Harold Bindloss

“ Carson had been a clerk in England. His people were poor, and it cost him stern self-denial to give them the help they needed. Then he said something about a girl who worked for her living. He talked disjointedly, and Herries thought that fever and solitude accounted for his taking him into his confidence. Knowing very little about the country, he eagerly accepted an offer of employment in West Africa, and arrived at Ulundu with a hopeful heart. ”

“ I rather think the Leopards are about again. The Ulundu village was one of their favourite haunts, and something must have frightened the boys."
Herries said it did not matter, but felt uncomfortable. Hitherto he had had Blake, who knew how to deal with the natives, for a companion; but he was now left to his own resources in the deserted factory. His canoe boys must return in the morning, and he would only have the two Mohammedans and Carson's storekeeper and cook. It was a very small party, and the bushmen had been truculent since war broke out. ”

“ Carson, however, was worn to skin and bone, and it was strange that he should wish to remain at the unhealthy factory.
"That's why I was bothered about the boys stealing off," the latter resumed. "Oil has rushed up since the War began, and the United really ought to pay me an agent's commission; but I can't handle the stuff now, if the bushmen bring it down."
Herries could understand this complaint. On the few occasions when they had previously met, Carson had shown a parsimony unusual in West Africa, where white men seldom find it worth while to save. ”

“ Herries opened the wet envelope and read the scribbled note aloud. "‘Can you come up for a few days? I'm ill, Foster's dead, and my boys have left me.’"
Carson served a rival trading firm at a small factory some distance off, and commercial jealousy is keen in West Africa; but Blake, who picked up the note, remarked: "You'll have to go. For one thing, it's obvious that he's very sick, and Ulundu's not a cheerful spot for a lonely young white man. Foster seems to have died suddenly. I didn't know he was ill."
"Then I can have the canoe and a few boys in the morning?" ”

“ Still, Carson saw that he must make the best of things, and when the clerk succumbed, a better man arrived. The agent got feebler and hazy in mind, but Carson and Foster kept the factory going after he died, the former hoping to get the vacant post, in which case he would feel himself a wealthy man. He was often ill, but this was to be expected, and Herries gathered that his resolution had not faltered much until Foster's death. ”

“ One heard tales of fantastic cruelties in the back country, where the tribes sometimes raided their neighbours, and life was cheap, but white men were generally safe from open violence, at least. It was said that a grasping agent now and then died of poison, but Herries did not know of any authentic case. ”

“ Blake said meaningly. "Take Amade and Alua, and keep them until you come back. They're about the toughest boys we have, and by way of being Mohammedans."
Herries entered his room and threw a few clothes into a bag, and, as he opened a cupboard, an old sweater caught his eye. He had brought it for use on the voyage out, and it reminded him of the time when he played in the football team of a good Scottish school. A faded red leopard was embroidered on the breast of the garment, and, though Herries thought nobody knew of it, the device was tattooed on his skin. ”

“ He was the best of a number of assistants whom Blake had trained and buried, and the agent sometimes wondered why he had come to West Africa, since the palm oil trade does not, as a rule, attract young men of ability. ”

“ The longest-living author of this work died in 1945, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 78 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works. ”