The
Colony
ISAAC ROSENFELD
I.
SATYA AND THE lNDEFATIGABLES
SATYA KNEW that his arrest was imminent.
For several months he had been living in a village on the out–
skirts of Allaban, the capital of the Central Province. Having adopted
the way of life of the lowest peasants, he had established himself in
a mud-hole. His hut had walls, ceiling and floor, but it deserved no
better name than the one in the native language meaning mud-hole
or hole-in-the-ground by which dwellings of this type were known.
During the rainy season it was all but unbearably damp; in the dry
season the heat grew intense and the walls chipped and needed con-
stant patching with mud. A few slits served him for light and ven-
tilation. A cotton rug lay on the floor, where Satya worked and slept.
A stove and a row of cooking utensils occupied one wall; against an-
other leaned a low couch on which he received visitors.
Three Indefatigables now guarded his door. They relieved one
another at eight-hour intervals and contrived, somehow, to meet
three times during the day-at sunrise, noon and sundown-when
they would stand together uniformly tall and white, wearing the new
furry headgear, their buckles gleaming with rising, high or declining
light. When all three stood together they completely hid the house
~
behind them.
No general orders for the arrest of party leaders had as yet been
issued. The authorities were allowing the fifth-year general party meet–
ing to be held in the Central Province, in the hope that a violent
session, a public incident, or even a strongly-worded resolution
would provide grounds for beginning the oppression. But, as every
one knew, and as the higher, and therefore more cynical, officials
admitted, they were desperate and might begin without pretext, if
finding one demanded too long a wait.
During the week preceding the opening session, Satya busied him–
self with the preparation of his presidential address. He was of poor
memory for all but his own words; while he could have reproduced
nearly intact any speech he had ever delivered, he was always unable
