25
All the way to Batu Lembah, Evie tortured herself with fears as to what her husband must be going through. Despite the brevity of the telephone call and the lack of information, she kept quizzing Reggie for details.
‘But how badly hurt is he? Why haven’t they got him out? How long has he been down there?’
Reggie kept repeating that he knew no more than he had already said. ‘The Assistant Manager just said Doug was overseeing jungle clearance in a remote part of the estate with a small gang of coolies and had fallen down a mine shaft. I’ve no idea if anyone saw it happen. The jungle’s littered with disused tin workings and most of them are unmapped. We have to hope it’s not too deep but we can’t tell until we get there and can assess the situation properly.’
It was after nine when th
