The man at Kambala (2 page)

`I hope not.' The words were soft but meaningful. 'It strikes me that the whole set-up round here could do with looking into.'

Sara's chin lifted sharply. 'Do you think I might come in, now that you've finished your summing up?' she asked sarcastically. 'I'm hot and I'd like a drink.' She reached up and extracted the cigarette-case from Kiki's clutching paw, then put the monkey down on the veranda rail before moving on up the steps. 'I assume this is yours.'

He took it from her, mouth twitching a little at the corners. 'Thanks,' he said.

Sara stepped past him and went through into the shadowed living-room with its bare wooden floors and scattered skin rugs. With some deliberation she took bottles and glasses out of the cabinet, splashed some gin into her customary orange juice and took a long swat-

low before turning her head to ask coolly if he would like a drink.

He had followed her in, and now stood leaning his weight against the door-jamb with his hands in the pockets of his slacks. He shook his head, then asked unexpectedly, 'How old are you?'

`Nineteen,' she replied shortly, and the dark brows lifted again.

`Really? I thought about sixteen. Not that it makes any difference. You're still not equipped to be off the compound without adequate protection.'

She said caustically, 'I suppose you'd think differently if I were a boy

`I might.' He ran an eye over her, and grinned. `Lived out here long?'

`Three years. Long enough,' she added, 'to learn the dos and don'ts and abide by them. I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself, Mr. York.' .

`As capable as you are at taking care of that gun you left outside in the car?'

Sara could have kicked herself as well as him. She had completely forgotten about the gun. Not that it would do any good to say that this was the first time she had done such a thing. He wouldn't believe her. She put down the glass. 'You took my mind off it. I'll fetch it in now.'

He was standing in the same position when she got back. He held out his hand for the Winchester and checked it over, smiled a little grimly when he found it unloaded but handed it back without comment.

`How good are you with that?' he asked.

`Fair.' She added steadily, 'Would you like me to
demonstrate?'

He shook his head. 'It won't be necessary.'

She stared at him. 'What does that mean exactly?'

`It means,' he returned equably, 'that you'll not be leaving the compound unless you have one of the men with you while I'm in charge here. If I'm going to have to accept responsibility for you while your father's away it's going to be on my terms.'

`Nobody is asking you to accept any responsibility for me at all,' she retorted with heat. 'You might be all sorts of a big noise where you've come from, Mr. York, but it doesn't mean a thing to me. I'm not employed by the Department, and I'll go where I please!'

He eyed her consideringly for a long moment before answering. 'Don't count on it. You might be queen bee round here in your estimation, but in my book you're just a spoiled brat who badly needs some discipline. Not that I lay the blame for that at your door. If you've been allowed to run wild for the last three years it's only to be expected.' He straightened his body away from the jamb. 'How about showing me my room while we're waiting for the missing Ted to put in an appearance?'

`Find it yourself !' she flung at him furiously, and stalked out of the door, almost barging into the man who was coming up the steps. 'Welcome to the Palace,' she greeted him. 'The Crown Prince just arrived!'

Ted Willis's leathery features took on a 'surprised expression, then his eyes went over her shoulder and the surprise turned to uncertainty. 'Are you the relief?' he asked of the man standing in the doorway. 'We were expecting Bruce Madden.'

`So I gathered.' The other's voice was dry. 'I'm Steve York. Madden couldn't make it. You must be Ted Willis.'

`That's me.' The older man was clearly nonplussed. `Sorry I wasn't here to say hallo when you arrived. I was checking stores in the back shed. Can't always hear a car from there.'

`Apparently not.' There was a slight pause, then Steve York added smoothly, 'I think you were going to show me where I'll be sleeping, Miss Macdonald.'

Sara hesitated, looked at Ted, then turned slowly back to face the newcomer. There was a definite glint in the grey eyes regarding her steadily from the doorway. He had quite obviously heard what she had said to Ted. Well, so what? He had asked for it. And she certainly wasn't going to be intimidated by him.

`All right,' she said, 'I'll show you your room, Mr. York.'

`You won't need the gun.' His mouth was sardonic. `Let Ted put it away for you.

She handed it over without a word, then walked past him and through the living-room to the far door. There were five doors leading off the corridor beyond. Sara opened the second one on the right and stood back to give him access. 'This is normally my father's. It's bigger than the spare. I'm next door, Kimani is on the other side and Ted across from him. The bath-shed is out back.'

He took a glance round the somewhat sparse furnishings and nodded. 'It will do fine. What time do you usually eat?'

Eightish.' It was just gone five-thirty. She added
coolly, 'I can arrange something to be going on with, if you like.'

`Complete with arsenic, I imagine.' He turned to look at her, paused a moment, then said evenly, 'Look, it's going to be a long six weeks if you're intending to keep this attitude up. I was no more thrilled to find you here than you were to see me instead of Madden, but as we're stuck with it we're both of us going to have to make the best of things. All I'm asking for is a little cooperation.'

Sara looked back at him stonily. 'Is that what you call it?

His jaw tautened. 'All right, if that's the way you want it. Only I warn you, there's a limit to how much I'm prepared to take from little girls with an overrated sense of their own importance. While I'm in charge here you'll do as you're damn well told! Is that clear?'

`Crystal,' she retorted, and left the room trembling with anger. Hateful man! A regular despot! Give someone like that a little power and it went straight to their heads. Well, she'd be blowed if she was going to knuckle under. It was time somebody showed Mr. Steve York just where he got off !

