At the conclusion of the banquet we felt sufficiently fortified to hear the news brought by our men from M’thara. They were therefore summoned and cross-questioned for over an hour. The result of the examination was even worse than we had anticipated, and sufficed to change our thoughts from the optimistic attitude they had assumed to one of most anxious and gloomy foreboding. Summed up, the situation was this. We required a large quantity of food for our journey round North and West Kenia, which is uninhabited. There was, we discovered, a famine in M’thara, as, unfortunately, the bean-crop had utterly failed for want of rain. There was, on the other hand, plenty of food in Munithu and Zura, as the famine did not extend to those districts. In the ordinary course of events we should have bought food there, but to our amazement and indignation we heard that during our absence on the Waso Nyiro both Dirito and Bei-Munithu had turned traitors, and were now bitterly hostile to us, absolutely refusing to supply us with food. Their change of front had the effect of bringing together all the other chiefs in North-East Kenia, with the single exception of N’Dominuki, and they had, in solemn conclave assembled, formed an offensive and defensive alliance against us. The reasons for this attitude were not hard to find. Our reverse in Embe, and Jamah Mahomet’s death, followed by the death of Sadi ben Heri and his companions and the capture of their guns in N’Dakura, and, lastly, the terrible massacre of the bulk of Ismail’s men on the road to Dhaicho, had occasioned a great loss of prestige, and prepared the native mind for what was to follow. During the deliberations, and while matters hung in the balance, one of our men who had deserted on the Waso Nyiro turned up, and when taxed by Bei-Munithu with being a deserter he denied it, and declared that the Wasungu were all dead, having been killed in a fight with the Burkeneji, and only a few porters had got away with their guns and some of the trade goods, and were now returning to M’thara. Some colour was lent to his story by the reappearance in Embe of the three camels belonging to El Hakim, whither they had wandered after straying from us nearly six weeks before. This was considered by Bei-Munithu to be a capital opportunity to annex the numerous loads deposited in N’Dominuki’s charge. That true friend, however, refused to entertain the suggestion, saying that he did not believe the Wasungu were dead, in spite of the deserter’s story, and the circumstantial evidence of the camels. He stated, furthermore, that he did not intend to give them up, even if the Wasungu were dead, as other white men would soon come into the country and demand an account of the loads in his charge. Bei-Munithu then formed a coalition of all the petty chiefs of North-East Kenia, for the purpose of waylaying and massacring any safaris who should in the future endeavour to enter the country, a plan