from the side of his mouth, I was very weak and couldn't seem to move; besides which, my thought processes seemed to be all scrambled and I couldn't put two consecutive thoughts together. All I managed to do was to flop my head to the other side and stare through the window.
I saw a frog I He was sitting on a broad leaf staring at me with beady and unwinking eyes, and was quite still except for the rapid pulsation of his throat. We looked at each other for a very long time, long enough for me to repeat to myself twice over that poem about the frog who would a-wooing go -- Heigh Ho, says Rowley. After a while he blinked his eyes once, and that broke the spell, and I turned my head again to look at Harry.
He stirred slightly and moved his head. His face was very pale and the trickle of blood from his mouth disturbed me because it indicated an internal injury. Again I tried to move but I felt so damned weak. Come on, I said; don't be so grey and dim. Bestir yourself, Wheale; act like a man who knows where he's going!
I tried again and managed to sit up. As I did so the whole fabric of the cabin trembled alarmingly and swayed like a small boat in a swell. 'Christ!' I said aloud. 'Where am I going?' I looked at the frog. He was still there, but the leaf on which he sat was bobbing about. It didn't seem to worry him, though, and he said nothing about it.
I spoke again, because the sound of my voice had comforted me. 'You must be bloody mad,' I said. 'Expecting a frog to talk back! You're delirious, Wheale; you're concussed.'
'Wha . . . wha . . .' said Harry.
'Wake up, Harry boy I' I said. 'Wake up, for Christ's sake! I'm bloody lonely.'
Harry groaned again and his eye opened a crack. 'Wa . . . wat . . .'
I leaned over and put my ear to his mouth. 'What is it, Harry?'
'Wa . . . ter,' he breathed. 'Water be ... hind seat.'
I turned and felt for it, and again the helicopter trembled and shuddered. I found the water-bottle and held it to his lips, uncertain of whether I was doing right. If he had a busted gut the water wouldn't do him any good at all.
But it seemed all right. He swallowed weakly and dribbled a bit, and a pink-tinged foam ran down his jaw. Then he came round fast, much faster than I had done. I took a sip of water myself, and that helped a lot. I offered Harry the bottle and he swilled out his mouth and spat. Two broken teeth clattered on the instrument panel. 'Aagh!' he said. 'My mouth's cut to bits.'
Thank God for that,' I said. 'I thought your ribs were driven into your lungs.'
He levered himself up, and then paused as the helicopter swayed. 'What the hell!'
I suddenly realized where we were. Take it easy,' I said tightly. 'I don't think we're at ground level. This is a case of 'Rock-a-bye baby, on the tree top'.' I stopped and said no more. I didn't like the rest of that verse.
He froze in his seat and then sniffed. 'A strong smell of gas. I don't particularly like that.'
I said, 'What happened -- up there in the sky?'
'I think we lost the rear rotor,' he said. 'When that happened the fuselage started to spin in the opposite direction to the main rotor. Thank God I was able to declutch and switch off.'
The trees must have sprung our landing,' I said. 'If we'd have hit solid ground we'd have cracked like an eggshell. As it is, we seem to be intact.'
'I don't understand it,' he said. 'Why should the rear rotor come off?'
'Maybe a fatigue flaw in the metal,' I said.
This is a new ship. It hasn't had time to get fatigued.'
I said delicately, 'I'd rather discuss this some other time. I propose to get the hell out of here. I wonder how far off the ground we are?' I moved cautiously. 'Stand by for sudden action.'
Carefully I pressed on the handle of the side door and heard the click as the catch opened. A little bit of pressure on the door swung it open about nine inches and then something stopped it, but it was enough open for me to look down. Directly below was a branch, and beyond that just a lot of leaves with no sign of the ground. I looked up and saw bits of blue sky framed between more leaves.
Fallon had wandered about in the forest for many years and, although he wasn't a botanist, he'd taken an interest in it and on several occasions he had discussed it with me. From what he had told me and from what I was able to see I thought that we were about eighty feet up. The main run of rain forest is built in three levels, the specialists call them galleries; we had bust through the top level and got hooked up on the thicker second level.
'Got any rope?' I asked Harry.
There's the winch cable.'
'Can you unwind it all without too much moving about?'
'I can try,' he said.
There was a clutch on the winch drum which he was able to operate manually, and I helped him unreel the cable, coiling it as neatly as I could and putting it behind the front seat out of the way. Then I said, 'Do you know where we are?'
'Sure!' He pulled out a clipboard to which was attached a map. 'We're about there. We hadn't left the site more than ten minutes and we weren't moving fast. We're about ten miles from the camp. That's going to be a hell of a walk.'
'Do you have any kind of survival kit in here?'
He jerked his thumb. 'Couple of machetes, first aid kit, two water-bottles -- a few other bits and pieces.'
I took the water-bottle that was lying between the seats and shook it experimentally. 'This one's half empty -- or half full -- depending on the way you look at things. We'd better go easy on the water.'
