"Get out of here!" "Get off!" "Excuse me." "Excuse me." "Excuse me." "I was expecting to be met." "Good morning, Truscott." "I am Belansai." "Welcome to our country." "He's a bright chap." "He'll be the head man of his Longhouse in two years." "John Truscott." "Henry Bullard." "I'm the governor of this district, but you just think of me as God." "Hop aboard." "You've got far too good a degree for this job." "What are you running away from?" "Your debts?" "Your family?" "Or a woman?" "No, no debts." "No woman." "My mother died two years ago." "My father was killed at Passchendaele, so..." "Well, why in God's name are you here?" "My father was a district officer out here." "William C. Truscott?" "Ahhh." "He'd drawn up a plan to bring education to the Iban which the governor general had approved, but then he had to go back to the war... and it never happened." "And you've brought this plan with you, have you?" "Yes, I think it's our duty to educate primitive people." "God, you sound a sanctimonious little prig." "Still, you're young." "Sarawak'll knock it out of you." "Famous, you lazy bastard!" "Look at the state of this place." "Bring Truscott tea and gadgets double quick." "Come on." "Chibi, chibi, chibi." "It's got bugs in there." "He's the best cook in Sarawak." "Though strictly speaking he's still on parole." "What did he do?" "Oh, he hacked some damn fool rickshaw driver to death." "But you should taste his meringues." " Shouldn't he be in" " Now, tomorrow, you've an invitation from your local Longhouse, the Gawa Kenyalong." "So Belansai'll pick you up." "The feast to honor the war god where they take the giant hornbill statue down from the rafters." "Oh, God." "You read-- books." "I'm afraid they insist upon it at university." "Do they?" "Has it come to that now?" "Yes, I'll" "I'll see you in a day or so." "Excuse me." "Excuse me." "Excuse me..." "What's my job?" "This is my father, Melaka." "He is head man of the Longhouse." "This is rice wine." "Ah." "Um..." "I won't drink on duty, thanks." "To refuse is an insult." "Left, right." "Left, right." "It's chibi, chibi, chibi!" "It is a... very ancient tribal dance." "Oh, no, um... no." "Very kind of you to offer, but I think I'll give it a miss this time round." "You must make us entertainment." "A song?" "A dance?" "A poem?" "Perhaps all three." ""The sand of the desert is sodden red," "Red with the wreck of the ranks that broke." "The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead," "And the regiment blind with dust and smoke." "The river of death has brimmed his banks," "And England's far and honor's a name," "But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks," "'Play up!" "Play up and play the game!" "'"" "" Da-dum-dum-dum "" "" Da-da-da-da, Dum-dum-dum-dum "" "" Da-da-da-da "" "Oh, Truscott, you are very funny Englishman." "Excuse me." "What's going on?" "The dancing is over." "We go to sleep now." "You deliberately dropped me in it, didn't you?" "You know I made a complete fool of myself?" "They like a man who makes them laugh." "Iban society is based on heavy drinking, violent sport and practical jokes." "Just think of it as English public school without the buggery." "I'm on a mission to civilize, not to entertain." "The mining concessions at Kera Pulau have been trespassing outside their boundaries." "Your local Longhouse got to some Chinese miners before I did." "You're going to have to bring in their heads." "What?" "Well... we limit the areas where the mining concerns can" "No, no, no." "You said... you said "their heads."" "Well, yes." "The Iban have cut them off." "What?" "Ahh." "My dear." "This is Selima." "She's going to live with you." "As what?" "Uh... she performs wifely duties." "Oh yeah?" "What... sewing?" "She performs wifely duties in the bedroom." " For God's sakes, man." " I sleep with you." "We expect you to know the language within six months." "Selima's what's known around here as a "sleeping dictionary."" "Sleep..." "My mother was also sleeping dictionary." "That's why I speak the King English." "There's nothing like bed for learning a language." "It's the only reason I speak Portuguese." "No, look, poor girl." " She was just-- picked?" " I pick you." "And she's really choosy." "She turned down my last two cadet officers." "Listen, your contract forbids you to marry for three years." "Three years can be very lonely." "And after three years?" "We'll probably all be dead, so why worry?" "Oh, dear." "Listen... you'll go home on leave to England and you'll come back with a rosy-cheeked little wife." "Selima will go home to her Longhouse speaking fluent English." "Oh, damn it, man, it's worked for centuries." "There's no reason why you should be different." "No, I'm sorry, no." "No." "I know you think I'm just some young idiot, but if I don't follow what I think's right, what else is there?" "Then you'd better find another way to learn the damn language." "Because if a so-called educated man can't speak the language of the people he governs, he's no right to be here!" "Fine, maybe she can stay as..." "just a dictionary?" " If she doesn't mind, that is." " What?" "Mind not sleeping with you?" "I'm sure she'll survive." "She said yes." "What else did she say?" "You'll have to learn Iban and find out, won't you?" "I'd stand back if I were you." "Ha ha!" "Ants." "Yes, ants." "Thank you very much." "Good night." "You say no, she get very angry." "Rain always stop in morning." "Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite." "Chinese heads as per request." "Thank you." "As you know, the Longhouse will be fined." "Beyond that, there will be no further action." "Monkey heads." "We make a joke on you." "Maybe I'll make a joke on you and bring a detachment of colonial police up the river." "I want those heads delivered to my bungalow by tomorrow morning or I will confiscate your" "your pigs." "Master?" "I bring you someone." "This is Jasmine." "He is assistant chef." "What do we need an assistant chef for?" " He assist you." " Me?" "He assist you in... private way." "Is this one of your relatives?" "No, no, no." "He very clean." "He come from Englishman on coast who too old for all that now." "What?" "Oh, good God." "Get him out of" "No, get him out now!" " But, master" " Get him out of here!" "And Selima, bring me a whiskey." "What are you doing?" "!" "I'm not servant." "Fine." "You don't have to be a servant." "You're fired!" "Dismissed!" "You cannot fire me because I am not yours to fire." "I fire you." "You are dismissed." "Make no attempt to follow me." " What are you doing?" " I live here now." "You can't live there." "Then I will live in the jungle." "I like the jungle." "No, listen." "You must go back to the Longhouse." "They will laugh at her." "They will say she choose you but you no have her." " Is that true?" " No." "They will say you not sleep with her because she too pig ugly." "Listen, I don't think you're ugly." "I think you're very beautiful." "I don't sleep with you because of my beliefs." "Because... the spirits of my country forbid it." "You want to sleep with me but you forbid by your spirit?" "Yes, you could say that." "I will go to my tree now." "Wait, wait, wait, wait." "Perhaps we could have another try." "If you're willing to re-employ me, that is." "I will give you one more chance." "Hey!" "I want a word with you." "Last night you got completely drunk again." "My other masters, they fine me one week pay if I blind drunk, two week pay if I blind, legless drunk." "I blind drunk two time a month regular, so very cheap cook." "Fair enough." "Wait." "Do you play croquet?" "No." "Help me reload, would you?" "I'm clearing the jungle for a croquet lawn for when Cecil, my daughter, comes out." "It's much quicker than a working party from the jail." "Aggie Bullard, Henry's wife." "You must be Truscott." "How are you getting on with Henry's damn fool tests?" "I think next I have to wrestle a crocodile." "Sleeping dictionary shaping up all right?" "Truscott!" "Us women don't know anything about all of that." " Truscott!" " And for heaven's sake, bed her or the Iban'll think there's something wrong with you down below." "Excuse me." "Re-group!" "Sorry?" "You're not picking up the language very fast, are you?" "And where are those Chinese heads?" "!" "You are in the bathroom." "I am in...?" "the bedroom." "What do I do?" "I..." "I say good night to my father." "Where do you go?" "Bedroom." "Bedroom..." "bedroom." "W-what next?" "I-I go to sleep." "Do English people have dreams at night?" "Sometimes, yeah." "Are we really that strange?" "Have you ever sleep with a woman?" "I won't till I get married." "That's our way." "But when you marry you'll be very bad at sex and your wife will be unhappy." "I'll take evening classes, I promise." "I've never met anyone... even a little like you." "Whyever did you choose me?" "Your dance is not the dance of an