Doctor Who_ The Visitation - Eric Saward [5]
The Doctor fumed for a moment. 'How dare she talk to me like that!'
Nyssa, who had heard them arguing as she came down the corridor, tried to pacify the Doctor. 'I think she's finding the idea of going more painful than she thought.'
'Then why didn't she say so?'
Nyssa shrugged. 'That's Tegan. Perhaps you should talk to her.'
The Doctor looked at Adric hoping for support, but his expression seemed to echo Nyssa's words. 'Oh, all right,' he said at last, 'I'll apologise.'
Reluctantly he picked up his hat. 'But this is the last time,' he muttered as he left the TARDIS.
Pleased with their success as arbitrators, Nyssa and Adric exchanged a smile before following him.
The wood outside was warm and sunny. Tegan brushed a tear from her eye as the Doctor approached. Nyssa and Adric had decided to maintain a discreet distance.
Apologising was something best done alone.
'I'm sorry,' the Doctor said awkwardly. 'I realise how disappointed you must be.'
Tegan turned towards the Doctor. 'I'm sorry, too. But you did promise to take me back to my own time.'
'And so I shall.' The Doctor snapped a twig from a low-hanging branch. 'But try and consider this a fortunate mistake.' And using the twig as a pointer, he indicated the wood about them. 'It isn't everyone who has a chance to wander about their own history.'
Tegan looked around. 'True. But I don't think I want to. This place stinks.'
'What?' The Doctor's hackles began to rise again. Then the foul smell hit him.
'Look, Doctor,' said Adric pointing at whisps of smoke hanging in the air. The Doctor sniffed. 'Sulphur.'
'Some sort of volcanic action?'
'No, Adric. The wrong time and place for that.'
Tegan drove the heel of her shoe into the ground. 'Are you sure this is the planet Earth?'
'Undoubtedly.' He walked back to the TARDIS and closed its doors. 'If we find the person burning the sulphur, he'll tell you the same, and perhaps you'll believe him.'
Tegan frowned. 'I'm not sure I want to find whoever it is.' But the Doctor was already walking single-mindedly deeper into the forest. Tegan watched the intrepid explorer. 'I don't know why I bother to say anything,' she muttered, and reluctantly the Doctor's three companions followed him.
From high in a tree a masked man watched their progress as they stumbled along.
Once they had passed by beneath him, he leaned out carefully from his perch and made four short staccato movements in the air with his club. The signal was acknowledged by another masked man similarly situated several hundred yards ahead of the Doctor's party.
The smoke grew denser as the little group walked even deeper into the forest.
'Do you think it wise to go on, Doctor?' said Nyssa anxiously.
'Probably not.' He sniffed the air. 'You know, there's potassium nitrate in with the sulphur. I can just smel it.'
'That's great!' said Tegan. 'All we need now is for you to say you can smell charcoal.'
'You're right. I hadn't thought of that.'
Puzzled, Nyssa looked at Adric. What are they talking about? her expression said. But Adric could only shrug his shoulders. 'Is there something wrong, Doctor?' he asked.
'Charcoal, potassium nitrate and sulphur are constituents of a primitive explosive,' he said. 'It's known on Earth as gunpowder.'
'For all we know we could be very near to a place where they manufacture the stuff,'
said Tegan nervously.
'I wonder.'
Through the smoke the outlines of three men carrying makeshift clubs could be seen hurrying towards them. The lower halves of their faces were covered in rough, sacking masks.
'They're footpads,' said Tegan quietly. 'I think it's time we returned to the TARDIS.'
They all agreed, but found, when they tried to turn back, their retreat cut off by two more armed men, clubs raised, charging towards them.