After a few years he lost
this billet, I know not how or why, and appeared at Durban in what he
called a "reversed position." Here it was that we met again, just
before my expedition to Pongo-land.
In manners he was most polite, in disposition most religious; I
believe he was a Baptist by faith, and in appearance a small, brown
dandy of a man of uncertain age, who wore his hair parted in the
middle and, whatever the circumstances, was always tidy in his
garments.
I took him on because he was in great distress, an excellent cook, the
best of nurses, and above all for the reason that, as I have said, we
were in a way attached to each other. Also, he always amused me
intensely, which goes for something on a long journey of the sort that
I contemplated.
Such in brief was Sammy.
As he entered the room I saw that his clothes were very wet and asked
him at once if it were raining, or whether he had got drunk and been
sleeping in the damp grass.
"No, Mr. Quatermain," he answered, "the morning is extremely fine, and
like the poor Hottentot, Hans, I have abjured the use of intoxicants.
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