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| continued on page 65 |
Shelagh chattered excitedly but Annetta
scarcely heard her....
Outwardly Annetta remained calm. But she knew that at this very moment her life was in danger. The future of the island and the man she loved depended on her . . .
Our great serial by the author of ‘Island in the Sun’
FUEL FOR THE FLAME
BY ALEC WAUGH
ILLUSTRATED BY ANDY VIRGIL
THE STORY SO FAR:
ANTNETTA MARSH, a beautiful, young, English girl is on her way to Karak, a tropical island, to marry-
PRINCE RHYA, the playboy son of the King of Karak. COLONEL FORRESTER, the adviser to the C.I.D. in Karak, and-
KENNETH STUDHOLME, the British Political Agent, realize that there is grave danger of Communist infiltration via Indian employees.
GERALD FYREMAN is his young A.D.C., who lost a foot in action in Cyprus.
CHARLES KEABLE is the General Manager of the Pearl Oil Company, Karak's chief source of wealth.
He has a gay and lovely second wife-
BARBARA, who is twenty-two.
SHELAGH KEABLE is on her way to stay with her father and stepmother.
BASIL HALLETT is a feckless young man in charge of Pearl's personnel, department. His vivacious wife-
JULIA is an old friend of Barbara's.
ANGUS MACARTNEY is the on of the owner of Karak’s chief rubber estate.
Shelagh and Annetta meet on the plane to Karak. Travelling with them as far as Singapore is FRANCIS REYNOLDS, who makes determined, but unsuccessful advances to Annetta although he knows she is bethrothed to Prince Rhya.
In Karak she is met by Prince Rhya and his AUNT LADDA. She learns that he has to spend a few weeks in a Buddhist monastery. She soon begins to realize what marriage between an English girl and an Eastern prince will mean and wonders if their love can survive the many difficulties.
Meanwhile Shelagh is befriended by LILA HARE, Studholme's stepdaughter. Lila is meeting Angus in secret and asks Shelagh to shield them by pretending to be in love with Angus herself.
Meanwhile Basil Hallett is persuaded by a mysterious Indian to bet heavily on a horse called Potiphar When it loses the Indian helps to cover his loss. But soon Basil realizes that the Indian demands a price, Basil must meet him on Friday at Ah Chong's. Although he has arranged to play golf with Julia he fears the ominous note in the Indian's voice and knows he has no choice but to keep the rendezvous.
Now read on:
JULIA was annoyed when Basil called off their game of golf.
"You don't need a haircut. It can run another week."
''I'm sorry, but I've arranged to have it done on Friday."
"You're being very tiresome."
He arrived at Ah Chong's punctually. While he was being served three other men came in.
At the exact moment that he rose from his chair the Indian came into the shop. He paused, looked round him. "Two waiting already? No, that is too many. I will call another day."
He left simultaneously with Basil.
"It is very kind of you to come. There is a little service that you can pay me. A friend of mine is applying for a post in Pearl next Wednesday. Ahmed Abrusak He has every qualification. He does not know that I am making this request on his behalf. It is very much better that he should not know. Ahmed Abrusak. I know you will not regret it, Mr. Hallett."
There were twenty applicants for the post of filing clerk. Ahmed Abrusak was the seventh to appear.
"Why do you want to work for us? "
"I want to leave Kuala Prang, sir. I think better my children live in the country, sir."
"Very reasonable. Now let's see what you know about filing. Suppose it's your job to open the mail in the morning before I arrive. This letter is in it. What would you do with it?"
It was a simple routine question. Ahmed seemed to know his work all right. There was no reason why he should not be employed.
"I’ll take Ahmed Abrusak, " he said to his stenographer when the last applicant had left the room. "I liked his reason for wanting to come out here, for his children's health. The family man is what we need: the man with a stake in the country."
It was not, however, because of his children's health that Ahmed Abrusak had applied for a job with Pearl. He had applied because his cousin Fadil had insisted.
Early next morning, Ahmed caught a bus to Kuala Prang.
It was just short of twelve when the bus reached town. He did not feel like going home.
Half an hour later, he was the happier for two rums. He leant on his elbow against the bar, his eyes half closed, a little drowsy. How good he felt. And the talk was his kind of talk, cricket and girls and football. Why couldn't he stay in Kuala Prang? This was where he belonged. He was angry and resentful. If only Fadil were here.
He looked round him, belligerently. Someone at the bar was arguing that Hutton had been a better bat than Bradman.
