We headed east at a height of about three hundred feet and at not more than sixty miles an hour. The forest unreeled below, a green wilderness with the crowns of trees victorious in their fight for light spreading a hundred and sixty feet and more from the ground. Those crowns formed scattered islands against the lower mass of solid green, and nowhere was the ground to be seen.
'I'd rather fly than walk,' I said.
Harry laughed. 'I'd be scared to death down there. Did you hear those goddamn howler monkeys the other, night? It sounded as though some poor guy was having his throat cut -- slowly.'
'The howlers wouldn't worry me,' I said. 'They just make a noise, nerve-racking though it is. The snakes and pumas would worry me more.'
'And the chicleros,' said Harry. 'I've been hearing some funny stories about those guys. Just as soon kill a man as spit, from what I hear.' He looked down at the forest. 'Christ, what a place to work in! No wonder the chicleros are tough. If I was working down there I wouldn't give a damn if I lived or died -- or if anyone else did, either.'
We crossed a part of the forest that was subtly different from the rest. I said, 'What happened here?'
'I don't know,' said Harry, and sounded as puzzled as I was. 'That tree looks dead. Let's have a closer view.'
He manipulated the controls, and the chopper slowed and wheeled around the treetop. It was one of the big ones whose crown had broken free of the rest to spread luxuriantly in the upper air, but it was definitely leafless and dead, and there were other dead trees all about. 'I think I get it,' he said. 'Something has happened here, probably a tornado. The trees have been uprooted, but they're so damned close packed they can't fall, so they've just died where they are. What a hell of a place -- you gotta die standing up!'
We rose and continued on course. Harry said, 'It must have been a tornado: the dead trees are in a straight line. The tornado must have cut a swathe right through. It's too localized to have been a hurricane -- that would have smashed trees over a wider area.'
'Do they have hurricanes here?'
'Christ, yes! There's one cutting up ructions in the Caribbean right now. I've been getting weather reports on it just in case it decides to take a swing this way. It's not likely, though.'
The helicopter lurched in the air suddenly and he swore. 'What's wrong?' I asked.
'I don't know.' He was rapidly checking his instruments. After a while he said, 'Everything seems okay.'
No sooner had he said it man there was & hell of a bang from astern and the whole fuselage swung around violently. The centrifugal force threw me against the side of the cockpit and I was pinned there, while Harry juggled frantically with the controls.
The whole world was going around in a cock-eyed spin; the horizon rose and fell alarmingly and the forest was suddenly very close -- too damned close. 'Hold on!' yelled Harry, and slammed at switches on the instrument panel.
The noise of the engine suddenly stopped, but we continued to spin. I saw the top of a tree athwart our crazy path and knew we were going to crash. The next tiling -- and last thing -- I heard was a great crackling noise ending in a smash I was thrown forward and my head connected violently with a metal bar.
And that was all I remember.
Nine
My head hurt like hell. At first it was a distant throb, no worse man someone else's hangover, but it grew in intensity until It felt as though someone was using my skull for a snare-drum. When I moved something seemed to explode inside and everything went blank.
The next time I came round was better -- but not much. I was able to lift my head this time but I couldn't see. Just a lot of red lights which danced in front of my eyes. I leaned back and rubbed at them, and then was aware of someone groaning. It was some time before I could see properly and then everything was green instead of red -- a dazzle of moving green something-or-other showing through the transparent canopy.
I heard the groan again and turned to see Harry Rider slumped forward in his seat, a trickle of blood oozing from the side of his mouth, I was very weak and couldn't seem to move; besides which, my thought processes seemed to be all scrambled and I couldn't put two consecutive thoughts together. All I managed to do was to flop my head to the other side and stare through the window.
I saw a frog I He was sitting on a broad leaf staring at me with beady and unwinking eyes, and was quite still except for the rapid pulsation of his throat. We looked at each other for a very long time, long enough for me to repeat to myself twice over that poem about the frog who would a-wooing go -- Heigh Ho, says Rowley. After a while he blinked his eyes once, and that broke the spell, and I turned my head again to look at Harry.
