The Sound of Thunder (23 page)

Then suddenly there was a squelching popping escape of swamp gas around Sean’s chest, and the beast began to move. Slowly at first, reluctantly up through the ooze showed the swell of its rump-then faster, as the mud lost its hold, until, with a final belch and sigh, it yielded and Sean came to his feet holding the legs above the surface-the cow lying exhausted on her side.

“Hell’s teeth!” breathed the boy in open admiration. For a moment the beast lay quiescent, then realizing that its legs were free, it began to struggle, thrashing wildly to regain them.

“Hold the head,” shouted Sean, and blundered sideways until he could grab its tail and prevent it from attempting to stand.

When the animal was quiet again he began to drag it, moving backwards, towards the firm ground. Like a bob sleigh the carcass slid easily over the carpet of mud and flattened reeds until it grounded.

Then Sean jumped clear while she struggled up, stood a moment and then lumbered unsteadily away into the trees.

Sean and his son stood together, gasping, covered with filth, still ankle-deep in mud, watching the cow disappear.

“Thanks. I’d never have done it on my own, sir.” The form of address and the boy’s tone touched something deep in Sean.

“It needed two of us,” he agreed. “What’s your name?”

“Courtney, sir. Michael Courtney.” He held out his hand towards Sean.

“Nice to meet you, Mike.” Sean took the hand.

“I know you, don’t I, sir? I am sure I’ve seen you before-it’s been worrying me.”

“I don’t think so.” With an effort Sean kept his feelings from showing in his voice and face.

“I’d … I’d count it an honour to know your name.” As Michael spoke a shyness came upon them both.

What can I tell him? thought Sean. For I must not he-and yet I cannot tell him the truth.

“My God, what a bloody mess,” he laughed instead. “We stink like we’ve been dead ten days.

Michael seemed to notice their condition for the first time.

“Ma will have a hernia when she sees me,” he laughed also, then, “Come up to the house. It’s not far from here. Have lunch with us and you can clean up-the servants will wash your clothes for YOU.

“No. Sean shook his head. “I must get back to Ladyburg.

“Please. I’d like you to meet my mother. My father’s not here-he’s at the war. But, please come home with me.

He really wants me to. As Sean looked into his son’s eyes the warm feeling that he had been struggling to suppress flooded up from his chest and he felt his face flush with the pleasure of it.

“Mike,” he spoke slowly, groping for the right words.

“Things are a bit difficult right now. I can’t take you up on the invitation. But I’d like to see you again and I’ll be through this way one day. Shall we leave it until then? ” “Oh! ” Michael made no attempt to hide his disappointment.

“Anyway, I’ll ride with you as far as the bridge.”

“Good. ” Sean picked up his shirt and wiped off the surplus mud, while Michael unhitched their horses.

They rode slowly, in silence at first with the shyness Still] on them. Then they started to talk, and quickly the barriers between them crumbled. With a feeling of pride that was ridiculous in the circumstances, Sean became aware of the quickness of Michael’s brain, the ease of expression unusual in one so young, and the maturity of his views.

They spoke of Theuniskraal.

“It’s a good farm.” There was pride in Michael’s voice. “My family has owned it since 1867. ” “You’re not running much stock,”

Sean grunted.

“Pa has had a run of bad luck. The rinderpest hit us but we’ll build it up again-you wait and see. ” He was silent a moment, then, “Pa’s not really a cattleman, instead of putting money into stock he spends it on horses-like Beauty here. ” He patted the neck of his magnificent golden mare. “I’ve tried to argue with him, but-” Then he realized that he was steering close to the lee shore of disloyalty, and he checked himself then went on hurriedly: “Don’t misunderstand me, my father is an unusual man. Right now he’s on the army staff-a colonel, and one of General Buller’s right-hand men. He is a holder of the Victoria Cross for bravery, and he has been awarded the D.S.O. for the job he is doing now.

Yes, thought Sean, I have defended Garry also; many times, as often as you will by the time you reach my age. In understanding he changed the direction of the conversation.

They spoke of the future: “So you want to be a farmer, then?”

“I love this place. I was born here. To me it is not just a piece of land and a house. It is part of a tradition to which I belong built by men of whom I am proud. After Pa, I will be the only one left to continue it. I won’t fail that trust. But .

