Atdtda27: Servants in this matter, 765

[Paul Nightingale]

The Doosra appears from Kit's pov, "younger than Kit had imagined and
lack[ing] gravitas", if not excess pounds, an impression not threatened by
his "University-nitwit accent". Cf. the "living fragment of the desert"
passage on 756.

The Doosra describes himself as "only a servant in this matter" (765); and
Kit must proceed further to meet the Doosra's "own master", a man who can
offer Kit complete knowledge. The Doosra's description of the journey ("a
kind of conscious being, a living Deity ..." etc) echoes that of Prance,
here absent. At the end of the previous section Halfcourt has taken Kit by
surprise; the meeting with the Doosra was not mentioned in the presence of
Prance. According to the Doosra here, Kit must be able to return and tell
the English and Russians all; previously he has been distanced from the
colonial enterprise, but is now its representative. Like the Doosra, then,
Kit is "only a servant in this matter", a connection that follows on from
the way Kit has been tied previously to both Halfcourt and Prance.