Nor the Moon by Night by Packer Joy

Author:Packer, Joy [Packer, Joy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Romance, Historical
Publisher: Lippincott
Published: 1957-01-01T04:00:00+00:00

17. The Old Chief

“We’ll take our coffee on to the stoep,” said Mrs. Boryslawski.” Rusty’s call to Poinsettia Police Post should come through any moment.”

Klaas cleared away the breakfast dishes and put the coffee tray on the wicker table on the stoep. From where she sat Alice could see across the unkempt garden and the open veld to the tree-fringed river and the woods and thickets of Velaba. The heat was already intense. It shimmered among the leaves and made an illusory marsh of the thirsty grasslands, it veiled the bush in hazy blue and sapped the substance from the mountains. They were painted in flat, pallid mauve against the blanched sky. The cicadas’ tinny scraping, accompanied by the hum of innumerable insects, sounded to Alice like loose tappets marring the music of a smooth-running engine.

Boryslawski flipped the toe of one soft veld-shoe with his sjambok.

“I don’t understand the delay,” he said.” We put that call through almost an hour ago—immediately after you arrived.”

In the dining-room behind them the telephone rang.

“That’ll be it.” Rusty rose and went into the house. Through the fly-proof swing doors they heard him answer in Afrikaans.

“An indefinite delay,” Mrs. Boryslawski translated for Alice’s benefit.” Now why ever should that be? The line must be down somewhere.”

As Rusty came back on to the stoep he said,” It seems they are keeping the line clear for Pretoria to talk to Poinsettia. Something must be going on.”

“At Poinsettia!” Mrs. Boryslawski laughed bitterly.” What would ever go on in Poinsettia?”

Rusty turned to the Pole.” Look, Borys, I have to be on my way. When the call does come through, will you take it and ask Sergeant van Wyk to pass a message to my brother at Camp Three? Tell him we expect to be at Camp Two this evening, and explain that elephant trouble delayed us.”

“Certainly, I will. Is Miss Lang going with you now? Or will she wait here while you complete your business at the old Chief’s kraal?”

Alice had risen. Her dark eyes threw Rusty an expressive look—one of frank pleading, which he found hard to resist. He said:

“Alice, why did you put on a skirt instead of shorts?”” I thought a skirt would be more suitable for a call on the Chief.”

He grinned and shrugged his broad shoulders.” You win. Come along.”

Mrs. Boryslawski’s face crumpled.” Why drag her off to that smelly old kaffir’s kraal? Much better let her stay here and

rest. You have to pass back this way in any-”

Her husband cut in.” You interfere too much, Christina.” He added to Rusty.” Will you be taking your boy? And what about the girl?”

“We’ll take Nimrod. Not the girl and her baby. She is the wife of Amos, the man who was mutilated. She may make trouble. We’ll pick her up on the way back, if that’s all right by you. And I’d like to leave Smokey, he’ll only get into a fight among the kraal curs. The girl, Oasis, can look after him.”

“You’ll come back to midday dinner with us?” asked Mrs.

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