She started to tremble uncontrollably and he reached out, pulling her into his arms. 'It's all right. Everything's all right now.'
He stroked her hair gently with one hand and his lips brushed her forehead. In the heavy stillness of the night, she could almost hear her heart beating. When he tilted her chin and kissed her gently on the mouth, it was like nothing she had ever known before.
He slipped her arm in his without speaking, and together they went up the steps to the embankment
The Last Place God Made
THE air was bumpy as they flew out of the pass for a forty-knot wind was blowing across the mountains. They climbed through a heat haze that was already blurring the horizon and levelled out at 9,000 feet to cross the mountains between India and Balpur.
Janet Tate was in the front passenger seat beside Drummond and Hamid sat behind her. She was wearing a white blouse, collar turned down over the neck of a cashmere sweater, cream whipcord slacks and a sheepskin coat that Drummond had provided.
Hamid poured coffee into a plastic cup and handed it to her. 'We're moving into Balpur now,' he said. The mountains to the east are in Bhutan with Assam far beyond in the haze. The Chinese broke through in strength there in 1962.'
"Were you there?'
He shook his head. 'No, I was on the Ladakh front in the north-west.
It was supposed to be pretty bad up there, wasn't it?.
'A vision from hell,' he said grimly. 'Can you imagine what it's like trying to live at 20,000 feet, never mind fight? The mules died of asthma, the men of pulmonary oedema. You've heard of it, I suppose.'
She nodded. The lungs fill with water, don't they?'
.An ironic way for a man to die in battle - by drowning. We could never get them down to the base hospitals in time for treatment, that was the trouble.'
'Hadn't you any air support, helicopters?.
He laughed harshly. 'Until October, 1962, we hadn't needed them. The way of peace was the way for India.' He shook his head..No, we didn't have the necessary planes. Even if we had, there weren't the pilots. Certainly not the kind who could fly hi that sort of country. That's where I met Jack, you know.'
She turned to Drummond in surprise..You were flying for the Indian Army?'
'Five hundred quid a week,' he said. 'Good money by any standards.'
"Don't listen to him,' Hamid broke in. 'A game he plays. From Leh, he flew three operational flights a day into the Ladakh mountains to one small airstrip at 18,000 feet, taking in supplies and ammunition, bringing out the sick and wounded. In five weeks, he flew just over a hundred sorties, then collapsed and spent three weeks in hospital suffering from complete exhaustion.
His contract called for five flights a week, no more..
'He should have added that they didn't pay me for the time in hospital,' Drummond told her. That's the wily oriental for you.'
He increased speed and banked In a long, sweeping curve that took them out of a shallow pass and into a valley beyond. A broad river flowed sluggishly, snaking between jagged cliffs, a thread of silver in a landscape so savage and sterile that it took the breath away.
'Remember what I told you,' Drummond said. 'The last place God made. And to think the Chinese have laid claim to this bloody lot.'
'But why?' she said.
The same psychology the Roman Emperors used,' Hamid told her. 'Give the mob circuses to take their mind$ off the more important problems. In China in 1962, the harvest was bad and thousands starved, so their army invaded India, a country completely unprepared for such an attack, and presented their people with a ready made victory. In Pekin, they were able to tighten their belts and wave banners.'
'Have they really laid claim to Balpur?'
'Along with almost every other border country. Actually, Balpur was a part of the Chinese Empire in ancient times. The people are Mongolian. Only the ruling class are Muslims, descendants of the original invaders. But no one seriously imagines that they would invade. For one thing, the old Khan has preferred to stay completely neutral. He's the only ruler of a border state who hasn't signed a mutual defence pact with India.'
'Yet he accepts you as an adviser?'
To an army of seventy-five men. A political gesture only. In Pekin they laugh about it.'
She almost mentioned Mr. Cheung, but remembering what Drummond had told her on the previous evening, kept silent Even if Hamid did know the troth, that Cheung was in fact a Chinese Nationalist agent, that Drummond was flying in guns to Tibetan guerrilla fighters, he would probably prefer to know nothing officially. Remembering Vietnam, she sighed heavily..The same pattern, violence, blood and suffering turning on each other in a circle that had no ending.
They were flying at no more than a thousand feet above the floor of the valley and suddenly, in a bend of the river, she saw Sadar, flat-roofed houses scattered untidily across a broad plateau, the Khan's palace like a fortress in a walled garden.
The Beaver banked tightly and swept in past the graceful tower of a mosque, and beyond the town on the plain to the south she could see the airstrip, a narrow slot laboriously carved out of the rough terrain, a windsock on a tall pole at one end. Dnimmond circled once then turned into the wind for a perfect landing between two rows of empty oil drums.
There was a small improvised hangar constructed of lusting corrugated iron, barely large enough to house the Beaver from the look of it He taxied towards it and switched off the engine.
He unfastened Ms seat belt jumped to the ground and turned to give Janet a hand. At the same moment, & Land Rover appeared from among the houses on the edge of the town and came towards them in a cloud of dust
She shivered and wrapped her sheepskin coat more tightly around her. 'It's colder than I thought it would be/
"Winter coming,' Drummond said. 'Maybe it'll be early this year.'
An old army jeep, still painted in the grey-green camouflage of wartime, its canvas tilt patched and mended in many places, was parked inside the hangar. He and Hamid had just started to transfer the luggage to it from the plane when the Land Rover arrived.
Mr. Cheung jumped out of the passenger seat and came towards them wearing a heavy blue quilted jacket and an astrakhan hat His driver was a young fair-haired man with a bronzed, reckless face. He wore a sheepskin jacket in untanned hide and knee-length boots. A revolver, slung low on his right hip in a black holster, seemed theatrical and out of place.
