Precious pointed to a bush at the side of the rough track they were following. One of the branches had been bent back so that it had snapped. There was still fresh sap where the break had happened.
“Something passed by this way not all that long ago,” she said. “Some big animal.”
“But it could have been anything,” said Tom. “A zebra. A buffalo. Anything.”
Precious was now down on her hands and knees, examining the ground. “No,” she said. “It was a lion. Several lions, in fact. Look at these.”
Tom and Khumo, along with the other men who were with them, now bent down to look at the ground where Precious was pointing.
Khumo, whose father was a game scout who had taught him how to track wild animals, saw what his friend meant. “Precious is right,” he said. “Lions went this way – and only a few minutes ago.”
At the news that the lions had been there only a few minutes earlier, Tom and his men looked a bit anxious.
“I hope they’re not too close,” said one of the men, giving a little shiver as he spoke.
“We’ll soon find out,” said Precious. “Let’s follow their tracks – keeping a careful look-out, of course.”
“A very careful look-out,” said Tom.
HEY WENT FORWARD SLOWLY, looking down at the ground very carefully before they put down their feet. This was so that they should not step on a twig that might snap and give them away to any creature that was listening. And lions do listen for anything that is coming their way – they are also very watchful animals, even if they are big and fierce and have large teeth that are very good at biting ... Precious did not like to think of that, and neither, I imagine, do you.
It was Precious who spotted them first. At first she thought it was just one of those tricks that your eyes can play. She thought it might just be a branch swaying in the breeze, or the shadow of a tiny cloud moving across the ground. But then she realised that it was neither of these, and that what she was looking at was a lion.
Once she knew that, then in an instant she saw all the rest. She saw that what looked like a pile of brown leaves on the ground was actually a young lion lying with his head on his front paws. And then what looked like a bendy branch in front of a bush was in fact a large lioness that was standing quite still looking up at the sky. Altogether she saw six lions, and they were not far away, really probably not much further than you or I could throw a small stone.
She reached out to tap Khumo on the shoulder. He turned round, looked where she was pointing, and then he let out a very low whistle to alert Tom.
“Over there,” whispered Khumo. “Look!”
Precious and Khumo both knew that they were safe as long as they made no sudden movements or sounds. This was because the wind was blowing from the direction of the lions. Had it been blowing the other way, then the lions would have smelled them very easily. Lions have a good sense of smell, and can tell when people or other animals are nearby just by lifting their great lion noses into the air and sniffing at the breeze.
Tom studied the lions and the way they were lying around resting. After a few moments, he whispered to Precious and Khumo, telling them what his plan was.
“Teddy is right on the edge of the pride,” he said. “See him over there?”
They looked. Sure enough, Teddy was some distance away from the others, under the shade provided by a tree. He seemed to be having his afternoon nap.
“I’m going to creep up towards him,” Tom went on. “There’s quite a bit of cover, and that means that they won’t see me. Once I reach him, he’ll remember me, of course, and will come back here with me. He always obeys me, especially if I offer him one of his lion treats.”
He showed them a large biscuit – rather like a dog biscuit – that he was holding in his right hand.
“Isn’t that a bit dangerous?” asked Precious. “What if the other lions see you? What then?”
“They won’t see me,” said Tom. “I will be very careful.”
Precious glanced at Khumo, who shrugged. It seemed as if he thought that if this was what Tom wanted to do, then he could not do anything to stop him. After all, Tom was an adult, and it is often rather difficult for children to stop adults from doing things once they have made up their minds to do it.
Dropping to his hands and knees, Tom began to crawl through the undergrowth. He moved very slowly, and he was well-covered by the grass and bushes, so Precious stopped worrying quite so much that he would be seen. Perhaps Tom really knew what he was doing after all, she thought.
But then something dreadful happened. It was so dreadful that Precious almost gave a shriek when she discovered it. Fortunately she did not, because that would have made matters a whole lot worse.
What happened was that she suddenly saw that at the other edge of the clearing another lion had woken up and was showing his face. That face was Teddy’s – she was absolutely sure of it. The lion that Tommy was now approaching looked like Teddy, but that was all. He was definitely not the tame actor lion, but was a wild lion that would not be very interested in being offered a lion treat by a man on his hands and knees. For such a lion, it would not be the biscuit, but the man himself who would seem like a tasty lion afternoon snack.
Precious had to act quickly. She could not call out to Tom, as that would disturb all the other lions, making them immediately come bounding towards them. So she would have to do something quite different – which is what she now did.
First she picked up a stone. Then, half rising, she made her best imitation of a guinea fowl. She sounded something like this.
Then, with every ounce of strength she had, she threw the stone up into the air to the other side of the clearing – well away from where Tom was crawling through the grass.
At the sound of the guinea fowl, all the lions in the pride rose to their feet and looked about them with interest. Then, when the stone landed in a thick clump of bush well away from the humans, the lions all bounded off to investigate. Lions, as you know, cannot resist guinea fowl and the thought that there might be a plump guinea fowl so close to them was just too much of a temptation.
