A TRIP " ABACK " 35 



CHAPTER IX 



A TRIP " ABACK " — Continued 



Five minutes more in which there is no figure to be 

 seen on the landscape. Now, riding towards you 

 along the tow-path comes a man on mule-back. He 

 is a white overseer, who, upon coming up with us, 

 gives us greeting and dismounts. He has come to meet 

 us, and conduct us through some of the cane-fields. 



Why do you look so surprised as you cover him with 

 a swift glance from top to toe ? You expected to see 

 him arrayed in the full uniform of what you call Bush 

 Kit 1 I assure you he is so dressed. Speckless brown 

 boots, elegant puttees, brand-new khaki riding- 

 breeches, and all the other magnificent etceteras of 

 a plantation overseer on the stage, or in a novel, are 

 not for workaday life. Ask of any man who knows 

 about such things from personal experience what is 

 the best style of costume to wear for plantation-work, 

 and his reply will almost invariably be : " Any old 

 thing is good enough." 



Hence, you need not be at all surprised to find our 

 new friend in a very old suit, the coat sagging from 

 the effects of many a tropical drenching, the trousers 

 tucked into ancient leggings, and his kit completed 

 by navvy's boots and a weather-beaten wideawake. 



We step out of the boat on to the dam, and the 

 overseer prepares to join us. He gets into a tiny, flat- 

 bottomed boat, known as a '* floater," in which there 

 is just room for him to stand up, and his Uttle blaek- 

 boy attendant jumps into the trench and pushes him 

 across. 



