The Year Before Sunset by Hugh Gantzer & Colleen Gantzer

Author:Hugh Gantzer & Colleen Gantzer [Gantzer, Hugh]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Anglo-Ink Books
Published: 2019-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

thirteen

A s I had expected, I had a few problems with Mum. Castelli

was stirring when I woke. I bathed and dressed while he was getting through his chota hazari: tea, biscuits and a banana brought by Banu. Castelli grunted, ‘Good morning,’ and tottered off to the bathroom. I was cleaning the rifle when Grandad drove in from golf in the old Elephant Lines. He bounded up the steps, greeted me and said, ‘Have you been shooting?’

Just then Banu appeared, holding the two hares. I said, ‘Gran might like to give us jugged hare today.’

He was delighted and when I told him I had sneaked out to get them, he roared with laughter. Soon, the whole family was around him and Castelli said the Sleep Eezee must have been very effective because he hadn’t heard a thing. Then Vir Thapa admitted that he had not seen me go out—‘Without doubt, sahib is a shikari: he walks with the stealth of a leopard!’—but he had seen me come in at one in the morning because he had heard the clock in the drawing room strike just after I got back.

Only Mum asked, ‘Why didn’t you tell us?’

‘Because the idea struck me as I was falling asleep and everyone had already gone to bed.’

‘Do you think he should have gone out at night?’ she asked Dad. She often tried to bounce her fears off Dad. I started getting collywobbles wondering if she suspected the truth.

‘I’ve been out shooting in the early hours with Martin, Mum.’

‘Yes, but you went out alone this time. And you’re only sixteen.’

‘Anne,’ my grandfather said, ‘Martin Truffaut was twelve when he walked up a tiger and shot it. Phillip is sixteen and all he shot was a brace of hare.’

But Mum didn’t give up so easily. ‘Did you see anyone on your nocturnal spree, Phillip?’

‘Yes I did, Mum—’

‘Ah! Who did you see?’

‘When I was after the hares in the Elephant Lines, a jeep drove past with five men in it. All of them carried guns.’

I felt the chill as everyone’s eyes turned on me; and then they looked at Castelli.

The policeman cleared his throat. ‘Could they have been some other shikaris?’

I shook my head. ‘I don’t think so. They carried .303s. Only the police and the services carry .303s. Besides, they removed a banner that had been tied between two cork trees. It said ‘Quit India—Jai Hind’ in English and Hindi. Shikaris wouldn’t have bothered, would they?’

His response came quickly, but not quite fast enough. ‘Ah, I see! But sometimes our constables off duty go on shikar with their service rifles. It’s illegal, of course, but their seniors often turn a blind eye to such misdemeanours, particularly if they share some of the trophies: the rump of a deer or the ham of a wild boar.’

This seemed to satisfy my parents and grandparents, so I left it at that. I felt I had got off very lightly. I didn’t tell them that one of the five in the jeep was an Englishman.

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