The Mystery of the Black Rhino Page 5

  “Joseph! How could they? He’s an old man!” Lilly cried. She looked at Frank and Joe. “Professor Makadara is one of the most respected educators in Kenya!”

  Without waiting to be asked to help, Frank and Joe followed Lilly and Joseph back into the crowd on Moi Avenue. A block away, they saw two men with what looked like bicycle chains whipping another man who was lying on the street. The man was curled up, trying to keep his head and face covered. Joe could see that the chains had drawn blood.

  In the distance he heard the wail of a police siren. Joe knew it was headed in their direction.

  Frank and Joe dove at the men’s backs, causing them to buckle to the ground. Lilly and the young man picked up the bicycle chains and shook them threateningly.

  The police sirens were getting closer.

  “You have to help us get Professor Makadara out of here,” Lilly said frantically. “The police will arrest him. He’s wanted for questioning.”

  Joe began to wonder just what he and Frank had gotten themselves into. He picked up the professor’s legs, Frank grabbed the professor under his arms, and they quickly carried him in the direction that Lilly and Joseph were headed.

  They wound their way through back alleys and several dimly lit shops, where no one seemed to think there was anything unusual about the Hardy boys carrying a bleeding elderly man.

  Finally just when Joe thought he couldn’t go any farther, they entered a covered passage that smelled of rotting garbage and stopped in front of a scarred wooden door.

  Lilly took a key from one of her pockets, inserted it into the ancient lock, and opened the door.

  Once inside, she lit a lamp, allowing the Hardy boys to see where they were: the professor’s apartment.

  Joe looked around. There were books stacked everywhere. Faded prints of some of the magnificent wildlife of Kenya adorned the walls.

  “We need to put him to bed,” Lilly said. “Bring him this way.”

  The professor’s bedroom was at the back of the small apartment. Frank and Joe laid him gently on the bed.

  “We’ll need hot water, Joseph,” Lilly said. “The kettle is on the stove. Please get it ready.”

  Joseph left the bedroom to do what Lilly had asked.

  “Is there anything that we can do?” Joe asked.

  Lilly had begun to undo the professor’s shirt. “Well, yes, you can check the medicine cabinet in the bathroom,” she said. “Bring whatever salves you can find.”

  But before the Hardy boys could react to Lilly’s request, there was a loud pounding on the door.

  “Police!” a voice shouted. “Open up!”

  “Oh, no!” Lilly moaned. She looked at Frank and Joe. “They can’t find you here. They won’t believe you’re not involved. You have to forget what you’ve seen!” She nodded toward the window. “Out that way! Just start running!”

  “What about you?” Frank asked.

  “I’m not going to leave Professor Makadara,” Lilly said. “Now, go!”

  In the front of the apartment, Frank and Joe could hear the door splinter. They raced to the window, opened it, and climbed out onto the ground. Lilly was standing there to close the window after them and to pull the curtains. With luck, no one would know they had been there.

  “As much as I’d like to help,” Frank said to Joe as they raced down the alley, “I don’t think I’m ready to spend several years in a Kenyan jail.”

  “I wonder what Lilly meant, that Professor Makadara was wanted for questioning,” Joe said.

  “Maybe he’s some sort of a fanatic, Joe,” Frank replied. “We probably believe in some of the same things he believes in, but we follow the laws in our country. I’m thinking that maybe he didn’t.”

  Without Lilly and Joseph leading the way for them, Frank and Joe had no idea where they were headed. Now people who hadn’t paid any attention to them before were giving them strange looks. The Hardy boys weren’t sure they were in a part of Nairobi where people cared about the Hardy name.

  Frank and Joe quickened their pace and soon reached a street. A sign identified it as Haile Selassie Avenue. For a moment they didn’t know which direction to take. Joe thought that going left would get them back to the hotel. It turned out that he was right. It led them back to Moi Avenue. Just as they were about to cross, a police car sped by, forcing them to jump back onto the sidewalk.

  “Lilly!” Frank called.

  Joe looked around. “Where?” he asked.

