The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

672 The Highland Monthly.
unintelligible grunt. I probed him with the idea that per-
haps his " line" was " rabbits," or " rats." It was not, but
he could do with some tobacco. I conferred tobacco on
him, and resumed queries on a variety of subjects. Red
deer, grouse, bimetallism, state of the crops, Home Rule for
Ireland, state of affairs in Fort-William, in Oban, in
Glasgow—total results meagre in the extreme ; hint for
more tobacco ; a copper or two ;
also weird threats of
vengeance on a particular enemy in Fort-William, who had
not treated him well. Probably the party who had granted
him the black eye, so pronounced, so complete, so eye-
inspiring.
I resolved to get rid of him if I could. He was a
decided failure, looking at him as an ideal, and he was toO'
mercenary. I didn't like the twinkle of his other eye when
I produced a handful of money to select a copper or twO'
for him, and his demand for tobacco was extortionate.
I reflected that he was a strongly built fellow, with a
better stick than my umbrella-shaft, and with complete
indifference to the effects of a vigorous use of it. I had
money, tobacco, and other effects which to him were most
valuable, and out of all proportion to other consequences if
he could but get at them.
My policy clearly was to keep him in front, and so
avoid any sudden attack from the rear. If he sprang upon
me suddenly, one well-directed blow would probably render
me insensible, if it was not more serious. It was unpleasant
to reflect that I might lie there in that desert for a week
before being found, and by that time I would be a " demp
unpleasant body." Keeping him therefore well in front, I
hinted that I invariably travelled with a loaded pistol, and
also went into some details—diplomatic, though imaginary
—with regard to a hand-to-hand encounter with Zulus, and
other aboriginals in South Africa, in which I had with my
own hand killed several, and rendered others of them
useless and bedridden for years. To my amazement, he
informed me that he had been out with some regiment or