56 THE MAN-EATERS OF TSAVO CHAP. 
put me quietly out of the way. Accordingly they 
held a meeting one night, all being sworn to secrecy, 
and after a long palaver it was arranged that I was 
to be murdered next day when I made my usual 
visit to the quarry. My body was to be thrown 
into the jungle, where of course it would soon be 
devoured by wild beasts, and then they were to say 
that I had been killed and eaten by a lion. To this 
cheerful proposal every man present at the meeting 
agreed, and affixed his finger-mark to a long strip of 
paper as a binding token. Within an hour after the 
meeting had dispersed, however, I was aroused by 
one of the conspirators, who had crept into my camp 
to give me warning. I thanked him for his infor- 
mation, but determined to go to the quarry in the 
morning all the same, as at this stage of affairs I 
really did not believe that they were capable of 
carrying out such a diabolical scheme, and was 
rather inclined to think that the informant had been 
sent merely to frighten me. 
Accordingly the next morning (September 6) | 
started off as usual along the trolley line to the 
lonely quarry. As I reached a bend in the line, 
my head mason, Heera Singh, a very good man, 
crept cautiously out of the bushes and warned 
me not to proceed. On my asking him the reason, 
he said that he dared not tell, but that he and 
twenty other masons were not going to work that 
