s neck, and then
the silence of night again fell over the surroundings. Next morning the
Colonel was able to follow the lion's spoor easily, for the victim's
heels had scraped along the sand all the way. At the place where the
lion had stopped to make his meal, only the clothes and head of the
unfortunate man were found, with the eyes fixed in a stare of terror.

Disturbed by this sight and the sorrowful occurrence, the Colonel made a
solemn oath that he would give himself no rest until both the lions
were dead. Gun in hand, he climbed up into a tree close by his servants'
tent and waited. The night was quiet and dark. In the distance was heard
a roar, which came nearer as the two man-eaters stole up in search of
another victim. Then there was silence again, for lions always attack in
silence, though when they start on their night prowl they utter their
hoarse, awful cry, as though to give warning to the men and animals in
the neighbourhood. The Colonel waited. Then he heard a cry of terror and
despair from another camp a hundred yards away, and after that all was
still again. A man had been seized and dragged away.

Now the Colonel chose a waiting-place where the last man had been
carried off, but here, too, he was disappointed. A heart-rending shriek
rang through the night at still another part of the camp, and another
workman was missing.

The Indian workmen lay in several scattered camps, and evidently the
lions chose a fresh camp every night to mislead the men. When they found
that they could carry off a man with impunity every night or every other
night, they grew bolder, and showed not the least fear of the camp
fires, which were always kept alight. They paid no heed to the noise and
tumult they caused, or even to gunshots fired at them in the darkness. A
tall, thick fence of tough, thorny bushes was erected round each camp as
a protection, but the lions always jumped over or broke through it when
they wanted a man. In the daytime the Colonel followed their tracks,
which were plainly visible through the thickets, but of course could not
be perceived on stony ground.

Things became still worse when the rails were laid farther up the
country, and only a few hundred workmen remained with Colonel Patterson
at the Tsavo bridge. He had unusually high and strong fences built up
round his camp, and the fires were enlarged to blazing pyres, watchmen
kept guard, guns were always ready, and within the enclosure empty oil