‘I need to be there for Doug when they get him out. He may be badly injured.’

‘I don’t think that’s a good idea, Evie.’ Susan looked at her husband for confirmation.

‘I don’t care whether it’s a good idea or not. I’m going with you, Reggie. Are you going to stand here all night arguing or are we going to go?’ To Susan she said, ‘Can you look after Hugh? Aunty Mimi will make up some formula if he wakes in the night. Otherwise he’s doing well on solids already.’

Mary, sensing that Evie was immoveable, said, ‘I’ll stay with Susan. I want to be here for Jasmine in case you’re not back before she wakes up.’

Evie hugged her friend. ‘Thank you. The guest room is made up and there’s a day bed in the nursery. Aunty Mimi will get you anything you need.’

She rushed upstairs to kiss her sleeping baby, then followed the two men out to the car.

25

All the way to Batu Lembah, Evie tortured herself with fears as to what her husband must be going through. Despite the brevity of the telephone call and the lack of information, she kept quizzing Reggie for details.

‘But how badly hurt is he? Why haven’t they got him out? How long has he been down there?’

Reggie kept repeating that he knew no more than he had already said. ‘The Assistant Manager just said Doug was overseeing jungle clearance in a remote part of the estate with a small gang of coolies and had fallen down a mine shaft. I’ve no idea if anyone saw it happen. The jungle’s littered with disused tin workings and most of them are unmapped. We have to hope it’s not too deep but we can’t tell until we get there and can assess the situation properly.’

It was after nine when they arrived at the estate. Mike Overton, the Assistant Manager, was waiting on the steps of the bungalow to meet them. Evie shivered, remembering the last and only time she had been here at Batu Lembah. She decided it must be a truly cursed place.

The small group gathered inside the bungalow where the house boy made Evie a cup of tea, which she drank gratefully, the warmth and sweetness helping allay the shock.

‘No one saw what happened,’ Overton began. ‘The tuan was doing his usual inspection rounds. He’d gone out to the north-east quadrant where we were clearing virgin jungle.’

‘Was he alone?’ Reggie interrupted.

‘Yes. But there were fifty coolies working out there. That’s why he went over there, to see how they were getting on. They claim they never saw him.’

‘So how did you find him?’ Evie asked. ‘How did you even know he was missing?’

‘His dog, Badger. He was barking and going berserk. But there was no sign of Doug. The men stopped what they were doing and went after the dog. It took them some time to find him as some of the forest there is impassable. Then they raised the alarm.’