The Heart Of The Matter

atched the torches move on the other side of the wide passive ri

‘Before the war we use

rs, Scobie.’ He said, ‘Of course ye know I find it hard to think of the French as enemies. My family came over with the Huguenots. It makes a difference, ye know.’ His lean long yellow face cut in two by a nose like a wo

ed the Germans, I suppose this is on

n 1939. The Government had a shrewd idea of what was com

must be thankful your wife’s arrived safely, Major Scobie. Those poor pe

nel between Dakar and Brazil that

ame gloomily out

mall jetty below the bungalow showed a few feet of dark water sliding by. A piece of wood came out of the dark

badly this time,’ Druce said gloomily

men and the dying,’ the doctor said, pulling a

ulars, caught a black face momentarily illuminated: a hammock pole: a white arm: an officer’s back. ‘I think they’ve arrived,’ he said. A long line of lights was dancing alon

l malarial.’ The windows of the living-room were netted to k

ll set, Perrot. There’s one case of blackwater and a few cases of fever, but most ar

l us how much interrogation they can stand, doctor. Your police will look after

am, sailed to them over three thousand miles. From across the river the excited voices of the carriers rose and fell. Somebody knocked on the verandah door. Scobie shi

Druce said. ‘I didn’

,’ Mrs Perrot explained. ‘I hope the rest-house

le,’ Wilson said. ‘Why, Major Sco

Louise had once said to him about Wilson - phoney, she had called him. He looked across at Wilson and saw the blush at Perro

heard from Mr

rived safely

glad. I’

, he built up a picture of frivolity, viciousness and corruption. ‘We bushfolk,’ Perrot went heavily on, ‘live very quietly.’ Scobie felt sorry for Mrs Perrot; she had heard these phrases so often: she must have forgotten long ago the time of courtship when she had believed in

s Perrot, ‘nothing very much has been happe

rn over in the Secretariat. I’d like to see them

ement recently,’ Wilson said, ‘wou

’s parrot?’

t,’ Wilson said. ‘Isn’t that right,

well ever know what’

touch with the great world of affairs he

, but I’d heard rumours that sometimes diamonds had been smuggled in a bird’s crop, so I kept the parrot back, and sure enough there were about a

ut it w

beat a Syrian,’

s parrot - and so of course did Tallit’s cousin. Their story was

Yusef, I suppose,

wo explanations of that - perhaps Yusef had given him his money and he’d cleared

rot said, ‘I’d have h

obie said, ‘we have t

e radio and a voice shouted with unex

doctor said. ‘Tomorrow’s

me - particularly that volume where the barest fact of all was contained - C. died. He couldn’t have told himself why he stored up this record - it was certainly not for posterity. Even if posterity were to be interested in the life of an obscure policeman in an unfashionable colony, it would have learned nothing from these cryptic entries. Perhaps the reason was that forty years ago at a preparatory school he had been given a prize - a copy of Allan Quatermain - for keeping a diary throughout one summer holiday, and the h

ded an act of contrition. It was a formality, not because he felt himself free from serious sin but because it had never occurred to him that his life was important enough one way or another. He didn’t drink, he didn’t fornicate, he didn’t even lie, but he never regarded this absence of sin as virtue. When he thought about it at all, he regarded himself as a man in t

wheeling pillar of black cloud driving up from the coast, and the air was cold yet with the rain. They stood with coat-collars turned up watching the French shore, and the carriers squatted on the grou

his glasses focused on the opposite

rs Perrot said, and shiver

e alive,’ the

‘

ion we have to cons

over a shock like that?

‘you get over it. It’s failure people don’t g

s,’ Scobie said. ‘I think I can count six s

er cases and four walking ones,’ the doctor sa

ing them down now. I think there are seven str

A native dugout canoe bearing, one supposed, the walking cases came blackly out of the haze: it was suddenly very close to them. On th

rty white topee and a native cloth was draped over his shoulders; his free hand tugged and scratched at

. ‘Will you step up to the bungalow and th

ve no need

nd rest. I’ll be

ake ma report to a

take him up to t

ssioner,’ Perrot said. ‘You

wful lot of responsibility on me, for the captain’s dead.’ As they moved up the hill to the bungalow, the persi

men with the appearance of plumbers who might have been brothers if they had not been called Forbes and Newall, uncomplaining men without authority, to whom things simply happened. One had a crushed foot and walked with a crutch; the other had his hand bound u