"Never heard such rubbish in my life," he shouted.
The man swung round surprised. "What the hell do you mean?" His eyes were ablaze.
Ahmed put out his left hand and took him below the collar. "Now listen you."
The man swung himself loose.
"Now boys, now boys," the barman shouted.
They were all against him; Fadil particularly. He'd get even with Fadil. He swung his fist into the crowd.
"Take him out," the barman shouted. Half a dozen men were pushing him, banging at him with their fists.
Then suddenly the assailants fell away. There was a cry, "Police! Get lively." A hand fell on his shoulder.
COLONEL FORRESTER, adviser to the C.I.D. in Karak, usually studied the police reports first thing in the morning, but the report of Ahmed Adrusak’s arrest happened to reach his desk late that afternoon. Forrester walked over to his filing cabinet.
‘Agrusak Ahmed, born in Calcutta 1926, entered Karak 1936: was befriended by his cousin Fadil Banjee. Joined Progressive Party.'
Fadil Banjee. Forrester returned to the filing cabinet.
'Banjee, Fadil, born Karak 1921. Member Progressive Party. Believed to have Communistic affiliations.'
Well, thought Forrester. It would be worth having a look at Ahmed. He pressed the bell button on his desk.
Ahmed was in poor shape. His face was swollen, his forehead bandaged.
"Come along," Forrester said. "Sit down. You've certainly got yourself into trouble this time." He looked at the prisoner benignly and then smiled. "What happened today? Tell me."
It was a rambling recital.
Forrester nodded encouragingly. "Yes," he said. "Yes, I see. Now why did you go to Kassaya in the first place?"
Ahmed explained. It had been Fadil’s idea. Fadil had thought it would be good for the children to live in the country.
"And it was at your cousin's suggestion that you applied for this post with Pearl? Yes, I see. Now tell me one thing. When you were at college you were a member of the Progressive Party?"
Ahmed nodded. "Yes, I was."
"Did it mean much to you? Were you enthusiastic about it?"
Ahmed shrugged. All that talk about 'Imperialism,' ' Colonialism: 'Exploitation of the poor.' Did he care strongly? No, of course he didn't.
"Now do you think," Forrester continued, "that it was only on account of the children that your cousin wanted you to move into the country? Don't you think that perhaps." He paused, on a note of interrogation. "Did he think, how shall I put it?, did he fancy that you could be of any help to him at Kassaya ? "
"You're right, he did. That Progressive Party. I think," he hesitated, "they wanted me to find out which people thought the way that they did.
FORRESTER nodded encouragingly. "Yes, I see that. Now let me get this straight. You have no real loyalty to the Party, apart from the fact that your cousin runs it."
"No, sir, no."
"Now I'm wondering this. Has it not occurred to you that I might be interested in the same information, that I might like to know who belongs to the Progressive Party, and who declines to join?
"I don't see why you shouldn't tell me what you tell your cousin, do you?"
"No, sir, no:"
"And there are a number of ways in which I can help you. I wouldn't expect you to work for me for nothing. I can make you a monthly allowance of eight pounds. And, of course, we can ignore this matter of your arrest."
Forrester's smile could not have been more protective. Ahmed had the feeling that all his troubles had been taken off his shoulders.
Three days later, Basil received in a plain envelope a cheque for twenty- five pounds.
On the first day of the cricket match at Kassaya Colonel Forrester went to lunch with the Keables.
"If you intend to justify your visit in terms of work, you'd better do it right away," Charles told Forrester. "Is there anything you particularly want to see?"
"I'd like to see the kind of file you keep of the personnel you employ locally, what references they have, what check is kept on them."
"I'll take you to the man in charge of that, I expect you know him. Basil Hallett."
The personnel branch was set above the refinery, on a slight incline. Through his window Basil Hallett could look on to the main drive before the swimming-pool.
"Now please don't think I'm going to be a nuisance," Forrester began. "Questions get shot at me unexpectedly and I like to have the answers at my fingertips.
"Let us suppose that his nibs said at one of our conferences, 'Whitehall is worried about the arrival of subversive elements. Forrester, suppose that such a person wanted to join the oil refinery. How difficult would he find it?' I'd like to have my answer ready. How do you check on new men/"
"Each applicant has to have two references," Basil said.
"Do you check those references?"-
"If it seems necessary."
THE Colonel paused. "I see. You won't think, will you, that I' being tiresome? But how often does it seem necessary? "
"As a matter of fact. " Basil hesitated. "I don't believe that I ever have felt that it was necessary."
