Andre de Surrier was smiling.
Only Wally Hendry was untouched by it, silent and sullen, watching
them with small expressionless eyes.
They came to the bridge over the Cheke in the middle of the afternoon.
Both the road and the railway crossed it side by side, but after this
brief meeting they diverged and the road twisted away to the left. The
river was padded on each bank by dense dark green bush; three hundred
yards thick, a matted tangle of Thorn and tree fern with the big trees
growing up through' it and bursting into flower as they reached the
sunlight.
'Good place for an ambush,' muttered Mike Haig, eyeing the solid green
walls of vegetation on each side of the lines.
'Charming, isn't it,' agreed Bruce, and by the uneasy air of alertness
that had settled on his gendarmes it was clear that they agreed with
him.
The train nosed its way carefully into the river bush like a steel snake
along a rabbit run, and they came to the river.
Bruce switched on the set.
'Driver, stop this side of the bridge. I wish to inspect it before
entrusting our precious cargo to it.'
'Oui, monsieur.' The Cheke river at this point was fifty yards wide,
deep, quick-flowing and angry with flood water which had almost covered
the white sand beaches along
each bank. Its bottle-green colour was smoked with mud and there were
whirlpools round the stone columns of the bridge.
'Looks all right,' Haig gave his opinion. 'How far are we from
Port Reprieve now?' Bruce spread his field map on the roof of the coach
between his legs and found the brackets that straddled the convoluted
ribbon of the river.
'Here we are.' He touched it and then ran his finger along the stitched
line of the railway until it reached the red circle that marked Port
Reprieve. 'About thirty miles to 90, another hour's run.
We'll be there before dark.'
'Those are the Lufira hills.' Mike Haig pointed to the blue smudge that
only just showed above the forest ahead of them.
'We'll be able to see the town from the top,' agreed Bruce. 'The river
runs parallel to them on the other side, and the swamp is off to the
right, the swamp is the source of the river.' He rolled the map and
passed it back to Ruffy who slid it into the plastic map case.
'Ruffy, Lieutenant Haig and I are going ahead to have a look at the
bridge. Keep an eye on the bush.'
'Okay, boss. You want a beer to take with you?'
'Thanks.' Bruce was thirsty and he emptied half the bottle before
climbing down to join Mike on the gravel embankment.
Rifles unslung, watching the bush on each side uneasily, they hurried
forward and with relief reached the bridge and went out into the centre
of it.
'Seems solid enough commented Mike. 'No one has tampered with it.'
'It's wood.' Bruce stamped on the heavy wild mahogany timbers.
They were three feet thick and stained with a dark t chemical to inhibit