  “In that police car. I’m sure it was her,” Frank said. “She had her face pressed against the window, looking in our direction.”

  “Lilly was worried that they were going to arrest Professor Makadara,” Joe said. “I wonder why they arrested her.”

  “We need to talk to Dad about this, Joe,” Frank said. “Maybe he can think of some way we can help Lilly, or at least figure out why this happened.”

  They crossed Moi Avenue and headed to the New Stanley Hotel. As they entered the lobby, they saw Jackson standing at the reception desk.

  The Hardy boys ducked into the gift shop.

  “I don’t like this,” Joe said. “Every time we see him, there’s trouble!”

  “I know,” Frank agreed.

  From where they were, they could see the reception area. The desk clerk who had been talking to Jackson looked at the mailboxes, then shook his head. Jackson stood for a minute, obviously thinking about something, then turned and left the hotel.

  Frank and Joe went to the reception desk to get the key to their room.

  “Ah, it’s you,” the desk clerk said. “You just missed your friend from America.”

  Frank gave the desk clerk a puzzled look. “Did he give you a name?”

  “No. He said you didn’t know he was coming,” the desk clerk said. “He said he had a big surprise for you.”

  7 Poachers on the Loose

  * * *

  The Hardy boys decided to take the stairs to their room, rather than wait for the elevators in the crowded lobby.

  “I’m not sure I want to know what kind of surprise he has for us,” Joe said.

  “I know,” Frank said. He thought for a minute. “Lilly saw our pictures on television. That’s how she knew us,” he added. “Jackson doesn’t strike me as the kind who’d spend much time watching television. He must have been watching us from the door of the shop.”

  “You’re right, Frank. I don’t really think he knew we were on the plane. We pretty much kept out of sight,” Joe said. “He probably recognized us from Fifth Avenue Africana and is now wondering what we’re doing here.”

  They had reached their floor and turned down the corridor toward the room. Frank and Joe had already decided that they wouldn’t bother their father with the new information about Jackson. They were used to taking care of themselves in situations like this.

  Fenton Hardy had dozed off, sitting in an armchair with one of his speeches on his lap. He woke up, though, when the boys entered the room.

  “I take it you’ve been seeing the sights,” Mr. Hardy said.

  “Yup,” Frank said. “We took a little tour of the area.”

  “Did you get a lot of work done, Dad?” Joe asked.

  Fenton Hardy nodded. “Surprisingly, yes,” he replied.

  “Why ‘surprisingly,’ Dad?” Frank asked.

  “The telephone has been ringing off the hook. I think every journalist in Kenya wants to interview you,” Mr. Hardy explained. “You’re quite the heroes!”

  Joe yawned. “Do you think they’ll call back? I want to go to bed.”

  “I don’t think so,” Mr. Hardy said. “By now, you’re probably old news.”

  “Well, we were almost new news again,” Frank said. “We got caught in a demonstration between the farmers and the animal rights activists on Moi Avenue.”

  Joe nodded. “The farmers were beating up an elderly professor—an animal rights activist. We met a girl named Lilly Mtito who needed help carrying him to his apartment. But then the police came
and took Lilly and the professor away.”

  “Joe and I made sure the professor was safely hidden, then escaped through a bedroom window,” Frank said. “Lilly didn’t want us to get arrested.”

  Fenton Hardy seemed to study the situation for a minute. “Was this man’s name Makadara?” he asked.

  “Yes!” Joe exclaimed. “How did you know?”

  Mr. Hardy let out a big sigh. “Well, Professor Makadara may mean well, boys, but he’s created a lot of problems for the Kenyan government.”

  “How so, Dad?” Frank asked.

  “It’s a difficult problem to solve, and the government is really trying to appease both sides,” Mr. Hardy said. “They know that with an expanding population, the farmers will need more land on which to grow crops—but they also know how important it is to ensure the survival of the wildlife, not only for environmental reasons, but for economic reasons. The tourist industry is very important to Kenya, and most tourists come here to see the wild animals.”

  “But how does Professor Makadara fit in to this?” Joe asked.

