grief, warm rain in the darkness. And the darkness was complete. Once
Bruce touched the top of his nose with his open palm, but he could not
see his hand.
He used a staff to keep contact with the steel rail that ran beside him,
tapping along it like a blind man, and at each step the
gravel of the embankment crunched beneath his feet. The hand of the man
behind him was on his shoulder, and he could sense the presence of the
others that followed him like the body of a serpent, could hear the
crunch of their steps and the muted squeak and rattle of their
equipment. A man's voice was raised in protest and immediately quenched
by Ruffy's deep rumble.
They crossed the road and the gradient changed beneath Bruce's feet so
that he had to lean forward against it. They were starting up the Lufira
hills.
I will rest them at the top, he thought, and from there we will be able
to see the lights of the town.
The rain stopped abruptly, and the quietness after it was surprising.
Now he could distinctly hear the breathing of the man behind him above
the small sounds of their advance, and in the forest nearby a tree frog
clinked as though steel pellets were being dropped into a crystal glass.
It was a sound of great purity and beauty.
All Bruce's senses were enhanced to compensate for his lack of sight;
his hearing; his sense of smell, so that he could catch the over-sweet
perfume of a jungle-flower and the heaviness of decaying wet vegetation;
his sense of touch, so that he could feel the raindrops on his face and
the texture of his clothing against his body; then the other animal
sense of danger told him with sickening, stomach-tripping certainty that
there was something ahead of him in the darkness.
He stopped, and the man following him bumped into him throwing him off
balance. All along the line there was a ripple of confusion and then
silence. They all waited.
Bruce strained his hearing, half crouched with his rifle held ready.
There was something there, he could almost feel it.
Please God, let them not have a machine-gun set up here, he thought;
they could cut us into a shambles.
He turned cautiously and felt for the head of the man behind him, found
it and drew it towards him until his mouth was an inch from the ear.
'Lie down very quietly. Tell the one behind you that he may pass it
back.' Bruce waited poised, listening and trying to see ahead into the
utter blackness. He felt a gentle tap on his ankle from the gendarme at
his feet. They were all down.
'All right, let's go take a look.' Bruce detached one of the grenades
from his webbing belt. He drew the pin and dropped it into the breast
pocket of his jacket. Then feeling for the crossties of the rails with
each foot he started forward. Ten paces and he stopped again. Then he
heard it, the tiny click of two pebbles just ahead of him. His throat
closed so he could not breathe and his stomach was very heavy.
I'm right on top of them. My God, if they open up now, inch by inch he
drew back the hand that held the grenade.
I'll have to lob short and get down fast. Five-second fuse too long,
