Leopard Hunts in Darkness - Smith Wilbur - Страница 109

He drank until his empty belly bulged, and pangs of colic stabbed through it. Then he rested for a few minutes, feeling the fluid flowing into his desiccated tissues, feeling them recharge with strength, and then he drank again, and rested and drank again. After three hours he urinated copiously in the toilet bucket for the first time in as long as he could remember.

When they finally came for him at noon, he could stand UP unaided and curse them with fluency and artistry.

r They led him towards the execution wall, and he felt almost cheerful. With his belly sloshing with water, he knew he could resist them for ever. The execution stake had no terror for him any longer. He had stood there too long and too often. He welcomed it as a part of the routine which he understood. He had reached the point where he feared only the unknown.

Halfway across the parade ground he realized that something was different. They had built a new structure facing the wall. A neatly thatched sun-shelter. Under the shelter two chairs were set and a table had been laid for lunch.

Seated at the table was the dreadfully familiar figure of Peter Fungabera. Tungata had not seen him for days, and his new-found courage faltered, weakness came back over him. He felt a rubbery give to his knees and he stumbled.

What had they planned for today? If only he knew, he could meet it. The uncertainty was the one truly unbearable torture.

Peter Fungabera was lunching and he did not even look up as Tungata was led' past the thatched shelter. Peter ate with his fingers in the African manner, taking the stiff white maize cake and moulding it into bite-sized balls, pressing a depression into it with his thumb and then filling it with a sauce of stewed greens and salted kapenta fish from Lake Kariba. The smell of the food flooded Tungata's mouth with I liva, but he trudged on towards so execution stake.

the wall and the There was only one other victim today, he noticed, narrowing his eyes against the glare. He was already strapped to one of the stakes. Then, with a small shock of surprise, Tungata realized that it was a woman.

She was naked a young woman. Her skin had a soft velvety sheen in the sunlight, like polished amber. Her body was graciously formed, her breasts symmetrical and firm, their aureolas were the colour of ripe mulberries, the nipples upturned and out-thrust. Her legs were long and Willowy, the bare feet small and neat. Bound as she was, she could not cover herself Tungata sensed her shame at her naked sex, nestled dark and fluffy in the juncture of her thighs likea tiny animal with separate life. He averted his eyes, looked up at her face and at last he despaired.

It was all over. The guards released his arms, and he tottered towards the young woman at the stake. Though her eyes were huge and dark with terror and shame, her first words were for him. She whi ered softly in Sindebele, SP "My lord, what have they done to you?"

"Sarah." He wanted to reach over and touch her dear and lovely face, but he would not do so under the lewd gaze of his guards.

"How did they find you?" He felt very old and frail. It was all over.

"I did as you commanded," she told him in soft apology.

"I went into the hills, but then a message reached me one of my children from the school was dying dysentery and no doctor. I could not ignore the call."

"Of course, it was a lie," he guessed flatly.

"It was a lie," she admitted. "The Shana soldiers were waiting for me. Forgive me, lord."

"It does not matter any longer," he answered.

"Not for me, lord," she pleaded. "Do not do anything for me. I am a daughter of Mashobane. I can bear anything these Shana animals can do to me." He shook his head sadly, and at last reached out and touched her lips with the tips of his fingers. His hand was trembling like that of a drunkard. She kissed his fingers.

He dropped his hand and, turning, trudged wearily back to the thatched shelter. The soldiers made no effort to prevent him.

Peter Fungabera looked up as he approached and motioned to the empty canvas chair. Tungata sat down and his body slumped.

"First," Tungata said, "the woman must be untied and clothed." Peter gave the order. They covered her and led her away to one of the hutments.

My lord-" she strained back against their grip, her face turned piteously to him.

"She must not be ill-treated in any way."

"She has not been," Peter said. "She will not be, unless you make it necessary." He pushed a bowl of maize cake towards Tungata. He ignored it.

"She must be taken out of the country and delivered to a representative of the international Red Cross in Francistown."

"There is a light aircraft waiting at Tuti airfield. Eat, Comrade, we must have you strong and well."

"When she is safe, she will speak to me radio or telephone and give me a code-word that I will arrange with her before she leaves."

"Agreed." He poured hot sweet tea for Tungata.

"We will be left alone together to agree on the code."

"You may speak to her, of course," Peter nodded. "But in the middle of this parade ground. None of my men will be closer than a hundred yards to you, but there will be a machine-gun trained upon you at all times. I will allow you precisely five minutes with the woman." have failed you," Sarah said, and Tungata had forgotten how beautiful she was. His whole being ached with longing for her.

"No," he told her, "it was inevitable. There is no blame to you. It was for duty, not for yourself that you came out of hiding My lord, what can I do now?" Listen," he said, and spoke quietly and quickly. "Some of my trusted people have escaped from the scourge of Fungabera's Third Brigade you must find them. I believe they are in Botswana." He gave her the names and she repeated them faithfully. "Tell them-2 She memorized all that he told her, and repeated it to him perfectly.