Free Two in the Bush by Gerald Durrell Page A

can film Gerry and Jacquie as they land,’ he said. ‘I’ll go up next and get shots
of the launch from the net, and then Gerry and Jacquie will follow with the rest of the equipment. Okay?’
    ‘No,’ said Jim. ‘Why should I have to go first? Supposing the thing breaks just as I get to the top? Have you seen the rocks down here?’
    ‘Well, if it breaks we’ll know it’s unsafe and go back to Picton,’ said Jacquie sweetly.
    Jim gave her a withering look as he reluctantly climbed into the pig net, which had by now landed on the tiny deck of the launch. The skipper waved his hand, there was a most terrifying screech
of tortured metal, and Jim, clinging desperately to the mesh of the pig net, rose slowly and majestically into the air, whirling slowly round and round.
    ‘I wonder if he gets net-sick as well as sea-sick?’ said Jacquie.
    ‘Sure to,’ said Chris callously. ‘To the best of my knowledge he gets sea-sick, train-sick, car-sick, plane-sick and home-sick, so I can’t see him escaping being net-sick
as well.’
    Jim was now about halfway up, still twisting round and round, his white face peering down at us from between the meshes of the net.
    ‘We’re all mad ,’ we heard him yell above the sound of the sea and the infernal noise the crane was making. He was still yelling presumably insulting remarks at us when
the net disappeared over the edge of the cliff. After a pause it reappeared again and was lowered to the deck, where Chris stepped stoically into it. He stuck his nose and the lens of the camera
through the mesh of the net and started to film the moment he was lifted from the deck. Higher and higher he rose, still filming, and then suddenly, when he was poised halfway between the launch
and the top of the cliff, the net came to a sudden halt. We watched anxiously but nothing happened for about five minutes, except that Chris continued to go round and round in ever diminishing
circles.
    ‘What d’you think has happened?’ asked Jacquie.
    ‘I don’t know. Perhaps Jim’s jammed the crane to get his own back on Chris.’
    Just as I said this the crane started up again and Chris continued his majestic flight through the air and disappeared over the cliff edge. We discovered later that Jim had set up his camera and
tripod in such a position that Alan Wright could not swing the crane in, but Alan was under the impression that Jim had to be in that particular position, so he kept Chris dangling in mid-air. It
was only when he saw Jim leave the camera, find a convenient rock and, squatting on it, take out a bar of chocolate and start to eat it, that he realised that he had been keeping Chris dangling
like a pantomime fairy to no good purpose, so the camera and tripod were removed and Chris was swung in, demanding vociferously to know why he had been kept suspended in mid-air for so long.
    The net was sent down once again, loaded up with our gear, and Jacquie and I reluctantly took our seats.
    ‘I am not going to like this a bit,’ said Jacquie with conviction.
    ‘Well, if you get scared just close your eyes.’
    ‘It’s not the height so much,’ she said, glancing upwards, ‘it’s the strength of that hawser that worries me.’
    ‘Oh, I wouldn’t worry about that,’ I said cheerfully. ‘I expect it’s been carrying loads like this for years.’
    ‘That’s exactly what I mean,’ she said grimly.
    ‘Well, it’s too late now,’ I said philosophically, as the crane started its banshee-like screech and we zoomed up from the deck of the launch at the speed of an express lift.
The wide mesh of the net gave you the unpleasant impression that you had been rocketed into the air without any support at all, and as you revolved round and round you could see the waves breaking
on the jagged rocks below. The launch now looked like a toy and, glancing up, the top of the cliff appeared to be a good deal higher than Everest, but at last we reached the cliff edge and were
swung in