.5

Chapter 34

Over the next few months the crater settled into a routine.

Through they're new found friendship with the Maasi, the Gurkhas were able to barter for goats, and soon had a herd of twenty... goat milk and flesh being a favourite of the Gurkha diet.

Susan along with Martin and Jill visited the Maasi to tend to the sick and to check their cattle.

The Gurkhas' wives had taken over the husbandry of the dairy herd and fresh milk, buttermilk and cheese became plentiful. Ali's hens provided eggs and little Tampa had taken over the job of looking after them.

Patar had confirmed that twenty-four of the mares were now in foal, whilst Martin had used the Maasi bull to service three of the Hereford cows.

David, with N'debi acting as gun bearer spent days out hunting in the hills and plains of Khana Crater.

One night camped high in the hills above the crater David asked how N'debi had come here to this land.

N'debi had looked into the fire before replying. "The Matabele were beaten in a war with the White Africans from the south. They came into our land and took it with guns; we tried to fight them but a spear is useless against a gun Bwana."

David nodded, "But don't you hate the white man for what he did?" he asked softly.

N'debi shrugged his shoulders, "The white man won, why should I hate him. We won battles with other tribes; it is the way of war. When we lost, we lost everything; our cattle and our homes. We came here to make a new life, and we have started that life with you Bwana."

"This is a beautiful land with room for everyone N'debi."

N'debi shook his head. "This is a man's land, where the strong prevail, but a land has to be won by work and effort," N'debi murmured, "And it has to be guarded, from slavers and poachers."

"Do you think the slavers will come back?" David asked him.

"Yes Bwana, they will return for slaves and ivory and the horn of the rhino. It is their way to take everything by force."

"Then we must dissuade then like we did at the gorge, my friend," David murmured.

"That was only a small band, Bwana. They come in big canoes and then once on land they break up into bands and go in different directions, returning to the canoes to load the slaves and ivory. Some of the tribes give them ivory to leave them alone."

"Then we must give them lead and steel to leave our lands alone," David replied grimly.

With N'debi's help as translator, he asked the chief of the Maasi if he could give them warning of any slavers entering their country.

The chief had replied that the herd boys communicated with each other from hilltops, giving warnings if lions or other predators were about. In this manner several hundreds of miles could be observed. He would tell them to report if any slavers were seen.

Two weeks later he was in Nairobi to pick up some timber. As it was going to take some time to have it cut to his specifications, he decided to have a drink in the local pub.

Inside the bar was a group of men he knew who were professional hunters and ran safaris for wealthy clients.

He bought his drink and went over to join them, knowing most of them from past visits to the pub.

They welcomed him as he sat down. Stanley Barr, one of the best hunters was telling of a client who had run after wounding an elephant, and Stanley had to kill it.

"The poor man had literally shit himself," he told the audience, to general laughter.

Ron Barlow, another hunter turned to David, "I hear on the grapevine you had a run in with slavers some time back David."

He nodded and with some urging from them told them the story.

At the end Stanley murmured, "Good riddance, they're the scum of the earth."

That started everyone off about slavers. It seemed they affected the safari business when it was known they were present; they had to move rapidly in the opposite direction.

"But surely they wouldn't attack a safari?" David asked.

Ron replied, "If they thought they had the element of surprise they would, or if there were white women in the safari. White women bring the biggest reward for them."

Stanley took up the story. "Three years ago John Bishop took a young American couple and their eight year old daughter out on Safari.

They found the bones of them all, after the hyenas had finished with them, but no woman's or child's bones. By the time a search party got under way they were long gone."

"Can't the government do anything about them?" David asked.

Ron chuckled "The local police commissioner has twelve Askari's to police an area the size of Wales."

"Perhaps when we are brought into the Empire things may change, but at the moment it's up to the individual to fend for himself," Stanley added.

That night David sat on the stoop with Susan and told her of the conversation with the men in the bar.

