In fact the newcomer was a hunter, as became clear over the following days.
The man put the word out; he was on the lookout for many types of wild creatures, he told the villagers, particularly monkeys, deer and bears. He could sell the pelts for large sums in the markets of Kathmandu and certain glands and organs would be sold to a Chinese trader who specialised in traditional medicine.
He would pay good money for information which would lead him to a kill, he promised them, and the biggest money of all would be for information which would put him on the trail of a snow leopard.
Snow leopard skins could fetch thousands of dollars on the black market, he told them. Collectors in Hong Kong and Beijing would fight to obtain them. Such a prize would have to be handled with great care, he warned, as government wardens were authorised to shoot poachers on sight.
He pulled down the bandage on his thigh and showed them an ugly scar. A bullet was still in there, he boasted, and he didn’t want another to add to the collection.
Total secrecy was necessary.
Kami had listened in on one of these conversations and at the mention of killing snow leopards he felt a flush of anger overwhelm him. He ran to Shreeya and told her what the hunter was planning.
Shreeya was shocked to the core. The very thought that someone could want to kill such a beautiful creature was so alien to her that she struggled to believe it was true.
‘Do you think he’ll find out about the family we saw?’
‘If he does it’ll be a disaster,’ Kami replied. ‘Who else knows about them apart from your father and us?’
Shreeya shook her head. ‘I don’t know, but I can ask my father who he has told.’
When they met next day Shreeya was looking gloomy.
‘My father can’t remember how many people he told,’ she said. ‘But he thinks maybe four or five.’
‘Four or five?’ Kami’s heart sank at this news.
‘But he says he won’t give that man any information and neither will the others,’ she told Kami. ‘He says the man looks like a crook and nobody’s going to trust him.’
‘But maybe some others will want the money,’ Kami suggested.
For the first few days Shreeya’s father’s theory was proved correct. The villagers were indeed initially reluctant to co-operate. But the hunter was persistent and cunning; he paid for millet wine to be brewed and invited some of the elders to join him for a drink.
‘This village has been poor for too long,’ he told them as the alcohol began to flow. ‘It is time for you to make some money.’
The millet wine was potent enough to loosen a few tongues and after four or five glasses, inspired by the thought of the money they could make, the men began to talk. Many of them knew where rhesus monkeys could be found, others knew the glades where deer grazed in the early mornings.
Some had seen evidence of a bear in a region of forest less than one hour from the village.
And one knew of a family of snow leopards which lived in the cliffs above one of Langtang’s sacred lakes.
At the mention of this last lead, the hunter smiled his rotten smile and became more generous than ever. Where was this lake, he asked. Which trail should he take to get there? Was it a solitary animal or a family?
The party went on until the early hours, laughter ringing out as those present celebrated the riches they would surely soon possess.
When the village woke up the next morning the hunter was gone.
News that the hunter had vanished spread rapidly around the village, and Kami and Shreeya soon found out that he had been told about the whereabouts of the snow leopard family.
The two children ran to Shreeya’s father and delivered the bad news.
‘We have to chase after him,’ Shreeya begged. ‘Can’t you persuade some men to go with you?’
‘It’s not so easy as that,’ her father protested. ‘People have to work. They haven’t got time to rush around the forest for days on end.’
‘Won’t they want to save the leopards?’ Shreeya found it hard to believe that anyone could sleep at night when such noble creatures were in danger.
‘Think about it,’ her father continued. ‘That man is obviously a bad piece of work and he’s armed with a gun. If he discovers he’s being tracked then who knows what could happen … ’
The children shivered at these words. The idea of that feral man of the forest hiding in the shadows with a gun was indeed a terrifying one.
‘What about the wildlife rangers?’ Kami suggested. ‘Can’t we tell them what’s happening?’
Shreeya’s father considered this but then shook his head. ‘The nearest ranger post is four days’ walk away, and in the opposite direction. By the time we got there it would already be too late.’
‘I wish we’d never seen them!’ Shreeya cried. ‘Then they’d be safe!’
Shreeya hated to cry, but on this occasion she couldn’t hold back the tears. Her father held her tight, patting her head gently as she sobbed.
‘How long will it take him to get there?’ asked Kami.
Shreeya’s father thought a few moments. ‘With that leg it will probably take him three days and nights. And he’ll have to stake out the cliffs when he arrives. He might have to wait a day or two to even see the leopards.’
‘Then there is time to stop him, if we trek as fast as we can. Please father. I beg you.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘We’re not going to do it and that’s the end of the conversation. You’ll just have to hope those leopards have moved somewhere else.’
‘They won’t have,’ Shreeya said miserably, ‘I read it in the book. The mother will keep the cubs in the same den all summer unless something disturbs them.’
At that point, a couple of visitors arrived, and Shreeya’s father instructed Kami and Shreeya to fetch two jerrycans of water. They ran through the rice fields to the well and sat side by side on a stone wall as the containers slowly filled.
‘I’ll never forgive myself if those leopards get shot,’ Shreeya said. ‘It’s really our fault.’
