• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction
• Famous-Fiction
• Historical-Fiction

By Root 4632 0

� turkey, plum pudding, crystallized plums, almonds, raisins, champagne and crackers. The German cried a little, nostalgically, teutonically. Then he began to gorge, at first in silence, later, with the dessert, loquaciously. "...three times they shot at me on the road � but the bandits have very old rifles. Not like the rifles we gave to Smiles. We gave him everything, machine guns, tanks, consulates; we bought him two Paris newspapers, a column a day week after week � you know what that costs. There were five thousand volunteers ready to sail. He could have been in Jacksonburg in a month. No one wants the Jacksons here. They are foolish people. For a year we have been trying to make business with them. They said first one thing, then another. We gave them money; we gave them all money; heavens how many Jacksons there are! Still they would not make business..." "I ought to warn you that I am a journalist." "That is well. When you come to write of this affair say that it was not my fault that we failed. It was Smiles. We gave him money, and he ran away to the Soudan. He wanted me to go with him." "Wouldn't that have been better?" "I had left my wife in Jacksonburg...Besides, it is not good for me to go to the Soudan. I was once in trouble in Khartoum. There are many countries where it is not good for me to go. I have often been very foolish." At the thought of his wife and of his former indiscretions he seemed once more to be overcome with melancholy. He sat in silence. William began to fear he would fall asleep. "Where are you going to now?" he asked. "You can't stay here, you know, or they will come and arrest you." "No," said the German. "I can't stay here." And immediately he fell asleep, mouth open, head back, a crumpled cracker in his right hand, breathing uproariously.

And still that day was not ended. No sooner had the German's preliminary, convulsive snorts and gurgles given place to the gentler, automatic, continuous snoring of regular sleep, than William was again disturbed. The night watchman stood clucking in the doorway, pointing towards the gates, smiling and nodding unintelligibly. The German never stirred; his snores followed William across the yard. At the gates a motor-car was waiting. Its lights had been turned off. The yard, and the lane outside it, were in darkness. A voice, from inside the car, said: "William, is it you?" K�hen scrambled out and ran to him � as he had imagined it, like a wounded bird. "Darling, darling," he said. They clung together. In the darkness he could discern over K�hen's shoulder the figure of the night watchman, storklike, on one leg, his spear behind his shoulders. "Darling," said K�hen. "Have you got any money with you?" "Yes." "A lot?" "Yes." "I promised the driver a hundred American dollars. Was it too much?" "Who is he?" "The postmaster-general's chauffeur. They have arrested the postmaster-general. He was a Jackson. All the Jacksons are being arrested. He got the key of the room when the soldiers were having supper. I said I would give him a hundred dollars if he brought me back." "Tell him to wait. I'll get the money from my room," The driver wrapped himself in his blanket and settled down over the wheel. K�hen and William stood together in the yard. "I must go away," said K�hen. "We must go away. I have thought about it in the motor-car. You must marry me. Then I shall be British and they will not be able to hurt me. And we will leave Ishmaelia at once. No more journalism. We will go to Europe together. Will you do that?" "Yes," said William without hesitation. "And will you marry me properly � in an office?" "Yes." "It will be the first time I have been properly married." The tremendous respirations echoed across the yard. "What is that? William, there is something making a noise in your room." "Yes, I had forgotten...you made me forget. Come, and see who it is." They climbed the steps, hand in hand, crossed the verandah and reached the door of William's room. K�hen dropped his hand and ran forward with a little cry. She knelt at the German's side and held him, shook him. He stirred and grunted and opened his eyes. They spoke to one another in German; K