air above you!'"

Almost Peter Halket started and looked upward; but there was only the black
sky of Mashonaland over his head.

The stranger stood silent looking downward into the fire. Peter Halket
half clasped his arms about his knees.

"My master," he cried, "how can I take this message? The Dutchmen of South
Africa will not listen to me, they will say I am an Englishman. And the
Englishmen will say: 'Who is this fellow who comes preaching peace, peace,
peace? Has he not been a year in the country and he has not a share in a
single company? Can anything he says be worth hearing? If he were a man
of any sense he would have made five thousand pounds at least.' And they
will not listen to me. Give me another labour!"

And the stranger said: "Take a message to one man. Find him, whether he
sleep or wake, whether he eat or drink; and say to him: 'Where are the
souls of the men that you have bought?'

"And if he shall answer you and say: 'I bought no men's souls! The souls
that I bought were the souls of dogs?' Then ask him this question, say to
him, 'Where are the--'

"And if he cry out, 'You lie, you lie! I know what you are going to say.
What do I know of envoys? Was I ever afraid of the British Government? It
is all a lie!' Then question him no further. But say: 'There was a
rushlight once. It flickered and flared, and it guttered down, and went
out--and no man heeded it: it was only a rushlight.