Dangerous Inheritance (42 page)

By then it was half past four and, allowing for the curves the road might take, they estimated that they were still some forty miles from the coast, so they had long since abandoned hope of reaching the rendezvous that day. But they were hoping that Rex would have landed his aircraft and be waiting for them and, as the heat of the day had declined, refreshed by their three-hour sleep, they decided to push on while daylight lasted.

Soon after leaving the Polonnaruwa area they entered that known as the ‘parklands'. These, between belts of jungle, were large, open spaces said to have once been agricultural land. They were dotted with large single trees and for the greater part of the year were barren deserts; but now the rains had come the grass which grew as tall as a man was already a foot high, and herds of deer, buffalo and buck were grazing peacefully on it.

Halting to rest their little animal and themselves from time to time they covered another ten miles along the lonely road until at about half past six they came to a branch that led off it. Truss consulted the large-scale map that he had brought with him from his car and decided that they ought to turn off, as the main road they were on led south-east to Batticaloa, whereas to reach their rendezvous they should keep in sight the railway that ran due east to the little town of Kalkudah. It proved to be no more than a track and some way along it they passed another ‘tank' at which, now that evening had come, many larger animals were watering; so they called another halt there and watched them.

A score of elephants, belly-deep in the water, were drawing it up with their trunks then sluicing themselves, and their frequent trumpeting mingled with the weird laughter of a flock of hornbills. A herd of buffalo were wallowing in the mud, there were several bears and a couple of sleek handsome leopards drinking delicately from the water's edge. Every few moments a crocodile surfaced and, with an awful yowl, a pariah dog that had swum too far out was snapped up by one of them.

After eating and drinking again the little caravan resumed its wearisome march along the pitted stony track only, half an hour later, to meet with a disaster. Having bumped over a big flat stone lying at the bottom of a gully, one of the big wheels of the cart came off with a loud crack. As the wheel spun away that side of the cart hit the ground with a crash and the axle snapped. Fortunately both Fleur and Truss had been walking behind the cart; so neither was injured, and Douglas only rolled off the driver's seat to regain his feet quickly. But the old cart had not been meant for such rough service and, even had they had the tools, it would have been no easy task to repair it.

Unharnessing their shaggy little horse, they converted the canvas hood of the cart into rough panniers to go on his back, and put into them their remaining food and bottles of soft drink; then, with him on a lead rein, resumed their way.

By this time they were in jungle again, but one of a type that differed greatly from the dense lush jungle of the highlands. Here there was much outcrop with, at times, piles of rock rising to fifty feet; and mingled with the deciduous trees, such as wild figs, there were many cacti. Big groups of aloes thrust up innumerable grey spikes and here and there tall euphorbia trees reared up like great hands, their fingers covered with sharp needles.

With twilight the jungle again came to life, as it had in the early morning. Here, it being some distance from the nearest ‘tank', the animals were making for their water-holes, which were generally deep, canoe-shaped depressions in the rock, some of them as much as forty feet in length and half that in width. Elephants came to them by the age-old roads that for countless centuries their progenitors had used to travel, often great distances, through the jungle; deer approached the holes with caution, sniffing the air in case one of their enemies, the leopards, chanced to be in the vicinity; brown, woolly bears shambled with their black snouts nosing from side to side across the rocks; a sudden rustle of quills heralded the arrival of a family of large, spiky porcupines and sometimes a cowardly jackal was to be seen, slinking by.

While on the road to Batticaloa now and then a car, lorry or
cart had passed them; but since they had left it, only an occasional glimpse of the railway line gave evidence of man's existence. The animals were so tame that even a leopard a few yards off paused in his seeking only to stare with unblinking eyes at them for a moment through a gap in the foliage, then moved on about his business.

