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 STATION STUDIES
 
 STATION STUDIES 
 
 BEING THE 
 
 JOTTINGS OF AN AFRICAN OFFICIAL 
 
 BY 
 
 LIONEL PORTMAN 
 
 LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 
 
 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON 
 
 NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 
 
 1902
 
 vr 
 
 
 L^fe 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 Lest wrath be aroused — and squandered — at 
 the spectacle of an official dealing freely, and 
 sometimes satirically, with his employer's 
 affairs, I must mention that I no longer serve 
 John Bull, and am therefore in as fair a position 
 as any one to chaff him for his foibles. These, 
 I feel almost convinced, will survive my book. 
 
 " The Great War," it should be added, is, 
 unlike the remaining stories and sketches, 
 entirely unfounded on fact ; and, being con- 
 ceived in a spirit of extravaganza, must not be 
 taken to represent an actual or a possible state 
 of affairs. Friction is no greater in Africa 
 than in other parts of the world where official 
 bodies come in contact. 
 
 I have to thank the Editor of the Monthly 
 Review for giving temporary lodging to a part 
 of " My Day's Work," the first of a series 
 of similar sketches projected in that magazine. 
 
 L. P. 
 
 1C4354S
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Eldala I 
 
 My Day's Work— 
 
 (1) A.M II 
 
 (2) P.M 47 
 
 Hamis 84 
 
 A Coward — and His Courage 109 
 
 Shooting 142 
 
 The Great War i6a 
 
 The Thin Man 2i8 
 
 The Accounts 247 
 
 L'Envoi 271
 
 ELDALA. 
 
 The Province of Lunda, though lying far in the heart 
 of Africa among great wildernesses, and having the 
 Equator for girdle, and the river of the Pharaohs for 
 its northern gate, is not, I hold, to be called lightly, 
 as people of no delicacy have presumed to call it, a 
 " sink," a " swamp," an " out-of-the-way sort of place ". 
 I will admit that it is quiet ; that it is local ; that it 
 does not contain, or even he near, one of those hives 
 named with too much courtesy towns, where every 
 man lives like a bee in a dark unlovely cell. I will 
 even go further and confess that some of its more 
 distant stations might seem to those of the hive 
 " isolated " and " outlandish ". But to apply any such 
 insults as these indiscriminately to the whole Province 
 would be an outrage both upon the truth and upon 
 courtesy, which I could not readily pardon ; and 
 especially will I fly out against any who use them of 
 the near parts of the country where the rivers flow 
 eastward, or of my own district and station, Eldala. 
 
 For who, after all, but one who has long been tenant 
 of such a station can possibly have the nice sense of 
 proportion necessary to judge whether it be isolated 
 or the reverse ? No one, I should imagine, who 
 is not thus quahfied by continual residence at, and 
 knowledge of, the place can pronounce with any 
 
 I
 
 2 STATION STUDIES 
 
 weight upon a matter so essentially local. And 
 as I have indicated my own opinion pretty clearly, 
 it may seem a waste of time to confute any others 
 or even mention their existence. Nevertheless I will 
 so confute them, in order to render their imbecility the 
 more apparent, and put the matter beyond doubt. 
 
 This, I find, can be very easily done. To those who 
 call Eldala " outlandish " I have only to quote the 
 fact on which they base their argument, namely, 
 that the station lies four hundred miles from the 
 Indian Ocean, to prove its absurdity. How, I should 
 like to know, can any place be called outlandish that 
 Hes so near, nay almost alongside, that great highway 
 of the world ^ One need hardly say anything more 
 on a point so obvious. But to put it beyond dispute 
 I will just add that a railway runs from that highway 
 within a few yards of my door, and by bringing me 
 my mail within a month from St. Martin-le-Grand 
 settles the matter for all time. Outlandish ! The 
 word is ludicrous. 
 
 The term " isolated " is equally unhappy, and its 
 unreason equally obvious. For if no less than three 
 white men — I myself, the Bwana 'Mkiibwa ^ ; the 
 Doctor who is, so to speak, part of the station ; and 
 an English trader who has his house of merchandise 
 close at hand — all make the place their permanent 
 abode, it can scarcely, I should think, be considered 
 lonely or unfrequented. If there be any further 
 doubt upon the matter, I may add that, besides this 
 important white community, Eldala is the home of 
 
 1" Great Chief," i.e., principal officer of the district — District 
 Officer.
 
 ELDALA 3 
 
 many other men of a different but none the less estim- 
 able hue. There is Nawab AH of the Punjab, a great 
 merchant, who lives by the railway station, thence 
 selling ghi, curry-stuff, and rice to its myriad coolies. 
 There is the station-master, Sujan the Babu, his two 
 signallers, and other odd men. There is a gang of 
 a dozen coolies only a mile down the line. And apart 
 from all these leading citizens of the place there are 
 often above a hundred native " boys " in waiting upon 
 the merchants ; not to speak of my own staff of mail 
 porters, " local labourers " and " transport men " ; my 
 head man, interpreter, and carpenter ; and my Com- 
 pany of the Lunda Rifles — one hundred and ten bold 
 Swahilis ; as well as the Doctor's staff, of smaller but 
 still of notable size. Isolated! Why, the place is a 
 centre of busy life. What can be more central, I 
 should like to know, than a district whose northern 
 border I cannot visit without crossing the Equator ? 
 
 Well, that point is finally settled, I think ; and we 
 can go on to observe the place in detail. 
 
 My house, to render its superiority to those in the 
 hives still more pronounced, is not sandwiched like 
 ordinary street houses between a number of fellows 
 of equal size, with a view of similar houses and a great 
 lack of light, air, and space. It stands upon a low hill 
 overlooking a plain and a lake of a dozen miles 
 square. It lives in its own grounds — two or three 
 acres girt about with a stout wall and ditch, named in 
 the language of the country the boma. It is of three 
 rooms, stoutly built of stone, plastered on the outside 
 with red clay and on the inside with a dressing of 
 chalk. It is twice roofed, first with a thick bed of
 
 4 STATION STUDIES 
 
 earth laid on reeds across great beams ; and secondly 
 above that with a saddle of thatch. The latter, be- 
 striding the whole house and resting on wooden pillars 
 which stand out beyond its walls, forms a verandah 
 on all four sides. The floor of this verandah, as of 
 the rooms, is raised two steps above the level of the 
 ground, to be free of all damp and miniature floods in 
 the rainy season. And the rooms themselves, thus 
 guarded by wall, roof, and verandah against both sun 
 and rain, are laid side by side with full use of the 
 abundant land available, and so loftily built as to let 
 plenty of cool air muster under their ceilings. On 
 the stone floor stand a table or two and a few long 
 folding chairs. The white walls are decorated with 
 horns — eland, harte-beest, water-buck and antelope — 
 besides a few long spears, the gift of my tribe, the 
 Marai. The fireplaces are broad enough to contain 
 great logs of juniper on chilly evenings. And, for 
 the rest, both doors and windows, which are indeed 
 not windows but gaps, equipped, in the absence of 
 glass, with the hds of effete packing-cases, all look 
 towards the setting sun ; because in dry times a great 
 wind blows out of the East, bearing with it a whole 
 sky of dust ; and this would speedily make sand-bags 
 of the King's servants, did they not turn their backs 
 upon it and solidly wall it away. 
 
 Beside the house, at a little distance, but still within 
 the boma, stands the office. This is a lower but in 
 other ways similar building, of two rooms — the outer 
 for Manuel, the clerk, who has to endure the first 
 buffetings of that sea, the public, for me ; and the 
 inner my own private sanctuary, open only to those
 
 ELDALA 5 
 
 who are able to pass through the sieve, Manuel. 
 Here is the shrine of justice, the seat of government, 
 the fountain of all order and peace, the hub and axle- 
 box of the district ; a place of pains and terror for 
 evil-doers, but of security and redress for all good men. 
 Behind the office and the house stands a row of 
 meaner buildings, framed in the same style, but without 
 windows, and with doors always locked. These are 
 the stores — for grain, tools, rifles, ammunition, equip- 
 ment and tents; and for trade-goods, i.e., the beads, 
 cloth, etc., which are the currency of the tribe. Lastly, 
 alongside these stand the kitchen and boys' huts — 
 mere hovels of stone admitted by me and all who 
 have occupied Eldala to be a disgrace to any Govern- 
 ment, and best left unvisited. And over all the flag- 
 staff tapers — and shakes horribly in a breeze — the 
 whole forming a fine symbol of the Crown's omni- 
 potence and sign that it cannot die. 
 
 From the fact that it contains all these buildings the 
 doma derives a somewhat complex character. For it 
 combines within its walls the traits of a garrison, an 
 arsenal, a police court and a temple, a market ajid a 
 customs house, a place of justice and a private garden. 
 Every day at dawn, noon, and evening the bugle blows 
 there, testifying to the presence of brave Swahili 
 warriors, who — on paper — might defend it against 
 any odds, but in practice would fly at the smallest 
 provocation. Every night sentinels are posted, more 
 for form than necessity, at the gate and four comers 
 of the wall ; whence at intervals they shout to each 
 other and to the dim wastes about them, " A — ll's 
 well," parrot-like, and without much idea of the
 
 6 STATION STUDIES 
 
 phrase's meaning, but uttering it nevertheless accord- 
 ing to orders, whether it be true or false, and so 
 upholding the boma's character as a formidable garri- 
 son by night as well as by day. 
 
 This aspect of the place is supplemented by the 
 arms and ammunition store ; which, containing a 
 couple of hundred rifles or more — all of a reverend 
 and dignified age, Sniders, Martinis and the like — 
 together with a thousand rounds or so for each type, 
 adds the impression of an arsenal to that of a garrison. 
 And the respect thus inspired is intensified by the 
 office, a place which frowns as darkly as the Old Bailey 
 upon evil-doers. But not only by the office. For my 
 house incites an awe fully as deep as any criminal 
 court, and much more extensive. Why } Because 
 it is girt with bastions or loop-holed for rifles } No. 
 Simply because I live there, the Bwana 'Mkubwa, who, 
 though I may not be actually related to 'Ngai (God), 
 unquestionably come from a country neighbouring his ; 
 and have learnt from him to do wonders beyond the 
 power or understanding of common men. How else, 
 for example, can I and my fellows have invented the 
 smoking horse which draws gharris without fatigue, 
 or the awful biinduki (rifle) which can slay at a 
 thousand yards .-' How else can a man tell by a tiny 
 machine where the sun should be in the sky, and by a 
 piece of paper when the time of rains is at hand ? 
 No, there is some power greater than human behind 
 all this : it is beyond the comprehension of plain 
 men. So when I ask them to explain my Lee- 
 Metford's performances, or the workings of my watch, 
 they grin with amazement and chuckle, " It is 'Ngai ".
 
 ELDALA ; 
 
 And so my dwelling gains the character of a god's 
 dwelling, and the boma that of its precincts. 
 
 Yet it is no place of terror for the innocent. Men 
 come thither daily with no fright at all to sell grain 
 for beads or cattle for cloth. Those who desire a 
 customs house rather than a market enter freely to 
 pay their dues ; indeed we welcome them with open 
 arms — how else shall a revenue be gleaned from the 
 land .^ Litigants bring their suits to me without 
 hesitation — would that they did not! — and with as 
 much reliance on my judicial acumen and honesty as 
 have some people on that of the House of Lords. 
 And those of the tribe who are my personal friends 
 come with as little ceremony into my house and office 
 as into each other's homes ; chaffing me at my work ; 
 fingering, open-eyed, my dearest properties ; or tast- 
 ing with never-ending astonishment my wonderful 
 food. Add that the motto over the gate would read, 
 if it were written, not, as in neighbouring parts of 
 Africa, " Here lives a bully with a big stick who will 
 beat me if I do not avoid him ; " but, " Here hves a 
 friend whom I can trust, but who will use me horribly 
 if I give him cause ; " and there you have the attitude 
 of the boma towards the world that requires food, 
 justice, commerce, redress, chastisement, or peace. 
 
 To me in conclusion, it is, besides a place of busi- 
 ness, also a garden and resort in times of leisure ; not 
 indeed fulfilling my ideas or one quarter of them as to 
 the proper nature of such a retreat, but satisfying to 
 some degree the needs of an African whose memory 
 runneth not to the contrary. Regarded in this light, 
 its chief drawback is, that the individual who cares
 
 8 STATION STUDIES 
 
 for his garden must never forget that he is primarily 
 an official in charge of a fort. So that though the 
 personal heart of him may desire to plant trees about 
 his house, the official brain has to remember that in 
 case of attack, unlikely though it be, he will need a 
 clear space from which to direct his fire. And though 
 the person may like to plant flowers, the official will 
 have so little time to give them that they are doomed 
 very soon to fade away. At Eldala, in any case, the 
 boma is but a poor flower garden, because it is set 
 among a hill country and the soil is stony and unkind. 
 But it is a place where the grass is at least tended to 
 the point of decency in contrast to the rankness of 
 the ungoverned plain without ; and up the pillars of 
 the verandah and the palings which join them, a 
 cloud of creeping nasturtium has spread its soft films 
 of green and scarlet flowers, hiding entirely the hard 
 lines of the house in rainy seasons, and living bravely 
 even through dry times by the care of Hamis, my 
 much-enduring boy, and bearer of water. 
 
 Outside the boma gate, to the southward, where the 
 ground slopes gently away to the plain below, there 
 are ranged about a square the prison, the barracks, the 
 hospital, and the Doctor's house ; all buildings of solid 
 stone, one-storied, double-roofed, cooling to the eye 
 without, and within defiant of the fiercest heat. Eldala 
 is, indeed, rich in such buildings. Other stations may 
 be poorly furnished with mere sheds of wattle and 
 thatch, and some may be even so ill-found that their 
 tenants, though hard-working servants of the King, 
 must risk fever and death by living in them. But 
 we, at any rate, are able to grin comfortably at the
 
 ELDALA 9 
 
 heat and other ills outside from the shelter of massive 
 roofs and walls. And, more than this, we are not a 
 little proud of the beauty of our buildings and their 
 symmetry of design. For the sad grey stone and soft 
 bosoms of thatch accord well with each other, and 
 with the staring lights of the country about us; cind 
 there is a dignity in their form and appearance which 
 catches the admiration of the white man as well as 
 the reverence of the black. The pity is that their 
 comeliness cannot always continue. Even now the 
 Doctor, who, to my mind, should not be allowed 
 building money at all, vows that he will use corru- 
 gated iron, should he ever be given the means for 
 setting up his new dispensary. And to make the 
 prospect still darker, there is a terror that this violent 
 device will some day be forced upon us by the powers 
 that be as the one true faith of builders ; in which 
 case Eldala will become as one of the cities of the 
 plain — to wit, the railway stations, which are already 
 the eye-sore of this part of Africa. 
 
 The time passes quietly enough in these latter 
 years. For no tribe in my district, and few in any 
 other part of the Province, have any taste now for 
 further differences with the 'Mzitngu (European). His 
 power is coming to be reckoned unquestionable, 
 miraculous indeed, by most men, now that it is fully 
 known ; and though he still keeps his station armed 
 and policed, on the alert for turmoil, he has little 
 need except m a few half-tamed districts for any- 
 thing but tact and vigilance in his dealings. At the 
 worst he will only be called upon to act as Chief 
 Constable, not as Field Marshal. And though the
 
 10 STATION STUDIES 
 
 savages who call him bwana may, as do mine, appear 
 to be constantly on the brink of war, walking stealthily 
 in single file whenever they move abroad, and carrying 
 spears of monstrous length and sharpness, they gener- 
 ally have little in their character of the terrible implied 
 in their name and demeanour. The Marai, at any 
 rate, are far more inclined to tend peacefully the 
 thousands of sheep and cattle, which are their wealth, 
 than to any fighting or rebellion. Sometimes the old 
 passion for raiding their neighbours may break out, 
 and they will come to me asking leave to indulge it. 
 But when, as a matter of course, I refuse to allow this, 
 the chiefs who rule the tribe accept and enforce my 
 ruling with ready though perhaps with melancholy 
 obedience. None but the outlying families, which I 
 cannot visit owing to the work of the office, give me any 
 anxiety ; and then only because they may forget my 
 power and go raiding without my leave. The loyalty 
 of the tribe as a whole is assured. And their four 
 or five hundred spears and wonderful quickness in the 
 field are a source of confidence rather than fear ; for 
 we can always rely on them as auxiliaries if we need 
 their help, to subdue or punish more unruly subjects. 
 
 The days, then, pass without serious worry, though 
 not without the need of constant vigilance. Peace- 
 fully, if with little change ; rapidly, because they are 
 consumed by business ; contentedly, if too seldom 
 lightened by the coming of white men.
 
 II 
 
 MY DAY'S WORK. 
 
 A.M. 
 I. 
 
 At six o'clock, when I am aroused by the bugle and 
 look from my window, the dawn is just breaking 
 through a sky of passing shadows, surely and gradu- 
 ally winning to victory, but as yet unable to chase 
 them quite away. Dark clouds still hold their own 
 above ; a chaplet of mist rests upon each mountain 
 peak ; a grey veil floats over the lake ; the plain lies 
 hid beneath a robe of haze. For a moment darkness 
 lingers, fading but not defeated, and the light grows 
 but slowly to its strength. Then the moment passes, 
 and with a joyous sudden charge the day is upon 
 us. Rosy lights flash out across the sky ; the mists 
 fade swiftly into space, revealing a sheet of glittering 
 water, mile upon mile of tanned prairie, and behind 
 all a range of grim mountains. From every corner 
 of heaven the last shadows are caught aside like a 
 curtain : infinite blue dimmed by the tawny glare of 
 day takes their place, and I know that far behind me 
 in the east the sun, spurning all gorgeous ceremony 
 and flinging his crimson robes about him, has stepped 
 forth to run his course, fully and vividly astir within 
 a moment of his rising. 
 
 As yet, however, he has but httle power of heat
 
 12 STATION STUDIES 
 
 to shed, and there is a hint of frost in the air, which 
 makes me shiver as I pass along the verandah to 
 urge Hamis to action. We stand five thousand feet 
 above the sea at Eldala ; and the sun, for all that he 
 can bake us to 120° at mid-day, can do little at this 
 early hour to change the 45° of the night and unborn 
 morning. As a result of this I am in a mood to call 
 down fire from heaven on any who fall short of their 
 duty ; and until the natural sources of warmth gain 
 ground it is very unwise for my boys to provoke me. 
 Nevertheless they frequently take the risk, and this 
 morning is one selected by them for a trial of my 
 patience. There is no smoke or sign of life about 
 their huts. They are asleep half an hour longer than 
 my law allows. 
 
 " Hamis," I call — with toleration as yet : he may just 
 be astir. 
 
 No answer ; he is not. 
 
 " Hamis," I repeat, still calmly, but with such acids 
 in my tone as will consume him if awake. A long 
 pause. Then the ineffably drowsy sound — 
 
 " S-a-h." 
 
 He hears me, but only in his dreams — an unsafe 
 environment at such a time. 
 
 "Hamis!" 
 
 " 'Ndio, bwana (Yes, sir) ? " is queried slowly and 
 with some surprise. The dreams are passing. 
 
 '^Majimoto; w/^j-j-/ (Hot water ; hurry up)." This 
 is thundered, and awakes him thoroughly to the 
 sense of panic and impending disaster which I desire 
 him to feel. 
 
 " 'Ndio, bwana; baada kidogo (Yes. sir ; directly.
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 13 
 
 sir)," he snaps back with an air of reassurance and 
 concihation intended to persuade me that he has for 
 long been watching my interests and the water boils. 
 
 It does not ; the fire is not even laid. I rate him 
 soundly for a few minutes, to his great terror and 
 temporary improvement ; then return to feast my 
 eyes on the great scene before me. 
 
 The sun is soon on his way, gathering power with 
 each rushing step, and pouring abroad a flood of light 
 as he hastens up the sky, with a promise of white heat 
 in later hours. The lake, under his rule, has changed 
 in hue from iron to steel, from steel to silver, from 
 silver to unruffled glass ; till now at length in the still 
 radiance of the morning it is able to drink in and flash 
 back with unerring accuracy every line of the clean- 
 cut mountains that guard it, every tree and feather 
 of the papyrus brakes that fringe it, every film of the 
 soft flesh-tinted clouds. Far away round its shores, 
 and round each of the islands that float upon its central 
 waters, it shows a deep duplicate of reed and rock, 
 bank and bush, and in the midst a sky as bright and 
 vivid as that above. Only on the hither side of its 
 broad face, near to the hill from which I am looking, 
 is there any dimness to spoil the mirror. Here, right 
 up to the rocks beneath my feet, and stretching far 
 out into the deeper waters, there lies a great garden 
 of water-lilies, whose broad leaves roof the surface 
 against all light, and carry the lines of the sweeping 
 prairie out beyond the shore. Here are great purple 
 blossoms opening from their sleep as the sun touches 
 them ; here too clusters of white egrets sunning them- 
 selves after their morning bath : and all along the
 
 14 STATION STUDIES 
 
 waterside tribes of birds — teal, coot, spoon-bill, ducks, 
 geese, and a hundred more — fluttering from bay to 
 bay, splashing, feeding, playing among the shallows. 
 A fat white pelican is waddling through a bank of 
 mud in search of food. Beyond him a line of white 
 flamingoes stalk arrogantly, apart from the common 
 herd, on a cape which they have made their own. 
 Guinea-fowl call and chatter from the bushes close at 
 hand, and a bell-bird rings his strange notes among 
 the larger trees behind them. 
 
 To the brown caked shore too comes a string of 
 huge hump-backed cattle, filing slowly over the bright 
 green marsh-land into the water, to cool their lips 
 before the sun becomes too hot for movement. 
 Behind them, on the edge of the plain, hundreds of 
 scattered sheep and a senate of thoughtful donkeys 
 crop busily at the rich grass of the meadows. A few 
 herds of goats, a team of mules, and a pony or two 
 are dotted here and there amongst them, making the 
 most of their pasture while the dew still hangs heavy 
 upon it. And when I take a telescope and scan the 
 long plains which sweep away, on the right to a low 
 line of jagged hills, on the left to a gaunt volcanic 
 peak, I can see a host of varied kinds of game. Quite 
 close at hand are two herds of gazelle boldly feeding 
 in the open, the broad fringe of black from shoulder 
 to loin plainly distinguishable on their rich brown 
 coats ; a few fisi ^ are slinking cautiously home after 
 their night feast of camp remnants ; a pair of bustards 
 are quarrelling angrily over food. Further away, 
 close to a belt of trees, stand half a dozen brick-red 
 
 \Hyena.
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 15 
 
 'mpala ; ^ beside them a cluster of grey zebra, whose 
 dim rounded outlines suggest through the haze a cloud 
 at rest upon the plain ; and still further, in the open 
 ground, a score of tawny harte-beest, guarded at each 
 corner of their pasture by a sentinel on the alert for 
 danger. Beyond them again are more and more 
 gazelle, more and more clouds of zebra ; a knot of 
 water-buck moving slowly among the trees which line 
 the river ; and just within the glass's utmost sight 
 a dark spot of black, which by all the laws of Africa 
 should mean a pair of ostrich. 
 
 After a long look at this scattered assembly of the 
 plain, I turn to the day's business. The water has 
 at length boiled. I dress speedily in the thinnest of 
 flannels and take my chhota hazri (tea, toast, and 
 bananas) in the verandah. Hamis attending me too 
 closely, as he always does when anxious to propitiate 
 me for his sins, receives a rough reminder of his 
 error, and retires to his right place round the corner, 
 within a call. Another offender also forgets that the 
 hour of breakfast is not one of peace and goodwill to 
 all men with me, and barely escapes condign penalties, 
 in the person of Mahamadi Winyamwezi, askari 
 (native soldier), who, being in charge of a chain-gang 
 en route to the lake for water, unwisely suffers it to lag 
 and even to stop for a while in conversation before my 
 very eyes. I am up a little earlier than usual this morn- 
 ing, and he does not think of me. He chats to another 
 askari who is passing, gazes carelessly over the lake, 
 chats a little longer, yawns, and is actually on the point 
 to sit down, when suddenly he turns towards the boma, 
 ' A larger type of antelope frequenting thin bush country.
 
 i6 STATION STUDIES 
 
 and behold I am standing up to look at him! I can 
 see him positively shake, here at eighty yards' distance, 
 as he hastens to urge his charges to movement ; and 
 he almost breaks into a run as he drives them on their 
 way out of my sight. A second offence of that sort 
 and Mahamadi will infallibly suffer hamsi-assharini 
 (twenty-five), the last penalty of the law. 
 
 Breakfast finished, I issue flour, sugar, and oatmeal 
 sufficient for the day's needs to 'Mpishi (cook), who 
 is a Swahih and has no eighth commandment, nor 
 would obey it if he had ; and then at half-past seven 
 it is time for the day's work to begin, and I stroll to 
 the office with a cigarette and a comfortable sense of 
 independence and virtue. 
 
 I want you to understand this very clearly, whose 
 daily fate it is to rise early, snatch a fleeting breakfast, 
 and spur in hot haste and steaming crowds to the 
 city. I stroll to my office. It lies ten yards from 
 my front door. I can smoke there without interrup- 
 tion. My work is done as, when, and in what raiment 
 I please. And if it languishes for a moment I have 
 but to pass from my chair to the window to see a land 
 blazing with light, and rich with life of plant, bird 
 and beast ; a sky that is never clouded, majesty of 
 hills, the flash of silver water, and long dignity of the 
 rolling plain. 
 
 In the outer room of the office Manuel, a man of 
 Goa, is already at his desk, making out forms and 
 documents of all sorts for a horde of Indian traders 
 who stand at the door, desiring to pass their goods into 
 Lunda. With affected reverence and real fear and 
 malice in their eyes, they break off their murmur of
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 17 
 
 talk as I approach, scatter, and salute me gravely. 
 Hosain, head man of the station, who is Joseph to me 
 Pharaoh, a long, lean Somali, daintily apparelled in 
 white linen garments and patent leather boots ; and 
 Majaliwa bin Suhman, Swahili orderly, by nature's de- 
 sign an ape, by man's and a blue uniform turned into a 
 peacock, to himself an idol, to me Ariel and scapegoat 
 in one, leap from their seats like corks from a pop-gun 
 to do me honour. I acknowledge their greetings, 
 have a host of papers thrust into my hands by Manuel, 
 and pass into the inner shrine, thereby relieving the 
 assembly, who promptly resume their seats. 
 
 For some reason or other I can never enter the inner 
 room at this hour without expecting to see the ghost 
 of a former chief seated in the Bwana ' Mkubwas chair. 
 Long ago laid in the grave by fever, his memory will 
 yet live long in the minds of all who served with him, 
 so wintry were his tempers and so summer-like in 
 proportion his gentler moods. Perhaps it is because 
 the former were more shrewd and nipping in the early 
 morning than at any later period of the day that I 
 seem to see his image more clearly then than at any 
 other time. He would be sitting, as I entered the room, 
 overwhelmed in a great snow of work, ominously 
 silent, and plainly in a very brittle mood. How the 
 world went with him — for there were many degrees in 
 this mood — you could soon tell from his greeting. If 
 he had not broken his fast he could say " Morning," 
 and often would, though it was with an obvious effort. 
 But after breakfast he seemed unable to trust himself 
 in speech, and all white men who approached him had 
 to be contented with a barely perceptible nod, unless, 
 
 2
 
 i8 STATION STUDIES 
 
 that is, they came on matters of business. In that 
 event he was a different man. He showed himself 
 able to speak, not only with absolute composure and 
 with a smooth icy poHsh, but even at times with 
 geniality and a smile. The latter, indeed, he held to 
 be a necessary supplement to, if not actually part of 
 his official duty, and he was most punctilious in 
 producing it when required, though it was only by a 
 powerful forcing of the lips that he managed to do so ; 
 and even then the eyes remained set like steel, as 
 though trying to compensate by their awful stillness 
 for the back-slidings of the mouth. But he did 
 smile. And no business man could possibly demand 
 more. I think the natives who were about him would 
 have liked him to attempt less ; for it was upon them 
 naturally that the full force of his rage, rendered all 
 the greater by confinement, would afterwards burst. 
 At any rate none of them ever liked to be seen by him 
 during the morning ; and even I, who soon grew to 
 understand his moods, and learnt to converse with him 
 by signs rather than speech, felt no real confidence in 
 being within his reacfi before mid-day. 
 
 After that hour, however, the whole man began to 
 change. Luncheon was the first point in a journey of 
 improvement which lasted till a late hour of the night 
 A deep but gentle melancholy took the place of his 
 anger as he ate ; and he would talk with gloomy 
 resignation of the changes and chances of the service 
 — the iniquity of such and such a promotion, the im- 
 possibility of getting leave, the unfitness of men with 
 whom he had quarrelled for their posts. About the 
 beginning of the afternoon's work he cast even this
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 19 
 
 off, brightened in temper and countenance, and showed 
 some faculty of long-suffering in his decisions. If 
 things prospered he even acquired a grim humour and 
 occasionally laughed — litigants always strove to have 
 their suits postponed till three o'clock. The inepti- 
 tude and baseness of the natives with whom he had 
 to deal tickled the cynic in him. The number and 
 weight of his tasks became at times so huge as to fill 
 him with amusement and goodwill. And the end of 
 office hours bringing him relief, leisure, and the calm- 
 ing influence of tea, he so progressed gradually from 
 strength to strength till at length by the time of 
 " pegs " and pipes he was a spring of hilarity and good 
 stories, revelling in the day's humours, breaking his 
 hearers with the strain of continuous laughter, and 
 convincing all who came near him that he could never 
 again by any possibility frown. 
 
 The next morning would speedily show the fallacy 
 of this conviction ; for then he would be once more as 
 formidable a ruffian as ever, full of terrible silences 
 or savage abuse of the world about him. Yet one 
 soon came to judge him by the evenings rather than 
 the mornings of his life. And taking him at his worst, 
 he was never so ill to bear with as another bwana of 
 whom I have heard, who could by no means whatever 
 be induced to break silence except officially until the 
 end of the day. Nor so embarrassing a companion 
 as that notorious fellow — gifted with a temperament 
 something similar — who had the happy practice of ex- 
 claiming, at the cheeriest point of a cheery evening, 
 when the day's events were passing under humorous 
 review and all moods were softened in a mist of amity,
 
 20 STATION STUDIES 
 
 " Yes, it was a stormy morning, wasn't it ? Puff — puff. 
 By gad, old chap — puff, puff — how I loathed you 
 this morning ! " 
 
 II. 
 
 Accounts, correspondence, law-suits — which shall I 
 take first this morning ? The correspondence strikes 
 me as the most unpleasant task, and, therefore, the 
 first to be tackled. I settle down to finish some long 
 outstanding letters and answer those which have just 
 come in. 
 
 Of the many waiting for my reply one in particular 
 has been shouting to me for days, " You must answer 
 me," while I have as often returned, " Not so ; you 
 may wait till to-morrow ". It relates to the case of 
 Private Mongorora bin Hassan, of the Company of 
 Lunda Rifles in my charge, who has created an in- 
 soluble problem. At the present moment he is 
 lamentably useless to the King, owing to a legion of 
 disorders, pronounced by the Doctor incurable ; and 
 I wish to discharge him. But this apparently cannot 
 be done in a moment, if at all. Once upon a time 
 Mongorora was a deserter ; then he was recaptured, 
 found to be ailing, re-made in hospital, taken back 
 into the ranks, and given the wages of his calling from 
 that date onwards. Now he is what a young Ameri- 
 can of my acquaintance (a man, of course) once 
 described to me as a " goner for keeps ; " and to retain 
 and pay him as a soldier of Edward VII. would be 
 to waste twenty-two excellent rupees belonging to 
 the latter every month. Yet, despite this waste, and
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 21 
 
 for all His Majesty's apparent power, he cannot, as it 
 seems, say to and of the man, " Go ; and he goeth ". 
 When I write to the officer commanding Lunda Rifles 
 and recommend his discharge, he is all afire with 
 indignation, and snorts back that it is impossible. 
 
 " No," he writes, you cannot discharge a man who 
 deserted. Mongorora deserted on March 21, and 
 ceased from that date to be part of the army." 
 
 " But he was taken back," I reply. And the cor- 
 respondence proceeds on the following lines : — 
 
 O.C.L.R. " He should not have been taken back." 
 
 Self. " He was." 
 
 O.C.L.R. " That is a mistake on your part, which 
 must not occur again. As it is I shall probably be 
 compelled to bring it to the notice of H.M. Chief 
 Commissioner." 
 
 Se/f. " I regret the error. But civil officers placed in 
 charge of military work cannot be expected to be 
 infallible. The man was taJ<en back, and is now 
 incurably ill. He ought not to be kept." 
 
 O.C.L.R. " He cannot possibly be discharged. He 
 deserted on March 21." 
 
 Se/f. " But was recaptured March 28. 
 
 O.C.L.R. " Is that on the books .? " 
 
 Seif. " Yes ; and since then he has been paid his 
 wages and ration allowance." 
 
 O.C.L.R. " How much, in all ? " 
 
 Self. " Six months' pay, 120 rupees; and rations, 15 
 rupees." 
 
 O.C.L.R. " Has he drawn all his money ? Can't 
 you get some of it back and strike him off from March 
 21?"
 
 22 STATION STUDIES 
 
 Self. " No ; I cannot recover the rations, and as for 
 his wages, he has been fined fully half what he earned 
 by me, sitting as a criminal court, for a criminal 
 offence." 
 
 O.C.L.R. (furiosd) " You cannot possibly try a 
 member of the Armed Forces in this Protectorate 
 except by court-martial." 
 
 Self. " I am sorry for the error ; but as a civil officer 
 I felt some diffidence about forming myself into a 
 military court." 
 
 O.C.L.R. " That is beside the point. The only 
 possible course now is to consider the trial as having 
 not taken place, and for you to refund the money." 
 
 Self. " 1 cannot possibly do that, as it would disturb 
 the accounts for some months past." 
 
 O.C.L.R. " I cannot take that fact into consideration. 
 The error was yours, and I must ask you to pay in 
 the money without delay." 
 
 Self. " Such a course of action would cause wide- 
 spread confusion throughout the books. I cannot 
 admit that your demand is correctly founded, and I 
 must decline to accede to it." 
 
 O.C.L.R. " If you fail to transfer the money within 
 a period of two months, I shall have to request H.M. 
 Chief Commissioner to set the liability for it against 
 your private account." 
 
 Self. " I dispute the liability, and adhere to my 
 former contention. Besides the records and entries 
 in my own books the man is down in the Doctor's as 
 having taken quantities of medicine. As he is now 
 pronounced incurable, the only possible course is to 
 discharge him."
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 23 
 
 O.C.L.R. " A man who has no official existence can- 
 not be discharged. As you persist in your refusal 
 to set the matter right I shall now place it in the 
 hands of H.M. Chief Commissioner." 
 
 So far, up to the present. It looks as if I have but 
 a poor chance of victory. But of Mongorora bin 
 Hassan I must and will be rid. I contemplate the 
 whole correspondence for some time to seek an outlet, 
 then give up the search in despair and send in my 
 version of the history to headquarters, hoping that I 
 may there find an ally, and gain peace with honour. 
 But let no man suppose that I am likely to do so. 
 This is but a common example of the risks to which 
 a civihan's pocket is exposed when he has to under- 
 take military duty as well as his own. No one 
 complains much of the additional work, for in Africa 
 a man is Jack-of-all-trades, and does — as, indeed, he 
 must do — all that comes to him, whatever its nature, 
 as best he can. In point of fact many civilians have 
 spent quite as much of their time in the field as in 
 office, and though receiving on the average but half 
 the soldier's salary have frequently proved themselves 
 of far more value than he by solving military diffi- 
 culties which he could not. But considering the low 
 rate of their salaries they might surely be held free 
 of loss arising from such extraneous work as this 
 either in the field or the station — ^work that is put 
 upon them entirely owing to the paucity of military 
 officers. The latter are too few because the Treasury 
 will not pay any more. Is it fair that the civilians 
 should suffer for the Crown's love of parsimony.' 
 
 The other letters laid before me do not take long to
 
 24 STATION STUDIES 
 
 answer. Two of them, I can see at once, come from 
 Indians, for I know the hand of Haku, writer of 
 petitions to the nobihty and gentry of my District, as 
 well as I know my own, depend upon him indeed for 
 half the amusement of my life. 
 
 The first explains itself — for a wonder ; Haku is 
 seldom able to express his meaning at the first 
 attempt. 
 
 " Honoured Sir (it runs),— With utmost possible 
 respect I beg to pray that it is now many days I 
 apply to you for a licence to shop to which your 
 goodness replied sanction will be obtained now we 
 shall feel divine if your honour will inform us with the 
 result and grant us a leave which to gain we send 
 rupees one hundred and fifty and shall ever pray for 
 your long life and prosperity, 
 
 " Your respectful servants, 
 
 " Ram Ditta and KiRPA Singh." 
 
 Trading licence issued — the evidence tending to 
 show that this is what they want — receipt for Rs. 1 50 
 made out in triplicate ; caution given to the appli- 
 cants' messenger against their selling liquor or opium ; 
 the whole transaction entered in the day-book ; rupees 
 counted through twice and placed in heaps of twenty- 
 five in the cash-box. 
 
 Haku's other effort is less lucid. 
 
 To the Sub-Commissioner and Magistrate. 
 
 " Illustrious Sir, — I most humbly and respect- 
 fully beg to pray to bring to your kind notice that
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 25 
 
 Allah Din late Jemadar of first earthworks sub-divi- 
 sion has complained against me falsely of Rs. 270, 
 and I beg to state he is a player of tricks and was 
 dismissed by his misconduct and mischieves and I 
 beg to pray that I am a poor man kindly go through 
 the matter and kindly inquire from Allah Din that 
 for what purpose he gave me the above mentioned 
 sum of money. I am not a gambler and your honour 
 can inquire about my conduct and about the money 
 from the men of Din for which he complained against 
 me cind if he has any false receipt with him kindly let 
 me know the writer of it and I beg to state that 
 kindly inquire the matter fully whether who is liar and 
 who is true. For which act of kindness I shall ever 
 pray your long life and prosperity. 
 
 " Wadhawa 
 
 " (Coolie of Ram Surru's gang)." 
 
 What does Wadhawa require ? Who is he ? 
 Where does he live ? To whom has Allah Din com- 
 plained falsely ? And is his complaint false ? All 
 these questions occur to me as being, on the face of 
 the matter, obstacles to the execution of justice in 
 the complaint of Wadhawa v. Allah Din. In addi- 
 tion, who am I that I should try a case of defamation 
 of character between two Indians } Solomon himself 
 could not solve such a tangle as this must be, and I 
 am not even Oriental by birth or training. The letter 
 is docketed and filed — put in preserve, so to speak — 
 and I pass on without further consideration to the next. 
 
 It is in a hand unknown to me, and I open it with 
 the feeling of flatness which I always experience
 
 26 STATION STUDIES 
 
 after reading one of Haku's letters or an intensely 
 exciting story. But, though Haku's mark is not on 
 the title-page I find it to be a work of even richer 
 material than any which he has yet produced. It 
 comes from a railway camp lying eighty miles away, 
 just beyond the hmits of my district, and properly it 
 should have been sent to the next Station. But I 
 read it, in spite of all the laws of red-tape, and soon 
 become exceedingly glad that I have done so. 
 
 " Honoured Enormity," it begins, thereby arousing 
 my interest at once ; for though I have been ap- 
 proached as " Respected Magistrate," " Most Gracious 
 Light," " Sanctified Effulgence," and, of course, 
 " Honoured Presence," and " Protector of the Poor," 
 I have never before encountered these exact terms. 
 
 " Honoured Enormity, — I beg to pray that Fazel 
 Din promised me for Rs. 25. But when I ask him for 
 the sum he denies and has a mind to kill me : and 
 the whole gang is of his district and only I am poor, 
 being a other district man so that I go in fear of 
 my life : wherefore plaintiff solicits the honourable 
 Court to put a mark on eight asses belonging to the 
 defendant so that your poor petitioner may be bene- 
 fited by your renowned justice. Even your own holy 
 Church teaches that those who help themselves will 
 be helped. Therefore I implore with much hope that 
 you would be kind enough to give me a judge for 
 which act of kindness may the almighty whom your 
 honour much resembles send to you a long Ufe happi- 
 ness and much prosperity from your most most re- 
 spected servant, 
 
 " IZAMDIN."
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 2; 
 
 Poor Izamdin ! I feel that he is not leading a very 
 comfortable life ; and I should like to assist him if 
 possible ; for he is certainly respectful, even respect- 
 able if his own evidence may be beheved. More than 
 that, he has given me a laugh such as I too seldom 
 experience in this valley of pigeon-holes and dockets, 
 and therefore he undoubtedly has a claim upon me. 
 Yet he does not live in my district, and, strictly, I ought 
 not to interfere. Can I do anything to help him ? 
 " No," says my official conscience, " let him apply in 
 the right quarter." " No," also would say the inex- 
 perienced who read his letter ; for considerable know- 
 ledge an3 wisdom are required to detect what he 
 means. " Yes," however, say I, very wrongly obeying 
 my personal conscience. The man has made me 
 laugh, and he comes from a camp lying only just 
 beyond the border of my district. Equity itself 
 demands that I reward him, even though I risk the 
 displeasure of my neighbour by doing so. This, as a 
 matter of fact, is not likely to be very terrible, for 
 he would go down on his knees to thank me if he 
 knew that I had taken even one from his load of 
 Indian law-suits ; as would I to him. So I determine 
 to do him this illegal kindness, and write to the 
 District engineer, under whom Izamdin serves, asking 
 him to explain to the latter the process whereby he 
 may bring the law to bear upon Fazel Din. 
 
 A few more letters have to be finished before I feel 
 justified in laying down my pen : then I am ready for 
 the receipt of custom, and any fees, moneys, or dues 
 which the public desires unwillingly to bring. 
 
 First come three Indian traders, who are reported
 
 28 STATION STUDIES 
 
 unwilling to pay the road dues demanded of them by 
 the law. Manuel lays bare their iniquity, eloquently, 
 lashing them with his tongue. Hosain takes them 
 by the shoulders and solemnly sets them in a row 
 before me, bidding them be silent till I give the signal 
 for speech. They fold their hands as for prayer, and 
 then, at my word, begin to whine out their complaint, 
 half in Hindustani, half in bad English, Hosain inter- 
 preting into Swahili, and I listening to both. 
 
 " We have come from far over the sea to this 
 foreign land to make some livelihood " 
 
 " Stop that bunkum ; what do you want ? " 
 
 " We hoped that the honourable court would have 
 taken notice that we have lost caste by crossing the 
 sea and " 
 
 " Stop it, I say." 
 
 " May it please the honoured court we are poor 
 men " 
 
 " Stop it." 
 
 " And is it fair that we pay the dues .'' " 
 
 " Fair ; why not ? " 
 
 " Because we have brought up our goods only by 
 the gharri line, and we only desire to go upon it to 
 our own shops, and till then we will not leave it, nor 
 at all go upon the honourable court's road." 
 
 " Well .? " 
 
 " We hoped that it would have been considered by 
 the court whether it is justice that we should pay — 
 we cire poor men " 
 
 " You will pay." 
 
 "But, sahib " 
 
 " You will pay."
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 29 
 
 "We desire to do no evil, but " 
 
 " You will pay. Go." 
 
 " But, sahib " 
 
 " Out. You will obey the law." 
 
 " We are poor men, sahib." 
 
 " Out ! " 
 
 They are summarily ejected, wafted away by 
 Hosain, and I am left to reflect upon the just laws 
 of my Province, which demand of every man a due 
 of eight annas upon each load of goods he brings 
 into its borders, for the protection of roads he does 
 not use, though he has already paid portly rates on 
 the railway which he does. I am sorry for those 
 traders ; but when in office I am a talon, not a man ; 
 and as I am here to administer the law and not to 
 expound it, I eject rather than explain. 
 
 Fees for gun licence and trader's licence, deposit 
 on their porters, and customs-dues, besides the dis- 
 puted road-dues, I take from each of the three, and 
 from half a dozen more of the same calling — a pretty 
 haul for one morning's work — and then throw aside 
 my role of collector and become a judge. 
 
 III. 
 
 A dirty brown man of the country, his clothing 
 one ancient rag pitifully unequal even to the light task 
 it was ever set to do, and his whole expression grin- 
 ning out, " What fun life is — full of surprises ! " is 
 brought in by Hosain, arraigner of criminals, and set 
 in order for trial. Majaliwa and Manuel assist Hosain 
 — 'though the man seems as mild as a sheep and
 
 30 STATION STUDIES 
 
 certainly means no harm — and Mahmoud, sergeant, 
 and guardian of the railway-station, who is the one 
 witness, takes his stand beside them, theoretically at 
 attention, but in practice trembling with dread lest 
 his evidence should be found imperfect. 
 
 " Found on the gharris " is the prisoner's offence 
 as stated on the charge-sheet, which lives, like Homer 
 of old, not in writing but on the lips of men, principally 
 those of Hosain. I take paper and prepare to jot 
 down the particulars. 
 
 " Who is this man ? " 
 
 " 'Mskenzi, bwana" A stranger, that is, a foreigner, 
 a vagabond, a rough fellow, a man of no name or 
 status ; worlds lower in the scale than those glorified 
 apes who have caught him. When it is added that 
 the word, used of an Englishman by an Englishman, 
 signifies " a man who has been out too long," you have 
 some idea what it means to the native. 
 
 " Well, what is his name .^ " 
 
 " Sijui, bwana (I don't know)," says Hosain, and 
 " Sijui " sounds in arpeggio from all his satellites — 
 safe enough, so long as they can echo his remarks. 
 
 " What is his tribe ? Where does he come from .? " 
 
 " Sijui, bwana" once more in rippling chorus. Then 
 Hosain explains that he has tried many tongues on 
 the prisoner without success. When questioned, he 
 gabbles wildly in a dialect that no man can under- 
 stand ; and his origin and history, being untraceable, 
 can only be the subject of speculation. 
 
 At my bidding Hosain urges him to talk, and he 
 does so, volubly, with much gesticulation and laughter. 
 But as this does not help matters on we soon stop
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 31 
 
 him, with some difficulty, and elect to judge him on 
 the evidence before the Court. Namely, Mahmoud's 
 testimony that he found him on the train without a 
 pass. A somewhat slender basis this may appear 
 upon which to deliver a verdict of " guilty " or " not 
 guilty " ; for " found " is not a criminal offence, and 
 though Mahmoud has orders to arrest all natives thus 
 travelling, the arrested seldom receive anything but a 
 solemn warning. But in this case there is evidence of 
 blacker guilt beneath the surface ; for the prisoner 
 carries a rifle — an unlawful act for any native who 
 is not, so to speak, " organised," and part of some 
 white man's following ; and obviously he must have 
 committed some sin to acquire so rich a prize. 
 
 It is true that the breech-bolt is missing, and 
 that he cannot do more with his booty than excel 
 in the eyes of his fellows as a man of substance 
 and consideration : but this does not lessen the 
 illegality of his being abroad with the rifle in his 
 possession ; nor does it weaken the presumption we 
 derive therefrom that he is a porter by trade who 
 has deserted his master's caravan and left his load — 
 possibly a case of whisky or something even more 
 invaluable — in the heart of the thirsty wilderness. If 
 so, the man merits death by some slow process ; and 
 if it can be proved he will actually get at least a 
 year's hard labour, for we are rightly inexorable to 
 deserters. But proof, alas, always difficult to obtain, 
 is altogether lacking to-day. And though I am 
 morally certain that he is guilty of the great off"ence, 
 I can do nothing but send him to prison for a month, 
 there to wait lest his master, afire for vengeance, and
 
 32 STATION STUDIES 
 
 seeking his whereabouts, find me unable to help 
 him. 
 " Next." 
 
 Next comes Maula Bux, Indian merchant and 
 rogue, with a piteous complaint against Nur Din, 
 coolie on the railway — who comes not. He is a tall, 
 solemn, weak, melancholy man, clothed in dirty white 
 draperies and turban to match, his shoes left outside 
 the door, his silky black beard twirled into horns. 
 Grave, handsome, treacherous, vicious, loathing me 
 and my race, and yet cringing to me as to a god, he 
 curtseys as he enters, puts his hands to his forehead, 
 murmuring " /z, sahib " ; then folds them together in 
 an attitude of prayer, whines out his name with a 
 hundred " Misereres " in his tone ; swears by the 
 Koran that he will not lie, and, at my signal, proceeds 
 to do so. He has lent Nur Din Rs. 700, it seems, and 
 Nur Din will not pay. 
 
 " Who is Nur Din ? " 
 
 " Lately a sweeper of Jemadar Khuda Bux, Second 
 Earthworks Division, Mr. Doone's camp." 
 
 " When did you lend him the money } " 
 
 " It is now ten months." 
 
 " And why ? " 
 
 " He pleaded with me ; he had debts." 
 
 " What interest ? " 
 
 " Three annas in the month on a rupee." 
 
 " What security ? " 
 
 " He promised with me." 
 
 " What does he earn .-' " 
 
 " Twenty rupees in the month." 
 
 " You knew that ? "
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 33 
 
 "Yes, sahib. But he is a gambler, may it please 
 the honoured Court, and a wicked man, and " 
 
 " You knew that too ? " 
 
 " Yes, sahib." 
 
 " Where is he now ? " 
 
 " Who can tell ? " 
 
 " Then how in thunder do you expect to recover ? " 
 
 " You will perhaps, I beg, find the man, sahib, and 
 take the money from him." 
 
