JUNGLE TAILORS/ SERVANTS AND COURTS. 
beer, wine, and brandy, all for nothing, and so he had 
no intention at all of paying him for his tailoring. 
The tailor replied he was quite aware he had been 
living at master’s expense, but as the boy had not 
paid for a single article either of food or liquor that 
had been consumed, he did not see why he .should 
not pay for the making of his clothes, and if he did 
not he would complain to the master and tell him 
all he had been about, what a nice servant he bad, 
who gave parties in the kitchen and drank the 
bungalow beer and wine, He, the tailor, in view of 
this contingent emergency, had kept an account of all 
the bottles he had stolen, which he would submit 
to master ; he was no party to the purloining, he had 
only taken in the kitchen what was offered him. He 
would tell everything, he would. The boy was obdu- 
rate, and told him to do his worst, but he was fore- 
warned, and so instead of waiting to become defendant 
at once assumed an aggressive movement, which was 
this. On the morning of the day on which the tailor 
was to be discharged, after setting the coffee, the 
boy stepped a little back, crossed his hands behind, 
and appeared precisely in the position of a “boy^ 
who had something very important to communicate, 
nor was there much delay with it. For without even 
being asked as to what he wanted, after carefully 
looking out into the verandah and seeing all clear he says 
very sharply, “That tailor a great blackguard, stealing 
all master’s clothes ; master look into his bag before 
paying him.” Having given utterance to this sentence 
he hastily retires, feeling assured that he had said 
enough, as indeed he had, to raise our suspicions. On 
the spur of the moment we enter the kitchen and 
see standing behind the door the tailor’s bag, which 
was stuffed so full that it would not tie on the 
mouth, and a number of articles were actually stick- 
ing out, A thought flashed through our mind : “ Can 
this be the empty, lean, hungry-looking bag which 
arrived empty, and rolled up under the tailor’s arm ?” 
Yes, it was. Without saying a word, the bag was 
pulled forth into the middle of the kitchen floor, 
and from its mouth we drew out our own coats, 
trousers, handkerchiefs, neckties, in great variety, 
also sundry large pieces of cloth, which had been 
reported as having been all made into clothes, rolk 
of tape, large quantities of thread — in fact, the bag 
was just a small portable w^ardrobe, containing our 
best articles of wearing apparel, also any amount of 
small “ odds and ends.” We said nothing, but looked 
at the tailor in a very peculiar way. He sat motion- 
less, gazing in a sort of petidfied maze, first at our 
action, then at the clothes, and into our face, until 
