clouds pressed close against the earth and the rain was a thick
blue-grey mist that would reduce visibility to a few hundred feet. He
switched on the radio.
'Driver, give us all the speed you have - get us into that rain.'
'Oui, monsieur, I came the acknowledgement and almost immediately the
puffing of the loco quickened and the clatter of the crossties changed
its rhythm.
'Look at him come,' growled Hendry. The jet fell fast away against the
backdrop of cloud, still in sunlight, still a silver
point of light, but growing.
Bruce clicked over the band selector of the radio, searching the ether
for the pilot's voice. He tried four wavelengths and each time found
only the crackle and drone of static, but with the fifth came the gentle
sing-song of Hindustani. Bruce could not understand it, but he
could hear that the tone was puzzled. There was a short silence on the
radio while the pilot listened to an instruction from the Kamina base
which was beyond the power of their small set to receive, then a curt
affirmative, 'He's coming in for a closer look,' said Bruce, then raising
his voice, 'Everybody under cover - and stay there.' He was not prepared
to risk another demonstration of friendship.
The jet came cruising in towards them under half power, yet incredibly
fast, leaving the sound of its engine far behind it, sharklike above the
forest. Then Bruce could see the pilot's head through the canopy; now he
could make out his features. His face was very brown beneath the silver
crash helmet and he had a little mustache, the same as the jack of
spades. He was so close that Bruce saw the exact moment that he
recognized them as Katangese; his eyes
showed white and his mouth puckered as he swore. Beside Bruce the radio
relayed the oath with metallic harshness, and then the jet was banking
away steeply, its engine howling in full throttle, rising, showing its
swollen silver belly and the racks of rockets beneath its wings.
'That frightened seven years' growth out of him,' laughed Hendry.
'You should have let me blast him. He was close enough for me to hit him
in the left eyeball.'
'You'll get another chance in a moment,' Bruce assured him grimly. The
radio was gabbling with consternation as the jet dwindled back into the
sky. Bruce switched quickly to their own channel.
'Driver, can't you get this thing moving?'
'Monsieur, never before has she moved as she does now.' Once more he
switched back to the jet's frequency and listened to the pilot's excited
voice. The jet was turning in a wide circle, perhaps fifteen miles away.
Bruce glanced at the piled mass of cloud and rain ahead of them; it was
moving down to meet them, but with ponderous dignity.
'If he comes back,' Bruce shouted down at his gendarmes, twe can be sure
that it's not just to look at us again. Open fire as soon as he's in
range. Give him everything you've got, we must try and spoil his aim.'
Their faces were turned uptowards him, subdued by the awful inferiority
of the earthbound to the hunter in the sky.
Only Andre did not look at Bruce; he was staring at the aircraft with
