A Town like Alice

she was patient about the passage of time; moreover, she had a use for time to consider what she was going to do with her life now that she had no further need to work. She waited there for three weeks in idleness, and she did not find it tedious.
    The well-diggers and the cement arrived about the same time, and work commenced. The diggers were a family of an old grey-bearded father, Suleiman, and his two sons, Yacob and Hussein. They spent a day surveying the land and all the arguments for the site chosen for the well had to be gone over once again to satisfy these experts; when work finally began it was done quickly and well. The diggers worked from dawn till dusk, with one at the bottom of the shaft and the other two disposing of the soil on top; they bricked it downwards from the top as they worked, supporting the brickwork upon stakes driven into the earth sides.
    Old Suleiman, the father, was a mine of information to the village, for he travelled up and down the east coast of Malaya building and repairing wells, and so visited most villages from time to time. The men and women of Kuala Telang used to sit around watching the progress of the new well and gossiping with the old man, getting news of their acquaintances and relatives up and down the coast. Jean was sitting there one afternoon, and said to him, "You are from Kuantan?"
    "From Batu Sawah," said the old man. "That is two hours' walk from Kuantan. Our home is there, but we are great travellers."
    She was silent for a moment; then she said, "Do you remember the Japanese officer in charge at Kuantan in the first year of the war, Captain Sugamo?"
    "Assuredly," the old man replied. "He is a very bad man, and we were glad when he went away. Captain Ichino who came after him was better."
    Jean was surprised that he did not seem to know the Sugamo was dead; she had supposed that the War Crimes Commission would have taken evidence in Kuantan. She told him, "Captain Sugamo is dead now. He was sent to the Burma-Siam railway, and there he caused many atrocities, and many murders. But the Allies caught him when the war was over, and he was tried for murder, and executed in Penang."
    "I am glad to hear it," the old man replied. "I will tell my sons." He called down the well with the news; it was discussed a little, and then the men went on with their work.
    Jean asked, "Did he do many evil things in Kuantan?" There was one still hideously fresh in her mind, but she could not bring herself to speak of it directly.
    Suleiman said, "Many people were tortured."
    She nodded. "I saw one myself." It had to come out, and it did not matter what she said to this old man. "When we were starving and ill, a soldier who was a prisoner helped us. The Japanese caught him, and they crucified him with nails through his hands, and they beat him to death."
    "I remember that," the old man said. "He was in hospital at Kuantan."
    Jean stared at him. "Old man, when was he in hospital? He died."
    "Perhaps there were two." He called down the well to Yacob. "The English soldier who was crucified and beaten at Kuantan in the first year of the war. The English mem knew him. Tell us, did that man die?"
    Hussein broke in. "The one who was beaten was an Australian, not English. He was beaten because he stole chickens."
    "Assuredly," the old man said. "It was for stealing the black chickens. But did he live or die?"
    Yacob called up from the bottom of the well. "Captain Sugamo had him taken down that night; they pulled the nails out of his hands. He lived."

Chapter 5
    In Kuantan, in the evening of that day in July 1942, a sergeant had come to Captain Sugamo in the District Commissioner's house, and had reported that the Australian was still alive. Captain Sugamo found this curious and interesting, and as there was still half an hour before his evening rice, he strolled down to the recreation ground to have a look.
    The body still hung by its hands, facing the tree. Blood had drained from the blackened mess that was its back and had run down the legs to form a black pool on the ground, now dried and oxidized by the hot sun. A great mass of flies covered the body and the blood. But the man undoubtedly was still alive; when Captain Sugamo approached the face the eyes opened, and looked at him with recognition.
    It is doubtful if the West can ever fully understand the working of a Japanese mind. When Captain Sugamo saw that the Australian recognized him from the threshold of death, he bowed reverently