chapter thirty‑five

"I thought you said follow," said Alex as he swayed precariously on the neck of an elephant, his legs tucked under the animal's huge ears.

"Well it beats walking," said Andrew from the neck of the elephant behind.

"I doubt it."

The elephants formed a trunk‑to‑tail line which meandered off into the distance. Passing them on their right, heading back towards the Print Works, was another line of elephants each one dragging a large log with a chain harness.

"Why couldn't you have got the Editor to write us there?" asked Alex.

"I thought he might have been upset about me playing switch‑board operator," said Andrew. "Can't you see the forest yet?"

"We're in it now, or at least the remains of it."

The track they followed was trampled flat, but on either side the earth was an uneven mess of furrows and mounds. Fat, twisted roots protruded from the ground, their ends cracked and torn. Small, up‑rooted shrubs lay wilting in the harsh sunshine. All over the area small creatures staggered, slithered, hopped, marched, and fluttered in confusion. The abused landscape expressed the violence which had gone into its making.

"Here we are!" shouted Alex in excitement.

Their elephants had reached the top of a hill, spread out before them was the steaming emerald tangle of a beautiful rain‑forest. In front of the forest about thirty elephants were busy tearing trees from the ground, working in groups of four or five, they wound their chain‑harnesses around the tree‑trunks and wrenched the trees from the ground. There was no sign of any human supervision.

The elephant train followed the edge of the forest for a time, heading for the centre of activity.

"Hey, what was that?" said Andrew in alarm, almost pitching himself off the elephant.

"What was what?"

"Something just whizzed past my ear."

"Probably just a bir-" began Alex, but he was interrupted by a piece of wood which whirled perilously close to his head. "Jesus! Somebody's throwing boomerangs at us."

"Don't be foolish. Who would be playing with a boomerang out here?"

"Not playing," said Alex flattening himself across the elephants head, "fighting! A boomerang is a weapon not a toy; it's like having a gun which has bullets on elastic - if you miss you get the bullet back."

"Sounds dangerous to me," said Andrew.

"It is!"

"No, I mean the bullets on elastic," Andrew turned his head in time to see a V-shaped piece of wood slicing through the air towards him. He ducked, and watched it curve back towards the forest. A hundred yards away a small green man stepped out from the trees, raised his hand above his head and caught the boomerang.

"Hey, did you see that?"

"What?"

"A little green ma-" something hard and fast struck Andrew on the side of his head and toppled him to the ground. Somewhere between the elephant's neck and the ground, Andrew passed out.

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