 " I ! Go to blazes ! Turn him out, Hosain. 
 Manuel, make out the summons and tell him we'll 
 serve it when he finds his man. Next case." 
 
 The next case is sent in — that of Kirpa Ram, also 
 an Indian trader, known throughout the length of 
 the railway as a fierce and ready litigant. He has a 
 great portfolio of documents under his arm, and a 
 host of witnesses (all well paid) outside the door. 
 Plainly the twenty defendants whom he hopes to meet 
 will stand a poor chance against such testimony. 
 But, as it proves, none of the latter put in an appear- 
 ance, and I am reluctantly compelled to give judgment 
 against them by default. I know full well that Kirpa 
 Ram makes his living, and a rich one at that, by bring- 
 ing actions against all and sundry, and would rather 
 give him two years' hard labour than a favourable 
 judgment. But to-day, as on every day, there is no 
 proof against him, and he must go on and flourish in 
 his iniquity. He goes on. 
 
 A period of peace follows upon the departure of 
 Kirpa Ram, and I settle down once more to the end- 
 less task of correspondence and the invention of a 
 Monthly Report. I say invention, because I know 
 
 3
 
 34 STATION STUDIES 
 
 that the report has not only to be constructed, but 
 created. Nothing has happened during the month ; 
 nothing ever does happen. And out of this void the 
 two queries arise — How am I to compose a record of 
 any sort ? and how am I to put colour into a narrative 
 which does not exist .' Both problems seem insoluble 
 at first sight, for there is never anything to record 
 which could possibly be of value or interest to any- 
 body, and this month there seems to be even less 
 material than usual to start upon. However, I go 
 to work bravely, and record such details as I can find. 
 So many pounds of flour and corn have been taken 
 in ; so many more have been issued. The revenue 
 exceeds that of last month by a hundred odd rupees. 
 The road to the railway station has been finished. 
 The tribes have been quiet and friendly — that is a 
 stereotyped phrase and might be omitted. Official 
 tours .' No, there have been none. How can I 
 make tours round my District — ^^as I ought — when 
 my nose is glued all day to law-suits and account- 
 books .'' My chief knows that they are impossible, and 
 must remain so till he is given a Civil Staff approxi- 
 mately equal to the management of the country. 
 Indeed he has probably dwelt on this fact himself 
 both with Foreign Office and Treasury till he is sick 
 of the subject. So I must not, in common decency, 
 cover paper with complaints like this. And how am 
 I to cover it ? Is there nothing else ? Ah yes, there 
 is one item which has often served me before, and 
 will yet do much good work if I do not press it too 
 hardly. " The need of a new prison is beginning to 
 make itself felt at Eldala, and the matter merits
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 35 
 
 early attention. I have some doubts as to the pos- 
 sibility of controlling any large number of prisoners, 
 should occasion arise, with the present limited ac- 
 commodation, and I beg to submit that a new building 
 be erected in the near future." 
 
 That is, I find, a safe form in which to put the 
 suggestion. No one will give me my prison on such a 
 tepid appeal ; and instead of what I ask I shall obtain 
 the far more desirable opportunity of asking for it 
 again — ^and again. So the report shall end. The 
 rest I will invent. 
 
 Monthly Reports are presumably intended for those 
 of our children's children who will write the history 
 of Africa ; for they can certainly be of no interest 
 to any contemporary reader, and, if the truth were 
 known, are perhaps not even glanced at by those who 
 ask for them. Nevertheless they form an interesting 
 study to any one who has the instincts of artist or 
 diplomatist ; for when their matter is of importance 
 their composition requires infinite delicacy of touch. 
 What is their object ? To inform the Chief Commis- 
 sioner of all that has taken place in the District during 
 the month, in order that he may give advice on its 
 management ? So the uninitiated might guess, and so 
 officers who would go to heaven ought to believe. 
 But very different in fact is their real conception of 
 the matter. To them the chief object is to conceal 
 rather than reveal the month's history. Not that they 
 wish to hide sins which will not bear the light of day, 
 but that the more truth they divulge the less power 
 and independence they are likely to retain. If they 
 let the Commissioner know that they are making a
 
 36 STATION STUDIES 
 
 road or a prison ; that owing to rinderpest they have 
 put restrictions on the removal of cattle ; or that they 
 have amended a deficit in the Mail Staff estimate by 
 using the surplus on that of the Native Staff, it is ten 
 to one that the next post will bring them instructions, 
 remonstrances and questions by the score. Most of 
 which, being conceived without a thorough knowledge 
 of the circumstances, will be worse than useless, and 
 all of which will require answers and explanations. 
 This not only detracts from a man's freedom and 
 authority, as well as spoiling his plans, but also wastes 
 his invaluable time. So he soon learns that if he is 
 to retain control of his dominion, his Monthly Report 
 must make general statements which will not arouse 
 the reader's curiosity rather than detailed descriptions 
 which will ; that he must record episodes only when 
 they have passed with all their results into history, 
 not as they happen step by step ; that in order to 
 obtain the quantity of men, rupees, or material he 
 requires he must ask for thrice as much ; and 
 that, when bent upon a certain course of action, he 
 must refrain from suggesting it or expressing his view 
 of the case, but merely present the latter in such a way 
 that his Chief will form the same view and return 
 it as his own. 
 
 Lord Curzon is said to have remarked upon a 
 report which was sent up to him soon after his arrival 
 in India, " Yes^ this is deeply interesting, but it tells 
 me nothing whatever ; " and that is just the comment 
 which a wise District Officer would like to arouse. 
 Of course in important matters he gives all details and 
 asks his Chief's advice. But there is nothing to be
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 37 
 
 gained and much to be lost by writing of trivial affairs 
 about which he Ccin decide much better on the spot : in 
 nine cases out of ten he would only be impeded by 
 outside interference. So it comes about that no task 
 in the month's work requires such a high standard of 
 brain-power as that of recording without revealing its 
 history. The artist's faculty of selection and arrange- 
 ment must be blended gracefully and surely with the 
 tact and cunning of the diplomatist ; and a man must 
 learn to tell the truth with such subtlety that it bears 
 exactly the impression he wishes to suggest. Some 
 facts must be suppressed and others expanded 
 Statistics must be arranged so as to form a petition 
 for future favours rather than a thanksgiving for 
 what crumbs one has. The needs of a District must 
 be presented as mountains and its financial successes 
 as molehills. And if any one questions whether these 
 tasks, especially the latter, be so difficult as I have 
 implied, I can only ask him to come and try. He will 
 seldom find work requiring such delicacy as that of 
 dwelling on the penury of a District, month by month, 
 with such emphasis as to secure the reader's attention, 
 and so little importunity that he will not be unduly 
 harassed and purposely forget it. 
 
 The Report is hard to come by to-day, both in 
 matter and manner, and I spend an hour's tough work 
 upon it before getting even to the heart of its difficul- 
 ties. Long before reaching them I am interrupted by 
 Majaliwa, who enters with a sheaf of telegrams, and 
 stands before me at the salute, desiring my instant 
 attention. He does not get it, for I am at a critical 
 point when he comes in, and much to his annoyance
 
 38 STATION STUDIES 
 
 and improvement he has to remain standing for more 
 than ten minutes while I conclude a paragraph. But 
 when at last I turn to him and take the telegrams I 
 am well rewarded ; for, though most of them are 
 requests for " adjournment of case " from Indians-— 
 surely that fine Greek edifice, 6p6po-^oiTo-avKO(f)avTo- 
 hLKo-TaXacTrwpo^, "early-rising, base-informing, sad- 
 litigious, plaguy knave," was expressly built to 
 describe the Indian — there are two pearls among the 
 sand which make up for whole hours spent on Monthly 
 Reports. 
 
 One is from Mulki Ram, Jemadar of an Indian 
 coolies' camp, eighty miles up the line. He does not 
 waste words. 
 
 " Issa run away with my rifle anywhere," is his 
 simple message — no need for comment or instructions. 
 I shall presumably throw aside all other business on 
 hearing his news, and without waiting for further 
 directions scour the district till I have run the villain to 
 earth, divining by instinct such small details as his 
 nationality, profession, appearance, and line of flight. 
 
 Mulki Ram must lose another of his ideals, I fear. 
 The British Empire has larger affairs than his to oc- 
 cupy its servants' time. I docket and treasure up the 
 telegram in the Eldala archives, and hope for the best. 
 But Issa is left running. 
 
 The other telegram comes from Nawaz Khan, 
 signaller of a camp neighbouring that of Mulki Ram ; 
 and is equally flattering to my omnipotence, even 
 at eighty miles' distance. 
 
 " Ram Singh escaped with my wife and property. 
 Please return property."
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 39 
 
 Serious business becomes impossible after this. I 
 look at my watch, consult the sun, find that it must 
 be almost mid-day, give the order " Piga 'ngoma " 
 (Blow the bugle), by which it is made twelve o'clock, 
 and prepare to lock up the office and retire to lunch. 
 
 IV. 
 
 But not so easily do I escape. For just as I am 
 closing the safe, Manuel enters with faltering step 
 to tell me that our stock of paper is running low, 
 and that the King's business cannot proceed much 
 longer without a further supply. No lunch for me just 
 yet, that is plain. 
 
 The difficulty is not a new one ; it has troubled us 
 many times before ; for the chief storekeeper, with 
 the loftiest designs can, owing to some dark reason, 
 never keep us adequately furnished with the means of 
 conducting our affairs ; and I, personally, who have 
 lately put him to rout in set battle, suspect him of 
 doing far lower than his best for me. His apology 
 for " a subordinate's error " still lies on my table to 
 remind me of my victory — I like to keep such little 
 souvenirs of my successful battles — and I am con- 
 vinced that he might have served us better had he 
 the will to do so. 
 
 Chief storekeeper or no, however, here is the 
 problem staring us in the face, and we have to solve 
 it. Neither I nor Manuel have any doubt in our 
 minds how this will ultimately be effected. We shall 
 obtain a temporary loan of railway paper from the 
 station-master, Sujan the Babu, and thereby ward off
 
 40 STATION STUDIES 
 
 famine till the chief storekeeper cares to replenish our 
 shelves. But this cannot be done without great care 
 and delicacy ; for I have no right to demand paper 
 of Sujan, and he, while hving in wholesome fear of 
 me, might, in order to shine among his fellows, screw 
 up his courage to the point of refusing my request — .a 
 thing not to be borne. So I am constrained to go 
 about the matter with the help of Manuel as go- 
 between. 
 
 The latter, to strip the position at once of all 
 decency, knows and loves Lachmi the wife of Sujan ; 
 and Lachmi, while loving Manuel and not Sujan, is 
 yet able on occasion to set her snares for the latter 
 with such effect as to win from him favours of almost 
 any value, even the gift of shining golden nibs — the 
 property of his employers — or the loan of a few quires 
 of foolscap. So it is through Manuel and Lachmi that 
 I must approach Sujan, if I am to approach him with 
 any hope of success. 
 
 Even here, however, I must walk with considerable 
 care ; for Manuel does not always command the smiles 
 of Lachmi, and I have to find out whether her attitude 
 towards him is favourable or tempestuous, without 
 hinting that I know anything of her share in the 
 transaction. I approach the question quietly, throw- 
 ing out inept suggestions as to the chances of pro- 
 curing a supply of paper from some other source. 
 Both of us know this to be quite impossible. But both 
 like these preliminary skirmishings, I because I wish 
 to see how the land lies before coming to the point ; 
 he because he would always entirely avoid all points 
 if he could, and is anxious to gain time.
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 41 
 
 " No paper ? " I say cheerily ; " then what is to be 
 done ? Are we to stop business altogether ? " 
 
 Manuel grins. " There is not enough for a few 
 more days, sir." 
 
 " That's bad." 
 
 " Yes, sir, it is difficult." 
 
 " Difficult ! It's disgusting. If the Stores will not 
 send us paper regularly what are we to do } " 
 
 Manuel grins again. He always grins. This time 
 he says " Who knows ? " 
 
 " I wonder whether Mr. M at Lumia's would 
 
 lend us some." 
 
 " Ah ! Yes, sir," cries Manuel, " he promised last 
 time we asked him to send us what he could spare." 
 
 " I doubt whether he would have any now. He 
 must have used an exceptional quantity during the 
 last few weeks." 
 
 " But it would be worth while to ask him." 
 
 " Even if I do, and he can spare any, it cannot 
 reach us for a month." 
 
 " I think we can manage till then with what we 
 have." This very wistfully and with some anxiety. 
 
 " Using ten sheets a day for correspondence, and 
 twenty or thirty for summons, forms .and customs 
 passes ? That won't do." 
 
 Slight pause. Then, plaintively — " We might use 
 half sheets, sir, as we once did before." 
 
 It is pretty evident how Manuel stands with Lachmi. 
 
 " That was most inconvenient," I reply. 
 
 " It would only be for a few days, sir." 
 
 " No, it would be for six weeks at least ; and it 
 would put me out detestably. I shall write to
 
 42 STATION STUDIES 
 
 Lumia's ; but meanwhile we must get some paper 
 elsewhere. Now what are we to do ? " 
 
 Manuel sinks into a deep study, looking very uneasy 
 and depressed. He feels that we are getting danger- 
 ously near the point and that I have him almost in 
 niy grip- But all is not lost yet. He shoots out a 
 briUiant proposal on his side, which, if it is old and 
 quite unlikely to be adopted, will at any rate gain time. 
 His voice is low and apprehensive as he suggests — 
 
 " Nawab AH sells paper, sir." 
 
 " Yes, I know ; but it is no good and " 
 
 " I will go at once and order some." In a flash he 
 has caught up his pith helmet and is half-way to the 
 door. But I am inexorable and call him back. 
 
 " No, no ; that will not do, Manuel ; he only sends 
 us mere tissue-paper, and the ink goes through it." 
 
 " Yet perhaps he has a new kind. I will at once 
 go and see." 
 
 " You said that last time, but it was worse than the 
 old." 
 
 " I think — perhaps he might order some more." 
 
 " From India, I suppose ? " 
 
 " Oh no, sir. From the coast." 
 
 " No ; we cannot wait so long ; and besides that 
 there is no estimate for buying paper." 
 
 Dead silence for a moment. Manuel at his wits' 
 end. But I do not leave him long in doubt ; there is 
 plainly nothing to be gained by fencing, and we may 
 just as well get to the point without further delay. 
 
 " We must get some paper at once," I continue. 
 " How did we manage last time we ran short of it .-* " 
 
 " I don't remember," says Manuel, lying flatly.
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 43 
 
 " Did we not borrow some from the railway ? " 
 
 " Surely no, sir ; it would not be according to 
 rule." 
 
 " Rubbish. The paper I have been using to-day 
 is railway paper." 
 
 " Indeed no, sir ; we have none." 
 
 " But here is the mark — Lunda Railway. How else 
 did it come here ? " 
 
 " Who can tell ? " 
 
 " You, I should think ; you asked the station-master 
 for it yourself, I believe ? " 
 
 " No, sir, really not." 
 
 " You did ; I remember it clearly." 
 
 " I think no, sir." 
 
 " I tell you, you did." 
 
 " Oh, sir ! My honour." 
 
 " D — n your honour ! — you did. Don't contradict 
 me." 
 
 " If you please, sir, I — I — think really not ; but I 
 will try to remember." Tears well into his eyes, and 
 he turns the latter towards the ceiling in feigned effort 
 to call up the forgotten, really to invent a new subter- 
 fuge. But none comes, and he is constrained to reply 
 weakly : — 
 
 " Ah, yes, sir ; I believe I remember now. But he 
 never liked to lend, and I fear will not again." 
 
 " Why not ? " 
 
 " He says that we never paid back." 
 
 This is very probable, but cannot be held to affect 
 the main question; and I continue: — 
 
 " We must have the paper. Tell him that we will 
 pay him back when we have a fresh supply."
 
 44 STATION STUDIES 
 
 " He has not always paper to spare. I think I 
 have heard him say that he has none." 
 
 " You have always managed to get some before." 
 
 No reply. The battle is almost over. 
 
 " Well," I continue, " I must have it this time, at 
 any rate." 
 
 Again no reply. But instead of obeying and going 
 about his business he remains in the room looking like 
 a boy who is going to be whipped. At last, after 
 some shuffling of the feet, he blurts out: — 
 
 " Perhaps, sir, you would — I mean — he might lend if 
 you asked him." 
 
 The case must be very bad indeed. 
 
 " No. I want you to do it." 
 
 " It is a doubtful thing. I will try in three days." 
 
 " No, I must have it at once." Manuel's " three 
 days " are of the Orient, invaluable to a man on leave, 
 but not useful in business. 
 
 " But how shall he answer to his auditor ? " 
 
 " As he has before." 
 
 " But the auditor may demand reasons. He may 
 say that paper is an expensive thing." 
 
 " Bosh ! The railway is not particular." 
 
 " Perhaps no. But paper may be expensive just 
 now." 
 
 " Paper — expensive ! What do you mean ? " 
 
 " Nothing, sir, nothing at all, but yet " Here 
 
 he breaks down completely, and I have to wait in 
 stony silence for him to recover. There is obviously 
 some unusually grave trouble at the bottom of all this 
 reluctance, and I must ascertain what it is.
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 45 
 
 When at length he is able to face the question once 
 more I question him more gently. 
 
 " Now, Manuel, what is it ? Paper is cheap enough ; 
 where is the obstacle ?" 
 
 " Yet not many things do not cost something." 
 
 " What do you mean ? The ordinary paper is about 
 an anna a quire." 
 
 " Yes, sir, perhaps yes : the price itself is not great 
 — -but — perhaps." 
 
 Light at last, though only a glimmer. 
 
 We are both silent for a moment, while I reflect 
 whether my guess is correct or not. Then I answer 
 laconically — 
 
 " I see. How much ? " 
 
 " Only a Httle ; a very little, sir," cries Manuel, 
 leaping eagerly at the idea and showing me that I am 
 right. " Quite a very little would be enough ; but — 
 but something." 
 
 So at last after long travelling we come to the 
 heart of the difficulty. Lachmi will not act for us 
 again without a quid fro quo. This is a new develop- 
 ment, and full of dangers ; for the grant of a bribe 
 is sure to be used as a precedent and is, therefore, to 
 be avoided. But as the case stands there seems to be 
 no alternative. Somehow or other the paper must 
 be got. And if she be really obdurate it can only 
 be procured by means of a bribe. On the other hand, 
 if her demand be merely a piece of bluff, and her 
 services be in reahty obtainable by the use of a little 
 more boldness on the part of Manuel, I shall not only 
 lose my money, but also my reputation as a person 
 who cannot easily be tricked. So the question re-
 
 46 STATION STUDIES 
 
 quires some thought, and I ponder it for a minute or 
 two in silence. 
 
 No amount of cogitation, however, seems Hkely to 
 be of any use ; for I have no means of ascertaining 
 the truth ; and soon I am compelled to acknowledge 
 defeat, believe Manuel's statement for what it is 
 worth, and accept the position with all its dangers. 
 Putting three rupees on the table I come, without 
 further delay, to the essential point. 
 
 " Will that be enough ? " 
 
 " Surely yes, sir." 
 
 " She — I mean you can get the paper by this 
 afternoon ? " 
 
 " I think yes, sir." 
 
 " You must." 
 
 " Nothing shall be mistaken, sir." And with this 
 assurance the dialogue ends, Manuel goes to his 
 task, and I am at length free to close the office and 
 retire to lunch.
 
 47 
 
 MY DAY'S WORK. 
 
 P.M. 
 
 r. 
 
 The sun has come to his full height now, and is blaz- 
 ing down with a fierce violence that drives every 
 living thing to shelter, and bakes the rocks till they 
 cause all who pass them to shun their neighbourhood. 
 No wind is astir : lake, forest, and plain are all quiet; 
 birds, cattle, and all wild creatures of the plain are 
 lying at rest. Peace reigns over the land ; and I, 
 too, who rarely taste her favours, set aside for the 
 moment all thought of affairs, and lie in a chair, 
 revelling in my freedom and satisfied with my world. 
 I call it my world with apparently undue self- 
 reverence, because, to state the case quite simply, 
 all that I can see is mine. Over fifty miles and 
 more on every side I am Moses, Samuel, Solomon ; 
 Consul, Tribune, Aedile; Thane, Marshal, Abbot; 
 Viceroy, Sirdar, Premier. Within them no white man 
 may sell, or hunt, or till the soil without my leave; 
 nor any black man fall upon his neighbour, wife 
 or enemy; nor any man at all strike another, steal 
 or do violence. Over them no traveller, trader or 
 missionary may pass without my approval. Into 
 them none may bring goods without paying me great 
 dues; nor out of them take ivory or precious things
 
 48 STATION STUDIES 
 
 without giving me a share. I am Postmaster-General, 
 for no mails can move but at my word. I am the 
 Supreme Court of Judicature, for it is my affair to 
 try all law-suits; and Chief Constable, because I 
 must see that no crime goes unpunished. I am the 
 Board of Agriculture, because upon me it lies to 
 keep all disease away from the cattle within my 
 borders; and the War Office, for I am not only, in 
 the absence of military officers, acting Commander- 
 in-Chief, but also have power in their presence to 
 send them at my discretion upon my wars. In a 
 word, I am everybody — Chancellor of the Exchequer ; 
 First, Second and Third Lords of the Treasury; the 
 Home Secretary; the Foreign Secretary; the Board 
 of Trade; the Master of the Rolls; all conceivable 
 Lords of the Admiralty; and the permanent staff of 
 these departments, as well as their rulers. Only to 
 Caesar am I subject, namely, the Chief Commissioner 
 of the whole land, who receives (and possibly reads) 
 my monthly reports; theoretically, at any rate, acting 
 on the advice I give therein. But, fortunately, I am 
 able by long practice to forget even his existence, 
 much more that of the higher powers outside the 
 Province ; and so am able to attain a very fair degree 
 of conceit — one of the few enduring pleasures of life 
 in Africa. 
 
 Luncheon is brought to me in the verandah by 
 Hamis, sedulous to earn my favour — soup of gazelle- 
 meat, guinea-fowl, sweet potatoes, and bananas. All 
 of these, being for the moment all that is within 
 reach, he expects me to consume without leaving a 
 morsel behind. For to him it is the act of a fool
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 49 
 
 not to devour every atom of food procurable, at every 
 meal, however vast, and at any hour however un- 
 seemly. I, on the contrary, should be a far greater 
 fool to eat any but the barest necessaries at mid-day 
 in the tropics, especially with a hard afternoon's work 
 before me. So in spite of his alternate grins and 
 frowns at my waste of good opportunities, I bequeath 
 my dishes almost untasted to my household. And 
 to-day, as on most days, I accompany the legacy with 
 threats of vengeance should they ever send me such 
 excess again. But I might just as well spare myself 
 the trouble; for both Hamis and 'Mpishi are fully 
 aware to whose lot the excess will fall; and despite 
 all risks they are sure to continue the offence, their 
 ideals being of a low and enviable, but unvarying 
 standard — " Food, food, and yet more food ! " 
 
 Luncheon finished, I snatch a short half -hour for 
 reading; and — please do not let this escape you — 
 gather a sevenfold enjoyment from my book, because 
 it has come many thousand miles to reach me, and 
 will find but few companions here. You who live in 
 crowded towns, where books not only teem in shelves 
 and shops, but are thrust upon you by every one you 
 meet, have no chance of catching the true joy of read- 
 ing. What is it to read in such a place of milk and 
 honey as a town ? You are not only able to order 
 books, en masse, in the plural, from your library close 
 at hand, and taste the cream of the day's fare in a 
 moment of time. You live in the midst of such 
 cloying and indecent plenty that, apart from select- 
 ing, you are actually able to reject books. Printed 
 matter of every kind is spurned by you as tedious, 
 
 4
 
 so STATION STUDIES 
 
 as dry, as " unreadable ! " Printed matter, if you 
 please, unreadable! Body of Bumpus, what is this? 
 Do you think that there is any imaginable pleasure 
 in reading among such satiety ? Is there any real 
 joy to be got from a volume which is only one of 
 many available? No, no; away with these raw ideas 
 and learn better. That is no way to enjoy your 
 books. Come into the far wilds, where there are no 
 shops, no bookstalls, no libraries; where there is so 
 little possibility of buying or borrowing literature 
 that you may travel for days without seeing print, 
 except on an office form. That is a promising place 
 in which to begin. And if, in addition, you are so 
 poor in books that you make excuses for not reading 
 rather than for reading them ; if your home be so far 
 from the world that a month must pass before you 
 know what wares are in the market, and another two 
 months before your order, anxiously debated, can be 
 fulfilled at your door, then indeed may you drain the 
 solace of reading to the last drop. There lies the 
 Holy City of all readers' dreams. 
 
 I read feverishly for what seems the mere ghost 
 of an honest half-hour. Then Majaliwa stands be- 
 fore me once more, abominably punctual, importu- 
 nately saluting, and murmuring " Fungua ". Fungua 
 is a Swahili verb by birth, meaning " to open ". But 
 it has changed its sex and become a substantive since 
 England came to Africa, and now means, when 
 occasion demands, " a key ". To Majaliwa it means 
 the office key. He salutes until I rise and hand it 
 to him with a grunt of disgust at the interruption; 
 then carries it with extreme care to the door of the
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 51 
 
 office, which he tries to unlock. But this is no light 
 matter with him : for though he has learnt to insert 
 the key and daily hopes to acquire the art of turning 
 it, as yet his efforts prove entirely ineffectual. When 
 I follow, a moment later, and with one turn of the 
 hand solve the mystery, he grins applause and con- 
 fidence that he will be able to do the same on the 
 morrow. But the morrow never brings any better 
 result, and the happy faculty by which I succeed so 
 easily remains to him an everlasting riddle. 
 
 I allow him but little time to linger over the matter 
 to-day, for the month's accounts have to be made up 
 and sent in within a week, and experience shows that 
 if they are to be finished by then they must be begun 
 at once. No pen can describe the anxiety and sense 
 of imminent doom with which I approach this task, 
 for it is one of awful tangles and incalculable length. 
 But not a hint of my real feelings must be allowed 
 to reach Manuel, lest he yield at once to the despair 
 that always overcomes him before we have advanced 
 far into our difficulties. During the first few hours 
 of our journey he is often of infinite value as a 
 fellow-traveller, warning me against false steps 
 which would lead me into sloughs and pitfalls, and 
 giving me a hand out of thickets which would other- 
 wise imprison me for life. To let his spirits droop 
 thus early in the day would be to rob myself of 
 invaluable assistance. So, as I enter the office, I 
 assume an air of irrepressible buoyancy, and address 
 him with the breeziest confidence : " Come along, 
 Manuel," I say, as though I had not said it fifty 
 times before in the same circumstances; "we'll
 
 52 STATION STUDIES 
 
 polish off the accounts this afternoon; then we shall 
 have a clear day to-morrow for the law-suits." 
 
 Manuel's only answer is to turn on me a face 
 full of foreboding and woe, trying to make out 
 whether I really mean what I say; and he looks as 
 though he would like to attempt an excuse. But I 
 decline to allow any vacillation or brooding, hail 
 him into my room without delay, and bustle him 
 into the thick of the work before he has time to think 
 of its terrors. 
 
 An hour passes, an hour and a half, two hours. 
 Do we make any progress? No, we seem on the 
 contrary to lose ourselves more and more completely 
 in the thicket. Manuel's mouth begins to droop like 
 a weeping willow. Even I cannot help admitting 
 that the case looks desperate, and the question arises 
 — What is to be done? Press on and make the best 
 of it? No, there is nothing to be gained by that; 
 our brains are tired and muddled, and we shall only 
 stray further and further from the path by driving 
 on. There is nothing to be done. So we admit defeat 
 to-day and leave the difficulties till to-morrow, when 
 we can attack them with fresh energies. An ad- 
 ditional inducement to do this, if any were needed, 
 arises from the fact that a mass of other work has 
 accumulated during our two hours' struggle, and now 
 clamours for our attention. 
 
 The paper, by the way, has made its appearance. 
 
 II. 
 
 Having laid aside my duties as accountant, I find 
 that I have the choice between those of an African 
 judge, an Indian magistrate, a bishop, or a publican.
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 53 
 
 The first two matters are those of a Marai's theft, 
 and an Indian coolie's theft and assault respectively ; 
 the last concerns an Indian trader. The bishop's 
 function is to receive and answer a soldier of the 
 Salvation Army who desires to hold camps, parades, 
 and general alarums in his diocese. 
 
 The latter instantly strikes me as being first in 
 order of interest, for I seldom have a chance of 
 wearing the cope and lawn sleeves. So the soldier 
 is hailed into the office, which now becomes a chapter- 
 house, and given as good a welcome as I am able 
 to offer. He is a tall gaunt man, black-bearded, 
 broad-browed, great-voiced, built on a large scale in 
 every way ; and being clothed, to his obvious distress, 
 in the thick dark and scarlet uniform of his calling, 
 he fulfils to the last detail my idea of the hot, the 
 uncomfortable, the out-of-place. Rumour adds, 
 through the agency of Manuel, that he is travelling 
 without luggage of any sort, and has even come all 
 the way from the coast — four days' journey — in a 
 third-class carriage full of Swahilis, which confirms 
 my impression that he must be either a hero or a 
 lunatic. Sight of the man convinces me that he is 
 a little of both. But the blaze of force and enthusi- 
 asm in his eye telling of very high, if fanatical, 
 character and purpose, one cannot but regard him 
 with considerable respect. He comes straight to 
 business, h-less, but throbbing with zeal. 
 
 " Could you kindly give me some information as 
 to the numbers and distribution of the Marai ? " 
 
 " Certainly. I suppose you wish to propagate your 
 teachings among them ? "
 
 54 STATION STUDIES 
 
 " Yes ; we have left them too long. I suppose 
 there is nothing to hinder us from beginning at 
 once ? " 
 
 " One moment. In the first place, you are no doubt 
 aware that no missionary is allowed to travel about 
 a district without the approval of the official in 
 charge ? " 
 
 " Er — no. I did not know that. I imagined that 
 there could be no objection to our presence. Is there 
 any here ? " 
 
 Oh, soldier, soldier ! If only you could imagine 
 the unprintable objections which surge into my brain 
 at this ! If you could but peep in and see more 
 than the colourless official formula with which I have 
 to make answer. 
 
 " No, there is no objection in this particular in- 
 stance. Very often, however, there is decided objec- 
 tion. In some districts, for instance, there are 
 unsettled tribes among which you would not be 
 allowed to go, owing to the possible risk of attack." 
 
 " We are ready to take all risks." 
 
 " Quite so. You all profess that." 
 
 " But I assure you it is one of our first principles." 
 
 "Exactly, it is that of all missionaries; and very 
 admirable — on paper." 
 
 " Do you mean to say that there are risks, in your 
 district or elsewhere, which we will not take? " 
 
 " Not at all. I don't doubt your courage." I wish 
 he had less. " But in point of fact that question 
 doesn't arise, for you will not find any risks." 
 
 "None whatever?" Soldier seems quite disap- 
 pointed.
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 55 
 
 " None at all." (" Unless you sing hymns near my 
 house," I would like to add, but mayn't.) " The 
 Marai are perfectly quiet and friendly, and you can 
 begin on them to-morrow if you can satisfy me that 
 you are not likely to disturb the peace." 
 
 " Peace, sir, peace ! It is one of our first duties, 
 as soldiers whose cause is peace, to keep it." 
 
 " Certainly, I quite appreciate your spirit ; but, 
 somehow or other, you missionaries don't always 
 manage to put your motto into practice. Excuse my 
 speaking plainly, but apart from the trouble which 
 your internecine quarrels often produce, you are all 
 apt to let your enthusiasm run away with your dis- 
 cretion. You go out with the idea of evangelising 
 at all risks, and rather make it a point that you care 
 nothing for life and will take all the results of your 
 action on your own heads. But you don't always 
 remember what this means to the officer who is re- 
 sponsible for your safety. When he tells you, for 
 instance, that a certain territory is safe if you go 
 so far and no further, you sometimes forget in your 
 zeal your obligation to him and do go further. With 
 the result perhaps that you cause offence to some 
 tribe and give him no end of trouble in allaying it." 
 
 " But I assure you I have no thought of doing 
 anything contrary to your advice and approval." 
 
 "Well, that's right enough." 
 
 " And we pick our men with the utmost care." 
 
 " So I believe. So do a few other organisations, 
 notably the Universities' mission. I wish they all 
 did; but that is the weak point about most of them. 
 And so many come out with no knowledge of the
 
 56 STATION STUDIES 
 
 customs and traditions of the people with whom 
 they are to deal — a deficiency that is bound to cause 
 trouble sooner or later. To my mind, every one who 
 is going to live among savage tribes — soldier, en- 
 gineer, civil servant, or missionary — ought to go in 
 for a short course of anthropology before he leaves 
 England, in order to acquire some rudiments of this 
 knowledge. The missionary especially is bound to 
 have it, because part of his duty consists in upsetting 
 native traditions and prejudices, and he can't be too 
 careful how he goes to work. As it is, he often thinks 
 his zeal a cloak for every kind of shortcoming, and is 
 quite likely to do more harm than good. You can't 
 wonder that we look on him somewhat coldly, 
 though we pay him no end of compliments in official 
 reports." 
 
 "Well, you are candid enough, I must say." 
 " I think it is better for all parties that you should 
 understand what harm you may do; though I don't 
 imply for a moment that you are one of those who 
 are likely to do it. So much by way of preliminary. 
 Now, what can I do for you ? Information or 
 advice ? " 
 
 " Both, please." 
 
 " Very well. I think we had better begin with the 
 
 advice. If you want my candid opinion about going 
 
 out to teach among the Marai, it is simply — Don't." 
 
 " Why do you say that ? " 
 
 " Because it would be sheer waste of time." 
 
 " Waste ! No time spent as I spend it is wasted." 
 
 " I beg to differ. I say ' waste ' and repeat it, 
 
 because no missionary organisation has ever thought
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 57 
 
 it worth while after a preliminary experience to con- 
 tinue its efforts among this particular tribe; and you 
 will, as I say, be throwing away time and energy if 
 you attempt any permanent work here." 
 
 Soldier laughs heartily. I am afraid that I have 
 whetted his zeal instead of blunting it. 
 
 " Is that all you have to tell me? " he says with a 
 note of scorn and defiance in his tone. "If that 
 sort of experience were to discourage our Army we 
 should never have gone far." 
 
 " I wish you had gone further," I reflect, irritated 
 by the man's unthinking fanaticism. Blind inability 
 to select possible, and reject impossible fields for 
 their work is at the bottom of most missionary 
 failures. But I must not say so, and continue 
 sedately — 
 
 " Well, try if you like. You may just as well try 
 to teach them skating. But if you value your time 
 and money, go where you have some chance of 
 success. There are plenty of tribes further up the 
 country, who will welcome you for what you bring 
 them — your schools, technical training and anything 
 they can get out of you — but this particular tribe 
 won't look at you even for that." 
 
 " You are not very encouraging." 
 
 " No. I believe in stating the facts as they stand. 
 There are certain tribes in the Province who value the 
 " mishni " because he can teach them to read and 
 write and make things. All that is, to my thinking, 
 admirable and useful work." 
 
 " Is that the end of it, then ' " 
 
 " So I gather from the universal report of all un-
 
 58 STATION STUDIES 
 
 prejudiced observers. When once natives have gained 
 this teaching, and seen that there is nothing more to 
 be got out of the teacher, they leave him and his 
 schools, and services and etceteras behind and retire 
 into private life. They appear in the missionary's 
 report as " converts," and thus help to make a splash 
 at Exeter Hall; but they don't appear in his boma 
 again." 
 
 Soldier is furious; I have put myself beyond the 
 pale of salvation by telling him the truth. 
 
 "You sit there as a Christian man and tell me that 
 all this spiritual work, this bearing of good tidings 
 to our dark brothers, is wasted ? " 
 
 " It isn't pleasant to contemplate, I know. But I 
 am rather afraid that is the truth; and what is 
 more, few missionaries really retain any illusions 
 as to the results of their work. The education and 
 training are valuable, civilising influences; but for 
 the rest — well, you'll see for yourself what really 
 happens." 
 
 " I shall. Your account sounds incredible. I won't 
 believe it." 
 
 " As you please ; I am open to conviction." 
 
 " The people cannot have been properly taught. 
 None of these missions can have approached them in 
 the right way. I don't believe it. I won't ! " 
 
 "Well, they haven't tried drums and hell-fire yet; 
 the people are very fond of drums." 
 
 " Sir, you are not treating this question seriously." 
 
 " I am endeavouring to tell you what you seem 
 disinclined to believe — the truth." 
 
 " But it is incredible ; these tribes cannot have been
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 59 
 
 properly handled. They are not lost. I cannot 
 believe that they are all lost." 
 
 " I wish to heaven they were — in another sense ; 
 but that is by the way. As to your side of the 
 question I can only tell you what the real results 
 up to the present have been. You may alter them. 
 Try for yourself." 
 
 " I will, I will : I am not convinced. I think you 
 will see a difference within a few years." 
 
 " I hope so. I am afraid not." 
 
 " Believe me, sir. Now, could you tell me some 
 particulars about the Marai ? " 
 
 " Anything in my power to help you." 
 
 " How do the numbers run ? " 
 
 " From three to four thousand." 
 
 " Oh, I expected ten thousand at least. And the 
 principal towns ? " 
 
 " Towns ? " I am sorry to think that I wink my- 
 self at this point. " There aren't really any towns." 
 
 " No towns ! The villages then, where shall I find 
 them ? " 
 
 " There aren't any villages." 
 
 " Are there no centres of population ? " 
 
 " None whatever." 
 
 "Bless my soul; where do the people live?" 
 
 "Nowhere in particular; they wander." 
 
 "Wander! Where?" 
 
 " Anywhere there happens to be good grazing." 
 
 " But have they no homes and gardens or en- 
 closures ? " 
 
 " Nothing more permanent than mud huts and a 
 boma of thorn bushes and felled trees."
 
 6o STATION STUDIES 
 
 " Then, where do they raise their crops ? " 
 
 " They don't." 
 
 " How do they live ? They must eat." 
 
 " Precious little." 
 
 " Do they starve ? " 
 
 " Not they. They have plenty of blood and milk." 
 
 " Blood ! " 
 
 "Yes, they are awfully fond of blood; raw blood 
 for choice." 
 
 Soldier turns a little pale and hesitates as he 
 asks — 
 
 " You — you don't mean that they are cannibals ? " 
 
 "Oh, no; it's only beasts' blood. When they kill 
 an animal they don't eat the meat, but make a hole 
 in him and suck his blood." 
 
 " Impossible ! " 
 
 " Not at all. You'll soon find out if you travel 
 among them." 
 
 Pause. Soldier seems to be taking breath, aghast 
 at all these surprises, and not quite confident in my 
 veracity. At last he continues — 
 
 " Then, if these people are so intractable, it looks 
 bad for the commercial future of the country." 
 
 " Oh, they aren't all like that. Some of them are 
 very keen on educating themselves. But I'm afraid 
 that in any case they wouldn't affect the country's 
 commercial future, because, as at present directed, it 
 hasn't any." 
 
 " I always understood it was so fertile and full 
 of possibilities, as well as being splendidly suited for 
 English settlers." 
 
 " So the English Press says, and the Foreign Office
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 6i 
 
 ' hopes ' that the territory will some day prove self- 
 supporting." 
 
 " You don't think so ? " 
 
 " We don't deny that it may have a future under 
 improved conditions. There are plenty of possi- 
 bilities, no doubt. Tobacco, tea, coffee, cotton, sugar, 
 cocoa, rice, any number of tropical things would grow 
 here; and there is no end of fine timber, and a good 
 chance with rubber if you can only get men who 
 really understand its culture. But how are you 
 going to make the majority of these pay in any 
 market when you have to add to the cost of pro- 
 duction the cost of five hundred miles' railway 
 journey to the sea? There is no water communica- 
 tion; the railway is awfully expensive owing to the 
 enormous hills it has to climb; and the labour diffi- 
 culty is as serious here as anywhere in the tropics. 
 How are we going to make these African beggars 
 work when they have only got to wait for the bananas 
 to ripen to live like kings? — and the bananas are 
 always ripe." 
 
 " Surely you will be able to get over that difficulty 
 in time. We shall help you." 
 
 " What ! To keep the bananas unripe ? I wish 
 you could, for that would solve one of our social 
 problems. No, I am afraid you can't manage that. 
 Even if you could, the transport difficulty would 
 still remain. You see, most tropical products are now 
 cultivated under such competition, even when close 
 to that cheapest form of transport, water-carriage, 
 as to leave a very small margin of profit in or- 
 dinary years. Add our five hundred miles of
 
 62 STATION STUDIES 
 
 rail, with prohibitive traffic charges, and where are 
 you ? " 
 
 " They'll never be lowered." 
 
 " I don't see how they can ever be low enough to 
 make plantations pay. And who is coming out to 
 a bad climate like this if they can go elsewhere ? " 
 
 " I thought the climate was supposed to be so 
 wonderful." 
 
 " So it is — in parts. Up here, for instance, where 
 we are six thousand feet above the sea, it is first-rate ; 
 and there is a huge tract of country like this where 
 you can live as healthily as in England. But that 
 isn't the part where the products can be cultivated." 
 
 " Well, then, what is the use of the country to us 
 at all ? " 
 
 " Commercially, very little. Minerals have been 
 found and may turn out well. Rubber could un- 
 doubtedly be cultivated with profit and success, even 
 under the present railway rates. But, apart from 
 this, I don't think any one really expects anything 
 more than a little local commerce; and the railway 
 can never pay its way; in fact it will always be a 
 drain on the British tax-payer." 
 
 " Then, why are we here ? " 
 
 " There are other points to be considered besides 
 £ s. d. We are here partly for philanthropic pur- 
 poses — to stop the slave traffic and the revolting 
 cruelty and savage wars that went on before we 
 came; partly for strategic purposes, to keep other 
 nations out. We must hold the country round the 
 head-waters of the Nile. Ergo, we must build a 
 railway to reach it and take us about, even though
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 63 
 
 the latter will cost a thousand pounds a day for the 
 next ten or twenty years." 
 
 " That sounds rather alarming." 
 
 "Yes; but we couldn't hold the country without 
 it, much less stop the slave caravans, whose routes 
 it severs." 
 
 " Then John Bull can pat himself on the back, even 
 if he finds his purse a bit lighter." 
 
 " That is about the truth. And though he does 
 lose a little money, he makes it up in other ways. 
 One likes to feel that he is something more than a 
 land-grabber, and stands for good government and 
 humanity as well." 
 
 " I quite agree, though, of course, a good many 
 people would not. It seems an enormous sum to 
 spend every year without any tangible return." 
 
 "If it were bigger it would tend to grow less." 
 
 " How do you mean ? " 
 
 " Why, if John Bull would only spend enough to 
 keep his African household secure, he would not have 
 to spend twice as much on punishing those who attack 
 it because of its weakness." 
 
 " What is the cause of that weakness ? Lack of 
 men ? Or of money ? " 
 
 " Both. The staff is hopelessly inadequate in num- 
 ber; and if it wasn't, it would be completely crippled 
 by lack of money. If we only had a few thousands 
 more — say ten, or even five — and a few more men, 
 we could at least keep the country safe, and might 
 possibly do something towards developing it. As it 
 is, we can't do the one, much less the other, nor ever 
 shall till we are better treated."
 
 64 STATION STUDIES 
 
 " When will that be ? " 
 
 " Oh, don't ask. ' Greek Kalends ' is the only 
 answer you ever get out of the Treasury. At pre- 
 sent the position in which they have put us is this. 
 We have a territory about the size of France, full 
 of tribes who, though quiet enough as a rule, are 
 always liable to give trouble unless they are care- 
 fully watched. And to keep them in order we have 
 little more than a dozen stations, with one man at 
 each, whose work prevents him from watching them 
 at all." 
 
 " But, why ? Can't he leave his station ? " 
 
 " No. He daren't leave the accounts. The Foreign 
 Office — at the instance, no doubt, of the Treasury, 
 which rules us all — insists that these are the most 
 important part of his duties. If he leaves them for 
 a day he stands to lose money; and these alone, 
 apart from other office work, keep him from making 
 tours among his outlying tribes." 
 
 " That sounds a very poor policy." 
 
 " Of course; it is false economy of the true British 
 type. If we had two men at each station, one to 
 manage the office and the other the district, it would 
 only cost another three thousand a year in salaries, 
 and it would save, say thirty thousand, in punitive 
 expeditions and ' little wars '." 
 
 " Now, that is England all over. But who is re- 
 sponsible for this miserable state of things — the 
 Foreign Office ? " 
 
 " No, not entirely ; but I mustn't talk about that 
 to you. It is no secret, but I can't discuss it with 
 non-officials."
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 65 
 
 The point that I should like to explain to him is 
 that the Foreign Office is only responsible in so far 
 that it does not fight our battles with the Treasury so 
 actively as it might. The latter body would appear, 
 according to all experience, to exist for the sole 
 purpose of starving the administrative framework 
 of the Empire. At any rate no public department 
 can ever obtain from it one half of the sum it really 
 needs to maintain a proper standard of efficiency. 
 And, consequently, a department like the Foreign 
 Office, which has several sub-departments, dare not 
 press for an increased grant on one of them lest it be 
 deprived of a proportionate sum on the others. Since 
 it cannot gain a living wage for all, it naturally stints 
 those which are least exposed to public scrutiny and 
 criticism. And Africa, being practically beyond the 
 range of Parliamentary vision, has to suffer more 
 seriously than any of them. Whether this be sound 
 policy or not is a matter for the sage men who settle 
 these things. But that John Bull is not honestly 
 assuming the responsibilities attached to his estate 
 is only too clear to those who live on it. Leaving 
 on one side such large questions as the occupation 
 or non-occupation of Somaliland, where his shilly- 
 shallying and half-hearted advances have brewed 
 such a peck of trouble, we may well take as a good 
 example of his ineptitude the — to most people — com- 
 paratively trivial matter of official salaries. In the 
 Indian Civil Service the guiding principle on this 
 point is that you cannot get an Englishman fit for 
 Government employment under three hundred and 
 fifty pounds a year. In Africa, where living is at a 
 
 5
 
 66 STATION STUDIES 
 
 somewhat higher rate, the Treasury thinks that two 
 hundred a year will buy a dependable man. That it 
 may do so in practice is no justification for the un- 
 soundness of the theory ; and there are unfortunately 
 not a few cases showing that even in practice the sum 
 is quite insufficient for its object. Is this wisdom? 
 
 " But," continues Soldier, who is horribly well up 
 in these matters, "you'll pardon me saying so — but, 
 has the Treasury any more reason to confide in the 
 F.O.'s business capacity as an administrator than as 
 a railway builder and contractor ? " 
 
 " Ah ! there I must admit a weak point. Of course, 
 the machinery of the Foreign Office is not adapted 
 for either kind of work, and why it was ever given 
 the charge of these enormous tracts of Africa is a 
 mystery. But here it is, with all its faults, trying 
 to make the best of conditions which are alien to 
 its spirit, and it deserves to be supported. Adequate 
 support, I say, we don't get. The Railway Com- 
 mittee has, no doubt, made a number of very 
 expensive mistakes, and the Treasury is, perhaps 
 for that reason, justified in distrusting the F.O.'s 
 business faculties. But, mark you, we only ask for 
 one thousand where they ask for fifty; only for the 
 bare necessaries of life, where they ask for and get 
 far more than this; and where their mistakes might 
 cost thousands, ours would only cost hundreds, for 
 the reason that our whole expenditure is on a much 
 smaller scale. Our country is not capable of any 
 extensive development, and we don't want to spend 
 very much on it. But we do want a living 
 wage. At present lack of money hinders us from
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 67 
 
 carrying out half the schemes we should like to 
 carry out for the safety of the country. And, as 
 you may imagine, it is difficult to put one's heart 
 into any work which is liable to be continually 
 stunted and interrupted by order of the Treasury. 
 If only we had a few more thousands a year we 
 would very soon show ourselves fit to be trusted with 
 them — and more. The investment would not be un- 
 remunerative : for it naturally costs more to remedy 
 mistakes than to anticipate them; and a punitive 
 expedition costs more than would the salaries of one 
 or two additional men ; who might, and undoubtedly 
 would prevent the need for it." 
 
 " That seems a sound answer. Yes, you certainly 
 have a good deal to complain of. But I suppose 
 much of the British Empire is managed under simi- 
 lar conditions." 
 
 "Probably; but I doubt if any part of it skates 
 on such thin ice as this — to use a clumsy but expres- 
 sive metaphor." 
 
 " When do you hope for thicker ice — to continue it ? " 
 
 " For any improvement ? I'll tell you. Central 
 Africa will be properly administered when English 
 political moves cease to affect every farthing ex- 
 pended on it. Our occupation is always unpopular, 
 because it is not properly understood. And a party 
 which depends for its power on conciliating the tax- 
 payer is not likely to offend him by demanding 
 money for which the return is, at best, obscure. Any 
 Foreign Minister who asked for, and any Chancellor 
 of the Exchequer who granted, an increased estimate 
 for such an unproductive country as this would pro-
 
 68 STATION STUDIES 
 
 voke a storm of criticism; so they leave it alone, or 
 rather stint it more and more." 
 
 " Party government ! Well, I must not keep you 
 talking politics all day : I have kept you long enough 
 as it is." 
 
 " No, no ; it does one good to ' growse ', occasion- 
 ally. One can't growse to the Marai." 
 
