Tomorrow's Treasure by Linda Lee Chaikin Page B

thrown,” Sir Julien said. “We’d better get some of the Bantu together and search the area.”
    Anthony shook his head. “I looked in the trees around the corral.”
    â€œYou won’t find her.” Henry looked from one to the other. “She sent a message to my hotel asking me to come here tonight. She had some kind of plan and mentioned taking a carriage. She wanted to escape to America.”
    â€œIf you are lying—”
    Henry cut Anthony off. “Why should I?”
    â€œI can think of a few reasons.”
    Henry met the younger man’s glare. “She had a most compelling reason to run away, thanks to
you
, my lad.”
    â€œEnough!” Julien fixed them both with an angry stare. “Henry, where is this message you say she sent you?”
    â€œNaturally, I wouldn’t keep it on me. I left it at my hotel.”
    â€œNaturally!” Anthony derided.
    Henry ignored him, focusing on Julien. “When I arrived from my hotel, she said she was going to get the Black Diamond. She offered to sponsor my expedition to locate my father’s gold mine if I would help her find her child and get ship passage. But when I was getting my horse ready, she struck me from behind with that mallet.”
    â€œYou expect me to believe that?” Julien strode toward him and snatched the mallet up from the barn floor. “If she needed your help so much, then why would she strike you unconscious?” His black eye patch stared back at Henry like a bottomless pit.
    Henry frowned.
Why indeed?
“I’m beginning to think the only reason she sent for me was so that I would be left here unconscious … to later waste time answering questions while she escaped in the carriage to the mission station with that Zulu woman.”
    â€œYou let her leave for the mission station? At a time such as this, without even warning her? Have you gone mad?”
    Henry had almost had his fill of this foolishness. “Warning her of what?”
    â€œThe Zulus, you fool!” Julien hissed the words. “If you had kept abreast of what London and Governor Frere have been up to these past months instead of chasing after bogus gold deposits, you might have stopped her.”
    Henry felt his muscles tense. “You’d better explain.”
    â€œThe Zulus have been given a thirty day ultimatum to comply with British demands to leave the area or face Lord Chelmsford’s troops in Zululand. Chelmsford rode toward Isandlwana a week ago.”
    â€œThe general can expect to meet up with some twenty thousand Impi Zulus!”
    Anthony’s words struck Henry hard. “I had no idea!” He turned to Sir Julien. “The mission station is located near Rorke’s Drift.”
    â€œIf Cetshwayo’s warriors are on the move, no one will be safe anywhere near Zulu territory, and Rorke’s Landing sits on the Zulu borders.” Julien’s tone was dark.
    â€œUncle Julien”—Anthony looked pale—“we have got to find Katie tonight.”
    â€œSend for the Bantu servants, Anthony. I want every available man on the estate armed and on horseback.”
    â€œYes, Uncle Julien.”
    â€œSend for Dumaka. He may be useful as a guide.”
    There wasn’t a Zulu alive that Henry trusted, whether they claimed to be Christian or not. So far as he knew, Jendaya could be planning a trick, delivering a white woman as a hostage for the Zulu chieftain.
    Julien started for the door. “I’d better send a rider to tell Sir Bartle at Government House. He may be able to send someone to Rorke’s Drift.”
    â€œThere’s no reason for all of us to be idle while you gather up an armed force,” Henry insisted. “I am well acquainted with the region. I’ll ride ahead to Rorke’s Drift—and I’ll need to be adequately armed.”
    Julien’s one eye glittered. For a moment Henry believed he would not