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Should she wait here, or follow them down the draw?
Her eyes haunted, her mouth hard set with doubts, she sat and twisted the braid of her hair around one finger in a nervously restless gesture.
Then Mohammed came. Suddenly he appeared out of the thicket beside her, and Rosa jumped up with a low cry of relief. The cry died in her throat as she saw his face.
Mohamed said. "He is hurt. The great elephant has broken his bones and he lies in pain. He asks for you." Rosa stared at him,
appalled, not understanding.
An elephant?"
"He followed Plough the Earth, the great elephant,
and killed him. But in dying the elephant struck him, breaking him."
"The fool. Oh, the fool!" Rosa whispered. "Now of all times. With
Sebastian in danger, he must..." And then she caught herself and broke off her futile lament. "Where is he, Mohammed? Take me to him."
Mohammed led along one of the game paths, Rosa ran behind him. There was no time for caution, no thought of it as they hurried to find
Fly
staying on the near bank. They plunged through a field of arrow grass,
skirted around a tiny swamp and ran on into a stand of buffalo thorn.
As they emerged on the far side Mohammed stopped abruptly and looked at the sky.
The vultures turned in a high wheel against the blue, like debris in a lazy whirlwind. The spot above which they circled lay half a mile ahead.
"Daddy!" Rosa choked on the word. In an instant all the hardness accumulated since that night at Lalapanzi disappeared from her face.
"Daddy!" she said again, and then she ran in earnest.
Brushing past Mohammed, throwing her rifle aside so it clattered on the earth, she darted out of the buffalo thorn and into the open.
"Wait, Little Long Hair. Be careful." Mohammed started after her.
In his agitation he stepped carelessly, full on to a fallen twig from the buffalo thorn. There was a worn spot on the sole of his sandal,
and three inches of cruet red tipped thorn drove up through it and buried in his foot.
For a dozen paces he struggled on after Rosa, hopping on one leg,
flapping his arms to maintain his balance and calling, but not too loudly.
"Wait! Be careful, Little Long Hair." But she took not the least heed, and went away from him, leaving him at last to sink down and tend to his wounded foot.
She crossed the open ground before the fever-tree grove with the slack, blundering steps of exhaustion. Ru
and a drop of perspiration fell into her eye, blurring her vision so she staggered against one of the trunks. She recovered her balance and ran on into the midst of them.
She recognized Herman Fleischer instantly. She had run almost against his chest, and his huge body towered over her. She screamed with shock and twisted away from the beanlike arms outspread to clutch her.
Two of the native Askari who were working over the crude litter on which lay Fly
They caught her between them, and dragged her struggling and screaming to where Herman Fleischer waited.
"Ah, so!" Fleischer nodded pleasantly in greeting. "You have come in time for the fun." Then he turned to his sergeant. "Have them tie the woman." Rosa's screams penetrated the light mists of insensibility that screened Fly
"Leave her!" he roared. "Call those bloody animals off her.
Leave her, you murderous bloody German bastard."
"Good!" said Herman
Fleischer. "You are awake now." Then he lifted his voice above Fly
There was a hangman's knot fixed in the rope, ready for use.
"Set the knot, said Fleischer, and the sergeant went to where
Fly
The sergeant stooped over him, and Fly
Fly