The young beater
The boy who goes up a creeper after a shot pigeon as easily as a ladder and puts the bird limp and warm into Elizabeth Lackersteen's hand, then leads her and John Flory through a labyrinth of game-tracks after the leopard. He says nothing at all for most of it: he puts a finger to his lips for silence, pushes Elizabeth into cover and pinches her elbow when he hears the animal coming, close enough that she can smell the coconut oil in his hair. When the wounded leopard crashes towards them through the undergrowth, he and the other Burman are the two shouting "Shoot! Shoot!" as they run for the nearest climbable trees.
The book
At a glance
- One of the beaters on Flory and Elizabeth's shooting trip
- Eight annas for the afternoon
- Never given
- Chapters 14 and 15
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freeIn chapters 14 and 15 John Flory, the English timber merchant at the centre of the novel, takes Elizabeth Lackersteen, the young Englishwoman he hopes to marry, out shooting near a Burmese fishing village. Six young men from the village are hired for the afternoon as beaters, which means walking through the jungle banging and shouting so that birds and animals break cover in front of the guns. This is one of the six. He is never named, and he is paid eight annas at the end of the day.
He earns his place in the book by being extremely good at things the two English visitors cannot do at all. Elizabeth brings down a pigeon that lodges in a fork ten yards up a tree. He puts down his knife, looks the tree over, walks to a creeper as thick as a man's thigh, runs up it as easily as a ladder, walks along the branch upright, and hands her the bird still limp and warm.
When word comes that a leopard has crossed the path, he is the one sent into the jungle with Flory and Elizabeth while the other five go round to drive it. He leads them at a half-run through a maze of narrow animal tracks, under bushes so low they nearly have to crawl. At the spot he judges right, he points at the ground and puts a finger to his lips.
The best moment is the wait. Squatting under a thorn bush, he hears the leopard before either of the Europeans does, and warns Elizabeth by pinching her elbow, his face a few inches from hers, his lips puckered as if to whistle. Fifteen yards down the path the animal's head and shoulders come out of the undergrowth.
How the book draws them
- What he is doing thereOne of six beaters hired for the afternoon to drive game towards the guns, walking ahead in single file with a broad knife laid along the forearm.
- Up the creeperA shot pigeon sticks in a fork ten yards up. He lays down his knife, sizes up the tree, runs up a twisted creeper as though it were a ladder, walks the branch on his feet and brings the bird down to Elizabeth's hand.
- Leading them inHe takes Flory and Elizabeth into the jungle after the leopard at almost a run, through a labyrinth of game tracks with creepers strung across them like trip-wires and the ground dusty and silent underfoot.
- Signs instead of wordsHe points at the ground to say this spot will do, puts a finger to his lips for silence, and settles a disagreement with another Burmese youth who appears out of the bushes entirely by gestures.
- The pinch on the elbowHe hears the leopard first. Elizabeth feels his hand on her shoulder pushing her down into cover, and then a pinch on the elbow, his face close enough for her to smell the coconut oil in his hair.
- Up a tree againWhen the wounded leopard starts crashing through the undergrowth five yards away, he and the other Burman shout at Flory to shoot and then make for the nearest climbable trees. They come down once it is dead.