A Twist of Sand

"You don't think," he sneered, "that I was going to allow you to go back to your ship merely on the promise that you would come back again, did you ? Give me credit for a little assessment of your character, Captain Peace. You're a functional aid to this expedition, no more. Just like that silly woman there. She's a dedicated woman, Captain Peace, but I must say this little effort of hers took me unawares. She has her uses, just like you. Again I must thank you for what you did -- it would have been too bad to have ended her functional usefulness prematurely." He half-bowed mockingly. "If I had allowed you back on board, all you had to do was to forget about Stein and his party, and the Skeleton Coast would do the rest. You don't think I -- to quote a military phrase -- would allow you to keep your lines of communication open while cutting mine?"

So Stein had anticipated my moves. All my neat plans for getting Anne back to Etosha and leaving Stein and Johann to their fate, a horrid fate, had been trumped.

He must have seen the look on my face, for he burst out laughing.

"You made me shoot that kaffir," he said, without pity. "You can't get the surf-boat back by yourself. It's the only boat in Etosha anyway. Garland has simply no option but to wait for our return. He couldn't navigate the channel out to sea. So you'll come along, whether you like it or not. I'll watch you every moment, so don't try any tricks. You'll guide the party to the Baynes Mountains."

"Without instruments or a compass?" I asked.

"The boat's compass is good enough, and you're an expert," he replied. "I don't want positions of exact latitude and longitude. You'll navigate -- where I want to go. Johann will be your personal bodyguard. His finger's just itching on that trigger."

Anne lay quite still.

"And -- the girl?"

My gesture must have had more in it than I thought.

"Ah, the girl," he said. "Scientist to spitfire in a flash! Chivalrous Captain Peace! She is, as you might say, a hostage to science. She is the only living person who can positively identify Onymacris, and as such she is absolutely indispensable. She comes along -- unharmed. You are the only person who can get in and out of the Skeleton Coast without anyone else knowing. Johann is a hostage, a hostage to your past, Captain. He certainly won't let you forget that!"

Anne opened her eyes.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Get some water," I said briefly to Johann. He paused, but Stein waved him on.

"Not the water-bottle," he added. "Just enough in a mug."

I played for time.

"You can't expect me to hike a hundred or two miles inland in this rig," I said.

"Why not?" he retorted, his eyes wary for some trap. Anne drank a little of the water from the mug. She sat up. I faced Stein. If only I could get him to remain near the beach until nightfall, when the tide would roll back the secret of the causeway, he'd get the surprise of his life. Anne and I were both merely expendable ciphers in his master-plan, whatever that was.

"You've got on a perfectly good pair of boots. Your clothes will do, even if the occasion isn't as nautical as they would seem to indicate."

I cast round: "I can't go far without a hat /of some sort. Within twenty miles I'll have sunstroke."

Stein laughed. "Keep him well guarded," he said to Johann. "Shoot him if there's any monkey business -- him or the woman." He'd put her firmly on my side now.

He walked over to the boat and came back with my cap. He was about to hand it to me when he paused. There was a ghastly stain across the white.

"How these kaffirs bleed," he remarked indifferently. He bent down and waggled it to and fro in the surf. Then he tossed it at my feet.

"Wear that," he said.  "We'll start right away."

I glanced at my watch.   It was nearly midday.

"Aren't you going to arouse suspicion aboard Etosha if all of us are seen trekking away from the beach ? Garland will be watching through his glasses."

Stein wheeled round. "I'm giving the orders from now on, Captain. We start at once. You know where this beach lies, and you know my route. You'll give Posto Velho, near the mouth of the river, a wide berth." He didn't know it was the best part of twenty miles away. "You'll aim to strike the main river flow away from the mouth somewhere near the first cataract. No nonsense."