“That’s more like it,” said Jason lining the fleeing ape-man up in the sights of his rifle.   Doing his best to prop himself in one corner of the Land-Rover to minimise the jarring of the vehicle, he slowly squeezed off a shot.

“I got him!” cried Jason with satisfaction as the ape-man fell to the ground perhaps eighty metres ahead of the Rover.

“Good shoot…” began Don Blythe from the cabin of the vehicle, stopping in mid word as the wounded creature let out a tremendous roaring-shriek which sounded almost like the metallic grinding of badly oiled machinery.

“Bloody Hell!” shouted Don.   He had to fight to control the Land-Rover, which had almost rolled over when in his fright he had taken his hands off the steering wheel.

“Jesus!” cried Kim as he was thrown heavily to the floor of the vehicle.   “What in Hell are you doing?”

“Don’t blame me…” started Don.   He still fought to control the rocking Land-Rover as the ape-man let out another hellish shriek drowning out the words of all the men.

“Stop!   Stop!   Stop!” shouted Jason Melville.   He pounded one hand on top of the cabin of the vehicle, before being flung to the floor of the Rover.

“I’m trying to!” shouted back Don.   He finally brought the Rover to a halt less than ten metres short of the wounded ape-man, which was now shrieking non-stop.

Hurriedly climbing out of the cabin, Don raced back to ask, “Is everyone all right back here?”   As he watched Kim and Jason painfully pulling themselves back to their feet, he looked around for his brother and asked, “Where the Hell is Mark?”

“Don’t ask me,” replied Jason looking around the back of the vehicle.   “He must of fallen out while the Rover was rocking and rolling around.”

“Oh, Jesus!   We’ve gotta find him!” shouted Don hysterically, running to look back behind the Land-Rover.

“Calm down!” shouted Kim, trying to make himself heard above the bellowing of the wounded ape-man in the long grass ahead of them.   “You’ll never find him at night like that!”   Grabbing the floodlight again, he reversed it so that he could scan the forest behind them.