THE DICTATOR OF GRAND BASSA 249

for blood. But they all said, °We cannot kill King
without killing Davis.'" The Colonel flashed his
gold teeth at me, deprecatingly. "Of course-----"

"Of course," I said.

I approached the subject of the Kru war by way of
the Colonel's other military exploits. I felt that after
the British Consul's report he might feel shy of the
subject, but I always over-estimated the Colonel's shy-
ness. When I expressed my admiration for the way
in which he had disarmed the tribes, the Colonel
took up the subject with enthusiasm. As far as I
could make out the operation had turned on a cup
of Ovaltine rather than on rifles or machine-guns, for
he was a sweet-tempered man: butter wouldn't have
melted between the gold teeth. One tribe had sent
out armed men to ambush him, but he had learnt
their plans from his spies, had taken a different path
and entered the town while it was quite empty except
for women and old men. From the report on the Kru
war I should have expected Colonel Davis to have
set fire to the town while his men raped the women:
but no: he called for the oldest man, made him sit
down, gave him a glass of Ovaltine (with the barest
glance at the opposite verandah, where my whisky
and glasses were laid out, the Colonel remarked, "I
always have a glass of Ovaltine at the end of a day's
trek"), made friends with him, and had him send
messages out to the warriors to return in peace. "Of
course," the Colonel said, "I made him understand
that he and the other old men would have to remain
as my guests until the arms were handed over . . ."

The character of the Colonel eluded me. Lord
Cecil in the House of Lords had called Hm*a