You broke plates and refused to pay the damage!'

"Officials were drunk. I saw them!"

"The damage amounted to seventeen rupees, eight annas."

"Gassharamminy! All the crockery from Mombasa to Nairobi isn't worth
that amount! I shall not pay!"

"Now there's another bill for those drinks you and your friends stole
when passengers' backs were turned. I saw you do it!"

"Why didn't you object at the time?" sneered Coutlass.

"Here is the bill: twenty-seven rupees, twelve annas. Total,
forty-five rupees, four annas. You may make the manager a present of
the odd sum for his injured feelings, and call it an even fifty.
Settle now, or wait here for the down-train and go to jail in Mombasa!"

"Wait in this place?" asked Coutlass, aghast.

"Where else? There'll be a down passenger train in a week."

"I pay!" said the Greek, with a hideous grimace.

"Take the irons off him, then."

The guard unlocked the handcuffs and Coutlass began to fumble for a
money-bag.

"Give me a receipt!" he demanded, thumbing out the money.

"You are the receipt!" said the official. "An Englishman would have
been sent to jail with a fine, and have paid the bill into the bargain.
You're treated leniently because you can't be expected to understand
decent behavior. You're expected to learn, however. Next time you
will catch it hot!"

"All aboard!" called the guard cheerfully. "All aboard!"

"Tears, idle tears!" said Brown of Lumbwa, taking my arm and Fred's.

"Thass too true--too true! They'd have jailed an Englishman--me,
f'rinstance. One little spree, an' they'd put me in the Fort! One
li'l indishcresshion an' they'd jug me for shix months! Him they let
go wi' a admonisshion! It's 'nother case o' Barabbas, an' a great
shame, but you can't change the English. They're ingcorridgible!
Brown o' Lumbwa's my name," he added by way of afterthought.

"Take advice and get under blankets afore you go to sleep, gents!"
warned the guard. All windows were once more opened wide, and every
one was panting.

"A job on this 'ere line's a circus!" he grinned. "I'm lucky if
there's only one fight before Nairobi! 'Ave your blankets ready,
gents! Cover yourselves afore you sleep!"

That sounded like a joke. The sweat poured from every one in streams.
The hot hair cushions were intolerable. The dust gathered from the
desert stirred and hung, and there was neither air to breathe nor
coolness under all those overhanging mountains.