<pre style="line-height: normal; text-align: start; word-wrap: break-word; white-space: pre-wrap;">Mr McQueen sat in his small office in Bangor, in Northern Ireland. He looked at the young Indian man who was sitting on the other side of the desk. McQueen hired workmen to work on building sites. This young Indian wanted a job.

'Have you worked on a building site before?' McQueen asked the young man.

'No,' answered the young Indian. 'I am a medical student in Belfast. I am studying medicine at the university. I'm going to be a doctor. I must work during the summer vacation. I must earn some money so that I can finish my studies. I need a job. Please, will you hire me?'

McQueen was a kind man. He wanted to help the young medical student. But he had never hired an Indian before. He usually hired men who had been born in Northern Ireland. Some of these Irishmen did not like foreigners.

'You know that the work is very hard, don't you?' McQueen said.

'Yes, sir,' answered the medical student.

'It's a cash-and-no-questions job,' said McQueen. 'Do you understand me?'

'No, not really, sir.'

'Cash-and-no-questions means that I will pay you every week. 1 will pay you cash. I won't pay any tax to the government. I won't pay any tax and you won't pay any tax. Don't tell anybody that you have a job. Don't ask any questions and everyone will be happy.'

McQueen was saying that the young man would be breaking the law, and McQueen would be breaking the law too. The work would be dirty and dangerous. And it would have to be done quickly. But the young man would earn a lot of money.

The student nodded his head and said, 'Yes. I understand.'

McQueen picked up a pen. 'What's your name?' he asked.

'Harkishan Ram Lai,' replied the student.

'OK,' said McQueen, 'I'll call you Ram. Be outside the railway station at six-thirty on Monday morning, Ram.'

Ram Lai left Mr McQueen's office and he went by train to Belfast. He lived in Belfast, in a room near the university. He had lived there for four years, while he was studying to be a doctor. But now, during this summer vacation, he would have to start working in Bangor at six-thirty every morning. So he decided to move to Bangor for the summer.

The young man put some clothes in his suitcase and then he took a train back to Bangor. He quickly found a cheap room near the railway station.

'One more year of studies,' he thought. 'In one year, I will have finished my studies here. Then I will go back to India. I will be a doctor.'

At six-thirty, the next morning, Ram Lai waited outside the railway station.

A dozen other men were standing outside the station. Most of them were carrying plastic lunch-boxes. Ram Lai went to stand with the other men. They were all waiting for the foreman - Billie Cameron.

Billie Cameron arrived in an old truck. He was a huge man. He was two metres tall and he weighed one hundred and twenty kilos. So everyone called him 'Big Billie'.

'Get into the back of the truck!' Big Billie shouted at the men. Then he looked at Ram Lai. 'Get in the truck with the others,' he said.

The men sat on wooden seats in the back of the truck. The engine made a loud noise and the old truck moved off down the street.

The man who sat opposite Ram Lai had bright blue eyes and a friendly face. He said that his name was Tommy Burns.

'Where are you from?' he asked the student.

'India,' replied Ram Lai. 'The Punjab.'

'Well, which place?' asked Tommy Burns. 'India or the Punjab?'

Ram Lai smiled. 'The Punjab is part of India, Tommy,' he explained.

Tommy Burns had never left Northern Ireland. And he had never met anyone from India.

'Our new man is a long way from home,' he said to the other workmen.

'Aye. But why is he here?' Big Billie called out. 'Why isn't he working in India?'

'Why are you in Northern Ireland?' asked Tommy Burns.

'I'm a medical student at Belfast University,' Ram Lai replied. 'I came to Northern Ireland in 1971. Next year, I will qualify as a doctor.'

'So, you're a doctor.' Tommy Burns was pleased. 'If anyone is hurt on the building site, you will help them, Ram.'

'I won't let him touch me!' Big Billie said loudly.

After that, all the men were silent. They were afraid of Big Billie.

Soon, the truck arrived at the building site and the men got out. They were near a river. Ram Lai saw an old factory. There were trees around it. There were no houses or shops. There was nowhere to buy food.

Ram Lai understood that they had not come to build any-thing. They were going to knock down this old factory.

The owner of the factory wanted the job to be done quickly and cheaply. He did not want to pay for bulldozers or any other machines. The workmen were going to knock down the factory with big hammers and iron bars.

The men took the hammers and bars from the truck and they started to work.

The work was very hard. The sun was hot and the air was dusty. Before the end of the morning, Ram Lai was tired. He was also hungry.

At midday, everyone stopped working. The other men opened their plastic lunch-boxes and took out their food.

'Didn't you bring any sandwiches?' Tommy Burns asked Ram Lai.

'No,' said the young medical student. 'I'll bring a lunch- box tomorrow.'

Ram Lai had nothing to eat but there was plenty of tea to drink. The men made a fire and they boiled water in a kettle. They made tea and drank it out of metal mugs. Tommy had two mugs and he gave one to Ram Lai. But the tea was sweet and it had milk in it. Ram Lai did not like it.

