Rance jumped down from the vehicle, went round to the back and himself lowered the tailboard so it did not bang. In a low voice he said ‘Here we are. Out as quietly as you can,’ and went to the back of the second vehicle as it came to a standstill, opened its tailboard and gave the same orders.
Ah Wong came up to him. ‘Spot on. We’re in plenty of time. No one knows we are here.’ But he was wrong: ‘eyes’ had watched and were watching, everything and everyone.
Rance told Kulbahadur to fetch the NCOs and the two drivers. ‘Right! Five minutes for a pee and a last fag. No smoking from now on unless given permission. You can sling rifles, no need to carry them in front of you. And no shooting unless shot at or on my order.’ Although there was no curfew there was little chance of their being spotted and even if they were, there was no telling their destination. Nor would any local be crazy enough to try and follow them when they moved off.
‘Drivers?’ Yes, both were there. ‘We won’t be back until, oh, hard to say. Certainly not before 0800 hours. Go back to Sepang and be back here by that time tomorrow, with two containers of hot tea. To stay here the rest of the night is to be eaten alive by mosquitoes.’
Indeed the voracious creatures were whining around everyone’s head. Rain water in untapped parts of a rubber estate ran down the trunk into the little clay pots that normally collected latex and made perfect breeding grounds.
Rance turned back to his NCOs. He had given out their order of march beforehand. ‘Keep closed up. If necessary catch hold of the equipment straps of the man in front. No torches unless I say so except in an emergency. Section Commanders, all your men present?’
Yes, they were.
‘Every time we halt you must ensure that all your men are present. If not I must be told immediately. It is too easy to miss a man if anyone has to make a stop and can’t catch up. Sergeant Ruwaman, at the back you must make sure no one gets left behind. If you want to pass a message to me at the front, do it as quietly as possible.’
Ah Wong introduced the two Sumatran guides, Imbi and Mandeh, to Rance and one of them told him they were happy to take the soldiers to the arms’ dump and gave a brief description of its location.
‘All ready now?’ loud enough to be heard.
‘Yes,’ from Sergeant Ruwaman Limbu, after checking.
After a bit of shuffling, they moved off in single file. Imbi was in the lead, then the detective. Behind him came Rance, his batman, Kamal Rai and then the leading section. At the rear came the Troop Sergeant and Mandeh.
The drivers had turned round when a civilian approached the lead vehicle. A Chinese emerged and waved his arms. In halting Malay, which the driver barely understood, he asked for a lift to the next village. Why not? The man got in and, after a while asked, ‘Bila balek?’
Why does he want to know when we’re coming back? ‘Besok pagi, pukul lapan.’ Tomorrow morning at 8 o’clock. At the next village the Chinese asked the driver to let him get out, thanked him and disappeared in the night. The driver thought no more of it.
Moving slowly, Rance’s men walked along more of an overgrown track than a normal laterite estate road. There was just enough residual starlight not to bump into the man in front. More than an hour later a blacker black loomed ahead, causing the front two men to stop. Rance bumped into Ah Wong. ‘Tuan, this is the start of the squatter area. The guide reckons the weapons are at least another three hours’ walk from here.’
Rance looked at the luminous dial of his watch. A break here will do us good. ‘How far to the nearest dwelling?’
The detective and the guide conferred. ‘Imbi here reckons at least half an hour’s walk.’
Rance made his mind up. ‘Kulé, fetch the NCOs.’
They soon came. ‘Listen. We’re in good time. We’ll have a 15-minute break here. Yes, you can light up but keep all fags cupped. Use your water bottles if you want to. Sit down and take it easy. No need for sentries.’
The NCOs went away and Rance leant over to Kamal. ‘Kamal, are you all right?’
‘Yes, Saheb. It makes an exciting change. Shikar with two legs rather than with four,’ said with a friendly giggle. ‘You have done well to bring me. I can’t say if the two Sumatrans are trustworthy but just suppose they get shot or run away scared or even captured and taken away, I’m the only one who can help you if you get lost.’
‘Yes, we are lucky to have you with us. You were born in Malaya but have you never wanted to go to Nepal? Or Darjeeling?’
‘It is not easy to travel when you’re as poor as we are,’ Kamal answered obliquely. ‘Labourers don’t get paid much. Nowhere else apart from that journey to Calcutta and back that I told you about.’