Englishman." "Good night." "Yes." "I thought you didn't like our education." "You want to educate us like your father did?" "You were educated because you're the chief's son." "Shouldn't others have the same opportunity?" "William, William," "Henry, Henry, Richard, John, Henry," "Edward, Edward, Richard, Henry," "Henry, Edward, Edward, Richard," "Henry, Henry, Edward" "Mary, Elizabeth, James, Charles," "Charles, James, William, George, George, George, George," "William, Victoria, Edward, George, Edward, George." "The kings of England." "And why do I need to know that?" "The mission school tries to turn us into little Englishmen." "They didn't do a very good job with you, did they?" "You missed Queen Anne, by the way." "You missed King Stephen." "I hear when you were young, you were a champion at the underwater battles." "When I was young?" "I am still champion of 1 0 Longhouses." "Yes, they say you can beat any girl on the river." "Will you challenge me then?" "How you-- how you do that?" "Some Englishmen can breathe underwater through their ears." "I wonder if I might have a word about... those heads." "It's lovely workmanship." "I'll add those to the collection." "The ants eaten your dinner jacket yet?" "I think there's an arm or two left." "Good." "My daughter Cecilia is arriving for Christmas." "First class honors degree at Oxford." "You'd like her." "Come to dinner." "Oh!" "How drunk is he?" "Blind, legless, daft, sick, smelly drunk." "My mother read that to me." "My father read it to me." "Do you remember your father?" "He go back to England when I am four." "My dad died when I was four." ""Deep, deep beneath the sea where the water is clear as purest glass" "lies the palace of the Sea King." "There behind its..." "walls of coral and roof of cockleshells lives a little mermaid."" "You can read English." "I remember it by my heart." "I made him read it many time." "Write a word from it." ""Deep."" "Now you." ""Hand."" ""Arm."" "Neck." "Lips." "Breast." "I-I'm sorry." "That was too quick, wasn't it?" "You teach me English, I'll teach you this." "School is not finished." "Not quite the education my father had in mind." "Why do you always go?" "For sleeping dictionary, it is proper." "For the Iban, if a man and a woman wake up together five nights in a row, they are engaged." "You don't want that, do you?" "Cecilia's got a degree in anthropology, you know?" "She did her thesis on the Iban." " Really?" " Mmm." "Why did you choose the Iban to study?" "I lived here until I was five." "Till Mother and Father couldn't stand me any longer and shipped me off to school." "But I always remembered them." "The way you'd never see them arrive, but then suddenly there they'd be, standing beside you as if they'd been there since... time began." "Although, for them, of course, time only began 53 years ago." " Really?" " Yes, the year Krakatoa exploded." " That's their year zero." " Is that true?" "How the deuce do you know that?" " Well, I listen." " Do you now?" "Well, I can't wait to get stuck in and meet the Iban." "Shipperly's taken over from Teague-- chap I told you about." "Went doolally and ate his own toes." "I'll tell you something I bet you don't know." "Back in Victorian times, the young officers coming out here were given a young woman from the local head-hunting tribes to share their bed... so they could learn the language quickly." "I hardly think so, darling." "Now you are having us on, aren't you?" "No, that's true." "I've heard tell of it from a very old Iban." " See?" " Well... if it did exist, I'm sure it was purely a matter of convenience and no... higher feelings were involved." " Don't see why." " Surely you can't seriously believe that a primitive head-huntress and an English officer could experience love." "Not love, maybe, but I'm sure they could feel a great deal." "Whatever an Englishman felt, he would never let that get in the way of his duty to the local people." "My Iban wouldn't think less of an officer" ""My Iban"?" "They're not your Iban." "They might be God's, but they're certainly not yours." "We've got enough bloody dictators in Europe, thank you." " All I'm saying" " And all I'm saying, is that an English officer would never let his country down." "Nor his family." "Would he, Truscott?" "No, sir." "So is she pretty?" "Well, she's fairly pretty." "But does she have wings?" "What happened to the spirits of your country?" "They grew old and tired and packed their bags and left for England." "This is a land dispute between two Longhouses." "It's fiendishly complicated." "You must be sick of me following you around." "No, I know how interested you are." "At least this time we escaped the dreaded Shipperly." "He's harmless, but..." "he's like all men who've been to an all-male school and college." "The only women they're comfortable with are their mothers." "He talks to me like I'm a Labrador." "I went to an all-male school and an all-male college." "Then something must've changed you." "Well... yes." "Being out here, I imagine." "So have you sorted out this dispute?" "Yes, I think so, yes." "See, it's impossible to sort out the argument." "So if I decide for one side or the other, it'll just seem unfair to them." "Pull!" "Would you mind?" "That's it, perfect." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Isn't she amazing?" "What did she say?" "There's not a precise English translation for that one." "Cecil, these children love having their photo" "She's wonderful." "I wish I looked like her." "Hands higher, please." "That's it." "Perfect." "Cecil, I don't think she wants her photograph taken." " Just a couple more." " Truscott!" "Go and see what's happening down there, will you?" "Ask her to keep up that fierce expression, please." " Cecil" " Truscott!" "I told you to go and see what the devil's happening!" "She won't understand." "She's Yakata." "You can tell by the turquoise bracelet." "I studied them." "She was bleeding through her skin." "Come away and wash your hands." "There's a dozen more dead bodies turned up at Laksai, 50 miles out of their territory." "I'd better go up river and have a look, hadn't I?" "No, you hadn't!" "It's dangerous enough up there without an epidemic." "That's my job." "They'll have your head as soon as look at you." "Besides he doesn't speak the language." "Well, I'll take Selima." "She speaks half a dozen languages." "And Belansai, no one's going to tangle with him." "Send that idiot Shipperly." "A few poisoned darts might liven him up." "I'll set out tomorrow morning, shall I?" "Aggie, I can't send Shipperly." "You said yourself the man's an idiot..." "If you're about to be killed, at least stay for dinner." "Terrific girl, Cecil." "Isn't she?" "Absolutely, yeah." "If you want a child properly educated, you've got to send them back home." "But you can't be in two places at once." "And I thought it was my duty... to stay with Henry." "But they've done a terrific job on her." "We're delighted." "She knows all sorts of things." "And it means she's turned out very self-sufficient, very capable." "Exactly the sort of girl one wants to marry out here, not some flimsy little miss who's never left England." "And of course... she's ever so fond of you." "Well, she's lovely, like you say." "But I'm not sure that I..." "Love her?" "I don't think I knew what love was when I was your age." "I don't suppose you do." "Well, what is it like?" "Well, it's, um... it's companionship, fellow feeling." "Now listen, you want these schools for the Iban." "Henry'll help you." "I'll see to that." "So... what do you say?" "I'm not really sure." "This is all rather sudden." "Don't take too long thinking about it." "Neville's asked her to marry him." "She'll be gone by the time you get back from your trip and you won't see her for two years." "I'm sorry about this afternoon." "I should have stopped her sooner." "Selima?" "You had other lovers before me, didn't you?" "Did you and they have what we have?" "Yes." "They were men like you." "But..." "I thought we had something special." "No, we fuck, that's all." "You're angry?" "You're not telling the truth." "I'm angry, that's why I'm telling the truth." "Half my blood is English." "That is more than your king and queen, but for you, that is not good enough." "So Iban I'll be." "Rule me if you must, but nothing else." "Go ahead." "Do your sex." "Don't mind me." ""Hands higher." "That's it." "Perfect."" ""Dear Cecil," "Everything is going very well." "We've reached the edge of Yakata country." "Belansai calls them 'the invisible people.'" "And even the Iban admit they can blend into the jungle like no one else." "They're fierce warriors, but they live as one big family." "Sharing is so much a part of their way of life that they have no word for 'thank you.'" "I look forward to seeing you when I finally come home on leave." "I'll finish this letter later."" "It's not like any