The man was given into the charge of the major's servant, to be fed.
"Your Englishman, I suppose, dealt with the Arab as he had seen him deal with your niggers," remarked the major.
"He saw nothing of the kind," replied Reinecke with an air of malicious triumph. "While he was at the plantation I forbade the use of the whip. You see, Major?--the English boasted humanity is sheer cant and hypocrisy: what we do openly they do on the sly."
"Hardly that, Reinecke. You forget there are German prisoners in the nullah. They probably saw the flogging."
"And shared it, I daresay. The English are capable of any atrocity. But we shall find the man useful, Major. Nothing could be better. And the nullah is so near that though the rains have started we might crush the vipers soon: there'll be a pause in the operations on the frontier."
The Arab returned, refreshed and clean. Reinecke questioned him eagerly, and drew from him many details of what had happened since the flight from the plantation. The German prisoners, he said, had been placed on the island, where a hut had been built for them. Food was conveyed to them on a raft. As the man described the defensive works at the nullah, Reinecke drew a rough diagram in his pocketbook, and marked the positions of the trenches and the camp.
"The youngster has a good headpiece," said the major, looking with interest at the diagram. "His name? Willoughby? I'm afraid we can't claim German ancestry for him."
"A machine-gun will smash him," said Reinecke.
"A machine-gun would not be very effective against defences like these, and it would be a terrible business to get up anything heavier across such country, at any rate while the rains are on. He seems to have made good use of his time during the last two months in training his niggers, and unfortunately has won over our trained askaris. A frontal attack would be very costly, my friend."
"I can show another way into the nullah, Herr Major," said the Arab.