 " By the way, where shall I find some of those 
 gentlemen ? Have I got to wander about the woods 
 looking for them ? " 
 
 " No, it is not as bad as that," I reply with 
 a laugh. Then our eyes meet, and suddenly the 
 whole mad humour of the difficulties lying before 
 him darts into his mind, and, all zeal and serious- 
 ness thrown for the moment to the winds, he makes 
 the office echo with his shouts of laughter. When 
 we are both once more in a state for conversation, 
 I reassure him as to the last difficulty, and explain 
 that he can find material for his labour as easily 
 here as in England, if it is of any value. He asks 
 for further direction, and I take him out to the 
 corner of the boma, where there are half-a-dozen 
 ' many at t as (villages) within sight, upon which he 
 may begin his attack to-day. He is all fanatic again 
 at seeing these, and gazing hungrily at them, and all 
 round him with the hope of finding others, gasps out, 
 " Thank you ; I see, I see. Thank you : poor souls ! " 
 
 " Well, there are the Marai. Now, is there any- 
 thing else I can tell you ? " 
 
 " No, thanks. That is quite enough, thank you." 
 
 I expect it is. 
 
 "What shall you do?"
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 69 
 
 " I — I don't quite know ; I have no definite plans 
 at present. My headquarters will decide what steps 
 to take. I must move on." 
 
 " Stop and have dinner. I'll put you up for the 
 night." 
 
 " No, thanks. It is very good of you to ask me, 
 and I am grateful for the advice; but " 
 
 " You won't take it ? " 
 
 " It is my duty not to. I must be getting on now. 
 Good-bye." 
 
 " Good-bye, and good luck." With which greeting 
 I see him out of the boma, and he " gets on ". Poor 
 Soldier ! I doubt if any new-comer ever had his 
 home-made illusions so quickly disturbed as he in 
 this short conversation. But it is no part of my 
 function to preserve them. My episcopal duties, to 
 my thinking, include the grasping and dissemination 
 of hard facts about my flock, as well as the effort 
 to dissuade its members from thrusting spears 
 through each other when they disagree. I know 
 that they are too content with their present mode 
 of life to desire any other; for many have tried to 
 teach them and many failed ; and if the new Soldier 
 will not accept the truth from me, he must find it 
 out for himself. He is replete with good purposes, 
 and has all my good-will ; but he is doomed inevit- 
 ably to failure if he remains here, and I wish he 
 would stay at home where his zeal and other estim- 
 able traits are really needed. A profound belief in 
 my own omnipotence is the principal creed in my 
 diocese; no other is really necessary; and no attempts 
 to modify it are likely to have much effect.
 
 70 STATION STUDIES 
 
 III. 
 
 A very different task, and one far less congenial, 
 falls to me now. Two Marai are brought before me 
 charged with theft of metal from the railway. Their 
 spears are made from bolts which bind the rails to 
 a bridge close at hand, and they must suffer. 
 
 The evidence is clear; they have been caught in 
 the act of robbery; they hardly attempt any defence; 
 and the sentence, one month's hard labour and 
 twenty-fiive lashes, follows almost as a matter of 
 course. The latter part of the penalty is carried out 
 without delay. Askaris take the prisoners in turn, 
 strip them and lay them flat on the ground, two 
 holding them at the head and two at the feet. I 
 go out to watch that the punishment is properly ad- 
 ministered ; and at my word Hosain raises the kiboko 
 and strikes — twelve from one side and thirteen from 
 the other — with the aptitude gained by long practice 
 and the zeal born of a protracted search for the 
 culprits. The kiboko is a rounded strip of hippo- 
 potamus hide, three feet long, an inch tapering to 
 half-an-inch thick; and in the hands of a master it 
 just fails to draw blood at each stroke : it is the 
 duty of the officer to see that it does so fail. I 
 watch the punishment indifferently, knowing that 
 though I, the white man, should faint before a fourth 
 of it had passed, the two dark scoundrels who are 
 suffering it have a callous hide and unflinching nerves 
 from going naked all their days, and are little dis- 
 turbed by any such small number of stripes. They 
 bear them without a sound or a sigh, except of relief
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 71 
 
 when at the end they rise from the ground to make 
 their way to prison; and I know that though I have 
 made them tolerably penitent for their sins, I have 
 not done them real justice. Still it is a matter for 
 satisfaction, at any rate, that I can give them the 
 feeling of penitence in the positive degree; for there 
 is never any certainty that some ill-balanced humani- 
 tarian may not come to Lunda and try with bland 
 meddling ways to take from me and my fellow-rulers 
 the one means we have, not of ruling, but of creating 
 that respect for the Criminal Code which can be 
 instilled in no other fashion. I can hear the soft- 
 minded whisper, " How shocking ! " " How cruel ! " 
 " Why cannot you rule by kindness, by influence, by 
 force of character?" But I beg most respectfully 
 to submit that no person is fit to speak upon this 
 question, much less to be listened to, who has not 
 been to Africa, striven to avoid using the punish- 
 ment and come reluctantly to the conclusion that 
 it is essential. Let any who desire to argue by all 
 means argue among themselves in seclusion; but let 
 those who are not thus qualified keep silence, at any 
 rate in the market-place. 
 
 The next case is one which I should like to treat 
 in the same way. It is that of an Indian coolie who 
 has also been caught stealing railway material, and 
 has, in addition, fallen with a spade upon the Jema- 
 dar who caught him, making such chaos of his face as 
 is likely to spoil his love affairs for some time to 
 come. I long to chastise him as I chastised the 
 Marai who went before him, for there is no other 
 penalty, in my opinion, which will fit the offence of
 
 72 STATION STUDIES 
 
 so base a man as he. But I may not do so. Half 
 the virtue has gone out of me since I began to 
 pronounce judgment upon an Indian instead of an 
 African. The chair in which I sit may appear to 
 be the same, and the office may show no sign of 
 change to the closest scrutiny, but both are in reality 
 as different as the two sexes from their condition 
 of five minutes ago. Then the chair was that of a 
 magistrate under the African Order in Council, and 
 the office the Judicial Court for the District of Eldala, 
 Criminal Jurisdiction. Now both chair and office 
 have passed under a change and become the symbols 
 of the Indian Penal Code. I who occupy them am 
 an Indian magistrate administering a different law; 
 and if I do but tap the prisoner with the kiboko, 
 the Indian Government will howl like the winds in 
 anger about my ears, and remind me in round terms 
 that its subjects may not be struck or even touched 
 with that useful instrument. 
 
 I do not know my Penal Code. The Eldala copy 
 of it has " not yet arrived ". But this flood of 
 twenty thousand Indian coolies has been poured 
 upon us, who only know African law, language, and 
 methods of government; and judged somehow or 
 other they must be. It would seem on the face of 
 things somewhat unlikely that we can do it with any 
 degree of success, seeing that we have no knowledge 
 of the Indian's law or language, and none of the 
 life-long experience necessary to penetrate his in- 
 trigues. Nor indeed do I suppose that we can very 
 often hit the right nail on the head. But still we 
 are learning; and in criminal cases our difficulties
 
 MY DAY'S WORK ;3 
 
 are not so very great. A neighbour of mine believes 
 in (and often acts on) the principle that all Indians 
 deserve by the laws of nature the highest penalty 
 allowed by the law, if not for the particular offence 
 on the charge-sheet, for others which remain hidden. 
 And I am not sure that he is wrong. Indeed I am 
 convinced that he is right — in equity and justice, if 
 not in strict law. But my conscience stands in the 
 way — it is getting to be a mere net of red-tape these 
 days — and I feel bound to listen to its warning voice. 
 " Six months' hard labour " is all the sentence I dare 
 to pronounce — a poor substitute for the six years 
 which I should like to give, and which prisoner pro- 
 bably deserves. The latter goes out highly relieved, 
 though whining piteously over his fate, to be fastened 
 by an iron collar to the chain-gang which is now to 
 be his home : and I am left in a storm of discontent 
 at my inability to do him real justice. 
 
 I refrain from stabbing anybody, however, though 
 the temptation is strong and there are a score of 
 rusted pens within my reach. I do not even set 
 Manuel to count the " cash in hand," which was a 
 favourite vent for his ill-humour with one of my 
 former chiefs. I sit still, now as a publican at the 
 receipt of custom, and take with all necessary patience 
 dues of many kinds from the Indian merchant who 
 has been waiting since I put on the mitre to pay 
 the penalties of his passion for trade. He disburses 
 without complaint, and I receive his payments with- 
 out comment. When at last he has finished paying, 
 and departed with an equipment of numberless forms 
 and receipts, my virtue, for the first time in my
 
 74 STATION STUDIES 
 
 experience, brings its own reward. For as I sit 
 wondering why Indians were ever created, much less 
 brought into my dominions, the laggard up-mail, 
 which should come to me fortnightly, and is now 
 more than a week overdue, is brought into the office, 
 and I pounce upon the Eldala bag to seize and 
 devour my own share of it. A dozen or more daily 
 papers, a month old but precious; invaluable letters; 
 and by all that is perfect, a book or two tumble out 
 of the bag, positively smelling of London; and — 
 to my shame be it said — I take a greedy sip of more 
 than one item among these before attending to my 
 duty as Postmaster-General, that of checking the 
 mails by the way-bill and sending them once again 
 on their journey to the north. 
 
 This is not a matter which can be disposed of in 
 the twinkling of an eye : three-quarters of an hour 
 indeed is much nearer the time occupied. For first 
 the mail-bags have to be laid out in a row on the 
 grass outside the office and counted — nineteen letter- 
 post and twelve parcel-post. Then Manuel with 
 mighty bustle and importance — assumed because he 
 has sole charge of this affair — announces that four- 
 teen porters will be needed, with a sergeant and five 
 askaris to protect them. I give orders in accordance 
 with his advice, though unable to conceive its reason, 
 there being piping times of peace and the dangers of 
 such a journey no greater than those I incur by 
 sittmg in my office. The orders are shouted from 
 mouth to mouth with alarming commotion and 
 clamour. The fourteen mail-staff men are aroused, 
 mostly from beds of sleep, and hustled before me.
 
 MY DAY'S WORK ;5 
 
 Then they are passed on to Manuel who doles out 
 to each a kibaba {\\ lb.) of flour for each of the 
 six days of the journey. Follow the six warriors, 
 gorgeous and elate in blue uniforms and very proud 
 of having forced their monstrous feet into their re- 
 gulation boots. These I promptly order them to 
 discard, knowing full well that they are merely in- 
 tended for show, and that after a mile or two they 
 will be worn on the back, or anywhere rather than 
 on the feet — an additional burden on the former as 
 they are hopelessly unadaptable to the latter. Much 
 disgust at this. But I will have no grumbling, and 
 send them flying to the barracks to change. Pre- 
 sently they return with injured vanity but freer gait; 
 receive their rifles, with Ave cartridges apiece — and 
 strict orders not to use them on any account 
 except to save the mails or their own unworthy 
 lives — then proceed to get their rations from Manuel. 
 These acquired and stowed away, the caravan is 
 ready to start, and appears in line for my inspec- 
 tion. Everything being found satisfactory, the post- 
 men bind and put their burdens, 60 lbs. each, on their 
 heads, while the soldiers — of precisely the same race, 
 but how far exalted by their uniforms ! — look on 
 at them with supercilious scorn. Hosain puts the 
 question " Jidr hai (Ready) ? " The whole row thun- 
 der out " 'Ndio, bwana" in nerve-breaking chorus. 
 " Hai-ya " — mystic word of exhortation — sounds 
 from Manuel, solo. And out of the gate they file 
 in a frenzy of delight, chattering nineteen to the 
 dozen; the sergeant at their head bearing the way- 
 bill and other papers of moment.
 
 76 STATION STUDIES 
 
 Every man of them will have disposed of his nine 
 pounds of flour by twelve o'clock to-night, and they 
 will travel the remainder of the distance — some forty 
 miles — without any food at all, hoping at the end 
 of their journey to wheedle other three days' rations 
 out of the bwana at that station. But this game is 
 old and threadbare now, though they still play it 
 regularly; and unconsciously they bear its preven- 
 tive with them in the form of a note from me 
 requesting him to let them perish rather than have 
 a fragment of food. This may seem a rigorous step, 
 for it means that they will probably fast for nearly 
 a week; but in reality it will have no worse effect 
 upon them than to stir their lagging limbs to a 
 reasonable speed, and reduce that unnecessary week 
 to some four days. None fly home so quickly as 
 those who have nothing to fly " on ", And thus by 
 hard experience they may learn to restrain their 
 appetites, and some day perhaps to become good 
 servants of the Empire. 
 
 The mails of the Province despatched, I turn to 
 my own, official and private; the latter flrst, in con- 
 fidence that its contents, whatever their nature, must 
 at any rate be better than those " Memos," " Queries " 
 and " Despatches " which Manuel has just piled on 
 my table. Welcome, however, as the English letters 
 prove, the poison of asps is under their tongue. For 
 a bill lurks among them from my agent at the coast 
 town — yes, there are bills even in Central Africa — 
 including the item " Rs. 65, for carriage of six boxes 
 from London to Eldala," which makes me feel as 
 though I had drunk a bottle, nay, a magnum of gall.
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 77 
 
 Why? Because I must pay? Or because the bill 
 is immoderate? Neither. The cost is reasonable 
 enough, and we are allowed plenty of credit in 
 Lunda — safely enough from the tradesman's point 
 of view, since, paradoxical though it may appear, this 
 region of Africa forms a sort of cul-de-sac from the 
 coast town, the latter being its only exit. No, neither 
 the tradesman nor the bill as a whole arouse my 
 wrath, but only the single item of the latter which 
 I have quoted. For this reason. All officials con- 
 nected with the railway have their goods brought 
 from England (in steamers bearing railway material), 
 six thousand miles by sea and three or four hundred 
 by rail, carriage free to their very doors. These 
 doors lie, in some cases, but a few yards from our 
 own (the Civil Officers); but such is the wisdom 
 of the railway committee who grant this exemption 
 that nothing will induce them to extend it to us. 
 So that while railway m-^n can procure all their 
 goods, provisions, etc., at London prices, we have 
 to pay about 50 per cent, extra on those prices for 
 carriage. 
 
 Considerations of economy, no doubt, would be the 
 official reason given for this strangely shabby atti- 
 tude; and it is true enough that the railway manage- 
 ment have to snatch at every anna within their reach 
 to put a better complexion on their balance sheet. 
 But the amount taken from our salaries and returned 
 as Railway receipts cannot surely be so very large as 
 to be essential to the nation's welfare. Steamers 
 continue to sail periodically from England taking 
 railway material (and the railway official's wine and
 
 78 STATION STUDIES 
 
 groceries) free. Why should they not bring ours at 
 the same time? 
 
 Two letters which I find among the official corres- 
 pondence give me more satisfaction. One comes 
 from a Swahili who, by the very fact that he can 
 write, detracts from his fair fame. For to do so he 
 must have been trained at a mission school, and, un- 
 palatable though the fact may be, boys thus trained 
 are not regarded by the general community as models 
 of honesty. "Avoid them," is the first advice tendered 
 to you when you land in Africa; and in this case 
 internal evidence certainly warrants the advice. 
 
 " Sirs (runs the letter), — 
 
 " We are making enquiries of a man named 
 AH bin Yussuf, who was employed by Major Lan- 
 gate as a cook to up country; when Major Langate 
 was killed by the Karai people the man worked under 
 two gentlemen for some time, when this last gentle- 
 man in his return, the poor boy died at Eldala in 
 his hands. His brother and I Francis, wishes very 
 much to know in what Department this poor boy 
 whom we loved much was employed, so as we might 
 claim for his money. The late boy's Christian name 
 is Bartholomew Mjanza, but he is well known by 
 the name of Ali bin Yussuf or " B " short name. 
 
 " This Man Charles Giles is his brother and I 
 Francis stands as their father for I am a head in 
 the mission of Kinsibu. 
 
 " We beg the honour to be, Sir, 
 "Yours faithfully, 
 
 "F. J. Marketer 
 
 "& Charles Giles."
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 79 
 
 I do not answer. Neither Francis nor Charles 
 seems to have any address, and I do not remember, 
 nor see any means of tracing Ali bin Yussuf, even 
 by his "short name". Letter filed and docketed. 
 
 What does the other letter say ? Zounds ! Here 
 is a man who wants me to marry him ! Merciful 
 Powers, am I stuck in the episcopal chair for life? 
 Has the wind, suddenly changing while Proteus was 
 a bishop, fastened him into that character for ever? 
 I feel my head with some anxiety to see whether 
 the mitre is still there, and begin to doubt for a 
 moment whether the day's work has not been too 
 much for me. No, there is no mitre, and I seem to 
 be as sane as usual— perhaps not a very high standard 
 at this time of day. Highly relieved I read the 
 letter, which runs — 
 
 " Great Sir,— 
 
 " I am- now five months very strenuously in affec- 
 tion with an English maiden " (he means Eurasian) 
 "who desires a form of marriage at once and I am 
 agreeable with her. Be pleased then, we pray, to 
 assume office of deacon and join us in holy matri- 
 mony since Traffic Superintendent will not let go 
 from work to coast, and we both thinking that soon 
 is best time urgently wish the solemnity. 
 
 " Ever praying for your long life and prosperity, 
 
 " I am, 
 
 " Pereira 
 
 " (Engine Driver)." 
 
 I daresay " soon " is " best time," and would gladly 
 carry out their wishes; but unhappily my Consular
 
 8o STATION STUDIES 
 
 powers, though long ago applied for, still linger in 
 some dim pigeon-hole at Whitehall. And by marry- 
 ing them without this authority I might bring on 
 myself the malice of many generations of offspring. 
 No, Pereira; if you would have descendants worthy 
 of their sire, you must drive your engine further 
 afield o'er hill and dale to some colleague of mine 
 who is properly empowered, and seek his blessing 
 on your union : mine will be of no value to you 
 or your children. 
 
 I write a letter to this effect. Then, seeing that 
 the day is far spent, I give the order " Piga 'ngoma " 
 once more, whereby the time becomes six o'clock. 
 Manuel, Hosain, Majaliwa, and other satellites take 
 their departure; and with one or two entries in the 
 office diary my day's work comes to an end. 
 
 Down to the lake now for peace and exercise. The 
 sound of the wind rushing in from the east, the 
 fading light, cooler air, and gathering clouds in the 
 sky all show that night is waiting close at hand to 
 take her place and drive the day to other realms. 
 The sun in a last effort to hold his own blazes more 
 fiercely than ever, and burnishes land, water, and sky 
 alike with a sheen of fire. The lake is a basin of 
 flashing gold; the river brings trembling gold to 
 swell it; the brakes that fringe it, the islands that 
 float on it, the plains that sweep to it are all spread 
 with cloth of gold; and the water-lilies close their 
 eyes amid a field of golden leaves. Only a cluster 
 of white egrets shining like a patch of snow among 
 the grass strikes a different note of colour, and they
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 8i 
 
 serve but to point by contrast the splendour of gold 
 around them. 
 
 As I pass along the shore hundreds of water-fowl 
 rise into flight at my approach; the cattle who are 
 being slowly driven home from their pasture stop 
 for a moment to gaze at me; a couple of Marai who 
 are following them come running eagerly to shake 
 hands and exchange a word of greeting. Further 
 on a rank of tall flamingoes are picking their way 
 daintily along the waterside; and determining to 
 make them show me the full wealth of their colour 
 on the wing, I draw near and stop to gaze at them. 
 White to the face where their beaks pass from purple 
 to red ; white to the thighs whence their long legs 
 grow like scarlet reeds ; white to the wing-tips where 
 a faint blush tells of the flame beneath, they move 
 among the shallows like kings in a subject country, 
 disdaining the lesser birds around them. Too proud 
 even to notice, though they cannot help seeing, a 
 human presence, they come stalking towards me with 
 absolute assurance, and with no sign of recognition. 
 I draw near to them — to gain no more respect ; within 
 forty yards, and they only yield so far as to turn 
 a little aside. Even when I am within thirty yards 
 they give way no further than to stop, glance 
 hurriedly at me, and debate whether to fly or stay. 
 I move still nearer, and still they hold their ground. 
 Only at the last minute, when I raise a shout to 
 scare them, do they grudgingly admit their fear and 
 take to flight. Then, with a few long strides to aid 
 them, they glide one by one into the air, trail their legs 
 like a streamer of red behind them, and lay bare the 
 
 6
 
 82 STATION STUDIES 
 
 full breadth of rosy flame beneath their wings. 
 As they rise a flush of red light seems to break 
 across the darkness — to be mirrored back in the calm 
 face of the water. A rustle of flight sounds and 
 dies again as they hasten away, and soon they are 
 passing out of sight far over the lake — fading sparks 
 of fire over a sheet of iron. 
 
 For the lake, which but a few minutes ago was like 
 burnished gold, is all dark as iron now. The sun, 
 dropping below the hills almost with the speed of 
 " slow march," has left but a blush of red in the 
 sky to battle against the invading gloom. Dark- 
 ness swoops down over the land; and without an 
 effort at resistance the daylight fades away. Outlines 
 grow hazy and indistinct. The mountains frown 
 moodily upon a plain of deepening greys. The 
 woods pass out of sight — drowned in their own som- 
 bre hue. The white birds lose their whiteness, and the 
 water its reflections. From camp, boma, and rail- 
 way station lamps begin to glimmer, and from some 
 high ridge among the hills the glare of a forest fire. 
 Hurrying home before it be too late to find the path, 
 I arrive just as the first stars are taking their place in 
 the sky. Soon they shine out in full force, bright, 
 gentle, uncountable. The moon rises slowly from the 
 horizon, struggling beneath a hood of clouds. Dim 
 lights form over plain and mountain. The lake sleeps 
 softly, hidden beneath a quilt of mist. Then the 
 night-sounds — distant bark of fisiy cough of hippo- 
 potami, croak of frogs, hum of moths, and chirp of 
 innumerable cicadas — begin to whisper through the 
 darkness. And at last Night, with all her courtiers —
 
 MY DAY'S WORK 83 
 
 mystery, faintly broken silence, light murmur of the 
 wmd, and cool airs to quell the heat— holds undis- 
 puted sway over the world, to reign there in sheen 
 of silver and moonlit blue till conquered by the 
 brighter glories of the dawn.
 
 84 
 
 HAMIS. 
 
 Hamis bin Asman is the name written on a counter- 
 foil of my cheque-book, and followed by the entry, 
 " Seventy-five rupees ; far too much ". 
 
 There is nothing particularly remarkable in the 
 latter clause ; for the sum was far too much ; and, my 
 counterfoils being my only form of diary, the presence 
 of the comment in such a place is not such an outrage 
 as it may appear to gentlemen of business. No, it 
 is the first part of the entry which causes me some 
 surprise. I had forgotten that the person known to 
 me in common life as " B-O-Y ! " and only when he 
 stood before me for solemn rebuke as " Hamis," ever 
 had a name to distinguish him from the innumerable 
 Hamises of his time. Nor indeed does it accord with 
 one's expectations that the young bucks of his some- 
 what inorganic sphere of society should think it neces- 
 sary to attribute themselves to any parentage in 
 particular. Asman, however, is evidently the person 
 whom Hamis regards as the head of his family ; and 
 it is as the son of Asman — though he always protested 
 when in danger of punishment that I was his father 
 and his mother and all that he had — that I now beg 
 to introduce him. 
 
 He was radiant in white robes when he first came to 
 me to treat for employment — a man of some seventy 
 inches ; trim, clean, dignified, smiling, deferential, alert.
 
 HAMIS 85 
 
 His face shone like a dully polished fireplace. His 
 gait was stately and reminiscent of court life. And 
 his manner said, " Here am I, a man who has had the 
 charge of vast interests in my time and am now dis- 
 inclined to undertake further responsibilities. Never- 
 theless if you have matters of trust requiring really 
 first-class management, are ready to give me sole 
 charge, and can afford — which I don't think you can — 
 to pay me a salary proportionate to my talents, I am 
 open to consider the question of entering your em- 
 ployment." Withal he gave the impression of being 
 an extremely kind and considerate man, anxious not to 
 strike terror into the heart of a new-comer in Africa 
 by an overwhelming display of his talents ; and, 
 though bearing himself with the hauteur of a London 
 butler, he beamed and smiled at me very graciously, 
 as though expressing sympathy with, rather than 
 contempt for, my pitiful inexperience. 
 
 This, as a matter of fact, was even more serious a 
 drawback than he supposed, for I knew no word of 
 Swahili, nor he one of Enghsh, and a chill of fore- 
 boding ran through me as my agent began the 
 negotiations, and I began to realise how far I de- 
 pended on him for my intercourse with Hamis and 
 hence for my peace of mind. 
 
 Haggling, it soon proved, was not to Hamis' taste. 
 He would serve me for twenty-five rupees a month — 
 three months salary prepaid — or not at all. There 
 was, so my second informed me, no possibility of 
 beating him down ; and though neither he nor any 
 man of his race could be worth one half the wage he 
 asked, yet his " chits " (letters of recommendation)
 
 86 STATION STUDIES 
 
 showed him to be of some value — more than could be 
 said for any previous applicant we had come across — 
 and he would probably serve me as adequately as any 
 of his sort. In short, Hamis had the whip hand of 
 me. If I wanted a fellow of any merit whatever I 
 had no choice but to take him at his own excessive 
 valuation. So, full of admiration for his celestial 
 impudence, and at the same time despairing of any 
 better solution of the problem, I tumbled to the 
 bargain, and Hamis became my man. 
 
 To have a man bound to you, however, by laws as 
 stringent as the Feudal, and to know what to do with 
 him when you have got him, are two very different 
 matters. Here was I, by the mere writing of a cheque, 
 placed in possession, body and soul, of a Swahili man 
 named Hamis, of whose antecedents, inclinations, 
 habits, temper, bodily needs and mental character- 
 istics I knew nothing whatever ; and with whom 
 I was totally unable to communicate except by 
 gesture. The soul, indeed, being apparently of 
 trifling weight and extent, might be easily disposed 
 of ; and I think and trust that it was, with as much 
 security as dispatch ; for directly we reached the open 
 street I consigned it solemnly to the care of definite 
 philanthropic institutions ; and from all subsequent 
 observation I gather that they must have kept it in 
 strict seclusion. But the material part of the man, 
 standing motionless by my side, in patient expectation 
 of orders — and doubtless highly amused that I could 
 give none — was harder to manage. For the life of 
 me I could not tell what to do. I had no plans. I 
 had no orders to give. Nor could I have given, had
 
 HAMIS 87 
 
 I had, any. What was to happen ? Fortunately my 
 agent saw the predicament, and suggested that Hamis, 
 like all boys, would demand a pair of boots and change 
 of raiment sooner or later, and I might just as well 
 give in and purchase them at once : it would give us 
 something to do. Hamis' counsel being requested on 
 the point, he exclaimed indignantly that I not only 
 lacked clothes for him, but also many other things 
 without which I should certainly die. If this was 
 really a matter of business; if, that is, I positively 
 meant to go "to up-country," I must be properly 
 provided without delay. 
 
 I noticed with some interest, in the first place, that 
 all the purchases which he recommended were con- 
 nected more or less nearly with his own comfort and 
 convenience ; and in the second, that without ever 
 having entered my house he had an accurate know- 
 ledge of the details of my kit, with all its defects and 
 shortcomings, such as I myself did not possess. It 
 seemed as though there must be some great system 
 of espionage which made known the affairs of all 
 new bwanas to the whole Swahili world. However, I 
 made no remark on the subject, partly because I 
 could not, and partly because there was nothing to 
 be gained thereby, and started submissively to make 
 a tour of shops, Hamis leading the way like a nurse 
 in charge of an infant, and I following meekly with a 
 cheque-book. 
 
 The method of purchase was perhaps not all that 
 would have been looked for by Justinian in a bonus 
 paterfamilias — that sublime model of prudence, for 
 the sight of whom, if one ever existed in the flesh, 
 which I do not believe, I would cheerfully give a
 
 88 STATION STUDIES 
 
 pound of tobacco. It might in fact have been 
 expressly designed as the reverse. For whenever we 
 entered a shop Hamis merely put his hand on the 
 things which attracted his fancy and left me to strike 
 the bargain — with results that must have obviously 
 been suicidal. However, we pursued our business with- 
 out disagreement — how could I possibly disagree with 
 him ? — till the end of the day, when the question arose, 
 which he had plainly kept as a tit-bit to the last, of 
 buying him some boots. 
 
 These, it soon appeared, were the very wine and 
 light of Hamis' existence. Love, a brass watch and 
 chain, sugar, drawing-pins, or a pair of khaki breeches 
 might all be exquisite delights : honey was poetry, 
 and a mirror the subject of sweet dreams ; but all 
 these could be but half-toned joys if the sun did not 
 gild them from above (or rather from below) with his 
 ineffable charm. Boots were the very light of day 
 to his life, and other precious things only gained full 
 value when brightened by their presence. 
 
 The shop, then, where boots were obtainable — 
 there was apparently but one right shop — was no 
 sooner reached than Hamis' eyes began to flash with 
 unnatural brilliancy. He beckoned to me eagerly 
 to enter, and, the anxious feat of winning me inside 
 once accomplished, flew like a bird of prey at some 
 brilliantly polished brown boots which adorned one 
 end of the room. Their size was so diminutive that 
 only the smallest of dandies could have worn them ; 
 and their shape so exquisite that even he must have 
 gone through long and careful training to achieve his 
 purpose. Such a training, I need hardly say, Hamis
 
 HAMIS 89 
 
 had never experienced. He had, on the contrary, 
 eone unshod all his life, and now flourished in the 
 part of his person concerned with the luxuriance of 
 tropical foliage. 
 
 But none of these considerations seemed, in his 
 opinion, to present any hindrance ; and in a moment 
 he was sitting on the ground, carefully trying the 
 boot's sole by his own to see if it were really small 
 enough. Yes, it proved to be just right. The cloudy 
 outhne of his own sole showed up in voluptuous folds 
 all round the arrowy curves of the boot. The heel 
 just reached his heel and the toe came within an inch 
 of his toe. He was satisfied : the size was right : he 
 would wear that boot. 
 
 I was content to watch him for a moment 
 or two as he strained and battled with his new 
 purchase. It was a fresh experience, if a melan- 
 choly one, to watch a black fool emulating the 
 achievements of the white fools I had left behind ; 
 and a source of pleasure to contemplate the Nemesis 
 which would follow his success. But after a moment 
 or two the spectacle began to pall ; and turning away, 
 I searched the shop for a pair that might suit him. 
 Having chosen the largest I could find I informed 
 Hamis summarily, through the interpretation of the 
 shopman, that the pair into which he had forced a few 
 of his toes would not be his. " Let him take them 
 off," I continued — he had by this time, fearful of my 
 intentions, almost succeeded in getting them on — " and 
 try the pair which I had selected for him." 
 
 But I was too late. For at this Hamis not only 
 managed to dispose of his feet finally in the boots.
 
 90 STATION STUDIES 
 
 but actually stood up in them without a sign of pain, 
 and indicated that they fitted him perfectly. Would 
 I be pleased to pay for them now, and complete the 
 transaction ? 
 
 " No," said I, growing impatient ; " the boots do not 
 fit perfectly ; they do not fit at all. Take them off." 
 
 I pointed out to the shopkeeper that only lyddite 
 or some wild shock of emotion could have forced 
 them on to any human foot. Hamis had, no doubt, 
 succeeded owing to a sudden access of fear lest his 
 ambitions should be thwarted. 
 
 But no thought had he of resigning them so easily. 
 When I told him that in my judgment the boots were 
 too small and would not suit him, he leant forward 
 and assured me earnestly that I was wrong. When I 
 pointed to the gigantic pair which I had selected for 
 him and hinted the need of instant obedience, he 
 pretended to take it as a joke, and made towards the 
 door with a smile of appreciation at my wit. When I 
 stamped my foot furiously, indicating wrath to come, 
 he still smiled and bowed, unable to conceive that I 
 was serious. And it was not till I had seized him 
 sharply and pronounced an ultimatum through the 
 agency of the shopman, that the whole horror of his 
 position dawned upon him and he realised that I really 
 meant what I said. 
 
 Then, before there could be any chance of inter- 
 vening, the whole strength of his emotions burst 
 forth in a sea of tears, and simultaneously in such a 
 storm of eloquence as I had never heard before. 
 There was no possibility of checking him. His words 
 gushed out in one continuous torrent ; his eyes shone ;
 
 HAMIS 91 
 
 his voice rose and fell, now in melodious pleading, now 
 in indignant protest ; his chest heaved ; his hands 
 darted about like shooting stars, now held aloft in 
 earnest invocation, now clapped together in angry 
 emphasis, now locked in piteous appeal. And still 
 through all his moods the ardent periods rolled on 
 as though his very life were at stake, and not a simple 
 issue as to the size and shape of his toes. 
 
 Finally, he seemed to remember something, and 
 came to a sudden stop, looking at me with undisguised 
 contempt. It had dawned upon him that I could not 
 understand one word of the language. Pah! What 
 matter ? He would instantly run and fetch his little 
 son, a fellow of parts, who had learnt " Inglesi " from 
 the " mishnis," to speak for him. And there and then 
 he would have started, to race two miles and back 
 regardless of time, had I not arrested him smartly by 
 the arm and put this out of his power. That he 
 should instantly recommence his speech, despite the 
 fact that I could not understand one word of it, was 
 no more than I expected ; and I was quite prepared 
 for his new outbreak of eloquence. But stop it I could 
 not I made several attempts to silence him, without 
 any success, and was finally driven to order that his 
 boots should be removed by force. 
 
 This order, however, so easy to give, was by no 
 means easy to execute. For Hamis had not only to be 
 reduced to subjection ; he had, if we were ever again 
 to know any peace of mind, to be put to silence. And 
 even the latter part of this task proved to be one of 
 some difficulty. For the tide of words still flowed 
 on as rapidly as ever. Remonstrance was useless.
 
 92 STATION STUDIES 
 
 Threats only drove him to take up a safer position 
 behind the counter. Riding-whips seemed to have 
 no effect on him whatsoever. And we began to think 
 that he was really beside himself and would never stop 
 speaking again if he would, or could if he would, when 
 at length, by dint of hard work and perseverance, we 
 managed to drive him, still protesting, against an 
 alcove of biscuit tins which stood at one end of the 
 shop. And the majority of these, falling upon him 
 in an avalanche of angles, so diverted his atten- 
 tion from all other subjects to the dints they made 
 in his head as to stop his flow of ideas. His speech 
 came to an end with a jerk ; and he sank to the 
 ground, silent at last, buried beneath a mausoleum of 
 " Huntley and Palmer's ". 
 
 Here obviously was an ideal opportunity of remov- 
 ing the boots, and, at the same time, teaching him 
 a lesson in obedience. The number of tins that had 
 descended on him was so great as to envelop him 
 entirely but for his feet, and their weight so vast 
 as to make him immovable except by horse-power. 
 So the chance of carrying out what we had to do was 
 altogether an ideal one ; and, directing the shopman 
 to take all necessary steps, I sat down to wait. 
 
 The shopman committed the task to his boy. But 
 it very soon proved to be far too much for him alone, 
 and we prepared to assist him. First, however, we 
 listened for a moment to hear if Hamis had anything 
 to say. Yes, it appeared he had a good deal. A 
 series of muffled sounds issued from beneath his 
 tombstone ; and though from the majority of these 
 I could gather no distinct impression, the shopman
 
 HAMIS 93 
 
 declared that they conveyed an offer of two months' 
 salary and all out-of-pocket expenses if we would 
 only cut the boots off instead of pulling them. 
 
 No, I decided ; this was a kinder fate than Hamis 
 deserved, or could possibly expect, after giving us 
 so much trouble. He had insisted on putting the 
 boots on ; it was our obvious duty to take them off. 
 And take them off we would. So we formed ourselves 
 into a sort of team, the boy pulling at Hamis' feet 
 and we at the boy's ; and at last, aided by a little 
 ditty of encouragement from the shopman, and a deal 
 of hard pulling by all parties, we managed, in spite 
 of occasional sedentary disaster, due to our boy-rope 
 unwisely giving way, to twist and wriggle the boots 
 from Hamis' feet, blown and swollen indeed, but still 
 unburst, and saleable — as a size larger. We won the 
 battle : the victory and the boots remained in our 
 hands. 
 
 Subsequently Hamis was disinterred — a little down- 
 cast but uninjured — and instructed to put on the 
 large pair of boots and come away. Would he do so ? 
 Not he. What.? Wear other boots than those he 
 had tried — a good fit too as they were } Not for any 
 consideration. Nothing would induce him even to 
 try them on. So I did not waste any time attempting 
 to persuade him. I appeased the shopman, urged 
 Hamis into the street ; followed myself ; and we went 
 home, bootless, hot, and surly. 
 
 Perplexing and tempestuous, however, as this ex- 
 perience had proved, it was but play to the difficulties 
 which began to arise when I found myself alone 
 with Hamis, unaided by the willing mediation of
 
 94 STATION STUDIES 
 
 shopkeepers, and not only incapable of telling him 
 what I wanted, or when, or where ; but still worse, 
 unable to tell him when I did not want him. This 
 incapacity, and particularly the last part of it — for 
 he was always on the alert for orders — promised a 
 whole winter of troubles ; and troubles, as I had 
 foreseen, soon began to come. 
 
 They were not caused by any lack of goodwill on 
 Hamis' part : quite the reverse. The tragedy was 
 that nothing could stem the flow of his good inten- 
 tions. I had only, for instance, to leave my lodgings 
 for a few moments to find, on my return, my camp- 
 bedstead carefully folded up in one corner of the 
 room, the mattress and blankets forming a neat roll 
 in another, and any clothes which I had happened to 
 leave about snatched away for ablution. It mattered 
 nothing that I wished to lie down on the bed, use the 
 mattress to encourage my siesta, and change into the 
 clothes : all this lay outside Hamis' view of his duty. 
 If he were beyond the reach of his own criticism he 
 felt himself to be beyond the reach of any; and if I 
 had been able to offer it, he would merely have told 
 me politely that I was mistaken, and gone away laugh- 
 ing. As it was I could not even criticise, except in the 
 physical sense, which without some sort of explana- 
 tion was plainly useless. So the strong current of his 
 zeal had to run on unchecked, and I suffered in silence. 
 
 Buttons flew from me one day to be replaced before 
 the dawn of another in entirely inapposite spots. 
 Flannel shirts fresh almost from the loom were shrunk 
 by frequent washing past all possibility of service. 
 Wet boots were seized upon as I entered my front
 
 HAMIS 95 
 
 door, and dried by such methods as convinced them of 
 the theory of eternal punishment, making them gape 
 in cracks of despair. Everything was carefully taken 
 from the box in which it was bound by all the laws of 
 my packing to remain, or produce endless confusion. 
 And because I had unpacked but two coats, and always 
 had one of them on my back, the remaining one was 
 subjected to such relentless brushing that a hole ap- 
 peared at one of the elbows, where Hamis had en- 
 deavoured by ceaseless persevercince to obhterate 
 the signs of age. 
 
 With all this I bore patiently for some time, particu- 
 larly as I had no choice but to do so, and contented 
 myself with shaking my head and repeating, 
 "Hafana" (which is Swahili for "Not," "No," 
 " None," or any conceivable negative) whenever 
 Hamis did anything wrong, and " 'Ndio (Yes) " if he 
 chanced to do anything right. I thus hoped by a 
 process of elimination to render him inert or at any 
 rate innocuous. And I did indeed attain partial suc- 
 cess ; for though the word " 'Ndio " might have be- 
 come obsolete had it depended solely on my use of it, 
 I managed with frequent use of " Hapana " to reduce 
 him at least to a state of negative subordination ; and 
 by the time we left the coast town for my Station, had 
 him in some sort of control. 
 
 But a whole system of new troubles arose as soon 
 as we reached our permanent home. For now I called 
 upon Hamis to perform a certain daily routine of 
 duties instead of the irregular services which had 
 hitherto been required of him. And to observe my 
 orders in this respect was apparently a feat not only
 
 g6 STATION STUDIES 
 
 contrary to his desires, but literally outside his 
 capacity. The reason of this shortcoming was not 
 that the tasks were arduous or that they were beyond 
 his normal power : it was simply that he had learnt 
 a certain series or round of tasks from some former 
 bwana, and these, having been driven into his head 
 so frequently that he could not forget them, had there 
 taken root to the exclusion of all other ideas and 
 become " Custom ". " Custom " ruled his entire day 
 — and mine. Nothing could fight against it, nothing 
 even check it. In vain did I endeavour to teach him 
 a new system, in vain strove to persuade, to browbeat, 
 to chastise the old man out of him and drive in the 
 new. Nothing would induce him to swerve from his 
 unvarying rule of life ; nor any remonstrance as to 
 the unreason of his actions gain any response but 
 the three words, delivered with a pitiful smile at my 
 ignorance, " It is custom ". 
 
 " Custom," for example, decreed that he should 
 sprinkle water on the verandah at daybreak to lay 
 the dust. It mattered nothing that a flood of rain 
 had already prevailed over its surface and secured it 
 against dust for hours to come ; " custom " still had 
 its way, and the stones were sprinkled according to 
 rule. " Custom " bade him bring me a cup of tea 
 before I rose. I did not want it and told him so, day 
 after day : but weeks passed before I managed to 
 prevent his bringing it. In accordance with " custom " 
 he daily seized my bed, bedding, and all the under- 
 clothing on which he could lay his hands, and spread 
 them on the patch of grass outside the house (or, worse 
 still, on the wall surrounding it) to dry, coram
 
 HAMIS 97 
 
 publico. But custom hardly ever reminded him that 
 if rain fell they would possibly get wet ; and as rain- 
 storms in Africa are apt to resemble waterspouts in 
 volume and April showers in frequency, the chances 
 of my having a dry bed by the evening soon grew to 
 be very small. 
 
 Meals were affected by " custom " no less than sleep. 
 The practice of all former bwanas had apparently been 
 to eat a vast luncheon. My own was to take a very 
 small one. Day after day I threatened Hamis and 
 'Mpishi, who had learned in the same school, with 
 condign penalties — and often carried them out too — 
 if they ever presented me with meat before the even- 
 ing. All in vain. " Custom " was against me. Day 
 by day for more than a month a series of appetising 
 dishes continued to appear ; and when with unchang- 
 ing regularity I sent them away untouched, Hamis only 
 gazed at me with a beautiful sympathy for my failure 
 — ^which must, of course, be due to illness — and 
 brought me still choicer morsels next day. The relief 
 when at last he was forced to conclude that my real 
 reason was sheer stupidity instead of indisposition, and 
 began to leave the room with a smile of scorn for my 
 ineptitude instead of a glance of pity for my maladies, 
 was intense. It meant indeed that my failure to eat 
 everything available had lowered me fifty per cent, 
 in his estimation ; but it was the beginning of the 
 end ; it also meant that he had at last realised a new 
 piece of " custom," and given in to my folly. The new 
 rule struggled and wavered, but at last managed 
 to drive out the old ; and I doubt not that my suc- 
 cessors in the lordship of Hamis have had as great 
 
 7
 
 98 STATION STUDIES 
 
 difficulty in avoiding starvation as I had in escaping 
 excess. 
 
 Dinner in the same way brought its troubles. 
 "Custom" ordained that all bottles of "wini"— I 
 presume my predecessors only drank claret — should 
 be warmed at a distance of three times the length 
 of Hamis' foot — he always measured precisely — from 
 the flames. Who could conceive that any bwana — 
 even one so half-witted as I — could possibly have a 
 new fangled kind of " wini " which did not want 
 warming } The idea was preposterous. " Custom " 
 asserted its authority ; and, in the result, the guests 
 at my first dinner party, who knew me but slightly 
 and were polite in proportion, not only found their 
 port warmed to the temperature of stale afternoon 
 tea ; but as I had neither witnessed the treatment of 
 the wine nor happened to taste it, they had no choice 
 but to " sit tight " and drink it. I never found out 
 my crime till the end of the evening, and of what use 
 were apologies then .-* I was more careful af^er that 
 episode. So was Hamis. 
 
 " Custom," however, still continued to influence my 
 daily life to a terrible extent : and in many matters, 
 it must be owned, I hardly offered any resistance. 
 Thus the daily strain of explaining to Hamis that I 
 required my bath at J A.M. and P.M. and not after 
 lunch — what odd bwanas Hamis had served! — soon 
 proved too great to be continued, and I weakly gave in 
 to the pressure of circumstances and adopted the hour 
 prescribed by " custom ". In the same way the place 
 of the savoury on the menu on " guest-nights " was a 
 casus belli over which I soon ceased to hold my own.
 
 HAMIS 99 
 
 Again and again I gave repeated orders that it 
 should come in its proper turn, not immediately 
 succeeding the soup. But Hamis and 'Mpishi both 
 held it to be an anachronism except in this unseemly 
 order, and I soon gave up the struggle and acquiesced 
 in their traditionary arrangement— which I have now 
 come to regard as the only one suitable to a gentle- 
 man's table. 
 
 Apart from such trivial questions of precedence, 
 however, the whole problem of supply was one of per- 
 petual discomfiture for me ; though I blame myself less 
 for this, since every white man I have ever known has 
 had to brook similar defeat. The reply " 'Naquesha 
 (It is gone, gone bad, passed, finished, deceased) " in- 
 variably given by all boys to all questions about food 
 baffles every enquiry, and places it beyond your power 
 to prove your culprit's guilt. In our case mutton was 
 the bone of contention— in the abstract I mean, though 
 in point of fact it was little more in the concrete— and 
 the almost unearthly speed with which a sheep could 
 pass into oblivion was the cause of innumerable battles 
 royal between me and Hamis. In the majority of 
 these, being conscious of rectitude, I both spoke and 
 acted forcibly, and gained some satisfaction from 
 physical victory. But, on the other hand, I almost 
 mvariably suffered defeat on the actual point at issue, 
 and so had to brook the perpetual annoyance of 
 seemmg in the wrong when I knew that I was really 
 in the right. 
 
 On these occasions the attack would usually be 
 made upon me about the middle of the morning, when 
 I was sitting in the office overwhelmed with work.
 
 100 STATION STUDIES 
 
 Hamis would creep up to the window — he has been 
 seen thus venturing again and again — and sit in the 
 ditch beside it, hidden from my view, till a suitable 
 opportunity arrived for action ; when, for instance, 
 I had disposed of a troublesome law-suit and was once 
 more attending to less worrying affairs. Then he 
 would gradually raise his eyes to the level of the 
 window-sill, watch my face to observe the signs of the 
 times, pop down again if they promised storm, and 
 wait for a few seconds. Up again presently to spy out 
 the land. If it still looked unpropitious, down once 
 more. And if I continued to frown upon the world, 
 he would repeat the process again and again ; until 
 at last there seemed to be a chance of obtaining a 
 favourable hearing. Then, the light on my table 
 growing obscure, I would turn round, and see a black 
 head and shoulders blocking the window. 
 
 " Well, nini (what is it)? " I would ask impatiently. 
 " 'Nyama, bwana (Meat, sir)." 
 
 "'Nyania? Why, you killed a sheep only yester- 
 day : where has that gone to .'' " 
 
 " ^Naqtiesha, bwana" replies Hamis in pleading 
 treble tones. I need not have asked ; and know 
 already that I am a beaten man ; but determining to 
 fight as good a fight as possible, I answer fiercely : — 
 " No, it isn't. You are lying. Go." 
 He does go — but only round the corner. Ten 
 minutes later he again comes to reconnoitre, finds me 
 in a more favourable mood, and after taking careful 
 observations as before, again darkens the window ; and 
 as though I had previously been only prevented from
 
 HAMIS loi 
 
 giving my consent by mischance, enquires in a rapid, 
 business-like tone : — 
 
 " Pigane kondoo ? (Shall I kill the sheep, then ?) " 
 " No," I roar at him. " There ought to be some left 
 from yesterday." 
 
 " Truly, bwana, but it has gone bad (^naquesha)" 
 " No, it hasn't. You have eaten it yourself." 
 " Hapana, bwana, kapana." Hamis is injured in- 
 nocence itself, and more soprano than ever. " It is 
 impossible ; truly, truly, you must not think it 
 possible." 
 
 But I do, and tell him in good set terms that he 
 will get hamsi-assharini if he and 'Mpishi do not 
 cause this day's sheep to last longer. He replies with 
 a shrug of the shoulder and a sublime look of martyr- 
 dom, expressing, " See how unreasonable and harsh 
 this bwana is ! Who can serve with him ? " Then 
 waits in silence for my formal capitulation ; which, as 
 he very well knows, is bound to come. He is right. 
 After thundering a few more threats at him I yield, 
 furious but hopelessly defeated, and he goes away 
 smiling with satisfaction to kill his sheep. 
 
 It must not be concluded that Hamis invariably had 
 the advantage of me in our encounters. I remember 
 one occasion in particular when I had the better of 
 him, and gained an enduring pleasure from my victory 
 which made up for much of the dismay that I con- 
 stantly experienced in our unrecognised but never- 
 ending campaign. I had been out to spend the 
 evening with a friend who was camping close at hand ; 
 and returning home sooner than Hamis expected me, 
 saw, as I drew near the house, a dim light burning in
 
 102 STATION STUDIES 
 
 the dining-room, contrary to my express commands. 
 I crept very carefully to the window, and there beheld 
 a sight which, though disgusting to the eye, had at 
 the same time some compensation to offer to one who 
 lived, as I did^ with the perpetual sense that I was 
 the sport of my household. There, by the mantel- 
 piece, propped against the wall, stood Hamis, a cupful 
 of pounded sugar in one hand and a bottle of whisky 
 in the other, alternately plying himself with food and 
 drink, and oblivious of all but the joy of refreshment. 
 
