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No dog can resist the concentrated meat smell and taste of biltong. He
gulped it eagerly. Twice more Akkers fed him the scraps, and Zulu's
eyes glistened and his soft silky muzzle was damp with saliva.
The waiting women in the shade of the veranda were watching with lively
interest now. They had seen this happen before with a dog, and they
waited expectantly.
David was in the building, out of sight. Debra stood blind and
unsuspecting.
Akkers cut a larger piece of the dried meat and offered it to Zulu, but
when he reached for it he pulled his hand away, teasing the dog. With
his taste for biltong now firmly established, Zulu tried again for the
meat as it was offered. Again it was pulled away at the last moment.
Zulu's black wet nose quivered with anxiety, and the soft ears were
cocked.
Akkers walked down the steps with Zulu following him eagerly, and at the
bottom he showed the dog the biltong once more, letting him sniff it.
Then he spoke softly but urgently, Get it, boy, and threw the scrap of
biltong at the base of the baboon's pole. Zulu bounded forward, still
slightly clumsy on his big puppy paws, into the circle of the chain
where the baboon's paws had beaten the earth hard. He ran on under the
pole and grubbed hungrily for the biltong in the dust.
The bull baboon came out of his ke
dropped the fifteen feet through the air; his limbs were spread and his
jaws were open in a snarl like a great red trap, and the fangs were
vicious, long and yellow and spiked. He hit the ground silently, and
his muscles bunched as they absorbed the shock and hurled the long lithe
body feet first at the unsuspecting pup. The baboon crashed into him,
taking him on the shoulder with all the weight of his ninety pounds.
Zulu went down and over, rolling on his back with a startled yelp, but
before he could find his feet or his wits, the baboon was after him.
Debra heard the pup cry, and started forward, surprised but not yet
alarmed.
As he lay on his back, Zulu's belly was unprotected, sparsely covered
with the silken black hair, the immature penis protruding pathetically,
and the baboon went onto him in a crouching leap, pi
powerful furry legs as he bowed his head and buried the long yellow
fangs deep into the pup's belly.
Zulu screamed in dreadful agony, and Debra screamed in sympathy and ran
forward.
Akkers shot out a foot as she passed him and tripped her, sending her
sprawling on her hands and knees.
Leave it, lady, he warned her, still gri
interfere. The baboon locked its long curved eye teeth into the tender
belly, and then hurled the pup away from it with all the fierce strength
of its four limbs. The thin wall of the stomach was ripped through, and
the purple ropes of the entrails came out, hanging festooned in the
baboon's jaws.
Again the disembowelled pup screamed, and Debra rolled blindly to her
feet.
David! she cried wildly. David, help me! David came out of the
building ru
glance and snatched up a pick handle from the pile by the door. He
jumped off the veranda, and in three quick strides he had reached the
pup.
The baboon saw him coming and released Zulu. With unca
whirled and leapt for the pole, racing upwards to perch on the roof of
the ke
bouncing up and down with excitement and triumph.
David dropped the pick and gently lifted the crawling crippled black
body. He carried Zulu to the Land-Rover and ripped his bush jacket into
strips as he tried to bind up the torn belly, pushing the hanging
entrails back into the hole with his fist.
David, what is it? Debra pleaded with him, and as he worked he
explained it in a few terse Hebrew sentences.
Get in, he told her and she clambered into the passenger seat of the
Land-Rover. He laid the injured labrador in her lap, and ran around to
the driver's seat.
Akkers was back at the doorway of his shop, standing with his thumbs
hooked into his braces, and he was laughing. The false teeth clucked in
the open mouth as he laughed, rocking back and forth on his heels.
On its ke
mirth.
Hey, Mr. Morgan, Akkers giggled, don't forget your nails!
David swung round to face him, his face felt tight and hot, the
cicatrice that covered his cheeks and forehead were inflamed and the
dark blue eyes blazed with a terrible anger. He started up the steps.
His mouth was a pale hard slit, and his fists were clenched at his
sides.
Akkers stepped backwards swiftly and reached behind the shop counter. He
lifted out an old double-barrelled shotgun, and cocked both hammers with
a sweep of his thick bony thumb.
Self defence, Mr. Morgan, with witnesses, he giggled with sadistic
relish. Come one step closer and we will get a look at your guts also.
David paused at the top of the steps, and the gun held in one huge fist,
pointed at his belly.
David, hurry, oh, please hurry, Debra called anxiously from the
Land-Rover, with the weak squirming body of the pup in her lap.
We'll meet again, David's anger had thickened his tongue.
That will be fun, said Akkers, and David turned away and ran down the
steps.
Akkers watched the Land-Rover pull away and swing into the road in a
cloud of dust, before he set the shotgun aside. He went out into the
sunlight, and the baboon scrambled down from its pole and rushed to meet
him.
It jumped up on to his hip and clung to him like a child.
Akkers took a boiled sweet from his pocket and placed it tenderly
between the terrible yellow fangs.
You lovely old thing, he chuckled, scratching the high cranium with its
thick cap of grey fur and the baboon squinted up at his face with narrow
brown eyes, chattering softly.
Despite the rough surface, David covered the thirty miles back to
Jabulani in twenty-five minutes. He skidded the vehicle to a halt
beside the hangar, and ran with the pup in his arms to the aircraft.
During the flight Debra nursed him gently in her lap, and her skirts
were sodden with his dark blood. The pup had quieted, and except for an
occasional whimper now lay still. Over the W T David arranged for a car
to meet them at Nelspruit airfield and forty-five minutes after take-off
they had Zulu on the theatre table in the veterinary surgeon's clinic.
The veterinary surgeon worked with complete concentration for over two
hours at repairing the torn entrails and suturing the layers of
abdominal muscle.
The pup was so critically injured, and infection was such a real danger,
that they dared not return to Jabulani until it had passed. Five days
later when they flew home with Zulu still weak and heavily strapped but
out of danger, David altered his flight path to bring them in over the
trading store at Bandolier Hill.
The iron roof shone like a mirror in the sun, and David felt his anger
very cold and hard and determined.
The man is a threat to us, he said aloud. A real threat to each of us,
and to what we are trying to build at Jabulani. Debra nodded her
agreement, stroking the pup's head and not trusting herself to speak.
Her own anger was as fierce as David's. I'm going to get him, he said
softly, and he heard the Brig's voice in his memory.