It was an eventful day. Soon after Inspector Lao's arrest of the poachers, the docks were swarming with police. Chang was screaming curses at Uncle Vernon and everyone else, as he was bundled into a police car. Khumalo and his two friends simply looked dazed and incredulous at how their luck had turned.

And off to one side, three exhausted young people were sitting in a car with their uncle, telling him their part of the story. Uncle Vernon was by turns amazed, amused and horrified at how much they had gone through over the past few days.

He called to Inspector Lao, who promptly broke off his discussion with the local police chief to listen.

"Lao, I realize that there remains much to be done here, but I am going to take the children home now. You will not believe what they have been through. I'll inform you later."

"That is fine with me," said Lao. "I think we'll manage without you. Just keep in touch."

"So, you are going to go with the ship anyway?" Uncle Vernon sounded dubious and worried.

"Yes," replied Lao. "I have to. I know now who Chang's contact is. When he tries to buy the rhino horns, he gets arrested. If all goes well. In the meantime, I take it Mr. Chang and his friends will be guests of your local prison system for a while?"

Uncle Vernon laughed.

"You can count on it. Well, it has been a pleasure and a privilege to work with you on this case. Keep in touch and let us know how things went."

"I will, whenever I can," said Inspector Lao. "And you three in there," he added, "you certainly surprised me!"

He grinned warmly at them, then turned around to resume his discussion with the police chief.

A minute later, they were on their way home.

* * *

Outside, another storm was brewing, just like on the first evening of their holiday. This time round, the power didn't go out, but nobody bothered to turn on any lights anyway. Eugene once again had his huge head in Laura's lap, sighing contentedly as she scratched his ears.

"So you have been planning this whole thing for a long time?" asked Francis.

"Yes," replied Uncle Vernon. "About a year ago, when Frank was in Nelspruit for business, he was approached by a man who offered him a substantial amount of money if he could arrange a temporary hiding place for certain goods."

"Let me guess," said Alice. "The man was Chang?"

"Yes. And the goods were all manner of contraband, but mostly poached wildlife products. Our friend Chang was making a fortune, but local law enforcement was beginning to catch up with him, and he wanted a new place to temporarily store his goods. For some reason, he thought Frank could be bought."

"So how come he only got arrested now?" asked Laura.

"Well, as I told you in the car, Frank and I are both police reservists. Frank certainly could have arrested Chang on the spot, but he realized that doing so would serve little purpose. He felt that this was an opportunity to infiltrate their organisation and deal it a heavy blow. So he told Chang he would seriously think about it. Then he told me the whole story, and we contacted the local endangered species unit, which, as it turned out, was already working with Inspector Lao, who had infiltrated the organisation on the Chinese side. The plan was to try to arrest the whole bunch, from the people on ground level who did the dirty work, to the middle men like Chang, and right to the leaders themselves."

"So you actually worked with them for quite a while?"

"Well yes, Francis, so we did. It wasn't pleasant, and we had to turn a blind eye to large amounts of poached hides and horns and even ivory being stored here in my shed and then being shipped to China. But in the process, we got Chang to sort of trust us, and we built up a detailed picture of their organisation. We were just about ready to hit them a decisive blow this week, but things got a bit out of hand."

"I hope it wasn't all our fault," said Laura.

"No," replied Uncle Vernon. "Not at all. It is a pity you stumbled upon their camp, but they were not supposed to be there, as Francis and Alice heard when they listened to me that evening. And by the way, I never for a moment thought any of you kids are brats! It was just all part of the image of myself I had to maintain. It pained me to say such a thing, and it pains me even more that you actually had to hear it, and spent two days thinking I meant it."

"But when Chang caught us, did this not make things difficult for you?" asked Francis. "If we didn't arrive at the harbour, perhaps the plan would have worked?"

"Perhaps," said Uncle Vernon. "But I have only myself to thank for what happened. I should have trusted you right from the beginning, but I wanted to protect you from the whole mess, and in the end that made it much worse. As it turned out, you saved my life when you kicked Chang's pistol out of his hand. I don't think your presence made much of a difference anyway, because by the time he found you, he had already found that transmitter."