 I passed silently into the room, took up a suitable 
 position beside him — he was too dazed with happiness 
 to notice my approach — and administered so violent 
 a reproof with my foot, that he not only dropped both 
 bottle and cup and flew with frequent complaints into 
 the night, but also failed to reappear within my sight, 
 hearing, or ken for several days. This was the last 
 occasion on which he stole whisky. 
 
 Sugar, however — and many other convenient 
 luxuries^ as I tardily discovered — were apparently 
 regarded as legitimate spoil ; and their theft, as 
 also that of candles and matches, seemed to be not 
 only tolerated but even encouraged by " custom ". A 
 whole code, indeed, was based upon the eighth com- 
 mandment by this unwritten law, which abhorred some 
 crimes, but allowed others apparently no less per- 
 nicious. " Custom " laid a sacred duty upon every 
 boy not to steal his own master's rupees ; he was 
 bound, on the contrary, to preserve them, with his 
 life if necessary, against all the world. And so strin- 
 gent was this obligation considered that if he detected 
 his own brother or father plundering them he was
 
 HAMIS 103 
 
 bound to deliver the culprit to justice. There were, 
 however, very few forms of property which ranked 
 in the same scale as rupees : almost everything else 
 might be filched from your master without transgress- 
 ing " custom," if only you were careful enough to 
 prevent others from doing the same. As for the pro- 
 perty of other bzvanas, why, all the world were free 
 to take it had they but the skill to do so without 
 detection. 
 
 On the whole, therefore, the laws of " custom " al- 
 lowed Hamis a fairly wide field for peculation ; and, as 
 I subsequently found out, he showed no lack of indus- 
 try in building up his fortunes out of my wardrobe and 
 stores. But all this went on in my ignorance during 
 the greater part of his service with me. Not only for 
 months, for years — the sugar episode unfortunately 
 occurred very late in our period of acquaintance — I 
 lived under the illusion that, however dishonest other 
 boys might be, mine at any rate stood beyond re- 
 proach. It did indeed occur to me from time to time 
 that my store of clothes, handkerchiefs, or boots was 
 not so large as it once had been ; and the presence of 
 lights in the kitchen late at night proved — so I learnt 
 from the experienced — that my candles were being 
 embezzled. But I never had either the time, the 
 evidence, or the inclination to make a thorough inquiry 
 into his peccadilloes, or indeed imagined them to be 
 worthy of serious investigation. The press of other 
 work, the difficulties of obtaining proof, and a happy 
 belief in Hamis' comparative integrity, to which I 
 clung with desperation if without much confidence, 
 combined to prevent my testing him severely ; and I
 
 104 STATION STUDIES 
 
 drifted on, untroubled by serious suspicion, till the 
 date of my departure from the Station came round, 
 and we made ready to leave for the coast town. 
 
 Then indeed we had a day of tribulation and sorrow. 
 I had come to feel something akin to affection for 
 Hamis. Despite all his faults — and these were for the 
 most part shortcomings rather than faults — he ranked 
 above any of the boys I had seen or heard of for 
 cleanliness, industry, and skill. In addition to these 
 he had gained several good qualities either by natural 
 development or from the influence of " custom ". He 
 was always amusing and original, a rogue staving off 
 detection by a bold use of his wits ; and I gained no 
 little pleasure from the daily observation of his fads 
 and fancies, as also from the indefatigable humour and 
 goodwill, the ludicrous optimism, of his temperament. 
 
 It was true that I had discovered him in the act of 
 stealing sugar, and knew that he grew fat on the 
 mutton which I could not eat. But these were venial 
 shortcomings in one of his race ; one expected nothing 
 else of him ; and he could not be supposed to consider 
 as stolen property what his conscience told him were 
 merely perquisites. Altogether, in spite of all his 
 crimes and his perpetual victories over me, I liked my 
 Hamis, and our intercourse usually ran in a groove of 
 jests. 
 
 Judge then of my dismay, when, on the morning of 
 my departure — a time looked upon by Hamis and by 
 all his brethren as schoolboys look upon the last day 
 of term — he appeared before me, not only clad 
 in a waistcoat and socks of mine, but actually 
 flaunting them in the open to the public eye. There
 
 HAMIS 105 
 
 they were ; on his bosom the waistcoat challenging 
 me to my face ; on his feet the socks, two — no, three — 
 pairs, all of different hue. Worst of all, he had so 
 small an opinion of my acumen and so large an idea 
 of his own that he was actually beaming with com- 
 placency over his action ; and seemed to think that my 
 admiration for his appearance would overcome any 
 objection I might have to his crime. 
 
 This impression I lost no time m removing. There 
 was but one course possible in the circumstances — to 
 search Hamis' hut and boxes for further proof of his 
 guilL He was secured temporarily in a chain-gang, 
 lest he should fly from the vengeance which he, no 
 doubt, foresaw. His hut was searched — without result. 
 But his box was brought and opened before the eyes 
 of all men. And there among layer upon Layer of 
 precious draperies the searchers brought to light most 
 copious and damnatory evidence of his guilt. For 
 nestling among stockings and jam-pots, among books 
 and dusters, among napkins, pipes and candles, all of 
 which I recognised to be mine, a whole fortune of 
 stolen property appeared. Rupees were there — I 
 thought these at least had ibeen safe ; collars and 
 collar-studs ; boots and scissors ; biscuits and china ; 
 notepaper and cartridges ; pens and ties. Little parcels 
 of jam were cunningly hidden in the sleeves of shirts 
 Knives and sardine-tins were wrapt in silk handker- 
 chiefs. An old vaseline-jar was filled with quinine 
 and tobacco. Everything that a man could own or 
 wish to own (as well as many things which he could 
 not) was represented there — except soap ; and above 
 all the box was packed, in every spare corner and
 
 io6 STATION STUDIES 
 
 cranny of its capacity, with socks. Not only were 
 the majority of my own there — and that meant a 
 dozen and a half pair — but also a number twice as 
 great of odd, and (to me) unknown socks, which had 
 evidently been filched from other bwanas. Foot-gear 
 without limit seemed to be ensconced in that box, and 
 it became plain that Hamis had not only levied toll 
 upon me — his lawful prey — but had also taken every 
 opportunity of plundering my guests and visitors. 
 
 The search concluded, and the contents of the box 
 laid out in solemn array on a table, there was again 
 but one way open to me. The law had to take its 
 course; the thefts of years to be atoned for. With 
 a good deal of sorrow I tried Hamis with all legal 
 ceremony ; found him defenceless, incapable of giving 
 the slenderest excuse for his evil deeds ; and regret- 
 fully decided to punish him as severely as he deserved. 
 
 Instead of starting on the journey to his well- 
 beloved coast town, for which he had put on all this 
 dazzling raiment, he was sentenced to six months' 
 mipnsonment with hard labour ; and instead of the 
 rapturous joy of handling and spending, in a single 
 day, eighteen months' salary — nearly four hundred 
 bright rupees — he had the pain of seeing the date of 
 that joy indefinitely postponed. His earnings were 
 lessened by a fifth — destined for the Government 
 chest as " Fines Judicial," and by a tenth, which I 
 myself impounded as some compensation for my loss. 
 
 Of your subsequent history, oh Hamis, I know 
 nothing. At the prison door we parted, and never 
 since then have I seen you ; nor shall, I trust, 
 either in this world or the next Your cunning
 
 HAMIS lo; 
 
 is now directed against some other bwana, and I 
 am happily free of the strain of providing against 
 you. But glad as I am that we shall look on 
 each other no more, I yet feel a certain hankering to 
 know more of your history after you left my service — 
 and prison. How you succeeded and how you failed, 
 I would learn, in your long battle against your 
 bwanas ; what thefts of jam and sugar you accom- 
 plished under their changing flags, with or without de- 
 tection ; and which of them you were able to plunder 
 with which particular set of wiles. I would know how 
 " custom " fares with you — has it changed beneath the 
 pressure of time 1 — whether you have ever acquired 
 those ideal boots for which you longed so deeply ; what 
 socks you wear ; and whether, as age creeps over you, 
 your character gains any stability, or on the contrary 
 loses still more of the supple fibre of which it is 
 compact. Many other details of your history I would 
 learn, but never shall, and must resign myself to my 
 ignorance. 
 
 There in prison I leave you, Hamis, with my 
 best wishes for your welfare, and especially for your 
 improvement. May the bwanas who follow me drive 
 you with the rod of iron you so richly merit. May 
 your career be as successful and unsuccessful as it 
 deserves, and your name be honourable among your 
 peers. Through the mist of years I think of you, the 
 same invincible rogue, preying gingerly on the pro- 
 perty in your charge, and gaining week by week a 
 surer grip of your master's affairs. Farewell, my Prince 
 Charming ! I wish you farewell. No pressure of time 
 or circumstance is likely to alter your character, and
 
 io8 STATION STUDIES 
 
 well, for that reason, I am sure you will fare. For, as 
 you were to me in time past, so I am sure you will 
 remain to all who cross your path, till the end of your 
 life — thief and Pharisee, sloven and dandy, laughing 
 philosopher, lord of excuses ; a slave, a courtier, and 
 a stickler for custom ; honest in atoms, the master of 
 your masters, impervious to kindness, unconscious of 
 the lapse of time.
 
 109 
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE. 
 
 Mutiny! Mutiny! Mutiny! Borne on the galloping 
 limbs of native rumour, swift and fearful, silent and 
 inscrutable, the news tore through the land. Village 
 whispered it to village, tribe to tribe, and people to 
 people. Englishmen — traders and railway-men in 
 camp, and officers in lonely Stations — heard it with 
 a laugh and a sneer ; then with doubt and a frown, 
 admitting its probability ; and at last with a grudging 
 conviction of its truth. 
 
 In the end of a sobbing day of the light rains it 
 came to John Lambert, District Officer of 'Mgali, as 
 he sat in his office, his eyes buried in a snow of papers, 
 his mind dimly fixed on a maundering law-suit. Sud- 
 denly the low chatter of the group at his door — Indian 
 traders, Swahili porters, and native tribesmen — 
 fell to a rustle of whispers and then to a nervous 
 silence. He felt the instinct that tidings had come 
 which were to be kept from him, and called sharply for 
 explanations. 
 
 " Orderly !— what's up, eh ? " 
 
 No answer. The silence confirmed his suspicion, 
 and he put the question more sternly. 
 
 " Hassan ! Come here. What's astir .' " 
 
 Hassan came, scared and anxious, affecting surprise, 
 plainly striving to frame an excuse. 
 
 " You called, bwana ? "
 
 no STATION STUDIES 
 
 " You know I did. What is going on ? Out with 
 it. No lies." 
 
 " Nothing, bwana, all is quiet " 
 
 " Don't lie." 
 
 " Truly, bwana, Hassan does not lie. You are his 
 father and his mother and all that he has, and " 
 
 " Shut that. Tell me at once. What's up ? " 
 
 But Hassan was not a man given to telling anything 
 at once if time could be filled up in any other way ; 
 and, his excuses being now ready, he began to pour 
 them forth — an avalanche. 
 
 " By the head of the Prophet, all is quiet. There 
 is nothing astir. Truly, there is no news. Hassan 
 could not lie. It is peace " 
 
 "Out with it." 
 
 " But the news is false. Who can say what it 
 means ? The bwana would learn from others. Nor 
 indeed is there anything to learn. You are my 
 father " 
 
 " Then I'll do my duty as such," said John, and, 
 leaping from his chair, reached for the kiboko that 
 hung on the wall. But before he could grasp it, 
 Hassan, seeing that business was in the air, dropped 
 to his knees, whimpering for mercy, and consented to 
 speak. 
 
 The news, when wrung from him at last in broken 
 sentences, came to this. Three companies of the 
 Soudanese contingent, flicked into discontent by over- 
 work, low pay that never seemed to be paid, and other 
 grievances which might perhaps have been allayed 
 on the spot if, owing to niggardliness at Whitehall, 
 they could not be remedied, had broken into open
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE in 
 
 mutiny. Their officers lay dead, martyrs to this false 
 economy. Well armed and intent on raiding and 
 murder, the mutineers were hastening towards 'Mgali. 
 A few hours' march might bring them in sight. 
 
 The inevitable rider followed in a querulous treble, 
 " Whether this be true or not, Allah knows. But I 
 myself am suddenly ill and think that I need dawa 
 (medicine)." 
 
 " I'm sure you will if you stay here," said John 
 quietly, and again reached towards the wall. But 
 Hassan recovered his health with amazing speed, and 
 flying from the room, became the cause and centre of 
 many anxious questions and laments among the group 
 without the door. 
 
 His master, left alone, reflected for a moment as to 
 his course of action. He had only too good grounds 
 for believing in the rumour, so inevitable had he con- 
 sidered an outbreak of the troops ; and feeling that 
 at any rate it must be partially true, he decided to 
 take provisional measures in case it should prove to be 
 true throughout. Coming to the door he shouted for 
 silence ; then, being obeyed, rattled out his orders. 
 
 " Drive all the Government sheep and donkeys into 
 the boma — no one else to bring any animal in or I'll 
 kill it and him too. Burn down all stalls and huts 
 within a mile of the Station. The Company to 
 parade in marching order as soon as possible. The 
 rest, you Indians and porters and boys, bring your 
 tents, and grub, and beds, and rubbish, and camp 
 inside the walls over there — as far away from the 
 house as possible, mind — and get your food cooked 
 and your fires out before dark. See ? "
 
 112 STATION STUDIES 
 
 The Indians saw — ^^and said nothing, but went in 
 gloom and silence to obey, momentarily expecting 
 death. 
 
 No. 12 A Company, Lunda Rifles, Swahili contin- 
 gent, to the number of one hundred and eight men, 
 also went, quailing and devising methods of escape 
 from the task of doing their duty, which seemed so 
 unpleasantly near. They carried out John's orders 
 with alacrity : then proceeded to don the smart blue 
 uniform trimmed with silver cord which was provided 
 by an all-seeing Government for their use among the 
 swamps and thorny ways of Africa. And there must 
 have been some special virtue either in the blue cloth 
 or the silver cord, which fired their courage and ex- 
 cused the absurd cost of the garments ; for directly 
 their breeches were in place their spirits rose to the 
 point of hope that there would be no battle after all ; 
 and by the time caps, tunics, and brave white belts 
 were added to these nether glories they were con- 
 fident of victory against any odds. Possibly the fool 
 who prescribed the uniform was no fool after all. 
 
 So much for John's dependants and followers. 
 What of his own feelings and attitude } In point of 
 fact these did not differ widely from those of his men : 
 in short, they were almost precisely similar. Like 
 them he was horribly afraid, and like them he required 
 and found a stimulant for his courage. The only 
 difference was that they put on their uniforms and that 
 he drank whisky. 
 
 Let us realise John Lambert : he has hard work 
 before him. 
 
 From his cradle he had been looked upon as a
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 113 
 
 coward. As a child he had disgusted his father and 
 earned continuous bullying from his three brothers 
 by an eternal readiness to weep and unreadiness to 
 fight. As a boy, he had shrunk from the active life 
 of his school, detested cricket, shown funk at football, 
 and been abandoned as a creature too miserable to be 
 worth tormenting. As a youth he had shown himself, 
 whenever occasion offered, devoid by some twist of 
 nature of the ordinary instincts which make men 
 delight in giving for a hard knock a harder. And as 
 a man he had, so far from gaining any of these sterner 
 qualities, lost even the sense that he lacked them 
 through losing the need for displaying them : for he 
 had become without a struggle one of those machines 
 which, being brought daily to the City by omnibus or 
 train, do there sit upon a stool and add columns of 
 figures till their owners please to let them run down 
 cuid return home. In which life — though not neces- 
 sarily as a result of it — he had soon ceased to need, 
 much less to develop, any pluck and vigour of body 
 or mind ; and, gradually losing what little he had 
 of either, had become the butt of the office, a station- 
 ary character, supposed by all who knew him to be 
 unchangeably weak and incapable of progress except 
 along the hum-drum groove in which he plodded. 
 
 Happily the period of his mechanical servitude did 
 not endure very long. After nine years he had the 
 good fortune to meet a woman who saw that he was 
 capable of better things and took enough interest in 
 him to develop them. Her name was Miss Car- 
 penter, a typist and clerk in the same employment 
 as himself — a thorough and plucky woman, but lonely 
 
 8
 
 114 STATION STUDIES 
 
 and craving for sympathy and affection in her dingy 
 life of work and poverty. In John she found what she 
 wanted, and seeing beneath his faulty surface-charac- 
 ter a depth of kindness and warmth which had lain 
 neglected and undeveloped, her interest in him grew 
 into love. This was returned and at last brought 
 about an engagement. The search for more promising 
 avenues of advancement resulted, after much drum- 
 ming and waiting at the gate, in his entering the 
 African Service. But as it was impossible for them 
 to marry on the miserable salary with which he 
 began, they parted — both to work and save money 
 till promotion came and his first leave fell due. 
 Now, after more than three years, this happy time had 
 arrived. His leave-papers lay in his desk. He was 
 to start within eight days, and within forty they would 
 be married. A very fond and constant pair of lovers, 
 they were looking forward with child-hke eagerness 
 to their new life, promising as it did more happiness 
 than either had ever known. 
 
 Wasted and weak with continuous fever John was 
 in no condition at this time to make the most of what 
 small courage he possessed. Physical debility had 
 sapped away his spirit as well as his bodily strength. 
 He was unfit to do his ordinary work, much less to 
 face danger — for the first time in his life. And the 
 terror that came upon him as he heard the news 
 seemed to paralyse all his faculties. He could not 
 think; his one instinct was a longing to leave his 
 Station with all its trouble behind him, and fly to 
 some deep hiding-place in the woods. 
 
 For the moment the stimulus of the position, calhng
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 115 
 
 upon him for instant decision and action, enaJbled him 
 to ignore his fear and give his orders without hesita- 
 tion. But when this had passed, leaving him to reflect 
 coldly on the grim probabilities before him — siege 
 and almost certain death — he felt the impulse return 
 with double force, and he would probably have given 
 way to it had he not ordered his men to stay, and 
 thereby rendered his own flight impossible. From 
 such a step as this there could as a matter of course 
 be no going back. He felt that, hopeless as the 
 prospect seemed, he must face it squarely ; and began 
 to reckon what it meant. 
 
 He had walls, but no men to defend them except 
 the Swahili Company, half apes, under his command. 
 His nearest colleague lived at eighty miles' distance, 
 and help could not be sent even if it could be sent 
 for. Besides the usual properties of a Government 
 Station he had in his charge more than two hundred 
 thousand rupees, under no better protection than the 
 ordinary African " safe " ; a mere box, easily breakable, 
 in the office floor. A few moments of reflection con- 
 vinced him that he had but a slender chance of 
 saving either Station, rupees or his own life. 
 
 Much, however, remained to be done before night- 
 fall, more indeed than he could hope to accomphsh in 
 the time, and soon he roused himself from his gloomy 
 thoughts and went about his duties, hiding his fear 
 beneath a hard savage manner. 
 
 Parade, serving out rifles and ammunition, setting 
 sentries, extinguishing Hghts and fires, and giving 
 the numerous orders necessary for the night occupied 
 him till the sxm had been for three hours below the
 
 ii6 STATION STUDIES 
 
 horizon. Then he hurried through a Hght meal, more 
 whisky than food ; and after it, impelled by the 
 business instinct — the strongest influence in his mind 
 — ^which bade him make all as regular as possible in 
 view of coming disaster, he went to the office and 
 started to bring up to date and round off the Station 
 accounts. 
 
 These, strangely enough, had held a prominent 
 place in his thoughts ever since the news of danger 
 had come : and now his sense of duty, of the things 
 which depended on him, kept him at work adding and 
 re-adding columns of figures, counting and balancing 
 money and stamps, pounds of beads, wire, chain, yards 
 of cloth, the innumerable items known as " trade- 
 goods " — and completing correspondence, law-suits, 
 and other details of business, till the night was half 
 spent and the moon in mid-sky. Then, when at 
 length all the Station affairs stood ready as for a 
 " handing over " to the man who might take his place, 
 he took a last look round the boma — to find all quiet 
 and the sentries on the alert — and giving strict orders 
 that he was to be roused instantly in case of any alcirm 
 and at all events at the first sign of dawn, lay down to 
 make the most of what hours of darkness remained. 
 
 When he woke it was to find not only that the 
 dawn had come and gone, but that he had slept far 
 into the day. The sun was high in the sky. He 
 reahsed with a shock that he must have lain there 
 for more than nine hours. 
 
 He rose with a mutter of threats against his boy, and 
 went out into the verandah to call for him.
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE ii; 
 
 "Hassan!" 
 
 No answer. 
 
 "Hassan!" 
 
 The word pealed round the boma walls and echoed 
 back to him : but still there was no answer. 
 
 He called it again with rising anger — and again, 
 but with no better result. 
 
 Then he shouted in turn for his cook, for his 
 orderly, for the sentries whom he had set, for the 
 sergeant of the Company, and finally for the headman 
 of the Station, a reliable old Somah who seldom failed 
 to be within reach of a call. 
 
 But no one shouted back. Only the laughing 
 echoes of his own voice answered him ; no other 
 sound broke the silence. 
 
 Wild with fury, he moved round the house to a point 
 whence he could scan the whole area of the boma 
 and find one of the culprits on whom to vent his rage. 
 
 But no one was there. The space which he had 
 allotted for the Indians' camp was untenanted. No 
 soldiers stood sentinel at the four corners of the walls. 
 The kitchens showed no smoke or sign of activity. 
 With a shudder he realised what the cover of night 
 and his long sleep had allowed to take place. The 
 Station was deserted. He stood alone. 
 
 If he stayed, then, to attempt any defence, he stayed 
 merely to die. Why should he stay ? 
 
 What could be gained by his doing so, now that 
 no men remained, depending on his example ? The 
 Station and the rupees must be lost whether he 
 stayed or not. Who would be the better for the 
 addition of his death to the record of disaster? In-
 
 Ii8 STATION STUDIES 
 
 numerable reasons for flight crept insidiously into his 
 mind, and but one against it — the feeling that, come 
 what might, his duty called upon him to stay. Even 
 this, the one argument for the braver course, was 
 almost nullified by the certainty that nothing was to 
 be gained by it. He held to it, nevertheless, more out 
 of instinct than reason, feeling vaguely that some 
 resolution of the sort was demanded of him, and con- 
 tinued to debate the question as though both sides of 
 it were equally balanced. 
 
 Which side would have ultimately won his vote, 
 had the decision remained in his hands, it is impossible 
 to say. Fortunately it was taken from him, before 
 many minutes had passed, by circumstances, which not 
 only called upon him for instant action, but also 
 inspired him with a plan too undeniably brilliant to 
 need discussion. For, as he stood there in the 
 verandah, looking gloomily away to the north, over 
 a belt of forest that ran east and west at about a 
 mile's distance from the Station, his eye was suddenly 
 caught by a glint of something bright just where the 
 road came clear of the trees. 
 
 It was only a spark of light, that flashed out in 
 answer to the sun and vanished again too soon for 
 him to study it. But there was no room for doubt as 
 to its meaning. " Bayonets ! " was the word that rose 
 involuntarily to his lips, and he knew at once that 
 the moment had already come for him to decide 
 whether to stay or run. 
 
 A few seconds passed while he hovered between the 
 two courses. The one seemed so easy and obvious ; 
 the other so insane and unlikely to be of any use.
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 119 
 
 But soon all thought of doubt and irresolution was 
 driven away by an inspiration that put the easy pleui 
 out of court and bound him unquestionably to the 
 other. He saw in a flash how he might yet save both 
 the Station and his life and honour by remaining at 
 his post. 
 
 Action followed the thought almost as soon as It was 
 conceived, for there was not a minute to spare. John 
 tore round the corner of the house to the arms and 
 ammunition store, fumbled for a moment with the lock 
 and then wrenched open the door. In ordinary times 
 the rough-hewn wooden racks that stood round the 
 wall would have been well furnished with Martini 
 rifles: but now No. 12 A Company — that Old Guard 
 with the courageous breeches — had taken for their 
 better protection all the rifles of any working capacity 
 belonging to the Station, and none remained but a pile 
 of obsolete Sniders, rusty, war-worn veterans, long 
 ago condemned as useless, which reposed in the racks, 
 as though in hospital, living on the memory of old 
 deeds. 
 
 Were they useless? We shall see. At any rate 
 John does not think so, for he plunges into the dark- 
 ness, gathers up a great bundle of them under each 
 arm and hastens out to the open space before the 
 house. There, while he stands for a moment irreso- 
 lute, thinking out his plan, let us form a clear picture 
 of his position. 
 
 The page before you — allow the ridicule of the 
 idea and pass on — is the boma, an enclosure of four 
 walls, each six feet high, of which the front one (the 
 top of the page) faces westward and measures some
 
 120 STATION STUDIES 
 
 five and twenty yards from end to end, the rest being 
 of proportionate length. In the centre stands the 
 house, with verandah, looking out over the front wall, 
 and behind it other buildings, the stores for food, 
 ammunition and tools. The mutineers, of unknown 
 number — only the glint of a bayonet has yet been 
 seen — are advancing warily from the north-west (to- 
 wards the right-hand top comer of the page), sheltered 
 at present by brush-wood, and likely to remain con- 
 cealed till the very moment of attack. For, at a 
 distance of three hundred yards from the boma, the 
 ground drops suddenly from the level on which it is 
 built, some four hundred feet, to the level over which 
 they are advancing. Thereby a ridge is formed, up 
 which they must climb before they can be seen. Even 
 at its crest they can lie hid among the rocks while 
 pouring their fire into the house. And the latter, 
 being built some feet above the level of the ground, 
 and therefore the only thing visible to them above 
 the boma walls, will naturally be their first target. 
 
 John hesitated for a moment : then proceeded 
 rapidly to organise his defences. These were simple 
 enough in nature, but required all the time he was 
 likely to have for their arrangement ; since it was, 
 above all, essential that they should be concluded 
 before the mutineers advanced near enough to see 
 their character. Time then was the chief need for his 
 design : of all other materials for it he had plenty. 
 
 " Time } " you ask ; " then where are the men, the 
 arms, the ammunition, the reserve force in case of 
 hard pressure, and the thousand and one necessities 
 of a garrison?" The question may easily be an-
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 121 
 
 swered — there were none, and none were needed. 
 One force and one alone was to be present and take 
 the place of all ; namely, Bluff. Bluff was to act as 
 the men, the rifles, the ordnance, the ammunition, 
 the reserve and the etceteras. Old General Bluff, 
 guttural and tempestuous, was to take chief com- 
 mand and carry the matter through if it could be 
 carried through at all. And the task committed to him 
 was not to attempt any resistance to overpowering 
 attacks, but to effect by his own methods that no such 
 attack should be made. In brief, the one chance open 
 to John of saving the day lay in bluffing his enemy 
 out of making an assault : if they fired a single volley, 
 even a single shot, they were likely to guess from the 
 non-return of any fire the nakedness of the defence, 
 and would come, brushing it aside with a laugh, to 
 make what havoc they pleased of the Station. 
 
 Realising all this, he flew about his work, first to 
 the front wall, across the top of which he hurriedly 
 laid a rank of old rifles pointing outwards, at intervals 
 of five feet : then back to the armoury for another load 
 and to the right-hand wall, which was similarly armed : 
 then back again for another company of veterans to 
 thicken the ranks ; again for more, and more, till at 
 length only the left-hand wall and half of the right- 
 hand remained undefended. By this time there was 
 some doubt whether the mutineers would not already 
 have reached a point where they could see him at 
 work; and he hesitated as to the wisdom of a fifth 
 journey. But he decided to risk it, and a few minutes 
 later had a good part of the left-hand wall and some 
 twenty yards more of the right-hand bristling with
 
 122 STATION STUDIES 
 
 rifles ; the whole boma, when thus finished, hinting a 
 fine array of soldiers in waiting behind the walls. 
 
 After settling the last detachment in place, John 
 went to the verandah and strained his eyes once more 
 for a sight of the attacking party, but he could see 
 no movement of man or bayonet to give him any 
 clue, and, assuming that they could not arrive at the 
 top of the ridge for a few moments longer, he sank 
 into a chair to rest, faint and panting with weakness 
 and exhaustion. The whisky bottle, standing on a 
 table beside him, appealed to him once more with 
 its offer of revival and vigour, and he drank from it 
 for a second or two. Then, living intensely again as 
 the spirit set his blood aglow, he realised two things 
 with a clearness that filled him with horror. Firstly, 
 that he was sitting in the most exposed position of 
 the whole boma, and, now that his enemy was so near, 
 might be shot at any moment. Secondly, that what- 
 ever part he was to take in the defence — and he had 
 not an idea what this was to be — he could only hope 
 to maintain it with the aid of one ally — whisky. 
 
 This, the last remnant of his stock of liquor, 
 was already low in the bottle, hardly reaching up 
 to the label, and could not last long. When it 
 failed, what would happen ? How could he hope, in 
 his feeble state of body and mind, to keep up the 
 courage which must be needed, whatever he tried to 
 perform ? He dared not face the grim question, much 
 less attempt to answer it : the fear that he might 
 already be the aim of a hundred rifles excluded all 
 other thought. And, yearning for shelter, he rose from 
 his chair and stepped towards his bedroom, intending
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 123 
 
 there to devise some better plan, under cover of the 
 walls. 
 
 But powers stronger than his mind and feelings 
 were at work that day, and stepped in to make him a 
 hero against his will. Just as he turned, his eye was 
 caught by something, looking like a stone, that moved 
 for an instant along the brow of the ridge and then 
 ducked down out of sight. He divined at once that 
 it was a human head. His enemy had already 
 arrived. And if his plan were to succeed, he must 
 stand where he was, affecting to be waiting in con- 
 fidence for the attack, target to unknown numbers 
 of good marksmen — till they fired. 
 
 For a moment he faltered. The terror cind awful 
 odds of his position appalled him. He stood rigid, 
 dazed in mind and body, barely grasping the danger, 
 unable to stir hand or foot. Soon, however, the wild 
 craving for shelter became irresistible, overwhelming 
 all other feelings, and he started to walk towards his 
 room, his lips quivering and his white face lined with 
 a heavy frown. 
 
 The thoughts of an age seemed to pass through his 
 mind as he took those few steps. They brought him 
 to the door. The moment for decision arrived. The 
 next stride must be forward, or back, into the arena of 
 battle. He took it — a short step forward ; then stood 
 irresolute for a second or two ; then opened the door. 
 
 The white flag went up ? 
 
 No. It was unfurled, but never raised. He did not 
 go in. The turning point came : and he turned it 
 successfully. Either because he saw after all no 
 chance of permanent safety in hiding ; or because he
 
 124 STATION STUDIES 
 
 had a vision of his fiancee, and heroic head-lines bring- 
 ing a blush to her cheek ; or for the reason that more 
 courage was found in him at the test than he had ever 
 shown before, he turned and strolled coolly back to 
 his chair. For the first time in his hfe the man 
 realised himself. And though the terror of death 
 seemed to shoot through and through him like a 
 physical pain, almost forcing him to yield, he fought 
 stubbornly against it and beat it down. Something 
 held : and he stayed. 
 
 A moment or two passed while he leant against a 
 pillar of the verandah trying to steady his thoughts. 
 He could not quite realise what he was doing. The 
 mind would not take in such a novelty as danger 
 without an effort. But this state of paralysis lasted 
 but a few seconds. Then there rushed upon him with 
 all-conquering speed, that strange thrill of excitement 
 and extra force, the joy of battle, which sets the 
 runner, the oarsman, the lancer aglow as they dash 
 to their work, lifting them above themselves to a sense 
 of superhuman might of nerve and muscle. He felt 
 his spirit fanned to a flame of strength. He rose 
 above his fears, and revelled in a glory of assurance 
 and determination. Scorning all shelter, and reckless 
 of danger, he began to pace with a confident gait 
 to and fro along the verandah, casting occasional 
 glances over the plain as he went, or making a 
 gesture of command to his imaginary men, as though 
 waiting coolly for his enemy to come. 
 
 A minute or two passed ; and still he was brimming 
 with self-reliance and courage. What a splendid 
 fellow he thought himself as he strode to and fro!
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 125 
 
 Every second might be his last, and yet he never 
 flinched or wavered in his walk. The danger might be 
 overwhelming: but he would not give in. He had 
 the honour of England to guard, and it should not 
 suffer through his default. 
 
 There was much of the stagey in these thoughts; 
 and he bitterly regretted the lack of an audience to see 
 and admire him ; though gaining no Hght satisfaction 
 from the certainty that his deed would echo through 
 the newspapers. But poor as the ideas might be, 
 they helped him to keep at his work, and he did it the 
 more staunchly for their aid. To and fro, to and 
 fro he walked. The minutes passed, and still he kept 
 on, bravely, and conscious of his bravery. 
 
 But this mood of confidence could not endure for 
 ever : and soon a feeling of uneasiness began to creep 
 over him. Why, he reflected, did not his enemies 
 make some sign ^ What was the reason for this long 
 w,ait ? He had looked for something decisive to 
 happen almost immediately. They must be in posi- 
 tion and ready by now. Why did they not attack or 
 make some movement.^ 
 
 He stopped ajid took a long look round the land in 
 front of the doma, hoping to see something that would 
 tell him of their movements. But there was no stir 
 or sign of action within his view. Nothing met 
 his eye but the splendid face of Nature — tawny 
 lights above, plain and bush and hills below, 
 blended beauty of forest and mountain in the 
 fading distance, and over all the glare and lustre of 
 the sun. He continued his walk, feeling annoyance 
 almost as strongly as anxiety. It seemed such an
 
 126 STATION STUDIES 
 
 aggravating and ignominious task to be waiting there, 
 inactive, when he had made up his mind for either 
 death or glory within five minutes. He had not fore- 
 seen the possibility of a long wait ; and even now it 
 did not occur to him as an idea that need be seriously 
 entertained. The plunge into action, he felt sure, 
 must come within a few minutes. 
 
 But it did not come. The minutes passed : and 
 nothing happened. 
 
 Plainly this strain of idle waiting could not be en- 
 dured for long without having its effects. And all 
 too soon they came. He began to feel the possibility 
 that he had been wrong. From a mood of irritated 
 impatience he passed into a deeper one of suspicion 
 that this period of inaction might be destined to 
 endure some time, perhaps for twenty minutes or so 
 — he would not admit that it could be more. And the 
 thought was strangely abhorrent to him, for the reason 
 that it indicated the most probable course of events. 
 He thrust it out of his mind at once, though it was 
 only by an effort, which he could not but feel, though 
 he would not confess, that he managed to do so. 
 
 Gradually the effort grew harder and harder. He 
 had to admit to himself that this contingency, which 
 ten minutes ago seemed so improbable, was a pos- 
 sibility with which he might have to reckon. As time 
 passed, still without event, the admission became a 
 conviction which, whether he liked it or no, gathered 
 more and more force in his mind. And at last, 
 despite all he could do to oppose it and deny its 
 grounds, he had to admit that it had conquered. The 
 nettle had to be grasped. The plain facts stood
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 12; 
 
 before him in stern reality. He had to recognise that 
 his task might and probably would be, not to die 
 on the spur of the moment, but to stay where he was, 
 target to an unknown number of rifles, helpless, inac- 
 tive, and ignorant what each minute might have in 
 store for him, till the end came. And what would the 
 end be ? When might he expect any rehef from the 
 strain ? Possibly not for hours to come. It might 
 even last till night fell, bringing with it dangers still 
 more mysterious than those of the day. 
 
 All the spirit went out of him with a rush as he 
 grasped and brought himself to face the grim horror 
 of his position. It was all so different from the 
 picture he had imagined, so poor and prosaic beside 
 the dreams of heroic action and glory which he had 
 conceived. There was nothing in it to inspire, nothing 
 to keep alive the earlier emotional sense which had 
 fired him, that he was upon a deed of heroism, likely, 
 whether successful or not, to make him famous. He 
 sat down in a chair at one end of the verandah, over- 
 whelmed with gloom. The glow had passed out of 
 his brain, leaving him no hope, no warmth, nothing 
 but cold ashes of thought, the full, chilly realisation of 
 the facts. He strove again to put a mist between 
 himself and them ; to think that he might have exag- 
 gerated the danger altogether ; that the men might 
 only wish to pillage without doing murder ; that his 
 scheme might already have succeeded and his enemies 
 have taken flight ; or that help might yet come and 
 relieve him. But no twist or turn of thought availed 
 to give him any comfort or encouragement. The 
 surest probability was that they were merely creeping
 
 128 STATION STUDIES 
 
 round under cover of the ridge to reconnoitre, or 
 lengthen their line of fire. There was not a doubt 
 that his peril was great. How great, how immediate, 
 and how long it might continue he could not hope to 
 know till the end came. Nor — and this was the most 
 maddening thought — could he do anything to oppose 
 or meet it half way : he could only sit and wait, with- 
 out stirring, for its development, praying that this 
 might be speedy. 
 
 The moments passed — ten — fifteen — twenty — thirty 
 — ^and nothing happened. From above the sun 
 frowned down upon him in joyous pride of strength, 
 savagely indifferent to his trouble, seeming, as he 
 thought, to be centring its power upon the spot where 
 he sat ; burning his brain to feverish giddiness ; parch- 
 ing his throat ; and bringing streams of perspiration 
 out upon his body. He tried to dismiss his anxiety, 
 to divert his thoughts from the danger by studying the 
 movements of a little green lizard that hopped and 
 ran among the rifles on the wall. But the effort, 
 half-consciously suggested by stories of adventure, was 
 unnatural and futile : he knew that nothing could 
 avail to shut out or even lessen his fear. 
 
 Again and again he looked and listened for some 
 hint of his enemies' intention, but always in vain. 
 No sound broke the quiet of the afternoon ; all winds 
 were at peace ; nothing stirred, nothing happened, no 
 sign of man's presence met his eye. And when he 
 scanned the great expanse before him, it was only to 
 see the changing lights come and go in stately pageant 
 over plain, valley, and mountain ; only to be mocked 
 by a distant forest fire, the smoke of which, rising into
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 129 
 
 the motionless air, seemed to taunt him with its sense 
 of peace and security from trouble. 
 
 Harder and harder grew his task. The suspense, 
 the terror, the craving for human companionship, and 
 the feeling that at any moment a hundred rifles might 
 crash out their message of death told terribly on his 
 nerve. Time after time he made up his mind that if 
 relief did not come within the minute he must give in, 
 and time after time he gripped his faculties for the 
 trial and forced himself to stay. For long he bore 
 the strain and strove to keep down his fears. For 
 long he succeeded and crushed them as they came. 
 But at last a feeling grew upon him that his power of 
 endurance was exhausted, and that he literally could 
 not continue without rehef. 
 
 Of this there was only one form procurable : 
 namely — whisky. The bottle stood on a table at the 
 other end of the verandah. Dare he rise to fetch it ? 
 
 Any movement seemed to him likely to provoke the 
 mutineers' fire, and therefore a danger almost too 
 grave to be faced. But the greater fear proved too 
 strong for the less. He felt that he could not go on 
 for another moment without some aid, and at last he 
 rose and walked, trembling, but with well-acted non- 
 chalance, along the verandah to the table. 
 
 Barely two inches' depth of the spirit remained in the 
 bottle, and this was warm, almost hot, through stand- 
 ing in the full glare of the sun. But it was whisky ; 
 it was life ! It would give him courage, hope, perhaps 
 oblivion, at least temporary relief. He raised the 
 bottle to his mouth and gulped at it eagerly till it was 
 dry. 
 
 9
 
 130 STATION STUDIES 
 
 Ah, how it brought the fire into his blood and 
 spurred his courage! He thanked the gods that he 
 was a light drinker, and so ill as to be easily affected. 
 Danger ! What of danger now ? Who was he to run 
 before the riff-raff of a native Company ? No, no ; 
 that little dose of fighting powder was all that he re- 
 quired. He was a soldier now, a fighter, a hero, a 
 conqueror, a man ! 
 
 He returned to his chair with flushed face, mind 
 stupidly elate, and jaunty walk. For a moment he 
 had succeeded. The sense of realities had gone from 
 him. The spirit, working more and more fiercely in 
 his brain, gave him power to forget and to imagine. 
 He lost the feeling of fear and began once more to 
 think, in feverish bliss, of the wonderful head-lines 
 which would celebrate his deed. " Splendid exploit by 
 a British Official." " Saves his Station by bluff." " A 
 clever ruse." " Probable reward by the Government.** 
 " A testimonial suggested " — such were the foolish 
 flotsam and jetsam that came and went through his 
 mind, washed to and fro by turgid imagination, 
 shutting out lall other thought and feeling. And they 
 made him happy, happier than at any other moment 
 of the afternoon ; for he believed and was able to lose 
 himself in his dreams, and under their spell to escape 
 his fear. 
 
 But the illusion, after lasting its natural term, 
 passed ; leaving in its place a gloom of intensity and 
 depth proportionate to the delight that had gone 
 before. The fires waned, the glow faded away ; and 
 despondency, swooping upon him like a black storm- 
 cloud, seemed to choke him as he stood. Swiftly
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 131 
 
 once more the awful horrors of his position — the fear, 
 the long waiting, the uncertainty, the solitude which 
 was no solitude — rolled down like a fog and oppressed 
 him with their ghastly meaning. They seemed to 
 suffocate him, to chill every faculty to death. Misery 
 grew upon misery : the strain tightened ; the craving 
 for any issue, death itself rather than uncertainty, 
 became more and more sharp and insatiable. 
 
 But nothing lightened his suffering. Calmly and 
 without event the slow afternoon crept on, warm and 
 smiling, as it were, and yet a rack tearing him fibre 
 from fibre, creaking with laughter at his pains. No 
 sign or sound of movement came to comfort him, no 
 message of hope or whisper of possible safety brought 
 him consolation. Nothing stirred ; nothing happened ; 
 the world seemed empty of the human race. 
 
 Nothing ? Were the hours altogether still and 
 eventless ? 
 
 No. One incident came, late in the afternoon, that 
 gave him a moment of respite from the torment of 
 uncertainty ; but only to add certainty to his fear, 
 and destroy the faint hope which he had tried to 
 nourish that he might have exaggerated or even 
 imagined the danger. 
 
 As he sat there, his attention was suddenly caught 
 by a few rock rabbits, which, from feeding quietly near 
 the brow of the ridge to his left, started to scuttle for 
 their lives towards the doma wall. This was not in 
 the direction of their holes, which, he noticed, they 
 only sought after making a semi-circuit towards him ; 
 and the inference, only too obvious, was, that they were 
 flying before some foe who had suddenly appeared,
 
 132 STATION STUDIES 
 
 climbing up the ridge. It was but a hint, but there 
 was only one possible way of reading it. The 
 mutineers were still prowling near him, probably ex- 
 tending their line of fire. Death still sat outside the 
 door waiting for a suitable moment to open it eind 
 strike him down. 
 
 This last realisation of the danger which still 
 threatened him completed his despair. He knew now 
 that there could be no hope for him, and strove to 
 resign himself to death, convinced that it could only 
 be a question of time. But, try as he would to think 
 of it calmly, and gain comfort from the thought that he 
 could at least die assured of fame ; the passion of pro- 
 test against Fate and the craving for life gnawed at 
 his heart as acutely as ever, excluding all thought 
 of calm compliance with her will. He was seized, 
 on the contrary, with a bitter sense of her injustice and 
 the cruelty under which he laboured. The causes of 
 his distress seemed to have been so unnecessary, so 
 easily avoidable, so entirely the fault of others. What 
 man of any tact or discretion, he thought with burning 
 anger, could have failed to see that Soudanese troops 
 could not be trifled with ? A single moment's at- 
 tention to their grievances would have conciliated 
 them ; a word at the right time would have made all 
 the difference between obedience and revolt, between 
 peace and disaster, between life and death to him. 
 
 And because, as he angrily presumed, no such word 
 had been spoken, and the blunder, so easy to avoid, had 
 been unpardonably made ; he, a civilian, whose task 
 it was to live peacefully doing the work of his Station, 
 was doomed to die. His mind seethed with anger,
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 133 
 
 passion to be revenged, remonstrance against his fate 
 and the men who had caused it. Nor did any sympathy 
 with their disaster balance and mitigate his rage. The 
 hermit's Hfe of a lonely Station, morbid and unhealthy 
 as it had been in his case, had so far developed the 
 individual in him and extinguished the social as to 
 stunt the growth of much esprit-de-corps. In happier 
 circumstances he would no doubt, like other men, have 
 plunged into any work, however alien, when emergency 
 called for a pull together. But as it was, the only 
 thought of others that entered his mind was a desire to 
 be revenged on them, and his most prominent feeling 
 anger at his inability to do so. 
 
 Judge him not too harshly. His life had given him 
 little cause to love his fellow-men. If his thought 
 of them was mean, his action was not. Few could 
 have had a harder task than he to stay at his post in 
 such danger. He stayed. 
 
 A happier time arrived for him when at last he 
 became too numbed by the constant strain to feel it 
 acutely, and passed into that state of indifference to 
 life and death which men often experience after going 
 through some hours of danger. Fortunately this 
 condition of mind endured, and overcame him so com- 
 pletely as almost to shut out perception of his sur- 
 roundings. No change or movement of the elements 
 attracted his attention. The sun sank to the west 
 amidst a cloud of blushes, and drove the shadows from 
 the wall right up to his feet without gaining his notice. 
 The lights grew weaker and rosier, and the wind 
 began to whisper, but he never saw that the day was 
 beginning to fail. Happy in insensibility, he sat on,
 
 134 STATION STUDIES 
 
 dazed and rigid with the long strain, and dead to all 
 that went on around him. Time passed without his 
 knowledge : he was barely conscious of existence. 
 
 Not till plain tokens — the gathering gloom and chill 
 in the air — came to tell him distinctly of night's ap- 
 proach did he realise what had happened — that the 
 day had worn to its close and his ordeal was almost 
 at an end. Then he woke — to the old anxiety and 
 tingling fear indeed, but now to something more — 
 to hope, a feeling which he was almost afraid to con- 
 template ; but which, strange as it was to him, he had 
 obviously better grounds for entertaining now than 
 before. About ten minutes, he calculated, remained 
 before darkness would completely blot out the scene. 
 In that ten minutes what would happen ? Had he 
 really succeeded in preventing the attack, and saving 
 his hfe and the Station ? Or was his enemy still 
 lurking in wait for him, determined as ever upon his 
 death ? The latter seemed impossible. The mutineers 
 would surely not have waited so long to take action 
 only in the last moments of the day. There was some- 
 thing absurd in the thought that he had endured so 
 much only to die at the end of it all. They must 
 have gone ; and yet — they might merely be waiting 
 for the cover of night to make their attack. He 
 grasped feverishly at the brighter forecast and strove 
 to believe in it, but with scanty success. When coldly 
 analysed it seemed no more probable than the 
 gloomier one. He began to think with an access of 
 his old despair that his position had in no way 
 improved. 
 
 But this phase did not last for long. Hope came
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 135 
 
 leaping into his mind with a vigour and spirit which 
 would not be denied and seemed to insist that it was 
 based on reality. The sense that good news was in 
 the air took possession of him. He felt the joy of 
 battle once more, and thrust down his fears. Courage 
 came to him with the passing of the minutes; and 
 before long he made up his mind to fling the challenge 
 once for all to his enemies, and ascertain what he had 
 to anticipate during the night. 
 
 With this end in view, though it was an impulse 
 that he obeyed rather than a deliberate inten- 
 tion, for he had no definite plan, he rose from his 
 chair and began to scan the plain before him in the 
 hope of seeing some indication of his enemies' pre- 
 sence. Right and left he peered through the gathering 
 darkness — only to find it, at first, still and featureless 
 as ever. But after a minute or two a glint of hope 
 came into his eye, and a second later he was trembling 
 with excitement. For there, over the road, which ran 
 like a brown furrow across the green surface of the 
 plain, a little cloud of dust was rising — rising and 
 travelling away, now at some two miles' distance 
 towards the south : and it meant — what might it not, 
 must it not, mean ? 
 
 Unable to believe in such good fortune, he rushed 
 into the house for his field-glasses, hurried out again, 
 and put them with quivering fingers to his eyes. 
 
 Yes, he was right. One glance was enough to 
 show him that he had won the day. The great 
 reward of his heroism had come. He saw all and 
 more than all that he had ever dared to hope. The 
 dust was caused by a straggling group of khaki-clad
 
 136 STATION STUDIES 
 
 men — a hundred and fifty at least, he thought — who 
 were hurrying away, with many a backward glance 
 at the boma, evidently in full flight and fearing 
 pursuit. 
 
 A torrent of thankfulness and relief poured into his 
 soul as he saw, and grasped, and looked again to 
 certify, the golden evidence of his success. He 
 burned with the joy of the man who has won 
 against great odds, seeing his difficulties to the full, 
 and knowing what it has cost to face and overcome 
 them. He felt that he had devised a great scheme, 
 risked a great danger and won a great victory. He 
 had won it, who was known and knew himself only as 
 a coward and weakling. No one should ever think 
 thus of him again. He had done something. The 
 grit and good in him had come at last to the surface. 
 He felt that he was a man. 
 
 So, somewhat theatrically, and with a glow of pride 
 and self-approval — pardonable perhaps in the circum- 
 stances — he revelled in the triumph of his scheme. 
 An ecstasy of pleasure came to him as deep and vivid 
 as his misery of the last few hours. He took a second 
 and last glance at his enemies, now almost hidden by 
 the quick fall of night, and satisfied himself that their 
 flight continued. Then, passing into the house, he 
 began to satisfy the hunger of which he now for the 
 first time became keenly conscious. 
 
