"In the name of all that's holy, man, what on earth do you think you're doing?"
Their eardrums were numbed by the thunder of gunfire, and Sean's outraged voice sounded small and hollow after it.
"Tukutela," Riccardo mouthed. "Don't you see? Why did you stop me?" His face was still flushed and he was shaking like a man with malarial fever. He reached once more for the Rigby in Sean's grasp, but Sean jerked it away from him.
"Pull yourself together!" he shouted, tossing the empty rifle to Job. "Don't let him get it again." He turned back to Riccardo.
"Are you out of your mind? He seized him by the shoulders. "The sound of those shots will carry for miles."
"Leave me!" Riccardo struggled. "Don't you see him?" And Sean shook him viciously.
"Snap out of it, you're shooting at a tree. You've blown your lid!"
"Give me the rifle," Riccardo was pleading. Sean shook him again and roughly turned him to face the baobab.
"Look at it, you bloody madman! There's your elephant!" He shoved him toward it. "Take a good look!"
Claudia ran forward and tried to restrain Sean. "Leave him alone.
Can't you see he's sick?"
"He's gone crazy!" Sean pushed her aside. "He's calling up every Frelimo and Renamo thug within fifty miles, and he's chased any elephant... "
"Leave him," Claudia came back at him. Sean let go of her father and stepped back.
"All right, ducky, he's all yours."
Claudia rushed to her father and embraced him. "It's all right, Papa! It's going to be all right!"
Riccardo was staring uncomprehendingly at the deep raw oozing sap, in the bark of the baobab.
"I thought it was... " He shook his head weakly. "Why did I do that?
I don't... I thought it looked like an elephant."
"Yes, Papa, yes." Claudia was hugging him. "Don't upset yourself."
Job and the rest of the hunting team were quiet and unhappy, watching this strange episode that none of them could fathom.
Sean turned away in disgust. It took him a few seconds to get full control of himself, then he asked Matatu, you think we are close enough for Tukutela to have heard the shooting?"
"The swamps are close, and the sound carries over this flat earth as it does over water." Matatu shrugged. "Perhaps the elephant heard, who knows?"
Sean looked back the way they had come. From the ridge they could see out across the floodplain into the dusty distances.
" Job, what chance that the terrs heard? We'll find out the hard way, Sean. It depends how close behind us they are."
Sean shook himself, trying to rid himself of his anger the way a spaniel shakes off water, "We'll have to rest here. The mambo is sick.
Brew a billy of tea, and we'll decide what to do," he ordered.
He walked back to where Claudia was still holding her father.
She faced Sean defiantly, turning her body to shield Riccardo from him.
"Sorry I Pushed YOU around, Capo," Sean said mildly. "You gave me a hell of a fright."
"I don't understand," Riccardo mumbled. "I could have sworn it was him. I saw him so clearly." We will break for a cup of tea," Sean told him. "I think you've got a touch of the sun. It can turn a man's brain to jelly."
"He'll be fine in a few minutes," Claudia said confidently. Sean nodded coldly at her.
"Let's get him into the shade."
Riccardo leaned back against the hole of the baobab and closed his eyes. He looked pale and bewildered, and sweat droplets sparkled on his chin and upper lip. Claudia knelt beside him and dabbed them away with the corner of her scarf, but when she looked up at Sean he jerked his head in a Peremptory gesture and she stood up and followed him.
"This doesn't come as any surprise to you, does it?" he accused as soon as they were beyond earshot. She did not reply, and he went on, "Just what kind of daughter are you anyway? You knew he was sick and you let him come out on this jaunt."
Her lips were trembling and as he stared into them he saw that her honey-colored eyes were swimming. He had not expected tears from her. They took him by surprise. He felt his fury slipping away and he had to make an effort to bolster it.
"It's too late to start blubbering now, ducky. We've got to find a way to get him home. He's a sick man."
"He's not going home," she murmured, so low he barely caught All the words. Her tears were hanging on thick dark lashes and he stared at her in silence. She swallowed hard and then said, "He's not a sick man, Sean. He's dying. Cancer. It was diagnosed by a specialist before we left home. He predicted that it could attack the brain like this."
Sean's fury crumpled. "No," he said. "Not Capo."
"Why do you think I agreed to let him come and insisted on coming with him? I knew that this was his last hunt-and I wanted to be with him."
They were silent, staring at each other, then she said, "You care.
I can see you truly care for him. I didn't expect that."
"He's my friend," Sean said, puzzled himself by the depth of his own sadness.
"I didn't think you were capable of gentleness," she went on softly. "I may have misjudged you."