Assegai

Leon was awakened by the sound of the Meerbach hunting car coming down the track from the town and the Graf singing the beer-hall drinking song ‘I Lost My Heart In Heidelberg’ at the full pitch of his lungs. He sat up in bed, struck a Vesta and checked the time on Percy’s silver hunter, which lay on the bedside table. It was six minutes to four in the morning. He heard the car come to a halt in the camp, and the slamming of its doors, Graf Otto’s voice shouting goodnight to Gustav, and Eva’s laughter. Leon felt a stab of jealousy and muttered to himself, ‘By the sound of it you’ve taken a skinful, Graf. You should be more careful about drinking with Delamere. I hope you have a brutal hangover in the morning. You deserve it, you bastard.’

He was to be disappointed. Graf Otto appeared in the mess tent a little after eight, looking cheerful and rested. The whites of his eyes were as clear and bright as a baby’s. He shouted to Ishmael to bring coffee, and when it arrived he poured a dram of cognac into the steaming mug. ‘Drinking makes me extremely thirsty. That mad Englishman Delamere ran out of people to toast so towards the end of the evening we were hailing his favourite horse and his hunting dog. He is mad, that one. He should be locked up for his own good and the good of everyone else.’

‘As I recall, it wasn’t Lord Delamere who stood on his head in the middle of the dance floor and drank a glass of cognac while inverted.’

‘No, that was me,’ Graf Otto admitted. ‘But I was challenged by Delamere. I had no choice in the matter. Did you know that he was bitten by a lion when he was younger? That is why he limps.’

‘Everybody in the colony knows the story.’

‘He was trying to kill it with a knife.’ Graf Otto shook his head sadly. ‘Madman! He really should be locked away.’

‘Tell me, Graf Otto, is it not just as crazy to try to kill one with an assegai?’

‘Nein! Not at all! A knife is stupid, but a spear is extremely logical.’ Graf Otto drained his coffee and slammed his mug on the table. ‘I am grateful to you for reminding me, Courtney. I have had enough of these schoolboy larks, as mad Delamere terms them. I have drunk toasts to all the world and danced with every fat British matron in the colony. I have flown their puking brats in my beautiful machines. In short, I have observed all the niceties and fulfilled my social obligations to the governor and the citizens of this colony. Now I want to go out into the wilderness and do some real hunting.’

‘I am delighted to hear you say so, sir. Like you, I have had enough of Nairobi for a while.’

‘Good! You may leave at once. Summon those two tall heathens of yours and take Das Hummel to the hunting grounds. Spread the word to the tribes the length and breadth of the Rift Valley that I am searching for the biggest lion that ever came out of Masailand. I will pay a reward of twenty cattle to the chief whose people find it for me. Go now, and do not return until you have good news to bring me. Remember, Courtney, he must be big and his mane must be as black as the hell hound.’

‘At once, Graf, but may I finish this cup of coffee before I leave?’

‘Another good English joke.Ja, it is funny. Now I will crack a good German joke. Find my lion or I will kick your arse until you limp a damned sight worse than Delamere. Now that is really a funny joke, no?’

When Eva entered the mess tent an hour later Graf Otto was alone at the long table, a sheaf of documents stacked in front of him. He was poring over one that bore the black eagle crest of the German Ministry of War and making entries in his notebook. He laid it aside and looked up at her as she stood in the entrance to the tent with the morning light behind her. She wore sandals, and a light summer dress in a lovely floral pattern that made her as winsome as a schoolgirl. Her hair was freshly washed, and brushed out in a cascade of sable wavelets down her back. Her lips were unpainted. She came to stand behind him and draped an arm over his shoulder. He took her hand, opened her fingers and kissed the palm. ‘How can you be so beautiful?’ he asked. ‘Do you not feel guilty that you make every other woman around you seem drab and ugly in comparison?’

‘Don’t you feel guilty that you lie so readily and convincingly?’ She kissed him full on the mouth, then giggled and broke away as he reached for her breasts. ‘You must feed me first, darling Otto.’

Ishmael had been poised for her arrival. He wore his best scarlet fez with a black tassel, and his kanza had been carefully laundered, then ironed crisp as a fresh fall of snow. His teeth flashed brightly when he smiled. ‘Good morning, Memsahib. May your day be filled with the perfume of roses and flavoured with sweet fruits such as these.’ He spoke in French as he placed a platter of sliced mangos, banana and papaya before her,

‘Merci beaucoup, Ishmael. Where did you learn to speak such good French?’

‘I worked for many years for the consul in Mombasa, Memsahib.’ Ishmael beamed. She had cast her spell over all the staff of Tandala Camp.

‘Away with you, you smirking infidel,’ Graf Otto intervened. ‘My coffee is cold. Get me a fresh pot.’ As soon as Ishmael had gone, his manner changed and he became serious and businesslike. ‘Well, I’ve got rid of Courtney. I sent him out into the hunting grounds to find the lion we have spoken of so often. He will be well out of the way for as long as it takes to see to the real business. Despite his guileless manner and his engaging personality I do not trust him. He is much too astute for my taste. Last evening he was wearing army uniform. That was the first inkling I had that he is on the British Army reserve list. Also, I learned from Delamere that Brigadier General Ballantyne is his uncle. His connections with the British military are strong. In future we must be more circumspect with him.’

‘Of course, Otto.’ She took the chair beside him and turned her attention to the platter of fruit.

‘There was a cable from Berlin yesterday. They have arranged my meeting with von Lettow for the seventeenth,’ he continued. ‘It’s a long flight to Arusha, but I cannot afford to be gone long. There are too many people watching us. Pack some of your pretty things, Eva. I want to be proud of you.’