Then a light of hope entered her eyes as a daring new thought ran through her mind.
‘What if we leave tonight? Just the two of us, trekking as fast as we can?’
Kami wondered if he had heard right.
‘What!? Just the two of us? What are you talking about? They’ll never let us.’
‘Who said we’re going to ask them?’
‘You’re crazy!’
Kami knew that Shreeya was capable of being headstrong, impetuous sometimes, but on this occasion what she was proposing was little short of outrageous.
‘Run away to Langtang without telling anyone? They’ll catch us and we’ll be beaten black and blue.’
‘And if we don’t the leopards will be shot.’
Kami looked at Shreeya. Her face was set and utterly determined; her eyes bright and filled with confidence. He had seen that look before, but never quite like this. He felt a thrilling shiver of excitement run through his body; the very air around Shreeya seemed to crackle with dangerous potential.
And most thrilling of all was the feeling that she really needed him at her side. This was something that she couldn’t do alone.
‘OK,’ he said. ‘Let’s say we do it. Let’s say we manage to get away and we make it to Langtang. What if he’s already there? You want to get into a fight with a man with a gun?’
‘We try and get there before him. Find a way to scare the leopards away.’
‘But he’s a day ahead already.’
‘OK. So we’ll trek day and night. We could probably do it in two days if we don’t stop.’
Kami laughed out loud. This escapade was getting more radical by the minute. Getting to the Langtang cliffs in two days would make it a phenomenally hard trek and there were m
any hazards they would face on the way.
‘You really think we can do that?’ he asked.
‘We have to do it. There’s no choice,’ she replied earnestly. And he knew she absolutely meant it.
Kami thought about it as they carried the water containers back up to the village. His mind was fogged up with adrenaline but he knew there was no time for weighing up the pros and cons; it was something they had to act on immediately or not at all.
Above all he couldn’t let Shreeya down. By the time they had reached the village shrine he had made the decision.
‘Alright,’ he told her, ‘Let’s do it.’
The smile she gave him at that moment was enough to take Kami’s breath away. At that same moment he noticed for the first time how her face had changed that summer. The soft lines of childhood were magically gone and the elegant shape of Shreeya’s face was now that of a young woman … and a beautiful one at that.
‘We’ll need food,’ Shreeya said, ever practical. ‘Get what you can. I’ll meet you at the shrine at midnight.’
And with that she took the heavy jerrycans and slipped away through the village streets.
Shreeya wrote a note in her school book that night and left it open where her father would find it.
We have gone to save the leopards. It said simply. Please don’t worry.
Kami got busy as soon as his family were asleep, creeping from his bed and entering the kitchen. He found some boiled eggs, half a kilo of raisins and a few packets of biscuits. He opened up the front door with infinite care, cursing the huge wooden catch as it creaked and groaned.
Shreeya was already tucked into the shadows, waiting for him by the village shrine.
‘Let’s go.’ Kami was itching to get away.
They slipped away from the village on a little-used track, dodging into the star-cast shadows of the night and grateful for a half moon of guiding light. Kami felt tenser than he had ever been in his life, his guts churning ceaselessly as he wondered if they would yet be caught.
With every step they feared a shout would ring out behind them, but all was quiet. Only the electric buzz of nocturnal insects and the liquid song of nightjars punctuated the silence.
After an hour of fast walking they reached the critical point on the trail; the place where they would have to turn off the main path and commit to the long climb up the valley wall.
‘Last chance. You can go back if you want,’ Shreeya told him earnestly. He could see her eyes glinting in the moonlight. ‘You won’t be missed if you go back now.’
Kami thought about it for a few moments. He knew full well that this escapade was going to put him in big trouble. It would earn him a beating at least, and possibly a long ‘grounding’ when he would be forbidden to leave the village.
But his loyalty to Shreeya was absolute, and he could not imagine letting her go on this perilous journey alone.
‘I’m coming with you,’ he said firmly, and the two of them stepped onto the trail that led upwards into the dark forest.
The further they got from the village the wilder the night became. Occasionally they disturbed foraging animals, jumping out of their skins as a wild pig or deer crashed away in a panic through the undergrowth.
At dawn the trail came to a river crossing that Shreeya remembered badly from their previous journey. It was a rope bridge across a deep canyon and it swayed alarmingly; Shreeya was nervous of heights, and the drop into the glacial river below was a hundred metres or more.
Many of the wooden slats were missing and there were places where you had to leap across gaps that were frighteningly wide, using just the frayed ropes as handrails.
She didn’t want to show any fear in front of Kami but he saw she was trembling and white in the face as she reached the far side.
Shortly after making the crossing the trail became steeper and more demanding. Conversation petered out as they climbed one valley wall after another. The lack of sleep began to tell; Kami felt weirdly light-headed, like he was floating a few metres above the ground.
By late morning they were travelling through a vast forest. In the middle they found a small encampment where a band of men were burning wood to create charcoal. They were rough working types covered in soot from head to toe, but they greeted these new arrivals cheerfully and offered them tea.
