South By Java Head (3 page)

The colonel nodded in understanding. "I heard that communique, too. Heaven only knows who was responsible for that appalling claptrap. Ipoh had actually fallen to the Japs more than a month before that, sir. The Japs were only a few miles north of the causeway at the time. My God, what a damnable mess!" He shook his head slowly. "A damnable, damnable mess!"
"You put things very mildly," Farnholme agreed. "How long have we got? "
"We're surrendering to-morrow." The colonel stared down at his hands.
"Tomorrow!"
"We're all washed up, sir. Nothing more we can do. And we've no water left. When we blew up the causeway we blew up the only water-pipe from the mainland."
"Very clever, far-seeing chaps who designed our defences here," Farnholme muttered. "And thirty million quid spent on it. Impregnable fortress. Bigger and better than Gib. Blah, blah, blah. God, it all makes you sick!" He snorted in disgust, rose to his feet and sighed. "Ah, well, nothing else for it. Back to the dear old Kerry Dancer. God help Australia!"
"The Kerry Dancerl" The colonel was astonished. "She'll be gone an hour after dawn, sir. I tell you, the Straits are swarming with Japanese 'planes."
"What alternative can you offer?" Farnholme asked wearily.
"I know, I know. But even ifi you are lucky, what guarantee have you that the captain will go where you want him to?"
"None," Farnholme admitted. "But there's a rather handy Dutchman aboard, by the name of Van Effen. Together we may be able to persuade our worthy captain where the path of duty lies."
"Perhaps." A sudden thought occurred to the colonel. "Besides, what guarantee have you that he'll even be waiting when you get back down to the waterfront?"
"Here it is." Farnholme prodded the shabby valise lying by his feet. "My guarantee and insurance policy -- I hope. Siran thinks this thing's stuffed full of diamonds -- I used some of them to bribe him to come here -- and he's not so far out. Just so long as he thinks there's a chance of separating me from these, he'll hang on to me like a blood brother."
"He -- he doesn't suspect------"
"Not a chance. He thinks I'm a drunken old reprobate on the run with ill-gotten gains. I have been at some pains to -- ah -- maintain the impersonation."
"I see, sir." The colonel came to a decision and reached out for a bell. When the sergeant appeared, he said, "Ask Captain Bryceland to come here."
Farnholme lifted an eyebrow in silent interrogation.
"It's the least I can do, sir," the colonel explained. "I can't provide a plane. I can't guarantee you won't all be sunk before noon to-morrow. But I can guarantee that the captain of the Kerry Dancer will follow your instructions implicitly. I'm going to detail a subaltern and a couple of dozen men from a Highland regiment to accompany you on the Kerry Dancer." He smiled. "They're a tough bunch at the best of times, but they're in an especially savage mood just now. I don't think Captain Siran will give you very much trouble."
"I'm sure he won't. Damned grateful to you, Colonel. It should help a lot." He buttoned his shirt, picked up his gladstone and extended his hand. "Thanks for everything, Colonel. It sounds silly knowing a concentration camp is waiting you -- but, well, all the best."
"Thank you, sir. And all the luck to you -- God knows you're going to need it." He glanced down in the region of the concealed belt that held the photostats, then finished sombrely. "We've at least got a chance."
The smoke was slowly clearing when Brigadier Farnholme wnet out again into the darkness of the night, but the air still held that curious, unpleasant amalgam of cordite and death and corruption that the old soldier knows so well. A subaltern and a company of men were lined up outside waiting for him.
Musketry and machine-gun fire had increased now, visibility was far better, but the shell-fire had ceased altogether -- probably the Japanese saw no sense in inflicting too much damage on a city which would be theirs on the following day anyway. Farnholme and his escort moved quickly through the deserted streets through the now gently falling rain, the sound of gunfire in their ears all the time, and had reached the waterfront within a few minutes. Here the smoke, lifted by a gentle breeze from the east, was almost entirely gone.
The smoke was gone, and almost at once Farnholme realised something that made him clutch the handle of the gladstone until his knuckles shone white and his forearms ached with the strain. The small lifeboat from the Kerry Dancer, which he had left rubbing gently against the wharf, was gone also, and the sick apprehension that at once flooded through his mind made him lift his head swiftly and stare out into the roads but there was nothing there for him to see. The Kerry Dancer was gone as if she had never existed. There was only the falling rain, the gentle breeze in his face and, away to his left, the quiet, heart-broken sobs of a little boy crying alone in the darkness.
