 This is the story of a man who never been on anywhere whose backyard is the world, whose ways of life are the dreams of escape for those who want action, but never find it. The man's John Steele adventurer. There's a legend in the Far East. When you travel, you only see the beginning. No traveler ever sees the end. That's pretty true, I think, no matter where you go. But you're looking out of a car, plane, or plane room. A riding an ox cart in the rainforest of Aracani is just going west of Mandalay. The endless rainforest of Bamboo. Bamboo never yielding or always bending, like the man at Roseneer. Drive with John Steele adventurer, and we'll be back in a moment to tell you a real story. I've come 7,000 miles to call a cop, a local cop. The place is village number 10 on the coast of Aracani, where Assam, Burma, and India come together to meet the Bay of Bengal. Village number 10. It had no other name. 10. Village number 10. Right? I'm in the right place? You're a cop? Police? You're the policeman? Yes. Okay, then give me some service. You have trouble? 10 minutes. I've been trying to tell you that. What trouble? Are you speaking English? My credentials are all on that paper. My passport, my visa, you've been holding them 10 minutes. Just think it, don't you read it? What is your problem, Sahib? It lay down here, all of them here. The papers, these invoices. Ah, you see. Invoices for what? A shipment of Bamboo. Bamboo? Bamboo that was supposed to be shipped from here. Ah, yeah. From here to my client in the United States. It can tell me about the United States? Huh? Is it as they say, be quick, everybody eats meat. You're going to listen to me eat bamboo, the whole shipment. I want you to investigate. Bamboo? But Sahib, go take the wood. We are full of bamboo. Why do you bother me? Because this shipment was paid for in advance. Oh, you lose the bamboo. My company, yeah, we lose the bamboo. I see. Nolan, you understand? We're robbed. Would this be a bamboo when we are pulling the wood? This is special. Oh. Specially selected, specially matched to make fishing rods. You cut fish in the United States with bamboo. Five square fishing rods. You eat fish too? Fishing is a sport. Do you think it was stolen? It could create trouble, you think? The bamboo or the money back. Then do not have the bamboo or do not have the money. You're the police chief. I see. I have defeat. Somewhere around here, yeah, sure. Matta, you think? Oh, Matta. Only he? At the man's name? Matta. Very bad. Only he would have seen it from you. But who is Matta? Very bad. Bandit. Outlaw. I look for him many years, like he did it. Oh, yes. Matta. I look for him every since they are police chief. I am police chief, 20 years. How do you know this Matta is responsible? Oh, Matta, very proud. Very tough. We are small territory. Too small to support more than one bad man like him. Matta must be him. Ah, that's a good Matta. Ah, yes. Bad, very bad. Oh, I don't care who it is. You're just going to sit there. You're off? You're just going to sit on that rug? Matta already tears 20, my best policeman. What's the matter? No. Hey, too hot. We go late. Not later. No. Come on. Come on, stand up. No, I don't. Come on. We go look now. Rock. Uh-huh. Americans are the time for us. All right. We get the bullet, quack, and we go. But I tell you, I already look for Matta 20 years. We went, ruled in here, reluctant police chief and me. We kicked a half-wild pie dog out of our way. The savage street dogs that growl and come at us, they come near our garbages. Garbages and flyers, all over the street, piled high. And here and there, a holy blue cow. Ruben here, hips up the bullet cut. He twisted their tails, he started off. I was glad to get into the cool forest, away from the stink, smell, and close to the valley. Glad to get in among the seas. And we were going slow, too slow. You know, you know where we're heading? Oh, we go. What's that mean? We go sheen, we go there. Just like that. Anyway, it is a roll. Hey, you really want to help me find that bamboo? Or who stole it? Therma? What's that? Beauty. You're sure you know what you're doing? All roads come together. Where? It's not this slide. Some others. You do not believe in reincarnate? This is no time for religion. Mata, I think he is so bad. You know, I think he's not like he was a snake or maybe lizard. Last slide. Perhaps he didn't think cobra. Now look, man, so bad maybe even was tiger. What