By the time he was
opposite
the Military Police lines the ha nk seemed almost bare
of men.
of men.
Orwell - Burmese Days
The mali was sent instead.
As the man set out Flory noticed that it was
again the night of the full moon — four weeks to a day since that evening, now unutterably
remote, when he had kissed Elizabeth under the frangipani tree.
They had just sat down at the bridge table, and Mrs Lackersteen had just revoked out of
pure nervousness, when there was a heavy thump on the roof. Everyone started and look
up.
‘A coco-nut falling! ’ said Mr Macgregor.
‘There aren’t any coco-nut trees here,’ said Ellis.
The next moment a number of things happened all together. There was another and much
louder bang, one of the petrol lamps broke from its hook and crashed to the ground,
narrowly missing Mr Lackersteen, who jumped aside with a yelp, Mrs Lackersteen began
screaming, and the butler rushed into the room, bareheaded, his face the colour of bad
coffee.
‘Sir, sir! Bad men come! Going to murder us all, sir! ’
‘What? Bad men? What do you mean? ’
‘Sir, all the villagers are outside! Big stick and dah in their hands, and all dancing about!
Going to cut master’s throat, sir! ’
Mrs Lackersteen threw herself backwards in her chair. She was setting up such a din of
screams as to drown the butler’s voice.
‘Oh, be quiet! ’ said Ellis sharply, turning on her. ‘Listen, all of you! Listen to that! ’
There was a deep, murmurous, dangerous sound outside, like the humming of an angry
giant. Mr Macgregor, who had stood up, stiffened as he heard it, and settled his
spectacles pugnaciously on his nose.
‘This is some kind of disturbance! Butler, pick that lamp up. Miss Lackersteen, look to
your aunt. See if she is hurt. The rest of you come with me! ’
They all made for the front door, which someone, presumably the butler, had closed. A
fusillade of small pebbles was rattling against it like hail. Mr Lackersteen wavered at the
sound and retreated behind the others.
‘I say, dammit, bolt that bloody door, someone! ’ he said.
‘No, no! ’ said Mr Macgregor. ‘We must go outside. It’s fatal not to face them! ’
He opened the door and presented himself boldly at the top of the steps. There were about
twenty Burmans on the path, with dahs or sticks in their hands. Outside the fence,
stretching up the road in either direction and far out on to the maidan, was an enonnous
crowd of people. It was like a sea of people, two thousand at the least, black and white in
the moon, with here and there a curved dah glittering. Ellis had coolly placed himself
beside Mr Macgregor, with his hands in his pockets. Mr Lackersteen had disappeared.
Mr Macgregor raised his hand for silence. ‘What is the meaning of this? ’ he shouted
sternly.
There were yells, and some lumps of laterite the size of cricket balls came sailing from
the road, but fortunately hit no one. One of the men on the path turned and waved his
arms to the others, shouting that they were not to begin throwing yet. Then he stepped
forward to address the Europeans. He was a strong debonair fellow of about thirty, with
down-curving moustaches, wearing a singlet, with his longyi kilted to the knee.
‘What is the meaning of this? ’ Mr Macgregor repeated.
The man spoke up with a cheerful grin, and not very insolently.
‘We have no quarrel with you, min gyi. We have come for the timber merchant, Ellis. ’
(He pronounced it Ellit. ) ‘The boy whom he struck this morning has gone blind. You
must send Ellit out to us here, so that we can punish him. The rest of you will not be
hurt. ’
‘Just remember that fellow’s face,’ said Ellis over his shoulder to Flory. ‘We’ll get him
seven years for this afterwards. ’
Mr Macgregor had turned temporarily quite purple. His rage was so great that it almost
choked him. For several moments he could not speak, and when he did so it was in
English.
‘Whom do you think you are speaking to? In twenty years I have never heard such
insolence! Go away this instant, or I shall call out the Military Police! ’
‘You’d better be quick, min gyi. We know that there is no justice for us in your courts, so
we must punish Ellit ourselves. Send him out to us here. Otherwise, all of you will weep
for it. ’
Mr Macgregor made a furious motion with his fist, as though hammering in a nail, ‘Go
away, son of a dog! ’ he cried, using his first oath in many years.
There was a thunderous roar from the road, and such a shower of stones, that everyone
was hit, including the Burmans on the path. One stone took Mr Macgregor full in the
face, almost knocking him down. The Europeans bolted hastily inside and barred the
door. Mr Macgregor’ s spectacles were smashed and his nose streaming blood. They got
back to the lounge to find Mrs Lackersteen looping about in one of the long chairs like a
hysterical snake, Mr Lackersteen standing irresolutely in the middle of the room, holding
an empty bottle, the butler on his knees in the corner, crossing himself (he was a Roman
Catholic), the chokras crying, and only Elizabeth calm, though she was very pale.
‘What’s happened? ’ she exclaimed.
‘We’re in the soup, that’s what’s happened! ’ said Ellis angrily, feeling at the back of his
neck where a stone had hit him. ‘The Burmans are all round, shying rocks. But keep
calm! They haven’t the guts to break the doors in. ’
‘Call out the police at once! ’ said Mr Macgregor indistinctly, for he was stanching his
nose with his handkerchief.
‘Can’t! ’ said Ellis. ‘I was looking round while you were talking to them. They’ve cut us
off, rot their damned souls! No one could possibly get to the police lines. Veraswami’s
compound is full of men. ’
‘Then we must wait. We can trust them to turn out of their own accord. Calm yourself,
my dear Mrs Lackersteen, PLEASE calm yourself! The danger is very small. ’
It did not sound small. There were no gaps in the noise now, and the Burmans seemed to
be pouring into the compounds by hundreds. The din swelled suddenly to such a volume
that no one could make himself heard except by shouting. All the windows in the lounge
had been shut, and some perforated zinc shutters within, which were sometimes used for
keeping out insects, pulled to and bolted. There was a series of crashes as the windows
were broken, and then a ceaseless thudding of stones from all sides, that shook the thin
wooden walls and seemed likely to split them. Ellis opened a shutter and flung a bottle
viciously among the crowd, but a dozen stones came hurtling in and he had to close the
shutter hurriedly. The Burmans seemed to have no plan beyond flinging stones, yelling
and hammering at the walls, but the mere volume of noise was unnerving. The Europeans
were half dazed by it at first. None of them thought to blame Ellis, the sole cause of this
affair; their common peril seemed, indeed, to draw them closer together for the while. Mr
Macgregor, half-blind without his spectacles, stood distractedly in the middle of the
room, yielding his right hand to Mrs Lackersteen, who was caressing it, while a weeping
chokra clung to his left leg. Mr Lackersteen had vanished again. Ellis was stamping
furiously up and down, shaking his fist in the direction of the police lines.
