It was an hour and a half before they came up, very hot and tired, Coja having not allowed a halt until they reached the stream, where they had delayed for a little while to drink and cool their feet. Judging that the raiders were quite out of sight, a belt of forest stretching across the country about a mile ahead, John did not think any harm would come of lighting fires; accordingly the men set about cooking their breakfast, and Said Mohammed made some coffee, which the white men drank out of tin mugs, with condensed milk. John took the opportunity to explain to the men that he wished to set off without delay, promising that with good luck they should recover their stolen goods before next morning. After an hour’s rest, therefore, he gave the order to march. They now adopted the plan he had arranged with Ferrier over night. They had come into country favourable to an ambuscade, and it was advisable to take all precautions. On starting, Ferrier and the safari struck off to the right, leaving John to follow the trail with Bill. The latter kept close to the track so long as it led over open country, where no trap was possible; but as soon as they reached the wood, John heliographed with his pocket mirror to Ferrier, now nearly a mile to the east, to halt until he had scouted among the trees. For some time there was no answering flash to his signals, and he feared the safari was out of touch, but after repeated trials the answer came, and he knew that all was well. John then entered the wood with Bill very cautiously, and found it so thick, and the ground so densely covered with undergrowth, that it was impossible to see the trail. There was nothing for it but to penetrate to the other side, and they did this as rapidly as possible, John thinking it scarcely probable that the raiders would have attempted to lay a trap for them in the wood, where there was no path. John found this the most trying experience he had yet encountered. Here he had to climb over a dead tree-trunk: there to cut his way through a jungle of bamboos, every stroke of his knife shaking a shower of dew from the canopy overhead until his shirt was soaked. He was unable to see a yard in front of him. His progress was all the more difficult because the wood covered a steep slope. It took nearly half-an-hour to get right through, though the distance in a straight line was less than half-a-mile: then they came out upon a sort of rocky plateau, and John got one of his rare glimpses of Mount Kenya, far to the west, its snow-clad peaks, for once clear of mist, gleaming dazzlingly in the sunlight. Leaving Bill to recover the trail, he hastened back to heliograph that the safari might advance, and by the time he had once more penetrated the wood and rejoined the Wanderobbo, Ferrier had come within sight in a hollow a mile and a half to the east. Bill having not yet found the trail on the hard ground, John signalled to Ferrier to