I awoke with a throbbing headache to find the steel room motionless, and
warm sunshine streaming into my face. Looking around, I saw that my
three companions were all up and apparently in good shape. Baker was the
first to notice that I was awake, and he came over immediately.
"Feel better?" he inquired cheerfully.
He helped me up and I staggered to the window. The room was perched, as
usual, on a hilltop, but the vegetation around was not tropical jungle.
I turned to the others, noting as I did that the room was cleaned up.
"Where--" I started, with a gesture outside. Baker stopped me and led me
to an improvised canvas hammock.
"You really got a nasty one," he said. "You've been out two days."
"Two days!" I tried to rise, but the effort so increased the headache
that I gave up and collapsed into the hammock.
"Just lie quiet and I'll bring you up to date." Baker drew up an empty
film box for a seat. "I was knocked about a bit myself, you know, and by
the time I came around, our friend had trotted the whole length of the
Malay Peninsula and was halfway across Burma."
"But the people at Singapore," I began, "Don't those fools know yet--"
"Things have changed," said Baker. "The biggest change has been in
Buddha's mind. He took our advice and almost got killed for his pains.
Now he's on his own."