No More Learning

Mr
Macgregor came in at this moment, Ellis and Mr Lackersteen following. This made up
the full quota, for the women members of the Club had no votes. Mr Macgregor was
already dressed in a silk suit, and was carrying the Club account books under his arm. He
managed to bring a sub-official air even into such petty business as a Club meeting.

‘As we seem to be all here,’ he said after the usual greetings, ‘shall we — ah — proceed
with our labours? ’

‘Lead on, Macduff,’ said Westfield, sitting down.


‘Call the butler, someone, for Christ’s sake,’ said Mr Lackersteen. ‘I daren’t let my
missus hear me calling him. ’



‘Before we apply ourselves to the agenda,’ said Mr Macgregor when he had refused a
drink and the others had taken one, ‘I expect you will want me to run through the
accounts for the half-year? ’

They did not want it particularly, but Mr Macgregor, who enjoyed this kind of thing, ran
through the accounts with great thoroughness. Flory’s thoughts were wandering. There
was going to be such a row in a moment — oh, such a devil of a row! They would be
furious when they found that he was proposing the doctor after all. And Elizabeth was in
the next room. God send she didn’t hear the noise of the row when it came. It would
make her despise him all the more to see the others baiting him. Would he see her this
evening? Would she speak to him? He gazed across the quarter-mile of gleaming river.
By the far bank a knot of men, one of them wearing a green gaungbaung, were waiting
beside a sampan. In the channel, by the nearer bank, a huge, clumsy Indian barge
struggled with desperate slowness against the racing current. At each stroke the ten
rowers, Dravidian starvelings, ran forward and plunged their long primitive oars, with
heart-shaped blades, into the water. They braced their meagre bodies, then tugged,
writhed, strained backwards like agonized creatures of black rubber, and the ponderous
hull crept onwards a yard or two. Then the rowers sprang forward, panting, to plunge
their oars again before the current should check her.

‘And now,’ said Mr Macgregor more gravely, ‘we come to the main point of the agenda.
That, of course, is this — ah — distasteful question, which I am afraid must be faced, of
electing a native member to this Club. When we discussed the matter before — ’

‘What the hell! ’

It was Ellis who had interrupted. He was so excited that he had sprung to his feet.

‘What the hell! Surely we aren’t starting THAT over again? Talk about electing a
damned nigger so this Club, after everything that’s happened! Good God, I thought even
Flory had dropped it by this time! ’


‘Our friend Ellis appears surprised. The matter has been discussed before, I believe. ’



‘I should think it damned well was discussed before! And we all said what we thought of
it. By God — ’

‘If our friend Ellis will sit down for a few moments — ’ said Mr Macgregor tolerantly.

Ellis threw himself into his chair again, exclaiming, ‘Bloody rubbish! ’ Beyond the river
Flory could see the group of Burmans embarking. They were lifting a long, awkward-
shaped bundle into the sampan. Mr Macregor had produced a letter from his file of
papers.

‘Perhaps I had better explain how this question arose in the first place. The
Commissioner tells me that a circular has been sent round by the Government, suggesting
that in those Clubs where there are no native members, one at least shall be co-opted; that
is, admitted automatically. The circular says — ah yes! here it is: “It is mistaken policy to
offer social affronts to native officials of high standing. ” I may say that I disagree most
emphatically. No doubt we all do. We who have to do the actual work of government see
things very differently from these — ah — Paget M. P. s who interfere with us from above.
The Commissioner quite agrees with me. However — ’

‘But it’s all bloody rot! ’ broke in Ellis. ‘What’s it got to do with the Commissioner or
anyone else? Surely we can do as we like in our own bloody Club? They’ve no right to
dictate to us when we’re off duty. ’

‘Quite,’ said Westfield.

‘You anticipate me. I told the Commissioner that I should have to put the matter before
the other members. And the course he suggests is this. If the idea finds any support in the
Club, he thinks it would be better if we co-opted our native member. On the other hand, if
the entire Club is against it, it can be dropped. That is, if opinion is quite unanimous. ’

‘Well, it damned well is unanimous,’ said Ellis.

