The Everest Files by Matt Dickinson Read Free Book Online Page B

following days.
    The man put the word out; he was on the lookout for many types of wild creatures, he told the villagers, particularly monkeys, deer and bears. He could sell the pelts for large sums in the markets of Kathmandu and certain glands and organs would be sold to a Chinese trader who specialised in traditional medicine.
    He would pay good money for information which would lead him to a kill, he promised them, and the biggest money of all would be for information which would put him on the trail of a snow leopard.
    Snow leopard skins could fetch thousands of dollars on the black market, he told them. Collectors in Hong Kong and Beijing would fight to obtain them. Such a prize would have to be handled with great care, he warned, as government wardens were authorised to shoot poachers on sight.
    He pulled down the bandage on his thigh and showed them an ugly scar. A bullet was still in there, he boasted, and he didn’t want another to add to the collection.
    Total secrecy was necessary.
    Kami had listened in on one of these conversations and at the mention of killing snow leopards he felt a flush of anger overwhelm him. He ran to Shreeya and told her what the hunter was planning.
    Shreeya was shocked to the core. The very thought that someone could want to kill such a beautiful creature was so alien to her that she struggled to believe it was true.
    â€˜Do you think he’ll find out about the family we saw?’
    â€˜If he does it’ll be a disaster,’ Kami replied. ‘Who else knows about them apart from your father and us?’
    Shreeya shook her head. ‘I don’t know, but I can ask my father who he has told.’
    When they met next day Shreeya was looking gloomy.
    â€˜My father can’t remember how many people he told,’ she said. ‘But he thinks maybe four or five.’
    â€˜Four or five?’ Kami’s heart sank at this news.
    â€˜But he says he won’t give that man any information and neither will the others,’ she told Kami. ‘He says the man looks like a crook and nobody’s going to trust him.’
    â€˜But maybe some others will want the money,’ Kami suggested.
    For the first few days Shreeya’s father’s theory was proved correct. The villagers were indeed initially reluctant to co-operate. But the hunter was persistent and cunning; he paid for millet wine to be brewed and invited some of the elders to join him for a drink.
    â€˜This village has been poor for too long,’ he told them as the alcohol began to flow. ‘It is time for you to make some money.’
    The millet wine was potent enough to loosen a few tongues and after four or five glasses, inspired by the thought of the money they could make, the men began to talk. Many of them knew where rhesus monkeys could be found, others knew the glades where deer grazed in the early mornings.
    Some had seen evidence of a bear in a region of forest less than one hour from the village.
    And one knew of a family of snow leopards which lived in the cliffs above one of Langtang’s sacred lakes.
    At the mention of this last lead, the hunter smiled his rotten smile and became more generous than ever. Where was this lake, he asked. Which trail should he take to get there? Was it a solitary animal or a family?
    The party went on until the early hours, laughter ringing out as those present celebrated the riches they would surely soon possess.
    When the village woke up the next morning the hunter was gone.
    News that the hunter had vanished spread rapidly around the village, and Kami and Shreeya soon found out that he had been told about the whereabouts of the snow leopard family.
    The two children ran to Shreeya’s father and delivered the bad news.
    â€˜We have to chase after him,’ Shreeya begged. ‘Can’t you persuade some men to go with you?’
    â€˜It’s not so easy as that,’ her father protested. ‘People have to work. They