Elephant Song - Smith Wilbur (читать книги онлайн бесплатно полностью без .TXT) 📗

And she has a long pointed nose.  All Bambuti noses were flat and broad.

Pamba's description could apply to any wazungu, so Daniel gave up and hobbled on after the little woman.

Towards dusk Sepoo suddenly appeared again from the forest with the carcass of a duiker he had killed hanging over his shoulder.  That night they feasted on grilled liver and fillets.

The next morning Daniel was strong enough to discard his staff and Pamba increased the pace of the march.

They reached Gondola the following afternoon.  The pygmies had given Daniel no warning that they had arrived, and as he stepped out of the forest he was presented with the dramatic view of the little community.

Its open gardens and streams, and the high snow-capped mountains forming a grand backdrop to the scene.  Daniel, Kelly Kinnear greeted him as he climbed the verandah steps, and even though he had half expected it, Daniel was unprepared for his own pleasure at meeting her again.  She looked fresh and vital and attractive, but he sensed a reserve in her as she came to him and shook his hand.  I was so worried that Sepoo might not get to you in time.  . . Then she broke off and stood back.  God, you look awful.  What on earth happened to you?

Thanks for the compliment, he grinned ruefully.  But to answer your question, a great deal has happened to me since we last met.  Come into the surgery.  Let's have a look at you, before we do anything else.

Couldn't I have a bath first?  I find it difficult even being near myself.  She laughed.  You are rather strong on the nose, but so are most of my patients.  I'm used to it.  She took him into the surgery and laid him on the examination table.

After she had gone over him thoroughly and inspected the wound on his back, she remarked, Pamba has done a pretty good job.  I'll give you a shot of antibiotic and I'll put a fresh dressing on your back after your bath.  It should have had stitches but it's too late for that now.

You'll have a new interesting scar to add to all the others.  As she washed her hands in the basin, she smiled at him over her shoulder.

You look as though you've been in a fight or two.  Always the other guy's fault, he assured her.  Talking about fights, you never let me explain myself at our last meeting.  You jumped on your motorbike before I had a chance.  I know.  It's my Irish blood.  Can I explain now?  How about a bath first?

The bathroom was a thatched hut, and the bath was a galvanised iron tub just large enough to contain him if he kept his knees up under his chin. The camp servants filled it with buckets of steaming water heated on the fire outside.  There was clothing laid out for him: khaki shorts and shirt, faded and worn but clean and crisply ironed, together with a pair of rawhide sandals.  one of the servants took away his stinking blood-stained shorts and muddy boots.

Kelly was waiting for him in her surgery when he had dressed.  What a transformation, she greeted him.  Let's fix that back.  He sat on the single chair and she stood behind him.  Her fingers were cool and light and quick on his skin.  When she spoke he could feel her breath on the back of his neck and smell her.  He liked the feel of her hands and the sweet clean smell of her breath.  I didn't thank you for sending your pygmies to save my life, he said.  All in the day's work.  Think nothing of it.  I owe you one.

I'll call on you.  You were the very last person I'd have expected to find here, Daniel told her.  But when Pamba described you I began to suspect who you were.  How did you get into the country?

And what the hell are you doing here?  If Taffari gets hold of you it will be a shooting party on the beach or a head-dress of hornets.  Oh, so you're beginning to find out the truth about Ephrem Taffari, that he's not the saint and saviour you thought he was?  Don't let's fight again, he pleaded.  I'm still too weak to defend myself.  You're as weak as a bull.  Look at all that muscle.

Okay, now it's time for your shot.  Lie on the bed and drop your shorts.

Hey!  Can't I have it in the arm?  You haven't got anything I haven't seen before.  Get on the table.

Grumbling he lay face down, and lowered his shorts halfway.  Nothing to be ashamed of, in fact, not bad at all, she assured him, and slid the needle home.  Okay, that does it.  Get dressed and come to dinner.

I've got another surprise for you.

A dinner guest, somebody you haven't seen for years.  In the sunset they crossed from the clinic to Kelly's living quarters at the end of the clearing.  On the way they stopped for a minute to watch the sunset turn the Mountains of the Moon to a splendour of gold and flames.  I carry the memory of this beauty wherever I travel in the world, Kelly whispered.  It's one of the things that draws me back.  And Daniel was moved as much by her reaction to it as by the grandeur of the scene itself.  To express his accord with her he wanted to take her arm and squeeze it, but he kept his distance and after a while they moved on.

There was a dinner-table laid on the verandah of Kelly's bungalow and a solitary figure seated at it, who rose as they approached.  Doctor Armstrong.  How good to see you again.  Daniel stared at him in astonishment and then hurried forward.  I heard that you were dead, Mr.

President, that you had died of a heart-attack or been shot by Taffari.

The news of my death was slightly exaggerated.  Victor Omeru chuckled and took Daniel's hand.

I found a flask of whisky in my medical chest, Kelly said.  Tonight seems like an auspicious occasion to administer it.  She poured a little of the golden liquid into each of their glasses and offered them the toast.  To Ubomo!  May it soon be released from the tyrant.  Dinner was a simple meat of fish from the river and vegetables from the gardens of Gondola, but there was plenty of it and the conversation at the table never slackened or palled.

Victor Omeru explained to Danny the circumstances of the revolution and his overthrow, his escape into the forest and his activities since then.

With Kelly's help, I have been able to turn Gondola into the headquarters of the resistance to Taffari's brutal dictatorship, he ended, but Kelly pressed him eagerly.  Victor, tell Daniel what Taffari has done to the country and its people since he seized power.  Daniel has been duped into believing that Taffari is a black Christ figure.

In fact, Daniel is here to shoot a production that was to extol Taffari's virtues.  . .

No, Kelly, Daniel interrupted her.  That's not the way it was.  It's far more complicated than that.  Originally I accepted the commission to make the film for personal and private reasons.  He went on to explain the murder of Johnny Nzou and his family.  He told them of Ning Cheng Gong's involvement and how he had traced the Lucky Dragon to Ubomo.  He told them about Chetti Singh.  I'll be frank with you both, he said at last.

I wasn't concerned with Taffari and Ubomo's real problems when I came here.  I wanted my revenge and the film contract was only a means to that end.  Then, after my arrival, I began to find out more about what was really going on in the country.

He told them about the atrocity at Fish Eagle Bay and the forced labour he had witnessed and filmed.  Victor Omeru and Kelly exchanged glances, and then Victor nodded and turned back to Daniel.  Taffari has seized at least thirty thousand of the Uhali people to work in the mines and the logging camps.  They are slaves, kept in the most appalling conditions.

They are dying like flies in the camps, starved, beaten, shot.  I cannot begin to describe to you the horror of it.  And he is devastating the forest, Kelly cut in.  He is destroying millions of acres of the rain forest.  I saw the mining unit at work, Daniel said.