Boy's Cinema (1939-40)

Every Tuesday "Of oom.so not. Wliy?" " Bocaii.Mi il is a had plnro,"" Mniia snirl ffnivoly. " Katlior, he is a funny man. Ife tnakes (noiyono unliapiiy. Emmi nic. I stay lieio all the tinio; I never leave. Twice a year SoludacI ffoos tp the city down the river an.I hrin(,'.s clothes for me—I never see any shops myself." "Solodad buys very pretty frocks," said Jiidifh. ■■ Ves, hut. I have nohody to wear tliem for," the ffirl wciii, on. " I haveti't been away from this place since my mother died. She had nice [);do .skin like you. 1 never see handsome white man except in picture books." Judith felt .sorry for iier, and tried to find Boriie words of (omfort. She said: "You mustn't worry about it. Some day you will, you'll look out of that window, and lliere he will bo coining up the river from the city. Just like out of a book." _ Maria nodded cajjerly, and .Judith could see that she iiad won her friendship. She felt relieved. She was going to need a friend in til's place liefore long. Later tluif day Scipio saw Judith again, and she told him her story about coming up the river in .search of lost worlds. Scipio li.slenod attentively, interestedly. He always Beemed interested in everything. ■'Ah; .seuorita." he said when ."he had finished, "it is a pity to waste the best years of one's life searching for the impossible. Many brilliant men ha\e lost their lives in the forest looking for what is not there. And now it is a womati who is being just as fooli.sh." A servant came in with some coffee. Scipio turned to him. "ditto, it is time for the professor," he said. "Take the keys and bringf him here." Judith watched the servant take the keys from a nail in the wall and go out. Scipio went on: "The jungle is not kind to outsiders, scnorita. You will see what I mean when the professor comes." Maria nodded and tapped her forehead. "He is not all there," she explained. The door opened and the servant returned, leaditig in a white-haired man by the hand. Judith gave a ery and put her hand to her mouth. Scipio laughed gently. "It is all right, senorita," he said. "He is qiute harnile.ss." He watched the professor, his eyes completely blank, sit down docilely and wait. "You know, senorita," Scipio went on, "nature is sometimes very kind to those who have suffered at her haiids. She draws the curtains over their minds, and they forget the terrible things of the past." He walked across the room and took a book down from a shelf. He gave it to the professor, and said: "Go on readino- where we left pflf last night." The old inan took the book and opened it. His actions were those of an obedient child. Judith felt that she wanted to cry. "The victory of Napoleon at Austerlitz marked him definitely as a force to be reckoned with." he read in a curiously flat voice. "The Little Corporal's star was fn the ascetidant." He read on. As he did so, Scipio strutted atid postured in front of a mirror, evidently dreaming of the day when he, too, woidd be a great conqueior, ruling the de.?tinies of millions of his fellow-inen. But Judith did not see all that. She was vatching the reader. But he .seemed oblivious of her gaze, of her very presence even. He just read on and on. When he had finished, Scipio nodded his Eatisfaction. He patted the old man on the arm, and then went out. Maria said she had something to see to about the house and went out also. Hardly had they gone Avhcn Judith went to the old man and dropped on her knees fn front of him. Instinctively he shiank back. "Don't l)u afraid," she said quickly. "Look at me. You know me. don't you? It's your datighter, dad. It's Judith." The old man just stared blankly at her. The name evidently meant nothing to him. "Judith," he said softly. "It's a pretty name." "You must remember it. You gave it to ne." She lowered her voice, and spoke firmly, deliberately. "Judith Taylor!" BOY'S CINEMA 'Taylor!" He nodded, smiling. "Why, that's inv natne. J'ni Dr. TayUjr, the .Hcholai." Hi" reached out and gripped her by the arm. "Listen! I'ln giving to tell you u secret. Some day I'ln going to astonish iny colleagues at the University I'm planiu'ng a book a gieat book. For I can see into the- future." "Yes. go on!" she said breathlessly, hoping that perha|)s his memory would come back to him. "1 see mammolh buildings," Dr. Taylor went on. •'Buildings of concrete and steel, rearing their heads into the sky. And air vehicles, with huge wings, soaring through space like birds. I have a vision of giant bridges spanning mighty rivers. 