and the idea of Jim, always penniless and always in 

 debt, posing as a creditor never failed to raise a laugh, 

 and he would shake his head with a half-fierce half- 

 sad disgust at the general scepticism and his failure 

 to convince me. Then he had relations in every town ! 

 Jim, the sole survivor of his fighting kraal, produced 

 ' blulus,' * babas,' ' sisteles,' and even ' mamas,' in 

 profusion, and they died just before we reached the 

 place, as regularly as the office-boy's aunt dies before 

 Derby Day, and with the same consequence he had 

 to go to the funeral. 



The first precaution was to keep him at the waggons 

 and put the towns and canteens * out of bounds ' ; 

 and the last defence, to banish him entirely until he 

 came back sober, and meanwhile set other boys to do 

 his work, paying them his wages in cash in his presence 

 when he returned fit for duty. 



" Is it as I told you ? Is it just ? " I would ask 

 when this was done. 



" It is just, Inkos," he would answer with a calm 

 dispassionate simplicity which appealed for forgiveness 

 and confidence with far greater force than any repent- 

 ance ; and it did so because it was genuine ; it was 

 natural and unstudied. There was never a trace of 

 feeling to be detected when these affairs were squared 

 off, but I knew how he hated the treatment, and it 

 helped a little from time to time to keep him right. 



The banishing of him from the waggons in order 

 that he might go away and have it over was not a 

 device to save myself trouble, and I did it only when 

 it was clear that he could stand the strain no longer. 



204 