Tommy held out his lunch-box towards the young Indian. 'Here, take a sandwich,' he said.

'The foreigner should bring his own sandwiches!' shouted Big Billie Cameron.

Tommy Burns looked down at the ground. Everyone was afraid of Big Billie.

'Thank you, but I'm not hungry,' Ram Lai said to Tommy.

The next day, he brought his own lunch in a red metal lunch-box.

But Ram Lai did not like his job. By the end of every day, his arms and legs were aching and he was very, very tired. And the student did not like Big Billie Cameron. But he needed the money.

That week, the foreman made Ram Lai do the difficult and dangerous work. Ram Lai did not like high places, but Big Billie told him to climb onto the factory roof.

Soon, the roof was knocked down. Next, the workmen started to knock down the walls. Ram Lai had to climb to the top of the walls.

On Saturday morning, the men were sitting down and drinking their tea.

'This is what we'll do next,' Big Billie said. 'We'll knock down that big wall over there. We must start at the top.'

He pointed to the top of the wall and he spoke to Ram Lai. 'I want you to go up there,' he said.

Ram Lai looked at the wall which Big Billie was pointing to. The wall was cracked near the bottom. The wall was very weak.

'That wall is going to fall down,' Ram Lai said. 'If it falls, then I will fall too.'

'Don't tell me how to do this job, you stupid foreigner!' Big Billie shouted. He started to walk away.

Ram Lai stood up. He was very angry.

'Mr Cameron,' Ram Lai shouted. 'I am a stranger in your country but I am not stupid. Please do not insult me!'

Big Billie turned round. He was surprised. All the men were surprised. No one spoke to Big Billie like that.

Big Billie walked up to Ram Lai and hit him hard on the side of his head. Ram Lai fell to the ground. Tommy Burns spoke quietly to him.

'Stay there,' said Tommy. 'He'll kill you if you get up.'

Ram Lai could not get up. When he tried to stand, he felt weak and dizzy. Finally, he did get up and he went back to his work. He said nothing and no one else spoke to him for the rest of the day.

Big Billie hit him hard on the side of the head. Ram Lai fell to the ground.

That night, Ram Lai sat in his room near the station. He was very angry. He wanted to leave his job on the building site. But he needed the money - he could not leave.

What could he do? He had been insulted. And Big Billie had hit him very hard. The foreman might have killed him. Now, the young Indian wanted to kill Big Billie Cameron.

Suddenly, Ram Lai heard thunder. A storm was beginning. Loud thunder made the house shake and lightning lit up the student's small room.

The young man's dressing-gown was hanging on the back of the door. It had a belt made of thick cord. When the lightning flashed, it lit up the back of the door. The dressing- gown cord looked like a snake. Suddenly, Ram Lai had an idea.

The next day was Sunday. Ram Lai did not have to go to work. He went to Belfast to visit a friend. His friend was another Indian medical student. He came from a rich family.

'My father is ill,' Ram Lai said to his friend. 'I must go to India to see him. Will you lend me some money? I need to buy a ticket for the plane.'

The rich student liked Ram Lai very much. He knew that Ram Lai would repay the money.

'I will go to the bank tomorrow morning,' he said. 'Meet me at the bank at nine forty-five. I will give you the money then.'

Ram Lai thanked his friend and he took the train back to Bangor.

The next morning, the young man went to Mr McQueen's office. Ram Lai was carrying a suitcase.

'Mr McQueen,' said Ram Lai, 'I cannot go to the building site today. My father is ill. I must go to India for a few days.

'But I want to work for you again when I return. I will go to India this afternoon and I will come back before the end of the week. Please, will you give me a job again next week?'

'OK, Ram,' said Mr McQueen. 'You can have your job again when you come back. I won't pay you for the days when you are away. And there are some things that you must do - some conditions. You must come back to Ireland on Friday. And you must start work again on Saturday.'

'Thank you very much, Mr McQueen,' said Ram Lai.

Ram Lai left Mr McQueen's office and went quickly to the station. He took a train to Belfast. He was going to meet his friend near the bank. By ten o'clock, Ram Lai had the money for his journey and he was travelling to the airport.

At the airport, Ram Lai bought a return ticket to Bombay, then he took a plane to London. At London airport, he took the flight to Bombay. It was Tuesday morning when he arrived in the city of Bombay. But he did not travel on to the Punjab.

Ram Lai knew a man in Bombay whose name was Mr Chatterjee. Mr Chatterjee had a shop. He sold animals. Some of the animals were bought by scientists and medical students. Mr Chatterjee had many snakes in his shop.

On Wednesday morning, Ram Lai went to visit him. He asked Mr Chatterjee a question.

'Ah, yes,' said Mr Chatterjee, 'the Indian Viper. Yes, I have one. It is a small and dangerous snake. It is poisonous. Indian Vipers often bite men and can kill a man quickly. Sometimes, people do not know that a snake has bitten them. There is no pain, but a person who is bitten dies in four hours. I will sell you the viper for 350 rupees.'

