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"Treasure of the Golden Cheetah" Mount Kilimanjaro looms in the background ... Hollywood movie crews ... the return of Harry Hascombe ... the legend of King Solomon's Mines ... murder ... and in the middle - the indomitable Jade! “Cinematic in its descriptions of Africa, compelling in plot -- this is a true whodunit” - Jay Strafford, Richmond (VA) Times-Dispatch “…as much a great historical as it is a mystery.” - Harriet Klausner hardcover ($24.95 list) ISBN-10: 0451227891 | ISBN-13: 978-0451227898 |
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CHAPTER 1: KENYA COLONY, Mid-September 1920
The frontiers of Africa have been pushed back. What was once inaccessible has become commonplace. The newest site falling prey to such familiarity is the seat of God, Kilimanjaro. - - The Traveler
The woman astride the poppy red Indian Power Plus motorcycle would have been considered beautiful in many cultures. Her appeal went beyond her lithe, well-muscled figure, her short hair rippling in black waves around an olive complexion, or her eyes the color of brilliant moss.
No, her real beauty lay in her strength of character, in her easy grace and confidence, and it echoed in her soft contralto laugh. To Sam Featherstone, Jade del Cameron was simply the most gorgeous creature on Earth and that included the powerful male cheetah that stood beside her. Even from six-hundred feet up in the air he could spot her beauty, even though most of it was presently hidden under the broad brim of a battered, brown felt hat.
Sam leaned a little farther out of the front cockpit and signaled Jade by pointing north. His friend and fellow pilot, Lord Avery Dunbury, sat behind him at the controls so that Sam could man the movie camera. Communication between cockpits wasn’t practical because of the noise from wind and the bi-plane’s Ox-5 engine, singing its purring hymn to the sky. Sam glanced over his shoulder at Avery and nodded. Avery gave him a thumbs up, and they climbed to eight-hundred feet, banking north.
The Curtiss JN-4, or “Jenny,” responded smoothly, testimony to the loving care Sam gave it or perhaps to the brightly painted symbols on its wings and the beads on the spars and wires, gifts of the Maasai who’d once guarded it. Sam spied the herd first, a mixture of eland, greater kudu, and Thomson’s gazelles. He readied his camera and signaled with a swirling hand gesture to Avery.
They circled around the animals, keeping enough distance between them to avoid spooking the herd. At least not yet. Sam cranked film as Avery banked the Jenny, giving Sam a clearer view of the terrain and the animals. When they’d approached the herd’s rear, putting it between themselves and Jade, Sam turned towards Avery and stabbed his index finger down. He saw Avery’s broad grin as he shoved the stick forward and dove to three hundred feet, making a bee-line for the animals.
The effect was instantaneous. The terrified beasts wheeled as one and raced away into the dry grassland. Their hooves pounded the parched earth, churning up rusty-red dust. Avery veered a few degrees east and herded the animals from the rear quarter like an aerial sheepdog. As the herd neared the cheetah, Sam trained his camera on the cat. Jade had already moved discretely out of view but he knew she was close by, watching. Sam only hoped he’d be able to capture everything on film. Of course, the bigger question was, would Biscuit cooperate?
He did. The sleek, spotted cat crouched for an instant and focused on one outlying animal, a Thomson’s gazelle. Then in a blur of gold and black, the cat bounded after the small antelope. His forelimbs reached out as his rear legs pushed back, extending his body to a long line. As first one, then the other forelimb touched earth and drove down, his hind feet pulled foreward until they passed the front legs. With his deep barrel chest, Biscuit was the consummate athlete, drawing in oxygen to power his muscles, pushing himself past sixty miles per hour in his sprint.
The race ended in eight seconds. Biscuit overtook the little antelope and tripped it, sending it sprawling along the ground. In the next instant, he’d clamped his jaws over the animal’s throat, suffocating it. Sam only hoped he’d cranked film fast enough to capture the action.
He whirled an index finger in the air in widening circles, signaling Avery to circle out. As they did, Sam’s gaze sought Jade. He found her at the end of the third pass.
“What in the Sam Hell is she doing!”
Filming a hunt had been Sam’s idea, but the hunt itself had been Jade’s. Biscuit had captured small game before, grouse and a few rodents, but soon Jade would be going to Kilimanjaro, leaving Biscuit with Jelani in his Kikuyu village. For the most part, the boy would keep her pet supplied with the chickens she’d purchased, but it would help if the cat could hunt for himself.
There was another, more serious reason for this hunt. Biscuit had been hers for over a year, and he stayed with her by choice. Jade wanted to be certain it wasn’t from necessity. If Biscuit desired freedom, Jade wanted him to have it. But that meant fending for himself. Hence, the practice hunt. She’d intended to drive game towards him using her motorcycle, but Sam had decided the hunt would make a great piece of film and offered the use of his Jenny.
