than David.
However, Conrad was confident that the dignity of the Morgan name
combined with David's wealth, ownership of Jabulani, demonstrated
interest in conservation and his ability to devote much time to the
affairs of the Board would prevail.
Yes, Debra decided. It will be good for him to meet people and get out
a little more. We are in danger of becoming recluses here. Will he do
it? I Don't worry, Debra assured him. I'll see to it. Debra was
right. After the initial uneasiness of the first meeting of the Board,
and once the other members became accustomed to that dreadful face and
realized that behind it was a warm and forceful person, David gathered
increasing confidence with each subsequent Journey to Pretoria where the
Board met. Debra would fly up with him and while they were at their
deliberations she and Jane Berg shopped for the baby and the other items
of luxury and necessity that were not readily come by in Nelspruit.
However, by November Debra was carrying low and she felt too big and
uncomfortable to make the long flight in the cockpit of the Navajo,
especially as the rains were about to break and the air was turbulent
with storm cloud and static and heavy thermals. It would be a bumpy
trip, and she was deeply involved in the last chapters of the new book.
I'll be perfectly all right here, she insisted. I've got a telephone
and I have also got six game rangers, four servants and a fierce hound
to guard me.
David argued and protested for five days before the meeting and agreed
only after he had worked out a timetable.
If I leave here before dawn I'll be at the meeting by nine, we'll be
finished by three and I can be back here by six-thirty at the latest, he
muttered. If it wasn't the budget and financial affairs vote, I would
cut it, tell them I was sick. 'It's important, darling. You go. 'You
sure now? 'I won't even notice you're not here. Don't get too carried
away by it, he told her ruefully.
J might stay just to punish you. In the dawn the thunderheads were the
colour of wine and flame and ripe fruit, turning and magnificent,
towering high above the tiny aircraft, high above the utmost ceiling of
which it was capable.
David flew the corridors of open sky alone and at peace, wrapped in the
euphoria of flight which never failed for him. He altered course at
intervals to avoid the mountainous upsurges of cloud; within them lurked
death and disaster, great winds that would tear the wings from his
machine and send the pieces whirling on high, up into the heights where
a man would perish from lack of oxygen.
He landed at Grand Central where a hire car was waiting for him, and
spent the journey into Pretoria reading through the morning papers. It
was only when he saw the meteorological prediction of a storm front
moving in steadily from the Mozambique channel that he felt a little
uneasy.
Before he entered the conference-room he asked the receptionist to place
a telephone call to Jabulani.
Two-hour delay, Mr. Morgan. Okay, call me when it comes through When
