“Has the prisoner anything to say?” asked the President.
The prisoner had.
“This is a good trial,” quoth he, in Swahili. “I am now an important man. All the witnesses are liars. I have never seen any of them before. I do not associate with such. I have never seen Pongwa, and I have never seen a Germani. I will tell . . .”
Wavell looked at him suddenly, but made no movement.
“Noch nichte!” said he in German, very quietly.
The man stopped talking at once.
“You understand German. You speak German!” said Wavell, in that language, and pointing at him accusingly. “Answer quickly. You speak German.”
“Ganz klein wenig—just a very little,” replied the prisoner, adding in English: “I am a very clever man”—and then, in German: “Ich hab kein Englisch.”
“Prisoner has never seen a Germani—but he understands German!” wrote Bertram in his notes of the trial. “Also Swahili and English.”
“Please ask him if he hasn’t had enough trial now, and wouldn’t he like to be hanged to save further trouble,” said Augustus.