Part 23 (2/2)
”I'ents, and I know, because I tried! Thought I was sound asleep, didn't you! Well, I weren't!
Listen to et wind of it They send the police helter-skelter hot-foot after you--native police--no officer--Masai they are, an' I tell you those Masai can make their sixty miles a day when they're minded an' no bones about it either!
Maybe the Masai catches you andthey do they can't doyou to return at once and report at the gov'norant, saer--you treat that contuo to hell Which they do forthwith
They're so used to bein' told to go to hell by wishful wanderers that they scarcely trouble to wait for the words Presently they draw a long breath an' go away again like s blowed doind An'
you proceed onward, dreaold an' frankincense an'
freedo pause, either for reminiscence or because of headache
”Whisky next!” he answered ”I left a little for the , didn't I? I alht--no, no, you'll spill it!--pass it here! Ah-h-h--gug-gug!”
He finished as left and tried to hurl the eainst the ork
”'Sapity!” he murmured ”Means bad luck, that does! Poor ole Brown o'
Lumbwa--poor ole fella' Pick up the pieces, boys! Pick 'eet some o' poor ole Brown's bad luck--cut yourselves or what not Pick 'em up careful now!”
We did, and it took ten minutes, for the splinters were scattered everywhere
”Next tiet out an' walk!”
announced Fred
”That 'ud be only my usual luck!” he answered mournfully ”But I was tellin' how you notify the Masai police to go to hell, an' they oblige
It's the last obligin' anybody does for you Every native's a bush telegraph--every sleepy-seeh the scrub that ain't on ht wi'out you knowin' it, an' word goes on ahead o' you--precedes you as the sayin' is You coe You need milk, food, Porters maybe, an' certainly inf'mation about the trail ahead You ask nobody answers They let on not to sling your kind o' lingo
Milk--never heard o' such stuff--cows in the It isn't overeatingmen are laed--an' who ever heard of a native woman workin' anyhow Who tills the et tilled, or else the women only 'tend to it at tillin' time nobody works at anythin' about the time you come on the scene, for work ain't moral, pleasin' nor profitable, an' there you are! As for the trail ahead, lions an' cannibals are the two uarantee you'll ued ”No man in his senses would start without porters of his own--”
”Who never run away, an' never, oh never go lah and to spare,” I continued ”And food for a ht under their noses with food for a ot to live off the country after a certain distance The further you go, the worse for you, for they'll sell you nothing and give you less By and by your porters get tipped off by the natives of soht at You look for 'em next mornin' and where are they? Gone! There are their loads, an' no one to carry 'eot to leave your loads an'
return, an' the police you told so stric'ly to go to hell ov'ment office There the collector, or, what's worse, the 'sistant collector, gives you a lecture on infamy an' the law of doin' as you'd be done by You ask for your loads back, an' he laughs at you An' that's all about it, excep' that next tiet a lecture instead! No, you can't get away, an' it's no use tryin'! If you was Greeks lish, the Indian Penal Code, which is white et you sure!”
Brown of Lus, turned over, and went to sleep again The train bowled along over high veld, cutting in halfnow and then at stations whose excuse for existence was uniinable We stopped at a station at last where the Hindu clerk sold tea and biscuits The train disgorged its passengers and there was a scrah turnstiles at a football gaood-natured
Coutlass, his Greek friend and the Goanese being old travelers on that route were out of the train first, first into the room, and first supplied with breakfast Fred and I were nearly last Brown of Lus, and the iniquity of drink not based on whisky I h it was nearly half an hour before I got served I did not catch sight of hi tea in that tiny roo the platfore pride of the pariah the orld over
When Will ca, and his ears seemed to stick out more than usual, as they do when he is pleased with himself
”Didn't I say fat Johnson was ours if we'd play our cards right?” he demanded