bastard thing
introduced by tyrants from Europe who never understood the African
contention that the giver rewards himself if his gift is worth anything
at all.

"Asente," said Kazimoto meekly.

"Why don't you salute? Don't you know where you are?"

"For the love of God salute him!" Will almost shouted.

Kazimoto obeyed.

"Take him and put him on the chain-gang!" 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 them!" the
lieutenant ordered.

Obediently the askaris gathered about us and hustled us out into the
open, poking at my bandaged wound to get swifter action, and going as
far as to threaten us with their hippo-hide whips. I trod on the naked
toe of one of them with sufficient suddenness and weight 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 him had boots on, and got the blame.

The black men who were to search our belongings tried to induce us to
hurry, but we insisted on seeing the iron ring riveted to Kazimoto's
neck. The ring had a shackle on it, and through that they passed the
long chain that held him prisoner in the midst of a gang of forty men.
Nobody washed the wounds on his back. We bought water from a woman who
was passing with a great 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 some one had stolen them. Later they
gave him a piece of cheap calico to bind round his waist, but during
all that hot afternoon he had nothing to keep the sun from his tortured
back; nor would they permit us to give him anything.

The mortification of having one's private belongings gone through by
black men in uniform was made more exasperating still by the fact that
Coutlass and the other Greek and the Goanese were spectators, amusing
themselves with comments that came nearer to causing murder than they
guessed.

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 ammunition first, but after that they emptied everything from
our bags and boxes on to the sand, and confiscated every scrap of
paper, shaking our books