‘Do you really need me with you, Otto? It will be all men’s talk and so dull. I would rather stay here and do some painting.’ She speared a slice of ripe mango.

Her attitude of mild disinterest in his affairs of business and state was a pose she had perfected over her long association with him. It yielded far greater fruits than if she had tried to wheedle information from him. Once again her patience had paid off handsomely. For the first time since they had left Wieskirche he had mentioned von Lettow Vorbeck. She knew that this was the real purpose of their African expedition. This was what lay at the heart of all the make-believe and play-acting.

‘Yes, indeed,Liebling. You know that I always need you with me.’

‘Who else will be there other than von Lettow? Will there be any other women?’

‘I doubt it. Von Lettow is a bachelor. It is possible that Governor Schnee may be there, but he and von Lettow do not get on together, or so I believe. It will not be a social occasion. The most important person at the meeting will be the South African Boer, Koos de la Rey. He is the pivot on which it all hinges.’

‘Maybe I’m just a silly girl, as you often say I am, but isn’t this a very convoluted way of meeting? Would it not have been easier for this Boer general simply to have come to Berlin – or couldn’t we have sailed to Cape Town in the comfort of an ocean-going liner like the Admiral?’

‘In South Africa de la Rey is a marked man. He was one of the Boer leaders who fought so hard and bitterly against the British. Since the armistice he has made no secret of his anti-British feelings. Any contact between him and our government would set off alarm bells in London. The meeting has to be outside his own country. Ten days ago, in great secrecy, he was picked up off the South African coast by one of our submarines and brought to Dar es Salaam. After our meeting he will return by the same route.’

‘Meanwhile, you are on a big-game safari in an adjoining country. There is nothing to lead anybody to suspect that the two of you ever made contact. I see now that it is a rather neat conspiracy.’

‘I am glad you approve.’ He smiled sarcastically.

‘The whole business must be very important for you to have spent so much time on it when you might have been hunting.’

‘It is.’ He nodded seriously. ‘Believe me, it is.’

Instinct warned her that she had gone far enough for the moment. She sighed and murmured, ‘Very important, and deadly boring. If I come with you, will you buy me a nice present when we get back to Germany?’ She pouted at him and fluttered her long dark lashes, using her eyes artfully. This was more in line with the character she had built up to please him. It was the type of shallow response he had come to expect of her. During the time they had been together she had worked out precisely how to handle every situation that arose between them, and how best to fulfil all his expectations. She understood precisely what he needed from her. He did not want her to be a companion, or someone who gave him intellectual stimulation – there were many others who could do that. He wanted her as an ornament, an uncomplicated and compliant beauty, someone who could first arouse, then skilfully satisfy his animal passions. He wanted her as a pleasurable possession, who excited the envy and admiration of other men and women; a decoration that enhanced his own position and social standing. As soon as she became tiresome he would discard her as readily as he would throw away a pair of shoes that pinched his toes. She was fully aware that hundreds of other beautiful women would be delighted to take her place. It was a measure of her skills as a courtesan that he had kept her so long at his side.

‘It will be the prettiest present we can find in all of Berlin,’ he agreed easily.

‘Shall I take the Fortuny frock you bought for me in Paris? What do you think General von Lettow Vorbeck will think of it?’

‘One look at you in that dress and his thoughts would probably have him locked behind bars in any decent society.’ Graf Otto chuckled, then raised his voice to a shout: ‘Ishmael!’

‘Send for Bwana Hennie!’ Graf Otto ordered, as soon as Ishmael appeared. ‘Tell him to come at once.’

Within minutes Hennie du Rand appeared in the fly of the tent. The frown on his brown, weatherbeaten face was anxious, and he held his stained slouch hat across his chest, twisting it between grease-stained fingers.

‘Come in, Hennie. Don’t just stand there.’ Graf Otto greeted him with a friendly smile, then looked at Eva. ‘You must forgive us,Liebling. You know that Hennie has no German so we will be speaking English.’

‘Please, Graf Otto, do not worry about me. I have my book of birds and my binoculars. I shall be quite happy.’ She stooped to kiss him as she passed his chair, then went to sit just outside the tent where she had a good view of the birdbath and feeding table Leon had set up for her entertainment. Noisy flocks of songbirds gathered around it: fire finches, waxbills, weavers and wild canaries.

Although they were within earshot she ignored the conversation of the two men in the mess tent as she concentrated on capturing in her sketchpad the forms and colours of the tiny jewel-like creatures.

Almost at once Graf Otto forgot her and gave Hennie his full attention. ‘How well do you know Arusha and the country around it, Hennie?’

‘I worked for a timber company there for two years. They were logging on the lower slopes of Mount Meru. I came to know the area well.’

‘There is a military fort on the Usa river,ja?’

‘Ja. It is a local landmark. People thereabouts call it the Icing Sugar Castle. It is painted brilliant white, and there are turrets and battlements along the top of the walls. It looks like something from a child’s picture book.’

‘We are going to fly there. Do you think you can find it from the air?’

‘I have never flown in an aeroplane, but I am sure that a blind man could pick out that building from fifty miles away.’

‘Good. Be ready to leave tomorrow morning at first light.’

‘I can scarcely believe I will be flying in one of your machines, sir.’ He grinned. ‘I can help with the maintenance and refuelling.’

‘Don’t worry about that. Gustav takes care of those details. That’s not why you are coming. I need you to introduce me to an old friend of yours.’