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 to say.
Several times that morning we showed ourselves about the town, with the purpose of allaying any possible suspicion and saving the authorities the trouble of asking what we were up to.