BLACK MONTPAKNASSE 179

myself in my tin bath, Amedoo came into the hut.
He said, "The labourers say they want more money,
Massa say no." He was the perfect manservant; he
advised me how to meet a mutiny with the calmness
and firmness of Jeeves advising Bertie Wooster on
the choice of a tie. But it was sometimes a strain to
live up to him: his loyalty, his honesty and his com-
plete reliability demanded so much in return: a
master, too, who was reliable as he understood
reliability, in the imperial manner. He had lived with
District Commissioners; he completely failed to
understand any other than the official attitude of a
man to his carriers. It was a relief to me when in
the last week of the trek even Amedoo's morale began
to weaken.

I lingered as long as I could in my bath; it was
embarrassing to know that Amedoo would judge me
by my conduct now; it would have been so disgrace-
fully easy to have given way. For, after all, the
carriers were disgracefully underpaid. At last I had
to go outside, sit down, pretend to write my diary.
I was aware of them watching me, judging the
moment to strike, I felt like a fly on a wall and they
held the whisk. Then Kolieva came forward, and
about fifteen carriers drifted up in a close group
behind him. I hadn't expected Kolieva to be one of
them. He was embarrassed and that helped me; he
was exaggeratedly sullen and falsely dignified, his
heavy lip drooped, he beat at his toes with a stick and
spoke thickly. He was the only one of the mutineers
who knew a few words of English. It occurred to me
as I counted the number of the strikers that I could
never reach my objective without them, paying a*