The Man-Eaters of Tsavo | Page 8

place was considerably cut up, and on closer
examination we found that two lions had been there and had probably
struggled for possession of the body. It was the most gruesome sight I
had ever seen. We collected the remains as well as we could and
heaped stones on them, the head with its fixed, terrified stare seeming
to watch us all the time, for it we did not bury, but took back to camp
for identification before the Medical Officer.

Thus occurred my first experience of man-eating lions, and I vowed
there and then that I would spare no pains to rid the neighbourhood of
the brutes. I little knew the trouble that was in store for me, or how
narrow were to be my own escapes from sharing poor Ungan Singh's
fate.
That same night I sat up in a tree close to the late jemadar's tent, hoping
that the lions would return to it for another victim. I was followed to
my perch by a few of the more terrified coolies, who begged to be
allowed to sit up in the tree with me; all the other workmen remained in
their tents, but no more doors were left open. I had with me my .303
and a 12-bore shot gun, one barrel loaded with ball and the other with
slug. Shortly after settling down to my vigil, my hopes of bagging one
of the brutes were raised by the sound of their ominous roaring coming
closer and closer. Presently this ceased, and quiet reigned for an hour or
two, as lions always stalk their prey in complete silence. All at once,
however, we heard a great uproar and frenzied cries coming from
another camp about half a mile away; we knew then that the lions had
seized a victim there, and that we should see or hear nothing further of
them that night.
Next morning I found that one of the brutes had broken into a tent at
Railhead Camp -- whence we had heard the commotion during the
night -- and had made off with a poor wretch who was lying there
asleep. After a night's rest, therefore, I took up my position in a suitable
tree near this tent. I did not at all like the idea of walking the half-mile
to the place after dark, but all the same I felt fairly safe, as one of my
men carried a bright lamp close behind me. He in his turn was followed
by another leading a goat, which I tied under my tree in the hope that
the lion might be tempted to seize it instead of a coolie. A steady
drizzle commenced shortly after I had settled down to my night of
watching, and I was soon thoroughly chilled and wet. I stuck to my
uncomfortable post, however, hoping to get a shot, but I well remember
the feeling of impotent disappointment I experienced when about
midnight I heard screams and cries and a heart-rending shriek, which
told me that the man-eaters had again eluded me and had claimed
another victim elsewhere.

At this time the various camps for the workmen were very scattered, so
that the lions had a range of some eight miles on either side of Tsavo to
work upon; and as their tactics seemed to be to break into a different
camp each night, it was most difficult to forestall them. They almost
appeared, too, to have an extraordinary and uncanny faculty of finding
out our plans beforehand, so that no matter in how likely or how
tempting a spot we lay in wait for them, they invariably avoided that
particular place and seized their victim for the night from some other
camp. Hunting them by day, moreover, in such a dense wilderness as
surrounded us, was an exceedingly tiring and really foolhardy
undertaking. In a thick jungle of the kind round Tsavo the hunted
animal has every chance against the hunter, as however careful the
latter may be, a dead twig or something of the sort is sure to crackle
just at the critical moment and so give the alarm. Still I never gave up
hope of some day finding their lair, and accordingly continued to
devote all my spare time to crawling about through the undergrowth.
Many a time when attempting to force my way through this
bewildering tangle I had to be released by my gun-bearer from the fast
clutches of the "wait-a-bit"; and often with immense pains I succeeded
in tracing the lions to the river after they had seized a victim, only to
lose the trail from there onwards, owing to the rocky nature of the
ground which they seemed to be careful to choose in retreating to their
den.
At this early stage of the struggle,