 The craving for sleep, however, very soon over- 
 powered all other feelings ; and faint with heat and 
 fatigue he left the table for his bedroom, and flinging 
 off his clothes, threw himself on his bed, naked but 
 for a pyjama jacket, and carelessly indifferent to the
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 13; 
 
 risk of fever. A few moments passed while he 
 thought once more over the dreads and glories of the 
 day ; then, spent with exhaustion, he turned on his 
 side and sank into a deep sleep. 
 
 Three hours passed, four hours, five, and still he 
 slumbered on, untroubled by dreams, tranquil as the 
 night around him. Then towards midnight, when 
 the moon had come to her full power and all the world 
 lay at rest beneath a coverlet of silver haze, something 
 seemed to break into his sleep and scatter it into a 
 hundred flying dreams, all darkened by a sense of 
 coming disaster. A dense gloom rolled over him, 
 threatening, as he thought, a frightful danger which 
 it hid from his sight. He strove to penetrate the 
 thick veils of fog, but strove in vain. They clung 
 round him inexorably, blinding and choking him till 
 he gasped for breath ; then, rising suddenly, dissolved 
 into a throng of spectres, some huge as mountains, 
 others tiny as moths, which flitted in uncountable 
 number about his bed. He tried to dismiss them from 
 his mind, to ignore them, to scatter them ; but on and 
 on they came, crowding faster and faster through the 
 doors and windows ; now rising from the ground ; 
 now gliding down with a rustle of wings from the 
 roof ; now creeping through chinks of the wall, now 
 wriggling along the floor in the form of snakes that 
 became bayonets as they drew near. " Shut them 
 out, shut them out," cried a voice, " they are death and 
 the press-gang of hell," and, the dream growing wilder 
 and wilder, he ran to obey, banging doors and shutters 
 and driving home bolts and locks, till it seemed as
 
 138 STATION STUDIES 
 
 though the room must be impenetrable and he could 
 sleep without fear of disturbance. 
 
 But there was no peace in store for him. Half 
 believing that he had beaten them, his sleep became 
 calm, but only to be broken again almost at once. He 
 dreamed that the room was once more thickly peopled 
 with ghosts ; and strive as he would he could not keep 
 them out. Through chinks of the doors and windows, 
 through the mortar-filled crevices of the walls, 
 through the very stones themselves they swept on 
 and would not be checked. Hammer and build, strike 
 and stamp, fight against them as he might, he could 
 not keep them back. Weapons went through them, 
 walls would not stop them, closed doors and windows 
 could not panel them out. Swift and evasive as the 
 winds, they rushed on in ever-gathering hordes : until 
 at last, when they seemed to choke the whole room, 
 they ceased to move, and mustering in vague ranks 
 about him, began to whisper some low chant. From 
 a whisper it grew to a moan, from a moan to a thunder 
 of wailing. Then suddenly it dropped to silence — a 
 silence that seemed to portend imminent death. A 
 freezing air chilled him to the bone. He had to gasp 
 and struggle for his breath. And then, all at once, 
 his surroundings faded into space, and he woke with a 
 start — to realise that he had been wandering in 
 dreams. 
 
 " Thank God, it was only a dream," he thought, as 
 his mind stumbled back to realities ; then, " Fever 
 again. Cold — pitch dark. I must have quinine. 
 Where are the matches ? " 
 
 He reached for them upon a table that stood by
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 139 
 
 his bed, failed to find any, and began to debate 
 whether he would not wait till morning for the 
 medicine. But the cold deciding him against this 
 course, he prepared to rise, and was in the act of doing 
 so, when a sound broke upon his ears that chilled him 
 through and through with fear — the sound as he 
 thought of men's muffled breathing. 
 
 In the room ? And real ? He held his breath and 
 listened intently, stilling all sound except the thump- 
 ing of his heart. It seemed so. And yet how could it 
 be ? No one could have come in without his know- 
 ledge. Nor was there any one to come. No, no, the 
 impression was absurd, a mere relic of his dream which 
 the brain had not yet thrown out. Give it a moment 
 and it would pass. He waited, to make sure that his 
 brain was clear, then listened again more intently than 
 ever. 
 
 The sound still went on. 
 
 Quivering from head to foot, he gave himself 
 another moment or two, and listened once more, striv- 
 ing to believe that he had been mistaken. 
 
 No, there was no doubt about it. The room was 
 full of a faint noise, unmistakably caused by muffled 
 breathing. And the cold was due to a draught from 
 the door, standing open ! 
 
 Light, light ! Anything now for light. He rose as 
 noiselessly as possible, and was in the act of sitting up 
 to fetch some matches from the mantelpiece, when 
 suddenly some one moved by his bed, sought his 
 face in the darkness, gripped him over the mouth and 
 hurled him on his back. He uttered a wild scream of 
 terror and tried to start up, but found that he was
 
 140 STATION STUDIES 
 
 powerless, his head firmly held, his mouth stuffed with 
 a dirty cloth. 
 
 Mad with the panic of coming death he struggled 
 and fought with superhuman power to rise, only to 
 find every limb pinned fast by invisible hands to the 
 bed. He strove to break away ; tossed, twisted, and 
 plunged to wrench himself free ; got one arm loose 
 and for a moment had a ray of hope, for his fist 
 crashed into some invisible mouth and he heard its 
 owner curse as he staggered back. But it was only for 
 a moment. Soon he was down again and past all 
 hope of escape, for he was irresistibly held at every 
 point, and half smothered beneath the weight of many 
 bodies. 
 
 Another moment passed — a moment of faintness 
 and desperate exhaustion. Then the silence of his 
 unseen enemy was broken by a whispered order. 
 Some one moved, made a slight noise as though 
 picking a rifle from the ground, and came back to his 
 bedside. The sharp point of a bayonet touched his leg, 
 groped its way up ; drew back for one ghastly second ; 
 then lunged forward with a furious drive. And the 
 next moment John Lambert, coward and hero, newly 
 welded into a man, with all the better part of his life 
 to come and the love and happiness for which he had 
 longed almost within his touch, lay writhing and 
 sobbing in the agonies of death. His ordeal was at 
 an end. He had played his part A bolt in the Great 
 Design had been driven to its place. 
 
 Miss Carpenter sat quietly at home in a small 
 bed-sitting room in London, reading his latest letters,
 
 A COWARD— AND HIS COURAGE 141 
 
 and thinking with a deep joy of the happiness which 
 they were soon to share. Now, after three years, her 
 long wait was almost over. Only forty days had to 
 be crossed off the calendar before they would meet. 
 Only forty days!
 
 142 
 
 SHOOTING. 
 
 To wake at dawn with the glad sense that for once 
 in seven days no moment is due to the ordering of 
 accounts, the chastening of black men, or the receipt 
 of custom; to don sere clothes, worn and colourless 
 with age and many crawl ings on the plain : to find 
 in the dim light five muffled figures waiting in 
 silence for their orders; to hand them out their bur- 
 dens, gun to one, rifle to another— with minatory 
 instructions not to carry them, as all Swahilis will, 
 with the butt thrown over the shoulder and a bend- 
 ing strain on the barrel — to the rest, luncheon, v^'ater- 
 bottle, camera, field-glasses and cartridges; to send 
 them on their slow way to the starting-point of the 
 day's sport; to breakfast with the joy of freedom 
 from work, and ride away while the sun is still cool 
 and every blade of grass is gemmed with dew — all 
 these are doings of great delight to heart, brain and 
 body, bracing them with the joy of exercise, holiday 
 and sport, soothing and healing the tired places of 
 the mind. 
 
 The morning sky shines clearly, but without un- 
 due heat, as I finish breakfast and stroll out to find 
 my pony waiting at the door in charge of Hamis, 
 splendidly apparelled to celebrate this red-letter day. 
 Before the sun has parched all freshness from the 
 earth and air I am off and away to join the bearers
 
 SHOOTING 143 
 
 at the limits of the Reserve — a circle of four and 
 a-half miles round this, as round all other Stations, 
 within which by a malignant, unreasonable law no 
 gun may be fired. I pass a herd of gazelle, a jackal 
 or two, numberless geese who rise into flight at my 
 approach, a few fisi stealthily trotting away before me 
 with a backward glance of fear, and a host of egrets 
 fluttering from knoll to knoll to gather their food 
 among the deep grass of the marshes. Hamis walks 
 behind me, his god- like dignity more pronounced 
 than ever to-day ; for has he not the charge of bearing 
 my rifle when we begin the chase ? And besides that 
 the control of those five degraded beings — mere 
 beasts of burden beside himself — who must carry 
 my luncheon and other common loads to the starting- 
 point. Truly, yes; and the varlets shall learn that 
 though of the same breed and blood as he, they are 
 but as slaves beside him, the skilled body-servant of 
 the Bwana 'Mkubwa. 
 
 By the time my pony has walked sedately through 
 the Reserve — which I believe he detests quite as much 
 as I do, certainly more than Hamis and his fellows, 
 who accept it stolidly, and with no small reason, as 
 one more evidence of the " Inglesi's " lunacy — the 
 sun is high in the sky, setting a roof and walls of 
 heat about us and threatening to scorch us still more 
 unmercifully later in the day. I catch sight of the 
 bearers lying apparently asleep beneath the skirts of 
 a spreading thorn-bush, and move towards them, 
 hoping for an opportunity of startling them to life. 
 But for once I am disappointed, they are very much 
 awake, leap to their feet as I approach, and run for-
 
 144 STATION STUDIES 
 
 ward, frantically pointing to a herd of antelope at 
 a few hundred yards' distance. 
 
 " Thomsi, bwana, thontsi! (Thomsonii)" they shout, 
 with wild gesticulations and such thunder of voices 
 that the " Tkomsi " referred to instantly start into 
 flight. " Piga, -piga! (Shoot, kill, strike, have at 
 them !)." I am supposed to give them credit for their 
 keenness; which in point of fact certainly equals, if it 
 docs not exceed, my own. But their reason for this 
 feverish excitement? Alas, how we descend! It is 
 but a distant cousin to any idea of patient effort and 
 manoeuvring, paid with the golden wages of success. 
 Meat and meat only is at the bottom of their anxiety. 
 If I shoot well they will fare delicately on blocks 
 of meat far into the night; and if I am really a 
 good sportsman and slay more than one animal, 
 there may even be meat left for breakfast. But if 
 I stalk well but shoot ill, so that there is no meat, 
 then the day is wasted. Common prudence therefore 
 cries out that I be urged to slay the first game that 
 comes to hand. Meat is business. 
 
 I am after no fierce game such as lion or leopard 
 to-day, being indeed much more likely to suffer 
 death at their hands than to deal it. But I decline 
 to take any notice of " Tkomsi " so early in the morn- 
 ing. If 'mfala, harte-beest, and water-buck all fail, 
 and I have nothing for the larder by five o'clock, 
 these lesser antelope may be assailed with a good 
 conscience. But they are a poor and easy prey beside 
 the others, barely worth the powder expended on 
 them, and must only be slain as a last resource to 
 save a blank day. So, taking no notice of my
 
 SHOOTING 145 
 
 followers' counsel, I ride on, Hamis driving them 
 with a volley of imprecations into line behind me, 
 where they trudge along, silently lamenting that I 
 cannot be brought to take a saner and more practi- 
 cal view of " sporti ". 
 
 The plain is emptier of game than is usual to-day; 
 for the rain, causing a sufficiency of water to gather 
 among the hills, has taken away the need for most 
 animals to remain near the lake; and for a mile or 
 two I ride on without seeing a living creature except 
 the gazelle which I have already rejected. Indeed it 
 looks as though I shall find none at all. But at last 
 I catch a glimpse through some scattered juniper 
 trees of a flush of deep red, then of another, and 
 another, which I know to betoken 'mpala; and pull- 
 ing up at once, I dismount carefully, hand over the 
 pony to the boys, and bid them stop and lie down. 
 
 A walk of another fifty yards brings me in full 
 view of the herd — now a little more than a quarter of 
 a mile distant. I kneel down, direct Hamis to obliter- 
 ate himself, and take a long look at them through 
 the glasses. They are twenty or thirty strong, and 
 feeding quietly with all the confidence of complete 
 security. But, alas ! among them all I can see only 
 three horned heads, the rest are does or their young 
 — 'mtotos, as Hamis would say — to fire at whom 
 would be crime unpardonable : and unhappily horned 
 heads and hornless are so inextricably huddled to- 
 gether that there seems but little chance of getting 
 a clear shot at the former. On the other hand, 
 I am lucky in my ground. Scattered bushes and 
 trees will give me cover up to a point within three 
 
 10
 
 146 STATION STUDIES 
 
 hundred yards of my game, and after that grass a 
 foot or two high. So I decide that they are worth 
 trying for and set about stalking them. 
 
 Hamis gives me my rifle and glasses, and I start 
 at a slow walk, dodging from bush to bush with 
 extreme care to move only when none of the herd 
 are looking. Five minutes pass. I have made some 
 way. And as they still continue to feed quietly, I 
 begin to have hopes of getting quite near them with- 
 out detection. But I am soon undeceived. 'Mpala 
 are notoriously shy — perhaps the shyest of all ante- 
 lope — and divine the coming of danger by instinct 
 long before they can see it. So I am not surprised 
 to find that, despite all my care, they begin to show 
 signs of fear before they can possibly have caught 
 sight of me. One doe after another raises her head, 
 sniffs and looks intently in my direction. The bucks, 
 less easily alarmed, feed on complacently, caring 
 nothing for such vague dangers and quite indifferent 
 to their family's anxiety; and the 'mlotos, still 
 more contemptuous of peril, trot out towards me 
 brimming with curiosity. But the ladies of the herd 
 are thoroughly disturbed, and spend ten or twelve 
 minutes at attention listening and looking anxiously 
 around them. At last they make up their minds that 
 the danger has passed, and return slowly to their 
 meal. I give them a few more minutes to recover com- 
 pletely from their alarm : then, having come to the 
 end of my friendly shelter of bushes, prepare to 
 cross the open ground that intervenes before I can 
 come within a good citizen's range of my game. 
 Here there is no sort of cover except thin grass,
 
 SHOOTING 14; 
 
 varied only by a few tufts, and I have to decide 
 reluctantly to travel the remainder of the way with 
 the gait of a serpent and the speed of a snail. 
 
 Down on my hands and knees I go, and at first 
 make comparatively rapid progress, the herd being 
 still busy on their pasture. A wild hope even comes 
 to me that I may be able to fare thus easily within 
 shooting distance. But it soon proves too risky : the 
 alarm spreads once more among the does : one after 
 another looks up and begins a searching quest in my 
 direction. And I have to resign myself to the un- 
 pleasant prospect of crawling flat on my chest for the 
 remainder of the way. 
 
 Progress is slow ; for I can only wriggle forward by 
 inches. I thrust myself forward, now with arms and 
 feet, now with arms alone, now with the knees and 
 chest, now swimming fashion, now on my back ; using 
 every available combination of muscles and every 
 means of movement, each, if possible, more laborious 
 and unsatisfactory than the last. Every two yards I 
 stop, drag up the rifle from where I have left it, 
 push it out to the full arm's length in front of me; 
 move on again, stop, reach back, and thrust it on 
 once more. The sun beats down fiercely on my back ; 
 the dust rises in my face, packing eyes, nose, mouth, 
 hair, ears, clothes, everything; I seem to collect thorns 
 like a magnet; my throat is a desert. Half an hour 
 passes, and by that time I have travelled a hundred 
 yards — a poor result to all appearances, but not so 
 unsatisfactory in reality; for though some of the 
 does start up from time to time and gaze long and 
 warily about them, they are on the whole less dis-
 
 148 STATION STUDIES 
 
 turbed than they were when I started. I cover 
 another fifty yards with infinite labour; then, mak- 
 ing sure that I am well concealed, turn on my back 
 and take a rest. 
 
 Only a moment passes before I look round 
 again : but in that moment, alas, the curtain comes 
 down on Act I. of the piece. For when I turn, it 
 is to find that both bucks and does have taken 
 fright. They are moving slowly but steadily away 
 from me, now walking or trotting a few paces, now 
 stopping to look back, and giving me a vain hope 
 that they will go no further; but never really check- 
 ing their progress for long, and rendering my long 
 journey on the ground entirely futile. 
 
 Do they all go? No, thank goodness; two of the 
 bucks linger behind the others, happening apparently 
 to find a patch of grass that suits them. They stop 
 for a moment or two to feed upon it, while their 
 families walk on alone. Will they stay long enough 
 to give me a shot, or will petticoat influence prevail 
 and draw them on ? Hurrah ! they stop. They eat 
 steadily without looking up. Better still, one of 
 them turns and shows me the whole breadth of his 
 flank. Here is a chance — a long shot certainly, 
 longer than I ought to try, for I am nearly a hun- 
 dred and fifty yards away and my 'mpala is hardly 
 still for a second. But this may be my one oppor- 
 tunity of getting a clear shot at him to-day, and it 
 is too good to be missed. I settle down rapidly, 
 full length on my chest to fire. No time to take a 
 long aim. I thrust the butt quickly into my shoulder 
 and strain for a moment to keep the sight fixed on
 
 SHOOTING 149 
 
 the beast's shoulder. He moves. I follow him. He 
 stops and puts his head down. I take a few seconds 
 to steady the rifle; then a deep breath, a final grip 
 of the stock, a touch on the hair-trigger; bang, flash, 
 a humming in my ear : down with the rifle and up 
 with the glasses. Alas ! there is no need for them. 
 The bullet is tearing up the dust a quarter of a mile 
 away — in a dead straight line, so far as I can judge, 
 over my beast's back — but well over it. And he him- 
 self is pelting off for dear life through the trees, with 
 all his family — safe and sound, and none the worse 
 except for a scare. I watch them with the glasses 
 till they pass out of sight, throw out the empty 
 cartridge, think in unprintable terms of my bad 
 shooting and stand up to call Hamis forward. 
 
 He starts at once; but before he has come a dozen 
 yards I hear a snort, a crash of sticks and a sound of 
 galloping behind me. I look round, and there — by 
 all that is wonderful — are my 'mpala racing back, 
 blind with terror, towards me, along the very track 
 by which they went. Circling and swerving round 
 the bushes, plunging to right or left, leaping fallen 
 trees, red-eyed and panting with fear they come — 
 a witless mob of fugitives — scattering and gathering 
 again, leaderless and wild. I am down on the ground 
 in a second, and make the most of such cover as I 
 can find; but with little hope of escaping unseen, 
 since this consists of nothing more serviceable than 
 thin grass. As it happens, however, no further con- 
 cealment seems to be necessary. For, so blind is their 
 flight, all of them come within twenty yards, and 
 some even so close that they almost gallop over me,
 
 I50 STATION STUDIES 
 
 tempting me horribly to try a flying shot. But this, 
 of course, is not to be thought of, and I have to be 
 content with lying still and muttering earnest im- 
 precations. They whirl and circle for a minute or 
 two among the trees, then pass out of sight; and I 
 rise, with no sort of feeling of charity for man or 
 beast, to seek lunch and rest, quite resigning all hope 
 of seeing my game again. 
 
 But there is another surprise in store; for even as 
 
 I rise and turn towards Hamis, he signs to me 
 
 excitedly to lie low; and creeping up shows me that 
 
 after all they have not gone far, but have stopped 
 
 barely three hundred yards away, where they now 
 
 stand, scared and anxious, striving to fathom the 
 
 meaning of the danger. The luck is with me; they 
 
 have stopped in a place which is easily approachable 
 
 along a deep, dry nullah. I hurry down into its 
 
 bed, slip along as quietly as possible, and stop 
 
 where a break in its right bank allows me to creep 
 
 up to the level of the plain and take observations. 
 
 These give me a joy as deep as my despair of 
 
 a few minutes ago. For I find that the whole 
 
 herd are moving towards me in single file, parallel 
 
 with the bank of the nullah, on a course that must 
 
 bring them across my line of sight, only fifty yards 
 
 away, I am well hidden, all but head and shoulders, 
 
 below the bank, and have a rare chance in prospect 
 
 if only I can get a clear shot at the horned heads. 
 
 But where are these? None are within sight. If 
 
 they are coming at all they must be at the end of 
 
 the line : and my only chance will be to wait, still 
 
 as a rock, in the hope that none of the does will see
 
 SHOOTING 151 
 
 me, till they have all passed and one of the bucks 
 comes directly opposite to me. 
 
 I dare not turn my head towards them, much less 
 move to a more favourable spot; even now the lead- 
 ing does are so close that it is not safe to stir hand 
 or foot. Nearer and nearer they draw, now stopping 
 to eat for a moment, now walking a few paces for- 
 ward, doe after doe with their young beside them, 
 but never among them all the bucks whom I want 
 to see. At last, by squinting desperately out of one 
 eye, I manage to catch sight of the three horned 
 heads at the extreme end of the file. But now the 
 leading doe, who has taken a course nearer to me 
 than I expected, is scarcely forty yards away, and I 
 dare not turn a hair's-breadth to right or left. Nearer 
 she comes — thirty yards — twenty yards — surely I am 
 safe now : if she were going to see me at all she 
 would have done so by this time. She stops almost 
 opposite me ; she lowers her head to the ground ; she 
 begins to eat; others move up to join her. I lie 
 motionless, almost afraid to breathe, hoping against 
 hope that I may still escape notice. She passes by; 
 the little knot who are with her pass ; a dozen or more 
 follow, some scattering, some coming even nearer than 
 she, but none of them happily catch sight of me, 
 and now, at last, the first buck is only forty yards 
 away. 
 
 I settle the butt of my rifle a little closer to 
 
 the shoulder, finger the trigger, and decide to turn 
 
 suddenly and snap at him with but a moment's aim. 
 
 Ten seconds — to make sure that none of the does 
 
 are looking — then I press the trigger. But, alas ! it
 
 152 STATION STUDIES 
 
 is never drawn home; for just as I am in the act of 
 firing I hear a thunder of hoofs, rustle of bushes, and 
 scamper of flying forms. At the last moment one of 
 the does has seen me, and, wild with fear, is tearing 
 away through the wood, followed by her sisters, and 
 also, of course, by the bucks — whom, with but one 
 second's grace, I might have reduced from three to 
 two. They will travel a couple of miles or more this 
 time before coming to a halt, and there is no chance 
 of seeing them again to-day. My morning is a blank. 
 The meat for which my boys looked to me is yet to 
 seek. And nothing remains but to rail at my inepti- 
 tude and the unkind dealings of fortune. 
 
 Kill or no kill, however, it is mid-day now and 
 time for a rest; the sun alone forces one to take 
 shelter; and the long crawl after my game with its 
 luckless end has given me a thirst and exhaustion 
 which decline to be neglected. Shade, lunch, to- 
 bacco; a long and extensive drink; and then a book 
 are what I want, and may I never touch rifle or gun 
 again. I find a cool place beneath a spreading tree; 
 and while my boys retire in silent gloom to a re- 
 spectful distance, turn my attention, also in silent 
 gloom, to the s^nji (sandwiches) which my cook has 
 thought fit to send for my luncheon. Ill-temper and 
 discontent reign supreme over the party. Even 
 Hamis, who is usually unruffled by any mishap, 
 looks at me with pain and reproof. There is no 
 meat as yet, and many chances have been thrown 
 away. I am a fraud and a failure, beyond the reach 
 of good advice. What in all nature is the use of 
 such a bwana?
 
 SHOOTING 153 
 
 I eat leisurely and drink largely, for the dust and 
 heat have made a desert in my throat ; then summon 
 Hamis to bring me my book. It chances to be the 
 Egoist to-day, and he does not attempt to conceal 
 his opinion that it is a disgustingly bad piece of 
 work — weighing as it does little short of two pounds. 
 If I really must have such luxuries with me when I 
 am out — under contract, so to speak, to procure meat 
 — why in the name of fortune cannot I take a really 
 good book like Kidnapped, which (in small print and 
 on bad paper) weighs but a quarter of that figure, 
 being, to make a confession, the product of a New 
 York den of pirates. By way of registering a pro- 
 test, I suppose, against such infamous self-indulgence 
 he affects inability to find the book at first, deter- 
 mined that if I get it at all I shall at least be made 
 to wait for it. But I am in no mood to stand delay; 
 hasten his movements with a dire threat ; and, the 
 Egoist once in my hands, settle down to it and a 
 pipe for a good hour of rest and relief; feeling, if 
 the truth must be told, far more inclined to follow 
 the fortunes of Sir Willoughby than to face another 
 crawl under the immolating mid-day sun. 
 
 At length, conscience beginning to growl at me 
 that I have had my share of ease, I give the word 
 " Hai-ya! " — which means so much more to a Swahili 
 than its bald English brother " Come on ! " that I 
 dare not attempt to translate it. My boys instantly 
 leap to their feet; dance round each other, laughing 
 and playing like dogs fresh from their kennel; leap 
 upon the face and stomach of one of their company
 
 154 STATION STUDIES 
 
 who is still asleep — and now no longer sleeps — shoul- 
 der their loads with a jest, and display themselves 
 before me, in readiness to march, with such spirit and 
 buoyancy as come to most men only after a good 
 night's sleep. Such is the result of " Hai-ya " on 
 them, and from this you may gather some notion 
 of the word's true significance to the Swahili. Though 
 not by any means all ; for how shall white men under- 
 stand a word that imbues him with superhuman zeal 
 and energy for nearly half-an-hour ? Only kiboko 
 — that Kitchener of the Swahili language — has such 
 powerful effects, and this is a threat of violence. 
 " Hai-ya " obviously has in it some element of the 
 supernatural. 
 
 " Hai-ya " having been sounded, we leave our 
 lunching ground and start with new hope and 
 energy, Hamis disposing his inferiors in single file 
 as before, with menacing instructions to keep their 
 distance if they would keep their skins whole, and 
 himself taking up a position half-way between them 
 and my pony, as though to provide a breakwater 
 between them — the abominable common people — and 
 me, the representative of all power. Some distance 
 is covered thus without our catching a glimpse of any 
 game; and the sun frowning upon us with intoler- 
 able force, I soon begin to wish myself back under 
 the trees with my book and pipe. But at last, un- 
 expectedly, the luck changes. As we mount to the 
 crest of the ridge we see a sprinkling of sandy dots 
 — harte-beest, unmistakably — only a mile away on the 
 dun grey plain before us. Instantly, but slowly, and 
 with considerable caution, since a swift movement on
 
 SHOOTING 155 
 
 the sky-line might startle them to flight, we bend to 
 the ground : and lying down among the stones begin 
 to take stock of what we have seen. 
 
 The glasses show a herd of two dozen harte-beest 
 or more feeding quietly together, guarded at each 
 corner by sentinels posted at about three hundred 
 yards' distance. One of these by ill-luck is facing 
 us : indeed it looks as though he had already taken 
 fright, for he raises his head and walks a few steps 
 forward to make out what we are. Then, though un- 
 able to see any sign of danger, he trots to and fro 
 in evident alarm, and finally stands looking at us 
 and listening so intently and for so long that we 
 almost despair of escaping his notice. Will he see 
 us ? The question hangs in the balance for a minute 
 or two; for though we are lying low, we are in a very 
 exposed position on the brow of the ridge; and if we 
 stir at all he is almost bound to see the movement : 
 in which case he will at once be off and away to 
 warn his fellows and set them travelling further 
 than we can follow this afternoon. Five minutes, 
 ten minutes go by before he relaxes his vigilance. 
 Then at last he slowly bends his head to the ground, 
 and sets himself once more to his pasture. Good, 
 we are so far unseen. We creep carefully down our 
 side of the ridge till we are hidden from his view, 
 then " park " the bearers and the pony, and I and 
 Hamis creep back to the crest and take a look at 
 the ground. 
 
 We find that we can move safely within half a 
 mile of him by making a detour round the end of 
 our ridge. The wind, such as it is, favours us.
 
 156 STATION STUDIES 
 
 And we make all haste to a point where the lie 
 of the land can no longer serve us. There we part 
 company, Hamis being ordered into concealment, and 
 1 starting upon my long journey over the open plain. 
 
 I begin by walking forward very slowly, with my 
 rifle at the trail, stopping absolutely still for minutes 
 together when there seems to be any risk of detec- 
 tion. Harte-beest can often be more easily ap- 
 proached thus, in the upright position, than in any 
 stealthier fashion; and to-day, the luck apparently 
 favouring me, I get along so well as even to form 
 hopes that I may not have to crawl at all. But I 
 am soon disillusioned, and have not travelled more 
 than a hundred yards when he suddenly divines my 
 approach. I see him look up, turn, stretch out his 
 head towards me to the full height, his whole neck 
 and body stiff and alert with excitement, his eyes 
 straining to discern the danger. He sees nothing, 
 for I am down on the ground and motionless long 
 before his eyes have turned in my direction; but he 
 has taken fright now, and keeps them fixed on the 
 ground about me. I lie still for a quarter of an 
 hour or so, hoping that he may regain confidence and 
 settle once more to his pasture ; but I hope in vain : 
 he trots a few paces to one side, stops, whisks his 
 tail about — a sure sign of disturbance — trots on 
 again, again stops, peering towards me; and finally 
 settles into a position directly facing me — a develop- 
 ment which means that I must crawl the remainder 
 of the way on my chest. 
 
 There is no cover to help me but the thinnest of 
 thin grass, barely a foot high. He will keep a close
 
 SHOOTING 15; 
 
 watch upon me every inch of the way ; and the ques- 
 tion arises, is he worth so much trouble? Let us 
 have a look at him with the glasses. Yes, distinctly. 
 There is a fine pair of horns branching out over the 
 great ears — a cow's horns one might guess them to 
 be, over a mule's ears. He is well worth the effort : 
 and deciding to try for him I start at once upon the 
 abhorrent task of creeping like a reptile to within 
 firing distance, surly and full of anathemas that I 
 must wriggle all the way. Nor do I think any better 
 of the journey when I find that it must be performed 
 even more slowly than usual, since my beast scarcely 
 relaxes his watch for a second. Once in five minutes 
 perhaps he looks aside, and I am lucky enough to 
 win a dozen yards or so on my feet; but then for 
 twice as long he keeps his eyes fixed intently on me, 
 and I must lie still as a log, with even my face 
 glued to the earth lest he catch sight of some speck 
 of colour among the grass. So I progress with un- 
 bounded tedium and discomfort for nearly forty 
 minutes. 
 
 Then I am within about as many yards of firing 
 distance. Which is satisfactory, but means that I 
 must exercise even more care than hitherto, since 
 the nearer I draw the more likely I am to be seen. 
 For minutes together the brown face with the keen 
 eyes remains set in my direction; and, lying inert 
 half the time, I seem to make hardly any advance 
 at all. I do, however, get over the ground by 
 degrees, and at the end of twenty minutes find my- 
 self at length within the distance required of a 
 gentleman fighting a gentleman.
 
 158 STATION STUDIES 
 
 The luck, too, favours me this afternoon. For 
 as I arrive within range, my beast is so good as to 
 turn aside for a moment and show me his whole 
 flank from end to end. This is a good chance in- 
 deed. I am not so near to him as I ought to be — 
 two hundred yards away at least — but I am never 
 likely to get any nearer, and feel that this will pro- 
 bably be my one opportunity. I decide instantly to 
 make the most of it; and, drawing up my rifle, put 
 it to the shoulder and take a long, long aim. 
 
 Now, ten seconds more. My beast has been stand- 
 ing on this particular spot for nearly an hour, in this 
 broadside position for a hundred seconds. Surely he 
 will stay for a hundred and ten. No, it appears, he 
 will not. Just as I have steadied the sight securely on 
 his heart, have put my finger to the trigger and am 
 almost in the act of pressing it, he tosses his head 
 jauntily aside and begins to trot away. Further and 
 further, hang him ! he goes, moving only at a trot, 
 certainly — which means that he may not travel far — 
 but still at a steady trot. Trot, trot — a plague on 
 him — how he trots ! I am up and after him the 
 instant he starts, and manage to make fifteen or 
 twenty yards occasionally at a run, while he is still 
 trotting; but the risk of doing so soon proves too 
 great, for he looks back from time to time, and if 
 he saw me now would certainly give me no second 
 chance of coming near him. I still have to spend 
 the main part of my time flat on the ground, and 
 he trots on relentlessly till he has left me fully three 
 hundred yards in the rear. 
 
 Then at last he stops, feeling that he is safe;
 
 SHOOTING 159 
 
 and I toil after him as before with infinite labour. 
 In the course of twenty minutes I have covered a 
 quarter of that distance. Nearer I dare not go. 
 I find a little friendly cover behind a tuft of grass, 
 and wait patiently in the hope that he will give me 
 a broadside shot. Ten minutes pass, and still he is 
 looking out anxiously over me, giving me no better 
 target than his face. But still I wait, and at length 
 I get what I want. He turns his head, his neck, his 
 body, his whole flank towards me. Now is my chance. 
 I put the rifle to my shoulder without a moment's 
 delay, and give him, I should be ashamed to say how 
 hasty an aim. Ten seconds pass — in fifteen he may 
 be off and away. The rifle rings out. Flash, crack, 
 echoes, and, praise to all the gods, a dull thud. I 
 have him at last. He starts frantically, stands 
 shivering for a moment, then reels round on his hind 
 legs and plunges into a wild, stumbling gallop. Is 
 he only wounded, then? Have I still a long journey 
 in pursuit? No, thank goodness, no. The glasses 
 show that he can never travel far, for his shoulder 
 is maimed and will do him no more service. He keeps 
 going for seventy or eighty yards, losing strength 
 with every stride, then comes to a sudden halt. 
 Running after him, I kneel and give him a second 
 bullet, which proves to be all that is needed. He tries 
 to stumble on, but sinks helpless over his wounded 
 shoulder, and by the time I have come up has ceased 
 to breathe. 
 
 I watch the remainder of the herd, for whom he 
 has died so gallantly, bounding away over the plain, 
 terror-stricken but safe. And I suppose I ought to
 
 i6o STATION STUDIES 
 
 feel deeply sorry for my victim. But, let it be 
 frankly confessed, I do not feel anything of the 
 sort. My first instinct is one of relief and satisfac- 
 tion at having triumphed at last, all the deeper 
 because my success has come so late : and my second, 
 and only other, is a monstrous thirst, which, happily, 
 is relieved without delay. For Hamis soon makes 
 his appearance, rising, it would seem, out of the very 
 ground behind me; and he gives me my flask with 
 rare good will, murmuring excitedly, " Gooshot, goo- 
 shot ! " Then he sets to work with his knife; and I 
 turn away to avoid seeing the carnage. 
 
 Unfortunately this is the last thing in the world 
 I should do; for Hamis is least of all men to be 
 trusted upon such a task ; and I have had enough ex- 
 perience of his vagaries with the knife to teach me 
 never to trust him with it again. But I forget my 
 experience in the joy of victory, and when I look 
 round it is to find that he has cut the beast's throat 
 so close up under the jaw that the head and neck 
 are already ruined as a trophy. Oh, Hamis, Hamis ! 
 If only you could occasionally forget this function — 
 the only evidence I ever see that you have any re- 
 ligion. And oh, Mahomed ! How many more 
 trophies will you spoil through the hands of your 
 devoted but clumsy worshippers ? Cheerfully would 
 I give tithes of all I possess to any mission which 
 would abate this nuisance and substitute a less 
 troublesome faith. But to-day, as too often, the 
 mischief is done before I can intervene : the neck is 
 spoilt; I shall only have the horns and bare skull 
 without the mask; and only the skin of the body
 
 SHOOTING i6i 
 
 can be saved. I enjoin the utmost caution upon the 
 bearers, who now rush up, beaming with delight and 
 anxiety, to assist in the happy task of cutting up the 
 body. They assure me that it is impossible for them 
 to go wrong. And though I know that it is almost 
 impossible for them to go right, I decide to take the 
 risk. I wait a moment to see that at least they begin 
 properly; then pack up rifle and cartridges, mount 
 my pony and ride away bomane (home), tired but 
 jubilant, and well satisfied with my day's sport. 
 
 II
 
 1 62 
 
 THE GREAT WAR.^ 
 
 Being a document purporting to record history, 
 found among the papers of one Jones, lately a District 
 Officer in the province of Lunda, Africa; who de- 
 scribes a series of events in which it is difficult to 
 believe, at a time which it is impossible to trace. The 
 writing is now presented for the first time in a form 
 suitable for family reading, together with an introduc- 
 tion by the Editor. 
 
 THE INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Province of Lunda, though far more generously 
 endowed by nature with the means of welfare, 
 governed by officers of higher skill, character and 
 daring, and in every way more deserving of attention 
 and expenditure than her sister Province, is yet at a 
 great disadvantage beside her in point of situation : 
 for her eastern border, her sister's western, lies 
 very remote from the sea ; the latter's alongside 
 it ; and her capital, 'Nkedde, is situate eighty miles 
 from a railway, five hundred from any harbour, 
 and forty days' journey from London. Sombama, 
 on the contrary, her sister's capital, lies within 
 twenty days' journey from England ; it is the 
 principal seaport of that coast ; and forming, in ad- 
 dition, one end of the railway that runs to Lunda, 
 comes to be the only entrance of trade and travel to 
 ' See Preface.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 163 
 
 the two Provinces. It has a garrison, a cricket ground, 
 a church, a bank, a market and, above all, a Club. 
 As a town which has been well known for hundreds 
 of years, and for many years the capital of a Province 
 far older than ours, it is naturally the most important 
 place in this quarter of Africa ; and though we of 
 Lunda can afford to look down upon our rival's poor 
 country and pitiful ineptitude in the art of administra- 
 tion, we cannot deny that their capital is our metro- 
 polis, and the Sombama Club the golden centre of 
 these regions. 
 
 In all this, however, we are unable to see any reason 
 why they should regard themselves as standing upon a 
 loftier plane than us. Because they have a longer 
 tradition and a more developed system, is that a matter 
 that justifies them in sniffing at men far more capable 
 than they ? Are they to be credited for the chance 
 that Sombama lies nearer England than 'Nkedde .'' 
 Though Lunda is but a child in years beside her sister 
 Province, and has not yet outgrown the maladies of 
 youth — such as tardiness of mail and transport service, 
 and native risings — does this give them the right to 
 brag of their own administration at the expense of 
 ours .-' Certainly not. If any one is to do this, we 
 are surely the persons so entitled ; for no one, least of 
 all our neighbours, could have done so much as we 
 have, with httle means and less time, in the task of 
 pacifying and organising our territory. There seems 
 little ground here for an attitude of condescension and 
 insolence towards us. One would have expected, 
 rather, a display of friendly respect and a desire to 
 profit by our example. But in vain do we look for
 
 i64 STATION STUDIES 
 
 such treatment. It is, on the contrary, their habit and 
 pleasure to rail perpetually at our staff and country ; 
 scoffing at our Budget ; sympathising with us, unasked, 
 on our sad distance from the world ; questioning 
 whether a land can be adequately ruled under such 
 difficulties ; and at times even passing to open insults, 
 such as the question — often repeated, though none 
 the more sensible for that — why the very small moiety 
 of money allotted for both Provinces should be mainly 
 expended upon ours. This last complaint, I need 
 hardly say, is totally unfounded on fact ; but it is, 
 nevertheless, worthy of mention because it is so 
 typical of their attitude towards us — one of antagon- 
 ism and bitterness — and so obviously a result of the 
 sentiment underlying this attitude — jealousy. It is 
 jealousy of our higher capacities and finer country 
 that really makes them so aggressive and malicious. 
 And it is this feeling that has influenced them to 
 provoke our ill-will. Their one object in life seems 
 to have been to pick a quarrel with us. 
 
 Now it takes two parties to make such a quarrel, 
 and for a long time, being as determined upon peace 
 as they were upon war, we managed to avoid it. 
 Month after month they strove to provoke us ; but 
 month after month we met all their attacks in a spirit 
 of friendliness and courtesy. To their open insults 
 we replied with soft answers ; to their pin-pricks 
 without recognition of any sort. And so for a 
 number of years we managed by a wonderful display 
 of tact and good temper to avoid any breach of the 
 peace. But of course we could not go on making 
 concessions for ever. They were bent on war, and
 
 THE GREAT WAR 165 
 
 war was bound to come. We did our best to prevent 
 it, but we could not do more. And at length the series 
 of encounters began, which owing to their unusual 
 duration and bitterness — they lasted for more than four 
 years and were conducted with unparalleled ferocity 
 — earned the collective title of " The Great War ". 
 
 I will now without further preamble present Mr. 
 Jones' eloquent, searching and scholarly account of 
 this huge campaign — the last, as it happily proved, of 
 its kind, and the herald of an enduring peace. Our 
 author will be found a pleasant companion, an accurate 
 and reliable historian, and an impartial commentator 
 on the events he describes. No fault can be found 
 with his arrangement of the facts ; his conception of 
 history shows at once originality, power and breadth ; 
 his knowledge of the period and his sense of values 
 are alike beyond praise. Obviously a man with a 
 conscience. 
 
 Indeed for my part I have been able to find but 
 one defect throughout his work, and that is rather 
 a merit than a defect — ^arising from the fertility of 
 his brain. His style, always cogent and expressive, 
 does at times display a native vigour so marked that it 
 might even appear to some indelicate. And in view of 
 the fastidious taste of the age I have occasionally 
 found it necessary to soften down or even omit ex- 
 pressions and passages of an unusually powerful 
 character. The loss of lucidity and strength thus 
 caused is certainly grave and to be regretted ; but I 
 can assure Mr. Jones' readers that they will lose 
 nothing of his matter and only a very little of his 
 manner. The historical value of his work remains, 
 as it always will remain, unchanged.
 
 i66 STATION STUDIES 
 
 THE WRITING. 
 
 FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR. 
 
 I, Jones, Bwana 'Mkubwa of the 'Nsai District, who 
 record these things, had at the time of the Great War 
 my Station upon the boundary which divides the two 
 Provinces, and I was keeper of the gate to Lunda, 
 because both the road and the railway thereto ran by 
 my office and under my surveillance ; and no man, 
 sheep, whisky-barrel, cattle, provision, ivory, pig, 
 pie-dog or Indian coolie might pass into or out of the 
 land without my knowledge. 
 
 I, Jones, saw the whole course of the Great War 
 and write what I saw — and heard. I hope that I 
 shall be considered impartial.^ 
 
 ORIGIN OF THE WAR. 
 
 Certain corrupt and unscrupulous writers have as- 
 serted — at the instigation, no doubt, of our adver- 
 saries — that the Great War was started by the men of 
 Lunda. They lie. The truth is that hostilities were 
 opened by the men of That Other Province : but 
 they arranged the attack in such a way as to make me 
 appear to be the aggressor. I was not. 
 
 The origin of the War was a small matter. That 
 Other Province had for many years been troubled by 
 the presence of rinderpest ; and every succeeding year 
 had told a gloomier tale of pestilence and death. 
 Efforts were made to stem the progress of the disease, 
 
 ^ Small doubt of that, — Editor.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 167 
 
 but all in vain. The outlook grew blacker; the 
 plague spread and spread ; the officials responsible 
 for its outbreak were unable to check its advance. 
 Nature seemed to have done her worst, and the dark- 
 est hour of African history to have arrived. But it 
 was reserved for a human agency to surpass nature, 
 and render the hour still darker. The men of That 
 Other Province, not content with neglecting the 
 plague at its outset or preventing its spread, refused 
 to admit its existence within their territory. No warn- 
 ing was issued to travellers. Not a line appeared in 
 any Annual Report as to the state of the country or 
 the number of cattle affected. Even Parliament, in 
 a matter so closely concerning the stability of the 
 Empire, was kept in ignorance of the trouble. And 
 the secret was so well preserved that for years no one 
 outside the two Provinces suspected the truth. 
 
 Plainly, however, such a state of things could not 
 last. And at length, during my rule, at 'Nsai the plague 
 became so virulent and extensive that its ravages could 
 no longer be concealed : and it became necessary to 
 take measures for guarding our own Province from 
 infection. Therefore, I, Jones, Bwana ^Mkubwa, made 
 it law that no beast, be it sheep, cow, goat, dog, mule, 
 pig, horse, donkey or cat, should be allowed to pass 
 over the border from That Other Province into 
 Lunda ; and the Gate was closed to all who would 
 bring up cattle either by road or rail from the corrupt 
 country. Which, as I have said, was a small matter 
 But the end of it was that Very Great Men resigned 
 their posts, and a Question was asked in the High 
 Court of Parliament.
 
 i68 STATION STUDIES 
 
 It happened at the time I made this law that the 
 men of That Other Province were already smarting 
 and a httle insolent in their tone towards us of 
 Lunda, because a Supplementary Grant had been 
 given to us lately, which to a narrow and untrained 
 mind might have seemed unnecessary. That it was 
 necessary I need hardly say ; and I should not have 
 mentioned the matter at all, but that it may in some 
 measure have accounted for the peculiar bitterness 
 of our adversaries' first attack upon us — their cable- 
 gram to the Imperial Power. No sooner had I pub- 
 lished the prohibition order than they sent such a 
 message, containing the monstrous falsehood that their 
 own Province was free of the plague, and that Lunda, 
 being widely affected with it, had no cause, right or 
 reason for excluding cattle from her borders. They 
 cabled secretly. Their statement was untrue. But 
 the Imperial Power did not know this, and merely 
 replied, " Settle locally," without adding the stinging 
 rebuke that seemed to be called for in the 
 circumstances. 
 
 Failing thus to injure us by underhand methods, 
 the enemy now appealed to me in person to revoke 
 the order. I replied that I would resist to the utmost 
 any attempt to hinder me in my duty. They renewed 
 the appeal. I declined to notice it, hoping at all 
 costs to avoid a rupture. They again repeated their 
 application, and again I ignored it. No less than three 
 times I warded off hostilities by refusing to answer 
 them, and to the last I strove, and hoped against hope, 
 for a friendly solution. But at length it became plain 
 that this was impossible. They sent me a fourth
 
 THE GREAT WAR 169 
 
 appeal; which I had no choice but to regard as a 
 hostile act. The Great War had begun. 
 
 PERIOD No. I. 
 
 In the first beginning of the campaign there was 
 only a time of local skirmishing. Having met with a 
 reverse in their appeal to the Imperial Power, our 
 adversaries were for a moment unable to find any- 
 effectual method of attack ; for my order could not 
 be questioned by any person outside the Lunda Ad- 
 ministration or altered by any one at all except Mr. 
 Smith our Chief Commissioner. So that beyond 
 sending an impertinent appeal to him to revoke the 
 new rule they could not take any legitimate action 
 against the Province as a whole. Still, a great part 
 of their object was to strike at me in person as well 
 as at the service to which I belonged ; and while 
 waiting for Mr. Smith's reply they looked about for 
 an opportunity of making such a personal attack. 
 
 Before long they found what they required. There 
 is a third Great Power in these regions besides the 
 two Provinces, namely, the Railway ; which has in its 
 constitution certain independent rights and liberties, 
 whose limits, being vaguely defined, are capable of 
 loose interpretation. Among these were certain 
 special exemptions — the privilege, for instance, 
 granted to engineers, of passing their goods over the 
 frontier free of duty — which might easily be taken 
 advantage of and used as a weapon of offence. 
 
 Naturally our enemies soon saw the value of 
 such an opening, and hastened to use it to the 
 utmost. They suborned certain engineers working
 
 i;o STATION STUDIES 
 
 on the railway to claim exemption from my order 
 for their cattle. Would I, these creatures had the 
 impertinence to ask, allow them to import cattle by 
 rail for the purpose of maintaining their supply of 
 meat? 
 
 Would I, indeed ? Was it likely that I should fail 
 to see through their infamous scheme ? Of course 
 I refused to contemplate any such idea ; and when 
 they protested against my decision I told them very 
 plainly that I considered their protest a grave breach 
 of decorum. They continued to protest : in fact their 
 repeated letters to me became quite a nuisance. But 
 I stuck quite firmly to the course of dignified reticence 
 demanded of me ; and when the inevitable announce- 
 ment came that they should appeal to Mr. Smith I 
 merely replied that they had my permission to do so.^ 
 
 Their appeal was made with astounding mendacity. 
 They had the insolence to allege that if it were not 
 complied with they would not only suffer grave incon- 
 venience but would even risk starvation. I am afraid 
 that if this statement were true they must have 
 suffered no little discomfort ; for Mr. Smith, who never 
 liked to form a decision without mature thought, was 
 unable to answer them for some weeks ; and during 
 that time they must either have lived on the richly 
 flavoured meat of the indigenous goat or gone without 
 animal food. I do not know which they did, it was 
 not my duty to ascertain. ^ 
 
 ' Here the MS. has much stronger words. — Editor. 
 
 '^ Those writers who assert that on reading the engineers' appeal 
 Mr. Smith exclaimed, " Can't get meat indeed ? Skittles! Let 'em 
 do without," are not to be read with any confidence.- Editor.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 171 
 
 Mr. Smith replied in due course, fully supporting 
 my view of the case. But before proceeding to quote 
 his dispatch and to narrate the events which arose 
 out of it, I must make one brief remark with regard 
 to his pre-existing relations with Brown, the Chief 
 Commissioner of That Other Province. 
 
