‘Yes, sir. But there isn’t much food round about here; the people tried to keep ducks and chickens, but there wasn’t room. There isn’t room for pigs. They were told to go fishing in the river … there are about fifty families …’

‘But they can still be blackmailed, Daley … they can be made to buy food from the shops and give it to the bandits … why, it’s …’

‘Excuse me,’ said Che Ahmad, interrupting Luke’s exasperation. ‘I will go up to the police post now and talk to Inspector Abdullah and perhaps find out a little about all this.’

‘Do,’ said Luke. ‘Now, Daley,’ he added grimly, as soon as Che Ahmad had turned his back, ‘I expect there’s a lot more dirt. You’d better tell me all. I’d better know the worst.’

*  *  *

‘Tolong, Towkay, help us. The white man put us in the swamp.’

‘What can I do about it? You displeased the white man.’

‘Please, Towkay, is there no way? It takes me four days to put up a hut again, and during this time I will earn no money tapping rubber … Why is he doing it? Why?’

‘To punish you. You displeased him. He who cannot bend is broken.’

It usually cost them fifty or a hundred dollars, depending on their means, for a better hut. They owed the money, paying ten dollars monthly, with thirty per cent interest per month added on … or thirteen dollars a month – to Ah Kim, the contractor, the ‘government’ man.

Ah Kim ran a labour force of Tamils, because they were cheap. But now he found it more convenient to get help from the villagers themselves.

‘Old Ah San, you will clear for me this patch.’

‘But I have to go tapping.’

‘When you come back from tapping. You have plenty of time in the afternoon.’

Ah San owed money, and did not want to go in the swamp.

And now the police post took its cue from Ah Kim. If he could get away with it, then it was permissible for a poor Malay mata-mata to get his small share.

The families moved to the swamp were without water. The ditches were of earth, shallow and overflowing with dirt within a week. The wells were across the road. When the village of Todak had been planned, the upground had been wired in, then the swamp.

To get to the road, and then up to the highground wells, to the shops or out to the rubber estates, the people of the swamp crossed two police posts. Soon it was an unwritten rule that the people of the swamp must pay ten cents each time they crossed a post to collect their water from the wells.

Then there were Georgie’s collections, presents, and gifts …

‘The white man will consider your request for a pigsty, I will talk to him for you.’

‘Thank you very much, Towkay … please accept these two chickens …’