Poacher (15 page)

At this stage Dr. Fisher had interrupted him.
Anything involving Estelle would receive his immediate and
undivided attention. ‘Get to the point, man, get to the point. What
is the problem?’

‘The point is that your future son-in-law is
having an affair with the girl I intend marrying. While he is
cheating on a fiancée who deserves a better man than he is, he is
also placing our relationship under tremendous strain. I think if
he is confronted with the facts now something can still be
saved.’

‘Dr. Smith, I think Estelle is quite capable
of deciding for herself who is good enough to get married to, and
who isn’t. But that is beside the point. What is happening and how
long has it been going on?’

The more Smitty had talked, the angrier Dr.
Fisher had become. A quick fling in an irresponsible moment was
something that did not damage anybody, and as long as it was kept
secret, it could be overlooked to a certain extent. But this was
something else. He loved Sam like a son, and he knew that Sam would
make an excellent husband for Estelle. This profligacy had to be
squashed immediately and effectively. ‘So you suspect that she
visits him during the weekends that she just disappears?’ Pretty
damn flimsy relationship if your girlfriend vanishes over weekends
and you don’t do anything about it, he had thought.

‘Right, thanks for letting me know. There
won’t be many single women entering the Park in Porsches, so we
should not experience any difficulty in nailing his arse to the
wall. In view of your future relationship with Linda I suppose you
realise that this conversation has never taken place.’

Only after lengthy discussions with his wife,
who was extremely upset by the news, had he decided on a plan of
action. No matter how much he loved his daughter, this was
something she had to sort out the way she saw fit. There was no
doubt in his mind that Estelle, in spite of her apparently
vulnerable, innocent personality, was quite adequately equipped to
handle the situation. Like her mother, she could be a tiger when
necessary. He would have her catch Sam red-handed, and play it by
ear from there on.

Orpen Gate had notified him at noon on Friday
what a white Porsche had entered the Park, with one female
occupant.

It had taken all his considerable influence
to secure two seats on the early Saturday flight, and he had
notified reception at Satara that he required the guest house for
the weekend.

As Estelle skipped up the stairs to start
packing, Mrs. Fisher looked up. There were tears in her eyes.
‘Isn’t there a way we can make this easier for her? I don’t want
her to get hurt.’ She started crying openly, and he put his arm
around her.

‘No, my love. If we cushion the blow by just
telling her, there will be all sorts of denials, and she will never
have any certainty. Her decision to either marry him or not must be
based on absolute reality. We must be prepared to give her a lot of
support in the coming days, and you must brace yourself for the
emotional crisis that lies ahead. I’m convinced that this is the
only way that will solve the problem cleanly and clearly, either
way. May God give her strength and help her to do the right
thing.’

Mrs. Fisher buried her face in her hands and
cried bitterly.

At the same moment that the Fokker Friendship
had touched down at Phalaborwa airport, Linda and Sam sat down to a
huge breakfast if impala liver with all the trimmings, expertly
prepared by Job. Linda hated liver, but seeing that Sam obviously
took pride in the abilities of his house boy, she had no option but
to tuck in with great gusto.

She had washed her hair while he had been
busy with the radio session, and he was once again awed by the
invigorating sense of wholesome cleanliness that she radiated. She
was truly one of the most striking women ever.

‘I spoke to Louis after session this morning.
He’s invited us to lunch. Let’s pack ourselves a cool box and
cruise the fire breaks, and if we don’t waste too much time along
the way we should be at Louis’s place at about noon. How about
it?’

She was not very keen on spending the day
sharing Sam with someone else, but knowing the deep friendship that
existed between the two men, she decided to play along. ‘Sounds
wonderful. But isn’t it a bit dicey for us to visit your friends in
the Park together?’

