So Long, However, As Railhead
Camp - With Its Two Or Three Thousand Men,
Scattered Over A Wide Area - Remained At Tsavo,
The Coolies Appeared Not To Take Much Notice
Of The Dreadful Deaths Of Their Comrades.
Each
man felt, I suppose, that as the man-eaters had
such a large number of victims to choose from,
the chances of their selecting him in particular
were very small.
But when the large camp moved
ahead with the railway, matters altered
considerably. I was then left with only some few hundred
men to complete the permanent works; and as
all the remaining workmen were naturally camped
together, the attentions of the lions became more
apparent and made a deeper impression. A
regular panic consequently ensued, and it required
all my powers of persuasion to induce the men to
stay on. In fact, I succeeded in doing so only by
allowing them to knock off all regular work until
they had built exceptionally thick and high bomas
round each camp. Within these enclosures fires
were kept burning all night, and it was also the
duty of the night-watchman to keep clattering
half a dozen empty oil tins suspended from a
convenient tree. These he manipulated by means
of a long rope, while sitting in safety within his
tent; and the frightful noise thus produced was
kept up at frequent intervals during the night in
the hopes of terrifying away the man-eaters.
In spite of all these precautions, however, the
lions would not be denied, and men continued to
disappear.
When the railhead workmen moved on, their
hospital camp was left behind. It stood rather
apart from the other camps, in a clearing about
three-quarters of a mile from my hut, but was
protected by a good thick fence and to all
appearance was quite secure. It seemed, however, as
if barriers were of no avail against the "demons",
for before very long one of them found a weak
spot in the boma and broke through. On this
occasion the Hospital Assistant had a marvellous
escape. Hearing a noise outside, he opened the
door of his tent and was horrified to see a great
lion standing a few yards away looking at him.
The beast made a spring towards him, which gave
the Assistant such a fright that he jumped
backwards, and in doing so luckily upset a box
containing medical stores. This crashed down
with such a loud clatter of breaking glass that
the lion was startled for the moment and made
off to another part of the enclosure. Here,
unfortunately, he was more successful, as he
jumped on to and broke through a tent in
which eight patients were lying. Two of them
were badly wounded by his spring, while a
third poor wretch was seized and dragged off
bodily through the thorn fence. The two
wounded coolies were left where they lay, a piece
of torn tent having fallen over them; and in
this position the doctor and I found them on
our arrival soon after dawn next morning.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 14 of 130
Words from 7279 to 7789
of 68125
