‘It seems the Major has been here all the time. Let us go and wish him good night.’
After the starlit compound the darkness on the verandah seemed almost complete. It was agreeably perfumed, however, by the smoke of a Havana cigar whose glowing tip Matthew had no difficulty in locating as it danced for a moment in fingers raised in greeting.
‘Not yet in bed, Brendan? Old gentlemen must take care of themselves.’
‘I’ll be going to bed in a moment,’ the Major said, but Matthew had already been informed that the Major, harassed by insomnia, was just as likely to sit here on the verandah smoking cigars until first light. ‘Did you hear anything? Were there any military big-wigs there?’
‘Brooke-Popham and a General. They appear confident.’
Matthew and Dupigny groped their way across the verandah to the Major’s side. There Matthew collapsed with a shriek of bamboo on to a chaise-longue. How tired he was! What a lot had happened since he had last been in bed! ‘Very soon now I shall go to bed,’ he thought wearily. From where he sat he had a view of the Major’s silhouette. He could see the outline of his ‘badger-soft’ moustache, recently outraged by Cheong’s scissors. He could even see the corrugated wrinkles mounting the slope of the Major’s worried brow, growing smoother as they reached the imperceptible line of hair neatly plastered down with water.
‘What fools those men are!’ exclaimed the Major, and the tip of his cigar glowed fiercely in the darkness. But after a moment he added humbly: ‘Of course, they may know things that we don’t.’
19
At the end of the first week of December a little group of men wearing overalls or boiler-suits or simply shorts on account of the heat gathered one afternoon in the shade of the tamarind tree in the Mayfair’s compound. They belonged to the Mayfair Auxiliary Fire Service unit (AFS for short) and they had been summoned, although today was Sunday, to an urgent practice. The morning newspaper had carried news of a convoy of unidentified transport ships heading south from Japanese-occupied Indo-China and the Major, who was in charge of the Mayfair AFS unit, feared the worst. The Major, at the moment, was not under the tamarind tree but in the garage beside the house, struggling with a tarpaulin. Matthew, who had just been enrolled in the unit, was assisting him. There was no ventilation in the garage and the day’s sun, beating down on the corrugated iron roof, had made it like an oven inside. Matthew had already been suffering from the heat: now he felt the perspiration running down his legs and collecting in his socks.
The Major had dragged the tarpaulin off a large box-shaped object which proved to be some sort of engine, gleaming with steel and brass pipes and fittings. Matthew stared at it blankly. It had two large dials on a sort of dashboard and, instead of wheels, two carrying-poles like a palanquin.
‘It’s a Coventry Victor,’ declared the Major with pride. ‘Brand new!’
‘But what does it do?’
‘It’s a trailer-pump. The trailer is over there. I’ve had a bracket put on the back of my car so we can tow it about if need be. Give me a hand and we’ll carry it outside. We’re going to have a drill with it when our instructor gets here. He’s an ex-London Fire Brigade man and when he’s sober he knows his stuff … which isn’t always, unfortunately.’
Presently, the instructor arrived. He turned out to be a short, bald and red-faced man in his fifties called McMahon. After a lengthy altercation with the taxi-driver who had brought him he advanced swaying towards the Mayfair Building. The Major had explained to Matthew that Mr McMahon, like many firemen, had started life as a seaman. It became clear, however, as he collided with a bush, shouting, on his way round the house, that this was not the explanation of his rolling gait.
The Major had drawn up the members of the Mayfair AFS unit in a line beside the tennis court ready to be inspected by their instructor. They stood at ease, waiting uncertainly, while Mr McMahon weaved his way towards them, cursing. Apart from the Major himself, the unit consisted of Dupigny, a Mr Sen and a Mr Harris, both clerks who were occasionally lent to the Mayfair by Blackett and Webb (the former was Indian, the latter Eurasian), Mr Wu, a friendly Chinese businessman, the Chinese ‘boy’, Cheong, who had surprised the Major by volunteering and who, though his face remained perfectly impassive in every situation, had proved easily the most efficient of the recruits, Monty Blackett, who had volunteered (the lesser of two evils) to avoid conscription into the Local Defence Force but was still hoping to achieve, if not a complete dispensation, at least, a more agreeable position in Singapore’s active or passive defences, and finally, a handsome young man called Nigel Langfield, the son of Walter’s arch-rival and enemy, Solomon Langfield: Nigel was wearing a very new blue boiler-suit with AFS prettily embroidered in red on one of its breast pockets; from time to time he would lower his nose to sniff the satisfying newcloth smell of this garment.
