cheeks.
'Get a load of that!'' breathed Wally Hendry, and Bruce glanced up at
his face. His expression was a glow of deep sensual pleasure and
his breathing was as quick and shallow as that of the dying man.
'Go and help Ruffy,' snapped Bruce as his stomach heaved with disgust.
'Not on your Nelly. This I'm not going to miss.' Bruce had no time to
argue. He lifted the skin of the man's stomach and ran the needle in
again. There was an explosive spitting sound as the bowels started to
vent involuntarily.
'Jesus,' whispered Hendry.
'Get away,' snarled Bruce. 'Can't you let him die without gloating over
it?' Hopelessly he injected again, under the skin of the chest above the
heart. As he emptied the syringe the man's body twisted violently in the
first seizure and the needle snapped off under the skin.
'There he goes,' whispered Hendry, 'there he goes. Just look at him,
man. That's really something.' Bruce's hands were trembling and slowly a
curtain descended across his mind.
'You filthy swine,' he screamed and hit Hendry across the face
with his open hand, knocking him back against the side of the gasoline
tanker. Then he went for his throat and found it with both hands. The
windpipe was ropey and elastic under his thumbs.
'Is nothing sacred to you, you unclean animal?' he yelled into
Hendry's face. 'Can't you let a man die without,-' Then Ruffy was there,
effortlessly plucking Bruce's hands from the throat, interposing the
bulk of his body, holding them away from each other.
'Let it stand, boss.'
'For that,-' gasped Hendry as he massaged his throat.
'For that I'm going to make you pay.' Bruce turned away, sick and
ashamed, to the man on the blanket.
'Cover him up.' His voice was shaky. 'Put him in the back of one of the
trucks. We'll bury him tomorrow.' before nightfall they had completed
the corrugated iron screen. It was a simple four-walled structure with
no roof to it. One end of it was detachable and all four walls were
pierced at regular intervals with small loop holes for defence.
Long enough to accommodate a dozen men in comfort, high enough to
reach above the heads of the tallest, and exactly the width of the
bridge, it was not a thing of beauty.
'How you going to move it, boss?' Ruffy eyed the screen dubiously.
'I'll show you. We'll move it back to the camp now, so that in the
morning we can commute to work in it.' Bruce selected twelve men
and they crowded through the open end into the shelter, and closed it
behind them.
'Okay, Ruffy. Take the trucks away.' Hendry and Ruffy reversed the two
trucks back to the laager, leaving the shelter standing at the head of
the bridge like a small Nissen hut. Inside it Bruce stationed his men at
intervals along the walls.
'Use the bottom timber of the frame to lift on,' he shouted. 'Are you
all ready? All right, liftv The shelter swayed and rose six inches above
the ground.
From the laager they could see only the boots of the men inside.