"From now on when you and Jill go out of the crater you take a Gurkha escort, and I've got you and Jill these to wear," as he produced two holstered belts from behind the chair he was sitting on. There was a .38 pistol in each holster.

Susan looked shocked. "I'm not wearing that! I've never fired a firearm in my life," she said firmly.

"Susan, have you any idea what happens to a white woman taken by slavers. But even without them, out in the bush or here, there are dangers... snakes or leopards or even lions. I'm not saying you have to kill them. The pistol is not big enough for that, but the noise it makes may scare them away."

Susan could see that he was earnest, and reluctantly nodded her head.

"I'll show you and Jill how to use them tomorrow."

Jill had used firearms before; he leant, when he took the girls accompanied with Martin to a quite spot by the wall.

He showed them how to hold the pistol with two hands to steady it and how to cock it and squeeze the trigger, before actually loading them. Then he showed them how to apply the safety.

They started out firing at cans he had put up on the rock face ten feet away. But once they had overcome the noise and recoil of the pistols, he had them move back twenty feet. After a couple of hours both girls could hit a can with two out of three shots.

As they rode back to the house Susan joked that she felt like Annie Oakley.

But three weeks later she shot the head off a Black Mamba that had got into the chicken coop whilst Tamba was feeding them. After that she always wore her pistol.

David killed his first lion, when they received a message from the Maasi chief that a lion had become a man-eater and had killed four of the young herd boys.

He took the .375 rifle, and N'debi with him to the village where he spoke to the chief around the council fire.

The chief explained that normally his warriors would kill the lion, but this one was wise to the ways of the Maasi, in that it would not allow itself to be surrounded by the warriors.

"It is an old lion," he said, "that can't hunt game anymore. But man was an easy prey for it."

David agreed to help then he and N'debi were shown to a hut; they would stay in the village until it struck again.

Three days later a young herd boy came running into the village. The lion had killed a calf and was eating it.

Telling the chief to keep the warriors in the village, he set off with N'debi and the young boy back to where the lion was. After travelling about a quarter of a mile, the boy stopped and whispered to N'debi, then darted back towards the village.

N'debi tested the air by allowing some dried stalks of grass to flutter down from his hand.

"We are downwind of him Bwana". David slid the safety of the rifle and slowly began to walk forward through the tall grass.

They had only gone a hundred yards before they heard and smelt the fresh stink of a ruptured bowel and the sound of the lion ripping flesh.

They moved slowly now placing each foot down carefully; N'debi stopped and raised his arm. David moved slowly up alongside of him as N'debi slowly pointed toward what looked like a clump of the long grass.

It took David a moment or two before he could see a cloud of flies darting about near the grass. They were only fifty feet away from where the lion was feasting and he knew if it charged he would only have time for one shot.

He took another step further, and then froze as the lion gave a terrifying roar. Somehow it had sensed them. The grass parted as it came into view crawling on its stomach. It was huge; its face was covered in blood from the calf and its ruff showed its age, ragged and bare in places.

It was crouched down with its tail slashing back and forward. "It will charge Bwana," N'debi warned.

David had the rifle to his shoulder; then with a roar the lion launched itself at him with a speed that was frightening. It was less than twenty feet away when he fired. The big .375 bullet entering its head turning its brain into mush; the body skidded along the ground to stop six feet from him.

David slowly let his breath out as he lowered the rifle.

N'debi looked at him with new respect. "It is well the Bwana can shoot, for I feared I would be taking home a body," he said with a smile.

They examined the lion's carcass. "It must be nearly nine feet long," David thought.

N'debi called him over to look at something. "This is why he turned man killer Bwana.

His neck had been bitten and it is infected, and so has his hind leg."

David looked at where a wound, crawling with maggots was festering on its neck.

"It must have been in great pain. It had been in a fight for ruler of the pride, and a younger lion won... it was banished," N'debi murmured. "But at least this way it died a warrior."

The villagers came out and skinned the lion, offering it to David but he insisted that N'debi have it saying it was he who had found it.

When they set off back to the crater, Kahn was skittish about the smell of lion skin as N'debi jogged alongside of him.