disease." "It's not famine-- there's rice in the huts!" "It's a white man with a rifle-- aiming at you." "Listen..." "He's gone now." "Thank you." "Can you track him?" " My God." " What?" "I think this could be a new species." "It's like the buffalo leech, but bigger." "Would you mind just getting it off my back?" "I don't want to hurt it." "Maybe they'll name it after you, sweetheart." "Can you remember where you were when it bit you?" "No." "No, I can't remember where I was when it bloody well bit me, because I was in the middle of the bloody jungle, which looked like every other bit of bloody jungle, full of bloodsucking," "bloodthirsty, bloody little bastards!" "Good afternoon, Mrs. Bullard." "Idiot." "They come across the mountains from Dutch Borneo." " Very difficult journey." " That's pure silver." "They'll be making a fortune." "And it looks like they don't want any other Europeans to know." "Me get sickness." "They go away." "You'll be all right." "We'll take you down the river in the morning." "They say you brought the illness." "The Dutchmen told them." "What did you say?" "I told them you are a god and will cure them." "Oh." "Good." "Ask them if they will eat with us." "The Yakata don't grow rice, do they?" "So they must have traded for it." "The bastards." "The bastards!" "They wanted to clear the mining area, so they put poison in the rice!" " Do we die?" " No." "No, it's a slow-working poison, so it looks like disease." "So, my English friend... do we arrest the miners?" "What will the Yakata do if we tell them?" "Kill them all." "Tell them." "Explosie." "Explosie." "When I found you lying there, suddenly everything became clear." "I want to stay with you forever... if you'll have me." "Where shall we run?" "Run?" "We can cross into Dutch Borneo." "There's no need for that." "I love Sarawak." "But they'll stop us." "Oh, for God's sake, the English aren't barbarians." "I'll sort it out." "Trust me." "I'll sort everything out, I promise." "I know my own people." "You want to marry her." "We say we've a right to be here because we're a civilizing force." "How can we let our officers sleep with the local women, and not marry them?" "You're not the first, you know." "Let me tell you something." "25 years ago," "I was a young idiot." "She was called Ipoh... and I loved her." "But I made my decision, and I never saw her again until the day she died." " You don't regret that?" " I did what was right!" "I did my duty, and so will you!" "No." "No, I won't." "It's a good thing your father didn't think that at Passchendaele!" "Is it?" "Maybe then he wouldn't have drowned in a shell hole so some senile old general could get a knighthood!" "God, you self-righteous little prick!" " You'll do what I say!" " You let me" "Bit of an administrative crisis." "Yes, I know what's happened." "Everybody does!" "I'd like a word with you in private." "Selima..." "The English have sent word." "If you won't give him up, they'll charge him with the murder of the white miners." " Did you tell them?" " No!" "They will charge me as well." "That's why my father asks you." "Look, there's a way of doing things, and if you change it, our little world falls apart." " You're the one that told me" " For goodness sake!" "Give her up and Henry'll send you home on a year's sick leave." "You can come back as if nothing happened." "Refuse and you'll spend the next 1 0 years rotting in prison." "And then we'll deport you and you'll never see Sarawak, or her, again." "You can't do that." "You broke the law." "You can't go around murdering white men just because you think they deserve it." "He could hang you for that." "But you'd ignore it if I do as you want?" "You've a choice." "Make your mind up." " I want to see her." " Send her a letter!" "You've taught her to read, haven't you?" "Stop him!" "Idiot." "Selima?" "Selima!" "Where is she?" "It's all arranged, isn't it?" " Isn't it?" "!" " It's not as I thought." "Th-there's difficulties." "Help me!" "I'm ordering you to help me!" "You swore it would all work out." "Truscott, I am getting extremely fed up with you." "I'm too old to run through the bloody jungle all night!" "Just give her up now." " This is your last chance." " No!" "Say you'll give him up." "You know what'll happen otherwise!" "Once I start this, it can't be stopped." "John Truscott, I charge you" " I'll do it." " No, no." "I'll marry at the Longhouse." "I told you it's not possible." "So?" "Do you give her up?" "I do." "I now pronounce you man and wife." "You may kiss the bride." "Ready!" "We'll remember this song." "Always." "There is something I should say." "I know about your sleeping dictionary." "At least, I presume you had one." "Father thinks we women don't find out about such things." "But anyway, I don't mind." "I know how things are done out there." "And the good thing is... at least you'll know what to do because I'm damned if I do." "What happened to her?" "Oh, she married Belansai." "Your father wrote me a letter." "Was that before you proposed to me, or..." "Oh..." "No, I think it must have been afterwards." "Here we go, then." ""Dear Henry," "I talked things over with Cecilia again, and we have decided to return to Sarawak." "She wants to be with you, and I would be a coward not to finish the work I started." "I think the only way forward is to wipe away the last couple of years and start life afresh." "I'm determined to make your daughter happy." "Yours sincerely, John Truscott."" "" East of the sun "" "" And west of the moon... "" "I thought I'd organize a welcoming committee." "They're wonderful." "Welcome back to hell." "Shipperly." "Weather forecast for the next... 1 0,000 years is too bloody hot." "Ah." ""...of the moon. "" "You're looking at the first Iban class, the first Iban school." "Your dad would be proud." "If he saw the Iban choosing what they were taught, he'd have a fit." "For heaven's sake, he wanted to teach them Latin and Greek." "You know, I actually wasn't going to mention this for a while, but I wondered if you might like to do some teaching?" "Ow!" "What in the world?" "I thought that's what you wanted." "I thought that's what she would have done." "Neville told me about you and her." "Have you seen her since we got here?" "No!" "No, not since... a year ago, or more." "He said she and her husband had a little boy." "Apparently they're very happy." "I want us to be happy." "Then why aren't we?" "It's her, isn't it?" "Yes." "She's very beautiful." "Isn't she?" "In her own way, yes." " What's that?" " It's Famous, blind drunk." "In fact, blind, legless, daft, sick, smelly drunk by the sounds of things." "You've got to fire him." "Cecil... he's been with me since I arrived." "He doesn't like me." "He preferred her, I can tell." "Hello?" "Who's this?" "This is your new cook." "Henry sent him." "Mrs. Truscott tell Mr. Truscott..." " to give me the boot." " Thank you, Famous." "Thank you." "Did you do that?" "Famous, take her into the kitchen and clean her up." "You do not do that." "You treat her with respect." "We're not all in love with our sleeping dictionaries, you know." "Tipong!" "What did you say to her?" "Oh, I told Tipong that if you hit her again, she should wait till you're asleep, then cut off your testicles with a kitchen knife." "They're very good at that kind of thing, the Iban." "Probably wouldn't even wake you." "Now" "Henry sent me." "We've got to unbugger up your last month's work." "Cecil-- you know, I would have made her happy." "I told him we'd remember this song." "Don't be so pathetic." "You should forget all about this love business." "Marriages work far better without it." "You should concentrate on the school." "You like that." "He just needs a little time." "When was the last time he slept with you?" "When was the last time he even touched you?" "That's how you judge men." "Hello, darling." "Good evening, Mrs. Bullard." "You will excuse us, won't you?" "You kissed me just to get one over on my mother, didn't you?" "No." "No, of course not." "Take one more reading before we go leave." "Right." " Is the baby mine?" " Oh, yes." "And are you open to bribery?" "Oh, very much so." "So you'll arrange for us to meet?" "I am one step ahead." "I already make inquiries, and she will not see you." "So you tell her Tipong has been beaten again and needs her help." "Shipperly?" "Shipperly I will send on a vital mission somewhere." "Somewhere famed for the size and quantity of its tiger leeches." "Please." "I want to see my son." "I don't understand "son."" "My child." "Child?" "You understand perfectly." "He was born nine months ago." "I don't understand English anymore." "My son." "You have my son." "His name is Mandar." "I left him on the veranda." "I was frightened of Neville." "I'll get him!" "You can have one minute, but they'll kill me if they see us together." "Selima, stay!" "For how long?" "Forever?" "I didn't know they