34 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 
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 appear- 
ance 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 éo0ma and broke through. On this occasion the 
Hospital Assistant had a marvellous escape. Hear- 
ing 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 suc- 
cessful, as he jumped on to and broke through a 
tent in which eight patients were lying. Two of 
