Talbot Mundy

“ Down came the heavy black whip with a crack like a gun going off. Schubert neither winced nor murmured, but the blood welled into the seat of his pants and spread like red ink on blotting-paper.
“One!” said the referee again. The corporal faced about, and raised his weapon, standing on tiptoe to get more swing. Sachse flinched at the sound of the whip going up, and the other sergeants roared delight. ”

“ Sachse on the other hand refused the ministrations of the boy—was annoyed by the chaff of the other sergeants—refused to drink any of the sweet champagne he would now have to pay for—and went away in great dudgeon, murmuring about the madness that takes hold of men in Africa.
Meanwhile, while Schubert strutted and swaggered, making jokes more raw and beastly than his own flogged hide, the Jew came and poured more cool water on my hot bandages, touching them with deft fingers that looked like the hairy legs of a huge spider—his touch more gentle—more fugitive than any woman’s. ”

“ The sergeants roared with laughter, all except Schubert, who seemed only appalled by the impudence of the request. He sat back and ordered the story repeated.
“And you dare ask for money from the bwana makubwa!” he demanded. “You dog of a Nyamwesi! Is the honor not sufficient that your black brute of a daughter should have a baby by such a great person? You cattle have no sense of honor! You must learn! Put him down! Beat him till I say stop!” ”

“ Fred asked him politely.
“Bah! Sie wollen wohl beliebt werden! [3] Not I! Not we! Of what value is the love of such people? Their fear is what we cultivate! Having made them afraid of us, we successfully make them work our will! But why should I trouble to explain? In a few years there will only be one government of Africa! One, I tell you, and that German! You English are not fit to govern colonies! You are mawkishly sentimental! You think more of the feelings of a black man and of the rights of his women than of progress—advancement—kultur! ”

“ The sergeants went on singing without music, and while we waited for the Jew to reckon up Fred’s score Schubert came over to us, sat down between me and Fred, and proceeded to deal with the new situation in proper German military manner, by direct assault.
“Always you English criticize!” he began. “Can you never travel without applying your cursed standards to everything you behold? I tell you, we Germans know how to rule these black people! We understand! We employ no sickly sentiment! We give orders—they obey, or else suffer terribly and swiftly! ”

“ The crack of askaris’ whips falling on head and naked shoulders swiftly reduced the crowd to silence. Then the commandant faced them all, and made a speech with that ash-can voice of his—first in German, then in the Nyamwezi tongue. Will translated to us sentence by sentence, the doctor standing on the top step behind us smiling approval. He seemed to think we would be benefited by the lecture just as much as the natives. ”

“ Meanwhile the chain-gang emerged from the boma gate, going full-pelt, fastened neck to neck, the chain taut and each man carrying a water-jar. The minute they had crossed the square Schubert commenced with company drill, and for two hours after that, with but one interval of less than five minutes for rest, he kept them pounding the gravel in evolution after evolution—manual exercise at the double—skirmishing exercise—setting up drill—goose-step, and all the mechanical, merciless precision drill with which the Germans make machines of men. ”

“ Nobody as much as glanced at his account.
“What is the use?” said Schubert, noticing my glance and interpreting the unspoken question. “There is just so much drink in the whole place. We shall drink every drop of it! All that matters is, who is to pay for the champagne? That stuff is costly.”
They all took beer to begin with, knocking the necks from the bottles as if that act alone lent the necessary air of deviltry to the whole proceedings. ”

“ One of the askaris aimed his rifle absurdly at Coutlass, both Greeks and the Goanese daring him gleefully to pull the trigger.
They purposely came close to us, not that we showed signs of meaning to befriend them. They were simply unable to understand that there are degrees of disgrace. To Coutlass all victims of government outrage ought surely to be more than friendly with any one in conflict with the law. Personal quarrels should go for nothing in face of the common wrong. ”