were going to treat us like that, I'm sorry." "I don't know what to say." "He's Belansai's son now." "He marry me even though he knew I was pregnant." ""Deep, deep beneath the sea... where the water is clear as the purest glass, there lies the palace of the Sea King." "And there, behind the walls of coral, and beneath its roof of cockleshells" "lived the little mermaid."" "So, Truscott." "Is there some good news you're not telling us?" "I presume you've impregnated my daughter." "Oh... no." "Not yet." "It's just in case." "Let me tell you why I stayed here with Henry, and let Cecil grow up alone." "I told you it was duty." "I told myself it was duty, but it wasn't duty." "I never dared leave Henry alone... for fear he'd go back to his native girl." "So be warned." "I won't let that... wreck another generation." " John!" " Ah!" "They've cornered him-- at the Longhouse loft at Baritsai." "The damn fool!" "I hoped he'd run over the mountains to Dutch Borneo." "You caused all this!" "Now we're going to have to execute him." "One of the best men I know." "Well, you can damn well be his judge." "He had no choice." "I know that!" "I know that." "But he tried to kill a colonial official and that has to mean death." "Even though the colonial official in question deserved having his throat cut for sneaking around with his wife!" "It wasn't her I was seeing, it was my son!" "My son, who you never told me about!" "Am I supposed to pretend he doesn't exist?" "Yes, you are!" "For the rest of your life." "Yes." "Have you--?" "Another daughter?" "Yes." "The daughters of sleeping dictionaries become sleeping dictionaries." "I thought you were kind, that you'd treat her well." "Not quite as well as you ended up treating her, of course." "And she doesn't know?" "No." "I told her mother to tell her that I was back in England." "It's normal." "This way is best." "Aggie-- it wouldn't be fair on her." "I did my duty." "At least I didn't kill anyone!" "Belansai, was it your intention to kill me, or just to wound me?" "To kill you." "But did you come to kill me?" "Or did a sudden madness seize you?" "I came to kill you." "Belansai... tell the court why you had to try to kill me." "The court will adjourn and pass sentence tomorrow." " What are you doing?" " He saved my life." "Yes, and what a shame that was." "Don't think you're going to sentence him to anything except death." "You do that, and I'll just step in and overrule you." "You understand me?" "You'll have achieved nothing!" "Leave her alone!" "Go on, get back!" "Move!" "Move!" "Be upstanding." "This court is now in session." "This court is in session." "Belansai Ringan, this court finds you guilty of attempted murder." "Due to the lack of mitigating circumstances," "I have no alternative but to sentence you to death." "Tomorrow morning you'll be taken from the jail, and hung from your neck until you are dead." "May God have mercy on your soul." "Do they have to make such a bloody noise building a scaffold?" "And it's all because of that damn fool Truscott." "It'll do him good." "Now he's seen the consequences, it'll settle him down." "But Cecilia said she saw them talking." " Surely we ought to" " Do as little as possible." "He did what you asked him to, today, didn't he?" " Hmmm." " He's like you, Henry, when it comes to what really matters, he always gives in." "Now have another drink and go to bed." "Hmmm." "You've no reason not to take it." "Well, we're going to have to run away together now." "Steamer leaves tomorrow at dawn." "I'll leave at dusk, I'll be there by 3:00 a.m. at the latest." "You won't come." "They'll find out." "They'll say you must be an Englishman." "And I'll tell them that I'd rather have you than a country, or a language, or a history." "I can't prove it, but I know what you've done." "And I'm going to treat you as if you had done it!" "Have you anything to say?" "You're a bloody disgrace!" "If it wasn't for Cecil, I'd put you in there!" "Get out to the dam and do something useful!" "Go on." "You won't get any sense out of her." "Listen, you're not welcome at the Longhouse, and you're certainly not welcome here." "So Shipperly-- Neville-- has very kindly agreed to take you on as a sleeping dictionary." "I presume you'd prefer that to a spell in prison." "Off we go, then." "It was wonderful at the school today." "I tried teaching in Iban." "And I thought I said cooking yams-- "patanta"" "but actually I said "matanta--" cooking your lover." "They laughed and laughed." "And... now I'm going to have to tell you." "I'm pregnant." "Doctor Smith came from Miri today and... there's no doubt about it." "Your face." "You look so happy." "Well, of course I'm happy." "I know I shouldn't really say this... but I nearly gave up on us." "But I didn't." "And I'm so glad." "Shall we open that bottle of champagne?" ""Leeches." Hmmm?" ""Jungle."" ""Fucking jungle."" ""Fucking jungle... full of prick-teasing, little brown savages."" "There she is, swearing like a trooper blood everywhere, the cook-turned-midwife screaming," " "Push, lady, push!"" " Henry completely useless." "Shouting to nobody in particular:" ""Why didn't we get her downriver before the monsoon? "" "And then in walks this clouded leopard." "It was attracted by the blood, you see." "However, not really dangerous." "He starts shooting anyway." "Bullets flying everywhere, except anywhere near the leopard." " In the middle of all this uproar" " Out I pop." "Yes, bright pink." "And even then, she was the loudest thing in the room." "She was wonderful, wasn't she?" "It was wonderful for us, the first five years before we had to-- you know, send you home." "Yes." "She was wonderful, wasn't she?" "How many glasses of champagne have you had, Daddy?" "Oh, come on, if a man can't celebrate..." "Listen, I prayed that this would happen for both of you." "It'll make all the difference." "Look at him." "He's still in shock." "Get baby and go!" "I catch you up!" "It is for me, isn't it?" "Why haven't you finished it?" "Because nothing I could think of seemed... enough." "Tonight I've been watching you, trying to make myself believe you were happy." "Because I was so determined that this would finally do the trick... that this would make us be in love." "I did love seeing you so happy." "I saw that, but... it's not enough, is it?" "You know..." "I think you probably know my mother and father better than I do." "You've spent more time with them." "Five." "I was... five when I was shipped off back to school in England." "Some mothers came with their children, but not mine." "She never even came home for Christmas." "She wouldn't let Daddy out of her sight." "So when you asked me to marry you, I thought," ""Here's someone who's chosen me." "Not someone who's lumbered with me and has to pretend to love me, but someone who really wants me."" "But all the time you loved someone else." "If it hadn't been for her, we could've been happy enough, couldn't we?" "No, it's all right." "You don't have to lie." "And anyway, I'm not prepared to settle for "happy enough."" "Not anymore." "I want" "I want what you and her have." "Now go." "I want you to go." "Anyway, you've left something of yours behind." "I won't say anything to Mother and Father till the morning." "It's better this way." "Psst." "Psst!" "She think you not coming." "She not catch boat." "She making a run for Dutch Borneo." "Head for old mine." "You do realize I can't let you go." "You might need this." "My second present." "You know?" "I guess eventually." "Seems I only ever get to say goodbye." "Come on." "I do hope you're not incorruptible." "They're both headed over the mountains." "I have a party ready to follow them." "Have you?" "There's no whiskey trees in the jungle, you know." "Henry, she tried to kill Shipperly." " That's a hanging offense." " I can't spare the men." "Do you care nothing for your daughter?" "I care a great deal... for them both." "Cecil, tell him." "I don't want John hurt." "Or my sister." "He said go after them." "Come along, idiot." "What are you waiting for?" "Stay here." "Selima!" "Selima!" "Selima!" "Afternoon." "I thought you'd turn up eventually." "Handcuff yourselves to the pole." "Come on!" "We don't want to wake the baby up, now do we?" "!" "Do it properly, Truscott." "I've thought a lot about the order of this." "But I reckon... rape Selima, kill baby, kill Selima... kill you." "Jam, did it?" "Eeny... meeny... minie... mo." ""The witch said to the little mermaid," "'Why do you want to take human form and walk upon the land?" "'" "'Because I love him." "He is always in my thoughts and I would place my happiness in his hands,' replied the little mermaid."" "They sing because they move on tomorrow." "Make a new village a day's journey from here." "They want us to come with them." "Then we must go." "If we go, you will have nothing." "I'll have this." "I'll have you." "So shall I