Part 46 (1/2)
”Since you refuse to plead in this court, you shall be held until the arrival of Major Schunck from the coast Your arms and ammunition are to be handed over to the askaris, ill be sent to the rest-cas thoroughly to make sure they have all your weapons You are ordered confined within the li any attempt to trespass outside townshi+p limits you will be confined as the Greeks are within the rest-caht into the country are all to be paid their full wages by you until Major Schunck shall have dealt with you; the porters are refused per needed as witnesses Next case!”
He scrawled his signature at the foot of each sheet of blue paper, and made a motion with his arm that we should leave court But we sat down and waited until the two Nubian giants had finished flogging Kazied hiive him a feords of comfort That act of ordinary kindness threw the lieutenant into another fury
”Bring the Nyamwezi here!” he ordered, and the askaris hustled him up in front of the table
”What do you do? Have you no manners? Return proper thanks for the lesson you have received!”
Kazian
”Say 'Thank you' to him, Kazimoto!” Fred whispered
There is no native word for ”Thank you”--only a bastard thing introduced by tyrants from Europe who never understood the African contention that the giver rewards hi at all
”Asente,” said Kazimoto meekly
”Why don't you salute? Don't you knohere you are?”
”For the love of God salute him!” Will almost shouted
Kazi!” ordered the lieutenant ”You Europeans leave the court!”
”I'm no European!” Will shouted back ”Thank the Lord I was born in a country you'll never set foot in!”
”Take them away before I have to make an example of theathered about us and hustled us out into the open, poking atas far as to threaten us with their hippo-hide whips I trod on the naked toe of one of theht to deprive him of the use of it for all time, and luckily for me he did not see who did it The askari next to hiot the blas tried to induce us to hurry, but we insisted on seeing the iron ring riveted to Kazih that they passed the long chain that held hi of forty ht water froreat jar on her head, and did that much for him
He was naked His clothes that the askaris had torn from him had been thrown outside the court, and soave hi all that hot afternoon he had nothing to keep the sun froive hi one's private belongings gone through by blackstill by the fact that Coutlass and the other Greek and the Goanese were spectators, a uessed
The real motive of the search was evident within two minutes from the commencement The askaris could not read, but they showed a most remarkable affinity for paper that had been written on They took the guns and a fros and boxes on to the sand, and confiscated every scrap of paper, shaking our books towas left between the leaves
They even took away our writing material in their zeal to find inforot to search our pockets, so that they overlooked the letter we had written in code to Monty and had not yet sent away byproblem How to find a runner ould take it to British East andus first to the Gerloomy e realized there was probably not a native on the whole countryside with sufficient manhood left in hiht make would almost certainly be reported to the commandant at once
”What fools ere not to send Kazied us to!”
”What worse than fools!”
”What brutes! Think e ht have saved hiht no coether hit on a notion that did ease our feelings a trifle
Coutlass and his two friends were sitting on camp-stools in the open where they could have a full view of our doings assuround to be equally divided between their party and ours, they ithin our portion We decided their curiosity was insolent, declared inexorable war, and there and then felt better