Darkness fell but stars soon lit the heavens, giving sufficient light for them to see the rough places on the track; so they continued on until nine o'clock, when they came upon further evidence of Ceylon's ancient civilisation. This was a great mound of rubble which, perhaps, had once been a monastery; for on its summit a row of skeleton walls that had enclosed small spaces suggested monks' cells. At the base of the pile there were several caves which had later probably been inhabited by hermits. Nearby there gurgled a shallow stream.

They were very tired again now, so Truss suggested that the caves would make a good place to doss down in for the night; but Douglas would not hear of that, saying it was certain they would be the homes of vampire bats, tarantulas and centipedes, or perhaps even a leopard. However, he agreed that they were unlikely to find a better place to sleep than on the mossy bank beside the stream.

Having tethered the horse, they ate again, then decided to freshen themselves up with a dip. Some twenty yards away from the place where they were sitting a dam made by otters had formed a deeper pool; so, with Fleur setting an example which she felt to be justified by the semi-darkness, they stripped and, with little exclamations at the comparative coldness of the water, went in.

Suddenly Truss gave a shout, and went over backwards. He had stepped on something that moved beneath his foot. The water broke and churned as a four-foot-long reptile broke the surface. For a moment they thought it was a small crocodile and scattered in confusion. But the beast was as frightened of them as they were of it and swiftly slithered away into the undergrowth. Douglas, on getting a better sight of it, said that their fears had been groundless; it was only a giant lizard known as the armour-plated cabaragoya.

On resuming their bathe, they found their legs being deliciously tickled. Truss stepped out, fetched his torch and shone it down into the water. It showed that Douglas's dark legs, as he stood waist deep, had become powdered in a film of what looked like flour by some substance that was being carried downstream. Fleur's legs were also covered with it, although on them it did not show so distinctly, and hundreds of minute fish were feeding on it.

The night air had become a little chilly so, on emerging from the water, they ran up and down to dry themselves, then got into their clothes and made themselves as comfortable as they could for the night. But they were destined to sleep for less than two hours.

They were woken by a neigh that mounted to a scream. The moon had risen and, starting up, they saw by its light that, thirty feet away, a leopard had sprung on to the haunches of their little horse. Fleur was nearest this heart-rending sight. With a courage inspired by mingled horror and excitement, she grabbed a big stone that lay near her, jumped to her feet, ran forward and hurled it at the leopard.

The stone struck the great spotted cat on its flank. Instantly it dropped from its prey, bounded forward and crouched to launch itself at her. Douglas was immediately behind her. He gave her a violent push that sent her reeling into the stream, then tensed himself to spring aside. He was too late. Its yellow eyes gleaming in the moonlight, the lithe, twelve-stone streak of muscle and sinew came hurtling through the air. Burying its claws in his shoulders it knocked him like a nine-pin to the ground.

Truss was only a few feet away. He raised the Sten gun but for a moment did not fire from fear of killing Douglas. Then, as the leopard's claws tore his muscles, Douglas screamed. Taking the only chance to save him, Truss pressed the trigger. The barrel of the weapon spurted flame but only two bullets issued from it. After the other bursts that Truss had fired they were all that were left in the magazine. The bullets smacked into the leopard's back and one broke its spine leaving it far from dead and only partially paralysed. Snarling fiercely it
twisted about, continuing to maul the screaming Douglas. Clubbing the gun Truss ran forward and beat the animal on the head with all his strength until it lost consciousness and sagged motionless upon its victim.

Panting and horrified, Truss and Fleur rolled the great beast off Douglas and into the stream to drown. Either from shock or agony Douglas had been rendered incapable of coherent speech and remained writhing on the ground. As gently as they could they got his clothes off. Both his shoulders and his thighs had been badly lacerated and he was whimpering with pain.

The only possession that Fleur had been able to retain was her beauty box. It was still in one of the panniers that they had left beside the horse when they had tethered him. The terrified animal was making the night hideous with almost human wails and trembling as though it had the ague, but she could not now give time to soothing him. Snatching her beauty box from the pannier, she ran back.

