Part 5 (1/2)
”Imshi+! Voetsak! Enenda zako! ku, for only innocence and inexperience attract the preying youth of Zanzibar ”Now, gentlees Coutlass Have a drink with ”
-----------------Iet to hell out of here!
Voetsak (Cape Dutch), ditto
Enenda zako (Kiswahill), ditto
kuma nina (Kiswahill) An opprobrious, and perhaps the co to a request for details of the objurgee's fe-roouish-looking even for the brand of Greek one meets with south of the Levant--dressed in khaki, with an Aarette juice--his hands unusually horny for that climate--and his hair clipped so short that it showed the bus, said to reside below the hat-band to the rear Yet a plausible, co e, as well as fevers; impartiality hovers in the atmosphere as well as s, but followed hied room whose beams were two feet thick of blackened, polished hard wood There we sat one each side of him in cane armchairs He ordered the drinks, and paid for them
”First I will tell you who I a and wiped his lips with his coat sleeve ”I never boast I don't need to! I alish lord a your party, and said I to myself 'Aha!
There is a man ill appreciate entlemen is the lord?”
”How can you be a citizen of three countries?” Fred countered
”Of Greece, for I was born in Greece I have fought Turks Ah! I have bled for Greece I have spilt my blood in land, for I became naturalized By bloody-hell-and-Waterloo, but I adlish, and I alish, price Five Pounds I was lined up with the drunks and pick-pockets, and by Juiven me six ood luck to reht of paying that for nothing--worse than nothing, for six lish jail!--pick oakuht me to my senses 'By Gassharamminy,' I said, 'I lish, then punish hed, and didn't question my witnesses very carefully--one was a Jew, the other an ex-Ger at half price for a quantity--and they kissed the Book and colish as you are--English without troubling a midwife or the parson! Five pounds for the 'beak' at Bow Street--fifty for the witnesses--fifty-five all told--and cheap at the price! I had money in those days It was after our short ith Turkey We Greeks got beaten, but the Turks did not get all the loot! By prison and gallows, no! When our men ran before a battle, I did not run--not I! I rerew richer in an hour than I have ever been since!”
”That's two countries,” said I ”Which is the third that has the honor to claiht!” he answered with a proud ss! I am a credit to all three countries! The third is Aht say that is the corollary of being English--the natural, logical, correct sequence! The U S laws are strict, but their politics were devised for--what is it the preachers call it--ah, yes, for straining out gnats and sing caton they would s a house on fire!
There was a federal election shortly due One of the parties--Deet which--maybe both!--needed new voters The law says it takes five years to become a citizen
Politics said fifteen minutes! The politicians paid the fees too! I was a citizen--a voter--an elector of presidents before I had been ashore three months, and I had sold my vote three tiistered under three names in three separate wards! I didn't need the ave the six dollars I received for my votes to the Holy Church, and voted the other way to saveappealed! By Gassharamminy! I can't take life the way the copy-books lay down! I have to break laws or else break heads! But I love Aht and bled for Aht those Spaniards until I don't doubt they wished I had stayed in Greece!
Yes, I left that h the left hand by a Don, think of it, a Don! When I ca worse than that hot hell!--I got s were none so bad Had to hand over too enuine liberty You have to steal for the her up If you keep more than ten per cent, he squeals He has to pass ain to some one else, and so on, and they all land in jail in course of time!
Give me a country where a ressional inquiries Then a friend of mine--a Greek--who had been out here told ht to e scenes for a while I had citizenshi+p papers--U S, and English, and a Greek passport in case of accident Traveling looked good to me”
”If you traveled on a Greek passport you couldn't use citizenshi+p papers of any other country,” Fred objected
”Who said I traveled on a Greek passport? Do you take me for such a fool? Who listens to a Greek consul? He may protest, and accept fees, but Greece is a little country and no one listens to her consuls I carry a Greek passport in case I should find somewhere someday a Greek consul with influence or a Greek whom I wish to convince I traveled to South Africa as an A to Salisbury, and working o I reached Johannesburg, and there I did a little I D B
and one thing and another until the Boer War caht for the Boers Yes, I have bled for the Boer cause It was a damned bad cause! They robbed me of nearly all my money! They left race of God, and the intrigues of a woman that I made my way to Lourenco Marquez No, the as not over, but what did I care? I, Georges Coutlass, had had enough of it!
I recoht for a bunch of thieves for nothing! I sailed from Lourenco Marquez to Mombasa I hunted elephant in British East Africa until they posted a reward for raph poles The law says not more than two elephants in one year I shot two hundred! I sold the ivory to an Indian, bought cattle, and went down into German East Africa The Masai attacked me, stole some of the cattle, and killed others The Germans, damn and blast thees Coutlass!--and imposed fines calculated carefully to skin me of all I had! Roup and rotten livers! but I will knock the shall they flientleht him another drink, and watched it disappear with one uninterrupted gurgle down its appointed course
”What did you do next?” Fred asked hih to question us ”I suppose the Germans had you at a loose end?”
”Do you think that? Sacred history of hell! It takes es Coutlass at a loose end! They et me dead before that can happen! And then, by Blitzen, as those devils say, a dead Georges Coutlass will be better than a thousand dead Germans! In hell I will use them to clean my boots on!
At a loose end, was I? I uard who told reement with him to look for Tippoo Tib's buried ivory Yes, sir! I showed hiht uns and ammunition, he none
He pretended to knohere some of Tippoo Tib's ivory is buried”
”Some of it, eh?” said Fred
”Some of it, d'you say?” said I
”Some of it, yes A million tusks Some say two ood tusks and bury them; you'll see the hill you've made from five miles off! A hundred thousand tusks would make a mountain! If any one buried a million tusks in one spot they'd mark the place on maps as a watershed! Theythe trail of Tippoo Tib--perhaps a thousand in one place at the entlemen is the lord?”