"The rains will come soon Bwana and then the slavers will return," N'debi said.

"How do you know that?" David asked.

"When the rivers fill they can bring their canoes up it, sometimes up to the great water," he replied.

David knew the great water was Lake Victoria. "Then we must be on the lookout for them N'debi," David murmured.

Chapter 35

The rains came a month later and the hills resounded to the harsh crack of thunder, whilst the night sky was lit with jagged sheets of lightning. The rain came in a downpour that within seconds drenched anyone out in it.

The track became a road of cloying mud, which made the use of wagons impossible.

The cattle and horses were brought into the paddocks for safety against stampeding.

For two weeks the rains never let up by day or night.

Until one day it dawned with clear blue skies, and the sun was seen again. As the sun climbed into the cloudless sky steam rose from the buildings and ground.

Everyone was busy repairing roofs that had leaked or where fences had collapsed.

Martin along with two Gurkhas took the wagon into Nairobi to buy canvas and wood.

When he returned a week later, he told David that he had heard, from a train conductor that four Arab dhows had been sighted moored up in Zanzibar by the steamship from England. According to the train conductor the dhows were known to belong to slavers. "The news was over three weeks old, but if they were slavers then the dhows would be making slow progress up the river against the flooded waters," David thought.

David consulted his maps and from what he had learned of the slavers, he knew they would want to be well away from any local authority before setting out on their murderous raids.

He called for N'debi and after a long deliberation they decided on a spot on the river where it narrowed; a hundred and ninety miles from the sea.

N'debi said that it was normally full of rocks, but with the high river water it would be possible to pull the dhows through, but would take time to do so.

David issued orders to Rham to have the Ghurkhas ready for a week's travel the following day. With N'debi as their guide they set off next morning. Along with them they took two mules to carry their rations.

It took five days of hard riding to reach the hills that bordered the river.

N'debi stopped in a narrow pass, "Bwana it is best if I go alone from here, to find the slavers,"

David nodded, as he and the Gurkhas dismounted. They watered and fed the horses and mules while they waited for N'debi's return.

Five hours passed and it was late afternoon before he returned.

"The slavers are in the gorge Bwana, pulling their canoes up through it. They already have two canoes above the gorge. They have returned to their camp now to make their meal. Bwana there are many slavers."

They followed N'debi leading their horses by their reins. He stopped again at the base of a steep ridge. "It is best to leave the horses here Bwana and go the rest of the way on foot."

Only N'debi and Rham went with David to scout the slavers camp. It took nearly an hour to reach a position from where they could look down upon them.

Using his telescope, David could see that the slavers had set up camp below the fast flowing gorge on a sandbar and two dhows were tied to the shore.

They had erected two large tents and several smaller ones. David tried to count how many of them there were and in the end giving up, as the slavers moved around so much, but he guessed about a hundred and fifty.

He noticed long barrelled rifles were stacked by the tents ready for instant use.

They backed away from the edge of the gorge, and then made their way to its entrance, some nine hundred yards away.

They saw the two dhows that had been drawn through the gorge; the men on board were eating a meal.

David, satisfied with the reconnaissance went back to join the other Gurkhas.

That night he outlined his plan to them.

"They will be most vulnerable when they are pulling the boats upstream as they will need every man on the ropes. When they get half way up the gorge, that's when we attack. In the confusion they may let go of the ropes and the boat will be washed down stream.

Once they start to fire back at us we will retreat.

There are too many of them to get involved in a pitched battle, so we will adopt hit and run tactics against them.

One man must stay with the horses to keep them safe; so that when we retreat we can ride away and then circle back."

All the Gurkhas wanted to be in the attacking force. In the end N'debi said he would stay behind, but added, "When they are closer I will be there to wash my spear."

That night while chewing on biltong, they checked their rifles. It was a night without a fire again.

They moved into position silently as the first rays of sunlight lit up the hills above the river.

The men stayed below the rim, as David and Rham crawled on their bellies to the edge.

