It was to be in any case a night of great unrest. Twice before midnight his telephone rang and woke him just when he might have slept. Each time it was his liaison officer at the Dutch military headquarters, still on the slopes of the sleeping volcano of Tangkubuhanprauw, giving him the latest dispatches. All showed that the iron noose about the island was closed and rapidly tightening. The last light of day had disclosed two vast Japanese fleets of warships and transports making for the island: one coming up fast from the north and aiming at the middle of the long coastline; the other from the west heading for the harbour and railhead on the Sunda strait, not far from Lawrence’s position. Not a single dispatch hinted at even a remote chance of help or hope of relief. Indeed when Lawrence asked what was the feeling at Headquarters the officer on the far end of the line hesitated before he blurted out: ‘Well, sir, if you really want to know what I think, they’ve had it, and if we don’t find a snug spot of cover in the jungle we shall soon be gone for a Burton.’
All this was made more disconcerting for Lawrence by the manner in which it had to be conveyed to him. Lawrence had arranged with the officer beforehand that since they had no time or staff for codes or cyphers they would speak to each other in schoolboy gibberish, hoping that would be enough to confound any foreigner listening in. So he had to smile hearing the cool Sandhurst voice on the line rendering ‘We shall soon be gone for a Burton’ as ‘E-way all-shay oon-say e-bay one-gay or-fay anna-way urton-bay.’
Then again there were the night-watchmen in the villages and hamlets in the jungle near by. Their great bamboo gongs, full of portent and fear-fever, went tok-tok-tokking all through the long hours in between the telephone calls. Once when his own unrest took him to the window of his room he suddenly heard the urgent noises outside overwhelmed by a deep, continuous vibration rather like that of the waters of a great river in the distance falling infinitely into some unimagined chasm in the earth. He touched the glass of the window with the tips of his fingers and felt it shivering as with cold. For an hour or more this deep abysmal agitation troubled the night and then as suddenly as it had begun, it ceased. He had no doubt from past experience that the disturbance came from big guns firing far away to the west and that it was direct intimation that his own particular hour, whatever it was to be, was near. With that realization the image of the woman, complete with the startled look when she had first noticed him, came vividly to his mind and he heard again that voice exclaiming: ‘My dear, human beings have strange ideas about luck.’
He was up very early and hurried down to his breakfast so that he could get to his men as soon as possible. He had thought he would be the first in the dining-room but already she was there. She was sitting at a table alone, waiting for her food, her hands folded characteristically in her long lap and breathing in deeply the fresh air from the window at her side, while the morning wove the young light through her hair. He sat down several tables away, also by an open window, facing her. A waiter, wearing the inevitable black hat, appeared silently at his side. He ordered his breakfast, asked the waiter to be as quick as possible, and glanced up to see the girl watching him intently. She made no attempt to avoid his look and he found himself standing to attention, in the way men did in those islands, and bowing to her. Slowly her left hand came up and was held briefly in a kind of boyish greeting above her neat shoulder.
At that very moment the proprietor, shuffling along at a portly double came into the room, calling out loudly: ‘Colonel Lawrence, Colonel Lawrence, quick! quick! You’re wanted by Headquarters on the phone. They say it’s most urgent.’
‘Curse the man!’ Lawrence exclaimed to himself as he dropped his napkin on the table and turned sharply away to follow the proprietor: ‘Why not just say I’m wanted on the telephone and leave Headquarters out of it.’
However, he had no chance of speaking his mind to the proprietor just then for the bleary-eyed man, still smelling of gin and beer, seized him by the arm and impelled him towards a public call-box in the hall.
‘I bring your call to this box,’ he explained in his breathless throaty voice. ‘You’ll be alone there and save time running upstairs to your room.’
With that he opened the glass door, pushed Lawrence inside, shut the door on him and then walked backwards to take up position about four yards away where, with arms folded and feet apart, he could keep his eyes on the face of the leading actor. Almost at once he was joined by his waiters, all in black hats. When Lawrence put the receiver to his ear and leant back against the glass wall of the box, a finger closing the other ear in order to shut out all external sound, he saw this strange little gathering standing there, hypnotically united in a trance induced by their sense of impending disaster as they had never been in normal life.
‘Hallo, Lawrence here!’ He tried to say it as if he were expecting no more than an invitation to dinner.
‘Is that you, sir?’ The voice of his liaison officer was unmistakable for all the long-distance crackling on the line. It too gave an imitation of unconcern. ‘I think this is it, sir. The Nips are landing now in a big way on the north coast between Semerang and Surabaya. Then the last of our fleet, three crippled warships, ran into the main western invasion force in the Sunda Strait last night, did heavy damage but were all sunk in the end. The Nips have got the railhead at Merak and are landing in force on the beaches for miles around. So far there is no report of any land skirmish or action of any kind and . . .’ The voice hesitated and then resumed, ‘And look here, sir, I think I had better come clean on this . . . I don’t know for certain but I believe these fellows have no intention of opposing the Nips at their beach-heads. I think they’re going to pull back all their units on to this plateau as fast as they can, and if they fight at all, fight in the hills and passes along its edges. I think you must be prepared to see the Nips on your doorstep pretty soon now.’
‘Good! Good! Well done! That’s all very clear,’ Lawrence answered with exaggerated emphasis in plain language for the benefit of those faces peering through the glass of the telephone-booth like conspirators into a soothsayer’s crystal, as well as for those ears without doubt listening in at all exchanges along the line. ‘Just go on talking. Say anything you like but keep the line busy while I just sort out in my mind what you’ve told me.’
Then he stood there for a full minute, telephone to his ear, pretending to be listening intently but not hearing a word of the gibberish pouring into the receiver. He did not really need the minute for himself. This is what he had expected all along and tried to discount in advance. He knew exactly what he was going to say but he wanted to give the impression of being casual and unhurried so as to counteract the atmosphere of crisis produced by the proprietor’s behaviour. In the end he told the officer with great deliberation: ‘You had better hand over to your Dutch opposite number at once. Tell him to keep us posted here. Then collect the rest of the unit and come here as soon as you can. Any questions?’