look-out on the escarpment this area had been screened by trees, so now
for the first time Sean noticed the saddled horse tethered on the far
edge of the swamp. Quickly Sean searched for its rider, and found him
in the swamp-only his head visible above the bright poisonous green
field of papyrus grass. The man's head disappeared again and there was
a commotion in the grass; a wild thrashing and the sudden panic ridden
bellow of a beast.
Sean worked his way quickly round the edge of the swamp until he
reached the horse. The head and shoulders of the man in the swamp
reappeared and Sean could see that he was splattered with mud.
'What's the trouble?' Sean shouted, and the head turned towards him.
'There's a beast bogged down here.
'Hold on, I'll give you a hand.' Sean stripped his jacket, waistcoat
and shirt and hung them with his hat on a branch before going in.
Ploughing knee-deep through ooze that bubbled and belched gas as he
disturbed it, using both arms to part the coarse tangle of reeds and
marsh grass, Sean finally reached them.
The beast was an old black cow; her hindquarters completely submerged
in a mudhole and her front legs twisted helplessly under her chest.
'She's just about finished,' said the man. Sean looked at him and saw
he was not a man but a youth. Tall for his age, but lightly built.
Dark hair, cropped short and the big nose to show he was a Courtney.
with an unnatural tightness in his gut and a shortening of his Sean
knew that he was looking at his son.
breath,
'Don't just stand there,' snapped the boy. He was covered from the
chest down in a glistening evil-smelling coat of mud, sweat pouring
down his face and dissolving the spots of mud on his forehead and
cheeks, breathing heavily through open Mouth, crouching over the animal
to hold its head above the surface.
'Have to roll her,' said Sean. 'Keep her head, up. ' He waded to the
hindquarters and the mud bubbled greasily up around his waist. He
thrust his arms down through it-groping for the trapped legs.
Scans hands could only just encompass the thick bone and sinew of the
hock. He settled his grip and leaned back against it, straining
upwards, gradually bringing the fulll strength of his body into the
pull until he knew that something in his belly was on the point of
tearing. He held like that, his whole face contorted, mouth wide open
so that his breathing rattled hoarsely up his throat, the great muscles
of his chest and arms locked in an iron convulsion.
A minute, two minutes, he held the stance while the boy watched him
with a mingled expression of alarm and wonder.
Then suddenly there was a squelching popping escape of swamp gas around
Sean's chest, and the beast began to move. Slowly at first,
reluctantly up through the ooze showed the swell of its rump-then
faster, as the mud lost its hold, until, with a final belch and sigh,
it yielded and Sean came to his feet holding the legs above the
surface-the cow lying exhausted on her side.
'Hell's teeth!' breathed the boy in open admiration. For a moment the
beast lay quiescent, then realizing that its legs were free, it began
