"Goddam it, goddam it to hell," and he fired at the dark blob in his
sights.
As he ran Bruce looked across a hundred yards of open ground to the edge
of the forest.
He felt the wind of the next bullet as it cracked past him.
If he uses rapid fire he'll get me even at three hundred yards
And Bruce jinked his run like a jack-rabbit. The blood roaring in his
ears, fear driving his feet.
Then all around him the air burst asunder, buffeting him so he
staggered; the vicious whip-whip whip of bullets filled his head.
I can't make it Seventy yards to the shelter of the trees.
Seventy yards of open meadowlands and above him the commanding mass of
the kopje.
The next burst is for me - it must come, now!
And he flung himself to one side so violently that he nearly fell.
Again the air was ripping to tatters close beside him.
I can't last! He must get me!
In his path was an ant-heap, a low pile of clay, a pimple on the open
expanse of earth. Bruce dived for it, hitting the ground so hard that
the wind was forced from his lungs out through his open mouth.
The next burst of gunfire kicked lumps of clay from the top of the
ant-heap, showering Bruce's back.
He lay with his face pressed into the earth, wheezing with the agony of
empty lungs, flattening his body behind the tiny heap of clay.
Will it cover me? Is there enough of it?
And the next hail of bullets thumped into the ant-heap, throwing
fountains of earth, but leaving Bruce untouched.
I'm safe. The realization came with a surge that washed away his
fear.
But I'm helpless, answered his hatred. Pinned to the earth for as long
as Hendry wants to keep me here.
The rain fell on his back. Soaking through his jacket, coldly caressing
the nape of his neck and dribbling down over his jaws.
He rolled his head sideways, not daring to lift it an inch, and
the rain beat on to the side of his face.
The rain! Falling faster. Thickening. Hanging from the clouds like the
skirts of a woman's dress.
Curtains of rain. Greying out the edge of the forest, leaving no solid
shapes in the mist of falling liquid motherof-pearl.
Still gasping but with the pain slowly receding, Bruce lifted his head.
The kopje was a vague blue-green shape ahead of him, then it was gone,
swallowed by the eddying columns of rain.
Bruce pushed himself up on to his knees and the pain in his chest made
him dizzy.
Now! he thought. Now, before it thins, and he lumbered clumsily to his
feet.
For a moment he stood clutching his chest, sucking for breath in the
haze of water-filled air, and then he staggered towards the edge of the
forest.
His feet steadied under him, his breathing eased, and he was into the
trees.
They closed round him protectively. He leaned against the rough bark of
one of them and wiped the rain from his face with the palm of his hand.
The strength came back to him and with it his hatred and his excitement.
He unslung the rifle from his shoulder and stood away from the tree with
his feet planted wide apart.
"Now, my friend," he whispered, "we fight on equal terms." He pumped a
round into the chamber of the FN and moved towards the kopje, stepping
daintily, the weight of the rifle in his hands, his mind suddenly sharp
and clear, vision enhanced, feeling his strength and the absence of fear
like a song within him, a battle hymn.
He made out the loom of the kopje through the dripping rain-heavy trees
and he circled out to the right. There is plenty of time, he thought. I
can afford to case the joint thoroughly. He completed circuit of the
rock pile.
The kopje, he found, was the shape of a galleon sinking by the head. At
one end the high double castles of the poop, from which the main deck
canted steeply forward as though the prow were already under water. This
slope was scattered with boulders and densely covered with dwarf scrub,
an interwoven mass of shoulder-high branches and leaves.
Bruce squatted on his haunches with the rifle in his lap and looked up
the ramp at the twin turrets of the kopje.
The rain had slackened to a drizzle.
Hendry was on top. Bruce knew he would go to the highest point.
Strange how height makes a man feel invulnerable, makes him think he is
a god.
And since he had fired upon them he must be in the turret nearest the
vlei, which was slightly the higher of the two, its summit crowned by a
patch of stunted broom bush.
So now I know exactly where he is and i will wait half an hour.
He may become impatient and move; if he does I will get a shot at him
from here.
Bruce narrowed his eyes, judging the distance.
"About two hundred yards." He adjusted the rear-sight of the FN
and then checked the load, felt in the side pocket of his jacket to make
sure the two extra clips of ammunition were handy, and settled back
comfortably to wait.
"Curry, you sonofabitch, where are you?" Hendry's shout floated down
through the drizzling rain and Bruce stiffened.
I was right - he's on top of the left-hand turret.
"Come on, Bucko. I've been waiting for you since yesterday afternoon."
Bruce lifted the rifle and sighted experimentally at a dark patch on the
wall of the rock. It would be difficult shooting in the rain, the rifle
slippery with wet, the fine drizzle clinging to his eyebrows and dewing
the sights of the rifle with little beads of moisture.
"Hey, Curry, how's your little French piece of pussy?
Man, she's hot, that thing, isn't she?" Bruce's hands tightened on the
rifle.
"Did she tell you how I gave her the old business? Did she tell
you how she loved it? You should have heard her panting like a steam
engine. I'm telling you, Curry, she just couldn't get enough!" Bruce
felt himself start to tremble. He clenched his jaws, biting down until
his teeth ached.
Steady, Bruce my boy, that's what he wants you to do.
The trees dripped steadily in the silence and a gust of wind stirred the
scrub on the slope of the kopje. Bruce waited, straining his eyes for
the first hint of movement on the left-hand turret.
"You yellow or something, Curry ? You scared to come on up here?
Is that what it is? Bruce shifted his position slightly, ready for a
snap shot.
"Okay, Bucko. I can wait, I've got all day. I'll just sit here thinking
about how I mucked your little bit of French. I'm telling you it was
something to remember. Up and down, in and out, man it was something!"
Bruce came carefully up on to his feet behind the trunk of the tree and
once more studied the layout of the kopie.
If I can move up the slope, keeping well over to the side, until I
reach the right-hand turret, there's a ledge there that will take me to
the top. I'll be twenty or thirty feet from him, and at that range it
will all be over in a few seconds.
He drew a deep breath and left the shelter of the tree.
Wally Hendry spotted the movement in the forest below him; it was a
flash of brown quickly gone, too fast to get a bead on it.
He wiped the rain off his face and wriggled a foot closer to the edge.