De Wiart pulled his blond beard meditatively, and looked at the river.
From the office where he was sitting the river, great with the rains and lit by the sun which had broken through the clouds, looked like a moving flood of gold. One might have fancied that all the wealth of the elephant country, all the teeming riches of the forest, flowing by a thousand streams and disdaining to wait for the alchemy of trade, had joined in one Pactolian flood flowing toward Leopoldsville and the sea.
De Wiart was not thinking this. He dismissed the soldiers and told them to hold themselves in readiness to return to M’Bassa on the morrow.
That evening he called Van Laer into the office.
“Chef de Poste Meeus of Fort M’Bassa is dead,” said De Wiart; “you will go there and take command. You will start to-morrow.”
Van Laer flushed.
“It is a difficult post,” said De Wiart, “wild country, and the natives are the laziest to be found in the whole of the state. The man before Meeus did much harm; he had no power or control, he was a weak man, and the people frankly laughed at him. Actually rubber came in here one-third rubbish, the people were half their time in revolt, they cut the vines in two districts. I have a report of his saying, ‘There is no ivory to be got. The herds are very scarce, and the people say they cannot make elephants.’ Fancy writing nigger talk like that in a report. I replied in the same tone. I said, ‘Tell the people they must make them: and make them in a hurry. Tell them that they need not trouble to make whole elephants, just the tusks will do—eighty-pound tusks, a hundred-pound if possible.’ But sarcasm was quite thrown away on him. He listened to the natives. Once a man does that he is lost, for they lose all respect for him. They are just like children, these people; once let children get in the habit of making excuses and you lose control.
“Meeus was a stronger man, but he left much to be desired. He had too much whalebone in his composition, not enough steel, but he was improving.
“You will find yourself at first in a difficult position. It always is so when a Chef de Poste dies suddenly and even a few days elapse before he is replaced. The people get out of hand, thinking the white man is gone for ever. However, you will find yourself all right in a week or so, if you are firm.”
“Thank you,” said Van Laer. “I have no doubt at all that I will be able to bring these people into line. I do not boast. I only ask you to keep your eye on the returns.”