"Can you work?" repeated the askari to Ayari.
"No," said Ayari.
"Then I must have you killed," said the askari.
"I have made a speedy recovery," said Ayari.
"Good," said the askari and waded away, holding his torch above the water, The other askari, he with the tharlarion lance, accompanied him.
In a few moments the mud raft, of logs bound together with lianas, to be loaded with excavated mud, was again poled to our vicinity.
"Can you dig?" I asked Ayari.
"No," he said.
"I will dig for you," I said.
"You would, wouldn't you?" he asked.
"Yes," I said.
"I will dig for myself," he said.
"How is your leg?" I asked.
"It is still there," he said.
Most of the workers on the canal were not chained. Most were impressed free men.
Waters from the overflow of Lake Ngao entered the great marsh between Ngao and Ushindi, and, thence, made their ways to Ushindi, which, by means of the Kamba and Nyoka, drained to gleaming Thassa, the sea. The intent of the engineers of Bila Huruma was to set in place two parallel walls, low walls, some five or six feet high, placed about two hundred yards apart. The area between these walls, the marsh waters diverted on either side, was then to be drained and readied for the digging of the main channel. In this work draft tharlarion and great scoops, brought from the north, as well as gigantic work crews, would be used. In the event that the central channel, when completed, would not prove sufficient to handle the overflow of Ngao, as seemed likely, conducting it geometrically to Ushindi, side channels were contemplated. The eventual intent of Bila Huruma was not only to open the rain forests of the deep interior, and whatever might lie within the system of the Ua and her tributaries, to commercial exploitation and military expansion, but to drain the marshes between the two mighty lakes, Ushindi and Ngao, that that land, then reclaimed, thousands of square pasangs, might eventually be made available for agriculture. It was the intent of Bila Huruma not only to consolidate a ubarate but found a civilization.
I slapped at insects.
"Work," said an askari, wading by.
I shoveled another load of mud from the marsh and flung it on the mud raft.
"Work, work," said the askari, encouraging others along the chain.
I looked about myself, at the hundreds of men I could see from where I stood. "This is an impressive project," I said to Ayari.
"Doubtless we can be pleased that we are a humble part of so mighty an undertaking," he mused.
"I suppose so," I said.
"On the other hand," said Ayari, "I would be content to surrender my part in this noble endeavor to others more worthy than myself."
"I, too," I admitted.
"Dig," said an askari.
We continued to shovel mud onto the mud raft.
"Our only hope," said a man to my left, also, like Ayari, from Schendi, "are the hostile tribes."
"That is some hope," said Ayari. "If it were not for the askaris they would fall upon us with their slaughtering knives."
"Surely there is resistance to the canal," I said.
"There are the villages of the Ngao region, on the northern shore," said Ayari. "There is trouble there."
"That is the most organized resistance," said the man on my left.
"The canal is expensive," I said. "It must constitute a financial strain on the coffers of the ubarate of Bila Huruma. This must generate discontent in his court. The work levies, too, must be resented by the villages."
"Those of Schendi, too," said Ayari, "are not too pleased with the project."
"They fear Bila Huruma," I said.
"Yes," said Ayari.
"There are mixed feelings in Schendi," said the man to my left. "She would stand to profit if the canal were completed."
"That is true," said Ayari.
There was shouting from ahead. Askaris rushed forward.
"Lift me up," said Ayari. He was not large.
I lifted him to my shoulders.
"What is it?" asked the man to my left.
"It is nothing," said Ayari. "It is only a raiding party of three or four men. They threw their spears and then fled. The askaris are pursuing them."
I lowered Ayari again to the water.
"Was anyone killed?" asked the man to my left.
"No," said Ayari. "The workers saw them and withdrew."
"Last night," said the man, "ten men were killed." He looked at us. "And none were chained," he said.
"It is true," said Ayari, "that we would be much at the mercy of such raiders."
"It is unlikely that such, however," I said, "could truly do more than delay the progress of the canal,"
"Yes," said Ayari.
"Could they not free and arm the work crews?" asked the man to my left.
"The men of the work crews are not of their tribes," said Ayari. "You think like one of Schendi, not one of the interior." Ayari waved at the lines of men behind us. "Besides," said he, "most of these men are, in their way, loyal subjects of Bila Huruma. When their work tours are finished they return to their villages. Most of them would not be again impressed for labor for two or three years."
"Ah," said the man to my left, disgustedly.
"There are two obvious ways in which Bila Huruma might be stopped," said Ayari. "First, he must be defeated. Second, he might be killed."
"The first," I said, "Is unlikely, considering his army and Its training. There is nothing in these terrains which is likely to be able to meet it in open battle."
"There are the rebels of the northern shore of Ngao," said the man.
"How can they be rebels?" I asked.
"Bila Huruma, in virtue of the discoveries of Shaba," said Ayari, "has claimed all lands in the Lake Ngao region. Those who oppose him are thus rebels."
"I see now," I said. "To be sure, the distinctions of statecraft sometimes elude me."
"It is basically simple," said Ayari. "One determines what one wishes to prove and then arranges one's principles in such a way that the desired conclusion follows as a demonstrable consequence."
"I see," I said.
"Logic is as neutral as a knife," he said.
"But what of truth?" I asked.
"Truth is more troublesome," he admitted.
"I think you would make an excellent diplomat," I said.
"I have been a fraud and charlatan all my life," said Ayari. "There would thus be no transition to make."
"Five days ago," said the man to my left, "hundreds of askaris, in canoes, went past us, east, before you were entered upon our chain."
"Their objective?" I asked.
"To meet and defeat in battle the rebel forces of Kisu, former Mfalme of the Ukungu villages."