tell them we'll come?" "Tell them." "Get out of here!" "Get off!" "Excuse me." "Excuse me." "Excuse me." "I was expecting to be met." "Good morning, Truscott." "I am Belansai." "Welcome to our country." "He's a bright chap." "He'll be the head man of his Longhouse in two years." "John Truscott." "Henry Bullard." "I'm the governor of this district, but you just think of me as God." "Hop aboard." "You've got far too good a degree for this job." "What are you running away from?" "Your debts?" "Your family?" "Or a woman?" "No, no debts." "No woman." "My mother died two years ago." "My father was killed at Passchendaele, so..." "Well, why in God's name are you here?" "My father was a district officer out here." "William C. Truscott?" "Ahhh." "He'd drawn up a plan to bring education to the Iban which the governor general had approved, but then he had to go back to the war... and it never happened." "And you've brought this plan with you, have you?" "Yes, I think it's our duty to educate primitive people." "God, you sound a sanctimonious little prig." "Still, you're young." "Sarawak'll knock it out of you." "Famous, you lazy bastard!" "Look at the state of this place." "Bring Truscott tea and gadgets double quick." "Come on." "Chibi, chibi, chibi." "It's got bugs in there." "He's the best cook in Sarawak." "Though strictly speaking he's still on parole." "What did he do?" "Oh, he hacked some damn fool rickshaw driver to death." "But you should taste his meringues." " Shouldn't he be in" " Now, tomorrow, you've an invitation from your local Longhouse, the Gawa Kenyalong." "So Belansai'll pick you up." "The feast to honor the war god where they take the giant hornbill statue down from the rafters." "Oh, God." "You read-- books." "I'm afraid they insist upon it at university." "Do they?" "Has it come to that now?" "Yes, I'll" "I'll see you in a day or so." "Excuse me." "Excuse me." "Excuse me..." "What's my job?" "This is my father, Melaka." "He is head man of the Longhouse." "This is rice wine." "Ah." "Um..." "I won't drink on duty, thanks." "To refuse is an insult." "Left, right." "Left, right." "It's chibi, chibi, chibi!" "It is a... very ancient tribal dance." "Oh, no, um... no." "Very kind of you to offer, but I think I'll give it a miss this time round." "You must make us entertainment." "A song?" "A dance?" "A poem?" "Perhaps all three." ""The sand of the desert is sodden red," "Red with the wreck of the ranks that broke." "The Gatling's jammed and the Colonel dead," "And the regiment blind with dust and smoke." "The river of death has brimmed his banks," "And England's far and honor's a name," "But the voice of a schoolboy rallies the ranks," "'Play up!" "Play up and play the game!" "'"" "" Da-dum-dum-dum "" "" Da-da-da-da, Dum-dum-dum-dum "" "" Da-da-da-da "" "Oh, Truscott, you are very funny Englishman." "Excuse me." "What's going on?" "The dancing is over." "We go to sleep now." "You deliberately dropped me in it, didn't you?" "You know I made a complete fool of myself?" "They like a man who makes them laugh." "Iban society is based on heavy drinking, violent sport and practical jokes." "Just think of it as English public school without the buggery." "I'm on a mission to civilize, not to entertain." "The mining concessions at Kera Pulau have been trespassing outside their boundaries." "Your local Longhouse got to some Chinese miners before I did." "You're going to have to bring in their heads." "What?" "Well... we limit the areas where the mining concerns can" "No, no, no." "You said... you said "their heads."" "Well, yes." "The Iban have cut them off." "What?" "Ahh." "My dear." "This is Selima." "She's going to live with you." "As what?" "Uh... she performs wifely duties." "Oh yeah?" "What... sewing?" "She performs wifely duties in the bedroom." " For God's sakes, man." " I sleep with you." "We expect you to know the language within six months." "Selima's what's known around here as a "sleeping dictionary."" "Sleep..." "My mother was also sleeping dictionary." "That's why I speak the King English." "There's nothing like bed for learning a language." "It's the only reason I speak Portuguese." "No, look, poor girl." " She was just-- picked?" " I pick you." "And she's really choosy." "She turned down my last two cadet officers." "Listen, your contract forbids you to marry for three years." "Three years can be very lonely." "And after three years?" "We'll probably all be dead, so why worry?" "Oh, dear." "Listen... you'll go home on leave to England and you'll come back with a rosy-cheeked little wife." "Selima will go home to her Longhouse speaking fluent English." "Oh, damn it, man, it's worked for centuries." "There's no reason why you should be different." "No, I'm sorry, no." "No." "I know you think I'm just some young idiot, but if I don't follow what I think's right, what else is there?" "Then you'd better find another way to learn the damn language." "Because if a so-called educated man can't speak the language of the people he governs, he's no right to be here!" "Fine, maybe she can stay as..." "just a dictionary?" " If she doesn't mind, that is." " What?" "Mind not sleeping with you?" "I'm sure she'll survive." "She said yes." "What else did she say?" "You'll have to learn Iban and find out, won't you?" "I'd stand back if I were you." "Ha ha!" "Ants." "Yes, ants." "Thank you very much." "Good night." "You say no, she get very angry." "Rain always stop in morning." "Sleep tight and don't let the bedbugs bite." "Chinese heads as per request." "Thank you." "As you know, the Longhouse will be fined." "Beyond that, there will be no further action." "Monkey heads." "We make a joke on you." "Maybe I'll make a joke on you and bring a detachment of colonial police up the river." "I want those heads delivered to my bungalow by tomorrow morning or I will confiscate your" "your pigs." "Master?" "I bring you someone." "This is Jasmine." "He is assistant chef." "What do we need an assistant chef for?" " He assist you." " Me?" "He assist you in... private way." "Is this one of your relatives?" "No, no, no." "He very clean." "He come from Englishman on coast who too old for all that now." "What?" "Oh, good God." "Get him out of" "No, get him out now!" " But, master" " Get him out of here!" "And Selima, bring me a whiskey." "What are you doing?" "!" "I'm not servant." "Fine." "You don't have to be a servant." "You're fired!" "Dismissed!" "You cannot fire me because I am not yours to fire." "I fire you." "You are dismissed." "Make no attempt to follow me." " What are you doing?" " I live here now." "You can't live there." "Then I will live in the jungle." "I like the jungle." "No, listen." "You must go back to the Longhouse." "They will laugh at her." "They will say she choose you but you no have her." " Is that true?" " No." "They will say you not sleep with her because she too pig ugly." "Listen, I don't think you're ugly." "I think you're very beautiful." "I don't sleep with you because of my beliefs." "Because... the spirits of my country forbid it." "You want to sleep with me but you forbid by your spirit?" "Yes, you could say that." "I will go to my tree now." "Wait, wait, wait, wait." "Perhaps we could have another try." "If you're willing to re-employ me, that is." "I will give you one more chance." "Hey!" "I want a word with you." "Last night you got completely drunk again." "My other masters, they fine me one week pay if I blind drunk, two week pay if I blind, legless drunk." "I blind drunk two time a month regular, so very cheap cook." "Fair enough." "Wait." "Do you play croquet?" "No." "Help me reload, would you?" "I'm clearing the jungle for a croquet lawn for when Cecil, my daughter, comes out." "It's much quicker than a working party from the jail." "Aggie Bullard, Henry's wife." "You must be Truscott." "How are you getting on with Henry's damn fool tests?" "I think next I have to wrestle a crocodile." "Sleeping dictionary shaping up all right?" "Truscott!" "Us women don't know anything about all of that." " Truscott!" " And for heaven's sake, bed her or the Iban'll think there's something wrong with you down below." "Excuse me." "Re-group!" "Sorry?" "You're not picking up the language very fast, are you?" "And where are those Chinese heads?" "!" "You are in the bathroom." "I am in...?" "the bedroom." "What do I do?" "I..." "I say good night to my father." "Where do you go?" "Bedroom." "Bedroom..." "bedroom." "W-what next?" "I-I go to sleep." "Do English people have dreams at night?" "Sometimes, yeah." "Are we really that strange?" "Have you ever sleep with a woman?" "I won't till I get married." "That's our way." "But when you marry you'll be very bad at sex and your wife will be unhappy." "I'll take evening classes, I promise." "I've never met anyone... even a little like you." "Whyever did you choose me?" "Your dance is not the dance of an Englishman." "Good