‘Where are the police, the f — cowardly sods? ’ he yelled, heedless of the women. ‘Why
don’t they turn out? My God, we won’t get another chance like this in a hundred years! If
we’d only ten rifles here, how we could slosh these b — s! ’
‘They’ll be here presently! ’ Mr Macgregor shouted back. ‘It will take them some minutes
to penetrate that crowd. ’
‘But why don’t they use their rifles, the miserable sons of bitches? They could slaughter
them in bloody heaps if they’d only open fire. Oh, God, to think of missing a chance like
this! ’
A lump of rock burst one of the zinc shutters. Another followed through the hole it had
made, stove in a ‘Bonzo’ picture, bounced off, cut Elizabeth’s elbow, and finally landed
on the table. There was a roar of triumph from outside, and then a succession of
tremendous thumps on the roof. Some children had climbed into the trees and were
having the time of their lives sliding down the roof on their bottoms. Mrs Lackersteen
outdid all previous efforts with a shriek that rose easily above the din outside.
‘Choke that bloody hag, somebody! ’ cried Ellis. ‘Anyone’d think a pig was being killed.
We’ve got to do something. Flory, Macgregor, come here! Think of a way out of this
mess, someone! ’
Elizabeth had suddenly lost her nerve and begun crying. The blow from the stone had
hurt her. To Flory’s astonishment, he found her clinging tightly to his ann. Even in that
moment it made his heart turn over. He had been watching the scene almost with
detachment — dazed by the noise, indeed, but not much frightened. He always found it
difficult to believe Orientals could be really dangerous. Only when he felt Elizabeth’s
hand on his arm did he grasp the seriousness of the situation.
‘Oh, Mr Flory, please, please think of something! You can, you can! Anything sooner
than let those dreadful men get in here! ’
‘If only one of us could get to the police lines! ’ groaned Mr Macgregor. ‘A British officer
to lead them! At the worst I must try and go myself. ’
‘Don’t be a fool! Only get your throat cut! ’ yelled Ellis. ‘/‘II go if they really look like
breaking in. But, oh, to be killed by swine like that! How furious it’d make me! And to
think we could murder the whole bloody crowd if only we could get the police here! ’
‘Couldn’t someone get along the river bank? ’ Flory shouted despairingly.
‘Hopeless! Hundreds of them prowling up and down. We’re cut off — Burmans on three
sides and the river on the other! ’
‘The river! ’
One of those startling ideas that are overlooked simply because they are so obvious had
sprung into Flory’s mind.
‘The river! Of course! We can get to the police lines as easy as winking. Don’t you see? ’
‘How? ’
‘Why, down the river — in the water! Swim! ’
‘Oh, good man! ’ cried Ellis, and smacked Flory on the shoulder. Elizabeth squeezed his
arm and actually danced a step or two in glee. ‘I’ll go if you like! ’ Ellis shouted, but
Flory shook his head. He had already begun slipping his shoes off. There was obviously
no time to be lost. The Burmans had behaved like fools hitherto, but there was no saying
what might happen if they succeeded in breaking in. The butler, who had got over his
first fright, prepared to open the window that gave on the lawn, and glanced obliquely
out. There were barely a score of Burmans on the lawn. They had left the back of the
Club unguarded, supposing that the river cut off retreat.
‘Rush down the lawn like hell! ’ Ellis shouted in Flory’s ear. ‘They’ll scatter all right
when they see you. ’
‘Order the police to open fire at once! ’ shouted Mr Macgregor from the other side. ‘You
have my authority. ’
‘And tell them to aim low! No firing over their heads. Shoot to kill. In the guts for
choice! ’
Flory leapt down from the veranda, hurting his feet on the hard earth, and was at the river
ha nk in six paces. As Ellis had said, the Burmans recoiled for a moment when they saw
him leaping down. A few stones followed him, but no one pursued — they thought, no
doubt, that he was only attempting to escape, and in the clear moonlight they could see
that it was not Ellis. In another moment he had pushed his way through the bushes and
was in the water.
He sank deep down, and the horrible river ooze received him, sucking him knee-deep so
that it was several seconds before he could free himself. When he came to the surface a
tepid froth, like the froth on stout, was lapping round his lips, and some spongy thing had
floated into his throat and was choking him. It was a sprig of water hyacinth. He managed
to spit it out, and found that the swift current had floated him twenty yards already.
Burmans were rushing rather aimlessly up and down the bank, yelling. With his eye at
the level of the water, Flory could not see the crowd besieging the Club; but he could
hear their deep, devilish roaring, which sounded even louder than it had sounded on
shore.
By the time he was opposite the Military Police lines the ha nk seemed almost bare
of men. He managed to struggle out of the current and flounder through the mud, which
sucked off his left sock. A little way down the bank two old men were sitting beside a
fence, sharpening fence-posts, as though there had not been a riot within a hundred miles
of them. Flory crawled ashore, clambered over the fence and ran heavily across the
moonwhite parade-ground, his wet trousers sagging. As far as he could tell in the noise,
the lines were quite empty. In some stalls over to the right Verrall’s horses were plunging
about in a panic. Flory ran out on to the road, and saw what had happened.
The whole body of policemen, military and civil, about a hundred and fifty men in all,
had attacked the crowd from the rear, armed only with sticks. They had been utterly
engulfed. The crowd was so dense that it was like an enormous swarm of bees seething
and rotating. Everywhere one could see policemen wedged helplessly among the hordes
of Burmans, struggling furiously but uselessly, and too cramped even to use their sticks.
