it off with the excuse that it was necessary to get details of the contents in order to complete the paper work. Maggie couldn’t provide the information, and the cargo manifest was with my other papers at the clinic. I knew it was a fabricated excuse, but it told me I hadn’t been betrayed by an informer.’

  He sat down again at this point and leaned his elbows on his knees, gazing out across the thorn bush
which was a feature of Myala. ‘Man, was that police sergeant a skurk! It didn’t take long for me to catch on to his activities out there in that tiny place, and I realized he had opened the crates with a view to helping himself to anything which might be of use to him. What he did find was as staggering as gold in the Kalahari. To a man who had been appointed to Alwynsrus to finish his police service in obscure monotony, a discovery of this nature should have been the chance of a lifetime. The uncovering of a gun-running operation would surely boost his worth a hundred-fold, but he is past the stage of wanting to recoup his good standing among his fellow-men. For too long he has been corrupted by his desire to thumb his nose at those responsible for putting him where he is, and once he stopped to think saw only the opportunity to turn his stroke of luck into hard cash.

  ‘As the day wore on he paid frequent visits to the outer building which served as a cell, and his approach changed each time I saw him. When he had no success in drawing any information from me regarding the arms organization, he began to believe that I was an innocent victim and put out ill-disguised offers of how much it would cost me for him to accidentally leave the key in the door of the cell.’ Jan gave a short laugh. ‘Ironically, I was turning into an embarrassment for him. He had no desire to turn me in for the mere congratulations he would receive from his superiors; there was more reward in selling me my freedom and disposing of the arms himself.’

  ‘So how much did you pay him?’ asked Craig woodenly.

  Jan ignored that. ‘De Wet was pretty sure I would keep quiet about his holding on to my cargo; I would only incriminate myself along with him. On the surface, I thought he was on to a good thing – I did desperately want to get out of that cell – but his keyed-up nervousness found an outlet in drink, and that was his downfall. I played him along until well into the night when he was completely stupefied. After that, it was easy.’

  Craig looked furious. ‘You damned fool! We shall have the police along here after you.’

  Jan shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. That sergeant will cut his losses and content himself with what he can get for the contents of the crates. Can you see him reporting the escape of a possible gun-runner while he was too drunk to stand – and in a police vehicle, at that!’

  ‘You mean that truck . . .?’

  ‘It was the only one available. Don’t worry, I’ll drive it out of Myala when I leave tomorrow.’

  The young Assistant Warden walked to the rail and leant heavily on it while he absorbed the incredible facts Jan had presented him with. At last, he turned to lean back against the wooden hand-rail.

  ‘I’d be obliged if you’d leave now.’ He held up a defensive hand. ‘Yes, yes, I quite appreciate what a mess you have landed yourself in and I sympathize, I really do, but I have to think of the situation here. With Russell dead, there’s a lot at stake. Someone will have to take over as Warden and if I play my cards right there’s no reason why they need look further than me. I can’t afford to have the authorities hearing of some vague suspicion of gun-running at Myala. You have always been a bit wild, Jan, but simply because your dubious activities have mushroomed into something bigger than you bargained for, I cannot allow you to start harassing my staff and nosing around these premises. In the long run, I think it would be wiser to cancel the contract to fly-in our supplies and that should solve the problem.’

  He had hardly said the words when he found himself flat on his back on the wooden veranda. Margaret sat up aghast as Jan stood over him, breathing hard.

  ‘Stand up, you bastard, and I’ll do it again! Russell Martin is not yet in his grave and you are bloody well placing yourself in his shoes. Chris signed that contract with Russell when you and I were still in school and this is the first time Schroeder Freight has failed to deliver as arranged. The company will supply replacement stores within a week – there is a clause which covers non-delivery due to an accident – and the contract will run to its expiry date. If the new Warden (whoever he may be) decides not to re-new we’ll accept his decision, but a jumped-up jackal like you has no authority to discontinue an honourable business agreement for no other reason than his own bloody ambitions!’

  Craig sat up, wiping away the trickle of blood from his cut lip with the back of his hand. He had forgotten what a tornado this man could be on the subject of his brother, or anything connected with him. Jan still had the light of battle in his eye when he continued, ‘And before you get on your feet, we’ll straighten out another matter. Since the guns were put in the crates at Cape Town and I was making no stops on the way, there can only be one destination for them. I’ll leave just as soon as I know which of your boys was hoping to pass them over the border. I can do it with or without your help, but I promise you’ll find it easier to agree. You seem to have forgotten that someone in this reserve is making money by aiding the slaughter of human lives, but by God, if necessary, I’ll drive the facts home to you in a way you won’t easily forget.’

