[Snowball]

I just got round to doing this quest for the first time on this Sunday evening, and I must say, I found it quite long too. PHEW!!

But guess what?....... I failed it, 3 times in a row!
I think I understood the order of the switches from working out the clues from the 5 NPCs, and worked out in my mind (writing down the order on some scrap paper helped too) what they were, but there's something I don't quite understand here.

When I got to the 3rd switch, the mithra girl (I think it was Luto) told me it was the lead guardsman, but I didn't see him being accompanied by a taru, (like it says in the quest instructions) so I just assumed that he was unnacompanied, and so I chose to say something clever, and that I was waiting for a friend. (again.... like it says in the quest instructions) But the guardsman just said something to the fact that I was using that as an excuse, and can't I come up with anything better to say?

I don't understand why this isn't working for me?
It just feels like everytime I choose to say something clever, that I always get caught!

The instructions say that if it is the "main guard", then say something clever.
That's the same as the lead guard or head guard....... isn't it?

Does anyone know what I'm doing wrong here?

Also, when I got the message from the taru (Milendo or something. Can't remember the exact name) saying that he will have to help me later, I then precedded to try and locate Salim again, (he's the the start npc for this quest) but I could NOT find him anywhere!

Is he supposed to dissappear if you faill too many times?

Is this quest repeatable?
How long do you have to wait before you can do it again please?