Precious and the Mystery of Meercat Hill (8 page)

Kosi frowned. “How will we do that?”

Precious looked at the meerkat, who was sitting on Pontsho’s shoulder watching the restless herd of cows with interest. “Ask him,” she said. “Meerkats are good at
understanding things. He might be able to do it.”

Then she turned to the men. “Excuse me,” she said. “This meerkat knows my friends’ cow very well. If he can find her, will you let us take her home?”

The men laughed. “Of course,” said one of them. “Of course we’ll let you take her home. But how is a tiny little meerkat going to find one cow in a large herd like this?
It won’t happen, will it?”

Precious did not answer that question, but turned to Pontsho. “Ask him, Pontsho,” she said.

Pontsho took Kosi off his shoulder and put him down on the ground. “Find your friend,” he whispered. “Find her!”

The meerkat got up on its hind legs and looked at Pontsho enquiringly. Then he turned his nose towards the herd of cows and sniffed at the air. Precious held her breath. Was it possible that the
meerkat understood what was expected of him?

And then, with a sudden little jump – a hop of the sort that meerkats perform when they have some task to do – Kosi scurried off into the herd, weaving and dodging to keep out of the
way of the cows’ hooves. From where Precious was standing, it looked very dangerous – and it was. At one point she thought that Kosi would be crushed, but he proved too nimble for that,
and managed to avoid being stamped upon.

When the meerkat reached the centre of the herd he seemed to disappear for a moment. But then he suddenly popped up again, and now he was riding on the back of one of the cows.
“That’s her!” shouted Teb. “See! That’s her.”

Precious turned to the men. “Do you see that?” she asked. “You wanted proof – well there it is. The meerkat has found her friend.”

The men may have been a bit gruff, but they were not ones to break their promise. They had said that if the meerkat found the cow, then the children could take her home. And so they set about
rounding up Teb’s cow, who still had a meerkat perched on her back.

“You can take her home, I suppose,” said one of the men. And then, even if a bit reluctantly, he added, “And well done, whoever it was who came up with that idea!”

Precious said nothing. She did not like to boast, and the fact that the family had recovered their cow was more than enough reward for her.

HEY LED THE COW
home, guiding her gently along the path they had followed to find her. When
they reached the bottom of Meerkat Hill, Precious could see the two grandparents waving their hands excitedly. They were soon joined by Teb’s mother and the aunt, both of whom joined in the
energetic waving.

“This is a miracle,” said the grandfather as he ran forwards to welcome the returning cow. He could not run very fast, as his legs were a bit bent and spindly, but he did his best,
and was soon stroking the cow on the side of her neck, whispering into her ear the sort of things people say to cows who have been away but who have come back.

“This is wonderful,” said Teb’s mother. “I think you all deserve a reward for finding our cow.”

Teb glanced at Precious, and smiled. Then she turned to her mother and asked, “Fat cakes?”

Her mother nodded. “I shall make them immediately, even if it’s almost time for our evening meal.”

The mention of evening made Precious look at the sun, which was now beginning to drop down in the sky. “I’ll have to get home soon,” she said. “My father will be
beginning to get worried.”

Teb looked imploringly at her mother. “Can’t Precious stay?” she asked.

“I could go and ask her father,” said the aunt. “I have to go to the store, and I could call at their house and ask him if Precious can stay overnight.”

Both Teb and Pontsho thought this was a very good idea, as did Precious herself of course, and the aunt lost no time in setting off on her mission. By the time the fat cakes were ready and
sprinkled with sugar, the aunt had come back to announce that Obed had said that it was perfectly all right for his daughter to stay overnight at Teb’s house.

They sat and ate the fat cakes. There were two each for everybody, which was more than enough, as the grandparents could not finish theirs and passed them on. The children kindly finished them
for them, and then everybody licked their fingers to get the last of the sugar and stickiness off. The last bits of everything taste particularly good, don’t you find?

By now it was beginning to get dark. The sun in Africa sinks rather quickly. The sky turns a coppery gold colour and then down beyond the horizon goes the great red ball of the sun. As soon as
it is gone, the sky becomes light blue again and then dark blue, and the stars appear – great silver fields of them.

Since it was a special occasion, the grandfather made a fire outside for Teb, Pontsho and Precious to sit around. Then he moved his chair to the fire too, and told them a story of how things
were a long time ago, when he was a boy. They listened, and then, after he had finished and had moved his chair back to its usual place, they talked among themselves.

There was much to talk about. They remembered all about following the cow’s hoof-prints and Pontsho thought that he would try his skill at tracking other animals in future, now that
Precious had shown him how to do it. Teb thought this was a good idea, and said that she would practise looking for clues, just as Precious had done. “You never know what you might
find,” she remarked. “There are all sorts of mysteries once you start to look for them.”

Precious agreed. She had only been a detective for a short time, but she had already solved two important mysteries – one in which monkeys played a part, and this one involving a meerkat
and a cow. There were bound to be others, she thought.

“You’re very lucky to be such a good detective,” said Pontsho.

Precious smiled modestly. She never boasted, but she was glad that she had discovered the thing that she seemed to be really good at. Most people can do at least one thing rather well, but
sometimes it takes a bit of time to find out what that thing is. She had found it, and now that she had done so, she would be able to use that talent well. Many years later, she would become a
famous detective – the first lady detective in Botswana – but that, of course, is a story that we shall hear about much later on.