MD3PAD 154-156

[Toby G Levy]

        Dixon encounters the policeman Bonk in the tap room who is
surprised to see Dixon back in Capetown. Dixon in turn is surprised that
the East India Company did not let him know Dixon was returning.  But
Bonk says that he has quit the force and will be moving his family "out
of the reach of the company" to a place where he can do some farming.
Bonk complains of the company's desire of total control over every
moment of life in Capetown.

        Dixon returns to the Vroom house at Dawn, practically carrying
Cornelius. Everyone is already awake. Dixon sees in the Vrooms evidence
of the weight of guilt that the sin of slavery places upon people.  They
dream of having to pay for their oppression.

        The girls look upon the large clock that stands in a passageway
in the middle of the house as a living being, and refer to it as "Boet"
which is a term for an elder brother.

        Greet Vroom tell Dixon that his clock is believed to have
special powers of identifying longitude at sea. She advises him to hide
the clock but Dixon says the idea is absurd.

        I still haven't found any answer as to why the clocks had to be
switched and why the Shelton clock had to go to Capetown rather than be
shipped directly back to England.

        Greet attempts to seduce Dixon but he is not interested in her.

        The leaders of the East India Company in their Castle are
dismayed by the new clocks because they are sure that at some point they
will have to document all their actions with greater chronological
accuracy.

        The leaders have also learned that Dixon knows a Priest named
Christopher Le Maire (who we learn later was a friend of Emerson,
Dixon's teacher) who they assume must be some relation to Isaac Le
Maire, a former director of the East India Company.

Toby