He was tall and thin with loose-fitting clothes and short, greying hair. He spoke quietly and with a slight smile in one corner of his mouth. His eyes were watchful and shrewd; but there might be innocence there, too. Not an easy man to deceive; but one who might sometimes deceive himself.
Ah
Au
drove up towards the Peak. Near the lower cable-car station he stopped so that they could admire the view of the port from the road. The American took his camera and got out of the car.
The Arlene woman said: "There's a much better view from the top."
She and the wife stayed in the car.
Ah
Au
went over to the American and began pointing out various landmarks in the panorama below them.
"Yes, it's a great place," the American said. "By the way, Jimmy, is the view better from up top?"
"There is a fine view there, too, sir, which I will show you in a minute, but this is better for photography. From the Peak there is more haze."
"I see."
He was winding the camera.
"Are you using Kodachrome, sir?"
"Yes.
Why?"
"From here, sir, at f 8 with a haze filter you will get a very good picture."
"Thanks.
You take many pictures?"
"No, sir, but I have such information for my clients."
The camera whirred. As they were walking back to the car, the American said: "Is this your car or do you just drive for someone else?"
"It is my car, sir. I like to give personal service to clients."
"I expect you make more money working for yourself, too."
Ah
Au
smiled.
"There is also that, sir."
The American smiled back.
Ah
Au
drove on up to the peak. Some progress had been made, he thought. They had established a personal relationship.
The tour continued. His passengers had tea at the Repulse Bay Hotel. Then, he drove them on to the fishing village of Aberdeen and showed them the floating Chinese restaurants. At the Arlene woman's suggestion, it was decided that he should drive them out there to dine the following night. It was on the way back to the ferry that Jimmy had the glimpse of his client's mind that he had been hoping for.
He was driving along Connaught Road, by the long quay where the junks tied up for unloading, when the American turned to him.
"Jimmy, what are all those barges lined up along there? I mean the green painted ones with the yellow stars on them."
"They are junks from Canton, sir."
"But that's in Red China."
"Yes, sir.
Canton is only ninety miles away."
"Stop the car. I've got to have some shots of this."
Ah
Au
parked the car, and, leaving the women sitting in it, walked back along the quay with the American. The man seemed curiously excited and was almost tripping over himself in his eagerness to get a closer look at the junks.
"What are they doing here?" he asked.
"They come and go all the time, sir."
"Doing what?"
"Carrying cargo." Ah
Au was
puzzled. He could not understand why the man was so interested.
"What sort of cargo?"
"Any sort of cargo, sir. That is rattan cane they are unloading. It is made into chairs and baskets here."
"But I don't see any police about. Do you mean they're allowed just to come and go as they please?"
"They are ordinary people. They make no trouble, sir."
"Well, I'll be . . ."
He began to take pictures. When they got back to the car, Ah
Au
listened thoughtfully as the American told his wife and her friend what he had found out.
The women were interested, and the Arlene one said that it showed what the British had come to when they didn't worry about Communists going in and out of one of their colonies; but they were not interested the way the man was. As they drove on towards the ferry, Ah
Au
saw him looking about him intently, as if he were discovering a new meaning in everything he saw.
By the time they reached the mainland Ah
Au
had decided to take matters a stage further. As he drove them back along the Canton Road to the ship, he asked a question.
"Tomorrow morning, sir, for your tour of the New Territories, do you wish me to go to the Peninsular Hotel, or shall I take the car to the ship?"
"Can you do that?"
"Oh yes, sir. If I have your name to give at the dock gate."
"My name's Nilsen. Would ten o'clock be okay?"
"Perfectly, sir." He frowned as if making an effort of memory. "Mr. Nilsen, there was another Mr. Nilsen here last year. He was in the textile business. He had a big plant at a place called Dayton, I think. Perhaps you know him."
Mr. Nilsen smiled tolerantly. "No, Jimmy, I don't. I'm an engineer and I have a small die-casting plant at a place called Wilmington. Nilsen's a pretty common name in the United States."
"I beg your pardon. I did not know that. Some day, perhaps, I will be able to go to America."
He congratulated himself. The chances of his being caught out in the lie about a textile man named Nilsen from Dayton had been small. The information gained had been reassuring. Mr. Nilsen was neither a government official, who might consider it his duty to notify the authorities, nor a newspaperman who might become indiscreet in other ways. He was a respectable businessman of just the type that Mr. Tan had described; and travelling by just the specified route. The problem now was to find a way of putting Mr. Tan's proposition in an attractive light without being either compromised or misunderstood.
When he returned home, Ah
Au
said nothing to his wife about Mr. Nilsen. He had already decided to make this further attempt to oblige Mr. Tan; but only if the opportunity presented itself. He would take no more risks than he had to. The pressure of her expectations might distort his judgment.
During the night he lay awake for an hour going over every moment of the afternoon and re-examining his image of Mr. Nilsen. When he was sure that nothing had escaped his attention, he went back to sleep.
