“My friend, if you will allow me to call you so, it is quite true that I have done this because I wished to do it.  But it is equally true that to me it is a small thing—­to be frank, scarcely a month’s income; what I have saved travelling on that ship to Natal would pay for it all.  Also I have weighed my own interest in the matter, for I am anxious that you should start upon this hazardous journey of ours up country with a mind absolutely free from self-reproach or any money care, for thus you will be able to do me better service.  Therefore I beg that you will say no more of the episode.  I have only one thing to add, namely that I have myself bought up at par value a few of the debentures.  The price of them will pay the lawyers and the liquidation fees; moreover they give me a status as a shareholder which will enable me to sue Mr. Jacob for his fraud, to which business I have already issued instructions.  For please understand that I have not paid off any shares still standing in his name or in those of his friends.”

Here I may add that nothing ever came of this action, for the lawyers found themselves unable to serve any writ upon that elusive person, Mr. Jacob, who by then had probably adopted the name of some other patriarch.

“Please put it all down as a rich man’s whim,” he concluded.

“I can’t call that a whim which has returned L1,500 odd to my pocket that I had lost upon a gamble, Lord Ragnall.”

“Do you remember, Quatermain, how you won L250 upon a gamble at my place and what you did with it, which sum probably represented to you twenty or fifty times what it would to me?  Also if that argument does not appeal to you, may I remark that I do not expect you to give me your services as a professional hunter and guide for nothing.”

“Ah!” I answered, fixing on this point and ignoring the rest, “now we come to business.  If I may look upon this amount as salary, a very handsome salary by the way, paid in advance, you taking the risks of my dying or becoming incapacitated before it is earned, I will say no more of the matter.  If not I must refuse to accept what is an unearned gift.”

“I confess, Quatermain, that I did not regard it in that light, though I might have been willing to call it a retaining fee.  However, do not let us wrangle about money any more.  We can always settle our accounts when the bill is added up, if ever we reach so far.  Now let us come to more important details.”

So we fell to discussing the scheme, route and details of our proposed journey.  Expenditure being practically no object, there were several plans open to us.  We might sail up the coast and go by Kilwa, as I had done on the search for the Holy Flower, or we might retrace the line of our retreat from the Mazitu country which ran through Zululand.  Again, we might advance by whatever road we selected with a small army of drilled and disciplined retainers, trusting to force