Whole knots of men were tangled Laocoon-like in the folds of unrolled pagris. There was
a terrific bellowing of oaths in three or four languages, clouds of dust, and a suffocating
stench of sweat and marigolds — but no one seemed to have been seriously hurt. Probably
the Burmans had not used their daks for fear of provoking rifle-lire. Flory pushed his way
into the crowd and was immediately swallowed up like the others. A sea of bodies closed
in upon him and flung him from side to side, bumping his ribs and choking him with their
animal heat. He struggled onwards with an almost dreamlike feeling, so absurd and
unreal was the situation. The whole riot had been ludicrous from the start, and what was
most ludicrous of all was that the Burmans, who might have killed him, did not know
what to do with him now he was among them. Some yelled insults in his face, some
jostled him and stamped on his feet, some even tried to make way for him, as a white
man. He was not certain whether he was fighting for his life, or merely pushing his way
through the crowd. For quite a long time he was jammed, helpless, with his arms pinned
against his sides, then he found himself wrestling with a stumpy Burman much stronger
than himself, then a dozen men rolled against him like a wave and drove him deeper into
the heart of the crowd. Suddenly he felt an agonizing pain in his right big toe — someone
in boots had trodden on it. It was the Military Police subahdar, a Rajput, very fat,
moustachioed, with his pagri gone. He was grasping a Burman by the throat and trying to
hammer his face, while the sweat rolled off his bare, bald crown. Flory threw his arm
round the subahdar’ s neck and managed to tear him away from his adversary and shout in
his ear. His Urdu deserted him, and he bellowed in Bunnese:
‘Why did you not open fire? ’
For a long time he could not hear the man’s answer. Then he caught it:
‘Hukm ne aya’ — ‘I have had no order! ’
‘Idiot! ’
At this moment another bunch of men drove against them, and for a minute or two they
were pinned and quite unable to move. Flory realized that the subahdar had a whistle in
his pocket and was trying to get at it. Finally he got it loose and blew piercing blasts, but
there was no hope of rallying any men until they could get into a clear space. It was a
fearful labour to struggle our of the crowd — it was like wading neck-deep through a
viscous sea. At times the exhaustion of Flory’s limbs was so complete that he stood
passive, letting the crowd hold him and even drive him backwards. At last, more from the
natural eddying of the crowd than by his own effort, he found himself flung out into the
open. The subahdar had also emerged, ten or fifteen sepoys, and a Burmese Inspector of
Police. Most of the sepoys collapsed on their haunches almost falling with fatigue, and
limping, their feet having been trampled on.
‘Come on, get up! Run like hell for the lines! Get some rifles and a clip of ammunition
each. ’
He was too overcome even to speak in Burmese, but the men understood him and lopped
heavily towards the police lines. Flory followed them, to get away from the crowd before
they turned on him again. When he reached the gate the sepoys were returning with their
rifles and already preparing to fire.
‘The sahib will give the order! ’ the subahdar panted.
‘Here you! ’ cried Flory to the Inspector. ‘Can you speak Hindustani? ’
‘Yes, sir. ’
‘Then tell them to fire high, right over the people’s heads. And above all, to fire all
together. Make them understand that. ’
The fat Inspector, whose Hindustani was even worse than Flory’s, explained what was
wanted, chiefly by leaping up and down and gesticulating. The sepoys raised their rifles,
there was a roar, and a rolling echo from the hillside. For a moment Flory thought that his
order had been disregarded, for almost the entire section of the crowd nearest them had
fallen like a swath of hay. However, they had only flung themselves down in panic. The
sepoys fired a second volley, but it was not needed. The crowd had immediately begun to
surge outwards from the Club like a river changing its course. They came pouring down
the road, saw the anned men barring their way, and tried to recoil, whereupon there was a
fresh battle between those in front and those behind; finally the whole crowd bulged
outwards and began to roll slowly up the maidan. Flory and the sepoys moved slowly
towards the Club on the heels of the retreating crowd. The policemen who had been
engulfed were straggling back by ones and twos. Their pagris were gone and their puttees
trailing yards behind them, but they had no damage worse than bruises. The Civil
Policemen were dragging a very few prisoners among them. When they reached the Club
compound the Burmans were still pouring out, an endless line of young men leaping
gracefully through a gap in the hedge like a procession of gazelles. It seemed to Flory
that it was getting very dark. A small white-clad figure extricated itself from the last of
the crowd and tumbled limply into Flory’s arms. It was Dr Veraswami, with his tie torn
off but his spectacles miraculously unbroken.
‘Doctor! ’
‘Ach, my friend! Ach, how I am exhausted! ’
‘What are you doing here? Were you right in the middle of that crowd? ’
‘I was trying to restrain them, my friend. It was hopeless until you came. But there is at
least one man who bears the mark of this, I think! ’
He held out a small fist for Flory to see the damaged knuckles. But it was certainly quite
dark now. At the same moment Flory heard a nasal voice behind him.
‘Well, Mr Flory, so it’s all over already! A mere flash in the pan as usual. You and I
together were a little too much for them — ha, ha! ’
It was U Po Kyin. He came towards them with a martial air, carrying a huge stick, and
with a revolver thrust into his belt. His dress was a studious negligee — singlet and Shan
trousers — to give the impression that he had rushed out of his house post-haste. He had
been lying low until the danger should be over, and was now hurrying forth to grab a
share of any credit that might be going.
‘A smart piece of work, sir! ’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Look how they are flying up the
hillside! We have routed them most satisfactory. ’
‘WE! ’ panted the doctor indignantly.
‘Ah, my dear doctor! I did not perceive that you were there. It is possible that YOU also
have been in the fighting? YOU — risking your most valuable life! Who would have
believed such a thing? ’
‘You’ve taken your time getting here yourself! ’ said Flory angrily.
