Lothar De La Rey's arm two inches below the elbow. He operated by the bright flat white light of the Petromax lantern, and Centaine stood at his side, sweating behind the surgical mask, responding to the doctor's requests in French, trying to prevent herself freezing in horror at the rasping of the bone saw and the suffocating stench of chloroform and gangrene that filled the daub and thatch hut that served as an operating theatre. When it was over, she slipped away to the earthpit lavatory and vomited up her revulsion and pity.
Alone in the mission hut that had been allocated to her, under the billowing ghostly mosquito net, she could still taste it in the back of her throat. The gangrene smell seemed to have impregnated her skin and lingered in her hair. She prayed that she might never smell it again, nor ever be forced to live through another hour as harrowing as watching the man she had once loved shorn of a limb, turned into a cripple before her eyes.
The prayer was in vain, for at noon the following day the priest doctor murmured regretfully, Desole, mais j'ai manque I'infection. Il faut couper encore une fois, I am sorry, but I have missed the infection. It is necessary to cut again. The second time, because she now knew what to expect, seemed even worse than the first. She had to press her fingernails into the palms of her hands to prevent herself fainting as the priest took up the gleaming silver saw and cut through the exposed bone of Lothar's humerus only inches below the great joint of the shoulder. For three days afterwards Lothar lay in a pale coma, seeming already to have passed the division between life and death.
I cannot say. The priest shrugged away her anxious plea for reassurance. It is up to the good Lord now. Then on the evening of the third day when she entered his hut, the sapphire-yellow eyes swivelled towards her in their deep coloured sockets, and she saw recognition flare for an instant before Lothar's eyelids dropped down over them.
However, it was two days more before the priest allowed
Blaine Malcomess to enter the hut. Blaine cautioned Lothar and placed him under formal arrest.
My sergeant will have complete charge of you until you are passed fit to travel by Father Paulus. At that time you will be brought by boat down river to the border post at Runtu under strict guard, and from there by road to Windhoek where you will stand your trial. Lothar lay against the bolster, pale and skeletal thin. His stump, wrapped in a turban of gauze bandage, the end stained yellow with iodine, looked like a penguin's wing. He stared at Blaine expressionlessly.
Now, De La Rey, you don't need me to tell you that you will be a lucky man to escape the gallows. But you will give yourself a fighting chance of leniency if you tell us where you have hidden the diamonds, or what you have done with them. He waited for almost a minute, and it was difficult not to be ruffled by that flat yellow stare with which Lothar regarded him.
Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you, De La Rey? he broke the silence, and Lothar rolled his head away, stared out of the paneless window of the hut down towards the riverbank.
I think you know that I am administrator of the territory.
I have power to review your sentence; my recommendation for clemency would almost certainly be acceded to by the minister of justice. Don't be a fool, man. Give up the diamonds. They are no use to you where you are going, and I will guarantee you your life in return. Lothar closed his eyes.
Very well, De La Rey. We understand each other then.
Don't expect any mercy from me. He called Sergeant Hansmeyer into the hut. Sergeant, the prisoner has no privileges, none at all. He will be under guard day and night, twenty-four hours a day, until you hand him over to the appropriate authority in Windhoek. You will be directly responsible to me. You understand? Yes, sir. Hansmeyer drew himself to attention.
Look after him, Hansmeyer. I want this one. I want him badly. Blaine strode out of the hut, down to where Centaine sat alone under the open-sided thatched setengi on the riverbank. He dropped into the camp chair beside hers and fit a cheroot. He inhaled the smoke, held it a moment and then blew it out forcefully and angrily.
The man is intransigent, he said. I offered him my personal
guarantee of leniency in exchange for your diamonds.
He didn't even deign to reply. I don't have the authority to offer him a free pardon but, believe me, if I did I wouldn't hesitate. As it is there is nothing more I can do. He drew on the cheroot again and glared out across the wide green river. I swear he will pay for what he has done to you, pay in full measure. Blaine. She laid her hand lightly on his muscular brown forearm. Spite is too petty an emotion for a man of your stature. He glanced sideways and, despite his rancour, he smiled.
Don't credit me with too much nobility, madam. I am many things, but not a saint. He looked boyish when he grinned like that, except that his green eyes took on a wicked slant and his ears stuck out at the most endearing angle.
Oh la, sir, it might be amusing to test the limits of your nobility and sanctity, one day. He chuckled with delight. What a shameless but interesting proposal. And then he became serious again. 'Centaine, you know that I should never have come on this expedition.
At this moment my duties are being sadly neglected, and I will certainly have incurred the justified wrath of my superiors in Pretoria. I must get back to my office just as soon as I can. I have arranged with Father Paulus for canoes and paddlers to take us down river to the border post at Runtu. I hope we will be able to requisition a police truck from there. Hansmeyer and his troopers will stay on to guard De La Rey and bring him in as soon as he is fit enough to travel. Centaine nodded. Yes, I also have to get back and start picking up the pieces, papering over the cracks., We can leave first light tomorrow. Blaine, I would like to speak to Lothar, to De La Rey, before we leave. When he hesitated, she went on persuasively: A few minutes alone with him, please Blaine. It's important to me. Centaine paused in the doorway of the hut while her eyes adjusted to the gloom.
Lothar was sitting up, bare to the waist, a cheap trade blanket spread over his legs. His body was thin and pale; the infection had burned the flesh off his bones and his ribs were a gaunt rack.
Sergeant Hansmeyer, will you leave us alone for a minute? Centaine asked, and she stood aside.
As he passed her, Hansmeyer said quietly, I'll be within call, Mrs Courtney. In the silence that followed, Centaine and Lothar stared at each other, and it was she who gave in and spoke first.
If you set out to ruin me, then you have succeeded, she said, and he wriggled the stub of his missing arm, a gesture which was at once both pathetic and obscene.
Who has ruined whom, Centaine? he asked, and she dropped her eyes.
