“Very well,” we said, still more aggressively, “go away and tell the young men to come on and fight us at once, and let us get it over.” He then added that the young men did not want to fight either. This was our opportunity, and, seizing it, we talked very severely to him, intimating that we were much annoyed at the noise that had been made. We did not consider it at all friendly, we said, and if there were any more of it, we should not wait for the young men to come to us, we should go to them and put a stop to their howling. He appeared much impressed, and after a while returned to his people, and evidently delivered our message, as shortly afterwards the howling ceased. We mustered the men in the afternoon, and inspected their arms and ammunition, as we were not at all trustful of the Wa’M’bu. We trebled the guards during the night, but contrary to expectation, everything remained quiet. Early on the following morning the two old gentlemen returned to camp, and we immediately made them prisoners, informing them that they were now in our service, _pro tem._, as guides, and if they played us false they would be instantly shot. Our object, we told them, was to get through their country as safely and as expeditiously as possible, and it rested with themselves whether our object was accomplished without inconvenience to the inhabitants. They both protested earnestly that they were our friends; so at 9 a.m., having struck camp, we commenced what, by the general indications, bade fair to prove the crucial march of the safari. The country was very rugged, and most densely cultivated. M’bu seemed to be prodigiously rich in food. We saw thousands of acres planted with muhindi, stretching as far as the eye could reach. There were no boundaries between the shambas. It occurred to us that perhaps the Wa’M’bu, unlike the other tribes of A’kikuyu, owned the ground in common, but we had no opportunity of deciding this point, as the Wa’M’bu did not appear to us to encourage any degree of intimacy. Indeed, soon after the start we had proofs that they meant to make matters lively for us _en route_. When we left camp, El Hakim with one guide took the head of the column, and George and I brought up the rear with the other. At every cross-path great crowds of warriors, fully armed, watched our passage in ominous silence. As soon as we passed they closed in on our rear and followed at a distance of two or three hundred yards, their numbers being continually augmented by other bodies who joined them on the road. The path lay through narrow valleys, and on the heights on each side were more bodies of natives who shouted at us, and informed us in a most insulting manner that they were coming to kill us. They really did seem inclined to try conclusions with us, and things looked very nasty for a time, whilst we needed all our wits about us to preserve some sort of discipline among our men.