night." "Yes." "I thought you didn't like our education." "You want to educate us like your father did?" "You were educated because you're the chief's son." "Shouldn't others have the same opportunity?" "William, William," "Henry, Henry, Richard, John, Henry," "Edward, Edward, Richard, Henry," "Henry, Edward, Edward, Richard," "Henry, Henry, Edward" "Mary, Elizabeth, James, Charles," "Charles, James, William, George, George, George, George," "William, Victoria, Edward, George, Edward, George." "The kings of England." "And why do I need to know that?" "The mission school tries to turn us into little Englishmen." "They didn't do a very good job with you, did they?" "You missed Queen Anne, by the way." "You missed King Stephen." "I hear when you were young, you were a champion at the underwater battles." "When I was young?" "I am still champion of 1 0 Longhouses." "Yes, they say you can beat any girl on the river." "Will you challenge me then?" "How you-- how you do that?" "Some Englishmen can breathe underwater through their ears." "I wonder if I might have a word about... those heads." "It's lovely workmanship." "I'll add those to the collection." "The ants eaten your dinner jacket yet?" "I think there's an arm or two left." "Good." "My daughter Cecilia is arriving for Christmas." "First class honors degree at Oxford." "You'd like her." "Come to dinner." "Oh!" "How drunk is he?" "Blind, legless, daft, sick, smelly drunk." "My mother read that to me." "My father read it to me." "Do you remember your father?" "He go back to England when I am four." "My dad died when I was four." ""Deep, deep beneath the sea where the water is clear as purest glass" "lies the palace of the Sea King." "There behind its..." "walls of coral and roof of cockleshells lives a little mermaid."" "You can read English." "I remember it by my heart." "I made him read it many time." "Write a word from it." ""Deep."" "Now you." ""Hand."" ""Arm."" "Neck." "Lips." "Breast." "I-I'm sorry." "That was too quick, wasn't it?" "You teach me English, I'll teach you this." "School is not finished." "Not quite the education my father had in mind." "Why do you always go?" "For sleeping dictionary, it is proper." "For the Iban, if a man and a woman wake up together five nights in a row, they are engaged." "You don't want that, do you?" "Cecilia's got a degree in anthropology, you know?" "She did her thesis on the Iban." " Really?" " Mmm." "Why did you choose the Iban to study?" "I lived here until I was five." "Till Mother and Father couldn't stand me any longer and shipped me off to school." "But I always remembered them." "The way you'd never see them arrive, but then suddenly there they'd be, standing beside you as if they'd been there since... time began." "Although, for them, of course, time only began 53 years ago." " Really?" " Yes, the year Krakatoa exploded." " That's their year zero." " Is that true?" "How the deuce do you know that?" " Well, I listen." " Do you now?" "Well, I can't wait to get stuck in and meet the Iban." "Shipperly's taken over from Teague-- chap I told you about." "Went doolally and ate his own toes." "I'll tell you something I bet you don't know." "Back in Victorian times, the young officers coming out here were given a young woman from the local head-hunting tribes to share their bed... so they could learn the language quickly." "I hardly think so, darling." "Now you are having us on, aren't you?" "No, that's true." "I've heard tell of it from a very old Iban." " See?" " Well... if it did exist, I'm sure it was purely a matter of convenience and no... higher feelings were involved." " Don't see why." " Surely you can't seriously believe that a primitive head-huntress and an English officer could experience love." "Not love, maybe, but I'm sure they could feel a great deal." "Whatever an Englishman felt, he would never let that get in the way of his duty to the local people." "My Iban wouldn't think less of an officer" ""My Iban"?" "They're not your Iban." "They might be God's, but they're certainly not yours." "We've got enough bloody dictators in Europe, thank you." " All I'm saying" " And all I'm saying, is that an English officer would never let his country down." "Nor his family." "Would he, Truscott?" "No, sir." "So is she pretty?" "Well, she's fairly pretty." "But does she have wings?" "What happened to the spirits of your country?" "They grew old and tired and packed their bags and left for England." "This is a land dispute between two Longhouses." "It's fiendishly complicated." "You must be sick of me following you around." "No, I know how interested you are." "At least this time we escaped the dreaded Shipperly." "He's harmless, but..." "he's like all men who've been to an all-male school and college." "The only women they're comfortable with are their mothers." "He talks to me like I'm a Labrador." "I went to an all-male school and an all-male college." "Then something must've changed you." "Well... yes." "Being out here, I imagine." "So have you sorted out this dispute?" "Yes, I think so, yes." "See, it's impossible to sort out the argument." "So if I decide for one side or the other, it'll just seem unfair to them." "Pull!" "Would you mind?" "That's it, perfect." "Thank you." "Thank you." "Isn't she amazing?" "What did she say?" "There's not a precise English translation for that one." "Cecil, these children love having their photo" "She's wonderful." "I wish I looked like her." "Hands higher, please." "That's it." "Perfect." "Cecil, I don't think she wants her photograph taken." " Just a couple more." " Truscott!" "Go and see what's happening down there, will you?" "Ask her to keep up that fierce expression, please." " Cecil" " Truscott!" "I told you to go and see what the devil's happening!" "She won't understand." "She's Yakata." "You can tell by the turquoise bracelet." "I studied them." "She was bleeding through her skin." "Come away and wash your hands." "There's a dozen more dead bodies turned up at Laksai, 50 miles out of their territory." "I'd better go up river and have a look, hadn't I?" "No, you hadn't!" "It's dangerous enough up there without an epidemic." "That's my job." "They'll have your head as soon as look at you." "Besides he doesn't speak the language." "Well, I'll take Selima." "She speaks half a dozen languages." "And Belansai, no one's going to tangle with him." "Send that idiot Shipperly." "A few poisoned darts might liven him up." "I'll set out tomorrow morning, shall I?" "Aggie, I can't send Shipperly." "You said yourself the man's an idiot..." "If you're about to be killed, at least stay for dinner." "Terrific girl, Cecil." "Isn't she?" "Absolutely, yeah." "If you want a child properly educated, you've got to send them back home." "But you can't be in two places at once." "And I thought it was my duty... to stay with Henry." "But they've done a terrific job on her." "We're delighted." "She knows all sorts of things." "And it means she's turned out very self-sufficient, very capable." "Exactly the sort of girl one wants to marry out here, not some flimsy little miss who's never left England." "And of course... she's ever so fond of you." "Well, she's lovely, like you say." "But I'm not sure that I..." "Love her?" "I don't think I knew what love was when I was your age." "I don't suppose you do." "Well, what is it like?" "Well, it's, um... it's companionship, fellow feeling." "Now listen, you want these schools for the Iban." "Henry'll help you." "I'll see to that." "So... what do you say?" "I'm not really sure." "This is all rather sudden." "Don't take too long thinking about it." "Neville's asked her to marry him." "She'll be gone by the time you get back from your trip and you won't see her for two years." "I'm sorry about this afternoon." "I should have stopped her sooner." "Selima?" "You had other lovers before me, didn't you?" "Did you and they have what we have?" "Yes." "They were men like you." "But..." "I thought we had something special." "No, we fuck, that's all." "You're angry?" "You're not telling the truth." "I'm angry, that's why I'm telling the truth." "Half my blood is English." "That is more than your king and queen, but for you, that is not good enough." "So Iban I'll be." "Rule me if you must, but nothing else." "Go ahead." "Do your sex." "Don't mind me." ""Hands higher." "That's it." "Perfect."" ""Dear Cecil," "Everything is going very well." "We've reached the edge of Yakata country." "Belansai calls them 'the invisible people.'" "And even the Iban admit they can blend into the jungle like no one else." "They're fierce warriors, but they live as one big family." "Sharing is so much a part of their way of life that they have no word for 'thank you.'" "I look forward to seeing you when I finally come home on leave." "I'll finish this letter later."" "It's not like any disease." "It's not famine-- there's