"I s'y this," said Nelton, a slight tremble in his voice, "I've been serving gentlemen so long that I don't think we'd hit it off together, thank you." The stranger's shrewd eyes twinkled, but he was otherwise unmoved. "Perhaps you're right," he mumbled, still plying his toothpick. "Anyway, I'm glad you're not a worm." He drew a large business card from his pocket and held it out. "Come to me if you ever want a man's job." Nelton took the card and held it out as though he had been petrified in the act. His bulging eyes watched the stranger as he sauntered leisurely back to his seat, then they turned to Lewis. "What do you think of that?" they asked. Lewis held out his hand for the card and glanced at the name. "Nelton," he said, "you've made a mistake. Better go over and tell the old boy you've reconsidered his proposition. I'll fix it up with dad. You'll be able to retire in three years." "Master Lewis," said Nelton, gravely, "there's lots of people besides you and the governor that thinks we serving-men says 'Yes, sir, thank you, sir,' to any one for the syke of a guinea a week and keep. Now you and the stout party eating the toothpick over yonder knows better." CHAPTER L On the following day, while Leighton and Lewis were sorting out their things and Nelton was packing, Leighton said: "Nelton, you'd better go back to London with Mr. Lewis." "Beg your pardon, sir," said Nelton from the depths of a trunk, "but I'd like to go with you, sir." "Where to?" asked Leighton, surprised. "Africa?" "Yes, sir, Africa, sir." Leighton paused for a moment before he said: "Nelton, you can't go to Africa, not as a serving-man. You wouldn't be useful and you wouldn't be comfortable. Africa's a queer place, the cradle of slavery and the land of the free. A place," he continued, half to himself, "where masters become men. They are freed from their servants by the law that says white shall not serve white while the black looks on lest he be amazed that the gods should wait upon each other." He turned back to Nelton and added with a smile that was kindly: "What would you do in a land where just to be white spells kingship--a kingship held by the power to stand up to your thirty miles a day, to bear hunger and thirst without whimpering, to stand steady in danger, and to shoot straight and keep clean always? It's a land where all the whites sit down to the same table, but it isn't every white that can get to the table. You mustn't think I'm picking on you, Nelton. The man that's going with me is always hard up, but I heard him refuse an offer of Lord Dubbley's of all expenses and a thousand pounds down to take him on a trip." "Lord Dubbley!" repeated Nelton, impressed. "Is there anything w'at a lord can't 'ave?" "Yes," said Leighton. "There are still tables you can't sit down at for just money or name, but they are getting further and further away."