went on after a time: "It wasn't such a bad life, though. I only wish I
was back there again. I had two huts to myself, and a couple of nigger
girls. It's better fun," said Peter, after a while, "having these black
women than whites. The whites you've got to support, but the niggers
support you! And when you've done with them you can just get rid of them.
I'm all for the nigger gals." Peter laughed. But the stranger sat
motionless with his arms about his knees.

"You got any girls?" said Peter. "Care for niggers?"

"I love all women," said the stranger, refolding his arms about his knees.

"Oh, you do, do you?" said Peter. "Well, I'm pretty sick of them. I had
bother enough with mine," he said genially, warming his hands by the fire,
and then interlocking the fingers and turning the palms towards the blaze
as one who prepares to enjoy a good talk. "One girl was only fifteen; I
got her cheap from a policeman who was living with her, and she wasn't
much. But the other, by Gad! I never saw another nigger like her; well
set up, I tell you, and as straight as that--" said Peter, holding up his
finger in the firelight. "She was thirty if she was a day. Fellows don't
generally fancy women that age; they like slips of girls. But I set my
heart on her the day I saw her. She belonged to the chap I was with. He
got her up north. There was a devil of a row about his getting her, too;
she'd got a nigger husband and two children; didn't want to leave them, or
some nonsense of that sort: you know what these niggers are? Well, I tried
to get the other fellow to let me have her, but the devil a bit he would.
I'd only got the other girl, and I didn't much fancy her; she was only a
child. Well, I went down Umtali way and got a lot of liquor and stuff, and
when I got back to camp I found them clean dried out. They hadn't had a
drop of liquor in camp for ten days, and the rainy season coming on and no