26 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 
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 exceed- 
ingly 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 