Truss had pulled off his shirt and was attempting to staunch the blood that was seeping from Douglas's wounds. Fleur quickly looked through the contents of her box. The only things that might be of use in it were a mild disinfectant and a soothing cream. When the flow of blood from the deep rips in Douglas's flesh had eased, they washed them carefully with the disinfectant and applied the cream. Then, with strips from their undergarments and his, they bound up his wounds as best they could.

The little horse was still whinnying pitifully, but they succeeded in calming him and found that, although there were nasty lacerations on his haunches, made when the leopard had leapt upon him, the brute had not had time to tear the flesh severely.

The hour that followed was an agony for all of them. Douglas remained
non compos mentis
and continued to groan and twist where he lay. Fleur and Truss, all thought of sleep gone from them, sat beside him, made desperately unhappy by the knowledge that they could do nothing to ease his pain. Round about midnight Truss could bear it no longer, and said to Fleur:

‘We can't stay here. We've got to get him to some place where he can be attended to. Even one of those groups of mud huts we've seen now and then in clearings of the jungle would be better than nothing. The jungle folk are used to this sort of thing and have their own remedies for wounds inflicted by wild beasts. I don't think his injuries are fatal by a long sight; but I've heard that leopards return to their kills to eat putrefying meat, so their claws become infected and can cause gangrene to set in.'

Fleur had been quietly crying but she at once agreed that it would be better to move on than to stay where they were, as even when morning came it might be hours before a vehicle came along the infrequently used jungle track.

Strong as he was, Truss could not have carried Douglas any great distance, but they thought the little horse was in good enough shape to bear such a burden. To have slung the injured man over the animal's withers would have caused the blood to run to his head as it hung down on one side and, perhaps, brought about dangerous congestion; so they mounted him and used a cord from the canvas cart cover to attach his feet under the horse's belly and another to link his hands round its neck. with his head resting on its mane. With Fleur leading the horse and Truss holding Douglas in position they then began to make their way through the jungle, now lit by eerie moonlight.

After a while Douglas lapsed into unconsciousness. The others were kept constantly on the alert by rustlings in the undergrowth as the animals there pursued their nightly hunting. More than once, when such sounds came near, their hearts were gripped with the fear that they were about to be attacked by another leopard attracted by the smell of Douglas's blood. Twice bears lumbered across their path yet took no notice of them, but Fleur was badly scared by a big eagle-owl that swooped down and circled round their heads.

Resting now and then, they had been going for about two hours when, at the side of the road, they came upon a clearing in which there were some half dozen low wigwams made from branches and palm leaves. With mingled hopes and fears about the reception with which they might meet, they made their way
towards the camp. Suddenly dogs began to bark and four skinny mongrels came rushing at them.

For a moment it looked as though they were about to be badly savaged, but Truss had hardly beaten off the attack of the first with a stick he had been using occasionally to keep their horse moving, when a little crowd of natives came scrambling out of the huts and called off the dogs.

They were very dark, lean, long-haired, dressed in rags and tatters and, but for the fact that silver bracelets jingled on the skinny arms of the women, might have been a prehistoric people. Jabbering excitedly and brandishing spears, they surrounded the newcomers. But their Headman, a wizened-faced elder whose untidy locks were streaked with grey, waved back his followers and Fleur spoke to him in Sinhalese.

By a shrug of his shoulders he showed that he did not understand her; but when they untied the still-unconscious Douglas and lowered him to the ground the natives at once realised what had befallen him.

They carried him over to a camp fire, the embers of which were still glowing, then examined his wounds. Going into one of the wigwams, the Headman returned with the leaves of some healing plant, laid them on Douglas's injuries, then bound them up again. Meanwhile Fleur said to Truss:

‘I think these people must be Kuravars, the gipsies of Ceylon. They are said to have a great knowledge of herbal medicine and keep remedies that will cure all sorts of ills; so there is a good hope that those leaves they are putting on Douglas will prove effective.'