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DAY 7: MUKENKO

June 19, 1979

1 Kiboko

MUNRO&039;S INTENTION IN CONTINUING THROUGH the night o-fold First, he hoped to make up precious time, for all the coht But it took no effort to ride the river in the ht; most of the party could sleep, and they would advance themselves another fifty or sixty ora hippos, which could easily destroy their fli the day, the hippos were found in pools beside the riverbanks, and the bulls would certainly attack any passing boat At night, when the anie, the expedition could slip down the river and avoid a confrontation entirely

It was a clever plan, but it ran into trouble for an unexpected reason - their progress on the Ragora was too rapid It was only nine o&039;clock at night when they reached the first hippo areas, too early for the ani The hippos would attack the boats - but they would attack in the dark

The river twisted and turned in a series of curves At each curve there was a still pool, which Kahega pointed out as the kind of quiet water that hippos liked to inhabit And he pointed to the grass on the banks, cut short as if the banks had been , "Raw-huh-huh-huh" It sounded like an old m Munro tensed in the lead boat They drifted around another curve, carried smoothly in the flow of current The two boats were now about ten yards apart Munro held his loaded shotgun ready

The sound caa plunged his paddle into the water It struck bottom quickly He pulled it out; only three feet of it et "Not deep," he said, shaking his head

"Is that bad?" Ross said

"Yes, I think it is bad"

They came around the next bend, and Elliot saw a half-dozen partially subht Then one of the "rocks" crashed upward and he saw an enormous creature lift entirely out of the shalloater so that he could see the four stubby legs, and the hippo churned forward toward Munro&039;s boat

Munro fired a low ht Elliot saw a giganticblunted teeth, the head lifted upward as the aniulfed in a cloud of pale yellow gas The gas drifted back, and stung their eyes

"He&039;s using tear gas," Ross said

Munro&039;s boat had already ed down into the water and disappeared froht In the second boat, they blinked back tears and watched for hinesiularing off the water

"Perhaps he&039;s given up," Elliot said They could not see the hippo anywhere They drifted in silence

And suddenly the front of the boat bucked up, and the hippo roared and Ross screaun into the air The boat slapped doith a wrenching crash and a spray of water over the sides, and Elliot scra into a huge pink cavernous mouth and hot breath The mouth came doith a lateral slash on the side of the rubber boat, and the air began to hiss and sizzle in the water

The a had got to his feet and flied a stinging cloud of gas The hippo backed off and splashed down, rocking the boat and propelling theht side of the boat was collapsing swiftly as the air leaked out of the huge cuts in the rubber Elliot tried to pull the continued unabated They would sink within adown the shallow river like a powerboat, churning water in a wake froer

"Hold on, bold on!" Kahega shouted, and fired again The hippo disappeared behind a cloud of gas, and the boat drifted around another curve When the gas cleared the aninesiued into darkness again Elliot grabbed A knee-deep in the ed to beach the Zodiac on the dark riverbank In the lead boat, Munro paddled over, surveyed the dao on He called for a rest, and they all lay in themosquitoes away

Their reverie was interrupted by the screa explosions in the sky overhead With each explosion, the riverbank glowed bright red, casting long shadows, then fading black once round," Munro said, reaching for his field glasses

"What&039;re they shooting at?" Elliot said, staring up into the sky

"Beats ned, Bird co of rockets in the sky

Munro said, "You think she hears so is very acute"

And then they heard the drone of a distant aircraft, approaching from the south As it ca the brilliant yellow-red explosions that burst in the linted off theto lasses "That&039;s a C-130 transport with Japanese s on the tail Supply plane for the consortiuh"

As they watched, the transport twisted left and right, running a zigzag course through the bursting fireballs of explodinga snake&039;s back," Munro said "The crew must be terrified; they didn&039;t buy into this"

Elliot felt a sudden sy out the s as the fireballs exploded with brilliant light, illu in Japanese? Wishing they had never come?

A moment later, the aircraft droned onward to the north, out of sight, a final one over the jungle trees, and he listened to the distant explosion of the"We&039;d

better a to put the men on the river once more