“ We were not exactly in mood to talk to Brown—in fact, we wished him anywhere but with us, but he thought self perfectly welcome, and rambled on:
“Up in British East we don’t hang black men for murder unless it’s what they call an aggravated case—murder an’ robbery—murder an’ arson—murder an’ rape. Hang a white man for murderin’ a black sure as you’re sitting here, an’ shoot a black man for murderin’ a white; but the blacks don’t understand, so when they kill one another in such a case this, why we give ’em a short jail sentence an’ a good lo lecture, an’ let ’em go again. ”

“ It was done in silence, except for the corporal’s labored breathing and the commandant’s incessant sharp commands to “beat harder—harder—harder. A sergeant stood by counting. The crack of the whip divided up the silence into periods of agony.
When the count was done the victim was still conscious. Schubert and a sergeant dragged him to his feet, and hauled him to the table. Four other men—two sergeants and two natives—passed a rope round the table legs. ”

“ Not every blow drew blood, for a native’s skin is thick and tough, especially where he sits. But the blows that fell on the back and thighs all cut the skin, and within two minutes the native’s back was a bloody mass, and there was blood running on the floor, and splashes of blood on the whitewashed wall cast by the whips as they ascended. ”

“ I made up my mind the man was going to be killed, for Schubert gave no order and the askaris did not dare stop without one. The victim writhed, but did not cry out, and the writhing grew less. Even Brown sobered up for a time at the sight of it. He came and sat between me and the Jew.
“It’s a shame!” he grumbled. “Up in our country twenty-five lashes is the masshimum, an’ only to be laid on in the presence of a massishtrate. You beat a black man an’ they’ll fine you first offense, jail you second offense, an’ third offense God knows what they’ll do! Poor ole Brown o’ Lumbwa! ”

“ I have just swallowed the last of the beer! Whoever wants a morning drink must wait for it now until the overland safari comes!”
We displayed no interest. Brown, the only one likely to yearn for alcohol before breakfast, snored in his tent still.
“What of it now? I go drill my troops. Parade is sharp! There remain twenty minutes. Come with me tell your secret at the boma now, before it is too late!”
“Explain why it would be too late after breakfast!” demanded Fred.
“All right,” said Schubert. “I will tell you this much. There will come a launch this morning from Kisumu in British East. ”

“ With the hide shields on their forearms, and the wild Nyanza road
Grew blue with smoking villages, grew red with flaring roofs,
Grew noisy with the shouting and the thunder of the hoofs
As we drove the plundered cattle—when we burned the night with haste—
When we leapt at dawn from ambush—when we laid the shambas waste! ”

“ The tent-door darkened. Brown leapt to his feet and swore.
“Gassharamminy!” said a voice we all recognized instantly. “That tune sounds good! I’ve lived in the States! I’m a United States citizen! A man can’t forget his own country’s tunes so easily!”
Cool and impudent, Georges Coutlass entered and, without waiting for an invitation, took a seat on a load of canned food. Brown grabbed the nearest rifle (it happened to be Fred’s) —snapped open the breach—discovered it was loaded—and took aim. Coutlass did not even blink. ”

“ It’s perfectly obvious Coutlass wanted to start a fight, and I’m dead sure he wasn’t taking such a chance as it seemed. Who wants to look behind the cactus hedge and see whether he has friends in ambush?”
“Drunkard Brown is on the town—on the town—on the town!” roared Coutlass and his friends from not very far away.
“Oh, let me go and have a crack at ’em!” begged Brown. “I tell you I don’t care about jail! I don’t care if I do get killed!”
Fred kept a restraining hand on him. Will left the tent and walked straight for the gap in the cactus hedge by which we had entered the enclosure. ”

“ The first thing we met of interest on entering the township was a chain-gang, fifty long, marching at top speed in step, led by a Nubian soldier with a loaded rifle, flanked by two others, and pursued by a fourth armed only with the hippo-hide whip, called kiboko by the natives, that can cut and bruise at one stroke. ”

