Precious and the Mystery of the Missing Lion: A New Case for Precious Ramotswe (6 page)

After a few hours of paddling, they stopped on a small island in the middle of the river. Beaching the canoe, they found some comfortable grass on which to have their picnic of the sandwiches
that Precious had prepared. They were very hungry, as paddling a canoe takes a lot of energy and breakfast had been some time ago.

They had just finished their last sandwich when Precious noticed a movement on the riverbank opposite their island.

“What was that?” she asked Khumo, shading her eyes from the bright glare of the sun. “I think I saw something over there.”

Khumo rose to his feet – slowly, so as not to disturb whatever it was that Precious had seen. “I can’t see anything,” he said. But then, quite suddenly, he did see
something, and it made him take in his breath with a gasp.

“Lions,” he whispered. “A whole pride of them.”

“Sit down,” whispered Precious. “We don’t want them to see us.”

They remained quite still as the pride of lions made its way down to the water to drink. There were six of them altogether, and it did not take long for Precious and Khumo to identify which one
was Teddy.

“That’s him,” whispered Khumo, pointing to a lion standing on the edge of the group.

Precious saw that it was Teddy. He seemed to be quite happy with his new friends, and they watched them all until, at a signal from the biggest lion, who was also the leader – a roar
– they turned round and made their way back into the bush.

Once the lions had gone, Precious and Khumo pushed their canoe back into the water, climbed into it, and paddled back down the river. They did not take a break on the way back, as they wanted to
get to Tom as soon as possible to give him the good news that they had found his missing lion.

OM WAS VERY PLEASED
.

“Do you remember exactly where you saw the lions?” he asked. “Will you be able to take us to them?”

Khumo looked a bit doubtful. “I think so,” he began. “It was where the river went a bit like this ...” He made a movement of his hands. “And then it went a bit like
this ...” He made another movement to show a change of direction.

Tom looked worried. Rivers were always going like this, and then this, and he was not sure whether Khumo’s directions would be good enough. But he did not know, of course, that Precious
was the girl who was destined to become Botswana’s most famous detective, and that she had stored away in her memory every detail of the trip down the river.

“Excuse me,” she said. “I know exactly where the spot is. It is after the river turns to the left just before you reach a very old tree that has half fallen into the water.
There are some sand banks in the middle of the river that are about as deep as the top of my knees, and then there is an island that has a bush at one end, a clump of rocks at the other, and an
ant-hill in the middle. The lions came down to drink on the shore right on the other side. So they’ll be somewhere near there.”

Tom looked impressed. “You are a very observant girl,” he said. “I’m sure that will help us to find the place.”

Precious smiled modestly. She was not at all boastful, and she wanted to make sure that Khumo would get some of any praise that was being given. “Khumo helped a lot,” she said.

Tom thanked Khumo too, and it was agreed that once everybody was ready, they would set off once again to see if they could find Teddy. Precious was not sure how they would manage to get him back
– particularly if he was having a good time with his new lion friends – but Tom seemed to think this would not be too hard.

“He’s a very tame lion,” he said. “I’m sure that once he finds that he has to hunt for his food and not have it delivered to him in a big dish, he will be less keen
to stay out in the wild.”

There was enough time before they left for Precious to go and tell her aunt all about their adventure. Aunty Bee was relieved that they had got home without getting into any trouble, and was
very proud of the fact that they had managed to find Teddy. She was perfectly happy for Precious to go out again, this time with Tom and the other people from the film crew.

“They’ll look after you,’ she said. And then she stopped and thought. “Or maybe you will be the one to look after
them
.”

Precious smiled. “We’ll see,” she said.

Aunty Bee looked at her fondly. “You know something?” she said. “Your father said that he thought you had the makings of a great detective. And I think he might be
right.”

They took a much bigger boat this time – large enough for ten people to sit in it quite comfortably and not get at all wet. This boat had an engine, and it made a throaty
roar as they set off from the camp. Precious looked back and waved to her aunt, and Khumo waved too, continuing to do so until they rounded a bend in the river and lost sight of the camp.

It did not take them long to make the trip. There were quite a few islands, but Tom was able to identify the right one from the description that Precious had given. Now they were in sight of the
place on the shore where the lions had been, and were able to steer their boat gently in to the muddy bank.

They got their feet a bit wet as they went ashore, but the water was warm and that did not matter.