"I don't suppose you have; this is a family community, we trust each other. And I suppose that if you were to feel suspicious you would get in touch with my office. Yes, of course you would. By the way, do you keep those references?"
"I imagine that I do."
"I imagine that you do, too, but in case you don't, could you check up on that point,and if you find that you don't, could you do so in future?"
The cricket match was not due to start till half-past three. The island eleven was flying out from Kuala Prang, with the exception of Angus, who had motored from his estate in the cool of the morning.
The oil camp won the toss and went in to bat. Shelagh sat between Lila and Gerald Fyreman.
Lila leant across. "Is there any reason, Gerald, why I should come back tonight?
I'd rather like to see the whole of this match; there'll be a dance at the club that should be gay.
There isn't anything, is there, that I have to do tomorrow? "
"Not as far as I know."
"You could put me up, Shelagh, couldn't you? "
"Naturally. We'd love to."
"That's settled then. I'll talk to my mother later."
Lila sat back in her chair. Angus was bow ling now. He had a short, springing run, like a creature of the jungle. He bowled five overs, then was rested.
As he pulled on his sweater, Lila walked over to her mother. "I'd like to stay till tomorrow, and then bring Shelagh back with me. There's nothing against that, is there? Angus could drive us in," she added.
"Nothing at all."
Lila returned to her seat. "That's fine by my mother. She had quite a good idea, Shelagh, that you should come back with me. She suggested we should get Angus to drive us. You'd like that, wouldn't you?" She under lined the 'that,' giving it a special meaning.
Shelagh flushed. She did not want Gerald to think she was in love with Angus.
On the following Tuesday Charles Keable received a letter from Forrester.
'Dear Charles,
I am sorry to bother you with this, but there are a few of your employees about whom I'd like to have a fact or two. I enclose a list. I should be so grateful if you would ask that pleasant young man of yours, I’ve forgotten his name already, let me know who gave them references. Nothing for you to worry over; a few extra threads in that spider's web, that's all.'
Charles lifted his telephone to call Basil Hallett; then he remembered that Harry Pawling had left a note on his desk, asking for an appointment. He could kill two birds with one stone.
"Is that you, Harry? Come along as soon as you like."
Pawling was round within ten minutes. '
"Ah" good, take a seat."
He handed over Forrester's letter. "It's self-explanatory," he said. "Tell Basil to be as co-operative as possible. How's Basil doing, by the way?"
"He's making out all right."
"Not more than that?"
"He gets on well with people."
"I know that. Let's put it another way. Suppose London were to be looking for an assistant manager, they aren't, let me add, but suppose they were to be and they were to ask me whether I would recommend Basil for the post, would you advise me to? "
''I'd say he wasn't ready for it yet."
"That's what I'd say. Do you think he ever will be?"
"As long as there was someone to watch that he didn't make mistakes."
"I see. Thank you. Now there's one other thing. How's Iris Sinclair making out?"
REX SINCLAIR was a young engineer, who had spent eighteen months in the Persian Gulf. On his return to England be had fallen for the first pretty girl he had met.
Pawling shrugged. "We're trying to get her interested in something. Julia's got her on to theatricals."
They were doing Clifford Bax’s The Rose without a Thorn and Pawling was to be Henry VIII.
"You haven't fixed on Katheryn Howard, have you? "
"Not yet, it's difficult. Iris might do. "
They gossiped for a few more minutes, then Pawling took his leave.
At twenty-five past eleven, when he was expecting to hear the lunch hooter, Basil's telephone bell rang: at the other end of the line was the Indian's voice. "Could you meet me on Monday at ten o'clock in the self-service store? "
"I think so, yes."
"It is most important that you should."
TEN o'clock on a Monday was the busiest hour at the store. The Indian could not have chosen a .tim when a conversation with Basil was less likely to cause comment.
"Mr. Hallett, I must impress on you that it is most important that you should keep any appointment that I make with you."
"But, my dear fellow, if...."
"Please let me finish, Mr. Hallett. I am not being an alarmist when I warn you that it might even be dangerous for you not to follow my instructions. I have now little time to spare. There are one or two things I have to ask you. In the first place, do you play chess?"
"I played at school."
"That will be sufficient. There are some things that are better not put down in writing. I will send you from time to time what appears to be a chess problem. It will actually be a message. When you set out the pieces on the board, you will be able, by aid of the code that I shall give you, to read the message."
"Now what's all this about?"