These would-be firemen eyed their instructor with concern as he waded towards them, as if through a swamp. Before reaching them, however, he unexpectedly changed course to embrace the trunk of another tree not far away. Then, with his arms still round the tree and still cursing, he slithered to the ground, eventually struggling around to use it as a back-rest.
‘God help ye, y’ blithering lot o’ helpless bastards!’ he babbled, fighting for breath. ‘Let’s see another dry drill then, you perfumed bunch o’ pansies or, God help ye, the fists’ll be flyin’ or me name’s not McMahon! Get on with it … A dry drill, I’m tellin’ ye!’
‘I thought we were going to do a wet drill today,’ said the Major, looking dissatisfied. ‘That’s what you said last time.’
‘This time I’m sayin’ it’s a dry drill, y’bastard, so hop to it and see that ye run the bleedin’ hose out without a twist in it or ye’ll catch it hot, I’m tellin’ ye …’
‘Well, we might just do one,’ said the Major, ‘in order to get the feel of it before we do a wet drill. I’m afraid McMahon’s not going to be much help to us today by the look of it,’ he added in an undertone to the rest of the unit.
‘I heard that, y’ pissin’ old goat,’ yelled McMahon, quivering with a fresh paroxysm of rage and struggling ineffectually to get to his feet, evidently with the intention of exacting retribution.
‘Shut up or we’ll bash your silly brains in,’ said Monty languidly, sloping off in the direction of the bungalow.
‘Look here, Monty, where are you off to? We’re just going to begin,’ said the Major indignantly.
‘I’m just going to find an aspirin, old boy, if you don’t mind.’
‘Well, hurry up about it. I’ll try and explain the basic drill to Matthew in the meantime.’
There were, the Major explained, two types of hose: suction hose for picking up water from an open source such as a canal or a river, and delivery hose, for relaying water to the fire. Suction hose had a wide diameter and was reinforced to keep it cylindrical; it also had wire strainers to prevent stones or rubbish being sucked up into the pump. ‘Have you got that?’
‘I think so. This other one, then, is the delivery hosepipe, is it?’
From under his tree McMahon shrieked with laughter. ‘Hosepipe! He thinks he’s a bleedin’ gardener!’
‘Hm, I should have mentioned that, we say “hose” rather than “hosepipe”, and ropes are known as “lines” and the rungs of a ladder are called “rounds” … I don’t suppose it matters particularly, as we’re just a scratch team, but McMahon seems to prefer it.’
Delivery hose, the Major continued, was wound flat on a revolving drum and came in fifty or a hundred-foot lengths with a diameter of two or three inches; at the business end there was a tapering brass tube called the ‘branch’, not the nozzle! The drill was that the number one man ran off in the direction of the fire with the branch, unreeling a length of hose as he went; meanwhile the number three man laid out another length of hose and dealt with the couplings. These couplings were what were known as ‘male’ and ‘female’, that was to say …
‘That fat pansy
wouldn’t know the difference if ye took up y’skirts and showed him!’
‘That will do, McMahon,’ said the Major sharply. He turned back to Matthew. ‘The idea is that the male coupling plugs into the female on the previous length of hose. The male plugs into the standpipe, if that’s where the water is coming from, or into the engine pump. Meanwhile the runner takes hold of the lugs on the “female” end around which the delivery hose is normally wrapped and he uses them as an axle round which the roll of hose unwinds. Here, Nigel will give us a demonstration.’
Nigel obediently took the roll of hose and holding it a little way from his body went loping gracefully away with it, laying it down neatly on the turf behind him as he went.
‘It’s not as easy as it looks. Nigel’s rather good at it.’
