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Ch 16 - A Passage to India · A Passage to India

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  Chapter sixteen. He waited in his cave a minute, lit a cigarette so
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  that he could remark on rejoining her. I bolted in to get out of
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  the draft, or something of the sort. When he returned, he found
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  the guide alone with his head on one side. He had heard a noise,
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  he said, and then Aziz heard it too, the noise of a
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  motor car. They were now on the outer shoulder of the Cowa Dole,
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  and by scrambling twenty yards they got a glimpse of the plain. A car
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  was coming towards the hills down the chandrap or road, but they could not
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  get a good view of it because the precipitous bastion curved at the top so
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  that the base was not easily seen, and the car disappeared as it came
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  nearer. No doubt it would stop almost exactly beneath them, at the place
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  where the puca rode degenerated into a path and the elephant had turned to siddle
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  into the hills. He ran back to tell the strange news to his guest.
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  The guide explained that she had gone into a cave. Which cave,
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  he indicated the group vaguely, You should have kept her in sight. It
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  was your duty, said Aziz severely. Here are twelve caves at least,
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  how am I to know which contains my guest? Which is the cave I
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  was in myself the same vague gesture, and Aziz, looking again, could
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  not even be sure he had returned to the same group. Caves appeared in
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  every direction, it seemed their original spawning place. The orifices were always the
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  same size. He thought, merciful heavens, misquested is lost. Then pulled
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  himself together and began to look for her. Calmly, shout he commanded.
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  When they had done this for a while, the guide explained that the shout
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  is useless because a Marabar cave can hear no sound but its own. Azziz
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  wiped his head, and sweat began to stream inside his clothes. The place
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  was so confusing. It was partly a terrace, partly a zigzag, and
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  full of grooves that led this way and that, like snake tracks. He
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  tried to go into every one, but he never knew where he had started.
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  Caves got behind caves, or confabulated in pairs, and some were at
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  the entrance of a gully. Come here, he called gently, and when
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  the guide was in reach. He struck him in the face for a punishment.
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  The man fled and he was left alone. He thought, this is
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  the end of my career. My guest is lost. And then he discovered
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  the simple and sufficient explanation of the mystery. Misquested was lost. She had
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  joined the people in the car, friends of hers. No doubt, mister
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  Heaslop. Perhaps he had a sudden glimpse of her far down the gully,
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  only a glimpse, but there she was quite plain, framed between rocks and
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  speaking to another lady. He was so relieved that he did not think her
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  conduct odd. Accustomed to such changes of plan, he supposed that she had
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  run down the cowa dole impulsively in the hope of a little drive. He
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  started back alone towards his camp, and almost at once caught sight of something
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  which would have disquieted him very much a moment before miss Quested's field glasses.
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  They were lying at the verge of a cave, half way down an entrance
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  tunnel. He tried to hang them over his shoulder, but the leather strap
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  had broken, so he put them into his pocket instead. When he had
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  gone a few steps, he thought she might have dropped something else, so
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  he went back to look, but the previous difficulty recurred. He couldn't identify
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  the cave down in the plain. He heard the car starting, however,
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  he couldn't catch a second glimpse of that, so he scrambled down the valley
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  face of the hill towards missus Moore, and here he was more successful.
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  The color and confusion of his little camp soon appeared, and in the midst
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  of it he saw an englishman's topi and beneath it, Oh Joy smiled,
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  Not mister heaslop, but Fielding, Fielding, Oh, I have so wanted
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  you, he cried, dropping the mister for the first time, and his
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  friend ran to meet him, all so pleasant and jolly, no dignity,
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  shouting explanations and apologies about the train. Fielding had come in the newly arrived
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  car, miss Deryck's car. That other lady was Miss Derrick. Chatter chatter,
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  all the servants leaving their cooking to listen. Excellent Miss Deryck, she
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  had met Fielding by chance at the post office, said why haven't you gone
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  to the Marabar? Heard how he missed the train, offered to run him
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  there, and then another nice English lady. Where was she? Left?
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  With car and chauffeur While Fielding found camp Carr couldn't get up. No,
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  of course not. Hundreds of people must go down to escort miss Derrick and
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  show her the way the elephant in person azzies. Can I have a drink?
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  Certainly not, He flew to get one. Mister Fielding called missus Moore
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  from her patch of shade. They had not spoken yet because his arrival had
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  coincided with the torrent from the hill. Good morning again, he cried,
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  relieved to find all. Well, mister Fielding, have you seen miss quest?
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  But I've only just arrived. Where is she? I do not know,
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  Aziz, where have you put? Misquested too. Aziz, who was
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  returning with a drink in his hand, had to think for a moment.
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  His heart was full of happiness. The picnic after a nasty shock or two,
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  had developed into something beyond his dreams, for Fielding had not only come
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  but brought an uninvited guest. Oh she's all right, he said, She
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  went down to see Miss Derrick. Well, here's luck, chin chin,
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  here's luck? What chin chin? I do refuse? Laughed Fielding, who
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  detested the phrase here's to India, here's luck, and here's to England.