"That's something that there is no need for you to know."
"Isn't it? I'm not so sure. Why did you want me to find a place for that friend of yours?"
"Because he is a friend of mine. What other reason could there be?"
"That's what I'd like to know. The police are making enquiries about him. They want to see the references he brought with him."
"They were good references."
"I dare say they were, but why do the police want to see them?"
"Indeed, why should they? This is very interesting. Are the police making enquiries about other members of your staff? "
"Yes."
"You have a list?"
"At the office."
"Now this is an occasion when that code would come in useful. It would not be wise to send that list to me in a letter, but you could send it to me as a chess problem addressed to the Kuala Prang Chess Club."
"But listen, I can't do that. It's a breach of confidence."
"I do not think so. I am inquisitive about this man. It was on my recommendation that you employed him. I trust that my confidence was not misplaced. It is not wise for us to spend too long here talking.
"I am going to that counter where the cheap editions are kept. After I have left, you will pick up the bottom copy from the pile of A Woman of Bangkok. It will contain a copy of the code. Good day to you, Mr. Hallett. I trust that your so charming wife is well."
At lunchtime Basil returned with a set of chessmen. "I'm going to take up chess again he said. "It relaxes the mind, so everyone assures me."
He also took a set to his office.
Two days later the Indian found in his pigeonhole in the Chess Club a set of problems. He worked them out. None of the names meant anything to him. It was puzzling and interesting. Young Mr. Hallett was proving more useful than he had expected. He made out a cheque for twenty-five pounds.
Basil looked at the cheque with doubt and with misgiving. Why should the Indian pay him this? A hundred pounds in all. That settled his account with Potiphar.
Basil shrugged. He had betrayed no confidence. Forrester's enquiries had not come in a double envelope marked 'Top Secret'. He looked at the cheque. He'd get Julia something.
IT was the morning of the Queen's birthday, or rather in Karak it was the morning of the Queen's birthday; in England it was still the night before. Not many people would say that morning over their breakfast tables, 'I see Kenneth Studholme has got his Knighthood.'
Kenneth Studholme got out of bed. There were papers now on his desk waiting to be studied and letters to be revised. He looked at them, hesitated, then tiptoed towards his wife's bed. She stirred, woke out of her sleep, blinked. "Good morning, Your Ladyship," he said.
She laughed. "Oh, darling, thank you, congratulations." She turned to face him, snuggled into his arms.
One o'clock: six o'clock in England.
There was a tap upon the door.
"Come in."
The A.D.C. said, "Your lunch guests are ready. sir."
It was a small intimate lunch party. Shelagh Keable was in town again, she and Lila were still inseparable or was it Angus's dark eyes that brought her here. Lila had suggested that. So Angus had been asked to lunch. He had also asked Annetta Marsh.
His guests rose as he came into the room.
"Congratulations, sir," said Angus.
"I’m thinking of changing my name," said Lila. "What's the point of having a mother who is a ladyship if she has a different name? "
"You'd better do what your mother did, marry someone who's going to be knighted," said her stepfather.
"How can you be sure he will; it's safer to marry somebody who's already got a title."
A little twinge flickered Angus's nerves. Her thoughts were already travelling towards a day when she would be part of his life no longer. He felt jealous, resentful, wounded in his pride. He had only been invited here because of his supposed interest in Shelagh. He had been placed next to Shelagh.
On his left he was aware of a chatter of feminine gossip across the table. Shelagh and Annetta gabbling at one another.
"There's so much I want to hear," Shelagh was saying. "I know so little of what's going on. I feel like a prisoner in that oil camp."
"How do you think I feel under Royal scrutiny?"
"Can you see the Crown Prince in that monastery?"
"If 1 take his aunt with me. I'm going there this afternoon."
"That can't be any fun. Couldn't you come down to Kassaya?" She turned interrogatively to her host. A sudden idea had occurred to her.
"Why couldn't Gerald bring her down, as an official escort." Barbara must have a chance of seeing more of Gerald. "Don't you think that's a good idea. Annetta would be under your protection then."
"We might work that out."
STUDHOLME listened With mixed feelings to the two girls. Had Annetta visualized the destiny she had accepted? Did she realize what she was giving up? He turned towards her. "You have had exceptional first impressions. It would be of value to me to know how it is striking you."
Annetta hesitated. She had seen so much, had heard so much. She had encountered a new climate and a new way of living. But in the final analysis, did it not all come back to this, that none of it seemed real.
"In what way not real?" he said.
