Extreme Difference by D. B. Reynolds-Moreton Page B

followed by the round stone missile and another wad of material to hold it in place, and then the bung, still attached to its string, was  firmly pushed home, to seal the end of the barrel.
    When Ben had recharged the other gun, Sandy asked him to explain exactly what he had done, and why.
    ‘It’s really very simple. When the gun is fired, burnt air is left in the tube, so the bung is put back to keep it that way.
    ‘Whoever fires the gun, removes the bung just before they fire. The bung stops the gas mixture from leaking out after it has been charged, and is attached to the gun by this piece of string, so that we don’t lose it each time the gun is fired.
    ‘When I get the gun back for recharging, I connect up the gas pipe and hold a light to the little hole where the knob was, so that when the incoming gas has driven all the burnt air out, the gas will light, and I know it’s full of gas.
    ‘Next, I push the rod with the little flange on it into the barrel, pushing some of the gas out the other end, and when I withdraw the rod, it sucks air back in to mix with the gas.
    ‘This gives the perfect mixture for an explosion, so propelling the stone out when it’s fired. The wadding is to hold the stone in place, and the bung is put back to seal the barrel,’ and then Ben added as an after thought, ‘I would have thought you could have worked it out for yourself.’
    ‘Well, I had, sort of, but I wanted to make sure I had understood it properly.’ Sandy replied, when in reality he was checking to see if Ben understood the principles involved, giving him a measure of the man’s intelligence for future use. With the guns recharged, they both headed back to the entrance of the cave complex, to rearm the guards.
    ‘Looks like we got back just in time,’ said Sandy, handing over the gun he was carrying to what he thought was Kel, although the difference between Kel and Karry was hardly discernible despite the fact that she was a female, ‘we have another visitor on the way.’
    Kel shielded his eyes against the glare coming off the shiny peaks above and stared into the distance indicated by Sandy.
    ‘You’ve got good eyes!’ he exclaimed, ‘damned if I would have spotted him so soon.  I think it’s one of the men from the group next to us, there’re all right, we trade with ’em quite a bit, that’s when they have anything to trade with.’
    The distant figure quickly grew in size as it raced across the intervening sand, little spurts of silver dust like particles flying out behind him as he sped towards the waiting group.
    Red faced and sweating profusely, the stranger blurted out the news between gasps of air to satisfy his bursting lungs.
    ‘We bin raided, most of our stock of plants ’ave bin taken, an’ three of our men be lying injured. One ran off into the sands, an’ somethin got ’im, couldn’t see what it was though, it gist grabbed ’is legs, an’ he went under.’
    ‘God, he smells worse than our lot,’ Sandy quietly said to Ben, who had moved up wind of the odorous visitor. ‘They must be really short of water.’
    ‘Do we smell as bad to you, as that man does to me?’ asked Ben, with an anxious look on his face.
    ‘If you want me to be honest, yes, but I’m getting used to it, I suppose. We could all do with a good wash, if the truth be known, and as for a hair cut, you’ll all have to get an estimate first.’
    ‘What do you mean, an estimate? asked a perplexed Ben.
    ‘It means...., Oh, forget it, just a little joke of mine.’ Sandy replied, moving a little further up wind of their visitor.
    ‘What do you want us to do about it?’ asked Kel, warily.
    ‘Git ’em back for us. We’s short of food anyway, an’ now we’s hardly got any,’ the visitor said miserably, ‘we could help you, that would out number ’em.’ he added as an afterthought.
    ‘Where were your guards?’ asked Karry, ‘you should have seen them coming and beaten them off, or at least got your