Tom saw what was happening. The moment the lion towards which he was crawling rose to his feet, he knew that he had made a terrible mistake. He froze, not moving while the great lion rushed past him. Then, when the danger was over and the lions were all sniffing about in the bush for a guinea fowl that was not there, Tom crawled back to join the others as fast as his knees would carry him.
“Thank you,” he whispered to Precious as they made their way hurriedly back down the track towards the boat. “You saved my life, you know.”
He thanked her again when they reached the boat, and he repeated his thanks when they arrived back at the camp. That was exactly what he should have done. If somebody saves your life, then you should thank him or her at least three times. And if you are particularly grateful, you can say thank you a fourth time, which is what he did that night over dinner round the camp fire. Precious had been invited and sat there modestly while Tom told the story. Then everybody clapped and cheered, which made Precious feel a bit embarrassed. She was a modest girl, you see, and she had simply done what she had to do.
HE NEXT DAY there was a meeting of Tom and all the film crew. Precious and Aunty Bee were invited, as was Khumo.
“We are going to have to try to get Teddy back again,” said Tom. “This time we are going to take a famous lion catcher with us. He will be arriving with his net just before lunch time.”
Precious looked at the ground. She did not like the thought of Teddy being caught in a net. That would have been a very frightening experience for any lion, particularly for a gentle lion like Teddy.
Tom noticed that Precious looked upset. “Is there anything wrong with my plan?” he asked.
Precious bit her lip. She was not sure how to say what she wanted to say, but then Aunty Bee said something that helped make up her mind. “It’s always better to speak the things that are in yo
ur heart,” she whispered. “Never be too shy to do that.”
Precious knew that her aunt was right. And her father had told her the same thing too. “Don’t bite your tongue and say nothing when you feel that you have to speak. People respect a person who says what she thinks.”
Now she looked up. “I don’t think you should catch him,” she said. “I think that he’s happy being free.”
This was greeted with silence.
“But he’s an actor,” said Tom at last. “His place is with us – in the films. He has a job to do!”
“His place is with other lions,” said Precious. “That is where he will be happiest. Lions like to be with other lions – that is well known.”
Tom opened his mouth to say something else, but then he closed it.
“I think we should leave him,” Precious went on. “Those other lions will teach him how to hunt and to live in the wild again. He will learn how to sleep under the stars. He will learn how to wash his paws in rivers. He will learn how to roll about in a dust bath and jump up in the air to catch a guinea fowl as it flies from the grass. He will learn a lot of things that lions need to know.” She paused. “That real lions need to know.”
She stopped, because everybody was looking at her.
“Is that all?” Tom finally asked.
“Yes,” she said. “I hope you don’t think me rude, but that is what I really feel.”
Tom waited a moment before replying.
“I think you’re right,” he said. “You’ve made me see it from Teddy’s point of view – from the lion’s point of view. I’ve never done that before – I’ve always thought of myself. Now I know I’m wrong.”
“I agree,” said Tom’s assistant.
“And I agree too,” said the head cameraman. “We’ve already got plenty of shots of lions that we can use.”
Precious thought of something else. “But there’s one other thing,” she said. “I think we should go back there to say goodbye. We can do that from the boat – it won’t be dangerous if we do it that way.”
They all agreed, and so a few hours later they set off again, this time taking Aunty Bee with them. She had time to make some especially delicious sandwiches, that they ate as the boat drifted down the river towards the place where the lions liked to drink from the edge of the water.
The lions were there. This time it was Khumo who saw them first, and he excitedly pointed them out to everybody else on the boat. Teddy was with them – there was no mistaking him – and when they approached in their boat, keeping a safe distance away, he came down to the edge of the water and sniffed at the air.
For a few moments Precious wondered whether he was going to try to swim out to see them. He looked at them, and he moved his head up and down a bit as if he were greeting them. Then he let out a little roar. It was not an unfriendly roar; it was more of a hello, how are you? roar rather than a stay away from me! roar.
Tom raised a hand to wave to Teddy. The lion and the man looked at each other for quite a few minutes, as if they were both remembering all the time they had spent together. Then, rather sadly, in the way in which you would leave a good friend, Teddy turned round and began to walk back to the new life he had found for himself.
That was the last night that Precious was to spend with her aunt. The following day, she was to go back home with the people who had brought her up in their truck. She was sad to be leaving Aunty Bee, but she had plenty of friends back home to whom she was looking forward to telling the story of her adventures. Khumo was sorry to see her go, but he promised to write to her and said that he hoped one day he would see her again. He knew that she was already a detective and that she would become an even better detective as the years went by.
“Perhaps you’ll teach me how to be your assistant,” he said. “Only if you’ve got the time, of course.”
“Perhaps,” said Precious.
That night, asleep on the floor of her aunt’s room, with the sounds of the African night coming in through the window, she dreamed that she was out in the bush. In this dream she was walking along a path when she suddenly came upon a lion, and this was a lion called Teddy. And he smiled at her, in a curious, lion-like way before he ambled off back into the grass. It was not long grass, and she could see him quite well in the dream as he bounded off into the distance.
“Goodbye!” she whispered under her breath.
And he half-turned his head, and looked back at her, and said something that she did not quite catch. She did not know what it was, but she did know that it was something happy.
Alexander McCall Smith, Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion
(Series: # )
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