through in an overhead swing. The ball of clay flew from the end of
the rod with a vicious hum and smacked on to the shiny black carapace
with a force that left a white star shaped crack upon the shell. The
tortoise jerked in its head and limbs and toppled backwards into the
stream.
'Good shot!'
'There he is, let me have a shot.
That's enough! You'll get plenty shots just now. ' Dirk stopped them.
Now listen to me! When they come me and Nick will hold them here for a
bit, then we'll run back along the river and they'll chase us. Wait
until they are right underneath you-then give it to them.'
Dirk and Nick crouched side by side, close in against the bank with the
water up to their noses. A tuft of reeds hid those Parts of their
heads still above the surface and within easy reach their loaded
clay-lats lay on dry land.
Below water Dirk felt Nick's elbow nudge his ribs, and he nodded
carefully. He also had heard the whisper of voices around the bend of
the river, and the roll and plop of loose earth dislodged by a careless
foot. He turned his head and answered Nick's grin with one just as
bloodthirsty, then he. peered around the reeds.
Twenty paces in front of him a head appeared cautiously around the
angle of the bank and the expression on its face was set and
nervous-and Dirk moved his own head back behind the bunch of reeds.
A long silence broken suddenly. 'They're not here.' The voice was
squeaky with adolescence and tension. Boetie was a delicate child,
small for his age, who insisted on joining the rest Of them in games
beyond his strength.
Another long silence and then the sound of a wholesale but stealthy
approach. Dirk reached out and gripped Nick's arm the enemy were
committed, out in the open-he lifted his mouth above the surface.
'Now!' he whispered and they reached for their lats. The surprise was
complete and devastating. As Dirk and Nick rose dripping, with
throwing arms cocked, the attackers were bunched in such a way that
they could neither run nor return the fire unhampered.
The clay pellets flew into them, slapping loudly on bare flesh,
producing howls of anguish and milling, colliding confusion.
'Give it to them,' shouted Dirk, and threw again without picking his
man, blindly into the mass of legs and arms and pink backsides.
Beside him Nick worked in a silent frenzy of load and throw.
The confusion lasted perhaps fifteen seconds, before the howls of pain
became shouts of anger.
'It's only Dirk and Nick.'
'Get them-it's only two of them.
The first pellet flipped Dirk's ear, the second hit him full in the
chest.
'Run!' he gasped through the pain, and floundered to the bank.
Bent forward to climb from the stream he was frighteningly vulnerable,
and a pellet thrown at point-blank range took him in that portion of
his anatomy which he was offering to the enemy. The sting of it
