The old man repeated his former mumble.
“He says he did not mean to steal the tobacco,” interpreted Wavell.
“Sort of accident that might happen to anybody, what?” observed Augustus. “Ask him if he knows the prisoner.”
The question was put to him in his own tongue, and unfalteringly he replied that he had not meant to steal the tobacco—had not really stolen it, in fact.
Patiently Wavell asked, and patiently he was answered. “Do you know the prisoner?”
“I never steal.”
“Do you know this man?”
“Tobacco I would never steal.”
“What is this man’s name?”
“Tobacco.”