‘D’you mean,’ said Westfield, ‘that it depends on ourselves whether we have ‘em in here
or no? ’


‘I fancy we can take it as meaning that. ’



‘Well, then, let’s say we’re against it to a man. ’


‘And say it bloody firmly, by God. We want to put our foot down on this idea once and
for all. ’

‘Hear, hear! ’ said Mr Lackersteen gruffly. ‘Keep the black swabs out of it. Esprit de
corps and all that. ’

Mr Lackersteen could always be relied upon for sound sentiments in a case like this. In
his heart he did not care and never had cared a damn for the British Raj, and he was as
happy drinking with an Oriental as with a white man; but he was always ready with a
loud ‘Hear, hear! ’ when anyone suggested the bamboo for disrespectful servants or
boiling oil for Nationalists. He prided himself that though he might booze a bit and all
that, dammit, he WAS loyal. It was his form of respectability. Mr Macgregor was secretly
rather relieved by the general agreement. If any Oriental member were co-opted, that
member would have to be Dr Veraswami, and he had had the deepest distrust of the
doctor ever since Nga Shwe O’s suspicious escape from the jail.

‘Then I take it that you are all agreed? ’ he said. ‘If so, I will inform the Commissioner.
Otherwise, we must begin discussing the candidate for election. ’

Flory stood up. He had got to say his say. His heart seemed to have risen into his throat
and to be choking him. From what Mr Macgregor had said, it was clear that it was in his
power to secure the doctor’s election by speaking the word. But oh, what a bore, what a
nuisance it was! What an infernal uproar there would be! How he wished he had never
given the doctor that promise! No matter, he had given it, and he could not break it. So
short a time ago he would have broken it, en bon pukka sahib, how easily! But not now.
He had got to see this thing through. He turned himself sidelong so that his birthmark was
away from the others. Already he could feel his voice going flat and guilty.

‘Our friend Flory has something to suggest? ’

‘Yes. I propose Dr Veraswami as a member of this Club. ’

There was such a yell of dismay from three of the others that Mr Macgregor had to rap
sharply on the table and remind them that the ladies were in the next room. Ellis took not



the smallest notice. He had sprung to his feet again, and the skin round his nose had gone
quite grey. He and Flory remained facing one another, as though on the point of blows.

‘Now, you damned swab, will you take that back? ’

‘No, I will not. ’

‘You oily swine! You nigger’s Nancy Boy! You crawling, sneaking, — bloody bastard! ’
‘Order! ’ exclaimed Mr Macgregor.

‘But look at him, look at him! ’ cried Ellis almost tearfully. ‘Letting us all down for the
sake of a pot-bellied nigger! After all we’ve said to him! When we’ve only got to hang
together and we can keep the stink of garlic out of this Club for ever. My God, wouldn’t
it make you spew your guts up to see anyone behaving like such a — ? ’

‘Take it back, Flory, old man! ’ said Westfield. ‘Don’t be a bloody fool! ’

‘Downright Bolshevism, dammit! ’ said Mr Lackersteen.

‘Do you think I care what you say? What business is it of yours? It’s for Macgregor to
decide. ’

‘Then do you — ah — adhere to your decision? ’ said Mr Macgregor gloomily.

‘Yes. ’

Mr Macgregor sighed. ‘A pity! Well, in that case I suppose I have no choice — ’

‘No, no, no! ’ cried Ellis, dancing about in his rage. ‘Don’t give in to him! Put it to the
vote. And if that son of a bitch doesn’t put in a black ball like the rest of us, we’ll first
turf him out of the Club himself, and then — well! Butler! ’

‘Sahib! ’ said the butler, appearing.

‘Bring the ballot box and the balls. Now clear out! ’ he added roughly when the butler had
obeyed.



The air had gone very stagnant; for some reason the punkah had stopped working. Mr
Macgregor stood up with a disapproving but judicial mien, taking the two drawers of
black and white balls out of the ballot box.

‘We must proceed in order. Mr Flory proposes Dr Veraswami, the Civil Surgeon, as a
member of this Club. Mistaken, in my opinion, greatly mistaken; however — ! Before
putting the matter to the vote — ’

‘Oh, why make a song and dance about it? ’ said Ellis. ‘Here’s my contribution! And
another for Maxwell. ’ He plumped two black balls into the box. Then one of his sudden
spasms of rage seized him, and he took the drawer of white balls and pitched them across
the floor. They went flying in all directions. ‘There! Now pick one up if you want to use
it! ’


‘You damned fool! What good do you think that does? ’

‘Sahib! ’

They all started and looked round. The chokra was goggling at them over the veranda
rail, having climbed up from below. With one skinny arm he clung to the rail and with
the other gesticulated towards the river.

‘Sahib! Sahib! ’

‘What’s up? ’ said Westfield.

They all moved for the window. The sampan that Flory had seen across the river was
lying under the bank at the foot of the lawn, one of the men clinging to a bush to steady
it. The Burman in the green gaungbaung was climbing out.

