62

ACT III: Sabotage

The only two natives who helped us at any time were the old serang, a proper gentleman, and a fireman from Zanzibar, and they couldn’t do enough to help.
– Angus Macdonald


• Scene [Sharks (Saturday 7/11, c. 9.30 a.m.)]

[DAY 1] appears on the blank screen, then fades into:

Angus lying against the gunwale of the boat, looking exhausted, when he notices a knocking on the planks beside him. It sounds like a knuckle rapping at a front door, and we see him mentally running over the possible causes of such a sound. He looks up. No, everyone else is sitting still, or sprawled out in sleep. He looks down at his hands. No, it does not appear to be coming from inside the boat. He looks over the side.

A huge dark shape with a fin is scraping and bashing against the boat. He stares at it in horror, until someone else’s voice cries “Shark!”

Tiny gets hold of the boat-hook and jabs it at the creature, which swims away unhurriedly.

As the camera draws back, we see a number of others, huge dark-grey monsters, diving and circling around the open boat, biding their time.

• Scene [The Doctor (Sunday 8/11, c. 11.30 p.m.)]

[DAY 2]:

It is night, waves are breaking over the side, and everyone is getting soaked.
Every now and then the Doctor, who has been largely silent up till now, shouts, “Boy, bring me my coffee,” or, “Boy, another beer.” …

Insert: [Angus standing in the snow, in a German concentration camp, looking down at the Doctor’s pocket-knife – A guard shouts out: Raus! Raus!]