 Brown had preceded Mr. Smith in the management 
 of Lunda, and, having failed there, ever afterwards 
 regarded Mr. Smith's proportionate success with 
 jealousy and rage. Brown had been unable to control 
 the country even with the expenditure of vast sums : 
 Mr. Smith soon rendered disturbance and insecurity 
 things of the past. Brown had shown extravagance 
 and financial chaos : Mr. Smith reduced the Estimates 
 by one-half. Brown had been lax in business : Mr. 
 Smith was prompt and accurate. Brown had been 
 discourteous : Mr. Smith was conciliatory and polished. 
 Brown had gained nothing by his experience, and 
 never developed any capacity either for fighting, 
 administration or finance : Mr. Smith, after a single 
 year's service in Lunda, had shown himself fit to be 
 Secretary of State for War, Chancellor of the 
 Exchequer, or Prime Minister of England. Hence 
 there was all the bitterness and vindictive hatred of 
 a defeated man in Brown's attitude to Mr. Smith 
 before the war began ; and the latter, though naturally 
 feehng nothing but goodwill, together with no little 
 compassion for his predecessor, could not bring him- 
 self to regard the man as a friend. 
 
 We may now pass to the first important events of 
 the war. The tone of Mr. Smith's letter (sent direct 
 to Brown, as the real mover of the attack) was firm
 
 i;2 STATION STUDIES 
 
 though scrupulously polite, direct though, as some 
 may think, unnecessarily amiable. 
 
 " Sir (it ran),— 
 
 " With reference to the order recently made by my 
 assistant, Mr. Jones, prohibiting the entry of cattle 
 into the Lunda Province, I have the honour to inform 
 you that it has my full approval, and I propose to 
 resist to the utmost any attempt by you or others to 
 interfere with his action. Such an attempt has been 
 made by one of your junior officials, and I am at a 
 loss to know why gentlemen in their position are 
 allowed, in contravention of the strict rule existing 
 on this subject, to address me in person. The irregu- 
 larity is especially obnoxious to me, since the writer's 
 object was apparently to question my own authority 
 and my assistant's judgment, and I must ask you to 
 secure me against a repetition of the outrage, that is, 
 unless the letter was written at your instigation. If 
 this is so, I shall, of course, know what steps to take 
 to defend myself. In the meanwhile please oblige 
 me by placing the enclosed notice in the Gazette. The 
 public, at any rate, shall be informed that despite all 
 your efforts no cattle are going to be admitted from 
 your infected Province into Lunda. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 " H. Smith." i 
 
 'There will, I think, be ready agreement with our author that Mr. 
 Smith, though naturally anxious to avoid any semblance of a quarrel, 
 did on this occasion carry his courtesy to the verge of weakness. — 
 Editor.
 
 THE GREAT WAR i;3 
 
 The notice repeated in effect, though more com- 
 prehensively, the order which I had made prohibiting 
 the entry of cattle. 
 
 The answer to this letter was evasive and imper- 
 tinent, Brown's ill-bred nature showing itself distinctly 
 in every line and phrase. It may be said at once to 
 have done more than anything else to render war 
 inevitable. 
 
 " Sir,— 
 
 " I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of 
 your letter, unnumbered and undated, which I gather 
 from the postmark on the envelope was dispatched on 
 the 2nd ult. I note its contents, as also those of 
 the notice enclosed therewith. In reply I have the 
 honour to inform you that the letter addressed to you 
 by one of my subordinates regarding the entry of 
 cattle into Lunda was not, as you suggest, written 
 with my consent or approval. I have to apologise for 
 its being sent direct to you. The irregularity shall 
 not occur again. With regard to the main question, 
 however, I feel that I must take a view contrary to 
 your own. While in no way doubting the wisdom of 
 your assistant's order (though, as this Province is now 
 free of rinderpest, its reason is not obvious), I question 
 whether the Lunda Administration has jurisdiction 
 over Railway officers to the extent suggested by Mr. 
 Jones' action. The condition of these men is now one 
 of extreme distress, no meat having been allowed to 
 reach them for some eight weeks. The delay ex- 
 perienced in obtaining your answer has not rendered 
 their necessity less acute ; and in view of this fact I
 
 174 STATION STUDIES 
 
 have taken the responsibihty of advising them that 
 they may take up sound cattle by rail in sufficient 
 numbers for their immediate wants. I have also de- 
 layed the pubHcation of the notice which you sent me, 
 as I think that if you were in a position to grasp the 
 situation as an eye-witness you would hesitate to 
 insist upon the course you have adopted. 
 " I have the honour to be, 
 " Sir, 
 " Your most obedient 
 
 " humble servant, 
 
 " Matthew Brown. 
 
 " To H.M. Chief Commissioner Consul-General 
 
 " and Commander-in-Chief for Lunda 
 
 " and the adjoining territories." 
 
 Now the Gazette, though it is printed and published 
 at Sombama (for the mere reason that there alone are 
 the means of printing it), is, so far from being subject 
 to the control of any official in either Province, a 
 paper intended for the service and use of both col- 
 lectively. Therefore the exclusion from it by the 
 man Brown of matter sent for insertion by Mr. Smith 
 was not only a boorish and outrageous insult to the 
 latter, but also a grave breach of law. Most men 
 would have shown annoyance at such a high-handed 
 disregard of their rights. Mr. Smith, however, was a 
 patient and tolerant man — too tolerant to my mind ; 
 I think he had a little too much of the dove in his 
 character to show at his best on an occasion like this 
 — and he merely replied by restating his view of the 
 case without pressing it.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 175 
 
 " Sir (he wrote), — 
 
 " I am in receipt of your letter informing me that 
 you refuse to insert my notice. Your refusal only 
 confirms my pre-existing suspicion that your sub- 
 ordinate's letter was written to me with your consent 
 and approval. That, however, is a point of no great 
 importance. The question upon which I should like 
 enlightenment is this. Since when has it been your 
 duty to decide what I may or may not insert in the 
 Gazette? I have hitherto believed it to be the joint 
 property of both Provinces. If you have received 
 notice of any alteration in this matter from the 
 Imperial Government I am, of course, prepared to give 
 way. But until I receive official information of such 
 a change I must insist upon your leaving my affairs 
 in my own hands. Please to insert the notice without 
 any further delay. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 "H. Smith." 
 
 The substance of Brown's letter to Mr. Smith was 
 as follows : — 
 
 " I am sorry that I should have felt bound to delay 
 the publication of the notice. I did so and shall 
 continue to do so because it is both unnecessary, 
 unreasonable and impohtic. The Province under my 
 control is entirely free from rinderpest, while yours 
 is, to say the least, in a most dangerous state of 
 infection. This being the case, the railway officials 
 have my permission to continue importing cattle into 
 Lunda ; and I shall support them in this course should 
 Mr. Jones make any attempt to prevent it."
 
 1/6 STATION STUDIES 
 
 By the time Mr. Smith had received this letter the 
 case had been rendered infinitely more serious by 
 an outbreak of rinderpest, which, as my report to 
 him showed, was the direct result of an infringement 
 of my order. The original casus belli had, indeed, 
 disappeared before this event. For, though I did not 
 think it worth while to mention the matter to Mr. 
 Smith, I had come to an amicable arrangement with 
 the railway offtcials, allowing their cattle to enter 
 our Province subject to medical inspection. ^ 
 
 But an unmistakable outbreak occurred a few days 
 after I had made this concession, and it was my first 
 duty to report it to Mr. Smith. Some partisan writers 
 have, I believe, asserted that the outbreak was limited 
 to one case, and that a doubtful one : but their state- 
 ment is unworthy of credence. The cow to which 
 they refer may have been in a critical state of health 
 at the time from other causes ; but her symptoms un- 
 doubtedly indicated to me a grave attack of rinderpest. 
 
 Mr. Smith at once wrote to point out the grave 
 results which were likely to ensue from this disaster, 
 couching his letter in terms which Brown could not 
 possibly misunderstand. 
 
 " As a consequence," he said, " of your refusal to 
 
 ' Of course, Mr. Jones' decision not to communicate this fact to 
 Mr. Smith was, from his point of view at the moment, entirely proper 
 and advisable ; his one object being to bring about harmony between 
 the two chiefs. Unfortunately, however, it must be owned that on 
 this occasion his judgment did prove defective. Had he taken the 
 alternative course, much strife and bitterness would have been saved, 
 and the continuation of the war itself might have been prevented. 
 It was an unlucky decision : but there — criticism after the event is 
 very easy, and there can at any rate be no doubt of Mr. Jones' sin- 
 cerity. — Editor.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 17; 
 
 carry out my request, and of your malicious and un- 
 welcome interference in the affairs of this Province, 
 we are now threatened with the rapid extension from 
 your territory of rinderpest. A serious outbreak has 
 already been reported to me from 'Nsai. Unless 
 you take immediate steps to prevent further infection 
 and enforce obedience to my order by the railway 
 officials, I shall have no other course but to bring the 
 whole matter before the Imperial Government." 
 
 The correspondence then proceeded on the follow- 
 ing lines : — 
 
 Brown. The matter has already been referred to the 
 Imperial authorities. 
 
 Smith. Your statement is interesting and valuable. 
 May I ask you for a copy of their answer ? 
 
 Brown. " Settle locally." 
 
 Smith. What right had you to refer the matter to 
 them without consulting me ? 
 
 Brow7t. The delays and uncertainties of the journey 
 to 'Nkedde render it advisable that, in cases where the 
 Imperial Government's decision is urgently required, it 
 should be obtained without reference to you. 
 
 Smith. There would have been no more than a few 
 days' delay at the utmost ; and the journey to 'Nkedde 
 is entirely free of uncertainties. 
 
 Brown. Pardon me, but recent experience leads me 
 to believe that native risings are liable to interrupt 
 communication with 'Nkedde, from time to time, for 
 periods of two or three months. This being so, I 
 should have been unwise to wait for your answer. 
 
 Smith. Your statement is absolutely untrue. The 
 natives who were during the year preceding my 
 
 12
 
 i;8 STATION STUDIES 
 
 administration a constant source of trouble have, 
 since I assumed control of the country, remained quiet 
 and peaceable. In view of the disastrous effect which 
 your interference is likely to cause to this Province I 
 have felt it necessary to refer the whole question to 
 the Imperial authorities. 
 
 Brown. As the Imperial authorities have already 
 directed us to settle the matter locally, I fail to per- 
 ceive the utility of this step. Your letter has been 
 seven weeks en route from 'Nkedde ; and, since the 
 receipt of it, I have heard rumours of a considerable 
 native rising near the road over which the mails pass. 
 May I ask if these rumours are true t 
 
 Smith. No, they are not. There have been some 
 slight symptoms of unrest among a section of the 
 Karai tribe ; which was, as you will remember, during 
 your tenure of office a constant source of danger to 
 travellers. But no rising has taken place or is to be 
 expected. A military force sufficient to crush any 
 movement of i;he kind is always patrolling the road. 
 And as the latter is consequently free of danger I 
 would request you to publish the enclosed notice to 
 that effect in the Gazette. 
 
 Brown. My latest information — a telegram report- 
 ing the murder of an Indian trader and fifty porters by 
 the Karai on the date of your last letter — does not 
 seem to bear out its contents. Instead of inserting 
 your notice I have felt bound to insert one stating that 
 the road is open to travellers when accompanied by a 
 Government escort. 
 
 Smith. Your interference in the affairs of this Pro- 
 vince is perfectly intolerable. The road is, as I
 
 THE GREAT WAR 179 
 
 stated in my last letter, and have wired to the British 
 Press, " absolutely safe ". According to all reliable 
 versions of the affair you mention, the attack on the 
 Indian trader was due solely to his aggressive attitude 
 towards the Karai people. 
 
 Brown. Your statement is no doubt based on sound 
 and reliable testimony which I have not been able to 
 obtain. I was not, for example, aware that any 
 members of the caravan survived to give " versions " 
 of the massacre ; and it is the first instance in my 
 experience of an Indian trader assuming an aggressive 
 attitude towards anybody. For these errors of judg- 
 ment I wish to express my regret. But you will 
 pardon me, I hope, if I still feel it to be necessary to 
 warn the public against any incautious use of the road, 
 in view of a telegram I have to-day received, recording 
 the death of two British officers, and thirty rank and 
 file in a night-attack by the Karai. 
 
 Smith. I have full and accurate reports of this 
 attack. It was a trivial affair, which has been much 
 exaggerated. If you do not instantly withdraw your 
 notice and insert one to the effect that the road is 
 secure and passable, I shall request the Imperial 
 authorities to demand your resignation. 
 
 Brown. You are at liberty to adopt any course that 
 seems advisable to you. For my own part, my duty 
 is obviously to protect the public. And as further 
 telegrams and letters confirm my surmise that the 
 rising is a very grave affair, I have issued a notice in 
 the Gazette stating that the road is impassable even 
 with an armed escort, and is offi daily closed till 
 further notice.
 
 i8o STATION STUDIES 
 
 In other words — what language could be plainer? 
 — " The hatred which we feel for you and your staff 
 has got beyond our control. Consider your food 
 supply stopped till we choose to raise the blockade ! " 
 
 " The crisis ! " you will exclaim. " The zenith of 
 impertinence ! " " The highest peak of malignity ! " 
 Yes, my readers, you are right. You may well cry out 
 with horror and disgust at what you read. The 
 summit of human presumption, mendacity and malice 
 had indeed been reached. The cHmax had arrived.^ 
 
 It is questionable whether the meanest offspring 
 of the criminal classes could have displayed a more 
 terrible range of evil instincts, or a more inhuman 
 cruelty than did Brown in this dastardly attempt to do 
 us to death by slow starvation. I believe that it was 
 not unexpected by those who had carefully studied 
 him. They know him to be capable of monstrous 
 crime, though with the reticence which we all feel to be 
 right when speaking of others, they had never dis- 
 closed their convictions. To us, however, who had no 
 knowledge of the man's true character I must confess 
 that his action came with something of a shock. 
 Irredeemably selfish and unscrupulous in all his deal- 
 ings ; criminal and vindictive in his relations with 
 
 1 Here and throughout the ensuing passage it has been found 
 necessary to alter the original text of the MS. to some considerable 
 extent. The modified version, giving the substance of the author's 
 meaning without, alas ! his native vigour of style, will, I am afraid, 
 be looked upon as a very weak substitute for the original : but it must 
 be remembered that the literary taste of the age is too delicate to 
 allow of any real strength either of matter or manner. Palates which 
 can only take milk and water must not be forced to imbibe strong 
 liquor. — Editor.
 
 THE GREAT WAR i8i 
 
 Lunda ; vitriolic in his spite against Mr. Smith we had 
 always known him to be. Jealous he had openly con- 
 fessed himself — witness his petty attempts to detract 
 from Mr. Smith's reputation. Dishonest, you will 
 have easily gathered from this scrap of history, he 
 could not help becoming under the most trivial temp- 
 tation. A hectoring, cowardly bully he had been from 
 birth. A liar and boor we have seen that his nature 
 made him. Even his letters did not conceal that he 
 was ever ready for peculation, cruelty and fraud. But 
 that any human creature could have stooped so low 
 as to attempt the murder of his friends by a lingering 
 and horrible death was beyond our powers of credence. 
 This, however, was plainly the scheme which Brown 
 had had in his mind since the war began. And that 
 he did not succeed in carrying it out is rather due to 
 our own admirable foresight than to any absence of 
 ill-will or energy on his part. He was a traitor of the 
 lowest and most determined type who would have 
 bartered his immortal soul for gain. And as for con- 
 science, why you might as well have expected him to 
 show honesty! But there — the less said the better, 
 perhaps. I feel a certain reluctance about pur- 
 suing the subject any further. For without notic- 
 ing it, I, like any other man, may find myself 
 abusing a man whom others may think more an 
 insolent and undisciplined puppy than the mean, cold- 
 blooded, vindictive, treacherous, and accomplished 
 scoundrel which he undoubtedly was; less a cruel, 
 unprincipled felon than a cad, whose mistakes were 
 due to his low (breeding and ignorance of the decencies 
 of life.
 
 i82 STATION STUDIES 
 
 PERIOD No. II. 
 
 As to the effects of his action, it is enough to say 
 that they were very hmited. There was, so I am 
 informed, a small rise in the cost of jam, spirits and 
 a few other luxuries at 'Nkedde^ but not in any 
 of the necessaries of hfe. And it is not the 
 case, as some writers ask you to believe, that flour 
 rose to fifteen annas a lb., and whisky to thirty 
 rupees a bottle ; or that a box of groceries including 
 ten lbs. of tea, six of sugar and a few other delicacies 
 realised five hundred rupees when sold by auction. 
 No : at its worst Brown's infamous deed had but petty 
 concrete results ; it was the spirit lying behind the 
 deed that shocked and pained us so intensely. And 
 soon — as was to be expected in a world where, thank 
 Heaven, virtue and vice usually meet their due reward 
 — the effect of this spirit recoiled on the man's own 
 head. 
 
 For news of the outrage reached the Lunda Staff at 
 'Nkedde ; men who however patient they might be of 
 attacks upon themselves, were little likely to forgive 
 one upon their beloved Chief. And their first instinct 
 was to devise some immediate punishment for the 
 offender. 
 
 Mr. Smith, however, when approached on the 
 subject, advised them to await further developments. 
 He had, he said, informed Brown that, if he were to 
 apologise (by telegram) within twenty-four hours, no 
 steps would be taken to punish him. There was not 
 perhaps much hope that the man would take this 
 course : but at the same time there was no reason to
 
 THE GREAT WAR 183 
 
 despair. Let them at any rate wait till the end of 
 this period before taking action. For his own part 
 he had- done everything that lay in his power to 
 maintain peace ; and now, as ever, he would continue 
 his efforts to the last.^ 
 
 Recognising the wisdom of this advice, though not 
 without some discontent, the Staff decided to await the 
 hour when Brown's message would become due, and 
 spent the evening in weighty, if somewhat heated, 
 debate on the situation.^ Perhaps there was little 
 gained by such discussion at a time when every brain 
 was over-wrought and almost reeling with excitement. 
 But it at any rate fostered the sense of mutual con- 
 fidence which is so invaluable at times of stress. And 
 it certainly aroused a very keen spirit among the 
 disputants ; for not till midnight did their brilliancy 
 begin to show any signs of flagging ; and the small 
 hours of the morning had come before this brilliancy 
 gave way to a dignified calm, and at last to an impres- 
 sive silence. 
 
 Sleep came at length to soothe the troubled brains 
 
 1 There would seem to be some doubt if it were possible for Mr. 
 Brown to reply in so short a time. For according to other accounts 
 there was no telegraph within eighty miles of 'Nkedde at this period : 
 and it must be owned that a certain probability is lent to this state- 
 ment by the fact that the wires still stop short of the town by about 
 that distance. Doubtless, however, Mr. Jones would be able to 
 explain this inaccuracy if called upon to do so : and in any case it 
 would ill become us to cavil at so petty a mistake when the whole 
 narrative is so instinct with grandeur, liberality, and truth. — Editor. 
 
 2 Partisan writers have made the odious suggestion that this 
 evening was spent, not in such grave council as I have described, but 
 in wild and unseemly intemperance. Need I deny such an obvious 
 falsehood ? — Author.
 
 1 84 STATION STUDIES 
 
 dnd wearied bodies ; but it proved, alas ! unsatisfying 
 and broken in many cases, so intense was the excite- 
 ment : and in the morning signs of strain and anxiety 
 were only too apparent on the faces of men who had 
 during the debate shown their usual buoyant spirits. 
 
 The day passed, like the night, with no news to quell 
 the uneasiness. No work was done. Men tried in 
 vain to employ their throbbing brains upon their usual 
 routine duties ; it was impossible to shut out the stir- 
 ring thoughts of war. The afternoon brought no re- 
 lief ; the evening came and still there was no news. 
 As the hour of eight, which had been fixed by Mr. 
 Smith for the promulgation of his decision, drew near, 
 the last hope of peace began to depart. Slowly and 
 soberly the Staff gathered before their Chief's house, 
 and there waited, while the clock ticked relentlessly 
 on, dropping at every motion another grain of earth 
 upon the coffin of their hopes. At last the fateful 
 eight strokes rang out,i and the long period of strain 
 and uncertainty came to an end. Punctual to the 
 moment the Chief stepped on to his balcony, and an- 
 nounced in a few quiet words that the inevitable had 
 occurred, that the wires had brought no message of 
 withdrawal or conciliation from Brown, and that a 
 state of war had therefore begun. 
 
 He had now nothing more to add to what he had 
 said on the previous day. Time had spoken for him : 
 the dreadful logic of events had rendered it as unneces- 
 sary as it would be painful for him to make any further 
 statement. It only remained for him to express once 
 
 ^ It is absolutely false that the clock struck fourteen at this critical 
 juncture. — Author.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 185 
 
 more his supreme confidence in their loyalty. He 
 already trusted them, as they knew, to stick to their 
 duty till the breath passed from their bodies ; let him 
 assure them now of a fact which their modesty might 
 forbid them to conceive. Namely, that their ardent 
 devotion to himself, to the cause, and to the great 
 Empire which they served, would give him courage 
 through many a weary hour of stress and storm, and 
 inspire him with a confidence which he could not 
 otherwise hope to acquire, much less to maintain. 
 
 Noble as these words were, they were for a moment 
 received in silence — the silence that voices more 
 eloquently than any applause the emotion of loyalty. 
 But it was only for a moment. No sooner had the 
 speaker turned his back than the pent-up enthusiasm 
 of the meeting burst into open expression. Cheer 
 after cheer rent the night ; hats and helmets were 
 flung madly into the air (regardless of all risk of fever 
 and catarrh) ; and the excitement which had lain re- 
 pressed in every bosom asserted itself wildly, fero- 
 ciously, without restraint. The Commissioner ac- 
 knowledged the greeting with a proud smile on his 
 worn features, thanked them warmly for this display of 
 loyalty and wished them " Good-night ". With intense 
 admiration for his firmness the assembly dispersed by 
 degrees and spent the evening, as that of the previous 
 day, in discussing the lines on which hostilities should 
 be carried out.^ 
 
 The men who went to their posts on the following 
 
 ^ Another unreliable author has asserted, " There was another big 
 drunk that night". Pah! Does he think that our lives at this 
 critical moment were one long carnival of excess ? — Author.
 
 i86 STATION STUDIES 
 
 morning were animated by but one spirit — a cool, 
 grim resolution to do their duty or perish in the 
 attempt. There was no feeling of ill-will ; merely 
 a quiet determination to do all that might be asked of 
 them. Throughout the several departments — the 
 Audit, the Public Works, the Treasury, the Deputy 
 Commissioner's, the Chief Accountant's, the Post- 
 master-General's, the Secretariat, the Transport and 
 even the Lunda Rifles, who look upon civil business 
 as work for women and children, but one desire pre- 
 vailed — to fight, to the last gasp if necessary, for the 
 integrity of the Empire. With the harsh, hard joy of 
 battle in their eyes, men replenished their ink-pots, 
 grasped their pens, called upon their clerks to stand 
 firmly to their posts, and waited for the inevitable 
 attack. 1 
 
 It soon came. The official in charge of Lunda 
 Transport at Sombama reported that he was unable 
 to obtain porters for his service because the men of 
 That Other Province discouraged natives from enter- 
 ing it. The Transport Department instantly took 
 the matter up, and instructed their Sombama represen- 
 tative to arrest and punish all natives who declined 
 to work for him. He replied that he had already 
 taken this step, but that the Sombama magistrates 
 decHned to admit his jurisdiction in that town. 
 
 Mr. Smith directed an official remonstrance to Mr. 
 
 1 I need not enlarge on the merits of this magnificent passage 
 describing the tensity of the situation at 'Nkedde : they are patent to 
 all. May I, however, mention a fact but little known which makes 
 the author's feat still more extraordinary ? He was Jiot himself an 
 eye-witness of the scene he depicts ! Was there ever finer testimony to 
 a writer's reliability and skill ? — Editor.
 
 THE GREAT WAR i8; 
 
 Brown requesting him to look into the question with- 
 out delay. 
 
 Brown had the insolence to leave his letter un- 
 answered, and threatened to imprison the Lunda 
 Transport Officer should he make any further arrests. 
 
 The latter felt it his duty to continue doing so. 
 
 The incident ended in a manner throwing such 
 disgrace upon Brown and his junior officials that it will 
 be kinder to pass over their conduct in silence. 
 
 Soon afterwards our Postmaster-General found it 
 necessary to protest against the constant delay and 
 loss which occurred at Sombama in the sorting and 
 delivery of our mails from England. He received the 
 following reply : — 
 
 " Your complaint appears to be entirely unfounded 
 so far as this office is concerned. There has been 
 no loss or delay of letters for some time past. Any 
 trouble of the kind must be caused by officials in your 
 own Province." 
 
 Forced by this irritating subterfuge to go into the 
 matter more deeply, we called attention to a series 
 of robberies which had taken place at the Sombama 
 office. Postal orders had been lost there time after 
 time in a manner which left no doubt that envelopes 
 were constantly tampered with and opened. 
 
 The Postmaster-General at Sombama replied that 
 the last case of this kind had occurred five years 
 before the date of our letter, and that the amount 
 lost on that occasion had been only two rupees. Did 
 we refer to that ? 
 
 We answered that we did refer to that and were not
 
 1 88 STATION STUDIES 
 
 likely to forget it. Doubtless many similar cases 
 had taken place, though they had, as a matter of 
 course, been hushed up. 
 
 He had the impertinence to write that he should 
 take no notice of complaints so ludicrously trivial as 
 this. Any further letters from us on the subject would 
 be disregarded and burnt. 
 
 We regretted that he should think it unnecessary to 
 lessen our distrust of his department's capacity and 
 integrity. His reply merely confirmed our suspicion 
 that the case mentioned was but one of many similar 
 to it. We concluded by offering him advice upon the 
 best mode of reorganising his department. 
 
 He was unable to find a reply. 
 
 So the first general engagement in the Great War 
 ended in a solid and undeniable victory for Lunda 
 — a victory which, any sensible man would have seen, 
 presented a good opportunity for acknowledging him- 
 self in the wrong. 
 
 There was, however, no one on the enemies' side 
 capable of seeing, much less of taking, such a chance. 
 And so far from making use of it they proceeded to 
 attempt reprisals of a particularly low and petty 
 nature. 
 
 It is the habit of some Lunda officials, whose 
 work keeps them in Africa, except at intervals of 
 three or four years, to occasionally send home some 
 small trophy of the chasCj such as a skin or a pair 
 of horns, to their friends and relatives by way of 
 souvenir. One needs little imagination to see how 
 invaluable such gifts would be to an aged and bed-
 
 THE GREAT WAR 189 
 
 ridden mother, or a maiden pining for a sight of 
 her beloved after long years of separation and 
 absence. And in view of the solace which they must 
 bring, one would question whether any human being 
 could be so barbarous as to prevent their supply. 
 
 Personally, I should have said, " No such being 
 can exist". And so, no doubt, would most people. 
 But we should have all been wrong. There were men 
 among our enemies' ranks ready to prove the fact. 
 And they did. The Customs Officer at Sombama 
 suddenly prohibited the export of horns and skins 
 except by his own colleagues. 
 
 Cruel and dastardly as this attack was, Mr. Smith 
 thought it too small to be noticed without loss of 
 dignity ; so we did not take any steps to reply to it. 
 
 But it happened about this time that we found 
 it necessary to check the export of home-grown 
 tobacco from Lunda, and thereby unfortunately caused 
 the officials of That Other Province no little inconveni- 
 ence. Some writers have assumed that we intended 
 this as a bellicose act. Nothing could be further from 
 the truth. Our action was prompted purely by con- 
 siderations of economic expediency, and had no re- 
 lation whatever to the state of war existing at the 
 moment. 
 
 The enemy complained that they were forced by 
 this new step to import tobacco from England at a far 
 higher price and of a far lower quality than that 
 which they had hitherto obtained from Lunda. And 
 they had the impertinence to ask the reasons of our 
 action and whether the order was strictly necessary. 
 But of this question, of course, we could not be ex-
 
 igo STATION STUDIES 
 
 pected to take official notice. Once made, the order 
 could not for merely private reasons be revoked ; and 
 we had to inform them semi-officially that while 
 regretting the inconvenience, we could not give them 
 any hope of relief. The new rule was rendered neces- 
 sary by fiscal considerations. We must decline to 
 explain our action ; and in any case we should not 
 think it advisable to do so in a quarter where our con- 
 fidences might be divulged. 
 
 The attacking party replied by inquiring what we 
 meant to refer to in the last clause of our letter. 
 
 We assured them that no one could regret more 
 than we did the need of employing such a term. But 
 
 the great A case — in which it will be remembered 
 
 certain important secrets were disclosed — was still in 
 our minds ; and we could not forget that Sombama 
 officials were the principal persons concerned in it 
 
 They replied that this case — the only one of 
 its kind — had occurred seven years before the 
 date of our letter, and that the only official con- 
 cerned in it had been instantly dismissed the service. 
 They added that we were perfectly aware of all this 
 when we wrote, and demanded an apology. 
 
 We regretted that instead of referring to the case 
 explicitly we had taken the more delicate course of 
 hinting at it subtly. The disclosures had shocked us 
 terribly, and were rather hard to forget. Still, we 
 would endeavour not only to erase them from our 
 memories, but also to lessen the distrust we always 
 felt with regard to their Staff's integrity. 
 
 There, one might have supposed, the incident 
 would have ended : but such a desirable consumma-
 
 THE GREAT WAR 191 
 
 tion was not to be. They were not satisfied even now, 
 and informed us that if we did not instantly render 
 them a full and adequate apology for the slight we 
 had inflicted on them they would feel it necessary to 
 place the matter before the Imperial Government. 
 
 We replied that after careful consideration we were 
 not able to recommend any other course.^ 
 
 Acting no doubt on our advice, they did refer it to 
 the Imperial authorities. But unfortunately for them, 
 the letter containing the complaint was intercepted — 
 by whom it has never yet been ascertained — and when 
 they had waited the fifteen or sixteen months which 
 might have been expected to elapse before the receipt 
 of an answer the matter had dropped out of notice.^ 
 
 PERIOD No. III. 
 
 Long before this, however ; indeed before many 
 weeks had passed, there were far more important 
 events to attract men's attention. The famous case 
 of the Lunda Pardons was already beginning to loom 
 into view. 
 
 The case arose in this fashion. That Other Pro- 
 vince gave notice that it would cancel the Extradition 
 Agreement subsisting between us by a certain date. 
 
 We remonstrated. They refused to listen to our 
 remonstrances. We pointed out that all suspected 
 persons in our Province instantly fled to theirs en 
 
 ^ Here the original MS. reads much more strongly.— £(f/7or. 
 
 2 Prejudiced writers even hint that the letter was intercepted by an 
 
 agent of ours— a Babu clerk in the Sombama Treasury. Absurd! 
 
 Author, 
 
 A pitiful libel indeed ! — Editor.
 
 192 STATION STUDIES 
 
 route for the sea-coast, and that if they refused to 
 arrest and return such fugitives we should not suffer, 
 but they would. They still declined to adopt our view, 
 and a furious correspondence arose over the question, 
 which ultimately brought about a general engagement 
 between all the departments on both sides. 
 
 Into this I have unfortunately no space to enter, 
 though it was rendered especially interesting by a 
 display of animosity almost unparalleled in history. 
 The mail-bags positively bulged with the mass of 
 controversial correspondence ; and the tone of the 
 letters became so personal and so terrible as to put 
 the war outside the sphere of officialdom altogether. 
 
 A detailed record, in fact, of this period could 
 not well be put on paper ; and it is as well to pass 
 it all over in silence. Our ostensible reply to the at- 
 tack was simply a retaliatory refusal (rather weak, I 
 thought) to pursue and return any of our adversaries' 
 fugitives. But as the latter never shaped their course 
 towards Lunda, our action had little real result on 
 the contest. The effective reply came from a quarter 
 far mo're powerful, namely, from the hand of Fate 
 herself ; who struck for us a blow that more than 
 compensated for our weakness. 
 
 There happened at the time to be a number of 
 Indian convicts in Lunda who had completed or almost 
 completed their terms of imprisonment. The happy 
 thought occurred to Mr. Smith that these might all 
 be deported to India together in one vessel : and, the 
 decision to adopt a certain course being, in official 
 life, synonymous with its execution, they were sent 
 off at once to Sombama to be shipped. Unhappily,
 
 THE GREAT WAR 193 
 
 however, the steamer in which they were to travel had 
 not arrived in harbour on the date arranged : and a 
 temporary camp had to be formed for their accom- 
 modation. The delay proved longer than was antici- 
 pated. The convicts, owing to some mistake, were 
 inadequately guarded. By ill-luck a number of them 
 escaped into the town and surrounding country : and 
 a perfect epidemic of thefts and robberies followed 
 upon the mishap. 
 
 For this, if you please, we were blamed. Some 
 have gone so far as not only to blame the convicts 
 for the thefts, but to blame our officers for their escape. 
 Need I dwell on the improbability any more than on 
 the infamy, of this suggestion ^ Of course we took 
 the utmost precautions to prevent such a disaster : 
 it was no fault of ours that it took place, or that the 
 ship was late. If any proof be required of this, surely 
 it is to be found in the fact that we recaptured at least 
 five out of the two hundred convicts, and did our very 
 best to recapture more. The whole incident was due 
 to sheer bad luck, and no blame for it can be attached 
 to any one. 
 
 A period of peace followed on this episode — due 
 rather to our enemies' inability than to their unwilling- 
 ness to continue the war — but still unruffled peace. 
 And it lasted long enough to make us hope that they 
 would confess defeat and sue for such terms as we 
 could offer them. But again we had expected too 
 much. We had forgotten that foul means were quite 
 as valuable in their eyes as fair. The attack was 
 renewed in a manner too low for any decent person 
 to have foreseen. 
 
 13
 
 194 STATION STUDIES 
 
 Hitherto it had always been the habit of Lunda 
 officials proceeding to England on leave, to look 
 upon the Sombama Club as the first peak in that 
 range of delectable mountains tinged with the soft 
 hues of comfort which culminates in London. Here 
 first they renewed acquaintance with ice, long chairs, 
 and similar luxuries ; here regained interest in exist- 
 ence, and found in society an antidote to the philoso- 
 phy of fever. They were, as a matter of course, elected 
 to temporary membership of the Club, and within its 
 doors they obtained their first taste of freedom and 
 comfort. 
 
 Now, we suddenly found, members of the Lunda 
 Staff were refused this temporary admittance. 
 
 Such an insult obviously could not be ignored ; and 
 we decided to avenge it to the full. Two of our 
 Staff happened to be in London at the time, giving 
 evidence before a Conference on the Preservation of 
 Big Game in Africa : and on being informed of the 
 abominable trick which had been played upon us, 
 they at once drew the attention of the Conference to 
 the excessive slaughter of game in That Other Pro- 
 vince. Such was the weight of their representations 
 that a resolution was passed declaring the whole Pro- 
 vince a Game Reserve. With the result that its 
 officials were deprived of the one pursuit which makes 
 life in Africa tolerable. 
 
 This step soon had the desired effect. They ceased 
 to blackball our men at the Club, and then appealed 
 to the Imperial Government to relax the regulation 
 which forbade their shooting. But the two members 
 of our Staff, being again consulted on this question,
 
 THE GREAT WAR 195 
 
 decided that they could not recommend any alteration 
 in the new rule, and it remained in force. 
 
 Black indeed was the picture presented by our 
 enemies on hearing this decision. Instead of accept- 
 ing it in a proper spirit and acknowledging its justice, 
 they allowed themselves to rage and riot in vitupera- 
 tion of our Staff like an angry donkey chafing 
 for liberty in his stall.^ They even suggested that 
 we had acted dishonourably. They had given in, 
 they said, over the question of our election to the 
 Club, on the understanding that our representatives 
 would give in over that of the Reserve. Now, when 
 the latter point arose, we had broken our promise and 
 played them false. Could we not even fight like 
 gentlemen ? 
 
 There was much silly talk of this kind : but of 
 course we paid no attention to it. After all the whole 
 affair was a mere storm in a tea-cup — a laughable 
 incident, which ought not to be allowed to develop 
 into anything serious. Our wisest reply was to leave 
 their letter unanswered ; and we did. 
 
 The war dragged on, involving one by one all the 
 Government Departments. Among those which had 
 to defend themselves with particular care was the 
 Medical. The Principal Medical Officer of That 
 Other Province, happening to be the Senior Medical 
 Officer of both, made use of his position to open a 
 furious attack upon us in a manner which was particu- 
 larly reprehensible. 
 
 > What a simile ! What strength I What aptness of the figure to 
 the circumstances ! Our author at times rises even above himself. — 
 Editor.
 
 196 STATION STUDIES 
 
 When our most valued officials passed through 
 Sombama on their way home to England or the 
 reverse, he would insist on subjecting them to a 
 medical examination, and would then report them to 
 be unfit for further service in Africa. This not only 
 threw the officials out of work and brought them in 
 danger of starvation, but also deprived our Province 
 of her best and most devoted servants. By way of 
 compensation he would recommend the transfer " for 
 medical reasons " of old, broken or incompetent 
 officials from his own Province to Lunda. 
 
 This, Mr. Smith felt, was an attack which he could 
 not ask us to ignore ; and we at once began to look 
 about with a view of making reprisals. But fortun- 
 ately we were spared the trouble of carrying them out. 
 For Fate, who had served us so well before, again 
 stepped in at the critical moment. An epidemic of 
 small-pox broke out in That Other Province. 
 
 Will it be credited that the blame for this too was 
 attributed to us ? I hardly dare ask my readers to 
 believe it : but there was the fact. The Principal 
 Medical Officer alleged that our Medical Staff had not 
 only allowed, but encouraged, the spread of the 
 disease from our territory to his. Such obvious false- 
 hoods as this require no denial among those who know 
 the full facts of the case. But of course it was felt 
 that there were many persons in the outside world 
 who might not have kept pace with all the events of 
 the war ; and the importance of keeping them well 
 informed as to its course could not be exaggerated. 
 So a clamour arose that our reputation should be set 
 right in the minds of the British public : and as no
 
 THE GREAT WAR 19; 
 
 two persons seemed able to agree on the best mode 
 of doing this, the matter was brought to me for 
 decision. I hesitated to interfere, averse as I was to 
 being dragged into the quarrel. But at last I had 
 to give way, and after due consideration decided to 
 invoke the aid of the Press. The rule forbidding 
 officials to communicate with the newspapers seemed 
 to me inapplicable in this instance ; and satisfied that 
 I should be right to ignore it I had a small paragraph 
 inserted in one of the leading London journals, which 
 ran as follows : — 
 
 "THE SOMBAMA SCANDAL.— AN UNPLEASANT REVIVAL. 
 
 " The painful impression aroused at Sombama a 
 few years ago by the leakage of official secrets has 
 recently been revived in a most unpleasant manner 
 by a similar case. It is not possible to refer particu- 
 larly to the persons concerned, nor consistent with 
 the public interest to give any detailed account of 
 their offence : but there has for some time been a 
 grave sense of insecurity with regard to the offices at 
 this important headquarters ; and rumour says that 
 several prominent members of the staff are to be 
 dismissed for malpractices. This will no doubt have 
 a salutary effect on the remaining officers ; and no 
 further trouble need be anticipated : but at the same 
 time it cannot of course be expected that their reputa- 
 tion will ever stand so high as that of their neighbours 
 in the Province of Lunda." 
 
 I need not enter into any description of the petty 
 and childish ebullitions of rage which this just and
 
 198 STATION STUDIES 
 
 almost generous notice of their recent difficulties drew 
 from our adversaries. Little is to be gained from 
 the study of weak natures giving vent to their malice : 
 and it would be mere waste of time to describe the 
 attempts which were made to injure us by delaying our 
 letters, kidnapping our servants, stealing our goods 
 and casting aspersions upon us before the Imperial 
 Government. Rather let us pass on to those closing 
 scenes of the war, which brought the Administration 
 of That Other Province into such lasting disgrace 
 and infamy, and caused many an Enghshman to 
 wonder whether he did not live in times of organised 
 anarchy rather than under that august and flawless 
 institution — Government by the People. 
 
 PERIOD No. IV. 
 
 It is only with an effort than any thinking and feel- 
 ing man can bring himself to contemplate such events 
 as have now to be recorded : and I take up my pen to 
 describe them with a sense of weariness and appre- 
 hension on behalf of my country which I find it 
 difficult to fight against, and impossible to dispel. Yet 
 the duty of an historian, however unpalatable, calls 
 for unflinching performance ; and I shall not shrink 
 from the duty of description any more than I did from 
 that of action — from the odious task of self-defence in 
 a quarrel which I desired to avoid. 
 
 The incident which led to these scenes arose as 
 usual out of the ill-judgment and — well, I do not 
 like the phrase and I hoped to be able to avoid using 
 it, but one must speak plainly sometimes — at the 
 instigation of our adversaries.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 199 
 
 The native tribes who dwelt along the Eastern side 
 of the border of the two Provinces lived, owing to 
 the tactless control of those who had charge of them, 
 in a perennial state of discontent. Always ready and 
 anxious for rebellion, one word would set them in 
 active revolt ; and the treatment meted out to them 
 by the officials of That Other Province being always 
 provocative rather than conciliatory, their attitude at 
 length became so threatening as to render the district 
 unsafe for travellers to visit. The effect of this 
 insecurity upon us was to prevent the contractors who 
 had hitherto bought corn for us from these tribes from 
 travelling among them. We persuaded them for a 
 few weeks to face the danger, but at last it became 
 too serious for the bravest among them : and I was 
 compelled to fall back upon a new man named 
 Tongue, who, though I had not hitherto employed 
 him, seemed to possess just the courage, tact and firm- 
 ness necessary for such a venture. He consented to go 
 on condition that I provided him with an armed es- 
 cort ; and I instantly complied, well satisfied at having 
 secured a man so well suited for the work. 
 
 Much that is inaccurate has been written and talked 
 about Tongue : and several hes have been told about 
 his hfe and character which throw more shame upon 
 those responsible for them than upon him. His was a 
 vigorous but not an aggressive personahty, a nature 
 which one had no choice but to regard with respect. 
 He was firm but not quarrelsome with natives ; honest, 
 tactful, sober in all his dealings with both black men 
 and white ; a good and kindly man if not perhaps a 
 vigorous supporter of the Establishment, and a gentle-
 
 200 STATION STUDIES 
 
 man of unblemished character and antecedents, if not 
 ?n actual saint. Those who depict him as a riotous, 
 undisciplined brawler who had to the world's know- 
 ledge spent a term of years in gaol for fraud, and 
 now lived from hand to mouth by the loot which he 
 forced from reluctant natives, cannot possibly know 
 the man. It is true that he had an immense influence 
 with some tribes, and was often able to persuade them 
 to trade when they were unwilling even to meet a 
 less tactful man. But this was entirely due to his 
 kindness, not, as has been hinted, to his severity in 
 deahng with them : and — to continue the clearing of 
 his character — though he is said to have once had 
 some small trouble in connection with the forgery of 
 a cheque (falsely attributed to him), there is nothing 
 to show that the scrape was at all serious — indeed he 
 has himself assured me that it was not. 
 
 If still further testimony be required, I myself am 
 ready to affirm that I always found him entirely 
 trustworthy ; and this, I should hope, will be enough 
 to satisfy the most captious critic. At any rate there is 
 no truth in the report that he was a cold-blooded and 
 unscrupulous ne'er-do-well, old in crime and stained 
 with the guilt of murder ; and it is not the case that 
 he once said, as has been asserted, " When the niggers 
 give me what I want I treat 'em first class : when they 
 don't I kill 'em. I don't want to kill 'em, but if they 
 wont be'ave, what is a fellow to do ? " 
 
 The details of the disturbance which now arose are 
 of little importance. I allowed Tongue fifty rifles and 
 men, and instructed him on no account to use them 
 except in self-defence and as a last resource. He
 
 THE GREAT WAR 201 
 
 assured me that I could rely upon his discretion ; and 
 that he obeyed my instructions implicitly there can be 
 no doubt. Unfortunately, however, he was attacked 
 by the natives with whom he went to trade ; he was 
 forced to use firearms to repel them ; and though the 
 engagement itself was brief and unimportant, it had 
 regrettable results. The rising spread. Our own 
 tribes, who had hitherto lived peaceably enough under 
 my control, found themselves attacked by those of 
 That Other Province, and appealed to Tongue for 
 protection. The latter endeavoured to secure a peace- 
 able adjustment of the difficulty, and succeeded in so 
 far, at any rate, that he was able to bring the rival 
 chiefs together in conference. A temporary truce was 
 arranged, and it even promised to become permanent. 
 In fact we had the end of the trouble well in sight, 
 when suddenly our hopes were dashed to the ground. 
 The shocking news came that a large armed force 
 from That Other Province was being dispatched to 
 quell the disturbance aroused by Tongue s raids upon 
 their natives! 
 
 Upon such an action as this, base and unwise in 
 conception, still more contemptible as it proved in 
 execution, I need not comment. No one is likely to 
 find much excuse for men who deliberately hinder the 
 efforts of a peacemaker simply because he happens to 
 be the representative of a different Province ; and 
 the sad story of their failure needs no embellishment 
 to convince my readers of their folly. The news 
 proved to be true. Two companies of the formidable 
 and savage Swahili contingent appeared on the scene, 
 under the command, imperfect and perfunctory, of
 
 202 STATION STUDIES 
 
 English officers. The latter, possessing no knowledge 
 either of the country or the people with whom they 
 had to deal — of course they should have appealed for 
 advice to Tongue, who was familiar with both — pur- 
 sued the fatuous policy of making an alliance with 
 their own tribes as against ours under Tongue's 
 leadership. 
 
 Tongue, recognising at once that such a method 
 was obviously bound to increase rather than diminish 
 the trouble ; and shrewdly perceiving that it would 
 be impossible for him to work in harmony with such 
 men, left them to act independently, and departed for 
 the more remote districts, where he might still hope 
 to carry out his ideas unimpeded. Here, had he been 
 left alone, there is no doubt that he would in time 
 have drawn the rival tribes together, and permanently 
 settled the disturbance. But even in his retreat, un- 
 happily, he was interfered with. The military force 
 sent by That Other Province, bent, it would seem, upon 
 increasing the damage they had done, dogged his 
 footsteps so persistently that he could not carry out 
 his plans. He moved away from them by way of 
 protest : but in vain ; they followed him. He eluded 
 them once more, but they were still too dense to see 
 that they were out of place. Finally the affair was 
 concluded in a most regrettable manner. 
 
 One evening, when unknown to each other, the two 
 forces were camping quite close together, hardly 
 two miles apart. Tongue, always anxious to strike 
 a blow at his enemy with the least possible loss, led 
 out a patrolling expedition shortly after dark on the 
 chance of fmding one of their parties wandering
 
 THE GREAT WAR 203 
 
 away from the main body. He saw what he sup- 
 posed to be one of their camps at the edge of a forest. 
 He crept up to within a hundred yards of it unob- 
 served, and poured in a volley of musketry. 
 
 The result was almost too sad for description. A 
 terrible cry rent the air. An Englishman's voice began 
 to shout expressions about Tongue which I am sure he 
 would be ashamed to see repeated in cold print, and 
 then, alas, alas, that I should have to record such 
 horrors !— the volley was returned ! With a shudder of 
 surprise and grief, poor Tongue realised that he had 
 committed the terrible error of firing upon his friends. 
 The camp was that of the rival expedition. 1 
 
 The sequel to this unfortunate mishap was very 
 much what might have been expected with our neigh- 
 bours controlling events. Their forces pursued and 
 arrested poor Tongue; who, feeling convinced that 
 the worst interpretation would be put upon his action, 
 had, after the exchange of a few more shots,^ left the 
 field in dismay. They scraped together a charge 
 of dacoity against him, and with the malice of their 
 
 1 The poor fellow's anguish when he discovered his n^istake is said 
 to have been pitiful to witness. And yet there have been found men 
 base enough to assert that it was no mistake ! Oh human nature ! 
 human nature ! — Author. 
 
 A pitiful comment on our weaknesses indeed.— £rf/<or. 
 
 'These were fired by the forces of That Other Province for the 
 most part. Some of our men seem to have retaliated (against 
 Tongue's orders of course) : but there was no desperate engagement 
 such as some authors will ask you to believe in. And it is not true- 
 indeed it is quite incredible-that Tongue, when he saw that all was 
 lost, ordered his men to continue firing while he himself made his 
 escape.— .(4 M//tor.
 
 204 STATION STUDIES 
 
 natures getting beyond control, raised a clamour that 
 I should be suspended from office ; and, if not put into 
 the dock as an accessory to the crime, at least sum- 
 moned as a witness. 
 
 Mr. Smith was weak enough to allow me to 
 be subpoenaed. I pointed out the impossibility of 
 leaving my work and made a formal protest against 
 such an absurdity. But without avail. I was actually 
 put to the indignity of being arrested and conveyed- — 
 with such unspeakable sufferings from discomfort and 
 thirst that I was seriously ill — to Sombama.^ There 
 I was, with infamous injustice, only allowed my 
 liberty on paying a considerable sum as bail : and I 
 was even prohibited from visiting poor Tongue before 
 the trial. 
 