‘That’s one of Maxwell’s Forest Rangers! ’ said Ellis in quite a different voice. ‘By God!
something’s happened! ’

The Forest Ranger saw Mr Macgregor, shikoed in a hurried, preoccupied way and turned
back to the sampan. Four other men, peasants, climbed out after him, and with difficulty
lifted ashore the strange bundle that Flory had seen in the distance. It was six feet long,



swathed in cloths, like a mummy. Something happened in everybody’s entrails. The
Forest Ranger glanced at the veranda, saw that there was no way up, and led the peasants
round the path to the front of the Club. They had hoisted the bundle on to their shoulders
as funeral bearers hoist a coffin. The butler had flitted into the lounge again, and even his
face was pale after its fashion — that is, grey.

‘Butler! ’ said Mr Macgregor sharply.

‘Sir! ’

‘Go quickly and shut the door of the card-room. Keep it shut. Don’t let the memsahibs
see. ’

‘Yes, sir! ’

The Burmans, with their burden, came heavily down the passage. As they entered the
leading man staggered and almost fell; he had trodden on one of the white balls that were
scattered about the floor. The Burmans knelt down, lowered their burden to the floor and
stood over it with a strange reverent air, slightly bowing, their hands together in a shiko.
Westfield had fallen on his knees, and he pulled back the cloth.

‘Christ! Just look at him! ’ he said, but without much surprise. ‘Just look at the poor little
b— ! ’

Mr Lackersteen had retreated to the other end of the room, with a bleating noise. From
the moment when the bundle was lifted ashore they had all known what it contained. It
was the body of Maxwell, cut almost to pieces with dahs by two relatives of the man
whom he had shot.


CHAPTER 22



Maxwell’s death had caused a profound shock in Kyauktada. It would cause a shock
throughout the whole of Burma, and the case — ‘the Kyauktada case, do you
remember?
’ — would still be talked of years after the wretched youth’s name was
forgotten. But in a purely personal way no one was much distressed. Maxwell had been
almost a nonentity — just a ‘good fellow’ like any other of the ten thousand ex colore
good fellows of Burma — and with no close friends. No one among the Europeans
genuinely mourned for him. But that is not to say that they were not angry. On the
contrary, for the moment they were almost mad with rage. For the unforgivable had
happened — A WHITE MAN had been killed. When that happens, a sort of shudder runs
through the English of the East. Eight hundred people, possibly, are murdered every year
in Burma; they matter nothing; but the murder of A WHITE MAN is a monstrosity, a
sacrilege. Poor Maxwell would be avenged, that was certain. But only a servant or two,
and the Forest Ranger who had brought in his body and who had been fond of him, shed
any tears for his death.

On the other hand, no one was actually pleased, except U Po Kyin.

‘This is a positive gift from heaven! ’ he told Ma Kin. ‘I could not have arranged it better
myself. The one thing I needed to make them take my rebellion seriously was a little
bloodshed. And here it is! I tell you, Ma Kin, every day I grow more certain that some
higher power is working on my behalf. ’

‘Ko Po Kyin, truly you are without shame! I do not know how you dare to say such
things. Do you not shudder to have murder upon your soul? ’

‘What! I? Murder upon my soul? What are you talking about? I have never killed so
much as a chicken in my life. ’

‘But you are profiting by this poor boy’s death. ’

‘Profiting by it! Of course I am profiting by it! And why not, indeed? Am I to blame if
somebody else choose to commit murder? The fisherman catches fish, and he is damned
for it. But are we damned for eating the fish? Certainly not. Why NOT eat the fish, once
it is dead? You should study the Scriptures more carefully, my dear Kin Kin. ’



The funeral took place next morning, before breakfast. All the Europeans were present,
except Verrall, who was careering about the maidan quite as usual, almost opposite the
cemetery. Mr Macgregor read the burial service. The little group of Englishmen stood
round the grave, their topis in their hands, sweating into the dark suits that they had dug
out from the bottom of their boxes. The harsh morning light beat without mercy upon
their faces, yellower than ever against the ugly, shabby clothes. Every face except
Elizabeth’s looked lined and old. Dr Veraswami and half a dozen other Orientals were
present, but they kept themselves decently in the background. There were sixteen
gravestones in the little cemetery; assistants of timber firms, officials, soldiers killed in
forgotten skirmishes.

‘Sacred to the memory of John Henry Spagnall, late of the Indian Imperial Police, who
was cut down by cholera while in the unremitting exercise of etc. , etc. , etc.

Flory remembered Spagnall dimly. He had died very suddenly in camp after his second
go of delirium tremens. In a corner there were some graves of Eurasians, with wooden
crosses. The creeping jasmine, with tiny orange-hearted flowers, had overgrown
everything. Among the jasmine, large rat-holes led down into the graves.