CHAPTER TWO
THE SUBALTERN in charge of the soldiers touched Farnholme on the arm and nodded out to sea. "The boat, sir -- she's gone!"
Farnholme restrained himself with an effort. His voice, when he spoke, was as calm and as matter-of-fact as ever.
"So it would appear, Lieutenant. In the words of the old song, they've left us standing on the shore. Deuced inconvenient, to say the least of it."
"Yes, sir." Farnholme's reaction to the urgency of the situation, Lieutenant Parker felt, was hardly impressive. "What's to be done now, sir?"
"You may well ask, my boy." Farnholme stood still for several moments, a hand rubbing his chin, an abstracted expression on his face. "Do you hear a child crying there, along the waterfront?" he asked suddenly.
"Yes, sir."
"Have one of your men bring him here. Preferably," Farnholme added, "a kindly, fatherly type that won't scare the living daylights out of him."
"Bring him here, sir? "The subaltern was astonished. "But there are hundreds of these little street Arabs-----" He broke off suddenly as Farnholme towered over him, his eyes cold and still beneath the jutting brows.
"I trust you are not deaf, Lieutenant Parker," he inquired solicitously. The low-pitched voice was for the lieutenant's ears alone, as it had been throughout.
"Yes, sir! I mean, no, sir!" Parker hastily revised his earlier impression of Farnholme. "I'll send a man right away, sir."
"Thank you. Then send a few men in either direction along the waterfront, maybe half a mile or so. Have them bring back here any person or persons they find -- they may be able to throw some light on the missing boat. Let them use persuasion if necessary."
"Persuasion, sir?"
"In any form. We're not playing for pennies tonight, Lieutenant. And when you've given the necessary orders, I'd like a private little talk with you."
Famholme strolled off some yards into the gloom. Lieutenant Parker rejoined him within a minute. Farnholme lit a fresh cheroot and looked speculatively at the young officer before him.
"Do you know who I am, young man?" he asked abruptly.
"No, sir."
"Brigadier Farnholme." Farnholme grinned in the darkness as he saw the perceptible stiffening of the lieutenant's shoulders. "Now that you've heard it, forget it. You've never heard of me. Understand?"
"No, sir," Parker said politely. "But I understand the order well enough."
"That's all you need to understand. And cut out the 'sirs' from now on. Do you know my business?"
"No, sir, I-----"
"No 'sirs,' I said," Farnholme interrupted. "If you cut them out in private, there's no chance of your using them in public."
"I'm sorry, No, I don't know your business. But the colonel impressed upon me that it was a matter of the utmost importance and gravity."
"The colonel was in no way exaggerating," Farnholme murmured feelingly. "It is better, much better, that you don't know my business. If we ever reach safety I promise you I'll tell you what it's all about. Meantime, the less you and your men know the safer for all of us." He paused, drew heavily on the cheroot and watched the tip glow redly in the night. "Do you know what a beachcomber is, Lieutenant?"
"A beachcomber?" The sudden switch caught Parker off balance, but he recovered quickly. "Naturally."
"Good. That's what I am from now on, and you will kindly treat me as such. An elderly, alcoholic and somewhat no-account beachcomber hell-bent on saving his own skin. Good-natured and tolerant contempt -- that's your line. Firm, even severe when you've got to be. You found me wandering about the streets, searching for some form of transport out of Singapore. You heard from me that I had arrived on a little inter-island steamer and decided that you would commandeer it for your own uses."
"But the ship's gone," Parker objected.
"You have a point," Farnholme admitted. "We may find it yet. There may be others, though I very much doubt it. The point is that you must have your story -- and your attitude -- ready, no matter what happens, Incidentally, our objective is Australia."
"Australia!" Parker was startled into momentary forgetful-ness. "Good lord, sir, that's thousands of miles away!"
"It's a fairish bit," Farnholme conceded. "Our destination, nevertheless, even if we can't lay hands on anything larger than a rowing boat." He broke off and swung round. "One of your men returning, I think, Lieutenant."
It was. A soldier emerged out of the darkness, the three white chevrons on his arms easy to see. A very big man, over six feet tall and broad in proportion, he made the childish figure in his arms tiny by comparison. The little boy, face buried in the soldier's sun-burned neck, was still sobbing, but quietly now.
"Here he is, sir." The burly sergeant patted the child's back. "The little duffer's had a bad fright, I think, but he'll get over it."