‘Have you seen a man with a gun?’ Kami asked them.
‘He came past just after dawn,’ one of the charcoal burners told them, ‘miserable-looking character, didn’t even say Namaste.’
Just after dawn! Shreeya and Kami exchanged a look of quiet satisfaction. They were definitely moving faster than their quarry and after one night on the trail were now just five or six hours behind him.
‘What’s your business with him?’ another asked curiously.
‘He’s hunting for snow leopards,’ Shreeya told him, sipping her sweet tea, ‘and we’re going to stop him.’
The men roared with laughter at this and the children’s cheeks flared red with embarrassment. Kami thought they should have come up with a cover story that sounded a little more plausible, but he knew that Shreeya was incapable of lying.
‘Do your parents know you’re doing this?’ one of them asked sharply.
‘Yes,’ Kami answered. He got a hard look from Shreeya for this reply, but he figured he wasn’t exactly lying.
‘Better you go back to your village,’ the wisest looking of the men told them in a kindly tone, ‘I saw that man and I wouldn’t want to mess around with him.’
‘We’re going to Langtang anyway,’ Kami said hurriedly, ‘but thanks for the advice.’
The conversation died away and the children hurried to finish their drinks. They thanked the charcoal burners and hit the trail again, refreshed by the sweet tea and disturbed by these new words of warning.
‘I think it’s better we try and avoid talking to people,’ Shreeya said.
Kami agreed with her, and from that point on they ran into the forest and hid on the rare occasions they heard people coming towards them.
On the second night fatigue began to wear them down. They had been moving for thirty hours without a significant rest and both were staggering with exhaustion. The battery in their single torch had run out and they found themselves tripping along a narrow and greasy section of the trail high above a rushing river.
‘This trail is too dangerous,’ Kami said finally in despair, ‘We can’t see enough. If we slip here … ’
He didn’t need to say any more. Shreeya had already had a narrow escape, managing to prevent a fall only by grabbing hold of Kami’s arm.
‘Let’s rest for a while.’
They climbed away from the track, pushing up a slope through thick vegetation until they found a flat enough place. Shreeya pulled out the blanket and they wrapped it tight around their shoulders, grateful for the warmth it gave them on this chilled night.
‘We’ve got the biscuits,’ Shreeya mumbled, but Kami didn’t have the energy to reply, let alone rummage for them in the pack.
Shreeya put her head against Kami’s shoulder and he placed his arm around her. He could hear her teeth chattering for a while, but he pulled the blanket ever tighter and before long they were comfortably warm.
Lulled by the constant rushing sound of the river below, the two children soon fell into an exhausted sleep.
Strange dreams haunted them both and they woke with aching bones with the first hint of dawn.
‘Come on,’ Shreeya urged him as she quickly stuffed the blanket into the pack. ‘We’re losing time.’
They shared a packet of biscuits and a couple of handfuls of dried plums for breakfast, eating as they went along and sipping handfuls of cool water from the many springs that lined the valley walls. The morning was scorchingly hot and a thick vapour of steaming mist cloaked the giant ferns and palms.
They were moving fast and imagined they might spot the hunter on the trail ahead at any moment. Progress would have to be silent from now on, any conversation kept to whispers and nothing more.
‘What are we going to do when we find him?’ Kami hissed to Shreeya as they moved swiftly along the path.
Both of them knew this was the weak spot in their plan.
‘Something will turn up,’ Shreeya shrugged. It was the best she could do.
The cooler hours of the afternoon came on as they reached the mountains of Langtang. In this more open terrain, they felt exposed and vulnerable. You could see for miles here and the idea that the hunter might spot them was constantly on their minds.
Finally, they reached the holy lakes, where they had a clear line of vision to the high pass that would lead across to the leopards’ valley.
‘Can you see him?’ Kami was looking for any sign of movement on the far slopes.
‘No. He’s probably already gone over the col.’
They hurried round the lakes as the climb became more rugged, the trail rising across boulder slopes and sharp fields of scree.
After an hour they stopped to sip some water. Then they made an unwelcome discovery; back where they had come from three tiny figures could be seen. They were grown men, moving fast, and the two children guessed instantly who they were.
‘I think that’s my father,’ Shreeya exclaimed in dismay, ‘and two others. They’re following us.’
‘It had to happen. We shouldn’t blame them,’ Kami said, ‘they’re frightened for us.’
‘Maybe they changed their minds,’ Shreeya suggested more brightly as a new thought entered her mind. ‘Perhaps they came to help us save the leopards.’
Kami shook his head.
‘I don’t think so,’ he told her. ‘They’re here to stop us. Not him. If they catch up with us they’ll take us back to the village.’
Kami saw that Shreeya was welling up; they were both so tired, and they had given so much already. The thought of being stopped when they were so close to the leopards’ den was truly heartbreaking.
There was only one answer; keep moving. Faster than ever.
The Everest Files Page 5