do you think he was before? Lord, I'm not out here to discuss religion. Oh, but of course you wish to find the bamboo or the teeth. But for this, you must have religion. Thank you. Go faster. You absolute must faster. Faster. Just make them fall faster. Most necessary. This is not big city. Only big city, USA. Oh, come on. I can walk a faster wagon. All these villages on this. Village rules here. Not big city bureaucrats like in Calcutta, Bombay. What's the village got to do with it? That is why I have never been able to discuss Mata. What's it got to do with me? I am here for the police and the villagers hate to not help me. Villages along the way here, huh? They sympathize with Mata. With the bandits? No, yes. They take his side against you, huh? They do not support me. Well, nobody likes thieves and outlaws. How come the village people don't help the cats? The villagers do not like anybody or is not like them. Yeah, but you're the law. The law is from outside. The law comes from the big cities. But the smart are terrorizing the people. He's the same for the Hillary Robbins. They say big cities rob them too. The taxes. Oh, I collect taxes too. Oh, that's why they don't like it. They're afraid to say they do not like me. But when Mata hides in their village, they are on the side of Mata. Every minute they pray, Mata will kill me before I can collect the next taxes. Oh, great. But when I come to the villages to look for Mata and he runs away, when they see me, then they are on the side of me and they pray I'll kill you. You see, I have a very difficult position. I'm alive. I am handed. Not so much because he's cold, but because I can see Rubinier's lips switch and his fingers tremble on the long leather range of the bullock wagon even when we went into the bamboo. The rain fall, bamboo, wherever you look, thin and thick, tiny little grassy saplings, no thicker than a flyer. All the way up to a hundred and twenty foot giant, with trunks as wide as a man. Creepy, quiet. The ground covered with young bamboo grass, throwing so fast you could almost see it move. Soft and rustling under the wagon wheels and the bullock's full. Knock, knock. You all right? It will be pain. Yeah, yeah. Great Lord Vishnu once again, Mata and Vishnu. Come on here. Yes. Crawl behind here, behind the wheel. Hey, Charlie, Charlie, Charlie. Good. It is. Shot came straight in there. Wait. Yes, he waits. He sees us, can't see him. The bamboos are all over the bamboo. Them in there. Huh? Two of them, shadowy. The light is very weak in there. You see anything? You sure it's him? Mother? Ah, yes. He's still your bamboo shipment. You're sure he knows why we're here? Hey, yes. It was to revel in the wind. Come on. Let's travel in action. We started in. Into the bamboo. The tall, straight, silenced, silenced bamboo. It was daylight. It must have been bright and sunny outside the woods, but there was no sun in here. The bamboo did something to the sunlight. It filtered out the yellow and left the light weak and silver. Why does moonlight down in here? Weird, motionless bamboo. A splinter stuck in my ear in for a minute. I felt myself go roaring mad inside. Crazy mad at the bamboos, because if they weren't trees and mad at them, just as old, they were really people. Hell, skinny, pale, yellow people without our understanding. They're watching. Watching. Not helping them. Not helping this lord, and they were helping him. Then I almost laughed. I almost had to laugh at myself for letting the weirdness of the woods get to me. But I couldn't laugh. I looked over at Rubanier. He was fighting too. It wasn't funny. It was as funny as the next blast of a 30-06. Yeah, fight or something. I guess he beat it. Yes, we let him get away. Wait. Do you want west? Oh, broken bamboo shoots, yeah. Road circle west? Yes. Back to the road or we keep straight on in after until here? Eh, get a road quicker. More comfort. Yeah. Yeah, I know. We've been chasing him 20 years. To the west, village number nine. In the Darm Sala, the government shelter building of number nine, where Ruba, like all visiting government officials, called village meetings. Darm Sala, a pitch-dark smoky little mud building, lighted by a charcoal brazier sending up smoke in a faint red glow. Why, actually, we need over here, Sala. Rubanier, behind the hand-carved peak desk, the foot-high, squatting behind the funny little desk. And all around, jammed to the wall, the angry