“And now may we hear why you really were suspended?” asked Duclari.
“Oh, yes, with pleasure! For as I can give all that I have to say about it as truth, and can partly prove it even now, you will see from it that I did not act with levity when in my story about that lost child I did not reject the tittle-tattle of Padang as absolutely absurd. You will find it perfectly credible, when you make acquaintance with our valiant General in the affairs that concern me.
“There were, as I said, in my cash-accounts at Natal inaccuracies and omissions. You know perfectly well how every inaccuracy is to one’s own disadvantage: one never has any money in excess through negligence. The Chief of the Accountant’s Branch at Padang, who was not exactly a particular friend of mine, maintained that there were thousands[1] short. But please note that my attention was not drawn to this while I was at Natal. Most unexpectedly I received a transfer to the Padang Uplands. You know, Verbrugge, that in Sumatra a position in the Uplands of Padang is considered more advantageous and pleasant than in the Northern Residency. As I had, only a few months earlier, had a visit from the Governor (you will hear presently the why and how), and as during his stay in Natal, and even in my house, things had happened in which I had acted in what seemed to me a proper and manly manner, I took this transfer as a favourable distinction, and left Natal for Padang with a light heart. I travelled in a French boat, the Baobab, from Marseilles, which had loaded pepper in Atchin, and which . . . of course, at Natal ‘was short of drinking-water.” As soon as I arrived at Padang, with the intention of at
- ↑ Thousands of guilders. A guilder is 1/8. Trsl.
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