"I'm sure he will, Sergeant." Farnholme touched the child's shoulder. "And what's your name, my little man, eh?"
The little man took one quick look, flung his arms round the sergeant's neck and burst into a fresh torrent of tears. Farnholme stepped back hastily.
"Ah, well." He shook his head philosophically. "Never had much of a way with children, I'm afraid. Crusty old bachelors and what have you. His name can wait."
"His name is Peter," the sergeant said woodenly. "Peter Tallon. He's two years and three months old, he lives in Mysore Road in north Singapore and he's a member of the Church of England."
"He told you all that?" Farnholme asked incredulously.
"He hasn't spoken a word, sir. There's an identity disc tied round his neck."
"Quite," Farnholme murmured. It seemed the only appropriate remark in the circumstances. He waited until the sergeant had rejoined his men, then looked speculatively at Parker.
"My apologies." The lieutenant's tone was sincere. "How the devil did you know?"
"Be damned funny if I didn't know after twenty-three years in the East. Sure, you'll find Malay and Chinese waifs, but waifs only of their own choice. You don't find them crying. If they did, they wouldn't be crying long. These people always look after their own -- not just their own children, but their own kind." He paused and looked quizzically at Parker.
"Any guesses as to what brother Jap would have done to that kid, Lieutenant?"
"I can guess," Parker said sombrely. "I've seen a little and I've heard a lot."
"Believe it all, then double it. They're an inhuman bunch of fiends." He changed the subject abruptly. "Let's rejoin your men. Berate me as we go. It'll create no end of a good impression -- from my point of view, that is."
Five minutes passed, then ten. The men moved about restlessly, some smoked, some sat on their packs, but no one spoke. Even the little boy had stopped crying. The intermittent crackle of gunfire carried clearly from the north-west of the town, but mostly the night was very still. The wind had shifted, and the last of the smoke was clearing slowly away. The rain was still falling, more heavily than before, and the night was growing cold.
By and by, from the north-east, the direction of Kallang creek, came the sound of approaching footsteps, the measured paces of three soldiers marching in step and the quicker, more erratic click of feminine heels. Parker stared as they emerged out of the darkness, then turned to the soldier who had been leading the party.
"What's all this? Who are these people?"
"Nurses, sir. We found them wandering a little way along the front." The soldier sounded apologetic. "I think they were lost, sir."
"Lost?" Parker peered at the tall girl nearest him. "What the dickens are you people doing wandering about the town in the middle of the night?"
"We're looking for some wounded soldiers, sir." The voice was soft and husky. "Wounded and sick. We -- well, we don't seem able to find them."
"So I gather," Parker agreed dryly. "You in charge of this party?"
"Yes, sir."
"What's your name, please?" The lieutenant's tone was a shade less peremptory now; the girl had a pleasant voice, and he could see that she was very tired, and shivering in the cold rain.
"Drachmann, sir."
"Well, Miss Drachmann, have you seen or heard anything of a small motorboat or a coastal steamer, anywhere offshore?"
"No, sir." Her tone held tired surprise. "All the ships have left Singapore."
"I hope to heaven you're wrong," Parker muttered. Aloud, he said, "Know anything about kids, Miss Drachmann?"
"What?" She sounded startled.
"The sergeant there has found a little boy." Parker nodded to the child still in the sergeant's arms, but wrapped now in a waterproof cape against the cold and rain. "He's lost, tired, lonely and his name is Peter. Will you look after him for the present?"
"Why, of course I will."
Even as she was stretching out her hands for the child, more footsteps were heard approaching from the left. Not the measured steps of soldiers, nor the crisp clickety-clack of women's heels, but a shambling, shuffling sound such as very old men might make. Or very sick men. Gradually there emerged out of the rain and the darkness a long, uncertain line of men, weaving and stumbling, in token column of twos. They were led by a little man with a high, hunched left shoulder, with a Bren gun dangling heavily from his right hand. He wore a balmoral set jauntily on his head, and a wet kilt that flapped about his bare, thin knees. Two yards away from Parker he stopped, shouted out a command to halt, turned round to supervise the lowering of the stretchers -- it was then that Parker saw for the first time that three of his own men were helping to carry the stretchers -- then ran backwards to intercept the straggler who brought up the end of the column and was now angling off aimlessly into the darkness. Farnholme stared after him, then at the sick, maimed and exhausted men who stood there in the rain, each man lost in his suffering and silent exhaustion.