'Very well. Thank you.' He turned to Ruffy. 'We'll have to carry
everything back to the convoy. Another day wasted.'
'It's a long walk,' Ruffy agreed. 'Better get started.'
'How much food have we?'
'Not too much. We've been feeding a lot of extra mouths, and we sent a
lot out to the mission.'
'How much?'
'About two more days.'
'That should get us to Elisabethville.'
'Boss, you want to carry everything to the lorries?
Searchlights, ammunition, blankets - all of it?' Bruce paused for a
moment. 'I think so. We may need it.'
'It's going to take the rest of the day.'
'Yes,' agreed Bruce. Ruffy walked back along the train but Bruce called
after him.
'Ruffy!'
'Boss?'
'Don't forget the beer.' Ruffy's black moon of a face split laterally
into a grin.
'You think we should take it?'
'Why not?' Bruce laughed.
'Man, you talked me right into it.' And the night was almost on them
before the last of the equipment had been carried back from the
Abandoned train to the convoy and loaded into the trucks.
Time is a slippery thing, even more so than wealth. No bank vault can
hold it for you, this precious stuff which we spend in such prodigal
fashion on the trivialities. By the time we have slept and eaten and
moved from one place to the next there is such a small percentage left
for the real business of living.
Bruce felt futile resentment as he always did when he thought about it.
And if you discount the time spent at an office desk, then how much is
there left? Half of one day a week, that's how much the average man
lives! That's how far short of our potential is the actuality of
existence.
Take it further than that: we are capable of using only a fraction of
our physical and mental strength. Only under hypnosis are we able to
exert more than a tenth of what is in us. So divide that half of one day
a week by ten, and the rest is waste! Sickening waste!
'Ruffy, have you detailed sentries for tonight?' Bruce barked at him.
'Not yet. I was just-'
'Well, do it, and do it quickly.' Ruffy looked at Bruce in speculation
and through his anger Bruce felt a qualm of regret that he had selected
that mountain of energy on which to vent his frustration.
'Where the hell is Hendry?' he snapped.
Without speaking Ruffy pointed to a group of men round one of the
trucks at the rear of the convoy and Bruce left him.
Suddenly consumed with impatience Bruce fell upon his men.
Shouting at them, scattering them to a dozen different tasks. He walked
along the convoy making sure that his instructions were being
