, affixed a thick,
black cross upon the spot indicated.

"That all right?" he asked Oom Sam.

Oom Sam bowed to the ground.

"Him want to know," he said, jerking his head towards Captain Francis,
"whether you know what means?"

His forefinger wandered aimlessly down the document. His Majesty's reply
was prompt and cheerful.

"Three barrels of rum a year."

Sam explained further. "There will be white men come digging," he said;
"white men with engines that blow, making holes under the ground and
cutting trees."

The King was interested. "Where?" he asked.

Oom Sam pointed westward through the bush.

"Down by creek-side."

The King was thoughtful "Rum come all right?" he asked.

Oom Sam pointed to the papers.

"Say so there," he declared. "All quite plain."

The King grinned. It was not regal, but he certainly did it. If white
men come too near they must be shot--carefully and from ambush. He
leaned back with the air of desiring the conference to cease. Oom Sam
turned to Captain Francis.

"King him quite satisfied," he declared. "Him all explained before--he
agree."

The King suddenly woke up again. He clutched Sam by the arm, and
whispered in his ear. This time it was Sam who grinned.

"King, him say him signed paper twice," he explained. "Him want four
barrels of rum now."

Trent laughed harshly.

"He shall swim in it, Sam," he said; "he shall float down to hell upon
it."

Oom Sam explained to the King that, owing to the sentiments of affection
and admiration with which the white men regarded him, the three barrels
should be made into four, whereupon his Majesty bluntly pronounced the
audience at an end and waddled off into his Imperial abode.

The two Englishmen walked slowly back to the hut. Between them there had
sprung up from the first moment a strong and mutual antipathy. The blunt
savagery of Trent, his apparently heartless treatment of his weaker
partner, and his avowed unscrupulousness, offended the newcomer much in
the same manner as in many ways he himself was obnoxious to Trent. His
immaculate fatigue-uniform, his calm superciliousness, his obvious air
of belonging to a superior class, were galling to Trent beyond measure.
He himself felt the difference--he realised his ignorance, his unkempt
and uncared-for appearance. Perhaps, as the two men walked side by side,
some faint foreshadowing of the future showed to Trent another and
a larger world where they two would once more walk s