face of the village president, shaking their heads. Why, actually, we need over here, Sala. They still didn't answer. I expected Rubanier to get mad. He motioned me to come squat behind his little desk instead. You see, it's a hit. It is a serious problem, you know? I didn't tell you, huh? They know I know, Mata, he's hiding here. But they won't tell. We know he had to come here. We know, yeah. And they know we know. After all, did he not almost kill us? Did we not rail him here? Are we stupid? Are we dumb? Sure, sure. But I won't tell you. You see, they're hiding in this village, or they know which way he went. Well, I won't tell you. Why waste time? Waste? Well, I come from, I call it waste of time. America. Yes, efficiency, one, two, three, tell me. You are an American. You see these villages? Yeah. You see them faces? Did you look at me like I am here for taxes again? You are American. What would American policemen do? I don't know what I do with them. I curse, I yell, I insult their mother, their father. I tell them next life they will all be born dirty dog, pi dog, eating street garbage. And what do you think? Look. Look how they look back at me. You see? Sit. They sit. They make dumb monkey face back to the ground. All right? That's gonna get me back, my ship and the bamboo. I show you what I do. Me? I say, run. I translate for you, Sahib. But yes, no leader, you select mother. I tell them they must each come up here to be best and right down the way in which Mata has gone. They're scared of Mata. What makes you think they'll write down the truth? They won't, huh? They will write down the opposite way Mata goes. It's funny? The opposite way. Oh, brother. Because they are afraid of him. You see, this way if Mata come back here, they can tell Mata we not tell Rubanir the policeman the right way. We tell him the wrong way. Sure. Well, how can Mata blame them? I guess they can. Exactly. This way every man is innocent. Nobody squeals, huh? How come they're not wise for you? Oh, they're wise, but they still leave them innocent, you see? And I can find what they want. They tell me, go north. I go south. Everybody is happy and nobody risked. Happy? Yeah. What about my bamboo? Oh, yeah. Is there a colleague in the area, Thomas? He must call them up to write down the direction. Yeah. The direction he didn't go. One by one, they came up to the desk and they wrote down the direction Mata was supposed to run. They all wrote north, so we went south. South in the bullet wagon, down the road to the rainforest of bamboo trees. Only now it is getting dark. Silver light was fading. The overgrown road was hard to see. Then all at once the ground caved in. And action. One leads to the other. And the result will hear in a moment with the climax of another adventure with John Steele. I remember falling. Falling into the trash, the grass covered jungle pit. The feeling in the trash that falling in was over in the air on the wagon. And I didn't remember a thing. I opened my eyes dark. For a crazy minute, I was afraid I'd gone blind. I knew I'd open my eyes, but I still couldn't see. And I heard birds, bugs. I began to make out differences in the darkness. A dark shape beside me. The shape moved. Rubineer, he was sitting beside me. I had to put a hand out to him, but I couldn't. My hands, my legs tied. I was tied. Then it hit me all at once. I was standing up, my arms out, legs out. I was tied that way to different bamboo trees. My apologies, a heap. So where are you tied? At you. What? Who? Mata. Mata. I, it's you. You will hurt yourself. I'll hurt him. If I ever get loose here. Oh, you, you only dare you see me. Yeah, terror. Yeah. My apologies. I am afraid 20 years. Mata. Catches me. Where, where is he? You wish to cry? Yeah, call him. He's me. He's us. Watching this, maybe. Who knows? Yes, he catches me. Only please. Yeah, yeah. He also caught me. What's he gonna do? Why'd he set that elephant road pit? Well, you're all the time bragging. You're different. You're all different. Things different around here. Why? Brag, oh no. Well, what's he gonna do to us? Why, is he gonna tie it up here? Don't you see it? Huh? See, I must be tighter than you. What are you talking about? You don't see it. Oh, I feel. Still, I'm tied, hands and legs stretched and hanging like a butchered king. What do you mean? I don't feel. What do you mean? What's that noise, him? Is that him in the dark? He is not. Now, what's that