 This, when it came, proved to be something very 
 different from our ordinary ideas of what a trial should 
 be. I cannot pollute my pen by describing it : the 
 subject is too abhorrent. Suffice it to say that the 
 jury was packed, the mental balance of the Bench 
 turned by passionate prejudice, the defence not fairly 
 heard, the prosecution wildly cheered. My own evi- 
 dence was distorted into a shape which gave exactly 
 the reverse of the truth : and the whole trial was con- 
 ducted with a regard for the clamour of the mob and 
 a disregard of truth and justice which makes it im- 
 possible to depict it in detail. I leave the reader 
 to judge from the final passage of the magistrate's 
 
 ^ It is absolutely false that I was accommodated with a first-class 
 saloon, and drank two bottles of whisky during the three days' 
 journey. — Author.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 205 
 
 summing-up and address to the jury what was the 
 tone adopted throughout the proceedings : it may 
 well speak for them.^ 
 
 " The facts then, Gentlemen of the Jury, are that 
 James Tongue was provided with a force of fifty men 
 armed with rifles in order to enable him to defend 
 himself in case of attack. I find no credible evidence 
 that there was any prospect or even probability of his 
 being so attacked ; nor is there anything to prove that 
 he was attacked in the first instance, or that at any 
 succeeding period of the fighting his attitude was other 
 than aggressive. His force did not suffer a wound, 
 much less the loss of a man. The testimony of the 
 tribes on both sides of the border is, that they met him 
 in a friendly spirit, and that his use of arms at all was 
 unnecessary. Evidence has been produced in this 
 trial to show that he has borne an extremely bad 
 character as a criminal, and has frequently been con- 
 victed of raiding on and ill-treating natives. 
 
 " In the present instance there can be no doubt that 
 he attacked the natives of this Province, under the 
 pretext that he was defending himself against them, 
 while on a tour for the purpose of purchasing food ; 
 and it is for you to decide whether this attack was 
 unprovoked or not." 
 
 The Jury returned after five minutes and declared 
 that they had unanimously decided the accused to be 
 
 ' Had I not fortunately been able to influence some of the witnesses 
 bribed by the prosecution to give evidence against Tongue not to 
 commit the perjury demanded of them, there can be no doubt that a 
 terrible miscarriage of justice would have to be recorded against the 
 Sombama Court, — Author.
 
 2o6 STATION STUDIES 
 
 " Not Guilty ".1 The verdict was received with a 
 tremendous outburst of feeling on the part of those 
 present, which was instantly (and very rightly) sup- 
 pressed. Then, the case being concluded, the Court 
 should properly have risen and brought the pro- 
 ceedings to an end. Even in so sacred a place, 
 however, as the temple of justice there was no sense 
 of fairplay among the men of That Other Province. 
 Before leaving his seat the magistrate made the fol- 
 lowing wholly unwarrantable comment on my conduct. 
 
 " I cannot close this case, surprised as I am at the 
 verdict which has been given, without recording 
 my opinion that Mr. Jones, in employing a man of 
 such notorious antecedents as Mr. Tongue upon a 
 mission requiring tact, forbearance and patience in 
 a marked degree, committed a grave error of judg- 
 ment. I feel it to be my duty to forward a copy 
 of the proceedings in the case to his official superiors, 
 in order that they may take such action as they may 
 deem necessary." 
 
 Comment upon such a gross abuse of judicial 
 decorum is obviously unnecessary. There is nothing 
 to be done in a case of this kind but to mourn at the 
 man's depravity, and hope that he may some day 
 come to see his action in its true light. No doubt, 
 he did. No doubt, he suffered an agony of remorse 
 in later years, which punished him fully for the fleet- 
 ing pleasure of his sin. But it would ill become 
 
 * A foul story has been spread abroad that the jury had been 
 heavily bribed by Lunda officials. Even if such a scheme could have 
 been contemplated by honourable men, is it likely that bribery could 
 have influenced a jury of upright and conscientious Babus ? — Author.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 20; 
 
 us to dwell on the poor fellow's distress. There can 
 be no doubt that anything he suffered was fully de- 
 served. And while we may feel a momentary sym- 
 pathy for him we cannot think that he was unjustly 
 or too severely punished : we may, in short, pass on 
 without compunction to matters of more importance. 
 
 PERIOD No. V. 
 
 Most people thought that with our safe return to 
 Lunda the sordid train of events to which it seemed to 
 be the end would really come to a conclusion. The 
 sequel to the trial, however, proved to be more trouble- 
 some than had been anticipated. The fundamental 
 difficulty of the situation had not been removed ; for 
 the hostile attitude of the native tribes remained 
 unchanged, and it was still impossible for our contrac- 
 tors to visit them without protection. I pointed this 
 out to Mr. Smith ; and though he seemed very un- 
 willing to go any further in a matter which had already 
 caused so much friction, he was at length compelled to 
 continue his efforts in the cause of peace. Under my 
 advice he wrote to Brown informing him that unless 
 he were able to guarantee the safety of our contrac- 
 tors when travelling in his Province, the armed escort 
 with which they had been equipped would have to be 
 continued. 
 
 In reply Brown wrote that the natives were per- 
 fectly well disposed and ready to trade peacefully. If 
 any armed escort accompanied the contractors he 
 should send a regiment of soldiers to drive it back. 
 
 Mr. Smith, remarking jocularly to his secretary —
 
 2o8 STATION STUDIES 
 
 what was indeed beginning to seem indubitable to 
 most of us — that the man must be mad to send such 
 a letter, wrote back with even more than his usual 
 courtesy to protest against such a hasty threat. He 
 also pointed out that the statement on which it was 
 based lacked support or even probability : that it was 
 indeed entirely untrue. 
 
 Brown had the impudence to repeat both his false- 
 hood and his threat, adding that he did not propose to 
 give any further warning or admit any further dis- 
 cussion in the matter. 
 
 Mr. Smith again strove to bring him to reason, and 
 did his best to bring about a friendly agreement : but 
 again he failed to make any impression. He could not 
 even induce Brown to agree to a compromise. And 
 at last he took the only dignified course open to him, 
 and wrote to the Imperial authorities stating that his 
 powers of toleration were exhausted : if Brown were 
 not called upon to resign, he himself should feel com- 
 pelled to do so. 
 
 The Imperial authorities laid the case before 
 Brown : who had the insolence to reply that nothing 
 would induce him to quit his post unless he were 
 forced to do so. 
 
 Mr. Smith held, as was obviously the case, that 
 Brown was responsible for the entire war and was 
 bound in honour to give way. 
 
 Brown, devoid as ever of any gentlemanly feeling, 
 pointed out that Mr. Smith had offered to resign and 
 that he himself had not. Why should not Mr. Smith 
 carry out his undertaking ? 
 
 Mr. Smith as a last resource suggested that the
 
 THE GREAT WAR 209 
 
 matter should be referred to arbitration. And in 
 spite of Brown's unfriendly though, from his point of 
 view, easily intelligible objection to this course, he 
 was in the act of carrying it out, when events took a 
 sudden turn that put a stop to all his amicable efforts. 
 The civilized world was startled by a strange rumour 
 that notice of a Question upon the whole War had 
 been given in the House of Commons by a member 
 intimately acquainted with its history. The news 
 proved to be true : and a few days later the Question 
 was put. 
 
 In the ordinary course of events I should not have 
 troubled my readers to peruse this Question ; but it 
 secured considerable notoriety at the time on account 
 of its somewhat unusual length ; and it is interesting 
 too as a curio, showing to what depths of mendacity 
 the persons hired to represent our enemy would stoop. 
 My readers will be able to judge of its accuracy for 
 themselves. 
 
 " I wish to ask the Under Secretary of State for 
 African Affairs," it ran, " whether during the past 
 four years and more there has been an amount of 
 friction between the Staffs of the two African Pro- 
 vinces which has rendered the dispatch of public 
 business in these Provinces tardy, unreliable, and apt 
 to be constantly disturbed by variation in the rules 
 regulating customs, game laws, the use of firearms and 
 other important matters. Whether at the beginning of 
 the period in question the convenience of the public 
 and the interests of cattle owners were prejudicially 
 affected by the indiscreet orders regarding rinderpest 
 made by an official of the Lunda Province named 
 
 14
 
 2IO STATION STUDIES 
 
 Jones. Whether this official was also the originator of 
 a quarrel which arose upon the subject between the 
 Chief Commissioners of the two Provinces, and ulti- 
 mately became the cause of grave friction between 
 their respective Staffs. Whether Mr. Smith at a subse- 
 quent period allowed the natives through whose 
 country the mails had to pass to become so turbulent 
 that the mail service to Lunda was interrupted for 
 some months, and then denied that there had been any 
 important disturbance. Whether, upon Mr. Brown's 
 inserting a notice in the Gazette drawing the attention 
 of merchants and others to this and the danger of 
 sending caravans by the mail route, Mr. Smith again 
 denied the existence of any danger, and attempted to 
 induce them to come in spite of the obvious risk to 
 their lives and property. Whether as a result of his 
 action and the disturbances referred to, two merchants 
 and their entire staff of porters had been massacred by 
 the natives ; if so, why no mention was made of it 
 in contemporary reports, and what compensation, if 
 any, was awarded to the relations of the deceased 
 merchants and their porters respectively. Whether the 
 Lunda Transport Agent at Sombama had subse- 
 quently been detected in an endeavour to prevent, by 
 threats, native porters from serving with any one but 
 Lunda officials. Whether the latter had then brought 
 infamous charges against the postal officials at Som- 
 bama which they were unable to prove ; and had, as a 
 means of attack and annoyance, resorted to various 
 petty tricks, such as stopping the export of tobacco 
 from Lunda, bringing false accusations of dishonesty 
 against various officials at Sombama, refusing to assist
 
 THE GREAT WAR 211 
 
 them in the capture of their escaped criminals ; im- 
 peding them in the performance of their duty by 
 insolent and provocative letters ; allowing a large 
 batch of Indian convicts who were under sentence of 
 deportation to India to escape at Sombama, and ad- 
 vising the institution of a Game Reserve over the 
 whole of their Province. Whether the report was true 
 which stated that several Babu clerks in the service of 
 the latter Province had been dismissed for selling 
 official secrets to Lunda officials, and if so what steps 
 had been taken to punish the offenders. Whether 
 there had also been friction between the medical staffs 
 of the two Provinces, entirely aroused by that of 
 Lunda, resulting in grave dangers to the public health 
 and even in an outbreak of smallpox. Whether the 
 official above referred to, Mr. Jones, had at a very 
 recent date been practically found guilty of an organ- 
 ised effort to incite the natives under his charge to 
 attack those of the neighbouring Province, and of an 
 intentional assault with rifles upon soldiers sent to 
 allay the disturbance. If this report were correct, what 
 steps has been taken to prevent Mr. Jones' turbulent 
 spirit and inadequate sense of his responsibility from 
 causing further damage to British interests in Africa. 
 And finally, whether, having regard to the friction 
 which apparently continued between the Staffs as well 
 as the Chief Commissioners of the two Provinces, tlie 
 magnitude of the interests involved, and the incon- 
 venience and delay which must be daily caused to the 
 public by the continuance of such friction, the resig- 
 nation of one of the Chief Commissioners and a few 
 of the more irreconcilable officials of the Lunda Pro-
 
 212 STATION STUDIES 
 
 vince would be requested, and that of Mr. Jones, who 
 seemed to be responsible alike for the origin and 
 maintenance of the hostilities, enforced." 
 
 The answer was " No, sir ". 
 
 And so, to use a homely and colloquial form of 
 speech, LUNDA SCORED AGAIN. 
 
 Need I add any remark upon this blackguardly 
 effort to ruin us ? I think not. I think that our 
 enemies' action may well be allowed to speak for 
 itself without any further notice from me ; and that 
 the discomfiture which they suffered will be as truly 
 and gratefully appreciated whether I expatiate upon 
 it or not. 
 
 Our victory was so complete as to be conclu- 
 sive. Our neighbours never held up their heads 
 again ; and their attacks upon us soon ceased alto- 
 gether. The more peaceful routine of ordinary office 
 work took the place of sanguinary and bitter en- 
 counters. The pressure of correspondence lessened, 
 and the weight of the mail-bags travelling between 
 Sombama and 'Nkedde diminished to its ordinary 
 proportions. The note of personal feeling began 
 gradually to disappear from official letters. A rap- 
 prochement came about between the Staffs of the 
 two Provinces ; the wheels of the administrative 
 machine regained their normal smoothness of run- 
 ning. And so, at last, with a dignified silence, on our 
 part — we were not the men to exult over fallen foes — 
 and a tacit but unmistakable admission of defeat on 
 the part of our adversaries, the Great War came to 
 an end.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 213 
 
 I think that everybody was glad when the signs 
 of peace once more appeared. The long years of 
 hostility had told severely on the personnel of the 
 combatants ; and many of the latter were beginning 
 to feel the strain of belligerent writing so deeply that 
 their health and spirits were affected. So far as the 
 actual moment of reconciliation was concerned it 
 could not have been better chosen, for both parties 
 could retire from the contest with some feeling of 
 satisfied honour. On their side, the men of That 
 Other Province had the feminine and trivial pleasure 
 of speaking the last word. On ours we had the more 
 solid joy of complete victory ; so that we could easily 
 afford them what comfort they could find in the hour 
 of humiliation. At any rate there were no complaints 
 on either side when the war actually came to an end ; 
 and many officials seized the opportunity of release 
 from the strain to return to England for a rest. 
 
 This was especially the case with our own men ; a 
 number of whom too, disgusted probably by the indig- 
 nity of daily personal altercation, and unwilling to face 
 the possibility of its continuance, sent in their resigna- 
 tions. This was a somewhat unfortunate step in one 
 way, for, coming when it did, their action lent a certain 
 plausibility to the report that they were asked to leave 
 the service. I need hardly add that there is not a grain 
 of truth in this story : indeed no sane man would 
 dream of believing it. But at the same time one must 
 admit that the opportunity was not well chosen. 
 Even the fact that Mr. Smith was one of the number 
 has not altogether prevented the public from believing 
 the rumour. This gentleman was only too anxious
 
 214 STATION STUDIES 
 
 to remain at the post to which he had lent such dis- 
 tinction. But finding, when he was at last able to 
 get away to England, that his health was impaired by 
 the war and would not permit of his return to Africa, 
 he handed in his resignation : and amidst the universal 
 regret of his friends and (need I add) the jubilation of 
 his enemies, he passed into an honourable and dignified 
 retirement.^ 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 For myself I soon saw that it would be incompatible 
 with my dignity to retain office, unless the slanders 
 hurled at me both in the Sombama Court and in that 
 higher tribunal which rules under the shadow of West- 
 minster, the pulsing heart of our great Empire, were 
 unreservedly withdrawn. If I had been able to bring 
 myself to excuse the insolence of an ignorant and 
 prejudiced local magistrate, it would still have been 
 impossible for me to overlook the offence in an 
 assembly such as the House of Commons, imbued as 
 it is with the serenity of lofty and passionless philo- 
 sophic thought. Besides the consideration of this 
 indignity too, I had other inducements which led 
 
 ^ There is not a grain of truth in the report that his resignation 
 was brought on by any pressure from the Imperial Government. 
 Those authorities who have asserted that he was summarily dismissed 
 for the share he took in the hostilities are, in homely phrase, and not 
 to put too fine a point upon it, liars. — Author. 
 
 How pleasant it is to find our author speaking out for once with 
 real vigour and candour. Note the frankness and ring of true sin- 
 cerity in the passage from this point to the end of the narrative. — 
 Editor.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 215 
 
 me to think that I ought not to devote any more of 
 my life to the service of my country. Such a course 
 would not have been fair to myself; and, to tell the 
 real truth, it would not have been congenial. I had 
 seen enough of the terrors and tragedies of war to 
 convince me that even when forced upon a nation or 
 officer it is an evil to be avoided till honour absolutely 
 demands action in self-defence. I had faced it once. 
 I had borne myself with discretion, courage and credit 
 in a quarrel which was none of my making and for 
 neither side of which I had ever felt any sympathy. 
 Slander and cruel imputations had been thrown at 
 me ; and the hard things which must apparently be 
 said of every prominent man had been frequently and 
 mercilessly repeated of me to a terrible extent. My 
 health was not what it had been. I felt in danger of 
 becoming cynical and embittered. My friends urged 
 that I had done all and more than all which could be 
 demanded of me in the service of my country ; that I 
 was losing my freshness, my youth, my looks ; that 
 I needed rest and change ; that I was not justified in 
 makmg any further sacrifice of my vitality. 
 
 It was not necessary to glance twice or even once 
 at the mirror to convince me that they were 
 right. Everything in short pointed to the fact that 
 this was the moment for my resignation ; and after 
 considering the matter in all its bearings, and giving 
 due weight to the protests and entreaties of those 
 who were to lose me, I sent in my papers. I left 
 Africa for England, the battlefield for the library, 
 the parade ground for the fireside ; and I turned 
 my attention from the unwelcome task of fighting
 
 2i6 STATION STUDIES 
 
 for my honour to the quieter study of contemporary 
 history.^ 
 
 I have nothing more to add. This sUght record of a 
 long and eventful war is merely one of the trifles 
 which I throw off from time to time at the request 
 of my friends ; and it in no way represents my finer 
 work. I am not sure indeed that it has any especial 
 value as a contribution to the Higher Study of History 
 from the literary or political point of view. It is not 
 very highly finished ; it is not, as I say, my best work ; 
 and it may, for aught I know to the contrary, be lack- 
 ing in spirit, grace, robustness, proportion or some one 
 or two of the indefinable qualities which go to make 
 a great classic.^ It may, for instance, be considered 
 tame, or brief to excess, or too dispassionate. 
 
 But it has at least the merit of being written by a 
 witness of and participant in the events it records. 
 It is accurate and dependable. It is not — so my 
 friends insist, though I often rally them playfully for 
 flattering me — without dignity and restraint : it is not 
 emotional : it is absolutely true. And in one respect 
 at any rate I do think it approaches perfection. 
 Namely, in this: — that though from time to time 
 I was forced to take a somewhat prominent part in the 
 movements I have described I never shared in the 
 bitterness of feeling which they aroused — a bitterness 
 that has rendered most of my contemporaries' memoirs 
 unreliable. Though storms of passion raged about 
 me, I was never affected by them, but remained 
 
 ' It is a lie that I was dismissed and took to halfpenny 
 
 journalism for a living ! — Author. 
 
 - Too modest, too modest ! — Editor.
 
 THE GREAT WAR 217 
 
 throughout calm, cool, impervious to the influence of 
 bias or animosity. And though there may be defects 
 in my work, defects which I myself have striven in 
 vain to see, defects that may prevent my shining out 
 for ever like a great meteor among the starry throng 
 of great historians, I am pretty confident of this, at 
 any rate, that I shall be considered impartial. ^ 
 
 ^ So you will, so you will ! No fear of the contrary. A truly 
 magnificent conclusion to a magnificent piece of work. Modesty, 
 eloquence, candid self-valuation, unerring impartiality ; how rare a 
 combination of talents Mr. Jones has shown us ! How melancholy 
 a thing it is that his work, all too short, should ever have come to an 
 end ! How noble an example his fellow-historians would find in his 
 spirit and style had they only the sense to study him ! — Editor,
 
 2l8 
 
 THE THIN MAN. 
 
 Black men who attract the attention of His Majesty's 
 Government in the Province of Lunda can as a 
 rule be easily classified and put in their places. 
 " Hospital," " Chain-gang " and " Hamsi-assharini " 
 (twenty-five) are the groups into which they naturally 
 fall ; and if there is any difficulty about selecting one 
 of these classes it can generally be solved without fear 
 of injustice by the invention of a fourth, namely, 
 " Chain-gang and Hamsi-ass'fiarini ". This, be it 
 noted, is not due to any defects of red-tape or the 
 like in the system of administration, but to human 
 nature working in the black men. 
 
 The Thin Man, however, though he was black, was 
 also ambitious, far too ambitious to let himself be 
 scheduled and disposed of in a pigeon-hole or a cate- 
 gory. He had a lively contempt for " groups " and 
 the people who formed them ; and though perceiving 
 that in order to rise above the latter it might be 
 necessary to pass through the former, he was deter- 
 mined that he would so rise. And he did. He 
 became a Social Problem. 
 
 Nothing is known as to the birth and early years 
 of the Thin Man. He may have had a cruel father 
 or an unjust aunt. He may have been starved and 
 beaten as a child, or been forced to endure fright- 
 ful hardships as a youth in the struggle for recog-
 
 THE THIN MAN 219 
 
 nition. But if this was so, no record of his sufferings 
 have been preserved : he did not make his entry upon 
 the world in any hackneyed fashion. He was simply 
 found. 
 
 One morning as Dayne, District Officer of Taro, 
 which is the most remote district of the province, 
 and cannot be said to lie nearer either to the north 
 or the south, or the east or the west of Africa, was 
 taking a stroll before chhota hazri round his station, 
 he saw at the bottom of the deep, dry ditch that 
 enclosed the boma a thing; which, after a second 
 glance — the first made him turn away nearly sick — 
 he recognised to be a human creature, either asleep or 
 dead. Nearer inspection convincing him that it was 
 the latter, he gave orders that it should be buried at 
 once. 
 
 After chhota hazri, which his boy found more 
 plentiful than usual, he inquired whether his orders 
 had been carried out. 
 
 No, they had not. The head man, with a scared, 
 anxious look on his face, offered many excuses for 
 the shortcoming. The ground was very hard, spades 
 were few, only three men (produced) could be found 
 to do the work, time was short, they would at once 
 begin, etc. But Dayne saw that behind all this there 
 was, for once, a real reason, and inquired fiercely 
 what it was. After much questioning he obtained 
 the truth. 
 
 " Verily, bwana, we had indeed put him in the 
 grave and were about to cover him ; but when earth 
 and stones were thrown upon him he rose up and cast 
 them off."
 
 220 STATION STUDIES 
 
 "What?" 
 
 " He rose up." 
 
 "Still alive? Well, what did you do?" 
 
 " By the head of the Prophet, bwatia, we ran." 
 
 " You would, you children of mud. Before that 
 thing too. Upon my soul, what are you made of ? " 
 
 " But if a dead man rise " 
 
 " Dry up. Where is he now ? " 
 
 "We cannot tell." 
 
 " Go and find out, then. Take him to Bwana 
 Doctari if he can walk, if not you must carry him. 
 And just go polepole (carefully), mind. The poor 
 devil can't have many breaths left in him, but 
 he may be worth one or two, and we'll give him a 
 chance," 
 
 The boys obeyed, and found the Thin Man squat- 
 ting quietly in the sunlight beside his grave. When 
 bidden to rise he got up without a word and went 
 towards the doctor's dispensary, walking very feebly, 
 as though every step would be his last. As this 
 seemed likely to be the case, the boys did not ill- 
 treat him to any great extent, but merely impressed 
 upon him with a running accompaniment of guffaws 
 that he was about to die; and prodded him in 
 the ribs with their fists, gaining much amusement 
 from the delicate pretence that they were cut and 
 wounded by the edges of his bones. So, merrily 
 and with many a jest, they brought him to the 
 doctor. 
 
 What the doctor saw was, he decided after a mo- 
 ment of uncertainty, distinctly a human creature ; and 
 that it still lived there was as little doubt, though
 
 THE THIN MAN 221 
 
 according to every theory of medical science it ought 
 to be dead. He came to the conclusion that it was 
 ultra-human, and began to look it over with keen 
 interest — a task rendered easier by its absolute nudity. 
 It was a tall figure. The length from throat to 
 heel measured more than five feet, and the head, 
 perched on the shoulders by a mere rod of bone and 
 gristle, towered up to such a height, though at the 
 same time bulging widely to right and left, as to 
 add more than another foot to the full stature. This 
 in itself would have earned remark among most 
 crowds. But when to this was added such a tenuity 
 of frame as any knitting needle might have envied, 
 the effect of length without breadth was positively 
 inhuman. The shoulders had shrunk to half the size 
 demanded by the figure's proportions, and drooped 
 from the neck as those of a doll drained of its stuff- 
 ing. The arms shook desolately like old cords about 
 the sides. The trunk, with curved wavy spine and 
 ribs falling from it like folds of drapery, was so 
 wasted as to show every bone sharply lined as those 
 of a skeleton. And it was so ill-supported that there 
 seemed nothing to prevent it from slipping down 
 over the legs. The latter, which were mere wisps of 
 bone forming an obtuse angle at the knee, threatened 
 momentary collapse; and being in no way sustained 
 by the feet and ankles suggested that a slight push 
 or even a breath of wind would send the whole figure 
 tumbling to the ground in a hundred fragments. 
 Nor did any sign of desire or capacity to prevent 
 this disaster appear in the face. Loose, feeble lips 
 hung like dying leaves over a feeble chin. The
 
 222 STATION STUDIES 
 
 sunken eyes showed no spark of vigour, but only an 
 immemorial melancholy. The broad and lofty fore- 
 head in some indefinable fashion belied rather than 
 indicated the presence of brain. And the wasted 
 cheeks, long, crooked nose, protruding ears and ex- 
 pression of complete vacancy, all spoke of failure, 
 illness, misery, a prayer for help and mercy, and 
 gave you less the sensation of pity than that of 
 horror that such a creature should be in the world. 
 
 After taking a cursory glance over the Thin Man, 
 the doctor sent hurriedly for a cup of tea; and not 
 till he had consumed it and steadied his nerve did 
 he look at him once more, and begin to put the usual 
 questions preliminary to a detailed examination of 
 his state. In no less than five tongues and dialects 
 did he put them, but always with the same result, 
 namely, with none. 
 
 " Your name ? " 
 
 Silence. 
 
 "Tribe?" 
 
 Silence. 
 
 "Bwana?" 
 
 Silence. 
 
 " If you don't speak I'll give you hamsi-assharini." 
 
 Silence. The Thin Man knew his power. 
 
 " You won't ? " 
 
 Silence. 
 
 " Very well. Boy, get me my kiboko." It was 
 brought. " Now " 
 
 But the doctor got no further; for as he turned to 
 move a chair out of the way he heard a sound 
 like the crackle of dead twigs falling from a tree;
 
 THE THIN MAN 223 
 
 and, looking round hurriedly, discovered the Thin 
 Man in a dead faint on the floor. 
 
 " What a brute I am, to be sure," he thought ; and 
 with an energy quickened by remorse proceeded to 
 revive his patient with smelling salts and brandy, 
 and water dashed in his face. The task proved by 
 no means an easy one, for the Thin Man had ap- 
 parently no recuperative power whatever, and for 
 some time declined to show any signs of animation. 
 When at length he sat up, somewhat resuscitated, the 
 doctor found him too weak to undergo further exam- 
 ination, and he was carried very carefully to hospital 
 and laid in the best bed that could be devised for 
 him. 
 
 An hour or two later the doctor joined him there, 
 and began his diagnosis, upon which he was engaged 
 for the remainder of the morning. What degree of 
 success attended his efforts we unfortunately cannot 
 pronounce; for when asked by Dayne at luncheon 
 for his opinion on the case, he would give no reply 
 but that it presented some rare and curious features. 
 And though he continued his investigations through- 
 out the afternoon he still declined to offer an opinion 
 at dinner-time. The Thin Man was dumb, it ap- 
 peared, as well as diseased ; which made it addition- 
 ally hard to realise his symptoms. 
 
 On the next day he was equally disinclined to make 
 any definite statement, and on the next, and the next, 
 and the next; and though he spent day after day 
 examining his patient, and was repeatedly asked for 
 some decisive answer about him, he never would give 
 any but that the symptoms were grave and dangerous
 
 224 STATION STUDIES 
 
 and the disease most engrossing to a medical man. 
 If pressed for a reply he displayed irritation, and, 
 seeing this, Dayne abstained from making inquiries, 
 and before long forgot the Thin Man's existence 
 altogether. 
 
 As for the latter, his life proceeded uneventfully. 
 He continued to lie in a precarious state of health, 
 spending his days out of doors in the sun, and his 
 nights in hospital. He was comprehensively ex- 
 amined two or three times a week by the doctor, and 
 carefully treated with various kinds of diet and 
 innumerable drugs. He took everything that was 
 offered to him with a tired but patient smile of sub- 
 mission, and seemed to feel a deep gratitude which 
 he could not express. But in spite of all that was 
 done for him he never made any progress whatever 
 towards recovery. Instead of being nourished and 
 revived by food, he seemed to grow thinner and 
 thinner every day; and though you could see — or 
 the doctor thought he could — that the mysterious dis- 
 ease from which he suffered must prove fatal before 
 long, he did not die, but bore his woes with silent 
 resignation and — continued to live. 
 
 After some six weeks of this had passed, Dayne, 
 happening one morning to see the Thin Man lying 
 outside the door of the doctor's dispensary waiting 
 for his turn, recalled the case, and asked the latter 
 whether he had as yet formed his opinion on it. 
 
 " No," said the doctor, somewhat stifHy. " The 
 disease has not developed far enough to make any 
 definite statement possible. But it is certainly gain- 
 ing ground and must prove fatal before long."
 
 THE THIN MAN 225 
 
 This failed to satisfy Dayne, who had his sus- 
 picions about the Thin Man, and now proceeded to 
 express them. 
 
 " I believe you are all at sea. A dose of chain- 
 gang or kiboko is what he wants, and would do him 
 more good than all your drugs put together." 
 
 " Rubbish. The man can't walk, much less work." 
 
 " I bet I'd make him." 
 
 " He is almost dying." 
 
 " I don't believe he is any nearer it than I am, nor 
 half way either, for he hasn't got fever and I have." 
 
 " Perhaps you will admit that to be a medical 
 question ? " 
 
 " No, I don't think I will. I have spent ten years 
 in Africa; and I say that the man is a fraud and 
 can only be cured by chain-gang. If he isn't, and 
 is really suffering from an incurable disease, for 
 goodness' sake give him an overdose of something 
 and get rid of him." 
 
 A gleam of excitement shot into the doctor's eye. 
 He paused for an instant as though he had hit upon 
 a great idea and wished to work it out; then con- 
 tinued in a tone that had lost its aggressive, and 
 assumed a cautious, note — 
 
 " You tell me to give him an overdose ? " The 
 word " tell " was slightly accented. 
 
 " I think it would be a charity, and by far the best 
 solution from all points of view," 
 
 " Then I am to give it ? " 
 
 " I certainly should." 
 
 " You order it, in fact ? " 
 
 " No, no, that isn't in my power. Your shauri 
 15
 
 226 STATION STUDIES 
 
 (affair), you know. The man is in your hands; 
 purely a medical matter." 
 
 " M'yes. But I have your permission to " 
 
 " You don't want it." 
 
 " Indeed I do. I can't — er — I mean, we can't — 
 er — very well " 
 
 " Go ahead, I understand." 
 
 " Without your orders." 
 
 " Nonsense, my dear sir. Don't you see the case 
 is outside my jurisdiction altogether." 
 
 " No, I don't, and I'm hanged if I give him any- 
 thing without orders." 
 
 " My good fellow, this is perfectly absurd." 
 
 " It is. One minute you say I am to make away 
 with the man, and the next, when I ask you for 
 definite instructions, you won't give them." 
 
 " And as for you, one minute you suggest that it 
 would be a mercy to save him any further pain, and 
 the next you decline to — er — well, do what's wanted. 
 I believe you are afraid." 
 
 " So are you. If you aren't, why don't you give 
 the necessary orders ? " 
 
 " It isn't my s kauri. If it was " 
 
 " It is." 
 
 " It isn't." 
 
 " It is. Read your Regulations." 
 
 " They don't contemplate such a case. You do 
 your duty." 
 
 " It isn't my duty. And I can't do it without your 
 orders." 
 
 " Which you won't get, so you must." 
 
 " I shan't."
 
 THE THIN MAN 227 
 
 "Very well. I shall report you." 
 
 " Do. It will all look awfully well on paper." 
 
 And so the quarrel went on, until at last it 
 threatened to become physical, and both parties felt 
 that their attention was required elsewhere. They 
 did not speak to each other for a month afterwards, 
 and were never again on the same terms of friend- 
 ship as before the Thin Man's arrival. 
 
 As for the latter, he sat and watched the battle 
 with a calm apathy, apparently unconscious of its 
 existence, and never showing by word or sign that 
 he understood what was going on. It is a question 
 whether he did or did not. Probably he did not, for 
 the discussion was carried on very rapidly in the 
 English tongue, and the majority of it must have 
 been unintelligible to him — even though he was a 
 Thin Man and endowed with uncanny powers of 
 apprehension. On the other hand it must be remem- 
 bered (i) that he was an African native, and (2) 
 that the word " chain-gang " had been used rashly 
 enough by Dayne within his hearing. So that he 
 must certainly have understood that some one was 
 going to be punished, and probably gathered that it 
 was to be himself. In any case he did not wait to 
 see whether he was the person indicated or not. On 
 the following morning the doctor was informed that 
 he had broken out of hospital and could not be 
 found. 
 
 Discretion indicated that Dayne need not be 
 bothered about so small a matter as this; and the 
 latter heard nothing of the Thin Man's escape until 
 the evening.
 
 228 STATION STUDIES 
 
 In the meantime he was acquainted with various 
 other items of news which could not possibly have 
 had any connection with the Thin Man. 
 
 Two sheep were reported missing from the Govern- 
 ment herd. 
 
 " Find them." 
 
 Omari the head man had lost a kettle and many 
 kibabas of rice. Would the bwana give orders that 
 the thief be caught? 
 
 "Yes, go and catch him." 
 
 Mahmoud the interpreter had found on going to 
 make his toilet that his mirror was not in its place. 
 Might he go with an askari to find the thief ? 
 
 " No, tell Omari : Omari will go." 
 
 Lomo, wife of Omari, came weeping to say that 
 some of the common women had stolen her bright 
 new kanga. Would the bwana be gracious to his 
 servant and go to recover it ? 
 
 "Rather; anything you like; I'll start at once. 
 Have a pair of my riding-breeks to go on with ? 
 Go and tell Omari." 
 
 Last of all, the doctor sent a note informing Dayne 
 with more than business-like brevity, that his dis- 
 pensary had been broken into and robbed during the 
 night. He had missed three bottles of port, an irre- 
 placeable case of instruments, and an ulster which 
 happened to have been left hanging behind the door. 
 Would Dayne cause inquiries to be made at once, 
 and endeavour to find and punish the thief ? 
 
 Certainly. 
 
 " Some one seems to want a hiding pretty badly," 
 murmured Dayne when the stream of complaints had
 
 THE THIN MAN 229 
 
 run dry. " We must catch the man. Thank good- 
 ness, he hasn't taken any of my landed property. 
 Omari, you old goat, don't stand gaping there like 
 an idol, but go and find this man." 
 
 Omari went; and spent the day trying to find the 
 thief, but without any success. It was only late in 
 the evening, when he came to report the number of 
 men in gaol and hospital, that he was able to give 
 Dayne some idea of the thief's identity. He re- 
 ported that the Thin Man was missing. 
 
 " Oho ! Then he was a fraud after all," said 
 Dayne. " It is the best thing that could possibly 
 have happened. Go to Bwana Dociari, my friend, 
 and tell him with my compliments that I am very 
 sorry to hear of the loss of one of his patients. 
 Every effort will be made to recover him." 
 
 And he laughed as only a man can laugh who 
 laughs once or twice a year. But the doctor sent no 
 reply to his message. Until next day; when Dayne, 
 intent upon a shooting expedition, failed to find his 
 express rifle. And then he received a polite little 
 note conveying the doctor's deepest sympathy, and in- 
 quiring with much concern whether it had cost thirty 
 pounds or forty- five. 
 
 From the fact that Dayne sent him no reply, it 
 may be concluded that the price was forty-five. 
 
 With an express rifle, an ulster, three bottles of 
 port, a case of surgical instruments, a few pounds of 
 rice, some matches, a looking-glass, a bright new 
 kanga to carry them all in, and two sheep, the Thin 
 Man felt that he was well provided for a week or 
 two ; and started to make his way to the next Station
 
 ^30 STATION STUDIES 
 
 as quickly as possible. He could only travel by 
 night, for he felt sure that askaris would be sent out 
 to scour the country for him by day. And he was 
 right. They were sent; and they searched the coun- 
 try in every direction for some twenty miles. But 
 though they were repeatedly within an ace of catch- 
 ing him, they never actually succeeded. Time after 
 time he slipped away from them. And after four or 
 five days and nights of alternate hiding and travel- 
 ling, he had made such progress that he was able to 
 light a fire without serious risk and cook himself a 
 meal. This was his first since leaving Taro, and it 
 was a good one, consisting of seven pounds of rice 
 and a bottle of port. At the end of it he lay down 
 and slept for fifteen hours without a break. 
 
 His sleep concluded, the Thin Man rose, heartily 
 refreshed, and travelling on, covered a stretch of forty 
 miles before it occurred to him that he again wanted 
 food. One of the sheep had been going lame during 
 the last few miles of the journey, and as it was 
 now barely able to move, he made up his mind 
 regretfully that it would have to be sacrificed before 
 long, and in order to avoid waste, opened a vein in 
 its neck with a piece of glass broken from the mirror 
 and made a meal — of blood. 
 
 The sheep could hardly walk next day, and re- 
 quired continuous beating in order to keep it from 
 actually lying down. But the Thin Man was deter- 
 mined to make the most of what resources he had 
 for his journey, and drove the beast along by sheer 
 force of flagellation till it declined to move, and 
 dropped dead of exhaustion. When there was no
 
 THE THIN MAN 231 
 
 further question that it had become mutton he cut 
 it up, burnt parts of it lightly in a fire, and feasted 
 on them for three days and nights. At the end of 
 that time the last bone was gnawed smooth and dry, 
 and he had nothing further to detain him. So he 
 pursued his journey along the eastward road, with 
 his caravan smaller by the loss of one sheep and 
 something else — on which it would be painful to 
 dwell. " A bunduki (rifle)," he probably argued, " is 
 of use so long as it can make fire. Once it made 
 fire for Bwana Dayni, and now it has done so for 
 me. Having made fire and passed into ashes, of 
 what value is it to any man? Let it be a portion 
 for the birds." 
 
 After travelling a few more days, during which 
 he consumed his second sheep, he found himself 
 close to the next station on the road, namely, Fort 
 Atcheson. 
 
 Here he might have made his appearance at any 
 moment had he been so inclined. But he felt that 
 he was not sufficiently thin to do so with full 
 justice to himself and confidence of his welcome; so, 
 after making a secret depot for his property in the 
 forest, he set himself to a rigorous fast, which lasted 
 some sixty hours. 
 
 When this had come to an end he was looking 
 like a design for the framework of a ghost; and 
 deciding that he was fit to make his debut, he 
 staggered into the boma about mid-day, and fell in 
 a faint on the steps of the office. 
 
 Now, there could be no doubt that on paper this 
 was a brilliant trick. The central idea was that
 
 232 STATION STUDIES 
 
 all who witnessed it would rush to his assistance. 
 Brandy would be poured down his throat; boys 
 would be set to work chafing his hands and feet; 
 and when at last he returned by slow degrees to con- 
 sciousness, he would be carried carefully to hospital 
 and given the most comfortable bed the station could 
 offer. 
 
 But at the end of three minutes he was still 
 lying on the ground waiting for all this to begin, 
 and to his astonishment and disgust none of it had 
 happened. No one rushed to pick him up; no one 
 sent for brandy or showed the boys how to chafe 
 his hands and feet, or, in short, stirred a single step 
 to help him. He could not but fear that he was on 
 the brink of failure. 
 
 A moment later his presentiment became convic- 
 tion. A heavy tread sounded along the office floor : 
 a gruff voice said, " Here, what's this ? " and a large 
 muddy boot kicked him gently in the ribs. 
 
 Plainly, the only course now was to brazen matters 
 out, and the Thin Man still lay where he was, 
 limp and helpless as a log, in the hope that he 
 might work on his host's feeling of compassion. 
 But he might as well have attempted to work upon 
 a stone; for the District Officer had long ago lost 
 the faculty of pitying black men ; and when he found 
 that his first application produced no effect, he simply 
 kicked the harder. The Thin Man stood this for 
 some time without moving; but at last the kicks be- 
 came too hard and too frequent to be bearable; he 
 had to give in; and rose from the ground, thereby 
 confessing his partial recovery.
 
 THE THIN MAN 233 
 
 What might have been expected now, if he had 
 been dealing with anybody of ordinary humanity, 
 was that he would be carried with extreme care to 
 hospital and laid in bed. But what actually occurred 
 was quite different. The District Officer merely had 
 him carried to a damp dark shed at the back of the 
 office and thrown upon a heap of rushes; where he 
 was left to wait till the doctor could attend to him. 
 
 And no doctor appeared. For three hours the 
 Thin Man waited, hoping against hope that every 
 moment would bring him the sympathy and kind 
 treatment of which he felt such need. But when at 
 the end of that time the door opened, it was only to 
 complete his despair. For the man who entered was 
 not a doctor at all, but simply that inhuman ruffian 
 the District Officer, who was, in point of fact. Acting 
 Medical Officer for the Station. The position was 
 desperate. 
 
 Nor did it improve. For the Acting Medical 
 Officer, instead of entering with sympathy and care 
 into his ailments, treated him merely as though he 
 were a museum curiosity instead of an invalid. He 
 felt his ribs with a smile and without a sigh, took 
 measurements of his neck (which was twelve inches) 
 and his chest (which was nineteen) like a man col- 
 lecting scientific data. He shook him in order to 
 hear the bones rattle; and, after trying to read print 
 through his ears, cheered lustily at finding the head- 
 lines of a newspaper legible. 
 
 Still worse was in store. For when he came to the 
 point of settling upon a treatment for his patient's 
 maladies, he decided that, as these must in any case
 
 234 STATION STUDIES 
 
 prove fatal before long, it would be a waste of time 
 and Government drugs to attempt their cure; and he 
 simply administered the dose which he gave to all 
 patients by way of preliminary (either to more of 
 the same or to further experiments), namely, quinine. 
 The Thin Man gulped this down bravely and showed 
 no sign of disgust while the District Officer remained 
 by his side; but when he had gone he turned his 
 face to the wall and cried bitter tears. For he knew 
 that he had failed. 
 
 Pluck and perseverance, however, were prominent 
 features in the Thin Man's character, and he deter- 
 mined to give the District Officer a chance of repent- 
 ance. So he waited for three more days to see if 
 there were any prospect of better treatment; fainting 
 four times, and fasting for thirty-six hours during 
 that period. But to a fainting fit that heartless man 
 merely responded by kicking him in the ribs till it 
 was over, and to his refusal to touch his rations by 
 stopping them, with the remark: "If you won't eat, 
 you silly shrimp, how am I going to fatten you? " 
 
 So he decided to seek a more hospitable station 
 without delay, and there being nothing to prevent 
 him, he slipped away one night when no one was 
 looking, and resumed his journey with a pair of the 
 District Officer's fowls added to his other property. 
 
 A hiatus of six months occurs in the official memo- 
 randa of his career at this point. And as the country 
 through which he now passed was occupied by a 
 people of far greater industry than any he had yet 
 encountered — they would sometimes spend whole 
 days lying under the palm-trees waiting for the
 
 THE THIN MAN 235 
 
 bananas to drop into their mouths — it has been as- 
 sumed that he was infected by their activity and did 
 some work. At any rate he did something during 
 this period which improved his physique; for on his 
 next appearance in official life he had so far gained in 
 condition and lost in skill, that he could only enter 
 through the door labelled " Chain-gang," instead of 
 that which he usually employed, namely, " Hospital ". 
 
 It is but a bald record that we have of his doings 
 at this station — a short entry in the Register of 
 Criminal Cases. " Prisoner. — A native, name and 
 tribe unknown. Charge. — Theft of sugar. Sen- 
 tence. — Three months H. L. (Remitted by advice 
 of Medical Officer.) " The doctor's books, strangely 
 enough, do not even mention him, though he must 
 obviously have required medical treatment. We have, 
 therefore, no definite knowledge of his proceedings. 
 But, at the same time, if we endeavour to fill out 
 this skeleton of history with flesh and blood of 
 guesses, we shall probably not go far wrong in taking 
 his previous performance as our guide, and assuming 
 that he went through the following programme with 
 more or less success. 
 
 Failing in the first instance to win his way into 
 " Hospital," he graduated thither after a few hours 
 by repeatedly fainting in chain-gang. Safely en- 
 sconced there, he became the puzzle and mystery of 
 the doctor's life, feeling no pain apparently, and bear- 
 ing his illness with silent resignation, but fading 
 away by inches in spite of careful treatment and diet. 
 
 Getting bored at the monotony of this life he pro- 
 bably took to spending his nights in petty theft :
 
 236 STATION STUDIES 
 
 which was noticed but could not be explained. And 
 if, in course of time, it was detected, with the result 
 that he was sent from the luxury of hospital to the 
 hard labour of chain-gang, he instantly showed him- 
 self so ill — and he was incurably ill — that it became 
 sheer cruelty to keep him there. 
 
 Returned to hospital, he again spent his days in 
 bed and his nights in burglary — and could not be 
 restrained owing to the rule forbidding a man to be 
 bound when under medical treatment. If, the public 
 interest demanding his confinement, he was once more 
 — despite his illness — returned to chain-gang, he 
 simply repeated his former ruse and won his way 
 back from it into hospital. If, as must have occurred 
 very soon, he became such an object of loathing and 
 exasperation to both District and Medical Officers 
 that neither would have anything further to do with 
 him, and left him to go at large among the people, 
 he plundered them so persistently as to raise a uni- 
 versal clamour for his incarceration. And if, with 
 the object of finding some really effective penalty, 
 the idea of kiboko was mooted, it had instantly 
 to be discarded ; medical advice and humanity alike 
 forbidding such cruelty to a dying man. 
 
 That this was the programme which he conceived 
 and carried out at this station there can be very little 
 doubt. And that he repeated it with more or less 
 success at the next station which he visited, and at 
 the next, and the next, till he had travelled the round 
 of the entire Province, we can feel equally confident. 
 For though the official record of his life is not con- 
 tinuous, there is no reason to suppose that it was
 
 THE THIN MAN 237 
 
 ever interrupted by any long period of failure. And, 
 as it happened, the one essential of his success, which 
 he could not himself control, namely, continuous 
 obscurity, came to him partly by luck and partly by 
 his own merit — in that no mention of his existence 
 or warning as to his tricks ever went from one 
 station to another. For no one who had ever taken 
 in, and been taken in by him, cared to confess the 
 fact to his neighbours. And so nothing happened to 
 spoil his schemes, and he succeeded and went on 
 succeeding in the career he had chosen; living with 
 some anxiety indeed, but with no more than would 
 give an additional flavour to his comfort ; and always 
 timing his departure from each station so well that 
 it was never heard of until it had occurred. He was 
 a Social Problem. 
 
 Five years after our last glimpse of the Thin Man, 
 Dayne, passing through on his way out from leave 
 in England, was staying for the night with Corder, 
 the District Officer of Eldala, which, as all men know, 
 is the frontier station of the Province. Corder was 
 new to his work, and as he and his guest leant over 
 the boma wall after chhota hazr'i, watching for the 
 smoke of the latter's train, he was speaking of the 
 difficulties he had encountered during his first month 
 spent in sole charge of a district. 
 
 " We've got such a miserable devil in hospital," he 
 said. " The doctor doesn't know what to do with 
 him. He has been here for months and seems to get 
 worse and worse every day." 
 
 "What's the matter?"
 
 238 STATION STUDIES 
 
 " That is just the difficulty. There doesn't seem 
 to be anything pronounced. He eats and drinks and 
 sleeps well ; and we stoke him up with chicken and 
 beef-tea and port — twice as good grub as I ever get — 
 but the more we give him the thinner he grows, and 
 now he is as thin as a ghost. I suppose there is 
 something internal, and he will go out like a candle 
 one of these days." 
 
 "Why not help him on if he is as bad as that? " 
 said Dayne, who thought at once of the Thin Man, 
 but decided that he could not possibly be alive still. 
 " There is nothing like a mistake in the dispensary 
 for incurables. They are much better dead, from 
 their own point of view as well as ours." 
 
 " Of course. That is just what I told the doctor, 
 but he says he can't take the responsibility. Infernal 
 rubbish; why is he here at all? " 
 
 " To perform the duties of his office, and keep 
 people alive who are better dead. But I shouldn't 
 worry; one has quite enough petty worries without 
 that sort of thing." 
 
 "Yes, they never seem to stop. I have had a lot 
 of bother lately, for instance, about the camp down 
 there by the railway station." 
 
 " Rows ; illness ; what ? " 
 
 " No, nothing bad. Only an endless series of petty 
 thefts. One night it is a tin of biscuits that dis- 
 appears, another it is a blanket, another it is a coil 
 of rope, or some whisky, or a rifle. We have set trap 
 after trap for the thief, but we never catch him, and 
 I don't believe we ever shall. The closer the watch 
 we keep, the more he seems to steal."
 
 THE THIN MAN 239 
 
 " Stick to it. You'll catch him in time." 
 
 " Of course. But I'm afraid it is going to be a 
 precious long time." 
 
 They ceased speaking, and then Dayne, hearing the 
 clink-clink of an approaching chain-gang, turned to 
 look at the file of men as they came round the corner 
 of the house. Corder also turned ; and a moment 
 later was seized with horror to see Dayne's face white 
 and drawn, his hand quivering, and his eye fixed on 
 the chain-gang as though he had seen a ghost. 
 
 " Why, whatever is the matter ? " he asked hurriedly. 
 
 For answer, Dayne clutched him by the shoulder 
 and hissed out — 
 
 " Man, man, what's that — that bag of bones at the 
 end of the gang ? " 
 
 " That ? Why, the man I have been telling you 
 about. He is dead, or darned near it. I told 'em 
 not to put him in chain-gang." 
 
 " Dead ? You young fool, that man is immortal. 
 / know him." 
 
 The next second he was charging madly out of the 
 boma at the chain-gang : the last member of which 
 was — of course — the Thin Man. 
 
