An askari seized her by the shoulders.

She clung to him, but he threw her to the ground, and another one tore off the blanket that would have deadened the blows to some extent.

She begged, and clung to their feet, but the blows began to rain on her, and presently she lay still, her breasts flattened against the earth floor, her mouth full of dust, and her naked body paralyzed by fear of the descending lash.
"Now bring up number one again!" the lieutenant ordered.
The askaris ceased from flogging him.

One of them kicked him to his feet, and he resumed his stand in front of the lieutenant, looking up at him as proudly as ever, for all that his back was bruised and bloody.
"Did you steal or did you not ?" asked the lieutenant.
"Steal what from whom ?" "Oh, go on beating him! Next case!" The next man escaped the whip, but his witnesses were less fortunate.

He brought two men and a woman with him to prove an alibi on a charge of attempted theft, and the glibness of their answers convinced the lieutenant they were lying.