'See?' Ken said. 'You don't have to worry about lions, but you wound one and go in after him and you'll have a hell of a lot to worry about.'
Fennel put down the rifle and wiped his sweating face with the back of his hand.
'That was too damn close.'
They came out of the jungle on to a dirt road. Themba indicated that Ken should turn to the right.
'This is the road leading to Kahlenberg's estate . . . the whole sixty kilometres of it,' Ken said after he had talked with Themba. He looked at his watch. The time was 08.00 hrs. 'Themba reckons we'll get to the edge of the estate in three hours. We'll radio back to Garry when we get there.'
'Three hours to do sixty kilometres. You nuts?'
'The road's bad. It could take us longer.'
The road was bad, and gradually deteriorated. It was climbing gently all the time. The night's rain had softened the surface and the Land Rover began to slide a little. Ahead of them was a very sharp rise and as Ken increased speed for the run up, the back wheels slid and Ken hurriedly steered into the skid just as it seemed they were about to leave the road.
'Watch what you're doing!' Fennel snarled, startled.
'I can do without a back seat driver,' Ken returned. 'Just shut up, will you?'
The Land Rover crawled up the rise and Ken slammed on his brakes when he saw the dip below was full of water and there was another sharp rise to get out of the dip.
'We're not going through that,' he said and put the truck into reverse, slowly sliding back down the rise. He then drove off the road and on to the tangle of dead branches, shrubs and coarse, rain soaked grass. They hadn't gone more than ten metres when the rear wheels spun and Fennel felt the truck sink.
Ken gave the engine more gas, resulting only in producing a shower of wet, sticky mud that sprinkled them as the wheels spun.
Themba sprang out and went around to the back. Ken engaged gear while Themba pushed, but they only sank deeper.
Ken turned, and as he disengaged gear, he looked straight at Fennel.
'Let's get this straight, Lew. Are you with us or are you just a goddamn passenger?'
Fennel hesitated, then got down from the Land Rover. His bull strength combined with Themba's weight began to tell. There was more splattering of mud, then the tyres got a new purchase and the Land Rover came out of the two holes it had dug. Walking beside it, ready to go into action again, Fennel and Themba, watched warily. Twice the Land Rover skidded but righted itself. They were past the dip now and Ken steered back on the road.
'See what I mean?' he said. 'Twenty minutes wasted.'
Fennel grunted and climbed on board. He was breathing heavily. By now the sun was hot and beat down on them. Ken increased speed and they continued to climb, banging and bumping over the stony road, avoiding the water filled pot-holes where he could, and when he couldn't, banging into them, jolting them all and making Fennel curse.
The road narrowed suddenly and became nothing better than a rough track, strewn with fair-sized boulders. Three times during the next hundred metres, Themba had to jump down and heave the rocks out of the way. They were now crawling at around ten kilometres an hour.
It didn't look to Fennel as if any vehicle had ever come along this narrow track which kept climbing. Branches of trees hung low, causing both men to keep ducking. Themba was walking ahead now as the Land Rover's speed was even more reduced.
'You mean we've got another fifty kilometres of this bitching road to drive on? Fennel exclaimed as he ducked under another branch.
'That's about it. According to Themba it gets worse as we go on, but at least we are moving.'
That appeared to be a rash thing to have said for almost immediately they struck a soft patch of ground and before Ken could control the skid, they had slid off the narrow track and the offside wheels slammed down into a gutter.
They stopped.
'Themba came running back as Ken got out of the Land Rover. The two men surveyed the position of the wheels and discussed it together while Fennel got down and lit a cigarette. He felt irritatingly useless. To him, they looked stuck for good.
