FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138  
139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   >>   >|  
"No," I said. "No references." I thought that would stump him, but on the contrary he looked rather pleased. "That is good. References are too frequently evidence of back-stairs influence." All this while he kept eying me between mouthfuls. Whenever I seemed to look away his eyes fairly burned holes in me. Whenever food got in his beard (which was frequently) be used the napkin more as a shield behind which to take stock of me than as a means of getting clean again. By the time his breakfast was finished his beard was a beastly mess, but he probably had my features from every angle fixed indelibly in his memory. The sensation was that I had been analyzed and card indexed. "I pay good wages," he remarked, and then stuck his face, beard and all, into the basin of warm water his boy had brought. "Where did you get that rifle?" he demanded, spluttering, and combing the beard out with his fingers. It was on the tip of my tongue to say "At Zanzibar," but, as that might have started him on a string of questions as to how I came to that place and whom I knew there, I temporized. "Oh, I bought it from a man." "That is no answer!" he retorted. If I had been possessed of much inclination to play deep games and match wits with big rascals I suppose I would have answered him civilly and there and then learned more of his purpose. But I was not prepossessed by his charms or respectful of his claim to superiority. The German type super-education never did impress me as compatible with good breeding or good sense, and it annoyed me to have to lie to him. "It's all the answer you'll get!" I said. "Where is your license for it?" he growled. The game began to amuse me. "None of your business!" I answered. "How long have you been in the country!" "Since I came," I said. "And you have no license! You have been out shooting. A lucky thing you came to my camp and not to some other man's! The game laws are very strict!" He spoke then to a boy who was standing behind me, giving him very careful directions in a language of which I did not know one word. The boy went away. "The last man who went shooting near Nairobi without a license," he said, "tried to excuse himself before the magistrate by claiming ignorance of the law. He was fined a thousand rupees and sentenced to six months in jail!" "Very severe!" I said. "They are altogether too severe," he answered. "I hope you have killed n
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135   136   137   138  
139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   161   162   163   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
answered
 

license

 

answer

 

frequently

 

severe

 
shooting
 
Whenever
 

annoyed

 
growled
 

superiority


learned

 

purpose

 
prepossessed
 

civilly

 
suppose
 

rascals

 
charms
 
respectful
 

impress

 

compatible


breeding

 

education

 

German

 

magistrate

 

claiming

 

ignorance

 

excuse

 

Nairobi

 

thousand

 

altogether


killed

 
rupees
 

sentenced

 

months

 

country

 
business
 

careful

 
giving
 

directions

 
language

standing
 

strict

 
shield
 
napkin
 

beastly

 

features

 
finished
 

breakfast

 
burned
 

fairly