‘No problem. Louis’s house is quite secluded
from the other personnel homes. One of the perks of being a game
ranger is that you enjoy the privilege of privacy, seeing that the
rangers never live inside a rest camp like the rest of the
personnel.’ He did not think it was necessary that he should also
point out that fact that the main reason for travelling along the
fire breaks was that they would not run into anybody else. They
would pass through the territories of two other rangers, but he had
alerted them to the fact that he would be travelling through their
divisions. Had he not done this, the presence of his tyre tracks
would have caused a furore. Unexplained tyre tracks on closed roads
in one’s territory were always followed up. Apart from the fact
that it could be poachers, it could also be a daring but dumb
tourist intent on trying to spot game in a totally undisturbed
environment. A person not familiar with the network of fire breaks
criss-crossing the 20,000 square kilometres of the Park, could get
hopelessly lost. And a breakdown on one of these seldomly used
tracks was very likely to lead to great hardship and even violent
death if the tourist was not well versed in the finer points of
survival in this particular environment.

This time Sam was not all that keen of
travelling the whole distance to Louis’s house along fire breaks.
He would, for a change, have preferred to take the Porsche and
travel comfortably along the tarred road, luxuriating in the smell
of the leather upholstery, and swilling cold Castles in the
air-conditioned comfort of the exquisitely engineered car. But
then, the bumpy ride in the Toyota would eliminate the chance of
anyone spotting him with Linda, and the fire breaks usually offered
a far better chance of encountering interesting wildlife that the
crowded tourist roads.

The spotlight and rifle were still in the
truck, and they just replenished their stocks of beer and ice.

During their three-and-a-half-hour trip they
encountered practically everything, including the scarce sable
antelope and some cheetah.

An incident that had Linda ecstatic occurred
early in their trip. They were descending towards a drift in one of
the smaller streams when they noticed a wild goose lying in the
road just on the other side of the water. It was flapping its wings
weakly, honking and hissing and kicking up a tremendous row, out of
the all proportion to its size. Sam stopped immediately and started
scanning the bush on either side of the road. Where the road had
interfered with the flow of the stream, it had formed a smallish
pond, heavily overgrown with reeds. Under the overhang of the
opposite bank five small ducklings were silently paddling around in
circles.

‘Poor thing,’ Linda said observing the
goose’s struggles. ‘Do the chicks have any chance of surviving on
their own?’

‘On their own, no. But I don’t think it will
come to that. Just watch this.’

They sat for a full minute observing the
death struggles of the big bird.

‘Wouldn’t it be more humane if you just put
her out of her misery, Sam. I can’t watch this any longer.’

‘Patience, my beauty, patience. That is
something you beautiful females don’t have. Relax and observe. You
are going to see something spectacular.’

Lacking patience, she thought, smiling
inwardly. Boy, have I got a pleasant surprise for you.

It happened so fast she nearly missed it. One
moment the goose was alone in the road, and next moment the leopard
was where the goose had been. For a second the silly thought
crossed her mind that the bird had changed into a leopard, but ten
yards up the road the goose was still struggling and hissing. The
leopard charged once more, and the bird barely managed to stay just
out of reach of the lethal claws. Sam started the truck and
followed at a discreet distance. When the leopard couldn’t reach
the bird with the initial full-tilt charge, it slowed down to a
trot, the goose managing to stay just out of reach. This went on
for some distance, and the perplexed leopard stopped. So did the
goose. The moment the goose remained in one spot, the leopard
zeroed in on it once more, moving like a spotted streak of
lightning. The bird once again managed to keep just out of reach.
The previous scene was repeated once again, until the leopard and
the bird were once more static in the road. The leopard sat down,
eyes riveted on its prey. The bird, now apparently exhausted beyond
the point of recovery, was lying in the dirt spread-eagled. Even
the honking and hissing had subsided considerably. It was clear
that the leopard was also feeling the strain of the extended chase.
It was used to surprising its prey and killing it on the spot. It
was not in the leopard’s nature to chase something over long
distances and it was tiring visibly. The leopard was apparently
losing interest in the elusive bird, but it perked up once more as
the bird again started struggling along feebly, trying to put some
distance between itself and its pursuer.

‘Oh no,’ Linda moaned as the spotted cat
walked up to the bird again. Miraculously, the distance between
them remained exactly the same. This had been going on for more
than a kilometre now, and the leopard had reached the end of its
tether.

