A Secret of the Lebombo

The narrative follows a man riding through a hot river valley who discovers two others butchering his missing sheep, triggering a dangerous confrontation that combines stealth, quick thinking, and violence. Improvising with stones and seized knives, he incapacitates one assailant while the second becomes entangled with a puff-adder, producing a grisly, chaotic scene. The story moves through tracking, tense encounters, and revelations set against vivid descriptions of bushland and wildlife, exploring survival, possession, and the fragile order of frontier life as hidden motives and local secrets are gradually exposed.