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had requested, not demanded.
'I am having it,' she instantly corrected. 'It was merely a slip of the
tongue that I asked if I could have I it.'
There was a defiance in her amended words, and a I certain degree of
hauteur, and yet, mingled with her I candour, they had an appealing
quality which though I she did not know it had the most unusual
effect on I Clive.
All she did know was that, later, when she got up and I went along to
the place where the other shelters were, she observed a sight that
staggered her. Clive, with I the assistance of Tommy, was busily
engaged in preparing bamboo poles of the appropriate length for a
shelter. Ingrid was standing some small distance from I the two men,
and even though it was now growing dark, Faun could clearly see the
twist of anger on the girl's I lips. Faun moved away, unseen by any of
them, and I went back to the aircraft, having decided it was more I
prudent, at this particular time, to keep out of the way.
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE shelter was finished by the following afternoon and Faun, the
pain in her hand having eased a little, moved her belongings from the
plane to her new sleeping quarters. Tommy had already made her a
small stool and on this she put the couple of books she had brought
with her. Her suitcase she put on a little platform she had made
herself from a box she had taken from the aircraft. Tommy was
engaged in making her a bed out of interwoven palm leaves fastened
to a framework of bamboo. The bed had four stout poles, one at each
corner, which kept it off the ground and also extended about a foot
above the palm mattress.
'If you've a negligee you're not using you can drape it over the top two
poles and use it as a mosquito net,' Tommy suggested. 'You'll
certainly need a net if you're sleeping outside.' Both he and Malcolm
had naturally been puzzled by Faun's firm decision to build a shelter,
but neither of them had said anything to her about it. Tommy,
glancing up from his task of weaving the palm leaves together, saw
that Faun was looking rather puzzled.
'How are you going to fix this mattress to the frame?' she wanted to
know. She, like Malcolm and Clive, was intrigued by the way
Tommy had developed this skill for working bamboo. That he had a
flair for it was plain, and he himself expressed surprise at the quality
of his work. Already he had made the table and stools, and had begun
to make a chair, which he had left in order to help with Faun's shelter
and to make her the bed. For Malcolm he had made a sort of cabinet
far the side of his bed, as Malcolm spent much of his time resting,
mainly on the orders of Clive, who made no pretence of the fact that
he did not want an invalid on his hands. Another attack could mean
that Malcolm was confined to bed the whole time, and when the
rescue party did arrive their task would be made more difficult by
their having to deal with a stretcher of sorts, hauling it into the
helicopter.
'I've no rope, you're thinking?' Tommy grinned at Faun and told her
triumphantly that he had solved the problem of binding materials for
his furniture-making. 'I'm using the fibre of climbing canes you've
no idea just how strong it is. Then there's the fibre of the lianas; that's
quite strong too.'
Faun's gaze was appreciative and so was Clive's. Ingrid, sitting on
one of the bamboo stools, merely looked on in silence. She was
becoming more and more bored, having perused the magazines over
and over again. If only she would try to find an interest, mused Faun,
then she would not be nearly so bored as she was. Could she, Faun,
persuade her to come on a nature walk with her? she wondered. It was
worth a try, and the following morning Faun invited her to take a
stroll with her along the river bank.
'I'm searching for the wild hibiscus which I believe grows here,' Faun
said. 'Perhaps you could help me to find it?'
'I'm not wandering along that bank,' was Ingrid's immediate answer.
The vegetation's alive with leeches and ants.'
'You have to watch for them. In any case, you've some slacks you can
wear. I tie mine up around the bottoms so that nothing can get into
them.' Faun paused, but Ingrid remained sullenly silent. 'Nature's
most interesting,' persevered Faun, 'as you'd soon find out if you
came on these walks with me.'
'I've no wish to find out,' snapped Ingrid, 'not any more than I've any
wish for your company. As for this interest in nature well, it doesn't
go with flying planes, that's for certain.'
'I don't see why you're making the comparison. One is my occupation
and the other my hobby. Everyone should have a hobby, Miss
Fullman. Look at Tommy; he's making a hobby of working bamboo,
and he'll keep it up when he gets back home--'
'If he ever does get back home!' flashed Ingrid, her dark eyes baleful
and accusing. 'You do realise, I suppose, that if we all die here, in this
dreadful jungle, it'll be you who have murdered us?'
Faun looked at her in contempt, deciding it was no use wasting time
trying to be pleasant to the girl. She was insulting and complaining in
turn; with Clive she was now adopting a querulous attitude, and with
the other two men her manner was one of indifference.
Faun went off on her own and to her delight she found what she was
searching for. She sketched it in her notebook, adding various items [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] - zanotowane.pl
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