stretched out from either bank, but the gap in the middle of the river
was twenty feet across and the whole volume of the river roared through
it.
'The one thing we don't want is to let the bleeding plug run away from
us and slam into the ruddy wall,' he warned Nicholas and Mek. 'Otherwise
we are going to lose a big chunk of what we have done so far. I want to
cuddle her in there, nice and softly, and let her sit snug in the gap.
Any questions? This is your last chance to ask. You all know the
signals.'
Sapper took one last drag on his cigarette, and flicked the stub into
the river. Then, looking lugubrious, he said, 'Okay, gents. The last one
in the water is a sissy,'
Compared to their men, Nicholas and Mek were overdressed in their khaki
shorts. The others were all stark naked. When the order was given they
trooped waist-deep into the river and took up their stations along the
cables.
Before he followed them into the river, Nicholas took one last look
round. At breakfast that morning Royan had innocently asked to borrow
his binoculars. Now he knew why. She and Tessay were perched up on top
of the slope high above the gorge. Even as Nicholas watched, he saw
Royan pass the binoculars to Tessay. They were not missing a moment of
this fateful operation.
Nicholas looked back from the ridge to the rows of big naked men, pulled
a face and muttered, 'My oath, there are some prize specimens around
here. I just hope that Royan isn't making comparisons.'
Sapper climbed up on to the yellow tractor, and with a roar and a cloud
of diesel smoke the engine burst into life. He raised one hand above his
head with the fist ji clenched, and Nicholas relayed the order to his
team, 'Take the strain.'
The foremen repeated it in Amharic, and the men leaned back against the
cables. Sapper threw the tractor into extra low, and eased her forward.
The belly straightened in the lines, the sheave wheels squealed, and the
timber grating slid ponderously down the bank into the river. The
weighted end of the grating sank immediately and bumped along the
bottom, while the lighter end floated ut into midstream, until it was
high. Slowly they hauled it hanging vertically in the water.
The current seized it and began to bear it away, straight at the wall of
gabions. It picked up speed alarmingly. The tractor bellowed and- blew
out clouds of black smoke as Sapper threw her into reverse and backed up
on the cables.
The teams of naked black men heaved and chanted - some of them had
already been dragged in neck-deep as they hauled on the lines.
The grating steadied across the current, and they let it fall away at a
more sedate pace, down towards the open gap in the wall. As it began to
slew towards one bank, Sapper lifted his right arm and windmilled it.
Obediently, Mek's team on the far bank paid out rope and Nicholas's team
on the near bank picked it up. Once again the grating was lined up on
the gap.
'Rock and roll. Close the hole,' bellowed Sapper, and now the full
current was too powerful to resist. It dragged both teams into the river