‘Well, well sir, it is enough that we have dispersed them. Although,’ he added with a
touch of satisfaction, for he had noticed Flory’s tone, ‘they are going in the direction of
the European houses, you will observe. I fancy that it will occur to them to do a little
plundering on their way. ’
One had to admire the man’s impudence. He tucked his great stick under his arm and
strolled beside Flory in an almost patronizing manner, while the doctor dropped behind,
abashed in spite of himself. At the Club gate all three men halted. It was now
extraordinarily dark, and the moon had vanished. Low overhead, just visible, black
clouds were streaming eastward like a pack of hounds. A wind, almost cold, blew down
the hillside and swept a cloud of dust and fine water-vapour before it. There was a sudden
intensely rich scent of damp. The wind quickened, the trees rustled, then began beating
themselves furiously together, the big frangipani tree by the tennis court flinging out a
nebula of dimly seen blossom. All three men turned and hurried for shelter, the Orientals
to their houses, Flory to the Club. It had begun raining.
CHAPTER 23
Next day the town was quieter than a cathedral city on Monday morning. It is usually the
case after a riot. Except for the handful of prisoners, everyone who could possibly have
been concerned in the attack on the Club had a watertight alibi. The Club garden looked
as though a herd of bison had stampeded across it, but the houses had not been plundered,
and there were no new casualties among the Europeans, except that after everything was
over Mr Lackersteen had been found very drunk under the billiard-table, where he had
retired with a bottle of whisky. Westfield and Verrall came back early in the morning,
bringing Maxwell’s murderers under arrest; or at any rate, bringing two people who
would presently be hanged for Maxwell’s murder. Westfield, when he heard the news of
the riot, was gloomy but resigned. AGAIN it happened — a veritable riot, and he not there
to quell it! It seemed fated that he should never kill a man. Depressing, depressing.
Verrall’s only comment was that it had been ‘damned lip’ on the part of Flory (a civilian)
to give orders to the Military Police.
Meanwhile, it was raining almost without cease. As soon as he woke up and heard the
rain hammering on the roof Flory dressed and hurried out, Flo following. Out of sight of
the houses he took off his clothes and let the rain sluice down on his bare body. To his
surprise, he found that he was covered with bruises from last night; but the rain had
washed away every trace of his prickly heat within three minutes. It is wonderful, the
healing power of rainwater. Flory walked down to Dr Veraswami’s house, with his shoes
squelching and periodical jets of water flowing down his neck from the brim of his Terai
hat. The sky was leaden, and innumerable whirling storms chased one another across the
maidan like squadrons of cavalry. Burmans passed, under vast wooden hats in spite of
which their bodies streamed water like the bronze gods in the fountains. A network of
rivulets was already washing the stones of the road bare. The doctor had just got home
when Flory arrived, and was shaking a wet umbrella over the veranda rail. He hailed
Flory excitedly.
‘Come up, Mr Flory, come up at once! You are just apropos. I was on the point of
opening a bottle of Old Tommy Gin. Come up and let me drink to your health, ass the
saviour of Kyauktada! ’
They had a long talk together. The doctor was in a triumphant mood. It appeared that
what had happened last night had righted his troubles almost miraculously. U Po Kyin’s
schemes were undone. The doctor was no longer at his mercy — in fact, it was the other
way about. The doctor explained to Flory:
‘You see, my friend, this riot — or rather, your most noble behaviour in it — wass quite
outside U Po Kyin’s programme. He had started the SO-CALLED rebellion and had the
glory of crushing it, and he calculated that any further outbreak would simply mean more
glory still. I am told that when he heard of Mr Maxwell’s death, hiss joy was
positively’ — the doctor nipped his thumb and forefinger together — ‘what iss the word I
want? ’
‘Obscene? ’
‘Ah yes. Obscene. It iss said that actually he attempted to dance — can you imagine such a
disgusting spectacle? — and exclaimed, “Now at least they will take my rebellion
seriously! ” Such iss his regard for human life. But now hiss triumph iss at an end. The
riot hass tripped up in mid-career. ’
‘How? ’
‘Because, do you not see, the honours of the riot are not hiss, but yours! And I am known
to be your friend. I stand, so to speak, in the reflection of your glory. Are you not the hero
of the hour? Did not your European friends receive you with open arms when you
returned to the Club last night? ’
‘They did, I must admit. It was quite a new experience for me. Mrs Lackersteen was all
over me. “DEAR Mr Flory”, she calls me now. And she’s got her knife properly in Ellis.
She hasn’t forgotten that he called her a bloody hag and told her to stop squealing like a
Pig-’
‘Ah, Mr Ellis iss sometimes over-emphatic in hiss expressions. I have noticed it. ’
‘The only fly in the ointment is that I told the police to fire over the crowd’s heads
instead of straight at them. It seems that’s against all the Government regulations. Ellis
was a little vexed about it. “Why didn’t you plug some of the b — s when you had the
chance? ” he said. I pointed out that it would have meant hitting the police who were in
the middle of the crowd; but as he said, they were only niggers anyway. However, all my
sins are forgiven me. And Macgregor quoted something in Latin — Horace, I believe. ’
It was half an hour later when Flory walked along to the Club. He had promised to see
Mr Macgregor and settle the business of the doctor’s election. But there would be no
difficulty about it now. The others would eat out of his hand until the absurd riot was
forgotten; he could have gone into the Club and made a speech in favour of Lenin, and
they would have put up with it. The lovely rain streamed down, drenching him from head
to foot, and filling his nostrils with the scent of earth, forgotten during the bitter months
of drought. He walked up the wrecked garden, where the mali, bending down with the
rain splashing on his bare back, was trowelling holes for zinnias. Nearly all the flowers
had been trampled out of existence. Elizabeth was there, on the side veranda, almost as
though she were waiting for him. He took off his hat, spilling a pool of water from the
brim, and went round to join her.
‘Good morning! ’ he said, raising his voice because of the rain that beat noisily on the low
roof.
‘Good morning! ISN’T it coming down? Simply PELTING! ’
‘Oh, this isn’t real rain. You wait till July. The whole Bay of Bengal is going to pour
itself on us, by instalments. ’
It seemed that they must never meet without talking of the weather. Nevertheless, her
face said something very different from the banal words. Her demeanour had changed
utterly since last night. He took courage.
‘How is the place where that stone hit you? ’
She held her arm out to him and let him take it. Her air was gentle, even submissive. He
realized that his exploit of last night had made him almost a hero in her eyes. She could
not know how small the danger had really been, and she forgave him everything, even
Ma Hla May, because he had shown courage at the right moment. It was the buffalo and
the leopard over again. His heart thumped in his breast.
again the night of the full moon — four weeks to a day since that evening, now unutterably
remote, when he had kissed Elizabeth under the frangipani tree.
