Bathing

EXT.  CLIMBING UP TO THE JELEP LA, RHODODENDRON FOREST - DAY
The Expedition are now separated into two groups.  Most of those in the second party are riding on this strenuous part of the day.  It has been very warm and balmy and there is great concern that the men be fit at all times.  But now they have entered the forest, and it begins to cool off.  They have nevertheless, climbed and descended some 18,000 feet. 
NORTON rides at the head; HINGSTON rides while ODELL walks beside him, talking, and running his hand along the shrubbery beside the path, stopping now and then to examine something; down the way GEOFFREY BRUCE and HAZARD harry straggling porters; far ahead of all, GEORGE and SANDY, on foot, climb up the winding trail talking animatedly.  They could be walking at Magdalene College.
GEORGE
... my concern is not only for the fragility of the apparatus banging about on rock, but for its reliability in terms of flow rates once under the pressure of altitude.
SANDY
Well, in large part I have been replacing the glass fittings that troubled Bruce and Finch with vulcanised parts, so that should help with the T joints, but the tubing itself is still giving trouble - you saw that at Darjeeling, in the demonstration, with the leaks...
GEORGE
Which is precisely why I'm bothered.  If the tubing is faulty in Darjeeling, how is it going to behave at altitude?
SANDY
I've undertaken to replace the tubing as far as possible, taking advantage
SANDY
of Noel's runners, and will have the problem of joints solved - I hope! - by the time we arrive at Base Camp.
GEORGE
Well, that's very good news!
He ruffles his hair, squinting into the distance.
GEORGE
But it still doesn't solve the problem of pressurisation.  At a hundred pounds per square inch, we can't afford any to be lost simply getting from one camp to another.  And I'm impatient enough that I don't want to spend precious time retesting all the canisters.
SANDY
We won't have to.  I have an idea for sealing off the tubing that should solve matters even at an altitude above 27,000 feet, which is what Siebe Gorman promised.
GEORGE
Eh, what?
SANDY
I had the idea from diving: it's a simple matter of making up a paste of gum Arabic and plaster of Paris.  It's airtight, but pliable.  If we find the tubing leaks at the joint, all we have to do is bung some on.  I've tried it out.
He looks up ahead.  They are about half-way up the pass now.  He smiles at GEORGE, who is impressed.
GEORGE
Well, I'll be damned!
(laughs)
You'll put Gorman and company out of business!
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT.  CLIMBING UP TO THE JELEP LA - LATER
SANDY
As for the flow rates...
GEORGE
YES! We need to be able to climb at 200 feet per hour, both vertically and horizontally, above 25.  But there are some places where this will be slowed, only due to the need for care on ascent.
He ruffles his hair again.
GEORGE
From Four to Six, for instance.  If we place the latter as planned at 27, it is, I have reckoned, ten hours' climbing and much of it over difficult ground.
(beat))
If there were some way to cut the time by using oxygen at a regular rate, we could calculate accurately how long it would take to reach the summit from there, using an Alpine start, and still get back before dark.
He looks expectantly at SANDY, who continues his previous thought.
SANDY
One of the things I've been working on is how to make the system an aneroid component assembly, with the automatic regulation of oxygen flow managed through use of a high- pressure/low-pressure system regulated by reducing valves.  I'm working on fitting the system with a constant area orifice, which will be driven by varying oxygen pressure, rather than having to fiddle with it constantly to adjust the flow rate.
He drops this piece of information casually.
GEORGE
(stunned)
Then the apparatus would only be operative when truly needed.
SANDY
Yes! And at the very amount required, no more.  It would be a great saving.  I was reading how last year so much gas was wasted in trying to regulate the flow for a particular altitude based on Finch's abstract
SANDY
calculations, and it got me thinking.  We know the altimeters are off sometimes by more than several hundred feet, simply due to the weather.  This would require no calculations.
GEORGE
Simply brilliant!
SANDY
Thank you, George.
GEORGE
If we can make this apparatus work for us, then we shall have the best
of both worlds.  The one thing that has bothered me about it is its cumbersomeness reducing the benefit of extra oxygen in terms of climbing rates and agility.
SANDY
(grins)
I have some ideas about that too, making it less cumbersome.
GEORGE
More than what you've done on the '22 sets?
SANDY
Oh yes!
EXT.  MESS TENT - EVENING
The expedition are all seated round the tables.  There is one chair empty.  It is SANDY this time.  They have obviously been waiting some time, but merrily, with jokes about the missing SANDY.
SOMERVELL
(to SHEBBEARE)
Why don't you go and fetch him? Drag him away from his spanners and into the world of the living.
He smiles.
SOMERVELL
Tell him the soup is bad, but it's worse cold!
SHEBBEARE
(rising)
Righto!
He sprints off in the dark for SANDY's tent.  They return together, SANDY sheepish and smiling and SHEBBEARE grinning.
NORTON
Coming up for air, are you?
There is general laughter at the pun.
SERIES OF SHOTS
1) Mess breaking up, men going about their evening occupations
2) GEORGE in his tent, reading and writing.  He has a tidy little collection of books on top of an overturned crate, and the picture of RUTH before it.
GEORGE
I have had nothing to trouble me in these days, except a twinge from my old ankle.  I have felt wonderfully fit, much better at this stage, I'm sure, than in '21 or '22.  Today Sandy and I, in Norton's party, walked up the Jelep La, which is 14,400 feet.  I feel full of energy and strength and walk uphill here already almost as in the Alps.  The weather was perfect, with bright sun and the flowers, magnolia and rhododendron all ivory and golden and pink and violet.  It makes me think of springtime, and Italy, and I always think of you gathering up armsful of flowers in the meadow.