 At seeing Dayne every living creature about the 
 station dropped work, and either stood terror-rooted 
 to watch, or fled like frightened deer from his track. 
 Grave Indian merchants, waiting at the boma gate, 
 stood for a second numb with fear and then fell 
 full length on the ground to pray. Swahilis work- 
 ing in the garden, dropped their spades and ran for 
 their lives into the forest. Chain-gangs, other than 
 the Thin Man's, stampeded over the plain, followed
 
 240 STATION STUDIES 
 
 by their panic-stricken askaris. Government donkeys 
 galloped off with a squeal of terror and covered fully 
 three hundred yards before they had to stop from 
 exhaustion. The clerk barricaded the office door, and 
 the orderly hid under the table. The doctor, think- 
 ing that someone had run amok, flew to save his 
 child who was making mud pies by the well. Half- 
 a-dozen askaris who were standing beside her raced 
 to the barracks, and there seizing their rifles (for 
 which they had no ammunition), crept under their 
 beds to wait for death. Everyone, in short, who 
 could lay a foot to the ground started to run like a 
 hare before Dayne, only Corder standing still, agape 
 with astonishment, wondering what he meant to do. 
 
 Only Corder, I have said. To him must be added 
 the Thin Man's chain-gang. This continued to slouch 
 on towards the lake, whither it was bound for water, 
 entirely unobservant of the prevailing panic or its 
 cause. Even when Dayne was within a hundred 
 yards of them, they did not see him or recognise 
 their danger. It was not till, at less than twenty 
 yards' distance, he spurted with a little snort of satis- 
 faction, that they turned to see whence it came. Then 
 they seemed to make up their minds at once for 
 death, and stood looking at him, rigid with terror, 
 apparently incapable of stirring hand or foot. 
 
 All saw him except the Thin Man. The latter did 
 not notice that anything unusual was happening 
 until Dayne was within ten yards of him. Then he 
 turned and, for the first time seeing his aggressor, 
 looked him up and down — and understood. Some- 
 thing must be done at once.
 
 THE THIN MAN 241 
 
 But he did nothing. On came Dayne, and the 
 Thin Man never moved. On and on, now within ten 
 yards, but he stirred not an inch. Within eight yards 
 — and he still stood there with a blank look of 
 stupidity on his face as though not realising the 
 danger. Five yards remained to be covered. Four. 
 Dayne gathered himself up for a leap. Corder 
 turned away to avoid seeing what happened. An- 
 other half -second passed, and Dayne had begun to 
 jump : and then at last the Thin Man, with one weak, 
 piteous look of appeal at his pursuer, saw that it 
 was really a matter of life and death — and collapsed. 
 
 Of course Dayne jerked himself aside in his last 
 stride to avoid treading on the Thin Man. And, of 
 course, when he had stopped and come back to ad- 
 minister such punishment to him as humanity would 
 permit, the latter was in a dead faint and could not 
 be touched. He could not be rebuked, he could not 
 be flogged, he could not be punished, he could not be 
 affected in any way whatever. There was no question 
 what had occurred or what would occur again, or 
 what could or could not be done now to help matters 
 on. It was all one clear, solid, unqualified victory 
 for one party, and defeat for the other. The Thin 
 Man had scored again. 
 
 Thirsting for vengeance, Dayne returned to Corder, 
 and after reciting the Thin Man's history, laid it 
 down with emphasis and eloquence that he had for- 
 feited his right to live. According to every law of 
 man and Nature he ought to be executed. On Cor- 
 der's pointing out that this was impossible, he urged 
 that the culprit's cumulative guilt at least deserved 
 
 16
 
 242 STATION STUDIES 
 
 to be punished with kiboko and imprisonment for life. 
 Corder, anxious to appease him, promised to allow 
 some punishment if the doctor would give his consent. 
 
 The doctor would not. 
 
 So Corder would not. 
 
 Whereupon Dayne swore a great oath that, if no 
 formal punishment were to be administered, he, 
 Dayne, would administer it with his own hands. 
 
 Corder desired to know* who was the officer em- 
 powered to administer justice in the District of 
 Eldala. 
 
 Dayne retorted that if the officer so empowered 
 had not a better idea of administering justice, he 
 ought not to be in the service at all, much less in 
 charge of a district. 
 
 Corder drew attention to the rule prohibiting 
 officers en route to their posts from staying more 
 than two days at any station. 
 
 Dayne vowed that, even if it meant his dismissal 
 from the service, he would stay till he had seen the 
 Thin Man punished. 
 
 Corder replied that he was no longer in a position 
 to offer him any hospitality. 
 
 Dayne, more determined than ever to have his way, 
 set up his tent outside the boma gate, and dared 
 Corder to turn him out of the district. 
 
 Corder declared that if he stayed there till the 
 Day of Judgment, nothing would induce him to alter 
 his decision. 
 
 Finally, the controversy was rendered even more 
 complex and bitter by the arrival of three other dis- 
 putants en route for their stations, one a Captain, one
 
 THE THIN MAN 245 
 
 a Doctor, and the third an Accountant. All of these 
 officers recognised the Thin Man, and had sanguinary 
 views about him; and, like Dayne, demanded to see 
 him suffer. Till they had seen this, they said, they 
 would not proceed on their journeys. 
 
 Corder held out for some time, objecting to their 
 interference in any form whatever; and he would 
 probably have carried his point, which was perfectly 
 sound, but that a vast petition, signed by all the 
 Indian traders in the province, praying for the execu- 
 tion or permanent incarceration of the Thin Man 
 happened to arrive at the critical moment when the 
 four Government Officers had changed their tone 
 from angry clamour to persuasive appeal. And in 
 view of this combined pressure he felt it necessary to 
 give in, and asked his colleagues to sit as a sort of 
 Advisory Board upon the case. 
 
 He himself took the chair, and for three days and 
 nights the debate raged furiously over the Thin Man 
 problem; Dayne eloquent for his death; the local 
 doctor compassionate on the ground that this must 
 in the course of nature take place soon ; and the other 
 doctor cynically contemptuous of this forecast on the 
 ground that the Thin Man was a phenomenon quite 
 outside the scope of medical understanding. As for 
 the Captain, he overflowed with hilarious and impos- 
 sible suggestions; while the Accountant supported 
 vehemently and impartially any scheme which seemed 
 likely to procure the elimination of the Thin Man's 
 name from the books. 
 
 Corder alone sat in silence throughout the discus- 
 sion, not because, after hearing the full history of
 
 244 STATION STUDIES 
 
 the Thin Man, he had no views as to the best course 
 to be adopted with him, but because he saw very 
 clearly in the debate that it could have but one end, 
 and that only when this had been reached would his 
 own work begin. 
 
 His calculations were correct. After all the mem- 
 bers of the Board had related their several experiences 
 of the Thin Man's iniquity, and had put forward 
 tentative theories as to the possibility of curing, re- 
 claiming, punishing, and rehabilitating him, they 
 came unanimously to the same conclusion — that the 
 one satisfactory course was to give him an over- 
 dose of some unsafe and potentially fatal medicine. 
 There was an equally complete consensus that Corder 
 was the person who could, and ought to, give the neces- 
 sary directions for carrying out this scheme. And as 
 he resolutely refused to do this, there was trouble. 
 
 The Board spent two whole days endeavouring to 
 persuade him that he was shirking his duty. Man 
 by man they rose and spoke at him, trying by turn 
 appeal, persuasion, threats, satire, bluff, taunts and 
 sheer violence of language in the effort to move him. 
 But to every argument and appeal of theirs he had 
 but one answer, namely, that the course they sug- 
 gested was illegal and that he would not take it. 
 So that by the time the Board had completed a 
 week's sittings the matter of their discussion re- 
 mained precisely where it had been. The Social 
 Problem was still unsolved, and it appeared as in- 
 soluble as ever. 
 
 What, then, was the end of the difficulty ? Did 
 the Thin Man win after all ? Was he still main-
 
 THE THIN MAN 245 
 
 tained by Government, and allowed to live on as he 
 always had lived, partly in prison, partly in hospital, 
 partly on the road between station and station, a 
 skeleton, a pauper, a thief, an incurable, a problem, 
 a nuisance, and a tyrant to all who encountered him? 
 Was he flogged heartily, as he deserved to be, and 
 turned adrift ? Was he given that overdose — by 
 mistake — which would have solved the difficulty most 
 satisfactorily for all parties ? Or did he by some 
 strange and merciful mischance actually die a natu- 
 ral death? 
 
 No, weary reader, none of these things happened. 
 Not one of the numerous courses suggested by the 
 Board in default of the overdose scheme was put 
 into effect. When every device of rhetoric and dip- 
 lomacy had been tried upon Corder without success, 
 and it became plain that the Board's resolution to 
 remain at Eldala till he took some practical step 
 would involve their permanent residence at that sta- 
 tion, the end came at an unlikely moment, from a 
 quarter whence no one had looked for it. The Cap- 
 tain provided an entirely original solution. 
 
 One night, after he had gone to bed, possessed with 
 the idea — to which he had freely given utterance dur- 
 ing the last few days — that " This is all dashed rot, 
 you know," he dreamed a dream. So great a dream 
 that his first instinct on waking at midnight was to 
 go and tell somebody about it. But he restrained 
 this impulse with an effort ; and after sitting up for a 
 moment to decide what he would do, dressed him- 
 self very quietly and let himself out of his tent. 
 
 He went to the barracks. And then, with two
 
 246 STATION STUDIES 
 
 askaris, to the food-store; and then to the hospital. 
 And then, his plans being all laid, he started to take 
 a walk, not unaccompanied, along the road that led 
 to the coast. And though no record of this night- 
 march has ever appeared in the official papers of the 
 Province, it proved to be an event of great import- 
 ance in her economic history. For when the sun once 
 more awoke to run its course, the Thin Man was no 
 longer an in-patient or a prisoner at Eldala Station, 
 or a nuisance and a mystery and a care to its occu- 
 pant ; or even an inhabitant of the Province of Lunda. 
 He was sitting, dazed with the after-effects of some 
 sedative medicine, in the midst of an uninhabited 
 plain, with water and a week's provisions by his side, 
 and no notion where he was, twenty miles east of the 
 border, in That Other Province. 
 
 The members of the Board never speak to out- 
 siders about the ultimate fate of the Thin Man. 
 They have made no further inquiries about it, and 
 could not tell you his present address. If you wish 
 for this, you must apply to, and would no doubt be 
 able to procure it from, the officials of the neighbour- 
 ing province. But they never forget him or the bond 
 of friendship which he forged between them. And 
 when they meet they do not simply shake hands and 
 say, " How do you do ? " like ordinary men. But the 
 one who speaks first will usually quote, very gravely, 
 " It was managed by a job ". And to this his friend 
 will as gravely reply, " And a good job, too ".
 
 247 
 
 THE ACCOUNTS. 
 
 "BLOW THE ACCOUNTS!" 
 
 The British Official— his Book of Life (passim). 
 
 I. 
 
 Is it treason to wish ill to the King's accounts ? 
 
 I do not know ; I doubt ; I fear ; I know not what I 
 fear. It seems incredible that so venial an act can be 
 felony. And yet I cannot satisfy myself that it is 
 not. My conscience allows me no peace. I strive 
 to ignore the question, to persuade myself that it 
 does not apply to me, to secure by dint of good resolu- 
 tions that it shall not apply again. But ever as the 
 last day of the month comes round I find myself 
 haunted by the same anxious fears, and thereby forced 
 to admit my guilt. Though the Act of Treason does 
 not actually recognise my offence, I feel that under so 
 austere and comprehensive a law I cannot hope to 
 escape retribution. Sooner or later I shall be seized 
 and hurried away before a Court all stertorous with 
 loyalty, to answer a charge of treason in the first and 
 every other degree. The indictment will be that I 
 did upon a certain day " wilfully and feloniously con- 
 ceive and speak evil of the King in the person of his 
 Chief Accountant ; and also did grievously assault and 
 injure him by dashing his ledger against a wall ". 
 
 Manuel, with English warmth of reiteration and
 
 248 STATION STUDIES 
 
 Oriental inaccuracy, will testify that the charge is 
 true. The defence, conducted by myself, since none 
 will befriend so black a criminal, will urge that I 
 merely " dropped " the book by accident ; and that 
 what Manuel heard was " Ham-string those accounts ! " 
 spoken in jest and not of malice prepense. The very 
 weakness of this plea will be quoted by prosecuting 
 Counsel as proof of its falsity. The jury will agree 
 without leaving the box upon a verdict of " Guilty ". 
 And amidst the hooting of an incensed mob, I shall 
 be wafted away in an agony of remorse and a rickety 
 four-wheeler to Holloway or Wormwood Scrubbs ; 
 there after three weeks of penitence and petitions to 
 meet the last claim of an outraged law. 
 
 Well, I must confess at once to the truth of the 
 verdict. I have conceived and spoken evil of the 
 King's accounts. I have wished that ill might befall 
 him in the person of his Chief Accountant. I have — 
 well, if I have not, I have earnestly desired to do so — 
 dropped his ledger upon the ground. My guilt is 
 clear, and, if need be, I am ready to hang. But, by 
 all the winds of Justice, I will not hang quietly! Such 
 a storm shall arise over my death as will effectually 
 prevent any other for the same cause. And hard 
 indeed shall it go with judge and jury in the next 
 world if they do not find me extenuating circum- 
 stances in this. 
 
 For, if you will consider my case in detail, I think 
 that you will find, if you be fair man or housekeeping 
 woman, little moral reason why I should be tried 
 at all, much less condemned. 
 
 Here am I, appointed to command a horde of
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 249 
 
 unruly figures, a man who from my cradle have 
 striven in vain to understand the very meaning of 
 sums, much less their bearing on, or necessity in, 
 practical life. As a child, if informed that two pears 
 at a halfpenny each and three at a penny cost in all 
 fourpence, I was always ready to accept the fact (if 
 accompanied by the fruit) and pass on. But when 
 told that its cost was the important point and not its 
 quantity or quality I jibbed. There had lain the 
 pears. Now they lay elsewhere. Surely that com- 
 pleted the transaction. What remained ? The know- 
 ledge that they had cost fourpence did not get me 
 any " forrader " — as they did. Why in heaven's name, 
 thought I, should I be troubled about an affair which 
 was concluded ? 
 
 At school I had the same inability to appreciate the 
 use or value of figures : but there it had naturally 
 to be combated ; and it was in fact so far removed 
 that I was ultimately able to pass " Smalls," an ordeal 
 involving quite as much mathematical knowledge as 
 any honest man should have ; I would never trust a 
 man who had more. Having passed them, I was 
 again rendered happy by a complete immunity 
 from sums : for at Oxford a man is not com- 
 pelled to sully his mind with figures unless he wills 
 it. And there, confident that I had left them behind 
 for ever, I was able to spend three years of calm, 
 unruffled by any thought of Euclid and Algebra. I 
 never allowed any mathematical book or person to 
 enter my rooms : I declined to know men who were 
 in for the mathematical schools : I even sent my 
 scout to the bank if I wanted a cheque changed. In
 
 250 STATION STUDIES 
 
 all that blessed time I was never harassed by the 
 need for calculation of any kind : and when it ended I 
 felt certain that I might wipe the whole faculty of 
 adding out of my mind for ever, with the certainty 
 that it would never be needed again. 
 
 But the rough world, alas! soon taught me a 
 different lesson ; for I found it to be fairly bristling 
 with figures — chiefly on the wrong side. The honeyed 
 sense of academic security became but a memory of 
 the past. And before long I found myself beside that 
 angry sea of calculations, which, despite all travellers' 
 myths to the contrary — of sandy deserts and the like 
 — forms the interior of the continent of Africa. 
 
 There, after a time of probation spent as an 
 acolyte in the office, I was set to a round of such mean 
 arithmetical tasks as I had thought to await me only 
 in the nethermost pits of the nether world. It would 
 be impossible to attempt a full explanation of these 
 tasks : nor would I desire that any but mine enemies 
 should be called upon to understand them. But, as 
 I am on my defence, I will ask those who sit in judg- 
 ment — living perhaps in the upper air, far above this 
 world's turmoil of figures — to listen for a moment while 
 I hint at a few of the difficulties which they involve. 
 
 To begin, then, with a particularly unpleasant 
 example, take the case of Trade Goods. Trade Goods 
 are articles used for barter with the natives, such as 
 chain, beads, blankets and the like, which are all 
 apparently so valueless as to make it seem impossible 
 that they could differ in value. But they do so differ : 
 and as there are some fifteen or sixteen different kinds, 
 of which infinitesimal quantities have to be issued
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 251 
 
 several times a day, it behoves a man to look 
 very carefully to his record of such issues. Though 
 he may have a dozen more important duties to attend 
 to, he dare not leave this one, which, neglected for a 
 moment, may bring ruin either of pocket or sanity, to 
 his clerk. For endless complications will ensue if 
 there is a minute's failure to distinguish, for instance, 
 between the cloths " Americani " (reckoned at ten 
 annas a yard and sold at four) and Gumpty (reckoned 
 at six annas and sold at three) ; between the beads 
 " Elkota," " Kikutri " and " Mixed " (all precisely alike 
 in size and appearance but not in value) ; or between 
 the Iron Chain sold at Rs. 3 per lb., and that sold at 
 Rs. 2.8, which is nominally copper and really bronzed. 
 Again, in the case of animals, he will have to grasp 
 that while cattle are " Live Stock," mules are " Lunda 
 Rifles," and donkeys are " Transport ; " and that while 
 goats are sheep, the latter are in no case " Sheep," but 
 " Trade Goods Live Stock," if taken by a punitive 
 expedition, " Fines Judicial " if confiscated and 
 brought in singly by the police, and " Hut Tax " if 
 offered voluntarily in lieu of rupees or labour. In 
 that of food he will have to understand why the 
 Matahma flour which he takes from contractors is 
 " District Food Account," while that which he pro- 
 cures elsewhere is " Local Purchase ; " and why, when 
 procured, it can only be consumed by six different 
 mouths ; labelled respectively— O.C.D.P.F.A. (Officer 
 in charge of the District, Prison Food Account) ; 
 O.C.D.N.S.R. (ditto Native Staff Rations); Remit- 
 tance, Exchange, Transport Officer, or Officer com- 
 manding No. Company, Lunda Rifles.
 
 252 STATION STUDIES 
 
 Then passing from food to finance, he will have to 
 make out how a Station Estimate for the year, always 
 insufficient, can be eked out so as to cover half its 
 expenses ; how a Native Staff can be made to do 
 twice the work of which he has alleged it to be cap- 
 able ; how a Building Estimate can be forced, by the 
 ilHcit employment of chain-gangs, to keep at least 
 some of the Station roofs ihtact ; and how an Inciden- 
 tal Expenses Estimate, which may be only used for 
 expenses that are definitely named and never arise, 
 can be stretched to meet others that do arise and must 
 be paid — by him if not by the State. 
 
 As regards nomenclature and general business, 
 the reasons will be shown to him — and it behoves 
 him well to understand them — ^why a Trading License 
 is " License-trading," and a Game License is " License 
 game," but a Gun License is " Fees Registration : " 
 why stamps set upon letters are " Receipts from Mail 
 Service," but those fixed upon parcels are " Parcel 
 Post return : " why Deposit on Porters must be taken 
 and never entered ; while cheques, though they may 
 be entered, will seldom be taken : why " Fees Judicial " 
 are as black to white beside "Judicial Fines:" why 
 cheques must not lie down beside cash ; and why, in 
 conclusion, " Local Labour " men must not be set to 
 the work of " Mail Staff " men, or " Mail Staff " men 
 to that of " Transport " men, or " Transport " men 
 to that of " Medical Officer's Transport " men, or 
 " Lunda Rifles Transport " men to either, or " Lunda 
 Rifles Maxim Gun Transport Section " men to any- 
 thing at all. 
 
 And then ; then, and only then ; after grasping the
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 253 
 
 true significance of all these matters, their raison 
 d'etre, which is obscure ; their bearing on each other, 
 which is problematical ; and their import in the general 
 scheme of things, which can only be seen by passing, 
 like Alice, " through a looking-glass," he will perhaps 
 be admitted to the inner brotheirhood of Those who 
 Understand (or think they understand, for no one 
 really does) the whole system of the sacred books 
 themselves. Upon facing these he will be called upon, 
 while retaining all that he has hitherto grasped, to 
 learn a complete syntax of new rules : of which a 
 good example is — that every bean and bead, and anna 
 and shell, and mule and sheep must be entered or 
 accounted for under one of a very limited number of 
 headmgs. Namely: — "License Game;" "License 
 Liquor ; " " License Tradmg ; " " Fines Judicial ; " 
 " Fees Judicial ; " " Fees Registration ; " " Customs 
 Import; " " Customs Export; " " Road Dues; " " Ex- 
 change ;" " Ivory Account ;" " Prison Food Account ;" 
 " Tools and Plant Account;" " Native Staff Account;" 
 " Trade Goods ; " " Trade Goods Live Stock ; " " Dis- 
 trict Food Account;" "Hut Tax;" "Receipts from 
 Mail Service;" "Parcel Post Returns;" " Lunda 
 Rifles — Food, Clothing and Equipment Account ; " 
 "Wages— Mail Staff, Native Staff, Lunda Rifles, 
 Lunda Rifles Transport, and Lunda Rifles Maxim 
 Gun Transport ; " and finally that vague inconstru- 
 able item, " Loss arising from reduction in price of 
 Americani and Gumpty from 10 annas to 4 annas 
 and 6 annas to 3 annas respectively ". 
 
 But let no man suppose that after comprehending 
 the full nature and significance of these thirty-three
 
 254 STATION STUDIES 
 
 classes — which are intended to simplify and facilitate 
 his work ! — ^^and how to use them — a lifelong task — 
 he is then competent to deal with the books unaided. 
 
 No ; he is but a tyro as yet. When he has every 
 detail of the system at his fingers' ends, and knows 
 every trick and subterfuge of which the figures are 
 capable, he still has his greatest difficulty before him 
 — the struggle to avoid, or at least postpone, his own 
 bankruptcy. This, or something like it, constantly 
 threatens all who have to deal with the King's 
 accounts ; harassing them with anxiety and the sense 
 of unmerited debt, and preventing them through sheer 
 poverty from making any real use of their leave when 
 at last it is tardily granted. For by them must be paid 
 all deficiencies, however small and however large, that 
 occur in the cash, whether through their illness or 
 absence, through their fault or that of their clerks, 
 through theft or accident, fire or war. And though 
 this may be a sound principle on paper, it does not 
 work soundly or humanely in fact. For it means that 
 they must habitually neglect all other duties in favour 
 of the accounts ; and times will come to the most 
 careful when they find this impossible — with the 
 result that mighty " reimbursements " from their own 
 private treasury have to be made. 
 
 Before all things, then, a man must learn how, when 
 a " Query " arrives from the Chief Accountant regard- 
 ing the absence of some errant sheep or pound of 
 beads, the latter's curiosity may be arrested by delay 
 or baffled by diplomacy. How and when to bluff you 
 must know ; when to apologise, and when to carry red 
 war on his coasts : in what type of error to admit your
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 255 
 
 liability, and in what to declare that his query is irrele- 
 vant and his system unsound. 
 
 It is the ceaseless activity of the accounts that makes 
 them so grave a burden and drives a man to think of 
 them as the one duty he must perform at the expense 
 of all others. They are always at work : they never 
 rest. Money, or flour, or beads, or sheep are dribbling 
 in and out of the books with each motion of the clock. 
 A single moment's neglect may cost a week's labour 
 or a month's salary. What wonder then that the 
 books assume in his mind a significance altogether dis- 
 proportionate to their real value, and that other duties, 
 the neglect of which will not mean a drain on his 
 pocket, are apt to be left unperformed or half per- 
 formed ^ 
 
 Oh, John Bull, John Bull, master of milhons (and 
 of the Foreign Office and Treasury, remember), if 
 only you knew what you stand to lose, and often do 
 lose, in native risings and " little wars " by thus glueing 
 your servant to the care of your tiny accounts, when 
 he ought to be touring and keeping in touch with his 
 tribes, perhaps you would simplify his work and give 
 him more freedom — even at the risk of losing a few 
 beads. You cannot perhaps afford, as you ought, and 
 profess, to do, to allot two officers to each Station, 
 one to mind " the shop " and the other the District. 
 But you might, without serious financial peril, group 
 your receipts and expenditure under two or three 
 headings, and so save your one labourer half his 
 labour. Were you to do this, and in other respects 
 give him a little more latitude, he would feel able, 
 which he does not at present, to leave the office occa-
 
 256 STATION STUDIES 
 
 sionally for a few days and visit his tribes. And thus, 
 while you might occasionally lose a dozen rupees or a 
 yard of cloth, you might often save the cost of re- 
 conquering a District. 
 
 11. 
 
 So then, I have a case ? There is something to be 
 said on my side ? I am not a thorough-going 
 scoundrel and felon ? Then come further, if my com- 
 pany be not too disreputable, and watch us — self and 
 Manuel — as, the end of the month being at hand, we 
 gird ourselves to order this tangle of affairs. 
 
 It is early afternoon. From the fact that I have 
 before luncheon paid the wages of " Mail Staff," 
 " Native Staff " and various other Staffs, including 
 sundry Transport men, who have for months past 
 transported nothing but their rations to their mouths, 
 Manuel divines that after luncheon I shall begin the 
 monthly battle with the books. This black hour he 
 thinks that he may be able to postpone, if he cannot 
 hope to escape it ; and so, as I enter his room en route 
 for my own, he is careful to appear desperately busy 
 on some huge problem of figures. Out of deference 
 to me he breaks this off for an instant as I pass 
 through : but in terror lest I may seize the interval as 
 an opportunity for hailing him to the fight, he cuts 
 it as short as possible, and begins to buzz on in a 
 clamour of addition long before I am out of his 
 presence. 
 
 For some ten minutes or so I allow him to deceive 
 himself with the deceit that is intended to hoodwink 
 me ; for the books have to be set in array, and other
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 257 
 
 preparations made before I can advance upon them. 
 But at last I am ready for him, and call in a tone 
 which he cannot misunderstand for his instant 
 attendance. 
 
 " One — >and — one — is — two — and — six — is — eight — 
 and — five — is — eighteen — carry — one — and — forty- 
 seven — twenty — minus — twenty — one — is — forty 
 annas — thirty — pice — and — four — rupees — together — 
 ten " — and so on, is all the answer I get ; and his 
 calculations continuing the more persistent as the 
 position grows more serious, I repeat the sunmions 
 in a sterner voice. 
 
 Still he affects not to hear, though showing unmis- 
 takably that he does so by doubling his speed. And 
 the sum goes on at a pace that no lightning calculator 
 could possibly follow, much less understand, till at 
 last I lose all patience and call him with a vigour that 
 brings him rushing into my room. 
 
 " You called me, sir ? " 
 
 " Yes, I want to go through the accounts now." 
 
 " Already ? The month seems early." 
 
 " Ends to-morrow. Sit down. We'll begin with 
 the cash." 
 
 " But " 
 
 " Count the cash." 
 
 Seeing that escape is impossible, he takes a chair 
 and begins with a melancholy sigh to do as he is told. 
 
 A correct reckoning of the cash is the corner-stone 
 of all subsequent success ; so we are careful to make 
 this, our base of operations, secure before going 
 any further. The cash lies in eleven wooden boxes 
 in the safe (each containing two thousand rupees).
 
 258 STATION STUDIES 
 
 and in the steel box on the table, where two or three 
 thousand more, the receipts for the month, are drilled 
 in heaps of twenty-five among cheques and small 
 change and such camp followers. The wooden boxes 
 we look at, take for granted, and leave in their places ; 
 but the loose rupees and cheques have all to be 
 counted in detail, first by me, then by Manuel ; who, 
 because his whole mental system is supposed to consist 
 of the counting faculty — his one source of value in 
 the market — has the reputation, with all adherent 
 responsibilities, of being, like the Pope, infallible. 
 
 Rs. 2 20 1 15 annas is the result; with which sum, 
 together with the cheques and other items such as the 
 Stamp Returns, the Sheep Returns and the Fines and 
 Fees Judicial — all of which are kept in separate boxes 
 throughout the month, to insure accuracy — the figures 
 in the ledger have ultimately, by fair means or foul, to 
 be brought in accord. We begin with the stamps, 
 counting, most carefully as before, the number re- 
 maining in stock in order to ascertain the number sold 
 during the month. So many sheets of the 5 -rupee 
 value remain, so many of the i -rupee value: ditto of 
 the 6 anna, 4, 3, 2, and i anna respectively. The 
 latter, being the penny stamp of everyday use, has 
 naturally sold best ; the others less freely, though 
 all seem to be of use to the collector — a fortunate cir- 
 cumstance since they are of none to anyone else — ex- 
 cept, perchance, to a native lady, who for the moment 
 prefers them to wire as ornaments of the body. 
 
 After both counting carefully for half an hour, we 
 come to highly different conclusions. Nothing for 
 it. We must count again. We do. Oh, may my
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 259 
 
 enemy be doomed in the next world to count sheets of 
 stamps, various in value but similar in hue, and all 
 alike enamoured of the tropical finger, for ever and 
 ever ! After half an hour's hard work we find that 
 we have both made mistakes and that the real figure 
 lies between our former conclusions. This ascer- 
 tained, we subtract this month's from last month's 
 balance, and deduce that Rs. 120 9 annas should be 
 the profit. We count the cash actually realised, and 
 find Rs. 103 9 annas — seventeen rupees short. 
 
 Dark is the frown I direct at Manuel on discovering 
 this awful difference between the ideal and the real. 
 It must be his fault — thank goodness. For owing 
 to pressure of other work I have for once allowed him 
 sole charge of the stamps, and he cannot escape the 
 impeachment. He instantly springs to the conclusion 
 that I suspect him of dishonesty — which heaven knows 
 he dare not commit, however strong his inclination — 
 and begins to protest loudly that he is innocent. I 
 silence him at once, and suggest that the missing 
 rupees have probably been put in the sheep box by 
 mistake. He vows with violence that this is impos- 
 sible. I decline to believe so hazardous a statement 
 and bid him bring and count the contents. He does, 
 and lays bare his guilt. 
 
 For the sum there treasured is Rs. 77, an utterly 
 impossible amount when sheep are sold at three rupees 
 a head. (Pretty cheap ? No, I assure you it is 
 monstrous dear. I know, because I live on them 
 throughout the year.) Also, the sheep book show- 
 ing that but twenty-two of these spectres have been 
 sold, we have sure proof of Manuel's carelessness.
 
 26o STATION STUDIES 
 
 Well, we have gained eleven rupees at any rate ; 
 but six are still missing ; and the question arises — 
 as it does fifty times a day in this type of work — ^what 
 can we do ? Are we to contribute six rupees of our 
 own, that is of mine ? Or count the stamps again on 
 the chance of finding that we have made an error 
 after all ? No fear. There is nothing to be done, 
 but to rate Manuel soundly for his neglect and go on, 
 in the hope that we shall ultimately find our rupees, 
 truant, elsewhere. I do rate him, pointing out that 
 we have wasted a whole hour owing to his mistake 
 and that I can never trust him again. But as he 
 instantly begins to fly signals of distress, and I know 
 that once his tears are allowed a good start he will 
 be of no more use to me till to-morrow, I soon leave 
 him to his conscience and pass on, bidding him place 
 the stamp money among the cash. 
 
 The sheep, clipped of their excess (which would 
 buy fifty times their wool), are kind enough to corres- 
 pond satisfactorily with their book : but we will not 
 close this just yet, if you please ; for numbers of them 
 may die or become parents before the month's figures 
 are finally made up. Last month five had to be called 
 into the world, without any previous preparation, to 
 explain an excess in the cash : this month as many 
 may be called out of it to make good a deficit. So 
 elastic an item must be left to the end, in case we want 
 lo hedge. 
 
 We go on then to other accounts, which are, alas! 
 not so flexible — the Fines Judicial, the Fees Judicial 
 and the Hut Tax. None of these make a very strong 
 muster. For the Indian coolie is not so frequent a
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 261 
 
 visitor now as of old, when the railway construction 
 brought him in myriads through the District. And 
 the Marai, being unable to grasp the ethics of paying 
 duty on their own homes in their own land, do not 
 as yet contribute very much to the support of the 
 Empire. We do not force them. And so it is not 
 surprising to find that Rs. 3 — one man's tribute for the 
 year — is all we have from them this month : may 
 they bring more next. The other items bring in Rs. 
 1 56 and Rs. 70 respectively — only thirty-five law-suits 
 in thirty days ! Then, having collected all that is to 
 be got from these side-chapels, we pass into the main 
 aisle of the fabric, the Receipt Book, and begin to 
 reckon up the total revenue for the month. 
 
 This book consists of receipt forms in triplicate ; of 
 which one copy is given to the man who pays in the 
 amount ; another is retained, to be sent to the Chief 
 Accountant at the end of the month, and the third 
 remains in the book " for future reference ; " that is, 
 becomes waste paper which must not be thrown away. 
 Next to it comes the Day Book, which, while keeping 
 a record of all these receipts, also take notice of such 
 items as are not thought worthy to be acknowledged; 
 and marshals all incomings and outgoings in such 
 order that they may enter the Ledger, that chancel 
 where no correction is allowed, without spot or stain. 
 
 We proceed to compare the two, Manuel reading out 
 names, dates and figures in the Receipt, and I check- 
 ing them in the Day Book. For once they tally 
 exactly and we can go on. We count in the Fees and 
 Fines Judicial, Hut Tax, Stamp returns and sundry 
 other items — leaving the sheep however still unde-
 
 262 STATION STUDIES 
 
 cided — add the whole together, and find it to be Rs. 
 5379 12 annas. 
 
 Now what will the disbursements say ? We go to 
 work on them with feverish anxiety, conscious that 
 on their verdict depends our peace of mind for some 
 days to come. First we attack the Trade Goods 
 Account — nineteen columns, each running into pice 
 and barely producing two dozen rupees among them. 
 Then we obtain the total of wages paid out to the Mail 
 Staff, Native Staff, etc. ; reckon in the miscellaneous 
 expenses of the month, e.g., Manuel's salary, Rs. 150, 
 the price of some building material, and of a few 
 hundred sacks of flour ; add to them the " Bills Re- 
 ceivable," i.e., cheques received during the month, 
 which, having gone in on one side have now to go out 
 on the other, bound for our old enemy the Chief Ac- 
 countant ; and finally come to our still older enemy, 
 " loss on Americani reduced from 10 to 6 annas, and 
 Gumpty reduced from 6 to 3 annas respectively ". 
 
 This completes the expenditure side. With beating 
 heart and furious speed I dash out the result, which 
 gives — thirteen annas. And twelve annas minus 
 thirteen leaves fifteen. Thank heaven, I am on the 
 right track. 
 
 The annas are correct! My hopes flash up hke a 
 rocket as I pass on to the rupee column. But alas, 
 only to fade away when I add it up. For not only is 
 the last figure wrong, which would not mean any 
 serious trouble, but all the rest, the tens, the hundreds, 
 and even the thousands. Instead of Rs. 3177 13 
 annas we have only Rs. 2852 13 annas. Which sum, 
 taken from the receipts (Rs. 5379 12 annas), gives Rs.
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 263 
 
 2526 15 annas as the amount of cash we ought to have 
 in hand. Instead of that we actually have Rs. 2201 
 15 annas. There is, beyond question, a wild error 
 either in the books or the cash. We are over three 
 hundred rupees to the bad ! 
 
 A big mistake. But for this I am rather thankful 
 than otherwise ; for it is the small deficits — of forty or 
 sixty rupees or so — that " whiten one's locks ". They 
 are at once harder to trace and more likely to mean a 
 call on one's pocket. But to " drop " Rs. 300 in a 
 single month is a misfortune almost incredible — 
 though I have known a man mulcted of twice that 
 sum in four months through no fault of his own. So, 
 closing time having long since come and gone, I shut 
 up the books for this, our first day's work, without 
 despair; nay, with less anxiety than usual, since the 
 error is so monstrous. 
 
 Attacking the problem next day with fresher brains, 
 we soon discover our principal mistake. A cheque 
 for Rs. 200 due to a corn contractor, which has been 
 paid in to us by the Chief Accountant and paid out 
 to the rightful owner, has only been recorded as paid 
 in. We set this right, and then go through our figures 
 again from end to end to seek further errors. We 
 find a few, and bring out a fresh balance, purged of 
 these defects. But with little satisfaction, for our 
 shortcoming now changes into an excess of Rs. 38. 
 
 This is a serious event, much more serious than 
 it may seem : for all experience goes to show that a 
 surplus usually foretells a corresponding deficit when 
 the mistake has been run to earth. So our anxiety is 
 doubled rather than lessened. However we go to
 
 264 STATION STUDIES 
 
 work again with unbroken resolution, taking away 
 six of the thirty-eight rupees to make up the deficit on 
 the stamps, and striving to dispose of the remaining 
 thirty-two. But this task, easy as it would be in 
 private life, proves harder than any we have had to 
 face as yet. Five hours' work in the morning and four 
 in the afternoon bring no success ; and we close the 
 office for that day in gloom and wrath at each other's 
 stupidity. The sun, rising again and climbing to 
 mid-sky, in mockery, as it seems, at our folly, finds us 
 no wiser ; and we work till it goes down once more, 
 with no better results. Probably the mistake is too 
 obvious to be detected without some difficulty : that is, 
 we are making the same simple error time after time, 
 and wasting our energy on the search for an obscure 
 one which does not exist. At any rate we spend 
 another whole morning traversing our figures again 
 and again before we come upon any gleam of light ; 
 and then it does not help us very far. ^Fifteen rupees 
 in excess have been paid into Court by some eager 
 Indian litigant, who probably thought to influence my 
 view of his case by thus intruding a douceur among 
 the Fees Judicial. By gross neglect on the part of 
 Manuel or myself — I unfortunately cannot pin him 
 down to the crime this time — these rupees have been 
 allowed to mingle with the cash. Out they go — a 
 step in the right direction, if a small one — and we 
 pass on. 
 
 Towards evening at last we improve our position to 
 some extent. For as the light is beginning to wane, 
 we discover a miserably obvious mistake in addition, 
 which alters the whole complexion of affairs, changing
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 265 
 
 our excess into a deficit of nine rupees. Well, this is 
 at least nearer the golden mean than before ; and 
 now for the first time in three days we begin to feel 
 something other than despair. Even Manuel 
 brightens up. 
 
 Next day we spend a few hours searching every 
 corner and cranny of the books for the errant nine. 
 But in vain : they will not be found. And seeing at 
 last that further effort will be merely wasted, and that 
 if I am ever to .attend to the mass of business — 
 customs, judicial and police — which has been accumu- 
 lating during the past few days, I must bring about a 
 coup, I decide upon a desperate measure and bid 
 Manuel bring the Sheep Book. 
 
 He does, grinning with delight. I take my pen : and 
 then and there with a single stroke I solve the problem 
 by massacring three sheep. Poor things! they were 
 only born last month, and are young as yet to take 
 part m the affairs of the Empire. But they are old 
 enough to overcome a mathematical difficulty which 
 I could not. They are sheep : they are worth, on 
 paper at any rate, nine rupees. At the worst they are 
 sure of a joyful resurrection within a few months. 
 With their aid the cash rises into glorious harmony 
 with the figures. They have played their part and set 
 me at liberty for other work. Dulce et decorum est 
 pro patria mori. 
 
 O happy hour ! Thrice blessed sheep ! I am free 
 once more. I bask at ease in the sunlight of their 
 heroism I am rid of an overwhelming burden. Not 
 entirely, it is true, for I have still to copy the whole re- 
 cord of our doings into the Ledger — that old Pharisee
 
 266 STATION STUDIES 
 
 with the fair countenance masking many sins. And 
 further, in five minutes' time the books will once more 
 be open to the ceaseless stream of entries and issues 
 which are destined to plague us next month. But 
 for the moment I have relief, sweet invaluable relief : 
 for the worry of keeping this stream in its proper 
 course is as nothing beside that of dealing with the 
 whirlpool it forms at the end of each month ; and the 
 sense of leisure and liberty with which I pass on to 
 other affairs is such as Christian must have felt on 
 emerging from the Slough of Despond. 
 
 Not so easily does Manuel escape from the struggle. 
 For upon him there now lies the unreasonable labour 
 of making out three fine copies for the Chief Ac- 
 countant, of all our transactions of the month. First 
 the figures in Food Book, Sheep Book, Trade Goods 
 Book, Wages Book, Stamps, Hut Tax, etc., etc., in 
 detail ; then their results as set forth by the hypo- 
 critical Ledger ; and finally a summary and analysis 
 of their component parts, showing the sources and 
 proportion of each category of receipt and expenditure. 
 
 Nor is this superfluous task without its effect 
 upon me : for it will take Manuel at least eight 
 days, and during that time the wheels of my little 
 official machine, already none too strong for their task, 
 will be woefully impeded. However, one would gain 
 nothing by complaining of the delay : it is but a single 
 instance among many of the ways in which all activity 
 is crushed by the need of keeping the accounts free 
 of error. No complaints would even be listened to, 
 much less considered. One can only endure in silence 
 and hope that the sinner who invented and developed
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 267 
 
 so cumbrous a system may be punished for it as richly 
 as he deserves. 
 
 But enough of system and figures alike ! All who 
 have followed me so far must be thoroughly weary 
 of the subject; though not so weary, I trust, as we 
 are, who have it living with us day in day out 
 throughout the year. I suppose that accounts really 
 have certain good and useful properties — in the eyes 
 of a Treasury clerk. Nay, I am even willing to 
 admit that, regarded in the abstract, they have a 
 certain picturesque dignity of character. They are 
 so vigilant, so enduring; the hard, dry bones of his- 
 tory, telling their tale severely perhaps, but without 
 prejudice, bias or favour; and the more dependably 
 because they are impervious to emotion. Nothing 
 stirs them; nothing escapes them; they do not laugh 
 or cry, or applaud or criticise; but they never cease 
 to notice and set down all that comes within their 
 view. Look into their pages where you please, you 
 will always find the same grim chronicle, without 
 comment or mistake, of the human story throbbing 
 around them; conquest and commerce, progress and 
 strife, life and death are all reflected here. 
 
 In January, 190 — , for example, the Fees Judicial 
 are six hundred rupees, telling that in that month the 
 railway, with its thousands of Indian coolies, was 
 being constructed through the district. In June they 
 had dropped to sixty, telling that this section had 
 been completed, that another step had been taken in 
 the march of the Empire, and the coolies were 
 clamouring for justice at another door. In the same 
 month, Maulabux, Indian merchant en route " to up
 
 268 STATION STUDIES 
 
 country," pays deposit on fifty porters; in December 
 he returns with but thirty-nine — that little rising, you 
 remember, when the road was unsafe for a couple of 
 months. The Stamp Account goes up, and the arms 
 and ammunition bill comes down. Hut tax grows 
 from fifteen rupees to ninety per year. Shells and 
 beads disappear gradually as the rupee gains ground ; 
 and the Trade Goods Account diminishes (for which, 
 praise be ! ), showing that the natives are coming to 
 lean on us and trust our rule. Then there is the red 
 line across the books and change of handwriting, 
 which tell that A has " handed over " to B, and gone 
 home on leave, racked with fever probably, and glad 
 enough to go after three or four years' work. And 
 here again the sadder change without the red line, 
 when C handed over, to no human power, but died 
 before his successor could come. Few motions of the 
 tide ebb and flow through the district, but they are 
 recorded here in merciless shorthand — plentiful 
 material for the Buckle of Africa. 
 
 To us, however, who sit face to face with the 
 accounts every day, it must be confessed that they 
 do not afford much pleasure. We find but little in 
 them of romance or poetry, so blinded are we by 
 their dust of prose. Indeed, for my part, if you ask 
 for my opinion of the accountant's life and dealing 
 with the books, I answer that there is but one kind 
 of interest, solace or relief to be derived from them ; 
 and that is in victory over the figures at the end 
 of each month. Here, undoubtedly, is a prize that 
 falls to the lot of but few men; for the accounts 
 are such wary, treacherous, all-powerful foes, that
 
 THE ACCOUNTS 269 
 
 triumph over them is a delight far exceeding the 
 ordinary joys of human experience. I am ready to 
 pay a full measure of appreciation to all the " su- 
 preme moments " of success in field or forum — the 
 imperious drive at cricket or golf, the first tiger's 
 fall, the gasping triumphs of the river, the master- 
 subtleties of diplomacy or debate, or to that moment, 
 somewhat different in kind, but best perhaps of all, 
 when the dentist says, " Now, you will do for 
 another year ". 
 
 But, granting to all these the praise they deserve, 
 I still maintain that for real ecstasy of self-esteem 
 and arrogance, there is no moment so exquisite, so 
 glutted with the sense of skill as that which comes 
 to a man, once in the course of his service perhaps — 
 it can hardly come to any more often — when the 
 figures of his monthly account emerge, at the very 
 first adding, correct, spontaneously correct, correct to 
 the last pice of their numberless details; when the 
 various items of Receipt and Expenditure in many 
 books correspond like the parts of some delicate 
 machinery; when the Day Book is at peace with the 
 Ledger and the Receipt Book with both; and when, 
 to crown all, the cash is neither meanly insufficient 
 nor insolently excessive, but simply, precisely, mag- 
 nificently adequate. 
 
 This may, perhaps, be questioned by some. But of 
 one thing, at any rate, there can be no manner of 
 doubt — that it is far better to strive for a goal in 
 Ledgers than Letters. For in the last you soon cd>me 
 to find there are no really attainable goals. Those 
 things which look like goals are but doors leading to
 
 2;o STATION STUDIES 
 
 others equally deceptive; and there is no final mo- 
 ment when the artist can say, " So much is won and 
 done, perfectly, no man can better it ". Rather you 
 discover on attaining to a certain height that a dozen 
 other heights have suddenly sprung into view, frown- 
 ing down on you and dwarfing that on which you 
 stand. The whisper that sounds in your ears is not 
 " Grandly done ! You have achieved all you set out 
 to do. Your course is finished. You may take your 
 crown ; " but, " H'm, yes. Fair. This shows pro- 
 mise. You are making some progress. Perhaps you 
 might now essay a higher task." Promise and pro- 
 gress, forsooth ! What dim ghosts of success are 
 these ! What satisfaction can they bring — to a clerk, 
 for example, who is certain of final victory every day 
 of his life. Why, in Accounts you have but to add 
 together one mass of figures, subtract another, clear 
 up all stray ends and strike a true balance with the 
 cash, and you stand upon the summit of the world 
 triumphant. There is no view here of higher peaks 
 to be climbed with long toil and self-immolation, no 
 sound of criticism or tempered approval in your ear. 
 Like Mr. Pett Ridge's " Mord Em'ly " at her sums, 
 you have achieved the all ; you are above both blame 
 and applause; the whole earth lies at your feet; your 
 achievement is final; and with her you can snap out 
 at all who faintly praise your work : " Good be 
 blowed ! It's right ! " 
 
 By so much is it more blessed to succeed in Adding 
 than Art.
 
 2/1 
 
 L'ENVOI. 
 
 A TOAST. 
 
 The Civil Servant— India, Africa, the 
 Colonies. 
 
 Gentlemen, charge your glasses : glasses 
 Flushing with welcome, brim to brim, 
 Oft to your heroes have ye drained; 
 
 Glasses, I ask, ye charge to him, 
 Who to the end of your Britains beareth 
 Jewels, the best your Britain weareth — 
 Order of life, 
 Rest from strife, 
 Light where the lights of God are dim. 
 
 Never a word of his great work cometh 
 
 Out to the world where the fame-wind blows : 
 Never a whisper winged with courage 
 
 Into his desert prison goes. 
 Lonely and burned, in temper tameless, 
 Recking of nought so his work be blameless, 
 Bravely he fares 
 Worn with cares : 
 Linked to a life and death of prose.
 
 272 STATION STUDIES 
 
 Prose, for it is not his to conquer ; 
 
 Prose, for he hath no crown to gain : 
 But to a large and larger labour 
 
 Following years his life enchain : 
 Drudgery — dull dead-weight — his burden, 
 Frailty, early age, his guerdon ; 
 Life alone, 
 Death unknown, 
 Grave where few of his land have lain. 
 
 Yet, he is this : when your child-peoples 
 
 Swirl to a war, he makes it peace : 
 When to a thousand thousand cometh 
 
 Panic of death, he bids it cease : 
 Famine and flood and drought he fighteth. 
 Riot and wrong, the least, he righteth ; 
 Fending, holding. 
 Fostering, moulding 
 Men of the hordes ye hold in lease. 
 
 Honour him, honour him, then, that hear me; 
 
 Honour of yours is in his hands. 
 Think of him where, 'mid change and tempest, 
 
 Hazard and plague, alone, he stands. 
 Spirit of England, cheer him, guard him ; 
 Proudly with pride of work reward him — 
 Sentinel, judge, 
 Sovereign, drudge, 
 Sower of right in your broad brown lands. 
 
 THE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED.
 
 ^ (flassifi b (fataloguc 
 
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 GENERAL LITERATURE 
 
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 26 LONGMANS AND CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 
 
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 31 
 
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 LONGMANS AND CO.'S STANDARD AND GFNEKAI. WORKS. 27 
 
 Fiction, Humour, etc. — continued. 
 Morris (William). 
 
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 *»* For Mr. William Morris's other 
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 28 LONGMANS AND CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 
 
 Fiction, Humour, etc. — continued. 
 
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 LONGMANS AND CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 29 
 
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 30 LONGMANS AND CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 
 
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 LONGMANS AND CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 31 
 
 Gwilt.— AN ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF 
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 32 LONGMANS AND CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 
 
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 LONGMANS AND CO.'S STANDARD AND GENERAL WORKS. 33 
 
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