Task: Story Composition
Input (English): Fact1: Scobie On search of finds envelope addressed to Germany visiting Portuguese ship, Fact2: captain begs him to do n'thing, Fact3: man has committed suicide because of debts to smugglers, Fact4: survivors of ship torpedoed by Germans are brought by Vichy police of neighbouring, Fact5: very young widow reminds him of dead daughter
Output (English): Scobie, Deputy Commissioner of the Sierra Leone Police in Freetown during the Second World War, is unhappily married to fellowCatholic Louise and both mourn their only daughter. Despite his having been a police officer in the country for 15 years when the Police Commissioner announces he is to retire Scobie is not chosen to replace him, but rather a younger man is being sent out from England. On a search of a visiting Portuguese ship, the neutral vessel Esperanca, he finds an envelope addressed to Germany. When he confiscates it, the captain begs him to donthing because the letter is to his daughter. Feeling pity, Scobie burns it. His wife keeps begging him to let her go to South Africa but they cannot afford the fare. Eventually he accepts a loan from Yusef, a suspected smuggler, to send her away by sea. Called up country because a local District Commissioner is in trouble, he finds the man has committed suicide because of his debts to smugglers. While he is there, survivors of a ship torpedoed by the Germans are brought ashore by the Vichy police of neighbouring French Guinea. One he notices is Helen, a very young widow who reminds him of his dead daughter. Back in Freetown he finds she has been given a hut near his house and after he pays her a visit the two start an affair. When he learns that Louise is coming back on the next voyage of the Esperanca, he writes Helen a note. It never reaches her, because it is intercepted by a servant in Yusefs pay. Yusef then tells Scobie that he must give a packet of contraband diamonds to the captain of the Esperanca or face ruin. Complying, he returns home and at a party to welcome Helen to the district he learns that Louise will shortly return home, and that they will be unable to continue their affair. Louise then forces Scobie to attend mass and take communion, which damns him because he had not confessed his sins of adultery and corruption. Unable to keep the woman he loves and liable to lose his job at any moment, he prepares to commit suicide but instead is distracted by a violent altercation between some criminals and is fatally injured in the skirmish, dying in his servant’s arms.