The Crabs of Bangui

Chapter Eighteen

131 Chapter Eighteen T he day ended on a very tragic note. At about 8 0’clock when everybody had virtually dispersed, a customer at the bar looking through the transparent walls thought she saw somebody drop into the pool. “For a while I thought it was a late night customer who just decided to get a dip. But as I looked on it appeared to me that the man was appearing and disappearing, and that he seemed to be wearing a coat. That was when I called the waiter and drew his attention to it.” The worker ran up in panic to the few remaining guests who were about to board their cars and reported that a member of their group had slipped and fallen into the swimming pool. They ran back, horror-stricken to see an old man struggling to hold on to the embankment and climb out, only to slip and fall again. The drowning man was Pa Victor Achuonta Chamba whom some would remember, had finished a Champagne all by himself. There were no swimmers amongst them. The hotel had a resident rescue service, but this was especially active only when children came to the pool, and that was during the day. By some stroke of misfortune, the man had fallen into the very deep end of the swimming pool where only swimmers of very great experience could reach. One or two persons who could not swim that much tried to save the drowning man but he almost went down with them. Rescuing a drowning man requires a lot of skill and experience. Thus, all that could be done was to run round the pool screaming for help. Somebody threw in the inflated inner tube of some very big vehicle in the hope that he 132 Linus T. Asong would catch it and hang on to it and be dragged to safety. He did not even see it. He had already sunk to the bottom of the pool and bubbles could be seen rising on the surface of the water above the area where he was. Hans returned to the pool and was once again surprised to find Justice Nfor standing over the helpless Chamba. He had just learnt as he was leaving the hotel premises that it was thanks to Chamba’s persuasion that Nfor Nfor had attended the party. He had not finished working out in his mind how he would corner Chamba the very next day to know how much he knew about the movements of Nfor Nfor. The latter looked very disturbed by what had happened to his old friend. But his presence at the party and by Chamba’s side gave Hansel a clue to something that had puzzled him. In an earlier informal meeting, Chamba had moved a motion to the effect that a delegation must be sent as soon as possible to Bangui to ascertain the state of things. That showed the influence of Nfor Nfor’s doctrine. Help eventually came in the form of a young teacher who had been an instructor in swimming at the hotel some years ago. He managed to pull the old man out, but by that time he was not only exhausted, but had taken in a large quantity of the water. While the young swimmer tried to administer some first aid to the man Hans made a call to the hospital. He started vomiting right away, his eyes popping out of his head. He was in a totally helpless state. Nfor Nfor personally called the Director of the General Hospital who showed up himself with an ambulance within a few minutes and they took Pa Chamba away. Hansel was immediately contacted and he wasted no time in driving to the hospital to see for himself. Pa Chamba was a very valuable asset to the company because it was his presence very early that was single-handedly responsible for the enrolment of about ten other persons of quality. He was the first member of what now became known as the Inner Circle of the Company, people who had ten shares or more. 133 The Crabs of Bangui It was established that Pa Chamba had suffered a concussion which had instantly resulted in massive internal haemorrhage that might cause death at any time. In fact, the old man was unconscious when he was pulled out of the pool, and never regained consciousness...