'You've got some with you?' Bruce asked as he passed his thumbs across
his eyebrows and squeezed the moisture from them so it ran down his
cheeks.
'Two things I never travel without, my trousers and a stock of the brown
and bubbly.' Ruffy picked up the small pack from the corner of the
shelter and it clinked coyly.
'You hear that sound, boss?'
'I hear it, and it sounds like music,' grinned Bruce.
'All right, everybody.' He raised his voice. 'Take ten minutes.'
Ruffy opened the bottles and passed them out, issuing one to be shared
between three gendarmes. 'These Arabs don't properly appreciate this
stuff' he explained to Bruce.
'It'd just be a waste.' The liquor was lukewarm and gassy, it merely
aggravated Bruce's thirst. He drained the bottle and tossed it out of
the shelter.
'All right.' He stood up. 'Let's get these trusses into position.'
'That's the shortest ten minutes I ever lived,' commented
Ruffy.
'Your watch is slow,' said Bruce.
Carrying the trusses within it, the shelter lumbered out on to the
bridge. There was no laughter now, only laboured breathing and curses.
'Fix the ropes!' commanded Bruce. He tested the knots personally, then
looked up at Ruffy and nodded.
'That'll do.'
'Come on, you mad bastards,' Ruffy growled. 'Lift it.' The first truss
rose to the perpendicular and swayed there like a grotesque maypole with
the ropes hanging from its top.
'Two men on each rope,' ordered Bruce. 'Let it down gently.' He glanced
round to ensure that they were all ready.
'Drop it over the edge, and I'll throw you bastards in after it,' warned
Ruffy.
'Lower away!' shouted Bruce.
The truss leaned out over the gap towards the fire-blackened stump
of bridge on the far side slowly at first, then faster as gravity took
it.
'Hold it, damn you. Hold it!' roared Ruffy with the muscles in his
shoulders humped out under the strain. They lay back against the ropes,
but the weight of the truss dragged them forward as it fell.
It crashed down across the gap, lifted a cloud of dead wood ash as it
struck, and lay there quivering.
'Man, I thought we'd lost that one for sure,' growled Ruffy, then turned
savagely on his men.
'You bastards better be sharper with the next one - if you don't want to
swim this river.' They repeated the process with the second truss, and
again they could not hold its falling length, but this time they were
not so lucky. The end of the truss hit the far side, bounced and slid
sideways.
'It's going! Pull, you bastards, pull!' shouted Ruffy.
The truss toppled slowly sideways an dover the edge. It hit the river
