That is being dealt with by a separate committee who have not yet made their report.”
“Would the honourable member consider an increase of the specified maximum of fatness on the shoulders?”
“I must have notice of that question.”
Jock left the House that afternoon with the comfortable feeling that he had at last done something tangible in the interest of his constituents.
Two days later the Indians returned from hunting.
It was tedious waiting.
Dr. Messinger put in some hours daily in checking the stores.
Tony went into the bush with his gun but the game had all migrated from that part of the river bank.
One of the black boys was badly injured in the foot and calf by a sting-ray; after that they stopped bathing and washed in a zinc pail.
When the news of the Indians' return reached camp, Tony and Dr. Messinger went to the village to see them but a feast had already started and everyone in the place was drunk.
The men lay in their hammocks and the women trotted between them carrying calabashes of cassiri.
Everything reeked of roast pork.
“It will take them a week to get sober,” said Dr. Messinger.
All that week the black boys lounged in camp; sometimes they washed their clothes and hung them out on the bulwarks of the boat to dry in the sun; sometimes they went fishing and came back with a massive catch, speared on a stick (the flesh was tasteless and rubbery); usually in the evenings they sang songs round the fire.
The fellow who had been stung kept to his hammock, groaning loudly and constantly asking for medicine.
On the sixth day the Indians began to appear.
They shook hands all round and then retired to the margin of the bush where they stood gazing at the camp equipment.
Tony tried to photograph them but they ran away giggling like schoolgirls.
Dr. Messinger spread out on the ground the goods he had brought for barter.
They retired at sundown but on the seventh day they came again, greatly reinforced.
The entire population of the village was there.
Rosa sat down on Tony's hammock under the thatch roof.
“Give me cigarettes,” she said.
“You tell them I want men to go Pie-wie country,” said Dr. Messinger.
“Pie-wie bad people.
Macushi people no go with Pie-wie people.”
“You say I want the men.
I give them guns.”
“You give me cigarettes …”
Negotiations lasted for two days.
Eventually twelve men agreed to come; seven of them insisted on bringing their wives with them.
One of these was Rosa.
When everything was arranged there was a party in the village and all the Indians got drunk again.
This time, however, it was a shorter business as the women had not had time to prepare much cassiri.
In three days the caravan was able to set out.
One of the men had a long, single-barrelled, muzzle-loading gun; several others carried bows and arrows; they were naked except for red cotton cloths round their loins.
The women wore grubby calico dresses — they had been issued to them years back by an itinerant preacher and kept for occasions of this kind; they had wicker panniers on their shoulders, supported by a band across the forehead.
All the heaviest luggage was carried by the women in these panniers, including the rations for themselves and their men.
Rosa had, in addition, an umbrella with a dented, silver crook, a relic of her association with Mr. Forbes.
The Negroes returned down-stream to the coast.
A dump of provisions, in substancial tin casing, was left in the ruinous shelter by the bank.
“There's no one to touch it.
We can send back for it in case of emergency from the Pie-wie country,” said Dr. Messinger.
Tony and Dr. Messinger walked immediately behind the man with the gun who was acting as guide; behind them the file straggled out for half a mile or more through the forest.
“From now onwards the map is valueless to us,” said Dr. Messinger with relish.
(Roll up the map — you will not need it again for how many years, said William Pitt … memories of Tony's private school came back to him at Dr. Messinger's words, of inky little desks and a coloured picture of a Viking raid, of Mr. Trotter who had taught him history and wore very vivid ties.)
Three
“Mumsey, Brenda wants a job.”
“Why?”
“Just like everybody else, short of money and nothing to do.