  “Unfortunately, Professor Makadara sees only one side of the issue,” Fenton Hardy said. “He’s been accused of destroying a lot of farmers’ property. I’ve received several reports on him from the Kenya police. They’ve never been able to prove anything, but they feel they’re close.”

  “I can’t believe that Lilly would do anything like that,” Joe said.

  “Me, either,” Frank agreed. “We were wondering . . .”

  “. . . if I could find out what the situation is with her,” Fenton Hardy finished the sentence.

  Frank nodded.

  Mr. Hardy dialed a number and asked to be connected to Lieutenant Kitale. After a few minutes the conversation ended, and Mr. Hardy hung up the phone. He told his sons that Professor Makadara would be put on trial for his crimes, but that Lilly Mtito had been released. The Hardy boys felt bad for the professor, but they were glad to learn that Lilly was going to be all right.

  “I’ll be busy all day tomorrow with the opening sessions of the conference,” Mr. Hardy said, “so I took the liberty of arranging a trip to the Nairobi National Park for you. I hope that’s okay. You didn’t have anything definite in mind to do, did you?”

  Frank and Joe shook their heads.

  “That sounds like a great idea,” Frank said.

  “Well, this will let you see some of Kenya’s wildlife up close. The park is just a few miles outside the city. It won’t take very long to get there, but it’ll feel the same as if you were farther out in the bush. Your mother and I loved it there.”

  “When do we leave?” Joe asked.

  “Kind of early,” Mr. Hardy said. “You need to be at the hotel entrance at four—A.M.”

  The Hardy boys groaned.

  “Why so early?” Frank said.

  “The earlier the better. You’ll get to see the animals when they come to the watering holes,” Fenton Hardy said. “Actually, you’re lucky. Normally the park doesn’t open until six, but right now the Kenyan government is very interested in making you two feel very welcome, given that you saved one of their aircraft and quite a few of their citizens. When I asked about a tour for you, they insisted on going all out.”

  Joe yawned. “Well, I guess I can catch up on my sleep when we get back to Bayport. This may be our only trip to Africa, so we better take advantage of every opportunity.”

  “True,” Frank agreed reluctantly.

  “That’s the spirit,” Fenton Hardy said.

  • • •

  The telephone rang the next morning at three o’clock with their wake-up call. It was accompanied by the rumbling of thunder outside their window.

  Joe was surprised at how easy it was to get up. Frank had a little more trouble. But the Hardy boys made it to the lobby by four o’clock.

  Their guide was already waiting for them. He recognized them immediately and introduced himself as Robert Namanga.

  Robert held up a copy of a newspaper, the Daily Nation. There on the front page were pictures of the Hardy boys, taken at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.

  “I’ve been reading about you,” Robert said. “You’re two of the most famous people in Kenya now.”

  Joe took the newspaper and glanced at the article. “It takes up half the front page!” he said.

  Robert nodded. “Yes. It gives a very detailed account of what happened,” he said. “It also mentions why your father is here in Nairobi, and all the cases you two have solved back in Bayport. It’s very interesting.”

  Frank got the newspaper from Joe and took a look. “Unfortunately, it may interest the wrong people,” he whispered to Joe.

  “I was thinking the same thing,” Joe said.

  “Well, are you ready to see some wild game? The Land Rover is parked outside and is running,” Robert said. “If we’re lucky, we’ll get to see most of the park before it rains.”

  “We’re ready!” the Hardy boys said.

  At this time of morning there was almost no traffic on the streets of Nairobi, so they made good time. They left the city center and headed out on the Mombasa Highway—it was the same route they had used the day before, coming in from the airport.

  “We’ll enter at the east gate. It’s less traveled and has fewer roads, but that won’t matter, as this vehicle can maneuver any terrain,” Robert said. “We have special permission to go anywhere in the park.”

  They were at the east gate within twenty minutes.

  “This part of the park is mostly savannah. Here’s where you’ll see zebra, buffalo, and antelope,” Robert said. “There are also some hippos where the Mbagathi and Athi Rivers meet a little farther on.”

