"I think I can play now, Merchant."
"Do you? Well, you take black and I will play with white."
Schiller won, with a loss of scarcely a man.
Schiller played a cunning game, so the native made a slightly better showing next time. The third game he did better still. The fourth game he won.
That was the only game of draughts he ever did win against the trader. In his triumph the headman persuaded the Chief to declare the store reopened. The merchant was a good man. He was indeed an honest man. His cattle kraal was empty. What would they say to the Commissioner on his return? The trader would of course complain. Moreover, the store was full of very nice goods.
The next morning the store was opened and the natives flocked to it with their cattle. Schiller did a great trade, and bought more cattle in a week than all the other traders combined had done in three months.
Gonye felt rather sore as the merchant declared that he was now too busy trading to play draughts. However, Schiller, who was no fool, made his position of Cattle King secure by presenting the board and men to Gonye.
The last I heard of Schiller was at the outbreak of the Great War. He had joined the Force which set out to take German South-West Africa.