they'll hear it and start shooting.
His hand was right back, he bent his legs and sank slowly on to his
knees.
Here we go, he thought, and at that instant sheet lightning fluttered
across the sky and Bruce could see. The hills were outlined black below
the pale grey belly of the clouds, and the steel rails
glinted in the sudden light.
The forest was dark and high at each hand, and - a leopard, a big golden
and black leopard, stood facing Bruce. In that brief second they stared
at each other and then the night closed down again.
The leopard coughed explosively in the darkness, and Bruce tried
desperately to bring his rifle up, but it was in his left hand and his
other arm was held back ready to throw.
This time for sure, he thought, this time they lower the boom on you.
It was with a feeling of disbelief that he heard the leopard crash
sideways into the undergrowth, and the scrambling rush of its run
dwindle into the bush.
He subsided on to his backside, with the primed grenade in his hand, the
hysterical laughter of relief coming up into his throat.
'You okay, boss?' Ruffy's voice lifted anxiously.
'It was a leopard,' answered Bruce, and was surprised at the squeakiness
of his own voice.
There was a buzz of voices from the gendarmes and a rattle and clatter
as they started to stand up. Someone laughed.
'That's enough noise,' snapped Bruce and climbed to his feet; he found
the pin in his pocket and fitted it back into the grenade. He groped his
way back, picked up the staff from where he had dropped it, and took his
position at the head of the column again.
'Let's go,' he said.
His mouth was dry, his breathing too quick and he could feel the heat
beneath the skin of his cheeks from the shock of the leopard.
I truly squirted myself full of adrenalin that time, Bruce grinned
precariously in the dark, I'm as windy as hell. And before tonight is
over I shall find fear again.
They moved on up the incline of the hills, a serpent of twenty-six men,
and the tension was in all of them. Bruce could hear it in the footsteps
behind him, feel it in the grip of the hand upon his shoulder and catch
it in the occasional whiffs of body smell that came forward to him, the
smell of nervous sweat like acid on metal.
Ahead of them the clouds that had crouched low upon the hills lifted
slowly, and Bruce could see the silhouette of the crests. It was no
longer utterly dark for there was a glow on the belly of the clouds now.
A faint orange glow of reflected light that grew in
strength, then faded and grew again. It puzzled Bruce for a while, and
thinking about it gave his nerves a chance to settle. He plodded
steadily on watching the fluctuations of the light. The ground tilted
more sharply upwards beneath his feet and he leaned forward against it,
slogging up the last half mile to the pass between the peaks, and at
last came out on the top.