(beat)
How I do wish you were here, dearest one.  Would there were some way of bringing you nearer.  I think nearness depends very much on the state of one's imagination.  When it boils up, as it sometimes does, at night under the stars, I could whisper in your ear; and even now, though my state is loggish I come very near to kissing you.
EXT.  FROM PEDONG, 1 APRIL - DAY
On ponies, GEORGE, SANDY and ODELL race down the 2,000 foot pass to the RONGPO BRIDGE in the distance.  This is a rope-and-slat bridge, common to Tibet, not in good repair.  They thunder across it, laughing and whooping and come to a halt on the other side, which leads into a dell where the RONPO CHU River runs through.
EXT.  RONGPO CHU - LATER
The rest of the company are arriving and the porters begin setting up tables and stools for a lunchbreak.  The river runs over a sluice of rocks between two stands of trees, and tumbles into a deep pool, about which there are large boulders.  SANDY digs through his saddlebag for a couple of handkerchiefs.  He is very sunburned.  ODELL walks over, pulling off his jersey over his head.
ODELL
What are you doing there?
SANDY looks up and frowns.
SANDY
Making a bathing costume.  I tried to get one in Calcutta and Darjeeling, but they looked at me as if I were daft.
ODELL pulls off his vest.
ODELL
Don't bother with it.  Noel hasn't got his bally camera on this time!
SANDY
Eh?
ODELL
I say, Noel filmed us for his motion picture last time, so we had to be very discreet.  But he hasn't got it set up now.  Don't bother.
SANDY
(shrugs)
If you say so.
Beyond them, on a large boulder, GEORGE shucks off clothes like a schoolboy, tossing them aside with abandon.  Joyously, he dives gracefully into the water and comes up in the middle of the pool, shaking water from his eyes.
GEORGE
Damn, it's cold!
On the shore, NORTON laughs.
NORTON
You look like a Sixth Former, Mallory!
GEORGE
Bloody hell!
(beat)
So they keep telling me!
ODELL is about to plunge into the water.
ODELL
I'm supposed to follow on after that, George? It's not the Olympic trials at Chamonix!
GEORGE swims out of the way.
GEORGE
I hope not, it would be bloody cold, ski-mountaineering naked!
(beat)
I have to say I haven't tried that!
GEORGE laughs.  ODELL jumps in and SANDY after him.
DISSOLVE TO:
The three of them cavort about in the water, hiking up the sluice to use it as a sort of slide down into the pool, while the others - NORTON, HINGSTON and SHEBBEARE - lounge about eating or napping.  At length ODELL and SANDY come out of the water and are drying off.  The sirdar, GYALTSEN, approaches SANDY with a mixture of deference and ire.
GYALTSEN
I'm sorry, Sahib.
SANDY rubs the towel over his head.
SANDY
Eh? What for?
Looks out from under the towel.
GYALTSEN
I'm sorry, Sahib.  I mean no disrespect, Sahib, but my men are very much unhappy with the bathing.
SANDY stops drying himself.
SANDY
Hullo! I'm sorry.  Why should that be?
GYALTSEN
They feel it is very wrong for sahibs to be without clothes before us.  In Tibet, in India, we do not do this.  They feel shamed, sahib, and wish me to say to you that they are very much unhappy.  Thank you Sahib.
SANDY
(startled)
I say! Well, thank you, Gyaltsen!
SANDY bows in return to GYALTSEN's bow.  GYALTSEN walks away.  Behind SANDY, ODELL is smirking.  SANDY turns to him, rather red.
SANDY
How extraordinary!  Noel, if they were cheesed off, why did they have that bugger come to me? I'm only the mess sergeant.  What did he expect me to do about it?
GEORGE comes up, a towel round his shoulders and his clothes in hand.  He is wearing a pair of short French drawers.
GEORGE
What was all that for?
ODELL
Irvine's just got a lesson in Tibetan diplomacy!  Our sirdar had a blob on about the bathing, and of course took it up with Irvine.
Turns to SANDY.
ODELL
He didn't expect you to do anything about it.
GEORGE nods.
ODELL
He just wanted to express his disapproval to one of us, and you're the safest, being the youngest and newest.  He knows he can't affect what we do out here in the middle of nowhere - and he's been along on all three jaunts, so he knows we bathe here - so he's just blowing off.
GEORGE
Consider it the equivalent of grumbling aloud.  There will be more in the high camps.  But if there really is anything amiss, they'll tell us earnestly.  You'll soon see the difference.
He looks at ODELL then walks off to put on his clothes, tossing his hair out of his face.
INT.  RGS OFFICES LONDON - DAY
HINKS reads NORTON's dispatch to THE TIMES.
HINKS
The effect of sun and wind is less felt than previously, thanks to the early issue of lanolin and vaseline, and to the cautious avoidance of the ultra-English vice of cold bathing in the open.  This we have retained an average proportion of skin on nose, lips, and finger-tips.  In this respect, the Mess Secretary seems to have hit on the expedient of growing a new face every second day, but then he is suspected of indulging in the said English vice, or why his frequent pilgrimages in the direction of a frozen stream, clad principally in a towel?
(beat)
What rubbish!