The Arlene woman was late, and they did not leave the dock until nearly ten-thirty. Mr. Nilsen controlled his impatience too obviously. It was an inauspicious beginning. Ah
Au
wanted Mr. Nilsen in as relaxed a mood as possible, and took an early opportunity of suggesting that, as they had plenty of time in hand, they might like to stop at the Castle Peak Hotel for coffee. It was about four miles out on the Tai Po Road, and they would be passing it anyway.
Mrs. Nilsen thought this a good idea, and the tension seemed to slacken. By the time they left Castle Peak and were heading for the frontier, the atmosphere had improved still further. Soon, as they began to pass farms and paddy fields, Ah
Au was
hearing the familiar exclamations—"Look at that wooden plough!"
"This is really old China!"
"What about those hats with curtains!"
"My God, the smell!"—which told him that his passengers were enjoying themselves.
He drove absently, answering the questions put to him promptly and fully, but not elaborating on his answers. He was waiting for a British Army truck to come along. Presently they overtook one, and he slowed to stay behind it. It was, happily, full of troops.
He glanced at Mr. Nilsen and smiled. "We are getting near Red China," he said. "This is the beginning of the military zone."
Mr. Nilsen was leaning forward staring at the truck. "Are those British troops?"
"Yes, sir, a Scottish regiment. There is a camp farther along this road."
"How many do they have to guard this frontier?"
"One or two battalions, I think."
"One or two battalions!" He turned round. "Did you hear that, Dorothy? Only one or two battalions to guard this frontier. My God, the Reds could walk in here any time they wanted. Isn't that right, Jimmy?"
Ah
Au
smiled. "Oh yes, sir. But I think they could do that even if there were two divisions to guard the frontier."
Mr. Nilsen nodded grimly. "You could be right at that. How near to the frontier can we get?"
"About a mile, sir. It is dangerous, you see."
"How dangerous?"
"Sometimes they shoot from the other side at persons moving too close to the frontier line."
"Nice people."
The army truck turned off the road into the camp entrance, and Ah
Au put
on speed again. He could feel the mounting excitement of the man beside him and wanted to satisfy it.
About a mile and a half from the frontier, the road turned sharply to the right and ran parallel to it. However, there was a narrow cart track heading straight on, and Ah
Au
drove down it until they reached a small farmhouse. The track continued; but a few yards past the house there was a large signboard prohibiting movement beyond that point. Ah
Au
stopped the car, took a pair of binoculars from the glove compartment, and they all got out.
For about a mile ahead the landscape was flat. Then, there was a line of low hills, the sides of which were dotted with groups of burial urns, and a ridge. Along the ridge and near the top of it ran a thin black line.
"That is the frontier, sir." Ah
Au
handed Mr. Nilsen the binoculars.
"That black line?"
"Yes, it is a barbed-wire fence. There are machine-gun towers, too, but you cannot see them well from here."
Mr. Nilsen scanned the line of the fence from side to side, then handed the binoculars to his wife and got out his camera.
"F
11
with the haze filter," Ah
Au
murmured.
Mr. Nilsen nodded and went to work. He did a panning shot first, beginning close on his wife as she looked through the binoculars, then going on to the signboard, then moving into an extreme long shot of the frontier. Then, he switched the turret on to the telephoto lens. He used two magazines of film before he was finished.
The Arlene woman became bored and went back to the car. Small children from the farmhouse soon began to peer at her through the car windows, and hold out their hands for money. Ah
Au
had to chase them away.
Mr. Nilsen returned to the car reluctantly, and insisted on taking some shots of the farmhouse and the giggling children before he could be persuaded to leave. Even as they bumped along the track back to the road, he kept looking over his shoulder towards the frontier. Ah
Au
was pleased with the impression it had made.
When they passed the Kowloon-Canton Railway where it curved towards the frontier station, there were more questions.
"Is there a lot of railroad traffic between Kowloon and Canton?"
"Oh yes, sir. People go to see friends and family in Canton."
"I don't get it.
You mean they just go?"
"They must get a permit from the Chinese government office in Hong Kong, but it is quite easy."
"Hear that, Dorothy?
So that's the bamboo curtain!"
"You wish to go to Canton, sir?"
"Me? No thanks!" He laughed. "I have United States government contracts to think about."
They stopped at Tai Po market so that the two women could look at the small shops there and buy coolie hats. Ah
Au
bargained for the hats, and, when they had been paid for, took them back to the car.
He was about to return and render further assistance, when Mr. Nilsen joined him.
"They've gone into a silk shop," he said. "They're not going to buy, but they'll be there an age. You smoke?"
"Not when driving, sir.
But now, thank you."
They sat in the car and smoked. A ring of children collected to stare at them, but Mr. Nilsen took no notice.
"Have you ever been to Canton?" he asked.
"No, sir. I have been to Macao where my wife has some relatives, but my family is in Manila."
"Is that so? Don't you like the Philippines?"
"My family went there from here, sir. But I was born here and I am British. There are more opportunities here, I think."
"I don't get it. I should have thought this was the last place where you could look forward to any sort of security for your family. This section for instance. You call it the New Territories. But it's leased, isn't it, from the Government of China."
"Yes, sir, in eighteen-ninety-eight. It was leased for ninety-nine years."
"So in nineteen-ninety-seven you'll have to give it back to the Reds, if they're still in business."