Of course, with Sam grinding out film footage, someone else must fly. Jade would have jumped at the chance, but she had to stay with Biscuit in case something went amiss. Avery, on the other hand, didn’t need to be asked twice. A former Royal Air Corps pilot, he couldn’t wait to get aloft again. Avery, Sam, Jade, and Biscuit rendezvoused at a grassland near Jelani’s village. Sam and Avery went aloft while Jade, on her motorcycle, led Biscuit to an open location.
The beautiful cat seemed to sense a game in the works. The white tuft at the end of his black-ringed tail twitched as his eyes surveyed the grasslands. Obediently, he stayed put when Jade withdrew. Then when the herd raced by, he selected a likely prey and charged, running it to the ground while Jade shouted, “Go get ‘em, Biscuit!”
She felt her pulse race and her face flush with more than excitement. It was pride, pure and simple. But as soon as Biscuit had his prey, Jade’s sharp vision caught movement in the yellowed grass. A tawny tail, tipped in a black tuft, swished and jittered. Ahead of it, a pair of rounded triangular ears twitched fore and aft. Bits of thin golden mane stuck out at odd angles.
Lion!
The young male had been unsuccessful in his own bid for dinner, probably because he was a bachelor with no harem to support him. When he caught wind of Biscuit’s kill, he roared his challenge, fully prepared to drive off the cheetah. And Biscuit was willing to retreat. He might not be completely savvy in the ways of the wild, but he knew he was no match for the four-hundred pounds of hunger coming at him, and immediately backed off.
“Oh, no you don’t!” Jade grumbled as the lion strutted over to the Tommy’s carcass.
She started her engine and revved out an answering roar before unslinging her Winchester and firing a round into the air.
“Get your own kill!”
The young male looked up from his half crouch, a huge forepaw resting on the Tommy’s shoulder. He regarded her with amber eyes then dismissed her as a noisy curiosity, certainly nothing worth troubling himself over. At least, not with a free meal at his feet. Still, her presence must have troubled him for he bent to pick up the antelope and drag it off elsewhere.
When he dipped his head and opened his mouth, Jade fired another round, the bullet striking the dirt a foot in front of him. His head snapped up, jaws empty. The velvety mouth wrinkled back in a snarl, exposing yellowed fangs. But while he didn’t reach down for the meat again, he also didn’t abandon the field.
That tears it! She revved her bike and gave it the gas, roaring off towards the wary lion.
“Hyah!” she shouted as she charged directly towards him. Jade had little tolerance for bullies, especially one intending to rob her cat out of his hard-earned meal.
The lion jerked his head and shoulders back, clearly startled by this new development. Jade slowed and leaned to the side, scooping up a few rocks. Armed, she revved the engine again, letting it give voice to her own challenge. The lion stepped back two paces and snarled. Jade pulled up to within fifty feet and hurled her first missile. It hit the lion square on his nose. She threw another, striking his foreleg when he backed up another step.
Just as she was about to reload and charge again, a drone grew out of the air behind her. The Jenny buzzed both her and the lion, coming within twenty feet of the ground. This new attack was too much for the lion. He gave a parting snarl before turning tail and running.
Jade picked up the antelope carcass and plopped it across the rear seat and the panniers. “Come on, Biscuit,” she called, and added a whistle. The cheetah joined her and together they headed back to the landing site and Neville’s truck.
While she waited beside the truck, Jade pulled her knife and sliced a chunk of shoulder meat, then tossed it to Biscuit. “It’s all yours. But we’d better wait until we get you home before you eat the rest. Our friend or one of his brothers might come back.”
The Jenny’s engine purred to the east. Jade looked up, shielding her eyes against the glaring African sunlight. As she watched, Avery brought the plane down in a smooth landing. They puttered to a stop, the plane’s propellers still idling. Jade expected Avery to climb out and return to the truck while Sam took over using the front cockpit’s controls to fly back to his hangar at the Thompsons’ farm. But the figure striding towards her was taller by several inches and walked with a slight limp.
Sam!
Jade’s pulse quickened. Uh oh! Something about his stride told her that he wasn’t planning on sweeping her into a big hug.
“Sam! Did you capture all of that? I even thought of a pissonet just now. Listen.” She started reciting. “Biscuit had captured some meat, and just settled down to eat, when the cheetah was cheeted, but the lion retreated and --”
“What in the name of heaven were you doing?” Sam demanded. “Are you nuts? Charging a full grown male lion?”
Jade opened her mouth to defend herself, to inform him that the lion was an inexperienced young male, that lions were often cowards to begin with, but Sam never gave her the chance.
“If we hadn’t buzzed him, who knows what would have happened.”
“He was about to run away,” she said.
“He was probably about to knock you off your bike and add you to his menu.” Sam threw his arms up and out, letting them drop with a smack against his breeches. “I’ve never met anyone so set on getting herself mauled to death.”
Jade expected the argument to take its usual turn. He’d grab hold of her, say he loved her, and kiss her.
He didn’t. He only pivotted and marched back to his plane.
