Into the current and watched anxious as it swung across the river like a

pendulum, the current driving it but the tree anchoring it. It hit the

north bank a distance the exact width of the river downstream of the

tree, and Sean's party cheered as Mbejane and the other servants ran

down the bank to retrieve it. Mbejane had a team of oxen standing ready

and they dragged it out.

Sean's horse towed him across the river again to fetch the rope.

Sean, Katrina and all her servants rode across on the last wagon. Sean

stood behind Katrina with his arms round her waist, ostensibly to steady

her, and the servants shouted and chattered like children on a picnic.

The water piled up brown against the side of the wagon, tilting it and

making it roll, and with an exhilarating swoop they shot across the

river and crashed into the far bank. The impact tumbled them overboard,

throwing them into the knee-deep water beside the bank. They scrambled

ashore. The water streamed out of Katrina's dress, her hair melted

wetly over her face; she had mud on one cheek and she was gasping with

laughter. Her sodden petticoats clung to her legs, tripping her, and

Sean picked her up and carried her to his own laager. His servants

shouted loud encouragement after him and Katrina shrieked genteelly to

be put down, but held tight round his neck with both arms.

Now that the rains had changed every irregularity in the land into a

waterhole and sowed new green grass where before had been dust and dry

earth, the game scattered away from the river. Every few days Sean's

trackers came into camp to report that there were no elephant. Sean

condoled with them and sent them out again. He was well satisfied;

there was a new quarry now, more elusive and therefore more satisfying

than an old bull elephant with a hundred and fifty pounds of ivory on

each side of his face. Yet to call Katrina his quarry was a lie. She

was much more than that.

She was a new world, a place of endless mysteries and unexpected

delights, an enchanting mixture of woman and child. She supervised the

domestic routine with deceptive lack of fuss. With her there, suddenly

his clothes were clean and had their full complement of buttons; the

stew of boots and books and unwashed socks in his wagon vanished. There

were fresh bread and fruit preserves on the table; Kandhia's eternal

grilled steaks gave way to a variety of dishes. Each day she showed a

new accomplishment. She could ride astride, though Sean had to turn his

back when she mounted and dismounted. She cut Sean's hair and made as

good a job of it as his barber in Johannesburg. She had a medicine

chest in her wagon from which she produced remedies for every ailing man

or beast in the company. She handled a rifle like a man and could strip

and clean Sean's Mannlicher. She helped him load cartridges, measuring

the charges with a practised eye.

She could discuss birth and procreation with a clinical objectivity and

a minute later blush all over when he looked at her that way. She was

as stubborn as a mule, haughty when it suited her, serene and

inscrutable at times and at others a little girl. She would push a

handful of grass down the back of his shirt and run for him to chase

her, giggle for rates at a secret thought, play long imaginative games

in which the dogs were her children and she talked to them and answered

for them. Sometimes she was so naive that Sean thought she was joking

until he remembered how young she was. She could drive him from

happiness to spitting anger and back again within the space of an hour.

But, once he had won her confidence and she knew that he would play to

the rules, she responded to his caresses with a violence that startled

them both. Sean was completely absorbed in her. She was the most

wonderful thing he had ever found and, best of all, he could talk to

her. He told her about Duff. She saw the extra cot in his wagon and

found clothing that was obviously too small for him. She asked about it

and he told her all of it and she understood.

The days became weeks. The cattle grew fat, their skins sleek and

tight. Katrina planted a small vegetable garden and reaped a crop from