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, I'd eat you without spitting out the bones."
"That, sir, is your opinion. But I must warn you I was highly thought of in the light heavyweight division."
"Oh, goddamn it." Fly
Sebastian sat on the carpet and accepted the mug that Fly
"You know, said Fly
In the dawn the empire builders were paddled ashore in the dug-out by two of Fly
The canoe ran aground on the narrow muddy beach of New Liverpool, and the sudden halt threw both of them off-balance. They collapsed gently together on to the floor of the dug-out, and had to be assisted ashore by the paddlers.
Sebastian was formally dressed for the occasion but had buttoned his waistcoat awry and he kept tugging at it as he peered about him.
Now at high tide, New Liverpool was about a thousand yards long and half as broad. At the highest point it rose not more than ten feet above the level of the Rufiji river.
Fifteen miles from the mouth the water was only slightly tainted with salt and the mangrove trees had thi
Fly
"Flag pole," he said indistinctly, took Sebastian's elbow and led him towards it.
Tugging at his waistcoat with one hand and clutching the bundled Union Jack that Fly
"Leave me," he mumbled and shook off Fly
"Have a drink." Fly
"Shouldn't drink on parade." Sebastian frowned at him.
"Bad form."
Fly
"Should draw the men up in a hollow square," Sebastian went on. "Ready to salute the flag."
"Jesus, man, get on with it," grumbled Fly
"Got to do it right."
"Oh, hell," Fly
Puzzled and amused, Fly
"Fine body of men," Sebastian beamed at them in alcoholic goodwill, unconsciously using the words of a Brigadier who had inspected Sebastian's cadet parade at Rugby.
"Let's get this show on the road," Fly
"My friends," Sebastian obliged, "we are gathered here today..." It was a longish speech but Fly
A silence fell on the assembly and Sebastian fidgeted with embarrassment. "What do I do now?" he enquired of Fly
"Get that goddamned flag up."
"Ah, the flag!" Sebastian exclaimed with relief, and then uncertainly, "How?"
Fly
With shrill cries of encouragement from the gun-bearers, and with Fly
For the rest of their stay on the island, the Union Jack flew at half mast above the encampment.
Carried initially by two Wakamba fishermen, it took fully ten days for the word of the a
The German boma was a large stone building, thatched, set about with wide verandas over which purple bougainvillea climbed in profusion. Behind it stood the barracks and parade ground of the African Askari, and before it a lonely flag pole from which streamed the black, red and yellow of the empire. A speck in the vastness of the African bush, seat of government for an area the size of France. An area that spread south to the Rovurna river and the border of Portuguese Mozambique, east to the Indian Ocean, and west to the uplands of Sao Hill and Mbeya.