Look," and dipping the glass beneath the table I produced it back first.

"You cannot see anything, can you ?" "Nothing except wood," replied Babemba, staring at the deal slip with which it was lined.
Then I threw a dish-cloth over it and, to change the subject, offered him another pannikin of the "holy drink" and a stool to sit on.
The old fellow perched himself very gingerly upon the stool, which was of the folding variety, stuck the iron-tipped end of his great spear in the ground between his knees and took hold of the pannikin.

Or rather he took hold of a pannikin and not the right one.

So ridiculous was his appearance that the light-minded Stephen, who, forgetting the perils of the situation, had for the last minute or two been struggling with inward laughter, clapped down his coffee on the table and retired into the tent, where I heard him gurgling in unseemly merriment.

It was this coffee that in the confusion of the moment Sammy gave to old Babemba.
Presently Stephen reappeared, and to cover his confusion seized the pannikin meant for Babemba and drank it, or most of it.