The Great Cake Mystery by Alexander McCall Smith Page A

his head. “No, I didn’t. And that was why I thought I should go outside and find out.”
    Precious closed her eyes tight. She could hardly bear to hear what was coming.

    â€œIt was a lion,” her father said. “And he was right outside the hut, standing there,looking at me from underneath his great dark mane.”

recious opened her eyes cautiously, one at a time, just in case there was a lion in the room. But there was just her father, telling his story.
    â€œHow did that lion get in?” she asked. “How did he get past that big strong fence?”
    Obed shook his head. “Somebody had not closed the gate properly,” he said. “It was carelessness.”
    What would you do if you found yourself face to face with a great lion? Perhaps you would just close your eyes and hope that you were dreaming—that is what Obed did when he saw the terrifying lion staringstraight at him. But when he opened his eyes again, the lion was still there, and worse still, was beginning to open its great mouth.
    Precious caught her breath. “Did you see his teeth?” she asked.
    Obed nodded. “The moonlight was very bright,” he said. “His big teeth were white and sharp.”
    Precious shuddered and listened intently as her father explained what happened next.
    Obed turned his head very slowly. He could not get back to the hut. It would take him too close to the beast. But, just a few steps away, were the family’s grain bins. These were like garden pots—but much bigger—thatwere used for storing corn. They were made out of pressed mud, baked hard by the hot sun, and they were very strong.

    â€œI ran—not back to the hut, but to the nearest grain bin. I pushed the cover back and jumped in, bringing the lid down on top of my head. I was safe! Or so I thought.”
    Precious breathed a sigh of relief.
    â€œThere was very little grain left in that bin,” Obed said. “So there was plenty of room for me to crouch down.”
    â€œAnd spiders too?” asked Precious, with a shudder.
    â€œThere are always spiders in grain bins,” said Obed. “But it wasn’t spiders I was worried about.”
    â€œIt was—”
    Obed finished the sentence for her. “Yes, it was the lion. I could hear him outside, scratching and snuffling at the lid.
    â€œI knew that it would only be a matter of time before he pushed the lid off with oneof his big paws, and I knew that I had to do something. But what could I do?
    â€œSo I took a handful of those dusty husks and then, pushing up the lid a tiny bit, I tossed them straight into the face of the lion.”
    Precious looked at her father wide-eyed. This was the best part of the story.
    â€œAnd what did he do?” she asked.
    Obed smiled. “He breathed them in and then he gave the loudest, most powerful sneeze that has ever been sneezed in Botswana, or possibly in all Africa. Ka … chow!

    â€œIt was a very great sneeze,” Obed said. “It was a sneeze that was heard from miles away, and it was certainly heard by everybody in the village. In every hut, people awoke, rubbed their eyes, and rose from their sleeping mats. ‘A great lion has sneezed,’ they said. ‘We must all hit our pots and pans as hard as we can. That will frighten him away.’
    â€œAnd that is what happened. As thepeople began to strike their pots and pans with spoons and forks, the lion tucked his tail between his legs and ran off into the bush. He was not frightened of eating one unlucky young man, but even he could not stand up to a whole village of people all pounding on pots. Lions do not like that sort of noise.”
    â€œI am glad that you were not eaten by that lion,” Precious said.
    â€œAnd so am I,” Obed said.
    â€œBecause if the lion had eaten you, I would never have been born,” Precious said.
    â€œAnd if you had never been born, then I would never have