The Seventh Scroll - Smith Wilbur - Страница 25
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dynamo who ran Global Safaris, a company that arranged hunting and
fishing expeditions to remote areas around the world.
"Hello, Nick. We haven't heard from you in over a year. We thought you
didn't love us any more."
"I have been out of it for a while," he admitted. How do you tell people
that your wife and two little girls had died?
"Ethiopia?" She did not sound at all disconcerted by the request. "When
did you want to go?"
"How about next week?"
"You have to be joking. We only work with one hunter there, Nassous
Roussos, and he is booked two years in advance."
"Is there nobody else?" he insisted. "I have to be in and out again
before the big rains."
"What trophies are you after? she hedged. "Mountain nyala? Menelik's
bushbuck?"
"I am planning a collecting trip for the museum, down the Abbay river."
It was as much as he was prepared to tell her.
She hedged a little longer and then told him reluctantly, This is
without our recommendation, do you understand. There is only one hunter
who may take You on at such short notice, but I don't even know if he
has a camp on the Blue Nile. He is a Russian, and we have had mixed
reports about him. Some people say he is ex-KGB an was one of Mengistu's
bunch of thugs."
Mengistu was the "Black Stalin' who had deposed an then murdered the
old Emperor Haile Selassie, and in sixteen years of despotic Marxist
rule had driven Ethiopia to its knees. When his sponsor, the Soviet
Empire, had collapsed, Mengistu had been overthrown and fled the
country.
"I am desperate enough to go to bed with the devil," he told her. "I
promise I won't come back to you with any complaints."
"Okay, then, no comebacks-' and she gave him a name and a telephone
number in Addis Ababa.
"I love you, Alison darling Nicholas told her.
"I wish," she said, and hung up on him.
He didn't expect that it would be easy to telephone Addis, and he wasn't
disappointed in his expectations. But at last he got through. A woman
with a sweet lisping of Ethiopian accent answered and switched to fluent
English when he asked for Boris Brusilov.
"He is out on safari at present," she told him. "I am Woizero Tessay,
his wife." In Ethiopia a wife did not take on her husband's name.
Nicholas remembered enough of the language to know that the name meant
Lady Sun, a pretty name.
"But if it is in connection with safari business I can help you," said
Lady Sun.
Nicholas picked Royan up outside the hospital entrance.
"How is your mother?"
"Her leg is doing well, but she's still distraught about is Magic -
about her dog."
You will have to get her a puppy. One of my keepers breeds first-class
springers. I can arrange it." He paused and then asked delicately, "Will
you be able to leave your mother? I mean, if we are going out to
Africa?"
"I spoke to her about that. There is a woman from her church group who
will stay with her until she is well enough to fend for herself again."
Royan turned fully around in her seat to examine his face. "You have
been up to something since I last saw you," she accused him. "I can see
it in your face."
He made the Arabic sign against the evil eye, "Allah save me from
witches!'
"Come on!" He could make her laugh so readily, she was not sure if that
was a good thing or not. "Tell me what you have up your sleeve."
"Wait until we get back to the museum." He would not be moved, and she
had to bridle her impatience.
As soon as they entered the building he led her through the Egyptian
room to the hall of African mammals, and then stopped her in front of a
diorama of mounted antelope. These were some of the smaller and
mediumsized varieties - impala, Thompson's and Grant's gazelle, gerenuk
and the like.
"Madoqua harperii." He pointed to a tiny creature in one corner of the
display. "Harper's dik-dik, also known as the striped dik-dik."
It was a nondescript little animal, not much bigger than a large hare.
The brown pelt was striped in chocolate over the shoulders and back, and
the nose was elongated into a prehensile proboscis.
"A bit tatty," she gave her opinion carefully, unwilling to bend, yet
knowing he was inordinately Proud of this Specimen. "Is there something
special about it?, "Special?" he asked with wonder in his voice. The
Woman asks if it is special." He rolled his eyes heavenward and she had
to laugh again at his histrionics. "It is the only known specimen in
existence.
creatures on earth. So rare that It is One of the rarest now. So rare it
is probably extinct by that many zoologists believe that apocryphal,
that it never really existed. They think it is that my sainted
great-grandfather, after whom it is named, actually invented it. One
learned reference hinted that he may have taken the skin of the striped
mongoose and stretched it over the form of a common dik-dik. Can you
imagine a more heinous accusation?)
"I am truly appalled by such injustice,'she laughed.
"Darned right, You should be. Because we are going to Africa to hunt for
another specimen of Madoqua harpent, to vindicate the honour of the
family., "I don't understand."
"Come with me and all will be explained."He led her back to his study,
and from the jumble on the tabletop Picked out a notebook bound in red
Morocco leather. The cover was faded and stained with water marks and
tropical sun light, while the corners and the spine were frayed and
battered.
"Old Sir Jonathan's game book,) he explained, and opened it. Pressed
between the pages were faded wild flowers and leaves that must have been
there for almost a century. The text was illuminated by line drawings in
faded Yellow ink of men and animals and wild landscapes.
Nicholas read the date at the top of one page.
2nd of February 1902.
A In camp on the Abbay river.
11 day following the spoor of two large bull ele Phants- Unable to come
up with the . Heat ve, intense- MY Men Played out Abandoned the chase
small antelope grazing on the river-bank which I and returned to camp.
On the return march lied a brought down with one shot from the little
Rigby "and- On close examination it proved to be a member of the genus
Madoqa. However, it was of a species that I had never seen before,
larger than the common dik-dik and Possessing a striped body. I believe
that this specimen may be new to science.
He looked up from the diary. "Old great-grandpa Jonathan has given us
the perfect excuse for going down into the Abbay gorge." He closed the
book, and went on, "As you pointed out, to cater for our own expedition
would require months of planning and organization, not to mention the
expense. It would mean having to obtain approval and permission from the
Ethiopian government. In Africa that can take months, if not Years."
"I don't imagine that the Ethiopian government would be too cooperative
if they suspected our real intentions," she agreed.
"On the other hand, there are a number of legitimate hunting safari
companies operating throughout the country. They have all the necessary
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