I drank off the Scotch .sx 'We'd better find out,' I said .sx 'Another one , Sergeant ?sx ' He grinned .sx 'May as well make a night of it , sir , don't you think ?sx ' We made it quite a session .sx In the next two hours I gathered more information about Sergeant Ellison than I had in all the time I'd known him .sx The bar at the Bloomsbury was a quiet sort of place , and we drank just about enough to loosen our tongues .sx That was all to the good because , apart from a load of irrelevant data , I picked up an odd fact about him that , though it seemed unimportant , came in very handy later on .sx I tried to draw him out on Malaya and the rubber plantations , and after a time he weighed in with some of the problems of Indian labour .sx Strikes , it appeared , had always been blowing up on the flimsiest pretext , and he went on to talk about one that had threatened to paralyse production just before the war .sx 'That,' he remarked , 'was when I learnt to drive an engine .sx ' 'You mean a railway engine ?sx ' 'A small one .sx ' He grinned .sx 'Much smaller than anything you'll see down at Ravi , but the cab lay-out's roughly the same .sx We had a branch line connecting the plantation with the main Singapore track .sx When the strike came we had to keep the wagons on the move , and there was only one way to do it .sx ' I asked him half-jokingly whether he thought he could drive the Calcutta-Peshawar express .sx 'If I had to drive it out of hell into heaven,' he said , 'I'd at least have a damn good try .sx ' We were neither of us talking in deadly earnest , and I'd no idea then that I'd ever need to ask him to drive a locomotive .sx Yet when the time came that I needed a driver and seconds were precious , the little that I'd learnt about him that evening snapped into mind with a sweetness that made all the difference .sx Looking back , I learnt quite a lot that was useful in the course of that couple of hours at the Bloomsbury .sx It was close on eleven o'clock when I left , and as I turned the jeep towards the gates , another car came blaring up the road from the station .sx It was an American make , half the size of a tank and unmistakably belonged to Sarwate .sx I'd seen it too often at Dalgoorie to have any doubts about that .sx I caught sight of his face , all flesh , peering through the windscreen , and beside him a woman in a sari .sx I couldn't see her features .sx She was turned away from me , but she seemed to be young .sx It must have been the Scotch , but right at that moment I felt very much alone , a world away from Fay .sx I muttered an entreaty that the next three nights at least would be quiet ; then , swinging the jeep on to the tarmac , I followed Sarwate up the hill .sx 2 .sx A LUSCIOUS LITTLE WINDFALL .sx I slept soundly from midnight to six in the morning , and woke feeling more thoroughly rested than I had for ten days .sx There'd been no hornet-buzz from the bazar and no jangling telephone-bells in the small hours .sx Some distant Hindu deity , possibly Vishnu the Preserver in one of his nine incarnations , had lent an ear to the prayer of an unbeliever and laid a peaceful hand on Kulachi .sx That was one thing to be thankful for at any rate , and to me there was another that was equally if not more important .sx This was Tuesday .sx It was August the eleventh , and Fay was arriving from Delhi .sx I slipped on a pair of sandals , snatched myself a quick , cool shower and a dollop of breakfast , and ran the jeep down to Area Headquarters with the airy feeling that in spite of the heat I was going to remember this day as a pleasanter landmark of monsoon 1942 .sx Betty had only just arrived , but she'd called at the Signals Section on the way and picked up what messages there were .sx One of them was sealed in an envelope and labelled TOP SECRET- obviously from G.H.Q.- and I slit the flap and pulled out the folded slip of paper with all kinds of misgivings .sx Not that I was desperately worried about Fay .sx I'd spoken to her on the phone less than twenty-four hours before , and she hadn't seemed in any way upset ; but , from my own narrow shave outside the Kutcherry , I knew just how little was needed to spark off an outbreak of violence , how swiftly a peaceful street could become as dangerous as a valley in the path of a crumbling dam .sx The mere mention of Delhi , on this of all days , was calculated to set all my nerve-ends tingling ; and with the Press and radio clamped into virtual silence on the subject , there were only two sources of news :sx rumour , which was wild and unreliable and reports from G.H.Q. , which were reliable as far as they went , but which , I suspected , never told more than a quarter of the truth .sx Still , casting an eye down the message , I didn't see anything to cause immediate concern .sx The only mention of Delhi was in the context of student demonstrations , but all hell , it seemed , had been let loose in Bombay .sx A railway station had been raided , a Government grain-shop looted and burnt , telegraph wires cut and stones thrown at trains .sx The police and the military had had to intervene and there'd been a number of casualties , some of them fatal .sx There'd also been some firing in Lucknow and Poona , and more trouble in Ahmedabad ; but it was even more disturbing to find no reference at all to what had happened at Kulachi .sx At least half a dozen places were detailed in connection with what were called 'minor disturbances' , but I couldn't spot Kulachi anywhere among them .sx That made me think , not once but three times .sx I knew the Brig had sent a wire up to District , and both Rob and Scattergood must have made their own individual reports , and yet what I'd seen down in the Sadar Bazar wasn't even classed as a 'minor disturbance' .sx I looked down my nose at the message , and wondered what the hell sort of trouble G.H.Q. meant when they talked about 'a student demonstration' .sx Then I realized abruptly that it wasn't worth the effort .sx Even if they meant what Rob described as 'wilful bloody murder' , there was nothing I could do to prevent it .sx Delhi was a hundred and fifty miles across the Ganges plain , and that was a damned sight too far .sx In six hours Fay would be sitting in a train , and until it was time to wheel the jeep down to Jagapur to meet her , the best thing I could do was to forget the whole business completely .sx I floated the message-form to Betty and told her to file it .sx 'And give the D.S.P. a tinkle,' I added .sx 'See if he'll be down at the Kutcherry in half an hour's time .sx I want to have a word with him about a bungalow at Ravi .sx ' She reached for the phone , but before she could so much as lift the receiver the bell began to ring .sx 'Damn,' I said .sx 'Find out who it is .sx ' She found out .sx It was Rob , and I took the phone from her .sx 'I was just going to toddle down and see you,' I told him .sx 'I've a small twist of dope about our friend from Asifabad .sx ' I heard him chuckle down the wire .sx 'I've got more than that .sx I've a packet right here that'll make your eyes pop .sx ' 'Oh ?sx What's in it ?sx ' 'Another twist of something that's turned up at last .sx ' 'That tells me a hell of a lot , doesn't it ?sx ' 'Yes,' he said , 'it's meant to .sx ' 'D'you want me to guess ?sx ' 'Not while we're talking on the blower .sx Just get toddling , old son .sx ' I told him I'd be with him in roughly ten minutes .sx 'Make it five,' he urged .sx 'This is manna from the skies .sx It's a luscious little windfall if ever there was one .sx ' 'What shall I bring then ?sx A spoon or a penknife ?sx ' 'Neither,' he said .sx 'Pack a thinking cap .sx That's all we're going to need .sx ' I did more than toddle .sx I was down at the Kutcherry in six minutes flat .sx Rob was standing by his desk gazing down at a black metal box on the floor .sx It was the sort of box that anyone could have bought in any of a thousand bazars :sx a small tin trunk , flat-topped , fitted with a hasp and staple and secured by a padlock .sx There were millions of them in India .sx This one , from the look of it , had seen better days .sx It was scratched and dented , the hasp was broken and some sharp concussion at some time or other had strained at the hinges .sx The paint had long since lost all its gloss , but I could see very faintly the letters 'M .sx F.' lacquered in white on the lid .sx 'Some windfall,' I remarked .sx 'Don't kick it,' said Rob .sx 'Sit down .sx Have you heard about the bus ?sx ' 'What bus ?sx ' 'First one down the hill from Dalgoorie this morning .sx Struck a patch of oil on one of the hairpins and nose-dived over the side of the khud .sx ' I wasn't surprised .sx The buses on the winding road to the hills were the kind I remembered on country routes in England back in the late nineteen-twenties :sx rattling affairs , sparingly sprung , with bulbous horns and a single door at the rear .sx They were driven with erratic and reckless fury by a team of Sikhs , and on the odd occasions when necessity had forced me to use them I'd suffered a multitude of hideous deaths in the course of an hour's fertile imagination .sx I said as much to Rob , and asked him how far this one had dropped .sx 'Five hundred feet , almost sheer,' he replied .sx 'Finished up in a stream .sx Little of it left except for the chassis .sx ' 'Any military personnel aboard ?sx ' 'No .sx There were only five passengers .sx Six with the driver .sx Devil of a shambles , though .sx Seemed to be bodies here , there and everywhere .sx ' 'Anyone escape ?sx ' 'Killed four of them,' he said .sx 'Simply hadn't a chance .sx But the two on the back seat threw themselves out .sx They're in the I.M.H. , one with a couple of broken legs .sx The other got away with cuts and a bump on his head like a pigeon's egg .sx He's the luckiest beggar still breathing this morning .sx ' 'Who is he ?sx ' I asked .sx 'A friend from the hills .sx That's a bit of his property .sx ' Rob pointed to the box .sx 'Tossed off the luggage grid the first time the bus turned over .sx Fell in a clump of thorns and lodged there .sx Luckily for us it burst at the seams , and when the sub-inspector from Dalgoorie saw what was in it , he sent down for me .sx ' 'And you impounded it .sx ' 'I borrowed it,' said Rob , 'and all the other personal belongings I could find scattered on the side of the hill .sx Took them into safe custody till I could discover whose they were .sx . As soon as you've taken a look at that little lot , I'm having the hasp riveted back into place and the box delivered to the I.M.H. It'll be held in store for a certain patient and he won't be any the wiser .sx When I picked it up he was flat on a stretcher , out to the wide , and the sub-inspector's down at his bedside to give him all the flannel he needs as soon as he begins to worry .sx ' I turned the box around and stared at the letters stencilled on the lid .sx 'But who the devil is he ?sx ' I queried .sx 'Goanese,' said Rob , handing me a clue .sx 'A thin , sallow streak of mixed Dago and Madrassi .sx Waves a stick in front of that lousy set of saxes at the Mayfair .sx ' 'Fernandes ?sx ' 'Manuel Fernandes .sx ' I knew him , of course .sx He was the boss of Sarwate's dance band .sx