The quarter of an hour was soon up. Quiet orders were given to get ready, men were checked and the single file moved off. Weapons were only to be held in front of the body if visibility was more than ten yards. It was pitch dark for most of the time as clouds had formed and a few drops of rain fell. Sometimes they passed through an open patch of cultivation and once or twice a dog barked but mostly they moved along a narrow path through thick undergrowth. Occasionally a man strayed to the edge of the track and tripped on a tree root or stumbled on some protuberance.
Rance found himself walking like an automaton, his mind alert, almost floating through the darkness. ‘Arms dump’ sounds so grand but from what the Sumatrans and Ah Wong have said, ‘small hovel’, nothing else, is ‘arms dump’ the way to describe what we may find? And what do we do if we do find any, or many? We can’t carry them out with us. After an all-night effort we’ll be too tired. Make them unserviceable? But how? Throw away the bolts and magazines? Bend the barrels? But what with? Problem – but let’s get there first.
Plod, plod, plod, the small force, each man wrapped in his own thoughts, trudged on through the squatter area: if the daku we meet are anything like the Pathans or the Japanese, we’ll have quite a fight on our hands, thought Sergeant Ruwaman. They told us we’d be gunners but the Sarkar can’t make its mind up as we are still infantry, thought one of the Section Leaders. Other men had their own thoughts buzzing around as mosquitoes buzzed around their heads. Rance slapped one that was buzzing in his right ear and it set off a humming sound in it. Mustn’t do that or I won’t hear anything suspicious. His mind went back to his leave. He had had a letter from his Jenny just before leaving Seremban. No good getting too worked up over her. Probably can’t wait until I am entitled to a quarter in … another eight years! He bumped into Ah Wong, who had slowed his pace, and inwardly cursed. Pay attention, you fool. Keep your mind on the job!
Plod, plod, plod. In the column at times it was so dark men held on to the straps of the man in front. A muffled curse came onto lips when the man behind trod on heels. After what seemed an age, the guide suddenly stopped and whispered something to the detective. All down the line men, not realising that the man in front had stopped, bumped to a standstill.
At the front, Ah Wong whispered to Rance, ‘Imbi is frightened. He tells me that if a sentry shines a light and sees me, a Chinese, with him in the squatter area, fire will immediately be opened to kill me and the guide will also be killed as a traitor.’
Indeed the detective was a head taller than Imbi.
‘Then you get three behind me,’ Rance whispered back. ‘I’ll be right behind Imbi. Tell him not to worry. Also tell him that if he thinks that someone in front of him is about to open fire, to lie down on one side of the track. I’ll return fire even if I can’t see the target.’ Prophylactic fire might make an untrained man with a weapon run away.
The leading NCO silently came up to Rance. ‘Anything amiss, Hajur? Why have we stopped? I can’t smell any human habitation and we are not in an open piece of ground.’
‘Ustad, the guide’s frightened and I must try and calm him before we move off. Pass a message down the line for the Troop Sergeant to come to me.’
Whispering, scuffling and the noise of water bottles being used, to say nothing of the ever-present night sounds; insects clicking or shrilling, frogs croaking, the ‘chunk-chunk-chunk’ of the larger kind of nightjars calling. Many of the men were sweating as there was not a breath of breeze and the undergrowth would have smothered it had there been any.
‘Saheb. You sent for me. Here I am,’ whispered Sergeant Ruwaman Limbu.
‘Ustad. Imbi, the front guide, is frightened and will not go on with the detective behind him. Thinks that any Cheena shining a torch and aiming will immediately fire if they see another Cheena and that he, Imbi, will be killed. I will go behind him and help him along. I don’t think I’ll change him with Mandeh but I want you to be doubly sure that Mandeh stays with you and does not try to escape. This may be a trap to ambush us.’
‘I’ve thought so all along, Hajur. There is something I don’t like about him. Can’t be too careful.’
Rance moved up to Imbi and softly said to him ‘I will stay with you whatever happens.’
Imbi grunted in return.
‘Right. We’ll move off now. You, Sergeant ustad, stay here until the tail of the column reaches you and keep a close watch on Mandeh.’
Rance moved off. The others followed him. But when the end of the column reached Sergeant Ruwaman Mandeh was not with it. He had disappeared.