It was true. Everybody watched in admiration and even McMahon was temporarily silenced by this display of skill. There was still no sign of Monty so Cheong was sent to look for him. Meanwhile Mr Wu, who with Dupigny and Cheong had been tinkering with the engine, was called forward to show Matthew how to climb a ladder which had earlier been set up against the roof of the Mayfair.
‘When climbing radder glasp lounds not side of radder,’ explained Mr Wu to Matthew.
‘What?’
‘Glasp lungs!’
‘Good heavens! You mean, your own? Or someone else’s?’
‘That’s right,’ said the Major, approaching swiftly. ‘You should always hold the rungs, or the “rounds” as we call them, rather than the frame of the ladder. And incidentally never step on to a window-ledge: they tend to collapse. The drill is to put one leg right into the window. Ah, thank heaven for that, it looks as if McMahon has gone to sleep,’ he added. ‘Perhaps this would be a good time to get the pump working. After all, we may not have much more time to practise.’
A gloomy silence had fallen on the Mayfair AFS unit. Even McMahon, muttering in his sleep, looked discouraged. Staring into the distance where the white wedding-cake mass of the Blacketts’ house glimmered above the trees, the Major said: ‘Still, with luck we may never be needed.’
As soon as the afternoon’s drill was over Matthew with a sigh of relief made for the bathroom, which as he had already discovered, had one serious disadvantage: the absence of any running water. A vast green and yellow earthenware jar with a copper ladle stood in one corner. This was a Shanghai jar. The procedure was simple: you dipped the ladle into the jar and poured the water over yourself. Matthew stripped and began sluicing himself; he found the water in the jar tepid but refreshing, nevertheless.
‘An Irishwoman will be fired from a cannon, Monty? Whatever for?’
Monty, who had followed Matthew into the bathroom with an invitation, explained. It was some special show being put on at The Great World in order to raise money for the war against the Jabs in China. The Irishwoman was a human cannonball making a tour of the Far East. And there was also a group of singers called the Da Sousa Sisters. Anyway, Joan had said she was keen to go. That meant they only needed another woman and they could make an evening of it. ‘You don’t happen to know any women, do you?’
‘Monty, I’ve only just arrived.’
‘Never mind then. I expect I’ll be able to scrape one up somewhere. I’ll see you over at our place in a couple of hours, OK?’
‘Oh look, while you’re here, Monty, I’d like you to explain something about our Johore estate that I don’t understand. Why are we replanting at a time when it’s so urgent to produce rubber? I don’t get it.’ The previous day Matthew and the Major had driven over the Causeway and into Johore on the mainland so that Matthew could inspect the Mayfair estate. They had discovered that in a number of places mature trees were being replaced with saplings. When they had questioned Turner, the estate manager whom Matthew had glimpsed on his first evening in Singapore, he had not known the reason for it. He had simply been instructed to replant by Blackett and Webb who, as managing agents, were in control of planting policy.
‘Well,’ replied Monty, sighing heavily, ‘it’s nothing to worry about. It’s all under control.’
‘I’m sure it’s under control. I just want to get the hang of things, that’s all.’
‘Rubber trees don’t last for ever, you know. And as they get older they get brittle. They break in the wind …’
‘But they last for thirty years or so, don’t they? And the trees that are being replaced aren’t that old. Besides, it’s not just an odd tree here and there. It’s being done in sections.’ There was no sound in the bathroom except for a steady splash of water and Monty’s rather laboured breathing. Matthew began to ladle water over himself again.
‘Look here,’ said Monty finally in a rallying tone, ‘I have to admit that your question has stumped me. We have so many estates that it’s hard to know everything about each one. The Mayfair is small beer compared with some of the others. But I tell you what. I’ll get the facts straight before your next Board meeting and we’ll thrash it out there, OK? Now don’t worry about a thing. I’ll be on my way now …’ However, he continued to stand in the doorway watching the water coursing over Matthew’s plump body. Did Matthew know, he enquired with a leer, that in the East there were many stories of beautiful girls who, in order to be cool, climbed into Shanghai jars and then could not get out, so they had to call a manservant to break the jar? Matthew could probably imagine what happened next! With that Monty departed, licking his lips, to bathe in the greater comfort of his parents’ house.