rice in the huts!" "It's a white man with a rifle-- aiming at you." "Listen..." "He's gone now." "Thank you." "Can you track him?" " My God." " What?" "I think this could be a new species." "It's like the buffalo leech, but bigger." "Would you mind just getting it off my back?" "I don't want to hurt it." "Maybe they'll name it after you, sweetheart." "Can you remember where you were when it bit you?" "No." "No, I can't remember where I was when it bloody well bit me, because I was in the middle of the bloody jungle, which looked like every other bit of bloody jungle, full of bloodsucking," "bloodthirsty, bloody little bastards!" "Good afternoon, Mrs. Bullard." "Idiot." "They come across the mountains from Dutch Borneo." " Very difficult journey." " That's pure silver." "They'll be making a fortune." "And it looks like they don't want any other Europeans to know." "Me get sickness." "They go away." "You'll be all right." "We'll take you down the river in the morning." "They say you brought the illness." "The Dutchmen told them." "What did you say?" "I told them you are a god and will cure them." "Oh." "Good." "Ask them if they will eat with us." "The Yakata don't grow rice, do they?" "So they must have traded for it." "The bastards." "The bastards!" "They wanted to clear the mining area, so they put poison in the rice!" " Do we die?" " No." "No, it's a slow-working poison, so it looks like disease." "So, my English friend... do we arrest the miners?" "What will the Yakata do if we tell them?" "Kill them all." "Tell them." "Explosie." "Explosie." "When I found you lying there, suddenly everything became clear." "I want to stay with you forever... if you'll have me." "Where shall we run?" "Run?" "We can cross into Dutch Borneo." "There's no need for that." "I love Sarawak." "But they'll stop us." "Oh, for God's sake, the English aren't barbarians." "I'll sort it out." "Trust me." "I'll sort everything out, I promise." "I know my own people." "You want to marry her." "We say we've a right to be here because we're a civilizing force." "How can we let our officers sleep with the local women, and not marry them?" "You're not the first, you know." "Let me tell you something." "25 years ago," "I was a young idiot." "She was called Ipoh... and I loved her." "But I made my decision, and I never saw her again until the day she died." " You don't regret that?" " I did what was right!" "I did my duty, and so will you!" "No." "No, I won't." "It's a good thing your father didn't think that at Passchendaele!" "Is it?" "Maybe then he wouldn't have drowned in a shell hole so some senile old general could get a knighthood!" "God, you self-righteous little prick!" " You'll do what I say!" " You let me" "Bit of an administrative crisis." "Yes, I know what's happened." "Everybody does!" "I'd like a word with you in private." "Selima..." "The English have sent word." "If you won't give him up, they'll charge him with the murder of the white miners." " Did you tell them?" " No!" "They will charge me as well." "That's why my father asks you." "Look, there's a way of doing things, and if you change it, our little world falls apart." " You're the one that told me" " For goodness sake!" "Give her up and Henry'll send you home on a year's sick leave." "You can come back as if nothing happened." "Refuse and you'll spend the next 1 0 years rotting in prison." "And then we'll deport you and you'll never see Sarawak, or her, again." "You can't do that." "You broke the law." "You can't go around murdering white men just because you think they deserve it." "He could hang you for that." "But you'd ignore it if I do as you want?" "You've a choice." "Make your mind up." " I want to see her." " Send her a letter!" "You've taught her to read, haven't you?" "Stop him!" "Idiot." "Selima?" "Selima!" "Where is she?" "It's all arranged, isn't it?" " Isn't it?" "!" " It's not as I thought." "Th-there's difficulties." "Help me!" "I'm ordering you to help me!" "You swore it would all work out." "Truscott, I am getting extremely fed up with you." "I'm too old to run through the bloody jungle all night!" "Just give her up now." " This is your last chance." " No!" "Say you'll give him up." "You know what'll happen otherwise!" "Once I start this, it can't be stopped." "John Truscott, I charge you" " I'll do it." " No, no." "I'll marry at the Longhouse." "I told you it's not possible." "So?" "Do you give her up?" "I do." "I now pronounce you man and wife." "You may kiss the bride." "Ready!" "We'll remember this song." "Always." "There is something I should say." "I know about your sleeping dictionary." "At least, I presume you had one." "Father thinks we women don't find out about such things." "But anyway, I don't mind." "I know how things are done out there." "And the good thing is... at least you'll know what to do because I'm damned if I do." "What happened to her?" "Oh, she married Belansai." "Your father wrote me a letter." "Was that before you proposed to me, or..." "Oh..." "No, I think it must have been afterwards." "Here we go, then." ""Dear Henry," "I talked things over with Cecilia again, and we have decided to return to Sarawak." "She wants to be with you, and I would be a coward not to finish the work I started." "I think the only way forward is to wipe away the last couple of years and start life afresh." "I'm determined to make your daughter happy." "Yours sincerely, John Truscott."" "" East of the sun "" "" And west of the moon... "" "I thought I'd organize a welcoming committee." "They're wonderful." "Welcome back to hell." "Shipperly." "Weather forecast for the next... 1 0,000 years is too bloody hot." "Ah." ""...of the moon. "" "You're looking at the first Iban class, the first Iban school." "Your dad would be proud." "If he saw the Iban choosing what they were taught, he'd have a fit." "For heaven's sake, he wanted to teach them Latin and Greek." "You know, I actually wasn't going to mention this for a while, but I wondered if you might like to do some teaching?" "Ow!" "What in the world?" "I thought that's what you wanted." "I thought that's what she would have done." "Neville told me about you and her." "Have you seen her since we got here?" "No!" "No, not since... a year ago, or more." "He said she and her husband had a little boy." "Apparently they're very happy." "I want us to be happy." "Then why aren't we?" "It's her, isn't it?" "Yes." "She's very beautiful." "Isn't she?" "In her own way, yes." " What's that?" " It's Famous, blind drunk." "In fact, blind, legless, daft, sick, smelly drunk by the sounds of things." "You've got to fire him." "Cecil... he's been with me since I arrived." "He doesn't like me." "He preferred her, I can tell." "Hello?" "Who's this?" "This is your new cook." "Henry sent him." "Mrs. Truscott tell Mr. Truscott..." " to give me the boot." " Thank you, Famous." "Thank you." "Did you do that?" "Famous, take her into the kitchen and clean her up." "You do not do that." "You treat her with respect." "We're not all in love with our sleeping dictionaries, you know." "Tipong!" "What did you say to her?" "Oh, I told Tipong that if you hit her again, she should wait till you're asleep, then cut off your testicles with a kitchen knife." "They're very good at that kind of thing, the Iban." "Probably wouldn't even wake you." "Now" "Henry sent me." "We've got to unbugger up your last month's work." "Cecil-- you know, I would have made her happy." "I told him we'd remember this song." "Don't be so pathetic." "You should forget all about this love business." "Marriages work far better without it." "You should concentrate on the school." "You like that." "He just needs a little time." "When was the last time he slept with you?" "When was the last time he even touched you?" "That's how you judge men." "Hello, darling." "Good evening, Mrs. Bullard." "You will excuse us, won't you?" "You kissed me just to get one over on my mother, didn't you?" "No." "No, of course not." "Take one more reading before we go leave." "Right." " Is the baby mine?" " Oh, yes." "And are you open to bribery?" "Oh, very much so." "So you'll arrange for us to meet?" "I am one step ahead." "I already make inquiries, and she will not see you." "So you tell her Tipong has been beaten again and needs her help." "Shipperly?" "Shipperly I will send on a vital mission somewhere." "Somewhere famed for the size and quantity of its tiger leeches." "Please." "I want to see my son." "I don't understand "son."" "My child." "Child?" "You understand perfectly." "He was born nine months ago." "I don't understand English anymore." "My son." "You have my son." "His name is Mandar." "I left him on the veranda." "I was frightened of Neville." "I'll get him!" "You can have one minute, but they'll kill me if they see us together." "Selima, stay!" "For how long?" "Forever?" "I didn't know they were going to treat us like