They had just sat down at the bridge table, and Mrs Lackersteen had just revoked out of
pure nervousness, when there was a heavy thump on the roof. Everyone started and look
up.
‘A coco-nut falling! ’ said Mr Macgregor.
‘There aren’t any coco-nut trees here,’ said Ellis.
The next moment a number of things happened all together. There was another and much
louder bang, one of the petrol lamps broke from its hook and crashed to the ground,
narrowly missing Mr Lackersteen, who jumped aside with a yelp, Mrs Lackersteen began
screaming, and the butler rushed into the room, bareheaded, his face the colour of bad
coffee.
‘Sir, sir! Bad men come! Going to murder us all, sir! ’
‘What? Bad men? What do you mean? ’
‘Sir, all the villagers are outside! Big stick and dah in their hands, and all dancing about!
Going to cut master’s throat, sir! ’
Mrs Lackersteen threw herself backwards in her chair. She was setting up such a din of
screams as to drown the butler’s voice.
‘Oh, be quiet! ’ said Ellis sharply, turning on her. ‘Listen, all of you! Listen to that! ’
There was a deep, murmurous, dangerous sound outside, like the humming of an angry
giant. Mr Macgregor, who had stood up, stiffened as he heard it, and settled his
spectacles pugnaciously on his nose.
‘This is some kind of disturbance! Butler, pick that lamp up. Miss Lackersteen, look to
your aunt. See if she is hurt. The rest of you come with me! ’
They all made for the front door, which someone, presumably the butler, had closed. A
fusillade of small pebbles was rattling against it like hail. Mr Lackersteen wavered at the
sound and retreated behind the others.
‘I say, dammit, bolt that bloody door, someone! ’ he said.
‘No, no! ’ said Mr Macgregor. ‘We must go outside. It’s fatal not to face them! ’
He opened the door and presented himself boldly at the top of the steps. There were about
twenty Burmans on the path, with dahs or sticks in their hands. Outside the fence,
stretching up the road in either direction and far out on to the maidan, was an enonnous
crowd of people. It was like a sea of people, two thousand at the least, black and white in
the moon, with here and there a curved dah glittering. Ellis had coolly placed himself
beside Mr Macgregor, with his hands in his pockets. Mr Lackersteen had disappeared.
Mr Macgregor raised his hand for silence. ‘What is the meaning of this? ’ he shouted
sternly.
There were yells, and some lumps of laterite the size of cricket balls came sailing from
the road, but fortunately hit no one. One of the men on the path turned and waved his
arms to the others, shouting that they were not to begin throwing yet. Then he stepped
forward to address the Europeans. He was a strong debonair fellow of about thirty, with
down-curving moustaches, wearing a singlet, with his longyi kilted to the knee.
‘What is the meaning of this? ’ Mr Macgregor repeated.
The man spoke up with a cheerful grin, and not very insolently.
‘We have no quarrel with you, min gyi. We have come for the timber merchant, Ellis. ’
(He pronounced it Ellit. ) ‘The boy whom he struck this morning has gone blind. You
must send Ellit out to us here, so that we can punish him. The rest of you will not be
hurt. ’
‘Just remember that fellow’s face,’ said Ellis over his shoulder to Flory. ‘We’ll get him
seven years for this afterwards. ’
Mr Macgregor had turned temporarily quite purple. His rage was so great that it almost
choked him. For several moments he could not speak, and when he did so it was in
English.
‘Whom do you think you are speaking to? In twenty years I have never heard such
insolence! Go away this instant, or I shall call out the Military Police! ’
‘You’d better be quick, min gyi. We know that there is no justice for us in your courts, so
we must punish Ellit ourselves. Send him out to us here. Otherwise, all of you will weep
for it. ’
Mr Macgregor made a furious motion with his fist, as though hammering in a nail, ‘Go
away, son of a dog! ’ he cried, using his first oath in many years.
There was a thunderous roar from the road, and such a shower of stones, that everyone
was hit, including the Burmans on the path. One stone took Mr Macgregor full in the
face, almost knocking him down. The Europeans bolted hastily inside and barred the
door. Mr Macgregor’ s spectacles were smashed and his nose streaming blood. They got
back to the lounge to find Mrs Lackersteen looping about in one of the long chairs like a
hysterical snake, Mr Lackersteen standing irresolutely in the middle of the room, holding
an empty bottle, the butler on his knees in the corner, crossing himself (he was a Roman
Catholic), the chokras crying, and only Elizabeth calm, though she was very pale.
‘What’s happened? ’ she exclaimed.
‘We’re in the soup, that’s what’s happened! ’ said Ellis angrily, feeling at the back of his
neck where a stone had hit him. ‘The Burmans are all round, shying rocks. But keep
calm! They haven’t the guts to break the doors in. ’
‘Call out the police at once! ’ said Mr Macgregor indistinctly, for he was stanching his
nose with his handkerchief.
‘Can’t! ’ said Ellis. ‘I was looking round while you were talking to them. They’ve cut us
off, rot their damned souls! No one could possibly get to the police lines. Veraswami’s
compound is full of men. ’
‘Then we must wait. We can trust them to turn out of their own accord. Calm yourself,
my dear Mrs Lackersteen, PLEASE calm yourself! The danger is very small. ’
It did not sound small. There were no gaps in the noise now, and the Burmans seemed to
be pouring into the compounds by hundreds. The din swelled suddenly to such a volume
that no one could make himself heard except by shouting. All the windows in the lounge
had been shut, and some perforated zinc shutters within, which were sometimes used for
keeping out insects, pulled to and bolted. There was a series of crashes as the windows
were broken, and then a ceaseless thudding of stones from all sides, that shook the thin
wooden walls and seemed likely to split them. Ellis opened a shutter and flung a bottle
viciously among the crowd, but a dozen stones came hurtling in and he had to close the
shutter hurriedly. The Burmans seemed to have no plan beyond flinging stones, yelling
and hammering at the walls, but the mere volume of noise was unnerving. The Europeans
were half dazed by it at first. None of them thought to blame Ellis, the sole cause of this
affair; their common peril seemed, indeed, to draw them closer together for the while. Mr
Macgregor, half-blind without his spectacles, stood distractedly in the middle of the
room, yielding his right hand to Mrs Lackersteen, who was caressing it, while a weeping
chokra clung to his left leg. Mr Lackersteen had vanished again. Ellis was stamping
furiously up and down, shaking his fist in the direction of the police lines.
