got drunk or didn't know how to
swear, I'd sign it, if there was a good dose of squaring to come after
it. I could stand a good lot of that sort of thing--squaring--if it
would only come my way."

The men laughed in a dreary sort of way, and the third man, who had
not spoken yet, rolled round on to his back, and took the pipe from his
mouth.

"I tell you what," said the keen man, "those of us up here who have got
a bit of land and are trying honestly and fairly to work, are getting
pretty sick of this humbugging fighting. If we'd had a few men like the
Curries and Bowkers of the old days up here from the first, all this
would never have happened. And there's no knowing when a reason won't
turn up for keeping the bloody thing on or stopping it off for a
time, to break out just when one's settled down to work. It's a damned
convenient thing to have a war like this to turn on and off."

Slowly the third man keeled round on to his stomach again: "Let
resignation wait. We fight the Matabele again tomorrow," he said,
sententiously.

A low titter ran round the group. Even the man under the bushes, though
his eyes were still closed and his arm across his face, let his mouth
relax a little, and showed his yellow teeth.

"I'm always expecting," said the big handsome man, "to have a paper come
round, signed by all the nigger chiefs, saying how much they love the
B.S.A. Company, and how glad they are the Panjandrum has got them, and
how awfully good he is to them; and they're going to subscribe to the
brazen statue. There's nothing a man can't be squared to do."

The third man lay on his back again, lazily examining his hand, which he
held above his face. "What's that in the Bible," he said, slowly, "about
the statue, whose thighs and belly were of brass, and its feet of mud?"

"I don't know much about the Bible," said the keen man, "I'm going to
see if my pot isn't boiling over. Won't yours burn?"

"No, I asked the Captain's boy to keep an eye on it--but I expect he
won't. Do you put the rice in with the mealies?"

"Got to; I've got no other pot. And the fellows don't object. It's a
tasty variety, you know!"

The keen-faced man slouched away across the square to where his fire
burnt; and presently the other man rose and went, either to look at his
own pot or sleep under the carts; and the large Colonial man was left
alone. His fire was burning satisfactorily about fifty feet off, and
he folded his arms on the ground an