Early the next morning the transport with the Nigerian troops anchored off the town.

The work of disembarkation began at once.
Five of the newly-arrived officers were appointed to the commissariat transport service.

The three others--of whom Lisle, to his great satisfaction, was one--were appointed to the command of companies in the Nigerian force.

This distinction, the commissioner frankly informed him, was due to his being the possessor of the V.C.
Having nothing to do that day, Lisle strolled about the town.

There were a few European houses, the property of the natives who formed the elite of the place; men for the most part possessing white blood in their veins, being the descendants of British merchants who, knowing that white women could not live in the place, had taken Negro wives.