SHORT STORY

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22628, 16 January 1937, Page 15 (Supplement)

SHORT STORY

By M. I. ROBERTSON

(Copyright)

meeting could not bo postponed for ever, so in the evening she dressed herself and emerged. With tho evening came Forrest. He dined with her and it gave Grace a shock to see Ali waiting on him with bent head, the mark where the whip had cut still showing on his cheek, in this surrender of Ali there was something sinister and unreal. Forrest was talking. " Come with me," he went on quickly, " to-night. To-night across the lake in the moonlight to Kigoina." . " To-night?" Amid all the other confused emotions the thought of what Ali would say was dominant in her mind, ar.il when lu>rrest came for her later and they left tho house, it was a relief to her that Ali was nowhere to be seen.

It came as a great shock when they reached the lake and she saw liini waiting for them in the motor-boat. A shock so great that at first she could hardly be persuaded to set foot in the boat. Forrest reassured her. " Don't think about it," he said. " He doesn't. He looks on me as his bwana now. And we need him. He knows the lake; my boys do not."

The boat slid out on to the moonlit waters. Grace sitting by Forrest in the bows could not see Ali in the stern and tried to forget him. One of the boys had a guitar and softly picked it. Tlu> others sang one of their low-toned native chants. Forrest whispered softly in her ear.

In the clear water one could perceive iridescent water snakes gliding. A little way off there was a splash and another. "Crocodiles," said Forrest, "the lake is teeming with tlieni." Grace shuddered. " There is always something horrible underneath all the beautv here."

The boat came to a sudden stop near one of the many islets.

" This is not Kigonia," said Grace. " Why are we stopping here?" " This is what I have planned," lie said hurriedly. " A romantic camping place. Never mind the boys; they can't understand." He stopped suddenly at the look on her face, and yet that look, arresting though it was, expressed only faintly the feeling of scorn and disgust that suddenly engulfed her. Jn his endeavour to persuade her to make the landing, ho had risen. And then —it was impossible to tell exactly how it happened, though some might have thought that Ali at the rudder was to blame—tin; boat gave a sudden lurch with the result that Forrest lost his footing and fell into the deep water on the offshore side.

In the moments that followed, Grace, looking helplessly on, felt that Ali, though ostensibly assisting, was in reality baulking the efforts the other boyh were making to get the struggling man on board, but in the confusion one could not be sure of anything. Suddenly there was a piercing shriek from Forrest and the water around him was stained with blood. Then the bloodflecked water became a mass of snapping jaws and swirling tails as the crocodiles literally tore their victim to shreds. At the dreadful sight Grace lost consciousness.

When she came to herself she was lying on her bed at home. But for the fact that she was fully dressed, just as she had been the night before, she might have thought that she was just waking up from some awful nightmare. Her head was aching. She sat up feeling dazed, shaken, a little sick. . .

Suddenly she heard Jack's voice outside giving his familiar call! . . . Her first feeling was one of utter joy and relief. Then all at once her brain began to function more clearly. Before she could think further there was a slight sound and Ali in immaculate white stood salaaming before her. He spoke the first English words that she had ever heard liini utter: " Bwana back—Missy back. . . "