Mr Macgregor concluded the burial service in a ripe, reverent voice, and led the way out
of the cemetery, holding his grey topi — the Eastern equivalent of a top hat — against his
stomach. Flory lingered by the gate, hoping that Elizabeth would speak to him, but she
passed him without a glance. Everyone had shunned him this morning. He was in
disgrace; the murder had made his disloyalty of last night seem somehow horrible. Ellis
had caught Westfield by the arm, and they halted at the grave-side, taking out their
cigarette-cases. Flory could hear their slangy voices coming across the open grave.

‘My God, Westfield, my God, when I think of that poor little b — lying down there — oh,
my God, how my blood does boil! I couldn’t sleep all night, I was so furious. ’

‘Pretty bloody, I grant. Never mind, promise you a couple of chaps shall swing for it.
Two corpses against their one — best we can do. ’

‘Two! It ought to be fifty! We’ve got to raise heaven and hell to get these fellows hanged.
Have you got their names yet? ’



‘Yes, rather! ! Whole blooming district knows who did it. We always do know who’s
done it in these cases. Getting the bloody villagers to talk — that’s the only trouble. ’

‘Well, for God’s sake get them to talk this time. Never mind the bloody law. Whack it out
of them. Torture them — anything. If you want to bribe any witnesses, I’m good for a
couple of hundred chips. ’

Westfield sighed. ‘Can’t do that sort of thing, I’m afraid. Wish we could. My chaps’d
know how to put the screw on a witness if you gave ‘em the word. Tie ‘em down on an
ant-hill. Red peppers. But that won’t do nowadays. Got to keep our own bloody silly
laws. But never mind, those fellows’ll swing all right. We’ve got all the evidence we
want. ’

‘Good! And when you’ve arrested them, if you aren’t sure of getting a conviction, shoot
them, jolly well shoot them! Fake up an escape or something. Anything sooner than let
those b — s go free. ’

‘They won’t go free, don’t you fear. We’ll get ‘em. Get SOMEBODY, anyhow. Much
better hang wrong fellow than no fellow,’ he added, unconsciously quoting.

‘That’s the stuff! I’ll never sleep easy again till I’ve seen them swinging,’ said Ellis as
they moved away from the grave. ‘Christ! Let’s get out of this sun! I’m about perishing
with thirst. ’

Everyone was perishing, more or less, but it seemed hardly decent to go down to the Club
for drinks immediately after the funeral. The Europeans scattered for their houses, while
four sweepers with mamooties flung the grey, cement-like earth back into the grave, and
shaped it into a rough mound.

After breakfast, Ellis was walking down to his office, cane in hand. It was blinding hot.
Ellis had bathed and changed back into shirt and shorts, but wearing a thick suit even for
an hour had brought on his prickly heat abominably. Westfield had gone out already, in
his motor launch, with an inspector and half a dozen men, to arrest the murderers. He had
ordered Verrall to accompany him — not that Verrall was needed, but, as Westfield said, it
would do the young swab good to have a spot of work.



Ellis wriggled his shoulders — his prickly heat was almost beyond bearing. The rage was
stewing in his body like a bitter juice. He had brooded all night over what had happened.
They had killed a white man, killed A WHITE MAN, the bloody sods, the sneaking,
cowardly hounds! Oh, the swine, the swine, how they ought to be made to suffer for it!
Why did we make these cursed kid-glove laws? Why did we take everything lying down?
Just suppose this had happened in a German colony, before the War! The good old
Germans! They knew how to treat the niggers. Reprisals! Rhinoceros hide whips! Raid
their villages, kill their cattle, burn their crops, decimate them, blow them from the guns.

Ellis gazed into the horrible cascades of light that poured through the gaps in the trees.
His greenish eyes were large and mournful. A mild, middle-aged Burman came by,
balancing a huge bamboo, which he shifted from one shoulder to the other with a grunt as
he passed Ellis. Ellis’s grip tightened on his stick. If that swine, now, would only attack
you! Or even insult you — anything, so that you had the right to smash him! If only these
gutless curs would ever show fight in any conceivable way! Instead of just sneaking past
you, keeping within the law so that you never had a chance to get back at them. Ah, for a
real rebellion — martial law proclaimed and no quarter given! Lovely, sanguinary images
moved through his mind. Shrieking mounds of natives, soldiers slaughtering them. Shoot
them, ride them down, horses’ hooves trample their guts out, whips cut their faces in
slices!

