ve to report, Excellence, that the investigation infers that the
attack was only made with the purpose of freeing the sons of chiefs, for
the picket has been slain but all the others are unhurt save three
wounded."

Zu Pfeiffer swore mightily, but he dismissed the sergeant with an
admonition to have his troops ready for inspection at four-thirty. He
drank a brandy neat and sat on, staring at the darkness. Then suddenly he
exclaimed and wheeled to the abandoned report.

"This is an undeniable overt act," he muttered, seeing what he considered
an opportunity to neutralise the suppositious complaint which Birnier had
sent to Washington; and taking up his pen began a formal accusation
against Birnier, as an American subject, for having violated the
international laws of the Geneva Convention by aiding and abetting rebels
of his Imperial Majesty.

CHAPTER 28

Sergeant Schultz's gloomy foreboding of the inevitable result attending
the refusal to follow the teachings of his national preceptors was
justified.

Zu Pfeiffer, crazed with wounded pride or magic, according to the white or
black point of view, had held rigidly to his schedule; precisely at
four-thirty he had inspected the expedition and marched at the first
streak of dawn. Schultz removed to the other hill, leaving twenty-five men
and a gun under a black sergeant. Afterwards he visited the village. The
bodies of five of the picket were lying in the sun mutilated. Not a native
of any sort was to be seen or heard. He sent out scouts. A village a
couple of miles away was deserted too. He wished to burn the huts and
plantation to clear the ground around the fort but he dared not do so
without orders. Muttering to himself he returned and posted double
sentries.

Throughout the day and the moonlight not a sound of a drum or the voice of
a native disturbed the moist heat. He slept for a while and then took to
pacing upon the levee outside the fort. He was aware of a restlessness
among the men. About midnight a nervous sentry fired at a moving shadow in
the village. Erratic shots followed; flickered and ceased at the
sergeant's angry order. The trees seemed to whisper mockingly. The
sergeant decided that it must have been a prowling jackal or hyena; but
the incident made him irritable.

In ordinary circumstances he would have posted picket sentries as provided
by the regulations, but he could not spare any of his fifty men, f