We had inadequate troops at our command, and but for our prestige and the weight of Laputa's dead hand there might any moment have been a tragedy.

The task took months, for many of the levies came from the far north, and the job of feeding troops on a long journey was difficult enough in the winter season when the energies of the country were occupied with the fighting in the south.

Yet it was an experience for which I shall ever be grateful, for it turned me from a rash boy into a serious man.

I knew then the meaning of the white man's duty.

He has to take all risks, recking nothing of his life or his fortunes, and well content to find his reward in the fulfilment of his task.