He Struck Me As Being One Of Those Men,
Of Whom I Know Five, Whom I Could Rely On, That
If one of them and I
went into the utter bush together, one of us at least would come out
Alive and have made something substantial by the venture; which is a
great deal more than I could say, for example, of Ngouta, who was
still with me, as he desired to see the glories of Gaboon and buy a
hanging lamp.
Captain Johnson's attire calls for especial comment and admiration.
However disconnected the two sides of his character might be, his
clothes bore the impress of both of his natures to perfection. He
wore, when first we met, a huge sombrero hat, a spotless singlet,
and a suit of clean, well-got-up dungaree, and an uncommonly
picturesque, powerful figure he cut in them, with his finely
moulded, well-knit form and good-looking face, full of expression
always, but always with the keen small eyes in it watching the
effect his genial smiles and hearty laugh produced. The eyes were
the eyes of Obanjo, the rest of the face the property of Captain
Johnson. I do not mean to say that they were the eyes of a bad bold
man, but you had not to look twice at them to see they belonged to a
man courageous in the African manner, full of energy and resource,
keenly intelligent and self-reliant, and all that sort of thing.
I left him and the refined Mr. Glass together to talk over the
palaver of shipping me, and they talked it at great length.
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