Part 5 (2/2)
”Did Hassan lead you to any of it?” Fred inquired
”Not he! The jelly-belly! The Arab pig! He led anika--the old slave market where he himself was once sold for ten cents I don't doubt a piece of betel nut and a pair of worn-out shoes had to be thrown in with him at the price! There he tried to make me pay the expenses in advance of a trip to Usumbora at the head of the lake God knohat it would have cost, the way he wanted me to do it! Are you the lord, sir?”
”What did you do?” asked Fred
”Do? I parted company! I had made him drunk once (The Arabs aren't supposed to drink, so when they do they get talkative and lively!) And I knew Arabic before ever I crossed the Atlantic--learned it in Egypt--ran away fro boat when I was a boy No, they don't fish sponges off the Nile Delta, but you can se boat better than in most shi+ps Anyhow, I learned Arabic So I understood what that pig Hassan said when he talked in the dark with his brother swine He knew no more than I where the ivory was! He suspected most of it was in a country called Ruanda that runs pretty o border to the west of Victoria Nyanza in Ger natives who could tell hiht put hiame! I could cross-examine fool natives twice as well as any fat rascal of an ex-slave! Seeing he had paid all expenses so far, however, I was not much to the bad, so I picked a quarrel with him and we parted company Wouldn't you have done the same, my lord?”
But Fred did not walk into the trap ”What did you do next?” he asked
”Next? I got a job with the agent of an Italian firood advance of trade goods--as, and all that sort of thing, and I did well Made money on that trip Traveled north until I reached Ruanda--went on until I could see the Fire Mountains in the distance, and the country all smothered in lava Reached a cannibal country, where the devils had eaten all the surrounding tribes until they had to take to vegetarianism at last”
-----------------Melikani, the unbleached calico oods frooods
”But did you find the ivory?” Fred insisted
”No, or by Jiminy, I wouldn't be here! If I'd found it I'd have settled doith a wife in Greece long ago I'd be keeping an inn, and groine, and living like a gentleoes with the ivory Tippoo Tib buried
If you found one lot, that would lead you to the next, and so on I got a suspicion where one lot is, although I couldn't prove it And I overnment knows darned here a lot of it is!”
”Then why don't the Gerhed Coutlass ”If I knohy should I tell! If they knohy should they tell? Suppose that soo territory, and soet the lot? What then? If they uncovered their bit in Gero and the British on the trail?”
”If they knohere it is,” said I, ”they'll certainly guard it”
”Which of you is the lord?” demanded Coutlass earnestly
”What do you suppose Hassan is doing, then, here in Zanzibar?” asked Fred
”Ru! When I snapped my thumb under his fat nose and told him about the habits of his feainst ot! I shall not forget! I, Georges Coutlass, forget nothing! He inforainst me, and they set askaris onfurther search I had to sit idle in Usumbura or Ujiji, or else come away; and idleness ill suits my blood! I caular, salaried spy of him--the semi-Arab rat! The one-tenth Arab, nine-tenths mud-rat! Here he stays in Zanzibar and spies on Tippoo Tib, on er who cooes to the Germans I know, for I intercepted sooes through the folds of his clothes or feels under that silken belly-piece be wears, the Geret it But if a woman does, and she's a friend of mine, that's different! Are you the lord, sir?”
------------------Askari, native soldier
”What do you propose?” asked Fred
”Help me find that ivory!” said Coutlass ”I have very little e! I knohere to look, and I alish-American-Greek!--better than any hundred Geret it out through British territory, or the Congo, so that no Gere can interfere with us or take away one tusk! Gee-rusaleet the ivory to Europe, and then flaunt the deed under their noses! Let us send one little tip of a female tusk to the Kaiser for a souvenir--feal, outlawed! Let us send hi him all about it, and e think of him and his swine-officials! His lieutenants and his captains! Let us so--it can be done! It can be done! I, Georges Coutlass, will find the ivory, and find the way!”
”No need to sive us ten per cent, or so I understand, of the value of all of it we find in British East”
Georges Coutlass threw back his head and roared with laughter, slapped his thighs, held his sides--then coughed for two or three ht!” he gasped as soon as he could get breath ”No need to sive us! Ha-ha! Generous! By whip and wheel! they're lucky if we give theovernes Coutlass ninety per cent of anything without a fight! No, gentleovernment is corrupt Let us spend twenty-five per cent--even thirty-forty-fifty per cent of the value of it to bribe the Congo officials Hand over ninety per cent to the Gerht?--Never!
Never while ht too often! I have been robbed by governoverno hoentleman! Believe me!”
He patted hi lip went for anything, then all the governood as defeated already
”You are the lord, are you not?” he deht at Fred
”My name is Oakes,” Fred answered