AFRICAN CAMP FIRES 



something more. He answered these remarks, 

 though grudgingly. I suggested that it took a 

 mighty good driver to motor through this rough 

 country. He mentioned a particular hill. I pro- 

 posed that we try the station restaurant for beer 

 while he told me about it. He grunted, but headed 

 for the station. 



For two hours we listened to the most blatant 

 boasting. He was a great driver; he had driven for 

 M., the American millionaire; for the Chinese Am- 

 bassador to France; for Grand-duke Alexis; for the 

 Kaiser himself! We learned how he had been the 

 trusted familiar of these celebrities, how on various 

 occasions — all detailed at length — he had been 

 treated by them as an equal; and he told us sundry 

 sly, slanderous, and disgusting anecdotes of these 

 worthies, his forefinger laid one side his nose. When 

 we finally got him worked up to the point of going 

 to get some excessively bad photographs "I haf 

 daken myself!" we began to have hopes. So we 

 tentatively approached once more the subject of 

 transportation. 



Then the basis of the trouble came out. One 

 Davis, M. P. from England, had also dealt with 

 our friend. Davis, as we reconstructed him, was of 

 the blunt type, with probably very little feeling of 

 democracy for those in subordinate positions, and 



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