Page 20 (1/1)

Bond raised a thuht now But that damned dummy! Gave me a nasty turn Did you put her there?"

"Sure Sorry, boy Mr S toldNo idea your girl friend was a blonde or that you'd fall for the spiel"

"Bloody silly of ht Anyway, come on Here's your bullet Bite the lead The story-books say it helps This is going to hurt, but I ot his hands under Leiter's ared hirove bush above swamp level The sweat of pain poured down Leiter's face Bond propped hiroan and his head fell back Bond looked thoughtfully down at hi that could have happened He took Leiter's gun out of his waistband and put it beside his left, and only, hand Bond still a would co the line of , he would have to keep more or less in the open He prayed that, nearer the river, the sould yield to drier land so that he could work doards the sea and then cut back towards the river and hope to pick up the man's tracks

It was one o'clock and the sun was high James Bond was tired and very thirsty, and his shoulder wound throbbed with his pulse The wound was beginning to give hiht, and now, as he stalked his prey, he found, quizzically, that ne buffet waiting for the and the dead, at Green Island For the ed himself The buffet would be laid out under the trees, as he saw it, adjoining the terminal station, which would probably be on the sa trestle tables, spotless tablecloths, rows of glasses and plates and cutlery, and great dishes of cold lobster salad, cold meat cuts And mounds of fruit--pineapple and such --to ht be a hot dish, he thought So with rice and peas--too hot for the day, decided Bond, but a feast for most of Green Island when the rich "tourists" had departed And there would be drink! Chane in frosted silver coolers, rureat beakers of iced water that would only have been poured when the train whistled its approach to the gay little station Bond could see it all Every detail of it under the shade of the great ficus trees The white-gloved, unifor hi waters of the harbour; in the background the hypnotic throb of the calypso band, the soft, enticing eyes of the girls And, ruling, ordering all, the tall, fine figure of the gracious host, a thin cigar between his teeth, the hite Stetson tilted low over his brow, offering Bond just one ne

Jaht hand for support froain, and fell heavily He lay for athe noise he must have made It wouldn't have beenthe swagish turbulence There were cricket and bird noises Bond got to his knees and then to his feet What in hell had he been thinking of? Come on, you bloody fool! There's work to be done! He shook his head to clear it Gracious host! Goddaracious host! Goblets of iced charily He took several very deep slow breaths He knew the sy worse than acute nervous exhaustion with--he gave hirace--a small fever added All he had to do was to keep his mind and his eyes in focus For God's sake, no ! With a new, sharpened resolve he kicked the raphy

There were perhaps a hundred yards to go to the bridge On Bond's left, the roves were sparser and the black mud was dry and cracked But there were still soft patches Bond put up the collar of his coat to hide the white shirt He covered another twenty yards beside the rail and then struck off left into the roves He found that if he kept close to the roots of thewasn't too bad At least there were no dry twigs or leaves to crack and rustle He tried to keep as nearly as possible parallel with the river, but thick patches of bushes made him make small detours and he had to estiht rise of the land towards the riverbank His ears weie pricked like an anireenery ahead Now the mud was pitted with burrows of land crabs, and there were occasional reoose For the first ti the noise, he dared only to dab at them softly with his handkerchief that was soon soaked with the blood they had sucked fro with the white man's sweat that attracted them

Bond estimated that he had penetrated two hundred yards into the shen he heard the single, controlled cough

15 - Crab-h sounded about twenty yards away, towards the river Bond dropped to one knee, his senses questing like the antennae of an insect He waited five h was not repeated, he crept forwards on hands and knees, his gun gripped between his teeth

In a s of dried, cracked blackto cal stretched out, his back supported by a cluh stock had gone, and the whole of the right-hand side of his suit was black with blood upon which insects crawled and feasted But the eyes in the controlled face were still very ular intervals, questing Scaran of a gun

Scaraa's face suddenly pointed, like a retriever's, and the roving scrutiny held steady Bond could not see what had caught his attention, but then a patch of the dappled shadow at the edge of the clearing e snake, beautifully diaed purposefully across the black mud towards the uessed it was a boa of the Epicrates family, attracted by the s and quite hara would know this He was ia's expression had not changed, but his right hand crept softly down his trouser leg, gently pulled up the cuff, and removed a thin, stiletto-style knife from the side of his short Texan boot Then he waited, the knife held ready across his stomach, not clenched in his fist, but pointed in the flick-knife fashion The snake paused for a ive hiue licked out inquisitively, again and again, then, still with its head held above the ground, it moved slowly forward

Not a a's face Only the eyes were dead-steady, watchful slits The snake ca andshirt Suddenly the tongue of steel that lay across Scaraa's stomach came to life and leaped It transfixed the head of the snake exactly in the centre of the brain and pierced through it, pinning it to the ground and holding it there while the powerful body thrashed wildly, seeking a grip on the a's arrip, its convulsions released its coils which flailed off in another direction

The death struggles diether The snake lay a was careful He ran his hand down the full length of the snake Only the tip of the tail lashed briefly Scaraa extracted the knife frole hard stroke, and threw it, after reflection, accurately towards a crab hole He waited, watching, to see if a crab would come out and take it None did The thud of the arrival of the snake's head would have kept any crab underground forthe scent of what hadin the bush, watched all this, every nuance of it, with the a's actions, every fleeting expression on his face, had been an index of the man's awareness of his aliveness The whole episode of the snake was as revealing as a te and internal injuries, was still very erous a, his task satisfactorily coain,bush

As Scaraaze swept by him without a flicker, Bond blessed the darkness of his suit--a black patch of shadow a so many others In the sharp blacks and whites froed

Satisfied, Scaraa picked up the limp body of the snake, laid it across his stomach, and carefully slit it down its underside as far as the anal vent Then he scoured it and carefully etched the skin away from the red-veined flesh with the precise flicks and cuts of a surgeon Every scrap of unwanted reptile he threards crab holes, and, with each throw, a flicker of annoyance crossed the granite face that no one would come and pick up the crumbs froain scanned the bush, and then, very carefully, coughed and spat into his hand He exaround, the sputuh didn't seeuessed that his bullet had hit Scara by a fraction There was haea was a hospital case, but the blood-soaked shirt was not telling the whole truth

Satisfied with his inspection of his surroundings, Scaraa bit into the body of the snake and was at once, like a dog with its er and thirst for the blood and juices of the snake

Bond had the i place Scara, would bare his teeth in a furious snarl He got quietly up fro Scaraa's hands, strolled out into the centre of the little clearing

Bond was a did not snarl He barely looked up froth of snake in his two hands and, hisCare to share rilled with hot butter sauce Just keep on eating I like to see both hands occupied"

Scarahtened of a dyingman handled that snake quite efficiently Got any a moved to undo his coat "Steady! No quick hs inside and out I'd do it ot And while you're about it, just toss the knife into the trees Toss No throwing, if you don't y today Seeo about its business on its own Wouldn't like it to take over Yet, that is"