He came forward with a ready smile, eyes fixed oa Janet, and Hamid said maliciously,.Why the gun, Tony? Expecting trouble?'
The young man flushed. Tm driving up to my base camp at Howeel for a couple of days. They'd cut your throat for the shoes on your feet up there. Fve come for that new theodolite I ordered if Drussmond's remembered to bring it.
It's in the plane/ Drummond said coldly..Help yourself..
'So this is Miss Tate?. Cheung took both of her hands in his..We must try to make your stay a pleasant one..
"You knew I was coming?.
Hamid grinned. 'I had Indian Army Headquarters in Juma send a signal to warn the Khan.'
Cheung nodded. 'Colonel Dil got the message last night by radio..
'And probably told you before the Khan..
Brackenhurst jumped down from the Beaver and turned to lift out a wooden case containing his theodolite. 'A hell of a lot of machine parts you seem to bring through these days,' he commented and turned to Janet before Drummond could reply. Tm Tony Bracken-
S3 burst, Miss Tate. Fm doing geological survey work up here, but I'm also the British Consul. If I can help you in any way, don't hesitate to ask..
'She happens to be an American, so that's hardly likely,' Drummond said acidly.
Brackenhurst ignored him, holding her hand for longer than was necessary, an eager smile on his lips, and it was the smile which betrayed him, somehow revealing an essential weakness, a lack of strength.
"Why, that's very kind of you, Mr. Brackenhurst'
Til be back in two days,' he said. "You'll probably still be here from what they tell me of the boy's condition.'
He carried the theodolite across to the Land Rover and Cheung said quickly, Til go back with him. You'll have enough in the jeep with the three of you and the luggage. You'll call on me this afternoon, Jack?'
'After lunch. I'll take Janet out to the mission first Is the boy still out there?'
Cheung nodded and smiled down at her. 'And you, I will have the pleasure of seeing you again this evening, Miss Tate. The Khan is to give a small dinner party for you. He has honoured me with an invitation.'
Til look forward to that, Mr. Cheung.'
The Land Rover moved back towards town and Drummond drove the jeep out of the hangar. He and Hamid pushed the Beaver inside and padlocked the door.
Tfl take Janet out to Father Kerrigan now. What about you, Ali?'
Hamid shrugged. 'You can drop me at Colonel Dil's headquarters. I'll probably see you both tonight at the palace unless the old boy's decided to change his usual guest list'
They got into the jeep and Drummond drove towards the town, following the rutted track that did service as a road. He changed down, scattering a herd of goats, and they entered the outskirts of Sadar.
Janet looked about her with interest, but there was nothing of the gaiety and colour of Jusna and Altaf here. The people were small, squat Mongolians with skins the colour of weathered parchment and slanting eyes. The men wore boots of untanned hide, baggy trousers and sheepskin jackets. Only a few sported the turban, the majority preferring conical sheepskin caps with earfiaps. The women's attire differed in only one significant detail. Instead of the sheepskin jacket, they wore three-quarter length blanket coats of black and brovra, relieved in some cases by a necklace of silver coins.
They were dour and unsmiling, drab as the rocky land that bred them. Even the children in the market place lacked the energy and humour of their Indian counterparts, and there was a strange absence of bustle and vitality as they drove through the bazaar.
'No oae seems to smile,' Janet said. 'Have you noticed that?'
This is a poor country,' Hamid told her. "Anything they get has to be squeezed out of the very rocks. Life is hard, work from dawn till dusk. It leaves little time for laughter/
Across the square stood a barrack-like building, the Sag of Balpur, a black eagle against a grey and gold background, lifting in the slight breeze above the entrance. Two sentries, almost incongruously smart in neat khaki uniforms and military turbans, presented arms as Drummond braked and Hamid got out.
He reached for his canvas grip and an orderly ran down the steps and relieved him of it TH see you tonight, then,. he said and his hand lifted in a brief salute.
The palace was a hundred yards further on and looked considerably less forbidding than it had done from the air, wrought iron gates standing open to reveal a gravel drive, tall cypress trees fringing the wall, a profusion of greenery beyond to where a fountain lifted gracefully into the calm air.
'I must say that looks rather more inviting,. Janet remarked.
'Not surprising,' Drummond said. The Khan's a Muslim, remember. At least they know how to live.'
'What's the religion of his people generally?'
'A lot pay lip service to Islam and a great many still adhere to Buddhism, but in a bastardised form. And then there's a minority group of Hindus who've kept themselves apart over the centuries. Not more than two or three thousand in the entire country.'
They were by now moving out of the town again and the houses were more scattered, two-storeyed walled villas in the main, obviously the homes of the rich of Sadar, whoever they were.
Drummond slowed, swung the jeep in through an arched entrance and braked to a halt in the courtyard of a small bungalow surrounded by a walled garden.
'This is my place,' he said. 'If you don't mind hanging on, I'll drop my things and be straight out again,'
As he got out, a small, greying woman, swathed ia a dark robe, her face seamed and wrinkled, opened the front door and moved out on to the verandah inclining her head in greeting, hands together, Indian style.
'Your housekeeper?' Janet asked.
He nodded and reached for his canvas holdalL 1 won't be a minute.'
'Mind if I come in?' she said. Td love to see inside.'
He hesitated perceptibly and then shrugged. If you'd like to, but there really isn't much to see.'
She followed him up the steps. At the top, he murmured something quickly to the old woman who went back in, then stood to one side. 'After you.'
She found herself in a narrow entrance hall with rough cast walls and a floor of polished wood. He opened a door to the right and she moved iato the main living room. There was a great stone fireplace, skin rugs on the wood floor and the furniture was of the simplest; a dining table, several easy chairs and a couple of shelves of books.
