expanded in the heat of the Congo midday, and the only other sound was
Haig's breathing. He was panting and his face was congested with blood.
'Please, Mike,' whispered Andre. 'He didn't mean it.' Slowly
Haig's anger changed to disgust and he dropped his hand, turned away and
picked up his rifle from the other bed.
'I can't stand the smell in this room another minute. I'll wait for you
in the truck downstairs, Bruce.'
'I won't be long,' agreed Bruce as Mike went to the door.
'Don't push your luck, Haig,' Wally called after him.
'Next time you won't get off so easily.' In the doorway Mike Haig swung
quickly, but, with a hand on his shoulder, Bruce turned him
again.
'Forget it, Mike,' he said, and closed the door after him.
'He's just bloody lucky that he's an old man,' growled Wally.
'Otherwise I'd have fixed him good.' 'Sure,' said Bruce. 'It was decent
of you to let him go.' The soap had dried on his face and he wet his
brush to lather again.
'Yeah, I couldn't hit an old bloke like that, could I?' 'No.' Bruce
smiled a little. 'But don't worry, you frightened the hell out of him.
He won't try it again.'
'He'd better notv warned Hendry. 'Next time
I'll kill the old bugger.' No, you wont, thought Bruce, you'll back down
again as you have just done, as you've done a dozen times before.
Mike and I are the only ones who can make you do it; in the same way as
an animal will growl at its trainer but cringe away when he cracks the
whip. He began shaving again.
The heat in the room was unpleasant to breathe; it drew the perspiration
out of them and the smell of their bodies blended sourly with stale
cigarette smoke and liquor fumes.
'Where are you and Mike going?' Andre ended the long silence.
'We're going to see if we can draw the supplies for this trip. If we
have any luck we'll take them down to the goods yard and have Ruffy put
an armed guard on them overnight,' Bruce answered him, leaning over the
basin and splashing water up into his face.
'How long will we be away?' Bruce shrugged. 'A week - ten days'.
He sat on his bed and pulled on one of his jungle boots. 'That is, if we
don't have any trouble.' 'Trouble, Bruce?' asked Andre.
'From Msapa Junction we'll have to go two hundred miles through country
crawling with Baluba.'
'But we'll be in a train,' protested
Andre. 'They've only got bows and arrows, they can't touch us.'
'Andre, there are seven rivers to cross - one big one and bridges are
easily destroyed. Rails can be torn up.' Bruce began to lace the boot.
'I don't think it's going to be a Sunday school picnic.'
'Christ. I
think the whole thing stinks,' repeated Wally moodily.' Why are we going
anyway?'
'Because, Bruce began patiently, 'for the last three months the entire
population of Port Reprieve has been cut off from the rest of the world.
There are women and children with them. They are fast running out of
