the buck. He called his two colored askaris to prove that, and they
reeled off what they had to say with the speed of men who had been
thoroughly rehearsed. Then he put the German on the stand, and
Schillingschen, with a savage glare at me, turned on his verbal
artillery. He certainly did his worst.

"This morning," he announced, after having been duly sworn on the Book,
"that young man whose name I do not know approached my tent while I was
dressing. The sound of a rifle being fired had awakened me earlier
than usual. He carried a rifle, and I put two and two together and
concluded he had shot something. Not having seen him ever before, and
he standing before my tent, I asked him his name. He refused to tell
me, and that made me suspicious. Then came my four boys carrying a
buck, which they assured me they had seen him shoot. I asked him
whether he had a license to shoot game, and he at once threatened to
shoot me if I did not mind my own business. Therefore, I sent a note
to the police at once."

His four boys were then put on the stand in turn, and told their story
through an interpreter. Their words identical. If the interpreter
spoke truth one account did not vary from the next in the slightest
degree, and that fact alone should have aroused the suspicion of any
unprejudiced judge.

Having the right to cross-examine, I asked each in turn whether the
rifle I had brought with me to court was the same they had seen me
using. They asserted it was. Then I recalled the German and asked him
the same question. He also replied in the affirmative. I asked him
how he knew. He said he recognized the mark on the butt where the
varnish had been chafed away.
Then I handed the hunting knife I had borrowed from to the police
officer and demanded that he have the bullet cut out of the buck's
carcass. The court could not object to that, so under the eyes of at
least fifty witnesses a flattened Mauser bullet was produced. I called
attention to the fact that my rifle was a Lee-Enfield that could not
possibly have fired a Mauser bullet. The court was young and very
dignified--examined the bullet and my rifle--and had to be convinced.

"Very well," was the verdict on that count, "it is proved that you did
not shoot this particular buck, unless the police have evidence that
you used a different rifle."

The policeman confessed that he had no evidence along that line, so the
first charge was dismissed.

"But yo