Looking down stream through the telescope, David could see the slavers' camp stirring.

It took over an hour before he saw five men wade out and board a dhow.

He watched as they attached two ropes to the bow of it, and then as one took the tiller, the others picked up long poles and took up positions, two on either side of the boat.

It seemed as if half of the camp had crossed the river to the bank on their side of the river, whilst the other half picked up the rope and arranged themselves along it.

A man in a green turban, who appeared to be their leader was shouting out instructions. As the men began to pull, David watched as the rope lifted from the river.

Rham and David slid back to where the main group of Gurkhas waited.

"My shot will be the signal to open fire, Rham and I will concentrate our fire on the men in the boat. Spread out above us and concentrate on the men pulling the rope. There are others on our side of the river, but they don't have any weapons with them, and we cannot see them.

At the command "Retreat", make your way back to the horses."

The men crawled back up to the rim carrying their rifles and ammunition belts.

David turned to Rham, "I'll take out the leader in the green turban; you take out the man on the tiller, and then the pole men." Rham nodded.

He watched as the men pulling on the rope passed, and sighted on the green turban, sliding the safety off. He judged the range was about five hundred yards as he gently squeezed the trigger. The .303 jolted back into his shoulder then he worked the bolt putting another bullet into the breech.

The man was down as he switched target to one of the pole men. He fired and moved on to another. Then no one was standing on the boat.

He looked along the line of the rope pullers; gaps had appeared in it either from men who had been shot, or men who were scampering to take cover. Screams and yells echoed from within the gorge. The boat was turning side on to the current and slowly moving back down it, as the men on the other rope tried to hold it.

Some of them came into view on their side as they were pulled into the river, and the Gurkhas shot them.

Suddenly the boat started drifting back faster as the rope was released.

David watched as some of the men ran back to get their rifles.

"Retreat!" he shouted above the rifle fire, and moved back from the lip of the gorge.

They rode for about five miles away from the river, finally stopping on a hill that gave a good view of the veld in front of the ridge that guarded the gorge, and made camp.

A guard was placed using David's telescope and a head count was organised, while a fire was lit on the reverse side of the hill and a hot meal prepared.

"Colonel Sahib, we seemed to have killed or wounded, between thirty-five and forty, by what the men tell me," Rham reported.

David nodded, "We will stay here for a day or so. They will be on their guard now but tomorrow at sunset we will send a scout to see what they are doing," David murmured.

"I will go Bwana," N'debi said. "They will not see me if I do not wish to be seen."

The guard reported figures moving around the ridge by the river, but after a few hours they had disappeared again.

David watched with satisfaction as the Gurkhas cleaned their rifles, after tending to the horses without needing to be told.

It was cold up on the hill that night once the sun had gone down and the inky black night shone with a thousand stars, as the night sounds of the veld echoed around them.

Wrapped up in his blanket, David heard the guard changing as he drifted off to sleep.

He was sipping his coffee the next morning when Rham reported the lookouts had seen several figures standing on the rim of the gorge.

"So the boats must still be in the gorge, David mused. "They will be anxious to prevent a reoccurrence of yesterday Rham. We will wait to see what N'debi has to say when he returns tomorrow."

As their rations were running low he gave permission for two of the Gurkhas to hunt for an antelope, but warned them to head well out into the veld for at least a few miles, so that their gunshots would not alarm the slavers.

N'debi returned that night, appearing like a thief into the firelight. One of the Gurkhas passed him some meat from the roasting antelope as he crouched before the fire warming himself first before talking.

"Bwana, the slavers are working on a canoe below the fast water; they have it on its side and are working on the wood of it. The two canoes above the fast water are being loaded with things. I think the slavers are going to use these canoes to go on upriver."

David thanked N'debi, then sat and thought of what he had said.

Did the slavers intend to split up, the two dhows continuing upriver, leaving the other two behind, if so, then they would have to divide their force.

He called N'debi over to him, "N'debi where would the slavers go upriver, do you know?"