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  Miss Derrick's chauffeur stopped the cavalcade, which was starting to escort his mistress up,
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  and informed it that she had gone back with the other young lady to
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  Chandraport. She had sent him to say, so she was driving herself.
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  Oh yes, that's quite likely, said Aziz. I knew they'd gone for
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  a spin chandrap, or the man's made a mistake. Fielding exclaimed, oh
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  no, why. He was disappointed, but made light of it. No
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  doubt the two young ladies were great friends. He would prefer to give breakfast
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  to all four. Still, guests must do as they wish or they become
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  prisoners. He went away cheerfully to inspect the porridge and the ice. What's
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  happened, asked Fielding, who felt at once that something had gone queer all
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  the way out. Miss Derrick had chattered about the picnic, called it an
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  unexpected treat, and said that she preferred Indians who didn't invite her to their
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  entertainments to those who did. Missus Moore sat swinging her foots and appeared sulky
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  and stupid. She said, misteric is most unsatisfactory and restless, always in
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  a hurry, always wanting something new. She will do anything in the world
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  except go back to the Indian lady who pays her fielding, who didn't dislike
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  Missterrick replied, she wasn't in a hurry when I left her. There was
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  no question of returning to chandrapor it looks to me as if Misquested's in the
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  hurry. Adeloe, She's never been in a hurry in her life, said
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  the old lady sharply. I say it'll prove to be Misquested's wish. In
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  fact, I know it is, persisted the schoolmaster. He was annoyed,
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  chiefly with himself. He had begun by missing a train asin he was never
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  guilty of, and now that he did arrive, it was to upset Aziz's
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  arrangements for the second time. He wanted some one to share the blame,
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  and frowned at missus Moore rather magisterially. Aziz is a charming fellow, he
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  announced, I know, she answered with a yawn. He has taken endless
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  trouble to make a success of our picnic. They knew one another very little,
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  and felt rather awkward at being drawn together by an Indian. The racial
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  problem can take subtle forms. In their case, it had induced a sort
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  of jealousy, a mutual suspicion. He tried to goad her enthusiasm. She
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  scarcely spoke. Aziz fetched them to breakfast. It is quite natural about Misquested,
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  he remarked, for he had been working the little incident a little in
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  his mind to get rid of its roughnesses. We were having an interesting talk
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  with our guide. Then the car was seen, so she decided to go
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  down to her friend. Incurably inaccurate, He already thought that this was what
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  had occurred. He was inaccurate because he was sensitive. He did not like
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  to remember Misquested's remark about polygamy, because it was unworthy of a guest,
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  So he put it from his mind, and with it the knowledge that he
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  had bolted into a cave to get away from her. He was inaccurate because
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  he desired to honor her, and facts being entangled, he had to arrange
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  them in her vicinity. As one tidies the ground after extracting a weed.
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  Before breakfast was over, he had told a good many lies. She ran
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  to her friend, I too mine, he went on smiling, and now
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  I am with my friends, and they are with me and each other,
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  which is happiness. Loving them both. He expected them to love each other,
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  they didn't want to. Fielding thoughts with hostility. I knew these women
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  would make trouble and missus, Moore thought, this man, having missed the
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  train, tries to blame us. But her thoughts were feeble. Since her
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  faintness in the cave, she was sunk in apathy and cynicism. The wonderful
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  India of her opening weeks, with its cool nights and acceptable hints of infinity,
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  had vanished. Fielding ran up to see one k. He wasn't impressed.
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  Then they got on the elephant and the picnic began to unwind out of
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  the corridor and escaped under the precipice towards the railway station. Pursued by stabs
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  of hot air, they came to the place where he had quitted the car.
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  A disagreeable thought now struck him, and he said, as he's exactly
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  where and how did you leave? Misquested up there? He indicated the cowadle
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  cheerfully. But how a gully, or rather a crease showed among the rocks
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  at this place. It was scruffy with cactuses. I suppose the guide helped
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  her, Oh, rather most helpful. Is there a path off the top?
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  Millions of paths, my dear fellow, feeling could see nothing but the
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  crease. Everywhere else the glaring granite plunged into the earth. But you saw
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  them get down safe. Yes, yes, she and Miss Derrick and go
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  off in the car. Then the guide came back to you exactly got a
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  cigarette. I hope she wasn't ill, pursued the Englishman. The crease continued
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  as annulla across the plain, the water draining off this way towards the Ganges.
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  She would have wanted me, if she was ill, to would tempt
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  her. Yes, that sounds sense. I see you're worrying. Let's talk
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  of other things, he said, kindly. Misquested. It was always to
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  do what she wished. It was our arrangement. I see you are worrying
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  on my account, but really I don't mind. I never notice trifles.
