Where warning and punishment availed nothing 

 threats would have been worse than foolish. Once, 

 when he had broken bounds and left the waggons, 

 I threatened that if he did it again I would tie him 

 up, since he was like a dog that could not be 

 trusted ; and I did it. He had no excuse but 

 the old ones ; some one, he said, had brought 

 him liquor to the waggons and he had not known 

 what he was doing. The truth was that the craving 

 grew so with the nearer prospect of drink that by 

 hook or by crook he would find some one, a passer- 

 by or a boy from other waggons, to fetch some for 

 him ; and after that nothing could hold him. 



If Jim ever wavered in his loyalty to me, it must 

 have been the day I tied him up : he must have been 

 very near hating me then. I had caught him as he 

 was leaving the waggons and still sober ; brought him 

 back and told him to sit under his own waggon where 

 I would tie him up like a dog. I took a piece of sail 

 twine, tied it to one wrist, and, fastening the other end 

 to the waggon-wheel, left him. 



A kaffir's face becomes, when he wishes it, quite 

 inscrutable as expressionless as a blank wall. But 

 there are exceptions to every rule ; and Jim's stoicism 

 was not equal to this occasion. The look of unspeak- 

 able disgust and humiliation on his face was more than 

 I could bear with comfort ; and after half an hour 

 or so in the pillory I released him. He did not say 

 a word, but, heedless of the hot sun, rolled himself 

 in his blankets and, sleeping or not, never moved for the 

 rest of the day. 208 