Druce asked, consulting a

Mrs Rolt. I a

o up to the hous

ar more serious cases

said, ‘You’d l

am not in the least tired.’ She shut her mouth between every se

‘Wher

To the Educati

there will be a g

nd delay. Work won’t wait.’ Suddenly she lifted

id, ‘Well do what we can to get you there right a

aid, ‘there’s nothing that can’t

r two chaps up after us. They are all right. If

You stay here, Scobie, in case the lau

ils of the scene: the white warehouse, the mud huts, the brass-work of the launch glittering in the sun: he could see the red fezzes of the native troops. He thought: Just such a sce

y for your t

hinking that Louis

thinking tha

, Wilson? You are not in the police

sorry, Maj

did Louis

’t think she liked

aunch to start at last, Wilson. Be

ood in the bow: a soldier flung a rope and Scobie c

figure with a twitch in the left eyelid. He said in Englis

signal sa

ht. One from black-water and one from - fr

Exhaus

That i

‘Very softly. Go very softly.’ It was an unnecessary command: no white hospital attendants could lift and carry m

ight here.’ He was courteous and unapproachable, but all the

lish papers if you wo

you. I read Englis

speak it v

is a differ

ve a cig

no. I do not like

ible to tell from the stiff vacant face what his age might be. The doctor came down the hill to meet

cobie said, ‘to shoot with your police chi

here any longer,

‘Gone

who couldn’t have been more than ten with a feverish face and a twig-like arm thrown out from his blanket: an old lady with grey hair falling every way who twisted and turned and whispered: a man with a

last year of

years without leave, wasn’t h

r load and looked away again. A small girl -she couldn’t have been more than six-lay on it. She was deeply and unhealthily asleep; her fair hair

at is te

child li

were lost. But it is a

hat Not that the child would die - that needed no explanation. Even the pagans realized that the love of God might mean an early death, though the reason they ascribed was

human enough to love what he had created. ‘How on

ater often. It was foolish, of course, but one cannot always be logical. And it gave them something to think about.

. The French officer said, ‘She was just married - before she sailed. Her husband was lost. Her passport says she is nineteen. She may live. You see, she still has some

What i

e added bitterly, ‘When this damned war st

carried into his life on a stretcher grasp

ey were subdued. Even Perrot was no longer trying to impress t

I supp

said, ‘You got

ardly write fast enough. When he stopped he went flat out. That was what was keeping him together

‘Were they sailing

they were sniped. The submarine commander surfaced and gave them direction. He said he would have given them a tow, but there was a naval patrol out looking for him. You see, you can really blame nobody for this s

deeper tone of dive-bombers. The lights were showing in the temporary hospital, and the weight of that misery lay on his shoulders. It was as if he had shed one responsibility only to take on another. This was a responsibilit

llo, Scobie,’ he said in a voice as bowed as his shoulder

re they?’ S

two more deaths, I th

‘The

by morning,’ the d

she con

ks she’s in the boat still. They’d kept it from her there - said her parents

he take you f

e won’t acce

d, ‘How’s the s

of action till morning. That’s all she needs - and the sense of getting somewhere. Y

ur boys and kit. We’ll be sending proper transport a

, they’ll

boy and th

y’ll pull

ho is t

England. His parents in South Afri

stamp-album and not the face that haunted his memory for no reason that he could und

octor said. ‘If she gets t

red, aren’t you? Go

he tough rocky ground. The loose stones turned under his boots. He thought of Pemberton. What an absurd thing it was to expect happiness in a world so full of misery. He had cut down his own needs to a minimum, photographs were put away in drawers, the

adn’t known, just as the stars on this clear night gave also an impression of remoteness, security, freedom. If one knew, he w

She was dressed in white like a nurse, and her flint-grey hair lay back from her for

uldn’t describe to Mrs Bowles the restlessness, the haunting im

healthy exercise. In the second room were the stretcher cases for whom there was reasonable hope. The third room was a small one and contained only two beds divided by a screen: the six-year-old girl with the dry mouth, the young woman

he disp

e. One has to make

ge. A shiver moved his shoulder

ied. He had always thanked God that he had missed that. It seemed after all that one never really missed a thing. To be a human being one had to drink the cup. If one were lucky on one day, or cowardly on another, it was presented on a third occasion. He prayed silently into his hands, ‘O God, don’t let anything happen before Mrs Bowles comes back.’ He could hear the heavy uneven breathing of the child. It was as if she were carrying a weight with great effort up a long hill: it was an inhuman situation not to be able to carry

, ‘Yes, dear. Don’t speak, I’m here.’ The night-light cast the shadow of his clenched fist on the sheet and it caught the child’s eye. An effort to laugh convulsed her, and he moved his hand away. ‘Sleep, dear,’ he said, ‘you are sleepy. Sleep.’ A memory that he had carefully buried returned and taking out his handkerchief he made the shadow of a rabbit’s head fall

ich was read by Mr Bowles, but the Perrots were present, Wilson and some of the court messengers: the doctor was busy in the rest-house. Instead, Scobie walked rapidly through the rice-fields, talked to the agricultural officer about irrigation, kept away. Later, when he had exhausted the possibilities of irrigation, he went into the store and sat in the dark among all the tins, the tinned jams and the tinned soups, the tinned butter, the tinned biscuits, the tin

e medicine. She stood there with her mouth opening and closing, inhaling and expelling. She