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  I do worry on your accounts. I consider they have been impolite, said
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  Fielding, lowering his voice. She had no right to dash away from your
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  party, and Miss Derrick had no right to abet her so touchy as a
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  rule, as he's now was unassailable. The wings that uplifted him did not
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  falter because he was a mogul emperor who had done his duty. Perched on
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  his elephant, he watched the Marrabar Hills recede, and saw again as provinces
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  of his kingdom, the grim, untidy plain, the frantic and feeble movements
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  of the buckets, they shrines, the shallow graves, the suave sky,
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  the snake that looked like a tree. He had given his guests as good
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  a time as he could, and if they came late or left early,
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  that was not his affair. Missus Moore slept swaying against the rods of Lahouda.
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  Mohammed Latif embraced her with efficiency and respect, and by his own side
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  sat Fielding, whom he began to think of as cyril azzies. Have you
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  figured out what this picnic will cost you? Sh my dear chap, don't
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  mention that part hundreds and hundreds of rupees. The completed account will be too
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  awful. My friend's servants have robbed me right and left. And as for
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  an elephant, she apart the eats gold I can trust you not to repeat
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  this and m L please employ initials. He listens is far the worst of
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  all. I told you he's no good. He's plenty of good for himself.
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  His dishonesty will ruin me a zz how monstrous. I am delighted with
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  him. Really, he has made my guests comfortable. Besides, it is
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  my duty to employ him. He is my cousin. If money goes,
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  money comes, If money stays, death comes. Did you ever hear that
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  useful or do proverb? And probably not? Or I have just invented it.
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  My proverbs are a penny saved, is a penny earned? A stitch
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  in time saves nine. Look before you leap, the British empire rests on
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  them. You will never kick us out, you know, until you cease
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  employing mls and such. Oh, kick you out. Why should I trouble
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  over that dirty job? Leave it to the politicians. Know when I was
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  a student, I got excited over your damned countrymen. Certainly, But if
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  they'll let me get on with my profession and not be too rude to me
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  officially, I really don't ask for more, but you do. You take
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  them to a picnic. This picnic is nothing to do with English or Indian.
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  It is an expedition of friends. So the cavalcade ended, partly pleasant,
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  partly not. The Brahman cook was picked up. The train arrived,
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  pushing its burning throat over the plain, and the twentieth century took over from
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  the sixteenth. Missus Moore entered her carriage. The three men went to theirs,
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  adjusted the shutters, turned on the electric fan, and tried to get
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  some sleep in the twilight. All resembled corpses, and the train itself seemed
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  dead, though it moved a coffin from the scientific north, which troubled the
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  scenery four times a day. As it left the Mara Bars, their nasty
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  little cosmos disappeared and gave place to the Mara bars, seen from a distance
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  finite and rather romantic. The train halted once under a pump to drench the
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  stock of coal in its tender. Then it caught sight of the main line
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  in the distance, took courage and bumped forward, rounded the civil station,
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  surmounted the level crossing. The rails were scorching now and clanked to us standstill
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  chandrapor Chandrapoor. The expedition was over, and as it ended, as they
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  sat up in the gloom and prepared to enter ordinary life. Suddenly, the
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  long drawn strangeness of the morning snapped mister Huck. The inspector of police,
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  flung open the door of their carriage and said, in shrill tones, Doctor
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  Aziz, it is my highly painful duty to arrest you, hullo. Some
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  mistake, said Fielding at once, taking charge of the situation. Sir,
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  they are my instructions. I know nothing on what charge do you arrest him?
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  I am under instructions, not tuesday. Don't answer me like that.
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  Produce your warrant, sir. Excuse me, No warrant is required under these
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  particular circumstances. Refer to mister McBride very well. So we will come along
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  Azzie's, old man. Nothing to fuss about some blunder, Doctor Azzie's.
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  Will you kindly come? A closed conveyance stands in readiness. The young man
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  sobbed his first sound and tried to escape out of the opposite door, onto
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  the line that will compel me to use force. Mister Huck wailed, Ah,
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  for God's sake, cried Fielding, his own nerves breaking under the contagion,
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  and pulled him back before a scandal started and shook him like a baby.
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  A second later and he would have been out whistled, blowing a man
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  hunt. Dear fellow, we're coming to McBride together and inquire what's gone wrong.
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  He's a decent fellow. It's all unintentional. He'll apologize, never never
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  act the criminal in my children and my name. He gasped, his wings
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  broken, nothing of the sort. Put your hat straight and take my arm.
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  I'll see you through. Ah, thank god he comes, the inspector
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  exclaimed. They emerged into the midday heat, arm in arm. The station
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  was seething. Passengers and porters rushed out of every recess, many government servants,
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  more police. Ronnie escorted Missus Moore. Mohammed Latif began wailing, and
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  before they could make their way through the chaos, Fielding was called off by
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  the assaul irritative tones of mister Turton, and Aziz went on to prison alone.
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  End of Chapter sixteen