54 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 
them. As soon as the sham invalid felt the heat, he 
peeped over the edge of the blanket ; and when he 
saw the smoke and flame leaping up round him, he 
threw the blanket from him, sprang from the bed 
exclaiming ‘ Bewman  shattan/” (‘“Unbelieving 
devil!”), and fled like a deer to the entrance of 
my oma, pursued by a Sikh sepoy, who got in a 
couple of good whacks on his shoulders with a stout 
stick before he effected his escape. His amused 
comrades greeted me with shouts of ‘“ Shadash, 
Sahib /” (“Well done, sir!”), and I never had any 
further trouble with Karim Bux. He came back 
later in the day, with clasped hands imploring 
forgiveness, which I readily granted, as he was a 
clever workman. 
A few days after this incident I was returning 
home one morning from a tree in which I had been 
keeping watch for the man-eaters during the 
previous night. Coming unexpectedly on the 
quarry, | was amazed to find dead silence reigning 
and my rascals of workmen all stretched out in the 
shade under the trees taking it very easy—some 
sleeping, some playing cards. I watched their pro- 
ceedings through the bushes for a little while, and 
then it occurred to me to give them a fright by 
firing my rifle over their heads. On the report 
being heard, the scene changed like magic: each 
man simply flew to his particular work, and hammers 