‘Where are the police, the f — cowardly sods? ’ he yelled, heedless of the women. ‘Why
don’t they turn out? My God, we won’t get another chance like this in a hundred years! If
we’d only ten rifles here, how we could slosh these b — s! ’
‘They’ll be here presently! ’ Mr Macgregor shouted back. ‘It will take them some minutes
to penetrate that crowd. ’
‘But why don’t they use their rifles, the miserable sons of bitches? They could slaughter
them in bloody heaps if they’d only open fire. Oh, God, to think of missing a chance like
this! ’
A lump of rock burst one of the zinc shutters. Another followed through the hole it had
made, stove in a ‘Bonzo’ picture, bounced off, cut Elizabeth’s elbow, and finally landed
on the table. There was a roar of triumph from outside, and then a succession of
tremendous thumps on the roof. Some children had climbed into the trees and were
having the time of their lives sliding down the roof on their bottoms. Mrs Lackersteen
outdid all previous efforts with a shriek that rose easily above the din outside.
‘Choke that bloody hag, somebody! ’ cried Ellis. ‘Anyone’d think a pig was being killed.
We’ve got to do something. Flory, Macgregor, come here! Think of a way out of this
mess, someone! ’
Elizabeth had suddenly lost her nerve and begun crying. The blow from the stone had
hurt her. To Flory’s astonishment, he found her clinging tightly to his ann. Even in that
moment it made his heart turn over. He had been watching the scene almost with
detachment — dazed by the noise, indeed, but not much frightened. He always found it
difficult to believe Orientals could be really dangerous. Only when he felt Elizabeth’s
hand on his arm did he grasp the seriousness of the situation.
‘Oh, Mr Flory, please, please think of something! You can, you can! Anything sooner
than let those dreadful men get in here! ’
‘If only one of us could get to the police lines! ’ groaned Mr Macgregor. ‘A British officer
to lead them! At the worst I must try and go myself. ’
‘Don’t be a fool! Only get your throat cut! ’ yelled Ellis. ‘/‘II go if they really look like
breaking in. But, oh, to be killed by swine like that! How furious it’d make me! And to
think we could murder the whole bloody crowd if only we could get the police here! ’
‘Couldn’t someone get along the river bank? ’ Flory shouted despairingly.
‘Hopeless! Hundreds of them prowling up and down. We’re cut off — Burmans on three
sides and the river on the other! ’
‘The river! ’
One of those startling ideas that are overlooked simply because they are so obvious had
sprung into Flory’s mind.
‘The river! Of course! We can get to the police lines as easy as winking. Don’t you see? ’
‘How? ’
‘Why, down the river — in the water! Swim! ’
‘Oh, good man! ’ cried Ellis, and smacked Flory on the shoulder. Elizabeth squeezed his
arm and actually danced a step or two in glee. ‘I’ll go if you like! ’ Ellis shouted, but
Flory shook his head. He had already begun slipping his shoes off. There was obviously
no time to be lost. The Burmans had behaved like fools hitherto, but there was no saying
what might happen if they succeeded in breaking in. The butler, who had got over his
first fright, prepared to open the window that gave on the lawn, and glanced obliquely
out. There were barely a score of Burmans on the lawn. They had left the back of the
Club unguarded, supposing that the river cut off retreat.
‘Rush down the lawn like hell! ’ Ellis shouted in Flory’s ear. ‘They’ll scatter all right
when they see you. ’
‘Order the police to open fire at once! ’ shouted Mr Macgregor from the other side. ‘You
have my authority. ’
‘And tell them to aim low! No firing over their heads. Shoot to kill. In the guts for
choice! ’
Flory leapt down from the veranda, hurting his feet on the hard earth, and was at the river
ha nk in six paces. As Ellis had said, the Burmans recoiled for a moment when they saw
him leaping down. A few stones followed him, but no one pursued — they thought, no
doubt, that he was only attempting to escape, and in the clear moonlight they could see
that it was not Ellis. In another moment he had pushed his way through the bushes and
was in the water.
He sank deep down, and the horrible river ooze received him, sucking him knee-deep so
that it was several seconds before he could free himself. When he came to the surface a
tepid froth, like the froth on stout, was lapping round his lips, and some spongy thing had
floated into his throat and was choking him. It was a sprig of water hyacinth. He managed
to spit it out, and found that the swift current had floated him twenty yards already.
Burmans were rushing rather aimlessly up and down the bank, yelling. With his eye at
the level of the water, Flory could not see the crowd besieging the Club; but he could
hear their deep, devilish roaring, which sounded even louder than it had sounded on
shore.
By the time he was opposite the Military Police lines the ha nk seemed almost bare
of men. He managed to struggle out of the current and flounder through the mud, which
sucked off his left sock. A little way down the bank two old men were sitting beside a
fence, sharpening fence-posts, as though there had not been a riot within a hundred miles
of them. Flory crawled ashore, clambered over the fence and ran heavily across the
moonwhite parade-ground, his wet trousers sagging. As far as he could tell in the noise,
the lines were quite empty. In some stalls over to the right Verrall’s horses were plunging
about in a panic. Flory ran out on to the road, and saw what had happened.
The whole body of policemen, military and civil, about a hundred and fifty men in all,
had attacked the crowd from the rear, armed only with sticks. They had been utterly
engulfed. The crowd was so dense that it was like an enormous swarm of bees seething
and rotating. Everywhere one could see policemen wedged helplessly among the hordes
of Burmans, struggling furiously but uselessly, and too cramped even to use their sticks.
