The government offered Louis work as a policeman in intelligence, which he accepted. He traveled the country as a pedlar, reporting on the talk. When Britain went to war in September 1939 the Kenyan government drafted Louis into its African intelligence service. Apart from some bumbling around, during which he and some settlers stalked each other as possible saboteurs of the Sagana Railway Bridge, his first task was to supply and arm Ethiopian guerrillas against the Italian invaders of their country. He created a clandestine network using his childhood friends among the Kikuyu. They also hunted fossils on the sly.