But, unhappily, his habit, when something "not quite" was mentioned to him, was to say nothing and to trust to his good luck to avoid unpleasant consequences arising out of his silence.

Had he ventured to oppose the plans of his confederates they would have immediately turned upon him, and ...

There were, perhaps, past facts which he did not wish the world to remember.

His frequent fits of raging temper arose from this irksome feeling, and was his way--a futile way--of revenging himself on his jailors for the durance in which they kept him.

The man who believed himself to be omnipotent in South Africa, and who was considered so powerful by the world at large, was in reality in the hands of the very organisations he had helped to build.
It was not Cecil John Rhodes' will which was paramount in the South African League.