1 suppose it all sounds fantastic, but I see it all in my dreams as plainly as I see you." .ludith shook her liead, and her I'ycs weie f"4Jed with tears. "But you'v(> seen all those things already," she said. "What you've described is New York, where you used to live, "^'oii've seen those buildings and things in the past." Jle made an impatient gesture. "The past!" he said. "Never think of " Hurry, father ! " she cried. " They're after us I " the past. Be like me—think only of the future." .Judith felt very close to breaking down. This was terrible. She had come all this way to find her father, hiding her identity under the name of Adams, and now she had found him his memory was a blank, and he was a prisoner of the sinister Scipio. "Oh, dad," she cried, "can't you remember anything ?" "The future!" he mtittered to himself, and his eyes seemed more blank than ever. " The future—that only can 1 see!" .Judith saw that it was hopeless. All she could do was win the old man's confidence and make plans to get him away from this place and back to the coast. She knew he would never get well so long as he stayed in this terrible rubber camp in the heart of the jungle, EVIDENCE IN the meantime, Dan and Tiny had been taken to the hut they were to occupy. It was a foul place, badly in need of cleaning out. "Go.sh!" Tiny muttered. "This looks like the bridal suite at a flea circus " Dan laughed. "Don't worry," he replied dryly. "You'll gel used to il. liut 1 inuHt ailinit, of all the rabbit hutches I've over lived in, tliib lit about the woihI." 'J'iny mad.' a tour of inhpiKlion. It did not take more tliun about ten secoiidH. "W'heie do we (lop?" be wanted to know J)lainlively. "'J'here tlon't ueern to bo any lieds." ■■ You'll find a couple of hummocks somo- where around," Dan answered. Tiny found somi- .sort of a contraption piled up in a corner and dragged it out. "A hammock!" he muttered. "This looks like a fish net." " I'll fi.\ it for you," said Dan, and slung it between two polivs. "It's a silly-looking thing." said Tiny. "I don't think I'm going to fit into it." He climbed up, got into it .somehow, and lay back. "Say, il ain't bafi afti-r all -better than 1 thought if would be." Then he looked up- wards and saw a large hole in the roof. "The woodpecker-; seein to have been having a meal, don't they?" Dan chuckled. "That's the vent for letting out the smoke fro'm the rubber cooker." He pointed at a pole slung over a fire bucket. "It's all mighty priirntive.'' "How does it work?" Tiny asked. "Well, you pour layer after layer of liquid rul)ber on to that pole, and the smoke turns it into a solid." ** Tiny groaru'd. "Do you e-xpect me fo remember all that?" he asked. "I3on't worry—you'll remember it! They have a way around here of retninding you of things like that. Remember?" Tiny did remember, and he started so vio- lently that he fell out of the hammock and hit the ground hard. " Ouch !". he roared. " You'd better get back into that thing and go to sleep." I^an advised him. "You're .going to need all the rest you can get until our work is done around here. From what I can see of things, we aren't going to have much time to ourselves.' "Okay," said Tiny, and hoisted himself upwards again. In a short time they were fast asleep. Dan's prophecy had been correct. The fol- lowing morning, at dawn, they were turned out and given breakfast. Then they were led off in gangs to the rubber trees. Each tree had deep grooves cut in its bark. The grooves were shaped iti such a way that the sap from the tree—the rtibber latex— poured downwards into a small tin cup. They went round the cups, emjitying them into a pan. There were only a few drops in the cups, and the task took them all the morning. Then, at midday, they were given more food, and afterwards went back to their hut. There they lit the fire, and spent the remain- der of their time converting the liquid rubber into a solid product by pouring it on to the pole and smoking it. While they were alone in the hut, Dan said grimly: "This is a terril)le racket! Gallon and Scipio get these poor fellows up here on the pretence that they will get good money and good times. And when they get here, they get just nothing. It's organised slavery. No wonder people who come here never see civilisation again. They are kept lieie until they die." "All right," said Tiny, pouring latex as hard as he could go. " What are j'ou going to do about it ?" "I'm going to collect evidence that will finish Scipio for ev-er.'" Dan answered. "I've been talking to a few of the natives, and many of them are ready to take almost any risk to get out of here. \Ve've got to organise them, get them to make signed statements that will force the local government to act.. And I'm going to get to work on that angle of things right avay." The following morning he got around amotigst the natives while they were tapping the trees, and by the time evening came he had heard about as much as he wanted to February ITtli, 1940.