Then we sent for Kazimoto and ordered him to find the sort of messenger we needed.
"Send me!" he urged.

"I will start now, before it is light! I will hide by day and travel by night until I reach the British border! Give me only enough cooked food and my pay and I will take the letter without fail!" We refused, for he was too useful to us.

He begged again and again to be sent with the letter, promising faithfully to wait for us afterward on the British side of the border at any place we should name.

But we upbraided him for cowardice, ordered him to find another messenger, and promised him he need have no fear of Germans as long as he remained our servant.
Before high noon we would each have given many years of Kazimoto's pay if only we could have recalled that decision and have known that he was speeding away from Muanza toward a border where white men knew the use of mercy.
Just as the first peep of dawn began to color the sky Schubert came swaggering down-street to us, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.
"How have you slept ?" he asked us, laughing.
We answered something or other.
"I did not trouble to sleep! I stayed and finished the drinks.

I have just swallowed the last of the beer! Whoever wants a morning drink must wait for it now until the overland safari comes!" We displayed no interest.