The Red Pavilion by Jean Chapman Page A

the troops at Rinsey right now, I wouldn’t have thought, except guard duty and they can do that anywhere.’
    ‘No, I meant when we’re living there and properly organised, we could give them a few home comforts, good meals ... while their presence — ’
    ‘What you need is a couple of resident Gurkhas! They’d put the fear of God into the commies.’
    ‘You don’t take it as a practical proposition.’
    ‘I think it is — for you.’ He grinned. ‘Not sure what the army would get out of it. Some of the men go to safe areas where couples entertain them for a meal and a swim in their pools and I have known them leave a wireless operator at a bungalow, or in a kampong, while they go on a jungle sortie. They’re not overmanned, it would all have to relate to a military operation, or recreation for those that have been on long operations.’
    ‘Rinsey hardly falls into the rest-and-relaxation category,’ Blanche agreed.
    ‘Self-sufficiency is what we need. This could be a long campaign. My men will be working round the clock as from tomorrow to fortify Bukit Kinta, then we’ll go to Rinsey and secure that.’
    Liz caught the older man’s eye and he read the unspoken question. ‘I have to protect my people here first. There is, after all, no one at Rinsey at the moment, no workers — ’
    ‘There’s Josef, and he may have found some of the tappers by now.’
    ‘Josef.’ He paused, sniffed and hummed speculatively under his breath. ‘Told Major Sturgess he helped us during the war. Shall have to see.’
    ‘He would only have been a teenager, I don’t suppose he could have done much.’ Liz pressed excuses for Josef, as was her old habit.
    ‘A teenager’s grown up out here and I’ll remember him if he ever helped.’
    There was a certainty in his voice, a confidence in his own ability, as there was when he went on to say, ‘One thing, once we start on your bungalow there’ll be no delay. I’ve requisitioned plenty of barbed wire, electric cable and powerful lamps.’
    ‘I wonder if our old generator will stand the strain,’ Blanche said.
    ‘No. Robbo didn’t think so, he’s sending up a mobile army genny on permanent loan.’

 
    Chapter Six
     
    The work at Rinsey started four long days later, days without news, days when the two women talked to each other less and less as they exhausted every possibility, every speculation of hopeful things that could have prevented Neville Hammond from contacting someone.
    Blanche stood in her lounge watching as the work of unloading the four lorries was begun by the drivers and their mates. The Malays worked as hard as usual, the muscles in their brown arms and legs shiny hard balls of willing power, but their smiles were missing. The death of their headman, and the manner of it, would weigh on them all for a long time — but not a single one of George’s men had deserted him. He was too positive in his determination to beat the CTs and there was not a man at Bukit Kinta who doubted his ability to do it.
    He directed them now. Rolls of barbed wire, fifteen-foot poles, electric cable and powerful lamps were quickly and neatly piled to one side of the clearing. Blanche saw George take the smallest and darkest of the men aside; he seemed to be instructing him to walk the perimeter where the defences should be erected.
    She wandered outside, still holding the triptych of photographs which always travelled with her or stood on her dressing table. Arriving at Rinsey once more to find it totally deserted had sapped her energy. When Liz wasn’t in evidence, Blanche wondered what she was doing there. Without her man by her side, this uneasy country was unbearable.
    George Harfield came over to her. Nodding after the man, he explained, ‘Themor, he’s the best tracker I’ve ever had. I think he must be related to Dyak trackers from Borneo. he can tell whether it’s man or beast that’s been along a path and how long ago. I’ve sent him to look around for any