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The Last War Of Summer - Part 7 A very brief discussion ensued but Matthew and Paul, to whom my scheme particularly appealed, vigorously supported me. The others wondered whether my brother would agree to our terms. If they were refused we still had our six captives and they were not in a position to negotiate, but I was confident that Chris would give way - he was much gentler than the others suspected and had a well developed sense of right and wrong. The plan was adopted unanimously. There was no point in addressing our hostages - they had heard all we had to say although their gags precluded them from participation in our debate. One by one, we freed their ankles and helped them to crawl through the entrance "tunnel" on their knees, their hands still tied behind their backs and with their gags and blindfolds in place. Once outside, each one was spun around a few times to disorientate them and were lead off the relatively short distance to our tents. Robert and David preceded them, and broke out some additional ropes from our store. These were thrown over the lower boughs of the surrounding trees. As each prisoner arrived, his ankles were tied together, his wrists were then untied and immediately lashed in front of him. One of the ropes previously mentioned was tied to the lashing on their wrists, hauled taut until they were almost on tip toe, brought down and tied off to their bound ankles. It was our favourite "interrogation" position. When our four original captives were thus trussed we removed their blindfolds, unfastened the feet of our two remaining prisoners and lead them out of the tents. The look on Mike's face plainly showed he was shocked when he saw how many of his team (including his henchman, Peter) we had caught and this was reflected in the look of surprise the others showed at the sight of their leader, still with his arms tightly bound behind his back. A few moments sufficed to string our remaining two captives up like their compatriots and then we stood back to admire our work and congratulate ourselves on our victory. We had agreed that Ken and Colin would look after the prisoners while the rest of us would form our delegation. We needed a white flag. Another staff was fetched from the tents but only three of us had white shirts. Stuart's was of course missing and Mark's was being used to gag him. No doubt the latter would have loaned us his like a shot but it was obviously more use where it was and under the circumstances I donated my white tee shirt to complete the signal leaving me shirtless. I was a scrawny boy and this was accentuated by my blue gym shorts, too large for me, drooping on my spare frame. I hitched them up and made the best of it. Mike and John watched our activities curiously - they hadn't been party to our discussions and were therefore in the dark as to what we proposed. All our prisoners had of course remained securely gagged so there could be no discussion between them. We moved out en masse as quietly as we could and within a few minutes were standing on the edge of the enemy camp. The time limit was fast approaching but the oil lamps were still lit and the clearing was now occupied by Roger, Andrew and Graham (another occasional). My worst fears were justified - James was lying, stripped to his shorts, gagged and staked out as Paul had been earlier. Roger was just stretching as he concluded a "tickle torture" session and the sweat gleamed on James's chest and hair. The gag was preventing him giving any secrets away just yet, however. There was no sign of Chris, who presumably was still scouting around in the hope of tracking some of us down. As we stepped out from the bushes James's eyes seemed to stand out on stalks and Roger's mouth fell open. For a moment he was speechless. Before he had time to recover himself David spoke up. "We need to talk. There is only 10 minutes left to run and we are holding most of your team prisoner. To save your pals undue suffering we have a proposal but it would be best if Chris were here to hear it too. Do you know where he is and can you fetch him?" Roger looked from one to the other of us, said simply, "Yes," took out a whistle and blew three loud, long blasts. We waited and 5 minutes later my brother appeared through the bushes on the other side of the clearing. He took us all in at a glance, saw our white flag of truce and asked Roger what was going on. The latter replied, "It appears we are receiving a delegation. They claim to have most of the others captive but want to offer some kind of trade." Chris chuckled, then said, "OK, let's hear what you have to say". David, our elected spokesman, reminded them that the time was about to expire (there was now only a couple of minutes to run) and that under the rules we were the victors having most prisoners. He reminded them that, by prior agreement James must be freed but that we had the right to hang on to ours for the remainder of the night. The others nodded their assent. David then explained that we were prepared to exchange all our hostages if Chris would deliver himself into our hands instead. The four boys looked blankly at us for a few seconds and then began an animated conversation amongst themselves. Finally Chris spoke. "How do we know you are telling the truth and are not making up a tale about holding the others?" "Since the game is officially over, we will be more than happy to take you all, under our flag of truce to inspect the merchandise," David told them. "If you do not agree to our terms, we will have to keep them all and they are in for an uncomfortable night." We glanced down at James, still tightly bound but lying quietly and agreed they could keep him until the surrender terms had been agreed. James squirmed in his bonds at our feet. Evidently he had something to add to the debate but his captors had made a good job of his gag so his contribution was unintelligible. I felt this would be a very small recompense for his part in my humiliation a few weeks ago... |