Mr Chatterjee put the small snake into a small wooden box. The box had a few small holes in it. The snake would live in the box for many days, without food and water. Ram Lai gave Mr Chatterjee 350 rupees and he left the shop.

The next day, Ram Lai put the wooden box into his suit-case. He put some clothes on top of the box and he closed the case. He remembered Mr McQueen's conditions. He went to the airport and he took a plane to London. On Friday afternoon, the young Indian was back in Bangor.

On Saturday morning, Ram Lai went to work on the building site. Inside his red metal lunch-box was the small snake.

Big Billie Cameron always came to the building site in a thick black jacket. This Saturday morning, the weather was very hot. Big Billie took off his jacket when he started working and he hung it on a tree.

All morning, the men worked hard. They moved the bricks from the broken walls to some trucks. The trucks took the bricks away.

When no one was watching him, Ram Lai put the snake into a pocket of Big Billie's jacket. It was the pocket where the foreman kept his cigarettes.

The men stopped working at midday. They sat down and they ate their sandwiches and drank their tea. Then Big Billie stood up and put his hand into his jacket pocket. He took out a packet of cigarettes. Suddenly, he saw that Ram Lai was looking at him.

'Why are you staring at me?' Big Billie shouted.

Ram Lai said nothing. He looked at the foreman's jacket.

Ram Lai had thought that the snake would bite Big Billie. He had thought that the foreman would shout. He had thought that Big Billie would throw the little snake onto the ground. Ram Lai was going to stamp his foot on the viper and kill it. He was going to throw the snake's body into the river.

But nothing happened. Where was the viper? Why had it not bitten Big Billie? Ram Lai worried about the snake for the rest of the day.

In the evening, Big Billie went home and hung his jacket on the back of his kitchen door. He did not wear the jacket on Sunday.

On Monday morning, he saw that the jacket had fallen onto the kitchen floor. The cloth of the jacket was moving! Then he saw a small creature coming out of a pocket. The creature looked like a snake.

'But there are no snakes in Ireland,' Big Billie thought. 'This little creature must be a lizard. It can't be a snake!'

Big Billie was going to stamp his foot on the lizard and kill it. But then he had an idea. He got an empty box. Very care-fully, he picked up the creature and he put it into the box.

That morning, at the building site, the workmen were burning the wood from the factory's roof. Big Billie was happy. The big foreman laughed with all the workmen and he told them jokes.

But Ram Lai was not happy. He was afraid.

Ram Lai's idea had not been a good one. For two days, he had worried about the snake. It was a poisonous viper. Every year, many people in India were bitten by vipers and they died. This snake might kill somebody in Northern Ireland. It might kill Big Billie, but it might kill somebody else!

The student did not see Big Billie put something in his red metal lunch-box. The other men saw what Big Billie did. They knew that the foreman was going to trick Ram Lai. They smiled at each other.

At midday, everyone sat on the ground to eat their lunch.

The Irishmen looked at Ram Lai. They were waiting for something to happen but Ram Lai did not know this. He took the lid off his red lunch-box. Inside the box, he saw the Indian viper. It was going to bite him!

The student threw the box into the air and jumped up. He shouted, 'Snake! A poisonous snake! Kill it quickly!'

The other men laughed and laughed. Big Billie laughed more than all the others. Ram Lai's food had fallen onto the dusty ground beside the foreman. Big Billie spoke to Ram Lai.

'You stupid foreigner,' he said, 'don't you know that there are no snakes in Ireland? Now you can't eat your lunch!'

Big Billie did not feel the small snake on his right hand. He did not feel it bite him. And a few minutes later, the foreman stood up and said, 'Let's start working again.'

Soon all the men were working. Ram Lai worked silently. He was angry and he was worried. His plan had gone wrong.

After three hours, the foreman stopped working. 'I feel ill,' he said. He put his hands over his face. 'I must sit down.'

Soon, Big Billie fell asleep. The other men went on working for an hour.

At half-past four, everybody stopped working. Suddenly, one of the men shouted, 'Big Billie is ill! He won't wake up. We must take him to the hospital. We need an ambulance.'

The man got into the truck and drove away. He was going to find a telephone. He was going to call an ambulance.

'You're a doctor, Ram,' Tommy Burns said to Ram Lai. 'What's wrong with Big Billie?'

Ram Lai knew what was wrong with the foreman. He knew that Big Billie was dead.

Big Billie was dead when the ambulance got to the hospital.

The doctors at the hospital said that he had died from a stroke.

'He worked too long in the hot sun,' one of the doctors said. 'That's why he died.'

A few days later, the job on the building site was finished. But the next Sunday, Ram Lai went to the building site again. He went alone. He stood in the place where Big Billie Cameron had died.

Ram Lai had killed the big foreman. But soon, he would qualify as a doctor. Then he would help to save lives.

But where was the snake? Where had the viper gone? It could not live long in this cold land. It would die in the winter.

'Are you listening, snake?' Ram Lai said loudly. 'You have killed here, and you will die here. You will die alone, because there are no snakes in Ireland.'

But the snake was not listening. She was busy. She was taking care of her babies.

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