  Margaret watched with growing dismay. From a comradely discussion between two contemporaries, it had developed into a bitter clash of personalities. Jan’s assault on Craig had frightened her. Here, with a vengeance, was evidence of the Schroeders closing ranks. While he met any attack on himself with that familiar stone-wall acceptance, let anyone dare malign or double-deal one of the family and he became a savage defender lashing out at the antagonist. Indeed, it seemed he fully intended taking on all-comers in his effort to clear Chris of any involvement in the gun-running, and Margaret had no doubt he would fight to the bitter end.

  It was hard to believe here was the same man she had seen surrounded by jet-setters at Van Heerdon’s party. She recalled her own conviction that that sort of life was not really his scene. But for a flash of lightning she might never have had the proof of her conviction, and she certainly would have remained in ignorance of Jan’s deep personality. The past two days in his company had shed a very faint light on the complexity within him and she longed to know more. There was so much of him which was yet unprobed – and would remain so, she thought gloomily. It didn’t occur to her that she was thinking of him in terms of an interesting species to be studied under a microscope. Although he had had ample opportunity during their long drive, Jan had made no attempt to tell her of De Wet’s offer to sell him his freedom, or his own plan to hunt down the men who had used him to carry their illegal cargo. Ah, but of course, she had condemned him before he spoke a word!

  Looking at him as he maintained his belligerent stance over Craig who was staggering to his feet, she realized he was not even aware of her presence; that his entire being burned only with the desire to get his revenge. He had brought her to Myala simply because Schroeder Freight had undertaken to get her there, not from any personal liking or chivalrous instinct. As far as he was concerned, she had been delivered and could now be forgotten.

  By the time the sun was high in the sky, Margaret had surrendered to tiredness and gone to her room. It seemed the only thing to do. The men set about the task of investigation, first in the store-room, then when that proved fruitless, set off in a jeep to visit a Ranger post somewhere deep in the sheltering bush. Neither of them had taken any notice of the girl sitting so quietly and seemed to have forgotten her very existence when they ran down the steps to the waiting vehicle. They both wore grim expressions and she noticed each had a gun belt strapped round his waist. It worried her. In their present mood anything could happen! Not only that, with a leg which was plainly still giving him a lot of pain and a lack of sleep which would be of no help to his tense state, Jan was not fit to go bumping over rough tracks in a temperature which stood well in the eighties.

  Her deep, exhausted sleep was broken by a knocking on her door. It was the houseboy-cum-cook, who was in a panic because Mr Schroeder was on the radio-telephone demanding to speak to her. He was angry and didn’t wish to be kept waiting! She pulled on a cotton housecoat and followed the boy along to the office where he explained the simple two-way system.

&nb
sp; ‘Hallo, Jan,’ she ventured experimentally.

  ‘It’s Chris,’ said a virile voice so like Jan’s it seemed incredible it could not be his.

  ‘Oh . . . Chris!’ Relief, disappointment, and embarrassment all intermingled in those two words.

  ‘Are you all right, Margaret? What the blazes is going on up there? Where is Jan? The boy says you are the only person there. Where are all the others?’

  ‘Please don’t ask so many questions at once. I have only just woken up,’ she said as she played for time. What on earth was she to tell him?

  ‘Sorry,’ he said on a softer note, ‘but I have been extremely anxious since you left on Wednesday.’

  ‘Yes, I realize you must have been, but there is no cause for alarm.’ She crossed her fingers as she said that. ‘I feel as right as rain . . . and Jan has been wonderful,’ she added hurriedly, seeing an opportunity to get in a little propaganda. ‘We were struck by lightning and he made a difficult landing in a storm. What a fantastic pilot he is!’

  ‘Er . . . yes. Lightning, did you say?’

  ‘I have never seen such flashes. And when the engine burst into flames it was a sight I shall never forget. I was terrified, but Jan remained quite unperturbed and I put my complete faith in him.’

  ‘Mmm. Were you sitting beside him, then?’

  ‘Oh no,’ she assured him. ‘He wouldn’t let me anywhere near the controls. He was most insistent on that!’

  There was a short pause, then: ‘Nice try, Margaret, but you couldn’t have seen anything unless you were in the co-pilot’s seat. He won’t thank you for trying to cover up for him.’ When she didn’t speak he went on: ‘Now, just what are you doing at the bungalow alone? Where are Russell, Craig and my brother?’