Part 8 (2/2)

'I can't really see from this far away.'

'You can hear!'

Peri had given up. There was nothing anybody could do. Not even the Doctor, she thought.

She should have known better.

'I gather they're going to throw my TARDIS down the pit shaft.'

'All the way down to the bottom!' The words were mouthed with relish.

The shouts of the hyped-up aggressors grew louder as they neared the pit gates.

'Stop or we'll fire!'

The threat proved inflammatory. Using the cart as a battering ram, they recklessly smashed through the gates, scattering the guards in disarray.

'Nothing can stop them!' In his excitement, the Master failed to register that he not the fated Time Machine held the Doctor's attention.

Shots ricocheted. Casualties fell. But the defenders, forced to disperse, were unable to impede the cart's relentless progress towards the pit shaft.

Green darted ahead to remove the cover; a bulky wooden platform that fitted over the gaping hole to prevent accidents when a s.h.i.+ft was finished. Baying with triumph, the brawny aggressors hoisted the TARDIS from the cart and heaved it over the edge...

The Master's elation overwhelmed him. Momentarily.

That moment was all the Doctor needed.

A sharp kick and the TCE flew from the Master's grasp.

'Shove, Peri! Shove!'

Galvanised into action, Peri shoved but in her eagerness, instead of pus.h.i.+ng the trolley uphill away from the pit, she pushed it downhill.

'Wrong way!' The Doctor's cry came too late. Gathering momentum, the c.u.mbersome vehicle sped down the slope.

She sprinted after it, but her pace could not match the runaway.

The trolley b.u.mped on, shaving trees, threatening to collide with boulders and posts that would capsize it with bone-fracturing impact. Able only to raise his head, the Doctor was scared. Above, foliage became a blurred ma.s.s punctuated by dazzling rays of sunlight.

Then luck smiled on him. A group of miners stepped onto the path. To his relief, they caught the trolley and brought it to a halt.

'Thank you, gentlemen. I'm most grateful. Now if you'd release me ' He faltered. The neck of the nearest miner had the tell-tale crimson mark.

Peri, still chasing, was approaching.

'Stay back, Peri! Stay back!' The Doctor had identified another of the saviours Jack Ward.

'Now it's your turn! You can join your diabolical box!'

They swung him in the direction of the shaft and began running... faster... and faster...

'Let him go! Let him go!' Peri's pleas had no effect as she tore after them. Their death l.u.s.t was not to be denied.

From his hilltop position, the Master felt sure the humiliations of the past were about to be avenged.

The trelliswork of timbers and the giant wheel above the shaft loomed ominously into the Doctor's restricted view. A final mighty thrust and the hapless Time Lord accelerated inexorably towards the yawning black hole...

10.

A Change Of Loyalty Sleeves rolled up, a man was concertinaing creaking bellows to rekindle the forge fire. As he paused and dragged a rag from his thick leather belt to wipe the sweat from his brow, he heard Peri's screams.

In reflex, he turned, took in the situation and sprang for the pit.

The trolley's momentum would have made arresting it a physical impossibility. Astutely realising this, the man ran for the shaft.

It was even money who would reach the gaping hole first. The stake? The Doctor's life.

Lungs pumping. the man kicked the bulky cover into position. Relentlessly the trolley came on. He fumbled with the stay. It clicked home as the wheels jarred into he cover, braking...

When the reverberations subsided, the Doctor's vision came into focus. Despite the agape mouth king in air, there was about his rescuer a piercing telligence emanating from rugged, plebeian features.

The Doctor's thanks were profuse. But for this anger's quick thinking, he would now be spinning to death in the bowels of the earth.

'Are't tha' hurt? Harmed at all?' The solicitude was genuine.

'No. A trifle cramped.'

'Aye... Aye. Tha' would be.'

'It's these straps.'

Instead of releasing the damps, the stranger was feeling their texture. 'Aye, I suppose... Intriguing.'

'The straps? Yes, well that's a long story.'

'This metal. I've nay seen the like of it afore. Dost know which foundry forged it?'

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