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Larra was now two hours
overdue. Her three companions,
Katie, Amy, and Jia Li were becoming progressively more
concerned.
“Something must have happened,” said
Katie. As the oldest of the three
women, she had stepped into the leadership
role. “Larra set the deadline
herself. She would not break
it if she was capable of being here.”
“We must look for her,” interjected Jia
Li.
“You are right,” agreed Katie.
“The only question is whether we all go or if we split
up.”
“It appears to have been a mistake to have split up the first time,”
said Amy. “I think we stick
together.”
“I think you are right,” agreed
Katie. “And we should probably
start now. It is a bit late in
the day, but Larra could have been injured in a fall or something and be
waiting only a half hour away.”
“I have an idea,” said Amy.
“You and Jia Li go ahead.
I will organize the camp and follow as soon as
possible.”
“Right” said Katie, tossing her blonde
hair. She turned to Jia
Li. “Let’s go, we might
get lucky.”
Within minutes the two women were following in Larra’s
footsteps. They were only lightly
equipped, depending on Amy to bring up whatever supplies they might need
if the search lasted longer than a few
hours.
For the first hour or so they made very good
time. Of course, they were in
a hurry and did not move as carefully as they might
have. They kept their eyes peeled
for any sign of Larra, but saw nothing.
Eventually, they reached the same chasm that had blocked Larra’s
path. It was a formidable
barrier. But it was clear that
Larra had probably crossed it, otherwise they would have found
her. The possibility that Larra
might have fallen into the abyss was something that neither woman was prepared
to contemplate.
“Somehow, Larra must have made it across here, but exactly how I am
not sure,” said Katie.
“Maybe she made a bridge,” suggested Jia
Li.
“Maybe, but where is it now?” queried
Katie.
Jia Li shrugged. She had no idea
how Larra might have crossed the chasm, but she did have an idea how they
might cross. “There was
a grove of bamboo back there. We
could take out knives and make a ladder for ourselves and get
across.”
The two women walked back down the canyon a few hundred
feet. Katie looked doubtfully
at the slender bamboo plants.
“Are you sure that this will hold us?” she
asked.
“Oh yes,” said Jia Li.
“Bamboo is very strong.
We use it all the time in
Katie was dubious, but she trusted the younger woman’s
judgement. “OK, let’s
try it,” she said.
Cutting the tough bamboo with only their sheath knives was not easy, but
fortunately they did not need a great deal of
it. Within a few minutes they
had cut enough lengths that Jia Li could commence joining it
together. As Larra had taught
them, they had brought along a length of
rope. Jia Li used this to create
three ladders, each one about twelve feet in
length. She then joined the three
ladders together into a much longer single
ladder. When she was finished
she had created a ladder long enough to span the thirty-foot gap presented
by the chasm.
Katie looked at what Jia had built very
skeptically. “You’re
not going to trust that contraption are you?” she asked
incredulously.
“I will cross first,” the beautiful oriental
answered. “If I make it,
you follow.”
The two women dragged the ladder to the
chasm. It just reached the other
side.
“You hold the bottom to make sure it does not slip,” said Jia
Li.
Katie gripped the bottom rungs of the ladder
firmly. Carefully Jia Li committed
her weight to it. The ladder
sagged a little, but to Katie’s amazement and relief, it did not
collapse. Slowly, Jia Li inched
across. After what seemed an
eternity to Katie, she reached the other
side. She was now at the top
of the ladder, about fifteen feet higher than Katie’s head, but standing
on the other side of the chasm.
“Now you come,” said Jia
Li. “I will hold this
side.”
Conscious of the fact that she weighed about fifteen pounds more than Jia
Li, Katie crawled onto the ladder.
It sagged under her, exactly the way it had when Jia Li had
crossed. Trying not to look down,
Katie slowly edged across. With
a huge gasp of relief she finally gained the other
side.
“You see,” exclaimed Jia
Li. “I told you it would
work. It is used in
Katie
smiled. She had a hard time believing
that Amy would dare to use so flimsy a bridge.
Jia Li was already moving down the
canyon. Kate was about to follow
when she spotted something just over the edge of the
cliff. It was Larra’s
pack! She called Jia Li
back. The pack was sitting on
a ledge about twenty feet below the edge of the
cliff. It was proof that Larra
had reached the other side of the chasm, but it also indicated that something
had gone wrong. Larra would certainly
not have left the pack there under ordinary
circumstances.
“Look here!” exclaimed Jia Li pointing to the
ground.
“Boot prints,” said Katie.
“Yes, and blood,” said Jia Li pointing to the
ground.
Katie studied the boot prints.
Clearly it seemed that Larra’s boots had made
them. And intermingled with her
footprints were the bare feet of several
men. The prints were
smeared. It appeared that there
might have been some sort of scuffle.
“There was a fight here,” said Jia
Li. “And then Larra was
led away by many men.” She
pointed to a trail of footprints leading up the
canyon.
“Well, at least we know that she is still alive,” said
Katie.
“Maybe,” said Jia Li.