"An absolute monarchy. I didn't know that such a thing could exist today. I can't believe that it can go on like this. Something is bound to happen."
"It's part of my job to guess at what is most likely to happen. I sometimes ask myself if I'm not sitting on a volcano. Karak is unique; anything might happen here."
"That's what Francis Reynolds. . said."
"Francis Reynolds?" Studholme looked at her quickly. "Where did you meet him?"
"On the. plane coming out. Do you know him then? "
"Oh, yes, I know him. How did he strike you?"
"He made himself very agreeable. He was good-looking, a man of the world; I liked him."
"In that case, when he comes here, I'll ask you to the party that I give for him."
ANNETTA was surprised.
"He's coming here? "
"In a month or so."
"He must have changed his mind then. He didn't know he was coming when I saw him."
"Didn't he? I've known for a long time he was coming. Somebody in Whitehall must have changed his plans for him after he'd set out."
"I expect that's what it was."
But she knew it wasn't. He had had a very special reason for preventing her from knowing that he was coming to Karak.
He had wanted to take advantage of that one night in Singapore. He had lied to her. He had deliberately tried to trick her. He was a man you could not trust.
She changed the subject. "Now what about this trip to the oil camp?"
"I don't see why I shouldn't go out too. That would give you all the chaperonage that you need, and it is time I was going there again." He looked down the table and caught his wife's eye.
"I don't think it would be a bad idea if I went to see the oily boys for a couple of days. You and Lila could look after yourselves, couldn't you?"
"I think that would be very nice," said Lila. As she said it she let her glance rest on Angus. It was the first time that she had showed any recognition of his existence. He had the sense of a whole world being overturned.
ANNETTA drove straight from the Residency to Aunt Ladda’s house for her visit to Rhya in his monastery. Not only would it be the first time that she had seen him since he became a priest, but the first time that she had seen the temple where he was serving his novitiate.
A narrow canal divided the temple from the dormitories and libraries.
"There he is," Aunt Ladda said.
A figure in a saffron robe came down the steps of the library. Annetta stared incredulously. Was this really he? He looked so small. The eyebrows that she had thought diabolique at the first meeting struck an incongruous contrast with his shaven head.
"It is good of you to come," he said. He seemed very far away.
"I know that you have to do this," she said. "But apart from that do you feel that you are really getting something out of it? "
"Oh, yes, I'm getting something." He smiled. His smile made him seem even farther away.
"I nave had time to think," he said. "I never have before. I didn't realize how important it was. Meditation, that's what the world needs. That's what I've learnt here. The need of meditation."
He did not speak excitedly. But he spoke with a sincerity that she had not heard before. Something had happened, was happening, to him here in this temple. He would not be the same person when he came out. . . . .
Angus Macartney reached the estate shortly before sundown the following day. His father had caught a cold. He looked weak and tired.
He began to tell his father about the day's transactions, but soon saw that his account was making no impression. His father was only concerned with the larger political issues.
"We are marking time during the King's lifetime. Nothing will be done while he is here. The people love him. It will be different when he is succeeded by Prince Rhya. .
"The people do not know the Prince; they have no personal feeling for him. He was marrying an English woman. They will not readily forgive him that. It will be easy to stage a coup d’ etat once he is on the throne."
The voice murmured on. It can't go on much longer, Angus thought. The next attack might be the last.
"Our time will come, soon, very soon; the first step, then, the second step; warn the people, prepare the people, free the people. . . soon . . . very soon. "
The old man had passed the frontier of delirium: his eyes were bright, his hands fluttered outside the sheet.
"The first step . . . Royal visit . . . oil camp. . . warning. . . Union Jack · . nothing now . . . nothing. . . first step. . . oil camp. . . first step counts · . . nothing now. . . nothing."
Two days later, Studholme held his monthly gathering of notables. He was in a cordial mood.
"I suppose it is natural to imagine that one's own good fortune coincides with that of those around one, but I cannot help feeling that the outlook here is a great deal brighter than it was six months ago.
"The Crown Prince is certainly a more serious man than I had supposed and I am delighted with his future bride. I am accompanying her shortly on a visit to the oil fields. "
At the words 'oil fields,' Angus started. Did his father's rambling conceal a secret? -
When the meeting broke up, he touched Forrester's elbow. "Could I have a word with you? You'll think I'm being ridiculous but I believe that something may happen when the Crown Prince's fiancee makes that visit to the oil wells."
"What makes you think that?"
"One or two things I've heard."