Five High School boys came down the road abreast. Ellis saw them coming, a row of
yellow, malicious faces — epicene faces, horribly smooth and young, grinning at him with
deliberate insolence. It was in their minds to bait him, as a white man. Probably they had
heard of the murder, and — being Nationalists, like all schoolboys — regarded it as a
victory. They grinned full in Ellis’s face as they passed him. They were trying openly to
provoke him, and they knew that the law was on their side. Ellis felt his breast swell. The
look of their faces, jeering at him like a row of yellow images, was maddening. He
stopped short.

‘Here! What are you laughing at, you young ticks? ’

The boys turned.


‘I said what the bloody hell are you laughing at? ’



One of the boys answered, insolently — but perhaps his bad English made him seem more
insolent than he intended.


‘Not your business. ’

There was about a second during which Ellis did not know what he was doing. In that
second he had hit out with all his strength, and the cane landed, crack! right across the
boy’s eyes. The boy recoiled with a shriek, and in the same instant the other four had
thrown themselves upon Ellis. But he was too strong for them. He flung them aside and
sprang back, lashing out with his stick so furiously that none of them dared come near.

‘Keep your distance, you — s! Keep off, or by God I’ll smash another of you! ’ Though
they were four to one he was so formidable that they surged back in fright. The boy who
was hurt had fallen on his knees with his arms across his face, and was screaming ‘I am
blinded! I am blinded! ’ Suddenly the other four turned and darted for a pile of laterite,
used for road-mending, which was twenty yards away. One of Ellis’s clerks had appeared
on the veranda of the office and was leaping up and down in agitation.

‘Come up, sir come up at once. They will murder you! ’

Ellis disdained to run, but he moved for the veranda steps. A lump of laterite came sailing
through the air and shattered itself against a pillar, whereat the clerk scooted indoors. But
Ellis turned on the veranda to face the boys, who were below, each carrying an armful of
laterite. He was cackling with delight.

‘You damned, dirty little niggers! ’ he shouted down at them. ‘You got a surprise that
time, didn’t you? Come up on this veranda and fight me, all four of you! You daren’t.
Four to one and you daren’t face me! Do you call yourselves men? You sneaking, mangy
little rats! ’

He broke into Burmese, calling them the incestuous children of pigs. All the while they
were pelting him with lumps of laterite, but their anns were feeble and they threw
ineptly. He dodged the stones, and as each one missed him he cackled in triumph.
Presently there was a sound of shouts up the road, for the noise had been heard at the



police station, and some constables were emerging to see what was the matter. The boys
took fright and bolted, leaving Ellis a complete victor.

Ellis had heartily enjoyed the affray, but he was furiously angry as soon as it was over.
He wrote a violent note to Mr Macgregor, telling him that he had been wantonly
assaulted and demanding vengeance. Two clerks who had witnessed the scene, and a
chaprassi, were sent along to Mr Macgregor’ s office to corroborate the story. They lied in
perfect unison. ‘The boys had attacked Mr Ellis without any provocation whatever, he
had defended himself,’ etc. , etc. Ellis, to do him justice, probably believed this to be a
truthful version of the story. Mr Macgregor was somewhat disturbed, and ordered the
police to find the four schoolboys and interrogate them. The boys, however, had been
expecting something of the kind, and were lying very low; the police searched the bazaar
all day without finding them. In the evening the wounded boy was taken to a Burmese
doctor, who, by applying some poisonous concoction of crushed leaves to his left eye,
succeeded in blinding him.

The Europeans met at the Club as usual that evening, except for Westfield and Verrall,
who had not yet returned. Everyone was in a bad mood. Coming on top of the murder, the
unprovoked attack on Ellis (for that was the accepted description of it) had scared them
as well as angered them. Mrs Lackersteen was twittering to the tune of ‘We shall all be
murdered in our beds’. Mr Macgregor, to reassure her, told her in cases of riot the
European ladies were always locked inside the jail until everything was over; but she did
not seem much comforted. Ellis was offensive to Flory, and Elizabeth cut him almost
dead. He had come down to the Club in the insane hope of making up their quarrel, and
her demeanour made him so miserable that for the greater part of the evening he skulked
in the library. It was not till eight o’clock when everyone had swallowed a number of
drinks, that the atmosphere grew a little more friendly, and Ellis said:

‘What about sending a couple of chokras up to our houses and getting our dinners sent
down here? We might as well have a few rubbers of bridge. Better than mooning about at
home. ’

Mrs Lackersteen, who was in dread of going home, jumped at the suggestion. The
Europeans occasionally dined at the Club when they wanted to stay late.