Chapter 1 Summary

Mehring is an industrialist who owns a farm in rural South Africa. He is going about his daily rituals on his property when his herdsman Jacobus hails him and explains that they found a dead man near the river. Mehring and Jacobus travel to the location, where Mehring examines the body from a short distance. He sees that the man was probably dumped there, because he has no mud on his shoes. He also notes the fairly nice clothes on the corpse. Jacobus explains that he was trying to reach Mehring by phone for hours. No one knows the identity of the man or how he could have gotten there. They return to the farmhouse, and Mehring reaches the police after his second attempt on the party line telephone.

After stating definitively that the death has nothing to do with his farm, Mehring...