Once having promised he vowed he would see the thing through to the end; but he was the weak link; he was afraid; and he disbelieved in the wisdom of the attempt.
It was Kazimoto in the end who kept Brown up to the mark, and shamed him into action by superior courage.

Fred found a chance to speak to him as the long string rested al noon under the narrow shade of a cactus hedge, and warned him in about fifty words of what was intended.
(The askaris, almost as leg-weary as the gang, were sprawling at the far end of the line, gambling at pitch-and-toss.) "Be sure you sleep as near to the partition as you can.

Get details of the plan from Mr.Brown, and then drill the porters one by one! Don't let them tell one another.

You tell each one of them yourself!" Then he walked down the line and ordered the porters in a loud voice to obey the askaris implicitly, and to work harder in return for the good food and care they were getting, winking at the same time very emphatically, with the eye the askaris could not see.
The night work was the hardest, because, although we were quite sure about direction, even in the dark, it was another matter to feel our way and carry unaccustomed loads.

By day we decided what to take and what to leave behind, and we cut down what to take with us to the irreducible, dangerous minimum.