It was the spark
that kept the man alive. Otherwise he would have been as limp as a
rag, but this craziness put life into him, and made him carry his head
in the air and walk like a free man. I remember he was very keen about
any kind of martial poetry. He used to go about crooning Scott and
Macaulay to himself, and when we went for a walk or a ride he wouldn't
speak for miles, but keep smiling to himself and humming bits of songs.
I daresay he was very happy,--far happier than your stolid, competent
man, who sees only the one thing to do and does it. Tommy was muddling
his particular duty, but building glorious palaces in the air.

"One day Mackay, the old trader, came to me after a sitting of the
precious Legislative Council. We were very friendly, and I had done
all I could to get the Government to listen to his views. He was a
dour, ill-tempered Scotsman, very anxious for the safety of his
property, but perfectly careless about any danger to himself.

"'Captain Thirlstone,' he said, 'that Governor of yours is a damned
fool.'

"Of course I shut him up very brusquely, but he paid no attention. 'He
just sits and grins, and lets yon Pentecostal crowd we've gotten here
as a judgment for our sins do what they like wi' him. God kens what'll
happen. I would go home to-morrow, if I could realise without an
immoderate loss. For the day of reckoning is at hand. Maark my words,
Captain--at hand.'

"I said I agreed with him about the approach of trouble, but that the
Governor would rise to the occasion. I told him that people like Tommy
were only seen at their best in a crisis, and that he might be
perfectly confident that when it arrived he would get a new idea of the
man. I said this, but of course I did not believe a word of it. I
thought Tommy was only a dreamer, who had rotted any grit he ever
possessed by his mental opiates. At that time I did not understand
about the kings from Orion.

"And then came the thing we had all been waiting for--a Labonga rising.
A week before I had got leave and had gone up country, partly to shoot,
but mainly to see for myself what trouble was brewing. I kept away
from the river, and therefore missed the main native centres, but such
kraals as I passed had a look I did not like. The chiefs were almost
always invisible, and the young bloods were swaggering about and
bukking to each other, while the women were grinding maize as if for
some big festival. However, after a