The Heart of the Matter - Graham Greene [70]
‘Who from?’
‘He says Brown.’
‘Keep him a couple of minutes, there’s a good chap, and then boot him in.’ However diligently Wilson practised, the slang phrase sounded unnaturally on his lips. He folded up the cable and stuck it in the code book to keep his place: then he put the cable and the code book in the safe and pulled the door to. Pouring himself out a glass of water he looked out on the street; the mammies, their heads tied up in bright cotton cloths, passed under their coloured umbrellas. Their shapeless cotton gowns fell to the ankle: one with a design of matchboxes: another with kerosene lamps: the third - the latest from Manchester - covered with mauve cigarette-lighters on a yellow ground. Naked to the waist a young girl passed gleaming through the rain and Wilson watched her out of sight with melancholy lust. He swallowed and turned as the door opened.
‘Shut the door.’
The boy obeyed. He had apparently put on his best clothes for this morning call: a white cotton shirt fell outside his white shorts. His gym shoes were immaculate in spite of the rain, except that his toes protruded.
‘You small boy at Yusef’s?’
‘Yes, sah.’
‘You got a message,’ Wilson said, ‘from my boy. He tell you what I want, eh? He’s your young brother, isn’t he?’
‘Yes, sah,’
‘Same father?’
‘Yes, sah.’
‘He says you good boy, honest. You want to be a steward, eh?’
‘Yes, sah.’
‘Can you read?’
‘No, sah.’
‘Write?’
‘No, sah.’
‘You got eyes in your head? Good ears? You see everything? You hear everything?’ The boy grinned - a gash of white in the smooth grey elephant hide of his face: he had a look of sleek intelligence. Intelligence, to Wilson, was more valuable than honesty. Honesty was a double-edged weapon, but intelligence looked after number one. Intelligence realized that a Syrian might one day go home to his own land, but the English stayed. Intelligence knew that it was a good thing to work for Government, whatever the Government. ‘How much you get as small boy?’
‘Ten shillings.’
‘I pay you five shillings more. If Yusef sack you I pay you ten shillings. If you stay with Yusef one year and give me good information - true information - no lies, I give you job as steward with white man. Understand?’ ‘Yes, sah.’
‘If you give me lies, then you go to prison. Maybe they shoot you. I don’t know. I don’t care. Understand?’
‘Yes, sah.’
‘Every day you see your brother at meat market. You tell him who comes to Yusef s house. Tell him where Yusef goes. You tell him any strange boys who come to Yusef’s house. You no tell lies, you tell truth. No humbug. If no one comes to Yusef’s house you say no one. You no make big lie. If you tell lie, I know it and you go to prison straight away.’ The wearisome recital went on. He was never quite sure how much was understood. The sweat ran off Wilson’s forehead and the cool contained grey face of the boy aggravated him like an accusation he couldn’t answer. ‘You go to prison and you stay in prison plenty long time.’ He could hear his own voice cracking with the desire to impress; he could hear himself, like the parody of a white man on the halls. He said, ‘Scobie? Do you know Major Scobie?’
‘Yes, sah. He very good man, sah.’ They were the first words apart from yes and no the boy had uttered.
‘You see him at your master’s?’
‘Yes, sah.’
‘How often?’
‘Once, twice, sah.’
‘He and your master - they are friends?’
‘My master he think Major Scobie very good man, sah.’ The reiteration of the phrase angered Wilson. He broke furiously out, ‘I don’t want to hear whether he’s good or not. I want to know where he meets Yusef, see? What do they talk about? You bring them in drinks some time when steward’s busy? What do you hear?’
‘Last time they have big palaver,’ the boy brought ingratiatingly out, as if he were showing a corner of his wares.
‘I bet they did. I want to know all about their palaver.’
‘When Major Scobie go away one time, my master he put pillow right on his face.’
‘What on earth do you mean by that?’
The boy folded his arms over his eyes in a gesture of great dignity and said,