We were a wretched group

I  REMEMBERED  PERFECTLY the day we made that startling discovery.  We had been lying low in the steaming jungle for three days but there had been as yet no sign of the enemy unit we were supposed to be ambushing.  The men were getting disgruntled and two of them were flat on their backs with malaria.  We were a wretched group but no one dared to make a move as yet for as one of the men had so crudely put it.  "There is danger lurking behind every tree these days.  I smiled as I remembered Razak.  It was a relief to have him with us just now.

        The day had begun much worse than usual.  The monsoonal rains had started and that morning, the weather was especially bad.  We sat,hunddled under the tarpaulin, shivering whenever the cold from out side seeped through the thin canvas.

        I had gone through a diffcult night and was now trying to make up for the sleep I had lost when I felt Razak nudge me unceremoniously on the ribs.

        "What are you up to, young man? Do your tricks elsewhere, I'm not in the mood," I snapped crossly.

        "Shut up you ass," he whispered fiercely, digging his boney fingers deeper and more painfully into my long-suffering ribs.  I had never seen him look so serious or strained.

        "What is it, Razak?" I demanded as I felt his set face charged with suspense.

        "The ground beneath us is moving!"  he whispered urgently. I stifled the loud guffaw that had been rising up my throat just in time.

        "But it is, it is," and this time he was obviously alarmed.

        Slowly, I began to see what Razak meant.  We seemed to be sinking, so gradually that it would have been hardly noticeable except to a very observant person like Razak.  At the same time, it dawned on me the reason why we had been left comparatively in peace all this time.  Our artful enemies had been planning to get us this way all the time.  It was a booby trap'.

        A startling discovery but nevertheless a dangerous one.  That settled it'.  We could still get out of it if we hurried and that was what I was going to get them to do.  I can still remember my voice as it rung through the forest.  "Come on, boys'.  Get out'.  It's a booby trap'.  Do you hear?"

        It seemed for a moment that the world stood still, then every man in the place seemed to galvanize into action. Even the men who were down with malaria tried to stumble clear of the area, helped by their colleagues.

        Minutes later, there was a dull thud as the ground beneath us seemed to shudder and collapse. Most of the men had managed to clear out of the immediate vicinity by this time.  We clung together, a panting, trembling group as we watched the clearing disappear into the depths of nobody knew where.  The slender trees cracking and twittering of alarmed birds were all sounds that accompanied this weird sight. This silent and efficient operaton of it all struck s as more deadly than any rounds of ammunition could have been.  And to think we might have been down that hungry, yawning hole did not cheer us up at all.

        Later, when we examined the area, we found that the hole had been lined with sharp iron stakes, treated with tetanus-infested stuff.  Do not ask me how they did it.  If I knew, I would not be calling it startling discovery.