Doctor Who_ The Green Death - Malcolm Hulke [23]
Jo suddenly realised she was panicking and not helping. ‘I’m sorry, Doctor. I’ll give you a hand.’
‘Two would be better,’ he said, ‘under here where I’ve got mine.’
Together they lifted an end of the tub, and this time settled two of the four wheels on to the railway track. They ran round to the other end of the tub, repeated the process and now had all four wheels on the track.
‘Now,’ said the Doctor, ‘climb on board.’
Jo saw that the railway track ran straight into the main pool of green writhing slime. ‘We’re going to go through that?’
‘The track doesn’t go any other way,’ said the Doctor. He got into the coal tub. ‘Are you going to join me?’ He held out his hand to help her in. ‘Ever done any punting?’
She climbed into the tub. ‘Punting?’
‘Watch me.’ The Doctor held the wooden stave over the side of the tub and pushed it hard against the floor. The tub started to move freely along its little track, straight into the pool of slime.
‘I feel sick,’ said Jo.
‘Then pretend you’re at sea and lean over the side,’ said the Doctor. ‘Now, here we go!’
He drove the punt into the floor again and pushed with all his weight. The truck went along through the pool of slime. The maggots, sensing danger, turned towards the coal tub. Wide toothless mouths opened, and they snapped at the wheels. The Doctor pushed the stave into the slime, finding the floor again, and gave another mighty heave. The coal tub was gathering speed now, and soon was travelling fast through and out of the pool of slime.
‘We’re in the clear,’ the Doctor grinned. ‘Next stop Euston Station.’
The tunnel was now running very slightly downhill, and with only an occasional prod with the stave the Doctor was able to keep up quite a speed. After a quarter of a mile the tunnel started to go uphill, slowing the coal tub. Then the little track ended, and the tub ground to a stop. By now so far from the green glow of the slime, they had both switched on their helmet lights. Jo looked about herself, then pointed ahead.
‘Look, Doctor. That could be the old shaft.’
An aperture in the mine wall some yards ahead opened onto a smaller tunnel that went up at a steep angle.
‘Let’s hope you’re right,’ said the Doctor. ‘Here’s where we start climbing.’
6 The Sluice Pipe
A little crowd of villagers watched as Bert Pritchard was carried on a stretcher into the waiting ambulance. Once the doors of the ambulance were closed, the Brigadier turned and went back into the pit head office. Dave Griffiths was sitting there, head in hands. With him was Professor Clifford Jones.
‘At least he’s still alive,’ said the Brigadier.
‘But if Bert dies,’ said Dave, ‘I don’t know how I’ll face myself.’
‘It was their decision to go down the mine,’ said Professor Jones. ‘You can’t count it as your fault. You did a marvellous job to carry him out.’
‘You did indeed,’ agreed the Brigadier. He turned to the professor. ‘Have you any idea why his flesh turned green?’
‘Not specifically,’ said the professor. ‘If I did we might know how to treat it. But there’s one thing that’s obvious to me. It’s got something to do with Panorama Chemicals.’
‘Come now,’ said the Brigadier, ‘you have no proof!’
‘Did you know,’ said the professor, ‘there is no proof that smoking cigarettes can cause lung cancer?’
‘Whatever are you talking about? There’s a direct relationship between cigarette smoking and the incidence of lung cancer. I encourage all my men not to smoke.’
‘Exactly,’ said the professor, ‘a direct relationship. But nothing you can prove in a laboratory. It’s the same with the green death and Panorama Chemicals. We know that no one in Llanfairfach, or anywhere else, went green and died before Panorama Chemicals arrived.’
What the professor said made sense, but the Brigadier doubted he could make the case to higher authorities. ‘Anyway, we haven’t time to talk now. I must get down that mine to save the Doctor and Miss Grant.’
Dave Griffiths looked up.