Inspector Jeremy Hardy arrived shortly after breakfast, his ruddy face concerned as he took in Hannah’s sunken eyes and the strain that was visible in her face.

‘I’m afraid there’s nothing new,’ he said, accepting a cup of coffee. ‘So far, it’s an isolated incident. There are no reports of problems on any other farms. It doesn’t look like anything political, is what I mean.’

‘Maybe. But I know the Murrays and the Griffiths are worried, and the Krugers too. I’ll make a bet that there will be more attacks, Jeremy, until you find these bastards and lock them up.’ Hannah refused to consider what he was trying to tell her.

‘I’ve discussed this with Piet, my dear, and he thinks my theory is right.’

‘What theory?’ Hannah demanded.

‘Your cattle were killed in a very particular way. With hindsight, it looks as though someone may have tried to start a fire out beside the lodge. And now you’ve had this attack on the house. All directed at Langani. So you might have someone on your hands with a particular grudge.’

‘But we’ve had no real shauris recently,’ Hannah insisted. ‘Except for a drunken old shepherd, and Piet paid him off with three months’ salary because he was sorry for the old fool. We’ve seen him on the road several times, drunk as a lord and smiling his toothless smile. I can’t believe he has it in for us, and he’s not capable of killing cattle or dogs, or organising a raid on the house. It doesn’t make any sense.’ Hannah pressed her fingers to her eyes in a tired gesture

‘You may be right,’ Jeremy said, conscious of her distress. ‘But you know what these fellows are like. One minute they’re loyal retainers, and the next they think they’ve been cheated or short changed in some way, and they go crazy. They’re as unpredictable as children.’

‘Those bastards were strangers,’ Piet said. ‘And now they’ve made off with two of our guns as well as the pangas they had. So they’d better be found before they kill someone. We were lucky that Lars had gone out the other night, that he came back and surprised them. But he could have lost his life. They didn’t hesitate to fire at him. And at me too. Man, you’d better speed up your enquiries. Put a few more people on this case and get some results.’

‘What are you doing about your stolen guns?’ Jeremy asked.

‘I replaced them when I went down to collect Hannah in Nairobi. Ammunition too. It was an expensive exercise I could have done without.’