chapter forty the valiant tv cameraman had long since succumbed to the combined assailants of choking white smoke and steaming , red-hot lava but , nevertheless , the media moguls had still maintained a seamless coverage of the explosive events occurring in central africa to their network of enthralled armchair thrill-seekers by the rapid deployment of a team of helicopter-bound picture-takers , who were succeeding in conveying the continued battle of man against nature where their colleague on the ground had been forced to give up .