Poor Fellow My Country by Xavier Herbert

Author:Xavier Herbert
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

15

I

The party arriving by air at Lily Lagoons as arranged, were treated to something not in the arrangements for their entertainment. This was a poppy show; at least as he who was responsible for it called it, he being the pilot, Fergus Ferris. They were almost at their destination, dropping down the sky, when Fergus spotted something in one of the big holes of Knowles Creek that caused him to open his throttles and climb, then do a steep turn, and with throttles closed, came back like a swooping hawk, invisible in the eye of the mid-morning Sun, and almost as silent. Seeing now in full view what, keen-sighted though he must be to have spotted it at all, could have been only a glimpse of copper and ivory amongst flitting bits of jet and brown, he yelled from his cockpit back at his puzzled passengers, ‘Pin to see a poppy show!’ and put on a bit of bank as he sliced through the lines of trees to give them all a look. It was naked Rifkah, running back to the water. A perfect view — at any rate for the hawk-eyed one, whose split-lipped grinning appreciation must plainly have been seen from the ground by those who could afford to look aloft; for very evidently it was only impending doom that at least a couple of the passengers saw, namely, Dr Fabian Cootes and Lieutenant Dickey, seeing how their complexions changed to match that of the leaves of the branches seeming to reach to rake them down — and the tightness of the faces of the others, Major Maltravers, Professor St Clair, and General Esk, suggesting that it was with fatalism rather than enjoyment that they looked. Then it was blotted out by the force pulling down eyelids along with entrails, as Fergus, his throttles wide again, climbed up out of what could be paradise.

They went in to land, doing a gentle turn about the homestead, came to earth. As the aircraft halted and the move to alight began, General Esk held up his hand, saying, ‘A word, please, gentlemen.’ Fergus coming from the cockpit to open the exit door halted. The General went on: ‘I’d rather not have the incident that’s just taken place remarked on to anyone we’ll be seeing here. Agreed? Good!’ Not that anyone gave him any assurance. But silent consent was surely to be expected from them all — except one, who as he moved again to open the door, Esk addressed directly, ‘Mr Ferris . . . I’ve no doubt about your aeronautical skill . . . otherwise I wouldn’t have engaged you . . . but I’m also aware of your excessive interest in females of our species and your propensity for talking, especially if the subject’s bawdy. I’d like your word in this matter of keeping the little incident to ourselves. Do I have it?’

Fergus coloured, but showed the split lip grinning. ‘What about swearing us all?’

‘I’m sure of the silence of my own men .

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