They had reached the rise above the road, and Michael stopped and looked at Sean as though trying to make up his mind how much he should tell this stranger.

“But?” Sean prompted him gently. For a moment longer Michael stared at him, trying to account for his certainty in this man-for the conviction he had that he could trust him beyond all other men on earth. He felt that he had known him all his life, and between them was something so strong-so good and strong as to be almost tangible.

“But,” he jerked himself back to their conversation, “that is not all. I want something beyond just land and cattle. It’s so difficult to explain. My grandfather was a big man; he worked with people as well as animals. He had … you do understand me, don’t you?

“I drink so,” Sean nodded. “You feel you’d like to make a place for yourself in the scheme of things. ” “Yes, that’s it. I’d like to make decisions other than when to cull and when to brand, or where to build a new dip-tank.

“What are you going to do about it then? ” “Well, I’m at Cape Town University. This is my third year, I’ll have my degree by Christmas.

“Then what?

“I don’t know, but I’ll find something. ” Then Michael smiled.

“There’s a lot to learn first. Sometimes when I realize how much it frightens me a little. ” They walked their horses down towards the road, so completely absorbed in each other that neither of them noticed the buggy coming towards them from the direction of Ladyburg; until it was almost on them, Then Michael glanced up. “Hey! Here comes my mother.

Now you can meet her.

With a sense of dread numbing him, Sean realized he was trapped.

There was no escape-the buggy was less than fifty yards away, and he could see Anna sitting up behind the coloured driver staring at them.

Michael shouted,

“Hello, Ma!” “Michael! Whatever have you been doing? Look at you!”

There was a shrewishness in her voice now. The years had treated Anna in the manner she deserved, had sharpened her features and exaggerated the catlike set of her eyes. She turned those eyes on Sean and she frowned. The frown cut deep grooves in her forehead and showed the heavy lines of flesh beneath her chin.

“Who’s that with you?” she asked Michael.

“A friend. He helped me free a bogged animal. You should have seen him, Ma. He lifted it clean out of the mud.”

Sean saw that she was expensively dressed, ostentatiously so for a farmer’s wife on a working day. Velvet and ostrich feathers-those pearls must have cost Garry a small fortune. The rig was new, polished black lacquer picked out with scarlet, and brass fittings-another few hundred pounds” worth. Sean ran his eyes over the horses, matched bays, blood stock-Jesus! be thollo.

Anna was still frowning at him, recognition and doubt mixed in her expression. She was starting to flush, her lips trembling.

“Hello, Anna.”

“Sean!” She spat the word.

“It’s been a long time. How are you?”

Her eyes slanted venomously. She hardly moved her lips as she snapped at Michael,

“Get away from that man!”

“But … ” The bewildered look on Michael’s face hurt Sean like a spear thrust.

“Do as your mother says, Michael,” Sean told him.

“Are you … are you my Uncle Sean?

“Yes.”

“Get away from him, ” shrilled Anna. “Don’t you ever speak to him again. Do you hear me, Michael? He’s evil-evil! Don’t ever let him near you. He’ll destroy you. ” Anna was panting, shaking with rage and hatred, babbling like a mad-woman. “Get off our land, Sean Courtney. Get off Theuniskraal and don’t come on again.”

“Very well, Anna. I’m going.”

“Michael. Get on your horse!” she screamed at him. I

“Hurry.

Come away from him.”

Michael swung up into the saddle.

“Drive on. Drive quickly,” she ordered the coloured coachman. At the touch of the whip the big bays jumped forward and Anna was thrown back against the padded seat. “Come on, Michael. Come home immediately.”

Michael looked across at Sean. He was bewildered, uncertain. “I don’t … I don’t believe that you .

“We’ll talk again some other time, Mike.

And suddenly Michael’s expression changed, the corners of his mouth drooped and his eyes were dark with regret at having found, and lost, so soon.

“No,” he said, lifted his hand in a gesture of farewell, and wheeled his horse. Crouched forward on its neck he drove in savage pursuit of the buggy.

“Michael,” Sean called after him, but he did not seem to hear.