‘

dom attend a funeral together

going to be an

ink. The rest will b

h of them

turn for the worse last night

ess relief. He said,

‘

And Mr

nger, but I think she’ll

e know her hu

n, from the shoulder. Then she stood on tip-toe six times.

oud?’ Mrs Bowles aske

suppose

boy. He’s getting bored

shall I fi

enty at the Missio

oy. Damp-stained and late Victorian, the bindings bore titles like Twenty Years in the Mission Field, Lost and Found, The Narrow Way, The Missionary’s Warning. Obviously at some time there had been an appeal for books for the Mission

ound so

‘

ommittee before they come out. Sometimes people try to send the most unsuitable books. We

suppo

e what you

himself for the first time

eresting,’ Mrs Bowles sa

im. You can read to him for a

ed the convalescence ward, so that the middle room could be given up to the boy and Mrs Rolt. Mrs Rolt lay facing the wall with her eyes closed. They had appa

e’s Scobie.

‘Fi

ously, ‘Mrs Bowles as

are you?

o, a po

it a murd

graph of the bishop sitting in his robes on a hard drawing-room chair outside a

er story. Have you ev

call a real murder wi

sort of a m

low voice so as not to disturb Mrs Rolt. She lay with her fist c

rhaps I’ve read it. I read Treasure Island on the bo

, ‘A Bishop among the Bant

eath. ‘Well, you see, Bish

you said

His name

’s a sop

s, he noticed that Mrs Rolt was not asleep: she was staring at the

hat are

irates who haunted the West Indies and preyed o

rthur Bishop

so that he can be captured by the Bantus. You know they always give the ordinary seamen a chance to join them. If he’d been an officer they would have made him wa

a bit of a swine

ntus and that’s when he turns soppy. But that comes near the end and we wo

ds all right.

y to stay a short time today, so I’ve just told y

e tomorrow. There may be

t with Mrs Bowles. It’s her book. Of course i

egin it,’ th

ve discounted it as an illusion if he hadn’t looked up and seen her watching him, th

said impatiently. ‘A

in their wake. The captain was evidently worried, for he watched the strange ship continually through his spyglass. When night fell it was still on their trail, and at dawn it was the first sight that met their eyes. Can it be, Arthur Bishop wondered, that I am about to meet the object

on,’ the

it seemed for a time that he would show the strange ship a clean pair of heels. Suddenly over the water came the boom of a gun, and a cannon-ball struck the water twenty yards ahead of them. Captain

that will do. Quite enough for the day.

op among t

ope you e

It’s w

ensible boy,’ Mrs Bow

nd Scobie turned again reluctantly to take in the y

s rebuked her. ‘He’s got to get back to the port.

ou a po

‘

a loss, a sickness. In the next deal perhaps it would be possible to see the future. He took up the stamp-album and opened it at the fly-leaf: it was inscribed, ‘Helen, from her loving father on he

e said, ‘I’ve been looking for you, M

doing good wor

ow’s Mr

he’ll pull through

ose stone in the path and said, ‘I want yo

‘

ell, I find that our manager has been buying military stuff. T

answer fairly si

urse that’s your job. That’s why I wanted to talk to you.’ Wilson paused and that extraordinar

ld have gue

‘You

rekeeper. In fact, for all we know, Yusef may be innocent It’s unlikely, but not impossible. Your own e

evidence,’ Wilson said, ‘w

to a standstill

that took Scobie completely by surprise, he said, ‘T

long enough to know w

are all rou

y Tallit - or

’ve been very kind to me - and Mrs Scobie has to

n here fifteen

But people are worried about Tallit’s parrot. They say

, I’ve he

usef are on visiting terms. I

inspector, but it wouldn’t prevent my prosecuting him ...’ He stopped ab

d, ‘I just thought

oo young for yo

‘My

hatever

n his voice, ‘Oh, you are unbearable. You are too damned honest to live.’ His fac

ear a hat, Wilson,’

ight lay flat across the rice-fields below them, and Scobie was conscious of how prominently they were si

s is sun, Wilson, just sun. We’l

id, unintelligent ... you don’t kn

. Nobody wants another per

, ‘I kissed her

let the occasion pass lightly, so that in the morning they could behave naturally to each other. It wa

id, ‘She’s too

or both

have ended friends. It was his serenity that stoked the flames. He said now, ‘Let’s talk about it tomorrow. We’ve all been upset by that child’s death. Come up to the bungalow and have a drink.’ He made to pass Wilson, but Wilson barred th

of the phrase took

r step,’ Wilson sai

th has Mrs Rolt g

ed behind, haunted the hospital... While we we

are crazy, Wils

had been folded up by some large invisible

taking off his hat he put it on Wilson’s head. Wilson looked up at hi