"Well, we’ll see. First things first; I’ll go and harangue the men." CHAPTER THE FOURTEENTH--Ferrier Insists There were long faces among the men when they heard what was expected of them. Night was terrible to them. They were low-spirited, and John had to refrain from stimulating them with a full meal; there would be danger in lighting fires. But he promised them a feast when the work was done. To march silently, to keep together, to do exactly what they were told: that was the sum of his exhortation. When he left them to consider it, some grumbled, others talked of slinking away. But one reminded them that these wasungu had slain lions and rhinoceros, why should they not slay bad men too? And they kept their promises: if they said there should be a feast, a feast there would certainly be. So they took comfort, and began to talk bravely of the deeds they would do. Before they set forth, John set Bill to gather some bundles of dry grass and press them tight. Then he asked Said Mohammed to spare him a quantity of the methylated spirit he had brought for cooking. He poured some of this into his pocket-flask from the Bengali’s tin can. "You will remain here, Said Mohammed," he said. "I shall leave five or six men who have most felt the strain of marching." "Respectfully, sir, that is against the grain. I go where honour calls. Never say die. I gird up my loins and follow into thick of the fray." "All right. Just as you please. Keep close to us, that’s all." "I will stick closer than a brother, sir." Some few minutes past ten o’clock, under a sky whose blackness was scarce broken by the stars, John and the Wanderobbo led the way out of the camp, each carrying a bundle of dried grass. Immediately behind them marched Said Mohammed, then Coja and the rest of the men in single file, Ferrier bringing up the rear. They moved silently, and the half-dozen men left behind in the camp, peering out through the boma, neither saw nor heard them when the last man was a dozen yards away. John did not try to find the track of his former journey. It was too dark to see it. Bill might have discovered it by his wonderfully keen sense of touch, but there was no need. All they had to do was to march due west until they struck the stream; then to hug its bank until they arrived at the elephant grass.