about ten o'clock
When Will had exhausted all the American songs he knew , and Fred had run through his own long list there was nothing left for it but to make up accompaniments to the songs the sergeants had been raised on . Fred made the happy discovery that none of them knew The Marseillaise , so he played that as an antidote each time after they had made the hard-wood rafters ring and the smoke-filled air vibrate with Teutonic jingoism . The Jew , who probably knew more than he cared to admit , grew more and more beady-eyed each time The Marseillaise was played . There was a pause in the proceedings at about ten o'clock , by which time all the sergeants except Schubert were sufficiently drunk to feel thoroughly at ease . Schubert was cold-eyed sober , although scarcely any longer thirsty . A native was brought in by two askaris and charged before Schubert with hanging about the boma gate after dark . He was asked the reason .