And so Sean went back to war. The farewell was an ordeal. Ada was so brave about it that Sean wanted to shake her and shout,

“Cry, damn you! Get it over with! ” Dirk threw one of his more spectacular fits. He clung to Sean and yelled until he almost suffocated himself.

By the time the train pulled out Sean was in a towering rage that lasted until they reached Pietermaritzburg four hours later.

He took his anger into the saloon on the station and sedated it with half a dozen brandies. Then, with Mbejane carrying his luggage, he worked his way through the crowd on the platform, searching for an empty compartment on the northbound express. As traffic was on military permit only, his fellow travellers were exclusively clad in khaki. A vast, drab throng speckled with gay spots of colour, women who were sending men to war and not very happy about it. The sound of weeping blended with the roar of loud voices, men’s laughter and the occasional squeal of a child. Suddenly, above it all Sean heard his name called. He peered about and saw an arm waving frantically above the heads of the crowd.

“Sean! Hey, Sean!” Saul’s head bobbed into view and then disappeared as he hopped up and down. Sean fought his way through to him and they shook hands delightedly.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Saul demanded.

“Heading back to duty-and you? “A week’s leave just ended.

Came down to see the baby. My God, what luck I spotted you!”

“Is Ruth here?” Sean could not contain the question.

“She’s waiting in the carriage outside.

“I’d like to have a look at this infant.

“Of course. Let’s find a couple of seats first and dump our luggage, then we’ve got twenty minutes before the train leaves.

Sean saw her as they came out on to the front steps of the station building. She sat in an open carriage while a coloured coach boy held a parasol over her. She was dressed in dove-grey with big leg-o’-mutton sleeves slashed with pink and a huge hat Piled with pink roses. Her face was in profile as she leaned forward over the bundle of white lace on her lap. Sean felt the leap in his chest as he looked at the calm lines of her face. He stopped and whispered,

“My God, she’s lovely,”

and beside him Saul laughed with pleasure.

“Wait until you meet my daughter!

She did not see them approach the carriage, she was too intent on her child.

“Ruth, I’ve a surprise for you, ” bubbled Saul. She looked up and Sean was watching her. She went rigid with shock, staring at him while all colour drained away from her face.

“Hello, Ruth. She did not reply immediately. Sean saw her mask her face with a pale impassivity.

“Hello, Sean. You startled me.”

Saul had missed the interplay of their emotions. He was climbing up into the carriage beside her.

“Come, have a look.” Now he was opening the lace shawl, leaning over the infant, his face alight with pride.

Silently Sean climbed up into the carriage and sat opposite them.

“Let Sean hold her, Ruth.” Saul laughed. “Let him get a good look at the loveliest girl in the world.” And he did not notice the way in which Ruth froze again and hugged the child to her protectively.

“Take her, Sean. I promise she’ll not wet you too badly, though she might sick up a little, ” Saul went on happily.

Sean held out his hands for the infant, watching Ruth’s face.

It was defiant, but afraid.

” The colour of her eyes seemed to change a darker bluer grey. The hard lines around her mouth dissolved and her lips quivered pink and moist. She leaned forward and placed her daughter in his arms.

It was a long, slow journey up to Johannesburg-a journey broken by interminable halts. At every siding there was a delay, sometimes of half an hour but usually of three times that length.

Occasionally, without apparent reason, they groaned to a stop in the middle of the veld.

“What the hell is the trouble now?”

“Somebody shoot the driver.”

“Not again!

Protest and comment were shouted by the angry heads that protruded from the windows of every coach. And when the guard trotted up along the

gravel led embanlunent towards the front of the train, he was followed by a chorus of catcalls and hooting.

“Please be patient, gentlemen. We have to check the culverts and bridges.

“The -war’s over.

“What are you worried about?”

“The jolly old Boer is running so hard he hasn’t got time to worry about bridges.

Men climbed down beside the tracks, and stood in small impatient groups until the whistle blew and they scrambled aboard as the train jolted and began crawling forward again.

Sean and Saul sat together in a corner of a crowded compartment and played Klabrias. Because the majority regarded the cold clean high veld air with the same horror as if it had been a deadly cyanide gas, the windows were tightly closed. “he compartment was blue with pipe-smoke and fetid with the smell of a dozen unwashed bodies. The conversation was inevitable.