The Elephant's Tale Read Online Free

turn.
    My darling,
    I hope there is never any need for you to use this key. If you do it will mean I got too close to the truth. You always thought me so brave. I don’t feel that way today. I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me.
    All my love always,
    Henry
    For several long minutes nobody said anything. Nobody knew what to say. It was as if Henry Thomas had spoken from the grave. At last Martine plucked up the courage to ask: “What is the key for?”
    Her grandmother removed it from the envelope and examined the business card tied to it with a piece of string. “It would appear that it’s for a safety-deposit box in a bank vault in England.”
    She slumped in her chair. “Oh, what can it all mean? What is it that I have to forgive?”
    “Maybe you’re right,” Ben suggested. “Maybe something did happen on Mr. Thomas’s trip to England.”
    “Perhaps. But his secret, if he had one, has gone with him to the grave.”
    “Not necessarily,” put in Martine. “If you went to England, the answer might be in the safety-deposit box. You could do some investigating and find out what my grandfather was doing there and who he was meeting with.”
    Her grandmother was aghast. “I can’t travel halfway across the world and leave you alone in the house, especially when Sawubona is crawling with strangers. And I’m certainly not leaving Tendai alone to face the music on the reserve. Who knows what nefarious plans Mr. James has up his sleeve.”
    “Martine won’t be alone,” Ben told her. “I’ll be here to protect her.”
    In spite of her distress, Gwyn Thomas managed a smile. “And who’s going to protect you, Ben Khumalo?”
    “Why don’t we call Grace and ask her if she’ll come and stay for a week or two,” suggested Martine. “Then Ben and I won’t be alone and Tendai will have some grown-up support. One look from Grace and Reuben James will probably run for his life.”
    “Grace is away in Kwazulu-Natal visiting relatives,” her grandmother reminded her.
    “Yes, but she is back in a couple of days,” Tendai pointed out. “I can have Tobias, our new guard, watch the house at night until then.”
    “I can’t believe we’re even considering this,” said Gwyn Thomas. “What if it’s a wild-goose chase? What if I fly thousands of miles and spend a small fortune—at a time when we can least afford it—only to discover there’s nothing to discover? That the note was just something Henry wrote when he was feeling guilty about borrowing money from Mr. James.”
    “Then at least you’ll know,” Martine told her. “You’ll know that there was nothing to find and you’ll know that you did everything possible to save Sawubona.”
    But even as she spoke, a feeling of doom crept into her bones, joining the anger and dread already lurking there. “Maybe it’s not such a great idea,” she backtracked. “It is too far way and we’ll miss you.”
    “No, I think you were right the first time, Martine,” Gwyn Thomas said. “I should travel to England, otherwise I’ll spend the rest of my life wondering if it would have made a difference if I’d only gone. I should go if it means saving Sawubona.”

5
    T he morning after Gwyn Thomas had flown away, Sampson, an elderly game guard who patrolled the reserve on foot, radioed at six a.m. to say that he had found a buffalo needing urgent treatment for a suspected viral disease. Without that, it would die.
    Martine heard the crackling of Tendai’s responses and went down to the kitchen to find out what was going on. Ben had already showered and was sitting at the table drinking coffee and eating anchovy toast. In contrast to Martine, who was not a morning person and was bleary-eyed and in her pajamas, her hair sticking up on end, he looked cool, alert, and ready to face anything the day could throw at him.
    “There’s a sick buffalo near the northern boundary,” he told Martine. “Will you come with us? We could do with your