that, I'm sorry." "I don't know what to say." "He's Belansai's son now." "He marry me even though he knew I was pregnant." ""Deep, deep beneath the sea... where the water is clear as the purest glass, there lies the palace of the Sea King." "And there, behind the walls of coral, and beneath its roof of cockleshells" "lived the little mermaid."" "So, Truscott." "Is there some good news you're not telling us?" "I presume you've impregnated my daughter." "Oh... no." "Not yet." "It's just in case." "Let me tell you why I stayed here with Henry, and let Cecil grow up alone." "I told you it was duty." "I told myself it was duty, but it wasn't duty." "I never dared leave Henry alone... for fear he'd go back to his native girl." "So be warned." "I won't let that... wreck another generation." " John!" " Ah!" "They've cornered him-- at the Longhouse loft at Baritsai." "The damn fool!" "I hoped he'd run over the mountains to Dutch Borneo." "You caused all this!" "Now we're going to have to execute him." "One of the best men I know." "Well, you can damn well be his judge." "He had no choice." "I know that!" "I know that." "But he tried to kill a colonial official and that has to mean death." "Even though the colonial official in question deserved having his throat cut for sneaking around with his wife!" "It wasn't her I was seeing, it was my son!" "My son, who you never told me about!" "Am I supposed to pretend he doesn't exist?" "Yes, you are!" "For the rest of your life." "Yes." "Have you--?" "Another daughter?" "Yes." "The daughters of sleeping dictionaries become sleeping dictionaries." "I thought you were kind, that you'd treat her well." "Not quite as well as you ended up treating her, of course." "And she doesn't know?" "No." "I told her mother to tell her that I was back in England." "It's normal." "This way is best." "Aggie-- it wouldn't be fair on her." "I did my duty." "At least I didn't kill anyone!" "Belansai, was it your intention to kill me, or just to wound me?" "To kill you." "But did you come to kill me?" "Or did a sudden madness seize you?" "I came to kill you." "Belansai... tell the court why you had to try to kill me." "The court will adjourn and pass sentence tomorrow." " What are you doing?" " He saved my life." "Yes, and what a shame that was." "Don't think you're going to sentence him to anything except death." "You do that, and I'll just step in and overrule you." "You understand me?" "You'll have achieved nothing!" "Leave her alone!" "Go on, get back!" "Move!" "Move!" "Be upstanding." "This court is now in session." "This court is in session." "Belansai Ringan, this court finds you guilty of attempted murder." "Due to the lack of mitigating circumstances," "I have no alternative but to sentence you to death." "Tomorrow morning you'll be taken from the jail, and hung from your neck until you are dead." "May God have mercy on your soul." "Do they have to make such a bloody noise building a scaffold?" "And it's all because of that damn fool Truscott." "It'll do him good." "Now he's seen the consequences, it'll settle him down." "But Cecilia said she saw them talking." " Surely we ought to" " Do as little as possible." "He did what you asked him to, today, didn't he?" " Hmmm." " He's like you, Henry, when it comes to what really matters, he always gives in." "Now have another drink and go to bed." "Hmmm." "You've no reason not to take it." "Well, we're going to have to run away together now." "Steamer leaves tomorrow at dawn." "I'll leave at dusk, I'll be there by 3:00 a.m. at the latest." "You won't come." "They'll find out." "They'll say you must be an Englishman." "And I'll tell them that I'd rather have you than a country, or a language, or a history." "I can't prove it, but I know what you've done." "And I'm going to treat you as if you had done it!" "Have you anything to say?" "You're a bloody disgrace!" "If it wasn't for Cecil, I'd put you in there!" "Get out to the dam and do something useful!" "Go on." "You won't get any sense out of her." "Listen, you're not welcome at the Longhouse, and you're certainly not welcome here." "So Shipperly-- Neville-- has very kindly agreed to take you on as a sleeping dictionary." "I presume you'd prefer that to a spell in prison." "Off we go, then." "It was wonderful at the school today." "I tried teaching in Iban." "And I thought I said cooking yams-- "patanta"" "but actually I said "matanta--" cooking your lover." "They laughed and laughed." "And... now I'm going to have to tell you." "I'm pregnant." "Doctor Smith came from Miri today and... there's no doubt about it." "Your face." "You look so happy." "Well, of course I'm happy." "I know I shouldn't really say this... but I nearly gave up on us." "But I didn't." "And I'm so glad." "Shall we open that bottle of champagne?" ""Leeches." Hmmm?" ""Jungle."" ""Fucking jungle."" ""Fucking jungle... full of prick-teasing, little brown savages."" "There she is, swearing like a trooper blood everywhere, the cook-turned-midwife screaming," " "Push, lady, push!"" " Henry completely useless." "Shouting to nobody in particular:" ""Why didn't we get her downriver before the monsoon? "" "And then in walks this clouded leopard." "It was attracted by the blood, you see." "However, not really dangerous." "He starts shooting anyway." "Bullets flying everywhere, except anywhere near the leopard." " In the middle of all this uproar" " Out I pop." "Yes, bright pink." "And even then, she was the loudest thing in the room." "She was wonderful, wasn't she?" "It was wonderful for us, the first five years before we had to-- you know, send you home." "Yes." "She was wonderful, wasn't she?" "How many glasses of champagne have you had, Daddy?" "Oh, come on, if a man can't celebrate..." "Listen, I prayed that this would happen for both of you." "It'll make all the difference." "Look at him." "He's still in shock." "Get baby and go!" "I catch you up!" "It is for me, isn't it?" "Why haven't you finished it?" "Because nothing I could think of seemed... enough." "Tonight I've been watching you, trying to make myself believe you were happy." "Because I was so determined that this would finally do the trick... that this would make us be in love." "I did love seeing you so happy." "I saw that, but... it's not enough, is it?" "You know..." "I think you probably know my mother and father better than I do." "You've spent more time with them." "Five." "I was... five when I was shipped off back to school in England." "Some mothers came with their children, but not mine." "She never even came home for Christmas." "She wouldn't let Daddy out of her sight." "So when you asked me to marry you, I thought," ""Here's someone who's chosen me." "Not someone who's lumbered with me and has to pretend to love me, but someone who really wants me."" "But all the time you loved someone else." "If it hadn't been for her, we could've been happy enough, couldn't we?" "No, it's all right." "You don't have to lie." "And anyway, I'm not prepared to settle for "happy enough."" "Not anymore." "I want" "I want what you and her have." "Now go." "I want you to go." "Anyway, you've left something of yours behind." "I won't say anything to Mother and Father till the morning." "It's better this way." "Psst." "Psst!" "She think you not coming." "She not catch boat." "She making a run for Dutch Borneo." "Head for old mine." "You do realize I can't let you go." "You might need this." "My second present." "You know?" "I guess eventually." "Seems I only ever get to say goodbye." "Come on." "I do hope you're not incorruptible." "They're both headed over the mountains." "I have a party ready to follow them." "Have you?" "There's no whiskey trees in the jungle, you know." "Henry, she tried to kill Shipperly." " That's a hanging offense." " I can't spare the men." "Do you care nothing for your daughter?" "I care a great deal... for them both." "Cecil, tell him." "I don't want John hurt." "Or my sister." "He said go after them." "Come along, idiot." "What are you waiting for?" "Stay here." "Selima!" "Selima!" "Selima!" "Afternoon." "I thought you'd turn up eventually." "Handcuff yourselves to the pole." "Come on!" "We don't want to wake the baby up, now do we?" "!" "Do it properly, Truscott." "I've thought a lot about the order of this." "But I reckon... rape Selima, kill baby, kill Selima... kill you." "Jam, did it?" "Eeny... meeny... minie... mo." ""The witch said to the little mermaid," "'Why do you want to take human form and walk upon the land?" "'" "'Because I love him." "He is always in my thoughts and I would place my happiness in his hands,' replied the little mermaid."" "They sing because they move on tomorrow." "Make a new village a day's journey from here." "They want us to come with them." "Then we must go." "If we go, you will have nothing." "I'll have this." "I'll have you." "So shall I tell them we'll come?" "Tell them."