"Yes, what was that about?" asked Alice. "Why was that necessary at all?"

"It was a calculated risk," said Uncle Vernon. "By the time we were ready to ship the stuff to the coast, Chang was so paranoid he didn't really trust anyone any more. We were worried that he was going to cut us out of the loop, and quietly transport the horns somewhere else without telling us. We couldn't let that happen, so Frank fitted the little radio transmitter into one of the horns. Unfortunately, Chang found it, and then immediately knew he had been betrayed. He would have killed us all if Lao hadn't interfered."

He grinned a bit. "By the way Francis, how does your cheek feel? It still looks a bit swollen and blue to me."

"Oh, I'll survive," said Francis. "I have to say, he played his role well. I couldn't believe it when he turned out to be on our side. I'm still not sure why he did what he did though."

"It was as he said. There were four armed criminals in that cabin. He was worried that if he tried to take them all on there, we might get shot, or he might fail, and then we would most certainly be killed. He told me he did not plan on hitting you that hard, but he was very nervous, even though he didn't show it, and so he slapped you much harder than he intended. Trust me, he feels bad about it, but under the circumstances, he felt he had to maintain his cover for a while longer."

Uncle Vernon lifted a finger. "And then there was one other reason. Chang mostly communicated with his superiors in Shanghai via phone and e-mail. He seldom actually contacted them in person. For the communication, he introduced himself with a code word, and until this morning, even Lao had no idea what the code word is. He very much wanted to find it, because that way he can pretend to be Chang and get close to the people right at the top of the syndicate. So he decided to make one last effort to find it. After he left us in the cabin, he slipped into Chang's cabin, and had one last look around the place."

"And?" asked Laura. "Did he find it?"

"Yes, he did. That is why he returned on the ship this morning. He is going to pretend to be Chang, and try to catch the big fish. After he found the code word, he immediately returned to the cabin where they held us. By that time, we had escaped and knocked Chang out. He ran into the other three, and arrested them on the spot. They probably got the surprise of their lives."

"Who were they anyway?" asked Alice. "They certainly did not look like they knew this area."

"Indeed not. The police chief tells me they are hardened criminals, wanted on a whole list of charges. Apparently they had a falling out with some of their gang members in Johannesburg, and decided to go try their luck in the lowveld, where they were recruited by Chang's people. Well, they'll be out of circulation for a decade or two, of that you can be sure!"

Uncle Vernon sat back and folded his arms across his chest, suddenly looking amused. "By the way," he said. "This afternoon I got the weirdest call from your father. He sounded a bit alarmed, to put it mildly."

"I completely forgot!" Francis gasped. "We are in such trouble, I don't even want to think about it."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much," smiled Uncle Vernon. "After I had a little talk with him, and told him how, among other things, you took on a dangerous gang of criminals and managed to save my life in the process, he didn't sound all that angry at all. On the contrary, I think he is very proud of all three of you."

He laughed at the relief on their faces. They had been worrying they might be sent straight home in disgrace.

There was a sound in the doorway. Helga emerged, carrying a tray of drinks. She glared at Uncle Vernon and brusquely plonked it down onto the coffee table before sweetly smiling at the young people and then leaving.

"She doesn't look happy," said Francis. "What did we do?"

Uncle Vernon grinned. "She'll get over it. It's nothing you did. It is what I did. I never told her about the whole operation. I think it will be a while before I'm forgiven. I hope you three will forgive me for not telling you."

Laura grinned wickedly.

"Well, we just might, Uncle Vernon," she said. "But that depends on whether we can stay another week, and have a real holiday."
The windows rattled with Uncle Vernon's booming laughter.
"Oh, you will be most welcome!" he thundered happily. "This calls for a toast. Helga, stop sulking and bring us some of that famous schnapps of yours!"

Eugene wagged his stumpy little tail and whined with joy. Outside, a gentle rain was beginning to fall, and the soft light of the candles sparkled on drops of water running down the outside of the windows. It was summer, and time for a carefree holiday.