“Here is a smear of blood on this
rock. It might be
Larra’s.”
“Or it might be one of the men who attacked her,” said
Katie. “She would not go
without a fight.”
By now it was getting dark.
“I don’t think we have much light
left. It would probably be a
good idea if we stayed here for the night,” said
Katie. “I would like to
follow the trail, but I am afraid that we would just get lost in the dark,
and we need to give Amy and the porters a chance to catch up to
us.”
“Yes,” said Jia Li uncertainly.
She would have liked to take up the trail, but realized that Katie
was right. Neither woman was
an experienced tracker. It was
unlikely that with night coming on they would be able to keep on the trail
in any case.
They set about making camp. Jia
Li gathered wood for a fire and Katie cut some saplings to make a
lean-to. In a few minutes they
was a small fire burning and Katie had put together
a crude shelter. They didn’t
have any food to cook; just some dried rations that they had taken with them,
but the fire would help keep insects and any wild animals
away.
Katie had also cut down a quantity of dry
grass. It would give them something
to lie on. Neither woman really
enjoyed roughing it to this extent, but this was an
emergency. They needed to stay
close to Larra’s trail in order to make sure that they could go after
her as soon as it was light. With
any luck, Amy would catch up to them
shortly. Then all three women
could work together on finding Larra.
Katie took the first watch. Someone
had to tend the fire and the men who had captured Larra might still be
around. She spent the time listening
to the noises of the night.
Katie awoke with a start. She
had dozed off despite her best
intentions. The fire was only
a collection of glowing embers.
Feeling guilty she picked up a piece of wood to rekindle the
fire. She glanced over at Jia
Li. She could not make out the
sleeping Chinese girl in the darkness, but she could hear her regular
breathing. She then heard something
else. It was a rustling sound,
as of someone or something creeping through the vegetation close to their
campsite. Tossing the brand onto
the hot coals, Katie picked up her rifle and opened her mouth to call to
Jia Li. At that instant, a rope
dropped over her head and settled around her
arms. With a shout of alarm,
Katie leaped to her feet, but the rope was pulled tight, pinning her arms
to her sides. She tried to grab
the rope and pull it back over her head, but a second rope, thrown from the
opposite side, dropped over her. As
it was drawn tight, Katie was completely
immobilized.
Katie’s shout aroused Jia Li
instantly. She was not normally
a heavy sleeper, and she passed from slumber to wakefulness almost
immediately. She awoke, however,
into almost pitch-blackness. She
could just make out the shape of Katie struggling in front of
her. She seemed to be ensnared
in some sort of rope. Drawing
her knife with one hand and her pistol with the other, Jia Li bounded toward
Katie. From out of the darkness
a heavy object struck her just above the
knees.
“Ahh!” Jia Li cried out in pain and
surprise. The impact knocked
her legs from under her. Quickly,
she struggled to rise, but a second blow smacked into the back of her
head. Stunned by the force of
the blow she lay helpless on the ground for a few
seconds. Almost immediately,
she was laid hold of by several pairs of
hands. Her arms were quickly
forced up behind her back and her wrists were bound
together. Terror caused her struggles
to become frenzied, but once her wrists were lashed together she was helpless
to prevent her assailants from completing their binding of
her.
A few feet from her Jia Li could hear Katie’s grunts and gasps as she
was similarly bound. Within a
few seconds both women were completely at the mercy of their unknown
attackers.
Katie and Jia Li were roughly dragged to their
feet. A short length of rope
had been used to hobble each woman.
It prevented them from using their feet to strike at their
attackers. Their wrists had been
tied in such a way as to pull them up toward the middle of their backs, rather
than down. Their wrists were
then secured in this position by ropes that passed over each of their shoulders
and crossed their breasts in front, before being secured to their upper
arms. Not only was this form
of bondage quite painful, but it served to thrust their breasts out in front
of them in a most suggestive manner.
Adding to the fear and confusion of the two women was the fact that neither
of them had as yet seen their captors.
The night was moonless, and the deep shade of the canyon was even
blacker that the normal African night.
Their captors had engaged in no conversation so neither of the captured
women could tell anything about the men who had seized
them. The lack of communication
between their captors was bizarre to say the least, and it was Katie who
finally broke the silence.
“I’m sorry, Jia Li. I
fell asleep. I should have asked
you to take over.” Her voice
betrayed the fact that she was on the verge of
weeping.
“Not to worry,” replied Jia Li.
“Now we have to find a way to
escape.”
Katie knew what she meant. Jia
Li’s use of English was not always
exact. She was telling her that
worrying about past events was a waste of
time. Their main concern now
was to try and escape from their
predicament.
The exchange of conversation between the two women elicited a response from
their guards. Although neither
woman could understand a word of what was being said, the tone was menacing
enough to shut them up. Perhaps
they would find time to talk later, when their invisible captors were not
so close to them.
Each of the women now felt a tug.
Ropes had been tied about their necks, and they were led off farther
up the canyon. With a terrible
sense of foreboding, the two helpless females were led off into the night.
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