A FREE FIGHT 



One more persistent than the rest worried me all day 

 for medicine. I gave him four Livingstone Rousers 

 and two five-grain capsules of quinine, telling him to 

 keep them in his mouth and bite them. Gradually 

 his features underwent extraordinary contortions. I 

 threatened to beat him if he attempted to spit out the 

 medicine, and all the other boys were highly amused 

 and shouted aloud at the sight of the patient who 

 was trembling and making the most ghastly faces. 



Some Shinzis stood by watching the boy with their 

 eyes and mouths wide open. I told the cook to give 

 him some hot water with which to rinse his mouth out. 

 Of course the hot water made things very much worse 

 for him, the Shinzis became alarmed, children howled, 

 and away they all dashed for the village. Poor devil, 

 he did not trouble me for medicine again. 



Some of these fellows have a great liking for vaseline 

 or epsom salts, and they would come up complaining of a 

 sore chest or bad throat. A new chum, judging by the 

 sleepy expression and the sluggish crawl of the supposed 

 sick man, would be prone to take compassion on the 

 poor miserable object, but invariably it is a dodge to 

 escape hard work. After this sort of thing had gone 

 on for some days I began to suspect that many of them 

 were in excellent health, anyhow their appetites belied 

 their langour, so I concocted a vile mixture that made 

 them very sick. Colds and sore throats were few and 

 far between after that. 



The rest of that day not a soul returned from the 

 village, so I was enabled to enjoy a little quiet. I was 

 awakened next morning by a great commotion, and on 

 looking out of the door I espied three of my boys having 

 a heated argument with a small group of the villagers. 

 Fearing there might be trouble, I slipped on my shoes 

 and went out in my pyjamas ; even as I strode towards 

 the group one of my party, Kasinbasi, a muscular fellow, 



97 h 