“ The lake is big enough to lose ourselves in! What is it—two hundred and fifty miles long by as many broad? D’you mean we can’t give their sleuths the slip? We can’t beat that for a plan: let ’em keep on thinking we know where Tippoo hid the stuff. If we succeed in losing ’em they’ll think we’re at large in German East and keep on hunting for us—whereas we’ll really be up in British East. Let’s send a telegram in code to Monty!”
Then Fred thought of an idea that in the end solved our biggest problem, although we did not think much of it at the time. ”

“ I tell you they have no feelings a real man need consider! They are only fit for furthering the aims of us Germans! And their women have no rights! None whatever! You know, I suppose, that it is the policy of the German government to encourage the spread of Mohammedanism in Africa? ”

“ Sachse could not back out. His cheeks grew whiter, but be staggered to his feet, swearing.
“I will show you of what material a German sergeant is made!” he boasted. “It is not only Prussians who are men of metal! How shall it be arranged?”
The arrangement was easy enough. Schubert shouted for an askari, and the corporal who was doing police duty outside in the street came running. He had a kiboko in his hand almost a yard and a half long, and Schubert examined it with approval. ”

“ Kazimoto can find us a runner. He knows these Wanyamwezi. He can pick a man who’ll get through without fail.”
We could think of nothing to say against the plan. The argument that the German government would scarcely stoop to opening private mail did not seem to hold water when we examined it, so we wrote as Fred suggested—one letter telling Monty that we hoped to make some arrangement with the Germans, and at all events to wait in German East until he could join us—and the other telling him the real facts at great length, laboriously set out in the code we had agreed upon. ”

“ Schubert grinned. He returned to the boma yard and presumably conferred with an officer, for presently he came out again and gave the Greeks leave to stand under the tree, provided they would return to camp afterward. Later yet, Brown came along and joined us on the steps, looking red-eyed and ridiculous.
“Goin’ to be a hangin,” he announced. “I been askin’ natives about it. Black man stole the condemned man’s daughter an’ refused to pay cows for her accordin’ to custom or anythin’—said he could do what the white men did an’ help himself. ”

“ Both the askaris had kibokos. The longest of the two was split at the nether end into four fingers. The shortest was more than a yard long, tapering from an inch and a half where the man’s fist gripped it to half an inch thick at the tip. They stood one each side of their victim and brought the whips down on his naked skin alternately.
“Slowly!” ordered Schubert. “Slowly, and with all your strength! The brute doesn’t feel it when you beat so fast! Let him wait for the blow! ”

“ These folks have it t’other way round. They never hang a German, whether he’s guilty or not, but hang a poor black man, what doesn’t understand, for half o’ nothin’!”
A great crowd began gathering about the tree, and was presently driven by askaris with whips into a mass on the far side of the tree from us. Whether purposely or not, they left a clear view from the hospital steps of all that should happen. ”

“ Nessht time they’ll put me in jail! Better get quite drunk an’ be blowed to it!”
He staggered back to his chair by the farther wall, leering at Schubert as he passed.
“You’re no gentleman!” he asserted aggressively. “You’re no better ‘n a black man yourself! You ought-to-be-on-floor ’stead o’ him! Dunno-how-behave- yourself! Take your coat off, an’ come outside, an’ fight like a man!”
Schubert gave the order to stop at last. The askaris stood aside, panting from the effort.
“Get up!” ordered Schubert. ”

“ Each land has a temper of its own, an the white man’s anger varies in inverse ratio with his nearness to the equator. But furor teutonicus transplanted is the least controllable, least dignified, least admirable that there is. ”

“ He only obey hees officers. Zey say to cut your troat—he cut it! Zey say to tell you a lot o’ lies—he tell! He iss not a t’inker, but a doer: and hees faforite spectacle iss ze blood of innocence! Do not effer say I did not fell you! On ze ozzer hand, tell no one zat I did tell! Zese are dangerous people!”
He resumed business with his account book, and I whispered to Fred and Will what advice he had given. Seeing us with our heads together, Schubert crossed the room, beginning to get very drunk now that the shock of the flogging had had time to reinforce the alcohol. ”