Later, refreshed by his bath and wearing a light linen suit, Matthew was on the point of leaving for the Blacketts’ house when the telephone rang. It was Ehrendorf. In the few days which Matthew had now spent in Singapore the two friends had so far managed only one brief meeting. The reason, undoubtedly, was that Ehrendorf was extremely busy. With the rapid decay of the political situation in the Far East his services, Matthew surmised, must be in constant demand for the assessment of British military strength and strategy. However, Matthew was aware of a new feeling of constraint in his friendship with Ehrendorf. How different it was now from the way it had been before! He could not help contrasting that strained meeting at the aerodrome and the subsequent drive into Singapore with their previous meetings in Europe. Matthew, though by nature unobservant, was well aware that Joan was somehow at the root of this new awkwardness. He supposed that Ehrendorf and Joan had had some sort of affair; he remembered the melancholy sigh he had heard from the darkness at the Mayfair on the night of his arrival. But why should that affect his relationship with Ehrendorf?
On the telephone, Ehrendorf sounded more friendly and cheerful, more like his old self. He asked Matthew how he was going to spend the evening, suggesting that they should have a meal together. Matthew explained that Monty had just enlisted him to watch an Irishwoman being fired from a cannon. Perhaps Ehrendorf would like to come, too? As a ‘military observer’ it could almost be considered his duty.
‘OK, I’ll meet you at The Great World. There’s a place where they sell tickets at the main gate, something like the lodge of an Oxford college (inside you’ll find it’s more interesting, though!).’ And Ehrendorf rang off. It was only on his way to the Blacketts’ that Matthew remembered … Joan would be there, too. And that might cause some difficulty.
Presently Matthew found himself in the Blacketts’ drawingroom, waiting for Monty and Joan. While the elderly major-domo went off at a dignified pace to alert some member of the family to his presence Matthew took a quick look at the portrait of his father which hung at the end of the room, then he went to sit down on a sofa. A Chinese ‘boy’ came and placed a packet of cigarettes and some matches at his elbow and then silently withdrew, leaving him alone except for a long-haired Siamese cat curled up on the floor: this was Kate’s beloved pet, Ming Toy. He scooped it up and sat it on his lap. It opened its eyes for a moment, then closed them again.
‘Are you a tom-cat, I wonder?’ he asked the cat, lifting its magnificent tail to inspect its private parts. He began
to rummage about in the animal’s fur, peering at it closely for signs of gender. The cat began to purr. Matthew was in the middle of this careful inspection of the cat’s hindquarters (its fur was so long and thick one could only guess at what it might conceal) when Walter came into the room. He gave Matthew a rather odd look. Matthew hurriedly let go of the splendid tail and put the cat back on the carpet.
‘You’re just the man I wanted to see,’ said Walter. ‘I want you to look at some of these paintings of Rangoon and Singapore in the early days.’
20
‘So there you are, my boy, is that not an achievement to be proud of? Over this great area of the globe, covered in steaming swamp and mountain and horrid, horrid jungle, a few determined pioneers, armed only with a little capital and a great creative vision, set the mark of civilization, bringing prosperity to themselves, certainly (though let’s not forget that the crocodiles of bankruptcy and disgrace quietly slipped into the water at their passage, ready to seize the rash or unlucky and drag them down into their watery caverns), but above all, a means of livelihood to the unhappy millions of Asiatics who had been faced by misery and destitution until their coming! Such a man was your father!’
Over the years Walter’s rhetoric as he conducted his guests on a tour of his collection had grown more solemn and impressive. Here and there fanciful touches had crept in (the crocodiles, for example, which nowadays forged after his intrepid capitalists): if they earned their keep he allowed them to stay; otherwise they were discarded. He had grown more convinced himself of the rightness of what he was saying and more indignant at the absence from history books of the great men of commerce. Surely it was unjust that history should only relate the exploits of bungling soldiers, monarchs and politicians, ignoring the merchant whose activities were the very bedrock of civilization and progress!
The Empire Trilogy Page 103