ledge.
They were so full of the notion of having us jailed for their misdeed
that they positively ached to come and jeer at us, and I believe were
only saved from doing that by the shortness of the time.

At last, three days after decision had been reached, we threw our
blankets with a red one uppermost over the top of both tents in the
sun; and within thirty minutes after that Lady Saffren Waldon had
spread on the commandant's roof a blue cotton dress, a white petticoat,
and a blazing red piece of silken stuff. There and then the Greeks and
the Goanese pledged one another out in the open with copious draughts
in turn from the neck of one whisky bottle, and we began to pray they
might not get too drunk before night. Judging by their meaning glances
at us, they considered us their mortal and cruel enemies whom it would
be an act of sublime virtue to bring to book.

The trial of the natives for murder had taken place, accompanied by the
usual amount of thrashing of witnesses and the usual stir throughout
the countryside. These were charged with having murdered an askari
near their village--a big bully sent to arrest a man, who had taken
leave to help himself to more than rations, and had made a lot too free
with the village women. So German military honor had to be upheld
exemplarily. Condign vengeance was sure and swift. The execution was
to take place on the drill-ground on the day we chose for our departure.

There was no risk of investigations that day. Had we known it, we
could have gone away in all likelihood in broad daylight, so busy was
the garrison in marshaling into place and policing the swarms of
villagers brought in from as far as sixty miles away to witness German
justice. Even the customary parade of the band was canceled for that
occasion, and that was our only real ground for uneasiness, for it
prevented our having a last talk with Brown of Lumbwa and assuring
ourselves that courage would not fail him in the pinch.

We worried in plenty without cause, as it seems that humans must do on
the eve of putting plans, however well laid, to the test. We had a
thousand scares--a thousand doubts--and overlooked at least a thousand
evidences that fortune favored us. Toward the end our hearts turned to
water at the thought that Kazimoto would probably fail to do his part,
although why we should have doubted him after his faithful record, and
knowing his hatred of German rule, we would have found it hard