32 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CH. Ill 
some one or other of these, and regularly every few 
nights a man was carried off, the reports of the 
disappearance of this or that workman coming in to 
me with painful frequency. 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. | 
was then left with only some few hundred men to 
complete the permanent works; and as all the 
remaining workmen were naturally camped to- 
gether, 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 domas 
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 