With a frustrated grunt the leopard charged
once again. Linda couldn’t believe her eyes. The bird had made a
miraculous recovery, and it took to flight, honking loudly. It
turned in a wide circle, gaining altitude, and the leopard sat down
in the middle of the road. Linda could not help laughing at the
dejected attitude of the cat. It actually looked as if it felt the
goose had been cheating in a game of gentlemen. The leopard started
licking the fur on one of its front paws, glanced at the Toyota
over its shoulder, and haughtily sauntered off into the tall
grass.

At this stage they were both laughing so
hard, the tears were streaming down their faces. ‘Oh Sam that was
the most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life!’ She threw
her arms around his neck and hugged him. ‘This is a weekend I will
never forget as long as I live. The leopard actually looked as if
it was feeling embarrassed about being caught for a sucker in front
of an audience. And you predicted it. How did you know?’

‘The moment I saw the ducklings I realised
the mother was trying to draw the leopard away before he noticed
them. I saw this happen once before, years ago, but I must admit
that this goose knew her stuff. She was really cutting it fine, and
at one stage I thought that she had underestimated the leopard. I
think us humans can learn a lot from the animals about parental
love and sacrifice.’

As she looked into his eyes her pupils
dilated with emotion, and the scary word was on the tip of her
tongue once again. It took tremendous effort to restrain herself
from saying it so, just to say something and break the spell, she
suggested an early-morning beer, for which she didn’t have any
desire at this stage.

‘What a precious thought,’ came the
predictable response.

Her hand was casually resting on his knee as
they entered Louis’s yard. Louis had one of his rangers stationed
at the gate especially for his guests, and they drove straight in.
As they got out, it immediately struck Sam that only the
Staffordshire bitch was there to greet him. He was still scanning
the yard for Rommel as Louis rounded the corner.

Louis was clearly in a jovial mood. ‘Hello,
Linda. Growing more beautiful by the day! Small wonder our friend
here hasn’t been himself lately. How is everybody? And how is my
smitten friend?’ He was grinning hugely as he slammed the flat of
his hand between Sam’s shoulder blades.

While Sam was contemplating the feasibility
of kicking Louis in the crotch he smiled amiably. ‘How are you, my
man,’ returning the slap with interest. ‘Where is Rommel?’

Louis’s face fell. ‘Mamba.’

To Sam this was adequate explanation. ‘Hell,
sorry to hear about that.’

‘That’s the way it goes. Come along. The
fire’s been going for quite some time, we had expected you earlier.
We’ll just chuck on some more wood to give us time to bend some
brownies.’

Louis was referring to the dark brown dumpy
bottles in which their favourite brand of beer was also
available.

Sam stopped in his tracks. ‘We?’

‘Yes, we. Do you think I am some kind of
recluse or something? Let me introduce you to Yvonne.’

Yvonne proved to be a very likeable girl with
a great sense of humour. She either did not know that Sam was
engaged to someone else, or she handled the situation like a true
champion. Normally a certain amount of condemnation would have been
in evidence in a situation like this, but Yvonne just plunged into
the conversation spontaneously, and evidently enjoyed the
company.

Linda was immediately at ease, and the day
turned out to be a huge success.

Estelle was in her seventh heaven as she
stopped the yellow Citi Golf in front of Sam’s gate and tapped the
horn twice. She had dropped her dad off at reception in Satara
earlier, and in her excitement had failed to notice his worried
expression as they parted. She had not been to Nwanetzi for months,
and frowned at the condition of the garden. The ancient Job
shuffling towards the gate was in for a nasty surprise in a few
months’ time. The days of leisurely lounging around were definitely
going to come to an abrupt halt when she became the madam of this
establishment. There was no way she was going to raise kids in a
jungle like this. The bush on the outside of the fence actually
looked in better shape than the garden itself. Sam always said he
was happy as long as he had a nicely trimmed green lawn and to hell
with the rest. Hence the condition of the flower beds. Hell, for
all you knew there could be a herd of buffalo living in this
garden, and nobody would be any the wiser.