sound? What's hurting you? Dark, what's going on? I can't see. Bamboo. Bamboo, yeah, yeah. We're tied to the bamboo. Bamboo is gross. The men can stretch on the inch or two. Threes is gross. Hold on. The bamboo, that's what you mean? The bamboo? The bamboos are growing. They're growing. I was tied and spread eagles. Hands and legs spread eagles. And the trees, the bamboo trees were growing. I could feel them growing up, up, up higher and higher. Inch by inch, growing higher, growing higher. I could hear them growing and I was tied to the trees. I was stretching. I could feel my arms and my legs, my arms, full of my shoulders. Try to pull away, pull out of my shoulders, the sockets. My shoulder sockets, my legs. My legs put away from my hips. Every minute I felt myself being full, full of different ways, full of the facts. The bamboos were growing. I was on fire. My shoulders, my legs sockets, fire, pulley, ripping, pain, fire. Through the pain I remembered, I remembered what Ruben said. The man can only stretch inches. The trees, the bamboo trees, they grow inches here, 16 inches overnight, 16 inches in 24 hours. I was wet, I was wet outside, cold and wet. And inside I was on fire. Thunder, water, that's like a lot of rain, Ruben. Ruben, wake up, wake up, bucket of rain. My hands, the ropes on my hands, they're loose. They're loose. They're on my hands, they're the rain. They're getting loose. The trees, the trees are starting to let me go. Oh, Vishnu, great god Vishnu, blessed one. I'm starting to slide, Ruben. Blessed one, blessed one, 10 monsoon. Ruben, I'm, I'm sliding down a couple of inches. Thunder, monsoon is at the beginning. I, I can feel the ground. Monsoon, monsoon comes. Water, I can feel water on the ground. May the end of May, monsoon, monsoon, now to October. I, I, I got one for you, Ruben. Vishnu, Vishnu, Vishnu, Vishnu. I'll just tie it up with another rubber. A lot of wagon rain. I'll have it for you in a minute. Three? Hold on, I'll tell you. No, man, it's three in monsoon. Get out of here. No, no, sure, sure. Just relax while I slip up here. No man can tell where he is in bamboo in monsoon. The road to bamboo is so fast, you're gonna see, you're gonna tell the sea to find the way out. Bamboo or the sea bamboo. Hold on, you won't hope to hit the rain. Man, so always comes south west, we must go against the rain. The rain, monsoon rain, sliding, drilling rain, building up on the ground, squinting everything with it, rolling up around our knees, and all we could do is see in our eyes and go against it. Rain boiling down among the bamboos, then we stumbled over the waterlogged ridge in down to a village. A man was bending beside a bamboo building. I saw Ruben start squashing down the ridge down toward the man, a little dried up man on a soak and dony loincloth. Mada ducked into the building and came out with a rifle. She threw it up a drover and I started to run through, run for Mada, run through the rain. I ran. Mada, the bandit, the outlaw, had tried to kill me. I slipped and slid down through the rain. I saw Mada aim the gun at Ruben. I saw him pull the trigger, but the wet gun only clipped. Mada threw away the gun and grabbed a thin, young bamboo. He split it near one end, split the end into a sphere, split bamboo sharper than any sphere. Ruben did the same, then I ran after him. I lost them both in the rain. Ah, come on, come on, get over. He gets your way, sure, sure. Too steep for him to do my work, huh? I raised the bamboo, I go to- Yeah, yeah, you told me ten times. And I slipped like so. Sure. You do not believe me. I told you, sure. You eat away in the rain. What do you do? Second, I'm shipping crates against my invoices. Your bamboo or a fist? Mmm, best to lighten my cowl. The invoices are pretty blurred. Ah, yay. Terrible, terrible rain. What are you so happy about? Happy? Uh-huh. Oh, I am not so happy, Staggy. No, no, I am very, very sad. Sure, you're only two feet. I take you, I eat, he gets away. Sure, you didn't let him get away? Uh-huh, you're here, cunning man, Staggy. I don't give you answer to that question. I have real good position for this month, as long as Mother Priya. Oh, I don't give you right answer. Well, how about the long one? Staggy, policeman without criminals is like tax connector without taxes. How can he live here, Staggy? One is the other. Someday I retire, Staggy. I think then, that day, Mother retired too. Oh, Staggy, Staggy, Staggy.