202 SHORT STALKS 



company withal. A popular favourite throughout that 

 country, his moral weight w^oukl certainly carry him in at 

 the head of the poll if there were a School Board election. 

 I never found out his real name — " Boulm" means father, 

 and is simply a familiar term of affection, much as you say 

 "Grand Old Man." He would sit all day smoking cigar- 

 ettes in the tent, with a benign smile on his face, but any 

 little emergency galvanised the phlegmatic cavass into an 

 enero;etic leader of men, whose word was law wdth hio;h and 

 low, and he never failed us. His Martini rifle was rarely 

 laid aside, and he would without doubt have used it in 

 our behalf if necessary. It would have taken him some 

 time to use up all his cartridges, which he carried in an 

 enormous belt right round his rather stout person. 



When he got to know us pretty well I drew his story 

 from him one night, with the assistance of the Greek 

 stationmaster. He told it in a matter-of-fact style, with- 

 out apparent regret, and at the same time without affect- 

 ation or " side." It was afterwards confirmed by people of 

 authority ; besides, I never knew him to tell a lie. Very 

 likely he minimised his little escapades. 



"Why did you take to the mountains, Bouba ? " He 

 gave a fat chuckle. "It was because of a woman. There 

 was a girl that I was intimate with — I was very fond of 

 her. A man came and took her away. I went after him 

 to his house and struck him." (He did not say what he 

 struck him with, Init I believe that, as a matter of fact, 

 he shot him at sight.) "Two days afterwards he hap- 

 pened to die. Then the authorities tried to catch me, but 

 I was always escaping out of the back-door and coming 

 back at night. So when they found they could not catch 



