They begged to get a little drunk--to get half as drunk as Brown had been--half as drunk as Coutlass had been--not drunk at all, but just to drink a little.

We were adamant, and Brown added to their resentment by preaching them a sermon in their own tongue on the importance of being respectful toward white folk.
Kazimoto came in toward dark, foot-weary, but primed with news, and most of what he had to say confirmed the Baganda's story.
Schillingschen, he said, was making for Mount Elgon in very leisurely stages, letting his loaded donkeys graze their way along, and spending hours of his time in questioning natives along the way on every subject under the sun.
Besides the fact of his leisurely progress, which was sufficiently important in itself, we learned from Kazimoto that Schillingschen's own ten boys were unable to speak the language of the country beyond a few of the commonest words--that they all slept in a tent together at night, usually quite a little distance apart from Schillingschen's--and that the donkeys were usually picketed between the two tents in a long line.

He also told us the ten men had five Mauser rifles between them, in addition to the German's own battery of three guns, one of which he carried all day and kept beside his bed at night; the other two were carried behind him in the daytime by a gun-bearer.
That was good news on the whole.

Coutlass went out on the strength of it and began to drink beer from the big earthenware crock in which the women had just brewed a fresh supply.

Brown joined him within five minutes, and at the end of an hour, they were swearing everlasting friendship, Coutlass promising Brown his cattle back, and Brown assuring him that Greece and the Greeks had always held his warmest possible regards.
"Thermopylae, y'know, old boy, an' Marathon, an' all that kind o' thing! How many miles in a day could a Greek run in them days?
Gosh!" They two drank themselves to sleep among the gentle cattle in the circular enclosure in the midst of the village, and we--going out in turns at intervals to make sure our own boys were not drinking--matured our plans in peace.
We were too few to dare undertake the task in front of us without the aid of Brown and the Greek.