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XII
In the sticky, sleepy heat of the living-room, almost dark because of the beaded curtains, U Po Kyin
was marching slowly up and down, boasting. From time to time he would put a hand under his singlet
and scratch his sweating breasts, huge as a woman’s with fat. Ma Kin was sitting on her mat, smoking
slender white cigars. Through the open door of the bedroom one could see the corner of U Po Kyin’s
huge square bed, with carved teak posts, like a catafalque, on which he had committed many and
many a rape.
Ma Kin was now hearing for the first time of the ‘other affair’ which underlay U Po Kyin’s attack
on Dr Veraswami. Much as he despised her intelligence, U Po Kyin usually let Ma Kin into his
secrets sooner or later. She was the only person in his immediate circle who was not afraid of him,
and there was therefore a pleasure in impressing her.
‘Well, Kin Kin,’ he said, ‘you see how it has all gone according to plan! Eighteen anonymous
letters already, and every one of them a masterpiece. I would repeat some of them to you if I thought
you were capable of appreciating them.’
‘But supposing the Europeans take no notice of your anonymous letters? What then?’
‘Take no notice? Aha, no fear of that! I think I know something about the European mentality. Let
me tell you, Kin Kin, that if there is one thing I can do, it is to write an anonymous letter.’
This was true. U Po Kyin’s letters had already taken effect and especially on their chief target, Mr
Macgregor.
Only two days earlier than this, Mr Macgregor had spent a very troubled evening in trying to make
up his mind whether Dr Veraswami was or was not guilty of disloyalty to the Government. Of course,
it was not a question of any overt act of disloyalty–that was quite irrelevant. The point was, was the
doctor the kind of man who would hold seditious opinions? In India you are not judged for what you
do, but for what you are. The merest breath of suspicion against his loyalty can ruin an Oriental
official. Mr Macgregor had too just a nature to condemn even an Oriental out of hand. He had puzzled
as late as midnight over a whole pile of confidential papers, including the five anonymous letters he
had received, besides two others that had been forwarded to him by Westfield, pinned together with a
cactus thorn.
It was not only the letters. Rumours about the doctor had been pouring in from every side. U Po
Kyin fully grasped that to call the doctor a traitor was not enough in itself; it was necessary to attack
his reputation from every possible angle. The doctor was charged not only with sedition, but also
with extortion, rape, torture, performing illegal operations, performing operations while blind drunk,