As for the guides, they were debarred from the pleasure of discourse, the one being placed in the van, and the other obliged to bring up the rear. / In this posture they travelled many hours, till they came into a wide and well-beaten road […]

To top it off, Tom-Su sported a rope instead of a belt, definitely nailing down the supersorry look.

No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or[…]. And at last I began to realize in my harassed soul that all elusion was futile, and to take such holidays as I could get, when he was off with a girl, in a spirit of thankfulness.

this verbal or phraseological answer