‘It’s marvellous.’
‘When you come back another time we must take a safari to study the natives. And shoot nothing, or only to eat. Look, I will show you a dance and sing a song.’
Crouched, elbows lifting and falling, knees humping, he shuffled around the table, singing. Undoubtedly it was very fine.
‘That is only one of a thousand,’ he said. ‘Now I must go for a time. You will be sleeping.’
‘There’s no hurry. Stay around.’
‘No. Surely you will be sleeping. I also. I will take the butter to keep it cool.’
‘We’ll see you at supper,’ Pop said.
‘Now you must sleep. Good-bye.’
After he was gone, Pop said: ‘I wouldn’t believe all that about the Aga Khan, you know.’
‘It sounded pretty good.’
‘Of course he feels badly,’ Pop said. ‘Who wouldn’t. Von Lettow was a hell of a man.’
‘He’s very intelligent,’ my wife said. ‘He talks wonderfully about the natives. But he’s bitter about American women.’
‘So am I,’ said Pop. ‘He’s a good man. You better get some shut-eye. You’ll need to start about three-thirty.’
‘Have them call me.’
Molo raised the back of the tent, propping it with sticks, so the wind blew through and I went to sleep reading, the wind coming in cool and fresh under the heated canvas.
When I woke it was time to go. There were rain clouds in the sky and it was very hot. They had packed some tinned fruit, a five-pound piece of roast meat, bread, tea, a tea pot, and some tinned milk in a whisky box with four bottles of beer. There was a canvas water bag and a ground cloth to use as a tent. M’Cola was taking the big gun out to the car.
‘There’s no hurry about getting back,’ Pop said. ‘We’ll look for you when we see you.’
‘All right.’
‘We’ll send the lorry to haul that sportsman into Handeni. He’s sending his men ahead walking.’
‘You’re sure the lorry can stand it? Don’t do it because he’s a friend of mine.’
‘Have to get him out. The lorry will be in to-night.’
‘The Memsahib’s still asleep,’ I said. ‘Maybe she can get out for a walk and shoot some guineas?’
‘I’m here,’ she said. ‘Don’t worry about us. {Oh}, I hope you get them.’
‘Don’t send out to look for us along the road until day after to-morrow,’ I said. ‘If there’s a good chance we’ll stay.’
‘Good luck.’
‘Good luck, sweet. Good-bye, Mr. J. P.’
CHAPTER TWO
We were out from under the shade of camp and along the sandy river of a road, driving into the western sun, the bush thick to the edge of the sand, solid as a thicket, the little hills rising above it, and all along the road we passed groups of people making their way to the westward. Some were naked except for a greasy cloth knotted over one shoulder, and carried bows and sealed quivers of arrows. Others carried spears. The wealthy carried umbrellas and wore draped white cloth and their women walked behind them, with their pots and pans. Bundles and loads of skins were scattered along ahead on the heads of other natives. All were travelling away from the famine. And in the heat, my feet out over the side of the car to keep them away from the heat of the engine, hat low over the eyes against the sun, watching the road, the people, and all clearings in the bush for game, we drove to the westward.
Once we saw three lesser kudu cows in an open place of broken bush. Grey, big bellied, long necked, small headed, and with big ears, they moved quickly into the woods and were gone. We left the car and tracked them but there was no bull track.
A little beyond there a flock of guineas quick-legged across the road running steady-headed with the motion of trotters. As I jumped from the car and sprinted after them they rocketed up, their legs tucked close beneath them, heavy-bodied, short wings drumming, cackling, to go over the trees ahead. I dropped two that thumped hard when they fell and as they lay, wings beating, Abdullah cut their heads off so they would be legal eating. He put them in the car where M’Cola sat laughing; his old man’s healthy laugh, his making-fun-of-me laugh, his bird-shooting laugh that dated from a streak of raging misses one time that had delighted him. Now when I killed, it was a joke, as when we shot a hyena, the funniest joke of all. He laughed always to see the birds tumble and when I missed he roared and shook his head again and again.