Whole knots of men were tangled Laocoon-like in the folds of unrolled pagris. There was
a terrific bellowing of oaths in three or four languages, clouds of dust, and a suffocating
stench of sweat and marigolds — but no one seemed to have been seriously hurt. Probably
the Burmans had not used their daks for fear of provoking rifle-lire. Flory pushed his way
into the crowd and was immediately swallowed up like the others. A sea of bodies closed
in upon him and flung him from side to side, bumping his ribs and choking him with their
animal heat. He struggled onwards with an almost dreamlike feeling, so absurd and
unreal was the situation. The whole riot had been ludicrous from the start, and what was
most ludicrous of all was that the Burmans, who might have killed him, did not know
what to do with him now he was among them. Some yelled insults in his face, some
jostled him and stamped on his feet, some even tried to make way for him, as a white
man. He was not certain whether he was fighting for his life, or merely pushing his way
through the crowd. For quite a long time he was jammed, helpless, with his arms pinned
against his sides, then he found himself wrestling with a stumpy Burman much stronger
than himself, then a dozen men rolled against him like a wave and drove him deeper into
the heart of the crowd. Suddenly he felt an agonizing pain in his right big toe — someone
in boots had trodden on it. It was the Military Police subahdar, a Rajput, very fat,
moustachioed, with his pagri gone. He was grasping a Burman by the throat and trying to
hammer his face, while the sweat rolled off his bare, bald crown. Flory threw his arm
round the subahdar’ s neck and managed to tear him away from his adversary and shout in
his ear. His Urdu deserted him, and he bellowed in Bunnese:
‘Why did you not open fire? ’
For a long time he could not hear the man’s answer. Then he caught it:
‘Hukm ne aya’ — ‘I have had no order! ’
‘Idiot! ’
At this moment another bunch of men drove against them, and for a minute or two they
were pinned and quite unable to move. Flory realized that the subahdar had a whistle in
his pocket and was trying to get at it. Finally he got it loose and blew piercing blasts, but
there was no hope of rallying any men until they could get into a clear space. It was a
fearful labour to struggle our of the crowd — it was like wading neck-deep through a
viscous sea. At times the exhaustion of Flory’s limbs was so complete that he stood
passive, letting the crowd hold him and even drive him backwards. At last, more from the
natural eddying of the crowd than by his own effort, he found himself flung out into the
open. The subahdar had also emerged, ten or fifteen sepoys, and a Burmese Inspector of
Police. Most of the sepoys collapsed on their haunches almost falling with fatigue, and
limping, their feet having been trampled on.
‘Come on, get up! Run like hell for the lines! Get some rifles and a clip of ammunition
each. ’
He was too overcome even to speak in Burmese, but the men understood him and lopped
heavily towards the police lines. Flory followed them, to get away from the crowd before
they turned on him again. When he reached the gate the sepoys were returning with their
rifles and already preparing to fire.
‘The sahib will give the order! ’ the subahdar panted.
‘Here you! ’ cried Flory to the Inspector. ‘Can you speak Hindustani? ’
‘Yes, sir. ’
‘Then tell them to fire high, right over the people’s heads. And above all, to fire all
together. Make them understand that. ’
The fat Inspector, whose Hindustani was even worse than Flory’s, explained what was
wanted, chiefly by leaping up and down and gesticulating. The sepoys raised their rifles,
there was a roar, and a rolling echo from the hillside. For a moment Flory thought that his
order had been disregarded, for almost the entire section of the crowd nearest them had
fallen like a swath of hay. However, they had only flung themselves down in panic. The
sepoys fired a second volley, but it was not needed. The crowd had immediately begun to
surge outwards from the Club like a river changing its course. They came pouring down
the road, saw the anned men barring their way, and tried to recoil, whereupon there was a
fresh battle between those in front and those behind; finally the whole crowd bulged
outwards and began to roll slowly up the maidan. Flory and the sepoys moved slowly
towards the Club on the heels of the retreating crowd. The policemen who had been
engulfed were straggling back by ones and twos. Their pagris were gone and their puttees
trailing yards behind them, but they had no damage worse than bruises. The Civil
Policemen were dragging a very few prisoners among them. When they reached the Club
compound the Burmans were still pouring out, an endless line of young men leaping
gracefully through a gap in the hedge like a procession of gazelles. It seemed to Flory
that it was getting very dark. A small white-clad figure extricated itself from the last of
the crowd and tumbled limply into Flory’s arms. It was Dr Veraswami, with his tie torn
off but his spectacles miraculously unbroken.
‘Doctor! ’
‘Ach, my friend! Ach, how I am exhausted! ’
‘What are you doing here? Were you right in the middle of that crowd? ’
‘I was trying to restrain them, my friend. It was hopeless until you came. But there is at
least one man who bears the mark of this, I think! ’
He held out a small fist for Flory to see the damaged knuckles. But it was certainly quite
dark now. At the same moment Flory heard a nasal voice behind him.
‘Well, Mr Flory, so it’s all over already! A mere flash in the pan as usual. You and I
together were a little too much for them — ha, ha! ’
It was U Po Kyin. He came towards them with a martial air, carrying a huge stick, and
with a revolver thrust into his belt. His dress was a studious negligee — singlet and Shan
trousers — to give the impression that he had rushed out of his house post-haste. He had
been lying low until the danger should be over, and was now hurrying forth to grab a
share of any credit that might be going.
‘A smart piece of work, sir! ’ he said enthusiastically. ‘Look how they are flying up the
hillside! We have routed them most satisfactory. ’
‘WE! ’ panted the doctor indignantly.
‘Ah, my dear doctor! I did not perceive that you were there. It is possible that YOU also
have been in the fighting? YOU — risking your most valuable life! Who would have
believed such a thing? ’
‘You’ve taken your time getting here yourself! ’ said Flory angrily.
‘Well, well sir, it is enough that we have dispersed them. Although,’ he added with a
touch of satisfaction, for he had noticed Flory’s tone, ‘they are going in the direction of
the European houses, you will observe. I fancy that it will occur to them to do a little
plundering on their way. ’
One had to admire the man’s impudence. He tucked his great stick under his arm and
strolled beside Flory in an almost patronizing manner, while the doctor dropped behind,
abashed in spite of himself. At the Club gate all three men halted. It was now
extraordinarily dark, and the moon had vanished. Low overhead, just visible, black
clouds were streaming eastward like a pack of hounds. A wind, almost cold, blew down
the hillside and swept a cloud of dust and fine water-vapour before it. There was a sudden
intensely rich scent of damp. The wind quickened, the trees rustled, then began beating
themselves furiously together, the big frangipani tree by the tennis court flinging out a
nebula of dimly seen blossom. All three men turned and hurried for shelter, the Orientals
to their houses, Flory to the Club. It had begun raining.
