‘He who plunders will be shot’ seemed to reassure the villagers and one woman began to cook a large pot of eggs for the whole company, while others brought out flasks of milk and pickled cucumbers. Despite the reassuring placards, the captain went through the houses, helping himself to a box gramophone – ‘I’ve been looking for one of them for ages’ – and making off with a bolt of cloth. Hermann Gieschen worried that this crass contrast with the promise on the posters cast their leadership in a poor light, but he was still proud of their mission and assumed that they would go on being welcomed
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