They lifted the pad away from the wound. The blood spurted out and they were working blind, searching in the mess that was the girl’s leg.

Where in this mess was the artery? Dear God, they had to stop it.

‘Take the swab right away, Clive. Just for the moment,’ Hugo said. ‘Be ready to replace it.’

And in the tiny millisecond before the wound refilled with blood…‘There!’ Rachel pushed in and grasped, and the forceps linked to the torn artery. She clicked them shut-and the pumping died.

Not enough.

There were more. As well as the femoral artery, two or three minor vessels had been torn. They could kill all by themselves.

Hugo’s forceps clamped shut on another blood vessel and the flow abated still further. Another pair of forceps was in Rachel’s hands and Hugo had another.

She was working like lightning. Without the pads there was no pressure-the blood simply pumped out.

‘Gotcha.’ Another one was under Hugo’s forceps. He clamped.

And another.

And that was it.

The blood was still oozing, but slowly now. The pumping had stopped. It’d be flowing from the ripped veins but they’d done what they had to do. For now.

‘We need to continue with pressure,’ she said, and sat back as Hugo set to work with another shirt, forming another pad. They’d been lucky. Trying to find the blood vessels in these conditions…

Yeah, they’d been lucky-but this man was good!

Hugo was tying the pad firmly around the leg. He gave her a curious glance. There was still urgency but they were working with minutes now rather than seconds. They’d blocked off the blood supply. Now they needed to prevent shock setting in. They needed to replace fluids and they needed to save a leg that no longer had a blood supply.

‘Pete, ring the ambulance,’ Hugo snapped into the crowd. ‘Tell them I want plasma and saline on board and if they’re not here in thirty seconds I’ll have their hides. Dave, can you and a couple of the men find those damned dogs and deal with them before we have another disaster? Toby… Where’s Toby?’ He looked out into the crowd, searching for his little boy. ‘Myra, can you take him?’