Free eBooks at Planet eBook.com
brought over was full of stones. He changed his name to
De Wet, the Boer general. He made a mistake to fight the
priests. And so forth and so on.
All the same Bloom (properly so dubbed) was rather sur-
prised at their memories for in nine cases out of ten it was
a case of tarbarrels and not singly but in their thousands
and then complete oblivion because it was twenty odd
years. Highly unlikely of course there was even a shadow
of truth in the stones and, even supposing, he thought a re-
turn highly inadvisable, all things considered. Something
evidently riled them in his death. Either he petered out too
tamely of acute pneumonia just when his various different
political arrangements were nearing completion or whether
it transpired he owed his death to his having neglected to
change his boots and clothes-after a wetting when a cold re-
sulted and failing to consult a specialist he being confined
to his room till he eventually died of it amid widespread re-
gret before a fortnight was at an end or quite possibly they
were distressed to find the job was taken out of their hands.
Of course nobody being acquainted with his movements
even before there was absolutely no clue as to his where-
abouts which were decidedly of the Alice, where art thou
order even prior to his starting to go under several aliases
such as Fox and Stewart so the remark which emanated
from friend cabby might be within the bounds of possi-
bility. Naturally then it would prey on his mind as a born
leader of men which undoubtedly he was and a command-
ing figure, a sixfooter or at any rate five feet ten or eleven in
his stockinged feet, whereas Messrs So and So who, though