CHAPTER 23
Next day the town was quieter than a cathedral city on Monday morning. It is usually the
case after a riot. Except for the handful of prisoners, everyone who could possibly have
been concerned in the attack on the Club had a watertight alibi. The Club garden looked
as though a herd of bison had stampeded across it, but the houses had not been plundered,
and there were no new casualties among the Europeans, except that after everything was
over Mr Lackersteen had been found very drunk under the billiard-table, where he had
retired with a bottle of whisky. Westfield and Verrall came back early in the morning,
bringing Maxwell’s murderers under arrest; or at any rate, bringing two people who
would presently be hanged for Maxwell’s murder. Westfield, when he heard the news of
the riot, was gloomy but resigned. AGAIN it happened — a veritable riot, and he not there
to quell it! It seemed fated that he should never kill a man. Depressing, depressing.
Verrall’s only comment was that it had been ‘damned lip’ on the part of Flory (a civilian)
to give orders to the Military Police.
Meanwhile, it was raining almost without cease. As soon as he woke up and heard the
rain hammering on the roof Flory dressed and hurried out, Flo following. Out of sight of
the houses he took off his clothes and let the rain sluice down on his bare body. To his
surprise, he found that he was covered with bruises from last night; but the rain had
washed away every trace of his prickly heat within three minutes. It is wonderful, the
healing power of rainwater. Flory walked down to Dr Veraswami’s house, with his shoes
squelching and periodical jets of water flowing down his neck from the brim of his Terai
hat. The sky was leaden, and innumerable whirling storms chased one another across the
maidan like squadrons of cavalry. Burmans passed, under vast wooden hats in spite of
which their bodies streamed water like the bronze gods in the fountains. A network of
rivulets was already washing the stones of the road bare. The doctor had just got home
when Flory arrived, and was shaking a wet umbrella over the veranda rail. He hailed
Flory excitedly.
‘Come up, Mr Flory, come up at once! You are just apropos. I was on the point of
opening a bottle of Old Tommy Gin. Come up and let me drink to your health, ass the
saviour of Kyauktada! ’
They had a long talk together. The doctor was in a triumphant mood. It appeared that
what had happened last night had righted his troubles almost miraculously. U Po Kyin’s
schemes were undone. The doctor was no longer at his mercy — in fact, it was the other
way about. The doctor explained to Flory:
‘You see, my friend, this riot — or rather, your most noble behaviour in it — wass quite
outside U Po Kyin’s programme. He had started the SO-CALLED rebellion and had the
glory of crushing it, and he calculated that any further outbreak would simply mean more
glory still. I am told that when he heard of Mr Maxwell’s death, hiss joy was
positively’ — the doctor nipped his thumb and forefinger together — ‘what iss the word I
want? ’
‘Obscene? ’
‘Ah yes. Obscene. It iss said that actually he attempted to dance — can you imagine such a
disgusting spectacle? — and exclaimed, “Now at least they will take my rebellion
seriously! ” Such iss his regard for human life. But now hiss triumph iss at an end. The
riot hass tripped up in mid-career. ’
‘How? ’
‘Because, do you not see, the honours of the riot are not hiss, but yours! And I am known
to be your friend. I stand, so to speak, in the reflection of your glory. Are you not the hero
of the hour? Did not your European friends receive you with open arms when you
returned to the Club last night? ’
‘They did, I must admit. It was quite a new experience for me. Mrs Lackersteen was all
over me. “DEAR Mr Flory”, she calls me now. And she’s got her knife properly in Ellis.
She hasn’t forgotten that he called her a bloody hag and told her to stop squealing like a
Pig-’
‘Ah, Mr Ellis iss sometimes over-emphatic in hiss expressions. I have noticed it. ’
‘The only fly in the ointment is that I told the police to fire over the crowd’s heads
instead of straight at them. It seems that’s against all the Government regulations. Ellis
was a little vexed about it. “Why didn’t you plug some of the b — s when you had the
chance? ” he said. I pointed out that it would have meant hitting the police who were in
the middle of the crowd; but as he said, they were only niggers anyway. However, all my
sins are forgiven me. And Macgregor quoted something in Latin — Horace, I believe. ’
It was half an hour later when Flory walked along to the Club. He had promised to see
Mr Macgregor and settle the business of the doctor’s election. But there would be no
difficulty about it now. The others would eat out of his hand until the absurd riot was
forgotten; he could have gone into the Club and made a speech in favour of Lenin, and
they would have put up with it. The lovely rain streamed down, drenching him from head
to foot, and filling his nostrils with the scent of earth, forgotten during the bitter months
of drought. He walked up the wrecked garden, where the mali, bending down with the
rain splashing on his bare back, was trowelling holes for zinnias. Nearly all the flowers
had been trampled out of existence. Elizabeth was there, on the side veranda, almost as
though she were waiting for him. He took off his hat, spilling a pool of water from the
brim, and went round to join her.
‘Good morning! ’ he said, raising his voice because of the rain that beat noisily on the low
roof.
‘Good morning! ISN’T it coming down? Simply PELTING! ’
‘Oh, this isn’t real rain. You wait till July. The whole Bay of Bengal is going to pour
itself on us, by instalments. ’
It seemed that they must never meet without talking of the weather. Nevertheless, her
face said something very different from the banal words. Her demeanour had changed
utterly since last night. He took courage.
‘How is the place where that stone hit you? ’
She held her arm out to him and let him take it. Her air was gentle, even submissive. He
realized that his exploit of last night had made him almost a hero in her eyes. She could
not know how small the danger had really been, and she forgave him everything, even
Ma Hla May, because he had shown courage at the right moment. It was the buffalo and
the leopard over again. His heart thumped in his breast.
