He stood up abruptly and raced towards the stables, Sarah and Hannah running after him. They were empty, but here too they found signs of a struggle and the ground was trampled and bloodstained. Sarah clasped Hannah by the hand, feeling her trembling, hearing her teeth beginning to chatter. In the distance, the hyenas had begun their nocturnal cacophony, and their cackling laughter sounded obscene on the night air. Terror shot through Sarah’s veins, making her limbs heavy and her vision blurred as she realised the danger.

‘Quick. Quick, Anthony. If the hyenas have scent of the blood and Piet’s hurt . . . Or Simon . . . Oh God, Anthony, hurry.’ Hannah had begun to sob.

They ran back to the Anthony’s vehicle. Using the torches and the headlights, they began to follow the tracks left by the fugitives, driving carefully across the rough land, frantic to make speed, but afraid to lose the trail in the dark. As they broke free of the trees along the river, they heard the hyena pack in full cry. Sarah’s blood ran cold and she clung to Hannah, listening to the sickening howls to the left of the road. Then one of the farm boys called out.

‘Bwana! They have gone this way!’ It was a narrow trail leading away from the pack, and after a moment Sarah realised where they were heading.

‘This is the way to the ridge. Piet must be making for the ridge. Maybe they’ve found somewhere there that’s safe to hide. Oh Jesus. Anthony, can we go any faster?’

‘I can’t risk it,’ he said, hunched grim and tense over the steering wheel. ‘The ground is very hard here and we could lose them, if for any reason they turned off the track.’

But as they climbed, Sarah was convinced that she was right. They came to the bottom of the scree, and she leapt from the car.

‘Come on. Come on, they can’t be that far ahead of us.’

‘Sarah, stay back here, behind me,’ Anthony ordered. ‘Don’t go on ahead without a weapon.’

But she was beyond fear as she ran on, branches snapping and whipping across her body, tearing at her skin. Behind her she could hear Anthony and Hannah calling her, but she drowned them out with her muttered prayers.

‘Don’t let him be the one who’s hurt, God. Don’t let anything have happened to him. Oh God, please, if You love us, don’t take him from me now. Please . . .’