Taking clean jeans and a shirt out of the limba-wood wardrobe in her own bedroom, she caught a glimpse of her face in the mirror, streaked with dust down both cheeks. She must have got that down by the river. Her hair was a mess too. All in all, it wasn't all that surprising that the man next door had taken her for a mere kid at first, although the memory of that comment still stung. She heard his door open again and his

footsteps going back along the corridor. He would be going to supervise the unloading of his car, she supposed. She hoped Ted wasn't available to help.

Out in the bath-shed she had a quick shower and got into the clean clothes, then slicked a brush over her damp hair and slung her soiled things into the basket outside. Tomorrow they would turn up clean and neatly pressed again on her bed. Maswi and Njorogi were the best house servants the station had known to date. Sara hoped they would stay, but doubted it. Because Kambala was so far removed from their home territory the pay was well above the usual rate, but that was small compensation for lack of communication with their own people. The obvious solution would be to try to persuade the Masai themselves to take over such tasks, only they didn't seem interested in the things which money could buy. Their wealth lay in their cattle which provided them with everything they needed. They were the most contented people she had ever known.

Ted was over by the water tank checking the level. Sara leaned against one of the supports to watch him, one leg drawn up under her like a crane. I use too much?'

His grin was tolerant. 'You always use too much. You can never get through to a female that showers are supposed to conserve the stuff. You should have seen the amount we were limited to on trek in the old days. A cupful for washing, if you were lucky !'

Sara laughed. So you keep telling me. In fact, if half of what you say is true it's' a wonder the animals couldn't smell you coming a mile off !'

She was very fond of Ted Willis. He was actually only a few years older than her father, but a lifetime in the open had lined his features until they looked like a map of the Himalayas — his own description. In his prime he had been a hunter, and a good one. Then his eyesight had begun to deteriorate, and there had come a time when he could no longer compete with the other safari organizers in pinpointing game for his clients to shoot at. He had been here on Kambala when Sara had arrived, and had whiled away many an hour for her with his tales of the old days, although she strongly suspected that a great many of his anecdotes went back a good deal further than he did.
`Is Kimani back yet?' she asked.

Ted shook his head. 'He might have gone over to the Lodge.'

`You don't think they'll have found anything, then?'

`Doubt it. These lads are clever. Slip in over the boundary at night and out again before morning, and nothing to show they've been in apart from the carcases. The only way they stand much chance of being caught is if somebody finds the place where they've been lying up during the day and waits for them to come back in the morning.'

`And it's only the rhino horn they're going for?'

`It's all this particular lot are going for. They're well paid for what they get by the men outside organizing them, but it's those who don't take any risks who gain the real profit. Mind you, if somebody would get round to educating the folk who think the stuff's going to give 'em a boost the bottom would drop right out of the
market. It's been scientifically proved that there's nothing in this notion about powdered horn being an aphrodisiac. They'd get the same results from a dose of salts if they believed it !' He caught Sara's swiftly concealed grin and shook his grizzled head at her in mock reproof. 'You might laugh, girl, but it's true. Supply and demand, that's what it's all about. Cut out the last and there's no money in the first.'

`I believe you,' she said. 'I just thought the salts sounded a bit drastic.' She paused, glanced back at the house, said on a different note, 'What do you think of Dad's replacement?'

Ted lifted his shoulders. 'Remains to be seen. Not important, is it? He's only going to be here for six weeks.'

`I've a feeling it's going to seem more like six years,' she said gloomily. 'He's so darn full of himself. He even tried to tell me I couldn't go off the compound without a guardian.'

Brave man.' Ted's voice was light. 'And what did you say?

`What do you think? I've always .. ' She stopped, looked at him suspiciously. 'You don't agree with him?

`I don't think it's a bad idea,' he admitted. 'It's something I've been telling Dave for the last couple of years. No matter how careful you are there's always something could happen. Supposing you got bitten by a snake?'

`There's serum in the car.'

`You might not be able to reach it in time. A mamba's poison only takes seconds to work through the
system. Okay, so nine times out of ten most things will get out of your way rather than attack, but you only have to come across that awkward customer once. Think you could stop a rhino with that three-seven-five you carry?'

`I'd never get near enough to precipitate a charge.' Sara kicked at a stone lying on the ground in front of her. 'I thought you'd be on my side.'

`I didn't know there were any sides to take. If this new chap says you're to stick with a partner then you'll have it to do. He's the boss till your father gets back. If you weren't prepared to accept that you should have gone with him.'

`I don't think he wanted me to go,' she said on a suddenly thoughtful note. 'At least, he didn't try very hard to persuade me. Do you think he could have been afraid that I might decide to stay in England?'

There was a brief pause before Ted answered. `Could be,' he said at last. 'What you don't see you're not likely to realize you've missed. He'd hate to lose you.'

`There's no chance of that. He knows how I feel about things out here.'

`Now, yes. You haven't had much opportunity for comparisons this last few years, have you?'

Sara looked up quickly. 'What are you trying to say, Ted?'

`Nothing much. Just that there's going to come a time when you'll start wanting more than this place can offer, and he'll have to face it. He should have got married again. There's been more than one woman would have been glad to say yes to Dave Macdonald.'

`He never wanted to get married again.' She pushed herself away from the post, eyes bright. `Dad's happy as he is. We both are.'

Ted eyed her shrewdly. 'I wonder. It might be the best thing that's happened to you two for years, being parted for a few weeks. Give you both time to realize that it's a daughter he's got, not a son.'

Sara stared at him disconcertedly. 'I thought you were supposed to be his friend.'

`I am. Doesn't mean I have to go about in blinkers. Dave's a grand chap, but where you're concerned he's as selfish as they come. He taught you to shoot like a boy, act like one, even think like one. I can't remember the last time I saw you wearing a dress.'