“Excellence.”
The sergeant and the interpreter, with a trembling Sakamata between them, followed zu Pfeiffer to the tent. As he entered he picked up the portrait in the ivory frame and replaced it carefully on the table and sat down.
“Ask the shenzie why he has not informed us of this attack?”
The interpreter put the question to the terrified old man who mumbled that he had not known anything about it.
“Ugm!” grunted zu Pfeiffer. “Send for a file of men, sergeant, and—— No!” Zu Pfeiffer rose. “I’ll get the truth out of him. Stand aside, corporal!”
The corporal obeyed with alacrity as jerking his revolver downwards zu Pfeiffer pulled the trigger. The shot took off two of Sakamata’s smaller toes. The corporal grinned in appreciation. Zu Pfeiffer experienced a shadow of the pleasure he would have had in mutilating Birnier.
“Pull him up!” commanded zu Pfeiffer. “Now ask him again!”
For a moment or two Sakamata, scarcely conscious of any pain in his fright, could not comprehend what was said; at length he mumbled and muttered. The interpreter lowered his head to listen.
“Well?”
“He says, Bwana, that he does not know anything; that they will not tell him, but that he has heard that the god has come back.”