"Thanks for the warning."
BACK at his office Forrester rang for Mahmoud. "I want Ahmed asked immediately whether his cousin has shown any interest in Miss Marsh's visit to the oil camp."
Four days later Ahmed's report came in. His cousin had shown considerable interest in Miss Marsh's visit; had asked for a detailed time-schedule of her programme.
Forrester raised his eyebrows.
He put a call through to Princess Ladda’s house. Annetta could see him the following morning.
It was their first real meeting.
"I don't want to alarm you but I have been warned that something may happen when you go to the oil camp?"
"Are you suggesting that I should not go?"
"You must decide yourself. But there is this point to be considered. If there is danger in the oil camp, then sooner or later there will be danger here. I want to know what the danger is. I am in the dark.
"Personally I would like you to go out there. I would take every possible precaution. I would come out myself. If nothing happens, then all our minds will have been set at rest."
"We go," she said.
Annetta was conscious of excitement, a sense too of pride, that she was able to contribute to Rhya's safety. This might be an important thing for him.
"Are you warning Sir Kenneth, too?" she asked.
Forrester shook his head. "If I were to, he would forbid your visit or insist on such security precautions that I should stand no chance of finding out what's in the air."
"I see."
It occurred to her that she was being used as a decoy. "There's something I wanted to ask you," she said. "Do you know a man called Francis Reynolds?"
"I know the name."
"He is coming out here soon under most favourable auspices. He will make an excellent first impression. But he is a man who cannot be trusted. I advise you to keep a close check on all his movements here."
"I will check his movements from this moment."
Basil was in charge of Annetta's tour of the refinery, but Shelagh insisted that she should be the guide. "I want to see how much I remember. Let me explain it all. Basil can correct me if I get it wrong."
They drove in a closed car. Forrester sat beside the driver. Shelagh and Annetta were on the back seat; Basil on a folding front seat.
THEY started at nine o' clock before the heat of day had mounted. The men were in their offices, the women finishing chores. There was an air of prosperity and repose.
"Now this is the cracking plant," Shelagh said.
"How many people do you have working here?" Annetta asked.
"About fifteen thousand."
As many as that; how easy it would be to slip two or three conspirators into that vast concourse.
They went to a drilling rig. Basil had taken over now from. Shelagh. He showed her the storage tank farm and the barrels of bitumen. "Now for the repair shops," he said. "That is the last thing on our programme; then we'll see the village."
And then I can relax, Annetta . thought. .
The repair shops covered a large area; there was a group of workmen outside the main entrance. As they walked to it from the car, Annetta was aware of a disturbance. It happened so quickly that she did not realize what had happened. There seemed to her to have been a scuffle. She looked at Shelagh. She had not noticed anything; but Forrester had.
"Will you excuse me? I won't be long. I'll join you inside," he said.
HE was back within three minutes, smiling contentedly. Annetta joined him.
"You can relax now. It's over."
She had seldom seen anyone look more relieved.
"The village next," said Basil.
They drove by a wide macadamized road and Basil stopped the car on the crest of a hill.
She could see right round her. This was the centre of the oil camp. But there was no sound of any kind here.
So much surface calm; so much activity beneath the surface, and fifteen minutes ago on this ordinary routine day a man had tried to murder her. Had it really happened? And if it had how likely was it to happen again ? She looked enquiringly at Forrester.
He turned to Basil. "I don't know whether you had noticed it or not, but outside the repair shop one of the workmen pulled a gun out of his pocket. One of my men saw him. I don't know anything about the man. I will give you such facts as I find as soon as I possess them. As your branch is responsible for personnel, we shall need to know how he came to be employed; we must see who recommended him."
Basil dropped Shelagh, Annetta and the Colonel at the Keables' bungalow.
In the G.M.'s bungalow Forrester, alone with Annetta, said, "Sir Kenneth must be told. "The incident has to be reported in the Press. But I don't want to tell anyone the whole story yet. I want to see first what I can find out in interrogation. You've been very brave. By your bravery you may have saved more than you can ever guess."
As long as the others were in the car with him Basil had maintained his insouciant manner; but the moment he was alone his whole body became taut. He sat motionless at the wheel, staring straight in front of him. What had happened? And how could it affect him anyway? He did not know: he did not want to know: he was desperately afraid.
© Alec Waugh 1959 & 1960
It looks as if Basil is becoming more and more involved in this web of intrigue. In next week's instalment we learn what happens when he tries to defy the Indian's commands.
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