  “That’s great,” Joe said.

  “Does the park have any big cats?” Frank asked.

  Robert nodded. “You should be able to see the lions and cheetahs in the western part of the park,” he said. “Rhinos, too. They’re mostly in the forest glades.”

  “Rhinos! Now that’s what I want to see!” Joe said. “Aren’t they really rare?”

  Robert nodded sadly. “It’s a terrible situation, boys, really terrible. Poachers have almost made them extinct.”

  As they headed deeper into the park, sometimes using roads, sometimes not, the Hardy boys thought about the plight of the wild animals of the world. Somehow, they knew, human beings simply had to find a way to keep all of these animals alive and in their natural habitats. It would be such a tragedy if future generations were deprived of seeing them.

  Three hours into the trip, the Hardy boys had seen everything that Robert Namanga had promised. Thankfully the rain had held off. The thunder and the brilliant flashes of lightning only enhanced the experience, making it even more dramatic.

  When they reached the Hippo Pool, at the confluence of the Mbagathi and Athi Rivers, the skies finally opened up. The Hardys and Robert couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of them.

  “We’d better just stay where we are,” Robert said. “The rivers and streams will soon be flooded, and I don’t want to take a chance of driving into one of them to become crocodile food!”

  “I’m with you on that,” Joe agreed.

  Frank nodded, smirking.

  After a couple of hours, when the rain still hadn’t let up at all, Robert said, “I’m beginning to change my mind. Let’s chance it. Maybe we should try to get out while we still can.”

  When Robert explained that the Mbagathi and Athi might flood enough to surround them with crocodile-infested water, the Hardy boys agreed that it might be a good idea after all to see if they could get out of the park.

  They had gone only a couple of miles before the Land Rover stalled and became mired in mud up to its axles. Nothing Robert could think of would free it.

  “Cheetah Gate is just a few miles from here,” Robert said. “Are you boys up for the walk?”

  Joe took one look at the swirling water outside the Land Rover and said, “I don’t think we have a choice. It doesn’
t take much for rushing water to move a vehicle. It won’t be long until we’re floating down the Mbagathi.”

  “Grab those ponchos in the back. They’ll help keep us dry,” Robert said. “I’ve got three bottles of water in my knapsack. That’ll last us a while.”

  “Well, that’s one thing I don’t think we have to worry about,” Joe joked. “If we run out, we can just hold the bottles up to the sky!”

  The three of them put on the yellow ponchos, then exited the Land Rover. From where they were standing, Frank could see nothing but water. The rain was still coming down, although not as hard as before.

  “Follow me,” Robert said, “and if you see a floating log, it’s probably a crocodile.”

  Frank and Joe looked at each other. They were both thinking the same thing. Whatever their friends back in Bayport were doing now, they were sure it didn’t include wading in water full of crocodiles.

  Fortunately Robert had a good sense of direction. Soon they were mostly out of the water, and on soggy land. He stopped for a minute to survey the area around them. Suddenly he felt his pocket. “I left my cell phone in the Land Rover!” He shook his head in disgust. “Oh, well, maybe we won’t need it. The road to Cheetah Gate is mostly flooded, so we’ll have to use the higher ground around it. We’re south of the river, so I think we can make it to safety without having to cross any more really deep water. Some of the terrain in the Mbagathi Gorge is pretty rugged, so be careful.”

  “We can handle that,” Joe assured him. “We stay in pretty good shape year-round.”

  “Coach requires quite a few hours in the weight room every week,” Frank added.

  For the next hour they walked in a single line, with Robert in the lead. They stopped when the rain got really heavy because they were afraid they might step off into one of the deeper ravines. The deluges only lasted for a few minutes, though, so they could continue walking safely toward Cheetah Gate.

  Suddenly Robert stopped. “Quick!” he whispered. “Get down!”

  They squatted behind a fringe of yellow acacia trees and looked in the direction Robert was pointing. Through the veil of light rain, they saw three men in one of the ravines. Two of the men were carrying a pole to which a cheetah had been tied by its legs. The third man was Jackson!