Tom Willoughby's Scouts

ht, clad in the loose white garments affected by planters, with a large white linen hat, its brim turned down helmet-wise. The coppery hue of his face was accentu

Tom. "Hasn't altered a jot. His moustache was white twenty years ago; and he was as

n two or three days at Bismarckburg to unload, he was going to complete his jour

landed there was none so young as Tom, no other who bore the stamp of Englishman. Reinecke came

zout doubt. A tousa

inecke?" responded To

ow ve go to ze plantation. Zat zhentleman you part viz--I zink I know his

kwor

of course, of course; I re

to excuse his absence for a moment, and went up the gangway on to the steamer. Returning after a minute or two, he explained that he had arra

again. "You English are all good sports, eh? An

of his reception, and glowed with anticipation of diversif

lk. The journey would be done by machila, which turned out to be a light canvas litter slung on a pole and borne by two strapping natives. Reinecke had brought three pairs of porters, in addition to a dozen who would convey certain bales of

he saw gigantic ferns, revelling in the moist shade of huge trees, festooned with lianas and rattan. He heard monkeys chattering overhead, the soft notes of doves and the shriller cries of partridges and guinea-fowl; and but for the teeming insects he would have liked to spring from his litter and go afoot, where every yard brought some new beauty, some novel form of life, to view. After three hours the caravan halted, for the pur

more I bid you tousand velcomes, and

same time that Reinecke's eyes were fixed on t

years, Mr. Villoughby," said the captain. "Zere is

all be zree or four tousand kilos ze acre; but a bad season--ah! disease come-

tween them, at the same interval, were dug shallow pits some eighteen inches deep. He had arrived just at the time when the fruit was ripe,

dried. Beyond these were sheds where the coffee, now ready for market, was stored and packed. And then, in a separate clearing, laid out like a European garden, they came to Reinecke's bungalow, a brightly painted structure of wood, with a long verandah and a thatched roof. A table w

ixed with the soil: the months of hoeing: the sowings in the seed beds: the planting out of the seedlings in November, when the rains began: and the tedious three years' waiting before the young plants started to bear. Those three years he had utilised by planting a thorn fence about the whole clearing of some hundr

e antelopes and buffaloes which the sportsmen brought down fell to his gun. Tom was all anxiety to get a shot at a lion or even an elephant, which Reinecke told him were to be found in parts

lose his prey, he followed, accompanied by the others, over a stretch of hilly country, dotted with bush, tracking the animal by its blood-stains into a deep nullah through which a stream flowed. The sportsmen cau

codile," said the captain with a s

"The beast was hopelessly trapped; there's no exit fro

n had left that Tom broached the busin

ning at breakfast, "my brother and I thought it just as well that I should

ecke. "It is what I sh

d I'm sure if you'll be good enough to go into things with me, I'll soon get the hang of them. If the plantation can't be made to pay, there's only one way out--sacrifice

ed I say I shall be delighted. What with poor crops and low prices, and the heavy costs of carriage, it is difficult to wring

kworth's advice to "go carefully," to "keep an open mind," and at present he had no material on which to form a judgment. Nor could he yet decide how to estimate Reinecke. The German had been cordiality itself. He had

the stock book, the cost book, the ledger: on this file you will find the vouchers for the quantities of beans we have shipped from Bismarckburg. My clerk is very methodical: he is a nigger, but

he grain; he hated anything that savoured of the part of inquisitor; but he reflected that it was purely a matter of business, an

s, provisions, upkeep of buildings and so on; duplicates of the invoices dispatched with the goods to a firm in Hamburg; records of bills of exchange received in payment, and the hundred and one details incident to an export business. Balance sheets had, of course, been sent to his fath

to make mistakes in such a matter. If so, then, what was wrong? Were the costs too high in proportion to the out-turn? Was the acreage under cultivation too small? Was there something faulty in the methods employed? Tom felt that these questions carried him beyond his depth. Woul

on the perfect order in which his books were kept, and

"I shall see the results from this season's crops, your preparations for next, and fresh sow

rospect of having a stranger quartered on him for an indefinite period. "Still," Reinecke went on, "it is with knowledge as with wealth. The heir inherits th

feeling of a moment before as unwarranted, and reflected th

ld by the ring fence, which consisted of quick-growing thorn bushes so closely matted as to form a practically impenetrable barrier many feet thick. There were more than a hundred adu

sometimes?" said Tom, whose schoolday

imes, in the early part of the season between

they go awa

forest, and the port. They would be eaten in the forest;

re practical

es round your cattle: the negroes are just cattle. Break your f

at is s

bound to their masters for a term of years. They are indentured labourers. They are paid; a

ir homes, then, whe

ke shr

ur civilising mission with especial pertinacity and violence. On August 17, '91, they gained a victory over our much-tried soldiers. They dispersed as we approached, but when the column of Captain von Zelewski was passing through a rugged and densely-grown country it was attacked along its whole length by thousands of the treac

in India and elsewhere," said Tom. "I s

very sure. Finally they were terribly subdued, and some hundreds of them were transported into this Tanganyika country and compelled to earn their living by peaceful toil. My people here are Wahehe. I have one of the very chiefs who opposed us--one Mirambo, a great hunter in his youth. I need not say that I find his woodcraft very useful when I go hunting. By the way,

as simply slavery, however the German might seek to disguise it, and he would make it his business to find out for himself the natives' point of view. If they were contented with their